The Broken Expanse | A Monthly Mini-Setting in Collaboration with Kelfecil's Tales and Heroic Maps | Month 1: The Unmoving Vale (Patreon)

"This accursed land, this blight upon our souls and bodies, you must have committed a grave sin to be brought to a place such as this, strangers." The hooded old man drops his head in resignation"Alas" he growls "you are fated to fade, as did we, in time. But if you wish to try, to attempt, to gnaw desperately at the door of this world, head to the ruins of Eldwark, there you may find fragments of what was, what is, and what may be. For this old man knows not but tales, rumors, whispers, and he grows...tired"The man, fully limp, falls on the ground. When you rush to check on him, you only find dust and ashes under the robes.Ahead, the ruins look uninviting and hostile, tearing the horizon like a mass of rusted nails. Yet we must journey onwards.

Hello hello everyone! I am super excited to show you the first iteration of another mini-series I and Kelfecil have been working on, this time with Heroic Maps!

Scope and Intent

This is a location-focused mini-setting built around exploration, uncertainty, and places that no longer function as they once did. Each release presents a single location within The Broken Expanse, supported by maps, tables, and narrative tools meant to be used directly at the table. The intent of this project is to:

• Focus on places rather than plots, emphasizing location, atmosphere, and consequence.

• Present locations in their current state, shaped by past decisions and ongoing pressures.

• Allow the setting to be discovered through play, observation, and player choice rather than exposition.

• Support short arcs, recurring visits, or single-session use without requiring long-term commitment. Rather than advancing a single overarching storyline, each release contributes a fragment of a larger land. Connections between locations emerge.

The Broken Expanse

The Broken Expanse is a neglected region, semi-forgotten in time, and perhaps not even residing in our material plane. The region is afflicted by a blight, whether magical or natural in nature, that is up for you to decide, which spreads slowly throughout the lands in an irregular fashion, growing slower in certain areas, while consuming others.The regional map represents the full known extent of the land as it currently stands, showing major terrain features, roads, landmarks, and areas of interest without attempting to define scale or distance precisely. The regional map is not intended to be a tactical reference. It exists to provide context, continuity, and a sense of place as players move between. Each month we will exploring a different POI on the map, I will be making a closer area map for it, Heroic Maps will be designing a battlemap specific to it, and finally Kelfecil will be writing the story, encounter ideas, and designing the pdf in its totality! Overall, this will be a fun experiment that will be in addition to our usual monthly battle maps! This project is very much about usability at the table. Less prep, fewer assumptions, and more space for your own decisions as a GM. If you like slow-burn regions, investigation, environmental pressure, and settings that don’t explain everything for you, I think you’ll enjoy where this is going.

The first release, The Unmoving Vale, focuses on a ruined capital city and the land surrounding it. It’s quiet, restrained, and deliberately incomplete. Things were abandoned here rather than destroyed, and whatever corruption lingers did not arrive all at once.

This Adventure, alongside the regional maps, battlemaps, and pdfs are available to the Dragon Tamer or higher patrons. Thank you for your continued support!Rewards

A zoomed-in regional map of the Unmoving Vale

x6 detailed points of interest with lore, usage guidance, and situation tables

A featured battlemap set within the ruins of Eldwark

GM-facing investigation hooks, encounters, and environmental pressure

Location-specific tables for rumors, complications, blight behavior, and discovery

Recommended Use: Drop-in location, regional exploration, investigation, slow-burn horror

Download the zip here.

The Unmoving Vale is a closed valley dominated by the ruins of Eldwark, the former capital of this region. Once a center of governance, faith, and coordination, the vale now exists in a state of arrested decline. It is not entirely dead, nor truly alive. Change occurs slowly, unevenly, or not at all, giving the impression that the land itself resists progression.

Preview of the PDF:

Collaborators

Battlemaps by Heroic Maps.

Writing, Layout, and narrative by Kelfecil's Tales.

I truly hope you guys will enjoy this setting and our resources, and you get to take away some cool maps, stories, or even just concepts and ideas from them! More content to come before the end of the month! See you soon.~Demetrius and Su