D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Upheaval of the Clockwork Hound

# Construct# Intrigue# Dungeon# Dark Fantasy

The Grand Gear Workshop, the industrial heart of the city of Steelspire, has fallen silent. Its masterful clockwork constructs, including the fearsome Hounds designed for city defense, now roam the streets with maddened purpose, their safety protocols mysteriously short-circuited. A tense standoff brews within the Workshop's walls between the ruling Foreman and the desperate Foundry Union, each blaming the other for the catastrophe. You are not heroes called to restore order; you are opportunists, investigators, or desperate souls drawn into the gears of a machine that threatens to grind the entire district to dust. The path forward is not clear, only the cold, metallic scent of betrayal and the whirring of a thousand hidden blades.

Chronicle Prelude

The Copper Coil Plaza, a neutral ground now choked with smoke and the distant, rhythmic clang of rogue Hounds. Refugees from the Workshop district crowd around makeshift barricades, their eyes darting to the looming silhouette of the Workshop itself, from which no official word has come for three days.

Environmental Traits

The crisis is two-fold: the immediate threat of the clockwork Hounds prowling the district, and the deeper, simmering conflict within the Workshop that caused the malfunction. The city guard is pinned down, and the factions are entrenched. To resolve the crisis, one must penetrate the Workshop, navigate its internal politics, and reach the Core Mechanicum—the source of both the Hounds' animation and the city's power grid—before one side or the other commits an irreversible atrocity.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (11)

Foreman Grix
An aging dwarf with a face like cracked leather, heavily scarred from decades in the foundries. He wears a heavy, soot-stained apron over his Overseer uniform. His eyes are bloodshot but resolute, and he carries the weight of his command in the slump of his shoulders. He is surrounded by two silent, heavily armored Elite Overseers in the Core Antechamber.
Union Chief Mara
A sharp-featured human woman in her prime, her once-fine clothes now torn and stained with soot and strange, iridescent fluids. Her eyes burn with a fierce, almost manic intelligence. Sparks of arcane energy occasionally arc between the tools at her belt. She leads the final Union push into the Core chamber.
Hound Pack Alpha
A larger, more heavily plated Clockwork Hound, its brass and steel chassis etched with claw marks from lesser drones. Its single, glowing red optic lens sweeps the fog-choked streets with predatory intelligence. Its joints move with a smoother, more coordinated fluidity than its pack mates, and it carries a scavenged Union power cell on its back.
Guard Kael
A human Overseer guard leaning against a barricade, his armor dull and his posture slumped. He constantly glances towards the Workshop entrance, his grip on his spear lax. His face shows a deep weariness and disillusionment.
Union Scout Lieutenant Pip
A young, wiry half-elf pressed into the shadow of a massive assembly line conveyor. He clutches a shortbow and his uniform is torn, a bandage wrapped hastily around his forearm. He looks terrified but determined, constantly checking his surroundings.
Overseer Sergeant Voss
A rigid, impeccably uniformed human woman standing before a fortified checkpoint in the Assembly Hall. Her armor is polished, her face set in a permanent scowl of authority. She holds a clipboard and inspects documents with meticulous, suspicious care.
Salvage Rat Zib
A small, quick-eyed gnome wrapped in layers of scavenged leather and cloth, blending into the shadows of the Gear-Maze. He is covered in soot and carries an overloaded rucksack that clinks with salvage. He watches from a distance, calculating.
The Corrupted Core Manifestation
The Central Pylon has been consumed. It now appears as a shifting, unstable column of violet-black energy laced with crawling, organic corruption. Within the maelstrom, fragments of shattered gears and the screaming, half-formed faces of destroyed Clockwork Hounds swirl and reform. A low, discordant hum vibrates the air.
Rogue Clockwork Hound
A quadrupedal machine of brass and steel, its legs moving with jerky, predatory grace. A single red optic lens glows from its 'head.' Its chassis is covered in scratches and soot, and it emits a low, grinding whirr. Pack tactics are evident in their coordinated movements.
Elite Overseer
A heavily armored enforcer for the Foreman's Directive. They wear plate armor augmented with reinforcing bands and hydraulic assists, moving with a deliberate, powerful weight. Their faces are hidden behind visored helms, and they carry large, heavy weapons.
Union Artificer
A radical engineer of the Foundry Union, clad in reinforced work clothes adorned with Union symbols. They wield modified tools and spark-guns, fighting with desperate ingenuity. They are often seen near unstable machinery or attempting repairs under fire.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Lost Workshop: Heart of a Raging Core

The Grudge of Ironhold