The Key Beneath Area 100
The Key Beneath Area 100
“A stolen map, an iron key, and a ruin that remembers everyone who enters.”
— Hook · retrieve
“Mara Venn unrolls a map marked with a red square and places an old iron key beside it. She says the map leads to Area 100, where her missing expedition left behind a ledger that could save the settlement from a spreading underground collapse. The gate opens only with the key, and she wants both the ledger and the key returned before anyone else reaches the ruins.”
— Hook · retrieve
Mara Venn meets the party in a cramped records room beneath the settlement's watchtower. She displays the map and key, explains that the missing expedition entered Area 100 six days ago, and offers a modest reward for recovering its ledger. Before the party leaves, Elsa Pell reports seeing goblins carrying pieces of the expedition's gear toward the old gate.
Mara Venn
Mara Venn requests a private meeting after learning that the party has experience exploring dangerous ruins. She offers practical information, a small advance, and a larger reward if the party returns the expedition ledger intact.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The red square on the map was added by someone who survived Area 100, but no one knows who.
- 02A goblin chief has been selling pieces of expedition equipment in the lower market.
- 03The old gate opens from the outside, but witnesses claim that it sometimes locks from within.
- 04People who sleep near the ruins sometimes dream of walking through places they have never seen.
- 05There is a dry well in Area 100 that reflects the sky even when covered.
If the party fails, the settlement loses its best chance to understand the underground collapses, rival scavengers gain access to Area 100, and the tower may resume mapping the buried prison beneath the ruins. If the party succeeds, the settlement gains a safer route and valuable knowledge, but the party may also awaken a threat that was sealed for good reason.
Background Lore
Area 100 was once a sealed frontier district built around an ancient survey tower. The tower's original purpose was to track underground water, hidden roads, and unstable magical boundaries. Most modern maps mark the district only as a blank red square because expeditions sent there either vanished or returned with their memories damaged. The old key opens the outer gate, while the map identifies a safe route through the surrounding ruins.
Area 100 is a sealed ruin district beyond the settlement. Mara Venn's expedition entered it while investigating underground collapses and never returned. Their ledger is believed to contain information about safe tunnels, hidden water sources, and other dangers beneath the region. The party has a map and an old key that can open the outer gate, but goblin scavengers are also searching the ruins.
