Good Monday to you, wise vislae (and to Monday himself, should he be reading)—

Due in large part to your fine efforts at reaching additional vislae trapped here in the Grey, this campaign enjoyed an amazingly successful weekend. You have unlocked yet another stretch goal: The Wellspring will now be a boxed set, which will include the hardcover and an expanded selection of props and handouts!

This goal was reached mid-weekend, and since then you've continued to grow the campaign. That puts us well on our way to what’s next—which begs the question: what is next?

As of this writing, we have just passed the number of backers supporting this campaign as supported the first reprint back in 2018. Ahead of us lies an even more momentous objective: At the rate new vislae are joining us, we shall soon surpass even the total number of backers who first called the Black Cube into being, in its original crowdfunding campaign. It seems this milestone calls for a celebratory goal!

Invisible Sun is illustrated by hundreds of truly remarkable artworks (even by the standards of, if we may say so ourselves, a publisher renowned for the high quality of our art). So much so that the Black Cube contains an art book showcasing some of its best pieces (including some Sooth Deck illustrations that cannot be seen, in their full size, anywhere else). We also produced a limited-run art book as part of the first reprint campaign, featuring art from the supplements that were, at that time, in development. Both of these were beautiful but fairly modest softcover books.

We would like to do this art better justice. And we’d like to show it alongside related pieces created for The Darkest House (a separate product, but one birthed from Monte’s personal Invisible Sun campaign)—with maybe a few of the more surreal images from our other games as well.

We are tentatively titling this book The Darkest Art, and it will be a hefty hardcover of the highest quality, suitable of a place of honor on your coffee table (where it will undoubtably draw the interest of every eye that falls upon it). But it will have another use: it will be a great way to share images with your players at the game table, or to help them drink in the unique mood of Invisible Sun as they create their characters, their houses, their neighborhoods, and their Desideratum—or simply dream of adventures to come in the Actuality.

It will be elegantly designed, with rich, deluxe features (some potential deluxe features are foil stamping, a beautiful dust jacket, and interesting edge treatments). It will of course be printed on materials of the highest quality. It may even contain a few secrets, or features not readily visible to the undiscerning eye. In short, it will celebrate the success of this campaign, and of Invisible Sun, with all due splendor!

We will unlock this art book when we have drawn 1,846 vislae to our cause. It will be a limited edition made especially for our backers and offered, in thanks for your amazing support, at a highly preferential price. As this week progresses, we will solicit you, our backers, for your favorite art to include in this book—and possibly other features. Be sure to check in on the Community tab later this week to take part!

As always, it is the effort of you and your fellow backers that draws new vislae out of Shadow to join us in the Actuality. Please share a post on social media, or comment on reddit, RPGnet, EN World, or other gaming sites. With your help, we’ll unlock this goal—and who knows what else?

Thank you so much for your support!
—The Monte Cook Games team