🌑 Read-Aloud: Vision of the Empty Loom

The world falls away like torn cloth.

You stand in endless white, beneath a sky that has forgotten how to be blue.

Before you looms a colossal frame, ancient beyond reckoning — a loom whose threads once sang with light and life.

Now, you watch as strand by strand, the weave unravels.
Names you once knew. Faces you once loved.
Places you called home.

1. The Bloom of Forgotten Names

Location:
Nestled in a cracked stone planter along the left path.

Description:
A single silver-and-blue lily, delicate but unearthly in color, grows stubbornly among withered vines.
As the players approach, they notice faint glyphs carved into the planter — ancient Elvish sigils of names, oaths, and promises.

Interaction:

• If a player speaks their own name aloud while touching the lily,
  the flower flares with pale light, and for a moment they hear a whispered memory — a voice they once loved, a forgotten friend, or an old teacher.
• Mechanically, this grants Advantage on the next Wisdom saving throw made within the garden.

2. The Fountain of Fading Dreams

Location:
Near the center, a cracked marble fountain choked with mist.

Background

• Vael. Fifth Binder of the Chained Library. Chainbearer of the Silent Vault

🌿 Notes on Vael’s Tone:

• Measured, not panicked — he is a scholar of grim truths, not a raving prophet.
• Imagery-rich, because he deals in concepts few mortals can picture easily.
• Gently fatalistic, but leaves space for hope — if the party acts.
• He does not beg, or command. He merely places the truth in their hands — what they do with it is their burden to bear.

Emergence and the Watcher in the Mist

The air screamed as the Hollow Threshold collapsed behind you.

Main Party

Shadicar

Race/Class: Half-Elf Bard
Background: A charismatic performer and storyteller with a tragic past, Shadicar’s village was destroyed by a horrifying illusion conjured by the Weaver. Ever since, he’s pursued knowledge and justice, weaving his sorrow into songs that inspire allies and unnerve enemies. He has formed a subtle rivalry (and perhaps infatuation) with Trius of the Winter Court and is often the party’s spokesperson and moral compass. Recently gifted the Fochlucan Bandore, his bardic magic has grown even more formidable.
Notable Traits: Silver tongue, emotionally intuitive, cunning gambler, carries the weight of personal loss.

The Hollow Threshold is one of several unstable portals created by the Cult of the Eclipse to connect the Material Plane to the Shadowfell. Each portal is anchored by a powerful artifact steeped in darkness, and maintained through fear, ritual magic, and the weakening of the Elven barrier.

🕳️ Description

A desolate and warped location, where the natural world seems to fray at the edges. Light bends strangely, shadows stretch too far, and the very air feels hollow—as though something essential has been removed. This eerie terrain marks the boundary between planes.