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Thanks for the great game guys and for the kind words Loopy. It was a pleasure!
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Looks super interesting Bastian, I was about to submit a character idea but had a reality check... I can hardly keep up with this game!
I'm still here! It's just so hard to keep up! >_< The place is unnatural, but if that were all, it would be fine. Something truly unnerves you about this place - what is it? Time and space are warped, folded in on themselves. The structures melt and flow, but so do personal timelines. People traversing this otherworldly locale often come into contact with other versions of themselves or those they know, shades, memories given form, dark reflections. And they're not always friendly.
Sorry for your loss Loopy. My grandmother passed away last week as well, let me know if you need anything.
That's a good question. I think Terestria would talk in an animal-accented voice when transformed, it's magic! I definitely think she spoke as a bear. But I'm happy for you to make the call based on the animal. A mammal is one thing, but maybe it's a stretch to say a beetle could communicate freely?
"No Herald!" Terestria shouts as a beetle on Bikke's shoulder "Don't harm it... I think I know what it wants" She instead flicks open her carapace and spreads he beetle wings, buzzing close to the red ooze, extending a magically glowing limb as if to offer her own magic as sustenance. "Quiet now blob creature, won't you join us in our quest?"
Terestria fights to regain control of her animal instincts, and realises she's not going to overpower the golem with a busted arm. As the pain rips up her body, her heavy bear coat shrugs off the damage "Grarrrr, this is just unBEARABLE" she roars, then looks around briefly to check if anyone noticed her clever wordplay. Instead, she summons her druidic magic to take on a more appropriate form... a forest beetle. Tiny, dense, heavily armoured, and winged. Suggested moves:
Terestria's higher brain functions awaken after giving in to her bear-instincts. "Rraarrrrwhats hrrrappeningrrrrr?" She says with a mouthful of Golem.
Now, fighting the massive Golem with new awareness she rips into it with claws, teeth, and her massive bear like bulk!
BTW, sorry, not dead, just busy! Feel free to take Terestria as a Bear-Hireling for a little while if you're waiting on me :)
The bear takes the brunt of the collapsing bookcases, rather than spending a hold to break through. With massive paws, the bear attempts to smash through them and clamber out of the mess she has found herself in. After doing so, she runs to the aid of her nearest recognisable companion and roars helpfully in their face!
Working with this, I'm going to say the bear's moves are:
I think however, that I'm going to keep my 1 hold for later and just use the DD above.
In the awkward moment where Terestria and MWG are entangled, she says her piece as above and immediately transforms into a Stoneskin Bear! Grey of fur, as big as a grizzly! I think they're incredibly tough, strong, and big.
With a mighty roar that sounds like stone slabs being drawn over gravel she throws her paws forward to stop the shelves!
"Hi! Wow, you're a serious looking fellow aren't you?" Terestria says cheerfully to MWG."Hey, where're you going?" Seeing the incoming book shelves, she panics, her fight or flight instinct kicking in the wrong way! Putting her arms against the nearest bookshelf she tries to push them back, deflecting the domino chain of destruction!
Terestria follows the crowd after reverting into human form again. Feels good to be with the flock -errrr, the group. She smacks the side of her head, dislodging leftover feathers from her ears. "Hey, wait for me! Do we even know where we are g-" She says blundering her way in to the Monk and the robed man. Talk about awkward. Not sure of the layout of this room, but it would be amazing if - in her blundering - she managed to walk right into the purple robed fellow and knock him over!
The image in my head is a golem fighting the winter winds and getting bogged down in the snow. Whereas the crows are flying, and significantly smaller, perhaps blown about and disoriented at most? Could you please describe the scene in greater detail for me and let me know what I would have to do first in order to achieve the outcome as I described?
Ok, well first they spend a moment to shake the snow off. Not sure how the snow is slowing them down?
Terestria flies high up above the snow, and seeing no more immediate danger, she finds a high perch and surveys the area - noting any threats on the road ahead. In fact, she caws briefly with a few of her crows, seeing if any know the recent happenings in the skyruin.
After scouting, and having spent her last hold, she rejoins the group and drops out of her crow-form in a pirouette of black feathers taking her normal shape once again. "Thank you, my feathered friends" She says waving off the flock. "We should keep moving, or at least find a safe place to hide... being out in the open like this is dangerous"
Terestria keeps the murder of crows flying at the golem. Squawking along with the others.
The flock of crows barrels down on the fleeing golems, buffeting them and trapping their escape through a massive whirlwind of beaks, feathers, and claws.
Terestria flutters around Bikke as he flails awkwardly trying to fight. Shaking her bird head in dismay, she takes flight, cawwing madly and summoning a flock! I'll give these damn golems something to .... caww about. She thinks, her bird brain clearly interfering with her normal wit.
The crow hops around on Bikke's shoulder, and pecks him once in the ear lobe "Caww!!"
Terestria tries first shaking off the sheep-mind, the impulse to stick with the flock, and instead channelling the keen eyed crow spirit.
Regardless of the result, she hops aboard Bikke's shoulder and cawws loudly. Come on! Let's go!
Confused for a moment at Bikke's drawl, Terestria's eyes light up a few seconds later in understanding"Bikke, you're right! I don't have any lettuce but a crow would be perfect!" Terestria's green glow spreads out into a pair of sable wings, as she shapeshifts into a crow. Just an average crow.
"Cawww!" The beady eyed, rabbit eared bird squawks at Bikke, clearly waiting for the next step in his plan. Uh oh:
Thinking-thinking-thinking Terestria starts chanting inwardly. Terestria channels her green magic once more. A spider, a fly, a bird? that's what she'd normally go for. Great at escapes, sure, but then her salty ally would be abandoned. "They'll be on us in a moment Bikke, hope you're ready for a fight?.. Because it's not my speciality!" she says, with clumps of thick fur magically bursting forth all over her body, like corn kernels in a camp fire. It always felt different shapeshifting into a domesticated animal, the primal energies surging through her speak of warm hearths, stone, fields of wheat and green pastures - not the tumultuous energy of the forest where life and death chase each other in an endless spiral. Terestria, appearing now as a heavy horned ram, starts scraping the ground back with her forelegs, preparing to knock back whatever comes through the window to a rocky demise. "Looks like it's a long way down...."
"Green Gods above..." Terestria swears from the top of the tower. There are so many golems, such little time. There's got to be a way to slow them down, something to shut them all off...
Terestria's tall rabbit ears twitch, "I can hear you just fine Fizz, careful with the rope."
Terestria flings her grappling hook up to the tower Everybody up! Quickly, before the ice breaks! She cries out before ascending herself.
That eye would probably sell for a pretty penny...no, wait. Bad time for that. The Southern Watchtower is still nearby - if you were to grapple up there you would probably be able to get everyone in. That ought to get you out of sight and into the courtyard as planned, but there's still more activity than you hoped for. It might not be the option it was. There's an entrance down the way Elena is wandering that you can remember from earlier, but that place is probably going to be more trafficked, and it's a bit away from where you are. The watchtower is still our best bet. Terestria decides. Into the Watchtower! The golems won't reach us from there! She calls down to the group. Fizz! Come on, play time is over! She says watching his 'helpful' display of Bikke.
Terestria pockets her grappling hook, glad now that she brought it with her. We're sitting ducks here. she thinks to herself as she quickly surveys her surroundings, peering over ruins, looking for a way to move the group from to somewhere safer. A hidden alleyway, a crumbled entrance to the tower, some kind of shelter to get away from the impending threat of another golem.
Going to have to work fast to pull that off, Terestria. Give me a DD Dex for your midair grapple. As for the eye, I'd say give me an aid for Gromroir if you're going to interact with it. Help him with the catch.
"Grom! Catch!" she shouts tumbling through the air.
Terestria, thinking quickly pulls out a trusty grappling hook from her Adventuring Gear, flinging it to a high ruined wall and swings to safety. If she has time, she snatches the now dislodged eye from the air as she swings.
Terestria, feeling her green magic get tinged in the white of winter, shivers all over as her form glows and shifts into the woodpecker. Taking stock of the situation she sees that the golem is unleashing a rain of arrows on Elena. I'm coming Elena! she chirps in her bird form. Terestria waits for an opportunity to dive in, spending 1 hold to grab at the face of the golem and another to peck out the glowing eye from the socket.
"Golems aren't exactly my specialty!" Terestria says ducking for cover. After she hears what Nonna relays. "The eye?" She thinks for a split second "I think I have an idea. I'll need cover fire!" If the eye is the source of its power, then something small, nimble, and strong might just be able to dislodge it. Terestria kneels, her body and eyes begin to glow a pale green as she shapeshifts into an Ironbeak Woodpecker! The type that make their home amidst the ancient forest trees, knocking holes in bark as strong as a knight's plate.
If I can offer any GMing advice in dungeon World, it's this... Draw Maps, leave blanks. You don't need a perfect web if GM intrigue to run a game. In fact, the game will fight you for over planning. If you're worried about remembering the details of the game world, don't worry; players are the first to speak up and say "hey this person wasn't an ogre, he was an orc!". The sessions that me and my RL players have enjoyed most are we I haven't prepared endlessly. My last session o prepped maybe for 30m, and it was an absolute riot. On the flip side, the first dungeon I through at them was a wreck! Why? Because I planned rooms, traps, and monsters, and the barbarian said"I'm not going in, I'm just going to burn it down" We went on to have a hilarious session. Tools that help me most? A random name list and a bit of bio behind each NPC that the players spend time on.
I'll try and whip up something tonight!
Now that's a mental image. What a mind boggling city we've concocted. Sorry Loopy. :D
Jesus, Fizzy has a much nicer view of this city than I do. In my defense, I have been bingeing the Witcher novels, and so the darkness is kinda... baked in right now Well, it's looking like a fairly large place based on all our answers. Enough room for fanciful magic and a darker underbelly.
That description of architecture is perfect! I actually meant to imply there are three sections! The skyruin above, the city in the middle where we've all been doing our RPing so far, and the undercity/caverns below. The Skyruin is not easily trafficked, and not populated by normal people at all. Everyone has heard a tale or two of what strange creatures might dwell there. But both paint an awesome picture. It's just that it might not be so hard to access the Skyruin if it's a commonly travelled place.
I'll have a shot at this question then How complicated is getting about? Are the streets open and straightforward, or is there a labyrinthine structure of tight roads, alleyways, dead ends and sewer passages? In ancient times, the catastrophe that gave birth to the Skyruin left the city fragmented, with parts falling into deep crevasses of the earth. Since then, many bridges have been built backwards, forwards, and sideways to connect each portion of the city, like a civilised spider web above the depths below. Passage is easy enough, but if you're lucky, your friend might even know a secret walkway or passage so you won't have to pay the tolls! Because it is an ancient city, there are countless unexplored alcoves and alley ways that have not seen foot traffic in millenia; closed off through the repairs to the city, or for reasons forgotten. Below the new city lies the old. Half buried, blocked off, and hazardous. Only the most foolhardy adventurers dare to plumb these depths for riches. An old trade district, lost to time? A secret passage made from an ancient tubed mail system? A temple to some ancient martyr? A dried out sewer that has become a labyrinth? A secret wellspring grove with long-though-extinct flora and fauna? You name it. Countless lost secrets and treasures.... but you'd better bring a guide if you want to come back out.
"Nonna, are you sure this courier is who we're after?"" Terestria says, not even pretending to drink her ale anymore. "I was told they'd be, dark, powerful, and ....well, rich! Terestria starts to suspect that she doesn't have the full picture of this job. But the silver signet ring adorning the Herald's hand means that there could be no mistake that they're on the same mission. "We couldn't be trying to stop him from completing the ritual could we? You and I both know what that would mean!" Terestria:It's a lot easier to scope out an area when you can turn into a bird, even if the ears can mess with how aerodynamic you are. What kind of place has the target secreted themselves away in, and what preparations have you made to get everyone in there? "Either way, I've scouted ahead." She says "And it's bad news." Unrolling a crude map of the city's districts, she draws attention not to the city, but to a region drawn separately. Not out of the city, but above it. "The Skyruin.” High above the city, suspended through some bizarre magic lies the ruin of the ancient Mage Quarter. Ripped from the earth, by either rampant magic or the Gods themselves. Held above as a warning to those who go too far in their explorations of the unknowable. “The Rookery. Eld Arlea. However you want to call it. Maybe he’s planning on holeing up there to prevent the ritual? How he got up there I’ve no clue in the slightest... As for how we will?” Terestria chuckles to herself “There’s an Air Elemental that owes me a favour.” |