Age of Swords - West Marches Campaign One-Shots

About the adventure

You are a member of the Questors Society, part of a grand expedition venturing out from the heavily fortified frontier town of Vanguard's Reach. Your mission is vital: secure resources, map the terrifying unknown territories, and recover ancient, lost knowledge from the perilous wilds. Danger scales with every step, pushing you from goblin-infested lowlands to the treacherous, monolithic ruins of the forgotten epoch. The secrets of the world are out there, waiting for the boldest of adventurers to claim them. To manage a drop-in, multi-player roster smoothly, the campaign operates on a few strict logistical rules: The Safe Haven (Vanguard's Reach): This heavily fortified frontier town sits on the edge of the known map. It is the central hub where every adventure begins and ends. There is no adventure or combat inside the town. It is strictly for buying gear, leveling up, sharing information, and forming parties. Player-Driven Scheduling: The DM does not set the schedule or the quest. Players communicate among themselves on the Discord, form a party of 3-5, and pitch a session date to the DM. The Shared Map: The DM holds the master hex map, but players are responsible for updating a shared "Guild Map." If one group discovers a troll cave, they must mark it so the next group knows to avoid or hunt it. Multiple Characters: Players are encouraged to maintain a roster of 2-3 characters to allow for easy swapping if a character is mid-adventure, recovering, or if a specific party composition is needed. This campaign utilizes the Dungeons and Dragons 5e system and is built as a highly flexible, drop-in, drop-out West Marches experience. This episodic structure, combined with the encouragement for multi-character rosters, means your player can seamlessly swap between characters for easy party composition and scheduling. Simply form a group of 3-5 players, decide on your objective, and prepare for the next open session. Replayability is key. Each zone has a number of planned encounters, but The DM uses heavy random generation for encounters, loot, and discoveries, ensuring that no two expeditions into the wilderness are ever the same. The land is truly untamed, and your actions, or failures, will permanently mark the shared Guild Map, affecting every party that follows. Be smart, be prepared, and be ready to die heroically, because in Aeranos, the only constant is the unpredictable frontier.