Shadows of the Dusk Queen

About the adventure

A mysterious shadow fey known as the Dusk Queen left the Winter Court and came to a forest of shadows where she ruled the land from a great stone tower. Although capable of surprising acts of kindness, the vast majority of her reign was marked by cruelty, violence, and death. At some point, the Dusk Queen encountered a powerful wizard from a land of pitiless, burning sun and endless sand traveling in her realm for unknown reasons. Against all logic, they fell in love, eventually exchanging dark and secret vows in the queen’s throne room. Because of his homeland, the wizard came to be known as the Sun King. The two were happy in their own, strange way until the Dusk Queen had a magical mirror created. This powerful item, which was infused with shadowy strands of the Dusk Queen’s very life essence, greatly expanded her powers and her ambition. The mirror allowed her to spy on her enemies (both real and imagined), cast powerful spells through it across vast distances, and even magically transport herself or her minions to the farthest locations. The Dusk Queen used her mirror with rapidly growing paranoia and zeal, wreaking havoc and death throughout the land. The Sun King found it more and more difficult to overlook the Queen’s escalating acts of evil and violence. When he learned the Dusk Queen was secretly plotting to invade his homeland, the Sun King knew he had to act. In the deepest part of a cold, moonless night, the Sun King wove his most powerful spells while the Dusk Queen slept, magically banishing her to a hidden and unknown prison. Once she was gone, the wizard smashed the Dusk Queen’s mirror and departed the tower, vowing never to return. The Sun King’s magic did not work as he had planned, however. Due perhaps to the lingering spark of love he still harbored within his heart, the Dusk Queen’s magical imprisonment was weakened, if ever so slightly, so that someday she would be able to return.

Additional Details

How to prepare

Players will need a decent-quality microphone and a computer able to meet the Foundry minimum system requirements (two-button mouse strongly recommended) (https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/). There are several special effects and amazing modules that will be functioning in the background but many settings can be adjusted for less powerful machines or graphics cards. Characters can either be created, imported, or selected from a list of pre-mades.

What I provide

Physical copies of all official 5e sourcebooks, custom animations, beautiful maps, character and NPC hi-res tokens, and music playlists for the entire campaign.

Gameplay details

This one-shot will find a group of hardened adventurers exploring the depths of an ancient and malevolent forest to stop the return of an evil queen of the Fey. This game contains typical fantasy themes of high magic, tense drama, some violence (as there will be combat, of course) but is tailored to player comfort levels, forbidden knowledge, and some horror but utilizes basic, informal safety tools for all. Players are given a general rundown of the campaign's theme but are encouraged to privately alert the DM of any topics that they find uncomfortable (soft pass) or disturbing (hard pass) both ahead of time and during the campaign as they come up. Themes such as anything of a sexual nature, torture, extreme violence or profanity, and contentious real-world topics (religion, politics, etc.) are hard passed. In general, this is a PG-13 rated game.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Session 0

How will character creation work

Characters will begin at level eight (8). Character sheets can either be filled out on D&D Beyond and imported into Foundry or directly in the Foundry journal prior to the next session. Any assistance needed can be scheduled with the DM who can walk through anything that isn't clear or needs further explanation.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.