The adventure ahead
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The Hollow Spire, an ancient tower that once pierced the clouds, collapsed centuries ago and sank into the earth, its hundred floors inverting into a hundred dungeon levels. Now cultists of the Veiled Hand have begun excavating the spire's depths, searching for something buried at its bottom. The party must descend level by level, solving the spire's shifting puzzles, disarming its traps, and battling the cult's servants to learn what the Veiled Hand seeks—and to stop it from ever reaching the surface.
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You are adventurers hired—or drawn by rumor—to investigate the Hollow Spire, the sunken ruin near the trade town of Ashford Bridge. Caravans have vanished. Excavators wearing gray veils have sealed the crater, and refugees whisper that the dead are walking the tower's upper halls. A scholar named Master Ellin Vray has offered 200 gold pieces to anyone who can recover her stolen journal from the spire's uppermost level and report what the veiled diggers are unearthing.
The deeper you climb down, the stranger the spire becomes: rooms that rearrange, star-maps on rotating floors, and water-filled passages that shouldn't exist. Something at the bottom is calling to the cultists. Something old. Something that whispers.
Behind the screen
This free preview contains Act I of Depths of the Hollow Spire, a multi-level dungeon crawler built around exploration, puzzle-solving, and escalating encounters. The party begins at the spire's broken crown and descends through its first three dungeon levels: the Collapsed Archive, the Hall of Turning Stars, and the Drowned Cistern. Each level mixes combat, environmental puzzles, and clue-gathering. The act's antagonist is Vashen Krole, a charismatic excavation leader of the Veiled Hand, who appears in person only at the act's climax.
Vashen is not the true power behind the cult—he serves a hidden master called the Whisper Below, whose name the players learn only as a rumor in Act I, setting them on the path toward the campaign's true villain. DM secrets: the spire's puzzles were built by its architect to test 'those who would descend,' and the cult believes the Whisper Below sleeps at the spire's deepest level. Vashen's orders are to breach the lower seals before rivals arrive; he is confident, theatrical, and flees rather than dies if pressed. Completing Act I should bring the party to level 3 and give them a map fragment pointing to the sealed Fourth Level and the name of the Whisper Below.
Hook 01
Master Ellin Vray, a historian in Ashford Bridge, publicly offers 200 gold pieces for the recovery of her stolen journal from the spire's uppermost level—and for any truthful report of what the veiled excavators are digging for. This is the hook that pulls cautious parties through the crater's sealed rim.
Hook 02
Three trade caravans have disappeared on the Ashford road in the past month. The last survivor babbled of gray-veiled figures and walking dead before falling silent—permanently. Merchants and grieving families beg capable swords to investigate the crater.
The party enters the Hollow Spire through its collapsed crown, recovers Master Ellin Vray's stolen journal from the ruined Archive, navigates the rotating puzzle-floors of the Hall of Turning Stars, and confronts the cult's excavation leader, Vashen Krole, at the flooded Cistern stair—learning the first whispered hints of the being called the Whisper Below.
Read aloud
The Hollow Spire rises from the crater like a broken tooth—except the tooth points down. Its shattered crown lies half-buried in rubble, and a wide crack in the stone breathes cold air scented with dust and old parchment. Below the rim, torchlight flickers where no torchlight should be. Somewhere beneath your feet, stone grinds against stone, slow and rhythmic, like a giant turning over in its sleep.
This scene introduces the dungeon's atmosphere and the cult's presence. The party descends a rubble slope into the Collapsed Archive: a library floor crushed on one side, shelves toppled, pages drifting on an updraft. Two Gray Veil cultists (use Cultist stat blocks) and 4 Skeletons are ransacking the shelves under a veiled overseer who is not Vashen—this is a lieutenant, and he flees down the stair if reduced below half his followers' numbers.
The cultists carry Master Ellin Vray's journal in a locked iron scroll case (DC 13 Investigation to find it in the wreckage if the party doesn't take it from the cultists). The journal, written in Common, records Ellin's research: the spire's architect built each level as a test, and the star-map on the second level 'turns the way the architect's riddle tells it.' A marginal note reads: 'The veiled ones keep speaking of the Whisper Below. They bow to it. To what do you bow, diggers?'
Read aloud
The stair opens onto a chamber the width of a courtyard. The entire floor is a mosaic of night sky: constellations inlaid in silver and obsidian, ringed by carved archways. As you watch, the floor shudders and rotates a quarter-turn with a groan of ancient gears, and the archways slide to new positions. In the ceiling above, a second star-map glows faintly—except three of its constellations are dark, as if their stars were stolen.
This is the act's centerpiece puzzle. The floor rotates a quarter-turn every 10 minutes (or whenever a lever in the center is pulled). Four archways lead to: (1) the entry stair, (2) a dead-end alcove with 2 Giant Rats nesting, (3) a flooded passage that is a shortcut to Scene 3 but requires swimming (Athletics DC 12, or the party can drain it via a valve wheel, Strength DC 13), and (4) the descent shaft, sealed by a stone door with three empty constellation-shaped sockets.
The puzzle: the ceiling's three dark constellations must be 'returned.' Three mosaic star-tiles lie hidden around the level—one in the rat alcove, one beneath the flooded passage's waterline, one held by a Gray Veil cultist patrol (2 Cultists and 1 Cult Fanatic) camped in a side gallery. When all three tiles are placed in the sockets, the descent door opens and the floor stops rotating. The astrolabe from Scene 1 lets the party identify which constellations are missing (Advantage on the relevant Investigation checks).
If players are stuck, the lever room walls bear the architect's riddle: 'The sky is whole only when the earth holds its pieces. Take from the dark, the deep, and the faithful.'
Read aloud
Water drips from vaulted shadows into a cistern wide as a lake's heart. Broken columns rise from the black water like drowned trees, and a stone causeway runs to the far end, where a colossal stair spirals down beneath a sealed door of fused bronze. Before it stands a man in gray silk, veil pushed back from a smiling face, hands spread in welcome. 'Descenders,' he calls, voice echoing off the water. 'So the spire chose to test someone new. I am Vashen Krole. How wonderful—I was beginning to think only the faithful would answer.'
Climax of Act I. Vashen Krole is the central villain of this act—a confident, theatrical excavation leader who fights with a rapier and commands his crew. Do NOT use a monster stat block for Vashen; run him with his forthcoming character sheet: he is a skilled duelist who fights defensively, uses the cistern's terrain (fighting from columns, forcing the party onto the narrow causeway), and prioritizes escape. His forces: 4 Cultists on the causeway flanks and 2 Skeletons wading in the shallows, plus 1 Cult Fanatic chanting from a column top.
Vashen's goal is not to kill the party but to delay them while his sappers finish breaching the seal; if reduced to half hit points or if his fanatics fall, he grabs the map fragment, delivers a parting monologue, and escapes down the stair (or through a hidden water passage if the seal is broken). Tactics: he duels the party's front-liner, disengages across columns, and lets the terrain and minions do the work.
If captured or cornered, Vashen bargains: he reveals that the Veiled Hand serves 'the Whisper Below,' a voice that speaks through the deep stone, and that his master 'is not the whisperer—merely the first to listen.' He does not know its true nature. The sealed stair's bronze door is fused shut (Strength DC 18 or appropriate magic to force); Vashen's sappers have cracked one corner, and the party can widen it with an hour of work.
Behind the door, the party finds the rest of the map fragment (if Vashen escaped with his half, it is dropped or left in his camp) showing Levels 4 through 7 of the spire and a route downward.
Milestone: The party reaches 3rd level upon breaching the sealed stair to the Fourth Level, having recovered the journal, solved the Hall of Turning Stars, and confronted Vashen Krole—learning the first true hints of the Whisper Below and the Veiled Hand's hidden hierarchy.
Vashen Krole
Vashen Krole is the Veiled Hand's excavation leader at the Hollow Spire—a lean, gray-silked duelist who treats the dungeon like a stage and…
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
Subscribe NowFree campaign encounters use official monster sheets, plus the campaign villain character when referenced. They do not include generated custom monster sheets. Subscribe to create custom campaign monsters and enemy stat blocks.
Subscribe NowVashen leads the Veiled Hand's excavation of the Hollow Spire under orders from a hidden master he knows only as a voice in the deep stone. He believes breaching the lower seals before rival forces arrive will earn him the Whisper Below's favor—and, secretly, he hopes to learn his master's true identity and one day supplant it.
Confident, theatrical, and unfailingly courteous even mid-duel. Vashen treats combat as performance and the party as worthy rivals in the spire's 'test.' He is pragmatic above all: he flees rather than dies, bargains rather than breaks, and never fights for pride when escape is available.
Vashen opens with courtesy and misdirection, letting cultists and skeletons absorb the party's first assault while he duels the front-liner from the columns. He uses the causeway's narrowness to split the party, disengages across broken columns, and retreats to the bronze door to buy time for his sappers. At half hit points or when his minions fall, he grabs the map fragment, delivers a parting monologue, and escapes down the stair or through a hidden water passage. If cornered, he bargains with information about the Whisper Below rather than his life's blood.
Vashen is not meant to die in Act I. If defeated, he is captured or left for dead and escapes off-screen to become a recurring antagonist. If the party earns his respect, he can become a reluctant informant—he despises serving a master he has never seen and could eventually be turned against the Veiled Hand.
Recommended party: 4-5 players; balanced party with at least one character capable of healing, one with good Investigation or Perception, and one with arcane or divine spellcasting for puzzle hints.
Cover the campaign's tone: dungeon-crawling exploration with rotating puzzle floors, environmental hazards, and a mystery unfolding level by level. Establish that the Hollow Spire is dangerous but fair—its tests reward clever play. Remind players that fleeing, bargaining, and puzzle-solving are all valid victories; not every enemy needs to die.
For parties of 4 at level 1, run the Archive fight with 2 Skeletons instead of 4. For 5-player parties, keep full rosters and add 1 Skeleton to the Cistern fight. The Hall of Turning Stars puzzle can be simplified by letting the astrolabe point directly to each star-tile's hiding place.
Pacing: run Scene 1 as a combat-forward opener, Scene 2 as a puzzle session with one skirmish, and Scene 3 as the climactic duel. Track whether the lieutenant escaped Scene 1 and whether the party used the flooded shortcut—both determine how prepared Vashen is in Scene 3. End Act I on the sealed stair cracking open and the distant breath from below, a strong hook into the next act.
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Vashen Krole
Vashen Krole is the Veiled Hand's excavation leader at the Hollow Spire—a lean, gray-silked duelist who treats the dungeon like a stage and…
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
Subscribe NowFree campaign encounters use official monster sheets, plus the campaign villain character when referenced. They do not include generated custom monster sheets. Subscribe to create custom campaign monsters and enemy stat blocks.
Subscribe NowVashen leads the Veiled Hand's excavation of the Hollow Spire under orders from a hidden master he knows only as a voice in the deep stone. He believes breaching the lower seals before rival forces arrive will earn him the Whisper Below's favor—and, secretly, he hopes to learn his master's true identity and one day supplant it.
Confident, theatrical, and unfailingly courteous even mid-duel. Vashen treats combat as performance and the party as worthy rivals in the spire's 'test.' He is pragmatic above all: he flees rather than dies, bargains rather than breaks, and never fights for pride when escape is available.
Vashen opens with courtesy and misdirection, letting cultists and skeletons absorb the party's first assault while he duels the front-liner from the columns. He uses the causeway's narrowness to split the party, disengages across broken columns, and retreats to the bronze door to buy time for his sappers. At half hit points or when his minions fall, he grabs the map fragment, delivers a parting monologue, and escapes down the stair or through a hidden water passage. If cornered, he bargains with information about the Whisper Below rather than his life's blood.
Vashen is not meant to die in Act I. If defeated, he is captured or left for dead and escapes off-screen to become a recurring antagonist. If the party earns his respect, he can become a reluctant informant—he despises serving a master he has never seen and could eventually be turned against the Veiled Hand.
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Suggested Level: 2
Rotating mosaic floor that shifts a quarter-turn every 10 minutes, realigning the archways mid-fight.
The third mosaic star-tile; a scrap of the map fragment; the fanatic's mutterings reveal the Whisper Below is a real entity.
Insight DC 12 while listening to the fanatic's prayer reveals the cult's master is a genuine being that dreams beneath the roots of the world.
Suggested Level: 1-2
Toppled shelves, drifting pages, rubble slope with a hidden tripwire (Perception DC 13; rockfall deals 1d6 bludgeoning on a failed DC 12 Dexterity save).
Master Ellin Vray's journal in a locked iron scroll case; the bronze astrolabe (Investigation DC 12).
The lieutenant flees down the stair if his followers fall below half strength, warning Vashen Krole in Scene 3.
Suggested Level: 3
Narrow slick causeway; broken columns (Acrobatics DC 12 to cross, failure drops into 5-foot-deep cold black water, Athletics DC 11 to climb out); fused bronze sealed stair.
Vashen's half of the map fragment showing Levels 4-7; the expedition ledger; a letter signed with a black hand ordering him to 'open the roots before the others arrive.'
Vashen fights defensively from the columns, delays rather than kills, and flees at half hit points or when his minions fall. If cornered, he bargains (Persuasion or Intimidation DC 15), revealing the Whisper Below and that his master is 'not the whisperer—merely the first to listen.'
Bronze Astrolabe of the Turning Sky
Completed
Hidden among the Collapsed Archive's shelves (Investigation DC 12), Scene 1.
No
Veil of the Gray Hand
Completed
Dropped by the fleeing lieutenant in Scene 1, or taken from any defeated cultist.
No
Potion of the Drowned Breath
Completed
Beneath the waterline of the flooded passage in Scene 2, near the valve wheel.
No
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