What Crooked Roots: Folk Horror Encounters

Details

Playtime Not Played
Last Activity Never
Added 9/16/2025 7:40:18
Modified 9/16/2025 7:54:43
Completion Status Not Played
Library Itch.io
Source itch.io
Platform Physical
Release Date 11/1/2021
Community Score
Critic Score
User Score
Genre
Developer
Publisher
Feature
Links
Tag [itch.io] Bundle for Ukraine

Description

Welcome to the wilds.
Here you reap what you sow. 

Inspired by the settings and themes of The Wicker Man, Over the Garden Wall, The Ritual and many other folk horror tales, comes What Crooked Roots: 15 folk-horror themed roleplay encounters created for Fifth Edition.

Sly Flourish Digs What Crooked Roots!

Mostly focusing on western tropes and anxieties, What Crooked Roots flips some expectations and reinvents others for a fresh but familiar series of scary scenarios. With a haunting range of encounters that vary in length and difficulty, you’re sure to find something that lingers with your party well beyond their travels…

  • Explore cornfields growing something wicked.
  • Meet beekeepers who hide a secret.
  • Unearth forgotten, haunted groves.
  • Crack a black egg or see if it hatches.
  • Hear the whisper of something following in the shadows.
  • Feast on the fruit with human teeth inside instead of seeds.
  • Flee the Groat Man as it hunts you through an abandoned village. 
  • And much more!

The harvest is ready and the ritual always has room for one more...

Features: 

  • 15 Folk-horror encounters focusing on roleplay (some violence may be required).
  • A sprinkling of fantasy to remove and reimagine harmful stereotypes typically associated with folk-horror stories.
  • Lore to distribute as rumors, journals, dreams or other means as the GM sees fit within their world.
  • Encounters you can slot in as your party travels through or explores rural terrain, adapting to most settings.
  • Optional additions and roll tables to further customize encounters.

Download Includes: 

  • 33-page, full-color, and bookmarked PDF with original folk-horror style artwork.
  • Printer friendly and accessible PDF.
  • High-resolution player handouts with color inversions to help save printer ink.

CONTENT WARNINGS

  • Body horror and blood 
  • Allusions to cannibalism 
  • Allusions to pregnancy 
  • Allusions to stalking
  • Animal hunting and harvesting
  • Self-harm in a ritualistic setting
  • Cult-like behavior
  • Funeral for a child

Copies of What Crooked Roots are now available on Lulu Printing, Amazon, and many other sites. If you'd like a PDF, email a copy of your receipt to cassimothwin@gmail.com, and I'll happily hook you up with the digital goods! 

Click here to Buy a Print Copy!

What Crooked Roots Print edition

See all Sly Flourish has to say in the video below!