Category:Skarnheim

Overview

Skarnheim is a once-forgotten industrial city located deep within the Arctic Circle. Centuries ago, it was a legendary production powerhouse, known especially for its vast coal reserves and engineering marvels. An avalanche long ago buried the city beneath tons of ice and snow, erasing it from maps and memory. Over time, Skarnheim became a ghost story—a whispered rumor among traders and historians.

That is, until now.

A recent natural shift triggered a massive avalanche that unveiled the city’s massive gates and smokestack-ridden skyline. The discovery has sparked a northern gold rush—not for gold, but for coal and ancient industrial technology. Investors, adventurers, engineers, and opportunists are pouring into the frostbitten north to claim their fortune.

Links

• PC
• Face
• Session
• Rules
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• Faction

🔥 The Importance of Coal

Coal is a critical resource within the kingdom, powering:

• Massive steam-powered engines (e.g. locomotives, ship engines)
• Mechanical city infrastructure (e.g. giant gate mechanisms, mining elevators)
• The furnaces that keep the city warm and the snow melted

Skarnheim's rediscovery may tip the balance of power—economically, politically, and militarily—for the entire kingdom.

🛡️ Political and Military Presence

Though far from the kingdom’s capital, the monarchy has quickly established a small but growing military outpost in Skarnheim. This garrison ensures:

• The city is secured from claim jumpers or hostile factions
• Production is restarted in a controlled, kingdom-sanctioned way
• Royal interests are protected

Tensions are rising between the military’s slow, structured approach and the fast, lawless chaos brought by independent prospectors and rogue factions.

🎲 Player Character Role

Your player characters are the original discoverers of Skarnheim, having been caught in (or survived) the second avalanche that revealed the city’s hidden ruins. They’ve earned a name for themselves—explorers, pioneers, maybe even opportunists—depending on who’s telling the story.

Now, they must navigate:

• The shifting political landscape
• Dangerous expeditions into the deeper, colder, darker parts of Skarnheim
• Moral choices about exploitation, preservation, and survival
• Strange ancient tech and possibly supernatural forces still slumbering below the ice

🧩 Key Themes and Hooks

• Rediscovery – The thrill and mystery of unveiling a lost city
• Industrial Mystery – Ancient machines and unknown coal-powered mechanisms
• Gold Rush Chaos – Lawlessness, profiteering, and danger in a new boomtown
• Frozen Horror – What else was buried in the ice besides buildings and machines?

Anti-themes

• We want to skirt the edge of steampunk without going into steampunk. Big, coal powered things are okay, but "devices" and the like are right out.