A Shadow on the Horizon
A small barony within the Kingdom of Sidwell is retreating from the nearby scorned woods. A bounty hangs unclaimed for any brave enough to answer.
$40.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Wednesday - 3:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 4–5 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Starting in the small barony of Ealing in the County of Ashmoore, a group of friends, wandering adventurers or opportunistic mercenaries find the road towards the nearby major city of Yorthak cut off by something sinister. Ealing has been harried for a number of years by supernatural forces spilling out of the once peaceful neighboring woodlands that in times past had been worked by the locals for resources. With each year that has past, Baron Julian Hoskins has placed an increasing reward for any who can drive back this darkness. That reward now stands at 10,000gp. _______________________________________________________________________ This Campaign takes place in a homebrew world of my own creation and the sum of around 7 years of creation. It can continue onwards and upwards either until the completion of the initial quest to save Ealing or expand outwards into a linear or sandbox style game with options for political, military and criminal expansion across the kingdom. I run milestone levelling, 2014 rules and am happy to discuss homebrew if players are interested and it does not upset party balance.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
Less than a year on StartPlaying
About me
A former streamer at the launch of D&D 5th Edition in 2014, I went from only having played a handful of games to playing in and running hundreds of campaigns, one shots, viewer games and more! I have a deep love for new worlds and homebrew, roleplay, stakes and sandbox style play where my players can effect the world and play the story they want. But that doesn't mean that every game needs to be edge of your seat or emotionally dense, there's always time for a side quest, shenanigan's, shopping episodes and other hijinx. I'm here to match you as a player at where you're at and what you want from your game.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
I'm happy to assist you along your character creation in anyway you need and here are a few things to consider from the offset: Are you travelling through the more dark and sinister county of Ashmoore for a reason? What motivation do you have to make it through to Yorthak, the City dedicated to the God of Death, a few days beyond the woods? What would your share of 10,000gp mean to you? What does your character think their greatest talent is? What do you think your characters greatest fear is? What is one thing you would never sacrifice for glory, coin or a cause?
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Currently I use Discord and Roll20 to run my games, with D&D Beyond extensions just fine. This may change in the future, based solely on the availability and continued support these services provide to myself and players. Webcams are optional.
What Blackwood brings to the table
This is a world of my own creation but I am happy to go over any details you wish to know about ahead of time. I also have a breakdown players guide to the world that I am happy to share for you to reference. Generally speaking I rule between rule of cool and rules as written. I'm a creative person and if you bring creative plays, I am more than happy to offer you bargains to use your characters and abilities creatively, as well as the environment, bold lies and compelling arguments! As always, my ruling as a DM is final, but I am more than happy to discuss ideas!
Homebrew rules
My homebrew rules are as follows: Falling damage is doubled for everything. If you fall from a cliff, it's going to hurt. If you Sparta kick an enemy off that cliff, it'll hurt them. Coup De Grace can be earned with careful planning against creatures you would be able to kill silently. Looking at you Rogues. I will require you to justify taking certain feats if there is no explanation up until now as to where your sudden Eldritch Adept came from. (You don't have to multiclass, but it will need to make sense narratively.) Finally, if you would prefer that healing potions take a bonus action on yourself and you can cast two levelled spells in a turn as long as one is a bonus action and better action surges, that's all fine. But beware, this will then apply to everything else in the world!
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Blackwood creates a safe table
During character creation, I will go over Lines and Veils with everyone in private and then disclose anonymously that there are lines that will not be tolerated in play and there are veils which are things we will not focus in on but are understood that they do occur in the setting. I like to do this before approving any characters to the story to ensure that there are no lines or veils in backstories that other players might organically bring up that could cause any discomfort for anyone at the table. Furthermore, I have listed content warnings of things that may come up during the campaign. There are a lot, but almost none of them are mandatory and if a player is uncomfortable with one of them, my door is always open to turn one of them into a veil or a line if possible within the confines of the story.
Content warnings
Safety tools used