Shadow Over Vansreik

Shadow Over Vansreik is a sourcebook and adventure module for the Lands of Exile setting, published by Bad Badger Games. It is written for fifth-edition campaigns and contains new player options, among them a new class, the Chain Warden; a setting guide to the Lands of Exile; the city events; supplementary material; and the Shadow Over Vansreik adventure itself.¹

The setting of the adventure

On the south-western edge of The Empire, near the free ports and the southern Da’fat lands, lies an ancient crater. Scholars say a meteor formed it, while the Church of Alarath holds that it was made by the clash between the archangel Shamyhaza and a colossal demon. Within the crater stands the city of Vansreik, marvellous and terrifying, full of opportunity and of danger. Beneath its streets rests an ancient necropolis, destroyed in the cataclysm that shaped the crater, and at its centre a deep, ominous pit runs down into unfathomable depths. For centuries the Deep Pit has drawn the most ambitious, courageous and cunning people of the realm.¹

Contents

• Player Options: the Chain Warden, a class that joins close combat with mystical gifts and draws its power from the fabric of the universe through "edicts" rather than magic in the usual sense; subclasses for the existing classes; and the lineages of the badgerfolk, capra and droom.²
• Lands of Exile Setting Guide: the same account of the realm, its history, magic, gods, provinces, institutions and peoples that is published on its own as the Starter Setting Guide.³
• Shadow Over Vansreik: the adventure in the city, for the Game Master.⁴
• City Events, small and large happenings of everyday city life, from shop discounts and public executions to a noble wedding or a riot against new taxes.¹
• Bestiary and NPCs.⁴

The Mercenary Compendium presents Jogard Di as a legendary mercenary but notes that he holds significant importance for this adventure, and points Game Masters to his section here.⁵

Credits

The creators describe the book as the outcome of a project funded in the autumn of 2023 with the support of 683 backers, and say they set out to offer a story that shapes itself to the choices of the players and the Game Master. Its cover shows the legendary witch hunter Gregor Malet standing alone against a horde of cultists in the Church of Shamyaza, painted by Muhammet Feyyaz.⁶