(RPG PDF Spotlight) Historica Arcanum: Serenade for the Damned

Historica Arcanum: Serenade for the Damned

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Setting Sourcebook by Metis Creative

Historica Arcanum™ is a grand setting for tabletop games, where arcane powers, occult horrors, and unlikely heroes clash in secrecy, as the history of our world marches on.

In each sourcebook of the series, players and game masters can delve into exciting timelines and regions of the world in the ever-expanding universe brimming with lore and storylines to explore.

Serenade for the Damned

As dawn breaks, your ship enters the lagoon, navigating past low-lying islands of silt and short trees. Gradually, the grand islands of Venice proper come into view, like a mirage rising from the morning mist and brackish sea. You spy the Palazzo Ducale, its pink tiles glowing sumptuously in the rays of the rising sun. The Campanile, St. Mark’s bell tower, looms beyond, and its largest bell, the marangona, announces to all in the city that it is time to get to work…

…Your captain deftly turns the vessel into the Grand Canal and swoops past black gondolas rowing to and fro, and the many brilliant palazzi where servants begin opening windows and letting in the glorious morning. Up ahead is the Rialto Bridge, and the final destination of your journey. The ship pulls up to the merchant quays, and you are greeted by the music of a city waking up to bask in its own glory…

The year is 1520 CE. The dust from the War of the League of Cambrai has settled, and the kingdoms and city-states of Europe brace for another coming conflict. Resentment simmers between France and the Holy Roman Empire; the Medici Pope Leo X bristles at the writings of Martin Luther and prepares to excommunicate Luther; and the Republic of Venice watches its neighbors and the resurging might of the Ottoman Empire with patient circumspection. Meanwhile, the mages of the Harem in Constantinople sense a terrible, dark chaos rising and threatening to engulf the entire region. They send trusted agents to hunt for the source of this arcane disturbance. Amidst these tensions and fears, a group of actors begins to prepare for their biggest performance ever, one that will bring Venice and its leader, the Doge, to their knees.

Despite danger at every turn, decadent Venice eagerly anticipates the Grand Carnevale, preparing festivities and performances like never before. Its streets and canals, adorned with the elegant Istrian stone and glorious marble masterpieces, are abuzz with activity and excitement. Yet amidst the sea of masks and revelry, between the palace chambers and churches bedecked in damask silk, cristallo, and jewels, darkness looms still. Threads of a thousand plots and schemes are entwined, wickedness old and new stirs, and all is empowered by the movement of celestial bodies bolstering the fell winds of magic.

In this gyre of intrigue and darkness, shadowy faces don masks, light up the stage, and prepare for the grand crescendo of their show–a vengeance decades in the making. Will the adventurers, thrown together by circumstance, be enough to stop the flood of madness threatening to overtake Venice?

Serenade for the Damned is the Level 1-10 Adventure Module for Historica Arcanum: Echoes of Renaissance. Within its pages you will find a grand campaign of intrigue, passion, heartbreak, and dark forces beyond anyone’s control. Amidst complex narrative choices and intriguing urban encounters, the characters will encounter famous faces from history, including Titian, Doge Leonardo Loredan, and the Ottoman corsair Barbarossa, among many others. In the process, both players and the game master have myriad ways to shape the destiny of the Floating City of Venice.