Ironwake: A 5E Adventure by Kelfecil's Tales!
Here's something a little different and special! Kelfecil reached out to me to create an adventure, and I decided to make it easy on him by sending him a small magitech ship with legs. Surely, THAT would be simple to create a whole adventure around....right?
Well, for Kelfecil it sure seems that way! This is a special bonus to all patrons of the Dragon Guard tier and above. The map is my most recent Gauntlet Runner map. If you're a member of the Dragoon tier, you can plop the module directly into FoundryVTT for a plug 'n' play experience
I hope you all enjoy, please do go show some love to Kelfecil for his awesome adventure design, as well as Dusky for her wonderful tokens!
Adventure Name:
Ironwake
Cover Text:
Green fire bleeds through steel,
and the valley pays the price...
A towering mechanical walker crosses the Southern Valleys under its own power, crushing ground beneath iron feet and leaving poisoned plasma in its wake. Fields are scarred, streams turn sickly green, and trade roads begin to shift around the moving threat. What began as a private test has become a public danger, and every mile the machine travels leaves more damage behind.
Adventure Description:
Ironwake sends the party after a roaming war machine built by Klemwick Coilgrin, a disgraced engineer from Olbia whose ambition outgrew the limits others tried to place on him. The adventure begins with the party tracking the Iron Strider through the Southern Valleys, then pushing onto its exterior while it is still in motion.
Act 1 focuses on boarding and fighting across the unstable top of the walker, where shifting footing and exposed hazards make every position matter. Act 2 moves into the body of the machine, where tight corridors, crew resistance, and a volatile engine room turn the walker into a compact moving dungeon. Act 3 returns the action to the exterior as the machine begins to fail, plasma spills across the valley floor, and the final confrontation unfolds in the middle of a full collapse.
Encounters are built around movement, instability, and hazard pressure. The battlefield keeps changing as the walker moves, the interior tightens around the party, and the plasma system becomes more dangerous the closer the party gets to shutting the whole machine down.
Extra Description:
Ironwake is a 5th edition adventure designed around a moving battlefield and a compact, high-pressure structure. The walker itself is the central mechanic of the adventure, shaping footing, boarding, interior pacing, and the final collapse. Plasma hazards and Spillborn Plasma Oozes turn the finale into a fight against both Klemwick and the consequences of his design.
The structure supports multiple outcomes depending on how the party handles momentum, environmental pressure, and Klemwick himself. Success here is not only about surviving the machine, but also about deciding what happens once it finally stops moving.
Recommended Average Party Level (APL): 5
Theme: moving war machine, magitech sabotage, plasma hazards, environmental damage, high pressure encounters
Setting: Starlight Chronicles (Southern Valleys, near Olbia)
Time: 1 to 2 sessions (3 to 5 hours total)
Narrative Design, Writing & Collaboration Organization: Kelfecil's Tales
Maps Art: MapXilla
NPC & Token Art: Dusky Cat
Link: https://linktree/dusky_cat