The sun has vanished, a black bell is ringing under the market, and your players are due in twenty minutes. Excellent. We finally have enough pressure to organize a campaign properly.

This is the first quest in a four-part series. We are going to build and run Bells Beneath Blackglass, a complete Shadowdark campaign for four 1st-level characters. It includes a home base, factions, lore, NPCs, monsters, a custom calendar, random tables, campaign pressure, four prepared sessions, four encounters, a final choice, and exactly one hungry bell with teeth.

You can follow the tutorial and build it yourself, or download the complete Moonvault vault, unzip it, and choose Open vault in Moonvault.

The finished campaign contains:

  • The Hollow Sun, a world trapped in supernatural twilight.
  • Bells Beneath Blackglass, a four-session Shadowdark campaign.
  • The Dawnless Company, four playable pregenerated characters.
  • 6 locations, 5 NPCs, 2 factions, 6 monsters, 4 encounters, 4 sessions, 4 lore pages, 3 items, 2 random tables, 2 compatibility Campaign State pages, a custom calendar, events, reusable blocks, and an original region map.

That sounds large. The trick is not writing everything at once. We will build one useful layer at a time and let Moonvault connect the pieces.

Quest 1: Create a campaign-only vault

Choose Create vault, select a durable folder that you already back up, and name the vault Build a Fully Playable Shadowdark Campaign in Moonvault. Do not build your real campaign in a temporary or Downloads folder just because our demonstration vault lives somewhere disposable.

A Moonvault vault is an ordinary folder of Markdown files and local assets. Moonvault creates the initial folders for you; your normal backup or sync tool can protect the whole vault. This dedicated vault matters for two reasons: screenshots stay free of private campaign material, and every page we create belongs to the same teachable scenario. No mysterious test goblins wander into the article.

Choose Create more → World and create The Hollow Sun. Give it three truths and one campaign frame:

The buried Hollow Sun is not a star; it is a hungry prison. The Lantern Abbey keeps nine bellmetal seals. The Midnight Concord believes the darkness will crown a new saint.

Then add the route: Gloammarket → Blackglass Causeway → Ossuary of Nine Doors → Sunken Bell Foundry → Hollow Sun Vault.

This is enough worldbuilding to begin. Every truth creates a decision, and every location points toward play.

Moonvault world page for The Hollow Sun with linked factions, NPCs, and campaign locations
The world page holds a short premise and links to the campaign pieces that make it playable. Open the full-size view.

Quest 2: Give the danger a campaign

Open Create more → Campaign, enter Bells Beneath Blackglass, and choose Shadowdark as the system.

Moonvault creates the campaign and its party together. Choosing the system now means PCs and monsters can use structured Shadowdark sheets later, while encounters know which combat labels to display.

Write one campaign question:

What will the party sacrifice to bring back the dawn?

Then outline four sessions in one sentence each:

  1. The Bell That Rang Below: save Gloammarket and recover a stolen pilgrim map.
  2. Nine Doors, One Breath: cross the blackglass bridge and steal a key from the dead.
  3. The Foundry Without Fire: bargain with a rival and wake the Bell Maw.
  4. A Dawn Worth Paying For: stop the ninth toll and choose the price of sunrise.

This is not a railroad. It is a promise of escalating places and decisions. The players are still perfectly free to adopt the Bell Maw. Players enjoy finding loopholes in nouns.

Bells Beneath Blackglass campaign page showing its four-session adventure path and campaign workflow
The campaign page connects the premise, adventure path, prep checklist, and current campaign context. Open the full-size view.

Quest 3: Build the map as a navigation tool

Use Create more → Map and create The Hollow Sun Crater. Choose the world and campaign, add a region map, then open Map Room.

The tutorial vault includes an original label-free map. Its western market, northern abbey, eastern ossuary, southern foundry, central causeway, and star-pit are visually distinct, which leaves room for Moonvault pins to do the naming.

Add these pins:

  • Gloammarket — visible to Players.
  • Lantern Abbey — visible to Players.
  • Blackglass Causeway — visible to Players.
  • Ossuary of Nine Doors — visible to Players.
  • Sunken Bell Foundry — visible to Players.
  • Hollow Sun Vault — GM only until the party deciphers the map.

We have not created the Location pages yet, so make the named pins first and leave Linked page empty. In part two, return to Map Room, edit each pin, and attach its finished Location page. This order matters: Moonvault can only link a pin to a page that already exists. A finished pin should navigate somewhere useful, not merely announce that a cliff continues to be a cliff.

The map can also store grid and fog settings without changing the original image. For this region map, leave the grid hidden and use player visibility on pins as the main reveal tool. Open Player preview before play and confirm that the Hollow Sun Vault pin is absent; never rely on a visibility label you have not actually previewed.

Moonvault Map Room showing The Hollow Sun Crater with linked location pins and a hidden central vault
Map Room turns one campaign image into a navigable, visibility-aware table tool. Open the full-size view.

Return to the World or Campaign page and type [[. Choose a suggestion when the page already exists, or finish a new name such as [[Lantern Abbey]], [[Sister Veyra]], or [[The Ninth Toll]] while you outline.

Moonvault keeps those unresolved names discoverable under Tools → Missing-page workbench. Create the real page with the correct type when the outline proves it deserves one. Once a matching page exists, the link resolves and Backlinks reveal everywhere that person, place, or threat already matters.

This lets us prep from the campaign outward:

  • The world names Lantern Abbey as a seal-keeper.
  • The campaign names it as one of two active factions.
  • The first Session uses it as the patron’s sanctuary.
  • The Calendar gives it a deadline on Black Bell Eve.

One name, several useful connections, no duplicated encyclopedia paragraph.

Quest 5: Set campaign pressure with current tools

Create a Lore page named The Ninth Toll and link it to Bells Beneath Blackglass. Put the current value near the top—2 of 6 when our campaign begins—then write the triggers and thresholds below it.

Its page explains when the clock advances:

  • The party takes an extra full rest away from the abbey.
  • A bellmetal seal is broken.
  • A promise to the foundry is broken.

It also explains what each threshold changes. At 3, Bell Wraiths become corporeal. At 4, Rector Caldus enters the vault. At 5, the finale begins with one bell already ringing. At 6, the coronation starts.

Insert [[The Ninth Toll]] wherever the pressure matters. Edit the Lore page between games so its lasting value and consequences remain portable campaign truth. During a Session, add a Counter card named The Ninth Toll to that Session’s Board for fast − and + controls; reconcile the Lore page after play.

The downloadable tutorial vault also contains two older Campaign State pages. They are intentional compatibility examples, not a workflow to copy into a new vault: Moonvault still reads the portable Markdown, but no longer promotes shared Campaign State dashboard controls. Open and edit those source pages directly, keep their old links as ordinary wikilinks, and use the Session Board for table-facing counters.

The Ninth Toll compatibility Campaign State page in Moonvault showing readable triggers and consequence thresholds
The tutorial vault preserves an older Campaign State as readable Markdown; new vaults use a Lore page for durable pressure and a Session Board counter at the table. Open the full-size view.

Your campaign foundation is ready

Before moving on, confirm that you have:

  • One dedicated vault.
  • One world with three dangerous truths.
  • One campaign with a system and a campaign question.
  • Four session-sized objectives.
  • One map with player-safe and GM-only pins, ready to link after the Location pages exist.
  • One Lore pressure page with a current value, triggers, and consequences.

In part two, we will turn those nouns into a connected cast, useful locations, runnable monsters, reusable prep, and a relationship graph that can answer the classic question: “Why is this suspicious priest connected to everything?”