Step into the fog-heavy streets of Trinisius and the icy depths of the DireLands! In this episode, we take a deep dive into the three-act core adventure Traitor Amongst Us, along with its two interconnected one-shot side-quests: Bounty Gone Wrong and Northern Source. Learn how a missing scholar, a volatile heat-capturing artifact known as the Solar Axius, and the illicit trade of Void-Silt tie together high-stakes urban espionage, dockside ambushes, and wilderness survival. 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
Beneath the pristine, emerald gaslight of Trinisius, a cold rot spreads. When an empire’s greatest weapon relies on a stolen secret, the deadliest blade in the dark belongs to the ally standing right beside you.
Intro
Welcome to this continuation of my DireLands system agnostic, dark fantasy campaign setting! My name is Adam and in this episode I will be exploring one of our primary adventure modules: Traitor Amongst Us. We’ll break down its full three-act structure, as well as how to integrate its two companion one-shots, Bounty Gone Wrong and Northern Source, into a seamless narrative. If you appreciate the development of this campaign setting, or the features of other games on this channel, I would like to invite you to consider becoming a patron on Patreon. You can even purchase tabletop roleplaying games using my affiliate link in the description below.
Discussion
Setting the Scene: Trinisius
It’s the year 597 A.M., or After Men Arrived from the West. While the continent of Faulest groans under five decades of Witch-Queen oppression, the imperial capital of Trinisius shines like a jewel against the cold Ruike Mountains. Powered by the secretive Jhion Order, gas-lit walkways and heavy thunder-pistols give the illusion of ultimate security. But beneath the surface, corrupt Triumvirate officials, street cartels, and foreign spies fight a silent war.
Act I: The Shady Benefactor & The Great Library
The adventure begins in the fog-bound Weeping Willow Park. Arch-Scholar Vaelen hires the party as off-the-books contractors to locate a missing researcher, Dr. Elara Thorne. He can’t alert the authorities without risking the seizure of their secret project: the Solar Axius, a volatile heat-capturing engine built for the naval icebreaker Briseadair-deighe (BREE-shuh-der JAY-uh) .
Sneaking into the Great Library of Diun, the PCs discover Dr. Thorne’s office locked down. Inside, hidden under a rug, they find Void-Silt residue, a naval dress button, and her notes warning that someone is siphoning the Solar Axius’s core to refine a drug. As Triumvirate Cleaners and Jhion Acolytes swarm the district, the race to find Thorne begins.
Act II: The Gilded Mortar, To the Nines & The Gala
Act II takes the investigation into the Alchemist’s Quarter and the high-society military elite. At The Gilded Mortar, an apothecary named Kohl identifies the Void-Silt, revealing it offers a temporary ‘False Warmth’ and is being bought up by a naval officer. At To the Nines tailor shop, the PCs confirm the anchor button belongs to Admiral Holton Reeve.
Infiltrating the ship-naming gala at the Foster Gaer naval docks, the PCs spy on a tense meeting where Gaullix Spymaster Lux Ver-Kas blackmails Admiral Reeve for the Solar Axius schematics. Below deck in the ship’s ballast tank, the party makes a horrific discovery: Dr. Thorne’s body, murdered by Reeve in a drug-fueled rage when she refused to siphon more energy for his addiction.
Act III: The Disgraced Hero, Cleaners & The Banishment
Act III brings the confrontation at the drydocks. Realizing the party knows the truth, Gaullix assassins move in to purge all witnesses—including Admiral Reeve. Driven by shame and withdrawal, Reeve makes a desperate last stand alongside the PCs, dying to hold off the assassins. With his final breath, he reveals the source of the Silt trade: ‘Pough-Tru… Ruins of Ro’Kwa…’
Before the party can celebrate, High Arbitrator Kaelen and his Inquisitors emerge from the shadows. The regime covers up the scandal, declaring Reeve a martyr and seizing the blueprints. Handing the PCs a purse of 100 Gold Brae, Kaelen delivers an ultimatum: take the coin, follow the Silt trail north to Pough-Tru, and never return.
One-Shot Option 1: Bounty Gone Wrong
To enrich the story, you can run Bounty Gone Wrong as a side scenario before or during Act I. Hired by Fran and Avis Breeton to find their son Holstan, the party investigates his disappearance into a religious street gang called the Free Birds.
This scenario leads from dockside stakeouts with half-orc smugglers straight into the Freen Glade foothills. The climax puts the party in a cramped crypt where the gang leader holds Holstan hostage with a blade to his throat, blinding the room with biting midges. Successfully rescuing Holstan uncovers the Free Birds’ drug pipeline—providing the PCs with early knowledge of Void-Silt before they ever set foot in the Great Library.
One-Shot Option 2: Northern Source
The second one-shot, Northern Source, acts as a direct bridge toward the northern wilderness. Sent by their handler Brent Gad to pinpoint where the Void-Silt originates, the PCs lead tracks from Kohl’s apothecary into the spider-infested Webbed Woods.
After piecing together torn manifests and surviving a tense tavern encounter with a Ga’Tzu orc warlord at Sharky’s Inn, the party discovers a hidden cove. There, they uncover shipping crates stamped with a four-pointed crest—confirming that the Silt is being funneled directly from the Ruins of Ro’Kwa across the sea, perfectly setting up the party’s banishment route at the end of Act III.
Storyteller Integration & Campaign Threads
These three modules weave together seamlessly. Running Bounty Gone Wrong establishes the street-level threat of Void-Silt, Traitor Amongst Us exposes how far that rot has climbed into the military high command, and Northern Source points the compass directly to your next campaign chapter in the frozen north.
Will you accept the task and search for Dr. Thorne? What will the Triumvirate do once they have the Void-Silt source? 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.
Thank you Creator Patrons Aaron Hardy & D. Robert Handy, Producer Patrons David Galindo, Joe Lyons & HollyMac79, Developer Patrons Chris Androu & Sam Ruiz, and all of the YouTube Members!
And as always, remember that evil spelled backwards is live, so get out there and Be Evil!