One Must Die: An Unofficial Gothic Soundtrack for Death House

Pretty, delicate and mysterious at points, dramatic and dark at others, it sounds a bit like a more grounded take on Danny Elfman’s work, only more traditional and with less of a whimsical vibe. —Ether Diver

This is background music originally written for my game of the Dungeons and Dragons adventure Death House, included in the module Curse of Strahd. Composed for string quintet, harp, piano, and percussion, it’s got a classic gothic horror feel, perfect for haunted houses and eerie TTRPGs.

You can get all seven tracks for free by downloading the demo below. The .wav and .ogg versions support my work directly, and include a special edition for Game Masters with seamlessly looping versions of each track. Other file formats are available on my Bandcamp page.

I'd love to know if you use this in your home game.

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All tracks composed, orchestrated, and realised by The Arcane Composer.

I’m extremely grateful to James of James’ RPG Art for letting me use his work for the cover art for this release.

Shane, Kay, Mac, and Josh have been incredible for providing feedback, suggestions, and insights.

And thanks to Carly W, Xiaoli, Ankur, Ola, Pat, and Steffen for being the test audience for this, including putting up with some pretty rough early versions, and for playing a great session in Death House.