Actual Play – Dreams from the Gods (9/1/2016)

GM: Edmund Metheny
Players: Sophie Lagacé, Karen Twelves, Adrienne Mueller, and Sean Nittner
System: Dungeon World
Setting: Land of 10,000 Gods

From the hand of the scribe Adrienne:

Battle with the priestess and her gnolls.

• Merit had thrown the first dagger.
• Kanta cut her tongue out and put the gnoll tongue in. Sent flames around the room, especially at the priestess.
• Ram taunted the gnolls into only attacking him.
• Rahi stepped in; was confused thought we were there to help the priestess. Layed into some gnolls.
• Next round: another dagger from Merit; Kanta sucked the air out of the priestess; Ram bit one of his attackers – helping to free up Rahi who discerned realities. There was a great rumbling Merit took out the priestess – who can’t really die. Kanta tried to figure out what the rumbling was from – probably a God. Rahi, Merit and Kanta pick up Ram and the priestess and try to escape the crumbling palace/citadel. Lose all our stuff in the process and Rahi takes some damage.

We see that it is the gnoll great god who is ramming his spear into the citadel; tearing it down. We flee as fast as we can and ‘undertake a perilous journey’ with Kanta succeeding as trailblazer, Merit as scout and Ram failing as quartermaster.

Rahi (unintentionally) asks her sword for guidance in helping Ram complete his mission. Sword says: go to the temple of the false Kanta; enter heaven; slay Him.  Kanta is surprised to hear about this false Kanta temple and the gender change, but has heard about ‘dark temples’ etc. Feels a stong tugging leading her in that direction too though.

On the road Ram asks Kanta to help heal him. She uses black thread in a long ritual that will complete when we get to the new citadel. This requires her spending a lot of time cajoling/coercing spirits into mending his limbs to him and being over his prostate form. At some point she tells him that he may have to kill her to kill the false Kanta and save his God and he reluctantly(!) agrees.

Merit is gouging the priestess whenever she gets the chance and so Rahi keeps an eye on her; eventually promising her that she will not be harmed and allowed to heal if she tells us what she knows. Which she does.

More info about the dark Kanta; the night of blight; the gnolls. We’re all pretty sure the citatel is the conduit to the abyss, where all the worst bits are flushed into our realm during the Night of Blight.

Picking Sides

Kanta not pleased with Rahi’s decision to not hurt priestess but won’t break our word. Merit pissed and very happy to break Rahi’s word. Ram eager for priestess to suffer. Rahi won’t back down and semi-threatens Merit. Who tells Rahi she should be careful putting too much faith in Kanta. Merit agrees not to harm priestess in case she might be useful when we get to dark Kanta temple.

Merit and Ram have a nice moment where he thanks her for avenging him (as best one can under the circumstances) and she says she was happy to and thought he’d want some space afterwards.

Before reaching the citadel we all have dreams. Ram hears from Kali and knows he can kill things now and gets a head that looks like Kanta’s. Could be male or female. He asks it what it will do (spout lore) and it will help defeat false Kanta somehow.

Merit gets a tiny mountain and suspects it will help her carry any burden.
Kanta gets a sitar which she plays imperfectly.
Rahi – I think didn’t make the roll, but got xp.

What rocked

I think the moment when Raji and Kanta stood against Ram and Merit was probably the most meaningful confrontation in the game so far. Mostly because they all had good reasons for standing their ground.

Rahi could not abide by torture and cruelty. Kanta could not break her word (again). Merit could not stand to let the priestess go unpunished. Ram was unable to act, but clearly wanted his own torment avenged. Nobody was right or wrong for what they wanted, but at some point someone had to yield either giving up on their desire or on their bond to their companions. This was a really tense moment and I feel like it make each of our characters resonate in the game.

What could have improved

I nearly worked against the idea of Ram just healing normally after being chopped up because it felt like such an un-doing of what had happened in the game. I don’t know if this was the right thing for me to do as a player (Ram is Adreinne’s character) but I really want actions that take place to have consequences. Kanta has a wax tongue. Ram’s limbs are bound by spirit thread. These things seem interesting to me where “you get better” falls short. So, I’m not sure I did the right thing interfering with another character’s recovery (i.e. player’s agency).