Hello fellow DW pub crawlers,
(long post)
I thought I would ask for help in this community, because I know that the imagination and creativity here is tremendous. I am currently running the Kingmaker campaign in the Pathfinder system and have come across a spot where I’m unsure of how to reply to a characters divination attempt.
SPOILER ALERT!!! You have been warned.
Background: For those not familiar with Kingmaker, it is an adventure path (published by Paizo) that takes your characters from humble explorers to rulers of their own realm. I have not deviated too much from the actual AP, but I have made some additions to the story to encourage role-playing and use the character backgrounds that I received from the players. In the fantasy of the adventure, Ghuar (barbarian/cleric of war) and his fellow adventurers saved their town from a cult of evil hags who were posing as midwives and were replacing the townsfolk’s children with infant dopplegangers. This happened for a couple of years before the characters discovered what was happening. After defeating the cult Ghuar adopted one of the doppleganger children and raised her as his own. Now, at the young age of 15, she has developed into a fine bard (and is now Ghuar’s cohort).
The idea behind the Kingmaker as mentioned before is that they will become the rulers of a kingdom. The neighboring King wants to destroy the PCs kingdom and take over. As part of this, the King has kidnapped Ghuar’s daughter. The immediate future includes a tournament hosted by the neighboring King. The King will send an army to attack the PCs kingdom while they are at the tournament. Then eventually the PCs will have to confront the King. Beyond this, the PCs will need to travel to another plane and defeat a mighty fey who is the manipulator behind the scenes.
Ghuar worships war/battle, not a specific entity, though he does tow to two gods more than the others. One is the god of war, the other is the god of family/community. My thoughts were that both gods would answer Ghuars’ divination, the first with descriptions of future battles, the second with thoughts of saving family and community. I would like to describe the upcoming tournament as an individual battle that must be won (battle for fun) (he has already been elected to compete in the log chopping contest). The unstoppable war as a great conflict that cannot be avoided (war). And a fight to the death against the neighboring king (glorious death battle). These would be the battles to come. The second god would first recognize that Ghuar must help his fellow rulers win the tournament for their kingdom (friends). Then he must defend his community against the war to come (community). And finally save his daughter by slaying the King (family).
I recognize that I’m not a very good wordsmith, and am looking to you (the Dungeon World Tavern community) to help me put this into words that are not easily deciphered.
If you are willing to help out a GM with writer’s block, I greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Shieldknight
