Pearson International Airport
Summary:
Once a bustling hub of international travel, Pearson International Airport has become a massive, fortified settlement and trade hub. Its vast runways now house makeshift towns and marketplaces, while the intact terminal buildings serve as headquarters for various factions and guilds. The airport’s remote location and sheer size make it a strategic stronghold for anyone who controls it.
Notable Features:
Runway Markets: Vendors and traders sell salvaged tech, magical artifacts, and even tamed flying mounts, turning the runways into chaotic but lively bazaars.
Control Tower Citadel: Reinforced with magic and technology, the control tower serves as the ruling seat of the Pearson Free Guild, a neutral faction managing the airport's operations.
Hanger Refugee Camps: Rows of hangars have been converted into shelters for displaced individuals, with a strong presence of Trollitariot workers providing protection.
Airship Dockyards: A portion of the airport has been repurposed for airships and other experimental flying machines, maintained by Gnome engineers and Beaver Folk craftsmen.
Dominant Factions:
• The Pearson Free Guild: A coalition of merchants, mercenaries, and engineers ensuring fair trade and security. They broker deals with other factions across Toronto.
• The Malarkoid Cartel: They maintain a small but influential presence, seeking to control the flow of high-tech goods through Pearson.
• Raptor Raiders: This gang of Fossilborn occasionally launch attacks to disrupt trade or steal airships.
Plot Hook:
The Pearson Free Guild is organizing its first Sky Festival, showcasing magical airships and experimental flying mounts. However, sabotage threatens the event, and the characters are hired to investigate. Is it the Raptors trying to sow chaos, or a deeper conspiracy tied to stolen technology?
Regional Representation:
Pearson embodies the balance between chaos and order in the outskirts of Scarcity, showcasing how factions cooperate (or clash) in post-apocalyptic commerce and innovation.
The Waterfront
The Toronto Waterfront, once a vibrant urban jewel, has become a fractured yet vital region in the post-apocalyptic era. Stretching along the shores of Lake Ontario, it is a patchwork of crumbling high-rises, sunken ruins, and reclaimed green spaces teeming with strange flora and fauna. The area is divided between isolated elite enclaves like Billy Bishop Airport, bustling trade outposts at the old harbor, and lawless zones where scavengers and mercenaries clash over submerged treasures. Magical surges from the lake have turned parts of the waterfront into hazardous but resource-rich zones, attracting both daring adventurers and reckless opportunists. The region embodies the stark contrasts of Neo-Toronto—where innovation thrives in the shadow of collapse, and survival often means playing a dangerous game of alliances.
Fort York
Fort York has been repurposed into a heavily fortified bastion for the Trollitariot Union. Its historic walls and central location make it a key strategic site, serving as both a defensive stronghold and a rallying point for workers resisting oppressive factions. The fort brims with makeshift weaponry, salvaged machinery, and the defiant spirit of its occupants. Beneath the surface, an extensive network of tunnels connects the fort to the ruins of the city, allowing for covert movement and supply lines. Fort York represents hope and rebellion, but its leaders must tread carefully to maintain their precarious alliances.
Plot Hook: A spy within the union has sabotaged one of the fort’s critical defensive systems. The union offers to share blueprints of their powerful machinery if the party can unmask the traitor and prevent an imminent attack.
The Harborfront Centre
The Harborfront Centre has transformed from a hub of arts and culture into a chaotic marketplace and neutral ground for trade. Its sprawling open spaces host tents, makeshift stalls, and semi-permanent structures where factions, travelers, and scavengers barter goods ranging from salvaged tech to magical artifacts dredged from Lake Ontario. Overhead, remnants of a crumbled pedestrian bridge serve as a precarious network of pathways for those daring enough to use them. The factions here abide by a fragile truce upheld by an independent coalition of traders and entertainers, known as the Waterfront Guild. With constant danger from raiders, rivalries, and magical anomalies, the Harborfront Centre remains a tense but thriving heart of the waterfront economy.
Plot Hook: A shipment of rare magical relics has been stolen from a guild caravan en route to the center. The relics are cursed and cause strange phenomena to manifest across the waterfront. The guild offers a hefty reward to anyone who can retrieve them before the curse destabilizes the fragile peace.
Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
The Power Plant has become an enigmatic fortress of creativity and chaos. Shrouded in magical energy, the gallery pulses with otherworldly light, a beacon for those drawn to its mysteries. Inside, the exhibits have been transformed into living installations, influenced by residual magic and an eccentric band of artists and mystics who have claimed the site. Their leader, a Feylin named Lyra Shadelight, is rumored to channel the collective unconscious of Neo-Toronto, crafting visions of potential futures. The Power Plant is both a sanctuary for outcasts and a source of awe and terror for those who dare venture too close.
Plot Hook: Lyra commissions adventurers to recover a "lost canvas" said to depict a prophecy critical to Neo-Toronto’s survival. The canvas, however, is held in a rival faction's territory, and recovering it might spark a violent conflict.
Queen’s Quay Terminal
Once a luxurious shopping and residential complex, the Queen’s Quay Terminal now serves as a stronghold for the Malarkoid Cartel. Its towering structure offers an unmatched view of the waterfront, making it both a strategic and symbolic location. The terminal’s lower levels have been repurposed into high-end trade halls where deals are made, and the upper levels serve as opulent quarters for the cartel’s elite. Heavily fortified, the terminal is both a beacon of power and a prison for those unlucky enough to become indebted to the cartel’s Faustian mechanics.
Plot Hook: A desperate informant claims to have evidence of the cartel's darkest secret, hidden deep in the terminal’s vaults. The informant promises to pay handsomely if the party helps them infiltrate the stronghold and expose the truth.
Therme Ruins: Ontario Place Reclaimed
Before the Revelations, the Therme Canada project sought to transform Ontario Place into a global destination—a family-friendly wellness oasis and high-tech waterpark promising joy and connection. With sprawling geothermal pools, futuristic greenhouses, and vast underground parking, it was designed as a marvel of modern luxury, blending leisure with sustainability. However, as chaos gripped the world, the grand vision collapsed. The complex became an eerie ghost town, its pools drained or stagnant, its greenhouses a tangle of unchecked growth. Below the surface, the subterranean garages flooded and became treacherous aquatic labyrinths filled with strange new predators. Survivors whisper of powerful relics left behind—biotech marvels designed to heal, now corrupted into something far darker.
Plot Hook: The party is hired by a desperate community battling a mysterious illness. The cure, they believe, lies in the abandoned Therme complex, where experimental biotech and medicinal plants were once cultivated. But the team must brave flooded tunnels, malfunctioning AI systems, and a monstrous aquatic hybrid lurking in the heart of the spa's former glory. Will they salvage salvation—or unleash something far worse?
Toronto Music Garden
The Toronto Music Garden, now a surreal mix of verdant growth and haunting melodies, has become a mystical enclave. The plants have evolved into semi-sentient beings that hum or play eerie tunes when touched. The garden is rumored to be under the protection of an ancient Dryad named Melodia, who uses the power of music to heal, inspire, or curse. The site is a haven for peaceful factions and wandering artists, but its beauty hides dangers; the melodies can enthrall the unwary, and trespassers risk the wrath of the garden’s magical guardian.
Plot Hook: Melodia seeks aid to recover a stolen artifact, the Symphony Stone, which regulates the garden’s magical harmony. Without it, the music grows discordant, turning the garden into a deadly trap for all who enter.
Blightshore: The Toronto Islands
Once idyllic vacation spots, these islands are now liminal spaces where reality and the ethereal collide. Twisted by the supernatural storm of 1858, they are haunted by the spirits of drowned bootleggers. The landscape constantly shifts, creating treacherous terrain of sandbars, sunken ruins, and ghostly echoes. Lost treasures and arcane artifacts are rumored to lie beneath the ever-changing sands, tempting the brave and foolhardy alike.
Local Myths: Legends speak of the Gentle Jane, a spectral sloop that can be seen at dusk on foggy nights, gliding silently across the waters. It is said that Gentle Jane carries contraband goods and threshing machines, relics of a forgotten age, with ghostly crewmen bound to an eternal smuggling route. The ship is a symbol of loss and misfortune, for it appears only to those who are marked by death. Those who glimpse the ship are doomed to follow its wake, becoming lost in the ever-changing waters or dragged into the depths by the vengeful dead.
Plot Hook: A collector offers a fortune for a specific artifact said to be buried in the sandbanks. The party must navigate the islands' eerie/ terrain while avoiding ghostly traps and rival treasure hunters.
Algonquin Island
Nestled on this island, this Stumpies and Little Bears Coalition community has created a cooperative utopia amidst the chaos. They farm, fish, and produce alchemical goods, defending their haven with clever tactics and fierce determination.
Plot Hook: The party must escort vital supplies to the enclave, navigating raider-infested waters and negotiating tense alliances with nearby factions.
Billy Bishop Airport
Transformed into a luxurious retreat for elites, the airport is now a fortified enclave of privilege. Its runways host private races, its terminals are lavish lounges, and its underbelly hides secretive dealings among the powerful.
Plot Hook: A murder at a high-profile gala threatens to spark a war between the Vamps and the Stumpies. The party must solve the mystery and prevent the conflict from escalating.
Electric Circus Raves
Located on Snake Island, the Electric Circus raves are legendary gatherings hosted by the fae. These events blend music, magic, and light in dazzling displays, luring mortals into their chaotic revelry. Few leave unchanged, and some never leave at all, becoming part of the island’s haunting aura.
Plot Hook: The party is tasked with infiltrating the rave to rescue someone lost to its allure. To succeed, they must negotiate with the fae court, resist intoxicating magical influences, and avoid becoming permanent partygoers themselves.
Far Enough Farm
A remnant of a bygone petting zoo, the farm is now home to mutated animals with bizarre abilities. Settlers rely on the farm's twisted creatures for food, alchemical ingredients, and defense, though it is constantly under threat from raiders and rival factions.
Plot Hook: A mutant goat with glowing horns has been stolen by the Haraak. The party must infiltrate the raiders’ swampy stronghold to recover it, confronting mutated creatures and cunning traps along the way.
Gibraltar Point Lighthouse
This decaying lighthouse is a nexus of supernatural energy. Cryptic carvings within hint at ties to ancient beings, and ghostly lights flicker in the surrounding swamp. Raiders occasionally use it as a lookout, but its dark reputation ensures they don’t stay long.
Plot Hook: A mystic hires the party to retrieve a powerful artifact from the lighthouse’s upper chamber. Supernatural dangers and rival treasure seekers complicate the mission.
Hanlan’s Point
Swallowed by swamps, Hanlan’s Point is the base of the Haraak Raiders. Dilapidated docks and buildings serve as fortifications, while their fleet of cobbled-together warships patrols the waters. Swamp creatures roam freely, making the area doubly treacherous.
Plot Hook: The party is hired to sabotage the Haraak fleet. They must evade swamp monsters, breach the defenses, and destroy the ships without being caught.
Island Park
Once a serene recreational area, Island Park is now a ruin overgrown with mutated flora. Towering, thorn-covered trees dominate the landscape, and strange wildlife lurks within. The park is rumored to hide ancient ruins beneath its undergrowth, though few dare venture deep enough to confirm.
Plot Hook: A reclusive historian hires the party to find and retrieve a relic believed to be hidden beneath Island Park. Navigating the park’s hostile ecosystem and uncovering its buried secrets could unlock forgotten history—or unleash an ancient curse.
Mugg’s Islands
Mugg’s Islands are a fragmented cluster of small, swampy landmasses teeming with life and danger. These islands are riddled with quicksand, dense foliage, and hidden caves where strange bioluminescent fungi grow. Rumors persist of alchemical secrets hidden within the mushrooms, drawing alchemists and raiders alike.
Plot Hook: An alchemist offers a reward for samples of a rare glowing fungus believed to grow only in Mugg’s Islands. The party must navigate the treacherous terrain, avoiding quicksand and hostile creatures, while dealing with rival collectors.
Olympic Island Park
This once-celebrated venue is now a dilapidated arena, its crumbling structures home to gladiatorial combat organized by raiders and thrill-seekers. Captives are often forced to fight for their freedom, and the stands are filled with cheering spectators eager for bloodsport.
Plot Hook: The party is hired to rescue a captured ally forced to fight in the arena. To free them, they must either bribe the organizers, win the crowd’s favor, or enter the deadly games themselves.
Sunken Sanctum
Hidden beneath the waves, this coral-encrusted temple fuses natural beauty with ancient magic. Controlled by the Haraak and their aquatic allies, its labyrinthine corridors are filled with traps and treasures.
Plot Hook: A rival faction hires the party to infiltrate the sanctum and retrieve a sacred relic. Stealth and ingenuity are essential to outwit its guardians and escape undetected.
Toronto Island Marina
A haven for smugglers and traders, the marina thrives amidst the islands' turmoil. Though its waters are haunted, it serves as a black market hub, with rare goods and whispered secrets exchanged daily.
Plot Hook: The party must uncover a saboteur who is targeting the marina's vital supply lines, unraveling a conspiracy that threatens the fragile balance of power.
Tsunami Fault & Lake Terror
The fault beneath Lake Ontario has transformed the area into a submerged dungeon, home to aquatic monsters and ancient relics. Aetherfiends and their allies guard this magical hotbed, threatening those who dare explore its depths.
Plot Hook: A mage seeks a relic to stabilize the fault. The party must brave oxygen limits, aquatic ambushes, and dangerous traps to retrieve the artifact before rival forces seize it.
Ward’s Island Park
Though still touched by the supernatural, its tranquil groves and flower-covered meadows are maintained by mysterious forces. The park serves as a neutral ground for factions to hold tense negotiations. These are tended by a local Rainmaker community.
Plot Hook: The Rainmakers request the party’s aid in rooting out a hidden corruption spreading beneath the surface of the park. Strange phenomena, including withering trees and erratic animal behavior, hint at a sinister presence.
