DICECASTERS #1 The Cursed Forest

Henry never expected a snow day to turn into a real-life adventure. But when a mysterious tabletop game pulls him, his little sister, and their cousin into a magical forest, the rules of reality change. Armed with glowing dice and strange new abilities, the kids must follow cryptic clues, face enchanted creatures, and track down a missing girl before the forest’s secrets slip away for good.

From treasure-filled caves to goblin strongholds in the trees, every choice matters - and every moment counts!

Henry was sitting in his basement with his little sister Robin, and their cousin, Seth. All three of them were out of school for a snow day and were trying to find something fun to do.

Since they lived within a few blocks of each other, they often played together after school and on weekends. Usually, they would hope for a snow day filled with video games. But today Henry’s mom told them she wanted them to “limit electronics”.

With a heavy sigh at her words, the three children had made their way down to the basement to figure out their options. Plopping down at the table the family often used for board games, Henry sighed again and surveyed the area

“We could build a fort!” Robin suggested, her shoulder length black hair swaying in her excitement. At eight years old, building forts was still one of her favorite things to do. If Henry was being honest, he loved building forts too, even at eleven years old. But today, he wanted something more exciting.

“How about a role-playing game?” He suggested.

“What’s that?” asked Seth, sounding very skeptical.

“Well, it’s kind of a storytelling game that you make up as you go. You pick the type of character you want to play. Then you and your group decide what your characters would do in the situation the game master creates. Oh yeah, the game master makes up the story and controls what happens as the players move through the world. I played it a few times with Liam and his friends before he went to college. It’s fun!” Henry answered. Liam was his older brother who had been away for the last few months.

“He left his books here since he said he would be too busy studying to play for a while.” Henry stood up from the table and motioned for Seth to join him.

Seth was a year younger than Henry, and still a few inches shorter. They had similar features and were often mistaken for brothers. Other than being a bit taller, Henry’s hair was dark blonde, whereas his cousins was a bright coppery red.

Henry reached the shelf where Liam stored his role-playing books and grabbed a few of them before returning back to the table. Seth remained at the shelf, running his fingers along the book spines and mumbling the titles under his breath.

Henry went back to sit at the table, setting the books down with a heavy thud. Seth came back moments after Henry, with a small bag of dice in his hands. He tossed it on the table and pulled on the strings that held it closed.

Henry glanced up at the bag as it rattled, then continued flipping through the first book.

“I could be the game master, or GM, since I have played before. Liam never let me do much in the game with his friends, but I saw how they ran the game and I think I could do a pretty good job.” Henry continued, opening the book to the “How to Play” section.

A small note in the margin caught his eye. “Beware the runes.” It didn’t look like Liam’s handwriting, but Henry knew that most of these books were secondhand.
Flipping the page, he forgot about the note as he moved into GM mode.

“We just have to decide what kind of game we want to play, pick our character types, and then I could figure out the adventure. Plus, if you both like playing, we could keep the game going past today!”

... KEEP READING IN DICECASTERS #1 CURSED FOREST