HEY! YOU Yeahhh you! You like DnD right? Are you interested in the aspects of horror and the afterlife? Or just want to add a little bit more spice and trauma to your game or your character(s)?
Then you should check out Black Ballad!
Created by the beautifully dark minds of Rick Heinz, Brian Fitzpatrick, Erik Frankhouse, James Monsingo, and Christian Birkeit, Black Ballad adapts the popular 5e campaign setting to the Shadowdark rules system, perfect for that grittier, high-stakes style of play. You get the chance to explore the Storm of Broken Worlds and engage yourselves in the discourse of death itself, and attempt to get a second chance... at life.
Kickstarter ends in 6 days, and they are so close to being fully funded! If this piques your interest, I highly suggest you check it out!
Black Ballad Kickstarter:
The Black Ballad: Second Chances expands Shadowdark into High Tier play. Death is only the beginning...
I am not part of the team, but I thought it was super neat and wanted to spread the word.
Hey there fishsticks this is our one and only official Tumblr page where we'll update you on streams/the campaigns/and more!
But if you're new and wondering who we are? Then please allow me to enlighten the path into the mystical world of the walking fish...
We're a dnd podcast that streams on https://twitch.tv/pixiesdirt and posts to YouTube/Tiktok under the walking fish title!
We currently stream 2 campaigns at the moment, the first one is called "The Black Sabbath!" a folk horror inspired dnd campaign where the party are all connected to one of the seven sins and they have to go around the world finding the names of their kings in order to stop "N0TH1NG." It's really fun and besides folk horror it also has eldritch abominations, gritty drama, grief, stories, and constant horror! It's rated R and I recommend checking it out we're currently on session 23 heading into "The Thin Place" a demon filled, magic less, lovely piece of land entirely inspired by Appalachian folklore!
The second campaign is called "In the Blood." A survival dnd campaign that's actually a redo of itself from the olden days (a year ago). The players are climbing the biggest mountain on Vundabar called "Bauhaus" an unclimbable mountain cursed so no one can leave, it's also been told that an ancient goddess lies at the top granting those who make it their deepest desires. It's got a huge underlying plot that the players slowly uncover as they make their mark on the mountain. It's fun and filled with twists and turns at each corner so if you like snow, women, the silly, and stars then this is the campaign for you! Currently on session 7 so join in while the plots cooking!
We're a group of nerds, writers, gamers, old, young, gay, trans, that other thing, and more. We stream not for fame but to share these fun moments with people like us and cuz we get to have vods of our sessions so if you like this then consider checking us out on twitch or join the discord!!! But besides all that follow us for future posts and have a great day!!!!!!
All the characters that our group plays under our other DM (not me) exist within one universe, called Weyard. We didn't always know that but eventually it became apparent that our alternative characters were crossing paths with our mains, which was a fun development, right?
Wrong.
So, REWIND:
Two weeks ago, our main campaign (Weyard for the other DM) reached a very important point in our campaign. We were tasked with trying to bring another member back from the dead. This other member was someone we met while doing a one-shot WITH OUR MAIN CHARACTERS, but who did not travel with us after this point. So we all knew and remembered him, but hadn't seen him in awhile. We learned of his death, and confirmed that he was dead prior to being tasked with bringing him back.
We were given the chance to bring him back through a complicated ritual which would grant us one of 2 remaining wishes that exist in the universe. This was a once in a lifetime chance, and we were
EXTENSIVELY. WARNED. THAT. THIS. WAS. A. ONE. AND. DONE.
So we get to the area where we could do the ritual, three of our party members go forth to try and do the trials to get the wish. They succeed. Again:
WE. WERE. WARNED. EXTENSIVELY. THAT. THIS. WAS. OUR. ONLY. CHANCE.
To make our wish come true everyone in the party would have to wish for the same thing. "The effort given will be reflected in the reward".
Well fuck me sideways, you wanna know how that went?
In our party of 8, 3 of the people did not wish for the same thing as the rest of the group.
Wished for a fucking Dragon. For no reason. Absolutely none. Without anyone else wishing for it he never would have gotten it. He did not wish for it outloud, so none of us knew what he wished for in-game, only that he wouldn't tell us what he wished for.
Wished for her dead kids back. Understandable and it was a fear we all had when the rules were explained to us. Our group trusted her to do the right thing, and she failed.
Wished that "his friend's wishes come true".
The rest of us put our hearts and souls into wishing the dearly departed back.
Flash forward to this weekend:
We are all still at the ritual spot, immediately my character (Orlogg) and his best friend (Dante) picked up the gnome (Passmae, who wished for the Dragon) and beat the shit out of him because he wouldn't tell us what he wished for. He's been sketchy at other moments too, and this was the final straw. We then confirmed with the dude running the trials that Passmae was ONE of the reasons we failed. We beat the shit out of him. He's been unconscious for 5 in-game days because every time he moves we beat him unconscious again (partly because, OF COURSE THE DUDE WHO RUINED THE CAMPAIGN COULDN'T MAKE THE SESSION).
Vestare, who wished for her children back, we...had words with. Words along the lines of:
"We're not mad, we're hurt that you literally act like you're alone all the time. You're not alone. We've been together through this entire bullshit saga of events since we first met. If you ASKED we would all go to the ends of the world to get your kids back. You only need to say the word. None of us, including you, can do this alone. Believe in us like we believe in you."
Dank, who had a vague wish, was ignored completely (also not at session).
Orlogg (me) decided to take some hallucinogens at the ritual site and was greeted by Fate and Destiny. Not the gods of fate and destiny, but the actual incarnations of all of Fate and all of Destiny. Beholden to none. Orlogg begged them for assistance and was told that,
F&D: "Every time we meddle, we make things worse. Every time we help, your odds of success diminish. There's a balance that needs to be maintained, and every time we tip it, it is never in our favour."
O: "What can I give to even the scales?"
F&D: "You're not the only one who will have to give. Soon, someone very close to you, will be in dire need of help and when that day comes, you two will both have to give, and HE will never be the same."
O: "Will that help? Or will it just keep things even?"
F&D: "Tough to say. It will help bring the departed back."
O: "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Before I go, I just want to say thanks for everything you've already done." *Motions to fist bump them*
F&D: *One of them reaches to fist bump and as our knuckles touch they whisper* "I'm sorry."
Which was cryptic and terrifying because Orlogg cares deeply about his best friend Dante, so clearly they meant his BFF.
Well as we traveled to return and report our failure to a Cleric of Life, Dante just starts whipping out a skull that he's had hidden for months (in-game) in his backpack and starts talking to it, and can't seem to stop holding it. We all remember the player picking up the skull, but none of our characters saw it when it happened months ago.
We get back to the temple and the man who gave us the chance, and he loses his shit. Basically just tells us:
"You're the reason that the world will end. There is no hope. You've stolen everything from every single person, creature, whatever in this world. It's over. We've lost. We wasted one of the very precious last wishes for the world. And that failure spells doom for the entire world."
The skull begins talking. It is the skull of Memnoch--one of the side characters of Dante who died during a different campaign (which is why Dante picked up to begin with, cause the player meta knew that was her skull). Memnoch tells Dante that there is one more last chance, and explains how to do it.
This includes that ONLY the people who can be "trusted" can accompany Dante on this quest. The party must be split and this "event" will happen elsewhere. So the five of us who wished properly have left the rest of the group on a separate secret mission.
THEN, the DM informed us that failure during this quest will result in the entire universe being wiped. That means our main characters, our side characters, everything that isn't my Dragonlance campaign: gone. Everyone is dead. Including the OTHER GROUP OF PLAYERS who is also playing in our universe on the same quest that we are supposed to link up with for the end BBEG fight (I think its over 15 characters vs. the BBEG).
So there were tears and now the five of us have been having massive anxiety over this upcoming secret session to save the universe. Not the world. The universe.
(THIS LAST CHANCE ONLY HAPPENED BECAUSE THE WOMAN WHO PLAYS DANTE MESSAGED THE DM OUTSIDE OF GAME TWO WEEKDS AGO AND ASKED IF THERE WAS ANYTHING DANTE COULD DO TO FIX THE FAILURE AFTER WE ALL CLEARLY KNEW WE FAILED BECAUSE SOMEONE DECIDED TO WISH FOR A FUCKING DRAGON! HIS ORIGINAL INTENT WAS WE WERE ALL GOING TO KEEP PLAYING FOR MONTHS AND THEN THE END FIGHT WE WOULD JUST...LOSE. WE LOST 3 MONTHS AGO WHEN WE FAILED ON THE MOUNTAIN. BUT HE'S DECIDED TO GIVE US ONE LAST CHANCE WITHOUT THE PROBLEM PLAYER.)
Our DM everyone. Master of emotional devastation.
To find out what happened next, check the links below:
Dante's No Good Horrible Awful Bad Vacation (AKA: The Universe Wipe) Part 1
Dante's No Good Horrible Awful Bad Vacation (AKA: The Universe Wipe) Part 2
BUT ONE OF MY FUCKING FRIENDS IS IN A HORROR STORY CAMPAIGN
The DM has a crappy Co DM, the other PCs are always rude to my friend's character, for a while the DM "couldn't" even pronounce my friends character's name(later perfectly pronounced it when I was in the same VC, my friend called it out and the DM sounded flustered like the correct pronunciation was a mistake), and the other players seem to CONSTANTLY have something against my friend for some reason???
Not my place to tell the whole thing, partially cuz idk the entire thing, but I want my friend to leave that campaign for the sake of their mental health.
(I also have another friend who is in that campaign but aren't hostile to my friend and some of the horror latches to them as well)
I mean, yeah, the DM is new I know that but THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY SET RULES?????
I’m hoping to create a dungeons and dragons horror campaign; But before that can happen I want to get good at designing terrifying characters. Wish me luck 🤞
