Spoilers:

Spoilers — GM only. Players should not read below. It will damage your game experience..

🔥 The Fox and the Flame.

Campaign Premise

The southern frontier of Tarsus is ablaze with intrigue and conflict. House Santiage, sworn to Cerovante, fans border skirmishes with Zahara, while whispers of undead rising from the Bone Dunes unsettle both Sultan and King. The Basilica of Chains tightens its grip, declaring heresies at every turn, while the Aetheric Vaults and Magisters Tribunal clash over how far arcane freedom may stretch.

In this crucible, politics, faith, and forbidden magic collide. Whether the south becomes a bastion of unity or collapses into chaos depends on choices made here.

⚔️ Acts of the Fox and the Flame.

Act I — The Trial of Ezoneus Vrernas

• Setting: The Hall of Justice, Velbrann.

• Vrernas, accused of planar sorcery, becomes the lightning rod of southern politics.

• Factions collide: Inquisitors demand his death, Magisters argue for clemency, Vaults seek containment, Argent Spire defends him as a misguided student.

• House Cerovante and its fiery vassals, House Santiage, press to claim him for their cause against Zahara.

• PCs can gather evidence, sway factions, or even intervene in verdict.

• His fate sets the tone: execution, redemption, containment, or co-option.

Act II — Sparks on the Border

• With Vrernas’ verdict echoing, House Santiage escalates raids in Casmere, testing Zaharan caravans.

• Zahara retaliates, sending elite guards to patrol the Shifting Mesa and pressuring Velbrann merchants.

• The Sultanate whispers that Tarsus cannot control its own bannermen.

• PCs may:

  • Mediate between Tarsus and Zahara.

  • Uncover Santiage plots (and Cerovante’s shadowy hand).

  • Protect caravans — or sabotage them.

Act III — Chains in the Desert

• The Basilica of Chains declares the skirmishes a sign of heresy.

• Inquisitors launch purges in the south, seizing suspected cultists, outlaw mages, and even dissenting priests.

• The Aetheric Vaults and Magisters Tribunal contest these arrests, risking open schism.

• PCs might:

  • Witness inquisitorial overreach in the Shifting Mesa.

  • Rescue accused innocents.

  • Or side with the Inquisition’s iron grip.

Act IV — The Stirring in the Bone Dunes

• Rumors prove true: forbidden mages in the Bone Dunes seek to command an undead host.

• Some factions see this as threat; others as opportunity.

  • Inquisitors: “Purge them all.”

  • Vaults: “Contain and study them.”

  • Cerovante/Santiage: “Perhaps… weaponize them against Zahara.”

  • Zahara: Calls them an abomination and threatens invasion if Tarsus falters.

• PCs may be sent south to confront the cult directly — or watch factions clash over who commands the dead.

Act V — The Southern Reckoning

• Outcomes hinge on PC and faction choices:

  • Santiage Triumphs → They gain Vrernas, raids swell into war, Zahara and Tarsus edge toward open conflict.

  • Inquisition Ascendant → Chains dominate the south, but rebellion brews in Velbrann and among the Vaults.

  • Vaults / Magisters Prevail → A fragile, arcane-led compromise forms — Zahara calls it weakness.

  • Undead Unleashed → The Bone Dunes’ army marches, forcing old enemies to ally — or die divided.

🎭 Themes & Tone

• Law vs. Chaos: Courts, chains, and contracts against the wild pull of desert and death.

• Faith vs. Reason: Inquisitors’ dogma vs. Magisters’ pragmatism.

• North vs. South: Tarsus nobility vs. Zahara’s sultans, with Santiage as firebrands at the heart.

• Life vs. Death: Undead stir, threatening to topple the living order.

🌑 Adventure Seeds

• A caravan torched in the Shimmering Salt Flats hides contraband that could shift the balance of war.

• A captured Zaharan spy offers PCs evidence of Cerovante’s deeper game.

• A saint’s tomb in the Burning Steppe becomes contested ground between inquisitors and necromancers.

• Vrernas (if spared) reappears — as a redeemed scholar, a Vault prisoner, or a Cerovante agent leading new plots.