Skycrawl Dungeon World - Session 3

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Dramatis Personae

Player Characters

• "Hire" – a gruff, serious ranger-for-hire who wonders if he might be the only one actually paid to be here
• Van Krinkel – a near-sighted deep gnome thief who inexplicably found himself aboard The Ikaruss after a night of drinking, and has no memory of coming aboard
• Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
• Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire

Non-Player Characters

• Captain Jeremiah Hawthorne – minor gentry way in over his head

• Romz deZemler – a smuggler of the leonine "lirovan" race. Tall and athletic, with a mane of golden hair. Missing one ear. Wears a fine yet functional vest embroidered with battle scenes. Friendly, if sarcastic and cynical.

• Hagora deGurn – An elderly lirovan woman. A fortune teller and shaman, well loved and respected by the community of Kighara. 

• Godom deNilmid – A male lirovan with a chiseled appearance, freckled skin, black hair. Wears the distinctive wide-brimmed hat of an orcerer. He and his wife Dorala have combined the trades of orcerer, money-changer, minter, and apothecary.

• Brien Fancroth – A member of the "spindlefolk" race, of unnaturally tall, zero-G adapted people. Short black hair and black beard. Wears glasses. Doesn’t look half as ruthless and cruel as he is. Formerly a member of the Black Worm Pirates, condemned to die.

• Thrac, the Apothecary – A member of the amorphous, slime-like "ooleum" race. Blue body. Come to the Vasana Range with a handful of mercenaries, seeking poisonous ingredients for some sinister purpose.

Summary

The heroes began this session where they left off: preparing to rappel down a vertical chimney in the caves of Shanjin and transport the refugees to safety. The rappelling proceeded without a hitch, and they successfully located the exit.

However, they still had two hours before the planned rendezvous, so Hire decided to do some more exploration. Taiyo agreed to tag along, with the rest of the party remaining with the refugees. Hire and Taiyo head down a nearby passage and find a separate entrance to the pit of magical darkness that Wilkins and Van Krinkel encountered earlier. Hire charged forth and awakened the monster. Hire struck the monster, and it bit him in turn. Taiyo charged into battle after him. The monster fought viciously, and Taiyo frantically healed Hire to keep him alive, but he soon took his Last Breath.

Death appeared to Hire in the guise of his father, and told him that he must slay the immortal spirit Kurakka the Thunder Serpent in the Vasana Range if he wanted to live. Hire agreed, and thus came back to life.

Thus, they defeated the monster, dispelling its magical darkness and revealing it to be a bizarre man-sized serpent with the head of a bat and wings like a vulture. In its lair they found the skeletal remains of a phon security agent, and his still-serviceable trench gun.

Primitive screwheads, beware.

The party regrouped and met with their respective ships for the rendezvous, then set sail for the Vasana Range, the homeland of Romz deZemler and the lirovan race. Hire soon realized that the bite of the monster had infected him with a bizarre ailment, which caused his skin to grow pale, his eyes to turn red, and gave him a strong aversion to bright light.

After two days of uneventful sailing, the party arrived at The Vasana Range. The phon refugees were welcomed into the community, and Romz left the heroes to guide the refugees into their new homes. They got the measures of lazul minted into coins at the shop of Godom deNilmid, orcerer and apothecary. Hire was also able to purchase a remedy for his illness.

They then proceeded to the home of the village elder, Hagora deGurn, an elderly lirovan fortune teller and shaman. She listened to their plight and gave them her counsel. She also read their fortune, and while she predicted they would reach their goal, it would only be after terrible hardship. She saw a gathering darkness, and believed that their presence in the Azure Aetern was a portent of doom.

The heroes learned many things as they asked around town:

• The Vasana Range will soon hold its Great Hunt, where condemned criminals are hunted for sport.

• Kurakka the Thunder Serpent has been acting erratically lately. He has been running amok and spreading poison. Hagora asked them to seek him out and administer a potion that may heal him.

• A member of the amorphous oolea race and his four glasswing henchmen came to Godom’s shop and tried to order many suspiciously toxic reagents. Godom refused them and they left.

• There is a land of giant glowing clouds of nebula where new Sols are born, called “Sollifex Aether.”

• Talking to Sols is very difficult, but there is a land called Casarbon inhabited by a race of telepaths called the “zorakith.” They might be able to help commune with the Sols.

• The prophecy of a gathering darkness greatly disturbed Hagora. She advised them to seek out a stronger prophet than her in the land of Argus, home of the All-Seers, a race of angelic prophets.

Hire, having been charged with killing Kurakka the Thunder Serpent by Death, urged the rest of the party to accept the mission to save him, but did not disclose his true motives. With that, the party prepared themselves to venture into the interior of the Vasana Range.

TL;DR

The heroes led the phon refugees safely out of the cave and to the rendezvous point, but not before Hire had a brush with death from fighting a monster. He made a pact with death to kill the immortal spirit Kurakka the Thunder Serpent, and thus defeated the monster and found a trench gun.

The heroes then sailed to the Vasana Range, home of Romz deZemler and the lirovan race, and the phon refugees were successfully resettled. The heroes were paid and learned many interesting things while in town. In particular, they learned that Kurakka the Thunder Serpent was acting erratically, and that a member of the amorphous, slime-like "ooleum" race had been trying to purchase large quantities of poisonous reagents for some unknown purpose.

As Hire had made a pact with death to kill the Thunder Serpent, her persuaded the other heroes to take up a quest to administer a healing potion to him, not revealing his true motives.

Concluding Thoughts

And that concludes the Shanjin arc of the campaign. This was an interesting session, as many potential paths to the ultimate goal of finding a new sun were revealed, allowing the players choices for which direction the campaign would go in. I also learned that the Last Breath move can sometimes be used to urge players to go engage with some of the content you prepped instead of skipping over it. The Thunder Serpent quest was just one lead that I didn't know if they'd want to follow or not.