Windbury Power Plant
Rising from the center of the river that splits Windbury like a surgical scar, the city’s power station is both its heart and its mind. A towering monolith of brass and stone, the central converter hums with unseen force, its constant vibration felt even through the cobblestones of nearby districts. Arcing cables stretch across the skyline like the webbing of a mechanical spider, binding rooftops and conduits into a single pulsing network. Beneath the surface, hidden from the eyes of most citizens, the lifeblood of the city seeps into a deeper place—into a cavern where the material world and the Fey Realm briefly kissed, and never quite let go.
Purpose / Function
The power station provides the entire city with energy—first from volatile wild magic converters, gifted (or imposed) by Lord Grangerford, and now slowly shifting to magical steam-driven engines. It is the city's great equalizer, giving life to its factories, shops, homes, and experimental labs. Every spark that flickers through a lantern, every piston that hisses in the factories, owes its breath to the steady work done within this facility. As the rest of Windbury experiments and evolves, this station must remain reliable. The city may love invention, but it fears interruption. So, the work is tireless, methodical, and dangerous.
Alterations
Once wholly reliant on wild magic converters—fickle, unpredictable things tied to Grangerford’s designs—the station has gradually begun replacing its systems with more stable steam-based cores. This change didn’t come easily. The original setup was intimately tied to a sliver of the Feywild that cuts through the cavern below the riverbed. At one point, cables were simply sunk into the Fey breach and held in place with anchor bolts and prayer. Now, with the steam engines being tested and rotated in slowly, the entire structure resembles a hybrid creature—half arcane beast, half industrial machine. Though functioning, the system remains fragile, with both new and old power sources running in tandem, waiting for one to fail first.
Architecture
The visible portion of the station resembles a squat fortress merged with a cathedral of industry. Its high towers vent pressure into the sky in periodic blasts, sending steam curling up through the smog. Its foundation sits deep in the riverbed, reinforced with dwarven masonry and arcane steel pylons. Massive turbines rotate just above the waterline, surrounded by scaffolding, platforms, and hanging catwalks where technicians scurry like insects.
History
The station was constructed as part of the town and was completed in 4127. Over the years, windbury realized that Grangerford’s wild magic technology was too powerful to run unchecked. Giznudrid, once an esteemed engineer and co-designer of several factories, volunteered to helm the project. He took to it with unmatched dedication, but over time, his world narrowed. Now he rarely leaves the station, and the council rarely bothers him—knowing full well that if he were gone, the city’s lights would go with him. As the city’s technologies shift toward steam and stability, Giznudrid fights a quiet battle—transitioning the systems piece by piece while keeping the whole network alive. It’s thankless, unending work, but he’s the last dwarf anyone would want to see retire.
However, all of that began to shift during the events of When All Else Fails, when Grangerford was killed under mysterious circumstances tied to the political upheaval and magical catastrophes of the age. His death marked the end of Windbury’s dependence on wild magic. Freed from the constraints of Grangerford’s doctrine, the engineers of the city—led by Giznudrid and supported by the workers and council members—worked tirelessly to replace the fey-bound technology with reliable steam-powered cores. Within a year of Grangerford’s fall, the Feywild tech was completely powered down. The breach itself was sealed with reinforced magical barriers, and the city's future was firmly cast in iron and steam.
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