Michael R. Underwood
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Bastion of Hope campaign frame - Text-only
🕑 Added 2025-11-11 15:00:23 +0000 UTCDear all,
Bastion of Hope is in final layout, so today I'm bringing you the finalized text for the campaign frame. Patrons at $10 and up will get the full PDF (with art and layout) before it goes on sale to the public. There have been some notable revisions, especially in the tegion writeups for the other nations around Bastion.
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.
Designed by Mike Underwood
Complexity Rating: ⬤ ⬤ ⬤
THE PITCH
Read this section to your players to introduce them to the Campaign.
The world is ruled by a handful of dragons and undead overlords. They reign over bustling cities where precarity keeps workers hungry and desperate. Massive obelisks siphon people’s innate magic, rendering total power to the overlords. After centuries, one nation has shattered the towers and slain their draconic overlord. In a Bastion of Hope campaign, you’ll take up arms against the wealthy and face impossible odds to spread hope and end the age of tyrants.
TONE & FEEL
Defiant, Heroic, Tense, Uplifting
THEMES
Authoritarianism, Community, Isolation vs. Interdependence, Revolution
TOUCHSTONES
Dark Sun, Eberron, Final Fantasy, Exalted, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Midnight, Spire: the City Must Fall
OVERVIEW
If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.
A millennia ago, at the end of the second age, the gods departed from the mortal realm, swearing they would no longer interfere in the affairs of mortals. The only remnants of divine magic from the age before are relics and ancient blessings, most long-buried.
In the gods’ absence, dozens of dragons used 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 they call the Great Acquisition.
Over time, some dragons abandoned settlements or were pushed out by powerful necromancers – liches, spectres, and wight-lords, enabled by the eternal labor of undead workers whose debts keep them working in perpetuity after their deaths.
Each country reflects its overlord: a legalistic necromancer’s realm defined by contracts, a callous dragon’s realm 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 with the sole purpose of maintaining their power, from magic-fueled appliances and watchtowers, magitech engineering, and more.
Three years ago, Chorae, goddess of justice and revolution, expended the majority of her power to break the pact of non-interference, leaving her just enough to imbue a small number of mortals with extraordinary power. These heroes–who came to be known as the Chainbreakers–succeeded in destroying the towers in the holdings of the forest dragon Julakass. Aided by everyday people and their newly-returned magic, the Chainbreakers mounted a revolution against its dragon-lord. Six months ago, they killed Julakass, and her realm was reborn as Bastion: the first truly free nation in centuries.
Though Bastion’s people once again have access to their inherent magic, the country is surrounded by enemies, and few of the original Chainbreakers survived the uprising. Mere weeks ago, Chorae was able to transfer the divine blessings of her fallen Chainbreakers to a handful of new champions (including the PCs), desperate to keep her dangerous gambit from being snuffed out like so many dreams before it.
The fledgling nation is at risk of being annihilated by the nearby overlords. The Chainbreakers must protect Bastion, help people learn to use their magic before it can be taken away again, and foment rebellion in other countries to spread the fires of liberation.
COMMUNITIES
All communities are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope Campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players and choose one or more of the questions to ask them during your session zero.
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. Reflections of their overlord’s tendencies and how people have learned to live under the rule of these immortal tyrants.
What tenets do you still hold from your youth under the tyrants’ 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 the confines of order?
Ridgeborne, Wanderborne, and Wildborne
These communities are among the most common for characters who did not grow up under the direct rule of an overlord – representing rural towns, nomadic caravans, isolated villages, and groups who 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).
While the overlords have largely subsumed the diverse cultures in their territories 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 existing in opposition to the overlords have more room to breathe and propagate.
What identities and/or traditions of yours directly 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 uprising against Julakass? Did they support the rebels, remain neutral, or work with the overlords’ forces to protect their own position?
Underborne
In the decades and centuries after the dragons seized control, some people decided to opt out of the system entirely and flee underground. Families left to escape debt, entire towns picked up stakes and delved into the dark beneath the surface to build a life on their own terms. Escaping the overlords is no simple task, but some of those who succeed find community with others and build something new outside the exploitative systems of the tyrants. Life in Underborne communities is defined by lacks and abundances far different from the lives of those living in the shadow of the overlords.
What great lacks or scarcities defined life in your community before coming to Bastion? What luxury or resource would you miss most if you had to give it up?
What resource, practice, or right was abundant or freely-accessed in your community? Why is it scarce or unheard of on the surface? How have you acclimated to living without the things you used to take for granted?
ANCESTRIES
All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.
Clank
While automata have been in use for over a century, the creation of sapient constructs (Clanks) is a recent innovation, emerging from the nascent magitechnological revolution in nations like Vel Frazzek’s Laboratory. Clanks are largely made of metal and wood, with souls generated from a magical process to create more versatile workers. The overlords found free will was required in order to create intelligent workers instead of mindless drones.
Where were you created and how did you break away from the purpose-job you were made for?
Do you consider the “mindless” automata to be your cousins? Peers yet to be awakened? How does seeing them toil make you feel?
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 home of your draconic ancestor, and if so, how did it impact your life?
What do people assume about Drakona in your community? Do you enjoy a special status or are you treated like anyone else?
CLASSES
All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within a Bastion of Hope campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.
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.
How do your martial abilities manifest your innate magic?
If your innate magic is separate, what form does it take?
Seraph
Due to the divine pact of non-interference, traditional Seraphs who serve a god are very rare. A Seraph character could be a chosen of Chorae with a special relationship to the goddess, or they could be an agent of one of the overlords (Draconic or Necromantic). Seraphs empowered by the overlords might use their power against their former liege or to undermine their liege’s enemies.
For Seraphs of Chorae, what do you think made the goddess choose 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 who granted you this power would disapprove of how you’re using it? What would it take for this power to be rescinded?
Sorcerer
Sorcerer is the most straightforward class option to represent a character focused on connecting with and using their inborn magic. With Chorae’s blessing, Sorcerer PCs retain their magic even when within range of active obelisks. Struggling with your power and maintaining control is a major theme Sorcerer characters can tap into, and Sorcerer is a good choice for a player interested in engaging with the idea every person can innately utilize magic as well as the world’s history of stolen magic.
What happened when your magic returned, crashing back into 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?
PLAYER PRINCIPLES
If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.
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 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.
Fight Smart, Not Fair
Overthrowing a tyrant is a massive feat, even a full party of Chainbreakers. You must act with subtlety, building alliances, solving problems to gain support among the peoples of a nation. 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.
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 less flashy but more immediate. Remove the obstacles preventing people from acting and the cause’s numbers will multiply.
GM PRINCIPLES
Keep the following guidance in mind while you GM this campaign.
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 unquestioned authoritarianism. But the more the idea of self-determination spreads, the harder it will be for the overlords to retain control.
Show How Cruelty Becomes Hubris
For centuries, the overlords have been largely unchallenged in their own realms, only facing threats from rival tyrants. Their individual worldviews have warped their territories to ruthless ends. However, their ruthlessness is the tinder capable of lighting the fires of revolution as people reach their breaking points. The weaknesses of the overlords should be easy to spot but much harder to exploit.
Use Precarity to Undermine Solidarity
The overlords have built their holdings 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 preventing 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
Use this information to prepare your campaign. You can also share it with your players as needed.
Buried Histories
Dragons and Necromancers have hidden traces/records of earlier eras 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 and second age awaiting re-discovery by mortals eager to reclaim their history and gather the knowledge, magic, and artifacts allowing them to chart their own destiny.
Many of the ancient sites have already been ransacked, but others are used as secret hordes, repositories of magic, or strongholds. Chorae and her Chainbreakers have located some of these sites–including ancient temples to Chorae herself–but have yet to explore them or claim their treasures.
The Chainbreakers
Three years ago, Chorae sent a vision to her followers charging them to destroy one of the obelisks in the realm of the forest dragon Julakass. Once they did, she was able to imbue thirty mortals with a majority of her power, naming them Chainbreakers. The Chainbreakers started sharing the secret revealed to them by Chorae – everyone has magic, and it is being stolen. As their supporters grew in number, the Chainbreakers destroyed three more obelisks, robbing Julakass of much of her power. With the populace able to access magic, the Chainbreakers helped people use their power and together, the revolution killed Julakass and renamed the nation as Bastion.
Most of the original Chainbreakers died in the revolution. Those who remain have taken on leadership positions domestically and in Bastion’s liberatory efforts abroad. These senior Chainbreakers make great patrons and questgivers for the party, as each is focused on their own approach to helping Bastion survive and thrive.
Eckhard (they/he) – National defense & the armed forces. They are terse, pragmatic, and uninterested in the nascent factional politics of Bastion.
Francit (she/he) – Researching new and better ways to destroy obelisks. An engineer by training, she approaches her work like a detective with a mystery, treating each obelisk as a puzzle to be solved.
Lumasthi (he/him) – Developing the magical capabilities of the populace. Formerly a professor in Vel Frazzek, he is aloof and treats subordinates like apprentices, always testing and evaluating.
Orin (she/her) – Protecting settlements from monsters and ecological dangers. She’s used to living in the woods and cares little for niceties but respects those who can handle themselves in the wilds.
Rhys (he/him) – Organizing miners/laborers toward a rebellion in Vel Xivar. Rhys escaped from Vel Xivar and bears scars from the work, pushing boundaries and rushing to accelerate Xivar’s demise.
Tanyah (she/her) – Plundering the dragon/necromancer tombs. This giantess is bubbly and sweet, and will take any opportunity to go into the field.
Wrenne (she/they) – Publicly-owned creation and distribution of magical technology. They are inquisitive and a bit pushy, always asking colleagues and subordinates for feedback and new ideas.
Yuli (he/him) –- Mutual aid work in Vel Frazzek, mostly focused on food and caretaker labor. Chorae gave him a new lease on life after escaping from the Marrow Plains. Always seen with a child on his hip, Yuli is patient, chatty, and insists on sharing authority as much as possible.
One Free Nation Surrounded by Infighting Tyrants
Bastion was formerly Vel Julakass (or Veljul), the holdings of the capricious forest dragon Julakass. It comprises a largely wooded region with dangerous flora and fauna tucked into a wide valley between two mountain ranges with an exposed flank running from the east to the southwest. After centuries of border skirmishes, this open flank holds most of the nation’s fortifications. Veljul’s economy was largely based on lumber and medicinal components harvested from the country’s deep woods.
The nation’s capital and largest settlement is Chorae’s Stand (formerly Julakass’ Perch). The city is located deep in the forest, built up and between huge wide trees, with massive platforms connecting the trunks and construction all the way from tunnels in the roots to watchtowers at the very top of the branches. Traversal throughout the city is done through the use of rope bridges, gliders, and magical platforms connecting different parts of the city.
After Julakass’ defeat, many in Bastion called for a Chainbreaker to become the new ruler. Instead, the Chainbreakers worked with elders and leaders among the nation’s communities to form a representative republic with elected leaders from all parts of the nation coming together to write and implement the new nation’s laws.
Realms of Scale and Bone
Dragons and necromancers rule their fiefdoms according to their whims and desires – hoarding artifacts, debts, and knowledge. Each overlord’s worldview is manifest in their realm, 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 granting their labor in perpetuity beyond death.
Previous national and ethnic identities have been suppressed by the overlords, instead focusing on nationalist loyalty to their individual ruler. However, outsider and minority cultural groups still exist in small pockets within the larger settlements as well as in the margins.
Thanks to having centuries for grudges and antipathies to grow and fester, nearly all of the tyrant’s holdings are embroiled in some level of cold war antagonism with one another, sometimes escalating to open raids and occasional wars.
The lands outside direct control of the overlords have been intentionally left to grow wild and dangerous, with powerful monsters driven into these border zones or intentionally seeded to prevent subjects from escaping their obligations. The world contains many such realms, but this frame details just Bastion and the five other nations on the same continent.
Vel Frazzek (aka The Laboratory)
Ruler: Frazzek (Loreborne lightning dragon, he/him) - arrogant, creative, nervous
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. Breakthroughs in magical engineering and enchantment have enabled rapid growth of Vel Frazzek’s capital and drawn in refugees able to escape other realms.
Those who work long hours and perform at the highest levels are rewarded with better accommodations, workplace perks, and more. Housing is limited in the highly-dense city, as Vel Frazzek is built on the edge of a small peninsula. There’s “nowhere to build” because the dragon has to “preserve the natural beauty of the countryside”, which just happens to include the personal orchards and ranches of the city’s wealthy.
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 as well as natural resources. He’s especially nervous about aggression from Xivar, who is an old rival (they used to be lovers and had a big falling out).
Vel Xivar (aka the Red Towers)
Ruler: Xivar (Ridgeborne volcanic dragon, he/him) - jealous, merciless, proud
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. The Red Towers contain the lion’s share of the rare metals on the continent, but centuries of extraction has forced the mortals to delve ever-deeper into more dangerous veins to meet their quotas. Vel Xivar has a great deal of farmland in addition to its mountains, making the volcanic dragon’s realm especially resilient in a crisis, but the country’s reserves are seldom distributed by the callous overlord.
Most who live in Vel Xivar work in materials extraction or supporting those efforts in refinement or shipping to other countries. Only the most dangerous jobs pay anything close to a living wage, and there are no social services for the injured or sick. With few other local industries and little chance of escape over the mountains, most laborers have little choice but to accept dangerous working conditions. But the communities who store these bounties are especially primed for radicalization against Xivar, since they know there is enough to go around.
Despite controlling a huge territory with many resources, Xivar is never satisfied. He covets the innovations of Frazzek, the resilient workforce of the Marrow Queen, and the logistical marvels of Barikess. He is constantly planning ways to seize territory, dispatching agents to spy, sabotage, and steal from his neighbors. Of late, his eyes have turned to Bastion, seeing the verdant forests as a prize to be claimed.
The Marrow Plains
Ruler: The Marrow Queen (Underborne wight, she/they) - meticulous, patient, resentful
Theme: Unending Debt
South of Bastion is a wasteland created by a border war between Frazzek and the greater wight known as the Marrow Queen. Vast 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 The Marrow Plains includes a couple of larger towns/small cities (including the Marrow Queen’s fortress), but unlike other realms in the region, the Marrow Queen controls no large central metropolis.
Despite the magical aftermath, life continues in small pockets within the Marrow Plains, with the primary industry being sharecropper farming and fishing. Since individual debt is passed on to kin or the local community upon death, most people are coerced into afterlife labor contracts, giving the Marrow Queen an ever-growing workforce of the tireless dead.
The Marrow Queen runs her realm on contracts binding her subjects to labor and loyalty using the social pressure of the very communities helping mortals survive adversity. In her “benevolence,” she allows her tenant-subjects to buy water and food and rents out parcels of land so people can build houses. And in the long, sleepless nights, the Marrow Queen gazes northwards and plots revenge on Frazzek.
The Five Roads (aka Vel Barrikess)
Ruler: Barrikess (Wanderborne wind dragon, she/her) - amoral, cunning, mercurial
Theme: Convenience Panopticon
A crossroads/trade nation ruled by the wind dragon Barikess. Her realm maintains shipping contracts with other nations, using her writs of safe passage across the region. The Five Roads are sparsely populated, with large areas uninhabited and un-cultivated. She has converted some of this land into warehouse towns (ware-towns) entire settlements focused on storage and security for goods to be shipped or protected as part of Barrikess’ horde.
Denizens of the Five Roads are dependent on Barrikess’ shipping lanes and logistical prowess due to the isolation of communities. No single town is actually self-sufficient, all are dependent on some essential good only available from the dragon’s caravans. Connections between people are thin as a large portion of the populace is constantly traveling around the realm and the broader region, with magical communication between caravans and couriers officially restricted by dispatchers.
Barrikess uses her logistical and informational networks to surveil her populace as well as using her couriers and caravans as spies and informants, magical listening and viewing enchantments woven into every cart, vessel, and shipping container. To ensure her dominance in travel, Barrikess is extremely “pro-active” in protecting her caravans/vessels, going so far as to have agents destroy merchant caravans or ships not exclusively contracted with her.
The Necropoli
Ruler: Jevin the Wrathful (Highborne lich, he/him) - blunt, convivial, dabbler
Theme: Eternal Precarity
The Necropoli is a realm of bone-and-stone cities. Jevin’s primary stronghold was built out from a fortress conquered generations ago by a spellsword named Jevin.
The living subjects of the Necropoli are divided between the menial and working-class jobs keeping the metropolitan cities buzzing and agricultural labor in the ranching and farming communities beyond the city walls. The most privileged mortals are granted un-death for their service to the overlord, and while the undead aristocracy enjoys eternal decadence, the mortal peasantry scrambles to keep their heads above water financially.
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 liege and helped Xivar kill Karzan in exchange for half of Karzan’s territory. Jevin was a well-traveled man, and in the unlife granted him by the siphoned magic, he has built a cosmopolitan city. Jevin keeps his subjects on the edge of destitution through control of jobs, prices, and more.
Emergent Magitech
The more innovation-focused realms like The Laboratory and the Necropolis are entering a magic industrial revolution, developing powerful devices produced at scale and run without needing magically-endowed operators. Between trade and espionage, the blueprints and formulae to produce some of these key inventions have spread across the region, though Vel Frazzek and the Necropolis still lead the way in their application of these innovations.
The armies of several nations are shifting towards large-scale use of magitech weaponry from rod-rifle corps to heavy infantry with magical shield technology capable of repelling powerful spells and siege weaponry alike.
The necromantic realms have also begun deploying magically-powered airships to challenge the draconic overlords’ historical air superiority. Mere months ago, a Necropolis airship managed to seriously injure one of Xivar’s offspring and drive him from the field, blunting an invasion attempt into the northern end of Jevin’s holdings.
Innate Power Stolen by Magic-Siphoning Obelisks
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.
A thousand years ago, the earth dragon Egriktor 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, infuses their technology, and supports their massive rituals. Over time, the overlord’s propaganda won out, and so most mortals believe the obelisks are a manifestation of the overlords’ protection from the uniformly cruel and malicious gods, who the dragons overthrew to liberate the world.
Some are born with an exceptionally strong connection to magic due to the vagaries of chance. Before the Great Acquisition, 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 blessings able to protect them from the obelisks’ siphoning effects so they may use their magic.
The people of Bastion are still adjusting to having access to their magic now the country’s obelisks have been destroyed. 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. Bastion’s gardeners and ranchers speak directly to their crops and livestock, the nation’s spies slip through shadows and pick locks with ease, and the healers tap into the power of life 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.
THE INCITING INCIDENT
You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own. An inciting incident for Bastion of Hope should involve the PCs facing an oncoming front of danger threatening to overwhelm the fledgling nation.
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 Barrikess’ Five Roads 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, carrying a powerful artifact Bastion leaders believe will help strengthen the country. The PCs will need to race through the dangerous forest, break any siege or oust any occupying forces, relieve whatever troops remain, and ensure Barrikess’ couriers arrive unscathed, finally holding the fort until reinforcements arrive.
Additionally, Bastion leadership is very invested in the country making a good impression on these couriers to lay the groundwork for developing a larger trade alliance between Bastion and Five Roads. Therefore, the PCs may want to prevent the couriers from learning Bastion has lost control of Fort Shadowpeak at all.
CAMPAIGN MECHANICS
The following mechanics are unique to this campaign.
Chainbreaker Boons
Each PC in a Bastion of Hope campaign has been chosen by Chorae to be one of her Chainbreakers. These heroes are invested with a portion of her power, manifesting exceptional abilities growing within the character. Each player will choose the heroic virtue Chorae recognizes in their character. The corresponding boon magnifies their virtue, gaining new features as they advance in power.
When the party reaches Tier 2, the GM should frame a scene where Chorae appears to the PCs and bestows their boons. Each player picks and tells the group which heroic boon the goddess recognizes in them. They then note the corresponding boon and gain its feature for Tier 2. At levels 5 and 8, the character gains access to their boon’s feature for the new tier.
As a result of these boons, PCs in a Bastion of Hope campaign are a bit more powerful at Tiers 2-4, and the GM may decide to adjust the challenges to match them. For example, a GM using the Battle Points system might add +1 or +2 to their standard Battle Point Budget if they find the normal calculation falls short of challenging the party.
Tier 2
Bravery: When you make a reaction roll, once per session, you can re-roll your Hope die and take the new result.
Camaraderie: When you assist an ally, you can mark a Stress instead of spending a Hope and grant them a d8 advantage die.
Fortitude: Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your Major damage threshold and a +2 permanent bonus to your Severe damage threshold.
Insight: After you make an action roll to gain information, you can spend a Hope to add a d4 to the roll.
Righteousness: When you defeat a non-Minion adversary of your tier or higher, once per rest, you can clear 2 Stress or gain 2 Hope.
Tier 3
Bravery: If you have no Hope, once per long rest, gain 2 Hope.
Camaraderie: When you take the Prepare downtime action with another PC, once per session, you each gain an additional 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 2 Stress to clear an Armor Slot.
Tier 4
Bravery: When you roll with Fear, once per rest, you can mark a Stress to change it into a roll with Hope instead.
Camaraderie: When you assist an ally and they critically succeed, they gain an additional Hope and you gain a Hope.
Fortitude: When you Risk it All, once per session, you can re-roll your Hope die and take the new result.
Insight: When you roll with Hope on an action roll against an adversary or environment, clear a Stress.
Righteousness: When you roll a critical success, once per long rest, you can clear all Stress.
Innate Magic
All PCs can use magic weapons regardless of whether they have a Spellcast Trait. Each PC who lacks all of the following features may choose one and add it as a class feature.
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.
Magic-Stealing Obelisks
Obelisks constructed throughout the land controlled by the overlords to siphon the innate magic of sapient beings, suppress resistance, and empower the overlords. Within a fifty-mile range of the obelisks, a character’s use of magic only possible under certain circumstances:
1) They have the blessing of a god (like the PCs being blessed by Chorae).
2) They are using a magical item.
3) They have been granted power by one of the overlords.
Destroying an obelisk is very difficult, requiring a Progress Countdown in most circumstances. How the PCs destroy or disable them is flexible: you might find the hidden entrance into the obelisk’s interior and destroy the enchantment siphoning magic, you might dig under the obelisk to make it collapse like sappers in a siege, etc.
Magitech
Magically-infused technology is available in several nations, pushing the world’s technological development forward as the tyrants seek to gain an edge on their rivals. As a result, a few additional weapons are available in a Bastion of Hope campaign. This is a small sample of what you might decide to make. Advanced magitech serves as a possible source of loot and an alternative to the PCs delving into secret and forgotten fortresses to reclaim ancient artifacts from the first age.
While these are magic weapons, characters of any class may use them due to Chorae’s power.
Primary Weapons
Wand Pistol
Finesse - Far | One-handed
Linked: When you succeed on an attack, mark a stress to add 1d4 to your damage pool.
Tier 1: d6+1 mag
Tier 2: d6+4 mag
Tier 3: d6+7 mag
Tier 4: d6+10 mag
Rod Rifle
Agility - Very Far | Two-handed
Brutal: When you roll the maximum value on a damage die, roll an additional damage die.
Tier 1: d8+1 mag
Tier 2: d8+4 mag
Tier 3: d8+7 mag
Tier 4: d8+10 mag
Secondary Weapons
Warded Shield
Strength - Melee | One-handed
Runic Ward: +1 to armor score; once per scene, you can mark 2 Stress to clear an armor slot.
Tier 1: d4 mag
Tier 2: d4+2 mag
Tier 3: d4+4 mag
Tier 4: d4+6 mag
Small Wand Pistol
Finesse - Far | One-handed
Tier 1: d6+1 mag - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Far range
Tier 2: d6+3 mag - Paired: +3 to primary weapon damage to targets within Far range
Tier 3: d6+5 mag - Paired: +4 to primary weapon damage to targets within Far range
Tier 4: d6+7 mag - Paired: +5 to primary weapon damage to targets within Far range
Armor
Magitech Frame
Power Suit (-2 to Evasion, -1 Finesse, +1 Proficiency for weapon attacks. Gain advantage on Strength rolls to push, smash, or lift)
Tier 1 - 7/15 Base thresholds | Base Score 4
Tier 2 - 11/24 Base thresholds | Base Score 5
Tier 3 - 13/31 Base thresholds | Base Score 6
Tier 4 - 15/40 Base thresholds | Base Score 7
SESSION ZERO QUESTIONS
Ask any of these questions to your players, or make your own.
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?
When did the group all start working together, and why?
Which of you saw a Chainbreaker die? What about their passing sticks with you the most?
How much with the campaign focus on magitech vs. recovering the wonders of the past?
Will our game focus more on protecting Bastion or on liberating other nations?
What lines will our PCs absolutely not cross in their fight for freedom?
Credits
Concept, Game Design, and Writing by Mike Underwood
Art by Shaun Ellis
Layout & Production by Andrew Bauman
Editing by Wes Franks
Darrington Press Community Gaming License:
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.
Comments
Michael R. Underwood
All the art for the book is now complete, so I am just waiting until the layout artist has time available to finish putting everything together. Then I'll do a last proof-read, we'll make any little edits as needed, and then the book will be done! Patrons will get the PDF not long after that. In the mean time, if I have bandwidth, I may start doing new work on the setting, which will show up here on Patreon as well.
Adam Frank
Any word on the finalized PDF? I printed the old one apparently and the complexity went up so something must have changed lol! Thanks for all you do. I'm just getting into all this stuff and blown away. Can't wait to get my first session under my belt and start working on my own campaign around Bastion of Hope.
