Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Actual Play

Originally shared by Daniel Lofton

I want to try to get back into the habit of writing play reports, so here’s one that is probably way too detailed.

My Wednesday 5e group cancelled at the last minute so I ran Dungeon World one-on-one for Charles Neligh over hangouts. This was a continuation of the last DW I’d run for Chaz and Isaac Milner.

Started with Mappo Trell, the thief, climbing a tree to rescue Fiddler, their wagon driver who had been carried of by a giant eagle in the last session. He got to the nest he’d seen Fiddler carried to and proceeded to cut his way through the bottom. As he did his dagger punched into some foul miasmic fluid that poured down on top of him. While he was retching the eagle crashed through the nest and grabbed him it’s beak. Mappo managed to apply sleeping poison to his dagger despite being thrown around and bitten. Shortly after that the eagle was sleeping and Mappo was waking Fiddler, who lay on top of a pile of rotting corpses. The corpses were part what oozed on Mappo when he was below the nest. The other part came from puncturing one of the eggs. The eagle had gone crazy when its three eggs had failed to hatch and rotted. It kept fetching meals and piling them in the nest. Mappo lowered Fiddler to the ground and rifled through the dead, trying to tip the eggs over the side but only succeeding in getting more foul gunk all over himself. He also found a necklace with an upside-down-heart locket.

Mappo and Fiddler (now conscious but damaged) made their way through the forest, trying to catch up with their friends. They holed up in a cave just as the sky opened up and it began to rain, hard. After building a fire the two discovered a statue carved from pale stone standing near the back wall. As the fire warmed the statue it came to life, eyes glowing yellow, advancing, and holding its stone sword aloft. Mappo tried to speak with the construct but was met with only, “DO YOU HAVE THE OFFERING?” Then he noticed a small bowl-shaped indentation in the floor at the statue’s feet. Thinking quickly Mappo tossed what coin he had into the bowl. The cash glowed softly and disappeared. The statue stepped back and to the side of its former resting place, and the wall beside it opened up on a dark corridor.

Setting Fiddler up further into the cave, Mappo lit a torch and advanced into the tunnel, the wall closing behind him after he’d passed the threshold. Despite the torch’s glare he noticed the carvings on the walls, of a great battle betwixt men and bearmen. The carvings of the men glowed with a faint light. Suddenly a gigantic centipede-like creature leapt from the ceiling at Mappo! He plunged his dagger into the creature’s eye and killed it before it could bite him with its venomous mandibles. Mappo rolled the bug monster up and put it in his backpack.

Continuing onward the torchlight revealed a wide crevice where some geologic event had ruptured the tunnel. Mappo attached a rope to a crossbow bolt and anchored it in the ceiling, swinging across the gap. He thoughtfully placed a stone on the rope to keep it readily accessible on the other side.

The corridor led to an immense cavern, in which there was a village. Before exploring the village Mappo spotted a moving light coming toward him. He hid and a giant, glowing, floating eel swam through the air, seemingly on patrol. Mappo settled in for a while, getting a feel for the eel’s route. Once he was sure he could avoid the ell he set out to explore the village. The entirety of the village was carved from stone, down to the furnishings, all of it as if it was shaped from rock rather than carved. The attention to detail was such that it seemed more like a snapshot in time written in stone. The collapsed church in the center of the village triggered a memory in Mappo and he had heard tales of the village this one was modeled on. In his meditation he was almost caught by the eel, but managed duck into a house. The eel had been alerted that someone was about though and kept its patrol close to the house Mappo was in.

Looking around Mappo noticed three things. One, the trap door in the floor was wood rather than stone. Two, there were footprints in the dust of this house, which he had not seen in other dwellings. And three, a glowing yellow stone about the size of a baseball. Inside the glowing stone he could see small people wandering about. He pocketed the stone and went down through the trapdoor.

The tunnels under the stone village branched out, at least some of them leading to ladders that accessed trapdoors in other buildings. Down one corridor Mappo spotted a light. Creeping close he could hear someone humming. The humming stopped as his foot scuffed the floor. Throwing caution to the wind Mappo rounded the corner to see a pale, thin Halfling pointing a crossbow at him. The crossbow was loaded with bolt fronted with an oddly large, rounded tip. A short conversation later and Mappo had learned the Halfling was in thrall to a mysterious master. The subject of the master wanting blood was momentarily broached. Mappo eventually convinced the Halfling, Periwinkle, to escape with him. The snuck back through the village, avoiding the eel until the last rush across open ground to the stairs leading back to the corridor. Mappo urged Periwinkle on through the corridor and turned to put a crossbow bolt in the eel’s eye. The enraged eel charged and Mappo fled. He swung across the crevice on this rope, and met Periwinkle at the end of the corridor. They both banged on the stone with their fists, trying to get Fiddler to throw more coin in the bowl on the other side. Before that could happen the eel was upon them. The thrashing of the thing bashed Mappo up some while he was applying poison to his weapon, but in the end he managed to jam his dagger up through the eel’s jaw, killing it.

Coin was thrown in the bowl, the wall opened, and Mappo and Periwinkle escaped back into the cave. From there the three began their journey to meet back up with their companions on the road.