Cycle 5 rides the handoff from the Glass Quill. The party finishes the citadel with the cartographers' last survey in their hands, and the survey is no longer accurate: it points one portal further west, into a place the surveyors kept sealed because the maps they drew there kept drawing back. We are opening that seal in the next kit. The Sanctum is in the print room. The figures are being primed. This is the structural preview.
Encounter outline — three acts
The three-act spine below mirrors the skeleton in the research report and is what the session guides will lay on top of.
Act I — The Western Gallery
- The party crosses the citadel's surviving western gallery, the only threshold the cartographers' ward still recognises. Final-session carryover from Cycle 4 — the passphrase the party negotiated with Sister Halen Vra opens the gate.
- The gate reads a name the party chose in the previous kit (Deed, Word, or Silence — your Cycle 4 choice is honored). The Sanctum sizes the party by what they committed, not by what they carried.
- First contact on the Sanctum's threshold: Magistrate Olwen Brass's advance scout, a celestial surveyor tracking the Sanctum from above the Astral Sea and willing to brief the party for a surveyor's fee.
Act II — Inside the Sanctum
- The Sanctum is a planar pocket-dimension the size of a city block. Hallways bend back on themselves when the surveyors' final survey is in the party's hands — the geometry shifts to lead toward the unfinished maps.
- The Cartographer is still drawing. Apprentice cartographer Vex the Half-Drawn has been shaving ink on the Sanctum's eastern wall for three weeks and has not slept. Hostile on first contact, brilliant on inspection.
- Mid-tier adversary: The Unfinished — creatures shaped like half-drawn regions (CR 9 pack encounters on the Sanctum's middle floors). They hurt by removing pieces of the map of you that you were carrying. Bring backup spell slots.
Act III — The Last Map
- The Sanctum's buried center holds a single unfinished map — the one the cartographers refused to finish. The map is the campaign's closing artifact. It decides the closer.
- Climactic confrontation with the Cartographer, who speaks only through the maps. The party can finish the map, refuse to finish the map, or carry the unfinished map out and start a faction war at home. The closer is choice, not combat.
- Aftermath callbacks: Captain Venera Tass has been running a parallel expedition this whole time; the kit ships a side-quest variant in which she is the closer.
NPC roster
The Sanctum's named characters. Stats and full write-ups land in the module book; what follows is who they are and the role they play.
- Sister Halen Vra — returning from Cycle 4. Cartographer-priestess who stayed behind in the citadel. She knows the way into the Sanctum and warns the party in writing on the gate-lintel — she will not enter herself.
- Magister Olwen Brass — celestial surveyor tracking the Sanctum from above. Offers direction at a price: the party's final survey, inked in celestial vellum, bound and signed. Not hostile, not cheap.
- Vex the Half-Drawn — apprentice cartographer, still scraping at the eastern wall. Has not slept. Brilliant; brittle; prepared to fight anyone who lifts the wall-quill from his hand.
- The Cartographer — not yet met in person. Speaks only through the maps and through the geometry of the Sanctum itself. The closer; not fought in the conventional sense.
- Captain Venera Tass — returning from Cycle 4. Skilled, professional, and competing for the same Sanctum artifact the party is here for. Switches between ally and rival depending on the party's negotiation in Cycle 4.
Loot table highlights
The Sanctum's treasure table is large; this is the curated short list of the items the research report flagged for the preview.
- The Glass Quill (returning, unbound) — granted to one party member at the Sanctum's threshold. Writing on it now produces shifting maps in real time. Writing it produces *back*.
- Cartographer's Lens — single-use artifact. Reveals the true names of planar creatures for one hour; speaks them aloud in the language of the surveyors. Required for the Act II social solve and optional for the Act III approach to the closer.
- Sunken Surveyor's Compass — always points toward the closest unfinished map fragment on the Astral Sea. Used in sequel kits; carriers' parties get a Cycle 6 hook letter at launch.
- Crystalline Ink Vial (×3) — consumable. Writing made with it cannot be erased by magic. The party will want one for the campaign closer; the second is a Cycle 5 sale hook; the third is the table's favorite.
- The Last Map Fragment — the Sanctum's buried center. Plot artifact. Decides the campaign closer. Not for sale and not for trade — this is the closing item of the Cycle 5 storyline.
Miniatures line-up
Every FableBox kit ships five hand-painted Reaper Bones USA miniatures. Cycle 5 ships six — the Sanctum's roster is broader than the prior kits needed:
- Fighter (returning figure from prior kits) — repurposed here as the cartographer-priestess's guard. Tabard repainted with the Sanctum's ward-ochre sash.
- Wizard (returning) — in this kit, the party's wizard is the one who finishes the closer map. Robes are re-trimmed in celestial vellum.
- Rogue (returning) — works the Sanctum's wall-quills for Arcana checks in lieu of picking locks. Hood soft, daggers bright.
- Magister Olwen Brass (new figure type) — celestial surveyor in long coat, brass sextant on a leather strap. Single pose, single figure.
- The Cartographer (new figure type) — kneeling pose, hand resting on a half-finished floor map. The closer's stand-in for table-runners who want a visual anchor.
- The Unfinished pair (new figure type) — pack of two. Half-drawn creatures, blank canvas left visible, faint magenta ink wash. Can drop into any Act II encounter as half-region environmental threats.
Notify me when Cycle 5 ships
Cycle 5 is in the print room. Stock will run through the waitlist before it touches general retail — same cadence as Cycle 3 and Cycle 4. Drop your email on the waitlist page and we will email you the moment pre-orders open.
