You are haunted by something so terrible that you dare not speak of it. You’ve tried to bury it and run away from it, to no avail. Whatever this thing is that haunts you can’t be slain with a sword or banished with a spell. It might come to you as a shadow on the wall, a bloodcurdling nightmare, a memory that refuses to die, or a demonic whisper in the dark. The burden has taken its toll, isolating you from most people and making you question your sanity. You must find a way to overcome it before it destroys you. you now have a choice to make let it destroy you or become one with the beast inside you.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Arcana, Investigation, Religion, or Survival

Languages: Choose two, one of which is exotic. (Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal, Primordial, Sylvan, or Undercommon)

Equipment:  A monster hunter’s pack, one trinket of special significance (choose one or roll on the Gothic Trinkets table after this background). Also gain a set of set of common clothes and 1 sp.

Spell List

Spell Level	Spells
Cantrip	acid splash, blade ward, booming blade, chill touch, control flames, create bonfire, dancing lights, druidcraft, eldritch blast, encode thoughts, fire bolt, friends, frostbite, green-flame blade, guidance, gust, infestation, light, lightning lure, mage hand, magic stone, mending, message, mind sliver, minor illusion, mold earth, poison spray, primal savagery, produce flame, ray of frost, resistance, sacred flame, sapping sting, shape water, shocking grasp, sword burst, thorn whip, true strike, word of radiance
1st	absorb elements, alarm, animal friendship, armor of agathys, arms of hadar, bane, beast bond, bless, burning hands, catapult, cause fear, ceremony, chaos bolt, charm person, chromatic orb, color spray, command, compelled duel, comprehend languages, create or destroy water, cure wounds, detect evil and good, detect magic, detect poison and disease, disguise self, dissonant whispers, distort value, divine favor, earth tremor, ensnaring strike, entangle, expeditious retreat, faerie fire, false life, feather fall, find familiar, floating disk, fog cloud, frost fingers, gift of alacrity, goodberry, grease, guiding bolt, hail of thorns, healing word, hellish rebuke, heroism, hex, hideous laughter, hunter's mark, ice knife, identify, illusory script, inflict wounds, jim's magic missile, longstrider, mage armor, magic missile, magnify gravity, protection from evil and good, purify food and drink, ray of sickness, sanctuary, searing smite, shield, shield of faith, sleep, speak with animals, tasha's caustic brew, thunderous smite, unseen servant, wrathful smite, zephyr strike
2nd	acid arrow, aganazzar's scorcher, aid, alter self, animal messenger, arcane lock, arcanist's magic aura, augury, barkskin, beast sense, blindness/deafness, blur, branding smite, calm emotions, cloud of daggers, continual flame, cordon of arrows, crown of madness, darkness, darkvision, detect thoughts, dragon's breath, dust devil, earthbind, enhance ability, enlarge/reduce, enthrall, find steed, find traps, flame blade, flaming sphere, flock of familiars, fortune's favor, gentle repose, gust of wind, healing spirit, heat metal, hold person, immovable object, invisibility, lesser restoration, levitate, locate animals or plants, locate object, magic mouth, magic weapon, maximilian's earthen grasp, melf's acid arrow, mind spike, mirror image, misty step, moonbeam, nystul's magic aura, pass without trace, phantasmal force, prayer of healing, protection from poison, pyrotechnics, ray of enfeeblement, scorching ray, see invisibility, shadow blade, shatter, silence, skywrite, snilloc's snowball swarm, spiritual weapon, suggestion, summon beast, tasha's mind whip, zone of truth
3rd	animate dead, aura of vitality, beacon of hope, bestow curse, blinding smite, blink, call lightning, catnap, clairvoyance, conjure animals, conjure barrage, counterspell, create food and water, crusader's mantle, daylight, dispel magic, elemental weapon, enemies abound, erupting earth, fast friends, fear, feign death, fireball, flame arrows, fly, galder's tower, glyph of warding, haste, hunger of hadar, hypnotic pattern, incite greed, intellect fortress, life transference, lightning arrow, lightning bolt, magic circle, major image, mass healing word, meld into stone, melf's minute meteors, motivational speech, nondetection, phantom steed, protection from energy, pulse wave, remove curse, revivify, sleet storm, speak with dead, spirit guardians, spirit shroud, stinking cloud, summon fey, summon lesser demons, summon shadowspawn, summon undead, tidal wave, vampiric touch, wall of water
4th	arcane eye, aura of life, aura of purity, banishment, black tentacles, blight, charm monster, compulsion, confusion, conjure minor elementals, conjure woodland beings, control water, death ward, dimension door, divination, dominate beast, elemental bane, evard's black tentacles, fabricate, faithful hound, find greater steed, fire shield, freedom of movement, galder's speedy courier, grasping vine, gravity sinkhole, greater invisibility, guardian of faith, guardian of nature, hallucinatory terrain, ice storm, leomund's secret chest, locate creature, mordenkainen's faithful hound, mordenkainen's private sanctum, otiluke's resilient sphere, phantasmal killer, polymorph, private sanctum, resilient sphere, secret chest, shadow of moil, sickening radiance, staggering smite, stone shape, stoneskin, storm sphere, summon aberration, summon elemental, summon greater demon, vitriolic sphere, wall of fire
5th	animate objects, antilife shell, arcane hand, awaken, banishing smite, bigby's hand, circle of power, cloudkill, commune, commune with nature, cone of cold, conjure elemental, conjure volley, contact other plane, contagion, control winds, creation, danse macabre, dawn, destructive wave, dispel evil and good, dominate person, dream, enervation, far step, flame strike, greater restoration, hallow, hold monster, holy weapon, immolation, infernal calling, insect plague, legend lore, maelstrom, mass cure wounds, mislead, modify memory, negative energy flood, passwall, planar binding, raise dead, rary's telepathic bond, reincarnate, scrying, skill empowerment, steel wind strike, summon celestial, synaptic static, telekinesis, telepathic bond, teleportation circle, transmute rock, wall of force, wall of light, wall of stone, wrath of nature
6th	arcane gate, blade barrier, bones of the earth, chain lightning, circle of death, conjure fey, contingency, create homunculus, create undead, disintegrate, drawmij's instant summons, druid grove, eyebite, find the path, flesh to stone, forbiddance, freezing sphere, globe of invulnerability, gravity fissure, guards and wards, harm, heal, heroes' feast, instant summons, investiture of flame, investiture of ice, investiture of stone, investiture of wind, magic jar, mass suggestion, mental prison, move earth, otiluke's freezing sphere, otto's irresistible dance, planar ally, primordial ward, scatter, soul cage, summon fiend, tasha's otherworldly guise, tenser's transformation, true seeing, wall of ice, wall of thorns, word of recall
7th	conjure celestial, create magen, crown of stars, delayed blast fireball, divine word, dream of the blue veil, etherealness, finger of death, fire storm, forcecage, magnificent mansion, mirage arcane, mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, mordenkainen's sword, plane shift, power word pain, prismatic spray, regenerate, resurrection, reverse gravity, sequester, symbol, teleport, temple of the gods
8th	abi-dalzim's horrid wilting, animal shapes, antimagic field, antipathy/sympathy, clone, control weather, dark star, demiplane, dominate monster, earthquake, feeblemind, glibness, holy aura, illusory dragon, incendiary cloud, maddening darkness, mighty fortress, mind blank, power word stun, reality break, telepathy, tsunami
9th	astral projection, blade of disaster, foresight, gate, imprisonment, invulnerability, mass heal, mass polymorph, meteor swarm, power word heal, power word kill, prismatic wall, psychic scream, ravenous void, shapechange, storm of vengeance, time ravage, time stop, true polymorph, true resurrection

Suggested Characteristics

You have learned to live with the terror that haunts you. You are a survivor, who can be very protective of those who bring light into your darkened life.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I don’t run from evil. Evil runs from me.
2	I like to read and memorize poetry. It keeps me calm and brings me fleeting moments of happiness.
3	I spend money freely and live life to the fullest, knowing that tomorrow I might die.
4	I live for the thrill of the hunt.
5	I don’t talk about the thing that torments me. I’d rather not burden others with my curse.
6	I expect danger around every corner.
7	I refuse to become a victim, and I will not allow others to be victimized.
8	I put no trust in divine beings.

d6	Ideal
1	I try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost. (Good)
2	I’ll stop the spirits that haunt me or die trying. (Any)
3	I kill monsters to make the world a safer place, and to exorcise my own demons. (Good)
4	I have a dark calling that puts me above the law. (Chaotic)
5	I like to know my enemy’s capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle. (Lawful)
6	I’m a monster that destroys other monsters, and anything else that gets in my way. (Evil)

d6	Bond
1	I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy.
2	I would sacrifice my life and my soul to protect the innocent.
3	My torment drove away the person I love. I strive to win back the love I’ve lost.
4	A terrible guilt consumes me. I hope that I can find redemption through my actions.
5	There’s evil in me, I can feel it. It must never be set free.
6	I have a child to protect. I must make the world a safer place for him (or her).

d6	Flaw
1	I have certain rituals that I must follow every day. I can never break them.
2	I assume the worst in people.
3	I feel no compassion for the dead. They’re the lucky ones.
4	I have an addiction.
5	I am a purveyor of doom and gloom who lives in a world without hope.
6	I talk to spirits that no one else can see.