Synopsis
The Battle of the Spire quieted HADES and sent the war machines of the Old Ones back into their slumber, at least for now. But it did not abate the Derangement. Machines continue to appear in larger numbers, with more armaments and more aggressive behaviors.
Upon clearing out a reactivated cauldron in Nora lands, adventurers discover the AI controlling the machine production facilities — a shallow clone of HADES. Finding they cannot purge the AI from the facility, they instead work to cure it of its madness. In doing so, they learn more of HADES’ goals, and the implication that this clone was far from the first to be made. Piecing together stories of aberrant machines, unheard-of weather, and even people losing their free will to an unseen overlord, the adventurers begin to see the shadowy footprints of HADES’ influence.