In the world of Etharis, the gods are dead or dying, darkness creeps across every nation, and hope is a commodity more precious than gold. This nobledark campaign challenges players to be heroes in a world that punishes heroism — where lycanthropy is a spreading plague, vampires rule from noble courts, and the line between monster and mortal grows thinner with every choice. Will your party cling to their humanity, or embrace the darkness to fight it?
Story Arcs
The Dying Light
The party encounters the grim reality of Etharis: a plague of lycanthropy spreads through the countryside, the church of the dying god offers salvation at a terrible price, and common folk suffer under corrupt noble houses. The party must choose their path.
Transformation
The party confronts the supernatural directly — and may be changed by it. Lycanthropy, vampirism, and other dark transformations offer power at the cost of humanity. The party must decide what they are willing to become to fight the darkness.
The Last Flame
The source of the spreading darkness is revealed: a dying god's final breath is being corrupted by an entity that feeds on despair. The party must find and protect what remains of divine light — or watch the world fall into eternal night.
Session Outlines
These outlines are for planning reference only. Actual sessions are not created by the template.
The Blighted Village
The party arrives at a village under quarantine. A lycanthropy plague has infected several villagers, and the Inquisition has arrived to "purify" the settlement — by killing everyone, infected or not. The party must intervene, choosing between protecting innocents and risking infection, or allowing the purge.
The Road of Thorns
Fleeing or following up on the village situation, the party travels through a dark forest where the trees grow thorns and the wildlife is hostile. They encounter refugees, bandits driven to desperation, and a shrine to a dead god that still holds a faint warmth. A dying knight delivers a warning about the Lord of Ashes.
The Noble Court
The party reaches a major city ruled by a vampire countess who maintains a facade of civilization. Her court is elegant and deadly — every noble is a vampire or thrall, and the common folk live in fearful servitude. The party must navigate court politics to gain information about the spreading plague.
The Inquisition
The church's Inquisition arrives in the city, threatening the vampire countess's power. The party is caught between two evils — the vampires who prey on the people and the inquisitors who would burn anyone touched by darkness. A secret meeting reveals a third option: a resistance movement that needs the party's help.
The Beast Within
One or more party members are exposed to lycanthropy, vampirism, or another dark transformation. The transformation mechanics introduce a moral dilemma: the power gained is substantial, but each use risks losing more humanity. A healer offers partial treatment, but the cure requires a rare ingredient from a dangerous location.
The Monster Hunters
The party encounters a band of monster hunters — veterans who have dedicated their lives to fighting the supernatural. Some are themselves transformed, using their curses as weapons against worse threats. They offer training and alliance but demand the party prove their commitment by hunting a powerful undead.
The Crypt of the Arch-Lich
The monster hunters' target is an arch-lich who has been animating entire graveyards. The party delves into a multi-level crypt filled with undead, traps, and dark magic. The lich is a former saint who turned to necromancy in desperation when the gods began to die.
The Dying God's Shrine
Following clues from the lich's library, the party discovers a hidden shrine where a dying god's last spark still burns. The flame is weak and flickering, sustained by a single ancient keeper. It can heal, purify, and protect — but something is draining it from below.
The Lord of Ashes
The entity draining the divine flame is the Lord of Ashes — a being that feeds on despair and the death of hope. It has been systematically extinguishing divine sparks across the world, and this shrine is one of the last. Its servants are everywhere: in the Inquisition, in the vampire courts, among the desperate.
Alliance of the Damned
To stop the Lord of Ashes, the party must forge an impossible alliance: the resistance, the monster hunters, the vampire countess (who has her own reasons to oppose the Lord), and the few uncorrupted inquisitors. Each ally demands concessions and brings complications.
The Siege of Shadow
The Lord of Ashes sends an army of despair-born creatures against the shrine. The party and their allies defend the divine flame through waves of attacks while the keeper prepares a ritual to strengthen it. Key allies may fall, and sacrifices must be made.
Ember in the Dark
The final confrontation with the Lord of Ashes in the caverns beneath the shrine. The entity cannot be fought with weapons alone — it must be denied its sustenance of despair. The party must hold onto hope even as the entity shows them visions of a world without light. Their choices throughout the campaign determine whether the divine spark is restored, merely preserved, or lost forever.
NPCs
Countess Vireska
Vampire · Ruler of Greymoor
A centuries-old vampire who rules her domain with aristocratic grace and an iron fist. She maintains a court of vampire nobles and feeds on willing thralls. Not evil by intention — she sees herself as a civilizing force in a dark world — but her nature demands blood and her court breeds corruption. She opposes the Lord of Ashes because she wants to rule, not be consumed.
Inquisitor Cassiel
Human · High Inquisitor
A zealot who believes all supernatural creatures must be destroyed to save the world. His faith burns hot enough to grant him genuine divine power, but his methods are brutal — he does not distinguish between monsters and their victims. He may be reasoned with if shown proof of the Lord of Ashes, but it requires cracking his absolute certainty.
Old Marta
Human · Keeper of the Flame
An ancient woman who has tended the dying god's last flame for decades. She is frail but her faith is indestructible. She knows the ritual to strengthen the flame but it requires a willing sacrifice of hope — not death, but the surrender of all joy and comfort. She has already made this sacrifice herself.
Fenris the Branded
Human · Monster Hunter Leader
A werewolf who has learned to control his transformation and uses it to hunt other monsters. Covered in runic brands that contain his curse, he leads a band of similarly afflicted hunters. Gruff and pragmatic, he judges people by their actions, not their nature. His greatest fear is losing control.
Sera Blackthorn
Half-Elf · Resistance Leader
A former court musician who witnessed the vampire countess's true nature and escaped. She now leads an underground resistance that protects common folk from both the vampires and the Inquisition. Clever, cautious, and deeply compassionate. She has a network of informants throughout the city.
The Lord of Ashes
Unknown · Primordial Entity of Despair
An entity that existed before the gods and has waited patiently for their decline. It feeds on hopelessness and despair, growing stronger as the world darkens. It does not fight directly but works through agents, corruption, and the erosion of will. Its voice is the voice of every doubt, every surrendered dream, every abandoned prayer.
Locations
Greymoor
A gothic city of dark stone spires and perpetual overcast skies. The vampire countess rules from a palatial estate at the city's center. The upper quarter is elegant and dangerous; the lower quarter is desperate and defiant. The Inquisition maintains a fortified chapter house on the city's edge.
The Blighted Forest
A forest of twisted trees and poisonous thorns that stretches between settlements. The canopy is so thick that even noon feels like twilight. Werewolves hunt in packs, and the few roads are dangerous even in daylight. Scattered shrines to dead gods dot the paths.
The Crypt of Saint Mordaine
A vast underground crypt complex where a former saint-turned-lich reanimates the dead. Multiple levels descend through ossuaries, burial chambers, and ritual halls. The deepest level contains the lich's phylactery and a library of forbidden knowledge about the dying gods.
The Last Shrine
A hidden mountain shrine where the last flame of a dying god still burns. Simple stone walls house a single altar where a faint golden light persists. The warmth drives back darkness and purifies corruption — but only within a small radius that shrinks daily.
The Ashlands
A region where the Lord of Ashes' influence has fully taken hold. The landscape is gray and lifeless, covered in fine ash that deadens all sound. Nothing grows, nothing lives, and hope itself seems to drain away. This is what the entire world will become if the Lord succeeds.
Quests
Stop the Purge
The Inquisition plans to destroy a village to contain the lycanthropy plague. Find a way to save the innocents — cure the infected, prove the plague's true source, or evacuate the village before the inquisitors arrive.
Survive the Court
Navigate the vampire countess's court to gain information and potential alliance. The social politics are as deadly as any dungeon — one wrong word can mean death, and every noble has their own agenda.
Control the Curse
If transformed by lycanthropy or other dark power, learn to control the curse. Fenris the Branded can teach techniques, but mastery requires facing your darkest nature in a spiritual ordeal.
Protect the Last Flame
The dying god's final spark must be protected from the Lord of Ashes. Strengthen the shrine's defenses, gather allies, and prepare for the inevitable assault.
Defeat the Lord of Ashes
Confront the primordial entity of despair in its own domain. This is not a battle of swords but of will — the party must prove that hope endures even in the darkest world.
Encounters
Lycanthrope Pack
A pack of werewolves attacks at night. They target the weakest party member for infection, trying to drag them away from the group. The alpha can be reasoned with if the party shows strength.
Inquisition Checkpoint
Inquisitors demand the party submit to inspection for signs of supernatural corruption. If any party member has been transformed, the inquisitors attack. They fight with divine magic and silvered weapons.
Vampire Court Ambush
After crossing the countess, vampire nobles and their spawn attack in the dark corridors of the palace. They fight with centuries of experience and supernatural speed.
The Arch-Lich
The lich fights with devastating magic while animating fallen combatants. Its lair is warded with necrotic traps and its phylactery must be found and destroyed.
Servants of Despair
Creatures born from concentrated despair assault the Last Shrine. They are shadows given form, and their touch drains hope and will rather than life force.
Factions
The Crimson Court
Lawful Evil
Countess Vireska's vampire nobility. They maintain a civilized facade while feeding on the populace. They oppose the Lord of Ashes because its victory would leave them with nothing to rule. A reluctant, unreliable, but powerful potential ally.
The Holy Inquisition
Lawful Neutral
Fanatical witch hunters dedicated to purging all supernatural influence. They wield genuine divine power drawn from the dying embers of dead gods. Their methods are extreme — they would rather destroy a village than risk infection spreading. Some individuals can be reasoned with.
The Grey Resistance
Neutral Good
Common folk who have organized to protect themselves from both the vampires and the Inquisition. Led by Sera Blackthorn, they operate through safe houses, coded messages, and hidden tunnels. Small but determined.
The Branded
Chaotic Good
Monster hunters who bear supernatural curses and use them as weapons. Led by Fenris, they accept anyone willing to fight darkness with darkness. They are the world's most effective monster hunters, but their methods horrify the Inquisition.
Recommended Characters
Pre-built characters designed for this campaign setting. Create them separately from the character templates page.
Damien Blackthorn
Tiefling · Warlock · Level 3
A tiefling warlock who made a desperate pact with a fiend to save his dying sister, only to discover the price was far greater than he was told. Now bound to serve a pit fiend, Damien walks the dark roads of Etharis seeking a way to break his contract before it claims his soul.
Mother Agatha Wren
Human · Cleric · Level 3
A Life domain cleric who has taken up the mantle of plague doctor in Etharis, where the gods are distant and disease runs rampant. Agatha heals with herbs, prayers, and stubborn compassion in a world that punishes kindness.
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