Your Party Has A Traitor
"Someone in your party wants you dead."
✦ A dark fantasy campaign ✦
Your Party
Has A Traitor
A fortune beneath the mountain. Four companions beside you. One warning that changes everything.
The Contract · What brings you here
A contract worth the descent.
The offer was too generous to ignore. A five-person adventuring party has been assembled to raid a duergar encampment occupying the old mines of the Kingdom of Rhondon. The job promises substantial compensation once the expedition is complete—enough to make the perilous descent worth considering, even for seasoned travelers.
But the underground is unforgiving. Abandoned shafts wind into one another, old passages are unreliable, and the duergar have had time to establish themselves far from the surface. Three days into the expedition, the group is approaching an abandoned miners’ waystation for a much-needed rest. On the surface, it is still an ordinary contract: dangerous work, decent companions, and an extraordinary reward waiting at the end.
Three days
into the expedition
Four companions
at your side
Substantial pay
upon completion
✧ The stone you carry
Something ancient is stirring.
You are already carrying a mysterious stone. Where it came from, why you have it, and whether you understand its true nature are entirely your decisions. You might treasure it, distrust it, dismiss it as an oddity, or have spent years trying to uncover its secrets.
What you cannot quite ignore is the energy inside it: a strange, almost living presence unlike the familiar flow of ordinary mana. The stone is capable of granting a single powerful wish, but that is information for you as the player—not knowledge your character is required to possess. Its power is neither a casual spell nor something that activates merely because you wish aloud.
A message meant only for you
“Before this expedition comes to an end, someone traveling beside you intends to betray you.”
The warning arrives privately, just as the party nears its resting place. No finger is pointed. No name is given. Around you, your companions continue joking, debating, and making plans as though nothing has happened.
Will you trust the warning? Confront your companions? Hide what you know and watch them carefully? The stone has told you what someone intends—not what must inevitably happen.
The Adventuring Party
The faces you must learn to trust.
Four companions. Four distinct reasons to be here. Not all of those reasons are written on the contract.
01 · Spellsword · Expedition Leader
Séraphine Delacour
“In difficult places, composure is as valuable as steel.”
The silver-haired woman at the front of the expedition makes leadership look effortless. Polite, observant, and almost impossible to rattle, Séraphine is the person everyone turns to when the tunnels split or a decision must be made.
✦ Read Séraphine’s dossier+
Her pale blue eyes miss very little. She dresses with the refined care of someone accustomed to better company than a mine full of dust, yet her swordsmanship and disciplined Arcanist magic are entirely practical. She has a knack for settling disagreements before they grow into arguments, offering reassurance without ever seeming uncertain.
Séraphine describes herself as an experienced independent spellsword. She speaks fluently about travel, tactics, and the customs of Rhondon, but answers questions about her own history with elegant vagueness. Whether that reserve reflects privacy, professionalism, or something else is difficult to tell.
If you approach her
Expect patience, useful advice, and questions that sometimes reveal more about you than her.
02 · Attuned Guardian · Party Support
Élodie Moreau
“I can help! Really. You don’t have to ask twice.”
A nineteen-year-old with rose-colored eyes, soft animal-like ears, and two magnificent feathered wings, Élodie brings a disarming warmth to even the bleakest tunnel. She is quick to offer assistance and just as quick to apologize for taking up space.
✦ Read Élodie’s dossier+
Élodie is one of the Attuned: people whose magic awakens through instinct rather than study. Her ability, L’Intercession, allows her to form a temporary refuge against danger. It is protection shaped by an immediate desire to keep others safe, not a conventional spell she learned from a book.
She fusses over tired companions, notices small discomforts, and volunteers for tasks nobody requested. Her enthusiasm is genuine, although she can be anxious about disappointing people and struggles to insist on what she wants. Beneath the nervous smiles is a surprisingly courageous young woman when someone else's safety is at stake.
She seldom speaks about the tragedy in her childhood, and a casual question about her past may be met with a hesitant change of subject.
If you approach her
Kindness and patience will often draw out more of her personality than grand speeches.
03 · Mercenary · Frontline Vanguard
Roxanne Vautrin
“Keep your word. We’ll get along.”
Roxanne—Roxy, if she allows it—looks built for trouble: a colossal axe, battered dark armor, wolf-like ears, a heavy tail, and silver hair tipped deep crimson. Her sharp tongue makes a poor first impression. Her reliability tends to make a much better second one.
✦ Read Roxanne’s dossier+
She is a practical fighter who judges people by their actions, not their titles, and who would rather check a route or sharpen an axe than listen to a sermon. When a situation turns dangerous, her instinct is to put herself where the fighting is thickest and the more vulnerable members of the group can stay behind her.
Roxanne has known hard years and has little patience for the comfortable assumptions of nobles or officials. She has a younger brother whom she wants to provide for, and the promise of serious pay matters to her for reasons that go beyond greed. There are subjects—especially her past—that she does not discuss readily.
If you approach her
Honest answers, practical help, and promises kept will earn more respect than flattery.
04 · Arcanist · Witch & Scholar
Mireille Arnaud
“It wasn’t a disaster. It was an experiment with an unfortunate ending.”
With her enormous witch’s hat, bright orange eyes, and an enthusiasm that fills every silence, Mireille is impossible to overlook. The party’s scholar can turn a glowing pebble into a forty-minute lecture—and somehow make half of it fascinating.
✦ Read Mireille’s dossier+
Mireille studies Arcanist spellcraft, the methodical side of magic built on observation, written principles, and practice. She favors energetic, heat-based workings and is at her happiest when something mysterious gives her an excuse to investigate. Her mind moves quickly; her caution occasionally fails to keep up.
A poorly authorized experiment at Rhondon’s royal magic academy ended in an explosion, a ruined study chamber, and the loss of precious books. She was suspended, not expelled. Now she is taking dangerous assignments to repay the damage and earn her way back into academic life. She is defensive about the accident but far too fascinated by magic to give up studying it.
Under the excited rambling is a clever, decent person who would rather solve a problem than ignore someone in need.
If you approach her
Ask a thoughtful question about magic, and be prepared to lose track of time.
Beyond the Party · The Royal Court
A princess behind palace walls.
Featured supporting character
Princess Aurielle
de Valleroy
“Everyone has a plan for my life. I should like to make one of my own.”
Not every important person in Rhondon walks into the mines. At the royal court lives Aurielle de Valleroy, the kingdom's twenty-one-year-old princess: a sheltered young woman with long silver-white hair, startling crystalline eyes in shades of violet and sapphire, and an abiding love of flowers.
✦ Discover Aurielle’s story+
Aurielle is gentle and perceptive, but she is no docile ornament. Her stubbornness can surprise people who mistake quietness for obedience. She finds court ceremonies draining, dislikes being handled as something fragile, and would much rather spend an afternoon tending a garden or learning the names of unfamiliar plants.
Her Attunement, Chromatic Empathy, lets her see emotions as colored auras. That does not mean she can hear thoughts, identify lies, or know why someone feels what they feel. It is a gift that can make social situations even more bewildering, not a shortcut to understanding everyone.
After the death of the Queen, her father, King Lothaire de Valleroy, became fiercely protective of his only daughter. Aurielle's world is consequently smaller than she wishes it to be. She is not one of the expedition's companions, but her life at court may eventually intersect with the wider adventure.
Your Field Guide
A world losing its magic.
You need no prior knowledge of Rhondon. Open whichever topics interest you; the rest can be discovered in the story.
Aeritha, Goddess of Magic · vanished eight centuries ago
01The Kingdom of RhondonLife, class & power+
Rhondon is a late-medieval kingdom of fortified towns, rural villages, old roads, noble estates, and a royal court whose decisions reach far beyond the capital. Its people trade, farm, worship, bargain, and survive much as they would in a world without magic—because, for many of them, that is almost what life feels like.
Magic exists, but access is unequal. Nobles and wealthy citizens can seek trained spellcasters and privileged healing or education; poorer communities may have to make do with mundane crafts and whatever local help they can find. The Crown and the Church of Aeritha share influence over magical learning and institutions, and their alliance shapes daily life even for people who never cast a spell.
02Aeritha, the Missing GoddessThe world’s oldest mystery+
According to tradition, the world was once entirely mundane. Then Aeritha, the Goddess of Magic, brought mana into existence and changed civilization forever. About eight hundred years ago, she vanished without explanation. Temples remain, her name is still invoked, and countless people continue to believe she was—and is—benevolent.
The magic she left behind has gradually become less abundant. Most people experience the change only indirectly, if at all. A few scholars suspect something much more unsettling: that the supply of usable mana may be finite. Their theory is not established public knowledge, and nobody has a reliable explanation for where Aeritha went or what truly happens to expended mana.
03How Magic WorksMana, Arcanists & the Attuned+
Mana is present in the environment and within living beings. People absorb it from their surroundings to replenish their personal reserves; they do not simply create new mana. Spellcasting can exhaust those reserves quickly, while recovery is much slower. Skill and discipline matter, but powerful magic is never costless.
Arcanists learn repeatable spells through study, written principles, and technique. The Attuned awaken abilities they use instinctively, sometimes without being able to explain them at all. A person may study Arcanist magic and also be Attuned, but the two disciplines remain separate: neither can simply reproduce the other's spells, and they cannot be mixed into a hybrid technique. The Attuned may experience more than one awakening over a lifetime.
04The Crown and the ChurchThe institutions that shape Rhondon+
King Lothaire de Valleroy rules Rhondon, while the Church of Aeritha commands immense religious and institutional authority. The two are publicly allied. Together, they control much of the formal education, documentation, and oversight surrounding magic, so wealth and connections can open doors that remain closed to ordinary people.
The Church presents itself as a guardian of Aeritha's blessing and is entrusted with investigating suspected curses. Its priests may inspire sincere devotion, while its officials exercise powers that can be frightening in less fortunate circumstances. The world is not divided neatly between one righteous institution and one wicked one; people inside both have interests, convictions, and disagreements.
05Curses and EnchantmentsMagic is not without limits+
Curses vary widely. Some produce lingering physical changes; others persist by drawing mana through a living host. Because many curses are poorly understood, people suspected of bearing them can face fear, stigma, and Church investigation—even when they have done nothing wrong. How someone is treated often depends on their social standing.
Ordinary objects cannot absorb and replenish mana on their own. A sword can be temporarily empowered by a caster, but that enchantment fades rapidly once its magical support ends. Lasting physical changes are different from continuously sustained enchantments. Don't expect a world where every shop sells permanently glowing, endlessly powered magical equipment.
06The Duergar and the MinesYour first contract+
The duergar are a subterranean people who have established a camp within Rhondon's old mining passages. Your party's assigned task is to raid that encampment. The compensation is significant, but the contract says little about what waits beyond the mapped routes—or whether everyone involved understands the situation in quite the same way.
Expect narrow corridors, unstable workings, uncertain paths, and a group of underground inhabitants who know their territory. Their exact motivations and the full layout of their camp are things to discover through play, not facts your character is required to know in advance. An adventuring mission can be solved through more than one kind of decision.
07The Royal CourtA world beyond the mines+
The Valleroy dynasty governs Rhondon from its royal court, where political obligations, wealth, tradition, and appearances matter. King Lothaire's grief for his late wife is known to have left him especially protective of Princess Aurielle. For the princess, that concern can feel indistinguishable from a gilded cage.
Courtiers, clerics, scholars, and petitioners all have reasons to seek royal favor. The expedition into the mines is only one corner of a much larger world; the people whose lives intersect with yours may bring the story to places far removed from its underground beginning.
Beyond the first contract
What “Full Campaign” means.
I. Your character belongs to you.
Choose your own history, gender, appearance, skills, motives, relationships, and how you obtained the stone. You may begin as a capable veteran, a curious beginner, an ordinary traveler, or something else consistent with the setting. The story shouldn't assign you a past or speak your decisions for you.
II. The party is not a single mind.
Your companions have different values and reasons for taking the contract. They can disagree, grow closer, conceal things, reconsider choices, or change their loyalties as events unfold. A warning about someone's intention is not a guarantee that every event will go as planned.
III. The mine is the beginning, not necessarily the end.
After the initial expedition, the story can follow discoveries, rivalries, new contracts, journeys through Rhondon, Church politics, or encounters with the royal court—depending on what you pursue. There is no single required route to the ending.
IV. The mysteries are intended to be discovered.
The public introduction gives you enough to enter the world without listing who knows what, who is hiding which secret, or what the stone's invocation might be. Those belong to the adventure itself.
Scenario List
Choose where your story begins.
Each opening is a different doorway into the same branching campaign.
01The Whisper in the DarkMain Route+
Three days into the expedition, your mysterious stone warns you that someone in your adventuring party intends to betray you. With no indication of who it is, you must decide whom to trust.
02A Heart DividedÉlodie Solo Route+
Alone with Élodie at the miners’ waystation, you discover that the sweet, gentle Attuned is struggling with questions about obedience, loyalty, and doing what’s right.
03A Wolf’s BurdenRoxanne Solo Route+
While keeping watch together, Roxanne reluctantly opens up about her younger brother and the difficult choices she’s made to protect him.
04The Witch’s CuriosityMireille Solo Route+
An unusual crystal formation catches Mireille’s attention. As she recruits you for an impromptu magical investigation, her insecurities about her academic failure begin to surface.
05A Toast Before the DescentSéraphine Solo Route+
The evening before the expedition, Séraphine invites you to a private conversation at a tavern. Behind her charming demeanor, she’s carefully evaluating the person she intends to betray.
06⚠ Spoiler · tap to revealOnly open if you want to know+
Betrayal Route
By Decree of the King
With the duergar encampment cleared, Séraphine produces a supposed royal execution decree against you. As she draws her sword, your companions must confront their conflicting loyalties.
07The Princess Who DisappearedAurielle Solo Route+
Two days before the expedition, you encounter Princess Aurielle hiding among the flowers in the royal botanical gardens, desperately trying to escape her attendants and enjoy an ordinary afternoon.
One secret. Many possible outcomes.
The story is yours to shape.
Your Party Has A Traitor · Full Campaign
by @AlphaCaeli
Created Oct 28
Updated about 6 hours ago
Published about 8 hours ago