The Shattering of Valoria
Our Story Up Till Now
The Shattered Crown
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Our Fell heroes awoke in the eerie Whispering Woods of Valoria, summoned by an unknown force. Disoriented and surrounded by danger, they were guided to the nearby village of Eldervale by a reclusive hermit named Garrik the Old. There, they learned of a strange sickness spreading through the town, tied to the land’s deep corruption. At the behest of Mayor Elara Thorn, the Fell ventured into the woods to find a rumored altar with healing powers. Along the way, they were ambushed by shadowy beasts known as Rendrals and found themselves tangled in a larger mystery when the enigmatic Veiled Herald offered them the location of an ancient shard of the Crown of Valoria, promised to bring healing to the land. In exchange for their agreement to allow him to place the shard upon the altar, he unlocked their ability to wield Tetherghasting, a forgotten magic that harnesses the souls of the dead.
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The players agreed, and at the altar, the Herald placed the shard, awakening the spirit of Calevar, the Rekindled King. A ghostly, broken young man, Calevar bore the single shattered shard of the Crown of Valoria, tethered to his very soul. As he struggled with fragmented memories, he revealed the truth: Valoria had been ruled by his stepfather, King Arandon, who had been erased from existence by the Veil-corrupted sword Sunderbane, wielded by the treacherous Lord Brannis. The crown itself had been shattered, scattering its shards across Valoria, each piece carrying the weight of the kingdom’s history.
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Guided by Calevar’s visions, the Fell embarked on a perilous journey to recover the shards and unravel the truth of Valoria’s fall. They confronted Lord Brannis in his fortress, the Broken Spire, defeating his monstrous Dreadpelt abominations and recovering the second shard. In the depths of Brannis’s dungeon, they also rescued Lady Serena, the mutated daughter of Lady Seraphina, who had been twisted by Brannis’s experiments. Serena’s condition added a new layer of urgency: they now had to decide whether to focus on restoring her humanity or saving Calevar from the Veiled Queen’s growing influence.
The group decided to travel to Serena's mother, Lady Serephania. After confronting her in her halls, Lady Seraphina took her daughter and demanded that the Fell find the Chalice of Purity in order to cleanse Serena.
Sanctuary Arvonis
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After departing Lady Seraphina's halls, the group—Willo, Whip, Lantern, and Professor Bullsworth—set out on their journey to find the Chalice of Purity, which they hoped could cleanse both Calevar and Serena. Given a map to guide them, they opted to rest before departing.
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During the night, Whip and Lantern engaged in a heated dispute over crafting materials, nearly coming to blows before the guards intervened. Professor Bullsworth attempted to sneak through Seraphina’s halls to locate Serena’s chambers but instead ended up in the stables. Meanwhile, Willo was visited by Halar, a council member, who proposed using the map to uncover a way to refill the Chalice, potentially saving both Calevar and Serena. She agreed to let him study it, and by morning, he returned it with additional notes.
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The group then ventured toward Sanctuary Arvonis, but Willo took a wrong turn, leading them into the dark Veiled Forest—a cursed woodland thick with the Veiled Queen’s influence. There, they discovered a small cabin, where the cries of children and a mourning mother filled the air. Inside, they found a long-dead man and a grieving woman who had lost her mind to despair. Whip attempted to resurrect the corpse, but the woman reacted violently, and Calevar, his eyes black with Veil corruption, warned them to leave immediately.
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As Professor Bullsworth scouted ahead, he led Calevar back to the correct path, unknowingly leaving Whip alone in the house. Succumbing to greed, Whip attempted to shroud himself in shadow magic to loot a hidden chest, but in doing so, he drew the attention of the Veiled Queen herself. She ensnared him with her puppeteering magic, rendering him helpless. From the outside, the illusion of the cabin shattered—the children and mother were already long-dead, and the scene had been an elaborate trap.
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The group fought to free Whip, who barely managed to Tetherghast his way out, but not before taking heavy damage. They left the cursed cabin behind and finally found their way back to the road, reaching Sanctuary Arvonis in the Western Wastes. The mist-covered cliffs and the ethereal green glow of the sanctuary loomed before them, but as they approached, they were ambushed by Rendrals—twisted, shadowy beasts from their first night in Valoria.
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The battle was fierce, with Willo and Professor Bullsworth unleashing devastating attacks, cutting through most of the creatures while Whip and Lantern held the line. As the last Rendral fell, Whip scouted ahead, discovering an enormous veiled green door embedded in the cliffs. The party regrouped at the entrance and attempted to inspect it. Lantern, ever impatient, kicked the door—only to have his leg ensnared by the Veiled Queen’s dark magic, trapping him in place.
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Before anyone could react, the door pulled both Lantern and Willo inside, separating them from the rest of the party. The two found themselves standing within the Sanctuary’s interior, surrounded by looming stone pillars and the faint glow of the Chalice of Purity, resting atop an altar in the distance. Outside, Professor Bullsworth and Whip were left alone, only to witness the pillar statues flanking the entrance begin to stir. Shadowy forms took shape from the mist, revealing themselves as the ghastly specters of ancient Valorian kings long dead, awakened from their slumber to challenge those who would enter.
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The session ended with Lantern and Willo trapped inside the Sanctuary, staring at the unclaimed Chalice, while Bullsworth and Whip stood alone against the spectral kings, preparing for battle outside.
Willo's Sacrifice
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After venturing into the Sanctuary Arvonis, Willo and Lantern found themselves inside a vast, shadowy chamber dominated by the Chalice of Purity, resting upon a pedestal and bound by five glowing chains. Each chain hummed with ancient power and pulsed with the unmistakable influence of the Veiled Queen. Despite the sanctity of the Sanctuary itself, her puppeteering magic had infiltrated this place, twisting the Chalice Guardian and imbuing the relic with her dark will. The chains, connected to the shadowy guardian tethered to the room’s magic, required significant sacrifice to break—a price that Willo would come to bear.
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Through Tetherghasting, Willo first attempted to sever the chains with Lantern's assistance. However, the chains did not yield easily. When one of the Chalice Guardian appeared, its form cloaked in chains and wielding a spectral weapon, it offered Willo a grim choice: sacrifice something of immense personal value or face its wrath. The veiled words of the guardian struck her deeply—her refusal to sacrifice would not only doom her but also Calevar and Serena, ensuring they would remain lost to the Veiled Queen’s corruption forever.
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Confronted with the impossible choice, Willo made a decision that demonstrated her profound resolve. She gave up four of her masteries—the hard-earned talents she had cultivated over her adventures in Valoria. These masteries represented her adaptability, her cunning, and her ability to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world. Piece by piece, she surrendered her running mastery, her keen observation skills, her precise inspection abilities, and even her mastery of the shadows—a skill deeply tied to her very identity. Each sacrifice took a visible toll on her as the green glow of her essence drained away, traveling along the chains and severing the guardian’s hold. By the time the chains were gone and the Chalice rested in her hands, Willo was a shadow of herself, physically and emotionally drained. The very foundation of her abilities had been stripped away.
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Before Willo could even comprehend her victory, the air grew cold, and black threads began to materialize around Calevar, who had collapsed at the foot of the Chalice. The sky darkened as the Veiled Queen herself appeared, her form towering and otherworldly, cloaked in an aura of malice. Her marionette-like threads extended across the group, reaching for both the Chalice and Calevar. Willo, still clutching the Chalice, found herself locked in a battle of wills against the Queen’s overwhelming presence. She attempted to resist, to shield both the relic and the broken king from the Queen’s grasp, but she was unprepared for the depth of the Veiled Queen’s corruption. The Queen reached into Willo’s very soul, binding her in a realm of darkness.
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There, Willo saw horrors—visions of the Veiled Queen’s true power, the shattered kingdom, and the despair that awaited if the Queen’s plans succeeded. Floating above the Veiled Queen was the looming shadow of Discord, the dark god whose influence had corrupted the sword Sunderbane. The Queen taunted Willo, promising that everything she had sacrificed would be meaningless if she did not relent. Despite her pain, Willo’s defiance burned bright. However, the Queen overwhelmed her, snatching the Chalice from her hands as she fell unconscious.
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When Willo awoke, she was devastated to find the Chalice gone and Calevar even further bound by the Queen’s threads, writhing in agony. Before despair could consume her entirely, the Veiled Herald appeared, stepping from the shadows. He offered the group a cruel bargain. With an air of feigned sympathy, he explained the Queen’s terms:
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The group would deliver Calevar and all the shards of the Crown to King Arandon’s Castle, the place where the king had been erased by Sunderbane.
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In return, the Veiled Queen would free both Calevar and Serena.
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Additionally, the Herald offered to remove all impairments and injuries suffered by the group up until now as a show of good faith. He sweetened the deal further, offering to make Willo immune to all future impairments, recognizing her as the one who had sacrificed the most.
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The group debated the terms fiercely. Whip, ever pragmatic, took the lead in negotiating, pushing for the maximum benefit. Meanwhile, Lantern, still bitter from his earlier sacrifices, struggled to trust the Herald, and Professor Bullsworth remained silent, wary of making a deal with an agent of the Veiled Queen. Ultimately, the choice fell to Willo, who stood on the brink of despair, knowing the enormity of what she had already lost. Against her better judgment, she agreed.
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The Herald fulfilled his promises:
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Lantern’s leg was restored, and Whip’s magic returned.
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Serena, back home with her mother, was healed, free from the Dreadpelt mutations that had plagued her since her capture by Lord Brannis.
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The group received a map with the locations of the remaining shards.
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However, the cost was steep. As the Herald snapped his fingers, Calevar disappeared, taken into the Veiled Queen’s clutches. The group was left with two shards of the Crown, a healed Serena, and the weight of knowing they were now bound to the Veiled Queen’s machinations.
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Willo stood silently as the Herald disappeared. Though her companions were restored, her own pain lingered. She had not only sacrificed her own power but had also enabled the Veiled Queen to take the Chalice and Calevar. The group’s unity began to fracture as distrust grew, and Willo, worn and uncertain, carried the unbearable burden of her choices.
The Rebel Camp
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With their spirits low and their purpose uncertain, the group returned to Lady Seraphina’s silver halls. While Serena was now fully human once more, the queen was unmoved by gratitude alone. She acknowledged Willo’s sacrifice and, in a symbolic act, named her the Silver Talon, her right hand. The honor was great, but Willo was hesitant—was this truly the path she wanted?
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When the conversation turned to Calevar’s missing shards, Lady Seraphina shocked the party. She possessed one of them—but could not willingly give it away. To their horror, she revealed that the shard was embedded in her very skull, placed there by the Veiled Queen’s influence. Any attempt to remove it caused her excruciating pain.
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Seraphina’s price for allowing the party to try? The destruction of the rebel leader who sought to overthrow her rule. If the party wished to prove their loyalty and remove the shard, they had no choice but to eliminate the rebellion.
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As the party ventured toward The Verdant Hills, where the rebels had established their camp, they encountered a group of weary scouts. These men, supposedly Seraphina’s loyal soldiers, spoke bitterly of the rebellion and pointed the adventurers toward the rebel stronghold. However, the journey revealed more than expected.
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Passing through a burning village, the group met a displaced elder who confirmed their suspicions—Lady Seraphina’s forces had slaughtered civilians, burning down entire villages in retaliation against rebel recruitment. The rebel cause wasn’t just resistance; it was survival.
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Upon reaching the rebel camp, Willo and Lantern attempted to trick their way inside, posing as a traveling circus troupe—the Rainbow Trout Troop. While the guards weren’t easily fooled, the ruse ultimately led them to the rebel leader, Alaric Thorne. In a stunning revelation, the party learned that Alaric was the brother of Mayor Alara Thorne, whom they had saved in an earlier adventure.
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With tensions high, Willo made a bold move. Instead of immediate bloodshed, she told Alaric the truth. The Veiled Queen was pulling Seraphina’s strings. If the shard could be removed, there might still be a way to redeem the queen and bring peace.
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Alaric, cautious but willing to listen, agreed to a plan. Instead of outright war, the rebels would fake his death and send his sister, Alara, as an envoy of peace. With her influence and the proof of the rebellion’s ‘end,’ Seraphina might be lured away from her stronghold, where the party could finally remove the shard.
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It was a gamble—but it might be the only way to save Valoria from the Veiled Queen’s influence.
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That night, as the party rested, a rift in space tore open before Willo. From the darkness stepped Spindle, a mysterious figure clad in black, her eyes glowing orange behind aether-lens goggles. She was a Riftrunner, a being that moved between realms unseen by gods and demons alike.
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Spindle brought a warning—the Veiled Queen was watching Willo. But she also brought an offer: a powerful brand from another world that could allow Willo to hide from the Veiled Queen’s gaze. In exchange? A Paragon, a rare and potent resource of untethered, uninvested lore.
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Faced with the reality of the Queen’s influence tightening around her, Willo accepted. The brand of Inkmelding burned into her very being, granting her the power to cloak herself and her allies from the Veiled Queen’s sight. Yet, there was a cost—each time she used this power, the Queen would grow more determined to find her.
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With her new abilities and a secret weapon in hand, Willo and her companions prepared for the next phase of their mission: removing the shard from Lady Seraphina and breaking the Veiled Queen’s hold on Valoria.
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But would Seraphina go down without a fight? Or was the Veiled Queen’s corruption too deep to undo?
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With the fate of Seraphina and the rebellion hanging in the balance, our heroes prepare to execute their plan. Will their deception work? Will they get the shard, or will the Veiled Queen’s influence prove too strong? And with Calevar still in the clutches of their enemy, can they truly save Valoria before it’s too late?
Brokering Peace
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As dawn broke over the rebel encampment, Alaric Thorne called the party together with urgent news—there was a spy in their midst, and if word of his faked death reached Lady Seraphina, their entire plan would crumble. While Alaric made final preparations, the group set out to uncover the traitor. Rather than direct confrontation, they used subtle tactics—Bullsworth set up a barbecue to draw out suspicion, Whip worked on recruiting soldiers to his own cause, and Willo, using her Ink Melding talent, moved unseen to gather intel. The deception paid off when she uncovered a hidden letter detailing Alaric’s plan. When confronted, the spy attempted to flee, but Lantern intercepted him mid-air, allowing Alaric to extract the truth through less-than-gentle means.
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With the traitor dealt with, the party set out for the Broken Spire, the ruins of Lord Brannis’s tower, to stage the meeting between Seraphina and Alaric’s sister, Alara Thorne. The battlefield of their past encounter had been repurposed into a neutral ground, and the party worked to enhance their deception—Willo cloaked the fake Alaric’s body in illusion, while Lantern kept a watchful eye from above. When Lady Seraphina arrived in full battle regalia, her enchanted chains in tow, she was cautious but agreed to inspect the corpse. Yet, Lantern noticed something amiss—one of her Silver Veil Knights was bound to her by unseen dark threads, revealing the Veiled Queen’s lingering influence.
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As the party attempted to extract the Shard from Seraphina’s forehead, she collapsed in agony, and the knight beside her began to absorb the corruption instead. Whip’s magic, meant to sever the Queen’s control, instead transferred the Shard entirely to the knight, who immediately transformed into a monstrous minion of The Veiled Queen, his body twisting with dark energy. The Veiled Queen’s presence thickened, and a wave of Discordant magic spread, crippling the battlefield. A brutal fight ensued—Lantern disrupted the knight’s defenses, Willo forced him to rip the Shard from his own skull, and Bullsworth and Whip struck in unison, overwhelming him before he could fully harness his newfound power. As he collapsed, the Queen’s influence surged once more, turning Seraphina’s own soldiers against one another in a bloody frenzy.
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In the chaos, Seraphina barely managed to call off her men, and in the aftermath, she turned to Alaric, furious at the deception. But Alaric, ever the strategist, turned the tables on her, forcing her to acknowledge her own past actions. Weary from battle and free from the Veiled Queen’s grasp, Seraphina reluctantly brokered peace, agreeing to end her war against Alaric. As her forces withdrew, Bullsworth seized a final moment with Serena, capturing her in a stolen kiss, while Willo cheekily petitioned Alaric for a new title—her Rainbow Trout. With a rare chuckle, he accepted, affirming the alliance they had forged. Though the war was far from over, for now, they had won—not through strength alone, but through deception, strategy, and defiance.
Character Bios
Whip
Whip, the Bogle tinkerer and collector of relics, will bargain with anyone about anything. While his heart is in the right place, his growing fascination for increasing his junk piles often leads him into mischief and trouble. He seeks to right the kingdom from the wrongs that has occurred, but only if it means it will increase his collection along the way.
Lantern
Lantern, the Hallowed battle master, is often found floating softly above the ground on invisible threads of holy power. Though his skin may be marble, you will often find a random makeshift peg leg due to an unfortunate accident with a soul golem and a sharp axe. Luckily, the remains of his leg are always nearby, as Whip has attached his orb to it as a newly fashioned staff.
Willo
Willo, the Sylvakith sword of the group, comes into battle with magic blazing as wide as her manic smile. Though she has a bit of a "small person syndrome", it doesn't stop her from focusing all her magical abilities at each enemy she comes across. This is one sweetly smiling soul-migrating Sprittle you don't want to come across.
Professor Bullsworth
Professor Bullsworth, the Flayed chef, is one of the oddest archers you will ever meet. With a passion for cooking and a heart of gold, Professor looks out for those in need with a frying pan filled with delectable delights. He has caught the eye of Lady Serena, and will not stop until she is safe from Brannis' tortured experiments.