Settlement: Errishaan, where Inspiration Rises with the Tide
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Though it boasts no mighty navy or renowned trading port, the harbour town of Errishaan has seen an unexpected surge in prosperity in recent years as it's become something of a hotspot for some of the most brillaint minds in the realm.
Tinkerers and scholars of all kinds have begun flocking to the cliffside settlement in droves, hoping to obtain the attention of its ruler, Countess Milsa Bonharte , who's become a famed patron of the inventive arts over the past decade and a half.
What began as an informal gathering of minds has breathed new life into Errishaan which now boasts numerous workshops, annual innovator's competitions, and a thriving trade in clockworks.
Adventure Hooks:
Of the region's biggest attractions is the Savyswell Rally, an annual competition where various the boatbuilders and artificers of Errishaan race self made vessels to see who can be the first one to cross the notoriously turbulent waters to the town's lighthouse and back, with the caveat that their creations can only use magical forms of propulsion AFTER the half way mark. The party might be seeking the aid of one of these artificers and be drawn into the competition as a means of paying off their services, or they may have a friend/relation/contact who's in need of a hand as the deadline draws near.
Beyond drawing it's livelyhood from the sea, the cliffs surrounding Errishaan do a tidy trade in copper, and the local mines and metalworks are always willing to pay adventurers to help drive off cavedwelling monsters or runaway elementals. Cannonmakers Heldok & Loyid are having a bit of trouble with one of the latter, as the ignis bound to their foundry has become a bit hyperactive after one too many overtime shifts doing important work for the Countess. Now it's slipped its arcane bonds and is going about town manicly smelting things like a blacksmith's forge hopped up on one too many 5 hour energy shots.
Seeing the potential in all the curious minds drawn to Errishaan by the influx of Artifice and Lady Bonharte's patronage, a travelling dedicate of the Archheart named Dijdek has taken it upon himself to found an academy where the magics, crafts, and sciences can be recorded and taught formally. Doing so is easier said than done, as he'll need to convince at least a few of the infamously protective master artificers to consider teaching, and convince the Countess to help provide funding. The first step in this endeavour will be finding a place to establish the academy, an abandoned monastery not far from town might be just the place, but something dangerous is lairing there and most folk have written it off. Perhaps a little divine meddling can bring the priest and the party together for common cause.
Though no one would speak it publicly, it's commonly thought that Countess Milsa's interest in inventions is a distraction from the sorrow she feels at her husband's untimely death, a means to feel close to the famously brilliant man by surrounding herself with the science he loved.
People think too little of Milsa Bonharte, they always have. She was the pretty daughter of a wealthy merchant, courted by an eccentric noble ten years her senior thought mostly unmarrigeable for his habit of splashing about in tidepools and fucking off for weeks at a time to study the migration patterns and mating habits of the local sea birds.
Milsa loved Daedalyn, loved him for being someone who would deny the decorum of his station to chase his passion, loved him for being one of the few to see the clever mind behind her pretty face, loved him with a fierceness that neither death nor the ocean could deny.
So when his ship went down in a storm, she made a vow: The water could have her tears, it would not keep his bones.
Milsa was not a mage, nor was she an engineer, but with her husband's title, her family's connections, and her own business acumen, she could bend the talents of mages and engineers to her purpose: to build a craft that could recover Daedalyn's ship ( the Sandpiper) from the deep and bring his remains to rest in the Bonharte family crypt where she would one day join him.
After fifteen years her vessel, her Vow, is nearly complete, ready to delve into the depths and bring her husband home. All that's needed are some final preparations, some last mechanical and course adjustments, and maybe the addiction of a few worthy heroes to the crew.
Further Adventures:
The Bonhartes had three children before the Daedalyn was lost to the waves, and all three feel the tragedy of his loss in a different way. Madalyn, the youngest was an infant when her father died, and grew up the dutiful daughter of a mother who's attentions were largely elsewhere. Mildryd, eldest, remembers the happy times the best, and has felt their loss most sharply, sinking into sullenness , spending most of her time in the castle library or listlessly watching the sea. The family's servants are worried about her melancholy, having found a diary overfull with vivid and poetic descriptions of death and drowning. In reality the budding little goth is just working through her emotions... partially with the help of her secret merfolk boyfriend named Eddy who's also so done with like, everything. Teenagers, am I right?
Then there's Delsyn, the tempestuous middle child. with a lot of mixed up feelings and no way to channel them, Delsyn has a history of acting out...the latest of which happens to be using a fake name to sign up for the same Savyswell team the party are on, recklessly pushing them forward to the point where he'll likely get himself or others hurt.
The sandpiper was lost on a scholarly expedition, using Daedalyn's newly acquired diving bell to explore the wonders of a not so distant coral reef. With more than one wreck site reported and no confirmations, Milsa and the crew of the Vow will need to check all of them, an exacting process that will have the party encountering all kinds of hostile sea life (big and small and very, very big) as well as negotiating with territorial merfolk (hey, maybe Eddy can help smooth things over).
What Milsa couldn't have known is that the storm that destroyed Daedalyn's ship was a magical one, creating a whirlpool that sucked the vessel and all those aboard it into an aquatic demiplane before smashing it into the ruins of a sunken city. Her husband was in the diving bell at the time, and managed to make a desperate swim for shelter when it was evident that rescue was impossible. Trapped in a series of half flooded ruins, Daedalyn has managed to survive the intervening years in the half flooded ruins, barely staving off madness and the dark influences of the Demiplane. If the party do it right, they might just might be able to give this double tragedy a happy ending after all.
Deeper than deep, this sunken dimension exists beyond the bounds of all seas be they watery, hellish, or astral. A surreal and lightless landscape decorated with the remnants of sunken cities and vessels lost across time.
Known by some mariners and mystics simply as "The Below", this dimension was once simply an afterlife for those claimed by fathomless waters, whether they be stormtossed sailors or the inhabitants of civilizations washed away by floods. Where once it graciously accepted such lost souls, In the past century though the Unknown has become somehow covetous, reaching out to grasp at whatever prize strikes its fancy.
Adventure Hooks:
Those sailors that come too close to drowning may be marked by the Unknown, which will stop at nothing to claim their bodies and souls. Such is the case for the revenant the party is hired to deal with, an old sailor who dug her way out of her grave and walked several miles towards the sea before tying herself to the sign at the crossroads outside of town. She claims that no matter how she might want to rest in death, the "sea" will not give her peace. It will be up to the party to decide what to do with her, whether delivering her to a watery grave or seeking the aid of some other divinity.
After recovering a fortune from a wrecked treasure ship, a salvage crew is being picked off one by one, with a few of them hiring the party for protection against what they think is an attempt by their jealous coworkers to cut them out of the deal. Infact they are being haunted by a horrid half-real beast known as "the Scuttler", part crab part ghost haunted hulk, which guards the doors of the Abyssal Unkown (and objects it lays claim to) the way Cerberus guards Hades.
A series of storms washes up wreckage and strange valuables near a seaside town, bringing beachcombers and treasurehunters of all kinds. A dreaming compulsion settles over those that take things from the shore, driving them to gather driftwood and other materials from the brine, and begin the construction of a vessel there on the beach. When questioned in their half lucid state, they claim that the ship they build will "take them home, and further still", an odd claim made even by those who'd lived in the village all their lives.
Sink deep enough into the trenches of the Below and you will find the tombs of the first oceanic gods, bleached coral monuments and epitaphs carved around the vigil-fire of thermal vents. The Abyssal Unknown was once their mausoleum, a place where their descendants and adherents could pay their respect, preserved forever in the crushing embrace of the depths.
That was before the Collector came, a malign spirit of the depths not quite demon or outer god. Driven by an insatiable desire to know and possess, it usurped the Below's guardians and remade the realm in its own image, bending the Unkown's ancient magics to it's purpose of acquisition and scraping the dead gods' skulls for knowledge like the lowest of scavengers at whalefall.
So much knowledge has been lost to the sea over the course of history, and it is only a matter of time before the collector archives it's aim of ascending to true divine status. Already it's power grows, gathering agents and seeding the idea of its ascension into the minds of receptive followers.
"Enter with open eyes and behold the truths of the world unending"
-Inscription beneath the fountain of the pensive sage, in the gatehouse courtyard.
Founded by dedicates of Ioun who wished to study where the land met the sea and sky, the institution that eventually became the University was founded three centuries ago when the sages of Taloncliff found themselves inundated with eager pupils who had travelled far and wide seeking their wisdom.
Growing quickly along with the coastal village that supported it, the university is today one of the most famed and foremost centres of learning on the continent entertaining scholars of what seems like every discipline imaginable. If the party needs to know something, Taloncliff is the place to go.
Adventure Hooks
Gaining access to the halls of knowledge is not as easy the heroes may hope, as only those who have joined the university are allowed to peruse it's near endless archives and deep vaults of lore. That said there are other options: they might find a sympathetic ear at one of the tea-houses wherein students and faculty partake in the boisterous debate discouraged in the august lecture halls, or persuade a smuggler of forbidden literature to clue them in on the tunnels beneath the university's walls.
The easiest way to gain entry by far however, is to simply join as a student, bypassing the yearly enrolment process by earning an invitation as a renowned seeker of knowledge... or by having the party's noble patron purchase your way in.
Alternatively, you could start your campaign with students already enrolled as students of the University, engaging in a few apprentice level adventures before flashing forward to when they've graduated to doing fieldwork.
Also, I'd be remiss if I made a whole faction dedicated to learning and didn't mention my advice/system for how you should let your players research in campaigns, which you should check out before exploring the University's inner workings below the cut.
Though it appears stately and unified from outside, behind its alabaster walls Taloncliff is in fact a contradictory mess of overlapping "Curricula" like a dozen different organizations of varying sizes dressed up in a wizard's robe trying to look important. Each Curricula is named after one of the original Sages and follows generally in their footsteps, here are some of the most relevant:
Curricula Endaris: The prestigious institute of learning to which the noble families of nearby realms send their learning minded scions. Endaris gave council to kings, and her followers teach statecraft, diplomacy, history, as well as the good governance of the land itself. One of the largest factions and the one most likely to receive outside donations, Endaris maintains a strong influence over the rest of the university as holding onto its coin purse.
Curricula Jadek: Adherants of the knowing mistress who maintain the campus as part of their devotion and studies into more mystical forms of knowledge. They tend to be inward focused and act to balance out the other voices, giving them a respect that superscedes rivalry.
Curricula Gazerette: a wizarding school that functions like a music conservatory, looking to instill a basic level of competence in all students while hunting for talent that could be refined into something prodigious. Gazerette wanted only the best from his apprentices, and the cutthroat rivalries between Gazerette wizards are the stuff of legend, going back nearly as far as the university's founding.
Curricula Oddolgyn: Still headed by the ancient eleven astronomer of the same name, last of the original sages. This group operates out of the university's observatory studying the ephemeral patterns of the firmament and the multiverse beyond. Currently small and thought of mostly as dabblers It's been more than a century since they were superseded by Gazerette as the foremost of Taloncliff's mages.
Curricula Narthex: Adventurous and daring, the explorers of the Narthex always seem to be recounting their last great expedition or planning their next, even maintaining their own airship docks to make it easier to seek out new horizons.
Shortly after one of the party have really proven themselves to be a true asset ( or liability) to the school, they'll receive a note that says "seek to Know the secret of the waters, at the place where Torthane met her Mistress". This requires catching up on some very old University gossip, as well as tracking down some otherwise unnoticeable histories that are always misfiled in the library. Doing so reveals Torthane to be one of sage Jadek's first pupils, one who frequently clashed with her austere teacher about his insistence that dedication to Ioun and true knowledge meant abstaining from the physical world and the "earthly knowledge" that came with it. Torthane loved Ioun, but she also loved the ladies, and was said to meet with her lovers right under Jadek's nose in a particular garden that the campus grounds have since grown to encompass.
These clues further lead the party to the statue of the fountain of the pensive sage, which boasts a statue of Jadek poking his staff into a basin of ever rippling water. One who looked closely might notice a glow distorted by the ripples of the fountain, and that if the primary spout is plugged or diverted that the glow originates from where Jadek's staff disturbs the unearthly white sand that rests at the basin's bottom. (Leave a comment if you can figure out what the party will need to draw in the sand to progress)
With the passphrase entered, a secret stair opens in the cobbles surrounding the statue, inviting the party down into a dungeon crawl that takes them to the university's flooded foundations. After battling past arcane traps, more puzzles, and creatures of the tide, they stumble into a room wreathed in cascading water, in which the images of a dozen or more cloaked figures manifest and pass judgment upon them. The question that the figures are to argue: Are these trespassers cringe?
Some of the figures will argue that the party are indeed cringe, a never-before seen collection of narcs, fuckboys, killjoys, and karens. It will be up to the party to plead their case. If they manage to win over a majority of the crowd then the waters will part and they'll be invited into the secret headquarters/speakeasy of Curricula Torthane, the resident secret society of Taloncliff made up of all those who are willing to bend the rules and collaborate in the pursuit of knowledge and those little pleasures that are so often neglected in scholastic dourness. You haven't lived till you've had wizard moonshine, so cheers and bottoms up troublemakers.
Further adventures
I'll be adding more Taloncliff adventures in the future, so feel free to check out my blog.
While the party is sure to meet no end of red tape as they explore the campus, they'll make an easy ally in Oroteia, a rising star in the Gazerette and Narthex Curricula who seeks to overturn every expectation placed on her by her by others after discovering her lowborn country origins. Blazing a trail through the University's establishment, she'll see the party as useful allies against whatever campaign level threats the rest of the institution is too set in their ways to even contemplate dealing with.
