Campaign summary of Clockwork Dawn, set in the World of Kiynan (5E compatible, based on Wizard of the Coast’s SRD 5.2.1).

The adventure begins a year after the party’s last campaign, with each of the four heroes having gone their separate ways. A mysterious, personally addressed letter from Eleanor Bellwether, the influential president of the Inventor’s Guild in the city of Spire, summons them all to the technological metropolis with the promise of a job.

The heroes had been busy in the intervening year. Ethane, a charismatic magician of House Lust, established a “house of lust” in Haven to raise funds for his people, operating in a morally gray world of jealousy, gambling, and hired muscle. Shep embraced a bohemian lifestyle, dodging family responsibilities to travel the world, play the bongos, and prove he could be an independent man. Bitoh of House Fury spent the year hunting the rogue magician who betrayed him, a quest for vengeance that has left him disheveled and grim. Finally, Oren, a former member of the Inventor’s Guild, had returned to his desert home after parting ways with his Guild.

Their reunion in Spire, the richest and most technologically advanced city in the world, was chaotic and memorable. Bitoh, looking like he’d been dragged through a desert, was found eating a hunk of meat with his hands and spitting tobacco on the floor of a tavern. It’s here he meets Oren, a seven-foot-four, slender, and hairless Valkan with unusual eyes that held cross-shaped pupils, a rare sight in this part of the world. Their somber meeting was spectacularly interrupted by Ethane and Shep, who stumbled in arm-in-arm, dressed in nothing but a gold-threaded vest and banana hammock for Ethane, and a matching emerald sequin G-string for Shep (who had clearly lost a bet). Ethane introduced himself as “the three-handed” for his legendary prowess in the bedroom, making a grand re-entrance into his companions’ lives.

To break the ice, the ever-inventive Oren, an alchemist able to make recreational drugs out of poison by “backing it off,” offered to whip something up. He created a potent hallucinogen called “desert magic” in the backroom of the bar. While Oren and Bitoh (to his great frustration) felt little, Shep and Ethane heroic-dosed and experienced a wild night of which they had no memory the next day, waking up with their G-strings on backward and a story they’d never truly know. It was a fittingly bizarre bonding experience for the mismatched group.

Hungover and disoriented, the party presented themselves at the Inventor’s Guild headquarters, a massive factory buzzing with chaotic energy. They were led to the cluttered workshop of President Bellwether, a brilliant but agitated woman who quickly got to the point. She explained that a disgraced but genius guild member named Aldred, an expert in explosives, had escaped from the Guild’s high-security prison. Not only did he escape, but he also stole the “Zephyr,” the world’s very first airship, Bellwether’s prototype, and her life’s work. Aldred, she explained, is dangerous, reckless, and now in possession of a revolutionary machine he could use to wreak havoc.

Bellwether tasked the party with hunting down Aldred, capturing him if possible, and returning the Zephyr. The reward would be 600 gold pieces each, but she stipulated that any damage to the airship would be deducted from their pay. This sparked a humorous but sharp negotiation, initiated by Shep. He recounted a traumatic past experience with a rental cart at a farmer’s market where he was unfairly charged for damages, declaring he would not be held financially liable for a “scuff on the exterior.” Building on this, Ethane successfully negotiated a cap on the damage deductions, ensuring they couldn’t lose more than 300 GP of their reward.

As Bellwether gave a terribly confusing lecture on how to pilot the airship, Oren and Bitoh were the only two to grasp the basic concepts. More importantly, during the meeting, the keen senses of Oren and Bitoh picked up on Bellwether’s extreme defensiveness when discussing the Zephyr’s engine room, making it clear she was hiding a critical secret about her creation.

The session concluded with the party accepting the mission. They were armed with an official writ granting them authority to act on the Guild’s behalf, access to guild-rate equipment, and their first concrete lead: a bribed prison guard named Barnaby, who is now imprisoned in the very facility where he once worked. Their investigation into the great airship heist was officially set to begin.