Dungeon World: The Bandit Formerly Known as Prince
Cast
- Azagin (2nd-level dwarf mutated battlemind)
- Paisley (2nd-level human bard)
- Sketch (2nd-level human thief)
Summary
The characters set out from Willowspear, following the sluggish, polluted Dunwater River as they traveled west. They were searching for an ancient, dwarven tablet that had been found at the river's bank in Dunwater, and stolen by a gang of goblins before it could be delivered to a scholar at Willowspear.After roughly a day of travel the plains turned to rolling hills, and they discovered a particularly large, rocky hill that featured a gaping hole near its base. Torch sconces were set on both sides of the opening, and stairs had been roughly hewn into the stone: it was a safe bet that this was the goblins' lair.
In a rare moment of reason, Azagin scaled the rocks in search for another entrance. He didn't make it far when an eye appeared on one of the rocks and blinked at him. Without hesitating he stabbed at it, and was flung to the ground as the "rocks" recoiled and bellowed in pain. Somehow, the goblins had acquired the services of a giant, rock-like humanoid as a guard.
The Rock Giant fell upon Azagin, trying to crush him with its massive limbs, but it was clumsy and slow. Azagin darted between its legs, hacking at them with his arm-turned-blade. Its hide was thick and tough, but fortunately nowhere nearly as durable as actual stone. He managed to hamstring it, giving Sketch the opportunity to climb onto its back and drive her blade through its skull.
With the Rock Giant slain, they found that it was in fact "resting" upon a second entrance. They descended inside and quickly discovered a considerable treasury. There wasn't any strange tablet among the scattered coins, gems, and jewerly, but seeing as they were already there they each loaded up several sacks worth.
Before they could leave, a pair of goblins arrived. Azagin and Sketch hid near the room's entrance, and Paisley began singing a soft, soothing song. The goblins were drawn towards her, and when they entered the room simply stood there, entranced by her music...which made it easy for Azagin and Sketch to each take one out.
They returned to the surface, loaded their treasure into their wagon, and went into the original entrance. When the tunnel split, Sketch scouted out the right passage. She found what could loosely be described as a dining hall, with a trio of goblins loudly eating and drinking. After briefly trying to come up with a plan, Azagin proceeded to scream loudly while charging into the room.
Even armed the goblins wouldn't have stood a chance: Azagin cut a few down, and Sketch killed the other while it was still scrambling for a weapon. They searched the hall, but as expected didn't find any tablet. That just left the other passage, but as they left the self-proclaimed Bandit Prince ambushed Paisley.
He held a dagger, presumably poisoned, to her throat and demanded that Azagin and Sketch drop their weapons. They obliged, and he escorted them out of his lair. Once he let Paisley go, Azagin willed his arm into a blade and rushed him. He slammed into the Bandit Prince, stabbing him savagely as they both tumbled down the stairs: he was dead before they made it to the bottom.
The Bandit Prince had the tablet on his person, which fortunately near as Azagin could tell undamaged. Azagin took both it and the Bandit Prince's head: when they returned to Willowspear he would give it to the Watch as proof of his deed.
Behind the Scenes
This is a bi-weekly campaign that is being run by Ben, one of the creators of Fright Night. It's interesting seeing someone relatively new to running games in general take Dungeon World for a spin. It's working out well enough, though the soft and hard moves are causing some difficulty.Not for us, mind you: it was incredibly easy to get into the goblin den and slaughter everyone. Even the Bandit Prince went down without so much as a poisoned graze. The real difficulty is avoiding making soft and hard moves that consistently swing too far in either direction. I've heard this as one of the reasons people don't like Dungeon World, and I can definitely understand why.
We'll just have to wait and see how things go over the next few sessions, but at the least Ben seems to be statting the monsters correctly. This is something I've seen some people that actually charge money for adventures and settings fuck up to an astouding degree. I'm not even talking something minor like a couple hit points or a tag: I've seen stats so bad, it's like they didn't even read the section on making monsters.
Announcements
First, you can increase your pledge to get additional classes at a discount.
We're doing this because people have asked us to include additional classes that we've created, like The Bard, The Psion, and The Pirate. The problem is our classes are really popular, and we don't want people to pay for content they already own.
This way you can get exactly what you want at a discount. It should be noted that any classes you buy through the Kickstarter will be sent out at the campaign's conclusion: you won't have to wait for the rest of A Sundered World.
Second, per someone's suggestion, I'm going to write a kind of promo adventure for A Sundered World in time for GenCon. It will be about Lichfield in length (so that ideally you can wrap it up in a couple hours), and will feature pregen characters, one of which will be of a race I haven't talked about before. Everyone backing at the $3 level or higher will get this when it's ready.
Finally, there're going to be comics, short stories, maybe even novels (backers of any level can see the first page). The art is currently going to be done by Melissa and myself, and the writing will be by Brannon Hollingsworth. Everyone backing, even at the $1 level, will get the first comic when it is ready.
In non-Kickstarter news, The Swashbuckler is out!
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