The Astrodia Campaign

Pentamarone

9 min read

Pentamarone is a walled artisan crafting city on the river that runs the border between Artmegia and the Endymion Empire — home of the WitchCrafters, and, in the words of its own gate guards, “the last stronghold against the encroaching Endymion Empire.”

The Fallen arrived here by accident in Session 10, when Archibald’s teleport to the Nephthys temple went wrong and dropped them at a crossroads in unfamiliar woods several hours’ walk to the north.

(Earlier notes described it as a “small village” — that was Simone’s map talking. It is a proper city: walled, gated, sprawling, on a navigable river, with a market circle, a docks district, and a guild compound of its own.)

The WitchCrafters

Pentamarone is home to the WitchCrafters — a female guild of witches who blend spellcraft with artisanry, producing much of the art and crafting supplies traded across the continent. They effectively run the city, and their head is Madame Verre.

An Anomaly on the Map

Simone’s enchanted map of magic shows the green fourth magic concentrated at every major seat of power (the Citadel, La Maison, the head church of Dogmatika, the Academy) — plus two anomalies that don’t fit. One is over a desert on the Lost Continent; the other is Pentamarone. Aren suspects the WitchCrafters may have learned to harness the fourth magic, perhaps to resist the Empire.

Partly asked, and expertly deflected (Session 11). Leif told Madame Verre about the green magic outright; Úlfr then asked her what the guild’s own magic actually is. Her answer: no higher-being magic, honour to the Solemn Pantheon but not divine practice, “we just happen to use the natural magic that flows around us — whether that be arcane, whatever it may be.” Úlfr’s insight read her as meeting him exactly where he stood and no further. The anomaly itself is still unexplained.

Independence from the Empire

Pentamarone is the only place inside Endymion Empire borders that is not under the Empire’s jurisdiction — a striking exception given the Empire’s otherwise total control of magic. It was founded by Rellyona, one of the Magistus — while another Magistus, Emperor Endymion, rules the Empire itself.

Why the Empire Leaves It Alone — Three Rumors

A sailor at the docks gave The Fallen three mutually exclusive explanations, with no way yet to tell which is true:

  1. A truce. Rellyona and the Emperor went way back; they made an agreement before she died, and he has honored it since. (Session 12: this is essentially Madame Verre’s own account — see below.)
  2. A facade. The city is secretly working with the Empire, and its independence is theater.
  3. Fear. The WitchCrafters are powerful enough to hold their own, and the Empire won’t risk provoking them.

The townsfolk themselves don’t dramatize it. Asked what would happen if Empire soldiers came close, a market glassblower said simply: “They never do. It’s just kind of an understood thing that this is an area free of their dominion.”

Outside the city’s borders, the rules snap back: casting unauthorized magic without keystone authority in Empire territory means the army makes it your problem.

A Refugee City

The gate guards’ first question to armed strangers is “Are you escaping their reign, as many others who have entered the city have?” — and they mean it as hospitality. The city is openly welcoming to refugees, including those who fled Artmegia during the White Forest curse. Morgana kept Pentamarone on a list of safe havens she gave to fleeing families out of Freedale.

Places in the City

  • The Gate — open, lightly guarded, no artillery on the walls. The guards are welcoming and unimpressed by lies.
  • The Market Circle — the heart of the city, and startlingly colorful after the sterility of the Academy: everything handmade, patchwork, and locally crafted. Stalls for glassware, pottery, textiles and clothing, blacksmithing, gemstones, paintings, and books. Important caveat: the market vendors are novice artisans and junior guild members; nothing here is magically infused.
  • The WitchCrafters Guild Hall — walled off from the rest of the city, flying the city’s crafting sigil. Entry hall, receptionist (Dolly), workshops, a library/study (Genni’s), and a central courtyard garden.
  • The docks — on a river that runs down to the bay and out to the Expanse. Busy with traders; WitchCrafter goods are sought after worldwide.
  • The SS Nap Time — the dockside inn: three long-grounded ships (or one three-decked one, depending who’s describing it) converted into an inn and tavern. 1 gp a room. No outside beverages, officially. (Name coined by the party and adopted as canon.)
  • The Temple of Venus — confirmed in Session 11 by the WitchCrafters: most of Pentamarone worships Venus. There is no temple to Pluto in the city — Aren asked. (Visited in Session 12: a statue of Venus with her three orbs out front, scriptures in the entry hall, a priest’s office, a centuries-old mural in the basement, and a Sunday-school library. See Temple of Venus.)
  • A dive bar — unnamed, in the city proper. Where the guild took the party drinking in Session 11.
  • A large central inn — passed over in favor of the docks. As of Session 11 the party’s food and lodging are covered by the WitchCrafters, at an inn of their choosing.

Craft, Magic, and the Guild Market

  • Genuinely magic-infused goods come only from the WitchCrafters themselves, sold at a guild market held once a month — roughly two weeks out as of Session 10.
  • The guild teaches open classes to the townsfolk; show sufficient skill and you can study under a master witch. Very few reach that level.
  • The fireworks festival falls at the end of the week the party arrived (held in Session 12). Every guild in the city competes, with no limits on materials or spells — and the winning guild runs the city. The WitchCrafters have won every year since its inception, which is how they came to run Pentamarone. The party has been invited to enter. See WitchCrafters.
  • Glass is a viable arcane focus here — Madame Verre’s own staff is glass.

Session 10 — The Fallen Arrive (August 26, 2026)

  • Walked in past an Endymion Empire column marching south from the north, which split east and west at a crossroads rather than approach the city. The city insists these are routine patrols.
  • Úlfr tried to lie at the gate about being refugees and failed spectacularly; the guard let them in anyway.
  • Shopped the market: an Alchemy Jug for Red, glassware for Leif, a bear-skin cloak commission for Úlfr, and two histories for Asha — including The Biography of Rellyona.
  • Met a Freedale refugee at the glassware stall who knew of Morgana and confirmed Morgana had worked with Madame Verre.
  • Slept at the SS Nap Time, and got the three rumors above from a sailor.
  • Took the Golden Chalice to the guild hall, where Genni failed to identify it — and worked out that its nondetection comes from the chalice itself.
  • Discovered the chalice’s real function by drinking from it, filled the guild library with cats, a duplicate chalice, a copy of Asha’s missing mother, and an exploding horse, and were paralyzed in the courtyard by Madame Verre on the way out.

Session 11 — Two Weeks’ Guest (September 9, 2026)

  • Madame Verre released the party from the courtyard paralysis and struck a research contract over the Golden Chalice — guild expertise in exchange for her own undisclosed use of it, plus housing and meals at the city’s expense. See WitchCrafters.
  • The party met the guild’s full roster of masters: Marka, Haine, Edel, Schmietta, Pittore, Seed, and Ceramia.
  • They learned how the city is actually governed: by whoever wins the fireworks festival, which has always been the WitchCrafters.
  • They learned the local law and the law outside it — power stones, mandatory registration, and an open question about whether warlocks can cast at all in Empire territory.
  • Úlfr collected his bear-skin cloak from the market tailor.
  • On the third morning, an owl bolted down a back alley and the party found Aleister the Invoker cornered there by the adventurers he’d abandoned in a dungeon. He summoned Cocytus into the middle of a residential street, flew away, and left the party and the adventurers to kill it. Pentamarone’s first violence of the campaign, and none of it the city’s fault.

Session 12 — Something from Nothing (September 23, 2026)

  • The truce, per Verre (relayed by Genni): Rellyona and the Emperor went their separate ways after stopping the Great Cataclysm but kept a deep mutual respect, and the Emperor has never encroached on the city, to honor her legacy. Of the three dockside rumors, this is the one the city’s own leadership tells. Aren: “We shall see how long such respect lasts.”
  • Two cities, two Agents. Pentamarone worships Venus, the Agent of Creation — most WitchCrafters honor her because they see their crafts as channeling her — while the Endymion Empire enforces worship of Mars, the Agent of Force.
  • The alley aftermath: the adventurers who cornered Aleister introduced themselves as The Sundered Watch, anti-Empire resistance fighters, and know where the party is staying. Madame Verre teleported out to examine Cocytus’s corpse.
  • Undead: the city has never had trouble, though the guild has heard tall tales of haunted ruins or a haunted mansion somewhere nearby.
  • The Temple of Venus was the party’s main outing: scripture on the Solemn and the Dark Lords, a priest who identified Dogmatika’s church, and a basement mural with a meteor tied to She Who Fell Before the First Fall.
  • The fireworks festival was held that night, with the WitchCrafters’ show and the guild out mingling with the town. The competition’s results weren’t covered.

First Appeared

Flagged in Session 7 (July 15, 2026) as a magic anomaly on Simone’s map. Visited in Session 10 (August 26, 2026) — reached entirely by accident after a misfired teleport — and the party is still there as of Session 12, the contract fulfilled and the Golden Chalice back in hand.

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