Last night we played Dungeon World at Chermside Library. This was another 100% improv, zero prep game and I think it was AWESOME. I love this style as I get to be entertained by an amazing story that we co-create as we tell it and roll dice together.
This was our 6th adventure in this world - an Arabian style Fantasy world that we run in "West Marches" style - meaning that there is no fixed time or day for play, nor do we have the same group of players and characters each time. Anyone is welcome whenever an adventure is organised.
Our characters were:
• Orotin (Fighter) - the former palace guard / body guard of an important lord who is tracking down some killers (identifiable by their notable tattoos) who murdered his masters on a caravan route.
• Raz (Cleric) - a complete pacifist, Raz worships Ja'ni'Fa the goddess of peace. Has been rescued in the past by Orotin who sometimes looks after him after his pacifist ways get him into trouble. Is best friends with Keith, who is brother to Icarus. Has been looking into some corruption nearby that is causing people to descend into violence.
• Icarus (Thief) - A treasure hunter searching for a massive stash his late father hid out in the desert, and in a fierce rivalry with his brother 'Keith' who once stabbed him.
• Agave (Druid) - A druid of the local desert who has worked with Icarus before when they captured Fire Beetles together for some scheme. Has figured out where Icarus keeps his ill-gotten gains. Knows some desert secrets, including magnificent, buried temples and tombs out there under the sand.
We open in the bustling market square in the city of Dhuliban - as the mid-morning sun starts to heat things up we see Icarus accosted by three local rogues near the well. "You owe us, make good or things will turn bad" they say - but Icarus knows he doesn't have enough coin on him to pay, he'd need to travel out into the wastelands to his stash. Thinking quickly, he offers them his belt purse to buy them some wine - the thugs agree and take that from him and make their way down 'temple row' where the local holy men preach in exchange for small coins. Passing by Raz and his clerical allies, the thugs waste no time in stealing coins from these pacifists also, as they have never put up a fight - but this time they picked the wrong cleric for Raz's friend Orotin is lounging nearby with coffee and sees his buddy getting robbed.
Orotin picks up his enormous glaive and fronts up to the thieves in an attempt to bluster them into backing down but this only seems to enrage them further, causing them to take a swing at him. He raises the mighty weapon high to attack back, but catches it on the outstretched awning of a ceramic shop. Orotin tears down the awning with his swing, causing an enormous crash as then entire contents of the ceramic stall are smashed into the street all at once. The ceramic vendor (Akhtur, friend to Raz) begins wailing and gnashing his teeth crying "woe is me, I'm ruined" loudly and summoning the guards. Knowing the guards are coming, the three rogues make haste for the nearest exit, which takes them right across the path of Agave who has been sourcing organic produce at the market stalls. Agave sticks his spear haft out to trip them - collecting two and tripping them, but the third dashes him to the ground and tries to stab him for interfering.
Icarus rushes over and puts a dagger to the throat of the thug accosting Agave, causing the thug to leave the scene in a hurry lest his throat get slit - throwing down Icarus' coin pouch as he flees (straight into the offering bowl of the preaching cleric). Icarus sighs, realising that he must abandon his coin to the gods now lest he incur a curse by taking from the clerical offerings. Orotin picks up one of the tripped thugs and bodily hands him to Akhtur the ceramics maker, telling him to pay the poor merchant for the damage caused 'or else'. The thug takes out a strange golden idol from his pack which thrums with evil magic - and calmly places it on the sand as payment to Akhtur. All hell breaks loose - everyone feels the need to commit egregious acts of wanton violence - including the four armed guards who have now arrived at the calls and cries of Akhtur. Realising the evil and danger of the idol, Orotin decides to simply destroy it here and now, and succeeds with a mighty effort - releasing an evil scream from the idol that terrifies the entire market square, causing the entire city to decide 'too much' and start packing their wares and going home. Agave hurls one of the thugs into the way of the guards and they (likely affected by the idol) simply murder him in the street. The thug who had the idol turns on Orotin and tries to stab him, but is knocked into unconsciousness at the big man's feet with the back end of his polearm. Seeing no further action and with the influence of the idol no longer upon them, the city guards callously demand that someone 'clean up this mess' before sauntering off. With the unconscious thug now awake, Orotin scares him off and the thug hastily retreats to the back alleys.
Icarus wants to know if his brother Keith is involved and searches the dead rogue for information - finding a peculiar set of coins that have little holes punched in them the way that Keith used to do it as a child. For some reason, this rogue had been paid by Keith! Alarmed by the evil idol, Agave decides that he must consult his spirits and retreats to a nearby koi pond surrounded by ferns. Orotin examines the dead rogue and finds that these thugs bear the same hawk tattoo as the group he is looking for, so he and Raz drag the corpse of the third rogue into an alley so that Raz can perform some 'light necromancy' and get information from the dead man - particularly about the idol. Raz speaks with the corpse and finds that they were working for a merchant named Janesh the Rugmaker - a name that all know. Janesh is renowned far and wide as the greatest craftsman that ever lived, producing items of such wonder and rarity that caliphs and sultans beg for his works, it is even known that he once made a magical 'flying carpet' for the de-facto ruler of Dhuliban, the evil vizier Khaled Ibn Khaled. Raz also finds out that yes, his best friend Keith is involved somehow and is working for Janesh the Rugmaker.
Back at the Koi pond, Agave is given a vision from his nature spirits - the spirit of wind shows him a scene of the desert out beyond the mountains in the great sand dunes where an ancient and long forgotten tomb door now lies ajar, an evil presence having emerged from there. He knows exactly where this location is, but has not yet puzzled out the full meaning and importance of this vision.
The group decides that they had best go speak with Janesh and Keith at the rugmakers abode. They quickly cross town and arrive at the correct door, only to stammer and mutter amongst themselves when a young servant boy answers the door and asks their business. Thinking them fools, the boy slams the door shut in their faces, and Raz pretends that his fingers have been caught in the door jam, alarming the young boy and making him incredibly apologetic. The boy ushers them inside with bows and high handed apologies - offering them his master's salt and oil as a measure of hospitality. Icarus uses the distraction of the others to slip past the boy and out into the back rooms of the home where the rug-makers are hard at work under the direction of Janesh - putting the finishing touches on yet another masterpiece of his craft. Icarus decides to interfere with the work and flicks a dagger across the weaving frame, separating the enormous rug and sending it crashing down onto the head of Janesh. Janesh breaks down into a blubbering mess screaming and wailing about his immortal soul being forever lost. Odd huh?
The rest of the group are brought out into the workroom by the servant boy just in time to hear Janesh tell his woeful tale to Icarus, seating themselves at a table with the rugmaker and their thief friend for the tale. Janesh explains that some time ago, when he was barely capable at his craft and dirt poor to boot, an old friend of his (Kevin) came to him offering the ability to become rich and famous for his work. Wanting nothing more, Janesh willingly entered into a pact with Keiths evil-entity master - a demon known only as Graz'Buh (and when you realise that Graz'Buh rhymes with Kazbah, you'll know what we were singing all night…). Graz'Buh gave Janesh the ability to weave masterwork carpets, even going so far as to infuse some of his evil magic into them (i.e. the flying carpet provided to the Vizier) to perform amazing feats and acts. This continued for some time until recently, the devil called his due - he commissioned a magnificent carpet from Janesh - to be delivered as a wedding present on the day of the wedding of the Sultan's sister Albriga to the Sultan of a nearby city - a wedding that would seal peace between the two peoples for generations. Of course the rug on offer is cursed and would allow the essence of Graz'Buh to corrupt the union - ensuring that war and violence would take over these lands for years. Janesh begged the group for two things - one, catch up to Kevin who was off delivering the evil rug and stop it, ruining the evil plan. Secondly, if possible - defeat Graz'Buh so that he could no longer hold claim over Janesh's immortal soul. The group were already on the first request, realising its importance - but Orotin baulked at the second - believing that anyone who makes such a pact with a fiend should get what is coming to them.
Knowing that Keith and a guard had left only that morning at sunrise, Agave decided to transform into a vulture and fly after them to track them and report back while Orotin and Raz hopped on camels to begin the long chase by road - hoping to meet up with Agave on the way. Everyone was left shocked when Icarus decided on a different path - he was going after the flying carpet that the Vizier was said to have in his possession. Agave flew off in vulture form and scouted ahead quickly finding Keith and another riding two camels and leading two more, one of which had an enormous carpet rolled up and strapped to its back. He wanted to turn back and inform his friends of the right direction, but had attracted the attention of a great eagle hunting for prey and did not want to risk returning past that beast, so instead flew and landed ahead on the road and transformed back to human form while waiting for Keith to arrive and hoping that his camel riding backup would get here soon.
Icarus approached the palace guard and tried to bluff his way in - succeeding but not in the way he had hoped. He gave them the broken pieces of the evil golden idol as 'proof' of his story, but the guards simply pocketed the gold. He copped a mailed fist to the stomach and while he was doubled over a hood was placed over his head and he was dragged down into the dungeons - there to wait for several hours. Likewise Agave had to wait for several hours for his prey and allies to reach the spot he had flown too, while Orotin and Raz rode their camels as hard as they could to catch up. We skipped forward.
Several hours later, Icarus was berated in a cell beneath the palace by the Vizier who didn't believe a word he was saying. Spying the chance to enact his cunning plan, Icarus put his contact poison onto a small dagger and bluffed the Khaled ibn Khaled - "Look, I have proof right here - part of the golden idol I told you about" and when the Vizier got close, he was nicked with a small scrape which transferred the poison to him. Not without consequence - the thing jabbed Icarus too, and so now both of these men having a conversation alone in the dungeon were affected by the same poison - the effect of which is "The target treats the next person they see as a trusted ally". BROMANCE! Icarus begged Khaled for the use of his flying carpet, Khaled was keen to show it off to Icarus. The two dashed upstairs and into a gallery area where the rug was waiting - but Khaled was hesitant as his new friend had just told him that the rug was infused with evil power from a demon. Spurring him on, Icarus taunted him in a friendly way so Khaled told Icarus to hop on the carpet and see for himself - the animated rug then immediately shot forwards sending Icarus sprawling to cling to it for dear life as it exited the palace and shot up hundreds of meters into the sky and off out into the vast desert.
Keith and his guard approached the spot Agave had chosen, so Agave stepped out onto the road and tried communicating with their camels to make them turn back by convincing them that Keith was planning to EAT them when they got where they were going. The camels had no interest in his lies, as Keith and the guard hopped down and drew their scimitars. Just at that point Orotin and Raz came barrelling down the track on their own camels, with Orotin aiming the point of his polearm squarely at Keith. Realising his 'friend' was going to be skewered Raz interfered making Orotin miss and getting both Raz and Orotin injured by the scimitar wielding men for their troubles. Using this distraction, Agave mounted the camel with the rug on it and took off down the track away from the fight. Icarus (now precariously dangling BENEATH the flying carpet after some spectacular failures trying to control it) quickly approached the fight below but was still at a terrifying height so sought to gain control of the magical apparatus.
Keith realised he was outmatched here so summoned forth (apparently he too had gained some magical power from his 'deal with the devil') a group of magical shadows which attacked Raz and Orotin. Raz tried to instil an unnatural magical fear into his friend Keith (still reluctant to hurt his 'mate') but spectacularly failed - Raz realised the evil entity inside Keith was a powerful being of great evil - so he ran off in fear chasing after Agave and his camel. Icarus got the magic carpet under control (and himself atop it rather than dangling under) and sent it into a kamikaze dive directly towards the fight. Agave turned the camel around and charged it into the mass of shadows that were swarming around his friends, crossing paths with the terrified fleeing Raz and scooping him up onto the camel's back in the process. Agave, camel, and Raz barrelled into the shadows, while Orotin pushed his way through the group to go toe-to-toe with Keith and causing some brutal wounds to Keith in the process.
Icarus crashed the carpet into the melee. Rather than damage his friend Khaled's favourite rug, he managed to prevent harm to the rug but in the course of this broke his arm in several places making it useless - he was now in quite a bad way. In doing so, Icarus had smeared the guard with Keith into a fine paste (and was worried about drycleaning the thing before returning it to Khaled ibn Khaled). Agave, having seen how effective his camel was at trampling the shadow creatures, decided to transform into one himself and began kicking out at them - but managed to score a glancing blow at his friend Raz instead. Orotin made the killing blow on Keith - at which point the shadows fused back into him and Keith vanished. Icarus tried to regain control of the carpet by whistling at it to 'come here' but the carpet took off back towards the city of Dhuliban and its real master - the Vizier Khaled ibn Khaled. This greatly disappointed Icarus.
The group tried to burn the carpet to no avail, it just would not burn. They noticed the smoke from the fire where they tried was drifting off oddly in a straight line - right out into the great sandy desert. Agave now knew the true meaning of the vision he had been given, that tomb out in the desert under the sands with the broken open door - everything. The carpet was infused with the power of the demon Graz'Buh, and only Graz'Buh could unmake it, and Graz'Buh was there waiting for them in that tomb…
The party healed up with some poultices from Agave and magic incantations from Raz and set off overland to get to the great desert. They arrived around nightfall, having lost much of their gear and supplies through the gruelling overland trek. They spotted some flares of light coming from the tomb entrance and were dismayed to find that some Fire Beetles had made their home there and were guarding a nest full of eggs. Not an easy way in considering the fire beetles were roughly the size and shape of a VW beetle and could spit hot lava across great distances when angry. Worse still they couldn't stay out here in the desert as the hyena packs were starting to howl…
Agave used his logic to determine there must be another way in, and scouted around to find a small shaft just big enough for a person to slide down which was penetrating the tomb on a 45 degree angle. Rather than face the beetles, the group slid down this ventilation shaft with Agave shoving the carpet down too.
Entering the darkened tomb, the group realised their mistake in confronting a thing which can control shadows while in a shadowy darkened tomb with no torches. They noticed in the centre of the room there was a large circular stone platform etched with evil runes and smeared with old dried blood from long forgotten sacrifices. In the dim light (luckily, the full moon was shining directly down the shaft they had entered via) they made out the form and features of Keith - standing here in the resting place of Graz'Buh and openly mocking them for coming. Orotin made a rude remark to him, so Graz'Buh/Keith flicked his hand and sent a wall of searing magical fire directly at him, but Agave jumped in the way to protect Orotin taking the brunt of the effect but also managing to get the evil carpet he was holding in the way too - and the magical fire from Graz'Buh/Keith was enough to set it alight!
Orotin ran towards Graz'Buh/Keith copping another magical flame for his trouble and Raz used his magical incantation to cause great fear - this had the effect of so terrifying the demon that it left the body of Keith, withdrawing backwards. All the wounds that the physical form of Keith had suffered now manifested - blood came gushing out of his vast array of severe wounds (primarily from Orotin). The group looked on in horror as this blood activated the ritual stone they were all standing on and a gateway to hell itself began to open beneath them. Icarus could only stand dumbfounded as he watched his evil brother bleed out - his main regret being that it wasn't he who got to stab him and finish the job. Thinking fast, Agave drew on the nature spirits of stone and asked them to tear asunder this evil stonework platform to prevent the magic working, which the spirits of this place obliged. The great stones cracked, interfering with the hell-magic of Graz'Buh as Graz'Buh began to be sucked back to his own nightmare dimension - the carpet was tugging at Agave's hands as it too was sucked 'home'. Unable to react in time and just as Graz'Buh disappeared into the portal, Agave was pulled down along with the carpet he was gripping tightly. Just before the portal closed, Orotin leapt forward and hurled his giant glaive into the portal, wishing his friend Agave "good use" of it in that nightmare place fending off the demons of the pits.
The entire temple began to get sucked into the shifting sands beneath them and everyone made to escape but it was no use, they were going down. Just at that point the Vizier, Khaled ibn Khaled appeared on the flying carpet and extended a hand to his friend Icarus - rescuing him and his allies at the last minute as the entire tomb complex disappeared forever.
Comments