The City That Refuses to Be Seen
The City That Refuses to Be Seen
“Find the city that cannot be seen, then decide what deserves to be revealed.”
— Hook · Investigation
“For three nights, the eastern horizon has shown the same impossible sunrise, even though the sun is setting. A survivor has arrived carrying a key made of black glass and claims an entire city is hidden beyond the hills. If the city's concealment engine can be found, you may be able to expose Veyr, enter it, and break the machine before the illusion spreads.”
— Hook · Investigation
Marra Voss brings the party to an abandoned watchtower overlooking the eastern valley. Tovin Hale is waiting there, feverish and confused, with the black-glass key embedded in a leather cord around his wrist. As dusk falls, the party sees a city-sized outline briefly appear between two hills, then vanish when anyone looks directly at it.
Marra Voss
Marra Voss approaches the party at a roadside settlement after hearing that they have experience dealing with magical phenomena. She offers payment and local support, but her urgency becomes clear when she admits her brother vanished near the eastern valley and may still be alive inside Veyr.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01A shepherd saw an entire avenue appear in the valley, complete with people who had no shadows.
- 02The eastern city was not destroyed. It was hidden after something came looking for it.
- 03People who return from the valley sometimes remember conversations that never happened.
- 04The old watchtowers were built to point toward a city that official maps insist never existed.
- 05The Directorate pays workers in memories. Some laborers no longer remember their own names.
If the party fails, Veyr remains hidden while the Eidolon Loom expands its reach into nearby settlements. Thousands of citizens may permanently lose memories, and the extraplanar threat may locate the city through the party's use of the resonance key.
Background Lore
For centuries, the eastern city of Veyr has appeared on maps as an abandoned valley. In truth, it is a living metropolis hidden beneath layers of projected terrain, false horizons, and stolen memories. The city was transformed into a factory by the Veiled Directorate, which harvests perception itself to power an enormous cloaking engine known as the Eidolon Loom.
Veyr is an eastern city believed to have been abandoned generations ago, but recent travelers report impossible lights, missing time, and voices coming from the empty valley. A survivor named Tovin Hale carries a strange black-glass key that may reveal the city's entrance. The hidden city has become an industrial complex, and its cloaking engine is apparently consuming energy, memories, or both.
