D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Shadow-Crow Eclipse of Lunar Harbor

# Investigation# Dark Fantasy# Intrigue# Nautical# Arcane# Beast

The moon over Lunar Harbor has not set for a week, eclipsed by a corona of black crows that drink its light. In the harbor's stagnant waters, the ghostly wreck of the 'Pale Maiden' has resurfaced, its captain's bloodstained logbook washing ashore, promising answers to the Eclipse—and damnation for those who seek them. Two desperate factions claw for the truth, each willing to burn the harbor to the ground to control it. Veteran players will navigate a web of paranoia, ancient maritime pacts, and a celestial phenomenon that is not natural, but hungry.

Chronicle Prelude

The players arrive in the rain-lashed, perpetually twilight docks of Lunar Harbor. The air smells of brine, fear, and old blood. Crowds are thin, whispers are thick, and the constant, unnerving cawing of the eclipsing crows is a physical pressure. The 'Mourning Sailor's Rest' tavern, its windows shuttered against the unnatural dark, serves as the desperate hub for information and uneasy alliances.

Environmental Traits

The Shadow-Crow Eclipse is a parasitic celestial entity feeding on the lunar deity. Its stabilization will cause a permanent, life-draining twilight across the region. The players must delve into the wreck of the 'Pale Maiden' to find the 'Lunar Anchor,' an artifact that can break the Eclipse, but the Anchor is cursed and its use will require a terrible sacrifice. The choice is not about saving the world, but deciding which doomed future is least catastrophic.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (15)

Harbormaster Velas
An aging human man with a neatly trimmed grey beard, deep-set eyes burdened by responsibility, and the weathered uniform of a former naval captain. He stands straight, but his knuckles are white where he grips the edge of his desk.
High Priestess Sera
A gaunt half-elf woman with lank, silver hair and eyes that hold a feverish, haunted light. Her robes are simple but immaculate white, stained at the hems with the mud of her constant, penitential pilgrimages along the docks.
Kuo-toa Tidecaller Grix
A pale, mottled fish-person with large, lidless eyes that glow with a faint bioluminescence. It clutches a staff made of coral and sunken wood, and wears a necklace of shiny, worthless objects—bottle caps, coins, and sea glass.
Mad Poet Orin
A skeletal man in tattered scholar's robes, rocking back and forth in his cell. His eyes are wide and unblinking, focused on something far beyond the stone walls. He mutters fragments of verse and occasionally laughs without humor.
Ghost of the First Mate
A spectral figure in a tattered officer's coat, its form flickering between solid transparency and a dissipating smoke. Its face is locked in a silent scream, and it drifts without purpose, occasionally phasing through the wreck's timbers.
Consortium Smuggler Gruck
A hulking half-orc in reinforced leather armor, branded with the Consortium's anchor-and-cog emblem. He carries a massive, nicked cleaver and exudes a aura of brutal impatience. Several smaller smugglers flank him nervously.
Sea Witch Remnant Echo
A shimmering, translucent figure of a woman woven from seafoam and shadow, her form constantly flowing and reforming. Her voice is the sound of waves crashing on a distant shore, and her eyes are pits of deep, sorrowful water.
The Captain Thrall
A monstrous fusion of man and crow-god. A massive, feathered torso erupts from the skeletal remains of a ship's captain. One arm ends in a human hand, still clutching a broken compass; the other is a giant, black talon. Its head is a horror of fused beak and jawbone, and its single, remaining human eye weeps tears of blood.
Abyssal Reef Guardian (Shadow Eel)
A massive, sinuous eel with scales that seem to absorb light. Its body crackles with discharges of dark energy, and its maw is filled with needle-like teeth that drip with corrosive slime.
Abyssal Reef Guardian (Eclipse Crab)
A crab the size of a wagon, its shell encrusted with glowing, sickly green coral. One claw is elongated and razor-sharp, the other is a mass of pulsating, bio-luminescent nodules that discharge magical energy.
Abyssal Reef Guardian (Coven-Scarred Octopus)
A large octopus with a mottled, scarred mantle. Its tentacles are tipped with hooks, and its skin shifts through patterns of deep red and purple, like bruises. It exudes an ink that smells of burnt sage and brine.
Soul-Sentinel (Barrier Manifestation)
A towering, vaguely humanoid shape made of condensed, shrieking spectral energy. Its form constantly shifts, faces and hands pressing against its surface from within before being swallowed back into the mass.
Eclipse-Goblin
A small, twisted humanoid with overly large, reflective eyes adapted to the twilight. It chitters in a corrupted dialect and wears rags stitched with crow feathers.
Drowned Skeleton
A waterlogged skeleton clad in the rusted remnants of a sailor's garb. Barnacles and seaweed cling to its bones, and its jaw works silently, emitting a faint, high-pitched keening.
Consortium Smuggler
A hard-bitten human or half-elf in dark, waterproof clothing. They carry a short sword and a crossbow, and their eyes constantly dart, assessing threats and opportunities.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Inked Abyss of Star Lake

The Brinebound Schism