FrankenFourth: Age of Worms, Episode 509

Cast

• Humal (level 9 wrathful cambion wizard)
• Corzale (level 9 dwarf war cleric)
• Sumia (level 9 elf rogue/ranger)

Summary

As soon as Sumia finished describing as best she could the bloated amalgamation of Bozal and Kyuss worm within the room, there was a muffled groaning of metal. When she peered through the hole again the creature was gone. The pipe leading into the pump had been torn open, which begged the question: was it coming for them, or retreating?

The party swiftly retraced their steps through the southern hall and training room, and when they arrived at the hall that connected to the pump room a wave of dark green slime swimming with worm-ridden undead came cascading towards them. As the undead staggered to their feet, the Bozal-Worm emerged from the pump room—an act that took some effort due to its considerable size—and began gradually wriggling its way towards the waste chute.

With the hallway clogged with undead and dark green slime, it was impossible for the party to pursue the Bozal-Worm; at least it was also too narrow for more than a few of the undead to claw at Corzale as she held the line. Unfortunately, despite the Bozal-Worm's impeded speed and the undead's susceptibility to Corzale's twice-blessed hammer, by the time the last of the undead fell the Bozal-Worm had already vanished down the waste chute.

Apparently it hadn't intended on confronting them, but the question now was where was it going, and why?

Design Notes

Another short session because Jacob had to duck out early (real life can do that to you), so we spent some time after the game talking about various game stuff and armor.

I'm overhauling armor (boo...), but not the armor mechanics (yay!): added a few new armor types, shuffled some stuff about, grouped everything into light/medium/heavy categories, got rid of Speed penalties entirely (so Armored Mobility will probably end up being a slight increase to the maximum Dexterity bonus that a given suit of armor allows), and the new Armor Class/Damage Resistance ceiling is +5 for both (was formerly +4/+4 for plate).

This puts plate-clad warriors nearly on par with lightly armored, Dexterity-focused rogue-types (AC 15 versus 16, though you can grab a shield and also get a 16), which I'm fine with because heavy armor also gives a buttload of damage resistance. Plus, as with A Sundered World you'll be able to purchase armor (and weapons and other things) made from special materials, namely mithril and adamantine.

In terms of the actual adventure (The Champion's Belt), I changed how the Apostalic Scroll can be interacted with such that a party can actually do something with it, which has caused a huge shift in the expected course of events in this adventure, and I'm totally okay with that. It'll be really interesting if the party fails to stop Bozal-Worm from doing whatever it is he intends on doing (I know, but they don't).

Showcased where we are with the cover art on this post. The basic game is virtually done, just gotta do a few more bits of art and reorganize some of the writing, which will give people more time to submit feedback.

Announcements

If you're curious about FrankenFourth and/or Dungeons & Delvers, you can find public alpha documents here and here respectively.

The Rogue is our latest alternate-addition to the Dungeon World core class roster. If you want something different and/or more flexible than the thief, be sure to check it out!

Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).