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{{CampaignFrame
{{CampaignFrame
|CampaignFrameTitle=The Echo Below
|CampaignFrameTitle=The Stormsong Trals
|complexity=⏺
|complexity=⏺
|Complexity=⏺
|Complexity=⏺
|setting=Scorval Blight
|setting=Velkar Spires
|title=The Echo Below
|title=The Stormsong Trials
|system=Daggerheart
|system=Daggerheart
|levels=Level 1-2
|levels=Level 1-2
|length=5-6 Sessions
|length=5-6 Sessions
|author=Joe McMahon
|author=Joe McMahon
|hook=Track a conspiracy across fog-choked docks, echo-haunted roads, and mines where grief itself has teeth before the Core hums its final, fatal chord.
|hook=A caravan of wanderers, pilgrims, fugitives, and oath-bearers attempts to cross the storm-wracked Velkar Spires. When a resonance storm awakens ancient vows and fractures memory, the party finds refuge in a hidden monastery whose monks claim the storm has “chosen” them for a sacred trial.
|touchstones=Dark Souls, The Mist, True Detective, The Witcher, Annihilation, Wicker Man
|touchstones=Dark Souls, The Mist, True Detective, The Witcher, Annihilation, Wicker Man
|themes=<p></p>
|themes=<p></p>
* Conspiracy Beneath the Surface
* Endurance in the face of nature’s wrath
* Grief as Power and Weapon
* Faith vs. skepticism
* Choices Under Pressure
* Survival and sacrifice
* Community vs. Corruption
* The danger of zealotry
|toneandfeel= <p></p>Eerie, investigative, atmospheric, tense, gritty, foreboding, conspiracy-laden
|toneandfeel= <p></p>Harsh, introspective, mystical, dangerous; themes of vows, storms, memory, and endurance.
|pitch=A stolen Resonance Core has vanished into the fog-choked wilds of Scorval Blight, and its unstable energies have begun to rattle the coastline like a held breath ready to break. Whispers from Uled’s harbor factions point in every direction, but all of them agree on one thing: something beneath the land is waking. Echo-storms twist memory, griefglass bleeds old tragedies into new ones, and even the roads seem to hum with warnings no one wants to hear. As rival powers scramble to seize control of the Core, the heroes must navigate lies, sabotage, and echo-haunted ruins to uncover the truth. Each step north drags them closer to Baled, a town crushed by its own history, and to a mine where grief itself has grown teeth. If the Core reaches its final chord, the entire coast may be rewritten in violet light.
|overview=High in the Velkar Spires, travel is an act of faith. Caravans creep along rope-bridges and knife-edge paths, bound together by shared risk and unspoken promises. Storms roll through the peaks without warning, carrying strange resonance that unsettles memory and blurs the line between the natural and the sacred. Those who cross the Spires quickly learn that survival depends as much on trust and restraint as it does on strength or skill.
|overview=Velthuryn is a fractured world where the land itself seems to remember grief. Its skies are governed by Solivar, the copper-gold sun, and two moons whose crossings spark resonance storms that twist memory, voice, and oath. Across its continents, kingdoms rise and fall in the shadow of the Aethergrave, a continent-spanning wound where reality itself failed. Here, time falters, emotions manifest as storms, and griefglass grows from shattered cliffs, whispering with the voices of the dead.


Along the northern coasts lies Scorval Blight, a state where the Aethergrave gnaws openly at land and sea. Resonance storms roll down from the Verge like tempests of sorrow, shattering stone into glittering griefglass and seeding paranoia wherever shards are carried. To local cults, this devastation is scripture, each thunderclap a hymn and each cliff-fall a verse. For the people who must live in its shadow, however, the corruption is not divine but deadly, a constant pressure threatening to swallow entire towns.
The Stormsong Trials place the characters within this fragile web of passage and belief. They are not heroes arriving to fix a problem, nor pilgrims who fully understand the rites they brush against. Instead, they are travelers caught at a threshold, exposed to a place where vows linger in the air and intention matters more than reputation. The mountains listen, and what they hear is not always spoken aloud.


It is here, in the vicinity of Uled and Baled, that the tragedy of recent years unfolds. Uled, a fog-choked harbor town, survives on smuggling, wardenship, and uneasy alliances, while Baled was once a proud mining settlement feeding griefglass and ore into the Concord’s coffers. Now, both are scarred. Whispers spread of children vanishing in the night, their boots left neatly by the hearth or chapel fire. Some claim they ran off toward the mines, drawn by voices only they could hear. Others insist they were taken by the skittering, grief-touched creatures now seen prowling the streets and markets.  
As the journey continues, the tone shifts from immediate danger to quiet unease. Shelter does not mean safety, and sanctuary does not mean absolution. The characters are observed, weighed, and invited to reflect—sometimes subtly, sometimes uncomfortably—on what they carry with them. Faith here is not uniform, and conviction takes many forms, from compassion to zeal, from patience to ruthless certainty.
Shipments vanish in the night, reliquary bells falter into silence, and fissures yawn open where miners once worked. Rumors ripple through taverns and temples alike: some say smugglers are bleeding the towns dry, others whisper that the mine itself is waking, calling the cargo back into the earth.
 
The Stormsong Trials are ultimately about endurance: of identity, of belief, and of connection. The campaign asks who the characters are when stripped of momentum and forced to remain still beneath a listening sky. What matters is not what the storm will do, but what the characters choose to hold onto when the wind refuses to pass them by.
|player_principles = <p></p><h4>You Are Not Here to Win, You Are Here to Endure</h4>
Approach challenges with the understanding that survival, growth, and meaning matter more than dominance or perfection. Success is defined by what your character preserves, changes, or lets go of, not by clean victories.
<h4>Silence and Stillness Are Also Actions</h4>
Not every important moment is loud or violent. Reflection, restraint, and choosing not to act can be as meaningful as bold intervention. Give space for quiet decisions to carry weight.
<h4>Trust Is a Choice, Not a Given</h4>
Cooperation keeps you alive, but trust must be earned and maintained. Let relationships between characters evolve under pressure, shaped by shared risk, disagreement, and moments of reliance.
<h4>Lean Into the Storm, Not Away From It</h4>
When danger, doubt, or uncertainty arises, engage it directly. Hesitation, fear, and failure are part of the story and often lead to richer consequences rather than dead ends.


The people of Scorval live with a shared wound: the sense that the land judges them, that every broken oath echoes into storm and stone. In this atmosphere of grief and suspicion, the missing Concord crates, marked SG-Δ, bound for Baled, are more than stolen cargo. They are a spark on the edge of catastrophe, proof that sabotage and resonance are converging. When the adventurers arrive in Uled, they find themselves thrust into the heart of this conspiracy, accused of complicity even as they struggle to prove otherwise. From there, the path winds only deeper into the Echo Below. At the campaign’s climax, the saboteur stands revealed, one of several possible suspects, and the mine itself becomes the stage for a choice: destroy the Core, harness it, or let it reshape the world.
|player_principles = <p></p>
<h4>Share discoveries</h4>
Investigations succeed when everyone compares notes.
<h4>Embrace vulnerability</h4>
Echo-storms and griefglass visions reward those who open themselves to risk.
<h4>Rotate the spotlight</h4>
Every faction, clue, and danger matters more when all voices are heard.
|gm_principles=<p></p>
|gm_principles=<p></p>
<h4>Keep clocks visible</h4>Villain progress and Heat should always be in play. Then show Detonation when party discovers the mine connection.
<h4>Let the Storm Speak Before It Strikes</h4>Use atmosphere, omen, and whispered implication before escalating to action. Storms, environments, and NPCs should foreshadow danger and consequence, giving players time to feel tension and choose how they respond.
<h4>Escalate noise and chaos</h4>
<h4>Advance the World Through Consequence</h4>
Every loud move ripples into consequences.
When players roll with Fear or make imperfect choices, move the situation forward instead of stopping it. Escalate pressure, reveal costs, or shift the terrain—never negate player intent outright.
<h4>Show faction responses</h4>
<h4>Spotlight Vows, Not Just Abilities</h4>
Every success or failure changes attitudes in Uled, Baled, and beyond.
Frame scenes so characters’ beliefs, promises, and relationships are as relevant as their skills. Ask questions that invite players to define what their characters are willing to risk or sacrifice in the moment.
<h4>Lean into eerie sensory detail</h4>
<h4>Keep Threats Multi-Directional</h4>
Whispers, doubled echoes, violet light - make resonance and griefglass feel alive.
Design scenes with overlapping pressures—environmental hazards, social tension, moral strain—so every character has meaningful ways to engage. Avoid single-solution problems or “correct” paths.
|distinctions=<h4>Griefglass</h4>
|distinctions=<h4>The Storm Is an Active Presence</h4>
A mineral infused with grief and resonance. Shards whisper memories, dust corrupts lungs, veins glow violet in the mines. Both clue and hazard.
In this campaign, the storm is treated as a participant rather than a backdrop. Wind, lightning, and resonance are used to frame scenes, heighten tension, and guide attention, often reacting to what the characters say, believe, or hesitate to do. The weather carries implication and judgment before it ever becomes overtly dangerous, creating a sense that the environment is listening and responding. This approach reinforces the feeling that the world is not indifferent and that survival depends on awareness as much as action.
<h4>Echo-Storms</h4> Weather and soundscapes warped by resonance, rewarding risk but sowing Fear.
<h4>Vows Are Narrative Currency</h4>
<h4>Factions in Shadow</h4> Every group points blame elsewhere, planting false leads as suspicion mounts.
Promises, oaths, and personal codes function as a form of narrative weight that shapes how the story unfolds. Characters are not rewarded simply for making vows, but for living with them, struggling against them, or choosing when to uphold or abandon them. NPCs, institutions, and even places respond differently depending on how a character treats their obligations. Over time, these commitments become a quiet measure of identity, influencing trust, pressure, and consequence without needing to be tracked as a separate mechanic.
|inciting_incident =In Uled’s fog-choked harbor, crates bearing government seals, shipments bound for Baled vanish overnight. Mooring ropes hang cut clean, violet dust clings to the cobbles, and dockhands whisper that the cargo was either stolen… or called back by the mine itself.
|classes =<p>No class is advantaged/disadvantaged mechanically in The Stormsong Trials. Instead, different classes experience different kinds of spotlight</p><h4>Bard</h4>Bards thrive in this campaign’s emphasis on vows, spoken truth, and emotional resonance. Their ability to influence tone, morale, and meaning gives them strong narrative leverage in social scenes and quiet moments of tension. Wordsmith-style play in particular aligns well with storms that listen and environments that respond to intent.
<h4>Druid</h4>Druids are well positioned to interpret the living environment of the Velkar Spires. Storms, stone, wind, and resonance all fall within their conceptual reach, giving them insight into dangers and shifts others may miss. Their connection to natural forces provides grounding in a setting where the environment is active and communicative.
<h4>Rogue</h4>Rogues excel at navigation, positioning, and survival, but deception and secrecy can carry heightened consequences in a campaign where trust is fragile and observation is constant. Rogues gain spotlight through risk and timing rather than manipulation alone, which can deepen character tension.
<h4>Wizard/Sorcerer</h4>Wizards and Sorcerers bring powerful tools for understanding resonance, memory, and magical phenomena. However, knowledge in this campaign often creates responsibility rather than control, and answers can complicate situations instead of resolving them. The wizard/sorcerer frequently knows more than is comfortable, and must decide what truths are safe to reveal.
|ancestries = <p>Some Daggerheart ancestries that may experience notable advantages, pressures, or thematic friction in The Stormsong Trials. As with classes, this is not about mechanical imbalance, but about how the fiction of the Velkar Spires engages different ancestries</p><h4>Human</h4>Humans fit seamlessly into the social fabric of the caravan and monastery culture. Their adaptability and broad cultural presence make them easy to position as pilgrims, guards, scholars, or wanderers without friction.
<h4>Elf</h4>Elves’ long memory and cultural relationship to history, oaths, and endurance resonate strongly with the campaign’s themes. They are often treated as figures of quiet authority or scrutiny in places that value patience and reflection.
<h4>Infernis</h4>Infernis stand out sharply in a setting that interprets natural forces as sacred signs. Their elemental nature may draw fear, fascination, or theological tension from those who see fire and passion as disruptive.
<h4>Simiah</h4>Simiah are exceptionally well suited to the physical dangers of the Spires. Rope-bridges, vertical travel, and precarious footing are all spaces where they naturally excel.
|communities = <p></p>All Daggerheart communities are available for this campaign
|session_zero_qs=<p></p>While creating the Daggerheart characters for this adventure during a session zero, use the following questions to help tie them to the area, the campaign, or the tragedy.
* What promise or obligation follows your character into the Velkar Spires, even though they wish it would not?
This can be a vow, debt, belief, or expectation placed on them by someone else.


When the adventurers arrive, the timing proves too convenient. A dockhand swears he saw strangers near the cargo road at dawn, and the rumor spreads faster than gulls over the tide. The Hollowbound Wardens, already stretched thin, seize on the newcomers as easy scapegoats. Lanterns are raised, chains rattle across the pier, and an officer steps forward with accusations sharp enough to cut the mist.
* Who on the caravan does your character already trust, and why does that trust feel dangerous here?
Trust can be earned, assumed, or forced by circumstance.


The crowd murmurs with suspicion: some believe the heroes might be smugglers in disguise, others that they’ve been sent by a rival faction to cover tracks. The local smuggler captain and the Cradlekeepers’ priests offer only half-truths and evasions. From the first moment in Uled, the adventurers are forced to defend their names or dive headlong into the mystery to prove the blame lies elsewhere.
* When the storm listens, what truth does your character fear it might repeat aloud?
|classes =<p>All Daggerheart classes are available for this campaign</p>
This can be a doubt, regret, or unresolved choice.
|ancestries = <p></p>All Daggerheart ancestries are available for this campaign
 
|communities = <p></p>All Daggerheart communities are available for this campaign
* What would make your character choose endurance over escape when things become unbearable?
|session_zero_qs=<p></p>While creating the Daggerheart characters for this adventure during a session zero, use the following questions to help tie them to the area, the campaign, or the tragedy.
Name the line they will not cross, even if leaving would be easier.
* Who in Uled trusts you, and who suspects you?
 
* What grief ties you to the area’s tragedy?
* What does your character believe a true trial is meant to reveal about a person?
* What dream or memory do you fear the griefglass will steal from you?
Strength, faith, guilt, loyalty, or something else entirely.
* When the Wardens conscripted you for this task, what debt or promise forced your hand?
* What debt, secret, or favor binds you to one of Uled’s factions: Wardens, Reliquary, Smugglers, or Cradlekeepers?
* When the reliquary bells fell quiet, what omen or echo did you hear that no one else admits to, and why have you kept it secret?
}}
}}

Revision as of 13:10, 28 December 2025

The Stormsong Trials

A caravan of wanderers, pilgrims, fugitives, and oath-bearers attempts to cross the storm-wracked Velkar Spires. When a resonance storm awakens ancient vows and fractures memory, the party finds refuge in a hidden monastery whose monks claim the storm has “chosen” them for a sacred trial.

By: Joe McMahon
System: Daggerheart
Complexity: ⏺
Setting: Velkar Spires

Tone & Feel

Harsh, introspective, mystical, dangerous; themes of vows, storms, memory, and endurance.
Themes

  • Endurance in the face of nature’s wrath
  • Faith vs. skepticism
  • Survival and sacrifice
  • The danger of zealotry
Touchstones
Dark Souls, The Mist, True Detective, The Witcher, Annihilation, Wicker Man

Overview

If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.
High in the Velkar Spires, travel is an act of faith. Caravans creep along rope-bridges and knife-edge paths, bound together by shared risk and unspoken promises. Storms roll through the peaks without warning, carrying strange resonance that unsettles memory and blurs the line between the natural and the sacred. Those who cross the Spires quickly learn that survival depends as much on trust and restraint as it does on strength or skill.

The Stormsong Trials place the characters within this fragile web of passage and belief. They are not heroes arriving to fix a problem, nor pilgrims who fully understand the rites they brush against. Instead, they are travelers caught at a threshold, exposed to a place where vows linger in the air and intention matters more than reputation. The mountains listen, and what they hear is not always spoken aloud.

As the journey continues, the tone shifts from immediate danger to quiet unease. Shelter does not mean safety, and sanctuary does not mean absolution. The characters are observed, weighed, and invited to reflect—sometimes subtly, sometimes uncomfortably—on what they carry with them. Faith here is not uniform, and conviction takes many forms, from compassion to zeal, from patience to ruthless certainty.

The Stormsong Trials are ultimately about endurance: of identity, of belief, and of connection. The campaign asks who the characters are when stripped of momentum and forced to remain still beneath a listening sky. What matters is not what the storm will do, but what the characters choose to hold onto when the wind refuses to pass them by.

Communities

All Daggerheart communities are available for this campaign

Ancestries

Some Daggerheart ancestries that may experience notable advantages, pressures, or thematic friction in The Stormsong Trials. As with classes, this is not about mechanical imbalance, but about how the fiction of the Velkar Spires engages different ancestries

Human

Humans fit seamlessly into the social fabric of the caravan and monastery culture. Their adaptability and broad cultural presence make them easy to position as pilgrims, guards, scholars, or wanderers without friction.

Elf

Elves’ long memory and cultural relationship to history, oaths, and endurance resonate strongly with the campaign’s themes. They are often treated as figures of quiet authority or scrutiny in places that value patience and reflection.

Infernis

Infernis stand out sharply in a setting that interprets natural forces as sacred signs. Their elemental nature may draw fear, fascination, or theological tension from those who see fire and passion as disruptive.

Simiah

Simiah are exceptionally well suited to the physical dangers of the Spires. Rope-bridges, vertical travel, and precarious footing are all spaces where they naturally excel.

Classes

No class is advantaged/disadvantaged mechanically in The Stormsong Trials. Instead, different classes experience different kinds of spotlight

Bard

Bards thrive in this campaign’s emphasis on vows, spoken truth, and emotional resonance. Their ability to influence tone, morale, and meaning gives them strong narrative leverage in social scenes and quiet moments of tension. Wordsmith-style play in particular aligns well with storms that listen and environments that respond to intent.

Druid

Druids are well positioned to interpret the living environment of the Velkar Spires. Storms, stone, wind, and resonance all fall within their conceptual reach, giving them insight into dangers and shifts others may miss. Their connection to natural forces provides grounding in a setting where the environment is active and communicative.

Rogue

Rogues excel at navigation, positioning, and survival, but deception and secrecy can carry heightened consequences in a campaign where trust is fragile and observation is constant. Rogues gain spotlight through risk and timing rather than manipulation alone, which can deepen character tension.

Wizard/Sorcerer

Wizards and Sorcerers bring powerful tools for understanding resonance, memory, and magical phenomena. However, knowledge in this campaign often creates responsibility rather than control, and answers can complicate situations instead of resolving them. The wizard/sorcerer frequently knows more than is comfortable, and must decide what truths are safe to reveal.

Player Principles

You Are Not Here to Win, You Are Here to Endure

Approach challenges with the understanding that survival, growth, and meaning matter more than dominance or perfection. Success is defined by what your character preserves, changes, or lets go of, not by clean victories.

Silence and Stillness Are Also Actions

Not every important moment is loud or violent. Reflection, restraint, and choosing not to act can be as meaningful as bold intervention. Give space for quiet decisions to carry weight.

Trust Is a Choice, Not a Given

Cooperation keeps you alive, but trust must be earned and maintained. Let relationships between characters evolve under pressure, shaped by shared risk, disagreement, and moments of reliance.

Lean Into the Storm, Not Away From It

When danger, doubt, or uncertainty arises, engage it directly. Hesitation, fear, and failure are part of the story and often lead to richer consequences rather than dead ends.

GM Principles

Let the Storm Speak Before It Strikes

Use atmosphere, omen, and whispered implication before escalating to action. Storms, environments, and NPCs should foreshadow danger and consequence, giving players time to feel tension and choose how they respond.

Advance the World Through Consequence

When players roll with Fear or make imperfect choices, move the situation forward instead of stopping it. Escalate pressure, reveal costs, or shift the terrain—never negate player intent outright.

Spotlight Vows, Not Just Abilities

Frame scenes so characters’ beliefs, promises, and relationships are as relevant as their skills. Ask questions that invite players to define what their characters are willing to risk or sacrifice in the moment.

Keep Threats Multi-Directional

Design scenes with overlapping pressures—environmental hazards, social tension, moral strain—so every character has meaningful ways to engage. Avoid single-solution problems or “correct” paths.

Distinctions

The Storm Is an Active Presence

In this campaign, the storm is treated as a participant rather than a backdrop. Wind, lightning, and resonance are used to frame scenes, heighten tension, and guide attention, often reacting to what the characters say, believe, or hesitate to do. The weather carries implication and judgment before it ever becomes overtly dangerous, creating a sense that the environment is listening and responding. This approach reinforces the feeling that the world is not indifferent and that survival depends on awareness as much as action.

Vows Are Narrative Currency

Promises, oaths, and personal codes function as a form of narrative weight that shapes how the story unfolds. Characters are not rewarded simply for making vows, but for living with them, struggling against them, or choosing when to uphold or abandon them. NPCs, institutions, and even places respond differently depending on how a character treats their obligations. Over time, these commitments become a quiet measure of identity, influencing trust, pressure, and consequence without needing to be tracked as a separate mechanic.

Session Zero Questions

While creating the Daggerheart characters for this adventure during a session zero, use the following questions to help tie them to the area, the campaign, or the tragedy.
  • What promise or obligation follows your character into the Velkar Spires, even though they wish it would not?

This can be a vow, debt, belief, or expectation placed on them by someone else.

  • Who on the caravan does your character already trust, and why does that trust feel dangerous here?

Trust can be earned, assumed, or forced by circumstance.

  • When the storm listens, what truth does your character fear it might repeat aloud?

This can be a doubt, regret, or unresolved choice.

  • What would make your character choose endurance over escape when things become unbearable?

Name the line they will not cross, even if leaving would be easier.

  • What does your character believe a true trial is meant to reveal about a person?

Strength, faith, guilt, loyalty, or something else entirely.

Campaign Frame


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