Through Monday, June 16 we present the all-new Grim Hollow Bundle featuring the original version (2020-21) of Grim Hollow, the dark fantasy setting for D&D Fifth Edition and compatible systems from Ghostfire Gaming. Grim Hollow details the setting of Etharis, a godless, unforgiving, war-torn world filled with curses, plagues, and ghoulish creatures – a world that desperately needs heroes who fight for every small victory. Rich in lore and deeply imagined, Etharis supports grimdark sword-and-sorcery adventures filled with terror, dread, and revulsion.
Ghostfire introduced the setting in a big August 2019 Kickstarter campaign for Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide. In the Aetheric War to control Etharis, the deities of its pantheon destroyed each other. The only survivors of the lost pantheon were the gods’ lieutenants: Arch Seraphs supervise the world with a righteous zeal, granting powers to those who fight in their crusades. Many Seraphs have deviated from what they once represented, twisting their ideals to suit their cause. Arch Demons delight in a world overrun by decay. Freed from the deities’ power, they feed their appetites by meddling in mortal lives, making deals and twisting fate.
Now this forsaken world faces many threats. Vicious creatures hunt humans. Sinister forces twist mortals to their whims, leaving them forever changed. Whole regions of Etharis are shrouded in darkness, supernatural and otherwise. The sinister shroud over the land of Ostoya is magical; in the forests of the Charneault Kingdom, spirits have blanketed the land in dense mist. The Weeping Pox is widespread. Innocent people have adapted to a hostile environment. Superstition and prejudice run deep, and many people despise spellcasters. Why might that be? Well, the Campaign Guide includes extensive rules for curses and for transforming player characters into vampires, fiends, liches, lycanthropes, and aberrant horrors.
In this blighted world, it takes heroic effort to achieve small victories. Any safety the characters win feels like a true blessing. Heroes can inspire moments of grace in unexpected places. If the player characters gain power, they can wholeheartedly embrace their ability to reshape Etharis. The Players Guide (Sept 2021 Kickstarter) describes a wide range of supernatural powers that can lay waste to opponents, including dozens of spells like consume mind, incite riot, investiture of venom, steal immortality, and wilting smite. Powerful yet sinister magic items embody the power of seraphs, liches, vampires, lycanthropes, aberrants, and the fey. But these powers typically carry drastic costs. New subclasses indicate the general tone: Path of the Fractured, College of Requiems, Inquisition Domain, Living Crucible, Sacred Oath of Pestilence, Wretched Bloodline, etc.
Etharis teems with imaginative threats perfect for many styles of horror or dark fantasy campaigns. The most popular of the three Grim Hollow titles to date – the April 2021 Kickstarter raised US$1.35M – The Monster Grimoire presents more than 400 new monsters, from the Anguisher (a bodiless alien sapience) and Bloody Avenue (an evil street) to Xakalonus (spawn of the legendary hraptnon in the Stillborn Forest) and Zabrielite Truthseekers (avian messengers of the lost gods). The Grimoire salvage rules invite characters to make the most of their knowledge and proficiencies to have the best chance of surviving the threats they face. The blood, bones, brains, and bile harvested from the creatures they kill might provide advantages later as weapons, potions, components, and other magic items.
This all-new Grim Hollow Bundle presents the original versions of all three Grim Hollow sourcebooks to date – everything you need (besides the 5E rulebooks) for adventures of survival and opposition in a dread-filled, daunting world. Pay just US$17.95 to get all three complete titles in our Grim Collection (retail value $75) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide, The Players Guide, and The Monster Grimoire.
[Note: Last October, in anticipation of the D&D 2024 Update, Ghostfire Gaming Kickstarted updated Grim Hollow Transformed versions of the Players Guide and Monster Grimoire, with delivery planned for November 2025. This offer presents the current (2021) versions of all three Grim Hollow books.]
Get this Grim Hollow offer before it sinks into the brackish Black Mire of eastern Ostoya Monday, June 16.
