Easily landing on the other side, the ranger looked left then right. On each side of the covered pit trap were two goblins, sitting with their weapons on the floor with some kinds of makeshift playing cards. In a far corner were another two goblins, sleepily lying on the floor in piles of straw. They looked up at her, their mouths agape and eyes blinking for several moments. Nohnee did not hesitate. She aimed her bow at one of the goblins flanking the doorway and shot it through the skull with a sickening crunch as the arrow bit through its skull and flung goo out onto the wall behind it. The other goblins finally started moving, grabbing nearby spears. Behind her, Pup and Malrock cleared the pit to join the fray. As the goblins moved toward her, Nohnee stepped to the right, trying to put the wall behind her. Malrock moved to intercept the goblins who flanked the wall, and Nohnee shot out a quick command, “Intercept, Pup!” The wolf moved between her and the far goblins to keep them from reaching her while she readied another volley of arrows to take them down. Finally putting her back against a wall, Pup was able to keep them away and she took aim, catching one of the goblins in the chest, the creature falling to the ground with a yell before going quiet.
The other goblin went down quickly as well, but Nohnee heard a crunch and Malrock’s voice call out for help behind her. Turning she saw two goblins still standing with spears extended, and Marlock hung from the side of the pit by one hand as the goblins advanced on him to impale him as he hung there defenseless. Letting loose another arrow as she advanced on the scene before her, she caught one of the goblins in the back, which plummeted over Malrock into the spikes below.
Reaching the final remaining goblin, she dropped the bow and pulled her sword on it, forcing the creature to turn its attention to her or be sliced from behind. She moved quickly within its reach, Pup taking up position behind it, the goblin’s eyes going wild with surprise at suddenly being surrounded. Pup lunged, the goblin losing its balance, and got hold of its leg. Nohnee took advantage of that and cut its throat with one deft motion, avoiding the flailing spearhead that was striking toward her. The goblins dispatched, Nohnee pulled Malrock up out of the pit. The hired sellsword was more embarrassed by his being maneuvered by the goblins into the pit than anything else, and with no new injuries the group made their way up the staircase that lay on the far side of the room. Nohnee continued searching for anything out of place, the group taking their time as they proceeded up the stairway and through various rooms in the tower.
Eventually, the searching became fruitful again. This time the ranger turned up a trip wire that lay on the far side of an otherwise empty doorway. Peeking to the other side, she found it attached to a crossbow, the tip of the cocked bolt dripping with some kind of liquid – most likely poison. Silently informing Malrock to step lightly over the wire, she helped Pup to avoid the trap and the group continued on, making sure to keep their eyes out for anything more out of the ordinary. So far they were two for two on discovered traps, a good sign.
It was while ascending a short staircase that the group found one of the ornate stone statues like the ones that they had seen earlier, this particular statue midair and headed straight toward their heads. With a quick shout Nohnee and Pup ducked, and Malrock threw himself to the wall. The statue flew past them with a loud crack being heard at the bottom of the staircase. Looking up, they saw an ogre standing at the top of the staircase, laughing. It stood gleefully, lifting up a large wooden club over its head and leapt down the staircase straight for them.
Nohnee barely moved out of the way of the wide downward swing of the club. She moved back and shot, but it went wild and barely caught the ogre, leaving only a small, but bloody, wound and not finding a true target. Blood being drawn, the ogre began to look more deranged, roaring at the ranger with a manic smile on its face. The staircase proved to be too narrow, or the ogre too wide, and Malrock and Pup tried to get into a good spot to bite and claw the monster, but he had trouble. They would need to get to a more open area or trade places. The group didn’t have time to formulate a plan, however, before the ogre’s club swing again. She tried to move out of the way of this second blow, but the club slammed against her with a loud crunch. She found herself being lifted off her feet and flung down the stairs, striking the stone steps and rolling the rest of the way down to the bottom of the staircase. Her bow was out of her hands somewhere. Malrock and Pup stood their ground, but the ogre was headed for them next. Looking around, she quickly scooped up her bow and fired a shot. Her arrow struck the ogre in the shoulder, the creature only appearing to draw more rage from their mad opponent. Malrock and Pup were able to strike it slightly, and it wavered for a moment, but it licked its lips readying another deadly strike.
With a bit of franticness to her voice, Nohnee called out to the others, “Come! Retreat! Follow me!” Pup immediately obeyed without hesitation, and Malrock was not far behind. The ogre stopped swinging mid-motion, its crazed smile deepening at the ensuing chase. As the group backtracked their previous path, running down the hallways single file, they could hear its heavy footsteps behind them.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“Remember to jump!” Nohnee called out behind her, loud enough that Malrock could hear.
He nodded as she leapt down the final four steps of another spiral staircase, and he flung himself over the railing to land right behind her.
Pup was beside Nohnee at this point, and she grabbed onto the fur on the back of his neck, pulling up when they came to the trip wire. The trained wolf followed instructions perfectly and leapt with her clearing the trap. Malrock jumped over the wire as well. On the other side, in a small-ish room, Nohnee turned again, pulling the draw string back on her bow, the others taking up position for a final showdown with the ogre.
As the humanoid beast reached the room, they could hear the trap being triggered and the sound the bolt made when it struck the ogre’s massive leg. It paused for a moment, looking down at the bolt, which for it was quite a small nuisance. Laughing, it raised its club again, swinging in a large arc to hit both Pup and Malrock, but the two of them were able to move out of the way at the last moment, Pup dropping to the floor and Malrock stepping back and almost falling with the force he used to throw himself away of the oncoming club. The end of the swing went wild, though, the club being flung out of the ogre’s hands. Swaying, a wave of confusion melted over the ogre’s face before it hit the ground and did not move after that.
Malrock said nothing, but moved to the doorway to keep an eye out in case anyone came to investigate the loud thumps and crashes caused by their former opponent. Pup went over to lick Nohnee’s wounds, who collapsed against a wall in the room, sitting down, but keeping her eyes on the ogre. She pulled out some bandages to wrap the recent injuries. She was already starting to bruise, and her muscles felt sore. She wasn’t sure if one of her ribs was broken. That one blow had taken a lot out of her. However, they couldn’t stop and rest for long. Once she had bandaged herself, she stood wincing and the group continued up once again. Surely at this point they were almost to her quarry.
[sblock]The three encounters going up the tower were actually bullet pointed list in my prep. It read like this:
- Spiked Pit, attacked by waiting monsters if he falls in
- Poison Arrows around a corner
- A massive creature of some sort lobs a statue at the adventurer as he climbs, then a fight ensues
That’s all I needed to go on to play out the encounters. It was a breeze! I didn’t need to stat up anything, I didn’t need to decide what the poison did, and I didn’t need to make detailed encounter notes beforehand. Coming from running a D&D 4e campaign (which is a great campaign, don’t get me wrong), this kind of timesaving is great! I spend about 50% of the time prepping for my 4e campaign as I did for my 3e, and I spend maybe 5% of the time prepping for DW than 4e.
In the first combat here with the goblins we got to do a few neat things.
Nohnee’s animal companion got to have one extra training, which I mentioned in the first post. This was the command “Guard” and the PC used that in this combat to keep the goblins off of Nohnee so that she could more safely fire arrows at the enemy. Now, this is somewhat dangerous as normally I might use a GM move to put Pup in danger, but since Pup is already in danger, I might end up using a Move to injure Pup or be more devious. Luckily it didn’t come to that – this time.
When Nohnee tried to shoot the second goblin to take him out, I can’t remember the exact roll but it was somewhere between 7-9, which is a “Hit, but…” effect. In this case, I decided to put Malrock in a dangerous position, hanging for his life over the side of the pit. If she didn’t act quickly, he would fall to be impaled on the spikes below! I don’t know if this is a listed GM move, but whatever. It fit the situation nicely and it added some tension to the end of combat.
Ogres are interesting creatures. Dungeon World describes them as thus:
A tale, then. Somewhere in the not-so-long history of the mannish race there was a divide. In days when men were merely dwellers-in-the-mud with no magic to call their own, they split in two: one camp left their caves and the dark forests and built the first city to honor the gods. The others, a wild and savage lot, retreated into darkness. They grew, there. In the deep woods a grim loathing for their softer kin gave them strength. They found dark gods of their own, there in the woods and hills. Ages passed and they bred tall and strong and full of hate. We have forged steel and they match it with their savagery. We may have forgotten our common roots, but somewhere, deep down, the ogres remember. Instinct: To return the world to darker days
This was really a creature I could see working with the cultists, revering the same darkness that they do. Perhaps an ogre wouldn’t worship the Gates of Hell, but something similar or a god who was aligned with the Gates themselves. I threw the ogre in here as someone they possibly recruited after arriving, a denizen of the ruins. I didn’t go into any in-game detail, but I could have if the PC had taken that up.
The encounter itself was incredibly deadly. Ogres deal 1d8+5 damage! Nohnee’s 23 HP wasn’t a lot compared to that. One blow took off a bit over a third of her health! The ogre’s attack also has the
Forceful tag. The tag itself doesn’t have any defined crunch. It just says “It can knock someone back a pace, maybe even off their feet.” Well, being on a staircase, knocking someone off their feet is a bit more dangerous, so I had it fling her down the stairs. I was almost positive that combat was going to end with a dead wolf or a dead hireling, but the retreat and use of the poisoned trap was something I hadn’t considered. it worked out well!
At that point, the ogre actually only had 3 hit points left. One more hit would have downed it. But, it might have taken someone out with it. The use of the poisoned bolt possibly saved the NPCs’ lives.[/sblock]