The Shrike - Old School Essentials - TTRPG

2025 Gold Ennie Winner for Best Long Form Adventure.

A huge modular sandbox adventure setting in an abandoned fragment of Hell- a colossal blade dedicated to punishing a nameless God. The Shrike, is a heaven-harrowing thorn, a black iron mountain with serrated spires of rock and rust, that pierces the heart of the God, causing divine blood to flow and nourish life within the corroded iron and stone megastructure. The Shrike is written by Leo Hunt (the author of Vaults of Vaarn and mounds of excellent gaming material) for Old School Essentials RPG but works well for your other d20 based fantasy systems of choice.

The Shrike is a world of decay - rusted iron, crumbling stone, saltwater, blood, and fog - surrounded by a roiling ocean, a lifeless archipelago, pewter-hued clouds, seabirds, and pitiless stars. In this infernal Galapagos, players will encounter masked Devils, blood which gives life to things which should not have it, stones which give life to people who do not want it, terrible and stranded monsters, perilous locations, and wonderous treasures from across the planes.

What's Inside?

• 46 unique pointcrawl locations across the Shores of the Shrike, its fiery Guts, jagged snow capped Exterior, and procedurally generated depth-crawl in the surreal shifting interior of the it's heaven-harrowing Barb.
• 3 detailed and keyed dungeons including the waterlogged Cove of Iron Coffins, the derelict Gamigin's Starforge, and an endless masquerade ball in The Palace of the Heart, ranging from low to high level.
• 5 scheming factions of the diabolic Courts and mountains of detailed NPC's
• 3 new classes. From the shapeshifting Imp, to the Forged and Rampant Partials; made from the God's blood animating detritus and abandoned objects- molded into demon designed bodies or left to grow wild and feral.
• 40+ new monsters from the eyegouger finch to the auric homunculus.
• 37 brand new peculiar magic items
• 1 Nameless God impaled upon the Shrike's heaven-harrowing thorn, writhing and seeking escape.