The World
Beyond the Veil is set in a world that has been fundamentally broken. Understanding how and why shapes everything about the campaign.
Veil's End
Veil's End is a mid-sized city of roughly two to five thousand souls, built around an ancient runic boundary that predates every living resident. It was not designed to be a refuge. It became one.
When the Shroud came, survivors from a dozen fallen settlements poured through the gates, following rumors of a place where the monsters could not follow. They were right. The boundary holds. Nobody fully understands why, or who built it, or how long it will last. The people of Veil's End have learned not to ask too many questions and to keep the boundary maintained regardless.
The city is gritty, crowded, and fiercely alive. It is predominantly human, with a strong presence of elves and halflings, and representatives of nearly every other race who found their way here.
The Veil
The ancient runic boundary that protects Veil's End is known simply as the Veil. Stone markers and pillars ring the perimeter of the city, their surfaces carved with symbols that glow faintly with a cold runic light.
The Veil works by emitting a resonance fundamentally hostile to the Shroud. Creatures touched by the corruption are repelled when they approach the boundary stones. The more corrupted a creature, the more violently it is rejected.
The boundary requires maintenance. Materials gathered from beyond the Veil are used in regular rituals to keep the resonance strong. If expeditions stop, the boundary weakens over time. This is one of the primary reasons the Reclaimers exist.
The Shroud
The Shroud is not merely dangerous. It is wrong.
It blankets the outside world beyond the Veil, a creeping supernatural corruption that warps everything it touches. Plants grow in twisted, unnatural configurations. Animals behave erratically. The air tastes of something metallic and strange. Colors seem slightly off, as though the world beyond the boundary exists at a different frequency than the one you know.
Creatures that spend enough time in the Shroud become the Shrouded, changed things that are neither what they were nor anything that should exist. The Shroud gets progressively worse the further you travel from Veil's End.
The Catastrophe
There are things everyone in Veil's End knows, and things no one talks about.
Everyone knows something fell from the sky. The night broke open. There was light, then darkness, then the Shroud began to spread. It happened within living memory for the oldest residents, though they rarely speak of it clearly.
What fell, where it landed, what it was — these questions have no answers. Scholars have theories. Survivors have nightmares. The Reclaimers have the unexplored map stretching out beyond the Veil, somewhere in which the truth is waiting.
Warden Cora Holt
Cora Holt did not seek power. She sought survival, and discovered that in Veil's End, the two were the same thing. She respects the Reclaimers more than she lets on. She knows the city lives or dies by what they bring back. Your primary point of contact for quests and official guild business.
Rosie
Every Reclaimer knows Rosie. The halfling tavern keeper has an almost supernatural ability to remember names, orders, and the particular way people take their tea. She worries about you when you go out. She never says so directly. She just happens to have your usual order ready when you walk back through the door.
Torval
The dwarf blacksmith speaks in grunts that experienced Reclaimers have learned to interpret as a full language. Torval is the best smith in Veil's End and he knows it. He charges accordingly. His work holds.
Sable
No one knows where Sable came from. No one asks. The tiefling merchant sells standard goods at fair prices and occasionally has unusual items she declines to explain the provenance of. If you're looking for something specific that isn't on the shelf, it's worth asking.
Sister Aldene
Sister Aldene has been in Veil's End since the beginning. She is the only person in the city with the knowledge and ability to treat Shroud Corruption. Her faith is not naive. It is the faith of someone who has had every reason to abandon it and chose not to.
The Broken Compass
The social heart of Veil's End. The best rumors in the city pass through this room.
The Cinder Forge
Torval's workshop. Weapons, armor, tools, repairs. Always hot, always busy.
Sable's Sundries
Standard goods, potions, supplies, and the occasional unexplained curiosity.
The Mending House
Sister Aldene's domain. Healing, recovery, and Shroud Corruption treatment. Always open.
The Reclaimer Stockroom
The guild shop. Magic items purchased with Veil Marks. Inventory expands as the World Level rises.
Before the Shroud came, compasses worked. When the catastrophe hit, they stopped functioning beyond the boundary. The original owner of Veil's End's most beloved tavern hung a broken compass above the bar the day the survivors arrived.
A reminder. You can't navigate back to what was. You can only find your way forward. The compass is still there. Rosie never took it down.