Josh Riggins, and anyone else interested in joining.
You’re deep into it. Several levels down into the dungeon, on a quest to find the McGuffin, which you just found and need to get back out. When you started this venture there were a lot more adventurers, but things have been more than a little crazy.
Josh, this question is for you.
You’ve found the McGuffin, a powerful item worth a fortune in the world above. Tell us what it looks like, how big it is, and one reason why its worth so much.
Also, tell us your character’s name and a little about them. Race, class, maybe how you got that gnarly scar in another quest, maybe tell us about some obstacle you helped the party overcome in this dungeon, when there was a party.
I’ve heard rumors the McGuffin was once weilded by a creature known as B’BEG. Supposedly the McGuffin now weilds him!
There was a party alright. If you call watching your companions hacked into small pieces of bloody appetizers for the grues that patrol the lower levels a party.
But hey, I was hired to do a job, and I have managed to stay alive and acquire what I was paid to retrieve: a portable hole.
The concept is simple. Imagine a black, circular sheet of smooth felt, about 3 feet in diameter. You can roll it up and put it into your pack. Now, take the sheet and lie it on the floor, the ground, etc. It becomes a hole: perfectly circular, and roughly 6 feet deep. Something a person could fit inside of. But roll up the edge and it becomes a felt sheet again. And anything that happened to be inside that hole becomes weightless and magically transported until the sheet is laid flat again on any surface, leaving all the contents quite unchanged and unharmed. Quite handy.
The old wizard who commissioned us to find it (half in advance) waits in the city. My only problem now is that returning to the city will require me to make my way up through several levels of horrible dungeon. Alone, save for my mandolin.
I’m Ramonde, a human bard. I sing, dance, and tell tales. A one man show. With impeccable style, I might add. My clothing is soiled now, but it is made from the finest Elven silk.
Continuing:
The portable hole, at the moment, cannot be used. The problem is that there happens to be a very unhappy vampire inside. I managed to trick the vampire into falling inside, and rolled up the hole. But that’s the Wizard’s problem now. We were paid to bring him the hole. He didn’t say it had to be empty.
PS: if other characters join, we can edit to fit.
It’s dark, too dark. I mean I love the dark, but this is just crazy. I was minding my own business when this horde of evil raiders came marching into my home. Yes, it’s dirty and many stories underground. Did I mention I like the dark?
So anyways, these raiders came into my home looking for my nifty new toy I acquired, I guess word travels fast when you boast about dimensional rifts and all at your annual magic-user convention.
So this scrubby little, boy band, “Hero” took MY portal. And guess what else, HE PUT ME IN IT!
Ok, OK. So it wasn’t the brightest idea to jump into the hole, but he said the sun was coming up and I got scared. There, I admit it.
So what now? I guess I wait.
((Ping me if you need me 😉 ))
Awesome…tell me a little about these grues.
Till then, Ramonde is at one end of a long hall, maybe fifty pases by twenty, where the portable hole was stashed. The walls are covered in some etchings, a simple angular script from a long dead culture. There are lit braziers along the walls with glowing coals illuminating some but not all of it.
When you lifted the velvet hole from its resting place, a sinister looking altar, a stone slab came grinding down from the ceiling, covering the way you came into the hall. Hope no one heard that. From where you are you can see a similar doorway on the opposite side of the hall, though there’s a good deal of shadowed area you can’t see yet. Maybe hiding alternative exits…maybe hiding other things.
What do you do?
👀
I figured out the grue thing. Knew it sounded familiar.
Austin Berkel it’s the number 1 google autocomplete for “eaten by”.
Yes, grues is just short for gruesome.
Well, since nothing seems to be immediately posing a threat, I take second to size up my situation.
Since my bardic expertise happens to be “grand histories of the known world”, I grab a lit brazier (if they are removeable) and examine the etchings in more detail. Can I make a Bardic Lore move and ask the GM a question about these etchings?
PS: If grabbing a brazier AND making a move is too much, I skip the brazier and just try to read.
PS: How are die rolls handled here?
Of course the only ones who would be able to make it through such a perilous place would be deft of feet and quick of wit. Thus I, the Nome Ricard, was hired to deal with any precariously placed perils.
You see, it is very handy to keep a Nome with one at all times due to our small bodies rarely being accounted for by the architects as we scarcely leave the cities. Yes, you have those very few designers who foresee coming trends, but most will include such trite traps as “hallways with spiked floors where the lever is at the opposite end” or “3 foot high, criss-crossing razor wire easily broken by snipping the bottom-most strand.” Therefore my easily flung form and low stature allowed me to earn an economic living that others of my kin forsake as “trespassing” and “destruction of private property.”
While my companion observes the etchings, I try sneaking into the obfuscated corner of the hall to peer for exits and enemies.
( If you are still accepting players, I’m in.)
Rozzelyn Uryga absolutely! Ricard peers into the darkness, searching about…finding both a distinct lack of spider/cob webs, which seems strange to you, as well as the faintest of breezes in one particular spot.
The section of wall here would likely look solid as the rest were you glancing at it from a few feet higher, but from your angle you can see that the wall doesn’t meet up with the floor, leaving a crack.
Josh Riggins no directly immediate threat, but the block that sealed off the one entrance when you lifted the portable hole made a fair bit of noise. But yes, you can do a basic expertise for the writing.
For die rolling, go ahead and roll dice where you are or use a die rolling app or whatever. I’m not concerned with policing for cheaters…this is just a fun little pick up game 🙂
Huh…I googled “dungeon world grue” and wound up with stats for a specific monster, so figured that’s what you were talking about.
Oh crap. I never imagined actually facing a grue. I assumed they were downright invincible. In Zork, where I learned about them, they killed anyone who stayed in a pitch dark place for more than a few moves. Fighting wasn’t an option! But I guess with elves and “nomes” perhaps seeing in the dark, maybe they could make an appearance. That would suck.
2d6= 3. Add my bonus and I still fail.
The Nome guy survived huh? When he snuck off earlier and didn’t come back, I assumed the worst! Well, he’s pretty handy, so I’ll put up with his constant bickering about the shoddy craftsmanship of the traps and other nefarious devices on this dungeon, as long as he helps me survive by disarming or at least helping me avoid them. Sad that I’ll have to split the reward if we both make it out of here, but I didn’t expect everyone else to die, so I’m making out pretty well as it is.
Neither of us are great fighters, though I’m skilled enough with my rapier to defend myself. Hope Ricard can hold his own. He doesn’t look like much, but I’m guessing he has some sneaky moves that will keep him alive.
Ah, the old “Hidden-Lever-Wall” trick! Just as I said, no one expects a Nome! If I could find tracks or possibly some smudges, it’ll lead me right to the lever!
(Discern Realities: 8. What here is not what it appears to be?)
Ramonde is eyeing the wall runes, muttering under his breath as he tries to make any of it out. Is this high elvin? Looks like it, but their use of the present subjective is entirely different. It’s like someone took the oldest known alphabet and mashed it up with two or three entirely separate languages…
You do see lots of use of an elvin word that roughly translates as “one who devours”…maybe referring to the vampire? Then there’s something here about a theft of stone…you sound the word out, trying to make out all the prefixes, and suddenly the dungeon shifts. Yeah, the whole dungeon…
Ricard looks around the wall section, deftly feeling for any sort of switch or latch. Behind you you hear something scrape across the dtone floor…but when you spin around all you see is the shadowed alcove of the opposite wall. Romande is still muttering over another section, so it couldn’t have been him. You move a little closer to the darkness, and see the fait outline of a shape in it…it’s big, bigger than you anyways…and just as you start to react the floor lurches to the left! Your center of balance is low and you keep your footing, but several of the top heavy braziers fall over, plunging more of the room into darkness!
Robert Doe being a life sucking vampire, you can sense the presence of living things. Your hi one is populated by plenty of living guardians as well as the unliving sort, and obviously there are the remnants of the raiders who broke in and stole your portable hole…but you feel a new presence…maybe new isn’t the right term…
When you discovered the dungeon complex that eventually became your home, it held a all manner of beast and monster. You slew what you could, ran off what you couldn’t, and brought back a few select critters as your spawn. Over the years you’ve allowed new critters to move in and habitate small portions, as they make good defenders and emergency food during lean times…but there has always been the faintest of life force here you could never explain or find. No matter where you were in the dungeon you felt like it was there with you…but just out of reach.
You feel that specific presence, stronger than ever. Stronger than anything you’ve ever felt in your unlife!
Can you describe the room as it looks to our characters following the shift?
Also, I’m willing to “drop” the rolled up felt sheet (aka portable hole) as I lose balance during that big dungeon shift if that can bring Robert Doe into the game more actively. Just don’t let him kill me immediately.
It didn’t actually change the layout of the room…nothing broke, nothing opened up. Things just lurched maybe a foot to one direction.
There’s still the one door way on the far end and the secret door Ricard was attempting to open.
The only real change is the lighting. Maybe half the braziers fell over…so their coals are still giving off a dim glow, but it’s quite a bit darker in the room. Ramonde and Ricard are both still in areas of light.
We’ll see if Robert is ready to get involved, but that’s a good idea about dropping the hole.
“Oh my Grob!” I dash back towards my Bardic companion, pulling out my bow and an arrow along the way. As soon as I make it to Ramonde’s side, I rip off the cork and dip the tip of my arrow into the small flask of Oil of Tagit that hangs from my belt.
Mmm, I can ‘smell’ food. It has been some time since my last feeding, but I’ve gone longer.
However, what is this over whelming presence? Wait… Noooooo. Oh boy this is about to get interesting. Are these fools really trying to get involved with that!?
Well, I suppose it’s safe in this hole… For now.
During the shift, Ramonde stumbles for a second, and drops the rolled up circle of black felt.
Almost in slow motion, the portable hole unrolls as it gently glides toward the ground. Ramonde sees this happening and attempts to catch it with his rapier!
A quick roll to Defy Danger (dex):
2d6=10 +1 = 11!
Looks like the vampiric rabbit is staying in the portable hole hat for the moment.
The figure lurches out of the shadowed alcove, shambling toward the tasty morsel now pointing a bow toward it.
Ramonde and Ricard see that it’s a rotting corpse, animated by foul magic. You’ve fought and flead from enough of these things enough down here to know they’re slow but incredibly strong. Only really dangerous in large numbers or tight quarters.
You’re sure you could get to the exit before it got a hold of you, and if Ramonde distracted it Ricard could maybe find the switch to that secret door…and then there’s the alcove the zombie came through…
Oh, merely a shambling corpse. I put my arrow back into my quiver and draw my rapier, keeping the tip between me and the fetid beast.
“Bard, I’m too small to deal with this… thing. Do you mind assisting?”
I strafe to the left of the body, keeping my blade ready to snick any limb that comes my way.
Josh Riggins, we lose you?
Nope, had work and then basketball league. I’m showering and then getting on it! West coast baby!
“Ricard! Run over here and carefully take this thing. I can’t use my rapier and hold onto this without risking it unrolling and giving us something far worse to deal with. Leave that…thing…to me!”
OOC: I shall play a tune with my mandolin. While I wait for Ricard to dart over here and take our hard-won magical portal, I put the roll at my feet and step on it so it doesn’t open up and let a vampire fuck us up.
Then, sheathing my fancy rapier, I whip my father’s mandolin around my body by it’s strap like a boss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raz8rjRwHc0).
I am attempting to gain the attention of the shambler, because as we all know, music calms the savage beast. I’m hoping he’ll slowly shamble toward me while Ricard snatches the MacGuffin and then finds the way out of here!
So, is this a Defy Danger (CHA or WIS or INT)? Or is it something else?
I shuffle back to my previous point beside Ramonde.
“What are you doing? You tried that on the first floor and it didn’t work, why would it now?”
Rozzelyn Uryga “Ricard, now isn’t the best time to argue about this. Just take the hole and find a way out. I must concentrate if I’m to play the right tune for this mindless beast. Hopefully something that his re-animated brain has a faint memory of!”
Defy Danger roll, using CHA: Snake eyes + 1 = 3.
Shit.
Sorry…got caught up at work too.
Yeah, was going to say +cha…
So the shambler likes the tune, a lot. In fact, there are about a dozen more shamblers coming out of the shadowed doorway that love it too. Guess it’s a good thing you didn’t try to go that way?
The original shambler makes a lunge at Ramonde, arms outstretched. What does Ramonde do?
After he curses, loudly, Ramonde has little choice but to dodge out of the way so he can arm himself with his rapier.
Defy Danger (Dex) = 2D6 + 1 = 4+6 +1 = 11!
Ramonde dances clear of the putrid hands like he was born to it…getting his mandolin stowed and rapier drawn.
Ricard. ..There’s probably not time to check for the hidden catch to that secret door any more, not unless you guys can get these zombies cleared out. What are you doing?
“Ricard! Hurry! Poking holes in these guys doesn’t do much good! They don’t bleed!”
Ramonde will try to slow down these shambling corpses by cutting off hands and feet. His rapier is too thin to hack at necks or do much damage to arms and legs. I think this is less offensive and more defying danger long enough to give Ricard time to find our exit strategy.
I’m fast enough compared to them to stay out of danger, I think, so I’ll dance and slice off smaller appendages until it looks like I’m surrounded or getting backed into a corner. Not trying to kill these things.
Kicking, tripping, ducking, pushing, chopping, dodging, dancing, sliding, jumping, etc.
Rolling Defy Danger (dex): 2d6 + 1 = 6 + 5 + 1 = 12!
“I told you playing them sweet music was a terrible idea!”
I rummage through my satchel, producing a some liquid cooking oil. My reasoning is that the bottoms of their feet must be decayed, and thus the grip that they would have upon the floor would be null if it was lubricated. Therefore, I run across the room, dowsing the floor until I can’t see a spot around Ramonde and the ghouls that isn’t covered in lubricant.
I draw my rapier and clang it upon the ground. “RUN THIS WAY YOU FOOLS!”
Awesome ideas! Ramonde keeps the shamblers herded and clear of Ricard, maiming a number of them in the process, as Ricard greases the floor thoroughly.
Many hungry dead eyes turn toward the gnome at the sound of his clanging, and the procession heads his way. As you suspected, their feet gain no traction on the slick stone, and soon enough there are a number on their asses, with more tumbling down on top of the first few.
You’re teamwork has bought you a few moments reprieve, what do you plan to do with it?
If I am not mistaken, there is a secret exit and a hallway in which the ghouls came down.
“Ramonde, check the hallway that the ghastly fellows came down to make sure no more shall. I need to find us an exit.”
Discern Realities: 1+2+1=4
I do what Ricard suggests, tiptoeing around and through the fallen and falling animated corpses, trying to avoid slipping on the oily surface, so I can check the dark place they came from. If this is a dangerous move, I’ll defy danger (dex) (4! FUCK!) but if this would be easy enough to do I’ll just do it and see what I see.
Oh wow, two experience gaining rolls.
Ricard sees the exit on the opposite side of the room from the one that closed off…a lot of the braziers fell when the room shifted but there’s a few left standing, making little islands of light in a long stony river of darkness. Which you already knew…you do notice something new though….something that doesn’t make sense…maybe it’s a trick of the light…maybe it’s stress of seeing so many companions die. But you swear the walls are expanding and contracting, ever so slightly.
Ramonde navigates the writhing pile of greasy undead, careful to keep his center of balance in the middle as he steps through the oil, and makes his way to the shadowed alcove the undead originated from…his eyes adjusting to the gloom, he can make out the vaguest details of the room beyond, roughly square, maybe twenty foot from wall to wall, featureless other than a largely sploosh of black in the middle…maybe it’s a hole, or a stair case…and then lines of fire cross your torso, and there is a presence infront of you. Pure pitch, like hate and rage solidified. It’s a grue, and it just slashed your chest for 3 damage (2 piercing).
What are eavh of you doing now?
I grab my head and rub my eyes, trying to clear them and make sure that the pulsating is not an illusion of the mind. However, before I can do anything else, I hear the bloodcurdling scream of Ramonde emit from the other side of the room.
Dashing towards his side, I pull my bow and the coated arrow from my satchel, stand 5 paces behind Ramonde, and aim at the air next to Ramonde’s left side, awestruck by the horror that is a grue.
I’M BEING ATTACKED BY A $#@%ING GRUE?
I panic. Instinctively I know that the ONLY thing that drives away grues is light.
I try to drop and roll, intending to make a mad dash for one of the braziers – the grue will disappear from all light.
IF I make it to a brazier, I’m tossing it at the pile of oily undead, hoping to get a big bright blazing fire going!
Defy Danger (Dex) = 2d6 +1 = 3+4+1 = 7! Partial Success!
Ricard…surely someone of your profession has heard a great deal of speculation on these things. Tell us one feature the rumors were right about, and one they were off on.
Ramonde…you dash clear, back to an island of light and the security if a brazier. You manage to get some of the coals out and on the writhing mass of corpses and they light. They light well, as does a good portion of the floor…
Illumination floods the room, and the grue scream/scratches out its anger and is gone (but how far?). Of course you’re still in a room filling up with the smoke of charing undead, and spreading fire…
Whew!
Why yes, Grues are mentioned in hushed tones among the delving populace. Typically the conversation are tales about adventurers who went down without precaution and perished in the perilous depths, but not on the 6th of June of 3060. No, then a breakthrough was found. An old Orc had been searching through tomes to create an incantation of Grue Holding when he found that the Grue weren’t natural inhabitants to the dwellings they patrolled. No, a Grue is summoned, and, despite what the eyes show of a large hairy with a ravenous maw fit to swallow a Nome whole, a Grue is a spirit bound to the darkness in order to denote where they should live. He most shocking revelation was that they could be unbound, but not unsummened.
(Does this work. Unsure now that I read it again.)
Ricard holsters his bow again and runs to Ramonde’s side.
“You set the room on fire to drive away a Grue?! What kind of mad man are you?!”
I look over to the exit, checking to see if the flames are covering it.
“Coming from the one NOT being ripped to shreds by a deadly grue, I will excuse that ridiculous statement.
Now, have you found us a way out of here yet?”
Yep, that works perfectly Rozzelyn.
The exit is clear of fire and other danger, though a few of the flaming zombies are beginning to gain their feet. Many are laying still in smoldering heaps, but not all.
Then Ricard will hurry along past the smoldering carcasses and through the hall.
Ramonde follows. Quickly!
Sorry guys. I’m going to have to kill this game. As the weather is getting better here work is picking up quick.
Is cool. Pick ups are meant to be able to be put down.
Yes, it’s been fun. It was technically my first foray into DW, so it was extremely helpful for me. I’m in another game now using what I learned here. Thanks Austin for taking the helm!
Rozzelyn Uryga do you want to just can it? or do you want to jointly write a continuation and make it up as we go, just for the fun of it? We know we’re a few levels deep into a dungeon and need to get out. We can take turns writing the next few rooms as though we’re the GMs and see what happens. Any interest? If we try this and it sucks, we can just kill it.
Josh Riggins I’m game. You want the stick first?
Sure. I’ll start a new thread for us. Stay tuned.