Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Adventures

You know what’s like the perfect example of a DW dungeon crawl?  “Red Nails,” the last Conan story Robert E. Howard wrote. 

Spoilers, I guess.  Go read the story if you haven’t.

Start the adventure at the door to the deserted city, in the middle of the wilderness, no fields around the city and no signs of life. Ask the characters some questions like:

– What drove you to flee into this gods-forsaken forest in the first place?

– Why did you follow them?

– Aside from your weapons, armor, and spellbook, what one piece of gear did you have on you when the horses spooked and ran off with everything else?

– Just what, exactly, sent you running from the forest towards this creepy, lifeless city?

Maybe some love letters instead of questions, but something to establish that:

1) They’re off in the middle of nowhere

2) They’re fleeing from the jungle to this abandoned city

3) They’re short on supplies

4) The jungle itself harbors some serious danger(s)

Then you’ve got an entire city, totally enclosed, mostly abandoned and empty. You got the two feuding clans, right at the cusp of killing each other off.  

Then you’ve got like 3 Dangers:

The Feud (impulse: to escalate the violence; use Hordes moves)

 – One of the clans’ champions is killed

 – The losing side makes a last, desperate attack

 – One clan is wiped out, the other so diminished that their days are numbered

DOOM: Destruction

Tascella (impulse: to stay young and powerful; use Arcane Enemy moves)

 – Takes a creepy liking to one of the PCs

 – Attempts to kidnap that PC

 – Tascella orders the other PCs murdered

 – Begins the ritual!

DOOM: The victim becomes withered, sickly, aged; Tascella renews her youth and power

The Catacombs (impulse: to hide and spawn evil; used Cursed Places moves)

 – A ghostly tittering is heard in the dark places

 – Someone flees into the catacombs and dies horribly, screaming

 – Tolkemec emerges from the catacombs

DOOM: Chaos, as Tolkemec goes around burning the crap out of everyone.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32759/32759-h/32759-h.htm