Premise and history

Source context: this record describes the earlier local Arcfall adaptation, not the owner-supplied Everterra world or its Day 17 instance. See Everterra and Idlewood for the original lore and the source correction.

The campaign premise

After farmer Corvin Marrow dies, his valid will leaves Corvin Farm in equal shares to Seraph, Hugo, and Garr: three men who escaped the Ninth Gate prison. Their inheritance draws the attention of Captain Orlan Vance and a hidden royal program seeking the farm's buried mechanism. Zed, a halfling thief and archer accompanied by his trained raven Eve, becomes involved after stealing a sealed Crown letter. The story centers on chosen family, the cost of institutions that call cruelty necessary, and whether inherited power can be used with freely given consent.

The campaign promises that violence has consequences, mercy and testimony can change later events, the Crown is not a single unified villain, and Seraph's darkling body and prison history do not make him secretly corrupt. These are setting commitments, not possible twists to undo. See the book's campaign promises and default party and campaign at a glance.

Before the current story

Decades before the campaign, the Office of Gates learned how to move a prison entrance without moving the prison itself. Corvin helped build the prototype First Gate, then concealed it beneath the land that became his farm. The moving foundation trapped the memories and presence of displaced prisoners. Corvin later recognized that Seraph, Hugo, and Garr had become the three people able to keep its mechanism dormant. He arranged a lawful inheritance so that no royal authority could activate it without all three heirs' free, unanimous consent.

Maelin Thorne poisoned Corvin gradually and prepared evidence for the Office to seize his land. Vance's unit was sent to recover the heirs alive and bring back the seal. Ordinary soldiers were told they were pursuing dangerous escapees; most did not know the Office's purpose or the First Gate's existence. The full foundational account is in The Truth Behind Idlewood.

Established story so far

The party's played opening begins with Zed taking Corvin's sealed letter from a drunken guard at the Idlewood inn. He hides under the farm office, hears that the letter is bait and Vance wants all three heirs alive, then opens Corvin's trapped iron case with Seraph's guidance. Six Crown riders approach. During the farmyard fight, Zed's hidden arrow kills Vance; the watch hound also dies, while three Crown guards surrender. Zed agrees to Seraph's demand that the prisoners not be executed before questioning.

The signal code is learned from Vance's coat: blue means the objective is secured, red means armed resistance, and no signal by noon would bring a second unit at sunset. Zed sends the blue flare six minutes late. At 12:25, the party stages the quarry scene and sends the red flare, drawing Crown attention east for the moment. Shortly after one, at Crow Hollow, Seraph says the prisoners have spoken and warns that the eastern boundary stone is a lock and a Crown diviner is already in Idlewood. Oris Dane, Pellin Ro, and Kes survive. These events and timing are recorded in the accepted playthrough log.

For the exact open moment, see Accepted continuity. Later chapters in the book and expansion are prepared possibilities; they have not thereby occurred.

Campaign-scale arc (prospective)

The published campaign is structured to move from inheritance and pursuit, through the eastern boundary and Ninth Gate, toward a choice about the First Gate and the Crown's hidden Office. Its prepared finales include sealing, translating, severing, or accountable stewardship of the mechanism. These are available campaign directions, not a chosen outcome. The campaign book outlines the five acts, while the table expansion describes how its later chapters can branch.