The Archives of Ash

**The Archives of Ash**

The Archives were part of a desperate experiment as the world slipped into shadow. Seeing the end approaching, the despair and darkness creeping across the people of the land, a group of alchemists and sages collected all the tomes, scrolls, and other records of the encroaching darkness in this guarded underground bunker.

The church caught wind of this archive (as the archivists expected) and declared the whole archive to be a nest of heresy most foul. They launched a few expeditions to destroy it, and several groups of fanatics also attempted to breach the vault. Finally, a holy army was assembled to destroy the archives, and they arrived to lay siege, only to find the archives already burning, the last defenders falling from the doorways, charred and burned.

Only the stone and metal furnishings remain along with the charred corpses of the archivists. Every page, every record, every document destroyed in the magical conflagration. Then, when the charred corpses of the archivists began to rise again, the holy army carried them back within and sealed the doors.

Within the archives everything is a charred and blackened husk. Even the stone and clay tablets collected in the archives were shattered in the firestorm. Only a few books remain – those stamped onto metal sheets. But the conflagration was so hot that the pages of these books softened to be smooth, warped plates. The bindings on many of these still open, but the books contain nothing but pain and scream when opened.

This was always the plan for the archives. To collect all the data on the encroaching darkness and end times, and then destroy them in a magical fiery ritual that they hoped would prevent or at least slow the fall. The whole process was in vain, as all they managed to do was destroy records and liturgies and spawn even more darkness. The bodies of the archivists still wander the halls, ashen and burned, lifting up clouds of ash as they wander. This very ash is hostile to life – a drifting grey fog that seeks to fill the lungs of the living.

*The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 7,200 x 10,800 pixels (24 x 36 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares that match the description) – so resizing it to either 1,680 x 2,520 or 3,360 x 5,040, respectively.*

[https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/06/19/the-archives-of-ash/](https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/06/19/the-archives-of-ash/)