Cinematic Opening

The sun sinks low, washing the dusty mining town in rusty red. Machines once humming with promise stand silent, their iron bones rusting in the dry air. Gretta "Ironjaw" Spark leans heavily on her pickaxe, gazing toward the horizon as the shadows grow longer. Beside her, Calder "Grim" Ross adjusts his hat, scanning the gathering townsfolk–faces drawn tight with worry, eyes fierce with determination.

"Corporate's pulled out," Gretta says, her voice gravelly from dust and disappointment. "But we're not done yet."

Around them, Rustpoint holds its breath, poised between collapse and something new.

What This Tale Is About

Ash & Iron is a grounded story about community survival and transformation. Set in Rustpoint, a weather-beaten mining settlement on the verge of collapse, it challenges players to explore what it means to fight for something that may already be broken – or forge something new from the ashes.

The Commonwealth-backed mining company has withdrawn, leaving behind skeletal infrastructure and a population too stubborn to give up. With the supply lines cut, credits frozen, and unrest mounting, characters must take the fate of Rustpoint into their own hands.

This tale isn’t about adventurers passing through – it’s about people who have roots, who know every cracked board of the town hall and every rusted bolt on the mine lift. It’s about making hard choices with people you’ll have to face tomorrow.

"A prospector can leave. A leader can’t."

– Gretta "Ironjaw" Spark

Core Themes

• Survival Against the Odds: Rustpoint wasn’t designed to last without corporate support. Now it must.
• Loyalty vs. Self-Interest: The bonds of family, debt, and shared history are tested in every decision.
• Transformation vs. Preservation: Do the townsfolk cling to the old ways, or risk everything to become something new?
• Power and Responsibility: With no bosses left, leadership is up for grabs – but every leader inherits consequences.

The Rustpoint Community

Rustpoint was never meant to stand alone. Born as a corporate extraction site on the edge of nowhere, it was built fast, worked hard, and left behind just as quickly. Its streets were carved into the rock to support ore haulers, not families. But when the company pulled out – budgets cut, profits gone – the people stayed. Some because they had nowhere else to go. Others because they were too stubborn to leave.

Now, Rustpoint survives not because of what it was, but because of what it might still become. Its mines are mostly dry, but its people are resourceful. Its buildings are falling apart, but its foundations – both literal and social – are strong. Leadership is informal, fragile, and hard-earned. Hope is a currency as valuable as bullets. And every choice the town makes – every deal, betrayal, repair, or stand – will determine whether Rustpoint becomes a beacon of self-reliance… or just another ruin swallowed by the dust.

Key Townfolk

• Gretta "Ironjaw" Spark: Once the forewoman under corporate oversight, Gretta has become the reluctant leader of Rustpoint. Her iron jaw isn’t just a nickname – it’s a metaphor for the unyielding way she stands between the town and its slow demise. Gretta is blunt, battle-hardened, and driven by a sense of responsibility that borders on martyrdom. She knows everyone by name, and remembers which of their kin the mine took.

• Deputy Yoann "Grim" Ross: Rustpoint’s aging security officer has seen more gunfights, standoffs, and petty thefts than he cares to admit. With a scar running down his cheek and a voice like worn leather, Yoann enforces order not just with force but with presence. He once served as a corporate enforcer – a fact some don’t forget – but now he’s Rustpoint’s last line between law and anarchy.

• Old Jeb: A grizzled, sunburnt prospector who’s been in and out of more dying towns than anyone still breathing. Jeb speaks in mutters and metaphors, but his warnings often prove prophetic. Haunted by the ghosts of failed settlements and old comrades, he drinks too much, digs too deep, and claims to know what really lies under the hills.

• Mia "Dreamer" Hayes: Still barely out of school, Mia works part-time at the depot and spends her nights studying Commonwealth law on a salvaged terminal. Her dream is to leave Rustpoint for a university in Fallpoint – but until then, she organizes food drives, repairs roofs, and documents every town meeting. Hope clings to her like starlight in a storm.

• Linus "Spark" Cross: A bright-eyed technician with more ideas than working tools, Linus lives to rebuild. Nephew to Gretta, he’s constantly tinkering – rebuilding drones, designing jury-rigged mining bots, or testing unstable generators. Idealistic and sometimes reckless, he believes Rustpoint isn’t just salvageable – it could lead a new frontier of self-reliant towns.

• Elara Sato: The town’s medic, midwife, and sometimes mortician. Elara runs her clinic with equal parts stubbornness and caffeine, rarely sleeping and never giving up on a patient. Once trained off-world, she chose to stay behind when her transport ticket came due. She believes in community, in dignity, and in making sure no one dies forgotten.

• Jacob "Dustfoot" Rook: Soft-spoken and hard-footed, Jacob scouts the canyon trails, guiding traders through safe paths and mapping dangerous ones. He knows which bluffs echo with sniper fire and which creeks still hold clean water. He rarely speaks unless spoken to, but when he does, it’s usually to say something worth remembering.

• Harlan "Hammer" Graves: Towering, grease-streaked, and deeply pragmatic, Harlan keeps Rustpoint’s aging infrastructure running through sheer will and stubborn know-how. He’s the one you call when the wind turbines seize or the gate locks fail – and the one who settles bar fights with a wrench to the table. Some say he’s cold. Truth is, he just ran out of illusions years ago.

• Carmen Veil: A sharp-tongued ex-bureaucrat who arrived in Rustpoint with nothing but a suitcase of ledgers and a talent for turning chaos into order. Now unofficially handling logistics, rationing, and inter-settlement trade, Carmen is feared, respected, and rarely thanked. She knows what everyone owes – and what they can't afford to lose.

• Tariq Hollen: A former military engineer turned preacher, Tariq runs Rustpoint’s modest chapel and repair bench with equal zeal. His sermons blend fire-and-brimstone faith with practical advice on gear maintenance. Some see him as a cultish oddity, others as the town’s moral compass. Either way, he keeps the lights flickering.

• "Blink" Marla Reyes: Once a skimmer racer, Marla lost her license and her eye in a crash that wasn't entirely her fault. Now she handles the town’s fast response and courier runs, piloting a jury-rigged buggy she treats like a living creature. She’s impulsive, loyal, and the first to volunteer for anything reckless.

• Davin Locke: A fence and fixer who knows how to get things that aren’t on any manifest. Davin runs the backroom at Rustpoint’s tavern, where deals are made over bad whiskey and untraceable goods. He claims he’s just trying to help people survive – but he always takes his cut.

• Solene Baird: The schoolteacher, medic assistant, and occasional town historian. Solene is quiet but observant, chronicling the town’s decline – and perhaps, its rebirth. Children trust her, elders underestimate her, and outsiders ignore her at their peril.

• Bran Caz: The best heavy lifter in town, both literally and figuratively. Bran runs the salvage crews that comb the surrounding ruins and scrapyards. Broad-shouldered and kind-eyed, he speaks rarely but makes every word count. Rumor says he used to be a Commonwealth soldier. Nobody’s asked twice.

Notable Locations

Rustpoint isn’t a single block of dust and sheet metal – it’s a patchwork of desperation, memory, and stubborn survival clinging to the edge of the canyons. Built to serve a corporate machine, the town still follows the bones of efficiency: wide paths for ore trucks, prefab housing arranged like crates, and a center square built for rallies no one attends anymore. But it's changed. Corners have been converted to home gardens, half-collapsed dormitories into communal bunkhouses, shipping containers into shrines. Rustpoint feels lived-in – scarred, but not yet surrendered.

• The Pit: Rustpoint’s last surviving mine shaft, now half-collapsed and barely productive. The lift groans with every use, and the supports creak ominously when the wind shifts. Despite its danger, The Pit remains the town’s symbolic and economic heart. It’s where old loyalties are tested – and sometimes broken.

• The Commons: A squat, hexagonal structure once meant for worker orientation and emergency drills. Now it serves as the meeting hall, argument chamber, and occasional storm shelter. Inside, the floor is stained with boot oil and red dust, and a jury-rigged projector hums over a chalkboard no one bothers to erase. This is where decisions are made – or avoided.

• Junker’s Yard: Spread behind the old repair shed, this cluttered sprawl of rusted parts, broken loader arms, and fused panels is both graveyard and hope. Linus "Spark" Cross has turned it into his personal workshop, and the community’s best bet for technical miracles. You’ll find old drone carcasses repurposed into water pumps, half-buried relic scanners, and the occasional explosion crater.

• Gretta’s Shack: Once the forewoman’s prefab office, now the nerve center of Rustpoint. The desk is covered in annotated maps, salvaged comms units, and lists of rationed supplies. Gretta lives here, works here, and sometimes collapses here. The shack is always unlocked – a quiet sign that she’s got nothing to hide, and that leadership in Rustpoint is a shared burden, not a throne.

• The Wounded Miner Tavern: Equal parts watering hole, trading post, and confession booth, this is where deals get made, fights break out, and songs echo late into the dust-heavy night. The front bar serves brewed synthbeer and canned stew, while the backroom – run by Davin Locke – handles the real business: off-manifest goods, job postings, and discreet conversations. It’s the heart of Rustpoint’s informal economy.

• The Chapel Container: A refurbished freight container sits on the edge of town, painted in soft ochre tones and marked with faded Commonwealth hazard warnings – now repurposed into symbols of reflection and sanctuary. Inside, scrap metal icons and relic gears hang from the walls, echoing the sermons of Tariq Hollen, who blends scripture with survival lessons. This modest space serves as both chapel and workshop, where people bring broken faith and broken machines hoping both can be mended.

• The Chapel Container: A refurbished freight container sits on the edge of town, painted in soft ochre tones and marked with faded Commonwealth hazard warnings – now repurposed into symbols of reflection and sanctuary. Inside, scrap metal icons and relic gears hang from the walls, echoing the sermons of Tariq Hollen, who blends scripture with survival lessons. This modest space serves as both chapel and workshop, where people bring broken faith and broken machines hoping both can be mended.

• Salvage Yard Perimeter: On the outskirts of town sprawls the boneyard of corporate abandonment – twisted metal, burned-out loaders, and collapsed scaffolding tangled in wild scrub. Bran Caz and his crew work this perimeter daily, digging out components, building barricades, or repurposing chassis into skimmer parts. The edge of the yard is unpatrolled, half-wild – a place where strangers can slip in, secrets can be buried, and threats can come howling from the dusk.

Creating the Community

This Perseverance Tale provides the frame – a dusty mining town called Rustpoint, abandoned by the corporation that once sustained it. It introduces characters, places, and pressures. But before you begin play, your table needs to make Rustpoint your settlement. That means adapting it to the kinds of stories you want to tell.

The prompts below are a starting point. Use them to collaboratively shape the identity of Rustpoint, decide what themes you want to emphasize, and bring your own tone and flavor to the community. This process is vital – not just for worldbuilding, but for ownership. The more your group shapes Rustpoint, the more every conflict and choice will matter.

Answering these questions together helps define the town’s culture, leadership, vulnerabilities, and tone:

• What kind of community is it? While Rustpoint is nominally a mining town, has it become something else? A scavenger hub? A place of exile? A refuge?
• What are its core values? Does it cling to old Commonwealth ideals, or has it forged a new moral code – independence, pragmatism, mutual aid, quiet desperation?
• Who leads the community, if anyone? Is leadership stable, or fractured? Is it Gretta by tradition, a council by necessity, or a chaotic rotation of whoever steps up next?
• What are its biggest strengths and vulnerabilities? Does it have skilled people but no resources? Defensible terrain but no allies? An abundance of relic tech but no one trained to use it?

Encourage players to propose new factions, locations, or tensions during this process. Rustpoint should feel like a place shaped by those who live in it – and that includes your group.

Rustpoint is more than a location – it’s a crucible. Dust chokes the wind. Every nail squeaks with rust. But this town endures.

Community Keywords

In QuestWorlds, communities can be defined by their own Keywords – shared traits and capabilities that reflect the identity and strengths of the group as a whole. For a tale like Ash & Iron, where the settlement itself is the central character, Community Keywords become especially powerful tools. They can be invoked in contests when characters act in ways aligned with the town’s values or resources, or when their role in the community brings narrative weight to a conflict.

Community Keywords should emerge from your answers during the Rustpoint creation process. For example:

• Enduring but Fractured (18) – the people are tough, but the unity is fragile.
• Repurposed Tech and Know-How (17) – junk is gold in the right hands.
• Old Wounds, New Fire (16) – the town’s past is painful, but it fuels a new vision.

You may also assign flaws or negative Keywords, representing unresolved tensions or historical burdens, like Corporate Scars (15) or Leadership Vacuum (14).

Use these Keywords narratively – they reflect the tone, texture, and heartbeat of Rustpoint.

Using This Tale

This tale is ideal for troupe-style campaigns. Rather than focusing on a fixed party of wandering heroes, Ash & Iron thrives when players rotate between a pool of community-linked characters. Each session can follow a different crew – miners, scouts, medics, or mechanics – depending on the nature of the story at hand. This setup reflects the shared burden of survival and allows players to explore different facets of life in Rustpoint.

As the town is the true protagonist, conflicts should center not on dungeon crawls or distant ruins, but on the daily struggles and difficult compromises of rebuilding a future. Use contests to highlight moral dilemmas, shifting alliances, and escalating threats. Scenes may involve public debates in The Commons, risky salvage operations in The Pit, or late-night encounters at the backroom of the tavern. Each mission changes how the community views itself – and how it survives.

Encourage your group to play through town meetings, heated negotiations, or supply crises as full narrative episodes. Let long-standing grudges influence augments. Allow injuries, exhaustion, and despair to creep in narratively. Build reputation and fracture trust as part of the town’s emotional currency. And remember – every choice reshapes Rustpoint.

This is a tale about staying, not running. About fixing, not fleeing. About building something that might just outlive its creators.

"This ain’t just dirt. It’s ours. And if we walk away, it turns to dust for good."

– Elara Sato

Sample Crucible Moments

We don’t call them "missions" or "adventures" in Rustpoint – those words imply an outside goal, a clean victory, or a hero’s journey. But in Ash & Iron, there are no clean lines. Only choices that leave marks.

These are Crucible Moments: hard episodes of change, challenge, and consequence that define the future of the town. Each one tests what Rustpoint stands for – and who its people are willing to become.

Defend the Last Mine

Rustpoint's last remaining shaft is barely functional – but it’s still the town’s lifeline. Rumors spread that a band of desert scavengers, perhaps backed by a rival settlement, plans to take control of the mine and its remaining resources. The characters must coordinate defenses, fortify makeshift barricades, and deal with internal disputes as some townsfolk suggest giving up the shaft to avoid bloodshed. The conflict could escalate into a siege, a tense negotiation, or a desperate final stand. The outcome will shape not only the town’s economic future, but its morale.

Negotiate the Lifeline

A merchant caravan rolls into town with desperately needed supplies – water filters, stabilizer packs, synth rations, and replacement medkits. But the traders name an outrageous price, and some of their cargo turns out to be damaged, expired, or stolen. Behind smiles and hospitality, they may be casing the town for weaknesses. The characters must navigate a fraught negotiation where gold isn’t the only currency – perhaps offering salvage rights, labor, or information. What starts as bargaining could turn into a high-stakes standoff or an uneasy alliance.

Revolt in Rustpoint

With resources dwindling and hope thinning, factions form within the town. One group believes the old leadership is dragging everyone down with stubborn pride, while others argue that unity is the only path to survival. When tempers flare during a public forum, violence feels imminent. The characters are thrust into the heart of a political powder keg. They can mediate, take sides, or push for a new system of governance. Every choice will earn enemies – and allies. The revolt isn’t just about who rules Rustpoint, but what kind of place it’s going to be.

The Corporate Offer

Weeks after the company’s withdrawal, an envoy from a rival corporate interest arrives with a polished smile and a data pad full of promises. They don’t want ore – they want surveillance. The pitch: turn Rustpoint into a remote monitoring hub, offering clean energy, synthetic food, and long-term security. But the strings are many and tangled. The envoy wants signatures, loyalty oaths, and silence. Characters must probe the offer’s truth, uncover hidden motives, and choose whether to accept, reject, or twist the deal to their own advantage. The town’s independence – and privacy – hangs in the balance.

Sabotage and Salvation

A brilliant but volatile young engineer unveils a cobbled-together mining rig powered by scavenged relic tech. It could revolutionize the town’s prospects – or blow up half the canyon. When a sabotage attempt nearly destroys the prototype, the characters must investigate. Was it sabotage or a design flaw? Was it internal rivalry, outside interference, or fear of change? The investigation leads to deep fractures within the community, old grudges resurfacing, and questions about how far Rustpoint is willing to go to reinvent itself. This mission blends mystery, engineering, and high emotional stakes.

Conclusion

Ash & Iron is a story about choosing to stay when walking away would be easier. It’s about compromise, conflict, and carving meaning out of wreckage. Whether Rustpoint survives, transforms, or falls apart depends entirely on the people who call it home – and the players at your table.

The framework provided here is just that: a foundation of people, places, and pressure points. Everything else comes from your group’s choices. Let them clash over ideology in the Commons, fall in love in the salvage yard, uncover dark secrets buried beneath the mine, or unite behind something new. Let Rustpoint live or die by their actions.

Play to find out what kind of community they build – and what it costs to make something last in a world built to break.