Caislen Campaign Notes

Oakenveil was a town existing long ago, adjacent to where the town of Oakenshire now exists at the current time. Oakenveil was around well before even the Goliath tribes settled the Havenspass region. The town existed because The Veil between the normal world and a supposed specific realm was thin here, in a spot in a cave, deep below the surface. This led to the construction of the town, primarily for those who could feel a power emanating from The Veil. The area originally full of oak trees atop of rolling terrain, sandwiched between mountain ranges, became known as “Oakenveil” due to the landscape and that which was below.

On the other side of this Veil between realms was alleged to dwell an Entity. An Entity with ambition to drive all abominations from the regular world through The Veil to its side, or slay them, freeing the normal world of them. Those who existed in Oakenveil wished to embrace this. Many considered themselves Clerics, Warlocks or Paladins of The Entity. They consisted of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, and those of mixed bloodlines stemming also from those same races.¹⁾

Whisperings from the putative Entity to those choosing to embrace it resulted in learning steps to perform a ritual to summon it to the Oakenveil side of the portal. They believed it promised to send itself, in an avatar form known as the “Chosen One”, who would force out Undead and other abominations. A so-called tear in The Veil would be formed, allowing for the Chosen One to emerge and abominations to be pushed through in the other direction to its realm, or be outright slain if they refused.

The ritual for this involved seeding the rip in The Veil with the blood of those races who were not to be considered abominations. All others would be subject to eventual purging by the Chosen One. Those with no blood, such as The Undead, would be the first priority for the Chosen One to push through The Veil, or Slay.

At present, there is no other revealed history about how things went for the people of the now forgotten town of Oakenveil, or how the “Oaken Veil” itself was buried and forgotten as well.

It is worth noting that in this campaign setting, and furthermore 5.5 edition Dungeons & Dragons, that a large amount of belief in something can give rise to that something becoming reality, especially when it comes to Gods & assorted misc powerful Entities. This is how Clerics, Warlocks, Paladins and others might contribute to help empower those they deem to be supernatural forces.

For the sake of those in the now expired town of Oakenveil, their belief was strong as a whole, however they managed to originate it aside. The language of a “Chosen One” was theirs, the details left behind on a few scrolls or random other places was theirs, not from a divine source. When humanoids record history or create lore, the telling isn't always perfectly accurate. Terminology changes. Interpretation favors the reader or speaker. This is just a fact that plagues both a fantasy realm such as this campaign setting and the real world alike. For example, one might notice that the word “veil” itself is an anagram of the word “evil” and attempt to imply things because of it, then look for further anagrams and attempt to draw meaning out of them. But this would be done out of curiosity, or paranoia, rather than leaning into factual matters.

What we can be sure of when it comes to the “Oakenveil Portal” is that humanoids did exist and their belief did empower it, or something, somehow. Chances are the story of the Oakenveil Portal however is not entirely accurate as it reads.

• In modern time in the campaign The Party ventured to the location of the former town of Oakenveil. They found a deep hole cut into the earth with a multi-hundred foot metal circular staircase leading down into it. At the base of that they encountered a sketchy tunnel that looked hastily dug out and prone to a cave in if anything should stress it.
• This tunnel led to the chamber where the Oakenveil Portal, brought back to activity through ritual by a guy named Markoff, a figure in the Half Star Cult, was trying to bring forth “The Chosen One.” Markoff was quickly defeated and therefor unable to answer any questions about the goings on at the portal, including how he knew about it, how the plan came to be to create an entry way to it after all these years, and what the end goal was.
• Markoff had performed a ritual, prior to the arrival of The Party, to open The Veil. He never got to finish and wait for the arrival of a Chosen One, but by that same token no one was able to re-close the portal.
• Jhason, an undead who was present under control of the cult, was freed incidentally by the killing of Markoff and would later return with the party to collapse the entry tunnel. Eyrun and some skeletons ended up blowing it up due to his cooperation.
• In the duration of just a few days where Jhason & The Party were all absent from The Oakenveil, prior to collapsing the tunnel, whomever or whatever crossed through it and exited the tunnels.