Quests from a Dead Man – 90 Episodes – Bible + Storyboard

When a junior rites-keeper inherits the late sect master’s system, it keeps issuing errands in the dead man’s voice, and every one is only sensible if the master is still alive – impossible, because Ruan Ping carried the coffin.

Ruan Ping, twenty-four, keeps the sect’s funeral records, and the last entry he wrote was Sect Master Hong Ze’s, nineteen days ago, carried down by his own shoulder. On the morning the succession was to be settled, Hong Ze’s system bound to him instead of releasing, and it speaks in the master’s cadence, ending every sentence one word early. The first quest is to return a copper key Ruan Ping took from the dead man’s desk. The system behaves as though its host were alive, which the whole sect knows is impossible. Jia reassigns him to the office and reads his reports personally, and the bog keeps producing things that should have rotted and did not.

Part A – the script bible

• Logline, premise, setting and the story engine that generates episodes
• World rules written as hard story constraints
• Character bible – 6 roles, each with a stated voice and a stated arc
• Relationship map
• Three-act structure with act-by-act episode ranges
• Turning points mapped to episode numbers
• Episode hook map for episodes 1-10: the closing beat of each episode
• Three written scene samples
• Marketing copy you may reuse on your own platforms

Part B – the storyboard

• Episodes 1-5 broken down panel by panel
• Every panel gives shot size, camera move, panel duration, the drawn action, the dialogue, the sound cue and the transition out
• Panel budget for episodes 1-20 with effect and motion counts
• Full art asset list: character sheets, background plates, props and effect overlays, with reuse notes

Series facts

• 90 episodes at 60-90 seconds per episode
• Genre: Cultivation & System
• Vertical 9:16, motion-comic panel animation
• Production tier: Mid
• Board 3 episodes per week with 2 boarders; line art 5 days per episode, colour 3, composite 1. 90 episodes in 21 weeks with a 6-person team

Production notes

• Cast: 11 speaking roles, 6 principal (4 male, 2 female), 5 supporting
• Backgrounds: 6 standing backgrounds: the bog stairs, the Rites Office, the burial ground, the stone corridor, the master’s study, the peat works; 3 swing backgrounds
• Key props: Copper desk key, funeral ledger and brush, nine wax cords, the standing stone tomb, Hong Ze’s teacup, the half-played board of stones
• Cost tier: Mid – interiors carry most of the season, but the bog and the tomb need two painted spectacle plates
• Art assets: 32 character sheets (6 principal x 4 expressions x 2 poses, plus 11 supporting), 9 background plates with 3 parallax layers each, 18 prop cutouts, 12 effect overlays (system script, ink bleed, bog mist, lamp glow)
• Panel load: 1,260 panels across 90 episodes at 13-16 panels per episode; 22 of the 90 episodes return to the Rites Office background unmodified

Format note: this is a complete development package for a vertical motion-comic series, not a finished shooting script. Episodes 1-5 carry full panel dialogue; from episode 6 the budget and hook map carry the beats and you write in your own register.

Delivery and licence

• Instant download. One plain-text package file, no software required.
• Licensed for development, adaptation and production of the material described above.
• Adaptation, translation and sub-licensing require the extended licence supplied with the All-Access Master Library.
• Because the files are delivered immediately and cannot be returned, all sales are final once the download link has been used. See our Refund Policy.