Bastion of Hope - an original campaign frame using the Daggerheart system (Patreon)

I've been working on adapting a campaign setting I started a couple of years ago into being a campaign frame compatible with Daggerheart, using the format seen in the Daggerheart SRD. This is still a work-in-progress, but I'm getting the chance to run a miniseries using this campaign frame, which should give me some more time with it and assist in polish/refinement.

Note: this is not Official Daggerheart material, but instead 3rd party material using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License (reference included at the bottom).

UPDATE: Using a homebrew Campaign Frame template, I've created a document version of this frame for ease of reference. Please do not distribute this WIP file outside of this Patreon.

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Bastion of Hope

Dragons and Necromancers rule the world with sorcery and spite. But in the newly-free country of Bastion, a defiant few stoke the flames of revolution.

Complexity Rating **

The Pitch

Read this section to your players to introduce them to the campaign.

The world is controlled by a handful of dragons and undead overlords. They rule bustling cities where precarity keeps workers hungry and desperate, the promise of prosperity driving them onward. Great power-siphoning obelisks siphon the inherent magic of nearby people, rendering that power to the overlords to dole out to their enforcers and spies.

After centuries, one nation has shattered the towers and slain their draconic overlord. But they need champions. Will you take up arms against the wealthy, even though their vassals outnumber you a thousand to one?

Overview

A millennia ago, at the end of the second age, the gods departed from the mortal realm, swearing that they would no longer interfere in the affairs of mortals. All that remains of divine magic are relics and ancient blessings.

In the gods’ absence, dozens of dragons used the influence and wealth accumulated over generations to instigate a massive multi-front war. When the dust settled, the dragons mobilized their forces and took direct control in what is known as the Great Acquisition.

Over time, some dragons abandoned settlements or were pushed out by powerful necromancers – liches, spirits, and wight-lords, enabled by the eternal labor of undead workers whose debts keep them working in perpetuity after their deaths.

Each domain reflects its overlord: a legalistic necromancer’s realm defined by contracts, a callous dragon’s domain defined by endless hustle. The overlords fight amongst themselves, playing out centuries-old grudges. From bustling cities to endless sharecropper-tilled fields, precarity keeps workers hungry and desperate for any opportunity.

Hundred-foot-tall obsidian towers dot the landscape, siphoning the magic contained within all mortals and delivering it to the overlords. They invest this magic into devices and artifacts that maintain their power, from magic-fueled appliances and watchtowers, magitech engineering, and more.

Three years ago, Chorae, goddess of justice and revolution, broke the pact of non-interference at great cost to her divine power, leaving her just enough to imbue a small number of mortals with extraordinary power, who came to be known as the Chainbreakers. They managed to destroy a domain’s towers and depose its dragon-lord. Six months ago, the domain of Veljulakass was reborn as Bastion, the first truly free nation in generations.

Though Bastion’s people are now to use their inherent magic for the first time in known history, they are surrounded by enemies, and few of the original Chainbreakers survived the uprising. Six months after the revolution’s success, Chorae has transferred the divine blessings of the fallen Chainbreakers to a handful of additional champions (including the PCs), desperate to keep her dangerous gambit from being snuffed out like so many dreams before it.

The Chainbreakers must protect Bastion, work to foment rebellion in other domains, and help people learn to use their magic before it can be taken away.

Tone & Feel

Defiant, Tense, Uplifting

Themes

Authoritarianism, Community, Isolation vs. Interdependence, Revolution

Touchstones

Eberron, Dark Sun, Final Fantasy VII, Exalted, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Midnight

Ancestries

Drakona

Drakona are the descendants of the draconic overlords from their liaisons with humanoid subjects. The dragons sire children rarely, so most Drakona in the world are several if not many generations removed from this pairing. Some overlords keep their descendants close as favored agents or lieutenants; others want nothing to do with their offspring.

Did you grow up in the domain of your draconic ancestor, and if so, how did it impact your life? What do people assume about Drakona in your community? How were they right and how were they wrong?

Communities

Wildborne, Ridgeborne, and Orderborne communities are most prevalent in the nation of Bastion, but people have flocked to Bastion from across the region, so characters may come from any community.

Orderborne

Most population centers are dominated by Orderborne communities, each reflecting the dictates and norms of their overlord. Some communities develop a mix of tenets in line with their overlord and tenets that reflect how people have learned to live under the rule of these immortal tyrants.

What tenets do you still hold from your youth lived in the overlord’s rule, and what tenets have you changed or replaced since you turned against them?

Where do you see a need for order in the nascent country of Bastion? What impulse toward freedom acts in opposition to that order?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne
These communities are among the most common for characters that did not grow up under the direct rule of an overlord – representing rural towns, isolated villages, and groups that do their best to escape the watchful eyes of the overlords. Every part of the world is officially claimed by one overlord (often more than one, in a territory dispute lasting generations).

Over the centuries, the overlords have largely subsumed the diverse cultures in their domains into a monolithic national identity, minority cultural groups have been able to survive on the margins, including religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. Fringe and rural communities outside the city centers are home to most of these groups, where identities that exist in opposition to the overlords have more room to breathe and propagate.

What identities and/or traditions to you belong to that defy the overlords’ monolithic nationalism? How do people within the group communicate these identities to one another without drawing the overlords’ ire?

What stance did your community take with regards to the Chainbreaker’s uprising? Did they support the rebels, remain neutral, or work with the overlords’ forces to protect their own position?

Classes

Seraph
Since most of the divinities have completely abandoned the world, Seraphs are very rare. A Seraph character could be a chosen of Chorae with a special relationship to the goddess. Alternatively, a Seraph could be a former agent of one of the overlords (Draconic or Necromantic), using their power against their former liege or out of a desire to undermine their liege’s enemies.

Alternatively, a Seraph could be a champion of another god that has decided to join Chorae in breaking the pact of non-interference (though this is a bigger departure from the setting’s assumptions).

For Seraphs of Chorae, what do you think made the goddess chose you to be singular among her champions? What fear do you have about your ability to fulfil your oath?

For Seraphs of other powers, how can you tell when the being that granted you this power would disapprove of how you’re using it? What would it take for this power to be rescinded?

Sorcerer
This is the most straightforward class option to represent a character that is embracing their inborn magic, finally freed of the obelisk’s siphoning power. With Chorae’s blessing, Sorcerer PCs will retain their magic even when within range of other obelisks. Struggling with your power and maintaining control is a major theme for Sorcerers, and a good choice for a player interested in engaging with the idea that every person can innately utilize magic, but that it had been stolen by the overlords.

What happened when your magic returned, rushing back to you all at once? What side-effects or collateral damage colored your relationship to this power? How do other people of Bastion relate to you in terms of understanding and working with their own innate magic?

Guardian and Warrior

In Daggerheart core, these classes do not use magic, their subclasses do not have a spellcast trait, and the domains of Blade, Bone, and Valor do not contain any spells. For this campaign setting, you are encouraged to re-flavor some or all of these non-magical abilities to have a magical element. Your use of the ability “Brace” might manifest a magical shield, your toughness from “Bare Bones” might take the form of elemental armor, etc. Or you might decide that your inherent magic has nothing to do with your martial abilities and expresses itself in other ways.

Player Principles

Build Up Your Home

The Chainbreakers’ success will be Bastion’s success. Address Bastion’s lacks and its crises in order to protect your home base and ensure that the dream of freedom is not snuffed out while you’re plotting the downfall of the overlords. A quest to procure medicine or building materials may be just as critical as sowing dissent among the ranks of an overlord’s military.

Light the Way for Others

Your actions will reverberate across the world. You cannot be everywhere at once, but word of your deeds will spread, and symbolic actions can have as big an impact down the road as those that are less flashy but more immediate.

Fight Smart, Not Fair

Even a full party of Chainbreakers cannot overthrow a domain in a day. You must act with subtlety, building alliances, solving problems to gain support among the peoples of a domain. When the time is right, strike decisively and light the fire of revolution. You will find victory when you are the tip of the spear and not the entire weapon, when your actions inspire others to act by the hundreds and thousands.

GM Principles

Show how Cruelty Becomes Hubris

For centuries, the overlords have been largely unchallenged in their own domains, only facing threats from other overlords. Their individual worldviews have warped their domains to ruthless ends. But that ruthlessness is the tinder that can be lit into the fires of revolution. The weaknesses of the overlords should be easy to spot but much harder to exploit.

Push Them to the Brink of Annihilation

The PCs are underdogs in this campaign, and at times, victory should feel nearly impossible. Bastion is one nation against an entire world. As the heroes rack up successes, the other powers will (mostly) put aside their squabbles to wipe Bastion off of the map. The overlords may be rivals, but they are all invested in the system of authoritarian domains retaining ultimate power. The more the idea of self-determination spreads, the harder it will be for the overlords to retain control.

Use Precarity to Undermine Solidarity

The overlords have built their domains to be inescapable and inevitable. Something keeps people from leaving and keeps them in line, whether it is isolation, precarity, debt, or something else. With inborn magic stolen by the towers, people’s ability to fight back is limited. Use the overlords’ reputation and the weight of history to show the pressures that keep people from committing to a revolutionary effort. Show how people act out of fear to protect themselves and those they love rather than taking a bigger risk to protect their entire community by fighting back.

Distinctions

Domains of Scale and Bone

Dragons and necromancers rule their fiefdoms according to their whims and desires – hoarding artifacts, debts, or knowledge. Each overlord’s worldview is manifest in their domain, with industry and ideology focused on the dragon’s interests. The necromancers have raised the countless dead from war and beyond, their workforces growing forever as debt-saddled workers sign contracts that grant their labor in perpetuity beyond death.

Previous national and ethnic identities have been suppressed by the overlords, instead focusing on nationalist loyalty to their draconic or necromantic overlords. However, outsider and minority cultural groups still exist in small pockets within the larger settlements as well as in the domains’ margins.

Thanks to having centuries for grudges and antipathies to grow and fester, nearly all domains are embroiled in some level of cold war conflict with one another, sometimes breaking out into public conflict with raids, wars, and so on.

Vel Frazzek (aka The Laboratory)
Ruler: Frazzek
Theme: Hustle Culture

On a peninsula overlooking a tumultuous bay, the frenetic lightning dragon Frazzek “bestows” magic on factory workers to let them help create his wonders. Those that work long hours and perform at the highest levels rewarded with better accommodations, workplace perks, and more. Housing is limited, as Vel Frazzek is built up in the edge of a small peninsula. There’s “nowhere to build” because the dragon has to “preserve the natural beauty of the countryside”.

Frazzek hires mercenary companies as deniable assets to harry Bastion as well as sending spies to subvert it from within. Since Vel Frazzek is a small territory, he’s eager to claim Bastion and gain strategic depth. He’s especially nervous about aggression from Xivar, who is an old rival (they used to be friends and had a big falling out).

Quote:
“I’ve just got to get through these next three weeks and the product launch and then I’ll have time to meet up for lunch.”

Vel Xivar (aka The Red Towers)
Ruler: Xivar
Theme: Hard Labor

In a mountainous region with fertile valleys, Xivar the brutal volcanic dragon rules over a series of mining settlements and the valleys between them. Most that live in Vel Xivar work in materials extraction or supporting those efforts. With few other local industries and little chance of escape over the mountains, most laborers have little choice but to accept dangerous working conditions.

The Marrow Plains
Ruler: The Marrow Queen
Theme: Debt

South of Bastion is a wasteland created by a border war between Frazzek and the greater wight known as the Marrow Queen and Velfra. Vaste swathes of the Marrow Plains are home only to the dead, playing out behavioral loops as a result of the interactions between the Marrow Queen’s necromancy and Frazzek’s experimental magitech.

Life continues in small pockets, with the Marrow Plains’ primary industry being sharecropper farming and fishing. The domain includes a couple of larger towns/small cities (including the Marrow Queen’s fortress), but no large central metropolis

The Marrow Queen’s realm runs on contracts. She owns every inch of land, so you pay for your water, for your food, you rent the land even if you built your own house, etc. Most people are coerced into afterlife labor contracts, giving the Marrow Queen an ever-growing workforce. And in the long, sleepless nights, the Marrow Queen gazes northwards and plots revenge on Frazzek.

Quote:
“I’m sorry, but you can clearly see on page 17 under subsection 6D that the Queen has the right to reclaim any rented assets with 12 hours’ notice.”

“But the notice came in the middle of the night? I just woke up after pulling a double shift.”

“I’m just doing my job, sir. Now will you vacate or will I have to call the guard?”

The Five Roads (aka Vel Barrikess)
Ruler: Barikess
Theme: Convenience as a Trap

A crossroads/trade nation ruled by the wind dragon Barikess. Her domain maintains shipping contracts with other nations, using her writs of safe passage across the region. She ferociously protects her caravans/vessels, going so far as to have agents destroy merchant caravans or ships that do not sign exclusive contracts with her.

The Necropolis
Ruler: Jevin the Wrathful
Theme: Precarity

The Necropolis is a bone-and-stone city built out from a fortress conquered generations ago by a spellsword named Jevin. In life, Jevin was a renowned spellsword and servant of Karzan the ice dragon, granted privileges and status within the realm. It was not enough for Jevin, so he betrayed his leige and helped Xivar kill Karzan in exchange for half of Karzan’s territory.

Jevin was a worldly man, and in in the eternal unlife granted him by the siphoned magic, he has built a comspolitan city, home to undead of all forms. Jevin’s domain extends far enough beyond the city to include some ranching and farming settlements, but the living are not allowed to leave Jevin’s domain. He keeps his subjects on the edge of destitution through control of jobs, prices, and more.

Quote: “There’s so much opportunity if you work hard. Just a monthly blood donation and you can pay that off if you get a good enough job!”

The Obelisks

A thousand years ago, Egriktor (an ancient earth dragon) created a method of creating enchanted obelisks to drain the innate magic of those in its vicinity. Overlords built these obelisks across the populated world, each siphoning the magic of mortals in a 50-mile radius. The magic they steal protects the overlords’ castles, infuses their shock troopers, and supports their rituals. Over time, propaganda gained sway and so many mortals believe that the obelisks are a manifestation of the overlords’ protection from the uniformly cruel and malicious gods, who the dragons overthrew to liberate the world.

Bastion (formery Veljulakass or Veljul)

The former domain of the capricious forest dragon Julakass, Bastion comprises a largely wooded and/or mountainous region, tucked into a wide valley between two mountain ranges, with an exposed flank running from the east to the southwest holding most of the nation’s fortifications.

Veljul’s economy was largely based on lumber and medicinal components harvested from the country’s deep woods. Now with

The capital, formerly Julakass’ Perch, is now known as Chorae’s Stand. Located deep within a magical forest filled with dangerous flora and fauna, the city is built up in the highest branches and atop the canopy of titanic old growth trees, with both rope bridges, gliders, and magical elevators connecting different parts of the city.

Stolen Magic

The gods created mortals with inherent magic, giving them the ability to tap into the raw power of the universe. Most mortals manifest useful but relatively limited magical talents, enough to make life easier but not often enough to be extremely dangerous. A person’s magic reflects their interests and inclinations, with scouts and gardeners and others attuned to nature manifesting the Sage domain, studious and regimented thinkers developing magic from the Codex domain, and so on.

Some are born with an exceptionally strong connection to magic due to the vagaries of chance. In the first age, they would tend to become priests, shamans, and mediums, putting their power to use for the common good. In the past centuries, overlords have tapped these people to be their agents, granting them tokens and blessing that protect them from the obelisks’ siphoning effects.

The people of Bastion are still adjusting to having their magical talents returned to them, no longer suppressed by the obelisks. But even so, these powers have proven massively useful in the country’s efforts to rebuild after the revolution and in forging a new path forward, with gardeners and ranchers able to speak directly to their crops and livestock, spies able to slip through shadows and pick locks with ease, and their healers tapping into the power of life and creation to heal wounds and battle sicknesses.

Magic in Bastion is more chaotic, rougher, but also more personal, and most importantly, it is self-directed, with people putting their abilities to use based on their individual and community needs and not the dictates of the overlords.

Chainbreakers

Three years ago, Chorae sent a vision to her followers that they should destroy one of the obelisks in Veljulakass. Once they did, she was able to imbue thirty mortals with a majority of her power, naming them Chainbreakers. The Chainbreakers destroyed three more obelisks, removing their power-siphoning influence from the domain. With people able to tap into their magic once more, the Chainbreakers began teaching people how to use their own magic, sharing the secret revealed to them by Chorae – everyone has magic, and it is being stolen. With the populace able to access magic, the revolution successfully killed Julakass, the forest dragon overlord of the country now known as Bastion.

Many of the original Chainbreakers died in the revolution, but some remain, taking on leadership positions domestically and in Bastion’s liberatory efforts abroad.

• Hanzon - focused on feeding everyone/clean water - bounty/nature magic, agriculture, 

• Orin - protecting settlements from monsters and ecological dangers.

• Janda - magical/physical barriers vs. scrying/war magic.

• Lumasthi - Developing the magical capabilities of the populace. 

• Kukuyu - Propaganda/communciations.

• Eckhard - National defense & the armed forces.

• Cherry - magical infrastructure inside and outside of Bastion, especially for travel.

• Rhys - Organizing miners/laborers toward a rebellion in Vel Xivar.

• Yuli - Mutual aid food/caretaker work in Vel Frazzek.

• Francit – Researching new and better ways to destroy obelisks.

• Kicell – Plundering the dragon/necromancer tombs (heroic thievery)

• Wrenne - Open-source magical technology creation and distribution.

Concealed Histories

Dragons and Necromancers have hidden traces/record of the first age to reinforce their dominance. There are wonders and histories to be uncovered of cultures long-buried.

Throughout the land, there are hidden temples, ancient cities concealed by powerful magic, and other traces of the first age awaiting re-discovery by mortals eager to reclaim their history and gather the knowledge, magic, and artifacts that will let them chart their own destiny.

Overlords have ransacked many of these ancient sites, but others are used as secret hordes, repositories of magic, or strongholds. Chorae and her Chainbreakers have discovered the location of some of these sites, including ancient temples to Chorae herself.

Inciting Incident

At the edge of Bastion’s territory, the small fortress on the foothills of Shadowpeak has gone silent, failing to send reports and providing no answer to magical correspondence. The fort had been complaining of undead attacks, so Bastion leadership has dispatched a group of new Chainbreakers to investigate the situation.

Fort Shadowpeak is not only important to Bastion’s defense as the stronghold protecting the northeastern-most border, it is also built out as a trade hub, the nexus through which lumber and medicine was shipped to Vel Frazzek and where the oath-bonded couriers of Vel Barrikess would deliver their packages on behalf of nations across the region.

Bastion has been attempting to normalize trade relations with Vel Barrikess to be able to pay for imports second-hand, using the trade nation as an agent. Barrikess is known to be more loyal to coin than kin, but if Bastion cannot guarantee safety for the couriers, the fledgling nation will be entirely cut off from the region’s economy.

The fort is a day-and-a-half’s ride from Chorae’s Stand, and the couriers are due in two days at dawn. You’ll need to race through the dangerous forest, break any siege or oust any occupying forces, relieve whatever troops remain, and ensure that Barrikess’ couriers arrive unscathed.

The party’s objectives:

1)      Determine why communication has ceased.

2)      Regain control of Shadowpeak as necessary.

3)      Ensure the safe arrival and of the couriers from Vel Barrikess and that they are paid.

4)      Send word back to the capital and hold your position for reinforcements.

Campaign Mechanics

Innate Magic

Each PC gains one of the following features at level 1:

• Minor Illusion: Make an Instinct (10) roll. On a success, you can create a minor visual illusion no larger than yourself within Close range. This illusion is convincing to anyone at Close range or farther.

• Prestidigitation: You can perform harmless, subtle magical effects at will. Change an object’s color, create a smell, light a candle, cause a tiny object to float, illuminate a room, or repair a small object.

• Wildtouch: You can perform harmless, subtle effects that involve nature-such as causing a flower to rapidly grow, summoning a small gust of wind, or starting a campfire-at will.
  

Chainbreaker Boons

Each PC in this campaign frame has been chosen by Chorae to be one of her Chainbreakers. These heroes are invested with a portion of her power, manifesting exceptional abilities that grow with the character. Each player chooses the heroic virtue that Chorae recognizes in their character. The corresponding boon represents and magnifies that virtue, the blessing growing with the character.

Players are encouraged to select their boon during character creation, but the magical bonus does not begin until they reach Tier 2. At levels 2, 5, and 8, the character gains access to the their boon’s feature for that new tier.

Tier 2

• Camaraderie - When you assist an ally, you can mark a Stress instead of spending a Hope to grant them a d8 advantage die.

• Courage - Once per session, you may re-roll your Hope die and take the new result.

• Fortitude - Permanently add 1 to your damage thresholds.

• Insight - When you make an action roll to gain information, you may spend a hope to add 1d4 to your total. This does not count as an advantage die.

• Righteousness - Once per rest, when you defeat an adversary of your tier or higher, clear 2 Stress or gain 2 Hope.

Tier 3

• Camaraderie – Once per session, when you take the Prepare downtime action with another PC, you each gain an additional Hope.

• Courage - Once per session, if you have no Hope, gain 2 Hope.

• Fortitude - When you take Minor damage, you may mark a Stress to take no damage.

• Insight - When you take a minute or more to observe a person, place, or thing, you may spend 2 Hope to gain information as if you’d rolled a success with Hope (but do not gain a Hope).

• Righteousness - When you deal 2 or more HP to an adversary, you can mark a Stress to clear an Armor Slot.

Tier 4

• Camaraderie – When you assist an ally and they roll a critical or a success with Hope, they gain an additional Hope and you gain a Hope.

• Courage – Once per rest, you may mark a Stress to turn a result with Fear into a result with Hope.

• Fortitude – While you have two or fewer hit points unmarked, you gain a +3 bonus to your damage thresholds.

• Insight – When you get a result with Hope on an action roll against an adversary or environment, clear a Stress.

• Righteousness – Once per rest, if each of your Hope and Fear dice results were over a 6, you can spend 2 Hope to change your result to a critical.

The Obelisks

Obelisks are built approximately every fifty miles throughout the land controlled by the overlords. Within that fifty-mile range, the use of magic only possible under certain circumstances:

1) They have the blessing of a god, like the PCs.

2) They are using a magical device.

3) They have been granted power by one of the overlords.

Destroying an obelisk is very difficult, and should require a Progress Countdown in most circumstances, leaving flexibility for a variety of approaches. You might find the hidden entrance into the obelisk’s interior and destroy the enchantment that siphons magic, you might dig under the obelisk to make it collapse like sappers in a siege, etc.

Session Zero Questions

• What role did you play during the uprising? If you arrived after the uprising, what made you rally to Bastion’s flag?

• What heroic act of yours first garnered Chorae’s attention?

• How personal is your connection to Chorae? Does she speak to you directly, send her wishes through evocative dreams, or something else?

• Which of you saw a Chainbreaker die? What fear of yours did the sight remind you of?

• Will our game focus more on protecting Bastion or on liberating other nations?

• What lines will our heroes absolutely not cross in their fight for revolution?

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This product includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at https://www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.

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