Eldritch horror in a town that agreed to this
The catch has been good for years and nobody in town will say why. The fog comes in every night now, and what it leaves on the shore is getting harder to explain away to yourself.
No account, no card, nothing to install. The world's lore is already built, so it starts in seconds.
The town has to be in on it before you arrive
What the town knows, what it agreed to and who made the arrangement are written into the world before your first turn. So there is something real to uncover, rather than a mystery being invented one answer at a time as you ask for it.
The world
The town of Harrowmouth has prayed to the sea for generations. Now the catch comes up wrong, the fog won't lift, and the things the townsfolk worship are answering a great deal too clearly.
Harrowmouth is a decaying coastal town where the line between the sea and the sleeping things beneath it has worn thin. An old pact keeps the town fed and the deep things patient—but pacts end, and what the tide gives back is not always what was lost.
Who is in it
- The Tide-Pledged
- townsfolk who keep the old pact with the things in the deep.
- The Lantern Society
- a fading order that studies and resists the encroaching dark.
- The Drowned Court
- the inhuman intelligence stirring beneath the waves.
Where you go
- Harrowmouth Harbor
- a fog-wreathed port where the boats come back wrong.
- The Tidechapel
- a barnacle-crusted church to the things below.
- The Drowned Stair
- a sea-cave staircase descending to something that should stay buried.
What already happened
- The First Wrong Catch
- the day the nets came up full of things with too many eyes.
- The Sealing of the Pact
- the founders' ancient bargain that has held until now.
Who you can play
-
Cora Vane Returning daughter
A grieving daughter realizing her hometown made a bargain it can no longer pay.
At the start: an outsider-insider who can still see the town for what it's become.
-
Elias Thorn Last lanternbearer
A haunted scholar carrying knowledge that is slowly, surely unmaking him.
At the start: half-broken by what he knows, the only one still resisting.
Or write your own character — the setup form takes a name, a background and what you are good at, and the game master works from that instead.
How a turn works
- You say what your character does, in your own words.
- What you attempted is weighed against your character sheet and the state of the scene — and the outcome is settled before the scene is written, so the part telling the story does not get to decide that you succeeded.
- The game master narrates what happened, grounded in the world's own characters, factions and places, and remembers it for the rest of the run.
Start playing The Drowned Star →