The Emberheart Road
The Emberheart Road
“A week of road, a thousand chances to betray, and a relic that must never awaken.”
— Hook · Escort
“Maris Vell, a merchant caravan master, offers you good coin to escort several wagons from Eldrest to Redleaf along Veylorn's interior roads. She claims the cargo is valuable machinery for a new ship, but three previous escorts have vanished and the attackers always knew which wagon to strike. Your job is to get the caravan and its sealed blue-crystal crate to Redleaf before the road claims another convoy.”
— Hook · Escort
The adventure begins at dawn beneath Eldrest's western seawall. Six wagons wait in a staggered line, guarded by hired blades and nervous teamsters. Maris Vell shows the characters a sealed blue-crystal crate secured inside the third wagon and insists that nobody opens it. Captain Orren gives the party authority to assign watches, inspect wagons, choose the order of travel, and question the caravan staff. Before departure, the characters can discover that one route map has been copied recently and that Tavian is unusually interested in the relic wagon's axle and wheel fittings.
Maris Vell
Maris approaches the characters in Eldrest's Saltmarket after hearing that they have handled dangerous work without abandoning civilians. She offers half payment up front, promises the rest upon delivery to the Redleaf shipwrights, and quietly adds a bonus for preventing anyone from examining the sealed blue-crystal crate.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The last two caravans heading to Redleaf were attacked within sight of the same broken stone milepost.
- 02A blue light has been seen moving across the hills at night, always ahead of the caravans.
- 03Redleaf's new ship is supposed to cross waters that no ordinary vessel can survive.
- 04Captain Orren once lost an entire escort team on this road and refuses to discuss what attacked them.
- 05Someone in Eldrest is selling route information before caravans even leave the city.
If the caravan fails, Redleaf loses the power source for its new ship, the Eldrest consortium suffers a major financial and political defeat, and the Ashen Meridian gains a relic capable of powering a devastating weapon. The caravan's ordinary passengers may also be killed, imprisoned, or left stranded on the interior roads.
Background Lore
Eldrest's shipwrights are constructing the Dawnwake, a vessel intended to open dependable trade routes through Veylorn's stormy western waters. Its engine requires the Emberheart Lens, an ancient relic recovered from a ruined lighthouse beneath Eldrest. The Lens is not merely a power source. It contains a bound fragment of a solar elemental, and prolonged exposure subtly influences dreams, emotions, and acts of desperation. The merchant consortium publicly claims the artifact is a valuable but inert crystal. In truth, several factions know what it is and intend to seize it before the caravan reaches Redleaf.
The party is hired to escort a merchant caravan from the port city of Eldrest to Redleaf over one dangerous week. The caravan carries components for the construction of a new ship, including one sealed blue-crystal power core that must not be opened or damaged. Bandits repeatedly attack from the roadside, and the party must protect the travelers while uncovering how the attackers know the caravan's movements.
