Finally, our group got to continue their adventure in dungeon world after too long an absence.
And what an adventure!
I’ve played quite a few RPGs, but this session was the most epic I have ever been a part of.
Party:
Falconclaw: Ranger Half-Elf (Pet Dragon – Squeegymuff)
Captain Hobin: Human Thief
Japseye III : Human Bard
Vincent Furnace: Dwarven Cleric
NPC Spligg: Captive Goblin
Following directly on from where the party left off last time (rescuing the local buxom barmaid from a den of goblins), rather than rescuing the barmaid, they discover her flayed remains being used in some kind of dark ritual. They decide to go back to town to give the barmaids father (the local tavernkeep) the bad news – but not before washing the Otyugh blood off of their clothes. As they reach the stream they hear the distressed cries of an old woman. On investigating, they find an old woman, up to her neck in water, in the middle of the stream – pleading the adventurers to help her.
The Cleric wades into the water to aid her – only to find that the head is attached to an appendage of some swamp dwelling monster – the body a vast set of jaws. From the shore, the bard lets forth a cacophonous cry and deafens the ranger and the cleric. The cleric is snapped up in the jaws and pulled under the water – The thief lets loose an arrow , finding it’s mark, then the bard tries again – hitting the right note this time, the old-woman/swamp thing’s head explodes – and the party can now wash their dirty laundry in peace.
Once back in town, the only lead they have is an amulet bearing the sigil of Neurberg, a much larger town a weeks travel east. So they decide to find out why the barmaid was sacrificed in so brutal a manner.
They hitch a ride with a trade caravan and make their way to Neurberg. On the 7th night, half a days travel from Neurberg, the caravan stops abruptly and some commotion is heard from the front of the convoy. It’s too dark to see what’s going on, but they just make out the silhouette of a man being stabbed and left at the side of the road, the caravan then begins moving again. They ask the driver what happened but he doesn’t acknowledge them, or even respond in any way. They investigate the body – finding nothing but a sword hole in his chest.
The caravan has moved on, it’s the middle of the night, it’s pouring with rain – so they decide to look for a cave to take some shelter. Finally deciding on a use for Spligg, the Goblin they captured during the attempt to rescue the barmaid, they tie a rope to the goblin, enchant a stick with a light spell and force Spligg into the cavern to lure out any beast that may lurk there.
Spligg walks into the cavern, turns a corner and then abruptly vanishes – the rope end cut. The thief manages to discover a pit trap at the point where Spligg’s footsteps end – and being a foolhardy adventurer – leaps head first into the trap – the cleric jumps in after him. The bard and ranger decide to investigate further into the cavern.
After falling for a short time, the thiefs fall is broken by spligg, and then the cleric lands on both of them. In the gloom they can see nothing, but can feel that they are caught in some kind of net.
The bard and ranger make their way slowly through the cavern – and find a dining room table – twice the size that would be comfortable for humans, laid out with huge over-sized cutlery.
The Cleric casts a light spell on the net itself, and they find themselves in some kind of pantry – the sound of heavy distant footsteps gets louder and louder till a giant Ogre looms into the room. “MMMmmm DINNER!” it booms. It then unhooks the net and slings the adventurers over it’s back.
The Thief spies an opportunity for a backstab and plunges in his dagger. The Ogre then thwacks the net hard against the floor, damaging everyone in it. He hold the net aloft and threatens the theif “Are you gonna behave now?” ;
The thief stretches his legs to create enough room to draw his bow, and fires an arrow directly into the ogres eye. The orge, now blinded, thrashes around the room, knocking over pots and jars. The Thief and Cleric take the opportunity to escape the net – as does Spligg, who bolts for the door and runs off down the cavern.
The Cleric charges the thrashing Ogre, only to be flung against the wall by it’s thrashing limbs, while the Thief sidles his way carefully behind the Ogre for another, fatal, backstab.
The ranger and bard hear running footsteps closing in on them, so they link arms into a ‘clothesline’ behind a door – and knock Spligg on his back as he runs through the door. Poor Spligg will never get away from these adventurers!
The party make camp and set off in the morning for Neurberg.
On the road to the town, they start to notice something strange about the inhabitants. They are all emaciated and pale, with dark rings under their eyes as if they haven’t slept for weeks. They try to question some of them but are completely ignored (“Just like the driver of the caravan” – they think). The Thief decides to see how responsive they are by openly picking their pockets (only finding buttons and fluff), and when they continue about their business without acknowledging him – the party are now sure something is up. In order to be doubly sure – the bard decides to punch someone in the face – an old woman is walking towards him, who he proceeds to punch square in the jaw, knocking her unconscious. We’re not sure what this proved, but it was damned funny! …….. to be continued!
… so as they approach the towns main gate, the people are all walking with a purpose, carrying goods, building materials and such, all with a blank emotionless expression on their face. They notice that the castle in the centre of the town is now levitating about 100ft in the air, held in place by massive chains. The bard notes that last time he was here, the castle wasn’t floating!
As the heroes get closer to the main gate, the town guard begin to focus their gaze on the party – and then begin to march towards them. At that moment, a door opens in a nearby shack, and a shadowy figure motions to them “Pssssst! Hey, over here!” and then closes the door. They ignore him.
The Thief decides every problem can be fixed with his bow… he quickly draws and fires at the nearest guard, piercing his chest. The guards now break into a run heading for the thief. The shadowy figure emerges from the hut carrying a box and then, with a blank expression, calmly walks through the main gate.
The other 3 take their queue, and start rigidly walking towards the main gate. The guards ignore them and continue running for the Thief. As soon as the adventurers were behind the guards, they drew blades and attacked… a massive battle ensues.
Once the final guard was dead, more guards poured from the gates and began closing in on the heroes. The heroes dart into the hut, grab some boxes (and put Spligg into a burlap sack) and walk rigidly and with purpose towards the main gate… as they do, the cleric stops to question the spirit of one of the recently deceased guards.
“What happened here?”
‘the town is under a spell…’
“Who cast the spell?”
‘Lord Gygrax’
“Where is Lord Gygrax?”
‘In the wizards tower ‘ and with that, the apparition disappears.
The heroes make their way to a building site at the foot of one of the chains holding the floating castle – it looks climbable, but dangerous. The town square is bustling with activity, but nobody is talking, making the hushed whispers of the party seem like shouts. The Guards are posted on the walls of the city and seem more interested in external threats than what is happening within the walls. As the heroes ruminate over what to do the shadowy figure from before walks rigidly toward them holding a box of building material. As he sets it down, he gives them a sly wink, a “pssst” and a nod for them to follow him… he walks across the square into a tavern.
This time, the heroes follow.
The tavern is empty except for the shadowy figure and the innkeep, who also looks emaciated and tired. He serves the shadowy figure a flagon of ale as if on auto pilot, and makes no attempt at small talk. The shadowy figure takes a seat in a dark corner of the tavern, and the heroes join him at his table. He introduces himself as Alex Turnstyle, a simple beggar who had come to Nuerberg in the past week, and found the inhabitants in a strange trance like state – constantly working, or building, gathering food – but never stopping to eat or sleep. He found that if he acted in a trance as they did, he had pretty much free run of the town and could take what he liked, so long as he avoided the town guard.
The party decides they must somehow reach the flying castle… there’s catapaults on the walls of the castle – so they wonder if they would have enough time to scale the walls, kill the guards surrounding the catapault, aim the catapault and then fire Spligg as a test shot before firing themselves up to the castle.
Instead, they decide this is too dangerous (they did not enjoy their last tangle with the town guard), and instead decide to try and climb the giant chains tethering the tower.
They make their way back to the building site and begin their climb. The chains begin at a gentle incline, but the last 30ft is practically vertical and requires some deft climbing. The Ranger Slides unexpectedly and has to think fast to catch either his weapons or his gear – he catches his weapons as he watches his gear fall to the ground below. They continue their climb and make it to the foot of the flying castle. It is at this moment that the party remembers the rare magical artifact they found on their last Adventure – The Hat of Many Things!
Legend has it that if you speak a rhyme and put your hand in the hat, you will receive whatever your heart desires – though most stories of the legend were of a hero speaking a rhyme, putting his hand in the hat and then dying some fantastically horrible death as what he got wasn’t what he asked for.
The Cleric is feeling brave and speaks the words;
“Oh Fabled Hat of Many Things,
Give me a mode of Transport with wings!”
There is silence… and then the distant sound of hooves pounding. The pounding noise gets louder and louder until suddenly a 6 foot long pearlescent spike juts out of the hat, stabbing the cleric in the hand.
On the end of the spike is a horse’s head, that then thrashes it’s way out of the hat to reveal a 13ft tall Flying Unicorn.
The party is now on a small ledge, 120ft up in the air with basically a giant winged horse with a massive spike on it’s head…. and it looks mad.
The ranger tries to distract the beast by running away and flailing his arms, but the Clerics evilness enrages the Unicorn and it charges for him, impaling him on it’s horn and lifting him bodily off the ground. The Thief sneaks around the back of the unicorn and cuts off it’s testicles, while the ranger shoots it from the front. The beast dies and begins to fall off the edge…with the cleric still impaled on it’s horn!
The cleric makes a desperate smash on the horn with his hammer and luckily breaks it off just before going over the edge.
The bard sings a song of healing to close the massive hole in the dwarf’s torso.
They make their way carefully around the thin ledge to the castle entrance and see a couple of very well armed and finely clothed guards. The Theif (without consulting the party), starts to march rigidly towards the entrance…. luckily his ruse works and the guards wave him through, the rest of the party follow suit.
In the main hall of the castle is a giant chrome orb, the air flickers and distorts around it. A wizard with his back to the adventurers stands hunched over a console of buttons and levers.
One of the guards shouts: “Visitors for you, Lord Gygrax”.
The wizard turns to face the adventurers and says “I wasn’t expecting visitors…”
What follows is a tense exchange, with the threat of weapons drawn and blood spilt hidden in every word, but gradually the heroes manage to gain some understanding of Lord Gygrax’s plan.
The bard speaks frankly and asks, “What do you desire?”
Lord Gyrgax answers “The defense of the realm!”
Lord Gygrax explains that there is a great threat to the realm. To the south, a Demon Prince Flezroykuvok has torn a crack in the world and is spewing forth an army of the undead, who are corrupting the land and laying waste to city after city. No force yet has stood in it’s way – and they are marching toward Neurberg!
The townsfolk have been placed under a spell because, when the small council were informed of the dire threat that awaited them, they panicked like children, and ran for their lives. The town would scatter were the terrible truth to be revealed, and nothing would stand against the tide of the undead, meaning everyone would certainly die. So Gygrax enchanted the town and the people work night and day without rest in preperation for the coming attack, so at least they can stand a chance.
“But why sacrifice the buxom barmaid?” asks the Ranger.
“Well,” answers Lord Gygrax “It was of upmost importance that the Castle be defended… and levitating an entire castle requires a lot of magical energy… and the best source of magical energy…. is human souls, some collateral damage is always an unfortunate side effect of war”.
The party are now at a crossroads… Do they stop this wizard from sacrificing innocents to power his floating castle, and free the town of the enchantment placed upon it… or do they join him and try and defeat this Demon Prince?
They decide to join forces with Lord Gygrax, who gives them command of the Floating Castle.
Up till now, the only plan against the invading undead army was one of defense – but now, with a party of capable adventurers at his disposal, a plan of attack may be their best hope.
He charges the adventurers with the task of flying south to the crack in the world and defeating the Demon Prince Flezroykuvok.
… the adventure continues… but I’m done writing for now (I told you it was epic!)
Our adventurers, with Captain Hobin the Pirate Thief at the Helm, set sail across the skies over Neurberg, heading south to find the crack in the world.
They decide to visit the Clerics home town to see if it too has been over-run by the undead.
The Celric’s home town has recently outlawed a sadistic death cult that the
Cleric is a part of (The Cult of Gary) – Vincent himself was banished from the town when the Death Cult was outlawed, and his head was completely shaven – the ultimate insult for a dwarf. Since then, Vincent has embraced his outlawed status like a martyr and shaves his head and face.
The Dwarven settlement Hammershaft lies south west over the mountains to the south of Neurberg – so that is the heading they take.
It’s a very slow journey at roughly walking pace – as the Castle isn’t exactly aerodynamic.. but next to the Wheel that steers the castle they find a button labelled “Lasier Cannon” – but decide against pushing it, as the further they travel, the more unstable the giant chrome orb in the centre of the castle starts to look.
As they pass over the highest peak of the mountain range they hear a deafening roar in the distance. A terrifying screech that curdles their blood and triggers a deep evolutionary fear that a prey has when it is hunted. Squeegymuff, the rangers pet baby dragon, lets out a screech of it’s own – and there is another screech in reply now closer.
The heroes scramble to the lookout tower and below they spy the unmistakable outline of an Ancient Red Dragon. It ascends to the castle and then perches on the walls, it’s massive claws breaking off chunks of stone. It’s massive head looms down over the courtyard.
“Why do you have our young?!” it screams in an accusing tone.
The ranger explains how he found the dragon egg abandoned, and has been caring for the dragon since it hatched a year ago.
The dragon screeches again, and sqeegymuff replies.
“The youngling must be with it’s own kind” says the dragon. “I am taking them away, and will raise it as my own. Hand him over”.
The ranger seems mortified at the prospect of losing his beloved companion. Squeegymuff screeches at the dragon.
“It seems the youngling has chosen you – if I take him, he will fly away and find you as soon as he can. there is no point.” The party breath a sigh of relief.
“But….” the dragon’s eyes flare “there is gold here…. I can smell it! All gold is MINE… I need it for my horde… you will hand over ALL of your gold to me NOW!”
The only member of the party who has any gold on them at all is Captain Hobin, with 406 gold that he is ‘looking after’ for the party. The other 3 member of the party agree immediately… but Captain Hobin resists. This is ‘his’ gold. he’s not going to give it up without a fight. He reaches for his bow.
The rest of the party, fearful of the consequence of angering an ancient red dragon, shout Hobin down, and order him to hand over all of their gold to the dragon – or they will tie him down and take the gold themselves to hand over. The captain hesitantly agrees – and the Dragon flies off carrying all of their hard earned loot. Hobin considers pressing the “Lasier Cannon” button, but decides against it.
They continue their flight towards Hammershaft and when they arrive, they find the place pretty much the same as when Vincent had left it. They have descended now to treetop level.
Vincent scales the wall and then shouts profanities and makes rude gestures to the dwarves milling around on the ground, who proceed to pick up rocks and fling them at Vincent. Seeing the town to be ‘Undead Free’ they do not stop and continue south east towards the crack in the world.
They are unable to gain any height after descending and as they cross the mighty river Troon, the Magic Chrome Ball in the castle courtyard finally gives out as it splutters and collapses in on itself. The castle swings over on it’s side and crashes into the water.
They could follow the river to the Town of Troon, where the Bard grew up, or continue south to the Elven city of Flaffelwaffer, where the Ranger comes from.
They continue south on foot through the dense forest.
After half a days travel hacking their way through the thick underbrush, they come across a circular clearing, with a ring of mushrooms around the outside.
The Bard, Ranger and Cleric decide to pick these mushrooms, as they look delicious, while the Thief watches warily from outside the clearing.
As the last mushroom is picked, creeping vines suddenly burst from the forest floor and encircle the heroes feet, while longer thicker vines with 6 inch razor sharp thorns rise up about 6ft high and begin flailing around trying to mince the adventurers into compost.
The Heroes hack at the vines holding their feet and manage to break free – and rather than fight, they RUN. After all of their victories and bravado, facing down evil wizards and verocious dragons – they run away from an overgrown bush.
They push further south into the forest until the trees begin to take on a different form, carved and grown over centuries into tall structures known to be the habitats of elves.
The resident elves poke their heads out of looking holes in the trees and sniff the air with disgust as they spy the goblin tethered to the Clerics waist.
“Welcome home Falconclaw” says an wizened elf that steps into their path…..
And that is the end of the adventure for now – this all took place over one epic 6 hour session. The host even made a table and painted it with blackboard paint so that we could use chalk directly on the table to draw out maps etc.
Any clarifications, questions or comments – greatly appreciated 😉
Fantastic.