Dungeon World PBP play (Inactive)

Game Master Elsine

don't mark XP

you find your I want to say Armour, because that was what you lacked... anything else you had that you haven't retrieved, and, between journals, annotated spellbooks, theological tomes, and hand bound books of eldritch lore, well over a thousand pages of mad ravings and transcriptions of horrific voices. it would take about a week, maybe ten days, to sort through it all, and extract the relevant information.

Belym will want to check in with her cousins in Eolen - see if they're up for joining the fight; if not, offer them a cut of the reward to help with their journeys, and bring them with us as far as Norwhich if we're going there and it's closer to her clan than here.

Belym nods at Ron. "Makes sense." She confers with the leader of the gatekeepers, and asks if sealing up the door would be useful.

(What) do you want me to roll for that? A literal mechanical translation would, I think, require a Channel to knock down walls to get to unworked earth, then a few Benders to move stone into place and seal it up. Want me to roll all that, or summarize with a DD+Con, or something else?

setting up a cotrolled collapse is either a DD+con, or half an hour of prep, your choice.

I think we're heading for Eolen. anyone who has business there, frame your scene, r ask me to

Eolen is the duchy, right? For when the time is right:

Cast Shadow Walk: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 4) + 3 = 13

The Duchess' Throne Room.

Could I sell on finding a bag of books in here as a result of my search? Maybe a Bag of Cultist Documents?

Ron approaches the Duchess. We've killed the last of the cultists. He approaches if she will let him, and speaks quietly. I have a favor to ask, and I ask not as a mercenary, or a godslayer, or what have ye. I ask ye as the first Archbishop of the Emerald Lady, because our world depends on it. I will open a portal, and I ask that ye send a contingent of your most loyal soldiers through with supplies for three months. Burn what documents ye find on the other side. Hold against all comers for two months. Don't explore. Don't excavate. Just kill anyone who enters. Ye have my word. In two months I will reopen the portal and return your men.

Not sure if that last bit of dialogue would trigger a roll. Just in case, here is a Charisma roll of some sort.

Charisma!: 2d6 + 0 ⇒ (5, 4) + 0 = 9

I'll use my leftover gambit from my Playing the Long Game move: "At the end of a battle (or when it makes sense) and your Gambit would reset to 0, you can keep 1 Gambit instead."

Flashback: Knowing that he would soon have another meeting with royalty, Ron spent the time waiting for Belym to finish burying the door by polishing his armor, prestidigitating, and generally making sure that he looked the part of Archbishop.

So that is a 10.

Yes, Eolen is the Duchy... and the cultist docs aren't a bag o' books, they're more info about the aboleths, if you feel like dealing with that shite

Very well, archbishop, I will assemble a group of soldiers. Dare I ask what it is we are defending? The Lady says

I'll spend the half hour to block off the door carefully.

Once the group's business with the duchess is concluded, Belym seeks out her cousins. Over a few rounds, she grills them about what they've found, and then relays the details of her own journeys (glossing over her departure from the clan).

"So here we are. If you're headed to the hold, I'll send you back with coin aplenty, but I need to see this thing with the aboleths through. Will either of you join me?"

Recruit?: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 4) + 1 = 9
If that even applies, I figure I get +1 for stating the goal, maybe another +1 for useful reputation?

While the others go off to tend their own business, Roshan returns to the menders to see if anything can be done with the cursed cuffs.

INT?: 2d6 + 0 ⇒ (5, 6) + 0 = 11
Could it be reconfigured into a wireless,Cassy-controlled shock collar? Still a volatile ally, but less so than Sarah unfettered? (Assuming they're both there and alive) What are our thoughts here? Fetch quest?

Thank you Duchess. I think it would be best for all of us if none knew the purpose of the mission. But if you ask, I will of course tell ye. In private.

Sorry, weekend got eaten by game design... Screw Game design

Belym

We went to Gilfaldir. it went darker than our mine. we could hear Things in the darkness, but there were no people in there. Jeira says

We left what signs we could to warn others, and we came here, to find Bogdorhul sealed I have to wonder, are any of our kinds great strongholds left? Therain says, melancholy tinging his voice

So, you're going to save the world? When destiny calls, no Fellstone has yet flinched Jeira says, hefting her blade Blood, stone and steel, you've me by your side. Loyalty 2, 6 points to spend as you please

Would but that I could lend my Strength to you Therain says But here are but ten of u left at the clanhold? My duties as the eldest ranger must come before this. May I see you both again, wreathed in glory

Roshan

Very short sidequest time

This is a wrathful spirit who died forgotten and wrongly imprisoned. find the resonsible party,a nd exact vengeance on them, and it will cooperate with you.

Ron

For your service, we will take it on faith. she says

How far south have you gone? To the Camrothian empire? all the way to the free cities? in the sea beyond them?

Roshan goes to the dungeons where the circle was written and looks for evidence of the spirit's identity.

Discern Realities: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (1, 6) + 1 = 8
What here is useful or valuable to me?

How does Protector 3/Medic 3 sound? Medic as a mundane-flavored equivalent of Priest.

"Knew you would say that, Therain." Belym says with a smile. "Good stone and a sharp axe for your travels." She hands over a sizable pouch. "This should aid you on your way."

Half of Belym's share of whatever reward we got.

Conwall? Ron? Everyone ready to go where you're going?

Ron bows deeply to the Duchess and waits politely to be excused.

He then returns to the tavern the party had previously decided to use as a rendezvous point, grabs a pint, and settles in.

Ron is pretty old and a vet of foreign wars. Perhaps to speed things along we could make a devil’s bargain: Ron has traveled very close to our destination, but in his prior travels made a mortal enemy of a powerful faction with a long memory.

Sorry, I spaced. Yes, I'm ready!

Okay, we'll hash out where you were, and who your enemy is, while I deal with the Roshan Sideplot.

Have you been to the free cities, just a short boats ride away (though, the seas are treacherous though, and those three weeks sailing have been the end for many a brave sailor.)

Or have you been to the land itself, as a mercinary, or leader of a foreign legion in the land itself, Boqueck, perhaps in serice of of of the 6 immortal "lords" (the word is better translated as a mixture of "Magistrate/Judge", "General", and "Trusted/Wise Ancestor/Grandparent". because Boqeck is somewhat insular and naturally isolated by the Savage Sea, there are a lotof Boqueqine words which do not have easy translations into the tongue of the northern peoples.

Roshan

a search of the dungeon finds a cell, with 172 tally marks on the wall. an even more thorough search reveals a letter, secreted away behind a well hidden loose flagstone. it reads:

Sallila
I'm so sorry. for 150 days now, I have been kept as prisoner to the Duke's Trasmuter. for those 150 days, I have laboured to escape, but now, I know it to be futile. Though I would trade my my life to see you and our son once more, in my current state, I doubt even you would know me.

It is now my dearest hope that I can get this letter beyond the confines of this oubliette, and back to the living world. Know that I die thinking of you, and will stand stoic vigil at the gates of Mersiel's kingdom, until we meet again there.

Yours, Always
Isemlael

what do you do?

Before her standoff with the would-be God, Roshan would have taken this as a sign to track down this 'duke's transmuter' as plan A.

Today, she decides to see if the local tax collectors keep census records first. Talking patiently with bureaucrats and sifting through ledgers is the purest and quickest way to work up a righteous fervor.

What/Who are you lookig for?

Was there anyone Roshan had to work through during the audit? Someone who might be able to track down the baby/grown man born to the sender and recipient. There's only so much of this she has the patience for before asking someone Duchess-adjacent about the transmuter.

Can I get a DD (make me an offer) the danger being "You run out of time/it takes too long.

Rather than trying to charm the first cleric she encounters, Roshan patiently...

Defy Danger(WIS): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2) + 1 = 5
Nope, no patience. We might be fleeing murder charges... I dunno.

Oh, yeah, The Duchess' chamberlaine is willing to give you records from taxes

Oh, what can we figure out about either of those two names, starting from the last time there was a Duke... With a 5?

Your search reveals that there are at least 5 women with the name Sallila (the name of some saint of minor standing). and only 2 are in the capitol.

you can find the Duke's transmuter though. only retired 9 years ago, and most people in the palace could tell you ho he was.

"It's not like he still needs all of his fingers, being retired."

Roshan's reflection in the small pool of blood remains plaintive.

"The two inside the capitol then. There's no time to hunt them all down."

Roshan waits for a response that doesn't come, looking at the recovered book of Hebron.

"This is why I never scored well in enchantment..."

Roshan will visit the two women who live in the capitol, and if they don't come to the door she'll chain the transmuter to the wall and ask around about the woman and her son.
2d6 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5
That poor, poor Transmuter... Do we slip into another torture fantasy, then there's no record scratch, and Roshan realizes she just blacked out? I think even if she did manage to deliver the letter, she's done something to destroy any moral grounds she hoped to stand on by making this collar.

I think that's where this goes, if that sounds right. She delivers the letter, but foregoes the enchantment. If Seprahim slips away later on, we'll just have to face her again...

Okay, so heres the timeline you're proposing, right? first, you ask and can't find the women, so you pay the court wizard a visit. the visit goes.... poorly (enough that, maybe, Isemlael decides you are no better than him), and though you get the village he took the man from, Isemlael decides to simply pass on. Sound right?

Yes, that's what I'm thinking.

would you like any of those scenes to be played out?

I'm feeling waited on, which makes me want to answer no, but I do want to play out releasing the cuffs, if only to establish Sarah/Seprahim's attitude now that she's been displaced from her position of power... I'll make a note on my sheet that there's going to be a very bad Outstanding Warrants roll when we return... what with all the nobles witches and transmuters Roshan has left broken and dying. (pauses, imagining Roshan going to jail and playing Cassandra the Warlock in a pact with the Orphan Mother)

Roshan returns to the ward, chewing her cheek. She had delivered the letter, technically, but she was unsure she could bring herself to bind Isemlael, nor evince him of the importance of the task. His suffering would be done, and that was a Good thing with a capitol G, but Roshan's discipline had caved to old habits, and she was left feeling numb again.

as you efface the symbol from the manacles, you feel the spirit's presence fade, barely acknowledging you.

Cassie and the Orphan Mother awaken, roughly in that order. Boss Cassandra says by way of greeting, as she moves to re-bind her hair.

Rhistel. Sarah says I see we've left my realm. is this the end? You see her eyes darting around, looking for any leverage she could use, painfully aware that she is entriely at your mercy.

There were a thousand ways this conversation was supposed to go, but those were rehearsed before Roshan had failed, again, to do things the right way. Hearing that name again sends a chill up her spine, and she grips the pommel of her longsword to keep from touching the scar on the back of her neck. "You yet live, and will have my protection as far as my merits will extend it. You are also in the coveted lands, and while you trek with me, you will enjoy those luxuries I can afford you. This is Cassandra, former supplicant of the black throne, and my ward under Hebron's grace. I... cannot kill you. I also cannot suffer you to subjugate any more nations, nor consort with ancient terrestrial powers. I will stop you. You will have to find a new way to live, or struggle against my strength as long as I live, and we have both proven exceptionally hard to kill." Roshan squares her shoulders, and meets her mother's gaze for the second time. "What say you?"
Inquisitor, if it's relevant: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (3, 3) + 3 = 9

Seprahim meets your gaze, and she smiles An interesting challenge. we bind ourselves again, this time stronger. I'll wager my powers against your soul. She says

Ron, gonna need those answers now

I think I've been to Boquek itself, in service of one of the former lords. I discovered he was mad beyond belief, and killed him for the good of the city. His daughter (and current Lord) witnessed my betrayal and has not forgiven me. Very much a kingslayer thing going on there.

Okay, how long ago was this, and which lord, there a 6, each taking the name of an important alchemical metal (Gold, Silver copper, iron, Lead, and mercury)

Twenty years ago, when I was 29. So the daughter is now 29, and she is the Iron lord. Does that work?

Huh, had always figured Ron was "Grandpa age".

The shadow portal opens, and you can hear the bustle, and smell the sea spray before you even pass through. as you do, though, you exit into a port, just off the docks, where your portal terrifies some children who are playing with a small wooden ball.

The sun is hotter here, and if it weren't for the breeze off the sea, it would be intolerably hot, even in autumn. nearby, a free-city sailor and a Boqueqine merchant aggressively haggle, and a food cart cooks meat skewers and a dish witch features odd vegetables and meats coated in flour (or something quite like flour), and seared in a very hot pan and tipped out onto a small platter, and beside it is a spoonful of large white grains.

further into the city, the iron palace (again, rough translation) stands tall and proud. before it sprawls hundreds of houses, and every kind of shop imaginable, and an open-air market. almost as fantastic as the iron palace in the towering Droqiohr Obelisk, the heart of magic in the region. and the Penaxix university stands, at least 5 stories high and covering almost a full 4 square kilometers.

What do you do?

As soon as she is through the portal, Roshan looks out for Cassie and Sarah, who have immediately wandered off in different directions.

Sarah picked up the ball and is trying to coax the children out to take it back.

Cassie is talking to a food vendor.

"Leave the children be. We just got here." Roshan beckons for Sarah to join Cassie at the food stall.

Torn leg muscle, might be a little loopy till the end of the week.

Since we're in distant and exotic lands now, does everyone still speak Common?

After determining that they're not in immediate danger, Belym moves to one of the food carts and acquires a sample of the local cuisine. (Surfacer food is generally lacking the strong mineral tang of most dwarven fare, but Belym's developed a but of a taste for the more heavily spiced dishes nonetheless.)

As she does, she both watches the locals' reactions to herself and Jera, and tries to get a feel for the local geography, and how it might like up with that ancient map.

Conwall takes in the sights. Where to, bossman?

Ron whispers to Conwall. I believe the Iron Lord rules in that palace. I neglected to mention that she likely wants me dead, and not a quick death either. We should give her men a wide berth.

What a hilarious omission. So when I said "We can't go to the Great Forrest, the leaders want me dead" you didn't think it was a good time to point out that the same holds true for Eolen?

"Are you scared of a few humans now? This Iron Lord of Boqueq and a lone member of the Green Vance don't quite measure up to a cadre of cambion."

I laugh warmly. Oh no, this was still the clear choice. The elves want to kill me, you, Ron, everyone we've spoken to. Belym's likely the only one they wouldn't execute on sight. I'm just ribbing Ron for waiting until we've arrived to bring that up.

"Yes, those songs which paint our actions in pastels are likely sung of Belym." Roshan smiles and occupies herself with some street food.

Sarah looks from Roshan to Belym, eyes narrowed.

Isn't 49 grandpa age in this kind of setting ... for a human anyway.

Conceivably great grandpa. The Lord of Iron might even have a 'mature' child with a baby. Depends on how important marriage alliances and heirs are here.

I suppose it's just... it's weird to think of my paren't being granpa age

also, Re:language. at and around the docks, they speak the tongue of the free cities (which is like Australian English to standard English, compared to common). going further in, you're likely to have people who know smatterings of words (greetings, enough to do simple trades/transactions, and maybe a couple other words)

Ron would probably know a little Boqueqine, anyone else have a reason to?

Are we waiting onme for something?

Roshan turns to Ron. "We're here for books. Should we find Golnaz first, or hope against firm odds that this is one of the days she isn't in whatever library we're here to search?"