Rift at Ravenbrook: Shadows in the Crescent Fields

Investigation, planar threat, ritual defense, faction alliance

Rift at Ravenbrook: Shadows in the Crescent Fields

Lvl 3-54 characters3 sessions, approximately 8-12 hours total· Medium, escalating to Hard during the final ritual. The adventure is designed for four characters of levels 3-5 and assumes the party has recently defeated Inquisitor Kaelor.

“A wound in the earth is calling from beneath Ravenbrook, and something inside knows the heroes have arrived.”

— Hook · Investigation, planar threat, ritual defense, faction alliance

Investigation, planar threat, ritual defense, faction alliance

D&D 5E using 2024-style adventure play and campaign-specific creatures and items

Medium, escalating to Hard during the final ritual. The adventure is designed for four characters of levels 3-5 and assumes the party has recently defeated Inquisitor Kaelor.

Lvl 3-5

4 characters

3 sessions, approximately 8-12 hours total

4 NPCs

3 encounters

The Opening

“Duke Corwin’s summons reaches you two days after Inquisitor Kaelor’s defeat, ordering you to escort a merchant caravan to Ravenbrook Keep. When you arrive, farmers are waiting beneath a bruised moon, whispering that the crescent fields have begun to scream. Beyond the keep, a glowing fissure tears through the earth, and something inside it is calling your names.”
— Hook · Investigation, planar threat, ritual defense, faction alliance

Set the Scene

The caravan reaches Ravenbrook under a sky the color of old iron. Dust clings to the wagons, harness leather creaks in the cold wind, and every horse turns its head toward the fields beyond the walls. Somewhere past the darkened farms, a woman’s voice rises from beneath the earth, stretched thin by distance, then a second voice answers from inside the keep’s bells. Soldiers rush to bar the gates as Duke Corwin’s herald calls the heroes to the council chamber.

Patron

Questgiver

Duke Corwin Blackwood

The party is met at Ravenbrook’s outer gate by a mud-streaked herald and two exhausted guards. The herald apologizes for the urgency, explains that Duke Corwin has sealed the council chamber, and asks the heroes to bring any unusual objects or arcane evidence directly to the duke.

On the Streets · In the Books

Rumours

d5 · table

01
A farmer swears that a dead child called to him from beneath the eastern irrigation ditch.
02
The fields form a perfect crescent only when viewed from the old watchtower, where faded runes can still be seen on the stones.
03
A merchant claims that Kaelor’s defeat caused a tremor beneath Ravenbrook, though no official report confirms it.
04
Mara Vell says the animals stopped drinking from the western trough three nights before the fissure appeared.
05
A hooded stranger has been purchasing maps of Jorthiel’s leyline roads and paying in black glass coins.

Stakes

If the rift remains open, the Crescent Fields will be swallowed within days, Ravenbrook’s food stores will fail, and a permanent planar scar will form in the Jorthiel Confederacy. If the Fissure Choir extracts the shard, it will gain a living source of Nova’s Heart energy and accelerate Azkhar’s search for the remaining shards. The party may also determine whether Duke Corwin’s missing son returns as a person, an echo, or a final warning.

Ticking Clock·The rift widens with every major planar pulse. The party has until the third night after arrival to seal it before the Crescent Fields begin collapsing into the breach. During the final ritual, five failures or three uncontrolled surges cause the fissure to consume the ritual basin and permanently damage the surrounding leyline.

Background Lore

Two days after the defeat of Inquisitor Kaelor, Ravenbrook Keep stands bruised but unbroken. The merchant road through the Jorthiel Confederacy should offer relief, yet the crescent-shaped fields beyond the keep have begun to glow beneath the moon. Farmers hear voices beneath the soil, livestock refuse to cross the furrows, and a jagged rift leaks cold blue light into the night. The breach formed around the first living shard of the Nova’s Heart, which fell beneath the farmland when the artifact shattered. A secretive fissure cult has found the shard and is using a ritual conduit to draw power from it, widening the breach before the next planar surge.

What the World Knows

Two days after the heroes defeat Inquisitor Kaelor, Duke Corwin summons them to Ravenbrook Keep to escort a merchant caravan and investigate a growing crisis in the Crescent Fields. A glowing fissure has opened outside the keep, frightening farmers, disturbing animals, and emitting voices from an unknown plane. The Fissure Choir, a cult devoted to planar energies, is using the breach for a dangerous ritual, and the heroes must stop them before the countryside is consumed.

Quest At A Glance

Location

The road from the Jorthiel Confederacy trade route to Ravenbrook Keep, followed by the keep’s gatehouse and crowded lower ward.

Tone

Investigation, planar threat, ritual defense, faction alliance · Medium, escalating to Hard during the final ritual. The adventure is designed for four characters of levels 3-5 and assumes the party has recently defeated Inquisitor Kaelor.

Questgiver

Duke Corwin Blackwood

Rewards

XP, Gold, Items, Story, Faction

DM Toolbox

NPCs4

Encounters3

Twists0

Complications6

Quest Flags

Watch List

V
Veyra Ashen
Antagonist
Veyra Ashen seeks to claim the shard for the Fissure Choir, a cult that believes planar instability will cleanse Arcanterra of false divisions. She intends to complete the extraction ritual and become the shard’s chosen vessel.