It would be an error to think of Fallendrift as remarkable at first glance. The city presents the expected features of a thriving port and seat of commerce: warehouses stacked to their rafters, thoroughfares clogged with wagons, clerks bent over ledgers by the light of oil lamps. The visitor may remark upon the soot that settles on every sill, or the damp fog that creeps in from the river, but these, too, are only the marks of industry.
Beneath this familiar exterior, however, lies another truth. Drawn across the city is what those few who know of it have named the Caul—a curious shroud that clouds recollection and obscures sight. It is the Caul that persuades the citizen that the pale figure in the stairwell was only a trick of smoke, that the whisper at his ear no more than the settling of timbers, that the stain upon the cobbles came from iron, not blood. In this way, life proceeds, and the multitude remain secure in their ignorance.
There are, however, those with The Sight, those for whom the Caul falters. Such persons are condemned to witness Fallendrift as it truly is: to hear the muttering of shades in empty parlours, to perceive the hand of secret societies moving unseen through halls of power, to feel the chill presence of relics that cling to their bearers with an almost human will. Whether Anatomist, Spiritualist, Debutante, Undertaker, Inventor, or some other soul marked by ill fortune, you are one of these. What you discern, no one else will believe; what you endure, the city itself will contrive to forget.
Features of Play
- The Caul – An unseen veil that blinds ordinary citizens to Fallendrift’s true face.
- Episodic Structure – Each mystery stands alone, yet all contribute to an ongoing chronicle.
- Enduring Characters – Grow your persona across many sessions, scarred and reshaped by the burdens they carry.
- Background Secrets – Advance through the revelation of hidden ties, scandals, and past sins.
- Signature Items – Each playbook is bound to a singular relic or device inseparable from their identity.
- Bonds and Betrayals – Relationships between companions are as perilous as any haunting or cult.
The Playbooks
- The Anatomist – Dissector of flesh, uncoverer of forbidden truths.
- The Debutante – Darling of society, burdened by scandalous secrets.
- The Exile – Soldier cast adrift, carrying the stain of dishonor and war.
- The Inheritor – Scion of a bloodline steeped in ancestral sin.
- The Inspector – Officer of the law, enforcer of order in a city that forgets.
- The Intelligencer – Collector of secrets, broker of whispers and betrayals.
- The Inventor – Eccentric maker of contraptions that defy reason.
- The Physic – Doctor and apothecary, balancing remedies with deception.
- The Poet – Romantic captive to obsession and inspiration’s darker muse.
- The Spiritualist – Medium touched by voices the living cannot hear.
- The Undertaker – Keeper of the dead, consigned to hear their whispers.
