Campaign Update #4 — 5/21/2026
Scheduling
We're keeping this simple — no shared calendar. We'll use Timeful instead. Whenever I post a set of possible days, all you do is mark each one as free, could be free, or not free. That's the whole system.
First poll is already up to lock the date for Jen's session — please fill it out: Timeful Poll — Jen's Session
Two Asks
1. By Thursday the 28th — send me 4–8 sentences on your character's typical day. Where they wake up, what they do, who they cross paths with, what's just routine for them. Nothing fancy. I need it so I know how to pull each of you into what's coming.
2. By July 1 — send me ~500 words of character backstory. I'll take what you give me, weave it into the world, and send back under 750 words. I don't expect you to be able to quote it. But by session 3, when a name or a place from it comes up at the table, I want you to recognize it.
The Maps
I have finished the map of the greater world of Eldryn post-Great Reunion. The west half is referred to as Eldoria and the east is called Veldryn. Eldoria is fairly well known to half the table, but the entirety of Veldryn is new to all. In the campaign you may never leave the island, or you may choose to set sail and explore. If not, there's always Campaign 3.
I have also finished the top-down view of the entirety of Venturia. This one gives a better sense of where things are in relation to one another than the other. I'll be making about 8 more that feature different portions of the districts with detailed street views. Feel free to start placing your character's home and favorite places into the map in your head canon, and fill me in as you do — I'll make it so. There's more residential areas to the east that are a bit more spread out, if anyone wouldn't be a city dweller.
The Roadmap
May 30 — The Cask and Cube. Fun, relaxed session. Anyone who's prepared something can run their one-shot substitution bit. And if you haven't brought anything to add to the tavern yet, start thinking about it — doesn't need to be valuable, just something that connects to you, your character, or this campaign. Optional, but I'm just hoping to build a place that feels like everyone's. At the end of the session, I'll take a seat behind the screen and we'll run maybe an hour as your campaign characters — a scene where you start to hear about some troubling developments at the Overlook: Noname's fiancé has gone missing, and a strange man covered in burn marks turned up in the same place. (This is what the "typical day" stuff is for — it tells me how that news finds each of you.)
June (in person) — Jen takes a seat behind the screen for our first-ever full-length session, set in modern-day Venturia, with you playing your real campaign characters. It's canon, and it picks up a couple of days after the disappearance. Mostly adjacent to the main storyline — a real chance to play your characters and explore the world before things ramp up. Huge thanks to Jen for running this. It's going to be a great time.
July (online) — Some smaller breakout sessions, 1-on-1 or in small groups, to fill in pivotal moments from your characters' own histories. This is why I need the finalized backgrounds by July 1 — I'll edit them down and figure out what these glimpses into your past should look like based on what you all land on. We may also do a short group session as a final Foundry practice run.
August (online) — Our last session before the campaign proper. Full length, picking up where Jen's one-shot ends and covering about six weeks of in-game time, taking us to…
Late August / Early September — Session 1 of The Valley of Shadows. In person, 8–12 hours. More details to come, but for now, two things to know: there will be hooks at every turn, and 100%-ing this is not the goal. It's fine to ignore things. It's fine to chase things. I plan exactly one session at a time, so ignoring something never wastes my prep — and honestly, the moments where I'm forced to come up with something on the spot are usually when I'm having the most fun. And just because you don't engage with something the first time you see it doesn't mean it won't come back around. This is a living, breathing world; things keep moving whether you see them or not. You could do nothing but shop every session and I genuinely think you'd still find more than enough story to sink your teeth into.
See you on the 30th.
What I'm Thinking About — Honesty & Player Agency
This update's self-indulgent essay.
In both of our one-shots I did two things I'm genuinely opposed to: I lied to you as Dustin the DM, and I built endings that could leave you feeling like your agency didn't count for much. I'm at peace with it for a handful of reasons — one-shots are their own animal, and both of those games existed to set the table for the long campaign ahead. But I also know that for more than half of you, those two sessions are the entirety of your experience with me behind the screen, and that's not the impression I want to leave. So here are the rules I'll hold myself to from here on.
1) The table voice always tells the truth. Dustin the DM will not lie to you again. If I tell you a session has nothing to do with the campaign, then it has nothing to do with the campaign — at all. The cost of that promise is that I'll sometimes be vague or non-committal, and you should expect those moments. But when I say something plainly at the table — "this chair is just a chair, you can move on" — you can take it to the bank, every single time.
2) The world is under no such obligation. NPCs can lie to you, on purpose or by accident, about anything large or small. I'll never have someone lie just for the sake of it, and unless there's a clear reason for them to mislead you, you can generally trust what you're told. But Venturia is a big, busy place full of competing interests, so always consider the source. And here's the part that matters: even when someone steers you wrong, following that thread will never be a waste of your time. Bad information is still part of the story, and it always leads somewhere. I am not trying to frustrate you.
3) A hard choice is not the same as no choice. This campaign is built around problems that don't have clean, black-and-white answers. Sometimes every option will make something worse — in ways you see coming and ways you don't. That's by design. But the dead-end feeling at the close of the last one-shot is not the experience I'm after. At the end of that game I heard someone say something like "I don't think we really have a choice here," and it stopped me cold; it's part of why that session ended as abruptly as it did. That one's on me, not on whoever said it — they were right to feel that way. So going forward: when your actions create a new problem, you will always have room to work that new problem. You will never hit a wall where there was simply nothing you could have done. And plenty of what you face will have complete, satisfying solutions. Not every knot is a trick knot.
4) If it ever feels off, hold me to it. This only works if you do. If a moment ever feels like I've gone back on the first rule, or like the floor dropped out and your choices stopped mattering, call it out — at the table, after the session, in a message, however you like. I would much rather hear it than let it quietly sour the game. You knowing you can do that is itself part of the agency I'm promising you.
That's where my head is right now. Thanks for trusting me with a long one.