The Storm Beneath Veyr
The Storm Beneath Veyr
Read aloud
A black storm has stopped above the marsh, and lightning keeps striking the same ruined tower. Marshal Sera Venn offers a fortune to anyone who can reach the drowned observatory and bring her sister Ilyra back alive. The storm is growing, and the only safe approach will vanish by nightfall.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Cross the storm-flooded marsh and enter the drowned observatory.
- 2Find and rescue Ilyra Venn.
- 3Prevent the storm echo from binding itself to Ilyra.
- 4Stabilize the lens and prevent future breaches.Optional
The clock
The storm reaches the nearest marsh settlement in 6 hours. Advance the clock after major delays, failed travel challenges, or a long rest. At 3 hours remaining, the safe causeway floods; at 1 hour remaining, the settlement begins taking damage and the observatory's lens pulses more frequently.
Scenes
- 0:00The Marshal's Offer
- 0:35The Marsh Road
- 1:30The Fractured Causeway
- 2:30The Archive of Echoes
- 3:25The Anchor Chamber
Cast
- Marshal Sera VennQuestgiver
- Ilyra VennAlly and captive scholar
- Curator VaustAntagonist
- Pell OrroWitness and wildcard
The hook
Set the scene
Read aloud: The marsh wind dies as you crest the last ridge. Ahead, black water circles a tower whose upper floors hang in the air at impossible angles. A bolt of blue-white lightning strikes its roof, and a woman's voice carries across the water: 'Sera, don't let him open it again.'
How Marshal Sera Venn asks
Sera finds the party at a storm shelter beside the marsh, lays out a hand-drawn map, and offers a substantial reward.
Her urgency is plain: the storm has begun moving toward populated ground, and she has received no word from Ilyra for two days.
Rumours
Scenes
about 5 hours0:00
35 min
socialThe table is here
1. The Marshal's Offer
A storm shelter on a raised causeway at the edge of the marsh.
Sera makes the rescue offer and gives the party the safest known route. The group can gather information, obtain supplies, or question Pell before setting out.
NextWhen the party commits to the rescue, the storm closes in and the causeway begins to flood.
0:35
55 min
skill
2. The Marsh Road
A maze of reed islands, half-sunken markers, and exposed stretches beneath the black storm.
The party crosses flooded ground and reaches the observatory entrance. Use a suitable group challenge, clever magic, or route planning. On a failure, apply a complication or cost rather than blocking progress.
NextThe causeway ends at a fractured stone bridge leading into the observatory.
1:30
60 min
combat
3. The Fractured Causeway
The observatory's broken inner bridge above a flooded shaft.
The party fights or bypasses the lens-fed guardians on the suspended causeway. The encounter establishes that the observatory is reacting to the lens, not simply defending itself.
The Fractured CausewayNextA surviving guardian or a clue on its remains points to the lower archive, where Ilyra was last seen.
2:30
55 min
exploration
4. The Archive of Echoes
A tilted archive where books drift in waterless air and memories repeat as ghostly sounds.
The party finds Ilyra in a sealed archive and learns that Vaust intends to use her as the lens's anchor. Ilyra can explain the pylon sequence, but she is exhausted and needs protection while the group decides how to proceed.
NextIlyra identifies the route to the anchor chamber, while Vaust begins the final phase of his ritual.
3:25
90 min
combat
5. The Anchor Chamber
The lens chamber beneath the observatory, where the storm echo overlaps the real world.
The party confronts Vaust and chooses whether to defeat him, reason with him, or focus on the lens pylons. Ilyra's closure phrase offers a path to stabilize the lens if the party has learned the required sequence.
The Anchor ChamberNextResolve the rescue and the storm's fate, then return to Sera or establish a follow-up lead.
Behind it
What people believe
Marshal Sera Venn hires the party to rescue her sister Ilyra, a scholar trapped in the drowned observatory of Veyr.
A violent storm has gathered over the ruins and is spreading across the marsh. Curator Vaust and his remaining guardians control the interior, while unstable passages and magical surges make the approach dangerous. The party must reach Ilyra, get her out alive, and deal with the threat at the heart of the observatory.
Background
The drowned observatory of Veyr was built around a buried star-metal lens that can bend distance for a few heartbeats.
Its keepers sealed the lens after a failed experiment split the observatory between the material world and a storm-filled echo. Recently, the lens has begun to awaken beneath the ruins, drawing lightning and fragments of the echo into the surrounding marsh.
The stakes
If the party fails, Ilyra may be lost inside the storm echo, and a spreading storm threatens the settlements around the marsh.
If the lens is mishandled, the immediate danger may be stopped at the cost of leaving the breach unstable or transferring the threat elsewhere.
Encounters
2The Fractured Causeway
Combat
A narrow stone causeway hangs over a flooded shaft, with three broken sections, waist-high cover, and metal cables that conduct surges from the lens.
Foes
2 stormbound wardens
1 lens-fed storm elemental
ComplicationAt initiative count 20, the lens releases a thunderous pulse. Each creature on the suspended walkway must steady itself or be pushed toward the edge; a creature that falls lands on a lower platform rather than dying outright.
ScalingFor a smaller or less optimized party, remove one stormbound warden and make the elemental's pulse occur every other round. For a larger or exceptionally strong party, add one warden and have the elemental create a second temporary hazard zone. These are adventure-specific enemy roles, not official stat blocks.
The Anchor Chamber
Combat
A circular chamber surrounds the exposed lens. Four runic pylons divide the floor into hazardous sectors, while a raised control dais offers cover and can be reached by stairs or flight.
Foes
Curator Vaust
1 stormbound sentinel
ComplicationOn each round after the first, one marked rune flares. A creature standing within its light must move, disable the rune, or risk being briefly pinned by a force field. A character can disable a rune with a suitable action and a fitting ability check, or by damaging its visible crystal core.
ScalingFor a smaller party, Vaust begins without the sentinel and needs one extra round to activate the lens. For a larger or more optimized party, the sentinel remains and Vaust gains one additional ritual pulse. Use a suitable high-level spellcaster and construct-style stat block, or custom equivalents, with clearly telegraphed legendary defenses rather than treating these descriptions as official stat blocks.
Cast
4Marshal Sera Venn
QuestgiverQuestgiver
WantsSecure the rescue of her sister and prevent the observatory's storm from reaching nearby settlements.
“Bring my sister back breathing. If the storm takes the whole marsh, we can argue about payment afterward.”
Ilyra Venn
Ally and captive scholar
WantsGuide the party through the observatory and keep its unstable lens from being used again.
“The lens is not a door. It is a wound that remembers being a door.”
Curator Vaust
Antagonist
WantsUse the lens to permanently bind the storm echo to the observatory, even if Ilyra is consumed as its living anchor.
“I can give the marsh a thousand years of rainless peace. You only have to leave one woman behind.”
Pell Orro
Witness and wildcard
WantsHelp the rescuers in exchange for safe passage out of the marsh and protection from Vaust's sentinels.
“I saw her walk out of the tower twice. The third time, the sky swallowed her shadow.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
Ilyra gives the party a custom stormglass compass that points toward the nearest active magical breach. It has no combat benefits unless the GM assigns them.
The observatory's intact lens fragment can be kept as a story reward, sold, or used as a component in a future quest.
On a win
Ilyra is brought safely out of the observatory, and Vaust's ritual is stopped.
If the party also stabilizes the lens, the storm breaks into harmless rain and the marsh is spared. If they merely escape with Ilyra, the immediate rescue succeeds, but the observatory remains a dangerous, unstable site.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot reach Ilyra before Vaust completes the binding ritual.
- Ilyra is pulled into the storm echo as the lens closes. The rescue fails, but the party can pursue her through a temporary rift in a follow-up adventure.
- The party destroys the lens without stabilizing it or evacuating those at risk.
- The lens breaks unevenly and releases a roaming storm front. Ilyra may survive, but the surrounding marsh settlements face evacuation and extensive damage.
- Vaust escapes the final confrontation with the control shard.
- Vaust escapes with a shard of the lens and can reopen a smaller breach elsewhere. Ilyra is rescued, but the immediate threat remains unresolved.
- The party rescues Ilyra but leaves the lens controls in an unstable state.
- The observatory seals with the party inside. Ilyra may be safe, but the group must find another exit through the echo or negotiate with its inhabitants.
Complications (d6)
- 1A lightning strike splits the route behind the party. The return path remains possible, but the group must spend 10 minutes finding a safe crossing or take a dangerous exposed route.
- 2A surge from the lens causes one carried, nonmagical metal object to vibrate loudly for a minute, alerting nearby guardians unless the party muffles or abandons it.
- 3A captive echo repeats one character's last sentence in Ilyra's voice from a different direction, leading toward a false passage unless the group checks the route.
- 4The water level rises rapidly in the lower galleries. The party has 5 minutes to reach higher ground or secure a way through the flooded passage.
- 5Pell recognizes a familiar mark on a guardian and freezes, revealing that he once helped Vaust move equipment into the observatory. He will still help, but demands a promise of protection.
- 6A pulse from the lens displaces one character a short distance into the storm echo for a moment. They return with a clear glimpse of the next room, but leave behind a flickering afterimage that can draw hostile attention.
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