Melody of the Weirding Mover is a high-fantasy, high-stakes Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting that spans all worlds and all eras. Planar convergences, divine intrigues, and the choices of mortals shape the melody that echoes through all creation.
Ahvindamahdorah’s Demise is the first adventure module of this setting. It begins in an otherworldly sanctuary where forgotten stories, abandoned characters, and unfulfilled ideas find their end. At its heart stands
Ahvindamahdorah, the Tree of Eternal Demise, both archfey and planar mechanism, governing the cycle that weaves the memories of lost wonders into the fabric of worlds where magic doesn't reach.
When Ahvindamahdorah was torn from her rightful place and cast into the dark forest between realities, that cycle faltered. The
logos meant to pass peacefully into the beyond began to crystallize in her absence, growing heavy with shadow and memory. In response, the land itself reached outward through the entirety of existence, drawing in adventurers capable of restoring what had been lost. The party found her there, saved her from that gathering darkness, and helped her take root once more, restoring the rhythm that sustains creation’s renewal.
Their path has since carried them to
Everbrook, a sheltered Netherese city of antiquity, built upon geothermal springs deep in the
Frozen North of Toril. Modern histories make no mention of it; the few surviving records mention a remote “nether hot-spring” or “vacation retreat,” long erased from living memory. Why such a place vanished from the world’s awareness, and what secrets it still holds beneath its ice and mist, remains one of the great mysteries the party now faces.
Tampering with time is forbidden by nearly all deities. To alter it places unbearable strain upon the
Prime Material Plexus--the structure that binds the base planes into a coherent, living reality. Such acts risk fracturing the Plexus itself, destabilizing the worlds joined through its lattice. Temporal travel is considered not only perilous but virtually impossible, prevented by the vigilance of divine custodians. The adventurers did not reach this age by intent, and their displacement remains an echo of forces far greater than any mortal or deific design.
The origins of this world are rooted in a simple request. A group of friends asked me to run a tabletop game. They wanted to reach high levels, face impossible odds, and experience a story that would grow with them rather than end when the campaign did.
In my youth, I spent countless evenings at local game shops and roleplaying circles, usually playing Dungeons & Dragons, or running Shadowrun campaigns for anyone who would sit at the table. Years of reading D20 system material in my spare time, combined with an interest in building complex worlds, gave me the foundation I needed to create something uniquely my own.
What began as a single module,
Ahvindamahdorah’s Demise, soon evolved into a full campaign setting:
Melody of the Weirding Mover. The story grew through play, shaped by the actions and ideas of the players as much as the framework I had designed. The result was an experiment that expanded into an interconnected universe of characters, timelines, and consequences--a living setting that continues to evolve.
The first adventuring party to face the module became the catalyst for everything that followed. They were an unlikely assembly of heroes drawn from distant eras and separate
spheres. Their meeting wove threads no prophecy had measured, and when those threads tangled with Ahvindamahdorah’s fate, a new pattern emerged, one even the gods could not have predicted.
That convergence eventually placed the party upon
Faerûn, in a forgotten corner of history. It is an age that predates
Mystra’s Ban, when Netheril is about to cast its long shadow across the ages. From there, the tale of
Melody of the Weirding Mover continues to unfold, shaped by every decision made at the table and every echo left behind by its players.
I run an an open-ended D&D world that lets players freely explore, more or less. You are allowed attempt anything your character could realistically try to do. The DM, through the environment, and the other players, through their actions, will determine the outcome and consequences.
The full realities of the world and the party's decisions will be played out. Escape may be an option at times, but some situations are harder to avoid than others. Traveling the planes has its own inherent risks--not to mention the horrors found within in the
module. Our campaign is roleplay heavy, but dangers abound.
Although the party isn't' currently being troubled by it, the Mists of Ravenloft play an important part in the, now several years long, campaign. Originally, the pilot entrants to my module, after a short introduction, were all taken by the Mists, from wherever they happened to be at the time. Plucked out of their lives and thrust into a world they never imagined. The world where Ahvindamahdorah met her demise.
I won't spoil it here, but rest assured, the adventuring party remembers it well, even if they haven't unlocked all of it's secrets yet.
The Ravenloftian Mists are a force that, among other things, captures powerful or important entities and thrusts them into conflict.
Whatever rules the Mist and the Dark Powers that control it follow is a topic of debate, but there are a few generalities we can examine.
We have discovered that, beyond the general function of imprisoning these dark lords, there are other surprising things that the Dark Powers seem to do with the Mists. For example, if a world has magic and also tries to advance past a certain level in science and technology, it will inevitably be sequestered by the mist. Local deities generally have to
craft their worlds with this fact in mind. In contrast, a world that has never known magic, or one that cannot support it at all, is rarely affected in this way, deific designs notwithstanding.
Also, it is thought that the Mists are responsible for non-magical worlds seeming so few and far between. In reality, it may be that one side, or both, are separated for some reason we do not understand.
Another way the Mists can effect you is
transportation. Beyond becoming the new master of a dark domain yourself, the Mist can technically transport any 'thing' to any 'where.' In the new dark lord example, the mist transports the incoming lord into a new pocket dimension, which may or may not contain their entire kingdom.
The nature of the Mists is such that you cannot take advantage of it yourself, but if some mysterious force wills it, you can end up in a place where the rules of reality seem to break down. You could find yourself in a world world which connects locations by mood and theme, and not with physical corridors and paths.
This is what happened to our adventuring party. Most of them, anyway. Our PCs all ended up in the world of
Ahvindamahdorah's Demise, mostly through the Mist's
transportation function. Some appeared to be endemic to this odd world, but everyone had a story of either being taken by the mist, or facing oblivion in some way.
We're all in this together as we try to make our mark on this world of old-but-new dangers and high level magic. Maybe we'll even learn a little about how things work along the way.
We started out as a an in-person tabletop game with a single remote player, and have gone through several phases, roughly divided into seasons.
I've gone through several iterations of the hybrid 'local table with remote players' setup. Currently we are using a FoundryVTT game table, Discord for voice chat and video feeds/streaming (camera isn't required, but a microphone is, for obvious reasons.) I'm using Dungeondraft for high detail maps, and Dungeon Alchemist for rapid-deployment battle maps. This give us two distinct map styles, and so far it's been a good experience. I’m still getting used to a virtual tabletop as complex as Foundry, and I’m excited to explore its full potential.
Please be aware that the content on the virtual tabletop follows the live game, and not the other way around. This means that things that are added during a game session might not be represented on the screen right away. They will be given entries in the VTT for the following week.
Not every contingency can be planned for, and I generally won't have enough time to set up icons, art, and maps for every potential activity. The primary game is in the 'theater of the mind,' with a virtual tabletop giving us something to track the action with.
I keep a quest log in Foundry, and as your character gets to know the party and learn what's going on, you will be able to see the current status of the quests. Every character will end up with their own quest line, as a convenient place to keep their lore.
