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!
Our characters this session were:
· Aranel (Wizard) - from a faraway land, has travelled to Dhuliban on the trail of Glad who stole a great sum of money from his allies. Also wants to investigate the nearby desert, which is said to possess a peculiar magical power.
· Glad (Rogue) - Everyone says they "know a guy" - well Glad is that guy - rogue, fence, charlatan, crook. Able to get his hands on anything he needs.
· Broseph (Druid) - A bit of a 'dude' who is used to the desert, frequently turns into small animals and insects rather than big, powerful creatures. Believes that the 'magical power' of the nearby desert that Aranel seeks is actually a corrupting power.
· Brill (Bard) - A bard focusing on throat singing and beards (with his "Beardic Knowledge", who has opened a barber shop in Dhuliban and works for many of the local guards and merchants. Aspires to obtain a snip from the Sultan's beard and has associations with the criminal elements in town.
The group were independently wandering through the central market of Dhuliban one morning when each was approached separately by the 'Goldswords' - the personal guard of the vizier. The Vizier of Dhuliban, Khaled ibn Khaled, was reputed to be an evil man who enjoys torture - going far beyond what is 'necessary' in his service to the sultan and into sadism. Each was handed a small folded note which politely asked them to visit the vizier at their earliest convenience - with the implied threat that it is not wise to keep him waiting. Noticing the others who had received the letter, Aranel wandered over and was relieved to find that it wasn't just her who had gotten one - for a minute there she was worried that she was being singled out by the evil vizier.
As the group started discussing what to do - quickly reaching a consensus to see the vizier at earliest possibility - a commotion in the market caught their attention as a young man, with something bundled under his tattered robe, led the handful of remaining goldswords on a merry chase around the market. He leapt off carts, tipped over barrels, and bounded upstairs only to drop down onto awnings. Unlike the regular city watch though, the goldswords were experts and soon had him outmatched - the young man passed the market square well and managed to drop the large bundle from beneath his robe down it down the well. Shortly after he was tackled to the sand, beaten senseless, and dragged off to the palace dungeon. Thinking quickly, Aranel went over to the well and looked down it with her magic sight and determined that whatever had been dropped was highly magical - and apparently swimming away! Glad used his magical telescope and caught sight of shimmering rainbow scales as a large fish-like creature made good its escape. A fishmonger named Gedir approached, wailing and gnashing his teeth - this 'magic fish' with the rainbow scales he had captured in his net was already promised to the sultan - in exchange for a year's worth of gold. Without it - he risked not only dishonour, but complete ruin and perhaps torture and execution at the hands of the vizier. Glad and Brill negotiated with Gedir for a 60-40 split of the promised gold, while Aranel used her magic rope to descend into the well, and was quickly followed by Glad. Broseph descended the well on the rope and bucket to aid his friends. Gedir led his camel (laden with large seawater filled pots) away to drown his sorrows at the wine merchant stall - despite it being about 8 in the morning.
Down in the well, Aranel used a ritual to cause the water to flow back towards her, bringing the fish towards her - and Glad managed to grab hold of the fish by the tail, where it used the physical connection to psychically talk with him - begging for its life and asking to be released into the nearby great salt river so that it could eventually return to the sea and its home. Glad was unconvinced and with the aid of the Aranel's magic rope and some muscle from Broseph, got the magic fish into the well bucket. As Broseph was muscling the fish in, it communicated with him as well - explaining that it was a magical mermaid-like creature and needed his help - to return to the sea and would provide a great reward if assisted. Aranel cast invisibility on the fish so that none of the townsfolk up top could see it. Up at the top of the well, Brill was approached by a couple of town guards who started pressuring him about what was going on down the well. Brill tried a bad bluff, but as a 'known criminal element' in town (and also I think critiquing their beards???) was dragged down a nearby alley and roughed up - a regular occurrence from the town guards apparently.
Ascending the well with the invisible magic fish, the remainder of the group caught a glimpse of Brill being dragged down an alley. Glad snuck off after the pair of guards, but Broseph was quicker - transforming himself into a venomous spider he raced over to the alley and bit both guards, causing them to foam at the mouth and paralysing them. Aranel plodded along behind - struggling with the full bucket containing the large invisible fish. Needing to get this fish into water quickly (the bucket just wouldn't cut it), Glad and Broseph went out into the market looking for Gedir's camel to sneak one of his fish pots. Glad tried to distract Gedir away from the camel by revealing himself and taunting the fisherman, but Gedir took chase with a wine-fuelled turn of speed while shouting "thief" at Glad - a cry which is taken very seriously in the markets of Dhuliban. Soon Glad was running all over the place to escape Gedir the fisherman. Back at the wine shop, Brospeh used his beast speech to promise the camel good food but the foul tempered beast bit him severely, clinging onto his clothing and not letting go. Brill approached in time to see Broseph turn into an insect to escape the camels mouth, who then bribed the beast with some apples from a nearby merchant - causing it to become docile and follow him. They led the camel back to the alley where Aranel was sitting with the fish in the well bucket, just in time for Glad to drop from a nearby roof to join them having evaded Gedir somewhere in the twisting alleys of the city.
Aranel had been telepathically communicating with the creature while waiting, and had found that it was actually a mermaid like creature called a Pahari which lived communally in vast underground cities bedecked with pearls and sea gold and all the riches of the vast ocean. She (for her name was Yasmina) told Aranel that her people had lived in harmony with a nearby Marid (Water Djinni) called Komur for a long time, but lately Komur had attached the peaceful Pahari and scattered them from their city - and it was only because of this that Yasmina had unfortunately ended up in Gedir's fishing nets. The group as a whole agreed to help - be it out of the goodness of their hearts or for the gold and pearls Yasmina had promised them. Not wanting to take the trek of more than a day out to the salt water river and back without meeting the vizier, the group agreed to stash Yasmina in an abandoned bathhouse here in Dhuliban that was used by Glad, Brill, and many other rogues of the city as a makeshift stash-house and occasional crash-house.
Arriving at the bathhouse, the group argued about how best to protect the magic fish inside the pot - with magic, traps, or guards. While the others were discussing, Brill set to seducing a local thug named Ulash the Plush - canoodling with him until he was compliant and had agreed to protect the pot and fish for Brill. Meanwhile, Glad had knocked a hole into an old doorway that had remained bricked up for years since the family who used to own the bathhouse had disappeared - thinking that behind this bricked up area would be a great place to stash the fish. Leaving Glad and Broseph to handle the heavy pot and fish, Aranel went down the stairs behind this door, and found herself in disused lower level while a figure in tattered robes worked without acknowledging her presence at a table in the corner. Eventually the figure turned around and showed what it had been working on - a fish sculpture made out of the tiny bones of birds, mice, and rats. Recognising it as some form of Hag, Aranel was further unsettled when the creature demanded that they bring Yasmina the Pahari down here to be consumed - as this vile creature took great delight in devouring beautiful things.
Disgusted at this thought, Glad yelled out a threat and raced down the stairs but was sent flying back up the stairs to land heavily by a wave of magic force, causing Broseph and Brill to rush down to join the fray. Aranel fired a magic missile into the Hags face, and the Hag slashed out at the wizard - barely missing but entangling her inches long talons in Aranel's robe - preventing escape. Brill left Ulash to mind the pot and fish and entered the fray, but he too was tossed aside by the Hag's magic, and lay on the floor pretending to be unconscious while he thought of a plan. A bitter fight ensued with Aranel and the Hag, and Broseph dove down into the fight while transmuting himself into a snake - but his magic was slightly corrupted by the evil of the place and their enemy - so instead he found himself becoming a serpent of bone - still he managed to sink his skeletal fangs into the Hag, tackling her and coiling himself around her and freeing Aranel from her grasp. Brill tried to bolster his allies with throat singing, but the situation was too desperate - the Hag summoned the corpses of the family who used to live here and set them at the heroes, pinning Glad and Aranel in desperate positions. Glad managed to destroy a couple of the walking corpses as did Aranel, but the tide well and truly turned when Broseph returned to his human form and an attempted magical healing by Brill backfired - healing the evil Hag back to nearly full health. Still, realising that she might be outmatched even with the heroes severely wounded, the creature called for parlay.
Introducing herself as Kadiga the Silat (Hag), the vile creature realised she was not going to get to feast on the beautiful magical rainbow fish this day - so while Aranel turned invisible and escaped, Glad snuck away, and Brill sauntered off to find Ulash, poor Broseph was left to make an evil pact with the monster. Broseph agreed that in exchange for allowing them to leave, he would bring something "beautiful" for her to consume within three days - vowing on his druidic rock that he carried with him and magically sealing the deal. The Silat suggested a baby, but that repulsed the druid, who advised he'd figure something out! Upstairs, Brill found that Ulash had been conversing telepathically with the magic fish (as he was in contact with it when stroking its tail protruding from the pot) and was now determined to return the fish to the sea - Ulash was already loading the pot up on the camel and headed towards the city gate and the river. Glad cleaned out his hidden stash behind some loose bricks, revealing the stolen chest (now sans-gold) that he had previously stolen from Aranel's people - causing Aranel to take a rubbing of the engraving on the chest as proof of the crime. With few other options, the group followed Ulash - now determined more than ever to get this magic fish (Yasmina) home.
As they reached the city gates, the group were prevented from leaving by the guards - who thought they must be trying to skip out on their 'invitation' from the Vizier. Not wanting the hassle, Aranel tried to cast invisibility and simply walk through, but the spell backfired and she was knocked to the ground by a guard when she casually sauntered into their midst. Glad shouted out at Ulash to wait for them as he had already exited the city, so Ulash sat down in the shade of a tree to wait for the group. Brill used his connections with the guards to ask what they really wanted (expecting to have to bribe them) but was surprised to find they had heard rumours of the magic fish and wanted to see it. Knowing the danger of this, Aranel tried to telepathically show the guards the fish but the spell failed - there was nothing for it and Brill called Ulash back and opened the pot containing the mystical animal. On touching the fish, the guards became enamoured with the telepathic creature and immediately swore to get it home - forming a guard around Ulash and setting off down the path towards the river.
Panicking, Glad knew what to do - run. He took off in the direction of the Vizier's palace as quickly as he could - hoping that sheer distance from this debacle might save his hide when the truth came to be known that this group of adventurers had stolen the Sultan's promised magical fish dinner and corrupted his guards in the process. Realising what was happening, Brill did the same, trying to follow Glad. Not having any other clear exit strategy, Aranel summoned forth immense magical energy into her hands and just as she was sending her fireball out at the camel, Ulash, Yasmina, and guards, was tackled by Broseph - sending the fireball slightly askew. It still impacted in the middle of the group, sending bodies scattering all over the path. Enraged, Broseph turned into a highly venomous snake and delivered a death blow to Aranel, before turning back into human form and dashing down the path to search for survivors. Aranel, now racing against the toxin coursing her veins, used a ritual to teleport herself back to her homeland where she hoped she would be healed before dying.
Arriving at the point of impact of the fireball, Broseph found several guard corpses but thankfully both Yasmina and Ulash were still alive (though Ulash was now hideously scarred and burned). Agreeing to carry the earthenware pot all the way to the river themselves, Broseph and Ulash eventually set Yasmina free into the great salt river. She offered them a highly valuable reward - for Broseph, a beautiful clam filled with pearls that he could feed to the Silat and cancel his magical debt with her. For Ulash, pearls and gold of the sea - enough to set him up as a rich man for life here in Dhuliban - such a fate for a clever and wise friend to the mystic fish.
Over at the palace, Glad was ushered into a garden where the Vizier - Khaled ibn Khaled - lazily trailed a finger through a pond filled with several beautiful fish. Sitting up, the evil seeming vizier advised that he had need of the special talents of people like Glad - there was a tomb nearby that belonged to the founder of Dhuliban - an ancient wizard and forebear of the Sultan. In that tomb it was hoped that certain magical artefacts might be found to assist the city in preparation for the return of a particularly nasty Djinni who had of late been plaguing the surrounding areas but was certain to return and attempt to exact revenge on the Sultan soon. Cracking his knuckles, Glad suggested that he would be perfectly suited to such a job, grinning as a puffing and breathless Brill was led into the garden courtyard by the gold swords.
The two rogues continued planning their next adventure with the vizier long into the night.
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