Bananas #dungeonworld action at PAX Games on Demand today! The party faced off against Death itself and I learned to love the Paladin’s moves in the process.
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The adventurers have travelled to the Obsidian Pyramid. The Paladin seeks the answer to its mysteries; the desert Druid wishes to see its mysterious threat extinguished; the Wizard seeks a necromantic place of power he can use to restore his dead wife.
The Druid Discerns that the pyramid houses a Thallas device that can make the desert verdant and green. This makes the Druid very angry. He vows to destroy the device!
Inside the pyramid, they encounter the Chimera-Hydra guardian. The poor Ranger is smashed by its goat head and faces Death. Death will allow her to escape if she triggers the Thallas device and greens the desert. She refuses and is cast into oblivion.
But wait! The Paladin runs to her body, and Lays on Hands, begging Osiris to save her. He rolls a 7; she is restored to life and Death claims the Paladin instead.
Death offers the Paladin the same bargain: make the desert green and he may continue to walk the world and serve Osiris.
The Paladin, suspicious of Death’s motives, uses his Pierce Lies oath boon to LOOK INTO THE HEART OF DEATH. He learns the truth: the Lord of the Underworld wishes the desert verdant because the new life will kill the desert and its gods and spirits and he may claim their souls for himself! The Paladin will not be party to this, so he refuses and casts himself into oblivion.
The Wizard takes advantage of the Paladin’s death and the connection it creates to the underworld. He casts Speak With Dead, pulling his wife’s spirit back into the world, and then follows it up with a Ritual to put his wife’s spirit in the Paladin’s body. The Druid, sensing trouble, tackles him as he performs the final dance (an Interfere for -2). Due to the interference, the Wizard gets a mixed success on his necromantic Defy Danger. The wife is restored to the Paladin’s body, but the corridor to the underworld allows Death to reach through the planes and activate the Thallas Device! Suddenly, clouds pour heavy rains over the desert. Everything drowns or dies in a flash flood. Death, roaring with delight, drags the desert spirits and gods to the underworld.
We narrate epilogues. The Druid dedicates himself to haunting and terrorizing the farms that spring up in the lush former desert. The Paladin’s soul is rescued from oblivion by a grateful Osiris and he carries on with his battle against evil in another dimension. The Wizard and his Paladin-wife, after a “honeymoon period,” set about figuring out how to raise their dead child from the grave next…
