Last night we played Dungeon World in another game of our Arabic fantasy setting. This is a “West Marches” game which means every session can have different players and different characters – so is truly an ongoing drop in – drop out kind of game for casual players. BUT if you want to return often with the same character that is very welcome too!
The group was:
· Druin, a cleric of the Dawn Lord.
· Esmerelda, a charlatan and con-artist.
· Mira, a bookish wizard.
· Vander, a hulking barbarian.
The group started off (as usual) in the small city of Dhuliban - at the end of a caravan route and at the edge of a trackless desert. Scouting around the market they heard rumours of several interesting locations but it was Druin with his tattered map of the surrounding area who decided that they needed to cross "The Devils Bridge" because he was interested in a seemingly abandoned temple on the other side. The rumours said that the townsfolk at the bridge made a literal deal with a devil - he would construct a fabulous bridge across a deadly chasm, and in return would receive the first soul to cross the bridge. The wily townsfolk cheated the fiend, sending a puppy across the bridge to the devils chagrin - depriving him of the human soul he believed he had rightly earned.
(It’s important to note that the whole group was rolling at -1 for 80% of this adventure, until their first rest due to a poor roll on the setting out move when they left the city! Oops, possibly bad GMing on my part… but it did lead to a lot of crazy shenanigans that I believe we all enjoyed).
They set off into the wild desert with Vander leading the way. They started winding up into the foothills and soon encountered an old man in tattered robes being attacked by a gigantic scorpion, arriving just in time to see the old man snipped in half. The scorpion turned its attention on them but was quickly rebuked by Druin who set the fear of his god into the creature, sending it scuttling back down its burrow. Esmerelda searched the corpse (both halves) and found a mysterious amulet in the shape of a four pointed star overlaid with a five pointed star. Druin spouted lore to identify that this was an evil artefact associated with a devil named Blurtag.
All agreed that staying out at night with the evil amulet was a bad idea so they looked for shelter. At that point they noticed a row of torches coming down the mountain path towards them at rapid pace. Vander decided to meet these people front on (typical Barbarian!) and fronted up to them with quite a bit of attitude. A group of what seemed like bandits appeared and asked if they had seen a man on the path as they were looking for a "traitor". Realising the old man with the amulet was so they were taking about, they tried some bluffing etc but the brashness of Vander escalated things quickly, the bandits lit a signal flare from a torch, which seemingly summoned reinforcements from further up the mountain (another column of torches was now heading their way) and then attacking - with both Vander and Esmerelda getting stabbed a bit but they eventually overcame the rogues (Vander doing an epic swing to take out 3 at once with his claymore).
Trying to get better info about these bandits and the amulet, Druin invoked his god but things went terribly awry. He got the info he was looking for (identifying these bandits as cultists of Blurtag) but in doing so resurrected all the enemies as zombies!!! Another desperate fight and they offed the undead, with Mira going invisible and then magic missiling several of them at once.
Just then the bandit/cultist reinforcements arrived, but they'd had time to plan. Esmerelda got into disguise as one of the guys they had killed, and knew his name after Druin identified his name from a letter he was carrying. She used her contact poison to make them friendly to her and convinced them that she was escorting her prisoner (Vander) back to 'base' while Druin hid and Mira went invisible. After a tense couple of minutes the cultists agreed to let the disguised Esmerelda head off up-slope, while they rushed down the trail in search of the amulet while stating that their immortal souls were at risk unless they got it back.
The group quickly realised the flaw in their plan, that the cultists would easily find the body of the old man cut in half and turn back, so they decided to hot foot it to the town at the Devils Bridge. They managed in the darkness to wind their way up into the mountains and arrived at the village - a marvellous construction, in that an enormous stone bridge spanned an arch, with the village built into the structure itself (inspired by Puente Nuevo in Ronda, Spain). Oddly though, the village was quite - too quiet. All windows and doors were shuttered and barred, and not a light was shining in any of the buildings. They made their way to an open barn and decided to camp there for the night - but were warned by howls of some great hound drawing ever closer. Putting two and two together they realised that whatever the 'hell hound' coming their way was, it is clearly the puppy whose soul the villagers had sacrificed to Blutarg.
Esmerelda decided to disguise herself as Blutarg and asked Druin to consult his vast knowledge to help her identify a suitable disguise. His best answer? "People often mention the sandals". Big Help. Esmerelda did her best, nuding up except for a pair of sandals and the evil medallion - ready to confront the hound in her 'disguise' as its fiendish master. Panicking (possibility at the sheer stupidity of this plan) and with the great three headed hound appearing before them ready to pounce, Mira took a great risk - she cast a spell of summoning and brought Blurtag into the mortal realm, drawing him forth with reality shattering force through a portal in the amulet hanging around Esmerelda's neck. Rather than some horrific visage instead they were greeted with a stunning adonis of a man in a toga like robe (and yes, replete with sandals).
Asking Blutarg how they could put an end to his (and his dog) predation of the village, he did a quick calculation and let them know that in the span of time since he was due that one soul, it would now have multiplied through the generations to 47. All they had to do was kill 47 villagers and give him their souls. Easy peasy. Although Vander was keen on this idea, they asked for any other options and Blutarg decided he'd happily take any souls as long as he got 47 - and the cultists who worship him might be an easier option. Since the group had already killed several of the cultists, they opted for this path. Cheekily, Esmerelda asked if she could take Blutargs toga, and he agreed in exchange for her being one of the 47. Already well corrupted by the amulet, Esmerelda agreed to this and got his sweet robe. Blutarg (now nude) disappeared with his hellhound, and the group took a rest in the barn till morning.
(It was only at this point with the rest that they lost that pesky -1 penalty!! WOW).
In the morning they scoped out the village. Vander tried to convince some local scumbags to do some murders for them, hoping to get ahead on the soul collection count, but his attempted bribes fell flat. Meanwhile, Esmerelda tried to sell some snake oil to the rubes who live here but attracted the attention of a couple of town guards who she convinced to drink her awful concoction! She made some sales and money, but they shook her down heavily for 'tax money' which she promptly stole back but also took more than she bargained for - gaining a big brass key that the guards would quickly notice. Time to skip town!
They made their way up into the mountains and found the camp of the cultists, collecting the souls of their previous encounters on the way - 41 to go! The camp was mostly inhabited by cultists, ragged people in old torn robes, but also had a few more of the armed and armoured guys they had fought on the mountain pass. In the middle of the camp was a high altar - over 15 meters high, accessed by broad steps and open topped with the symbol of Blutarg painted on it. They came up with a plan.
Esmerelda put on her 'Blutarg robe' and sandals, with the amulet around her neck. Mira drew on the power of the high altar, defying danger to summon a vision of the 'dark void' they had seen around Blutarg to now surround Esmerelda. Vander joined in with the crowd of cultists and started saying in awe "oh, it's the second coming - Blutarg is here!" while Druin began a wailing tone on a musical pipe he had with him (rolling 6- to suffer a nasty consequence later for his efforts!).
The cultists fell to rapture, believing that finally their evil master had come to bring them to glory. They followed as Esmerelda led them up the stairs to the top of the alter, and began hurling themselves over the edge to their deaths one by one after Mira cast invisibility on Esmerelda saying that it was an 'ascension' or something like that. Several of the armed guards however now took umbrage with the discordant tones emanating from Druin's piping and proceeded to dogpile him and beat the crap out of him, earning him some severe conditions before Vander came to the rescue and helped him get out from under them.
Then it was all over - the remaining guards were catatonic at having 'missed the rapture', and many (more than the required 47) cultists were dead by hurling themselves off the altar. Blutarg appeared and congratulated our (anti?) heroes on a job well done. He asked for the amulet back from Esmerelda, but now being totally corrupted by it she decided that she would take up her rightful position as one of the 47, linking arms with Blutarg as they and their pet entered his portal to the Netherworld leaving her three remaining companions behind.
We've clearly opened some new points of interest in this campaign world:
• The bridge is no longer stalked by an angry devil, hopefully freeing up passage to new locations.
• A devil has just been given a massive boost in power - surely that will end well, right?
• How will the townsfolk of Devils Bridge respond to this turn of events?
• Will Esmerelda ever return from the hellish dimension she has willingly entered?
• The temple Druin wanted to get to is now accessible - what will we find there?
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