The Age of Umbra

In a dying world immersed in relentless shadow and nightmarish monsters, small communities hold fast to the light, hoping those who endure can find a way to save this broken realm before all is lost to darkness.

Designed by Matthew Mercer

Complexity Rating: •••

The Pitch

Read this section to your players to introduce them to the campaign.

A century has passed since the God-King Othedias betrayed the Pantheon, provoking divine punishment and abandonment by the gods that left the realm of the Halcyon Domain shattered, desolate, and eternally cursed. Throughout this shadow-choked land of decaying fortresses and dreadful monstrosities, surviving communities cling to hope in the face of lightless oblivion. In an Age of Umbra campaign, you’ll play heroic survivors who protect their community from the terrors beyond their walls, venture out into the unknown to hunt the nightmares that twist and grow with each fallen soul, seek answers to the curses that corrupt this world, and perhaps even discover a way to change its fate.

Tone & Feel

Ancient, Daunting, Epic, Grim, Ominous, Terrifying, Tragic

Themes

Apocalypse, Corruption, Darkness vs Light, Hope, Redemption, Survival

Touchstones

Dark Souls, Kingdom Death: Monster, Berserk, The Seventh Seal, Blasphemous

Overview

If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.

The Age of Umbra is a dark and broken age within the realm known as the Halcyon Domain, which rots in the wake of its Pantheon’s abandonment. Grandiose cities and awe-inspiring cathedrals to the Veiled Gods now crumble slowly into ruin, fallen bastions of the prosperous epoch ruled by the guiding hand of God-King Othedias. Othedias, chosen by the Veiled Gods as the bridge to divinity, conspired with his Grand Ordinants and Aetherlords to enact clandestine machinations that could shift the balance in celestial power, enraging the pantheon.

His blasphemy was met with cataclysmic retribution. The gods rained destruction upon the land, ending the Old World and forsaking the surviving peoples of the Halcyon Domain to an existence of growing desolation. The Veiled Gods then abandoned this world in what is referred to as the Apostasy, leaving what remains to wither under ever-growing shadow, the clouded skies growing darker with each passing generation as they herald the world’s slow death march into entropy and oblivion.

The cycle of the soul has been sundered, cursing all who live or ever will live with the “soul blight”, a mark upon every mortal ensuring that, upon their death, they will rise again as a corrupted revenant bent on destroying everything they loved in their former life. If their risen body is destroyed, the marked soul withdraws into the dark, ethereal mass known as the Umbra, seeking others to haunt and corrupt.

It’s now been nearly a century within the Age of Umbra, and those who remain rebuild what they can among the ruins of the Old World. Referring to themselves as the Enduring, these scattered communities of survivors huddle within reinforced battlements where Sacred Pyres burn as a beacon of hope and safety. All Enduring are trained to survive and defend themselves in this bleak land from a young age, many honed into fierce warriors and Aetherweavers through hardship and necessity by the time they reach adulthood. Bands of hunters brave the cracked and twisted landscape beyond their walls each day to gather sustenance, recover materials, and connect or trade with other surviving settlements.

However, many of the outside world’s wandering beasts have mutated from the corruption of the Umbra; this transient storm of twisted souls merges with and contorts the creatures into nightmarish monsters that stalk, rage, and evolve with each newly fused specter. When these monstrosities slay those who confront the wilds, their victims’ blighted souls join the horrors that claimed them. In the absence of the gods, dreams turn ominous and empty, and oracles imagine great alien minds glimpsing into this world, reaching beyond the cosmic veil left unguarded.

The diaspora of surviving communities hold against the doom through grit, ingenuity, and faith. Within the swampy flood plains of the mountain-crowned region known as the Idol Hollows, an emergent fort village called Okros has stood resilient against the surrounding swampland dangers for over fifty years. Its massive walls of melted shields and stone encircle the village and central Sacred Pyre, whose flames climb above the tallest ramparts, a burning symbol of strength and safety visible from across the Idol Hollows.

A recent seismic event within the valley conjured a massive sinkhole referred to as the Shalk Chasm, uncovering an expanse of long-buried structures and vestiges from before the Old World. Concerned and curious about what boons or banes might await discovery within this subterranean catacomb, brave Enduring slowly investigate the mysteries below, while scouts seek allies from erudite places, such as the Celsians of Amber Reach.

Nestled against the Griefcleft Mountains that buttress the eastern edge of the Idol Hollows, dividing it from the tainted jungles of Aveidoora, the glorious city of Amber Reach lays fallen and haunted in the wake of the Apostasy. The once-prosperous capital’s expansive cityscape of overbearing gates, gothic towers, and staggering fortresses lies damaged and derelict, with empty households now sheltering horrors and looters. Within the city’s Ashcall Quarter, the Celsian Athenaeum, a grand college and library repurposed into a stronghold, still holds against the dark. Here, hundreds of Enduring work against the deadly spirits and ghastly killers that torment the city ruins, seeking to reclaim control of Amber Reach’s streets. A rising faction of hedonic, ruthless scoundrels and raiders known as the Damask Queens expand their territory from the far side of the debris-strewn Cinnabar Quarter, their crossings with the Celsians growing more violent with each encounter.

As despondent as existence may seem in the Halcyon Domain, within these communities of the Enduring, hope continuously sparks aflame. Whispers speak of remnants of divine power lingering within lost shrines and holy sites that can rebuke the soul blight. Rumors spread between settlements of heroic figures felling greater evils and reclaiming ancient relics for the might of the Enduring. Spirited leaders and champions rouse their fellow Enduring with promises of expanding their walls and avenging their fallen. Zealot factions fervently seek means to commune with the absent gods, forever searching for ways to repent for Othedias’s crimes. Those who can access the Aetherweave see visions of distant sanctums and uncorrupted fanes that cast aside the clouded skies to preserve light and life—or even redeem those touched by the soul blight. Hermetic societies claim to carry tomes and truths of God-King Othedias and his great tragedy, along with prophecies that speak of a chance at salvation for the realm. The lands may be dark, but the points of light burn ever so bright.

Communities

All communities are available, but some have unique aspects within an Age of Umbra campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players and choose one or more of the questions to ask them during your session zero.

Highborne and Slyborne

Some communities manage to carve out a surviving section of an Old World cityscape, reinforcing barricades and battlements within a deadly urban ruin while enjoying the spoils of sacking the remnants of the past age’s high society. Others were lucky enough to build a new township near a resource-rich location, where those who rose to power could enjoy an uncommon life of comparable luxury. It is in these places that factions of thieves and thugs thrive, whether in the employ of the leadership, or by eroding them from below.

Highborne communities within the Age of Umbra are extremely rare, and are often either based on the ghost of an Old World political power or a newly forged tyranny built on recovered or stolen resources. Opulence in these dark times is scarce but hedonistic, reserved for those close to ruling powers and protected with promises of influence or threats of violence.

• Who are the leaders of your community, and how close are you to their inner circles to have tasted the finer things in this dire life?
• How did you or your bloodline manage to accumulate enough resources or reputation to carve some influence within your community?
• Among the upper echelon of your community, who do you trust the most? Who do you trust the least?

Slyborne characters are skulkers and thieves who flourish alongside those of influence or wealth across the land. Whether they work for highborne factions that try to maintain power or manipulate them for personal gain, those who know how to remain unnoticed or unexploited excel at seizing opportunities. Many slyborne characters also make a name for themselves as scouts or messengers between settlements, trading in goods or rumors as they go. Others still could be members of roguish communities such as the Damask Queens of the Amber Reach, self-crowned leaders in the lawless echo of bygone power.

• You’ve built a rapport with a highborne figure. Who are they, and do you trust them, or are they just an easy mark?
• Who among your community have you knowingly cheated, and are they aware?
• You were part of a botched job not long ago, and the stain still lingers on your reputation. What happened, and who was at fault?

Loreborne and Orderborne

Many grandiose cities and centers of higher learning dotted the Halcyon Domain during the prosperous previous age, but these monuments are now ruled by cults of shattered will, overtaken by monstrous entities, or lost to complete ruin. Loreborne and orderborne characters hail from a crumbling bastion of Old World academia, upholding aspects of this lost knowledge within their local community. Consider which facets of the Old World they cling to and, if a character’s community exists within the remains of a major Old World city, which district of that city is important enough for the Enduring to make such a dangerous place home.

Loreborne and orderborne communities typically rise within or near ancient libraries, temples, or other dilapidat

ed urban environments where knowledge was once plentiful. Others might have taken up in caverns and hidden places where recovered historical records can be safeguarded and studied. A number of these factions remain obsessed with discovering the truths of the ancient Grand Ordinants and Aetherlords, such as those who claim refuge in the Celsian Athenaeum.

• What secret about the Old World have you been entrusted with or discovered alongside your community?
• How much of your community still remains? If it has fallen completely, what led to its destruction?
• What heirloom of the Old World do you carry with you, and what is its significance to you?
• What did you leave behind that still haunts you as you try to sleep?

For orderborne characters, players should consider the remnants of the Old World that still guide their character and their people through this ruined landscape, and how (if at all) your ideologies might have changed in the face of a withering world.

• What tenets or virtues of your community have changed since the Age of Umbra began? Which tenets do your community hold on to unaltered, even if they no longer apply to this broken world?
• Which of your community’s tenets or virtues do you wish to embody and spread across the Halcyon Domain?

Ridgeborne

The mountain ranges of the Halcyon Domain are varied, imposing, and prone to extended cold winds that carve the rock into jagged spires and winding valley clefts. Networks of ancient wood and stone bridges stretch across wide gaps in mountain passes, and the ones that haven’t fallen to weather or time become deeply important and well protected by the nearby ridgeborne communities that maintain them. Hardened and sturdy people forged by the harsh environment, ridgeborne characters might be scouts, hunters, or trade sentinels within their community. Some ridgeborne villages keep vigil over mountainside tombs and sites of Old World knowledge, clinging to ancient oaths that fades more with each generation.

• Who is a childhood friend or rival you formed a kinship with? What task had them leave home a year ago, never to be seen again?
• What mountain predator’s call fills you with abject fear, and why?
• One of your village elders entrusted you with an heirloom. What is it, and what or who did they request you keep it from?

Seaborne

The scattering of coastal cities that still span the Halcyon Domain’s shores are defined by an existence straddling the dangerous waters of the Ashen Seas and the ever-expanding threat of shadow that corrodes the land. Even so, these communities remain important places of commerce and resources, with mighty fishmongers and sailors battling the masses of deadly threats from under the waves as they sail. Still, seaborne characters are often more carefree than others, taking inspiration from the mercurial nature of their nearby lakes or seas in an otherwise dour world.

• What is the one tale you’ve heard about the depths of the sea that still makes you nervous?
• When you were younger, you swam deep beneath the waters and encountered something unexpected. What was it, and why does it wander back to your thoughts on occasion?
• A traveler once came through your town and said something to you that shook you to your core. What was it, and what do you wish to tell them should you see them again?

Underborne

Numerous underground societies claimed space within caverns beneath the surface, but only some of these communities have made contact with the surface since the abandonment of the gods. Some cavernous metropolises, now half-buried by crumbling earth, fight to survive against the terrors that stalk the underworld tunnels. Others build anew within the vacant remains of societies of yore, hoping to uncover secrets to better their fortunes.

Underborne characters could be scrappy scavengers and tomb delvers who feel at home in lightless, dust-filled spaces away from the tumultuous skies and flying nightmares of the surface world. With the arrival of the Shalk Chasm, some underborne communities might have been exposed to the surface for the first time since the fall of the world.

• When you are alone in quiet places, what sound do you believe you hear, and what do you think it means?
• You’ve spent much of your upbringing within a reclaimed subterranean structure. What was its original purpose, and what did you discover about it that you’ll never forget?
• What is a place beneath your community that everyone knows to avoid at all costs? What happened when you snuck into it when you were younger?

Wildborne

The natural world beyond any settlement’s walls is as dangerous and dark as it is expansive and beautiful. Sprawling, haunted woodlands filled with deadly, mutated wildlife often hide vibrant glades of natural aether, where bioluminescent flora offers signs of solace or magical protection against the consuming darkness. When a player creates a wildborne character, they should consider how their character’s homeland carved its place of peace among the twisting vines and brambles. Some wildeborne societies of the Old World remain within their ancient fanes to hold hope for a better future, living symbiotically with the rare, uncorrupted pockets of nature. Other wildborne communities stem from lost soldiers or fleeing survivors who the spirits of the wild protect in their time of need.

• What landmark within the forest has appeared in your dreams since childhood? What do you think it means?
• Which nature spirit does your community rely on the most for protection? What early signs of their corruption are you worried about?
• What did you witness within the wilds that makes you fear your home doesn’t have much time left?

Wanderborne

Many wanderborne communities either flee destruction to start anew elsewhere or uproot themselves frequently for fear of attracting the wilds’ worst horrors. Others might be made up of survivors with common purpose, a life where braving the deadly chaos of the world is also a quest for answers. A wanderborne character might have spent their life on the run due to circumstance or danger, or felt the subtle desperation of the realm and refused to sit still.

• Why does your community keep picking up their roots and moving on? What do some fear is following them each time they do?
• What is the one place you lived that you quietly wish you could return to? What is there that still holds a place in your heart?
• You’ve had a recurring nightmare about a particular location. What about this place frightens you?

Ancestries

All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within an Age of Umbra campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.

All Ancestries

Consider how the harsher setting and environment can intermingle with Daggerheart’s ancestries to inspire dark, weird, and unique interpretations.

Clanks

Clanks are often carved from stone and iron and were originally developed as vessels for holy spirits and messengers. Many stopped functioning and became statues when the gods left the Halcyon Domain.

Ribbets

Ribbets are large, often 6 to 8 feet tall, and prefer to skulk on all fours when not leaping or standing still.

Drakona

In the Halcyon Domain, Drakona are taller and more reptilian in both physicality and proportions. They lean forward as they move, using their tails to balance their weight.

Faeries

Faeries are more sensitive to the soul blight than other ancestries, causing their physical appearance to develop in jagged and monstrous ways.

Classes

All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within an Age of Umbra campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.

Bards, Druids, Rogues, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Wizards

The forces of spellcraft and magic—especially dark magic—that flow unseen through the world are referred to as the Aetherweave, and those uncommon few who can manipulate it are known collectively as Aetherweavers. This art is difficult to teach to mortals, and they rarely wield it instinctively. With many of these secrets lost with the previous age, the presence of an Aetherweaver is remarkable and often met with awe, fear, and sometimes mistrust. Players who create an Aetherweaver should consider the responsibility they carry with these gifts, and determine how brazenly they use these mystical abilities.

Splendor Domain

Since the gods’ abandonment and the fall of the Grand Ordinants, the great clerics of old, access to divine powers and healing rituals is a fading art. Many fear the very essence of such magic is dying with the light, so it is not uncommon for some to foist sudden worship and expectation onto those who display such gifts. However, while some see hope, others see those with these abilities as an opportunity to express their hate for the absent gods. Seraphs and wizards who display their Splendor domain abilities or spells might make a profound impact or draw unwanted attention, depending on their current company. Players who create seraphs or wizards should consider how open or guarded their character would be with their abilities.

Player Principles

If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.

Treat Community as a Means of Survival

You have grown up in a world of despair, raised to rage against the dying of the light. No matter the differences or challenges between you and others you meet, forging and protecting the bonds of community close and abroad is a goal that surmounts most others. If the Enduring cannot work together, then all truly is lost.

Remember That Not All Darkness Is Evil

Most of the shadow that plagues this land is born out of tragedy, big and small. Keep in mind that many threats you face have a history—a sad and solemn story—that set them on this terrible path. With the right inquisitiveness and creativity, you can oftentimes parlay with or even redeem what hunts you before resorting to complete destruction. Many lost to the dark still retain some aspects of themselves to appeal to, and rumored magics could hold the key to cleansing elements of the Umbra’s corruption.

Embrace Lethality

The Age of Umbra is a realm of hardship, challenge, and loss, which allows for momentous revelations and incomparable victories. Still, very few groups of heroes who venture out into the Halcyon Domain carry any of the same faces when their journey is done. Find joy in the risks, relish the opportunities for epic and memorable character deaths, and excitedly create new characters that the others can meet at the next encampment or landmark.

Consider Your Role

Everyone in this world is driven to survive, whether on their own or as part of a larger group. A character’s backstory can define their previous role in this realm, the relationships they’ve already established, and where they honed their knowledge and skills. For example, your character might have been a hunter, scavenger, philosopher, storyteller, oracle, scoundrel, leader, demagogue, or bandit before the campaign begins. Do they continue to enjoy this role, or do they yearn to reinvent themself in the dying light? How does their role define their goals for the future?

GM Principles

Keep the following guidance in mind while you GM this campaign.

Relish in the Omnipresent Threat

Enjoy setting the scene for each ominous locale beyond the walls of safety, weaving descriptions of solemn colors and the dark beauty of crumbled antiquity with the perpetual sense that nowhere is truly safe. Many things go bump in the night, whether or not the characters are in immediate danger, so be willing to play with shadows, noises, and even monstrous shapes that lumber on the horizon just as your players grow comfortable. When the time comes for a dangerous conflict, exemplify just how harrowing it is with baleful descriptions and menacing energy.

Shine Light in the Darkness Often

Even as you thrill your players with epic displays of seemingly insurmountable odds, deeply tragic narratives, and an ever-oppressive, gloomy atmosphere, always strive to highlight opportunities for hope, joy, and victory. Be mindful of balancing the starkly terrifying, bleak realm you’re navigating together with scattered locales of untainted beauty, moments of inspiring humanity, and chances to truly make a difference for a better and brighter future. The highest highs leave room for the most memorable lows, and vice versa.

Emphasize Compassion Amidst Hardship

When society is challenged with facing annihilation, the community often comes together in passionate and wonderful ways. Create and allow room for story moments where the downtrodden and fearful find courage and strength in their fellow survivors and rise to the occasion. Let the people who fight to endure alongside the player characters be vulnerable with them, share their fears and aspirations, forge bonds with the characters, and express why they may invest their future in the characters’ actions.

Create Many Goals Across the Many Minds

This realm of darkness breeds a plethora of aspirations. The need to survive in a harsh world can forge deeply conflicted and complicated personalities, ranging from the genuinely altruistic to the deeply selfish, and sometimes both. Consider the wide range of communities, factions, and influential NPCs and how they’ve adapted to this dire age. Some may wish to carve a sanctuary for their people, some may embrace the chaos to indulge in their worst impulses, some may place their hopes in uncovering ancient secrets, and some may be driven only by sorrow and vengeance. Everything, even the terrible beasts and malformed fallen that haunt these lands, has a wish and a story that drives them, as futile as some may seem.

Build Combat as a Test, a Puzzle, and a Journey

There are many deadly and terrifying entities throughout the Halcyon Domain, and sometimes a grand old throwdown to test the characters’ mettle is a thrilling experience for all involved. Even so, much of what is so monstrous in this realm has become so through corruption, guilt, exploitation, or circumstance. Bringing a bit of pathos and humanity to some threats can lead to a deliciously conflicted showdown, and might guide the players to consider other means to victory than just slaughter. Pay some mind to alternative victory conditions that you can tease out through adversary behavior, environmental descriptions, historical recollection, or dialogue. If the players start developing a unique theory on how to cleanse, befriend, or absolve their foe of their violent views in ways you hadn’t accounted for, be open to following the logic and excitement of that narrative thread and ask the players questions that can help you explore that avenue together.

Distinctions

Use this information to prepare your campaign. You can also share it with your players as needed.

Eternal Gloom and Volatile Weather

Since the Veiled Gods abandoned the world, an endless gloom has engulfed the skies, leaving the nights black as pitch and even the zenith of day a dreary haze. The somber grays of the mist and sky are occasionally broken by heavy rains or strange, erratic weather events, while the more cursed regions are home to never-ending storms of vibrant hues. Some say even underground, cavernous spaces are occasionally host to strange weather phenomena.

This gloom only ever breaks over hallowed grounds or on mysterious, unpredictable days, revealing golden sunbeams or gossamer moonlight that grants esoteric boons (or curses) to those present. There are beliefs among the Enduring that the highest mountain peaks can pierce the gloom and offer new homelands free of turmoil.

Death Becomes a Curse

The places not protected by the Sacred Pyres are vulnerable to the Umbra, the flow of malevolent, unholy spirits that cling to lightless spaces. This amorphous necrotic energy courses through the Halcyon Domain like a dark wind, transient and with unknowable intelligence, as it calls to the souls of the dead like a mother to its children and draws them into its shape. The Umbra is a terrifying force of malice and corruption, a swirling, wailing black mist invoking delirium and despair at its threshold while physically corrupting and transforming the bodies of those that surrender to it.

Many of the horrifying monsters prowling these lands have been changed by the Umbra, leaving part of its ever-expanding mass within them like a foul seed, mutating the host and perpetuating its own cancerous expansion through wanton destruction and death. Those who live with the Umbra within them are but a shade of their former selves, taken to extreme emotion and fractured memory. Now twisted into an abominable form and warped with the features of others lost to the Umbra, these victims malevolently lash out at any pinprick of life and light. While whispers spread of those who have been cleansed of the Umbra’s touch, for most they remain just that—whispers.

The Rarity of Respite

Everywhere the gloom touches, danger lurks. Ancient evils thrive in this age of shadow, while warped spirits marked by the soul blight mingle and corrupt whatever they can subsume. Those who persist must seek the rare, scattered places of safety and respite: where a Sacred Pyre burns. These hallowed fires were lit by the waning conclave of Ordinants before they vanished, and their flames are one of the few wonders that keep the horrors of the Umbra at bay (see the upcoming “Campaign Mechanics” section).

The Enduring formed communities around many of these Pyres and kindle them daily for fear of them dying out, while smaller consecrated embers are said to persist undiscovered in distant places, in danger of going cold. But even still, the Enduring must take heed: not all evil is repelled by the Pyres’ flickering light.

The Shadow of Society

The Old World was one of grandiose castle fortresses, sprawling cityscapes, and imposing temples towering over the lush lands that surrounded them. However, the wrath of the Veiled Gods toppled much of that extravagance to ruin, the kingdoms and cabals that basked in opulence shattered and forgotten.

What remains is a ghost of what once was. Surviving remnants of the old ways struggle to reclaim a forgotten glory while most survivors lead grueling lives across the splintered communities of this broken realm. This tattered tapestry of heritage and history is fading with the light, yet the Enduring forge new culture through hardship, determination, and ambition, picking through the debris of what was in hopes of building what will be.

Magic Is Suspicious

In ancient times, the practice of Aetherweaving was paramount to the Halcyon Domain’s construction and prosperity. Yet, while rune-marked arms and enchanted relics of the Old World are considered boons by the surviving people of the Halcyon Domain, the Aetherweave is believed to be responsible for the wrath of the Veiled Gods, and thus the Age of Umbra.

Much of the world is now suffused in dark magic that saturates the wilds, chaotic and corrupting, wielded by those who worship the gloom of the new age or yield entirely to it. The superstitious disdain for spellcraft is pervasive within many communities, with tales of Aetherweaver hubris taught as fables to youth to dissuade them from such temptation. Places that harbor lingering fonts of magic are instinctively shunned and avoided by many. While Aetherweaving can be used to protect and preserve, it is deeply mistrusted in many social circles, leading to confrontation or exile if care is not taken.

The Inciting Incident

You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own.

Recently, one of Okros’s hunting bands, led by Huntmaster Evrados (ridgeborne giant, he/him), delved into the Shalk Chasm in search of resources. There, they stumbled upon an eroded, forgotten temple to an obscure Veiled God. The huntmaster was caught by a monster and dragged into the depths of the temple, and though the remaining three hunters sought to find him, a terrible odor forced them to withdraw out of fear and revulsion.

When the band returned to the settlement and shared the news, Elder Akadona (wanderborne orc, she/her) and the village speakers debated the best course of action. Their heated dispute was interrupted—by Evrados’s voice screaming for help from beyond the walls of the camp. Though scouts couldn’t see Evrados in the murky swamp, the hunting band left the light of the Pyre to rush to their huntmaster’s aid. The screams mercifully halted for a time.

Then the screams broke out again, Evrados’s lament joined by the wails of his hunters.

The denizens of Okros are now terrified, the unsettling din heightening their agitation and fear. The shrieking doesn’t change or wane over time, further exemplifying the unearthly nature of their cries. Desperate for an answer, Elder Akadona has gathered the party and requested that they investigate what happened to the huntmaster and his crew, seeking to save them if possible, and end their suffering if not.

The gates of the settlement are opened, revealing the forlorn willows and mist-choked wetland valley beyond. The party must investigate the source of these cries for help and attempt to recover Okros’s lost hunters. However, what monster is responsible, and how do they steal the voices of those missing? What is the monster’s connection to the uncovered temple, and if they recoil back into their lair, what dangers lie within? Are Huntmaster Evrados and his team beyond rescue? What other macabre revelations might require reaching out to another settlement?

Campaign Mechanics

The following mechanics are unique to this campaign.

The Strength of Hate

The Umbra can seep into all manner of beings, twisting them into a malformed mockery of their former selves instilled with preternatural strength.

Adversaries and environments in this campaign can gain an additional type called Umbra-Touched. When an adversary is Umbra-Touched, describe how the Umbra has warped their essence and form. All Umbra-Touched adversaries critically succeed on attacks against a PC on a die roll of 19–20.

As the PCs gain scars, they themselves become slowly corrupted by the Umbra. When a PC deals damage, they deal extra damage equal to their number of scars. When a PC marks their last Hope slot with a scar, they don’t retire, instead succumbing to the Umbra’s influence and charging forever into the dark to join the terrors that stalk lightless spaces.

Fiery Beacons

Every surviving settlement within the Halcyon Domain huddles around the relative safety of a Sacred Pyre, a vibrantly burning flame that is sparked by a Blessed Branch and continuously kindled by those given the mantle of Pyrekeeper. Blessed Branches are a rare and hallowed artifact carried as reliquaries by those who wish to expand the reach of the Enduring and found new encampments.

If the characters acquire a Blessed Branch, they can reignite an extinguished Sacred Pyre or create a new Sacred Pyre that stands as a bastion of warmth and safety.

Blessed Branch

An ashen relic from the Old World that carries a splinter of divinity. When ignited, all Enduring present gain 3 Hope, and the flame it emits repels all but the most powerful monsters from its immediate vicinity as long as it burns. Only a bit of kindling must be provided daily to maintain this slow-burning blaze.

Lurking Darkness

The Lurking Darkness represents the ever-present dangers of the Umbra. When the party finishes a short or long rest while not in the vicinity of a Sacred Pyre, roll a d12 for the Lurking Darkness and consult the following list:

1–2: Describe how something monstrous found them in the dark. An adversary of the GM’s choice initiates conflict.

3–5: Describe how something terrifying stalks nearby. You gain 2 Fear.

6–9: Describe how the imposing darkness intensifies. You gain a Fear.

10–11: Describe how the characters rest undisturbed. No effect.

12: Describe how the characters stumble upon a hopeful omen. Each PC gains a Hope.

With danger ever abounding, those who brave the shadowed wilds can keep watch in hopes of preventing the terrors of the Umbra from finding them. Parties have access to an additional downtime move:

Soul Blight

If a humanoid NPC or any PC dies, the GM can spend a Fear to immediately raise them as a Shambling Zombie—or 2 Fear to raise them as a Brawny Zombie—who tirelessly seeks to kill everyone they once cared for. Once their zombie form has been destroyed, the victim’s blighted soul withdraws and joins the Umbra. Their features can appear on future Umbra-Touched adversaries.

Session Zero Questions

Ask any of these questions to your players, or make your own.

• If members of the party hail from different communities, why did they leave, and what called them to this particular settlement? Do their home communities still exist? What rumors and mysteries surrounding or permeating their communities still linger in their minds?
• Are any characters burdened with burgeoning oracle sight? If so, what visions have begun to creep into their sleep?
• What do your characters see when they stare into the inky void of night too long?
• How deadly does the group wish this campaign to be? Would you enjoy a possible churn of many character deaths across a campaign, or do you want a more balanced flow where danger is real, but not stacked so hard against you?