Urban Arcana

Welcome to the world of Urban Arcana; a world very much like our own, but touched by shadow. Most of our history and our present is the same, but try not to take anything for granted.

In school, we learn how the monsters and magic of the shadow found their way into our world, but how much of that history do we actually retain? The majority of humankind is ignorant to the shadow, thanks to our awesome capacity for denial.

Only a small number of humans and friendly shadow races can even perceive - much less combat - the threats that such an incursion brings.

Modern Magic
Halloween fast approaches the city of Manchester. On the streets, children dressed as gnolls and ogres run from door to door. In St Peter's Square, candles decorate the Peterloo memorial gifted to Manchester by the dwarfs. In Piccadilly Gardens, paper lanterns hang from the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst and the Elves, celebrating the day the Manchester suffragettes forged an alliance with the drow.

Winter draws closer, and the veil that separates the mundane from the shadow grows weak. Things are afoot in Manchester's shadow quarter. Each of you has received a summons to a church in the shadow district. A request from a friend or a mentor. An email from a dead colleague or a mysterious patron. A cold whisper in your heart. You arrive from different directions, facing different entrances. What do you do?

Characters
Select one of the following characters: This campaign setting assumes that your character is human. If instead you wish to play one of the shadow races, ask your DM and they will work with you to make the appropriate changes. You may be naturalised or just finding your place in the mundane world (eg dragonborn, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, etc), or you might have thought yourself mundane until discovering your shadow heritage (eg half-elf, half-orc, tiefling, etc).
 * The Citizen, a community worker and a cleric whose life is dominated by the urban environment and its struggles
 * The Ghost, a hacker who made a bargain for power with a digital entity and a warlock who taps into technology in unimagined ways
 * The Hexblade, a rough sleeper who found an instrument of power and a warlock who channels the unseen randomness of life
 * The Shadow, a recluse who stumbled across the shadow and a sorcerer forged by the knowledge of their discovery
 * The Slayer, a monster hunter new to Manchester and an urban ranger dedicated to hunting down creatures of the shadow
 * The Technomancer, a computer science student and a wizard who uses technology as a conduit for magic