The Desecrated Cathedral: A Gothic Horror 5e One-Shot

The Desecrated Cathedral: A Gothic Horror 5e One-Shot

A cleric returns from a journey...changed. Soon after, his cathedral is beset by demons--intent on capturing the souls of his flock.

TYPE

One-Shot

LEVELS

4–5

LANGUAGE

English

EXPERIENCE

Intermediate

AGE

All Ages
3 NEEDED TO START
$10.00

/ Session

Details

Once / Friday - 1:00 AM UTC

Jan 2

Session Duration / 3–5 hours

0 / 5 Seats Filled

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About the adventure

With little time to spare, the adventuring party is faced with a cathedral swarmed by demons, with nothing more than rumors from townsfolk and the horrified account of a wounded cleric to guide them in their quest! Can you purge the evil before it spreads? The Monkey's Paw meets The Exorcist meets Faerun! This one-shot is ideal for players of all experiences levels; I'm happy to help new players with systems, and also excited to see experienced players experiment with unusual builds. The conflict will play out over a single 3-4 hour session, and is balanced to include aspects of combat, exploration, and social roleplaying. If players have a character from a different one-shot or intro campaign, they are encouraged to use it again here.

Game style

Combat Heavy

Rules as Written (RaW)

Meet the Game Master

5.0

(13)

Teacher/Educator

Less than a year on StartPlaying

2 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Sets the Mood, Storytelling

About me

Hail and well met! My name is Chris! I've been a lover of fantasy and gaming since I was a kid. I'm currently a high school teacher of English, history, and psychology. I love watching a story come together and watching a party be creative and build synergy and power throughout a narrative. Beyond games and stories, I love travel, music (playing and listening), the outdoors (biking, kayaking, skiing), and reading (history, culture, religion, and philosophy).

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Character creation

Creating your character

Once you join, I'll send you a link to a DnD Beyond campaign. You can make your character there, either from scratch or using a pre-gen character. If you have questions about character creation or character type suitability for this one shot, just send me a message!

What to expect

Preparing for the session

You will need a Discord account for group chat and AV interaction during the game. You'll also need a DnD Beyond account. We will use DnD Beyond maps as our virtual tabletop.

What Chris brings to the table

Here are guiding principles that inform my DM style: -Player fun comes first; rules and consistency enhance fun. -Encounters should be fair but challenging. -Give players room for agency. -A variety of builds and approaches (combat, stealth, magic, diplomacy, trickery) should be able to advance the story and overcome obstacles. -The DM is not competing against the players; the DM sets up the stage for the party to run the play.

Homebrew rules

I stick to RAW whenever it is clear and unambiguous, which--with 5e, at least--is NOT always the case. The vast majority of obscure rules/niche situations won't come up in this one shot, but if there are specific situations or rules you have a question about, please message me and we can make sure everyone is on board ahead of time.

Equipment needed to play

Internet

Computer

Microphone

Safety

How Chris creates a safe table

Typical rules of civilization apply in this game. Be reasonable, be polite, be sensitive to others, and everything should be fine. If a player has a question about something that might be borderline: ask me. If a player is uncomfortable with something another player is doing/saying: tell me.

Content warnings

Safety tools used

Frequently asked questions