Return From Highgrave: FREE 5e Compatible 7 Session Dark Souls-esque Campaign Sourcebook with DnD Battlemaps (teaser, subscribe for the full package in January!)
Items, Foundry VTT Modules, Printable Battlemaps & 2 Campaign Sourcebook .PDFs (5e & System Agnostic) Will Be Released January 2026 for Premium Members.
What’s Included for Free Below:
7 ready-to-run sessions for an entire campaign.
3 VTT importable battlemaps for the campaign’s encounters, painted especially for this and designed with player tactics in mind by an experienced GM.
An instrumental soundtrack of 14 songs, sorted into playlists by theme (Town & Tavern, Exploration, Combat, Boss Battle, ect) that you can loop while gaming, to help bring Highgrave to life.
$3USD Upgrades:
Download this campaign sourcebook as 2 illustrated .PDFs; one 5e compatible, the other completely system agnostic.
Download all the 7 battlemaps for the campaign Foundry VTT ready with walls, lighting, and sounds already done.
Get all the 7 battlemaps ready for easy, to-scale printing at home on A4 pages, or professionally as A1-A0 posters.
Download all 7+ new monsters as 2D tokens
Download the 13 songs from the OST as an organized folder of MP3 files.
Download the last 2 campaign sourcebooks with battlemaps as 5e compatible, and system agnostic.
At the end of each month, I post the free version of the next month’s campaign in advance. This way, you can cancel your membership before being charged if you don’t think you’d use the content.
My wife and I’s gratitude; your support tells us this is the kind of content you want to see more of.
Become a Reaper of Lore member for $3USD today (or join a higher tier for 50-100 extra battlemaps monthly) and make your life as a GM super easy!
Return from Highgrave is a Dark Souls inspired resurrection arc, designed to be played immediately after a total party wipe; bringing fallen heroes back to life in a way that feels like a natural extension of your campaign.
Your players awaken drowning in a river that runs with blood, claw their way onto the shore, and step into Highgrave: a cursed realm between life and death, where time doesn’t move, gravestones bear names with tallies, and dying again carries a fate worse than oblivion.
Guided to the fortress of Last Light and the blind seer Veleda, the party learns the truth: their defeat wasn’t the end… only the next step in their fates.
To return to the living world, they must cross ruined towers, bloodied arenas, and broken bridges toward the Gravelord’s Bloodwell, where resurrection is earned at a terrible price.
Come back wrong.
Come back marked.
But come back… because the world still needs you, and the alternative is far worse.
Campaign Hook:
As each player dies, their vision fades to black until there is nothing. No sound, no light… only the eternal abyss. Yet, as a blessing, or, perhaps, a curse, has taken hold on the players, they wake, naked, beneath watery depths. They’re drowning, red liquid blurring their sight as they struggle towards the shallows in the distance. Pulling themselves from a river of blood onto the rocky edge, their lungs heave and they cough water; gasping for breath. Blinking, the river behind them changes color to a murky brown, as if its bloody visage from before was but an illusion.
A bonfire just beyond the river edges blinds them momentarily, and a dark figure appears above them wearing a torn cloak and tarnished armor, a large sack slung over his shoulders. “So, Veleda was right.” The figure scoffs.
“Take your time, it’s a long trek back to Last Light and you’re going to need your strength.” The figure kneels to help one of the players up, revealing himself as a young man in his early twenties, with short brown hair and a clean shaven face. If the players ask who the figure is, he responds “Name’s Falgrid. I’ve been waiting by this river for quite a while for you.” If the players ask what he means, Falgrid gives a wry smile “Veleda saw your coming, says you're important but couldn’t be specific about when you’d arrive. It’s been six months, or what feels like it… I was starting to give up hope. Shame me for not believing her.”
Falgrid shakes his head “Come… come to the fire, get warm. Here's some clothes.” Falgrid empties the sack in front of the players, revealing what looks to be rags, and looking away shyly. Warming up by the fire, if the players ask where they are, Falgrid looks around sweeping his arms about “This is Highgrave, or that’s what they call it. Veleda says it’s a place between life and death, but I can’t personally make sense of it.” He says with a brave smile “All I know is that it’s best to stay out of trouble, for despite death being what got us here, death is still in fact on the table.” Falgrid looks down towards the ground briefly. “I know that all too well…”
If the players ask about what he means, he gives another wry smile and says “Don’t worry about that right now, we need to get you ready for the trek to the encampment.” Shuffling backwards he plunges into the small tent behind him and with a muffled voice says “Veleda said I needed to bring you something for when you arrive. We all arrive naked to Highgrave and that’s not really conducive to survival here, so I’ve got this for you” Exiting the tent Falgrid presents an assortment of ragged, rusty armor and tarnished weapons. “It’s not a lot, but it will do you till we get back to Last Light”.
If the player’s ask about Veleda, Falgrid explains “She’s a seer and the de facto leader of Last Light I suppose, without her none of us would have survived, or it at least feels that way.”
GM’s Notes: The players may choose from any basic armor and weapons that would suit their character supplied by Falgrid.
Once the players have readied themselves, Falgrid suggests they head off, “It’s two rests to Last Light.” If the players ask what Falgrid means by ‘rests’, he rubs his head “Sorry, force of habit. There aren’t days in Highgrave, the beautiful overcast gloom and faint stars you see, that’s it. No dawn, no dusk, so we don’t use the word day to describe a set period of time, instead using ‘Rests’. It can be hard to keep track of time because of this, and while we have better methods of time keeping back at Last Light, we do not have those in the wilderness.”
The players following Falgrid through the forest along the river’s edge eventually reach an old ruined road, which they then begin following. On the journey Falgrid tries to answer the players questions about Highgrave to the best of his ability, but he’s not expert about the complicated ways in which it works.
60x40 Highgrave Flooded Wilderness Bridge (Free VTT Resolution Map)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
On the second rest travelling towards Last Light, the players reach a bridge spanning a river. In the distance the players can see a huge 16ft tall creature standing on top of it. The creature is covered in rag-like clothes, with lanky legs and multiple arms ending in sharp claws with a fleshy beak and no eyes. It’s carrying what looks to be a fishing pole, which it has enthusiastically cast out into the river.
Falgrid holds the players back, motioning them to get down behind some nearby bushes. “It’s a Terrorgull.” He says “It’s one of the natives to Highgrave; grumpy, greedy, but they can be amenable to negotiation if you have the right trade goods. Unfortunately, we do not have those. Which leaves us two options. We take the long way, head up river to the next bridge which will add another day to our journey, or we deal with the Gull.”
If the players ask why they can’t just swim across the river, instead of using a bridge, Falgrid explains “It’s kinda complicated, happy to explain later but we really need a plan of action now.”
The Terrorgull suddenly pulls the fishing rod hard, laughing in a high pitched bird-like voice unbefitting of its towering stature “Got one!”. If the players ask what the Terrorgull is fishing for, Falgrid gives a grimace “People.” The Terrorgull winds in the fishing rod, revealing a screaming man from the water’s depths. “Where am I!?!?” The man screams, hanging upside down from the Terrorgull’s line.
The Terrorgul reels the line in till it can pick up the line from the rod, holding the hanging man by the line close to its mouth inspecting him. “Mmmmm, a fat one, very nice, very nice. What a tasty morsel you’ll make!” The Terrorgull screeches. “What… what, are you…?” the man's voice can be heard trembling in a thick accent.
If the players decide to attack at this moment, they arrive just in time to stop the Terrorgull who is busy harassing the man, from devouring him. If the players however decide not to attack, after a couple of minutes the Gull becomes bored with his meal, and gobbles him up in one piece, before throwing his fishing rod’s line back in the river.
The Terrorgull is a difficult fight, but its size makes it clumsy, and despite its multiple claws allowing it to make many attacks, its ragged clothes barely protect it. When it’s close to death, it stops fighting and begs for its life. Falgrid assists in the fight with a shortsword and a buckler.
If the players managed to save the man from the Terrorgull, he’s sobbing uncontrollably on the ground, his legs still tied in the fishing line. When he finally calms, Falgrim cuts his binds (if not done already) and throws his cloak to him to cover himself up. “We should keep moving.” Falgrim says, getting ready to leave. “What… What about me?” the sniveling man says, to which Falgrim responds with “Join us, if you can keep up.” The man scrabbles to his feet, draping the cloak around him as best he can. As everyone begins walking, the man slowly slinks up behind one of the larger players begging for his clothes. “This cloak barely covers me, I deserve better than this, give me your clothes! I am Ali, merchant prince of the red sands you know! Treat me well and you will be rewarded, this I can promise you!” If he’s rebuffed by the player, he eyes the player off rudely but resigns to walking behind everyone.
If the players end up asking more questions to Falgrid about why they couldn’t just swim through the water, he shakes his head “The waters are intricately connected to Highgrave, it’s where souls are born into this world, like you were. Veleda says for this reason we should steer clear of them as well as we can… I’ve tried to get more information out of her about why before, but she just says that the path to damnation lies beneath the waves. Whatever that means. Sometimes she can be all sorts of cryptic, but she’s the seer and I’m not. Heh.”
On the final stretch to Last Light the players begin noticing more and more gravestones as the forest begins to thin out and they’re more easy to see. Each grave has their own unique name on it, some have marks resembling tallies but most have none. Falgrid explains that “Each soul that enters Highgrave has a corresponding gravestone. Each of you will have one somewhere out there with your names on them. The marks, well, they’re tallies for souls slain while in Highgrave.”
“So, I haven’t explained this before fully. If you die here, you still don't quite die, you’ll be reborn again, but your soul will have been lost to the Gravelord. We call them ‘Lost’, those without souls; sorrowful walking corpses, dangerous in time, and completely unpredictable. Anyway, killing someone who still has a soul will add to your tally, killing a Lost will not. In addition, when you kill someone with a tally, you inherit their tally.”
Falgrid continues “Veleda says it’s just a rumor, but some say that if you acquire a high enough tally the Gravelord himself will resurrect you. It’s a rumor that has spawned a number of murders, so it’s kind of frowned upon to talk about. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
Heading uphill, the players finally breach the forest and Last Light is revealed. A massive, stoic fortress built into a rocky outcropping overlooking a cliff at the hill’s peak, with a ruined town surrounding it. Approaching the fortress players can see a vast city in the distance, shrouded in mist with stone towers poking through.
“Welcome to Last Light.” Falgrid says. He waves to the guards at the gate and they open the portcullis, granting entry. The players pass through a courtyard with a diversity of women and men who are carting water from a well, and goods from a store house. Children are giggling and playing games, running up the ramparts, and as the players follow Falgrid down a main thoroughfare they can hear blacksmiths working on their anvils.
While walking through the town, if the players ask Falgrid about how many people live here, he replies with a smile “Almost 3,000 souls. You don’t age here, so no one dies of old age in Highgrave, but at the same time you can’t reproduce. Everyone's infertile. Numbers rise and fall as others are saved from the rivers, or die during excursions looking for food or supplies.”
If the players ask if there are any other settlements in Highgrave Falgrid frowns slightly “No… Veleda says Last Light was once home to thousands but it was betrayed by her close friend, Akane. She rebuilt it and started anew afterwards, turning it into what it is today. Everyone here owes her a debt of thanks.
If the players ask how, if she's a seer, how couldn’t she see that her closest friend was going to betray her, Falgrid responds. He is clearly saddened “...Unfortunately, I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t work that way…”
Falgrid leaves Ali at a tavern, where he explains they’ll give him food and some new clothes before he’s required to earn his keep Then he encourages the players to follow him. After a few minutes of walking up many sets of stairs, the players reach the peak of Last Light where a crumbling archway sits, its entrance obscured by a ragged hanging cloth. Falgrid motions for the players to enter. Pushing through the players, they find a woman no older than 25 sitting at the edge of the fortress, amongst a multitude of colorful rugs and patched cushions overlooking the ruined city beyond. She’s dressed in black loose cloth and a bandage is wrapped around her head, covering her eyes. “Please sit.” She motions with her hand “I have been waiting for you for quite a while”.
“I feel like I have met each and every one of you, and yet, you don’t know me at all.” Veleda says with a smile, and a tone which would suggest an older soul despite her appearance. “Now please sit,” she gently pats the pillows around her.
If the players ask Veleda about her seeing their coming, she explains “I was a seer in life and so am I in death, but I only see what I am meant to see, that which is important.” She looks to stare up towards the sky despite her bandaged eyes. “I will not be born for two hundred years and in that time your tale will have been told over at least that many.”
If the players ask her what she’s talking about she responds “Highgrave is without time, those who find themselves here come from what could be the past or the future. The natural laws do not apply here, should you not have found yourself dead? And yet you live, yes?
“Well I am from what for you would be considered your future, two hundred years from the time of your great victory, a crucial point where, if you had faltered, it could have meant the destruction of the world.”
If the players question her about them already having lost and died she stops looking at the stars, and focuses on their faces “Or perhaps it is but a step on your path. While Highgrave is the end of the journey for many, for you it is but another beginning.”
“There is a way out of Highgrave. To return to the material realm, and although it is a journey, it is one you must make for all of our sake.” In the vast distance the players can see the city of crumbling towers and mist better than before and now towards the horizon a towering black tower with a vortex of bloody energy swirling at its peak.
“The Gravelord’s Bloodwell and the center of Highgrave. It is there you will find salvation. My people will do what we can to aid you on your journey, but for you to succeed, you must take with you the woman of raven hair whom you encounter on your travels. You shall journey across The Great Lake, via the Amphitheater of the Bloody Three, scale the heights of the Towers of Ruin, and face the Knight of the Rose. After which, you must head through the city gates, onto the broken bridges which span the ring around the Great Tower. It will be in the Great Tower, amongst the Bloodwell, where you will find the Champion of the Gravelord. He who waits at the Well bears a burden heavier than betrayal. His end is your beginning, but only through strife. End him, and you will be reborn.”
If the players ask more about this raven haired woman, Veleda shakes her head “She belongs by your side at the Bloodwell, at the end. Just as you belong amidst the living. I will say no more than this.”
Should the players ask what Veleda means about Salvation, she explains “Those worthy who enter the Gravelord’s Well will be reborn in the material realm, as they were before death. A second chance, to those deserving of it.”
If the players ask about the “Tally” having anything to do with the Gravelord resurrecting people, she looks at the players with deep sadness in her eyes but a smile on her face “A rumor, I assure you. Some sights demand sacrifices I wish I could unsee.”
“Eat tonight, laugh, and enjoy, for tomorrow your trial begins.” Veleda smiles before motioning for the players to leave.
If the players manage to save Ali from the Terrorgull rather than letting him be eaten, instead of finding an inviting tavern filled with laughter and cheer, they are met with screams. Entering the tavern, they find Ali with a bloodied cook’s knife, three women and a man are dead on the floor with their throats slit, and Ali is holding a fourth woman in front of himself as a hostage. Two men are holding crossbows yelling for him to let the woman go. Ali yells, throwing the women to the side, before charging at the men holding the crossbows “Oh Gravelord, I have taken lives for you, bless me with your resurrection and return me to my throne!”. Before Ali can reach the men with the crossbows however, they shoot, nailing him in the chest twice, causing him to tumble to the ground, dead. The surviving woman's screams echo in the players' heads until morning.
GM’s Notes: It may be hinted that Veleda shares some features similar to one of the player’s characters. In truth this could be because one of the characters is in fact related to her, and she is their great, great grand daughter. Veleda of course would know, but may be choosing to keep it a secret as to not undermine the player's attempt to reach the Bloodwell, knowing that they must go alone and cannot take her back to the material realm with them.
If choosing to make Veleda related to one of the player’s characters, make sure the player chosen to be related to Veleda would be ok with this extra bit of backstory, before implementing it.
The people of Last Light give the players all the food and water they’ll need, as well as any general goods.
60x40 Highgrave Bloodied Amphitheater (Free VTT Resolution Map)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
Before leaving Last Light the players are wished farewell by Veleda and the townsfolk but Falgrim's presence is missing. It’s three rests to the Amphitheater of the Bloody Three which Veleda told the players about, their first stop on the way to the Bloodwell. On the way, they see many Lost in the sparse forests and hills, some sombre and simply rocking back and forth near gravestones, while others are in worship of large, crumbling statues dotting the landscape.
The hills slip away till the land is flat and the players arrive at the amphitheater. Centered in what could have been a lovely park, three central cobblestone paths lead the way while small dirt paths meander through the park turned graveyard, patches of dried blood cover the stone and bones like through the wooded land. Lanterns flicker from poles, swinging in the wind, shedding little light. When the players reach the edge of the amphitheater they spot their first obstacle, The Bloody Three.
Standing amongst bloody pools, filled with decapitated corpses and limbs, are the brothers; each wearing plain masks with hoods, one with a grin, another with a frown, and a third with a neutral expression. Their clothes are marred by blood and viscera. The brother with the frown is holding a chain linked to a scantily clad woman’s wrists, who's on her knees nearby.
“More guests, brothers! Oh it has been too long! Days? Hours? Oh, it is so hard to tell sometimes!” The brother with the grinning mask exclaims in excitement. The brother in the frowning mask groans, “But we haven’t even finished chopping up the last ones…”
“Maybe they’ll come back later?” The brother with the neutral mask asks his brothers in a monotone voice. The brother with the frowning mask yells, “WILL YOU COME BACK LATER?” Brandishing his butcher’s cleaver grumpily. “WE STILL GOT ONE TO CHOP UP.” The woman, her head sombrely facing the ground with her hair covering her face, fails to even move at this.
Engaging the brothers, the grinning brother draws a spear and heads up first, with the frowning brother dropping his cleaver and the chain to the woman, before drawing a maul from his back. The neutral brother shrugs his shoulders, drawing an intricate greatsword from his back and slowly walking towards the players saying “Ok then, another fight.” Despite his lack of enthusiasm (and it taking him an extra round to enter the fight due to his walking), the neutral brother is the most deadly of the three, noticing weaknesses of the players and wielding his blade like a savant.
When two of the brothers have been dealt with, the woman suddenly leaps to her feet, revealing a slim stiletto dagger which she impales the final brother through the neck with from behind. As each of the brothers fall, the players see dozens of red marks appear above their heads, like strokes from a tally. The woman, now close enough to be inspected, has pale skin and long, black hair. She quickly rummages through the pockets of the now dead brother, retrieving a tarnished metal ring with a faintly glowing, cracked gem in the middle, as well as a key to free herself. The entire time she’s on guard with the dagger, and once free, she holds it up towards the players, not trusting them despite their rescue.
“Back!” she quips, shaking, “Harm me, and Veleda will have your souls! I’m no one's slave and I’m not about to be added to anyone else's tally!”. She can be calmed down with a persuasion check and drops her guard exhausted, fainting. She awakes soon after “Who are all of you, did Veleda send you?”
After the players have introduced themselves, the woman sits up straight in a posture suitable for nobility giving a brave face but clearly still quite distressed. “I’m Erin Blackmoore, cleric of the God of Light, and protege of Veleda since… well, since I died and found myself at Last Light. She sent me in search of this relic more rests ago than I can count, she said she had seen a vision where it would turn the tides of fate.” She looks at the tarnished ring with the flickering gem, her face darkening.
Should the players explain Veleda wanted Erin to go with them to the Bloodwell. Her voice cracks as she meets the players' eyes, her noble posture breaking to reveal raw pain. “You’re the heroes of old? The ones she’s waited centuries for? And I’m to go with you... to the Bloodwell itself?” She laughs bitterly, a hollow sound that echoes off the bloodied stones, her free hand grasping at recent wounds now turning to scar hidden beneath her rags. “She knew. All those years under her wing, I’ve seen her pierce fates like a needle to thread. She saw me out here, alone, suffering… No rescue until my final breath nearly slipped…”
Erin’s eyes glisten, haunted shadows lingering as she forces a shaky breath, clutching the ring tighter, she closes her eyes. “No... no, she always knows more than she reveals. The visions demand sacrifices, hers, mine, everyone’s. For the light to pierce Highgrave one day, we must all play our part. Right?” Her voice wavers on the question, doubt flickering like the gem’s light. She straightens, steeling herself with cleric’s resolve. “I’ll go with you. To the end. The relic’s power, my rites, they’re yours. Just... promise me we make her visions worth it.”
Using the levers built into the pedestal the large statue stands on at the back of the amphitheater the players hear the creak of gears and a massive stone bridge solemnly emerges from the waters of the lake beyond, water slushing off its emerging floor allowing access to the city beyond.
40x30 Multi-Level Heights of Highgrave (Free VTT Resolution Map)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
After a rest the players make it to the Ruined Towers of Highgrave; spiraling colossal buildings of crumbling stone, interconnected by stone walkways bearing the weight of millennia. The lower streets are just as ruined, with large slabs of stone littering the floors, likely fallen from above.
Lost meander the streets but seem uninterested in the players. Eventually the players start hitting dead ends, and are forced to take a staircase and begin climbing one of the towers. But as they approach the base of this vital ascent, a horrifying sight halts them, hundreds of Lost packed across the entire width of the street and up the stairs, a writhing, moaning mass blocking the way. Their hollow eyes stare into nothingness, bodies shuffling in mindless unison, murmuring fragments of half remembered lives.
Erin steps forward, her face paling as she grips the tarnished ring. "This... this is why Veleda sent me for it. The relic's shroud. It will make us invisible to them for a time." If players hesitate or question the risk, she meets their eyes with haunted resolve. "The price is mine to bear. We've no choice if we're to reach the Bloodwell."
She raises the ring high causing the cracked gem to ignite in a radiant bright blue light, blooming outward like a protective veil. It washes over the party in a cool, ethereal glow, visible only to them, but the Lost remain utterly oblivious, their shambling continuing as if the players are ghosts passing through fog. The group advances cautiously, weaving through the throng for a tense several minutes.
Erin whispers to the players as they sidestep the wandering Lost, “I ran the Church of Last Light before Veleda sent me alone for this accursed ring. Not grand spires like my father's in life, but a humble room in the fortress cellars. Faith... faith anchors us here. Sermons by firelight, rites to ward off the despair. It kept souls whole when the gloom clawed deepest.”
She pauses, sidestepping a Lost who clutches at empty air inches away. "The Lost? They're us, but broken. Early on, they're somber ghosts, but rests pile up, and they fester. Paranoia, rage… echoes of old sins replayed eternally. They’re pitiable like kin lost to wasting mind-rot back home, no one deserves that fate.”
Nearly reaching the top of the tower the ring’s light begins to flicker and soon after the crystal breaks completely, causing Erin to briefly fall to the ground “It’s ok” She says “I just feel a little weak, I’ll be fine”. Continuing up the tower, the players begin to see signs of more aggressive Lost; some pushing and shoving amongst their ranks, with one Lost pushing another from one of the towers to plummet to the earth far below. Erin watches on with knowing eyes, saying “the more rests the Lost remain in Highgrave, the more violent they become.”
Finally the players reach the top of the tower where they begin meeting truly aggressive Lost who attack them on sight and must be fought through, luckily they remain now only in small groups.
40x30 Highgrave Heights Dark Knight's Bonfire (Subscriber Only Map, This is a Low-Resolution Sample)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
After dealing with the Lost and after another 30 minutes of travel, the players see a ruined stone circle in the distance, with a bonfire at its center. A man in rose-engraved steel armor with a full helmet is sitting by the fire. Entering the stone circle elicits no response from him, but the players can see tally marks scraped on the inner stone walls. There are hundreds of them.
“They aren’t for those I’ve slain. There aren’t enough marks.” The Knight says solemnly, not moving his gaze from the fire. “They were to count down my remaining rests.” He pauses
“To set you at ease, those I have slain were the murderers, the arsonists, the traitors. Did you think only the good found their way here?”
“Highgrave is growing. Not many have traveled as far as I, seen what I have seen. The entire thing is a circle, a spiral. At its edges a wall of impenetrable mist, and at its center… the Bloodwell. Each day the wall of mist retracts revealing more. More forests, more ruins… more gravestones. Something is drawing, or… sending… the dead here, and I no longer have time to find out what. Here is the key for the city gates beyond. You'll need it to get into the inner circle of Highgrave, but beware. Chaos reigns as you get closer to the bloodwell, and those who guard the gates will not allow you entry willingly. I wish you good luck in your journey.”
If the players ask why he knew they weren’t a threat, he softly chuckles “When the Witch of Last Light told me of the day of my death, she said I would be surrounded by ‘friends’. I will take her word for it, she hasn’t been wrong before.”
If the players ask how many rests he has left he responds “None. Today I die, foretold by the Witch of Last Light.”
“I think it’s time now.” The knight says getting to his feet and making his way to the edge of the tower's railing. “Good luck, ‘friends’.” The knight says, turning to face the players seconds before a large, eyeless abomination with a spiked fleshy carapace, multiple limbs and a massive maw lunges out of the shadows from above the ruined tower; tearing the knight in two, devouring his torso, while flinging his legs over the edge of the tower. Erin gasps in horror, fleeing behind the players. The creature moves swiftly for its size, climbing terrain to get close to targets so that it may attempt to chomp them up in its jaws.
60x40 Multi-Level Gates of Highgrave (Subscriber Only Map, This is a Low-Resolution Sample)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
Moving across the towers gets swifter as the players make their way to the cities gates, due to a surprising lack of Lost, until they reach the ramparts just before the gate itself. Here, groups of Lost seem to be patrolling with gravehounds as if to stop intruders from reaching the main gates. The Ramparts themselves are confusing in design, and the damage of years of decay makes it unintuitive to find where the players need to go.
Eventually, after slaying many Lost, the players arrive in the main gate chamber but are met by a Tarnished Knight; a giant native to Highgrave, wearing corroded and dusty plate armor and chainmail, who sees to the Gravelord’s direct command. It stands at the ready, solemn and still, only engaging the players if they’re foolhardy enough to enter the chamber and head for the gate. The Tarnished Knight attacks with a huge axe, focusing on heavily armored targets first.
When The Tarnished Knight reaches half health, it snaps its axe in half and begins dual wielding, with half acting as an axe and the other half acting as a mace, doubling its attack speed. When defeated it falls to the ground with a massive thud and its body turns to sand like dust, leaving only the corroded armor and weapons behind.
Opening the city gates at the back of the room, the players find themselves at the broken bridges.
60x40 Highgrave Broken Bridges (Subscriber Only Map, This is a Low-Resolution Sample)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
Having slain the Tarnished Knight and unlocked the city gates, the players step out onto the precipice. Either side, the city ramparts encircle the Broken Bridges like an endless ring, crumbling battlements vanishing into the gloom. Before them lies the abyss, a yawning void of darkness, swallowing light and sound alike. Above it, the broken bridges sprawl out as far as the eye can see, jagged spans of weathered stone and rusted iron, lashed together by colossal chains that creak in the harsh wind. Small bonfires dot the lengths, their feeble flames piercing the rolling mists. In the distant horizon, the Gravelord’s Black Tower looms, its peak jutting from the mist-shrouded depths far below, the bloody vortex at its summit pulsing with deathly energy. It is two Rests to make it to the tower.
With nowhere else to go, the players venture onto the bridges, the stone groaning underfoot as they draw ever closer to the Gravelord’s Bloodwell. The traversal demands caution with gaps yawning wide, winds howling and the chains rattling like the bones of the fallen.
As the party hunkers by a sputtering bonfire midway across the first Rests span mists coiling like phantoms in the gloom, Erin tends the flames with quiet ritual, her hands weaving subtle wards of light. The relic’s toll lingers in her weary eyes, but her voice cuts through the chill with warmth. She turns to the players, gaze earnest. “What... what brought you here, to this shadowed half-death?” she asks softly, not prying, but inviting, her tone laced with care.
As players recount their deaths (betrayals, battles, untimely ends), she listens without interruption, nodding with profound empathy. “Such cruelties the world holds, doesn’t it?” She straightens, voice rising righteous and unyielding. “If the light ever grants me the power, I will stand beside you. Sword or spell, wing or word, I’ll cross this veil myself to set it right. For your fallen breaths, for the world you’re fated to save. On my faith, I swear it.” She pauses, blushing , slightly awkward. “We should… ah, continue.”
Just before the second rest, perceptive players begin to notice strange statues in the distance. Carved in the shape of winged bi-pedal beasts, these statues stand solemn in the rolling mists, only coming to life when the players pass them on the bridge. Once dealt make their way to the entrance of the Bloodwell unimpeded.
60x40 Dark Bloodgate Temple (Subscriber Only Map, This is a Low-Resolution Sample)
Need this map FoundryVTT ready, with walls, lighting, & sound already done? Or planning to print it to scale? Subscribe for $3USD to download ready-made files & save yourself the time & effort!
Reaching the edge of the broken bridges, the players find themselves on an island in a sea of darkness. The Black Tower looms above them, its stone visage engraved with deathly faces and bones. In front of the players is a hallway leading deeper into the tower, large enough for a giant, with a blackened steel portcullis hanging above.
The hallway begins sloping downwards, eventually turning into stairs which spiral deeper into the earth, as if trying to reach hell itself. Eventually, after several hours of traveling, the players reach the Bloodwell: a vast circular room flanked by worshiping statues, their bowls overflowing with blood which pools at ankle height in the middle of the room. At the center of the pool kneels a man in tarnished blackened armor, a curved blade upon his back.
Getting up from his position and turning to face the players, perceptive players notice black streaks shift in his eyes before disappearing. His voice starts placid, almost weary, but cracks with a sudden manic edge, “Your tally is pitiful... you come here with this little to show for it, and yet you’re here. What could you possibly offer the Gravelord?” He pauses, head tilting oddly, a soft chuckle escaping before his face twists into aggression. “Or perhaps... you are the offering. The whispers say so, the tallies call to us, you know. High enough, and He speaks…”.
Akane draws his curved blade with a fluid, almost reverent motion, but his demeanor swings wildly, manic bursts of fury interspersed with eerie calm. During combat, he aggresively shouts through the chaos, switching tones mid-sentence “The Gravelord hungers! He will consume all, every soul dragged here, fattened for the feast!” Or, lunging wildly, “Highgrave swells like a tumor! Forests bloom, ruins rise, until the living world empties, all souls funneled to His maw! I hear Him... we hear Him!”
In more placid moments whispered during brief lulls, voice softening as if reminiscing, he says, “The tallies... they whisper secrets. But I held on... for her. For the vision. You... you're the ones she saw, aren't you? End this burden.” As Akane falls, he gasps, “I kept my vow, Veleda...” His body crumpling into the pool, blood mingling with the Bloodwell's crimson depths, 9,999 blood-red marks floating above him like accusing stars; transferring to the players in a rush of ethereal energy. The well surges, drawing the players under its surface, dragging them deeper and deeper, the bloody red turning to inky black as all light fades.
Submerged in the void, the players experience a shared vision from Akane's eyes, a flashback etched into the Bloodwell's magic as Akane’s blood became one with it. Akane stands in a dimly lit chamber of ancient Last Light, facing Veleda. His face is unmarred by corruption, but etched with anguish. “I can't do it, Veleda. I won't. The innocents, the children, the elders... all of them?”
Veleda, eyes bandaged even then, places a gentle hand on his arm, her voice steady but laced with sorrow. “The vision is clear, my love. The saviors will come, but the Bloodwell demands a price. 9,999 tallies... one less than rebirth. Enough to empower them, but not to free you. I can only entrust this horror to you, my loyal husband. Only you can bear such a burden.”
He softens, but tears well as the weight crashes down. “So many lives... turned to Lost. Wandering shells, forever damned.” He weeps openly, shoulders shaking. Veleda comforts him, wiping a tear from his eye with tender care. “My visions are never wrong,” she says with a comforting smile. “We either do what we must now, or accept that the future is lost to all. You did not falter when the marauders killed your friends, leaving you for dead. Nor did you falter when they came to our city and killed our children. You have always done what was required of you, and have never turned away from your burdens. You died the most venerated hero of our land.”
Veleda pulls him close, kissing him on the lips, a moment of raw, eternal love amid the doom. “My beautiful husband... I will see you again in eternity.” The vision fades as Akane's resolve hardens, the weight of his oath sealing his fate.
The players are suddenly released, light once again peeking from above. Swimming as hard as they can, they make it to the surface and then the shore, the blood they swam through now turning to regular clear water. The sun shines above them, birds chirp, and they lie on the shore, gasping. The players now notice they’re wearing tarnished black armor and carrying blackened weapons. A perceptive player might even notice black streaks shifting in the other players' eyes before disappearing, but they’re back in the material realm and alive, and that’s all that matters.
Despite the time that has passed in Highgrave, only a couple of days have elapsed since the players' deaths on the material plane. In addition, they are resurrected from a lake or other water source within several days' travel of the site of their death.
GM’s Notes: Players may choose any armor types they desire for their tarnished black armor, it is magical and of good quality for their level. In addition they’re weapons are also magical and of a good quality for their level. The players are now considered the Gravelord’s Champions, as a bonus they may see the tallies that any living intelligent being holds by spending several seconds looking at them and concentrating. Living intelligent beings slain by the Gravelord’s Champions are automatically sent to Highgrave.
Epilogue: A Promise Kept
As the players are dragged under the Bloodwell's surface, Akane's tallies transferring, the vision unfolding, and their resurrection beginning, the crimson pool surges violently one final time. When the ritual completes and the players emerge in the material plane, the Bloodwell reacts to the shift, the blood drains away in a thunderous vortex, spiraling down into unseen depths.
The vast circular chamber empties, revealing slick stone floors etched with ancient runes and, at the center, a newly uncovered spiral staircase descending even deeper into the earth, far below the tower's foundations, into catacombs untouched by any living (or dead) soul in millennia.
Erin, having accompanied the players to the end but unable to claim Akane's tallies, is not pulled into the resurrection. She stands alone in the emptying chamber, ankle-deep in receding blood, watching the vortex with wide, haunted eyes. Clutching her holy symbol, she descends the hidden stairs alone.
The descent is long and oppressive, walls of obsidian bone and the air thick with the scent of old blood. At the bottom, she enters a pristine, untouched chamber, a spherical vault of white marble veined with gold, like an egg, untouched by Highgrave's gloom. At its center floats a fragment of divine spark, a radiant, fist-sized ember of pure golden light, suspended in stasis. It pulses gently, like a heartbeat from a forgotten god, neither of the Gravelord nor any known deity, but something older, purer.
Erin approaches, trembling and as she reaches out, the spark flows into her willingly, absorbing into her chest in a blaze of golden fire. Pain and ecstasy mingle, her body arching with wings of pure light briefly unfurling before vanishing. She collapses, reborn with immense power, radiant energy courses through her, wounds of the past heal, and her eyes glow with eternal, unquenchable light.
Erin climbs back to the surface, the Bloodwell now dry and silent, its purpose fulfilled… for now.
She returns to Last Light, forever changed. Veleda, sensing the shift in fate, greets her with quiet acceptance; stepping down gracefully as leader and retreating into seclusion.
Over the next thousand years (Highgrave's timeless nature allowing vast spans), Erin becomes the heart of Last Light, She studies the realm obsessively, its rivers, Lost, tallies and more, documenting secrets in vast tomes. Her church grows into a true beacon, sermons of hope, wards against despair, and rituals that genuinely slow the descent into Lost-ness. A strong, fervent congregation rallies around her, swelling Last Light's numbers.
Under her leadership, Last Light expands, outposts reclaim ruins, bridges are rebuilt, safe zones push back the wilderness. It grows from fortress to sprawling holy territory. Empowered by the divine fragment and centuries of worship, she ascends further, her followers' faith feeding the spark until she becomes a nascent power, a rival deity of light and redemption within Highgrave.
This rise does not go unnoticed. The Gravelord, sensing a true threat to His dominion, wages war, waves of Tarnished Knights, Terrorgulls, eyeless abominations, and corrupted Lost assault the borders. Skirmishes become sieges; Erin leads defenses with radiant fury, her golden wings manifesting in battle. Last Light endures, a defiant flame in the gloom, proof that even in pseudo-death, hope can burn eternal.
Campaign Climax Hook
When the players, now back in the material plane, bearing the Gravelord's black armor and lingering streaks reach the ultimate climax of their campaign (facing the world-ending threat Veleda foresaw), grant them one final gift.
As the battle turns desperate, a rift tears in reality. Golden light erupts, and Erin manifests as a holy projection, a towering valkyrie clad in radiant plate, massive golden wings blazing with eternal light, eyes like twin suns. She descends with spear and shield of pure luminescence, voice ringing like cathedral bells, "Champions of the well... friends I swore to stand beside. Long ago, in Highgrave's shadow, you gave me purpose, and I vowed to set things right. Though realms divide us, the light remembers."
She fights briefly but spectacularly smiting foes with radiant bursts, healing/shielding the party, banishing undead/minions. Before fading back through the rift, she smiles, serene, powerful, the shaken cleric forged into divinity, "Go; finish what we began!”
The projection vanishes, leaving a lingering blessing (e.g., permanent minor boon)
GM's Notes: Reveal none of this in the Highgrave arc, let Erin's fate remain ambiguous until the climax payoff.