D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Sunken Engine

# Dungeon# Wilderness# Intrigue

A catastrophic sinkhole has swallowed the Ironvein Mining Consortium's primary ore track, revealing a colossal, non-Euclidean edifice of alien design beneath the bedrock. The Consortium sees a resource of unimaginable value; the local Gloomhaven Preservation Society sees an existential threat to the region's delicate magical leylines. You are caught in the collapse, and must navigate the ensuing chaos, the conflicting demands of two desperate groups, and the true, malevolent purpose of the structure below.

Chronicle Prelude

The players are part of a survey team or independent explorers caught at the edge of the 'Grand Collapse'—a massive sinkhole that has exposed the upper spires of a cyclopean structure. The air hums with residual arcane energy, and the ground is unstable. The Ironvein Mining Camp, a hastily fortified collection of tents and cargo crates, serves as the primary hub, its leaders already dispatching expeditions into the hole.

Environmental Traits

The uncovering of the ancient edifice, a 'Sunken Engine' designed to siphon and store ambient magical energy, has begun to destabilize the entire region. Geysers of raw mana erupt, wildlife mutates, and the ground itself threatens further collapse. The ultimate goal is to reach the Engine's core and either secure its power, destroy it, or attempt to understand its true purpose before it detonates, consuming everything in a mile radius.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Vesper Kade
A weathered human man in his 50s, wearing a stained but high-quality leather coat over practical mining gear. His face is lined with stress and determination. He carries a ledger and a set of blueprints, and his eyes hold the desperate gleam of a leader fighting for his people's survival.
Lirael Mosswhisper
An ancient half-elf woman with silver hair woven with living vines. Her eyes are a deep, forest green that seem to see more than just the physical. She wears robes of woven moss and bark, and a faint scent of petrichor and decay surrounds her.
Tick-Tock
A frantic gnome with wild, grease-stained hair and multiple pairs of goggles pushed up onto his forehead. His fingers are stained with ink and metal polish, and he carries an array of tools that clink with every nervous movement. He mutters to himself constantly.
Ghrul
A massive, hulking figure that was once a human miner. His skin is mottled grey and stone-like in patches, and one arm has twisted into a grotesque, crystalline limb. He wears crude armor made from scrap and fungus, and his eyes glow with a faint, feral intelligence.
Anya Volkov
A human woman in Consortium foreman's gear, her face set in a calm, professional mask. She moves with quiet efficiency, and her hands are steady as she handles a set of high-yield mining charges. There's a coldness in her eyes that doesn't match her polite smile.
Axiom Sentinel
A humanoid automaton of unknown make, its body composed of seamless, dark metal interlaced with veins of glowing cyan crystal. It moves with silent, precise grace. It has no discernible face, only a smooth, reflective surface where features should be. It emanates a low, harmonic vibration.
Corvus
A blind human scholar of indeterminate age, sitting cross-legged on a dry patch of fungus. His eyes are milky white, but his head is cocked as if listening intently. He wears robes that seem to shift color with the ambient bioluminescence, and his fingers are stained with ink and strange, phosphorescent moss.
Silas Thatch
A portly human merchant with a torn fine cloak and dust-covered goods. He looks haggard and scared, constantly glancing towards the unstable walls of the tunnel where he has set up a meager stall from crates and a tarp.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Goblin Plight of Rivervale and the Cryptic Mine

The Lost Workshop: Heart of a Raging Core