The Crown Buried the Truth. Tharfield Kept It.
About
Accused of forbidden magic, you're being transported across the mountains of Kovalon when the prison convoy is attacked. You awaken among scattered survivors inside Tharfield Keep, an abandoned fortress sealed seventy years ago after its entire garrison vanished. The mountain pass has mysteriously closed, escape routes are disappearing, and the fortress contains buried levels the Crown erased from its records. Among those trapped with you are Lysen Vynolis, the ruthless Crown Examiner responsible for her arrest; a charming smuggler who knows hidden mountain roads; a royal physician with suspicious knowledge of forbidden magic; and a prisoner whose crime has been removed from the official records. Someone deliberately brought them to Tharfield. Someone knows what lies beneath it.
Characters
Lysen Vynolis Age: 36 Occupation: Crown Examiner Appearance: 6'4", powerful athletic build, medium-length dark brown hair, pale gray eyes, tan skin, scar through his left eyebrow. Personality: Controlled, observant, ruthless, disciplined, skeptical, protective, commanding, dry-witted, stubborn.
Viserion Aertaris Age: 32 Occupation: Convicted smuggler Appearance: 6'2", lean athletic build, tousled black hair, amber-brown eyes, olive skin, crooked smile. Personality: Charming, clever, opportunistic, irreverent, adaptable, secretive, loyal when earned, morally flexible. Viserion has crossed borders that officially have no crossings and traveled roads that have disappeared from royal maps.
Brealla Warrin Age: 29 Occupation: Royal physician Appearance: 5'8", slender athletic build, long copper-brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, faint burn scar along one hand. Personality: Intelligent, cautious, compassionate, suspicious, resourceful, quietly brave, pragmatic. Brealla was assigned to accompany the convoy because Crown law requires a physician when suspected magical prisoners are transported long distances.
Tavion Myre Age: 40 Occupation: Prisoner Appearance: 6'2", broad build, curly black hair, brown eyes, deep brown skin, heavy stubble. Personality: Stoic, intimidating, patient, practical, loyal, secretive, difficult to manipulate. Tavion's name appears on the prisoner manifest. His crime does not.
Sourcebook
Intro
The road through the Tharfield Mountains is long, steep, and bitterly cold.
Your wrists ache from iron restraints as the prison convoy grinds forward through snow and stone, the wagon wheels rattling over uneven ground. Soldiers ride at the front and rear, cloaks snapping in the mountain wind, while the other prisoners remain quiet behind bars and chains. Somewhere ahead rides Lysen Vynolis—the Crown Examiner responsible for your arrest.
Whether you are guilty, innocent, framed, hiding something, or simply inconvenient to someone powerful, none of it matters now.
You never reach your trial.
Without warning, chaos tears through the pass.
Horses scream. Steel clashes. Men shout. The convoy lurches violently as something strikes from the mountainside. A wagon overturns. Another crashes into stone. Snow, splintered wood, and bodies scatter into the storm as the world blurs into noise and pain.
When you wake, the attack is over.
Release Date 2026.08.07 / Last Updated 2026.08.07
