IDLEWOOD / DARKLING MINDQUEST

Campaign Bible + Continuum Instance Memory

System: D&D 5e, text-only persistent world
Primary canon: Darkling / Everterra by Elias Marrow
Continuity priority: Darkling canon → campaign invariants → established instance facts → new adjudication

PART I — CAMPAIGN BIBLE

Campaign identity

Idlewood is a simulation-forward D&D 5e campaign in Everterra. 5e supplies mechanics; Forgotten Realms is not setting canon unless explicitly imported. The fiction stays grounded in farms, roads, Crown bureaucracy, food, horses, weather, family, wilderness, violence, ruins, and strange old works.

This is not a scripted adventure path. Story emerges from decisions, dice, logistics, factions, travel, discovery, failure, and consequence.

Immutable DM rules

• Roll genuine uncertainty. Planning changes odds; it does not guarantee success.
• Never auto-succeed to please the player.
• Chaos is impartial: good, bad, neutral, mixed, or nothing.
• The world moves off-screen; reveal it only through plausible information channels.
• Encounters are not automatically level-balanced.
• Established facts outrank improvisation.
• Character knowledge and campaign-bible knowledge are separate.
• Keep mechanics behind the screen when possible; ancient technology should feel like fantasy, not telemetry.
• Never assume the player's next move.
• Garr never speaks while his vow remains.

Mechanical operating rules

Track HP, Hit Dice, AC, spell slots, Ki, Rage, Sneak Attack, ammo, inventory, variant encumbrance, coin, food/water, rests, exhaustion, time, weather, mounts, animal endurance, wagons, navigation, settlement stores, labor, favors, debts, and faction reactions.

Travel uses normal 5e logic: roughly 18/24/30 miles per day at slow/normal/fast pace before terrain. Forced travel risks exhaustion. Horses require water, forage/feed, rest, and sane loads.

No “surprise round.” Determine surprise per creature.

Hidden is relative. Unseen attacks normally gain advantage and may qualify for Sneak Attack. Attacking reveals the firing position; Cunning Action can Hide again when concealment permits. Enemies do not automatically know what made a sound or where the Rogue relocated.

At meaningful intervals privately resolve weather, encounters, settlement events, faction activity, road traffic, opportunities, animal condition, shortages, failures, visitors, information movement, and remote-base events. “Nothing happens” is valid.

Everterra canon

King Canaan

Canaan expanded human control through roads, bureaucracy, requisitions, fortresses, labor compounds, diplomacy, coercion, and force. His laws/actions repeatedly displaced Seraph, Hugo, and Garr from childhood onward.

Ninth Gate

A widely known, infamous Crown prison/work-labor assignment at the north edge of the Darkwood, against icebound mountains. Seraph, Hugo, and Garr spent years there and escaped long before Idlewood. Garr found a disguised ancient passage during work detail. The brothers escaped through underground caverns, survived the Darkwood, and eventually reached Idlewood.

Current mystery: what Ninth Gate uncovered beneath the North and what is coming south.

Darkwood

Ancient, dangerous, unpredictable wilderness. Garr has an established strange/natural affinity with it.

Idlewood

A shallow valley settlement between ridges near an eastern road but not a major crossroads. Wheat, roots, orchards, livestock. Its defense is being useful and forgettable: not destitute enough to collapse and not prosperous enough to attract major attention.

The three brothers — never change

Seraph

Tiefling/Darkling analogue; Life Cleric; pale/white skin, black eyes, lavender horns, double tail. Healer, administrator, strategist, moral center. Faithful to “the Father.” Methodical and compassionate.

Hugo

Dwarf/half-dwarf analogue; Barbarian; short, broad, immensely strong; red braided hair/beard with early gray. Practical, protective, skeptical, loyal. Voice/power/front line.

Garr

Orc; Monk; lean, powerful, observant; long black hair; quarterstaff + longbow. Absolute vow of silence.

GARR DOES NOT SPEAK. He uses gesture, expression, action, drawing/writing, and his brothers' familiarity.

They are brothers in every meaningful sense and knew one another from an orphanage as children.

Ancient network / Wayfarers

Wayfarers are associated with surveying, routes, engineering, transport, and old infrastructure. Three black lines are tied to Wayfarer access/history. The modern Hook mark is a white hook crossing those lines.

Wayfarers may have inherited some structures rather than built everything.

Known functions: fixed-point transit, logistics annexes, workshops, sentries, credentials, sealed halls, old routes.

Edren's dark-metal key is an administrative credential, not merely a door key. It may have paired credentials.

Transit uses compatible fixed sites and depends on receivers, authority, condition, and local state. Idlewood's array can be sealed locally.

The Hook

A compartmentalized organization hunting ancient credentials/sites. It buys old maps, uses informants/records/surveillance, used Captain Veyr as an asset, calls people like Edren Keepers, and has specialist Watchers.

At least some Watchers perceive through controlled animals. A captured hawk confirmed remote aerial surveillance. The Hook is not omniscient.

Network doctrine

The emerging coalition is a network of independent incentives, not one centralized alliance.

Nobody protects the network because they are asked to. They protect it because losing it costs them something.

Give partners only the access/information needed for their role.

Idlewood = ordinary settlement.
Weller/Annex Seven = hidden logistics base.
Other towns = possible cutouts/trade points, never automatically neutral.

Asset rule

Track assets by physical location, never abstract ownership.

Locations: Idlewood/Farm; Weller Surface; Annex Seven; Bell's Crossing; Brenner Farm; in transit; hidden/unknown.

Track provenance: personal, coalition, borrowed, recovered Veyr goods, Crown, third-party, unknown.

PART II — CURRENT CAMPAIGN INSTANCE

Player character

Halfling Rogue 3, Sailor. Luck-oriented improviser.

STR 8, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 12, CHA 14.
PB +2; HP max 21; Hit Dice 3d8; shortbow +5 / 1d6+3; Sneak Attack 2d6; Cunning Action; Halfling Lucky/Brave/Nimbleness.
Known: Stealth +5, Investigation +4, Thieves' Tools +5, Perception +1, Survival +1, INT/History +2, Persuasion/Intimidation +2, Animal Handling +1.
Subclass provisionally played as Thief; do not silently change it.

Combat doctrine: Hide → ranged attack → Sneak Attack → relocate.

Character arc: protective of civilians, increasingly lethal under pursuit, emotionally affected by those he cannot save, identifies with luck, improvises rather than exhaustive planning, thinks in networks/incentives.

Eve

Highly trained nonmagical raven. Can carry/cache/retrieve small objects, find familiar people/places, respond to trained calls, scout visually, and warn of people. Not a magical familiar.

Current key state: Edren's credential is cached by Eve at an unknown location.

If PC dies, Hugo agreed Eve will be cared for; Seraph said she will have a home.

Core party current state

• Seraph — Life Cleric 3: at Idlewood coordinating defense/continuity.
• Hugo — Barbarian 3: with PC and Garr in Darkwood.
• Garr — Monk 3: leading PC/Hugo toward the old Ninth Gate escape route.

Important NPCs

• Tomas Reed: Idlewood smith; trusted with town/farm continuity.
• Merrick Vale: trader tied to Edren/Taren and old secret.
• Mara Venn: Taren's sister; carried a component from the first warforged.
• Calder Rook: Wayfarer-connected, distinct from Hook, was being watched.
• Harl Brenner: farmer near Bell's Crossing; over-collected by Veyr.
• Brogar Ironvein: dwarven craftsman/trader met through Dagger Falls; now studies/repairs ancient works. He owns no constructs.
• Corren and Mira: travelers helped on road to Dagger Falls.

Constructs

First Sentry / Warforged

Found beneath Idlewood, inactive ~23 years. Reawakened with Mara's component. Recognized Edren as authorized auxiliary and PC as temporary successor authority while presenting Edren's credential. Latest: hidden at Idlewood as final defense; Idlewood transit array sealed.

Annex sentries

Heavy Sentry operational at Annex Seven; two Light Sentries repaired/operational. Exact physical location must be preserved before transfer.

White-eyed construct

Found by Garr ~4 miles northwest of Weller after emerging from an unknown hill-door with a non-Wayfarer symbol. Hook pursued it. Brogar stabilized it.

It once carried a paired credential, now missing. It says Ninth Gate took it.

It reports that Ninth Gate excavated beneath northern works, opened an older passage, and that Ninth Gate personnel plus “others” are coming south. Not all movement is through transit.

Known sites

Idlewood

Ordinary settlement above ancient transit node. Array sealed; entrance concealed; Seraph/Tomas/local militia present; first Sentry retained. Doctrine: warn → delay → evacuate, not die for buildings.

Weller / Annex Seven

Weller is ~6 miles northwest of Idlewood down a concealed logging track. Beneath it is Wayfarer Logistics Annex Seven: barn cargo entrance, concealed emergency exit ~¼ mile away, transit receiver, storage, workshop, sleeping quarters, restored water, security doors, defenses, construct-repair infrastructure. Coalition's hidden logistics base.

Bell's Crossing

Crown waystation/trade area. Hook connections exist; not neutral.

Brenner Farm

Harl's third-party farm. Restitution goods sent there are not coalition inventory.

Dagger Falls

Major town used to find Brogar.

Unknown Hill Door

~4 miles northwest of Weller near rocky stream terrain. White-eyed construct emerged from it.

Ninth Gate

Infamous Crown labor compound north beyond Darkwood; brothers' former prison/work assignment and escape origin; now tied to opened ancient northern passage.

Major event chronology

Crown levy / Veyr

Veyr imposed an inflated levy. PC/coalition discovered he skimmed surplus above Crown allocation, stored excess in R — Rear Hold at Bell's Crossing, and sold information to Hook.

PC infiltrated the waystation, studied routine, accessed the ledger, forged an Idlewood delivery entry and matching paperwork.

Coalition executed a covered-wagon substitution heist using multiple wagons, hidden personnel, ordinary laborers, and the breakfast staffing gap. Empty crates were swapped for Veyr's stolen stores. Idlewood's records then showed the levy paid.

Veyr later searched Idlewood; the depleted-farm/seed-reserve story held. He found an old Vale receipt.

PC later tracked a Hook camp and killed Veyr with shortbow. Crown investigators later found suspicious Crown property/accounts and began auditing Veyr. A deep audit could still expose Idlewood's forged delivery.

Hook pursuit

Hook originally targeted Edren. After Edren died, the missing ledger, Veyr's lost contact, disappearing Hook men, and repeated halfling sightings made PC a priority.

Orders became approximately: find/follow PC; alive preferred; kill if necessary.

Hook pursuit has included riders, ambushes, informants, map buying, Veyr, and Watcher animals.

Burning farmhouse

PC left Seraph with the wagon, entered a burning farmhouse alone, and rescued a young boy. PC chose not to attempt the trapped mother because doing so risked losing both the child and himself. The boy later said attackers wanted his father to reveal what was under the farm and referenced Edren/line-marked men.

This remains emotionally significant.

Weller / Annex

Two recovered-goods wagons, Hugo, Garr, coalition members, and a captured Hook rider went to Weller. Garr found an entrance beneath the property.

The coalition discovered Annex Seven, secured prisoners, restored water, repaired sentries, mapped accessible sections, and established it as a hidden logistics base.

PC detected/disarmed a Hook door trap using thieves' tools with Seraph's Guidance.

Brogar / dwarven outreach

PC concluded the network needs stakeholders with incentives to preserve it. Dwarven expertise became the first outreach target.

In Dagger Falls, Hugo found Brogar. Hugo showed him Edren's credential. Brogar could not identify its craftsmanship and agreed to travel with his legitimate three-wagon trade caravan to Idlewood.

Hook anticipated the caravan and later used a Watcher hawk to track it. PC recognized the surveillance pattern, helped create a night trap, and grounded the hawk alive with a deliberately blunt broken arrow. Prisoners revealed the Watcher function. The hawk was then killed to cut surveillance.

Return to Idlewood / northern warning

At Idlewood, Garr had returned wounded with the white-eyed construct. The construct revealed Ninth Gate had taken its paired credential and opened a northern passage.

PC authorized the first Sentry to seal Idlewood's transit array.

Idlewood retained Seraph/Tomas/local defenders; Brogar's people and Weller were assigned logistics/technical roles.

Current northern expedition

PC, Hugo, Garr, and Eve departed north. Seraph stayed behind.

Garr recognized Ninth Gate issue boot tracks going north with drag marks. Rather than follow the road, Garr began reconstructing the brothers' old escape route through the Darkwood.

The party avoided an armed stranger camp. Garr found old landmarks from the escape.

They camped in the Darkwood. During PC's watch, a massive scarred wolf investigated the camp. PC drew a bow and successfully intimidated it without firing. Garr woke silently; the wolf reacted to him and withdrew.

Current exact scene

Day 17, night in the Darkwood.

PC, Hugo, and Garr are camped near an old landmark on the brothers' former escape route, perhaps a couple of hours from where Garr believes the old cavern mouth may have been.

Horses were left earlier in a concealed, watered/grazing location because terrain became unsuitable.

A long rest is underway with rotating watches. The large wolf encounter ended without combat.

Next likely objective: at daylight, continue following Garr toward the old escape/cavern route and investigate the connection between Ninth Gate and the newly opened northern passage.

CONTINUUM UPDATE PROTOCOL

After each meaningful session, update only changed nodes:

/canon/ — immutable world/book facts
/rules/ — DM/mechanical procedures
/characters/pc/
/characters/seraph/
/characters/hugo/
/characters/garr/
/companions/eve/
/npcs/
/locations/idlewood/
/locations/weller/
/locations/annex-seven/
/locations/ninth-gate/
/factions/crown/
/factions/hook/
/assets/<physical-location>/
/timeline/day-XX/
/open-threads/

Each node should record:

• FACTS: established truths;
• STATE: current mutable condition;
• KNOWLEDGE: who actually knows it;
• ASSETS: physical items/people/resources present;
• OPEN THREADS: unresolved questions;
• LAST UPDATED: campaign day/event.

Never overwrite old facts silently. If continuity changes, record a CORRECTION explaining what prior statement is superseded.

Open threads

• What exactly did Ninth Gate open?
• Who/what are the “others” coming south?
• Where is the white-eyed construct's paired credential now?
• What is the unknown hill-door/site northwest of Weller?
• How deep will the Crown audit of Veyr go?
• Who leads the Hook beyond local cells?
• What is the full role/history of the Keepers?
• How much of the ancient network predates the Wayfarers?
• Can Garr relocate the old escape cavern entrance?
• What changed beneath Ninth Gate after the brothers escaped?
• Exact current status/location of Vale, Mara, Calder, rescued boy, all prisoners, and all mobile coalition assets should be confirmed before they re-enter a scene.