Survive the Crimson Crusade, Smite the Undead| Ash Beneath Stars
Undead legions march. A holy crusade rises. Uncover the truth in a long-term hexcrawl where faith, death, and destiny collide.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
8 players following this game
Weekly / Tuesday - 6:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3.5–4 hours
Campaign Length / 50–70 Sessions
1 / 5 Seats Filled
Top Game Master
One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Meet your party members
1/5
About the adventure
Fight undead hordes and unravel secrets that could shatter everything humanity believes in. The king of the dead rises from the Worldwound, leading legions against humanity's divine capitals. The Starfaith mobilizes a crusade, and you're caught in the middle of a war where both sides will fight until obliteration. Hexplore your way through the continent in arc-based chapters, face epic bosses, and discover erased truths with each completed quest. A heroic dark fantasy with moral complexity, player-driven exploration, and a story that evolves based on your choices. On session zero we'll create your starting village collaboratively. From there, the path is yours. Just know: nothing in this war is what it seems at first.
Game style
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Realm Building
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Sandbox / Open World
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
4.9
(30)
2 years on StartPlaying
253 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Rule of Cool, Storytelling
Average response time: 24+ hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I've been running TTRPG campaigns professionally for over a decade and a year of doing so full time, and here's what I've learned: the best memories happen when player choices shape a collaborative story. I specialize in collaborative and cinematic narrations on my punished setting of Aetharis; a living, breathing high-fantasy world with deep immersive lore and marks left by all my past players, where the game system is just a framework to tell our tale. I come from a background in film screenwriting, television productions and indie game design, which is a fancy way of saying I narrate sessions in a dynamic and cinematic style, enhancing the drama and character reactions to the events. I'm always looking for ways to elevate the experience with impressive visuals, both shared through my video and used by players, such as Foundry VTT, Talespire, custom maps, background reference art, and enough prep to improvise anything you throw at me. I've delved into all kinds of systems, and trust me when I say that rules and mechanics are just a framework, we make rulings and use the game to tell our story, how we want it. Whether you're a veteran looking for deep roleplay or a newbie who wants to learn in a welcoming space, I'll meet you where you are. My games go from gritty intrigue to bombastic heroism; with just enough absurdity to keep us laughing years later. Your story, my world. Let's make something unforgettable.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
You'll receive a setting guide and adventure guidelines prior to our session 0, which will help in locating your character within the world. Characters will begin their adventure with a custom crafted evolving magical item that is of significance to their backstories. Characters will be created in D&D Beyond with the 2024 ruleset and rolling stats; We'll go over character creation together during session 0, giving shape to your character and reasons to be present at the starting location. Ancestries will be reflavoree and adapted to fit with the setting, though their mechanics will remain true to the rules.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Download Discord onto your preferred device, and have an account ready to join my Discord server with the link you'll received in your email after signing up. Have a microphone ready and set up for a clear voice chat. Though cameras are not required, they are heavily encouraged to help with roleplay. Download Tale Spire guest edition if you'd like to control your own battle camera and mini. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2881860/TaleSpire__Guest_Edition/
What Martin / Tinchi brings to the table
• D&D Beyond character sheets and campaign for an easy and everywhere experience. • A Talespire seat for beautiful 3D designed maps and miniatures. • In session music, ambience and sounds effects. ♫ • Visually stunning background and character overlays sitting game time, for total inmersión. 🪁 • Diverse NPC voice acting and deep roleplay immersion. • Narrative and descriptive storytelling with cinematic retelling of combat rounds. • Recording of each session, privately uploaded for players and their friends to relive, with an overlay of reactive PNG portraits, dice rolls and more • Inclusion of every player at the table, spotlighting and highlighting everyone's forte and style. • Many "Devil's Bargains" and exceptions to rules. • Great rewards for creativity and out of the box solutions. • Personalized Homebrew and encouragement to bring your own. • Immersive and deadly encounters with high stakes and impact through dynamic environments and objectives. • A background in Storytelling, Film making and Video game design. • AI generated and curated images to portray emblematic moments. • Out of session question answering and community assistance.
Homebrew rules
**Crucible of Fate** A volatile resource that switches hands between GM and players as it's used. It enables circunstancial additional rulings for benefits of the story and user. **Deadly criticals** On a natural 20 attack roll, weapons and features deal full damage and roll their dice on top of it. **Heroic spellcasting** As long as a leveled spell is used as an action, a non-damaging cantrip may be used as a bonus action. **Actually useful helpers** The help action can only be provided if a creature is proficient in the skill check. **Evolving cantrips** Your non-scaling cantrips will get better as you level up, based on the [Evolving cantrips PDF]( https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1BhBtKxTHR4WfsIkX5nKnXgkCj9CeXa/view?usp=drivesdk) **No resurrection** Except for revivify, any other resurrection magic will require a ritual, where multiple creatures make skill checks. **True curses** The remove curse spell only shows you the way of removing a curse, be it a ritual, a quest or any other form of story development.
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Microphone
Internet
Headphones
Platforms used
Safety
How Martin / Tinchi creates a safe table
During our session 0 we'll go over the setting and the safety tools to be used, which may be shared in the public text channel for the campaign, or requested privately through DM. We'll also fill a consent checklist to make sure no uncomfortable surprises happen, and introduce the line and veils safety tool. After each session we'll take 10 minutes to go over wishes and requests for characters to go through, as well as a little bit of feedback.
Content warnings
Safety tools used