Carrion Crown [D&D 5e]

System: 5th Edition D&D (2014)
Themes: Sword & Sorcery, Gothic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Grimdark
Starting Level: 1st Level (advancing to 3rd by the end of Book 1)
Player Count: 4–5

Welcome to Carrion Crown, a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in Ustalav — Pathfinder’s gothic horror setting, similar in tone to Ravenloft. This campaign is based on the classic Carrion Crown Adventure Path for Pathfinder 1st Edition, but we’ll be playing it using 5e mechanics.

I know there’s already a Carrion Crown campaign on the forum, but it appears to be inactive. Besides that, I’ve decided to run the adventure as originally written, without major tweaks or rewrites — flaws, strange plot turns, and all — just as the developers intended. Hopefully, we’ll have a great time with it.

In this game, you can expect:

• Genre Blend: Gothic horror mixed with dark fantasy and grimdark themes, though there will still be room for lighter and more casual moments.
• Danger & Intrigue: Encounter ghosts, zombies, vampires, werewolves, and other horrors inspired by classic gothic and horror fiction.
• Investigation: Become involved in a mysterious case whose resolution may determine the fate of Ustalav — and perhaps even all of Golarion.
   

The PCs arrive in Ravengro to attend the funeral of an old friend, Professor Petros Lorrimor, only to become embroiled in the town’s troubles.

The professor, a retired lecturer from Lepidstadt University, died tragically a week before the heroes arrived in town. While exploring the ruins of the infamous hilltop prison, he was killed instantly when a gargoyle statue fell on him. His daughter, Kendra, sends letters inviting the heroes to the funeral — individuals whom, surprisingly, Petros included in his will.

Once they arrive, it quickly becomes clear that this will not be an ordinary trip to a friend’s funeral. Something sinister is stirring in Ravengro, and the heroes will soon find themselves investigating a mystery that hangs over the entire town.

The Immortal Principality of Ustalav lies on the northern shore of Lake Encarthan, a grim bastion of civilization amid the barbarian north, where a harsh landscape and a history rich in tragedies inspire a wary population with skepticism, religious devotion, and superstition. A conglomeration of loosely affiliated counties, each run by feuding nobles vying for power and influence, Ustalav is a pitiful shell of its former glory, before it was subjugated to centuries of slavery at the hands of the Whispering Tyrant’s undead armies. While the nation’s upper classes struggle to compete with the very nations that abandoned them to fend for themselves after the Whispering Tyrant’s defeat, the average Ustalavic citizen has it much worse.

Hundreds of years of subjugation and the residual horrors that plague the countryside have left the people of Ustalav suspicious of magic, religion, foreigners, and their fellow citizens. Beyond their eccentric and insular qualities, Ustalavs often have a dour worldview. They resign themselves to lives of suffering, seeing nothing in their people’s history to suggest there is any hope for a better life. Despite the physical and psychological strains upon its populace, Ustalav nevertheless fosters extremely hardy and tenacious stock: men and women who firmly believe that no matter how bad it gets, history shows it could always be worse.

Although Ustalav has little to offer its rural peasants, inhabitants of its many metropolitan cities fare somewhat better, and the centers of learning and culture they provide draw trade and travelers from throughout the Inner Sea region. The capital, Caliphas, stands on the banks of Lake Encarthan, and its fog-shrouded streets host some of the nation’s most esteemed centers of trade and academia. In the north, the city of Karcau boasts a thriving culture of music, theater, and other fine arts, and its opulent architecture rivals the excess of even the most exotic Taldan palace. Meanwhile, Ustalav’s northwestern counties have broken from aristocratic rule and formed their own local, democratic government without nobles, calling themselves the Palatinates and providing a glimmer of hope for the downtrodden people of provincial Ustalav.

It is here, in the Immortal Principality, that the Carrion Crown Adventure Path takes place, and as you travel through the various counties, your character will rise from a simple pallbearer to the potential savior of the nation. As internally varied as a nation can be, Ustalav is your new home, and the possibilities for fame, fortune, and influence are as thick as the fog that creeps across the windy moors at night.

Deadline: June 3rd, 2026

Character Creation Guidelines

• We’re starting at 1st level.
• Stats are generated using 4d6, dropping the lowest die. You may roll three times and choose the best array. If you dislike all of the results, you may use the 27 Point Buy system instead.
• Full HP at 1st level. On later levels, HP may either be rolled or taken as the average.
• Variant Human is the only available Human option.
• Take starting equipment or roll for starting gold. You may sell unwanted equipment at PHB prices.

Available Resources

All official first-party material is allowed. You may also use content from Blood Hunter, KibblesTasty, Grim Hollow, and Drakkenheim. If you would like to use material not listed here, please ask in the OOC thread first.

Process

• Create a thread in the Applications section of the forum using the following format: CHARACTER NAME — RACE — CLASS
• Roll your stats in the same thread.
• You may use any character sheet template you like, as long as it is readable and clear.
• Character portraits should be in color, preferably digital art. No manga-style or overly “cute” fantasy artwork.

Content Warning (PG-16): Violence, death, blood & gore, fantasy racism (without real-world parallels), body horror, and other dark themes.

Player Buy-In: This campaign leans heavily into gothic horror and a grounded, serious atmosphere. Players should be willing to engage with characters living in a dangerous world and lean into themes of fear, mystery, paranoia, and tragedy rather than constantly working against the tone of the setting.

Be open to the unusual, the disturbing, and the unexpected. If you enjoy horror and immersive roleplay, this game will likely be a good fit for you.

Expectations

• A minimum posting rate of two posts per week.
• Please avoid one-sentence replies whenever possible. Aim for at least a few sentences to help keep the game engaging and immersive.
• Long-term commitment. This is a full campaign, and we’ll likely be playing together for quite a while. The first book alone may take around six months of real-world time if everyone keeps up with the posting pace.
• Players who actively contribute to the story through roleplay, characterization, interaction, and engagement with the setting are highly encouraged.
• There will be downtime scenes with opportunities for relationship-building, character interactions, and roleplay.

House / Optional Rules

• Milestone leveling.
• Grid maps — we will use Google Drawings for combat maps.
• Stealth Outside Combat: Players only roll Dexterity (Stealth) checks when someone could reasonably see or hear them.
• Flanking: The flanking rule will be used in combat. Enemies benefit from it as well.
• Ready Action: I do not use the Ready Action rule. You either take your action on your turn or you do not.
• Movement: Moving from one square to any adjacent square costs 5 feet of movement unless stated otherwise. This includes diagonal movement.