A drowned golden crown-arch rising from a black sea at dusk
A hardcover dark fantasy tome on a stone altar with dice and candles
An antlered ghostly Saint-King wading through the surf

GRAVEWAKE

Header hook

Chapter one

There was a crown, once. Now there is a tide.

Seven kings built the Arch of Gold across the mouth of the Reach, and the sea was kind to them for a hundred years. Then the arch broke, and the sea took the crown, the cathedral, the harbour and the names of the people inside it.

The kings did not stay drowned. Every night at low tide the bells of the sunken cathedral ring, one for each king, and the villages along the shore light their lanterns and do not look at the water.

Gravewake is a place to run that story: salt, rust, candle wax and old promises. It gives you a coast, a cast and a clock. What your players do about the bells is the game.

  • Written for 5e and OSR, with the dread rules usable in any system
  • Hex-crawl, faction play and a bell-driven doomsday clock
  • Every location has a rumour, a threat and a secret
The Drowned Reach coast at night with a chain of beacon fires
The Drowned Reach. Beacon fires burn from Saint Orrin's Quay to the Hollow Chapel.
Hooded lantern-bearers cross a flooded causeway

"Do not count the bells. The counting is how they find you."

Proverb of the lantern-keepers

What is in the book

Six parts. One coast. No filler.

Gravewake book cover: a lone knight beneath a sunken golden arch

640 pages. Sewn hardcover. Ribbon and gold foil unlock as we grow.

An interior spread of the book with a painted ruined tower

Made for the table

Pages you can run from, at a glance.

Every spread has one job. Stat blocks sit beside the art that sells them, rumours live in a margin you can skim, and no encounter needs a page flip mid-fight.

Layout is finished in rounds as the painters hand over, and the page you see here is built to take each round without being redone.

The Bestiary

Ninety things that were people once.

Watch the Reach breathe

Three small loops for the campaign page and the ads.

Candle flicker, a sweeping beacon and a turning seal. Each one runs on a four second loop and is ready to export as a GIF or WebM.

A candlelit crypt
Loop 01 The Crypt of Candles
A lighthouse on a black rock in a storm
Loop 02 The Beacon at Candlemere
Loop 03 The Seal of the Reach
Hand drawn map of the Drowned Reach

Tap a pin to read the rumour.

In the box

Heavy things for a heavy table.

Dice, coins, a rusted key and a wax sealed letter on a dark table

Backers at the Gravewarden tier and up get the dice, the deck and the screen. All of it ships in a single box with a moulded tray.

Choose your pledge

Six ways into the Reach.

Add-ons

Build the box you want.

Add anything to any hardcover pledge. Your total updates as you go.

Stretch goals

Every seal we break goes to every backer.

Who is behind the bells

Candlemere Press

Three funded campaigns, 9,880 backers and one very damp office.

Questions

Frequently asked, rarely answered.

Risks and challenges

Light a lantern. Join the Reach.

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