Crimson Furnace

Descend into the underbelly of the megalopolis and take back control of the Black Maw, a tavern where any shift can turn into a nightmare. Receive loot, barter, fish, manage your stocks, clean the place. But beware: between two drinks and a bad plate of food, tension rises fast. One unhappy patron, a broken alliance, a visit from the Regulator, and the whole tavern can erupt into a riot. In the chaos, your establishment becomes a battlefield. Protect the sanctum entrusted to you and make it prosper: here, a bad service is always paid in blood and violence.

Furnish and decorate your tavern to your taste. Upgrade your machines, the main hall and your staff’s working conditions. Optimise your stocks and sharpen your sense of hospitality. Trade, buy and sell: handle your finances through legal channels or on the black market. Invest in upgrades and supplies that are barely tolerated or openly occult. Every decision leaves a mark, draws attention, and fuels new rumours in the streets.

Work with tainted and forbidden ingredients. Cook cursed dishes with occult flavours to calm your guests, manipulate them, or drag them deeper into corruption. A wrong dose or a service error can spark rumours, panic and chaos, drawing the ruthless eye of the Regulators.

Many events can turn a normal service into a disaster: health inspections, anti-magic brigades, gang tensions, thefts, fires and other shady situations. Lead a band of misfits and make poachers, gang members and spies share the same room without blowing the place up. Keep a firm grip on the hall to defuse tantrums, threats and outbursts. And if everything collapses? Your demonic hound will gladly take care of whatever is left on the floor.

Every guest has a social card: faction, strengths, weaknesses, and risks. Build your guest deck using the customer register. Then unlock or attract new profiles through rumors, reputation, menus and the atmosphere of your tavern.

During service place and combine your customer cards to exploit their synergies, manipulate your guests, and stay in control. Between services, enrich, refine, or corrupt your deck to turn every opening into a success… or into carefully orchestrated chaos.

Brawls, missing patrons, suspicious dishes, cursed ingredients, forbidden spells: sooner or later, everything comes to light. Beware of spies, avoid being denounced and build alliances to cover your tracks. Stay informed about rumours and trends in the megalopolis thanks to Radio Furnace. One wrong move, and the Regulators will be knocking at your door.

Maintain your clandestine herbarium and harvest ingredients for your potions, cocktails and meals. Plant, tend and reap fruits and vegetables delightfully corrupted. Go fishing, raise strange creatures and exploit their resources to feed your kitchen or your rituals.

Your tavern is a sanctuary. Make the cult you inherited flourish: recruit new members, pay their bounties, buy back their loot. Perform rituals and spread the influence of the Order of the Echomancers across the megalopolis. In the end, your choices, your alliances and your level of corruption will decide the fate of the Black Maw… and the ending that awaits you.