Originally shared by Dylan Boates
Oh crap! I was supposed to post this on Thursday but forgot!
So, in my last Dungeon World game, things started getting tense between the players and the Cult of the Crippled God.
They basically KNOW that the Cult is a front for the Worm God and is working with the assassins (At least, one group of them. The PCs haven’t clued in that there are two distinct groups of assassins.) but they don’t want to just go in there and kill all the peasants just for worshiping the wrong god.
So they’ve been creeping around, recruiting spies, even capturing and interrogating an acolyte, trying to find the information they need to bust up the cult with a minimum of violence.
However, the cultists totally know that the PCs are after them and holed up in their leaders tent, which they sanctified and protected with a magic barrier.
So Hyccorax decided “Screw their god’s protections, I’m going in there anyway!” and tried to force his way through the barrier. He got an 8 on his Defy Danger, of course and I told him “You can break through the barrier, but you’ll never be the same again if you do.”
He broke through the barrier, and we ended the session…
Now I need to figure out what the hell happens to Hyccorax!
I’m pretty sure that by visibly shattering their god’s protection and appearing in the tent like the devil himself he’s going to seriously challenge the faith of most of the new converts, and they’ll probably kill the high priest, so the cult is on the ropes…. But Hyccorax has to be forever changed by his brush with divine power.
Earlier we had established that the Worm God’s power has tainted the magic of the Earth Goddess (Hyccorax’s patron) and drawing on her power was making him weaker, so I was thinking of a move relating to that, but I’m coming up blank.
Does anyone out there have a suggestion?
He becomes a god himself. All the responsibility and none of the power.
Hmmmmm…
That’s not a bad idea actually.
I can see a compendium class here. Or actually a series of classes.
When you defeat the power of a god with your physical presence…
When you manage to answer a follower’s prayer…
When you attain your first disciple…
Or he takes the shape of the image the acolytes saw, ie his appearance changes to that of a demon/devil
A warped halo as a physical manifestation? A dark aura radiation around his head, with glimpses of horrors that unnerve and unsettle.
Perhaps another effect is that his goddess has been irreparably corrupted by the feedback, and her power now carries a taint of mutation or wrongness. If nothing is done, she will be driven mad, and may become a new Crippled God herself….
Dylan Boates He becomes the one who is draining the earth goddess’ power. His continued existence causes great pain to his patron and he must now find a way of stopping himself from poisoning her.
Thanks for the awesome suggestions guys. I’m thinking them over and hopefully can decide something by next Wednesday.
I might even pick a couple good options and ask which ones the group thinks are most interesting…
I haven’t read the setting to know anything canonical about the Worm God, but maybe something like this: “You see a paralyzing vision of all the writhing decay in the world. You break through, but the vision never completely goes away; the GM can at any appropriate time use a GM Move for the vision to return.”
Effects of a recurrence may include whatever you like, such as temporary blindness, vomiting, babbling in tongues, or divine revelation.
There’s actually very little established about the Worm God canonically… It’s very mysterious.
The Worm God transits Hy. into the Earth Goddess. Now she can only wriggle through the mountains she once forged, and the only magic she can grant is the magic of the Worm God.
(it’s the Worm God whose power was protecting the tent, right?)
It doesn’t sound like there is a bad choice here!