Serpent Skull: Dungeon World Edition (Inactive)

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

Wow. Did someone run over a black cat? Don't forget your XP, Amy.

Seeing Amy being threatened by the spear causes John's face to lose its color. "Stand down!" he orders his creation, the shambling plant-zombie, and it stops lurching toward the natives.

He glances at Hank, hoping his universal translator does the trick.

Silvio lowers his rapier and turns towards the lone standing cannibal. He waits to see the result of Hank's persuation atempt while retrieving his trusty stiletto with his off hand behind his back.

If the savage doesn't release Amy or if he doesn't give any inclination that he will
Hero by name and hero by nature Silvio moves with catlike speed. He throws his stiletto with his off hand sending it whizzling by the head of the savage. The experienced scout's gloating smile is cut short as the jungle russles loudly behind him as a result of Silvio activating a net trap with his well aimed throw. When the cannibal looks back Amy is gone, and he faces Silvio Callgari Pazzi, great sea captain and hero to all!

Defy danger (dex)? => 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (6, 2) + 2 = 10

Amy tries to make a break for it but is immediately tripped by the cannibal. She hits the ground hard enough to break her concentration on her spell. When her head clears, the cannibal's spear is pressed firmly against the back of her neck. It's clear that any more sudden movements will result in her immediate death.

The other two scouts are beginning to shake off the effects of the magical and technological effects. They'll be back to fighting form soon, by the looks of it, and neither one looks happy.

Amy's captor looks startled when Hank speaks but quickly recovers. <"Throw down your 'armaments' and place your 'appendages' above your 'bodies' [possible mistranslation]. Then give me a good reason why we shouldn't eat you.">

@Silvio: do you want to toss your blade or hold off for the time being? It would be a Volley roll, by the way. ;-)

Toss it, Silvio will give him a good reason!

Um, did Silvio actually drop his blade? I'm confused.

Hank spins up the Zero Cannon, and hits the "Illuminate" setting, causing a halo of blue light to spin about it. He speaks in a monotone, as if he were commenting on the morning's stock returns. "We have come in peace and merely wish to traverse your territory, so I used my lowest setting to lay your warrior low. But now you try my patience. Let my friend up and go in peace, or I will summon demons to rend you all limb from limb, eat your souls, and consume your small village in fire. Your choice. You have ten seconds to comply."

nope, Silvio isn't dropping his sword. He is using his off hand stiletto to cause a distraction, allowing him to trade places with Amy. At least that was my intent with the defy danger (switched to volley) roll.

Amy is just laying on the ground and praying that Sarenrae will save her through the action of her team mates.

At first, Fleet merely tries to look serious and intimidating, to try and back up Hank's outrageous lie. If/when Silvio breaks the temporary peace by attacking, John will direct his shambler to charge the spear-wielding native that was threatening Amy.

Attack command: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 6) + 2 = 10
Plant Zombie damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Two options. 1) Amy can Defy Danger to roll out of the way before the cannibal spears her. Failure will be very bad. 2) Silvio can Defy Danger to knock the spear to one side or yank Amy out of the way. Failure will be very bad. Only one of you can roll, and nobody gets to Aid.

I'll let the two of you decide who determines your fates. *evilGMgrin*

Sorry, I thought when Silvio said "trade places with Amy" I thought he was attempting some mad crazy insane Daring Devil stuff combined with True Love and High Adventure ("The stuff of legends! Right Boo?"). But then he didn't roll for it, so I guess not. Well alrighty then! =)

That Move should definitely apply here. The plan's definitely insane enough. :-)

Now I’m confused as to what has happened and what has not. Silvio’s intention was to use his stiletto to distract the cannibal by triggering a trap behind him. Throwing the stiletto was supposed to be a “You missed!/Did I really?” scenario with Silvio deliberately missing to catch the cannibal off guard. When he checked the noise behind him Silvio planned to pull Amy from immediate danger and put himself face to face with the cannibal instead.

I figured that would trigger a defy danger move and since it relied on coordination, accuracy (to draw the stiletto and throw it beside the cannibal) and stealth (to stealthily switch places with Amy) I figured it would be based off dex. Since the result was a 10 I figured that it would be successful and moddeled my post after that.

When you said that throwing would rather be a volley move I thought the same roll would apply since it to is based of dex.

If none of my assumptions above are accurate however, I would like to do a slight retcon. I would like to use the Plan of action move to startle a nearby swarm of small monkeys by throwing my stiletto close to them (in a fashion described above). Then I would like to knock the spear aside and get Amy out of harms way. If this counts as a daring plan I would like to use the True love and High adventure move to take 3 hold.

dice roll: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5 + any appropriate characteristic. If it is a defy danger roll I would like to spend 1 hold for another +1 (if the True love and High adventure move applies). If the Plan of action move applies I would like to add another +1 for my racial ability.

YMB? We got a ruling on Silvio? A 5 is pretty low, but between his Dex and his mentioned spending of 1 (or 2) Hold for TLaHA, that's at least a seven, yeah? Or, would it help if I just shot someone? I'll totes just shoot someone if that'll help. =)

I think YMB is taking a short break. He messaged me on Friday afternoon and told me he was feeling a bit under the weather. I'm sure he'll update us when he's able to.

Looks like we had some miscommunication regarding positioning and whatnot. Blame it on my fatigue. Let's handwave this so we can move on. There are three cannibals. What's the ideal result for everyone?

Hank distracts them with his diplo-tron 3000, meanwhile Silvio flicks his dagger at a nearby troupe of monkeys (swarm? swarm of monkeys? really Silvio?) in order to startle them, and knock the spear aside and get to Amy.

And the end goal? Assuming the diplomacy goes well.

Silvio's plan was to switch out Amy for himself leaving the cannibal without a hostage, instead forcing the savage to attack him if he decides to go aggro. That's as far as Silvio has thought things through :)

Gonna handwave stuff a bit. Check the Discussion tab for info about what's going on with me.

The situation with the natives resolved for the time being (by violence, diplomacy, or another way. Tell me what happened), you proceed to the cannibal village. Now that you're right at the fringes of it, you can see approximately twenty huts (what do they look like?). These are surrounding a large stone structure that appears to be a mostly-completed lighthouse - although it doesn't appear to have been worked on for many years. Two of the cannibal huts are larger and more ornate than the others. Inside one of them, you can smell something cooking. Hopefully it's not human meat. Wandering around the village are many cannibals. Each is muscular and either carries a weapon or has one close at hand.

What do you do?

Hank's interpretor device worked well enough for Hank to distract the natives with his attempts at diplomacy. Then, while they were distracted, Silvio startles a troop of monkeys in a nearby tree with his thrown dagger, throwing the entire scene into chaos. The ensuing battle was swift and violent, with no mercy shown on either side. Fleet got a little hurt in the process, taking harm: 1d6 ⇒ 4 damage, but the natives definitely got the worst of it.

Now, two of the natives are in hexed canopic jars in Fleet's possession, and a third - the one that was originally threatening Amy - has been resurrected as a zombie.

Raise Dead: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 5) + 2 = 9

Unfortunately, the pain from his stab wound in his side causes Fleet to screw up the incantation somewhat. "Klaatu... verata... n... Necktie. Nectar. Nickel. Noodle." The native rises under his command, but magic is barely holding the corpse together. When he dismisses this particular zombie, or if its control is reduced to 0, the body will disintegrate, preventing him from using it again.

He looks down at the huts, which are constructed out of the wide leaves and underbrush that can be found everywhere in the jungle. The huts are larger than huts you would expect to find on a primitive jungle in our world - they're able to stand up higher due to the magic the natives used to hold the materials together and prevent them from collapsing.

I'll leave this one up to you, DM: Does my zombie have any distinguishing wounds on his face or on exposed skin? I may have an idea.

@Fleet: Most of the cannibals look like THIS. Your zombie has a stab wound on his chest from Silvio's rapier.

Hank mutters to the others. "What exactly do we want to accomplish here?"

"Here's my idea. We follow my zombie, here," says the necromancer as he adjusts the native's clothing. "He leads us into the village, makes out like we're captured and ready for the cookpot. We get brought before the tribe's...er...chef...and when the time is right, we break loose and bolt for the shores! We then untie a boat, hop in, and escape!" the young man nods proudly at the brilliance of his plan, before going back to paying attention to the zombie. He pulls some of the native's cloth over the vicious stab wound in his chest, trying to draw attention away from it.

Silvio is not quite sure how he feels about continually having to walk beside his defeated opponents after they have been "pacified" by John, but he shines up when the necromancer explains his plan. ”Now that is a plan that Silvio can get behind. An excellent idea, indeed!”

Roman doesn't say anything as he inspects the zombie.

Uh, GM, just how very obviously dead is our new zombie friend?

Hank nods along with the plan, but then voices some concerns. "Um, there seem to be...-many- assumptions there. What if they notice that we still have all our weapons? Won't their first action be to take away our swords and my gear? How is being brought before a chef, after garnering a lot of attention from the village, a better time for dashing to the boats than right away?

Indeed...or we could wait until night and just sneak in if our only goal is a boat. Just a thought."

The zombie is apparently still alive, if you ignore his vacant, empty, dead eyes and the huge stab wound in his chest. Sorry for not posting yesterday, I hit submit and it didn't go through for some reason, thought it did.

Anyway!

Fleet finds himself nodding at Hank's words, and by the end of his explanation, he's rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I must admit that your plan is much simpler," he says, grinning. "I, uh, actually came up with the chef idea because it resembled the plot of a novel I read when I was young. Let's go with your idea. Fewer places it can go wrong. Occam's Razor."

Hank's face splits into a large smile at the mention of Occam. "I've found that particular tool to be sharper than any other sword crafted by man!

Besides, a dashing, daring, dangerous sprint through the grasping hands of cabalistic natives makes a much better story! Eh, guys?"

"Assuming any of us survive to tell it." the necromancer looks thoughtful, but resolved. He glances over at Amy, Silvio and Roman.

"What say you all? Is that our plan?"

Amy nodes her head, "I agree. Let's do it. "

can Amy heal the wound on the zombie?

Negative. Your powers work via the exploitation of positive energy, and the necromancy that powers my zombie is of an opposite polarity. Your attempts at healing it would drive out the necromantic magic keeping it animate, and would eventually revert it to an undefiled corpse.

Fleet is correct. In fact, curative magic can often be used to damage undead.

Of course I'm correct! Who's the expert in necromancy here? ;)

"Alright then, let's find an out of the way place to lay low til after sunset."

Defy Danger (Wisdom), maybe? Which is not a check you want the bard to make, just putting that out there.

Defy Danger: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 3) + 1 = 7

Amy looks for a place to hide the group until nightfall.

you stumble, hesitate, or flinch: the GM will offer you a worse outcome, hard bargain, or ugly choice.

There are two potential hiding places. Unfortunately, each has its flaws. One location provides total cover but lacks sight of the village. You'll have to make your best guess as to when the time is right to strike and will do so without much information.

The other location provides a good view of the village but lacks good cover. You'll learn a lot about the village if you hide here, but if anyone gets within sight of your position before nightfall, at least one of you will be exposed.

When in doubt, go with what has the best potential for hilarity. So, I vote for option #2.

Hank still doesn't really know what's going on, especially with respect to the village, so he'll give his voice over to watching the village to gather data. If that helps them makes their choice, or makes another choice more clear, then all the better.

He does however go off by himself for a bit to recharge before going the group in the hidey-hole.

Definitely agree with taking the calculated risk.

Any agrees and starts to make camp. who wants to take watch?

If you Make Camp, you won't have the benefit of gathering information on the cannibal village. You'll be resting. Are you sure you want to do that?

Hank moves over to the cleric. "Patience, dear Amy. We have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep. You may hang back and relax if you wish, but there is work afoot, and mayhap dirty work at that."

Fleet is too restless to make camp. He belly-crawls as close as he can to the village without risking exposure, keeping his zombie hidden well back in the plant foliage. He peers down at the village, studying it for the best way to make it through to the waterfront, and ideally noting where the ships may be.

Discern Realities: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5

Ruh roh.

Silvio joins John's scouting of the village, although his attention is else where. Instead of looking for good hiding spots, possible paths of escape and the like he muses over different one liners to drop on the unsuspecting savages, and if they will understand them when he does.

Fleet: You see quite a few ships docked on the beach. Well... Maybe 'ships' isn't quite the right word. A better choice would be 'coracles.' Perfect for fishing and stealthy coastal raids, these vessels wouldn't last ten seconds out on the deep ocean. If your direction sense is right, the closest civilization (the city of Eledar) is around 150 miles away as the dolphin swims.

Too move things forward, I'm gonna assume Fleet shares this info with us.

"So those ships won't get us off this island, eh? Well, then I suppose it is simple then. We need to activate the lighthouse and try to attract a ship here."

"What with the what now? There's a lighthouse? On a cannibal-infested island? How long has this been going on?"

"Over there, see?"

Here.

Although, upon rereading the post, it appears that the lighthouse is unfinished. But, I'll just go with Roman knows f**k all about engineering.