Crowned by the Horn

CROWNED BY THE HORN is a build-your-own Shadowdark adventure hailing from the ominous darkness of the Horned God’s Wood. It is not only featuring the 10 mystical encounters from The Wood's Voiceless Hymns, but also game-ready lore and original classes. Each creature comes with esoteric secrets, primeval mysticisms, or strange gifts to take for your own. Go on Spiritual Journeys, change the world with your Mortal Return, and achieve rebirth through the dark majesty of the Horned God!

Crowned by the Horn is part of the Aynbath universe, created by luminary artist Aerozopher. Learn more about this world of mysticism at aynbath.com. The website includes free-to-read webcomics, illustrated adventures and an art gallery with descriptions and short stories.

• Minimum 130 page hardcover in A4 format and perfect bound.
• 5 mystical Shadowdark classes for your character creation
• 10+ unique creatures and apparitions each with a bespoke customizable encounter that together creates an exciting story of dark rebirth, including the secret-bound Singing Mountains and the eccentric-yet-wise Oak King.
• 20+ NPC stat blocks, such as the Ouroboros-studying Asprosophists
• New rule frameworks, such as burning mystical leaves instead of torches or using mysticisms instead of spells
• Inspiring elements in the form of lore, poetry, spells and encounters.
• A lot of Aerozopher's atmospheric artworks depicting the adventure's setting and mood

The best part? CROWNED BY THE HORN IS PLAYABLE RIGHT OUT OF THE BOOK! You don't need to read and internalize 130 pages before you play. Simply have everyone pick a starting class, write down their character, and roll to see which Wild Spirit the player's confront first. This flexibility makes Crowned by the Horn perfect for GMs without a lot of time or GMs who love to dive deep into their ideas.

NEW CLASS DESIGN

Crowned by the Horn creates five new base classes designed to be used with the setting. These classes are designed with Germanic paganism in mind, and are even named using a mixture of Proto-Germanic and Old English words. The classes themselves are defined by their BINDRUNES, which mark their wearers with mythic destinies.

Because of their arcane and baroque natures, each class is given more lore than a typical Shadowdark class is. Alongside this lore comes special roll tables to help hone your character's flavor. Beyond that, the classes are designed with Shadowdark principles in mind; they have the same format you've come to love and expect, such as slim-but-defining features and a table of talents to roll on.

What sets the Bindrune Classes apart from typical Shadowdark options is that every class has a table of Mysticisms that they can learn as they level up. These Mysticisms use Crowned by the Horn's alternative spell rules and expands the conceptual nature of the class's mechanics. Read more below with our first debut'd class, the GAPAUGA -- The Gaping Abyss. 

NEW BOSS DESIGN: WILD SPIRITS

While Crowned by the Horn includes a truckload of new NPC stat blocks to use, what really sets the adventure apart is its Wild Spirits. Each of these spirits is an elaborate, customizable set-piece encounter. If the PC's survive the encounter, they are able to harvest the wisdom of these spirits, deepening their Runic Insight and allowing them to eventually level up.

Each spirit's encounter is split between 2-4 phases. Some phases include new stat blocks while others introduce Mystic Nature -- stat blocks for an arcane wild setting whose Moves create challenges and encounters for the party. Wild Spirit write-ups include summaries for each phase, as well as roll tables for Omens and Twists of Fate.

Not every Wild Spirit is a combat encounter, even if they start out as one. Below, the Wisps Among the Falls showcases how the encounter may start with combat against the spirits but eventually evolves into a high-stakes series of checks to see if the players can overcome the memories of what they lost in order to harvest the wisdom of the waterfalls.

Note that Crowned by the Horn is still a game based off Shadowdark. That means that you don't always need to roll dice to pass the check. Guidelines for this will be offered in the book; for example, if you are making a WIS check to overcome haunting memories, smoking herbs to dull the ache or carrying a memento that reminds you of your courage can let you succeed with rolling!

Crowned by the Horn is an expansion that takes Shadowdark into dark, paganistic territory. We've added new, streamlined rules to turn the game from a dungeon-delver into a foray through mystical worlds.

+ Runic Insights: In Aynbath, characters gain experience by deepening their understandings of their Bindrunes. By harvesting wisdom from powerful spirits, navigating Mystic Nature, and engaging with fated NPCs, the players deepen their Runic Insight, unearthing deeper power within themselves. The GM is empowered to award experience for things such as character development, finding artifacts, and other unique instances wherein a character's Runic Insight may deepen.

+ Spiritual Journey & Mortal Return: Instead of seperating adventures out with downtime, characters in Aynbath undergo a Spiritual Journey and a Mortal Return. Spiritual Journeys take place in the forests of the Horned God and is where characters can gain Runic Insight. During their Mortal Return, each player chooses a special encounter prompt that deals with how the mortals of Aynbath respond to them. The encounter is discussed and narrated by the table, after which the GM rolls a Fate die (D20 unmodified) vs the player's Destiny die (D20 + attribute modifier), which determines the ultimate effects of the of the character's Mortal Return. Once their Mortal Return is finished, they gain a level if they have enough experience to do so.

+ Mystic Nature: There are three kinds of mystical nature that effect the game. Seasons (based off solstice and equinox) apply one rule to the whole world; Skies (appearing when powerful spirits are encountered) add a new rule for that encounter; Spectacles are something akin to stat blocks that can produce other encounters or challenges for the players. These three elements work to create a world defined by its powerful and old wilds.

+ Burning Lubją: Lubją (LUB-yawn), a proto-germanic for special leaves like sage, replace torches in this game and serve as a 10 minute timer. When the Lubją burns out, the Shadow falls, increasing damage to all parties until Lubją is reignited. Lubją is only ignited during Spiritual Journeys.

+ Mysticisms: Spells in Aynbath take the form of powerful Mysticisms that various folks can learn. You gain Mysticisms from various sources, such as when harvesting wisdom from a powerful spirit, but you can only be under the effect of a number of Mysticisms equal to your level. You choose the Mysticisms you currently have use of when you enter a new Spiritual Journey or when completing a ritual upon finishing a long rest.

Here a glimpse into the Aynbath Artbook stuffed with multifaceted inspiration for GMs. Just as well it's great for delving into mysticism and the cosmos of Aynbath. If you like dark fantasy this is something for your collection:

A few artworks you will find in the book:

If you are curious about what the accompanying texts are like you can check our website's gallery page. Some got excerpts or full texts that are also in the artbook.

Crowned by the Horn is a collaboration between Aerozopher, the creator of Aynbath and Marquis Hartis, a skilled writer and game designer.

homepage / portfolio / aynbath website / aynbath discord

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The Song "Whispers of the Woods" accompanying the promotion video for the zine has been created by Urthron. Play or download it for free here: 

Here is a link to the music video: 

More Aynbath OST Tracks for free on https://tempelklang.bandcamp.com