The Last Lantern of Vesperglass
The Last Lantern of Vesperglass
Read aloud
A woman's cry for help drifts through the Great Library's catacombs, though no one can find its source. Before a tall mirror, the woman appears with lips matching the call, then her features shift until she looks like each of you in turn. She nods, steps through the glass, and waits for you beneath a dim pink sky.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Pass the Great Library's safeguards and enter Vesperglass.
- 2Find the people endangered by the Dusk Wing and learn what protects them.
- 3Protect the last lantern and drive off or defeat the Dusk Wing.
- 4Discover why the Dusk Wing's influence has grown.Optional
The clock
Each time the party takes a long delay after reaching Vesperglass, the GM may extinguish one distant lantern from the landscape. After two distant lights go out, the Dusk Wing knows the party's location and is prepared at the ruined keep.
Scenes
- 0:00The Catalogue Lock
- 0:45The Order of the Shelves
- 1:30The Mirror's Snares
- 2:15A World of Fading Color
- 4:15The People Beneath the Pink Sky
- 5:45The Last Lantern
Cast
- Seren ValeQuestgiver and ally
- Orin PellWitness and ally
- Mael CorvenWildcard
- The Dusk WingAntagonist
The hook
Set the scene
Read the hook aloud. The party finds itself in the Great Library catacombs, together but unfamiliar with one another. The mirror shows a dim pink sky and an unfamiliar landscape beyond it. Orin arrives as they inspect the room and explains that the catacomb doors and trap are older than the library's current catalogues.
How Seren Vale asks
Seren appears in the mirror as the characters approach it, her lips matching the distant cry.
Once they step through, she thanks them, describes the danger to her people, and asks them to help defend the last lantern.
Rumours
Scenes
about 8.5 hours0:00
45 min
ExplorationThe table is here
1. The Catalogue Lock
The Great Library's undercroft, among shelves of chained books, narrow stairs, and a single iron-bound door.
The party meets in the catacombs, hears the call, and finds the first locked door. Orin can offer a clue: the lock's mechanism is built into the spine of a nearby catalogue book. Let the characters solve it through investigation, tools, magic, or another plausible approach.
NextThe opened door reveals a passage to a second sealed door and the older foundations beneath the library.
0:45
45 min
Skill
2. The Order of the Shelves
A buried cataloguing chamber with a stone lectern, rows of chained books, and faded brass labels.
The second door has no visible keyhole. It opens when the party places three books in the correct order on a stone lectern: a record of beginnings, a record of loss, and a record of return. The titles are scattered among nearby shelves, and Orin can point toward the relevant catalogue section.
NextThe door opens onto a short corridor ending at a mirror chamber whose floor is marked with a faintly glowing pattern.
1:30
45 min
Exploration
3. The Mirror's Snares
The mirror chamber, a small gothic crypt with a carved floor, four unlit sconces, and a tall standing mirror.
The characters must identify and disarm or bypass the custom pressure-and-light trap across the floor. Its runes brighten when crossed by a shadow rather than a body. Once dealt with, the mirror reveals Seren, whose face briefly takes on each adventurer's features. She steps through and asks for help.
NextStepping through the mirror brings the party to Vesperglass, where Seren leads them toward the causeway to Lumenfall.
2:15
120 min
Social
4. A World of Fading Color
A glowing landscape beneath a dim pink sky, ending at a stone causeway above a shallow ravine.
Seren guides the party across the strange landscape toward Lumenfall. The party sees the residents' dim settlement and hears conflicting accounts of the dragon. In conversation with locals or Mael, they can learn that the old binding has weakened. A hostile shadow encounter threatens their light on the causeway.
The Lanternless CausewayNextAfter the crossing, the party reaches Lumenfall and can rest, question witnesses, and plan the defense of its beacon.
4:15
90 min
Social
5. The People Beneath the Pink Sky
Lumenfall, a small settlement of violet stone homes clustered around a failing central lantern.
The party meets residents, learns the beacon can draw the Dusk Wing away from the settlement, and prepares for a final stand. Let them choose a practical preparation, such as reinforcing a lantern post, setting a decoy light, or asking Mael for information. Their choices can give them a situational advantage in the last scene.
NextWhen the beacon is lit for the confrontation, the Dusk Wing circles the ruined keep and descends on the party.
5:45
150 min
Combat
6. The Last Lantern
The circular lantern chamber of a ruined gothic keep, visible across the valley from Lumenfall.
The party confronts the Dusk Wing in the ruined keep's lantern chamber. The creature tries to extinguish the central beacon and withdraws if it is badly hurt or loses access to the darkness it controls. Players can pursue, drive it off, or defeat it; any approach that protects Lumenfall counts as success.
The Last LanternNextWith the beacon safe, Seren offers the party a way back through the mirror and asks what should become of the passage.
Behind it
What people believe
A woman's voice has been calling for help through the Great Library's catacombs.
When the adventurers find the mirror at the end of the sealed passage, the woman appears and asks them to save her people from the Dusk Wing, a dragon of shadow that consumes the light of her world. The party must travel through the mirror, reach the last lantern of Vesperglass, and protect it from the creature.
Background
The realm of Vesperglass was once lit by a constellation of living lanterns, each tended by a different village.
The Dusk Wing, a dragon-shaped hunger born beneath the realm's first eclipse, has been extinguishing those lights one by one. The Great Library's catacombs contain a mirror that connects to Vesperglass, but its safeguards were built to keep the dragon's influence from crossing in either direction.
The stakes
If the Dusk Wing consumes the last lantern, Lumenfall will be swallowed by darkness and the creature may find a path through the mirror into the Great Library.
Encounters
2The Lanternless Causeway
Combat
A narrow stone bridge over a shallow ravine, with waist-high broken lantern posts and safe ledges along either side.
Foes
2 Gloam Mites, custom minor shadow creatures
ComplicationThe first creature to cross the lit threshold casts a long shadow that crawls toward the party's light sources. If a light is left unattended, the creature can extinguish it before attacking.
ScalingFor a smaller or level 3 party, use 1 Gloam Mite. For a larger or level 5 party, use 3. Treat these as custom foes with modest durability and a simple shadow-bite attack; avoid effects that remove a character from play.
The Last Lantern
Combat
A ruined gothic keep's circular lantern chamber, with a central beacon, broken pillars for cover, and three raised walkways.
Foes
The Dusk Wing, custom dragon-shaped shadow entity
ComplicationAt the start of each round, the dragon's shadow crosses one exposed light source. Characters can protect it, move it, or accept that the nearby area will become dark. Darkness should change the battlefield, not automatically incapacitate characters.
ScalingFor a level 3 party, give the Dusk Wing limited durability, one attack per turn, and no area attack. For level 4 or 5, increase its durability and allow a once-per-scene breath of draining shadow that deals modest damage. Its objective is to extinguish the lantern and escape if badly hurt, not to kill the party.
Cast
4Seren Vale
QuestgiverQuestgiver and ally, a keeper of the realm's remaining lanterns
WantsPreserve the last safe settlement in Vesperglass and find people capable of confronting the Dusk Wing.
“You heard me when the mirror called. Please, help me keep one light alive.”
Orin Pell
Witness and ally, an exhausted library conservator
WantsProtect the Great Library and learn who tampered with its catacomb safeguards.
“Every lock is a question. The trouble is, someone changed the answers.”
Mael Corven
Wildcard, a former lantern-priest who knows the dragon's lair
WantsUse the Dusk Wing's power to restore his fading status in Vesperglass, while denying that his experiments helped weaken its prison.
“I did not invite that thing here. I only wanted to borrow a little of its dark.”
The Dusk Wing
Antagonist, a custom shadow dragon entity
WantsConsume the realm's lights and spread its shadow beyond Vesperglass.
“The night does not hate you. It simply has no use for your light.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A Vesperglass lantern, a custom magic item that sheds dim light in unusual colors and can be relit by an open flame.
A mirror shard that briefly shows the nearest safe route when held in darkness, once per day at the GM's discretion.
On a win
With the last lantern protected, the Dusk Wing loses its hold over Lumenfall and withdraws into the ruined keep's deepest shadows.
Seren's people can see the stars again, and the mirror becomes stable enough for the party to return to the Great Library. The party decides what to do with Mael's confession and whether the passage should remain open.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- A failed check to open either library lock
- The party fails to open one of the catacomb doors before the library's night watch arrives. Orin can arrange a later return, but the party loses time and must explain their presence.
- The party fails to disarm the mirror approach trap
- The trap releases a burst of cold light that alerts Mael and the Dusk Wing to the party's approach. They still reach the mirror, but the final foe is ready for them.
- The party abandons the beacon or loses the final confrontation without securing it
- The settlement's beacon goes dark. Survivors retreat into sheltered cellars, and the party must find another way to draw the Dusk Wing into a vulnerable position.
- The party leaves Vesperglass without sealing or stabilizing the mirror
- The mirror remains open and unstable. The party can still return through it, but the Dusk Wing's influence may follow as a future campaign threat.
Complications (d6)
- 1A book slams shut on the party's map, and its ink rearranges into a route that leads back to the catacombs unless someone spends a few minutes correcting it.
- 2A sudden gust snuffs one carried mundane light source. The party must relight it, find another source, or proceed with reduced visibility.
- 3A Vesperglass villager mistakes the party for agents of Mael and refuses to share directions until they offer a convincing reassurance or useful help.
- 4A thin shadow detaches from a wall and steals a small unattended item, leaving a visible trail toward the nearest dark passage.
- 5The mirror briefly reflects the characters standing in the dragon's lair. The image reveals a route, but also alerts the Dusk Wing that strangers have arrived.
- 6A lantern in the settlement gutters out. The party can spend time helping relight it, or leave residents in darkness until the threat is dealt with.
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