Harrowed Harvest is a 5e horror survival campaign set in the isolated valley town of Hollowmere, where All Hallows Eve spirals into nightmare. The fog thickens, lanterns gutter, and the living are hunted by memories and spirits as a centuries-old pact awakens. The party is drawn into Hollowmere by a desperate call or a promise of profit, only to discover that escape hinges on surviving three nights of increasingly cruel trials and unraveling a dark festival ritual. The tone blends suspense, investigation, and tense combat as players manage scarce resources, ration lantern light, and decide which souls to save or release.

Main Quest: Stop the Harvest Night by gathering three relics and reopening a sealed Gate before dawn. These relics are the Lantern of Veil (housed in the Lantern District catacombs), the Bride’s Wreath (hidden within Grave Orchard), and the Bell of Dawn (twisted beneath Blackspire Manor). Each relic is bound to a district and requires a blend of skill checks, diplomacy, and combat to recover. Once collected, the party performs a ritual at the Clocktower ruin that seals the Gate to a shadow realm called the Veil and restores the town’s light, with dawn restoring normal physics and morale—or doom, if misused.

Side Quest and Investigations: A missing child, Lira, becomes the first beacon in a web of lies. A dying innkeeper offers an oath to protect a cursed relic for a price. The players uncover a hidden ledger detailing past Harvest Nights, revealing that fear sustains the curse more than the ritual itself.

Hooks to Start: a festival procession that abruptly halts as fog swallows lanterns; a cryptic letter from a relative presumed dead; townsfolk speaking in euphoric whispers about a night that never ends. A traveling merchant bears a crate that hums with unseen energy but refuses to open it until trust is earned.

Locations and Central Challenges: Nether Hollow, Lantern District, Grave Orchard, Blackspire Manor, Clocktower, and the Well of Echoes are perils and opportunities. Expect will-o-wisps, specters, bone collectors, decaying monsters, and treacherous environmental hazards such as sudden fog rings, cursed crops, and blood-red rain. Players should anticipate skill challenges (Perception, Insight, Investigation), stealth to evade thralls, and tactical combat with undead motifs common to Halloween horror.

Climax and Ending: The ritual at the Clocktower either seals the Gate and restores Hollowmere to daylight, or fails, letting the Veil pour into the world while the festival becomes an endless night. Moral choices matter—saving a doomed soul may grant a boon but bind the party to a future obligation. Rewards include a Lantern that reveals illusions, a Harvest Blade that grants extra radiant damage once per night, and protective wards that endure until sunrise.