The Thornwick Block is a quiet cul-de-sac where three houses — each with its own family, garden, and secrets — create a continent-sized realm for the Small Folk. Between the garden pond's inland sea, the ancient oak's canopy kingdom, and the storm drain's abyss, an entire world of adventure, mystery, and terror awaits those small enough to see it.

The three houses

1. Thornwick Manor (Number 7)

The Old Estate

The building: A three-story Victorian house with peeling paint, overgrown ivy, and more rooms than its elderly occupant can use. Mrs. Thornwick, a widow in her eighties, moves slowly between the kitchen, sitting room, and garden. She seems to sense that something is different about her home, but chalks it up to old age.

Interior territories:

• The Attic Archive — Dusty boxes of letters, photographs, and forgotten heirlooms. The Veilings have established their Court of Echoes here, led by the mysterious Lady Silhouette, who claims to remember when the house was first built.
• The Wall-Ways — An extensive network between the walls where Whisperling scouts maintain maps and listening posts. Rumours speak of a hidden chamber where the founder of their clan is rumoured to have died — and never quite left.
• The Conservatory — A glass-roofed room filled with dying plants. Rainlings maintain a struggling colony around the few surviving ferns, constantly seeking water from the house's dripping pipes.

The Marquis: Level 6 legendary threat. This battle-scarred ginger tom has claimed the entire Manor as his hunting ground. He's cunning, patient, and seems to take a particular interest in small folk beyond mere predation. Ancient. Knowing. Something is wrong about him.

2. The Ashwood House (Number 9)

The Young Family's Home

The building: A modern two-story house with a red-tiled roof. The Ashwood family — parents Tom and Sarah, children Lily (8) and Oliver (5) — are busy, distracted, and rarely look closely at the corners of their home.

Interior territories:

• The Kitchen Kingdoms — Multiple Small Folk factions vie for control of the pantry. Shellback engineers have built elaborate pulley systems to access the higher shelves. Territorial disputes are constant and occasionally violent.
• Oliver's Room — The Toy Graveyard — Broken action figures, forgotten stuffed animals, and LEGO bricks create a treacherous landscape. At night, some toys... move.
• The Basement Forge — A cluttered workshop where Tom's abandoned projects gather dust. Shellback tinkers have claimed it, harvesting nails, screws, and wire to build tools and weapons.

The children: Both Lily and Oliver can see Small Folk, though Oliver is beginning to lose the ability as he grows older. Lily is curious but can be unpredictably kind or cruel. Oliver leaves out tiny offerings — a thimble of milk, a matchstick — and wants desperately to be friends.

3. The Bramble Cottage (Number 11)

The Quiet House

The building: A single-story cottage with a blue door and white shutters. Mr. Keane, a reclusive writer in his forties, lives here with his ancient Labrador, Barley, and a habit of staying up until 3am.

Interior territories:

• The Study Stacks — Towers of books and papers create a vertical maze. This is neutral territory where different Small Folk species sometimes meet for parley. The books contain knowledge that can be invaluable — if you can read the giant-script.
• The Pipes Symphony — The cottage's old plumbing creates a musical network that Whisperlings use for long-distance communication across the Block.
• The Forgotten Crawlspace — Accessible only through a loose board in the study. What dwells in its deepest corner has never been seen — only heard.

Barley: Unlike The Marquis, Barley is slow, nearly blind, and generally harmless. But his deep barks can shatter concentration, and his massive paws, while aimed at nothing, can accidentally destroy entire Small Folk structures.

Major locations

The Thornwick Oak

The Great Tree of the Block

Standing in Thornwick Manor's back garden, this ancient oak spreads its canopy over multiple properties. Its trunk alone would take thirty Small Folk holding hands to encircle.

• The Canopy Kingdom — High in the branches, the Wayfarers have established Windwhisper Aerie, a city of hanging platforms, leaf-bridges, and aerial routes. The view from here covers the entire Block.
• The Squirrel War — Two enormous red squirrels — Crackjaw and Bristletail — have claimed territories that overlap with Wayfarer settlements. Negotiations have failed. War is coming.
• Old Root — In the oak's deepest hollow, accessible only through a crack barely wide enough for a Small Folk, lives Old Root — a being who has sat there since before anyone can remember, and knows the answer to questions no one has thought to ask yet.

Secrets: Old Root isn't a tree spirit at all. It's the last remnant of a Small Folk city-mind that achieved consciousness centuries ago and chose to become still.

Swan's Mirror — The Garden Pond

The Inland Sea

The ornamental pond in Thornwick Manor's garden is three feet deep and fifteen feet across — an ocean to Small Folk.

• Alabaster — A territorial mute swan nests at the pond's edge. She's the size of a house to Small Folk and viciously protective of her territory. Rainling communities have treaties with her — mostly involving gift offerings of choice aquatic plants.
• Underwater Realm — Rainling communities thrive around the pond's edges. They've mapped the entire underwater terrain and know about the dangers that lurk near the drain.
• The Downward Current — The pond is fed by an underground spring that creates a dangerous whirlpool near the drain. Rainlings speak in hushed tones of "the Downward" — things that fall in rarely come back up.

The Flowerbed Jungle

The Garden of Giants

Mrs. Thornwick's once-magnificent garden has grown wild. What was meant to be a neat rose garden has become a dense wilderness of stems thicker than trees, petals wide as fields.

• The Undergrowth — At soil level, beetles and ants wage constant war over territory.
• The Stem Forest — Climbing the flower stalks is treacherous but rewarding — nectar pools gather in blooms like sweet lakes.
• The Canopy — Where bees the size of dragons harvest pollen, and predatory wasps hunt.
• The Rose Palace — At the Flowerbed's heart stands the largest rose bush, its central bloom a crimson cathedral. A faction of Whisperlings calling themselves the Thorn Court has claimed it as their home, led by the reclusive Crimson Queen.

The Ashwood Playground

Worlds Within Worlds

The children's playground between the Ashwood House and Bramble Cottage. At night, when the children are gone, the playground becomes an entirely different kind of place.

• The Sandbox Desert — Scalding hot by day, freezing by night. Buried toy soldiers have been reanimated by some entity called The Sand Whisper, who offers wishes in exchange for tasks. Every wish has a price no one tells you in advance.
• The Slide Mountain — A gleaming aluminium slope that seems to behave differently going up versus coming down. Heroes who climb the outside ladder arrive at the top of the slide; heroes who descend find... somewhere slightly different.
• The Swing-Set Gates — The swings, when set in motion at midnight, create portals. Small Folk brave enough to leap through a moving swing at its apex might emerge somewhere unexpected.
• The Climbing Frame Citadel — Neutral ground where different factions meet for trade and parley. The Market of Splinters operates here on nights with no moon.

The Forgotten Shed

The Lonely Fortress

At the back of the Bramble Cottage's garden stands a weathered tool shed that Mr. Keane never uses.

• Rust — The shed is controlled by a Shellback who was exiled from his community for reasons he won't discuss. He's made the shed his fortress and his home. He doesn't want company. He's probably the most reliable ally in the Block.
• The Tool Spirits — The abandoned tools have developed a kind of awareness. They don't move or speak, but Small Folk who spend time near them report feeling watched, and sometimes find things moved.
• The Foundation Mystery — The shed's floor has a loose board that, when pried up, reveals a shaft descending far deeper than the shed's foundations should allow.

Secrets: Rust was cast out for discovering that Shellback legend about Father Dragon is literally true — and that the dragon is still alive, somewhere below the Block.

The Storm Drain

The Abyssal Gate

Where the street meets the curb at the bottom of the Block's slope, a rusted storm drain marks the entrance to the underground network.

• Rust-Haven — Just inside the grating, where a little daylight still penetrates, a shanty settlement clings to the walls. This is where the dispossessed and the desperate gather. Not all are hostile — many are simply surviving.
• The Upper Channels — The first level of the storm drain: wide concrete pipes with side passages, trickling streams, and phosphorescent fungus. Navigable during dry weather.
• The Junction of Echoes — Deeper down, where multiple pipes converge, darkness becomes absolute. Sound behaves strangely here — words spoken vanish into silence mid-syllable.
• The Depths — Few who descend this far return. The storm drain connects to old Victorian sewers, then to something older still. Somewhere in this endless dark dwells The Catfish — or what Small Folk call a catfish.

Secrets: There is no catfish. There never was. The thing in the depths takes the shape of whatever the observer most fears in darkness.

Factions

Campaign hooks

The Vanishing — Small Folk have been disappearing across the Block — not killed, not taken by predators, just gone. The only clue: each disappearance happens during rain, and the victims were last seen near storm drains.

The Squirrel Treaty — The Wayfarers of Windwhisper Aerie offer a desperate bargain: broker peace with the squirrels, or help them drive the creatures from the Oak permanently. But Crackjaw and Bristletail have their own grievances — and their own secrets.

The Toy Soldier March — The Tin Legion has begun emerging from the sandbox at night, marching in formation toward... something. They're not attacking. Just marching. Inexorably, toward the Thornwick Oak.

The Crimson Queen's Request — A messenger from the Thorn Court arrives with an invitation sealed in rose-petal wax. The Crimson Queen requests an audience — she needs heroes to retrieve something from the storm drain's depths that she is too afraid to fetch herself.

The Human Child's Secret — Young Oliver Ashwood has been leaving tiny offerings for months. He's seen the Small Folk and wants to help. But a child who knows too much is a child who might tell an adult — and that could bring disaster for every community on the Block.

Secrets of the Block

1. The Foundation — All three houses were built over something older — a structure from before recorded history. The storm drain's impossible depths lead there.
2. The Marquis — The ginger tom wasn't always a cat. Veilings who remember the old songs say he was once something else — something that chose to become a predator.
3. The Thornwick Oak — Old Root isn't a tree spirit. It's the last remnant of a Small Folk city-mind that achieved consciousness centuries ago and chose to become still rather than watch its people fade.
4. The Sand Whisper — Every wish granted by this entity in the Sandbox isn't random — each one brings it closer to manifesting fully in the physical world. The Tin Legion is its vanguard.
5. The Catfish — There is no catfish. The thing in the depths takes the shape of whatever the observer most fears in darkness.
6. Rust's Exile — The Shellback who lives in the shed was cast out for discovering something his community wanted kept secret — that Shellback legend about Father Dragon is literally true, and the dragon is still alive, somewhere below the Block.

Key NPCs

The Thornwick Block is full of characters — here are the most important ones the heroes are likely to encounter, with mechanical notes for the GM.

Mrs. Thornwick

The oblivious goddess of Thornwick Manor.

Eleanor Thornwick, 78, is a retired schoolteacher who has lived in the Manor for fifty years. She moves slowly, talks to her plants, and is half-deaf without her hearing aids (which she frequently forgets). She has no idea the Small Folk exist — but her casual movements and the unpredictability of her routine make her one of the most dangerous creatures on the Block.

Mechanical role: Environmental hazard, not a combatant. Mrs. Thornwick triggers the Law of Witness — her direct gaze strips magic and identity from any Small Folk she observes. Her slow movement (Speed 2) and impaired hearing give heroes a fighting chance, but she is relentless in her routines.

Law of Witness: Any Small Folk within her direct line of sight must make a WIL save (difficulty 4). On a failure, they revert to animal instinct for the duration of her gaze and remember nothing of the episode. On a partial success (3–4), they retain identity but lose all magical abilities until she looks away.

Routine: She wakes at 7am, breakfasts in the kitchen, gardens 9–11am, naps 2–4pm, reads in the study 4–7pm, and is in bed by 9pm. Any deviation is a story event.

What she knows (but doesn't know she knows): She once saw "a little person" in the conservatory at dusk and assumed it was a trick of the light. She wrote about it in her diary. The diary is in the study.

The Marquis

The ginger tom of Thornwick Manor. Something is wrong with him.

The Marquis is a large, old ginger cat who patrols the Manor and its grounds with the confidence of a creature that has never lost a fight. He is unnervingly calm — he doesn't yowl or scratch furniture. He watches. He waits. And occasionally, he does things cats simply don't do.

Paw Swipe (Attack, Area): Affects up to 2 adjacent heroes. 2d8 + STR damage. DEX save for half.

Pin & Bite: On a hit, target is Grappled. While grappled, 1d8 damage at the start of each of their turns. Escaping requires a STR test at +1 Bane.

Night Vision & Hunting Instincts: The Marquis never suffers Banes from darkness. He detects hidden creatures within 4 spaces automatically.

Legendary Actions (after each hero's turn): Stalk — move up to 4 spaces silently (no opportunity attacks); Pounce — move up to 6 spaces and make a Pin & Bite attack against an isolated hero; Regard — fix one hero with his gaze; they must pass a WIL save or be Frightened for 1 round.

Former Human? (once per session, GM discretion) — The Marquis does something impossible: opens a door using the handle, turns to look at a hero who spoke his name, or leaves a deliberate path through a trap the heroes have laid. He never does this where Mrs. Thornwick can see.

Weakness: Bright sudden light (flashlight, lamp switching on) inflicts Dazzled for 2 rounds. He will retreat if reduced below 20 HP — he is patient, not suicidal.

Lily Ashwood

She can see them. And she's eight.

Lily is the eldest child of the Ashwood family, curious, quick, and almost impossible to deceive. She has known about the Small Folk for six months and has told no one — she thinks they're magical and doesn't want adults to ruin it.

Mechanical role: Ally/hazard hybrid. Lily's gaze does not trigger the Law of Witness — she is young enough that her perception doesn't impose adult logic on what she sees. This makes her uniquely valuable and uniquely dangerous.

What she can provide: Information about the human world (family schedules, where things are kept), access to areas Small Folk can't reach alone, distraction of The Marquis (he tolerates her), and genuine goodwill.

What she risks: Oliver is five, not eight. He has no filter. He will tell their parents. Every session Lily and Oliver interact with the Small Folk, the GM should track how close discovery is.

Rust

The exile. Stubborn. Reliable. Hiding something enormous.

Rust is a Shellback who was cast out of his community three years ago for asking questions that made the elders uncomfortable. He now runs the Forgotten Shed as a neutral waystation — he'll trade shelter, tools, or information for labour or coin. He is difficult and prickly, but he keeps his word absolutely.

Defender's Stance: As a reaction, Rust can impose +2 Bane on any attack targeting an adjacent ally (he interposes his shell).

Hold the Line: Rust cannot be moved involuntarily by anything Short of a Legendary monster. Pushes, knockbacks, and forced movements simply don't apply to him.

Personality: He charges fair prices and won't haggle. He will not help with anything that would bring large numbers of creatures through the shed (he values quiet). He is rude to everyone equally.

His secret (discover via STR 4+ rapport): The thing that got him exiled was a fragment of shell recovered from deep below the shed — impossibly old, inscribed with symbols his community recognised as sacred. He has the fragment still. It matches carvings on the shed's foundation. Father Dragon is real.

The Crimson Queen

She rules the Flowerbed. She doesn't fight — she doesn't need to.

The Crimson Queen leads the Thorn Court from a throne of woven rose thorns in the heart of the flowerbed. She is elegant, ancient, and absolutely certain that she is the most important person in any room. She is also, in her way, reasonable — she simply expects to be treated as an equal by anyone worthy of the title.

Mechanical role: Political encounter. The Crimson Queen does not fight directly — she is protected at all times by two Thorn Beetle Guardians (Level 2 elites, Heavy armour, 20 HP each, thorned carapace deals 1d4 damage to anyone who strikes them in melee without protection).

What she wants: Recognition that the Flowerbed is sovereign territory. Safe passage for her people. The return of three Thorn Court members captured by the Silent Choir six months ago. She won't say where they were taken — she doesn't know.

Encounter Templates

Three ready-to-run encounters for the Thornwick Block, each playable in a single session.

The Pantry Run

A supply mission. Simple enough. Until Oliver wanders in.

Setup: The heroes must retrieve three specific items from the Ashwood House kitchen before the family wakes: a thimble of cooking oil (for the community's lamps), a matchstick (weapon-grade fire), and a button (trade currency). The kitchen is accessible via the gap under the back door.

Terrain: Kitchen counter (Height 3, requires two Move actions to climb), pantry shelves (Height 5), mousetrap near the fridge (visible — DEX 4 to pass, 2d6 damage on trigger), Oliver's juice box on the counter (sticky spill — difficult terrain in a 2-space radius).

Objective: Retrieve all three items and exit before a human enters. The family wakes at 7am — track time in rounds (1 round ≈ 10 seconds). They have 30 rounds.

Complication (roll d6 at round 10 and round 20):

Success: Items retrieved, no adults alerted. Award 2 XP + the items. Partial success: Items retrieved but Oliver saw them. He hasn't told anyone yet — start a Discovery Clock. Failure: Adult alerted. Heroes must flee. The kitchen is off-limits until the Discovery Clock resets.

Squirrel War Skirmish

Two factions. One oak. The heroes are caught in the middle.

Setup: Crackjaw's squirrels (grey, aggressive, territorial) and Bristletail's squirrels (red, smaller, increasingly desperate) are at war over nesting rights in the Thornwick Oak. The heroes have been asked to broker peace, escort Bristletail's family through contested territory, or simply survive long enough to carry a message between the two leaders.

Encounter structure (choose one objective before the session):

Option A — Escort: Guide Bristletail's family (3 non-combatant NPCs, Speed 4) through 4 zones of contested territory. Each zone, roll a d6 — on 1–3, Crackjaw's scouts attack (2d4 minions).

Option B — Negotiate: Reach Crackjaw's den (4 zones away) and arrange a parley. Success requires two WIL tests (one each for heroes and Crackjaw). Failure means combat. Crackjaw responds to demonstrations of strength — winning a fight against his scouts before arriving gives +1 Boon.

Option C — Sabotage: A third party (the Tin Legion) is stoking the conflict. Find evidence of their involvement and present it to both leaders. Requires 2 INT tests (Investigation) in contested zones plus surviving one ambush.

Squirrel Minions: Any hit kills; Speed 8; attack d6. Crackjaw himself is Level 3 (HP 24, Heavy from bulk, Speed 7, attack d10, immune to Frightened).

Rewards: 3 XP + safe passage through the Flowerbed (Bristletail's favour), or alliance with Crackjaw's faction (they'll relay messages across the garden).

The Marquis at Midnight

He has one of your people. You can't fight him. You have to be smarter.

Setup: The Marquis has cornered Pip — a young Small Folk NPC the heroes know — in the Manor's airing cupboard. The heroes have arrived too late to prevent the capture but early enough to attempt a rescue before dawn. Fighting The Marquis directly is almost certainly fatal for a party below Level 6.

Objective: Retrieve Pip alive without killing The Marquis.

The space: Upstairs hallway (4 zones). The airing cupboard is at Zone 4. Mrs. Thornwick's bedroom is at Zone 2 (she is asleep — loud sounds risk waking her). A landing window is at Zone 1 (escape route, requires DEX 3 to open quietly).

Tactics available to heroes:

• Distraction: Something dropped in Zone 1 draws The Marquis away for 2 rounds (he investigates all sounds). Each distraction used has a 1-in-6 chance of waking Mrs. Thornwick.
• The Name: If a hero spends a full action calling him by his name — "Marquis" — and passes a WIL 4 test, he pauses. He looks at them. He does not attack for 1 round. This can be used once.
• The Lamp: The hallway lamp switch is at Zone 2. Flicking it on inflicts Dazzled (2 rounds, +2 Bane on all rolls) on The Marquis — and on any heroes without eye protection.
• His Weakness: At 20 HP or below, The Marquis retreats to the landing and watches them go. He never abandons a retreat once begun.

Complication (at round 5): Mrs. Thornwick's alarm goes off. She will be in the hallway in 4 rounds.

Reward (based on outcome):

• Pip rescued, The Marquis unsatisfied: 3 XP. The Marquis is more careful from now on — he learns the heroes' scent.
• Pip rescued, The Marquis briefly spoke to (passed The Name check): 4 XP + the GM reveals one Marquis secret (he doesn't sleep, he dreams of being somewhere else).
• Pip rescued, evidence collected that The Marquis was once human: 5 XP + this becomes a campaign thread.

XP awards (suggestions):

• Defeating a meaningful threat: 2–4 XP
• Completing a faction quest: 3–5 XP
• Discovering a major secret: 1–2 XP
• Clever non-combat solutions: 1–2 XP
• Surviving a near-death experience: 1 XP

Milestone option: Level up when the story hits natural beats. This is perfectly valid and aligns with the setting's narrative focus.