Carrion Crown 5e
That grim late evening, the Laughing Demon Inn in Ravengro was bursting at the seams—thanks, in no small part, to the wretched weather outside. It had been raining and howling for hours, with no sign of letting up before dawn. All the more reason for the locals to huddle inside, warm and dry, nursing mugs of ale or glasses of something stronger. And there was plenty to talk about—for not long ago, this sleepy town had lost one of its better-known residents: Professor Petros Lorrimor, a retired lecturer from the University of Lepidstadt.
Jovin Kresić, the local bonesetter and barber, was once again holding court at a corner table, recounting—perhaps for the fifth or sixth time—the gory details of the professor’s demise. Folks in Ravengro called him “the egghead,” though affection was never part of the nickname. Jovin, never shy of a drink or a captive audience, had little use for what doctors in the big cities now called “patient confidentiality.” Ravengro was too small for secrets. Or so people liked to believe.
“One o’ them gargoyles they put up during the prison buildin’ came crashin’ down on his noggin,” Jovin declared with relish, eyes gleaming with morbid excitement. “Hit him so hard, his brains came spillin’ out his ears. You could fit three fingers in the crack it left in his skull. And his face—hardly anything left of it. In all my years, I’ve never seen the like. Good thing we didn’t let Kendra see him like that, poor girl would've dropped dead on the spot.”
A burly man seated nearby took a slow pull from his mug.
“Shouldn’t’ve been poking around that old prison,” he muttered. “Everyone knows it’s haunted. Has been since tragedy. Brought death to himself, if you ask me.”
“That’s those pesky city scholars...” added a lanky bearded fellow, nodding sagely. “Tell ’em not to go where they shouldn’t, and they go anyway.”
“Got what was comin’ to him,” growled another, a well-built gray-haired man with a murderer’s face. “Now we just need to get rid of that daughter of his, and maybe things’ll go back to the way they used to be. She wants to teach our kids readin’ and writin’.” He scoffed. “What for? Ain’t no use for books out here. What they need is hands for workin’ the fields and feedin’ the livestock, not wastin’ time on foolishness. We don’t need any scholars in Ravengro—especially the kind that only brings us trouble.”
“Gibs’s right,” another chimed in, clinking his mug against the brute’s. “And what was he doin’ up there anyway? The professor, I mean?”
“The gods only know! For me, he was a reckless fool” said the bearded man. “Sometimes it’s better to just sit your ass down and stay put, like we’re doin’ right here—warm, with a drink in hand, not chasin’ ghosts through the wind. Ain’t no one goes near that prison unless they’re lookin’ to end up like Lorrimor. But try tellin’ that to one o’ them professors. They always think they know better.”
He leaned back, drained the last of his drink, and waved a hand dismissively.
“Anyway, enough talk about the dead. He’s stood before Pharasma’s judgment by now, no doubt about that. Let’s drink to the living.” He turned toward the bar, where a stout, mustached man was drying mugs with a rag that might once have been white. “Zokar! Another round for me and the lads, if you please. The night’s still young, and our throats are dry.”
Hello!
There’s hardly a better day to open recruitment for a gothic horror campaign than Halloween itself. So, I’m inviting you to join this project. I’ve got plenty of time and energy right now to finally run the campaign I’ve wanted to host for a while—one I had originally planned to start on MW, but life had other plans back then.
And this isn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I’ve been preparing for this campaign for quite some time—gathering materials, writing everything out, and “stitching together” the individual books into a cohesive whole. Many players and GMs have noted that Carrion Crown, as a collection of six separate modules, doesn’t give enough weight to the overarching plot and the themes introduced in the very first part. I decided to change that—to weave it all together properly, so players won’t feel like each chapter is just a disconnected adventure with no real link to the campaign’s deeper story.
If you’re still here reading this, and I’ve managed to pique your interest with this rather lengthy introduction, head over to the Applications section—you’ll find all the guidelines you need to build a hero fit for this campaign.
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