“Bah!” The old teamster waved off the nonsense being spewed by the new kid. Mists kidnapping people and carrying them off to some dark dimension. Every year the new kids brought these ridiculous stories with them onto the caravan trails, as if working the caravans wasn’t exciting enough. Bandits, monsters and dragons; Old Jed had survived all of them. He wasn’t going to be afraid of a bit of fog, no matter what the youngsters said.
He wasn’t feeling quite so confident a few hours later, when he awoke to a scream. His vision was filled with a thick and heavy white mist, and nothing could be seen beyond a few feet in front of his eyes. He could hear plenty though. People shouting and horses screaming. The clash of steel on steel and the smashing of wood.
A crash above Old Jed startled him into action. He crawled from under his wagon and away. He thought he remembered from the evening which way the trees were. They would hide him. A step, a stab, and a scream, all sounds from unseen things in the mist, and a wet meaty thump delivered a body to Jed. It was the new kid, the one who had been so afraid of the mists, most of him anyways. Rightly so, it seemed.
He was covered in blood, the bits Jed could see. More of him was missing entirely. His eyes were wide open, frozen in terror. Jed pressed on, praying he was going the right way. A boot impacted his ribs, and he felt something fall over the top of him, so he crawled faster, feeling a sharp slash followed by warm liquids across the back of his legs.
He tried to stand, to flee faster, but couldn’t. His legs collapsed out from under him when he tried, and he resorted to crawling again. A shadow emerged from the mists as he crawled towards it…a tree. Old Jed dragged himself to it and cowered under the trunk, trying to hide himself among the roots.
It wasn’t enough. Something big, that snarled like a rabid wolf but walked on two legs like a human, drew closer, it’s silhouette outlined in the mists as one of the wagons flared up in flames. Jed screamed. He didn’t have a choice in the matter. He was dead and he knew it. The dark form paused, turned towards him, and drew closer. Jed closed his eyes to the horror that approached him, accepting his death.
Something hot and sticky splashed down onto him, closely followed by something big, heavy, and furry. Jed opened his eyes to find himself staring into the face of a monster. Well, half of the face of a monster.
He looked up, shock and awe battling for control of him. In the flames eating his caravan, Jed could see figures… heroes? … battling the monsters in the dark. A Warforged, a construct somehow alive, expertly swinging a sword with a smaller figure beside it wielding a pair of blades, supporting it. Suddenly, crashing down into the middle of them, a bizarre metal owl-like contraption that shouted in Gnomish!
Jed didn’t know if it was blood loss, or if he’d hit his head, or maybe a trick of the mists, but he was sure he saw light wreathing these new figures, causing the mists to glow and retreat slightly. He let his eyes drift closed.
Heavy, booted footsteps came close. Jed opened his eyes again and glanced to the side to see a bearded Dwarf step up and kneel by him. It placed a gauntleted hand on his injured legs, and Old Jed felt healing magic seeping into him and mending his wounds. Looking up at Jed’s face, serious eyes glaring out from under a steel helm, the dwarf spoke in a rough feminine voice.
“The Mists. They seek heroes and adventurers to take to HIS Domain where they can be hunted and destroyed easier. We resist as we can, but soon we will be pulled through. We MUST find more if we want to save the lands beyond the mists from the Dread Lord that sits upon the throne. Carry word of this to the towns, the cities, the Lords and Ladies. Find adventurers willing to undertake this quest. Send them out. Into the mists. We will meet them there.”
As Old Jed looked beyond the dwarf he saw other figures in the mists now. Swordsmen, archers, casters and clerics, all gathering to fight the darkness in the mists. He turned back to his healer and simply nodded.
What else could he do? He was just a caravaneer, not a warrior, or a hero… he looked back at the dwarf… or heroine from the old tales. But, Jed’s was a land that produced heroes and heroines. Surely there would be some to take up the cause..?
**WARNING**Curse of Strahd is a somewhat darker campaign than most. Not for the faint of heart or the queasy of mind.
Starting Monday 4th April, 7pm EST
Running for around 4 hours to 11pm.
Only 2 spots left!!!
The Perks
Signature Items! While your party may need to face these threats alone, you won’t be unaided in your quests. Concerned merchants, adventurer patrons, or something more, will sponsor you and see you are provided with the very best equipment money can’t buy… Your very own Signature Item. Designed by you, the player, and reflective of your character’s skills and goals, these items improve and grow with your character potentially reaching artifact levels of power!
Free One Shots! Signing up for one of the paid campaigns will also get you access to my one shot server, where I and others run regular one shot adventures. Even though the campaigns start in April, you would be given access to this server immediately, and are welcome to join any games that are running there.
Anything Goes! There are a lot of options available in the Charactermancer, and any and all of them are open for you to play with. Warforged Artificer? Sure! Fairy Barbarian? Why not! The only limit is your imagination.
Have Some Gold! I've noticed that quite a few GMs can be quite stingy when it comes to rewards for their players, especially in the published modules. I reward good roleplay, clever planning, and I'm not afraid to give my characters a pile of gold to spend. Of course, getting your hands on that much gold may have other consequences…
Impact Your World! My games are a living world. The actions players take could have consequences that would be felt for miles around, and it's not realistic to expect everything to be back to normal when you've moved onto the next town. This does mean that both positive and negative effects can be seen due to player choices. Ripples may even stretch into other games I’m running, and campaign results will persist into future campaigns.
Game: D&D 5e
Campaign: Various
Experience: From AD&D (2e) to 5E, I’ve been roleplaying for over 20 years, and GM’ing for nearly as long. The pandemic has given me extensive knowledge of Roll 20. I welcome players with no experience to my table.
Game style: I provide a world and a story, and let the players interact with it as they want. While this does mean that it can sometimes be a challenge to keep the players on track, it also means that they have a lot of freedom. I also like to incorporate character backgrounds into the campaign. I like a good background from a player and will reward accordingly.
Location/Timezone: UK, but timezone isn't too important as we play online. So long as I can understand you, and you can understand me, we’re good!
Group type: Online - Discord for voice, Roll20 for the virtual tabletop. Free accounts for both Discord and Roll20 would be all you need.
Payment: These will be paid games, likely charged at £12 per session, or £40 per month, but final pricing will be announced before the campaigns start. Please note that Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements.
Testimonials:
"Freedom to have fun, be creative, to role play “your big moment”, to get items and loot galore… all with the constant fear your PC could be toast at any moment" - Jarndo, Dwarf Barbarian.
"Bort lets the PCs be the best versions of themselves. He puts interesting challenges in front of the group and lets the group go to work on them." - Darvin, Human Fighter.
“Bort provides the ideal setting for the player to express their creativity with the perfect balance of indulgence and RAW. If you have felt modules are a bit too stifling or homebrew a bit to freeform, Bort finds the sweet spot.” - Sunder, Hexadin
“I went into the game with this incredible signature item…. And it just got better… and then… just. WOW. No spoilers – but oh man. Love his DM style and play, but this item??? BEST DM EVER!” - Voni, Human Arcane Archer
“Bort's GMing gently gets under your skin until you realize you're effortlessly having a lot of fun. He's generous with the loot but he giveth with one hand and removeth with the other like an omniscient god should. If there's something you want to explore he will go there with you but keep things on track, giving everyone time to shine. Very importantly he knows his rules and his lore and like a good artist knows when to transcend them.” - Nico, Human 'I see dead people' Bard
Still got questions? I have answers! Please contact me on Discord @Bort#7252 for more information.
“Bah!” The old teamster waved off the nonsense being spewed by the new kid. Mists kidnapping people and carrying them off to some dark dimension. Every year the new kids brought these ridiculous stories with them onto the caravan trails, as if working the caravans wasn’t exciting enough. Bandits, monsters and dragons; Old Jed had survived all of them. He wasn’t going to be afraid of a bit of fog, no matter what the youngsters said.
He wasn’t feeling quite so confident a few hours later, when he awoke to a scream. His vision was filled with a thick and heavy white mist, and nothing could be seen beyond a few feet in front of his eyes. He could hear plenty though. People shouting and horses screaming. The clash of steel on steel and the smashing of wood.
A crash above Old Jed startled him into action. He crawled from under his wagon and away. He thought he remembered from the evening which way the trees were. They would hide him. A step, a stab, and a scream, all sounds from unseen things in the mist, and a wet meaty thump delivered a body to Jed. It was the new kid, the one who had been so afraid of the mists, most of him anyways. Rightly so, it seemed.
He was covered in blood, the bits Jed could see. More of him was missing entirely. His eyes were wide open, frozen in terror. Jed pressed on, praying he was going the right way. A boot impacted his ribs, and he felt something fall over the top of him, so he crawled faster, feeling a sharp slash followed by warm liquids across the back of his legs.
He tried to stand, to flee faster, but couldn’t. His legs collapsed out from under him when he tried, and he resorted to crawling again. A shadow emerged from the mists as he crawled towards it…a tree. Old Jed dragged himself to it and cowered under the trunk, trying to hide himself among the roots.
It wasn’t enough. Something big, that snarled like a rabid wolf but walked on two legs like a human, drew closer, it’s silhouette outlined in the mists as one of the wagons flared up in flames. Jed screamed. He didn’t have a choice in the matter. He was dead and he knew it. The dark form paused, turned towards him, and drew closer. Jed closed his eyes to the horror that approached him, accepting his death.
Something hot and sticky splashed down onto him, closely followed by something big, heavy, and furry. Jed opened his eyes to find himself staring into the face of a monster. Well, half of the face of a monster.
He looked up, shock and awe battling for control of him. In the flames eating his caravan, Jed could see figures… heroes? … battling the monsters in the dark. A Warforged, a construct somehow alive, expertly swinging a sword with a smaller figure beside it wielding a pair of blades, supporting it. Suddenly, crashing down into the middle of them, a bizarre metal owl-like contraption that shouted in Gnomish!
Jed didn’t know if it was blood loss, or if he’d hit his head, or maybe a trick of the mists, but he was sure he saw light wreathing these new figures, causing the mists to glow and retreat slightly. He let his eyes drift closed.
Heavy, booted footsteps came close. Jed opened his eyes again and glanced to the side to see a bearded Dwarf step up and kneel by him. It placed a gauntleted hand on his injured legs, and Old Jed felt healing magic seeping into him and mending his wounds. Looking up at Jed’s face, serious eyes glaring out from under a steel helm, the dwarf spoke in a rough feminine voice.
“The Mists. They seek heroes and adventurers to take to HIS Domain where they can be hunted and destroyed easier. We resist as we can, but soon we will be pulled through. We MUST find more if we want to save the lands beyond the mists from the Dread Lord that sits upon the throne. Carry word of this to the towns, the cities, the Lords and Ladies. Find adventurers willing to undertake this quest. Send them out. Into the mists. We will meet them there.”
As Old Jed looked beyond the dwarf he saw other figures in the mists now. Swordsmen, archers, casters and clerics, all gathering to fight the darkness in the mists. He turned back to his healer and simply nodded.
What else could he do? He was just a caravaneer, not a warrior, or a hero… he looked back at the dwarf… or heroine from the old tales. But, Jed’s was a land that produced heroes and heroines. Surely there would be some to take up the cause..?
**WARNING** Curse of Strahd is a somewhat darker campaign than most. Not for the faint of heart or the queasy of mind.
Starting Monday 4th April, 7pm EST
Running for around 4 hours to 11pm.
Only 2 spots left!!!
The Perks
Signature Items! While your party may need to face these threats alone, you won’t be unaided in your quests. Concerned merchants, adventurer patrons, or something more, will sponsor you and see you are provided with the very best equipment money can’t buy… Your very own Signature Item. Designed by you, the player, and reflective of your character’s skills and goals, these items improve and grow with your character potentially reaching artifact levels of power!
Free One Shots! Signing up for one of the paid campaigns will also get you access to my one shot server, where I and others run regular one shot adventures. Even though the campaigns start in April, you would be given access to this server immediately, and are welcome to join any games that are running there.
Anything Goes! There are a lot of options available in the Charactermancer, and any and all of them are open for you to play with. Warforged Artificer? Sure! Fairy Barbarian? Why not! The only limit is your imagination.
Have Some Gold! I've noticed that quite a few GMs can be quite stingy when it comes to rewards for their players, especially in the published modules. I reward good roleplay, clever planning, and I'm not afraid to give my characters a pile of gold to spend. Of course, getting your hands on that much gold may have other consequences…
Impact Your World! My games are a living world. The actions players take could have consequences that would be felt for miles around, and it's not realistic to expect everything to be back to normal when you've moved onto the next town. This does mean that both positive and negative effects can be seen due to player choices. Ripples may even stretch into other games I’m running, and campaign results will persist into future campaigns.
Game: D&D 5e
Campaign: Various
Experience: From AD&D (2e) to 5E, I’ve been roleplaying for over 20 years, and GM’ing for nearly as long. The pandemic has given me extensive knowledge of Roll 20. I welcome players with no experience to my table.
Game style: I provide a world and a story, and let the players interact with it as they want. While this does mean that it can sometimes be a challenge to keep the players on track, it also means that they have a lot of freedom. I also like to incorporate character backgrounds into the campaign. I like a good background from a player and will reward accordingly.
Location/Timezone: UK, but timezone isn't too important as we play online. So long as I can understand you, and you can understand me, we’re good!
Group type: Online - Discord for voice, Roll20 for the virtual tabletop. Free accounts for both Discord and Roll20 would be all you need.
Payment: These will be paid games, likely charged at £12 per session, or £40 per month, but final pricing will be announced before the campaigns start. Please note that Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements.
Testimonials:
"Freedom to have fun, be creative, to role play “your big moment”, to get items and loot galore… all with the constant fear your PC could be toast at any moment" - Jarndo, Dwarf Barbarian.
"Bort lets the PCs be the best versions of themselves. He puts interesting challenges in front of the group and lets the group go to work on them." - Darvin, Human Fighter.
“Bort provides the ideal setting for the player to express their creativity with the perfect balance of indulgence and RAW. If you have felt modules are a bit too stifling or homebrew a bit to freeform, Bort finds the sweet spot.” - Sunder, Hexadin
“I went into the game with this incredible signature item…. And it just got better… and then… just. WOW. No spoilers – but oh man. Love his DM style and play, but this item??? BEST DM EVER!” - Voni, Human Arcane Archer
“Bort's GMing gently gets under your skin until you realize you're effortlessly having a lot of fun. He's generous with the loot but he giveth with one hand and removeth with the other like an omniscient god should. If there's something you want to explore he will go there with you but keep things on track, giving everyone time to shine. Very importantly he knows his rules and his lore and like a good artist knows when to transcend them.” - Nico, Human 'I see dead people' Bard
Still got questions? I have answers!
Please contact me on Discord @Bort#7252 for more information.
Awesome news! After just half an hour after posting this, I am down to 1 SPOT LEFT!!!
Best hurry if you want that final spot for Strahd!
Amazingly, the group is now full!!!
Shortest advert ever!