init new campaign

campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross.md

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+---
+type: location
+world: Eldar
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+---
+
+# Briarcross
+
+> [!info] At a Glance
+> **Type:** Village and bridge-crossing
+> **First impression:** A low, damp village of lanterns, plank paths, and stubborn gardens raised above marsh water
+> **Mood:** Wary, intimate, tired, still trying to be hospitable
+
+## What You See
+
+Briarcross is built around a narrow bridge of old stone and newer timber. Houses sit on pilings or hummocks, linked by walkways dark with rain and peat. Lantern moss glows along the bridge rails at dusk, and every door has some small charm hanging beside it: knotted grass, river bone, a dull bell with its clapper removed.
+
+## The Surprise
+
+The village bridge keeps **different crossings at different times**. Anyone who crosses it at sunset while carrying a sincere promise may glimpse not the far bank, but a place connected to that promise: a lost home, a grave, the road they should have taken years ago. Most glimpses last only a heartbeat. Lately, they are lasting longer.
+
+## The Rule
+
+**Do not cross the bridge while lying out loud.**
+
+Locals treat this as practical advice, not superstition. People who break the rule arrive on the wrong side of an argument, a road, or occasionally their own memories.
+
+## The Spirit or Being
+
+The bridge is watched by **Old Thread**, a spirit that appears as a patient figure woven from moss, twine, and river reeds. It cares less about truth than about whether people mean what they say when standing at a threshold.
+
+Old Thread dislikes being worshiped, enjoys bargains phrased carefully, and has started paying unusual attention to the buried bell.
+
+## Secrets
+
+- **Surface:** Several villagers have secretly started avoiding the bridge after dark because it shows them things they regret.
+- **Surface:** A handful of villagers have begun meeting at night to listen for the bell and share what they think it promises them.
+- **Hidden:** The bridge was built partly to pin the waking place in its sleep by tying its threshold to the village's daily traffic.
+- **Buried:** If the bridge fails or is profaned, Briarcross will stop functioning as an anchor and the Hollow Bell will wake much faster.
+
+## Connections
+
+- The bridge road leads toward [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+- Local fear centers on [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+- The village belongs to the larger region of [[worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss]]
+
+## DM Notes
+
+Use Briarcross for arguments, requests, rumors, and competing explanations. The village should feel split but not villainous: most people are scared, practical, and protecting something.
+
+The Listeners Below should feel understandable before they feel threatening. Their members are lonely, grieving, resentful of old rules, or genuinely convinced the village has mistaken imprisonment for safety.
+
+## Hooks
+
+- someone crossed the bridge at dusk and came back with a memory that is not theirs
+- Old Thread offers the party safe passage in exchange for a promise it will collect later
+- a removed bell clapper has gone missing from a villager's doorway
+- villagers begin painting green toll marks under their windows to signal sympathy with the waking

campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell.md

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+---
+type: location
+world: Eldar
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+---
+
+# The Hollow Bell
+
+> [!info] At a Glance
+> **Type:** Burial hill, barrow, and threshold-place
+> **First impression:** A broad grassy rise with standing stones on its crown and damp earth that smells of rain even in dry weather
+> **Mood:** Reverent, uneasy, magnetic
+
+## What You See
+
+The Hollow Bell rises from the marsh edge like a held breath. Paths around it are older than the village and worn deeper than they should be. At the crown stand five stones, each etched with toll marks whose grooves fill with green light after sunset.
+
+No bells are visible. Yet on certain nights, the sound comes from inside the hill: one deep note, patient and impossible to ignore.
+
+## The Surprise
+
+The hill is not merely a burial place. It is a **sealed conversation** - a threshold where a local power was once spoken into stillness instead of slain. Each toll of the buried bell loosens the terms of that bargain and allows the hill to exert more of its original shape on the region around it.
+
+## The Rule
+
+**No one may sleep on the hill in rain.**
+
+Those who do dream of an older landscape beneath Briarcross and wake walking toward whatever the hill wants them to see.
+
+## The Spirit or Being
+
+Within the hill stirs **the Sleeper Under Toll**, an ancient place-mind bound to crossing, return, and rightful passage. It is not evil. It is vast, half-waking, and increasingly confused by the village built atop the edges of its bargain.
+
+When it reaches outward, it does so through bells, dreams, moved paths, and misplaced memories.
+
+## Secrets
+
+- **Surface:** A hidden stone door exists under the western slope, but it only appears after the bell rings.
+- **Hidden:** The Sleeper was bound not because it was monstrous, but because two human communities wanted incompatible claims settled in their favor.
+- **Buried:** The old bargain required regular acknowledgment through tolls and offerings at the bridge. Briarcross has preserved the motions but forgotten the meaning.
+
+## Connections
+
+- Villagers from [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]] fear and depend on the hill in equal measure
+- The hill's dreams run out into [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+- Its older identity may reshape part of [[worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss]]
+
+## DM Notes
+
+The Hollow Bell should feel like the campaign's anchor mystery. It is powerful but not inaccessible. The interesting question is not "how do we kill it?" but "what kind of relationship can or should anyone have with a waking place?"
+
+## Hooks
+
+- the buried bell rings while the party is standing on the hill
+- a villager sleepwalks to the hidden western door
+- the hill offers one character a memory of a road that no longer exists

campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere.md

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+---
+type: location
+world: Eldar
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+---
+
+# The Hushmere
+
+> [!info] At a Glance
+> **Type:** Marsh and reedwater
+> **First impression:** Still black water, long grasses, low fog, and paths marked by bone-white stakes
+> **Mood:** Beautiful, disorienting, attentive
+
+## What You See
+
+The Hushmere is a spread of dark water and floating sedge broken by islets of firmer ground. The air smells of wet earth and pennyroyal. Sound carries oddly here. A laugh can travel for minutes. A whispered warning can stop a boat as surely as a pole in the mud.
+
+## The Surprise
+
+The reeds in the Hushmere **repeat important words** after they are spoken - but never immediately, and never in the same voice. At first this seems eerie. Then useful. Then dangerous, once the party realizes the marsh decides for itself what counts as important.
+
+## The Rule
+
+**Never speak a full name over open water.**
+
+Locals shorten, blur, or nickname each other on the marsh. The water keeps names it hears clearly and gives them back later to things that should not have them.
+
+## The Spirit or Being
+
+**Ysa of the Reeds** moves through the Hushmere as a woman-shaped drift of reeds, ferry rope, and silver fish scales. She tends crossings, listens for broken promises, and cares deeply about names used carelessly.
+
+Ysa does not want the waking place destroyed. She wants it understood, because she remembers what it was for before people became afraid of it.
+
+## Secrets
+
+- **Surface:** Smugglers once used the marsh, and some of their hidden paths still exist.
+- **Hidden:** The reeds have started repeating words spoken decades ago, not just recent ones.
+- **Buried:** Ysa helped put the waking place to sleep and has told no one that the old pact was meant to be temporary.
+
+## Connections
+
+- The marsh paths lead back toward [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+- The waters bend around the burial rise called [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+- Ysa knows things about the region of [[worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss]]
+
+## DM Notes
+
+The Hushmere is ideal for navigation scenes, overheard truths, and bargaining with Ysa. It should feel like a place that listens before it acts.
+
+## Hooks
+
+- the reeds repeat a dead person's warning in front of the party
+- a ferried passenger vanishes from the reflection before they vanish from the boat
+- Ysa offers guidance if the party returns a stolen name to the marsh

campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale.md

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+---
+type: npc
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+role: shrine keeper
+status: alive
+---
+
+# Brother Hale
+
+> [!info] Quick Reference
+> **Role:** Keeper of the roadside shrine
+> **Location:** [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+> **Public face:** Gentle, apologetic, scholarly in a small-town way
+
+## Appearance
+
+Thin, soft-voiced, and perpetually damp at the hem from the marsh paths. He keeps prayer ribbons tucked into his sleeves and smells faintly of lamp oil and rosemary.
+
+## Personality
+
+Hale listens longer than most people can stand. He is kind without being weak, and his caution often reads as indecision until the moment he finally chooses a side.
+
+## Goals & Motivations
+
+- Learn what the waking place truly is before anyone tries to destroy it
+- Preserve the oldest records and customs of the village
+- Keep the dead from becoming tools in the living's arguments
+
+## Connections
+
+- Shares uncomfortable fragments of old lore with [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield]]
+- Respects [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds]] more than he admits publicly
+- Believes [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/tam-rowan]] has been chosen for something
+
+## Secrets
+
+Hale found an older record suggesting the buried bell is not a warning, but an invitation to witness a judgment that was never completed. He has hidden this because he fears what the village would do with it.

campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield.md

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+---
+type: npc
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+role: village headwoman
+status: alive
+---
+
+# Mara Thornfield
+
+> [!info] Quick Reference
+> **Role:** Headwoman of Briarcross
+> **Location:** [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+> **Public face:** Practical, unsentimental, deeply tired
+
+## Appearance
+
+Broad-shouldered, mud-spattered, and always carrying a ring of keys she never lets anyone else touch. Her clothes are plain and durable, but she wears a silver ferry token on a cord at her throat.
+
+## Personality
+
+Mara is steady, guarded, and sharper than she first appears. She dislikes panic, hates performative courage, and trusts competence more than charm.
+
+## Goals & Motivations
+
+- Keep Briarcross intact through the current crisis
+- Restore the old customs strongly enough to quiet the bell
+- Prevent outsiders from turning the village into a story people tell elsewhere
+
+## Connections
+
+- Relies on [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale]] for ritual knowledge she does not admit believing in
+- Distrusts [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds]] even when Ysa is correct
+- Feels protective anger toward [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/tam-rowan]]
+
+## Secrets
+
+Mara's family has quietly maintained one part of the old bargain for generations: someone in her line must carry the bridge keys and keep the western hill path closed after the first bell. She has recently failed to do this twice.

campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/tam-rowan.md

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+---
+type: npc
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+role: ferryman's child
+status: alive
+---
+
+# Tam Rowan
+
+> [!info] Quick Reference
+> **Role:** Young villager touched by the waking place
+> **Location:** [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+> **Public face:** Restless, curious, trying not to be frightened
+
+## Appearance
+
+Lean, sharp-eyed, and usually carrying a pocketful of pebbles, rush knots, or stolen nails. Tam's boots are always muddy, even when they should not be.
+
+## Personality
+
+Tam is brave in the unhelpful way children sometimes are: drawn toward what adults keep trying to hide. They are quick to trust anyone who treats them seriously.
+
+## Goals & Motivations
+
+- Understand the dreams that keep leading them toward the hill
+- Prove they are not cursed
+- Find out why the buried bell gave them a key made of root and peat
+
+## Connections
+
+- Protected by [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield]]
+- Confides in [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale]]
+- Fascinated by [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds]]
+
+## Secrets
+
+Tam has already opened the hidden western door once in a dream and returned with a phrase they do not remember saying awake: "the road is waiting to be named again."

campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/the-listeners-below.md

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+---
+type: faction
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+status: rising
+---
+
+# The Listeners Below
+
+> [!info] Quick Reference
+> **Type:** Informal devotional faction
+> **Base:** [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+> **Public face:** A loose circle of villagers, ferrymen, laborers, mourners, and drifters who believe the buried bell is calling Briarcross to become something truer
+
+## What They Believe
+
+The Listeners Below are not united by doctrine so much as by mood and need.
+
+They believe:
+
+- the waking place is not an invader but the oldest truth of the region
+- Briarcross has grown small, fearful, and dishonest by clinging to rules no one understands
+- the buried bell is choosing who is willing to hear
+- change will hurt, but the hurt is part of becoming rightful again
+
+Some members speak in mystical terms. Others simply want the old order shaken hard enough to break.
+
+## Why They Are Growing
+
+The faction grows because it offers explanations and belonging.
+
+- grieving people hear the bell and think it offers reunion
+- frustrated locals see the old customs as burdens without benefits
+- those pushed to the edges of village life are flattered to be treated as chosen
+- the waking place produces real signs, which makes belief easy to feed
+
+## Methods
+
+- midnight gatherings to hear the bell and compare dreams
+- collecting removed bell clappers, toll marks, and scraps of forgotten ritual
+- quietly breaking customs to test which taboos still matter
+- recruiting through sympathy, not force
+- treating every strange event as confirmation
+
+## Current Shape
+
+The Listeners Below are still small enough to deny they are a faction at all. That makes them harder to confront.
+
+Most villagers think of them as:
+
+- grieving fools
+- dangerous romantics
+- useful scapegoats
+- or the only people asking whether the old bargain was just
+
+## Internal Tensions
+
+- some members want understanding and renewal
+- others want upheaval for its own sake
+- a few are less interested in the Sleeper than in the power vacuum a crisis creates
+
+This keeps the faction from feeling monolithic and gives the party room to split, sway, or infiltrate it.
+
+## Faces of the Faction
+
+- **Eda Vale**, the ferryman's widow, who says the bell lets her hear her husband apologizing
+- **Corin Ash**, a roadwarden's son who wants Briarcross free of inherited obligations
+- **Sister Wren**, a former shrine acolyte who believes the interrupted judgment beneath the hill must be completed
+
+## Relationship to the Main Conflict
+
+The Listeners Below add pressure to every approach:
+
+- **Containment:** they undermine the customs and expose anyone trying to restore them
+- **Understanding:** they help open doors that should stay closed, but may know things no one else admits
+- **Bargain:** they might become witnesses, sacrifices, negotiators, or spoilers depending on how the party treats them
+
+## Secrets
+
+- The Listeners Below did not start the waking, but they are accelerating it.
+- One of their early dream-rites worked well enough that the Sleeper now recognizes them as a channel.
+- If treated carefully, the faction can split between reformers and zealots instead of hardening into a single enemy block.

campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds.md

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+---
+type: npc
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+role: marsh spirit
+status: other
+---
+
+# Ysa of the Reeds
+
+> [!info] Quick Reference
+> **Role:** Spirit of crossings in the Hushmere
+> **Location:** [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+> **Public face:** Elusive, amused, older than any local custom
+
+## Appearance
+
+Ysa usually appears as a woman-shaped form made of reeds, ferry rope, and wet gleam, with a face that is never the same twice. Her voice often arrives from the wrong direction.
+
+## Personality
+
+Playful, exacting, and patient in the way marshes are patient. Ysa is easier to offend through carelessness than hostility.
+
+## Goals & Motivations
+
+- Ensure the waking place is treated as a relationship, not a monster
+- Recover names, promises, and offerings carelessly lost to the marsh
+- See whether the party can become trustworthy stewards of a threshold
+
+## Connections
+
+- Remembers making terms with what lies beneath [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+- Finds [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield]] too rigid and [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale]] too timid
+- Has quietly protected [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/tam-rowan]] from worse attention
+
+## Secrets
+
+Ysa helped design the old settlement bargain that put the Sleeper under toll. She now believes the agreement has expired, and that refusing to renegotiate it may be more dangerous than waking the hill fully.

campaigns/the-hollow-between/overview.md

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+---
+type: campaign
+world: "[[worlds/Eldar]]"
+system: D&D 5.5e
+status: active
+tone: intimate mystery, melancholy wonder, creeping unease
+---
+
+# The Hollow Between
+
+> [!info] At a Glance
+> **World:** [[worlds/Eldar]]
+> **Starting Region:** [[worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss]]
+> **Premise:** A buried place beneath the marsh-country around Briarcross is waking, and the party must decide whether to quiet it, understand it, or bargain with it before the region changes around it.
+> **Campaign Shape:** Simple central problem, complex local relationships
+
+## Premise
+
+The village of Briarcross sits beside old roads, reed-choked waters, and a hill no one claims to own. For generations, the locals have kept to a set of habits they no longer fully understand: no bells after dusk, no fires on the marsh road, no one sleeps on the hilltop during rain.
+
+Now those old habits are failing.
+
+At night, a bell sounds from under the earth. Paths through the marsh arrive in the wrong places. People wake with mud on their feet and no memory of leaving home. A few villagers insist the land is not cursed at all, only returning to what it used to be.
+
+The party arrives just as the village can no longer pretend this is a private problem. They are not here to save the world. They are here to deal with one waking place before its influence spreads beyond Briarcross and the marshlands around it.
+
+## The Throughline
+
+The story is easy to summarize:
+
+**Something under Briarcross is waking up, and the party must learn what it wants before the region is remade by its return.**
+
+Everything else branches from that:
+
+- locals who want the old rules restored
+- locals who want the waking place opened
+- a small rising faction that treats the waking as revelation rather than danger
+- spirits who remember older bargains
+- secrets about why the place was quiet in the first place
+- consequences that reshape the region if the party hesitates or chooses poorly
+
+## Party Role
+
+The party works best as **outsiders asked to act where the locals cannot**. They may be caravan guards stranded by the changing roads, travelers drawn by the bell, hired problem-solvers, or people with private reasons to answer a summons from Briarcross.
+
+What matters is that they are:
+
+- new enough to ask questions no one local will ask
+- useful enough that competing locals want their help
+- free enough to choose between containment, investigation, or bargain
+
+## Tone
+
+- **Local over epic** - the stakes start with one village, one marsh, one waking hollow
+- **Wonder with cost** - every useful answer creates a debt, a wound, or a difficult choice
+- **People first** - scenes should turn on trust, promises, resentment, fear, and hope
+- **Eldar at its best** - places have rules, spirits have opinions, old things are never entirely asleep
+
+## Starting Situation
+
+The campaign opens in Briarcross after three bad signs arrive almost at once:
+
+1. the buried bell rings three nights in a row
+2. a child returns from the marsh carrying a key made of root and peat
+3. the village ferryman swears the hill has moved closer to the water
+
+No one agrees on what these signs mean. Everyone agrees they are connected.
+
+## Player Characters
+
+- Add links here as characters are created
+- Consider ties to old debts, place-magic, missing family, or an unexplained pull toward the marsh
+
+## Active Quests
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/quests/the-waking-hollow]]
+
+## Core NPCs
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/tam-rowan]]
+
+## Rising Faction
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/the-listeners-below]]
+
+## Important Locations
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+
+## Session Log
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/sessions/session-01-the-first-toll]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/sessions/session-02-the-reeds-remember]]

campaigns/the-hollow-between/quests/the-waking-hollow.md

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+---
+type: quest
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+status: active
+---
+
+# The Waking Hollow
+
+> [!info] Core Goal
+> Learn what is waking beneath Briarcross and decide whether to contain it, understand it, or renegotiate the old bargain before the Lantern Moss is reshaped by its return.
+
+## What the Party Knows
+
+- A bell sounds from beneath [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+- The region's old customs appear connected to keeping the situation stable
+- The locals disagree on whether the waking place is a threat, an inheritance, or a wronged power
+
+## Main Questions
+
+1. What exactly is the Sleeper Under Toll?
+2. Why was it put to sleep?
+3. Which old customs still matter, and which are only echoes?
+4. Who benefits if the place wakes fully?
+5. What price will the party accept to resolve the crisis?
+
+## Moving Parts
+
+| Force | Wants |
+|---|---|
+| Mara Thornfield | Restore order and stop the waking by reasserting the old rules |
+| Brother Hale | Uncover the truth before anyone acts rashly |
+| Ysa of the Reeds | Renew the relationship rather than repeat a fearful old solution |
+| The Listeners Below | Encourage the waking, recruit the disillusioned, and turn every sign into proof that Briarcross must yield |
+| The Sleeper Under Toll | To be acknowledged correctly and allowed to finish what was interrupted |
+
+## Likely Approaches
+
+### Containment
+
+Reconstruct the forgotten parts of the old bargain, reinforce the bridge, and keep the hill closed.
+
+**Cost:** the region stays stable, but old obligations become binding again.
+
+### Understanding
+
+Open the western door, learn the history, and discover what judgment or crossing was interrupted.
+
+**Cost:** the party accelerates the waking and must manage the fallout.
+
+### Bargain
+
+Negotiate directly with the waking place and its spirits to create a new agreement for Briarcross.
+
+**Cost:** someone must promise something lasting, personal, and difficult to take back.
+
+## Escalation Clock
+
+### Stage 1 - Uneasy Signs
+
+- bells in the earth
+- drifting roads
+- dreamwalking
+
+### Stage 2 - Breached Customs
+
+- bridges misroute travelers
+- names go missing in the marsh
+- villagers repeat words they never said
+- the Listeners Below start sabotaging protective customs and calling it liberation
+
+### Stage 3 - The Region Remembers
+
+- old paths overwrite new ones
+- houses and graves appear where they used to be centuries ago
+- the village must choose whether it still wants to exist in its current form
+- open support for the waking place splits Briarcross into fearful loyalists, opportunists, and true believers
+
+## Rewards
+
+- trust and leverage with Briarcross
+- access to place-based magic, favors, or boons
+- secrets about Eldar's older rules of crossing and settlement
+
+## Session Seeds
+
+- escort Tam after another sleepwalking incident and decide whether to follow or stop them
+- investigate why the bridge has started showing people places tied to unkept promises
+- bargain with Ysa for safe marsh passage in exchange for recovering a stolen name
+- witness the buried bell ring from inside the hill and choose whether to open the western door
+- discover who has been collecting removed bell clappers and using them in secret midnight rites

campaigns/the-hollow-between/sessions/session-01-the-first-toll.md

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+---
+type: session
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+session: 1
+---
+
+# Session 01 - The First Toll
+
+## Opening
+
+Bring the party into Briarcross as the village is already tense from three nights of bell sounds. Introduce the bridge, the removed bell clappers on doorframes, and the sense that everyone is following rules they cannot quite explain.
+
+## Core Scenes
+
+1. Arrival and first impressions in [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+2. Meeting [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/mara-thornfield]] and [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/brother-hale]]
+3. Tam returns from the marsh carrying the root-and-peat key
+4. First trip toward [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]] or [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+5. End on the buried bell ringing while the party is close enough to feel it
+6. Seed the existence of [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/the-listeners-below]] through rumor, a painted toll mark, or a villager defending the waking openly
+
+## Questions to Put on the Table
+
+- Who is lying about what they know?
+- Why do the old rules focus on thresholds, bells, and names?
+- What does the key open?
+
+## Good Outcomes
+
+- The party earns enough trust to keep investigating
+- They pick a first ally, even provisionally
+- They leave the session with a clear desire to learn more rather than simply attack the problem

campaigns/the-hollow-between/sessions/session-02-the-reeds-remember.md

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+---
+type: session
+campaign: The Hollow Between
+session: 2
+---
+
+# Session 02 - The Reeds Remember
+
+## Opening
+
+Start with consequences from the first toll: restless dreams, marsh echoes, or a villager arriving with a misplaced memory. Move the party into the Hushmere so they feel Eldar's place-magic directly.
+
+## Core Scenes
+
+1. Travel through [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+2. First meaningful encounter with [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/ysa-of-the-reeds]]
+3. The reeds repeat a warning from someone long dead
+4. Discovery of evidence that the old bargain was incomplete or temporary
+5. Evidence that [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/npcs/the-listeners-below]] have started using dream-rites or stolen bell clappers
+6. End with a choice: report everything to Briarcross, hide part of it, or go straight to the western door
+
+## Questions to Put on the Table
+
+- Is the waking place dangerous because of what it is, or because of what people did to it?
+- Which old customs are protective, and which are acts of fear?
+- What price would the party pay for a direct answer?
+
+## Good Outcomes
+
+- The party learns Ysa is not an enemy
+- They gain one concrete lead toward the western door
+- Tension grows between investigation, containment, and bargain as possible approaches

worlds/eldar/geography/the-lantern-moss.md

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+---
+type: region
+world: Eldar
+---
+
+# The Lantern Moss
+
+> [!info] At a Glance
+> **Type:** Marsh-country, low ridges, half-drowned roadways
+> **Mood:** Hushed, watchful, luminous at the edges
+> **Known for:** A web of old toll roads and reedwaters where light gathers in the moss after sunset
+
+## The Lay of the Land
+
+The Lantern Moss lies where raised roads, reed-marsh, and low burial hills meet. Travelers remember it for the strange green glow that blooms across wet stone at dusk, painting mile markers, roots, and ferry posts in soft fire.
+
+It is not an easy region, but it is not a cruel one either. The land gives warnings before it gives punishment. The trouble is that outsiders rarely know how to read them.
+
+## What Makes This Region Different
+
+Magic here gathers around **passage, memory, and permission**.
+
+- roads remember who used them and sometimes where they were meant to go
+- marsh water reflects things that are nearby in story, not necessarily distance
+- bells, tolls, and crossings matter more than they should
+- promises made at thresholds carry unusual weight
+
+The Lantern Moss feels like a place built around crossings between states: road and water, village and wild, sleep and waking, old bargain and broken custom.
+
+## Locations
+
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/briarcross]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hushmere]]
+- [[campaigns/the-hollow-between/locations/the-hollow-bell]]
+
+## Local Spirits & Beings
+
+- **Ysa of the Reeds** watches crossings and remembers those who pass honestly
+- lights in the moss gather where something forgotten wants to be found
+- something beneath the Hollow Bell has begun listening again
+
+## Customs & Warnings
+
+- Never ring a handbell after dusk unless you mean to call something
+- Thank the road aloud when it brings you home safely
+- If the moss lights your doorstep in a circle, do not leave the house until dawn
+- No one in Briarcross refuses ferry fare paid in old silver, though few remember why
+
+## Connections to Other Regions
+
+The Lantern Moss borders higher pasture and older stone-country to the north, but the marsh roads shift enough that locals speak of these borders as agreements rather than fixed lines.
+
+## Hooks
+
+- a hill in the region has started ringing from under the earth
+- travelers arrive with memories that belong to people they have never met
+- the ferries keep finding extra passengers in reflected water
+- someone has begun breaking old crossing customs on purpose