Dungeon World Campaign: Scurvy - Adventure 12

Adventure 12: The Conclusion

Campaign Notes

Recap

Player Characters:

Mike as Z - the swashbuckling scoundrel vampire

Stephen as Geralt Darkstar - the cursed pirate alchemist

We rejoin the party in the top chamber of ruined pyramid temple of Asthragothk moments before sundown and a storm approaching. There were crumbling statues in the corners of the room and a large hole in the center. There was no easy way to get down, but they could hear the distant sound of a woman crying for help and rushing water below.

"I can feel Valencia's presence. She is close." Geralt said to Z as they circled the whole trying to determine the best way to get down.

Geralt pulled a length of rope and 3 torches from his adventuring gear. The two quickly tied off one end of the rope and threw the other down into the hole, along with a torch to illuminate whatever they were climbing down onto.

It didn't look that far down and the rope seemed sturdy enough, but after traveling down the rope they realized the hole emptied into a large chamber with a platform build in the center. The added tension of the two adventurers free swinging on the rope was too much for the crumbling statue and the rope broke free.

Geralt plummeted to through the darkness, smashing into the platform with a resounding crash followed by the sound of the platform itself cracking. Z managed to tumble through the darkness and land relatively unharmed in the center of the platform.

"Geralt, you know this temple is centuries old and probably not meant for someone loaded down with 300 lbs worth of stuff, " Z said smugly as he spotted Geralt in the torch light.

"Fuck you, ZeeeeEEEE!!!" Geralt cried as he stood up and the platform broke off beneath him. 

He plunged backwards into a reservoir of sea water that the platform was suspended above. Surrounded by darkness with only the distant flicker of Z's torch above him Geralt could do little, but call out to Z for help and try to swim-feel his way in the direction of that flicker. 

In the moments of silence as Geralt waited for Z to throw down the rope, he could hear the sound of large objects splashing into the water behind him, but the darkness kept whatever they were completely obscured from view.

"Hurry the hell up Z. There's something or things down here with me."

Z secured the rope and threw it toward where Geralt had fallen. Z had to hold his torch out over the edge of the platform so that Geralt could find his way up. Just before reaching the top however, he felt something on the end of the rope climbing up behind him. Scrambling over the edge, Geralt took out his knife to cut the rope, but Z stopped him.

"Maybe it's someone we can bargain with. Let me at least try saying hello before we cut the rope." Z said as he walked to the edge, "Hello sir or madam or um... it/thing/whatever, are you coming up here to kill us?" there was no response but the rope continued to show signs of something climbing out of the darkness up the rope.

"I'm cutting it!" Geralt said and jumped toward the rope.

"NO! I said let me try to reason with it." Z said stopping him once more, "If you don't answer us Mr/Ms we'll be forced to cut this rope loose."

The only noise they heard was the sound of a wet wheezing breathing that was getting closer.

"Noooooope." Geralt said and immediately cut the rope loose; which quickly slipped off the side and they heard the splashes of whatever were climbing up the rope after them.

"Come on. Valencia must be saved, or the whole world will be lost." Geralt wasted no time and rushed off down the hallway with Z close behind.

At the end of the hallway they found the ritual chamber. Similar to the entrance chamber, but the platform was illuminated by a ring of torches. On each of the four sides of the platform were arches, with the largest opposite the door. In the center of the platform was a dais and a sacrificial table with Valencia tied to it.

There were roughly two dozen cultists on the platform and a leader on the dais. Geralt acting quickly handed the keystone to Z for safety.

"Take this. I need you to come up with something to distract those cultists so I can free Marigold. If this goes to shit, I need you to back me up Z. Don't go trading me to the cultists for your own freedom you bastard." Geralt said to Z in a harsh whisper.

"I would never." Z said with one of his classic smirks.

"Remember if these cultist succeed in sacrificing Marigold, then the whole world will be fucked. So even if you make it out alive, there would be no place you could stay safely. They will start the ritual, if the portal opens and the last magus' blood is spilled on the altar the world is lost." Geralt snapped back.

Z's smirk dropped, "Geralt, I've got this. I'm not leaving you here alone. I've got your back, so if you need any saving I'll be ready."

Geralt took out the robe he had picked up from the cultists back in Bondye Bijou and disguised himself as one of them to walk hidden, "I could use some ruckus to distract them if you're up for it."

"Of course." Z's smirk was back.

Geralt swiftly moved among them working his way toward the dais. Z spotted another one of those crumbling statues at the edge of the walkway, below it another abyss of darkened water. He used all of his strength to shove the statue clatter over the edge and splashing in the water below. A loud screeching of many creatures answered the sound of the splash and the cultists all turned to face Z.

"So is this orgy party gonna get started or am I in the wrong place and you all are religious or something?" Z said as they began to slowly advance toward them.

Geralt sprung into action and leaped onto the dais and stabbed the leader in the back. The leader cried out in agony and fell from the dais as Geralt slashed the ropes binding Valencia to the sacrificial table. All of the cultists turned and began to swarm the dais.

Geralt began swiping at the cultists to hold them back. Z managed to daringly swing on a conveniently placed vine and land safely behind the dais without drawing attention to himself. He spied a notch in the floor in front of the archway behind the dais. It was roughly the same size and shape of the keystone. 

Looking at the keystone, then the notch, then the keystone, then the notch, "When am I gonna have another chance to try this?" Z says as he slides the keystone into place.

An immediate burst of energy knocked him back into the dais as a surge erupted from the stone and illuminated the archway. Blasts of lightning shot across the archway and a crackling portal opened.

The cultists all immediately dropped to their knees and started chanting at the sight of the portal. Only the cultist leader remained on his feet. A few harsh words in their strange language from him and they all stood up and began swarming the dais again.

"I got this," Z said, before inhaling a big breath to release a metal hurlant, but he'd been smoking far too much halfling pipeleaf lately and started violently coughing, "Wait *coughcough* I got *cough* this *coughcough*" 

In the midst of his coughing fit Geralt took a stab from one of the cultists, but Z returned fire with his metal hurlant and blasted the cultist off the platform and into the darkened waters below. While the bulk of the blast missed him, a shockwave knocked Geralt over the oncoming cultists and onto the floor behind them.

"Just grab the girl and go, I'll follow you." Z called from the far said of the platform.

Geralt used the power from his gecko tattoo to morph his mouth into that of an enormous gecko and latched it onto Valencia with his prehensile tongue long enough to snatch her off the platform and fling her back to him. She landed safely near him and they both quickly rushed for the exit.

Z attempted to swing back on the same vine that had gotten him there, but failed in the process and fell into the crowd of cultists. Where one immediately stabbed him in the chest and draining the life from his cursed body until the next sunset.

The rest of the cultists all followed Geralt out into the hallway. Geralt and Valencia had made it back beneath the hole they'd originally come through, but since the rope fell there was no way to get out. Geralt called forth a wall of shadows for him and Valencia to hide behind. In his haste he created a wall too large the blocked his vision of everything on the other side. Fortunately it blocked the cultist's view of the two even after they had all arrived with torches to the platform.

Back in the sacrificial chamber, the sun had set on the surface shortly after the cultists left and Z awoke severely weakened with an intense thirst for blood. He crawled his way to the entrance chamber hiding in the shadows. The first cultist he finds he immediately jumps on and drains their blood. Feeling restored Z began to look for Geralt on the platform, but couldn't see him.

Assuming Geralt had made it out, Z used the power of his silken sister tattoo to cling to walls and began to scamper up the wall and ceiling toward the hole. In his haste he scratched at parts of the ceiling with his boots, loud enough to alert the cultists, but he was already most of the way. They assumed that Geralt and Valencia had made it out also and returned to the sacrifice chamber to seek their injured leader.

At that point the entrance chamber was quiet enough the Geralt could hear that wheezing breath he'd heard earlier as well as the occasional screech from below the platform slowly getting louder. Z climbed back down the entrance tunnel, while Geralt pulled a grappling hook from his adventuring gear and tossed it up to Z, who was able to catch it and make sure it was secure at the surface.

Geralt pulled Chili from his pouch and handed him to Valencia before sending them both up the rope first. As he waited for Valencia to reach the top, he heard the wheezing breath behind him. He spun around and narrowly missed a strike from an Ichta-Gog that had climbed from the darkness below. Geralt stood his ground to defend Valencia's escape, but while dodging another strike he was forced to leap off the platform into the waters below to avoid a killing blow.

From the water's surface, the light from his narratively handy water proof lantern illuminated hundred of Ichta-Gogs climbing out of the water to pursue Valencia. Geralt readied his sword and cut his way up the wall, slashing at the creatures and sending them to the waters below. On the platform he slashed his way back to the rope only to see a few of the creatures had already begun their climb. He reached into his adventuring gear to pull out the last item he'd been lugging around with him a large metal keg of lantern oil, blunderbuss shot, a fuse, a harness to be worn on the chest, and imported fireworks strapped to the outside of it.

"Fuck it." Geralt said as he strapped it to his chest and lit the fuse, "CUT THE ROPE AND RUN Z!"

Z slashed the rope as the bomb exploded. He grabbed Valencia and they rushed outside as the pyramid began collapsing in upon itself. Leaping out into the murky waters right as the fireworks shot out of the entrance behind them and the entire temple was swallowed up by the sands and waters.

"Ahoy there," Handsome Pete called from his skiff. He helped the two into the boat, "Where's the quiet strange one?"

Z looked up at him, tears in his eyes, "His name was Geralt Darkstar, he didn't make it, but remember his name. He stayed behind to save the entire world and sacrifice himself."

"Why'd he have to go and do a thing like that?" asked Handsome Pete.

"The cultists were too strong, the odds of us winning were impossible. He did the only thing he could to save the world." Z said as he bit his hand to hold back tears.

"Shame that its," Handsome Pete said with a sober tone,"By the way, you left this in the boat, would it have helped?"

Handsome Pete handed Z the signal flare that had been given to them by the army of automatons sworn to defend humanity.

Z took it in his hand and stared at it for a second, then looked up where the temple used to be, then back at it, "God damn it. Yeah....yeah it would have made a huge difference."

The End