The Crooked Moon, Legends of Avantris’ folk-horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, became the game’s most successful crowdfunding campaign to date, earning more than $4 million on Kickstarter. Ahead of the book’s June 16 release on D&D Beyond, Polygon spoke with Legends of Avantris lead writer and creative director Mikey Gilder to get some exclusive details on two of the species the Crooked Moon setting will introduce, and hear the latest track in a musical series focused on Crooked Moon’s villains.
The most popular species among Crooked Moon backers and early players is the harvestborn — constructs crafted by the lords of the rustic province of Enoch to tend to their fertile farmlands.
“There are a lot of standard high-fantasy species options, so when we were going to do a folk-horror campaign, it had to get weird,” Gilder told Polygon in a video call. “Two of the biggest themes and settings in folk horror are agrarian communities and the deep, dark woods, so you had to be able to play a scarecrow.”
Image: Legends of Avantris
A harvestborn’s glowing head might be made from a pumpkin, turnip, or burlap sack, and as constructs, they don’t need to breathe, eat, drink, or sleep. The designers originally imagined them as dark creatures associated with fear, but as they developed the world, they instead opted to connect them more closely with harvests and the cycle of growth, death, and rebirth. That grants harvestborn both a culling power, which can do extra damage to creatures that are already seriously injured, and a healing power, drawing on the strength of the land.
Another spooky option is the ratlike plagueborn from the province of Bubonia, which is covered in a pestilent haze and controlled by competing guilds.
“We really wanted to lean hard into the themes of plague and pestilence and medieval Dark Ages tropes,” Gilder said. “Obviously, people love plague doctors. It’s a classic [thing] that people cosplay as, and also ties into the Halloween vibes.”
Plagueborn are both resistant to poison and able to inflict disease on those they attack.
“This pestilence is part of their soul, and they are able to harness this magic,” Gilder said. “All of these species can be quite dangerous. There’s a lot of different options for plagueborn villains, just as there are for plagueborn heroes.”
Image: Legends of Avantris
Villains are a huge focus for Crooked Moon, which introduces 12 major antagonists for adventuring parties to face, including a group of twisted former heroes based on the player characters of Legends of Avantris’ actual play game Edge of Midnight. One of the many stretch goals unlocked by the wildly successful Kickstarter is a soundtrack composed by The Blasting Company, the band that provided music for the animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall. They’ve put together a series of songs representing these fallen adventurers, each with distinct styles.
“For [the twisted satyr] Gorthos, the Beast of Blight, we went hard into Celtic folk music and classic folk instruments like the nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, and uilleann pipes,” Gilder said. “It very much feels like this wailing song of tragedy. ‘By the Lagoon’ for the magician and trickster Mr. Crossroads is equal parts Delta blues and New Orleans jazz. People make some comparisons to The Princess and the Frog and Dr. Facilier.”
The latest in the series of signature numbers for the villains is “Under Your Shadow,” a haunting song from the perspective of Marius Renathyr, a knight who was tricked by a succubus and transformed into a vampire known as the Crimson Abbott. Performed by Tony nominee Ramin Karimloo, accompanied by a pipe organ and choir, it combines aspects of The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s villain song “Hellfire.”
“I used to take singing lessons, and our warm-up song was Ramin’s recording of [the Phantom showtune] ‘The Music of the Night,’” Gilder said. “He was an idol of mine, so he was the first choice for the song. We knew he could capture the spirit of this character who’s so tortured and conflicted. Ramin just absolutely nailed it, and we couldn’t be happier.”
Music has been a key part of Crooked Moon since the project was revealed with a creepy flipbook-style animated short set to a catchy tune from The Blasting Company. Along with the soundtrack, Legends of Avantris is releasing an album of looping atmospheric background music and a combat-music album.
“Music is so important for immersion, and to set the tone in horror and play with your emotions,” Gilder said. “We had no idea that the Kickstarter campaign would do as well as it did, so it’s been a long process to get 45 folk-horror songs, but it’s been a very joyous process.”
The Crooked Moon is available for $69.99 through D&D Beyond, where it will be released on June 16 ahead of an August print release. Physical and digital copies, the albums, and other accessories can be preordered through Backerkit.
