World
The colony of Wainsend
The penal island where every prisoner starts, the four signatures on the letter of release, and who really rules.
Wainsend is the Regency Penal Colony, an island of logs, mud and worn thatch in the middle of a cold sea. Every character arrives as a prisoner, on Tomé's barge, with a letter of release in their pocket. The promise is simple: work, collect the signatures and leave.
The truth is different. The Galleries Company rents out the prisoners to open the Royal Dig, chasing the treasure of the old kings. And the man who runs the colony, Warden Edran Volk, keeps a secret: he wants expendable hands to break the seal of Morvane, the kings' mage buried alive beneath the island.
The letter of release
The letter asks for four signatures, one per sector. Each sector is a large building in the colony and a questline.
| Who signs | Sector | What they want |
|---|---|---|
| Mara, sergeant | Barracks | hunting and guard duty: the woods, the fugitives, the wolves |
| Dário, foreman | The Dig | galleries, ruins, ore |
| Bento, quartermaster | Docks and market | cargo, smuggling, whatever goes missing from the warehouses |
| Bram, chaplain | Chapel and infirmary | the dead who rise, the Blight, Tomé's sick son |
The three acts
Act 1, "Arrival" (levels 1 to 7). The colony, the four sectors and the first hunts: the drain, the fields and the woods. At the Old Fort, a gang of fugitives. At the end of the act, a green crack opens in the Dig and the first dead rise.
Act 2, "What Is Dug" (levels 8 to 14). The descent through the Royal Dig, the Company's papers and a sickness that keeps getting worse.
Act 3, "The Letter Is the Bait" (levels 15 to 20). The last signature, the Warden's, only comes after you reach the bottom. In the Pit waits Bonegnawer, who was the colony's first prisoner, and behind him, Morvane.
The world does not change for everyone: each prisoner lives the same arc, Volk stays Warden for whoever arrives later, and the final fight takes place in a private instance, just you or your party.
The buildings
The colony is poor: logs, canvas patching roofs, windows boarded up, mud yards. The only well-kept building is the Warden's house, stone and orderly. The contrast tells the story.
- Safe core (inside the palisade): barracks with a training yard, solitary, the prisoners' bunkhouse, chapel and infirmary, the Company vault and the Warden's house.
- Grey zone: fair, covered market, tavern, warehouse, forge and the barge docks.
- Lawless land: everything outside the palisade.
See also: Regions and levels and Bosses.