A horror one-shot

The Blooming

Four strangers, one flower, and a night that does not end the way any of them was promised.

DUNWICH, MASSACHUSETTS · 1921

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What you are walking into

A rotting town that goes quiet when you ask directions, and will not walk you up the hill.

A house at the end of the road that somehow already knows your name.

And a rare and beautiful bloom, opening for one night only, that is not a flower at all, but a countdown.

You came a long way to see something wondrous. You will. That is the problem.

Why you’ll want to be there

I.

A True Mystery

An investigation, not a dungeon crawl. Search the rooms, read what you shouldn’t, follow the details that feel wrong. Every clue is real, and it all fits together. The answer is there for those brave enough to keep looking.

II.

Slow Dread

This is horror the way it is meant to feel: you are outmatched. No power fantasy and no easy wins, only mounting unease, a house that grows stranger the deeper you go, and a night that keeps taking things from you.

III.

Real Consequence

A single, self-contained evening with everything on the line. It’s a true one-shot: choices matter, nerve matters, and not everyone walks back down the hill. How your story ends is up to you.

The particulars

1Night
3–5Investigators
~4Hours
0Experience needed
1921Massachusetts

Never rolled a die in your life? Perfect. Ordinary people make the best investigators, and the best victims.

Recovered from the scene

CASE FILE · Y-1921/09 · SENTINEL HILL Sealed

Guests arrived by carriage after dusk. Purpose of visit: to observe the ████████ ████████ in bloom. None reported prior acquaintance.

Host of the household: ████████████. Manner described as courteous. Witnesses further noted the staff seemed to be ██████ ████ ██████████.

Lower levels of the estate contained ████████████████ ████. Recommend no further inquiry. What was found ██████ below is not recorded here.

Of the party that ascended the hill, the number who returned is ████████.

— the remainder of this file has been withheld at the GM’s discretion —

Everything blacked out above is waiting for you at the table. Some things you have to earn the right to read.

Get the book

The front cover of The Blooming, A Horror One-Shot, by Jason Churchill: a slipper orchid with a dark, glossy pouch, on black.

A number of tales of the Old Sentinel Hill house have circulated in these parts for years. No one knows exactly what goes on up there, but we occasionally see people come from across the land to visit. The last time was the last night of September 1921, when four lovers of nature came into town hoping to view the blooming of a rare type of flower. Rumor has it that it only blooms once every fifteen years. I haven’t seen it myself, nor would I bother. Something is different about that house, as if it’s waiting. But waiting for what?

Come alone. Speak of it to no one.

  • “You are cordially summoned to witness a wonder that graces this world but once in fifteen years.”
  • For three to five players and a game master, four hours of play, in any horror gaming system you choose.
  • Inside are five investigators ready to play, thirteen handouts to pass across the table for shock and awe, four maps of the house and the hill, and notes for running the night in whatever system you know and love. Previous readers of this tome have left their marks in the margins, should you dare read their madness.
  • Contains body horror, pregnancy imagery, and an unwinnable ending.

Paperback

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Hardcover

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eBook

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Other booksellers · $42.14

  1. Buy a print edition.
  2. Find the code on the How to Use page.
  3. Sign in with Discord at the table-runner's site.

For the one who runs it

The front cover: a slipper orchid glowing in a dark conservatory
The front cover
Dunwich at dusk: sagging houses, a covered bridge and a wooded hill
Dunwich at dusk
The open door of the chateau at dusk, a butler waiting in the lamplit hall
The chateau receives them
A pale chateau standing alone on bare grey rock
The house before the hill

What the site holds

I.

The GM Text

The whole one-shot, a page to each part, with the read-aloud boxes, GM notes and clue ladders in place.

II.

Pregens

Ready-made investigators for every seat at the table, printable.

III.

Handouts

Every handout on a page of its own, to show or print as the night asks.

IV.

Maps

The survey maps of the estate, with their numbered keys.

V.

Art

Every plate, portrait and spot illustration at full size, for showing at the table.

VI.

Downloads

Files to keep and take to your own table.

Sign in with Discord

Your copy of the book carries the code that opens it.

Will you answer?

A carriage waits at dusk on the thirtieth of September. Come alone. Speak of it to no one. You are expected.

R.S.V.P. Claim your seat

Open the seal above to join the investigation.