High Haven: The World Today

Adventure and Danger

This campaign setting is full of adventure, world changing treasure and discoveries and incredible dangers, some beyond comprehension. Adventures in High Haven take place in and around the city of the same name, a small, crowded city on the edge, both literally and metaphorically. It is an island in a sea of destruction and violence. The setting suits adventures based on political intrigue as well as invoking the classic feel of exploring unforgiving wilderness and dark dungeons from the relative safety of your home base. Combat, particularly outside of the walls of High Haven, is something to be feared, though the rewards reflect the challenges!

The ultimate enemies of your player characters are likely to be the Evils that come from Beyond the Rifts, but earlier adventures may set them against their minions and followers, both outside and within the city. There are many people in need of help within the city, from the poorest to the richest, and many threats to the fine balance upon which the city persists.

Scroungers and Wardens

One of the worst kept secrets in High Haven is that exceptional individuals do leave the city to explore the dangerous wilderness. These tough adventurers are known as Scroungers, as their primary purpose in leaving the city is to recover any magical artefacts that might be useful or valuable to the people of the city. The most successful Scroungers, or at least those that live long enough, may eventually become more focused on defending High Haven by defeating the city’s enemies and closing the Rifts that still threaten the world. The great heroes are known as Wardens. They may only be a handful of such individuals in every generation.

Threat from Beyond

The scholars of High Haven understand that their great city exists on a world in a singular physical dimension or plane of existence. Holy texts and those ancient histories that remain mouldering and precious in private collections differ on the nature and creation of this world, but all agree that the Dark Beyond is entirely different and alien.

The influence of the Dark Beyond on the Material Plane is not limited to the Rifts and the gibbering hordes that sweep across the desolate lands. The very earth and all that grows upon it is also twisted and warped, granting sentience and strange powers. The creatures that came through the rifts to the Dark Beyond are many and varied, but most typically are of the Aberration or Fiend type. Any such creature found in any source book would be an appropriate foe for your players to face.