Shore of the Dorahín Review: Joust Studio lays the first stone for Heirs to Ruin

Joust Studio announced Tales of the Sea of Scales: Shore of the Dorahín on 15 September 2026 as the debut release for its unfolding Songs of Lon-Gora world. Available in English and French, this 13-page standalone adventure for 5e roleplaying games serves as an early introduction to the independent publisher ahead of a much larger project. Creative director Jean A. Desveaux told Geek Native that the studio will announce a three-part series titled Heirs to Ruin in November or December 2026.

Spoilers, of course, are below.

With a live Kickstarter profile already set up for Joust Studio, a crowdfunding campaign for Heirs to Ruin looks to be the next step. Interestingly, while the studio’s Kickstarter page is tagged in Madrid, Spain, Shore of the Dorahín launches in English and French rather than Spanish. The core creative team includes Jean A. Desveaux (creative direction), Victor de Lion (writing), Justin Saddlemyer (illustration), and Matthieu Desveaux, supported by Cynthia Lebon and Thomas Gonçalves for proofreading and review. Veteran adventure designer M.T. Black and J.C. Connor also appear in the acknowledgements.

• Publisher: Joust Studio
• Press Announcement: 15 September 2026
• Upcoming Series: Heirs to Ruin (Three-part project announcing November or December 2026)
• Rules: 5e and 5.5e (SRD 5.2.1)
• Character Level: Level 1 (4 to 5 players)
• Play Time: One 4-hour session
• Page Count: 13 pages
• Languages: English and French

5e System and exploration rules

Shore of the Dorahín runs on the 5e and 5.5e rules, linking directly to the free System Reference Document 5.2.1 alongside the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. The adventure targets four to five first-level characters and fits into a single four-hour session. To give a new group an immediate reason to work together, the guide suggests assigning every character the Sailor background so the party starts as a coastal crew used to hauling cargo and passengers for coin.

Rather than throwing endless waves of monsters at vulnerable first-level characters, the rules focus on observation and problem-solving. Difficulty class targets stay fair and clear throughout the book:

• Wilderness and Lore Checks: DC 8 History, Nature, Survival, and Religion checks handle early navigation and local history after a night storm drives the party’s torn sailboat onto a pebble beach.
• Dungeon Traps: Environmental hazards rely on DC 10 to DC 15 Perception, Wisdom, and Dexterity checks, while a heavy stone door requires a DC 24 Strength check or an internal mechanism once it slams shut.
• Riddles and Practical Engineering: Players face an engraved cypher at the entrance and physical traps inside that they can disarm using timber and stone blocks carried from earlier chambers.
• Experience Milestones: Each adventurer receives a base reward of 200 XP, with an extra 50 XP for saving a local farmer and 25 XP for freeing a captive inside the dungeon.

Songs of Lon-Gora setting and the Dorahín lineage

This Tales of the Sea of Scales entry introduces the Dorahín, a shy forest lineage living in giant Scots pines along the wild southern coast. Known as “Little Sage” in common speech, “Solasi” to the Wild Elves with whom they trade, and “Folius” among themselves, adults stand between 2.5 and 4 feet tall. Most individuals are hermaphrodites. Their hair and irises shift colour with the seasons, changing from dark green in spring to wheat yellow in summer, auburn in autumn, and black or white in winter. Aged sages who study magic even grow roe deer antlers.

The back of the PDF dedicates a full page to the Codex Dorahín, a strong worldbuilding primer before Heirs to Ruin arrives later this year. The Dorahín revere nature as the divinity Sylvann, share communal dreams every night to discuss at sunrise, and reject metalworking entirely. They craft bone daggers and blowguns, weave clothes from hemp and squirrel or lynx wool, and pick their village chief by lottery every three years alongside an elected five-year triumvirate and a twelve-elder council.

That peaceful life breaks down when starving human farmers from the Breaker’s Isles sail across the water to escape their home. After the village council refuses to attack a human logging camp on the beach, an elder named Salfan takes matters into his own hands.

Handcrafted art style and cartography

Joust Studio notes in its press kit that it handcrafted every element of Shore of the Dorahín without generative AI. Justin Saddlemyer provides stark, high-contrast black-and-white line art for the cover and the stone cypher puzzle, paired with muted colour border illustrations along the bottom of the pages.

Four of the 13 pages feature top-down, grid-based dungeon maps covering the decoy passage and the fourteen-room Royal Tomb. Crucially for practical play, the PDF includes both numbered reference maps for the Game Master and clean, unlabelled player maps ready for virtual tabletops or printing.

Pre-written adventure and equipment

The Game Master advice encourages a sparse, player-led narration style. Rather than reading out long blocks of text, the guide advises giving minimal initial room details, such as wet walls and a body at the bottom of the stairs. Players then examine the environment and ask questions to figure out how an earlier family of human farmers fell victim to the trap and their own greed.

Alongside standard weapons, armour, weaver’s tools, and a blood-stained +1 spear, the adventure introduces botanical magic items grown by the Dorahín. Explorers who search the side rooms can find clusters of yellow Sap-Seeds that restore 1d6 hit points when eaten, as well as a rare brown Bud-of-the-Second-Spring seed that restores all hit points or brings a dead character back to life.

Monsters and non-player characters

The final pages contain four custom stat blocks that give level-one groups memorable encounters tied directly to the forest setting. For example;

• Impaler Anuran (Challenge 1/4, 50 XP): A lynx-sized black and red toad with fiery hair and horns, sporting AC 11 and 16 hit points. It leaps 3 metres from a standstill, gores for 1d6 + 4 piercing damage, and sprays a 9-metre line of acid (DC 14 Dexterity save for 1d4 acid damage).
• Bellis and Ailsa (Non-Player Characters): Bellis is a captive Dorahín (Challenge 1/8, AC 11, 20 hit points) who turns into a rock when frightened, while Ailsa is a surviving human farmer from the Breaker’s Isles. Rescuing them gives the party a way to learn the truth behind the fake tomb and repair their torn boat sail to leave the shore.

Shore of the Dorahín is a well-paced, atmospheric starter dungeon that rewards curious players and sets a high bar for Joust Studio’s upcoming Heirs to Ruin trilogy. You can download the digital PDF for free by signing up for the Joust Studio newsletter, buy it from DriveThruRPG for $4.99, or pick it up in English and French on RPG Trader. You can also follow the publisher on their Kickstarter profile.