AP - A DW One Shot: Battle at the Arena and the Serpent Princesses

Today, instead of running Session #05 of an ongoing Hangout campaign for Dungeon World, I ran an impromptu DW one shot game via Google Hangouts.

The Cast

Dothomar 'Doth' Kern the retired, Lawful, Dwarven Gladiator who had been trying to make an honest living through mining, when he was captured by soldiers of the new regime. Yearning for a chance to battle in the pit once again, Doth didn't fight back and let himself become captured instead.

Et'tu the Neutral, Halfling Fighter with a penchant for drinking, who once joined the old regime's army and became a bloodthirsty assassin behind enemy lines. Et'tu was part of a mercenary group arriving to escort Doth, when the group was ambushed and Et'tu was imprisoned with him instead.

Marlowe the Neutral, Human Thief who had already been imprisoned underneath the Colosseum. He, too, cut throats for a living and found himself locked up after his gang was betrayed and captured by soldiers of the new regime.

Actual Play

The PCs have been imprisoned for a week and could only discern so much from the guards that patrolled at every waking hour. The Fighter rolls 10+ but generously splits the questions with his allies:

Who is really in control here? - The Fighter

The guards talking about the new regime mentioned the Cult of Hethra, and described a beautiful, but terrifying, princess with four arms and the body of a serpent - the naga princess. She owns the arena and is an advisor to the queen.

What is here is not what it appears to be? - The Thief

Alleged promises of freedom by winning the arena games are false. The losers meet horrible deaths, of course, but rumors have spread amongst the prisoners that the winners are imprisoned elsewhere - not released from bondage.

What here is useful or valuable to me? - The Gladiator

Choosing whatever they wanted from a cache of weapons and shields, the PCs and four of their twenty-something cellmates walk out onto the open Colosseum to a gruesome, bloody mess filled with rotting victims - some of which belonged to prisoners they knew during the week they've spent imprisoned here.

Doth leads, showboating as always, followed by Et'tu and Marlowe. The crowd cheers loudly, and Et'tu bangs on his shield as Marlowe spots a minotaur at the far end of the arena step out of the shadows.

The minotaur charges with a battle axe, and Et'tu raises a shield he took from the arsenal and blocks the majority of his attack. 

Doth shook his head, "Nah," and kept showboating for the crowd; but, when Tooth, the male, orc berserker who shared their cell, became transfixed by something in the crowd and attacked Doth, it was on!

Bessy, the female, dwarven warrior and fellow inmate became transfixed at something past the crowd. Fending off the minotaur's axe, Et'tu noticed where Bessy was staring but continued to fight the monster.

Lunging quickly at the Thief, Bessy aimed her longsword at his knees, but Marlowe used Et'tu's shoulders to propel himself forward as he lands right under the minotaur's nose. 

The Fighter and the Thief trade places. Et'tu goes after Bessy and Marlowe ducks underneath the minotaur's legs, safely, delivering an exceptional, backstabbing blow to the arteries behind his knees - killing the minotaur instantly as it face plants the ground.

As Et'tu battles Bessy, Doth slaughters Tooth, and the remaining prisoners battle between themselves, the Gladiator looks to the crowd where the other prisoners kept gazing. He sees a hooded, female figure in an embroidered, green cloak stare back at him as his mind begins to feel cloudy. Doth, however, stares her back down and isn't affected by her spell.

After Et'tu finally finishes Bessy off, riots break out in the crowd as the PCs hear people scream and the audience scrambling to leave. Insurgents of the old regime have attacked; and Hethra, the naga princess, appears to finish the prisoners off along with eight of her guards. She believes the Gladiator played a part in orchestrating this ambush, and she takes revenge on him as she charges forward with weapons in all four of her hands.

Mono-a-mono, Doth calls Hethra out and gets her and her guards to focus solely on him. 

The cloaked figure takes off her hood and unveils a mess of living snakes for hair atop another, gorgeous face. 

As Et'tu and Marlowe charge Hethra, the Fighter notices the two, remaining prisoners turn to stone as they look up at the medusa princess - Hethra's sister.

Grabbing Hethra's attention even more, Doth gives Marlowe the perfect chance for another, backstabbing attack - which the Thief surely takes. Before Hethra could land a single blow on any of them, Et'tu jumps on her and pounds her to death with his spiked, and now utterly bloody, fists.

Even Hethra's guards were no match for Doth the Gladiator.

At this point, Doth's player had to leave, so Doth remains fighting off any more guards that come at them and showboating for an invisible crowd.

As the medusa princess jumped down into the arena, Et'tu took a moment to survey his surroundings. His gaze accidentally fall upon the medusa's eyes as she saunters toward them, and his feet and ankles turn to stone before the Thief tackles him onto the ground to break the stare.

Et'tu gets back up and diverts his stare as he grabs the medusa's attention. Marlowe uses this golden opportunity to tackle her down to the ground after distracting her even more with a couple of thrown knives. With the Fighter's help, the Thief lands the final blow, slaying the medusa once and for all.

Freeing all the prisoners of the Colosseum and investigating tunnels they'd never been through before, the PCs discover Princess Hethra's royal throne room hidden beneath the dungeons. There, they amass gold, an ornate banner with a serpentine sigil embroidered in gold silk, and two magic items: the Farsight Stone and the Epoch Lens.

Just as the PCs pack everything up, ready to leave, the naga prince suddenly shows up with his militia.

End of Session

To be continued in Session 2?

I mentioned this in the Dungeon World Tavern; but, again, this was a really fun adventure to run, and I'd like to thank all the players again for bringing such awesome and badass PCs to the arena.

If this continues with another session, I have a feeling this new, serpent-led regime isn't going to last too long.

Or will it?