The Erovast Codex

2026.10.13#

Summary#

All four players were present this session. Over breakfast at the Salt House (Edith Rooke served; the bill came to about six silver, and Cassian tipped her an extra), the party watched another storm rolling in from the west over the decrepit wharf. Aldric felt the town itself as a kind of ghost — old memories surfacing of a cozier, bustling Havenport. Cassian asked Edith for advice on the ghastly wall; she gave him a free knob of garlic. Source: Transcript.

The party debated alternatives once more — a pig, a fish, the shepherd’s goat, grown plants — but Odine (whose natural 20 had revealed the price) judged that the sacrifice needed a conscious, willing subject, and that the veil’s demand felt like a dark divinity staging a requirement few would accept, probably by intention, to keep things out. Odine volunteered to pay the whole price herself; Azrith’s Insight (17) made him the first to realise she would end up alone beyond the veil if only she paid — all four would have to touch the wall at the same time. Azrith repeated what Eleanor Gray had told him: whatever is behind the wall is evil, and she — genuinely frightened — asked him to kill it. Source: Transcript.

At the veil with Samantha, Cassian cast identify while touching it. The black energy crawled up his arm, colder than anything he had touched, and he felt an attention from the wall, as if a powerful being with its back turned had suddenly looked in his direction. As the minute-long casting went on, the GM warned he was about to lose a permanent hit point; he aborted, seized Odine’s hand, and all four pressed through together, paying the price: Source: Transcript.

  • The toll: one max HP at a time, each of the four paying in turn (Cassian, having touched longest, paid the first point: 32 → 31). Nine points were shared among the party, and Odine paid the final point alone to break the seal, fully immersing herself first as the wall turned soft and oozing.

Beyond the veil they emerged into a misty corridor — the ethereal plane, the domain of death where souls pass toward the great beyond, with restless spirits lingering in its liminal space. Odine’s arcana told her this realm is greater than the Wither — a place all mortal souls pass through, not the Wither’s origin. The mist at their feet was a miasma of trapped spirits; faces whispered through Odine’s radiant flame: “Save us. Release us from his grasp.” — “The Warden. The Warden of Death.” Azrith’s nature check (14) recalled the category of ghost called a veil warden — a divine spirit meant to protect and ferry meandering souls, not imprison them; this one does the opposite of its purpose. See The Warden of Death. Source: Transcript.

The corridor opened into an ancient burial chamber: sarcophagi and nine statues of the deities of Erovast, with the Shepherd — the pantheon archetype representing death — newest and centrally enthroned on a dais. As the party advanced, every soul in the mist stopped and turned to face Odine, and the souls rushed up the Shepherd statue, animating it. It spoke in dozens of voices at once: “You walk among those who’ve been laid to rest, yet you carry the warmth of life. Tell me, little flames — have you come to join the rest?” Source: Transcript.

Combat followed (initiative: Aldric 20, Cassian 19, Odine 17, Azrith 16, the statue 13). The battlefield, as seen on the Weaver of Fate’s table:

2026.10.13 - Battlefield
  • Aldric cast darkness centred on a thrown javelin to cover Odine (15-foot radius), then hack-and-slashed toes and leg with his greatsword for heavy damage (16 + 16, later 17 + 13), yelling “Down with the giant!”, and finished with a hellish rebuke (9 fire, halved — it resists fire).
  • Cassian opened with suggestion (“release these spirits and tell us why you are here”) — the thing is immune to being charmed. He learned its AC is 16, hid behind a pillar, kept counterspell ready, and landed eldritch blasts, finally finishing the statue’s body with two merged beams aimed at the neck.
  • Odine fled the darkness, activated innate sorcery, quickened a catapult (17 bludgeoning), and cast eldritch blast with repelling blast to knock it back 10 feet. She took a thrown rock for 16 bludgeoning.
  • Azrith blessed the whole party (not himself), charged into the darkness to melee its feet, and got grappled in its fist (acrobatics 7) — smashed together with Aldric for 21 bludgeoning. His blood curse of the eyeless shaved 3 off its attacks, and he clawed free as the statue shattered. His radiant scimitars (nat 20 on one disadvantage roll) marked it as undead.
  • The statue threw a rock at Cassian (miss), collapsing a pillar he dodged (dex save 13), and Azrith’s bless concentration held (DC 10).

When Cassian’s blast shattered the stone, the souls collapsed with it and Azrith fell free — but a towering ethereal rostrum remained: “You have destroyed my body, but you will not break my oath,” and it began drifting toward another of the nine statues. The party must stop it before it reaches a new vessel. The session ended there — a deliberate stopping point mid-fight. Source: Transcript.

Open Threads#

  • The Warden of Death: the spirit enthroned in the burial chamber holds Havenport’s dead in its grasp. Its statue body is destroyed, but its ethereal form is moving to possess another statue. See The Warden of Death, The Spirit Behind the Veil.
  • Is the Warden the spirit behind the veil? The trapped souls named it as their captor; Eleanor named the spirit behind the veil the same way. Strongly implied, not yet confirmed.
  • The veil’s price is paid (10 max HP, shared) — but whether leaving costs life force again remains unknown.
  • Nine statues, one pantheon: the burial chamber holds effigies of nine deities of Erovast, the Shepherd (death) foremost. The newer Shepherd statue was moved in to complete the set — by whom, and why the veil went up around it, is unknown.
  • The Shepherd statue outside: Cassian noticed the man he met herding a goat in Havenport (2026.10.06) resembles this pantheon figure — coincidence, foreshadowing, or fate (religion 10: hard to know).
  • The Warden’s oath: it kept speaking of an oath (“you will not break my oath”) — veil wardens are meant to protect souls; this one imprisons them. What is the oath, and to whom?

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