Adlanthea’s progress has created wonders.
It has also created things with teeth.
Aether extraction, industrial expansion, abandoned laboratories, corrupted ley sites, and reckless experimentation have produced threats that did not exist before the modern age. Some are accidents. Some are mutations. Others may have been waiting beneath the world long before the first engine was ever built.
Sootstalkers prowl dense industrial districts, chimneys, alleys, and abandoned factories. Drawn to soot and unstable aether, they move easily through cramped urban spaces and are notorious for ambushing workers after dark.
Brasshounds are clockwork guardians that have gone rogue, been abandoned, or had their directives corrupted. Originally designed for security and patrol work, a malfunctioning Brasshound can become a relentless mechanical predator.
Aether Wraiths are among the most feared consequences of magical catastrophe. They are believed to form when a soul becomes entangled with unstable aether, leaving behind something neither fully spirit nor living magic.
Ironback Leviathans dwell beneath mines, tunnels, and rail lines. Massive creatures with metal-like hides, they are capable of collapsing underground passages and tearing through industrial machinery with terrifying ease.
Not every danger is a monster.
Aether leaks can poison entire neighborhoods. Experimental machinery can fail catastrophically. Old tunnels collapse beneath expanding cities. Illegal laboratories operate without safeguards, while occult societies and industrial interests sometimes conceal disasters to protect reputations or profits.
The Ironwatch and Aetheric Collegium investigate many such incidents, though both organizations are stretched thin.
And increasingly, reports describe stranger phenomena.
Machines activating without power.
Ley currents shifting overnight.
Voices speaking through broken aether receivers.
Entire sections of abandoned rail lighting themselves after sunset.
Adlanthea has become very good at building things.
It is less certain anyone understands what those things are waking up.