My Codex of Dreams D&D campaign, loosely based on Clair Obscur, is coming together.

This is art for a few of the Eridex creatures that hunt the remaining humanoids in the world. Fewer than one hundred thousand souls remain.

The year is 1881 DR. The rest of Faerûn is gone, torn apart by a cataclysm that shattered the land into drifting, impossible ruin. Now, only Cormyr remains, a ruined kingdom barely recognizable from its former glory. Unscathed, in what used to be the Sea of Fallen Stars, lies the miraculous island of Greyhaven, a home sheltering the last survivors. On the day the Shattering occurred, most of Suzail and several surrounding towns and villages were flung south onto this new island, capable of supporting its people, surrounded by a divine shield that no Eridex can cross.

To the north lies shattered Cormyr. To the east, south, and west, the horizon is nothing but storm, ruin, and the impossible. Continent-sized fragments of earth and stone float in the sky, while fangs of iron stretch from the seabed to the clouds. Many magics that once worked no longer do, and hope for the future hangs by a thread.

At the center of the old, broken kingdom stands a white pinnacle, the spire of the Palace of Heart's Desire, a mockery of a name belonging to the archfey Zybilna. History records her arriving in Cormyr nearly five centuries ago, living as a ruler among the people. Nobody knows why, seventy-five years ago, she shattered the world, why her Eridex monsters hunt the survivors, or why she demands a yearly sacrifice.

Each year, a mysterious decree called the Tithe of Names is delivered to the Royal Palace in Greyhaven. On it is a number, the required souls to ensure the island’s protection from the countless Eridex swarming the mainland. If the quota is not met, the divine shield falters, and within months the Eridex pour in from the sea, killing until the tally is paid and the shield is restored. After the list is delivered, one year is given before the tithe must be collected, and any who die on Greyhaven before that day winnow all the same, their names added to the list. Being low on the list is considered luck, since if you die unexpectedly, your place may spare another.

On the day of the winnowing, all those whose names are on the list simply dissolve and blow away. Some collapse into flowers, others into twigs or clouds of fireflies, but most often, they scatter as autumn leaves.

The tithe grows larger each year. At first, the wealthy could buy their way out of the lottery, but after a populist uprising ten years after the Shattering, the system became equal and meritocratic. Each year after your 25th birthday (and shrinking every year) earns you a token, another for every year after that. After 35, you receive two tokens per year, after 45, three per year. The annual lottery draws from these tokens. Certain people, priests, wizards, trainers, educators, researchers, the royal family are exempt, but by and large, Greyhaven’s population is shrinking at a terrifying rate. In two years, childbirth will be banned, and a stockpile of contraceptive potions is already being prepared. In seventeen years, the tithe will claim more names than there are people left.

Every five years, the Crusader’s Legion launches a Crusade, desperate to understand, test, and breach the defenses of Zybilna’s warded palace and end her reign. Every attempt fails, and fewer than one in five crusaders return. Each Crusade hopes to make progress, to find a hidden place for a forward operating base, to inscribe a teleportation circle, to discover a secret, bring back a cache of magical items, anything.

The players are part of the 13th Crusade, the third-to-last effort to defeat Zybilna. The 16th Crusade will be the last, a final, all-or-nothing gamble that will send every living soul in Greyhaven against the Palace.

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If you've played expedition 33 all the way through you already know whats up