During the last session of Dungeon World solo, two random elements came up that I immediately flagged as important parts of the story going forward. The first was the band of pirates along the Mondeo coast. It made sense to connect them to the Larcenists Society danger. They are the naval branch, and their leader, Captain Molly Rhys, feels like a decent bad-guy boss to face off with at the end of this series. The second was the magically infected orc living within The Sunken Tower. I had no idea he would be in there when I used the Perilous Wilds tables. One descriptor from my rolls stood out the most to me, and that was “primitive,” which made me think not of “unsophisticated” but “prehistoric.” What would a prehistoric orc be doing in this Tower? I had some ideas.
Morning comes, and Utiba wakes Marlow after taking watch for the second half of the evening. They make food over their small fire on the slanted ledge, then pack their things to prepare to journey inside The Sunken Tower. She brings up the recall coin, asks if it might be wiser to use it now & let Reima know of the dangers. Marlow tries to calm her, saying this will be a quick job. They’ll find Somberlas’ Bone Club inside and then return to Dungeon Town; everything will go smoothly.
Marlow asks Utiba to see if she can detect any immediate threats to them before they cross the threshold. She concentrates, letting her mind reach out, but she’s met with arcane feedback. The Tower is so inundated with magical energy from the artifacts stored inside and the damage done to them that it makes Utiba’s skills as a novice even less potent. However, unknown to our adventurers, her efforts attract the attention of an orc who senses Utiba reaching out. He grabs a weathered, dented war ax from its spot, leaning against a stony wall, and begins trudging through the Tower.
Marlow senses it just before they both see it. Walking through the threshold a few paces, their exit is suddenly darkened by a creature crawling its way down from the walls. A giant snake with humanoid arms leers over the pair, its arms morphing before their eyes, fingers growing longer, and nails becoming claws. Its mouth drips with sizzling venom. Marlow is sure they are face to face with a demon, something contained here and now free to roam.
Marlow uses the cutlass he stole from Molly Rhys and drags the blade across the snake, spilling acidic green blood. Claws rake across Marlow’s face, leaving gouges. Utiba points her jeweled staff at the creatures, concentrating as a torrent of arcane energies flows out and burns across the demon. It lets out a horrid squeal, claws becoming scythes, slithering back up the walls, bladed arms helping it crawl higher and disappear into the darkness above.
Marlow’s wound burns with magical energy, but he tells Utiba they must go higher. Taking the spiraling staircase to the next floor, the pair discovers a cluster of three boar-like spirits who have made this tier of the Tower their home. Unlike the snake, they appear slightly frightened and territorial, wanting these interlopers gone. The boars mumble something amongst each other; Marlow swears he hears the word “guardian” in there, unsure who they are talking about. The boar spirits become annoyed with Marlow & Utiba’s presence and start running at them, threatening an attack. When Marlow doesn’t back down, he’s rammed by one of the boars and loses his footing. The gap in the center of the spiral staircase swallows him up as he plummets into the depths of the Sunken Tower. Utiba’s staff lights up, and she floats down after him.
The grinning skull of an ancient great lizard stares down at Marlow when he regains consciousness. He sits up quickly, ready to fight, and finds the bones of a long-dead creature that passed in this catacomb near the Tower’s foundations. Utiba has been watching over Marlow and helps him to his feet. There was a cave-in while he was unconscious, and they appeared to be trapped in this cramped chamber. A survey of their prison shows that some rocks near the ceiling can be shifted away to make a gap large enough for them to crawl through.
They emerge into a destroyed library. The floor is covered in ankle-deep water, smelling briny as it leaks in from the sea outside. The books are waterlogged and damaged. Bookshelves have rotted. The large blade marks carved into the walls are most distressing, the signs of some great battle. The size of those marks implies a weapon much larger than anything Marlow could wield, and he wonders if it was wielded by the orc he glimpsed the night before. The blade marks drag along the walls into the connecting hallway, intermixed are splatters of faded purplish blood. Marlow & Utiba keep sloshing their way through these flooded halls.
They come across an anteroom where Utiba’s staff lights up, glowing with alarm. “Something evil is close,” she explains. An arm extends through the wall, transparent, and then the whole body, a hate-filled spirit of a long-dead thief who tried to loot this place long ago. Marlow clutches his Ward of Protection, feeling its power surge through his cutlass. He lashes out at the specter before its withering hand can touch him, and it sends the ghost screaming back through the wall.
Marlow & Utiba find themselves in a strangely shaped room with four additional exits branching off through the Tower. In the center is a pile of rubble, a hole in the ceiling leading to the next level of the Tower. Familiar growls rise from the darkest corners as two wight-wolves emerge. Marlow should have guessed wherever the dead linger, so too do the wight-wolves to feast on their tormented souls. Marlow and one of the wolves clash, the rogue driving his blade into the spectral beast, the wolf clamping its jaws down on Marlow’s right shoulder. Utiba lights up her staff and slams it to the ground, which frightens the other wolf away but pulls the attention of the one attempting to devour Marlow.
As it reaches, ready to snap its jaws shut, Marlow brings the cutlass down across its back haunch, making the creature yelp. It swings around, eyes filled with rage, fangs bared. They tussle, but Marlow slides his sword across its throat, the unlife draining from its eyes, the wight-wolf turning into a vapor that disperses. The two reasons that going up will be their best bet to find the treasure they seek and climb the rubble pile, helping each other squeeze through another hole in the ceiling.
The floors are more dramatically slanted here, forcing the two to use the wall’s stones as handholds to carefully make their way through rooms. They move with the slant, eventually coming to a hallway with waist-deep seawater. Rounding a corner, Marlow and Utiba suddenly find themselves face to face with an angry, towering purple orc, long white hair spilling down his shoulders. The orc raises his arms; in his hands is the war ax that made the marks in the walls. Marlow has to think quickly, remembers the goldenroot on his belt, and flicks the cork out with his thumb. Utiba uses her staff and holds back the ax blade before it can strike Marlow’s head. The rogue sloshes the goldenroot into the orc’s face, and he immediately staggers back.
The orc shakes his head, and his features soften. “Goldenroot, very clever human,” he responds. “Rather than engage me in combat, you sought to make an ally of me.” The orc seems impressed, though the goldenroot hasn’t had an effect. “Why are you here, though? Stealing, like the others?”
Marlow clears his throat nervously and responds, “We are here to take something, but one particular thing. We are searching for Somberlas’ Bone Club. There’s an enchantment we need to dispel, and the arcane energies within that club are needed. We’re not here to loot & plunder. If we might have this thing, it would be greatly appreciated.”
The orc thinks it over, sizing them up. “Why do you need this particular item? What are you wishing to dispel?” Utiba & Marlow explain Dungeon City and the vault buried deep underground. He shows recognition when they describe the vault and drop al-Quari’s name. The orc says he could help them, closes his eyes, chanting something old & forgotten. A bubble of light surrounds the three and begins carrying them up through the Tower, dodging debris and other deadly-looking spirits & demons until they reach a large wooden door that glows with runes. The orc focuses on the door, and the runes stop burning; the door opens, and they enter. It slams shut behind them. All three pass into a nice chamber decorated in a way that stuns Marlow & Utiba. Polished oak shelves filled with preserved & maintained spellbooks. Large writing desk, notes on spells in development scattered across it, sketches of various devices. A ring of twelve candles floats just below the ceiling, acting as a chandelier. A cheval mirror that doesn’t reflect but looks to peer into another plane, ghostly entities float past. A chest sits in one corner, bound in glowing chains. Marlow gets close, and the mimic tries but fails to snap at him.
Ukrom formally introduces himself after hanging up his axe and donning a robe. Ukrom is an ancient being, having been born approximately 4,500 years ago. He ended up battling a warlock who turned the orc into a stone statue. Eventually, when the Eastern Empire looted the world, this statue was brought to The Great Hold. After the collapse of the Hold, the wild torrent of magic broke the spells on Ukrom. He wandered dazed inside the massive Tower for a few months, fending off the other entities released or drawn here because of the leaking magic. There was a catch, when Ukrom attempted to leave he found he had been bound to this place by a combination of spells so powerful he may never break them. He has spent the last 300 years attempting to develop a dispel to release him. Every day, he ventures into The Sunken Tower to search for things he needs in his experiments. Ukrom has done battle with some nasty & powerful creatures here.
A bell rises from the writing desk and rings in the middle of their conversation. Ukrom grabs a telescope and looks into it; the lens is magical and shows where the user wishes to see. He informs them a pirate ship has just anchored close to the Tower, and two boats full of people are headed this way. The Larcenists are ready to attack. And that is where our final part will begin next week.
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