Vaesen: The Ashes of Artemis
You must rebuild the fallen Society amid mythic creatures and human cruelty, maintaining a fragile peace between the old world and the new.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Monday - 11:30 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 20+ Sessions
1 / 5 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/5
About the adventure
WELCOME TO THE MYTHIC NORTH! For two hundred years, the Society, once known as the Order of Artemis, stood guard in the Swedish city of Upsala between humanity and Vaesen, maintaining a fragile peace through knowledge, ritual, and the Sight. By the late eighteenth century, that balance had failed. Some Vaesen grew hostile. Others disappeared. After an internal fracture and a fiery massacre at Oulu Castle, the Society was all but wiped out. Now, through a traumatic event, you and your companions have gained the Sight. You can perceive what others can’t, and it has opened your eyes to myth, magic, monsters, and nightmares. Set at the tail end of the nineteenth century, Vaesen blends fairy-tale wonder with gothic and folk horror, evoking films like The Witch and the darker Grimm stories, in which beauty and terror walk side by side. From time immemorial, Vaesen lived alongside humanity, unseen but deeply woven into daily life. They protected farms, guided animals, and granted dreams in exchange for offerings and sacrifice. But now, the old ways are fading. Industrialization, new ideas, and the collapse of rural traditions have broken ancient agreements, and the creatures of forest, water, and field are turning hostile, erratic, and dangerous. The Ashes of Artemis is a story-first, theater-of-the-mind campaign focused on investigation, mood, and moral uncertainty. Expect quiet moments, eerie discoveries, and a steady rise of dread as individual mysteries give way to a larger effort to rebuild the Society, piece by piece.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rules as Written (RaW)
Theater of the Mind
Combat Lite
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(15)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
12 games hosted
Highly rated for: Sets the Mood, Teacher, Inclusive
Average response time: 2 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I am a passionate storyteller. I decided I wanted to become a writer when I was fourteen years old and have never deviated from that goal. All roads lead there. I am a professional Technical Writer, creating documentation and knowledge bases for both hardware and software companies. I also write, direct, produce, and edit a long-form documentary series for YouTube; have written several screenplays (both my own and commissioned); have published a memoir; and have had several essays and short stories published in various outlets. I came to TTRPGs late in life, through a chance encounter with Dimension 20 on Dropout.tv. I had never been exposed. In my youth, no one in my circle played or even spoke about Dungeons & Dragons, so I was left with the cliches. But the format instantly clicked with me and made me want to use the various systems to exercise a different part of my storytelling brain. When I run a game, I think of it as a screenplay: I know the beginning, but don't control the characters. And while that is daunting, it's also wildly exciting. Breathing a new kind of life into storytelling.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Players may choose from a provided list of pre-generated characters or work with me to create their own. Custom characters will be created using the Vaesen Core Rulebook character creation rules and completed via chat or Discord before the first session.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Welcome to Vaesen! To keep onboarding smooth and get us up to speed quickly, please complete the following steps before the session. None of this is difficult, but doing it ahead of time helps avoid technical delays once we start. What we are using • Roll20: The virtual tabletop where we play, roll dice, and move characters. • Discord: https://discord.gg/pw262FFCFy Preparation Steps 1. Create a free Roll20 account: https://roll20.net/ 2. I will send you a direct invitation link to the Roll20 game. Once you join, your character will be assigned and ready to play. If Roll20 is new to you, this quick guide covers the basics: https://app.roll20.net/editor/?embedded=0&spectator=0
What Dan brings to the table
The Ashes of Artemis is a custom campaign that combines published Vaesen mysteries with original investigations into a continuous, character-driven story about loss, duty, and restoration. Over time, you will rebuild and upgrade the Society’s headquarters, recover forgotten knowledge, acquire new tools and skills through experience, and form relationships. I run Vaesen with a strong emphasis on atmosphere, using careful description, character voices, custom art and maps, and extensive ambient music and sound design. I adhere closely to the rules to preserve danger and consequence, bending them only when the fiction clearly demands it. Combat is dangerous and often brief. Investigation and judgment carry more weight than violence. The table itself is supportive and respectful, with clear safety tools in place. The world you inhabit is not. You are not here to fix the North. You are here to live with it, and to decide what must be endured and what must be stopped.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Dan creates a safe table
Player comfort comes first, but clarity matters just as much. Vaesen is a gothic folk-horror game, and this campaign does not dilute that tone once play begins. I approach GMing on the assumption that players are adults choosing to engage with difficult material. This is closer to committing to a dark folk-horror novel or series than sitting down for a single episode. The mood is sustained. The themes are heavy. Familiarity does not make the world safer. Before play begins, I meet with each player individually for a one-on-one Session 0 via Discord. This is where we build characters, discuss boundaries, and align expectations. It is also where we ground each character in the setting, their trauma, and their reasons for having the Sight. Session 1 is intentionally slow, leaving room for atmosphere, uncertainty, and quiet moments. The aim is not to rush into danger, but to establish the weight of the world before it starts closing in. The campaign focuses on dread, folklore, isolation, and moral uncertainty rather than shock or gore. It engages with supernatural horror, psychological strain, historical cruelty, social injustice, and the slow breakdown of safety and trust. Violence exists, but it is rarely clean or satisfying, and it is often a consequence rather than a solution. If these are not themes you want to engage with, this may not be the right table for you, and that is completely fine. Throughout the campaign, there are clear ways to pause or redirect play if something becomes uncomfortable. You can speak up at the table, DM me the letter X via Discord, use Roll20’s whisper-to-GM feature, or place a digital Safety Card in Roll20. Any of these can be used at any time, without explanation. When a safety tool is used, the scene will shift or be skipped, and play will continue. After sessions, I make space to step out of character and decompress. The horror belongs in the fiction, not at the table. The game is meant to be intense, but the environment is controlled, respectful, and collaborative. My role is to maintain a steady tone, protect the table, and let the story unfold without rushing or softening its consequences.
Content warnings
Safety tools used