D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Siege of Broken-Bridge Station

# Wilderness# Dungeon# Intrigue# Beast

The once-strategic mountain pass of Broken-Bridge Station is now a death trap. A gang of desperate bandits, the Rusthook Freebooters, has learned to lure and armor the native giant rock crabs, using their massive carapaces as living siege engines to block the only viable mountain crossing. Their leader claims this is the only way to force the isolationist Stoneheart Citadel to share its vast food stores, lest the entire region starve. The Citadel, in turn, sees the bandits' manipulation of sacred beasts as a monstrous abomination and a direct threat to their ancient pact with the mountain spirits. With the crabs now behaving unnaturally aggressively, the pass is impassable, and a harsh winter approaches. Players are trapped in the decaying station, caught between two sides who both have a desperate claim to survival.

Chronicle Prelude

Players arrive at Broken-Bridge Station, a crumbling fort built into the cliffside overlooking a vast chasm. The single, massive stone bridge is shattered in the middle. The air smells of salt, rust, and crab blood. Haggard refugees from the surrounding lowlands crowd the station's makeshift tavern, The Guttering Lantern, while grim-faced bandits patrol the perimeter, their eyes on the canyon below where enormous, lure-studded crabs scuttle.

Environmental Traits

The immediate crisis is the blocked pass. The larger regional crisis is a creeping famine: the Rusthook Freebooters are starving and believe the Stoneheart Citadel's hoarded grain is their only salvation. The Citadel believes the bandits' 'corruption' of the rock crabs is a sacrilege that will bring the mountain's wrath down upon everyone. Winter's first snows are already falling.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Grelda 'Hookhand'
A weathered woman with sun-darkened skin, a missing left hand replaced by a sturdy fishing gaff, and eyes that hold a desperate, calculating fire. She wears patched leather armor adorned with crab shells and rusted hooks.
Sister Eris, Warden of Stoneheart
A tall, gaunt woman in severe grey robes, her face pale and set in an expression of unyielding discipline. A silver symbol of a mountain peak hangs around her neck. Her posture is rigid, her gaze cold and appraising.
Pip 'the Tinker'
A small, nervous man with ink-stained fingers and goggles pushed up onto his forehead. He smells of alchemical reagents and fear. He constantly fidgets with tools and vials, avoiding eye contact.
Warden Kael, the Exile
A once-proud man in tattered Citadel armor, his face haggard with guilt and longing. He lingers near the station's edge, gazing longingly at the broken bridge. His posture is slumped, defeated.
Captain Varr, Siege-Master
A massive, scarred man clad in plate armor welded with crab chitin. His voice is a low rumble, and he carries a halberd with a blade shaped like a crab's claw. He commands the crab formations with sharp, brutal gestures.
Keeper Mor, Archivist
An ancient, stooped figure in dusty robes, surrounded by scrolls and clay tablets. His eyes are clouded with cataracts, but his mind is sharp. He moves carefully amidst the crumbling archives of the undercroft.
Alma, the Displaced Alchemist
A determined woman with a smudge of soot on her cheek, working at a makeshift lab built from salvaged crates and copper piping. Her eyes are focused, her hands steady despite the surrounding chaos.
The Ancile, First of the Flock
A colossal rock crab, its shell encrusted with centuries of growth and thick, pulsating green algae veins where the lure has been injected. It moves with a terrible, pained precision, its eyes glowing with a sickly light. It is a living fortress, a symbol of corrupted nature.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Reckoning of the Blood-Soaked Bracers

The Frost Worm Tunnel Collapse of Pale Cliff