You were thrown in. Condemned, stripped, and dropped from the cliff into the black lake below the Barrier. You surfaced soaked and bleeding, and the glow of the Barrier sealed itself behind you. This is the Valley of the Mines — a prison colony that has become its own small world, and you are its newest unclaimed piece of labor.
What the Valley is
The Valley is a broad, enclosed country of cliffs, forest, marsh, and old mines, ringed by mountains and a cold stormy sea. Nobody leaves. What was meant as a grave became a settlement: three great camps, ruins, swamps, flooded workings, and wild country in between where beasts, outcasts, and worse make their own law.
Value here is measured in magical ore — pieces of the stuff the Colony exists to dig. Food, tools, weapons, favors, protection, information, shelter, and bribes all trade against ore. For most convicts even a handful of ore matters. A few dozen is a serious amount. A hundred is a fortune.
The three camps
Every newcomer's first question is which camp to survive under. Each will take your labor; each will take a piece of you in return.
- The Old Camp — a dense, fortified settlement of muddy lanes and packed shacks gathered beneath a massive stone Castle. It is the most ordered and the most oppressive place in the Valley: guards patrol, banners hang, and everyone knows their place. The Diggers feed the mines; the Guards keep order; the Shadows work in information and deniable trade.
- The New Camp — a rocky basin shaped by water instead of walls: terraces, rice fields, a dam, a lake with a tavern built out over it, and a vast cave of timber platforms and huts. Rougher, freer, and poorer than the Old Camp. The Scrappers scavenge; the Rogues run contraband; the Mercenaries sell steel.
- The Sect Camp — a swamp settlement of raised platforms and wooden walkways over dark water, built around a temple tent and a broad Temple Square. It feels damp, improvised, and spiritual. The Novices labor and pray; the Templars guard; the Gurus teach. The Fire Mages and Water Mages are the rare, feared masters of the arts.
Between the camps lie the mines, the forest, the ruins, and the wilds. The Orcs hold their own territory. Hunters and traders work the paths. Nothing out there owes you anything.
What you are now
You begin without faction membership: no faction has accepted you. Unaffiliated people are individuals, not a collective faction; they may have a trade, possessions, friends and personal protection. You may still find work, trade, shelter, or a personal ally without joining a camp. Your freedom also leaves you without the protection that formal membership can bring.
Your first days will be about the basics:
- Find food, shelter, and something to trade.
- Learn who runs the place you are standing in, and what they want done.
- Do real work — digging, hauling, hunting, helping — until someone worth knowing notices you.
- Decide whether any camp or faction deserves your commitment. Each takes people in differently; visiting or working there is not the same as joining.
Help can be freely offered, earned through friendship, or negotiated. Exploitation is common, not universal; obligations follow actual agreements and events, not every conversation.
How to use this book
The rest of this handbook is your rulebook. Read Your Character Sheet next so you know what the numbers mean, then Skill Checks & Rolling for how almost everything outside a fight is resolved. When swords come out, turn to Combat; when fire and light are in play, Magic. The later chapters cover recovery, learning, money, factions, reputation, and the slow rhythm of life under the Barrier.
The core promise is simple: the fiction comes first, and a roll happens only when the outcome is genuinely uncertain and matters. Obvious observations and routine actions need no roll. When an uncertain action matters, roll honestly and let its established stakes decide the outcome.