Ashen Crown: Echoes of a World Past Prime

A dark, unforgiving world long past its prime. Cities crumble into ash and rust, and the sky is a lidless black eye. Ancient outer gods whisper through ruined towers, bending time and memory. The living cling to fragile kindness in a landscape where even allies may die for a good cause. The central NPCs are likable and doomed, their fates tied to your choices.

Setting and Mood

• Gloom drenched lands


• Brinehaunt Wards and drowned ships on the Brine Sea


• Shattered fortresses overgrown with ash and moss


• Relics that resist time and memory

Regions and Key Locations

• The Ashen Cathedral: heart of ruined civilization and the threshold to losing all light


• Brinehaunt Wards: flooded streets where ships drift in murky tides


• The Veins of Glass: caverns hummed by star light


• The Waking Forest of Lament: trees with eyes that remember every failed life


• The Gate of Outer Echoes: a ruined portal sealed by elder runes

The Main Quest

Recover six Tethers from each region to perform the Rite at the Gate. The rite will either seal the outer gods away again or fracture the world into perpetual night. The party must navigate shifting loyalties, betrayals, and the slow loosening of reality while keeping their doomed companions alive or avenging their deaths.

Side Quests to Investigate

• Aid a beloved but fading NPC who knows a map of ruin and longs for one last act of mercy


• Investigate a whispering choir in Brinehaunt that lures sailors to doom and decide who to save

Central Events and Triggers

• The Eclipse every new moon, when outer powers press on the world and reality wobbles


• A rumored living city that wakes when the rite is misread

Hooks

• A trusted ally warns of a traitor among you


• A plea from doomed souls that offers a bargain for a chance at survival

Objectives, Challenges, and Rewards

• Main objective: gather the Tethers and perform the ritual at the Gate


• Challenges: corrupt entities, deadly traps, moral choices, and memories that turn against you


• Rewards: artifacts that bend fate, temporary boons, and a chance to alter the night itself