D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Shattered Stage: A Song of Broken Timbers

# Investigation# Intrigue# Wilderness

The annual Chantey Festival, a joyous riot of song and ale in the port district of Silver Tide, ended in blood and splintered wood. The Grand Stage, a marvel of engineering, collapsed mid-performance, crushing performers and spectators alike. The city watch blames 'substandard timbers,' but whispers speak of deliberate sabotage, of forgotten prayers to old sea gods, and of a carpenter's guild pushed to the breaking point. Veteran investigators, you are hired by the bereaved to uncover the truth—but in a city where every truth is a lever for power, will you expose the guilty, or become architects of a new, more profitable lie?

Chronicle Prelude

The bustling, grieving waterfront district of Silver Tide. The air hangs heavy with the scent of salt, sawdust, and sorrow. Half-collapsed festival stalls and makeshift memorials dot the cobblestones. The city watch maintains a tense perimeter around the catastrophic wreckage of the Grand Stage. Key locations include the smoky 'Drowned Rat' tavern (a neutral ground for whispers), the imposing Carpenter's Guildhall, and the opulent office of the festival's patron, Lord Harwick.

Environmental Traits

A man-made disaster with potential supernatural undertones. The investigation leads from the political underbelly of the guild halls to the forgotten, waterlogged catacombs beneath the festival grounds, where the true source of the structural failure—and a dangerous, slumbering power—awaits. Victory means uncovering a truth that will reshape the city's power structure, but at the cost of condemning an entire class of laborers or unleashing a dormant force.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (9)

Guildmaster Theron
A broad-shouldered man in his late 50s with calloused hands and a perpetually worried frown. He wears a sturdy leather apron over fine but practical clothes, and the silver hammer insignia of the Guildmaster hangs at his neck.
Oracle Lirien
A woman of indeterminate age, dressed in flowing robes of sea-green and grey. Her eyes are a pale, clouded blue, and her voice carries the rhythmic cadence of waves on rock. Coral and pearl beads are woven into her silver hair.
Lord Harwick
A portly, immaculately dressed man in his 40s with a trimmed beard and a politician's smile that never quite reaches his shrewd eyes. He smells of expensive perfume and sandalwood.
Foreman Garrick
A gaunt, nervous man with haunted eyes and trembling hands. His clothes are fine but stained, and he constantly wrings a cloth cap in his fingers.
Diver Elara
A lean, weathered woman in her 30s with a missing left earlobe and a network of fine scars on her arms. She wears practical, patched oilskin gear and carries an air of bitter competence.
Sage Mordecai
An ancient, blind man with milky white eyes, hunched over a gnarled cane made from petrified wood. He wears layers of tattered scholarly robes and smells of dust and brine.
Acolyte Pip
A young, intense-looking teenager with wide, fervent eyes and robes that are a little too large. They carry a string of coral beads and a small, waterlogged notebook.
Manifestation of the Sorrowful Tide
A towering, vaguely humanoid shape composed of flowing, dark seawater, bioluminescent fungi, and fragments of fossilized wood. Two large, mournful eyes like deep-sea pearls stare out from the swirling form. The air grows cold and heavy with the smell of salt and ancient grief around it.
Corrupt Watch Sergeant
A city watchman in battered armor, his insignia deliberately obscured. He has a greedy, calculating look and smells of cheap ale.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine

The Reignited Forge: A Crisis of Iron and Will