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Below the Cinders

Quests
5 scenes · about 3.5 hours · 2 encounters

Below the Cinders

Beneath Ferryfall's fire fields, something hears every strike.

Read aloud

The mine's tools have started striking back. Three nights ago, the workers heard a measured pattern from behind a sealed wall, and yesterday the fire-field vents answered every pick and hammer with a pulse of heat. Forewoman Mara Venn needs a crew to descend, find what is responding, and keep the mine from becoming a furnace.

Run the session

Scene
1/5
The Knock Beneath the Shaft
Objectives
0/4
Objectives
A complication

Cheat sheet

Objectives

  1. 1Locate the buried control room.
  2. 2Understand the engine's responses.
  3. 3Choose and enact a safe resolution.
  4. 4Preserve a record of the old facility.Optional

The clock

Track three stages of heat buildup. Advance one stage after a major failed control attempt, a loud uncontrolled fight, or a prolonged delay. At the first stage, vents become hazardous; at the second, the return route begins to shift; at the third, the engine redirects heat toward the surface and forces an immediate choice or escape.

Scenes

  1. 0:00The Knock Beneath the Shaft
  2. 0:30The Answering Passage
  3. 1:15The Listening Gallery
  4. 2:05The Engineer's Bargain
  5. 2:40The Choice at the Heart

Cast

  • Mara VennQuestgiver
  • Ilyan SootAlly
  • Tamsin RuskAntagonist
  • Nell ArvoWitness

The hook

Set the scene

Mara waits beside the mine's sealed lower shaft, where fresh tool marks have appeared on the inside of the iron door. As the party arrives, Nell taps a pick against a support beam. Three identical knocks answer from below. The door's handle grows warm, then turns a fraction by itself.

How Mara Venn asks

Mara approaches the party at the mine entrance, pays for a quick inspection, and insists that the workers' safety comes before recovering ore or salvage.

Rumours

Roll a rumour

1“The fire-field vents used to blow warm air toward the old ferryworks, but the town's oldest maps show a different arrangement.”
2“Nell says the answering knocks repeat in groups of three, except when someone uses a hammer near the sealed shaft.”
3“A miner claims that the lower door opened once during a storm, though Mara says the hinges have not moved in years.”
4“Tamsin has been buying old tools and studying marks found in the mine's deepest galleries.”

Scenes

about 3.5 hours

  1. 0:00

    30 min

    socialThe table is here

    1. The Knock Beneath the Shaft

    The fire-field mine entrance, beside a sealed iron door warm to the touch.

    Mara explains the danger and asks the party to inspect the lower shaft. Nell demonstrates the answering knocks. The group can question the miners, inspect the door, and decide what equipment to bring.

    NextA fresh sequence of answering knocks travels through the door, and a concealed latch releases into the first descent.

  2. 0:30

    45 min

    exploration

    2. The Answering Passage

    Abandoned mine passages beneath the fire fields, with glassy walls and narrow vents that breathe heat.

    The party follows warm drafts, tool marks, and intermittent knocks through old workings. They can map a safe route, avoid unstable ash shelves, and discover signs that someone has recently passed through.

    NextThe passage opens into the Listening Gallery, where a damaged maintenance system reacts to the party's tools.

  3. 1:15

    50 min

    combat

    3. The Listening Gallery

    A grated industrial gallery over a glowing service trench, with valve wheels and chains that can alter the hazard.

    The party crosses or bypasses the gallery's constructs and hazards. The marks on the walls show that the engine has been responding to maintenance patterns, not random noise.

    The Listening Gallery

    NextBeyond the gallery, the party finds Tamsin at the control room entrance, arguing with the engine through a sequence of hammer strikes.

  4. 2:05

    35 min

    social

    4. The Engineer's Bargain

    A pressure-sealed antechamber crowded with old diagrams, tool racks, and a console behind a heavy door.

    Tamsin tries to convince the party to help restore the system. Ilyan can interpret the control symbols while the group decides whether to trust Tamsin, negotiate, or take control of the room.

    NextThe antechamber opens onto the central console, where the engine's heat-routing pattern becomes visible.

  5. 2:40

    60 min

    skill

    5. The Choice at the Heart

    The buried control room, a circular chamber of black metal stations and floor channels filled with glowing air.

    The party operates the console under rising heat and pressure. They can stabilize the regulator, shut it down, or redirect its output, with each choice requiring a clear tradeoff and a safe escape plan.

    The Control Room Sequence

    NextOnce the engine's pattern changes, the group must return to the surface and report what they found to Mara.

Behind it

What people believe

Miners in Ferryfall have uncovered a sealed control room beneath the fire fields.

Background

Ferryfall's fire fields are a broad stretch of black volcanic glass and warm ash, worked for generations by miners who extract emberstone to fuel the river ferries and the town's foundries.

The stakes

If the party delays or mishandles the engine, heat can flood the mine, trapping workers below and diverting dangerous geothermal pressure toward Ferryfall's old ferryworks.

Encounters

2

  • The Listening Gallery

    Combat or bypass

    A narrow gallery of grated walkways over a glowing service trench. Three marked valve wheels can redirect steam, and hanging tool chains provide cover or can be pulled to create a distraction.

    Foes

    • Cinder Wardens, two to four slow maintenance constructs with heat-scarred limbs

    ComplicationEach loud impact or failed control attempt advances the engine's warning sequence. On its final stage, it releases a burst of superheated steam through the room.

    ScalingFor a smaller or less combat-focused party, use one construct and allow it to be distracted by matching the engine's tapping rhythm. For a larger or more capable party, add two constructs and make the gallery's steam vents cycle during the encounter.

  • The Control Room Sequence

    Skill and exploration

    A circular chamber with three workstations, a central black-metal console, and floor channels carrying glowing air. The controls respond to tool strikes, pressure, and heat rather than spoken commands.

    Foes

    • The Engine's misdirected control pulses, represented by shifting doors, vibrating floor plates, and sudden steam jets

    ComplicationThe engine responds to physical input with escalating consequences. A wrong sequence seals one exit and vents steam into the control room, but also exposes a useful maintenance diagram.

    ScalingFor a group that needs more support, Ilyan can identify one symbol and explain how the controls relate to the mine's old tools. For a group seeking a harder challenge, the party must operate separated controls while a rising heat level limits how long anyone can remain in the room.

Cast

4

  • Mara Venn

    QuestgiverQuestgiver, forewoman of the fire-field mine

    WantsGet the miners safely out and prove that the discovery is not simply a dangerous gas pocket.

    “It answered the drill with three knocks. Then every lamp in the shaft turned toward the wall.”

  • Ilyan Soot

    Ally, local record-keeper and amateur historian

    WantsDocument the buried facility before it is sealed or dismantled, while preventing reckless damage to its controls.

    “Those marks are not warnings. They are instructions, though I cannot tell you who they instruct.”

  • Tamsin Rusk

    Antagonist, mine engineer and former apprentice to Mara

    WantsReach the engine's central controls and force it to restore the old system, believing that doing so will save Ferryfall from its failing fuel supply.

    “I can make the whole field go quiet. I need only one more minute at the heart of it.”

  • Nell Arvo

    Witness, miner who first heard the engine answer

    WantsUnderstand the engine's signals and keep the group from mistaking responsiveness for harmlessness.

    “It is not calling for help. It is asking which door we want opened.”

How it ends

Rewards

Experience: Award experience appropriate to the host system for completing the exploration, resolving the control-room crisis, and protecting the miners.
Gold: A modest contract payment from Mara, with a bonus if the maintenance plate and a safe operating method are recovered.
In the story: The party earns a lasting connection to Ferryfall's miners and becomes responsible for advising the settlement about a powerful piece of buried infrastructure.
Standing: Ferryfall's miners and civic leaders offer goodwill, access to the fire fields, and a voice in future decisions about the buried facility.

Items

  • A heat-resistant tool wrap salvaged from the old gallery, useful for handling hot metal but not proof against open flame.

  • The engraved maintenance plate, if recovered intact, bearing a schematic of the regulator and its warning symbols.

On a win

The party reaches the control room and prevents the engine from directing dangerous heat toward the miners or Ferryfall.

What it leaves open

The maintenance plate mentions a second regulator beneath Ferryfall's old ferryworks, which has not been inspected in generations.
If the engine is stabilized, it begins sending a new rhythm through the pipes, repeating a sequence no local record can explain.
Tamsin may remain an ally, become a rival for control of the mine, or seek another way to restart the system.

If it fails

The party cannot stabilize or safely shut down the control system before the heat and pressure reach the group's chosen danger threshold.
The miners are evacuated, but the engine locks the lower complex. Ferryfall loses access to a valuable emberstone seam, and the engine continues answering tools from below.
The party destroys the central controls or forces a shutdown without venting the accumulated pressure.
The engine shuts down abruptly, causing a tremor that damages mine supports and blocks the easiest route back. The party must escape by the old service passage, and the mine remains unsafe until repaired.
The party leaves Tamsin unopposed and does not establish who or what is directing the engine's responses.
Tamsin reaches the console first and activates a partial restoration. The mine's output rises, but the engine begins routing heat toward the settlement's old ferryworks.

Complications (d6)

  1. 1A sequence of tool strikes is repeated from deeper in the mine, drawing anyone who responds toward a narrow passage that is shedding hot ash.
  2. 2A pressure valve vents a horizontal jet of steam across the route. The group must wait, find a bypass, or risk burns and damaged gear.
  3. 3The engine copies the sound of a party member's voice through the pipes, giving a plausible but false direction to the control room.
  4. 4A tremor shifts a slab of black glass across the return path, splitting the party until they clear it or find another route.
  5. 5A miner's lamp begins pulsing in time with the engine. Its light reveals hidden markings, but also activates a nearby dormant mechanism.
  6. 6Tamsin's hastily installed bypass overloads. The next control the party touches triggers a surge that makes the facility's defenses treat them as intruders.

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