Last night, my Tuesday night game did a sidestep into Dungeon World. We decided a couple of weeks ago on our characters:
- Vorrak, the dwarven fighter
- Wesley, the human cleric
- Torendil, the elven wizard
- Mouse, the halfling thief
Our GM, Tyler, is running DW for the first time, but he was giggling madly over the rulebook while we were talking about it 2 weeks ago, so I knew he would do just fine.
We began last night with character bonds. I have to admit, I pushed quite a bit here and stepped on Tyler’s toes a bit (hopefully he didn’t mind). The GM’s role in Dungeon World is to basically sit back and help the players drive all the action forward, but he doesn’t actually have to do much besides bring in threats and decide on complications when appropriate.
In the course of our bond-creation, we determined that we were fairly new to each other’s company, but that my character Mouse had stolen Vorrak’s dignity– in the form of his beard– the previous night, which I had then sold to Torendril, who used it in creating his familiar. Meanwhile, Wesley knows this and hasn’t turned me in, because I’m kind of pathetic and downtrodden.
What I don’t know is that Vorrak also knows that I stole his beard, and he’s just biding his time before confronting me about it.
So, we began in an inn. Because it’s a cliche, you know. And as we’re wandering around, chatting and role-playing, we notice there are a lot of rats in this inn. And I overhear the innkeeper talking about how his cat has gone missing, and it’s expensive to replace (we later find out it’s an elven cat, rare and special). Meanwhile, I help myself and the dwarf to some beer, but not before spiking the dwarf’s beer with a dose of the sleeping poison I’ve mastered.
Oh, yeah. Sorry, Steve. I didn’t tell you that part yet.
So, the dwarf is already in his cups, but hasn’t drunk the tainted beer yet. I notice there are rat droppings in the peanuts, and go back over to my table, my half-pint in hand, to talk to the wizard and warn him about the food. Torbelin notices that the rats look… sickly.
Eventually, the wizard tells Wesley, who is alarmed.
At this point, Vorrak downs the ale, and his dwarven constitution rebels against the sleeping poison in it. He vomits profusely all over the table (score a second “stolen dignity” point for Mouse!). Vorrak and Mouse go outside to escape the tide of vomit.
Wesley stands on a table loudly announces to everyone in the bar that the beer is tainted with frothing rats, and for everyone to remain calm.
Everyone panics and flees. Vorrak and I return to an empty bar (great! more beer for me!) and a very angry innkeep.
This is when the adventure actually starts, as the innkeep demands we get rid of his rat problem, in restitution for the damages and lost custom to his bar.
I haggle him up to 400 gp if we find his cat, and half that if we just kill the rats for him.
We set off into the sewers, where we face rodents (of unusual size), then squeeze into a side alcove, which leads into an aquaduct. I disable a trap in the aquaduct, and we continue onward, forever. Eventually, we find a ladder up, which we take into another part of the aquaduct. Here, we continue onward, again for.ev.er, until Torendil realizes that the floor is sloping somewhat upwards, but the water… isn’t flowing down. In fact, the water is oddly viscous.
We’re knee-deep (waist-deep for the halfling!) in gelatinous cube.
Life is about to get very…. interesting, my friends.