Scalethorn: Songs Of The Broken Sky
Step into Scalethorn, a continent still marked by the shattering of a god-killing lattice known as the Drakon’s Mindstone. The Dragon War is over, but its echo lingers in fractured leylines, haunted storms, and empires built on the bones of fallen wyrms. Old pacts crack, new powers rise, and the sky itself remembers what was done.
This is a world where storms whisper names, ruins argue with maps, and dragons are gone only in theory. Your table decides whether Scalethorn finds a fragile peace, slides into quiet tyranny, or burns its way into something new.
What Is Scalethorn?
Scalethorn: Songs of the Broken Sky is a mythic campaign setting and adventure path for the 5th Edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Built for characters starting at level 3, it blends political intrigue, exploration, dungeon challenges, and myth-level consequences across a reactive, living world.
System: 5E compatible
Starting Level: 3 (scales upwards across multiple arcs)
Playstyle: Sandbox leaning, with clear arcs and tools for faction play and clocks
Tone: Mythic, grounded, consequence focused
What Your Table Will Explore
Travel across a continent that learned to survive after dragons and never quite healed:
Drowned calderas and storm broken coasts where tide bells ring names that are not on any manifest.
Spell-scarred deserts and shattered leylines that twist magic and memory.
Frostbitten ranges and sky-watched passes where old wars are still fought in song.
Jungles thick with myth, where glowing beasts and waking ruins remember the Green Sky.
Three major powers pull at Scalethorn’s future: the fading but proud Lucidia Kingdom, the calculating Obsidian Throne, and the coin-law web of the Saltspire Compact. Between them lie border towns, drowned isles, rogue scholars, dragon hunters who went respectable, and cults who never stopped listening to the storm.
How the Campaign Unfolds
The setting is structured into four flexible arcs that you can run in order or remix:
Rumours on the Wind – Festivals, omens, and the first fractures in the calm. Start in the harbour city of Anchorage with the Festival of Tide, low stakes games, and a tutorial Pier Crash that introduces the broken sky.
Roads Through Ruin – Cross kingdoms and wild regions where history still breathes. Explore site-based adventures that change in response to player choices.
Something Ancient Wakes – Factions reveal their true aims, dragons begin to stir, and the fragments of the Mindstone call to those who can hear.
The Last Choice – Decide the fate of the lattice that holds six bound dragon souls. Stabilise it, rewrite it, or break it and deal with what steps through.
Themes At The Table
Myth vs Memory: Who controls the story of the Dragon War, and what happens when the truth leaks out.
Power and Responsibility: When you can reroute storms and sway nations, who do you protect first.
Sacrifice: Peace has a price. The question is who pays it, and who decides.
Temptation and Corruption: The fragments of the Mindstone whisper. Not all offers sound like threats.
What You Get Inside
Scalethorn at a Glance: History, calendar, eras, and a one page “what your character already knows” section.
Deep Setting Lore: The Eras of Scalethorn, the Dragon War, the Ashen Peace, and the current Era of Convergence.
Factions and Fronts: Detailed writeups for Lucidia, the Obsidian Throne, the Saltspire Compact and more, complete with clocks, fronts, and guidance for running political pressure at the table.
Regions and Travel: Nauthica, Zhann’Kai, Strioden, Pestraval, Threlmoor, Skathgard, Chymir Vale, the Drowned Chain and beyond, each with hooks, threats, and travel procedures.
Anchorage Starter Adventure: A festival based opening in the harbour city, including the Festival of Tide, Sleepless Quay, Pier Crash tutorial combat, and branching leads into wider Scalethorn.
Player Options: New character options, including the Resonant class, harmonic subclasses, backgrounds tied directly to Scalethorn’s history, and guidance on playing dragon-touched or persecuted characters.
Bestiary: Creatures born from debt, storm, paper, shadow, and draconic grief, from harbour wardens and festival dock hands to mind-eaters, seraphs, and dragon killers.
DM Tools: Clocks, Heat, reputation tracks, festival procedures, harbour rules, and a quickstart loop to help you run Scalethorn as a responsive sandbox where consequences are visible and fair.
Table Safety and Tone
Scalethorn deals with topics like prejudice, sacrifice, and the cost of power. Tools such as Lines and Veils and Script Change are supported and encouraged. The book offers guidance for handling dragonborn prejudice, political pressure, and myth-level stakes with care so the table’s experience stays tense but safe.
If your group wants a campaign where storms remember names, artefacts choose their owners, and dragon history will not stay buried, Scalethorn: Songs of the Broken Sky is built for you.