Intro

Veil Broken is a forest dungeon mystery adventure created for 2 - 5 sessions of play and is built to be compatible with most fantasy TTRPG systems. It was created as part of the 2026 Dungeon Jam community event to show the Mossy Antler creative roles process shown in this video.

You can find the latest version of Veil Broken on this page. You can find PDF and map downloads on the Mossy Antler Patreon. I hope you find the adventure fun and engaging as your players explore this mystery with themes of human impact on a forest's ecology.

Content Warning

This adventure contains several depictions of dead bodies and elements of body horror. Use communication tools when necessary. Talk to your players about what they want to see in the game. Do not spring it on them unexpectedly. Empower them to end scenes, "fade to black", or take breaks when it suits the table.

Background

In the thick of the forest called the Einfelst Wilds, the loggers of the nearby human city Blackbraes are cutting down the giant Goldwood trees. They are in search of trees that contain "dawn" cores: A cream-colored lightweight wood that is as strong and flexible as steel.

What the loggers don't realize is that their ancestors deliberately planted these Goldwood trees hundreds of years ago to close the veil between the mundane world and the feywilds. Blackbraes' ancestors were regularly besieged by all manner of faefolk until the Goldwood trees grew to overshadow the tallest of them.

The first tree was planted to shore up the very thinnest part of the veil and was known as the Oathtree. Burial rites, fae-respecting rituals, and annual pagan celebrations once kept the Oathtree sacred in the eyes of the people, but this knowledge has been all but lost. The forest now covers most of the evidence of human presence at the hallowed site.

Recently the Oathtree was cut down by the loggers, tearing the veil open and letting in dark fae spirits. These Skin Dancers will hop from host to host until they see fit to discard the corpse. The possessed creature acts with a blind rage (unless they have a powerful will to resist) and oozes a dark purple sludge that infects any living thing that touches it.

What Happened

Morwenna Prosser, the lumber camp leader, has been ordering her loggers to cut down Goldwood trees in search of dawn core wood for several months now. The dawn wood they've hauled back to Blackbraes has been extremely lucrative so far.

Eleven days ago, when one of Morwenna's loggers, Ivor, did not come back to the camp after a day of labor, Morwenna herself went to investigate.

On arrival at the recently-felled giant Goldwood where Ivor was last known to be working, she found a grotesque sight:
Ivor's torn, bloated, and purple dead body was continually and unnaturally seeping thick translucent dark purple bile that covered the area, including directly into the south-flowing East Einfelst river.

Above the stump of the Goldwood, Morwenna saw something equally strange: what looked like the fabric of the air itself had been slashed open and was flapping slightly in the breeze. In between the two jagged-edge curtains was a dark expanse that went somewhere other than deeper into the Einfelst Wilds.

Morwenna tried to retrieve Ivor's body but had to abandon her plight before the ooze threatened to swallow her. Afterwards, her arms and legs were stained with corruption.

The path towards more Goldwoods that the loggers planned to use next is now mostly blocked by the spreading ooze.

Several loggers have since been corrupted, including Morwenna's scout Steffan. Mundane creatures of the forest have been repeatedly attacking the lumber camp, causing uncertainty and paranoia among the loggers. The creatures make unusually sharp movements as they are possessed by Skin Dancers, and are always stained purple.

Morwenna is not easily swayed and has rerouted the camp's efforts so they can continue their work. She entrusted Steffan to search the forest for new potential lumber camp sites with more Goldwoods, and to seek alternate paths around the corruption. Steffan was testing the lone Goldwood near the Easarin hot springs when Loiza found him.