AP (The Deep Forest) - Super Ultra God Orc Avatar and the Grey Goo Menace

Last night, I finally had the chance to join a weekly, local game night with some really awesome people, and someone pitched The Deep Forest, a variant of The Quiet Year by +Avery Mcdaldno and +Mark Diaz Truman that focuses on, "decolonization, monstrosity, and individuals." 

I admit, I haven't played The Quiet Year yet, but it's on my list of games to try out this year. Needless to say, The Deep Forest is on there too, and I'm thrilled I finally got a chance to play it!

Here's the end result of last night's game, followed by details of our set-up and highlights throughout the seasons. 

An Introduction

The Deep Forest, like The Quiet Year, is a GM-less, map-making, community-centered game, where the players collectively decide what happens to a community of monsters that have driven the humans out throughout the course of a relatively peaceful year.

There are, however, rules to this madness! Going around in a circle, players take turns drawing Oracle cards and choosing one of three actions: working on a project, uncovering something old, or agreeing on something. Generally, each turn represents a week.

The Oracle cards are playing cards with suits matching one of four seasons (Hearts-Spring, Diamonds-Summer, Clubs-Autumn, Spades-Winter). Players consult the Oracle list with their chosen card and pick one of two choices listed (i.e. What cultural practice or ritual unifies your community? OR There is a monster who did not join with you in driving off the humans. Where are they on the map? What makes them different?) 

The game starts with Spring then advanced to Summer, Autumn, and finally Winter. The game ends when the King of Spades is drawn and the Heroes arrive (whatever that may mean)!

The game is available here: http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-deep-forest/

Pre-Game (Landmarks, Monsters, and Remnants)

With a total of five players, we picked one person to establish the city, and the rest of us established borders. Some of us wanted to focus just on the city while others wanted to explore lands outside the city. Ultimately, we settled on a compromise and ended up with a large city with some landmarks outside its borders. The first player marked the city, and we defined the map's borders.

• Player 1 drew a landmark for the center of the city - the Plaza of Blood and Bones (more of a giant pit, really).  

• I drew two, giant, human statues along a southwest path leading to the city that were desecrated by the monsters and became limbless abominations.  

• Player 3 drew the Last Man's Grave in the outskirts to the northeast, surrounded by poppy flowers.  

• Player 4 drew the River Styx to the northwest. 

• Player 5 wanted something happier and not death-related, so he drew a land of double-horned horses in the southeast.

Next, we all chose a type of monster and where they lived in the community. Throughout the game, anyone can say what happens to any monster on their turn, but in situations like the Agree on Something action, we each speak for the monster we chose. They're almost like PCs but not really, since this is a community-centered game if that makes sense. 

• Player 1 chose Grey Goo which resided in a place called The Merchant's Moonscape near the center of the city.  

• I chose Ghoul Driders which resided at the Blood Rose Garden in the northern part of the city.  

• Player 3 chose Super Ultra God Orc who resided in a giant, mess hall with his orc/goblin minions outside the city to the southeast. Super Ultra God Orc was so huge and fat, he couldn't fit through the door to leave his mess hall!  

• Player 4 chose Robot Liches which resided in the west part of the city.  

• Player 5 chose the Mindfryers (a play on Mindflayers) which resided at the Temple of the Sons of Mente in the northeast of the city.

Finally, we went around the circle a third time, choosing important remnants left behind by the humans. We would adopt one, and the rest would become taboos.

• Player 1 drew The Chasm south of the city which held glowing rocks that were used for energy, light, etc.  

• I drew The Mage's Library Tower of Enchanted Knowledge in the city, south of The Merchant's Moonscape. 

• Player 3 drew a church/hospital in the northeast graveyard, just before the Last Man's Grave. 

• Player 4 drew a royal courthouse dedicated to law in the city, west of the Plaza of Blood and Bones. 

• Player 5 drew human, slave pits in the city, east of the central plaza.

After a short round of debate, we unanimously decided to adopt The Chasm and its power rocks into our lives and make all the others taboo that our monsters feared and distrusted.

Now, we were finally ready to begin play! 

Spring - Introspection, Familiarity, Building

Much of Spring was spent fleshing out details about our community, describing our monsters' behaviors, rituals, cultural practices, diets, communication, what drew them here, etc. based on the Oracle cards we drew and choices we picked.

While most of the monsters (Orcs/Goblins, Ghoul Driders, Mindfryers, and Robo Liches) invaded the city by conventional means, the Grey Goo came from a meteor that crash landed and tipped the scale in the monsters' favor, finally driving the humans out. They feed on most matter and are quite territorial and invasive, but they freely choose who they feed on and what they dissolve.

Super Ultra God Orc or, "Super Ultra," for short, served more as a comic relief character to be picked on and humiliated but who had his own agenda for greed, domination, and destruction (especially toward the end of the game). He had a voice like Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons.

The Mindfryers were mostly happy-go-lucky monsters who fed off minds and knowledge. They hardly gained any contempt throughout the game.

In the game, Contempt is represented by tokens (in our case poker chips) that players could take and give to monsters that they feel haven't been consulted or honored in a particular decision or don't agree with it. As a general rule, players aren't allowed to voice objections or speak out of turn, but they are allowed to take a Contempt token for their monsters (or anyone else's really). Alternatively, if someone does something that certain monsters greatly support and rebuilds trust, they can remove a Contempt token. Contempt can also be removed any time whenever monsters act selfishly (i.e. discovering a hidden vault of power rocks which a group of monsters suddenly claim for themselves). To make it easier on us, we drew all five monsters on an index card in separate boxes and placed tokens on the card rather than the edge of the map as per the rules.

The Ghoul Driders, despite their penchant for dead and rotting flesh, became one of the most community-driven monsters with a passion for intrigue and a greed for power rocks. 

The Robot Liches yearned to raise dead bodies and construct mecha-like abominations. At times they were neutral, at other times they would ally themselves with the Driders, Mindfryers, and Orcs against Super Ultra and the Grey Goo.

Every six years, during the night of a blood moon when the skies are clear, the monsters would hold a conclave/soiree at the courthouse to discuss important matters. So far, this had only happened once.

We discovered ancient, underground catacombs that the humans had desecrated and a crown of the old king which one of the monsters (either the Grey Goo or the Robo Liches) melted down. We also discovered a sentient, enchanted tome with an obsidian cover in the Mage's Tower which fed on knowledge and became a rival for the Mindfryers.

In addition, we designated projects, uncovered old artifacts and mysteries, and stated our opinions a few times throughout Spring.

Some of the projects included: destroying the outer walls of the city to make room for our monsters' expansion; establishing an industrial, mining operation to excavate the power rocks using Ghoul Drider webs and menial orc/goblin labor (the Driders took half of the first haul, while Super Ultra took the other half); and raising dead bodies and turning them into robots with chainsaws for the head and limbs. The Robot Liches took this one step further and gathered enough corpses to form a chainsaw-limbed mecha (the picture on the map is to scale).

We uncovered such things as: a hidden vault of power rocks (which the Driders immediately claimed); an abattoir devoted to the god, Mente; a pentagram inside the courthouse that mapped out obelisks around the city which stood over places of power; a prophecy relating to the human god, Tarkir; and a mysterious sword (similar to Excalibur) that landed in the Moonscape, right in the middle of Grey Goo territory.

A majority of the game was spent on Spring and we almost got through all the Oracle cards, but we decided to take some cards out and move on to the other seasons, since we were a bit pressed on time.

Summer and Autumn - Testing Unity, Conflict, and Intrusion from the Larger World

Tensions rose quickly during Summer and continued on through the bit of Autumn that we got to play (again, we were running out of time and took even more cards out toward the end).

The Grey Goo ended up flooding the Chasm and turned it into the Lake of Goo, though the Orcs and Robo Liches continued drilling with their chainsaw golems. Most of the Driders were forced back to the Blood Rose Garden, where they turned their attention to breaking open the hidden vault of power rocks. Unfortunately, the Grey Goo seeped into it as well and dissolved everything.

The Robot Liches felt the Grey Goo were too invasive, and everyone else agreed. Thus, sanctions were placed on the Grey Goo, and the Robot Liches eventually got to work trying to create something to contain them.

At one point, Crown Princess Leila of the Ghoul Driders betrayed her kind by falling in love with Super Ultra and underwent a lengthy project of slimming him down so that they could get married at the courthouse. Meanwhile, the Drider Queen discovered that the power rocks gave off a radiation that, when mixed with the Grey Goo, gave off a poisonous miasma at the Lake of Goo which they could harvest into a deadly poison to assassinate both Super Ultra and the traitorous Leila.

An Orc captain working for Super Ultra grew restless and tired of Super Ultra's lethargy, so he amassed an army called the Red Hand (for the right hands of his followers were drenched in blood as a mark) to go off an pillage/conquer other cities. The Crown Prince of the Driders took a quarter of his kind to join them, and the great, Robot Lich Mecha came with them as well. Together, they all crossed the River Styx to carry out their mission.

It turned out the Mindfryers were secretly feeding off the minds of a cabal of mages, so they were punished and locked inside the Mage Tower with the mages and the rival obsidian book.

Leila ended up marrying Super Ultra, while the Ghoul Driders poisoned all their drinks for the post-wedding toast. Super Ultra had been using Grey Goo to help slim down, so he developed a natural resistance to the toxin and became sick, while Princess Leila died. 

Super Ultra decided to try and pull the mysterious sword from the Moonscape, while a human hero came to the city looking for the sword. He didn't make it past the statues and was ambushed by monsters and killed.

Soon, the Grey Goo and Mindfryers called for a system of law amongst the monsters, whereby an individual from each of the monster groups would act as a council to dole out punishments for crimes. In truth, the Mindfryers wanted to be freed of the Mage Tower, and the Ghoul Driders, surprisingly, didn't object and said they had served their time.

The obsidian book ended up consuming the cabal of mages, but their corrupt power also caused the book to wither and die - much to the surprise of the Mindfryers.

Super Ultra managed to pull the mysterious sword out of the Moonscape, hoping to become the Avatar of Tarkir and use his bolstered power to dominate and destroy, but his arm became solidified with Grey Goo and his plan was corrupted. Instead of Tarkir, the equivalent of Satan appeared and cursed Super Ultra by forever remaining with him and whispering into his ear so long as he has the sword (which he couldn't get rid of, since it solidified onto his arm with the Grey Goo). 

The Ghoul Driders, it turned out, actually praised the Satan of monsters and quickly took advantage by enacting a ritual in the Mage's Tower, with the help of the Mindfryers who absorbed the knowledge of the mages, to grant Super Ultra immense power to take out the Grey Goo. This transformed Super Ultra into a muscular, macho Orc with immense power and ambition, bent on total annihilation and domination over all the other monsters.

The Robot Liches were able to create a spherical container to trap the Grey Goo, but it also caused disturbing weather patterns that made it snow Grey Goo. Fortunately, the magical container would trap all the snow and convert it into a power source for the Liches. 

Winter - The Sweet, Bitter Ending

We had less than ten minutes of play remaining and sped the game up drastically by this point, but only a few cards were drawn before we reached the King of Spades!

For the ending, we decided no human heroes actually came back to take the city. Instead, the arrival of the hero was Super Ultra himself, the Avatar of the Satan of monsters who nearly destroyed the Ghoul Driders, the Mindfryers, the Robo Liches, and fought the great, Grey Goo menace now that it was more or less contained in the magical container.

Final Thoughts

I'm sure I missed a few things here and there, but hopefully the highlights are enough to showcase what happened without going into every Oracle card that was pulled or every action taken.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing this game. The rules are simple and easy to grasp; the design is unique and provides plenty of opportunity for conflicts, resolutions, and story-building (to an extent). I was very impressed by the other players and the zany, creative ideas we kept coming up with. There were many times where we pushed each other to go more in depth with our descriptions and explanations, and it made the game that much more interesting. 

The Contempt currency works really well in this game too. When our monsters started forming cliques and ganging up on each other, Contempt was being gained and lost all around. I especially like how Contempt can be spent whenever monsters are acting selfishly and players can simply declare that something happens or is true because of it. The Grey Goo ended up with the most Contempt at the end with Super Ultra at a close second if I'm not mistaken. We almost killed off Super Ultra when he was poisoned but decided it was much more fun to keep him alive.

In the end, the community aspect is what I really love about this game. Sure, our monsters fought, intrigued, allied, backstabbed, and more, but we, as players, chose decisions based on what would be most fun for the entire table. Just because I picked the Ghoul Driders and voiced their opinion, I try to make them win or necessarily gain power/status or even survive, because the game's not about that. It's about the community as a whole (the monsters, the individuals, their collective fates), and it's about all the problems and tensions that are introduced and dealing with them together. By the end, we all saw Super Ultra and the Grey Goo as the two, greatest threats in the community, and the thought of all hell breaking loose seemed way too good to pass up.

It would have been nice to play more of the Oracle cards, but we did have five people and were pressed for time in the end. At least we finished by the book! 

I would gladly play this game again, and I really look forward to trying out The Quiet Year at some point in the future as well!

AP (DW) - Into the Desert - First Session

Two weeks ago, I was invited to join a new, DW campaign on G+ Hangouts. As with the start of any new DW campaign, we spent a good amount of time coming up with characters, bonds, backstories, and answering questions to help flesh out the setting before diving into the action.

Cast

Elohïr the Elven Fighter

Yaygo the Elven Winter Mage

Valerius the Human Priest of Zawa

Lux the Human Paladin of Zawa

Elohïr is roughly 534 years old. The elves of the land are practically immortal and hardly ever die of old age. 134 years ago, Elohïr was exiled from his hometown, the elven city of Orod Eska, in the Ice Teeth Mountains. He was married to an elvish woman named Falathil, and, unbeknownst to the other adventurers, he was exiled for slaying the man who murdered her in cold blood. More so, he was exiled for the state of mind he was in when committing the crime, despite his reasoning behind it. As such, his signature weapon, a rapier named Windswhisper (short for the full, elvish name which translates to Voice That Winds Whisper When Death Steps Out of the Shadows), glows blue so long as Elohïr feels vengeance in his heart. He worships the Stars and returns to the city, in secret*, every decade.

*Side note: I'm not a hundred percent correct on this, so correct me if I'm wrong +Kaillan Reukers. 

Yaygo was also exiled from Orod Eska, for reasons unknown to us, and made a new home at the highest peak of the Ice Teeth Mountains, where an eternal winter blankets the rocks in frost and snow. There, he practiced his magic undisturbed and came to embody Winter and her mysteries. One day, he spotted Elohïr returning to Orod Eska and followed him. That's how the elves first met.

Valerius has been on a quest to locate all nine shrines of Zawa, Queen of the Inferno and Goddess of Fire and Passion. He met Elohïr and Yaygo whilst searching for the eighth shrine in the Ice Teeth Mountains. As It turns out, the main mountain was once a volcano in ages past, when the shrine was first built, but it had remained dormant for a long time, as Eternal Winter crept over it. 

After meeting the elves, Valerius brought them to the eighth shrine which was guarded by a Wendigo, ice spirit. With Valerius protecting him, Yaygo extracted the spirit to form an ice golem which has travelled with him ever since. Valerius was impressed by Elohïr's strength and vigor during the battle and could sense the simmering passion that enraged the elf. The Priest believes Zawa brought Elohïr into his life and strongly feels Elohïr could be converted to see the true light given his passion. Elohïr believes Valerius couldn't defeat the Wendigo without his help but was satisfied with the Priest's performance and followed him out of pure optimism and respect, like a moth drawn to a flame. To this day, Elohïr pretends it wasn't a big deal, but, in truth, it was. Thus, Elohïr has sworn to protect Valerius. 

Lux met all three on a merchant ship traveling across the great ocean to the port town of Zawpho. He was a crazed stowaway who had abandoned his ideals, betrayed his order, and forsake the god he once idolized. An event occurred that scarred him so terribly, that he has no recollection of whom he served or what his life was like before accepting Zawa and pledging his life and sword to serving her.

While it was Valerius that shook Lux from his insanity and converted him into a follower of Zawa, Elohïr was actually the first party member to find Lux in a storage area down on the orlop. Lux, in his mad state, spat in Elohïr's face and tried to attack, but Elohïr held him down and nearly killed him. In the end, Elohïr spared Lux's life and handed him off to Valerius. After calming down and speaking with the Priest, Lux dreamt of Zawa and received a divine message from her to passionately serve her, fight for her, and convert any nonbelievers to see her true light. The divine message manifested itself into a physical mark on his chest. Right over his heart was a scar depicting a circle with nine tails spreading out from it - the sigil of Zawa.


The following recollections are told from Lux's point of view.

Prologue

Valerius had visited eight shrines of Zawa and knew the last shrine was located in a vast desert on the other side of the world, a place of eternal summer. Thus, the merchant ship took Elohïr, Yaygo, Lux, and him to the closest port city of Zawpho. There, Yaygo's wintery magic caused a disturbance which provoked a horde of giant, scorpion-men to invade from the south.

This was our party's first adventure prior to the start of the first session, and after we helped defend the city, Valerius found a map off one of the dead scorpion-men which revealed exactly they came from. It was our destination all along, the ninth and last shrine of Zawa. It seemed they had taken it over, but that wouldn't last for long.

Session I

The Outpost

We left Zawpho with enough supplies to last us a decent amount of time, and it helped that not all of us needed them. I was fiercely determined to find the last shrine of Zawa and purge it of the scorpoids infesting its halls. I truly believed Zawa blessed me, for I no longer felt hungry, thirsty, or tired for sleep. I also felt a great deal more loquacious with a voice that could transcend any language. All that was required of me was piety and observing the daily, sacrificial rituals which Valerius still had much to teach me about. Nothing was going to stop me. Nothing was going to stop us. 

We traveled through the night, when the sun star didn't beat down on us quite as harsh, and we soon came upon an outpost occupied by two guards. They introduced themselves as Jedino and Ronven and said we weren't the first ones to recently pass through. Valerius stepped forward to introduce us and asked if they had any supplies for followers of Zawa who were on an important quest, but Jedino suddenly got in Valerius's face and trapped him in a closet! 

"What is the meaning of this?" I said, "That is a Priest of Zawa, and he has done nothing wrong! In the name of the Queen of the Inferno, I demand you release him immediately!"

Jedino apologized and released him right away, but our eyes turned to Ronven who snatched up a crossbow. Yaygo snapped his slightly blue fingers and froze Ronven's arms in a sheen frost. 

Valerius took the time to investigate, and I, likewise, searched for tracks. I asked Yaygo to help me, but he asked, "At what price?" Although I wanted his help freely, I told him I would quit badgering him about forsaking the Stars to see Zawa's light, and he accepted that as payment. On the other side of the outpost, further south, I found boot tracks belonging to four or five humans. The constant, chilling wind swirling around Yaygo ruined the tracks, and I couldn't glean anymore from them. I immediately regretted asking the Mage for help.

Elohïr remained with Ronven. Truth be told, I don't know what the Fighter said to him to make him run. All I could hear was Jedino yelling, "That was a bad idea," and Ronven running toward me and Yaygo. I stuck out my longsword, low to the ground, blunt side facing his knees, and Ronven tripped. Elohïr slew Jedino, and I knew, then and there, that there was something off about them. They must have tried to pull something on Elohïr. 

I pinned Ronven down with my boot and held my blade to his throat. Elohïr approached and gave me a curious nod. It turns out the guards were just bandits, merely posing. They didn't have many supplies, but Ronven hinted at the fact that they stashed some water away. Valerius wanted to know where, but the bandit wouldn't talk, so I pressed the tip of my sword deeper into his neck. The Priest spoke a divine word to call forth Zawa and have her ignite the passion within me. His hair suddenly burned with an ethereal fire, and the hair underneath my helmet combusted as well. My eyes were lit like flickering flames, and I looked down at Ronven and demanded he tell me where the rest of the water was. He asked me to spare his life, or he wouldn't tell me, so I agreed.

"Under the floorboards of the outpost!" he cried out.

Valerius went to look and found the water. Elohïr looked at me, but my seething gaze was directed at Ronven. As soon as Valerius confirmed what he'd found, I drove the longsword into the bandit's neck, killing him. Yaygo just stood there, watching. Elohïr gave me another curious nod, although there was a strange, underlying show of respect. 

Valerius took this opportunity to instruct me on how to properly sacrifice a body for Zawa. He told me to move the body quickly, before the decaying process set in. Meanwhile, he prepared a bonfire, and as we burned Ronven's body, I listened closely to his words and prayed with him.

When we finished, I suggested searching Jedino's body, where we found another map of the area. This one, however, had an X marked for gold in a spot that wasn't denoted on the other map we had. Elohïr explained that the bandits posing as guards were with the other group of bandits that had passed, and with a spot marked for gold, we were sure to find them there.

Once our supplies were secured, we decided to take a detour and embarked on a perilous journey through the desert. 


The Harvesters and the Volcanic Cave

It's been three days since we left Zawpho. We've mainly traveled at night, for it's a lot safer than enduring the sun star's brutal heat. Valerius helped conserve our rations, while Elohïr took point and brought word of any threats. Fortunately, there were none. Yaygo was our trailblazer, but he set us astray, and it took far longer to reach the marked spot on the map than we'd hoped. 

It was daytime, when we noticed sand clouds, twenty humans high, swirling over the dunes. They scintillated with tiny, gold particles, and there was a small group of people with giant nets trying to capture the valuable dust. We knew them to be Harvesters. It was a lucrative, but dangerous, profession in the south lands of Eternal Summer. The winds could change momentum at a moment's notice, and breathing in the particles could cut your lungs and lacerate the organs.

We weren't too far from a cave we'd just recently made camp in, when we spotted the Harvesters. There were five of them altogether. Two were armed, standing guard, while three held up an enormous net and worked. There seemed to be no sign of the bandits, so we took it upon ourselves to go down and offer up our services to protect them. 

Valerius candidly approached them, and we followed. "Good day," he said, "We mean you no harm." He proceeded to alert them of bandits in the area.

"Hmph, nothing new," one of the armed Harvesters replied, and they mentioned two hooligans had already passed through. 

Elohïr told them they had been dispatched and sounded smug about it, as though he was taking all the credit. 

Valerius offered the Harvesters protection from the other bandits in exchange for letting us camp out in their tent, but they refused our offer and said they didn't need protecting. 

There was another cave nearby, higher up, on a mountain. I suggested we take the high ground and camp out there. It would give us a better vantage spot, and we wouldn't be encroaching on the Harvesters. Valerius and the others agreed. The Harvesters had no problem with us camping nearby. As we left, Elohïr scoffed, "They'd be grateful to have us in their tents."

When we reached the cave, we weren't prepared to make camp just yet without first exploring our immediate surroundings. Yaygo found a giant crack and thoroughly inspected it for anything peculiar. He found nesting signs of a burrowing creature, like a scorpion or something similar, and scratches on the rock that were definitely made by scorpions. He also felt cold air coming from inside.

Valerius gazed at the texture of the rocks and immediately recognized them to be the same, volcanic stone as the mountain which contained the eighth shrine of Zawa. He drew upon his knowledge and remembered that the volcanic magma condensed into a cooler state, called Blackbond, which then hardened into a stronger material and could be applied to tools, weapons, and armor to strengthen them. 

We knew the cave wasn't the safest place to camp, but we unanimously decided to slip through the crack and take our chances. 

Valerius was the only one who slept. Elves do not require sleep; they meditate instead. Since I didn't need to sleep or meditate, I offered to take watch.

Prior to their meditation, I overheard the elves talking amongst each other. Elohïr referred to the bandits we met as barbarians and filth. I saw true hatred in his eyes, when he referred to them as, "Pathetic humans," and learned just how deep Elohïr's resentment toward humans stretched. Of course, I didn't know why. I thought perhaps all elves shared the same sentiment, but Yaygo was quick to disagree. He didn't think all humans were filth. That left me wondering about Elohïr's past and Yaygo's. In fact, I realized I still didn't really know much about any of my new companions, but I was eager to learn, for I felt a bond with them that I hadn't felt with anyone in a long time. I couldn't even remember much about my past. My head was clouded with amnesia, and they were the only ones I truly remember meeting. 

I felt Yaygo's misguided behavior with his wintery magic endangered his very soul, but I made a promise I wouldn't try to convert him. I respected the beliefs of Elohïr, and I felt he was starting to respect me, but I hoped he would one day see the true way of Zawa. Valerius stood by me in battle, and I knew I could trust him completely. He was a brave soul, and there was still much I had to learn from him.

* * *

At some point, Yaygo woke up, and we had a brief, private conversation. He asked me if I could communicate with Zawa which, I confess, caught me off guard. He asked me if Valerius and I were similar in that regard. I told him the truth. I recalled that day on the ship when we all first met. Valerius opened the doors for me, but I stepped through and saw the light. Zawa came and spoke to me in a dream. She left her mark on my chest, which Yaygo had not yet seen, so I showed him. I told the Winter Mage that Zawa spoke to me but that I could not communicate back - not the way Valerius could. I hoped to learn all I could from the Priest so that I could do in service to her. Yaygo listened intently and told me he wanted to help me learn to commune with her. I truly didn't know why the Mage suddenly wanted to help me, but I honestly felt closer to him. I felt I could trust him.

I felt I could trust all my companions.

Several hours after Yaygo withdrew into his meditation again, my ears perked up, and I heard strange sounds of rattling and cracking all around me. I looked around and immediately noticed the rocks surrounding us were chipping apart and hatching. Tiny, black pincers pushed through, and I quickly realized they weren't rocks. Segmented legs, chelicerae, and heads the size of fists broke through. Two, large eyes and three pairs of smaller eyes scanned every direction, and there were dozens of them. I quickly drew my sword and grabbed my shield before waking Valerius. 

We knew the cave wasn't the safest place to camp, but we never realized we'd fallen asleep in a nest of giant scorpion eggs until then.

END OF SESSION

AP (DW) - The Giant Magi and the Stag

Exactly one year ago, I ran the conclusion of a three-part Dungeon World adventure on G+ Hangouts called The Giant Magi and the Stag. Not long ago, I realized I had scattered the APs throughout the The Dungeon World Tavern and Google Drive, but I hadn't actually posted them to the blog yet, so this is a fitting, anniversary, AP post. 

To give you a little background, I had been running a Dungeon World PbP during that time called Sagas of Mahr-En and chose to use different locations in the same world for the Hangout game. I named the campaign The Saga of Time and Seasons and hoped it would continue after the third game session, but sadly, we couldn't find time to get together again. Too much time passed by, and ultimately, this game remained a three-part one-shot. 

What happens when a ragtag group of adventurers goes after a powerful, magical artifact, guarded by a giant and hidden in an abandoned fortress that was once home to the giant's ancient race?

We were curious ourselves, so we played to find out!

Setting

The World of En

Map by Misha Polonsky

While the World of En is quite extensive, and the central continent of Mahr-En is clearly the largest landform, The Giant Magi and the Stag actually took place in the far, northeastern, port city of Cragport and the island known as the Jagged Rock with the Sea of Klana in between them.

The Cast

Scarr the Human Fighter, played by +Eadwin Tomlinson (Parts I, II, and III)

Avon the Human Wizard, played by +Penda Tomlinson (Parts I, II, and III)

Herran the Human Druid, played by +Isa Wills (Parts I, II, and III)

Florian the Human Bard, played by +Simon Burdett (Parts II and III only)

Stretch Wolfchild the Halfling Ranger, played by +Matt Smith (Part II only)

Part I

In our first session, our three main heroes: Scarr the Human Fighter, Avon the Human Wizard, and Herran the Human Druid were approached by the Thieves Guild of Cragport, where one of the thieves told Avon that if he and his mates journeyed across the sea to Jagged Rock and found and brought back Bort the Nimble, dead or alive, the Thieve's Guild would forget the whole fiasco with the fairy gold Avon tried to fool them with and the whole ordeal with the Nine Serpents gang retaliating; furthermore, the Thieve's Guild would owe the heroes a favor. That's always nice, right?

Bort the Nimble, a halfling, was a high-ranking member of the Thieves Guild and a famous 'Robin Hood' type amongst the poor, starving citizens of Cragport. The nobles despised him, and had been quite content with his disappearance at Jagged Rock - the rocky island in the middle of the sea filled with the abandoned ruins of a great, stone fortress that was once home to an ancient race of giants. Bort the Nimble was allegedly seeking an ancient and powerful, magical artifact: a statue of a stag carved out of an ancient, mystical wood with the power to control time and the seasons themselves.

Avon, Scarr, and Herran accepted the job, and sought out a ship that would take them across to Jagged Rock. With hardly any gold amongst the three of them, the heroes sought out a desperate-looking crew and met Captain Burma who agreed to sail them across in exchange for a portion of the treasure the heroes promised him and his men.

Upon reaching Jagged Rock, Herran took the form of a hawk and scouted on ahead. He spotted the giant tentacle of a kraken and flew back to alert the others. The captain immediately turned the ship to circumnavigate it. As the ship approached the right side of the island, Herran continued to soar in the air above, scouting for danger, and danger found him first when an eagle lord came swooping in from out of the fog and snatched Herran's whole body in its talons. Scarr threw random barrels at it that he found on the ship, and Avon cast magic missiles at it, singeing its wings and forcing it to let go of Herran, which caused it to fall straight down onto the deck of the helm. Herran swooped over it, quickly transformed back into a human, and immediately morphed into a bear, executing what druidic scholars would, in later years, refer to as 'The Bearbomb' technique. 

With the eagle lord's body crushed and its skull cracked open, Avon took the skull and several talons for keepsake, and the heroes left Captain Burma and his crew as they stepped ashore onto Jagged Rock. 

Avon immediately sensed a strange, unnerving magical presence permeating throughout the island that even forced Scarr and Herran to feel uneasy. Up a pathway straight ahead and through the mountain, toward the left, was the mouth of a dark cave fit for giants. There were stone pillars of various sizes scattered around the entrance and along the path to the bottom of the mountain. Giant faces were carved into the stone - some cyclopean in nature. 

Heading up the path, the heroes reached the cave only to find themselves flanked on either side by fiery imps that suddenly emerged from behind the stone sculptures and rocks. A fierce battle ensued as the heroes pushed forward, picking off the imps ahead of them one by one: Avon slinging off magic missiles like a cowboy, Herran scaring off imps with his intimidating bear shout and rendering them to bits with his sharp claws, and Scarr cutting them down with his sheer strength and signature weapon, Tormentor - a huge, jagged sword he took after finally killing the orc leader that kept him prisoner for most of his life. 

Inside the dark cave, the light from Avon's staff revealed a crater with the crumbled, stone ruins of the fortress at the bottom of the steep, rocky sides of the crater. As the heroes made their way down, the hordes of imps still left behind began magically disappearing and reappearing in front of them as Mrs. Eagle Lord made her grand appearance and swooped down from the top of the cave - where a hole large enough for her to fly through opened up to the sky above.

Scarr leapt at the eagle lord as she swooped down to attack him and caught her by the neck, snapping it and tumbling down the steep hill to the bottom of the crater. Herran and Avon followed as they fought off more imps in the process; and, upon reaching the bottom, they saw a gigantic, mausoleum-like structure with a dark, open doorway large enough for a giant to pass through at the opposite side of the crater.

The heroes began making their way over to the entrance when they suddenly heard a loud, bellowing groan emanating from within. At the same time, the last third of the army of imps appeared and charged down the rocky hill - their tiny little bodies ablaze with magical flames. A gigantic creature emerged from the darkness of the mausoleum entrance; and, as it got a little closer, Avon's light revealed it to be a chimera getting ready to release a powerful, fiery breath. 

Chaos ensued; and, in all the chaos of fighting imps and avoiding the chimera's fiery blasts, the heroes eventually discovered that the chimera was actually targeting the imps - and it quickly lost interest in them when a group of imps entered the mausoleum, and the chimera chased after them. It eventually turned back and sent blasts of fiery breath in all directions in order to incinerate the imps. The heroes, of course, were caught in the crossfire, and Herran, stunned, broke his leg after one of the blasts caused a chunk of fallen building to collapse on him. Scarr helped him out by lifting it and freeing Herran, who turned into a bat and flew on ahead. Avon, meanwhile, found himself trapped in a tight corner as he fought off a small group of imps with his glowing staff. Scarr came to assist him, slaying the remaining imps but becoming separated from Avon in the process and forced to run right into the fray of the chimera's spitfire. Avon reached the mausoleum entrance without any further scrapes, while Scarr endured the flames, taking minimal direct damage but burning underneath his armor; nevertheless, he joined up with Avon and Herran, who utilized his supersonic capabilities to detect what lay past the giant entrance.

Inside, the heroes saw a chamber that was at least four times as big as the mausoleum was from the outside. Two, giant-sized treasure chests stood at opposite ends on the left and the right, respectively, surrounded by mounds of shimmering gold. Up ahead, the heroes spotted the dead, battered, and broken body of Bort the Nimble lying next to a giant, rectangular pool of water with wide and enormous, stone steps leading down into a hallway large enough for two giants to walk through side by side.

Upon examining Bort the Nimble's lifeless body, Avon discovered a scroll with a crudely drawn map/blueprint of the giant's fortress. The heroes learned that their adventure would continue downward, to the depths below Jagged Rock and the sea - that was where Bort the Nimble was headed and where they would find the magic stag.

Avon stuffed Bort the Nimble's body into a sac, and the heroes worked together to climb into one of the giant's treasure chests before making camp for the night - knowing the chimera was still out there as well as, perhaps, the imps.

Part II

Having recovered a portion of their health with the help of some healing potions and a few hours of sleep, Scarr the Fighter, Harren the Druid, and Avon the Wizard carefully lifted the top of the giant treasure chest and peeked out at the huge chimera that had nearly singed them hours ago. There were no sign of imps, and the chimera seemed strangely calm and non-threatening. Across the way, peeking out from the other giant treasure chest, they saw the familiar faces of three others they've adventured with in the past: Florian the Human Bard and a Halfling Ranger named Stretch Wolfchild with his animal companion hawk named Wisdom.

Stretch carefully studied the chimera, noticing its disinterest posed no threat, and he jumped down next to its paws as Florian followed. It looked down at them, sniffed, and looked away disinterested. Convinced that Stretch was magically manipulating the chimera by keeping it at bay, Avon, Herran, and Scarr stalled inside their chest when, suddenly, the chimera vanished, leaving a ripple in the air that quickly dissipated. 

After helping Herran down and joining Stretch, the Ranger told them that Florian and him had been traveling with Bort the Nimble to recover the magic stag that controlled the time and seasons, for it defied all laws of nature and the Stretch yearned to destroy it. As he spoke, Avon sensed a spike of magical energy emanating from within the sac containing Bort the Nimble's lifeless body. 

When he stepped away to inspect the body, it turned out to be someone completely different, and much younger, with a distinctive brooch featuring a round, polished piece of zinc embedded in the middle.

Since Avon was vain and sought only the clues to obtaining immortality and everlasting beauty, he knew about two, twin brothers, both mages and alchemists: the Iron Mage and the Zinc Mage. The Iron Mage was black of heart and only sought power for himself at the expense of others; while the Zinc Mage was white of heart and sought only to do good, including trying to help his twin brother change his ways. Both mages were known to have focused their spell craft around the nature of change in different ways, although both brothers had perfected the polymorph spell.

The brooch, and the fact that the dead lad had assumed a perfect form of Bort the Nimble prior to his death, suggested that he was probably the Zinc Mage's apprentice or maybe a servant transformed by the mage.

Looking at the map the dead lad left behind, Avon saw a long, spiraling staircase leading all the way down a giant tower. It seemed the whole, sunken tower was flooded with water. Avon decided to perform a ritual to grant the rest of the party the ability to breathe underwater. He asked the party members to hold hands and form a circle. Even Wisdom joined in with his little, hawk talons next to Stretch and Florian. Drawing the essences of the fish in the surrounding sea, Avon was forced to perform the ritual in sheer darkness, but it left everyone covered in a slimy substance that would enable them to breathe underwater and ease swimming and maneuvering due to the weight armor and weapons impose.

Herran stayed back. He transformed into a frog instead.

The rise in temperature inside the chamber was subtle at first, but by the end of the ritual, each one of the heroes (minus Herran) was sweating profusely, and they all felt as though the sun was directly over them and beating down with summer's heat.

Suspecting it had something to do with the magic stag, the heroes quickly plunged down into the depths of the giant, sunken, tower, and began their descent through the murky, passageway, guided only by the white light from Avon's staff.

First, a group of maggot squid that Stretch tried to swim past suddenly became spooked and swam past the rest of the party from where they came. Up ahead, with Wisdom's help, Stretch pointed out a faint, orange glow that drew closer and closer until Avon recognized them for what they were - fire eels burning ablaze underwater. He gesticulated a fire eel with his arms and hands to the rest of the party, and Stretch decided to grab some rope from his adventuring gear and tie it around one of the huge, chunks of stone debris from the tower in order to toss it through the middle of the spiraling staircase and simply sink toward the bottom where they needed to go. It was a solid plan, but the fire eels managed to get close and attack. Avon shot off magic missiles, but it was Scarr's fighting skills, even underwater, that cut one eel in half and send a wave through the water that forced the other eel backwards and giving Stretch and Florian just enough time to finish tying the ropes.

The plan was to tether everyone to the rock and sink to the bottom. Scarr helped push the rock off with his mighty strength and the heroes sunk to the bottom quickly, as a plethora of spears suddenly whizzed by them in all directions. One of the spears cut through Florian's tether, and he remained floating in the water. The rest of the party sunk further down, until the rock suddenly hit a hard, jagged surface that shook for a moment.

Meanwhile, Avon's light barely reached Florian, but the Bard saw flashes of eyes all around him as several, lizardmen suddenly came at him. Two launched their spears and missed Florian but hit a sahuagin lurking in the shadows instead. It went after Florian, but he swam toward the lizardmen, narrowly dodging their spears and losing a healing potion in the process. He then swam down toward the rest of the party, leaving the lizardmen to face the sahuagin themselves.

Scarr, Avon, Herran, and Stretch cut their ropes once they realized what the rock had landed on and why the ground appeared to be moving. It was the giant claw of an enormous chuul that seemed oblivious to the party as Stretch swam up around the back of its head, looking for weak spots. Avon cast an illusion of himself via his prestidigitation cantrip and distracted the chuul just long enough for Scarr, Avon, Stretch, and Wisdom to swim down past it.

Herran quickly transformed into a human and then into a large, pike fish that swam up to retrieve Florian. Upon grabbing hold of Herran's fin and looking up at an angry sahuagin swimming down toward them, Florian and Herran also noticed that the water above them started to freeze and was getting closer and closer to them. 

They quickly swam away, past the chuul, to join the others. Looking back, the sahuagin high above was frozen solid within the ice; and, though the chuul shifted and resisted, it too eventually froze over completely. For a split second, Avon saw three blink dogs floating in the water out of the corner of his eye. Herran was an incredibly fast swimmer, and Stretch and Florian took advantage by hanging on. They escaped through a large, open doorway into a large, rectangular, stone chamber with a short hallway leading into an enormous chasm with pillars of stone rising high with giant faces carved into the stone - some cyclopean in nature - just like on the surface, outside the ruins.

Scarr used all his strength to swim as hard as he could to escape the oncoming ice; but, as he swam past the open doorway, dozens of crisscrossing spears suddenly shot forward, forming a grate and cutting his arm in the process. Avon swam at his normal speed, enduring the ice as it crept up on him, but he found himself trapped behind the grate of spears. He cast a magic missile which shattered a hole through the wooden shafts of the spears and broke through with Scarr's help.

The water emptied out into a stream which continued down the chamber, through the small hallway, and into the next, enormous chamber, but froze over as the temperature grew cold like winter.

Far ahead, in the distance, a spiraling vortex suddenly appeared from the gaping mouth of the closet stone head carved into a pillar. A pair of hell hounds emerged along with four quasit. The hell hounds seemed fixated on only a single quarry at a time, and one targeted Stretch right off the top, after he fired an arrow under its fiery throat.  Pinning Stretch on the ground and taking a bite out of his shoulder, the hell hound yelped, as Scarr thrust Tormentor into its body and pinned it again the wall, shattering its bones and shredding the demonic flesh apart in an exploding inferno that quickly dissipated in the freezing chamber. As the other hell hound charged at Scarr, he took his best swing yet and decapitated the hell hound right as it lunged at him. Stretch fired off an arrow which went through the hell hound's flaming, red eyeball and into the stone wall. Both the eyeball and the arrow exploded and left more, disappearing embers.

Meanwhile, two quasit went after Florian who took too long performing intricate and wholly unnecessary pirouette moves with his rapier before lunging at the demons. They ended up stabbing him with their fiery weapons instead. With two other quasit on Herran and Avon, respectively, Herran quickly transformed into a human, dodging one of the quasit's blows, and then transformed into a bear, where he immediately unleashed a terrifying roar that spooked all the quasit, including the one that just stabbed Avon before retreating with the rest.

The chamber felt less cold all of a sudden, but the heroes all heard howling resonating in the distance. The hair on the giant's head suddenly swayed violently, and as when the quasit reached the edge of the pit containing the giant, an incredible gust of wind blew them off, sending them to their depths. Herran's eyes changed to matched the color of autumn as the winds continued to howl and circulate in the next chamber.


Approaching the small hallway between the two chambers, the heroes found a black cloak stuck under a large rock and blowing in the wind. They realized the black cloak belonged to Bort the Nimble, and Stretch found another brooch with a round, polished piece of zinc embedded in it. On top of that, Avon also found an archaic, but ordinary, iron key to some sort of locked box or treasure chest and emanating with incredible, magical energy - the likes of which he would never expect.

Looking ahead into the next chamber, the heroes saw a circular path that went all around a pit large enough to house twelve, full grown giants that all looked defeated as they stood bound with heavy chains at the wrists, legs, and throat. They smelled foul and disgusting. Far up toward the ceiling, the heroes saw stalactites with enormous, silk webs and shadows of giant spiders crawling about menacingly. Past the stone pillars, on the opposite side of the pit, was an insurmountable wall - through which the map described as the location of the magic stag.
Just when our heroes thought they could take a break, make camp, and heal their wounds, two more vortices suddenly appeared in the next chamber as the winds slowly died down.

Part III

With Bort the Nimble's black cloak and the brooch of the Zinc Mage in Avon's possession, our heroes stood still, staring at the poison green vortices forming in front and above them. A dozen, large rocks suddenly shot out of the portal ahead. One of the stones hit Stretch square in the forehead and he fell backwards as another vortex opened up on the ground, swallowing him whole. At the same time, his hawk, Wisdom, flew to the side to get away from the vortex opening up above it, but a green vine connecting to a heavy, iron chain suddenly lashed out and coiled itself around Wisdom, pulling him up into the vortex.

All the vortices closed up, but the winds of autumn still hadn't died down in the next chamber with the giant prisoners. The party decided to make camp in the previous, smaller chamber. Avon needed to meditate, Herran needed to commune with nature, Scarr needed some rest, so that left Florian keeping watch.

Scribbling away as he composed the tale of their adventure so far, Florian failed to notice that the winds had died down in the next chamber and that he and his party were suddenly surrounded by fresh, green vegetation, vines, moss, and flowers bursting with pollen.

Herran's eyes had turned green to match the color of spring, and the pollen permeated throughout the chamber. Florian's eyes turned red and began to sneeze as the rest of the party awoke to the same reaction.

Avon quickly wrapped a silk scar over his face, protecting him from the enchanted, allergenic pollen. Herran and Florian reacted a bit slower, and it didn't take too long for them to stop sneezing. Scarr, on the other hand, got the worst of it as a cloud of pollen exploded in his face from a large flower beneath him. His eyes burned red, and he couldn't stop sneezing as he suddenly felt very sick.

In the next chamber, the heroes weren't as surprised by the winds dying down as they were when they discovered a giant field of bright, green grass instead of a giant pit filled with twelve, giant prisoners and tall pillars of stone. What was even more surprising was the fact that they saw Stretch standing in the middle of the field, looking very confused.

The heroes all called out to him, but Stretch continued to look around, confused. Finally, Stretch looked at Avon, who gestured with his hand, "Come here." Stretch shook his head and gestured with his own hand toward the middle of the field, "Come here."

Florian suggested they take out some rope to lasso Stretch, so Herran took some out from his gear and had Florian attempt the lasso. Swinging the rope, Florian successfully lassoed Stretch, but the illusion quickly faded, and he found out he'd lassoed one of the pillars in the center of the pit instead. Three, chained giants surrounded it, forming an invisible triangle, while three more vortices appeared in the open mouths of the giant statue heads carved into the pillars, forming another triangle at the eye level of the giants.

Florian tied his end of the rope around the nearest pillar, while Herran shifted into a hawk and flew to the top of the lassoed pillar in the center. As he landed, two, heavy, iron chains lashed out of the vortices to his left and right, and he flew up to evade them, but found himself stuck in a giant, silk web with a spiderlord at the other end crawling toward him.

Down below, Avon launched a magic missile at the web, singeing a hole through it to free Herran, but as he cast his spell, another vortex appeared to the left end of the path, and a shadow slithered out onto the wall, taking the shape of a steed, before charging out in a solid, shadowy, fiery state.

Herran swooped down, avoiding another lashing chain from one of the central vortices, and clawed at the nightmare's burning eyes with his talons, but they passed right through the shadowy creature.

Scarr took his signature blade, Tormenter, and struck a powerful blow against the nightmare as it charged right past him, slicing through the creature's shadowy skin and hitting flesh as it tumbled forward and fell down on all fours. It blew a great, swirling stream of inferno at Avon, who managed to get out of the way just in time but lost his robes as they burned away completely, leaving the Wizard stark naked.

The nightmare's blazing mane burned out as it melted into a river of jet black shadow and trickled down into a new vortex that opened up below it. Herran's eyes turned red as the sweltering heat of summer filled the chamber, and the heroes began sweating profusely just like before - in the room with the giant treasure chests.

Herran offered Avon a spare set of clothes that he had, but Avon first asked him who the tailor was. Herran didn't have an answer for him, but Avon accepted the clothes anyway. He really just didn’t want to walk around naked.

While Scarr and Herran fought the nightmare, Florian studied the giant and realized he must have been under some sort of enchantment. As the vortices containing the whips of a chained devil slowly closed up, Florian pulled out his lute and began to play a song fused with arcane magic in order to lift the enchantment on the giant closest to him. When the magic-infused song reached the giant’s ears, he woke up from his daze and deliriously stared at Florian and the rest of the party.

The heroes all looked at each other, wondering who could converse in 'Giant' with this creature. Herran mentioned he spent some time with an Ettin once. Scarr, however, told them that the orcs who held him captive used to keep giants as slaves and that Scarr picked up some common words from them - enough to hold a basic conversation, anyway. Florian volunteered to speak to the giant and repeat what Scarr would tell him to say, but as Scarr started speaking the giant’s language, the giant completely ignored Florian and focused solely on Scarr.

Scarr told the giant they were friendly and that they were here to free it. Scarr said Herran needed to see the giant’s chains, and the giant showed Herran its mighty, iron chains: two connecting from a collar around his neck to two, separate pillars of stone - each on opposite side of him. The giant’s wrists were also shackled in heavy manacles that were chained to two more pillars - each flanking him.

Source: Unknown. :(
Image used without permission. I claim no credit for this artwork.

Now, remember when the party made camp? Perhaps it was the magical energy permeating throughout Jagged Rock, but Herran, while mediating earlier and communing with nature, met with the spirits of water, earth, fire, and air; and, where he was, time acted differently. Herran was able to form permanent pacts with the spirits of all four elements - thus mastering them. If the Druid ever needed the spirits’ assistance, he could always call on them; however, they warned Herran that they might not always respond.

Using the scorching heat of summer around them and calling on the elemental spirit of fire, Herran caused the giant's chains to turn red hot, losing control, as they singed the giant's neck. Oddly enough, the giant hardly seemed to feel it, but as the temperature plummeted rapidly, it quickly made sense.

Herran’s eyes turned from red to a frosty blue. The sweat on everyone’s skin nearly froze as an icy chill filled the air, and the walls and floor of the cave began freezing over.

The giant thrashed about; and, due to the sudden change in temperature, he was able to break his chains apart and move his arms freely for the first time in a long while.

The three vortices from before reappeared around the giant, and the chained devil's iron chains lashed out to grab it. The giant swung his arms and propelled the chains toward the walls of the caverns, which they hit, destroying several stone pillars in the process and sending two spiderlords crashing down from the ceiling to flank the heroes.

Avon suddenly saw three pairs of canine eyes blink at him before the blink dogs raced off toward the wall on the opposite side of the pit. Avon knew the Giant Magi was behind that wall, even the map pointed it out, so his obvious thought was that the wall was an illusion and that he had to follow the dogs, but he needed to get past the spiderlord first.

Using his staff, Avon gracefully pole vaulted high over the spider, making it over to the opposite side without a scratch. However, the spiderlord shot a cannonball of sticky, silk webbing out at the Wizard, catching his brightly lit staff mid-air and yanking it away from him, pulling it toward the ground below its head. The spiderlord then kicked its giant legs at both Scarr and Herran, and it shot another mess of silk webbing at Florian.

The Bard moved out of the way in time, but was surrounded by sticky webbing all over the ground around his feet. The other spiderlord that dropped down behind the party, the one closest to Florian, began scurrying toward him.

Herran dodged the spiderlord’s leg and shifted into a spiderlord himself, while Scarr flinched and was knocked aside rather hard as he slid over the icy ground, heading straight for the pit. He caught onto the edge, where the ice hadn’t quite formed yet, and Florian unleashed a crazed performance with his lute in an effort to pit the enemy spiderlords against each other.

Though Florian's intentions were good, his crazed performance was too crazy and caused his intentions to go incredibly awry. The enemy spiderlords were completely unaffected, but Herran, the spiderlord, suddenly had a violent urge to go after the first ally he saw - in this case, Scarr.

Herran crawled over to the edge and took a huge bite out of Scarr's shoulder; and, despite his screaming pain, the Fighter grabbed onto Herran's back and swung himself up as the effect of Florian's performance faded and Herran’s thoughts returned to normal.

The first spiderlord kicked Avon with his back leg, sending the Wizard’s face smack into the ice as he slid across, away from the party, in the direction he wanted to go. Herran, with Scarr riding on his back, crawled over to Florian to pick him up as the second spiderlord reached them. It suddenly stopped in its tracked and, after a short pause, began hopping from side to side, staring at Herran with crazed love in its eyes. As the first spiderlord moved to attack Herran, the second spiderlord came to Herran’s defense and attacked the first spiderlord which gave Herran and the rest of the party a chance to escape.

Herran was able to stick firmly to the ground, despite the ice, and as he caught up with Avon, he bent down for Avon to join the others on his back. Before reaching the wall, Avon saw that the giant they thought they freed before still had his feet bound in chains. Avon fired off a magic missile to try and break it, but his aim fell terribly short as he accidentally shot Florian point blank instead. The Bard nearly fell off, but Scarr caught him, and Florian wasn’t too happy with Avon from that point on.

Once the party reached the giant, impenetrable, stone wall filled with spikes jutting out of the crevices, the wintery season suddenly gave way to spring again, and Herran's eyes changed to green as flowers, plants, and mossy vines grew against the wall and along the cavern floor. Another burst of pollen exploded in the air around the heroes as the three vortices containing the chained devil suddenly reappeared over the pit, near and in front of them. The portals stemmed from the eyes of three, different cyclopean heads carved into three, separate pillars standing in a row.

Avon, once again, used his silk scarf to fend off the cursed pollen. Scarr was still suffering from red, watery eyes and constant, sickly sneezing this whole time, so nothing more actually happened to him. Florian sneezed really hard and dropped some of his adventuring gear as it went sliding away over the melting ice and into the pit. Herran found himself back in human form with all three of the other party members on top of him.  He yelled, “Get off!” rather loudly.

Avon took a moment to cast detect magic on the wall in front of them in order to find which part was an illusion. The spell worked and pointed out a spot directly in the center - which Avon went off to investigate.

Meanwhile, Florian recalled some facts he'd heard from some wizards during his travels. They said that the Iron Mage kept a magical construct as his personal guard: a gargantuan, stone giant. One of the Iron Mage's ambitions was to turn his incredible, magical, construct into pure iron; however, the wizards claimed the Iron Mage hadn't been able to do that yet, at least not according to their knowledge.

The spot Avon investigated was littered with rocks and several, small puddles of black, slimy ooze that burned into the stone ever so slightly. Avon pressed his hand to the wall and it cleanly went through. Suddenly, a stalactite, chained to the ceiling, shot down toward Avon. Scarr quickly rushed forward to defend the Wizard and took off half of the stalactite with Tormenter as he sent it flying back up to the ceiling.

Eight, luscious, green vines erupting from the chained devil inside the vortices suddenly slithered out into the air. As the chain devil’s arms continued to reveal themselves, the vines soon turned into huge, iron chains, and then into the gigantic tentacles of a kraken - similar to the one Herran saw as a hawk when the party first arrived at Jagged Rock. The arms slowly hovered in the air as though they were getting ready to attack, while another vortex appeared above Scarr and Avon.

Drips of black, acidic, ooze began drizzling down on them, and they quickly escaped through the central, illusionary, portion of the wall. Herran’s eyes changed to yellow and orange as he followed Avon and Scarr, dodging the dripping acid and escaping through the wall. Florian, however, caught the first great gust of the autumn winds.

The Bard grabbed hold of a rock and hung on for dear life as the chained devil took advantage of the opportunity to send its eight, mighty, vine/iron chain/kraken tentacle arms out at Florian.

All too quickly, the sweltering heat of summer quickly returned as the gust of wind died down, and the tentacles smashed into the stone that Florian let go of. The Bard backflipped over the remaining arms and quickly ran inside, through the wall, after the others.

The heroes all fell straight down into another pool of water. Without Avon’s glowing staff, the party lacked a source of light and were knee deep underwater in complete darkness. Avon, however, cast light on Scarr’s sword, Tormenter, and quickly forgot the spell.

Scarr, meanwhile, took the entire time to flush out every bit of pollen from his eyes and nose so that he could end his sickness.

The horizontal, underwater tunnel wasn't long, but as the heroes swam forward, they noticed both ends of the tunnel slowly freezing into ice as the temperature plummeted once again and Herran's eyes turned frosty blue.

Herran, once again, called on the spirit of fire to aid him and warm the water just enough to melt the ice. It was a brilliant plan, however it changed the season to sweltering summer as Herran’s eyes turned red again. Not only that, but the other seasons emerged with summer and were going haywire! Fresh vegetation and flowers bloomed under the water, and a strong current of wind blew the heroes in a few random directions before propelling them forward to where they needed to go. Herran’s eyes kept alternating from red to green to orange and yellow to red as the water turned boiling hot just as the heroes escaped into the next chamber and climbed out of the water.

Inside the next chamber, the heroes witnessed an epic struggle as the chimera from the entrance to the ruins above Jagged Rock lay wounded on the cavernous floor in front of them and on the brink of death. It used one of its last breaths to blow a raging, inferno spiral up at a gargantuan, stone giant - roughly the size of two, normal giants stacked together.

Looking ahead, the heroes saw an arched, iron door at the end of the chamber. It seemed large enough for a normal-sized giant to pass through but not the stone giant; he was enormous!

Florian quickly played a magic-infused song in attempt to heal the chimera. It felt a tiny bit of health restored, but it soon didn't matter. The stone giant lifted its giant foot and stepped on the chimera, smashing it into the ground and splattering blood everywhere, as the remains of the magical creature quickly faded away and disappeared.

Avon set about performing a rather hasty ritual to attempt to take control of the cursed power of the dungeon for a moment. He also attempted to summon a vortex or two at will to affect the stone giant. He used the brooch of the Zinc Mage as a focal point for his ritual, hoping it would help him hone into wherever the Zinc Mage was, for that was most likely where the source of the magic in this dungeon was coming from. Avon summoned two vortices - a large vortex way up high on the ceiling above the stone giant’s head and one much closer to the ground, near the giant’s right foot.

The good news is that it worked. The vortex near the ground even revealed Bort the Nimble, albeit in a confused state just like Stretch (or the illusion of Stretch) was in the prison chamber. Even more good news, perhaps, was the fact that drops of black, acidic ooze fell down in messy clumps over the stone giant, eating away at his skin ever so slowly. The bad news, however, was that the vortex on the ceiling continued to expand until it eventually covered the entire ceiling of the chamber. Black pudding drizzled from the ceiling.

Avon quickly ran toward the iron door, avoiding the corrosive ooze, and Herran followed, smacking clumps away with his shield fast enough before they could singe anything. Florian and Scarr followed as well, but the stone giant angrily stomped on the ground with extra fervor and caused the ground to tremble and split before them as a giant chasm soon separated the party.

Florian began playing another crazed performance with his lute, and actually succeeded in unleashing its mystical effect on the right target this time! The stone giant turned to look for an ally to attack, and only knew of one - his master. So the stone giant charged forward, stepping over the chasm and moving toward the iron door. It punched its right fist into the door, placing a deep dent into it while shattering his stone hand in the process. Giant, stone boulders suddenly rained down on Avon and Herran. Avon got out of the way just in time, and Herran leapt forward, dodging the boulders but landing in a spot surrounded entirely by the ooze of the black pudding that was burning into the floor and slowly rising up into the air in an amoebic, serpentine fashion.

The stone giant readied its other arm and threw a punch straight down at Avon, though the Wizard rolled away and dodged the bulk of the giant's hand, as it smashed a tiny crater into the floor. Rocks exploded and hit Avon in the ribs and face, as he fell over.

Meanwhile, Herran turned into a bat to get away from the black pudding, and Florian grabbed some more rope from his adventuring gear to tie around himself so that Scarr could throw him across the chasm.

The plan actually worked, but a huge clump of ooze fell onto the rope, burning through and splitting it in half instantly, leaving Scarr stranded from the rest of the party.

To make matters worse, another, large vortex opened up behind Scarr, as the black pudding on his side moved toward each other to coalesce and get closer to Scarr. Herran landed between Avon and Florian and turned back into a human so that he could aid Scarr.

Avon kept the stone giant's attention, hoping to lure it to throw another punch at the iron door and jump out of the way fast enough for it to smash into it. Avon’s amazing luck pressed on. The plan succeeded, and the Wizard leapt out of the way just in before the giant’s left fist came crashing into the iron door whilst smashing another huge dent into it. The door wasn’t fully broken through, but Avon could see light coming from the chamber on the opposite side.

A deep, metallic voice suddenly echoed all around the chamber. It was a voice Florian recognized when he and Stretch heard and saw the Giant Magi, with his crimson cloak, in the room, where he crushed the fake Bort the Nimble to death.

The Giant Magi told them their journey was about to meet its end - that his pet guardian would destroy them and that he would obtain the key and unlock the portal.

Herran called on the elemental spirit of air this time, just as his eyes turned yellow orange, and the winds of autumn began swirling about in the chamber. The huge vortex on Scarr's side of the cavern began pulling everything toward it like a vacuum. Several, small puddles of black pudding near the vortex were suddenly sucked in. As the vortex grew, it sucked more and more in.

Scarr knew he had to act fast, and Herran, with the help of the spirit of air, managed to control the winds just enough to let Scarr jump across the chasm. Scarr, however, missed the ledge and fell down into the chasm. He landed on something squishy, wobbly, black, and corrosive. The whole chasm was filled with black pudding.

Florian quickly drew another coil of rope and threw it down to Scarr, but it slipped out of his hands and was quickly eaten up by the ooze. The black pudding had practically eaten through all of Scarr’s armor and crept toward his flesh as Florian dropped another rope which Scarr caught and began climbing quickly. Florian helped pull him up, and Scarr discarded his ruined armor.

Avon made one more attempt to lure the stone giant into attacking the door. This time, however, he cast invisibility on himself to really confuse the creature. Avon's plan worked like a charm, and the Wizard was already out of the way when the giant kicked its enormous foot into the iron door and sent it flying into the next chamber with a loud, reverberating crash.

The heroes booked it toward the open doorway, escaping the stone giant who was too large to go through. Despite the black pudding still raining down from above and the stone rocks crashing down from a thrashing, rampaging stone giant, the heroes made it through without any more scratches. Avon and Herran made it through clean. Florian lost his lute, as a rock hit his hand, and the instrument went sliding off into the chasm. Scarr smashed several, falling rocks out of the way with Tormenter, but a clump of acidic ooze hit the signature weapon and dissolved a clean strip down the jagged portion of his blade, essentially stripping away its serrated edges.

The next chamber featured stone tables on the far left and right that were filled with scrolls, papers, tomes, flasks, potions, alchemical ingredients, crystals, and tons of iron ore. In the center of the chamber, opposite the entrance where the heroes stood, was a tiny, locked box - smaller than a regular-sized treasure chest and closer to the size of Scarr's head (literally, not figuratively, of course).

What stood next to the locked box drew even more attention as a normal-sized giant with skin made of iron stood looking at them, wearing a crimson cloak and holding a giant, iron staff with spikes protruding from the end of it.

The stone giant in the previous chamber stepped in front of the open doorway, blocking the heroes escape, and the Giant Magi, aka the Iron Mage, told them once again that he sought the key to the portal and knew the heroes had it in their possession. The Iron Mage pointed at Avon, even though the Wizard was still invisible. The Iron Mage’s staff, the locked box, and the key all began to glow the same, poison green color as all the vortices they’ve encountered.

Florian told the Iron Mage that he had come to become a follower and apprentice - to which the Iron Mage responded, “Grab the key from the Wizard!” and Florian walked up to Avon, asking him for the key. Avon, of course, replied “No!” and ran forward toward the locked box.

The Iron Mage morphed into a normal-sized human just as twelve vortices appeared all around the room - filling the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. The seasons cycled through much more rapidly, and the temperature kept fluctuating.

As the Iron Mage whirled his staff around, his eyes glowed the same color as the locked box and the key. He slammed the iron staff onto the ground, and time suddenly seemed to slow down drastically for the heroes. Gazing at the dented, broken down, iron door, the heroes suddenly saw it rise up and slowly fly backwards into the doorway, the dents restoring themselves as time moved backwards to undo what the stone giant had done to it.

Meanwhile, hordes of shape-changing quasit and fiery hell hounds poured out of the vortices as the chain devil returned, and Avon saw the blink dogs staring at him by the Iron Mage's side, before disappearing again. Worst of all, a barbed devil slowly poked the tips of its quills out from a gigantic vortex on the ground behind the heroes and in front of the iron door.

As Avon reached the locked box, the Iron Mage, growing scared, pointed his staff at the Wizard and unleashed a magical flurry of iron spikes at the Wizard.

Avon ducked in time but lost the key in the process, as it went sliding away. Florian, the closest one to it, ran to retrieve it, but was under attack by two hell hounds flanking him and spitting fire at him. Florian grabbed the key and heroically leapt over the fire and toward the locked box, as Scarr ran forward to deliver another brutal swing. He butchered one of the hell hounds in one, fell swoop with his ruined Tormenter!

Scarr immediately went after the other hell hound charging at Florian, who was getting ready to slide the key through the lock, when the Iron Mage slammed his staff into the ground again, and dozens of iron spears shot out from the walls and ceiling surrounding the Bard. Scarr quickly turned to defend Florian from the spears, taking some of the spears in the shoulder blade himself as the hell hound charged at him, about to land a fiery bite.

Herran called on the elemental spirit of water to encase his enemies in a sheet of ice. The season turned to winter and not only froze the fiery, planar creatures, but the entire chamber as well, with the exception of the Iron Mage and the heroes. Even the lock to the chest they were trying to open was frozen solid.

The Iron Mage was freezing very slowly, and he slammed his staff into the ground yet again, slowing down time and turning it backwards to reverse what winter and the spirit of water had done. The hell hound that Scarr butchered to death suddenly reformed from its fiery explosion, regained its limbs, and was living once more, along with all the fiery creatures that weren’t frozen any more.

The barbed devil finally revealed its terrifying face as all the vortices continued to spew forth more and more monsters. The seasons were changing at a wild pace. The chamber froze, melted into a scorching sauna, and bloomed with plants that were getting swept away in a stormy whirlwind.

Without any more distractions, magic spells, or hesitation, Florian finally slid the key through the lock, twisted it, and opened up the chest, revealing the same, green light from before. It filled the chamber, blinding everything around the Bard, and he found himself staring through a window into a planar dimension.

Time slowed to a crawl, and Florian saw several, unconnected, bubble-like prisons holding Stretch, Widsom, Bort the Nimble, and the bright, glowing statue of the magic stag.

In order to retrieve what he wanted, Florian had to concentrate hard and really steady his mind, or else he would get pulled into the planar dimension himself. The Bard was never one to have a strong, mental fortitude about him, and the portal sucked him in all too quickly, trapping him in a prison bubble of his own within the planar world. Realizing Florian wasn’t there any longer, Scarr turned to face the portal.

Scarr saw what Florian had seen, but now the Bard was thrown into the mix as well. The Fighter concentrated as hard as he could and knew he could help the others escape at the cost of sacrificing something important to him. The Fighter grabbed onto the material and planar dimensions, and expended the largest amount of strength he could possibly muster. It was the most strength he had ever used, but he bridged the gap between the two dimensions and allowed his friends to escape. Scarr was fully aware that his act of heroism was taking an immense toll on his strength.

Nevertheless, the prison bubbles merged together as Scarr willed his friends free. Stretch, Wisdom, Bort the Nimble, and Florian were all able to escape back to the material world; however, Florian crossed over last after grabbing the magic statue of the stag.

Inside the chamber, time slowed down until it was nearly still. The vortices in the room disappeared one by one, sucking the planar creatures back into them as time crept backwards. Holding the magic stag, Florian felt as though he was in complete control of both time and the seasons and that they were obeying his every will. The Bard looked at the walls behind the Iron Mage, and they froze instantly before melting away in a giant wave that crashed over the Iron Mage and sent him tumbling toward the open chest, where the portal sucked him in before the chest closed shut.

Both time and the seasons returned to normal, and Bort the Nimble immediately asked Florian to hand over the statue. The Bard initially refused, so Bort finally confessed who he really was.

Bort the Nimble wasn’t his real name. It was a scrambled version of the Zinc Mage’s real name, Thorem Nibblet. Harran knew that the Nibblets were an ancient, powerful clan of halfling druids not far from where he discovered his druidic powers. Thorem Nibblet, the Zinc Mage, and his twin brother, the Iron Mage, were much more gifted than the druids. They possessed something more - arcane powers far beyond anything anyone in the clan could comprehend, including the elders. There was a legend amongst the halfling druids that foretold the birth of two, twin brothers who were destined to guard the Nibblets’ most precious, ancient, treasure - the Magic Stag of Time and Seasons. The twin brothers, however, were polar opposites. The Iron Mage was black of heart and wanted to use the stag's power to go back in time and enslave the ancient race of giants on Jagged Rock in order to magically transform them into his own army of colossal, elemental abominations to impose tyranny on the world. The Zinc Mage, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to help and fulfill his destiny by protecting the magic stag. Destroying it wasn’t an option, but the Zinc Mage needed some way to keep it from the Iron Mage, so he imprisoned it in the planar dimension where he knew the Iron Mage couldn’t get to without the key.

The Iron Mage nicknamed Thorem, The Betayer, for his alleged crime, but something happened that the Zinc Mage could not foresee. As years went by in the material world where the magic stag’s portal was hidden, its magical energies seeped through the planar dimension and into the material world, bridging both worlds with increasing amounts of vertices, swift-changing seasons, and warping time itself, especially in times of great distress. This meant that every few decades, the Zinc Mage had to unlock the portal, bring the stag into the material world, and re-imprison it somewhere else.

Thorem admitted that he posed as Bort the Nimble and joined the Thieves Guild so that he could was close enough to the stag to keep an eye on it while trying to do good and help the poor of the city as best as he could. He knew that his twin brother had finally caught onto him, but he didn’t know that he’d imprisoned the descendents of the ancient giants at Jagged Rock or that the Iron Mage could actually tap into some of the power leaking out from the stag - though he should have foreseen that to be honest.

It didn’t matter now, though. The Iron Mage was trapped in the planar dimension, and Florian handed the magic stag over to Thorem, so that he could find it a new prison.

The heroes spend the remainder of the time collecting as much loot as they possibly could, including some magical weapons/items (a dagger, a spear, and a lute), the iron staff which Avon picked up, and several healing potions.

The Zinc Mage, meanwhile, released all the imprisoned giants from their chains and cast a portal to send them all back to the top of Jagged Rock.

Later on, Thorem and the heroes met with Captain Burma and his crew and sailed back to Cragport. The giant that our heroes tried to save suddenly withdrew from the others and waved a heartfelt goodbye.

Epilogue

Back in Cragport, the heroes met with representatives of the Thieves Guild, and Thorem explained everything: who he really was, why he pretended to be Bort, and the whole reason he left for Jagged Rock. The guild thanked the heroes and promised to return the favor whenever they needed it. They were forced to kick Thorem out, of course, though there wasn't any animosity toward him, even though he did lie about who he was. For a druidic mage, he certainly posed as a highly skilled thief, and the guild had to at least respect that fact.

At The Sheepshead, a tavern run by a vivacious woman named Opsie, our heroes threw a grand feast for themselves, Thorem, the Cragport Thieves Guild, and anyone else present to celebrate. With all the coin they collected, even after giving Captain Burma his share and carousing, they still had plenty left over for themselves.

The next day was filled with farewells, as Thorem Nibblet parted ways with Scarr, Avon, Herran, Florian, Stretch, and Wisdom. Though goodbyes are never easy, a wave of excitement and newfound energy suddenly struck our heroes, as they received some useful information and a golden opportunity from a stranger at the Sheepshead.

What new adventures will be uncovered for our heroes? Is this the end of the Iron Mage? Will Scarr, Avon, Herran, Florian, Stretch, and Wisdom ever see Thorem Nibblet again? Only time will tell, as the seasons change and we play to find out in The Saga of Time and Seasons.