Haunted One Image

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.

 
Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Arcana, Investigation, Religion, or Survival
Languages: Choose two, one of which must be Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal, Primordial, Sylvan, or Undercommon
Equipment: A monster hunter’s pack (containing a chest, a crowbar, a hammer, three wooden stakes, a holy symbol, a flask of holy water, a set of manacles, a steel mirror, a flask of oil, a tinderbox, and 3 torches), one trinket of special significance (choose one or roll on the Horror Trinkets table after this background), a set of common clothes, and 1 sp.
 
Harrowing Event

Prior to becoming an adventurer, your path in life was defined by one dark moment, one fateful decision, or one tragedy. Now you feel a darkness threatening to consume you, and you fear there may be no hope of escape. Choose a harrowing event that haunts you, or roll one on the Harrowing Events table.

d10 Harrowing Event
1 A monster that slaughtered dozens of innocent people spared your life, and you don’t know why.
2 You were born under a dark star. You can feel it watching you, coldly and distantly. Sometimes it beckons you in the dead of night.
3 An apparition that has haunted your family for generations now haunts you. You don’t know what it wants, and it won’t leave you alone.
4 Your family has a history of practicing the dark arts. You dabbled once and felt something horrible clutch at your soul, whereupon you fled in terror.
5 An oni took your sibling one cold, dark night, and you were unable to stop it.
6 You were cursed with lycanthropy and later cured. You are now haunted by the innocents you slaughtered.
7 A hag kidnapped and raised you. You escaped, but the hag still has a magical hold over you and fills your mind with evil thoughts.
8 You opened an eldritch tome and saw things unfit for a sane mind. You burned the book, but its words and images are burned into your psyche.
9 A fiend possessed you as a child. You were locked away but escaped. The fiend is still inside you, but now you try to keep it locked away.
10 You did terrible things to avenge the murder of someone you loved. You became a monster, and it haunts your waking dreams.
 
Feature: Heart of Darkness

Those who look into your eyes can see that you have faced unimaginable horror and that you are no stranger to darkness. Though they might fear you, commoners will extend you every courtesy and do their utmost to help you. Unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them, they will even take up arms to fight alongside you, should you find yourself facing an enemy alone.

 
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.
 
Horror Trinkets
d100 Trinket
01 A picture you drew as a child of your imaginary friend
02 A lock that opens when blood is dripped in its keyhole
03 Clothes stolen from a scarecrow
04 A spinning top carved with four faces: happy, sad, wrathful, and dead
05 The necklace of a sibling who died on the day you were born
06 A wig from someone executed by beheading
07 The unopened letter to you from your dying father
08 A pocket watch that runs backward for an hour every midnight
09 A winter coat stolen from a dying soldier
10 A bottle of invisible ink that can only be read at sunset
11 A wineskin that refills when interred with a dead person for a night
12 A set of silverware used by a king for his last meal
13 A spyglass that always shows the world suffering a terrible storm
14 A cameo with the profile’s face scratched away
15 A lantern with a black candle that never runs out and that burns with green flame
16 A teacup from a child’s tea set, stained with blood
17 A little black book that records your dreams, and yours alone, when you sleep
18 A necklace formed of the interlinked holy symbols of a dozen deities
19 A noose that feels heavier than it should
20 A birdcage into which small birds fly but once inside never eat or leave
21 A lepidopterist’s box filled with dead moths with skull-like patterns on their wings
22 A jar of pickled ghouls’ tongues
23 The wooden hand of a notorious pirate
24 A urn with the ashes of a dead relative
25 A hand mirror backed with a bronze depiction of a medusa
26 Pallid leather gloves crafted with ivory fingernails
27 Dice made from the knuckles of a notorious charlatan
28 A ring of keys for forgotten locks
29 Nails from the coffin of a murderer
30 A key to the family crypt
31 A bouquet of funerary flowers that always looks and smells fresh
32 A switch used to discipline you as a child
33 A music box that plays by itself whenever someone holding it dances
34 A walking cane with an iron ferrule that strikes sparks on stone
35 A flag from a ship lost at sea
36 A porcelain doll’s head that always seems to be looking at you
37 A wolf’s head wrought in silver that is also a whistle
38 A small mirror that shows a much older version of the viewer
39 A small, worn book of children’s nursery rhymes
40 A mummified raven claw
41 A broken pendant of a silver dragon that’s always cold to the touch
42 A small locked box that quietly hums a lovely melody at night, but you always forget it in the morning
43 An inkwell that makes one a little nauseous when staring at it
44 An old doll made from a dark, dense wood and missing a hand and a foot
45 A black executioner’s hood
46 A pouch made of flesh, with a sinew drawstring
47 A tiny spool of black thread that never runs out
48 A tiny clockwork figurine of a dancer that’s missing a gear and doesn’t work
49 A black wooden pipe that creates puffs of smoke that look like skulls
50 A vial of perfume, the scent of which only certain creatures can detect
51 A stone that emits a single endless sigh
52 A rag doll with two red dots on its neck
53 A spring-loaded toy with a missing crank
54 A mason jar containing a harmless but agitated, animate ooze
55 A black wooden die with 1’s on all the faces
56 A child’s portrait with “born” written on the back, along with next year’s date
57 A dagger-sized shark tooth
58 A finger that’s taken root in a small pot
59 A toolbox containing the remains of a dangerous but broken clockwork arachnid
60 A pitcher-sized, opalescent snail shell that occasionally, inexplicably shudders or tips over
61 The logbook of an ice-breaking ship called The Haifisch
62 A small portrait of you as a child, alongside your identically dressed twin
63 A silver pocket watch with thirteen hours marked on the face
64 A woodcut of a wolf devouring its own hind leg
65 A planchette etched with raven skulls
66 A moist coral figurine of a lamprey with arms, legs, and a bipedal stance
67 A bronze fingertrap sculpted with roaring tigers
68 A pearl necklace that turns red under the full moon
69 A fossil of a fish with humanoid features
70 A plague doctor’s mask
71 A paper talisman with smudged ink
72 A locket containing the smeared image of an eyeless figure
73 A canopic jar with a lid sculpted like a goat
74 A jack-o’-lantern made from a small, pale gourd
75 A single high-heeled, iron shoe
76 A candle made from a severed hand
77 A clockwork device that beats like a heart
78 A blank masquerade mask
79 A glass eye with a live worm inside
80 A sheet with two eyeholes cut in it
81 The deed to someplace called Tergeron Manor
82 An ornate, wax-sealed crimson envelope that resists all attempts to open it
83 A mourning veil trimmed in black lace
84 A straitjacket covered in charcoal runes
85 A tattered, burlap mask with a crooked smile painted on it
86 A green ribbon designed to be worn as a choker
87 Dentures with mismatched, sharpened teeth
88 A warm, fist-sized egg case
89 A copper ring with “mine” engraved on the inside
90 A glass ampoule containing a neon green fluid
91 An eye patch embroidered with a holy symbol
92 A severed big toe with a nail that continues to grow
93 A journal that has been heavily redacted
94 A glove with a mouth-like design stitched on the palm
95 An ornate but empty reliquary made of silver and fractured glass
96 A ceramic figure of a cat with too many eyes
97 A crumpled paper ticket bearing the words “admit none”
98 An electrum coin with your face on one side
99 A shrunken gremishka head that twitches when anyone casts magic nearby
100 A sunburst amulet with a red stone at the center
Tags:
Utility
Combat
Curse of Strahd: Character Options
Haunted One Image

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