Forged in the fires of espionage, arctic survival, and cosmic horror, welcome to the pitch for “Implements of War”—an AD&D adventure set in the DireLands! Join Adam as he breaks down the narrative arc, faction intrigue, and cosmic threat facing your party as they hunt for the Globe of Dorchadas. Will your heroes deliver this terrifying Witch-Queen-powered artifact to the corrupt Triumvirate, or will they break the chain before it breaks the world? You can learn more about DireLands here: https://eviliv3.com/direlands/
About DireLands Fantasy Campaign Setting
DireLands is a system agnostic, dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying campaign setting. It was created by Adam P. Campbell in 2024. DireLands is set in a land that is in the final century of an ice age that saw the rise of the Witch-Queen who subjugated the three realms’ populations and cast out the demi-human races. The Triumvirate rose in the last century and liberated two of the three nations, but after their victory, they have become corrupt themselves.
Transcript
Cold Open
When the Triumvirate recruits your party to retrieve an ancient weapon, completing the mission might be the deadliest mistake you ever make.
Intro
Welcome back to another DireLands Fantasy Campaign Setting video! Today, we are taking a deep dive into a comprehensive campaign module pitch titled Implements of War. This narrative arc is tailored specifically for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D)—though, as with everything in the DireLands, you can easily adapt these beats to your preferred dark fantasy system.
Running a story like this in classic AD&D brings a uniquely brutal, resource-heavy, and unforgiving tone to your table. We’re talking strict encumbrance, harsh attrition, lethal combat positioning, and dark fantasy espionage where a single bad choice leaves the party dead in an icy ravine. In today’s video, I’m going to walk you through the overarching narrative arc, the key faction dynamics, and how you as a Dungeon Master can build a high-stakes campaign that moves seamlessly from political intrigue in Bressus straight into subterranean horror and cosmic dread.
Details
At its core, Implements of War is built around a high-stakes heist, espionage, and recovery operation. The campaign opens with the party being secretly recruited by a proxy envoy representing the Triumvirate of Bressus. Their official mission sounds straightforward enough: travel far into the north, infiltrate secret, fortified laboratories run by the Gaullix—a faction of secretive war-engineers—and recover stolen military schematics.
What the players are not told, however, is that these schematics are not written on parchment. They exist within a sentient, eight-inch cosmic construct known as the Globe of Dorchadas (DOR-chuh-dus). Created by the secretive Jhion Order, this orb is powered directly by the residual, radioactive essence of the Dubh-chreideamh (DU KAR-etch-ev).
To keep the tension high, the entire campaign operates on a strict clock. A critical lunar alignment is fast approaching in one year’s time, meaning the Triumvirate needs the artifact recovered immediately. To make matters worse, a rival mercenary company—secretly working for the Jhion Order—is tracking the party’s every step, ready to ambush them the moment they slip up.
Act I: Espionage, Blood, and the Dark Below
The campaign ignites in the nation of Bressus under the gloomy backdrop of a public execution. Alleged spies are hanged in the square to remind the populace who holds the power. Amidst the chaos, a veiled proxy envoy approaches the party in a dim backroom, handing over passage maps through dwarven territory and offering a fortune in gold to recover the Gaullix schematics. But as the heroes step out into the alleyways, they spot shadowy figures trailing them—introducing the rival mercenary faction right out of the gate.
To travel north into Gaullix territory, the party must first cross the dwarven kingdom of Graanzier. Negotiating safe passage requires political finesse, but the true nightmare lies in the Forbidden Undermountain. In AD&D, this section is a masterclass in claustrophobic dungeon crawling. The tunnels are infested with orcish aberrations—horrific crossbreeds spawned from historical dwarven enslavement. Light management, rations, door-wedging, and tight corridor choke points will determine whether the party survives or gets torn apart in the dark.
Act II: The Frozen Wastes and Cosmic Foreboding
Emerging from the subterranean depths, the party steps out into the lethal glaciers of the northern wilderness. Blizzards, thin ice crevasses, and frostbite threaten to grind their resources down. Here, they encounter the Du’Zieq Clan, a neutral tribe of ice barbarians. To earn safe passage and acquire mammoth transports across the snows, the heroes must prove their strength by helping the clan hunt down a massive, mutated aberrant polar bear that has been slaughtering their hunting parties.
With mammoth mounts secured, the party presses toward the first Gaullix facility, only to find it completely gutted from the inside out by failed biological experiments. As they salvage clues pointing to a secondary base, the Globe of Dorchadas begins to exert its influence from afar. The party starts suffering from collective hallucinations, unexplainable auroras in the sky, and subtle mental manipulations, dropping early hints that they aren’t just hunting technology—they are hunting an entity of cosmic horror.
Act III: The Sentient Artifact and the Ultimate Dilemma
The climax begins with a tense infiltration of the secondary Gaullix stronghold, packed with magical wards, mechanical traps, and elite guards. Deep in the facility, the players finally lay eyes on the Globe. The moment they touch it, the truth hits them: the Globe is alive. It speaks with an alien, unsettling consciousness, whispering forbidden secrets of the Witch-Queen directly into their minds. To make matters worse, an NPC insider who offered to help them infiltrate the base turns out to be an assassin assigned to eliminate the party once the artifact is secured.
What follows is a white-knuckle escape sequence across collapsing glaciers and roaring avalanches, with Gaullix retaliatory squads and the rival mercenary group closing in from both sides. If the party survives the trek back to Bressus, they arrive at the campaign’s moral boiling point.
When the players return to present the Orb, the Triumvirate’s true motives are exposed. This presents a complicated moral choice the players must make which showcases the bitter realities of nations at war and the complicated you must face.
Will you accept the task and collect the globe? What will the Triumvirate do once they have it in their keeping? Only your home campaign can answer these questions as the future of these DireLands are in your hands!
Outro
Thank you for watching today’s DireLands Fantasy Campaign Setting episode. Subscribe and ring the bell if you are new to the channel. Don’t forget to click the like button and comment to let others learn about this system agnostic, dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game campaign setting. I would like to invite you to become a patron on Patreon, remind you that you can join my actual plays and get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games, and even pick up other tabletop roleplaying games using my affiliate link in the description below.
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