The Ashen Oath Series
A knight abandoned. A field that still burns. A fortress that drills ghosts. A captain who never stopped waiting. And a vow that refused to die.
What This Series Is
The Ashen Oath Series is a five-part narrative toolkit designed for GMs who want their villains to carry memory, weight, and consequence. It centers on Ser Varn Hollowbrand, a loyal knight who died upholding a forgotten vow, and rose again to enforce it in death.
Each piece can be dropped into a campaign on its own. Together, they tell a full story. This is not a tale of domination or world-ending magic. It is about grief, silence, betrayal, and what remains when no one answers your call.
This series is built for mid-to-late campaigns where the party has choices to regret and loyalties to test.
How to Use These Articles
The entries in the Ashen Oath Series are fully modular, but work best in this arc:
Begin with Ashtrail Field to introduce the myth
Lead into Cindermere Hold as a haunted stronghold
Use Knight-Captain Breya to complicate morality
Confront The Knight of Ash and Oath as your final decision point
Weave in The Knight Who Bled for Peace to let your players feel what was lost
Each post includes:
Lore and narrative tone
Drop-in-ready mechanics and hazards
Stat blocks or tactical notes
Roleplay and encounter hooks
Internal links to relevant NPCs, weapons, or terrain
The Five Entries
The Knight Who Bled for Peace
Before the ash. Before the silence. Varn was a knight who believed oaths were sacred. His death didn’t change that. It only hardened it.
Ashtrail Field: Where the Oath Was Broken
A cursed battlefield where snow never melts and silence never ends. This is where Varn died, and where the world left him behind.
Cindermere Hold: The Fortress That Burns Cold
His abandoned keep. Still intact. Still drilling echoes. The forge still burns, but it gives no warmth. Only memory.
Knight-Captain Breya: The One Who Broke First
His second. Too loyal to run. Too broken to follow. Breya is a ghost in flesh, still waiting for orders no one will give.
The Knight of Ash and Oath
What Ser Varn became. Bound to the oath he once served, reforged by silence, and driven by a memory that refuses to fade.
Why Run This Series
The Ashen Oath Series is built for campaigns that ask harder questions. What does loyalty cost? What happens when a righteous man is forgotten? Who do you become when the vow is all that’s left?
This is not a power fantasy. It is a wound. And it belongs in campaigns that want their scars to speak.
Use it when your table is ready for something they’ll remember.
From the Back Wall of the Tavern
Some series are made to impress. This one’s made to leave a mark.
I’ve seen tables go quiet when Breya speaks. I’ve seen players stare at the floor after Ashtrail. And I’ve seen grown fools try to talk Varn out of his duty like they weren’t already too late.
If you're gonna run it, run it honest. No winks. No escape hatches. Just the story. And the silence after it.
What You Build From Here Is Yours
This series is yours to reshape.
Use all five entries, or just one. Twist them. Break them. Give Varn a different name. Let Breya live this time. Drop Ashtrail into a jungle instead of a mountain pass. What matters is the weight behind the story.
If your table walks away with more questions than answers, then it worked.
Reach out to Mike’s Tavern if you need help making this series your own
Browse the full Tavern Toolshed for more haunted keeps, cursed rituals, and ready-to-run maps
Or visit About Mike’s Tavern to see why we build stories that hurt a little
