Gateford
Temperate river plainA gate settlement faces sabotage just as the delayed storm reaches its reservoir.Where: Western plain at the head of the main canalNext to
Rainturn
World · A round world
Rainturn
When the rains turn late, every gate becomes a choice.
Overview
Rainturn is a globe crossed by a wandering belt of immense storms. For generations, people have cut canals, built gates, and raised roads to carry the water inland before it runs to sea. The name recalls the year the belt changed course, though outsiders insist it was named for a turning point in the world's orbit. Now the rains are late, old channels are failing, and every town must decide what it owes its neighbors.
The world
ShapeA round world
What it is likeRainturn is a spherical world with familiar continents, seas, and a storm belt that circles the globe.
How people travelTravel follows paved rain roads, canal barges, and coastal ships; beyond maintained channels, dry-country crossings depend on wells and local guides.
Themes
Heroic fantasy, Shared resources, Frontier adventure, Civic duty
Laws of the world
The rules
MagicMagic is common and practical: trained people mend tools, call small flames, find seep water, or invoke greater spells through study, faith, or innate talent.
TechnologyMedieval tools and transport prevail, supported by water mills, canals, paved rain roads, and widespread low-level magic.
Death and soulsSouls pass beyond the world after death; they may answer brief calls from clerics, but no spirit can remain indefinitely without a willing anchor.
Special rules
Rain drawn from the storm belt carries enough magic to power wards and healing rites.
Canal gates are treated as public law; magically forcing one open is judged as an assault on every downstream settlement.
The skies
SkiesThe sky is broad and familiar, but a dark rain belt circles the globe and can be seen gathering on the horizon for days.
Moons and stars
the Sun, the Moon
SeasonsMost regions count a year by the rain belt's passage: a wet season follows its arrival, then a long, locally variable dry season.
Ages
3 agesStorms now arrive weeks late, and old agreements over water are fraying as towns compete to keep their fields alive.
Powers
4 powers · 2 conflictsPowers
- The Canal WardensCivic orderReach: A chain of gatehouses and engineers along the old rain roads.Keep the main gates working and enforce the shared water laws, even when local needs clash.
- The High Fields LeagueRural compactReach: Farm towns above the main canals.Secure more water for upland farms before the storm belt shifts again.
- The Siltbank raidersRaider bandsReach: Mobile bands along the lower channels and dry margins.Take water by force where old treaties leave their camps dry.
- The Roadside shrinesReligious networkReach: Small temples and wayhouses distributed across the rain roads.Preserve the old agreements and mediate disputes before they become feuds.
Conflicts
- The Canal DisputeSidesWho controls the remaining flow may decide which communities survive the coming dry season.
the Canal Wardens, the High Fields League, independent valley towns
- The Floodgate RisingSidesA captured gate could flood a chain of settlements or leave them without water for a year.
the Siltbank raiders, the Low Road villages, the Canal Wardens
Atlas
8 regionsSecrets
Secret 1 · GM only
Secret 2 · GM only
Secret 3 · GM only
Plot hooks
4 hooks- 1The Gate KeyDefenseA gate town hires the party to recover its stolen key before raiders divert the next storm's water.
- 2A Channel ThroughMoral dilemmaA new channel promises to save a dry valley but will drain the wells of several settlements downstream.
- 3The Quiet ShrineInvestigationA shrine's rain ward has gone silent, and its keepers fear someone has trapped the storm's magic underground.
- 4The Buried FlowExplorationA survey crew finds an old canal beneath the dry ground, still carrying water toward a place erased from every map.
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