GM Guide

This guide provides principles for running the game, the inciting incident to kick off the campaign, and unique mechanics.

GM Principles

Paint the World in Contrast

Subvert expectations by giving space for the nightmarish to charm and the beautiful to terrify. Give the PCs visions of the natural beauty of Fanewick that has run roughshod across the region, breaking the bounds of the bogs and forests and devastating homes and communities. Show the grim and ordered life behind Haven’s walls, but also show the culture, art, and progress that has come out of centuries of safety. Contrast the capricious nature of the Faint Divinities with the devotion of the Wicklings and Havenites fighting to save their home. In a place of long nights and days, dual seasons, and two nations in conflict, look for ways to highlight bold dualities.

Show Them True Danger

Though it may be tragic, bodily harm is not the worst tragedy that can befall the characters. To illustrate what’s truly at stake, use the PCs’ origins in Fanewick or Haven to show them what they stand to lose, be it their homes, family, friends, communities, or even their core truths and beliefs. The events of this campaign may change, threaten, or destroy these aspects of their past—when your players create and are invested in their character’s backstory, they have something to fight for.

Offer Alternatives to Violence

By illuminating nonviolent approaches to problem-solving, the PCs can help break the brutal cycle that binds this world. For example, showing compassion—rather than swordpoint— to a corrupted beast can free them from the Witherwild. Similarly, the conflict between Haven and Fanewick shouldn’t only be solved with blood and blade. What threatens both could also unify them. Give the PCs opportunities to mend old wounds, right past wrongs, and heal the rift between Haven and Fanewick from within.

Create Multidimensional Allies and Adversaries

No adversary or ally is all good or all bad, and they each have multidimensional lives. Even the most congenial ally should be hiding darkness inside them, hoping their failings will go undiscovered. Those painted as evil should sometimes do the right thing, even if it’s for the wrong reason. Just because a PC or NPC is from Haven doesn’t make them a villain, and, conversely, not all the inhabitants of Fanewick are virtuous. Finding the nuance, complications, and deeper motivations of the people of Haven and Fanewick will lead to richer interactions, more complex moral choices, and a deeper sense of attachment to the world for the players.

The Inciting Incident

The Reaping Eye is stowed in a secure vault beneath the central tower of Haven’s wizarding school, seemingly impossible to recover. A secretive and dangerous rebel group, led by a mysterious figure known only as the Fanewraith (she/her), has hatched a plan to end the curse of the Witherwild: find the Great Owl, Nikta, and pluck out the Sowing Eye. While this may solve the immediate problem, the long-term consequences are not being considered, just as they weren’t when Haven invaded.

Haven’s beleaguered spymaster, Kreil Dirn (he/him), is not a popular person in Haven. He is responsible for rooting out insurgents, stopping schemes before they have a chance to start, and keeping a close watch on Haven’s internal activities. Kreil has never agreed—at least not openly—with Archmage Phylax’s (they/them) decision to steal the Reaping Eye, and the consequences they’ve all paid for that decision have been grimly vindicating.

Recently, Kreil uncovered the Fanewraith’s plot and is horrified by the possibility of her success. Knowing he can’t send a troop of Haven soldiers deep into the woods to hunt down and stop the Fanewraith from stealing the Sowing Eye, Kreil uses his vast network of informants and spies to find a group of adventurers who can bring the Fanewraith to swift justice.

The party is sent an invitation from Haven to meet with Kreil. But is his information correct? Does he have his own motivation or secret ambition? Whether they come from Fanewick or Haven, the party must extend some trust to a person who is equally as dangerous and mercurial as the “enemy” they pursue. And what will they do when they find the Fanewraith? Bring her to justice? Side with her? Attempt to recover the Reaping Eye?

Kreil advises the party to start their hunt for the Fanewraith in the treetop village of Alula, where he suspects she runs her operation.

Campaign Mechanics

Corruption from the Witherwild

Adversaries and environments in this campaign can gain an additional type called Withered. When an adversary is Withered, describe how the Witherwild changed or impacted how they would normally appear or operate. You also need about 20 Wither tokens (these can be the same as the tokens you use for Fear).

Any time a PC takes Severe damage from a Withered adversary or environment, gain a Wither token and place it on that PC’s character sheet. When you do, the PC must roll their Fear Die. If they roll equal to or below the number of Wither tokens on their sheet, they immediately gain a scar and clear all tokens, describing how the Witherwild changes them permanently.

At the end of each session, clear all Wither tokens from the PCs’ sheets and gain an equal amount of Fear. If a character ever dies with Wither tokens on their sheet, their body is permanently taken over by the Witherwild.