TEXT: A DUNGEON WORLD CAMPAIGN
  BY CHRIS LONGHURST
  Plague
  of Storms
  
  1
  Text:
  Chris Longhurst
  Editing:
  Jim McGarva, James Iles
  Cover:
  Jeff Brown (jeffbrown.artworkfolio.com)
  Interior Art:
  Melissa Gay (www.melissagay.com)
  Redwater Valley Map:
  Glynn Seal (www.monkeyblooddesign.co.uk)
  Other Cartography:
  Chris Longhurst
  Plague
  of Storms
  A DUNGEON WORLD CAMPAIGN
  
  2
  Plague of Storms
  Version 1.0, February 2015
  Version 1.1, August 2015
  © 2015 Chris Longhurst
  All Rights Reserved
  The following text of this product is released under a Creative Commons
  Attribution­ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence:
  • All monster stat blocks, identified by their header and footer bars.
  • The complete text of the Compendium Classes chapter (pp. 125–131).
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
  
  3
  Contents
  Introduction
  The Redwater Valley
  Watchers for the End
  Yesha
  The Silver Ocean
  Port Landing
  The Hidden Mountains
  The Wildlands
  The Sawback Mountains
  Campaign Fronts
  Front One: The Flood
  Front Two: The War
  Dungeons
  The Hidden Library
  The Twilight Stronghold
  Lord Harn's Gift
  Riverwatch Hold
  Sunken Temple of
  the Unspeakable Cult
  Beneath the Livewood Tree
  Compendium Classes
  Justicar
  Brown Ring Initiate
  Three Storms Disciple
  4
  10
  10
  14
  17
  18
  22
  24
  29
  32
  32
  36
  50
  50
  57
  74
  81
  106
  114
  125
  125
  128
  130
  
  4
  Introduction
  Grey­black storm clouds hang low over the Redwater Valley, rolling in from
  the mountains and heading north, following the course of the river, yet barely
  troubling the Silver Sea beyond the estuary city of Port Landing. No one has
  seen the stars in weeks, but what omens can be read portend a great and
  terrible doom following in the wake of the thunder and lightning. The
  Redwater collects the rain and swells up its banks, rising water drives
  subterranean monsters to the surface, the dwarven justicars have retreated to
  their hidden stronghold, and the mutated denizens of the Wildlands grow
  ever­bolder in their raids.
  The player characters find themselves in the middle of this growing chaos, and
  they are the only ones who can quell the literal rising tide.
  What This Is
  Plague of Storms presents two campaign fronts for a Dungeon World game, half a
  dozen adventures, a new god for clerics to worship, three compendium classes,
  and a host of NPCs for the player characters to ally with, betray, befriend,
  antagonise, or murder – or possibly all of the above, in that order or some
  other. It doesn’t remove all of the work of GMing, but provides a solid
  framework for you to weave your own story within the general Plague of
  Storms arc while still remaining flexible enough to accommodate the swings in
  fortune of a typical Dungeon World game.
  Bearing that in mind – as well as how player­driven a typical Dungeon World
  game is – you shouldn’t consider anything here to be the definitive truth.
  Think of the things presented in this document as ‘how things are if you and
  your players don’t have any better ideas’ and feel free to scribble all over the
  top of them with whatever you come up with.
  Overview
  In short: A demon lord’s power is up for grabs in a six­way clash between
  powerful
  individuals
  in
  the
  Redwater
  valley.
  The
  presence
  of
  these
  ‘stormlords’ is also causing freakish weather patterns and constant rain, which
  brings problems of its own, and the demons currently holding their ex­lord’s
  power in escrow have plans of their own.
  It’s going to be utter chaos, with no shortage of opportunities for adventure (or
  treasure, or glory, or the acquisition of power). Get in.
  
  5
  DRAMATIS PERSONAE: THE MAJOR PLAYERS
  Arboreus was a living god who attempted to save his people from a magical ritual gone awry
  by absorbing the power into himself. The result created the mutagenic chaos of the Wildlands,
  transformed his people into animal­human hybrids, and warped himself into the creature now
  known as the Beast.
  The Beast used to be Arboreus, but is now a near­mindless creature who lurks in the ruins of
  Cenisseren in the Wildlands. His divine nature and association with the wildstorms is enough
  for him to gain the title of stormlord.
  Canithrax is a demon from the Benighted Sea; his role on the material plane is to oversee the
  contest for Sessinek's power and act as a symbolic conduit by which it is bestowed on the
  eventual inheritor.
  Cobalt is a dragon who rules the city of Port Landing. Her natural power, magical nature, and
  connection to elemental lightning have gained her the title of stormlord.
  Enkil Cloudgather is a planar merchant of a mongrel bloodline, with ties to djinn and storm
  giants alike. He is one of the stormlords, and wages war by hiring elite bands of mercenaries
  and adventurers to strike at his enemies.
  Lord Harn is a strange creature from a distant land, whose quasi­demonic nature and affinity
  for thunder are enough to mark him as a stormlord. He prefers to sway his opponents through
  gifts, cursed items, and other indirect manipulation.
  Master Lee is a reclusive orc who invented and mastered the Three Storms style of
  supernatural martial arts. He wants nothing to do with the plague of storms, but his powers
  have caused him to become a stormlord anyway.
  Marie is a local necromancer, well known to the inhabitants of the valley. Although her
  primary magic draws from shadows and corpses for its power she is also distantly descended
  from a storm god, and this divine bloodline has made her one of the stormlords as well.
  Sessinek was a mighty demon price which ruled the Benighted Sea, a violent ocean under an
  eternal night lit only by the flash of lightning. Sessinek took precautions against its own end,
  sealing away its power with an order of demons within his realm, who would safeguard it
  until the turning of the age. Sessinek's power will now be bestowed on a new dark lord of
  storms: whichever one is the last survivor of the battles in the Redwater Valley.
  Sheva is a blind witch and the only survivor of the Watchers For The End (see page 10)
  currently active in the valley. She may well be the one who dispatches the player characters
  on their quest in the first place, and even if she isn't she's still an excellent contact for them
  to cultivate.
  Stormlords are contenders in the contest for Sessinek's power. When only one survives, the
  power will flow into them and elevate them to status of demon lord and ruler of the
  Benighted Sea.
  Archdruid Zabulon was a powerful druid and the founder of the Brown Ring, an organisation
  intended to hold back and 'cure' the Wildlands. When he died the Ring collapsed into
  infighting, which is how it persists to the present day.
  
  6
  History
  Long, Long Ago: The demon lord Sessinek met its end, more or less. As part of
  a deal it had struck long before, the locus of its power returned to a looming
  fortress on the Benighted Sea – a place of storm­wracked ocean under an
  eternal night – where an order of lesser demons took possession of it, there to
  keep it until the time for a new dark lord of storms was nigh.
  Hundreds of Years Ago: A great empire rose on the continent that the
  Redwater Valley is a tiny part of. It stretched from sea to sea, made great
  advances in magic and technology, and built wonders unknown to later ages.
  Around this time the Watchers For The End (see page 10) were founded and
  Riverwatch Hold (see pages 23 and 81) constructed and inhabited.
  Slightly More Than a Century Ago: A faction within the empire turned to the
  worship of dragons, and fell to greed and corruption. They rose up in revolt,
  plunging the empire into a civil war. Backed by the dragons they worshipped,
  the Draconic faction seemed poised to overthrow a sizeable portion of the
  empire and lay ruin to the rest – until another faction enlisted the aid of
  demons, signing away their souls for the power to fight back. The war raged
  between Draconic and Demonic, leaving the regular people of the empire to
  hide or flee from the forces unleashed around them.
  
  7
  It was during this time that a powerful magical ritual ran out of control in the
  city of Cenisseren (see page 26). The incarnate demigod Arboreus filtered the
  shattering power through himself in an attempt to stop it, but failed – instead
  of dying in the blast people changed, and the uncontrolled eruption of life in the
  area created what is now the heart of the Wildlands.
  The war lasted only a few years, ended with both the Draconic and Demonic
  factions eradicated, and left the continent in ruins. The next hundred years
  would be a time of rebuilding and renewal.
  About 70 Years Ago: The Archdruid Zabulon founded the Brown Ring (see
  page 28), an order consisting of those who lived in the wilderness, dedicated to
  holding back the spread of the Wildlands. It was always an anarchic and
  egalitarian order, with members aligned by a loose philosophy and personal
  bonds of brother­ and sisterhood rather than an overarching organization, so
  when Zabulon disappeared several years later the Brown Ring continued.
  This was also about the time that the dragon Cobalt (see page 37) came to Port
  Landing (see page 18) and instituted her own brand of law. Over the next
  several decades, guided and protected by her tyrannical claw, Port Landing
  would become something approximating a bastion of civilization once again.
  About 50 Years Ago: The dwarves of Riverwatch Hold, who had barred their
  doors as the great empire fell and war swept across the continent, came out of
  their delve once again. Wracked with guilt at how her people hid from the
  fighting and abandoned the citizens of the valley in their time of need, Colonel
  Erdrie Stonecaller instituted the justicars: heavily­armed dwarves who walked
  the valley alone or in small groups, suppressing bandits and monsters.
  Last Month: The time for the new dark lord of storms was nigh. The demon
  Canithrax arrived to oversee proceedings and act as a conduit for Sessinek’s
  power. At the same time, the various candidates for the position felt a strange
  urge drawing them to the valley and their inevitable destiny. Over the following
  weeks as more of the candidates gathered so did the storms, until the sky was
  blanketed with grey and the land began to turn marshy beneath people’s feet.
  Now: The player characters catch hold of a loose thread in the tapestry of fate,
  and begin to pull.
  
  8
  Getting Started
  Getting started is as simple as lining the characters up in front of a dungeon
  entrance – the Hidden Library makes a good starting point – and telling them
  that whatever they seek is inside. At some point you’ll need to ask them what
  they are actually seeking, but it doesn’t have to be straight away. If they ask
  you what they’re seeking, tell them Sheva the witch (see page 12) has
  dispatched them to recover a prophecy about the valley from the archives.
  As soon as you can, throw them into conflict with one of the dark lords of
  storms. Lee, Marie and Cobalt are content to keep to themselves at the start of
  the campaign, but Enkil’s soldiers and the Beast’s raiders are active threats that
  could show up anywhere. Lord Harn is more subtle, preferring to turn people to
  his cause through manipulation or ‘gifts’ of cursed artefacts from his collection,
  but this still provides player characters with opportunities for adventure. When
  they have a definite enemy you can draw them into the greater conflict through
  the web of competing interests among the stormlords. Once they have an
  understanding of what’s at stake they can chart their own course.
  Remember to ask questions and use the answers: Have any of the characters
  met the local stormlords – Cobalt, Marie, and Lee – before? How did that go?
  Are they members of any organisations in the valley? Do they have family
  there? Duties? Tie them into the setting and give them things to fight for, as
  well as against.
  
  9
  PEOPLE TO BE
  Stuck for a character idea? How about...
  A servant of Lord Harn. What was his plan and how did it involve you? Were you bought?
  Coerced? Or have you escaped?
  A mercenary employed by Enkil. What's he paying you to do? Are you in it for more than the
  money? Are you on Ana's good or bad side?
  A Watcher For The End. Did Sheva summon you? Or were you sent to rebuild the order here?
  A justicar. If you're not a dwarf, what's your story? If you are, why haven't you returned to
  Riverwatch? (See page 125 if you want to start with the compendium class.)
  An ex­disciple of Master Lee. How did you start training with him? Did you leave, or were
  you thrown out? Why? (See page 130 if you want to start with the compendium class.)
  A demon hunter. You've tangled with the denizens of the Benighted Sea before. What
  happened? Who won? What trophies or scars do you bear?
  A hero of Port Landing. You're a thorn in Cobalt's side. What did you do to piss her off? Who
  hides you from her wrath?
  A bounty hunter. Plenty of bandits and folk with prices on their heads here. Who's your
  quarry? What did they do?
  A sibling of Marie. Do you get on? What do you think of her necromancy? Have you also
  inherited the family connection to the storms?
  A beast person from Cenisseren. Why did you leave Cenisseren? How do you deal with the
  valley's suspicion and rejection of Wildlands beast people?
  A monster from the Wildlands. Are you a mutant? Or a wholly new kind of thing? How do
  you feel about your origins? Are there more like you?
  One of Sarlat's creations. Did you allow him to experiment on you or were you unwilling?
  What was he trying to achieve? Did he succeed? (See page 39 for more about Sarlat.)
  A member of the Brown Ring. Are you a full member, or a would­be initiate? Which faction
  do you lean towards? (See page 128 if you want to start with this compendium class.)
  A stormlord! What makes you a contender? Do you know what you're getting into? Which
  other stormlord are you least looking forward to meeting?
  
  10
  The Redwater Valley
  The Redwater Valley is a fertile strip of land that runs either side of the
  Redwater river from its origin in the Hidden Mountains to the south­east all
  the way up to Port Landing and the Silver Sea to the north­west. The Redwater
  river itself – so named for its ruddy colour, the result of rich iron deposits in
  the Hidden Mountains – is wide and slow and full of a bewildering variety of
  fish. A few barges ply the waters, ferrying goods between towns, but always
  carrying a full complement of guards; despite the relative safety of the valley
  creatures like orcs and the deceptively clever Redwater crocodiles are still
  known to prey on under­defended shipping.
  The valley struggled to rebuild in the wake of the Draconic­Demonic civil war,
  but between the efforts of the Brown Ring and the dwarven justicars the
  villagers managed to once again carve themselves places of safety in the
  wilderness. Even Cobalt’s presence acts as a stabilising influence on her end of
  the valley: the dragon takes a laissez faire approach to rulership, but anyone
  causing significant disruption faces the unwelcome prospect of a visit from her
  enforcers – or worse, her offspring.
  Of course, now the justicars have vanished and the Wildlands raids are
  stretching the Brown Ring to breaking point, the delicate peace the people of
  the valley have cultivated may come apart in a crash of thunder.
  The Watchers For The End
  At the height of the empire, a small group of seers took it upon themselves to
  ensure that this glorious age would last until the end of time. They did this by
  searching out cataclysmic prophecies and making sure that the events
  described therein never came to pass.
  As history shows, their efforts failed. However, in the process of their work the
  Watchers uncovered a great many prophecies – many nothing to do with the
  empire – and over time their intent broadened to include all sorts of
  apocalyptic or disastrous prophecies. As the empire collapsed the Watchers
  kept to their vigil, and continue to do so today – although much reduced from
  their previous standing.
  
  11
  
  12
  SHEVA THE WITCH
  Devious, Intelligent, Magical, Solitary
  Stout Cane (d4 damage, Close); 6 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Blind, Spells, Knowledge of prophecies
  Sheva lives alone in a small village in the valley, trading potions, hedge
  remedies and crop blessings for food and assistance in her home. She has some
  books from the Hidden Library – the ones she managed to flee with when the
  cannibal cult took over – but since she is blind she cannot read them or even
  confirm which ones she has. She keeps them hidden in a trunk in the attic of
  her cottage.
  Sheva’s magic is mostly hedge wizardry and the brewing of potions. She
  knows a few mild hexes and curses, but her first recourse if she’s attacked is a
  flare of blinding light that – obviously – has no effect on her at all. She counts
  on her assailants having less experience without their sight than her, giving her
  an opportunity to escape.
  Sheva accumulates stray cats, and at any given time her cottage is home to 2d4.
  They don’t fight in combat but characters blinded by Sheva’s magic will find
  them very easy to trip over.
  Instinct: To thwart prophecy.
  • Recite a prophecy from memory, with maybe a few mistakes or
  omissions.
  If the characters recover the archive from the Hidden Library and
  give it to Sheva, replace this move with “Find a relevant prophecy
  in the archive.”
  • Brew a potion; the stranger the ingredients, the better.
  • ‘Predict’ what you think will make people do what you want.
  • Pet a nearby cat.
  When attacked, scream for help and try to escape.
  When cornered, use your spells to disable rather than kill.
  When challenged on your false prophecies, claim it’s all for the greater good.
  
  13
  SHEVA THE WITCH
  To the best of her knowledge Sheva is the only Watcher still active in the
  valley, and the sole guardian of the prophecies the order accumulated
  concerning the plague of storms. Unfortunately, Sheva’s eyesight began to fade
  shortly after her 20th birthday and was completely gone by the time she was 25,
  and the library where the prophecies were kept – the one she was supposed to
  protect – fell to an evil cult years ago. She got by for many years hoping the
  prophecy of the plague of storms was just a mistake, but now the signs are
  clear even to her and she knows she must do something.
  So she recruits the player characters to help.
  THE HIDDEN LIBRARY
  Not far from the village where Sheva makes her home is the concealed library
  holding the remains of the Watchers’ archive of prophecies. Several years ago
  the blind witch was driven away from the site by a gang of mad cultists
  seeking a spell to release their unthinkable god from its cosmic prison. They
  occupied the library while they hunted for the spell – which was never present
  – then left a single cultist to dwell in the structure while they returned to the
  cult’s central temple in the ruins below Port Landing (see page 106).
  The lone cultist was never particularly well­balanced, and over the intervening
  years has slid completely into paranoid delusions. She has called up several
  large tapeworm­like creatures as servants of her writhing god, and raised
  several skeletons from the remains of her victims which she originally trusted
  implicitly but is now convinced are planning to betray her.
  The Hidden Library is described in more detail on page 50.
  THE TWILIGHT STRONGHOLD
  A larger location that the Watchers kept back in the days of empire, when the
  war came the Watchers stationed at the Twilight Stronghold decided to seal
  their keep inside a bubble of time, the better to keep their secrets safe through
  the destruction they knew was coming. Unfortunately, for all their foresight
  they were unable to enact the ritual properly and now – and then, and in
  centuries to come – the Twilight Stronghold is at the centre of a twisted patch
  of time and space where continuity is fractured and strange creatures feed on
  the fragmentary moments that bleed through the cracks.
  
  14
  However, there is treasure there for those bold enough to seize it, as well as
  further information on the nature of Sessinek and the demonic challenge that
  has drawn the stormlords to the valley.
  The Twilight Stronghold and its time­slipped dangers are described in more
  detail on page 57.
  Yesha the Prophet
  In the woods near the Redwater river, with a clear view down­slope to the waters
  at the foot of the hill, a man named Yesha is building a boat. Yesha is well­known
  to the local villages as a cave­dwelling hermit, a priest of Drontok the
  Thunderous, and a fitness fanatic – and now as a mad slave­lord, as he rounds up
  anyone capable of working and sets them to building his gargantuan craft.
  Yesha knows nothing of shipcraft. He claims the plans for his boxy ship were
  present upon his waking from a dream sent by Drontok – a violent,
  straightforward god who has never in recorded history bestowed a dream
  vision on anyone – and he spends more time keeping his bandit enforcers in
  line than checking the work of his slave labourers. It’s anyone’s guess as to
  whether the thing will float, let alone sail.
  
  15
  YESHA THE PROPHET
  Divine, Forceful, Intelligent, Solitary
  Vice­Like Wrestling Grip (d8+2 damage, Hand); 12 HP, 0 armour
  Drontok is a god of noise and violence, and Yesha is an exemplar of the faith:
  his strength is superlative, his endurance nigh­legendary, and his voice a roar
  that can set bears to flight. He seizes people from local villages to supplement
  his labour force because he genuinely believes he’s going to save them; he
  believes his god has shown him the way to survive the coming storms, and is
  uninterested in listening to alternatives – for what mortal could conceive a
  superior plan to a god?
  Yesha himself is a wild­looking man in his early 60s, with the muscular body
  of a man half his age and the burning gaze of a true fanatic. He wears a ragged
  kilt and little else, no matter what the weather. When he speaks every word
  carries the emphatic weight of a true believer; what he says often doesn’t make
  much sense, but it can stir the heart regardless.
  If it comes to a fight Yesha is entirely straightforward: he squares off against
  the toughest­looking enemy with a hymn on his lips, and proceeds to mangle
  them with his bare hands. Even when he seems defeated, Yesha has an
  uncanny habit of surviving all but the most unambiguous slayings and
  reappearing later on to cause trouble.
  Instinct: To build a huge boat, no matter what stands in your way.
  • Preach the Word of Drontok at the top of your lungs.
  • Perform a feat of strength.
  • Return from certain death with deeper faith and a new scar.
  When challenged, rise to it.
  When unsure or out of your depth, forge ahead and trust in your faith.
  
  16
  YESHA’S MINIONS
  Intelligent, Group, Stealthy
  Assorted Hand Weapons/Bows (d8 damage, Close/Near/Far);
  6 HP, 1 armour (leathers, scavenged bits and pieces)
  Yesha’s minions are a small gang of bandits who he has intimidated into
  service. Ex­villagers all, they are equipped with knives, hatchets and hunting
  bows. Only fear of Yesha keeps them in line – left to their own devices, they
  would rather return to a life of casual theft and occasional murder.
  Instinct: To follow the path of least resistance.
  • Say whatever you think is going to keep Yesha off your case.
  • Attack someone with a concealed weapon.
  When accused, blame whoever was in charge.
  When cornered, surrender in a display of abject cowardice.
  When unobserved, steal something.
  DRONTOK THE THUNDEROUS
  He is the lord of thunder and physical exertion, the berserker who wades into battle with a
  song on his lips, the involuntary shout of an athlete who pushes themselves to their limit, the
  storm that throws down trees and capsizes ships. Singing and wrestling are sacred to him, and
  his holy word is engraved on huge tablets of stone that the uninitiated struggle to lift.
  Domain: Bloody Conquest
  Precepts: Drontok favours those who prove themselves strong. (Add Petition: Personal Victory)
  Boons Granted: Drontok will grant his priests visions of treasures which they will have to
  overcome physical challenges to claim, a brief burst of supernatural strength when they need it
  most, or will occasionally send gryphons to aid them in battle or travel.
  When you travel on or by the Silver Ocean, you can always catch enough fish to eat – you
  don't need to consume any rations when you make camp or undertake a perilous journey.
  
  17
  The Silver Ocean
  The Silver Ocean takes its name from the abundant fish that swim in its waters,
  turning the water silver when they come to the surface to mate in great tangles of
  writhing bodies. It spreads far and deep to the north­west of the valley; no one
  knows what lies on the other side, although several islands and small
  archipelagos have been charted by the sailors and fishermen who ply their trades
  on its waters – and the pirates who ply their trade on the sailors and fishermen.
  SOME ISLANDS OF THE SILVER OCEAN
  This island is an elemental creature of earth and water, one of the great titans
  which built the world, floating in the ocean while it waits for the turning of the
  ages and the call to construct the world once more. Who knows what treasures
  and dangers might be found in its cavernous innards?
  This volcanic island is the home of an extended family of elementalists, who
  squabble and feud with each other in the ways that only blood relatives can.
  Gaining a favour from one branch of the family could be useful – but is it
  worth angering the rest of them?
  The Isle of Stolen Memories is a total mystery. Anyone who visits there
  remembers landing on its stony beaches, and the next thing they know they are
  departing – sometimes richer, sometimes poorer, but always changed.
  Old maps and records indicate that the Island of Talking Beasts used to be the
  location of a grand temple to the gentle water goddess Heltha, but now it’s an
  overgrown jungle hostile to all non­native life. Silver was sacred to Heltha, so
  it’s a safe bet that her temple is full of riches for anyone who could find it – but
  what happened in the forgotten years to change the island so drastically?
  SOME SHIPS OF THE SILVER OCEAN
  Sorcerer­Captain Delphine Glimmershadow commands a ship towed by an
  octopus­like creature of unspeakable size. Her magic enchants the creatures of
  the deep, but her command of human hearts is less precise: her feuds with
  bitter ex­lovers are things of legend.
  The ghost­ship Seadrake will come to claim the soul of any able­bodied
  seaman who is sacrificed according to the proper rites – this is how it finds
  new crew. More to the point, the spectral Captain Hart is happy to use the
  occasion to negotiate additional deals.
  
  18
  The notorious pirate Sairah Slimeflinger keeps numerous oozes and slimes
  locked on her ship, finding them both an effective deterrent against boarders
  and a useful weapon when loaded into catapults and fired onto enemy vessels.
  As a result of a long­standing pact with an unknown entity, anyone who crews
  the Shiftless Wanderer gains a natural buoyancy that will bear them up in any
  body of water for as long as their name remains in the captain’s book.
  Port Landing
  Port Landing is the closest thing to civilisation that the Redwater valley has –
  or so claims Cobalt, its ruler. It’s certainly the largest settlement in the valley,
  permanent home to several thousand people and occasional home to perhaps a
  thousand more as ships arrive and leave along its extensive docks. It’s an
  anarchic and lawless place; day­to­day order is kept by Cobalt’s appointed
  enforcers and any of her offspring which happen to be present, but the dragon
  and her minions don’t really concern themselves with anything less than large­
  scale riots or other threats to the stability of the entire city. On a smaller scale
  Steading: Moderate Prosperity, Steady Population, Garrison Defences (about 200
  of Cobalt’s enforcers plus the dragon herself and her children), Market, Guild
  (pirates), History (tragedy), Personage (Cobalt the dragon), Power (political),
  Lawless, Blight (the Unspeakable Cult).
  
  19
  the city is just an ever­shifting patchwork of warring gangs and pirate crews,
  with ordinary inhabitants paying protection to whoever’s local and hoping the
  next turf war passes them by.
  On the plus side, Port Landing’s size and position as the only port in the valley
  makes it a centre of trade – the few merchants who brave the journey from
  elsewhere in the world must dock among the wolves if they want to sell their
  cargo, and the shed scales of the dragons living in the city have a multiplicity
  of uses both mundane and alchemical that make them excellent trade goods.
  For trade within the valley, the city’s bounty supports a burgeoning middle
  class of artisans and merchants who produce and supply goods to the smaller
  settlements inland.
  Port Landing is built on the ruins of the empire city that stood here before, and
  that city was built on the ruins of the city that was here before that – these
  extensive catacombs are mostly used for storage, sewage, or skulduggery by
  the existing inhabitants, but there are all sorts of remnants of the empire down
  there for people to find if they can brave the unstable architecture, dangerous
  monsters, and the cannibals of the Unspeakable Cult. On top of that, Cobalt
  lays claim to anything found down there, so simply possessing artefacts or
  coins from the old empire is enough to draw draconic scrutiny in Port Landing.
  Choose your smuggling partners with care.
  COBALT S PALACE
  In the centre of Port Landing is a tower made of broken ships shored up with
  buttresses of stone and wood. Every ship that forms part of the structure used
  to be owned by a captain who crossed Cobalt. Their lives came to an end at the
  claws of the dragon, and she claimed their ships for her palace to remind
  others of the only real law of Port Landing: what Cobalt says, goes.
  The inhabitants of the palace – Cobalt, her children, and her enforcers – make
  the best of their strange home but the interior is still a maze of corridors and
  rooms at strange angles, haphazard additions, and architecture­of­necessity.
  All spaces are large enough for Cobalt to traverse, by her own command. She
  doesn’t systematically punish people who make small enclosures, however,
  preferring to tear through any obstructions as she finds them; the result is that
  bold adventurers on the run from the dragon in her own palace might be able
  to buy a few moments’ respite while she destroys her way to their location.
  
  20
  COBALT’S ENFORCERS
  Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Batons, Knives, Hatchets (d8 damage, Close);
  6 HP, 1 armour (draconic toughness)
  Special Qualities: Enhanced with a little of Cobalt’s power, Unable to resist
  Cobalt’s commands
  To most people Cobalt’s enforcers are just the meanest gang in a city full of
  them, distinguished only by the plain blue tabards that mark their allegiance
  and the ability to call on dragons for backup – even Cobalt’s youngest, smallest
  offspring is more than a match for a typical band of ruffians. This is true, more
  or less, but there is one more secret that most people don’t know: through the
  works of Sarlat (see page 39) the enforcers are both physically enhanced and
  bound irrevocably to Cobalt’s will.
  When an enforcer is initiated, they drink a foul brew of grog, reagents from
  Sarlat’s laboratory, and ground up scales from Cobalt’s back. This combination
  forms a magic potion which grants them a measure of Cobalt’s draconic might
  and her ability to command the storms, but also makes them unable to resist
  her orders – or even her merest suggestions.
  Very few of the enforcers use their added might for anything other than
  charging their weapons with lightning before wading into battle, but the rare
  few who devote themselves to mastering it can demonstrate surprising
  abilities. Give them an added move like shoot lightning from your hands or
  summon a thick bank of fog, then make sure to use it.
  Instinct: To seize valuables for Cobalt’s hoard. (Or whatever Cobalt has
  specifically ordered them to do.)
  • Batter an obstructive person into submission.
  • Demand aid from other citizens of Port Landing.
  When challenged, establish dominance through threats or violence.
  When thwarted, lash out.
  When commanded by Cobalt, do what she wants to the best of your ability,
  without hesitation.
  
  21
  Cobalt’s chamber is right at the top of the structure, open to the sky on one side
  so she can look out to sea when she is in repose, and easily take wing when
  she’s roused to action. The mass of her hoard, however, is in a sealed vault
  nearer the ground level – bold thieves often think to try their hand at Cobalt’s
  treasure, but so far none have survived the attempt.
  PORT LANDING RUMOURS
  One of the ships in Cobalt’s palace belonged to a notorious trickster – and the
  secret compartment in the hull where he hid his treasure maps should still be
  intact! All you have to do is get into the palace, steal the maps, and escape alive.
  Someone’s come to port with a jewel­studded skull he found on one of the
  islands in the Silver Ocean – it can answer any question, if you’re willing to
  pay the price it names.
  Cobalt’s got a secret backup lair under the sea, not far from the port – and
  with these potions of water breathing we can slip in and loot it while she’s
  busy on­shore!
  When you wander Cobalt’s palace without a guide, roll +Wis. On a 10+ you choose
  something from the list of things to find and find it. On a 7­9 the GM chooses something from
  the list of things for you to find, and you choose something from the list of troubles. On a miss,
  you end up at the GM’s mercy – where you are and who else is there are up to them.
  THINGS TO FIND
  •
  A specific location you were looking for.
  •
  A specific person you were looking for.
  •
  Treasure – the GM will tell you what, and how much it’s worth.
  •
  A location you weren’t aware existed, but is interesting – the GM will tell you what
  you’ve found.
  •
  Cobalt, unaware of your presence (for now).
  TROUBLES
  •
  You’ve found it, but there’s a group of Cobalt’s enforcers between you and it.
  •
  You’ve found it, but it wasn’t what you thought it was – whoever chose this entry
  should tell everyone what the key problem is.
  •
  You’ve found where it
  , but someone’s moved it – there are clues as to where
  it’s gone, though.
  •
  You’ve found it, but Cobalt is also here and she knows you're there.
  
  22
  THE UNSPEAKABLE CULT
  When the empire fell, the complex system of economic dependencies that kept
  the old port functioning collapsed – and with it, so did the city. Most of the
  inhabitants fled, some died, and some remained to eke out a life among the
  ruins. Among this latter group were the ancestors of what would come to be
  called the Unspeakable Cult.
  In the tunnels beneath the city they found an ancient worm, a creature left over
  from some prior age, which taught them black magic in exchange for their
  worship and tribute – tribute which took the form of living captives from the
  surface, sacrificed to feed the worm’s endless hunger. In time the proto­cultists
  joined the worm in its unholy meals, beginning the traditions that would
  become the Unspeakable Cult of today.
  The resurgence of Port Landing was a boon to the cult, providing the starving
  ghouls and their inhuman god with fresh meat for the first time in years.
  Unfortunately the presence of a powerful dragon directly over their heads has
  somewhat curtailed their efforts, forcing them to branch out into the
  surrounding countryside to find their meals.
  The Hidden Mountains
  The Hidden Mountains are an old, high range that borders the valley to the
  south and east. The name comes from an old legend that someone once made
  the mountains invisible, although who did it and why vary with the teller –
  and they’re certainly visible now.
  Giants roam the further reaches of the mountains but they have their own
  concerns among the mountain peaks – mostly internecine squabbling – and
  seldom bother the valley. Of course, with the stormlords going to war the
  giants represent a potent source of mighty warriors for whoever can convince
  them to join up – Enkil and Lord Harn are the most likely candidates, but war
  can make for strange bedfellows.
  Probably the strangest aspect of the Hidden Mountains are the faces in the
  stone. Over time some of the mountainsides have grown to resemble faces –
  not just in the shape of stone and boulders, but the way snow makes white
  eyebrows, fallen trees add texture to a craggy cheek, or a frozen waterfall
  becomes a beard. Is it sorcery? Divine intervention? Ancient elementals? Some
  infinitely patient sculptor­gardener? No one knows.
  
  23
  RIVERWATCH HOLD
  The Redwater river bursts from a mountainside not two day’s full travel from
  the flatter lands of the valley, cascading down a series of waterfalls before
  arriving in a small lake where it calms and stills before starting the long, sedate
  journey to the sea. Behind these waterfalls, blended with the stone of the
  mountainside, is the concealed dwarven outpost of Riverwatch Hold.
  At its height the Hold was a powerful military bastion erected to keep watch of
  the Redwater valley and protect dwarven interests in the area. When the great
  empire collapsed in on itself, however, the dwarves turned inward – they
  barred their doors and ignored the plight of the valley, keeping their supplies
  to themselves and letting the short­sighted humans suffer the consequences of
  their actions. And so it was for fifty years – time enough for the generations to
  turn and new voices to become heard.
  The young Major Erdrie Stonecaller became the figurehead for the new
  generation, a voice of compassion for the ruined world outside – and a voice
  which pointed out the dragon taking power at the opposite end of the valley.
  Would the dwarves stand idle while such an evil creature secured its position?
  The answer, it turned out, was no. The aging Colonel running the hold retired
  in response to popular opposition and promoted Erdrie as his successor. She
  quickly instituted the justicar program in an attempt to repay what she felt the
  dwarves owed for their decades of inaction; she sent the finest dwarf warriors
  into the valley in groups of 2–5, there to fight evil and help the humans rebuild
  wherever possible. If such assistance created a culture of gratitude to the
  dwarves and mistrust of the dragon... well, so much the better.
  For five decades this plan worked. Erdrie grew older, wiser and more cunning,
  and her idealism became tarnished by acts of necessity – but the great debt
  records held in the monastery­library of the keep recorded her debt of guilt in
  Steading: Poor Prosperity, Exodus Population (only a handful of dwarves remain),
  Guard (the entire population of the keep is armed and ready to fight), Need
  (Supplies), Trade (nearby villages), Oath (to protect Redwater valley), Blight (fish­
  fiends from the depths), Blight (demon­possessed dwarves), Dwarven.
  Note: If the player characters solve the dwarves’ demons­and­fishfolk problems (see
  page 81) the Hold loses its Blights and gains the Safe keyword.
  
  24
  words graven into stone, and would not let her forget her obligations. In the
  end, as with so many other situations in the valley, it was the arrival of the
  stormlords that changed everything.
  The rains came first, relentless as they poured down across the mountains, a
  problem the dwarves could not defeat by force of arms. The rain drained into
  the caverns beneath the earth, raising the water level and slowly flooding the
  lower tunnels – and with the water came the fishfolk of the lightless depths.
  They poured into the low levels of the Hold, slaying all in their path with their
  knives of sharpened stone, quickly seizing the pump rooms that could seal off
  the flooded tunnels and keep them out. And as the rain continued, the waters
  rose, and the fishfolk followed behind.
  Colonel Stonecaller immediately recalled the justicars, demanding they return
  and defend the Hold – but that would take time, and the dwarves needed aid
  immediately. So, in a decision that will go down in history as one of the
  poorest ever made, Erdrie’s husband turned to demons. He and a significant
  number of his soldiers allowed planar entities to possess their bodies, turning
  them into lurking creatures of quills and poison. They fought the fishfolk to a
  standstill, yes, but the remaining population of the Hold find themselves
  sealed into a handful of chambers in the mid levels with savage fishfolk below
  and their demon­possessed brethren above.
  The dwarves need help, of the sort that only player characters can provide.
  The Wildlands
  Lurking to the south­west of the valley, the Wildlands are an ever­expanding
  expanse of life gone terribly wrong formed when a magical ritual meant to lay
  waste to the city of Cenisseren – which still exists in a twisted, ruined form at
  the heart of the Wildlands – was filtered through the divine power of
  Arboreus, a demigod of growth and vivacity. It resembles a lush jungle, filled
  with the hooting cries of animals unknown anywhere else in the world – and at
  its edges that is exactly what it is. But further in, the growth becomes strange
  and twisted: gnarled thorn­trees revolve moist eyes to watch you as you pass;
  animals undergo catastrophic spurts of evolution in response to new threats;
  living mounds of vines and fungus rise up to create their own compost from
  intruders; and twisted things neither alive nor dead slip between the trees and
  drag careless wanderers into their twilit half­life.
  
  25
  On top of all that, the Wildlands are plagued by so­called wildstorms – boiling
  black clouds shot through with flashes of strange, otherworldly colours that
  race out of the jungle to deposit their storms on the lands of the valley,
  warping whatever they rain on into unfamiliar shapes and patterns. The
  Brown Ring knows rituals to disperse wildstorms, but the Brown Ring cannot
  be everywhere, and as the plague of storms gathers momentum, more and
  more wildstorms manifest over the Wildlands to drift in the valley and bring
  their unwanted, unpredictable mutation of life and landscape with them.
  As if its natural hostility wasn’t bad enough, the Wildlands are home to a
  hostile civilisation of bestial humanoids, mixtures of animal and human. They
  raid deep into the Redwater valley, hunting people to drag back to the ruins of
  Cenisseren and sacrifice to their monstrous ruler – for Arboreus survived his
  experience at the hands of magical destruction, after a fashion, and has become
  the warped and fallen stormlord now known as the Beast.
  When you are caught in a wildstorm, it’s a defy danger roll to avoid being changed. Effects of a
  7­9 roll might include minor mutations, the loss of equipment which has become something
  else, or the choice to save either yourself or a hireling or other NPC.
  A Note for the GM: When a character fails to avoid the dangers of a wildstorm, you have fictional
  justification to do a number of terrible things to their character – but you should probably hold off on
  turning them into a gelatinous cube or something equally radical unless you think the player is up for it.
  Perhaps they were so busy fleeing to shelter they missed the bunny caught in the rain as it transforms
  into an n­dimensional flesh­eating monstrosity, so it gets the drop on them (put someone in a spot); or
  perhaps the landscape morphs and cuts off the character(s) who failed from the rest of the party
  (separate them). You don’t have to transform them beyond recognition just because you can.
  
  26
  CENISSEREN
  Once Cenisseren was a bright city of tree­lined streets and colourful buildings,
  of blooming flowers and tame animals working in unison with the humans
  and elves who lived there. It was the personal domain of Arboreus, a man half­
  divine, with limitless strength, a boundless heart, and compassion for
  everything that lived. That all ended when the empire collapsed.
  For reasons unknown, someone in Cenisseren attempted a magical ritual that
  would have slain every living thing in the city and left it a desolate ruin of
  flaking paint and withered husks. In the moment of the spell’s release,
  Arboreus felt the magic wash forth, divined its nature, and attempted to seize
  the magic and channel it into himself, sacrificing his own life to save the lives
  of everyone in the city.
  His attempt miscarried. The magic coursed through him, and touched by the
  might of the divine it changed – the wave of death originally released became a
  wave of life, although it retained the destructive intent of the original ritual.
  Across the city, the plants erupted into life, growing and mutating at a vastly
  accelerated rate. The people were not spared either, their bodies twisting into
  animalistic forms and their minds dissolving under the strain of the
  transformation. In minutes the bright city of Cenisseren had become an
  overgrown ruin choked by plants never before seen and populated by animal­
  aspected savages. Their god­king had become the Beast: a twisted mockery of
  himself, a monstrous amalgamation of human and animal parts, possessed of
  his old brute strength but no longer capable of thought beyond a vague loyalty
  to his new followers.
  Cenisseren is now a haunted place, home to the Beast and a quantity of his
  bestial followers. The few captives who have managed to escape their fates as
  sacrifices to the twisted god and flee the Wildlands with body and soul mostly
  intact mutter of visions that come and go, vivid waking dreams of Cenisseren­
  as­it­was that always end with a brilliant emerald radiance and the feeling of
  fracturing senses. If a bold group were able to reach the blighted city, these
  visions might reveal the truth of what happened on the day the city was
  brought low – or maybe they’re just a distraction from the very real threat of
  the Beast and his minions.
  When you experience a vision of Cenisseren­as­it­was, take +1 forward to spout lore about
  Cenisseren or its history when you incorporate what you saw in the vision.
  
  27
  For a flying avian, add the following:
  Divine, +2 damage and +2 HP.
  Special Quality: Wings
  Instinct: To lead the crusade.
  And replace the move Shriek for aid with Incite the wildlanders to religious fury.
  CROW­HEADED WILDLANDER
  Intelligent, Magical, Organised, Solitary
  Hand Weapons, Beak, Spells (d8 damage, Hand, Close, Near);
  12 HP, 0 armour
  Special Quality: Keen eyesight
  The avian mutants of the Wildlands have retained the most of their human
  intelligence and so risen to the top of the new hierarchy; they are the leaders of
  the new tribes, the priests of their new god, and the keepers of the scattered
  relics and forgotten magic of Cenisseren­as­it­was. A very few of the avian
  wildlanders can fly; they are regarded as specially blessed, and it falls to them
  to attempt to communicate with the Beast and relay what they believe are his
  instructions to the tribes as a whole. As the plague of storms builds, they
  respond to their god’s growing agitation by whipping the tribes into a
  righteous frenzy – a crusade is coming, and the avians will herd their mindless
  demigod to its spearhead.
  Instinct: To accumulate the secrets of history.
  • Use the forgotten sorcery of Cenisseren­as­it­was.
  • Command plants or animals with magic spells.
  • Shriek for aid.
  When something catches your eye, investigate.
  When you find intruders, capture them for sacrifice.
  When in the presence of your god, ask for guidance and interpret the response.
  
  28
  DOG­HEADED WILDLANDER
  Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Hand Weapons, Teeth (d8 damage, Hand, Close); 6 HP, 1 armour (hide)
  Special Quality: Keen sense of smell
  The dog­headed wildlanders make up both the bulk of the wildlands tribes’
  actual population and the bulk of their armed forces as well. They possess a
  variety of canine features depending on the individual. Some boast a full
  canine head, others look halfway human. Some have claws, others don’t. Some
  have fur or tails, others don’t. Individuals have little in common.
  The dog­headed are not violent by nature, but when roused to action by the
  cries of the avians they become loyal, stubborn, and savage soldiers.
  Instinct: To protect the wildlanders from the hated outsiders.
  • Attack with blades and teeth.
  • Dogpile a vulnerable enemy.
  When you’re calm, treat newcomers or unfamiliar faces just like you’d treat
  anyone else.
  When someone tries to dominate you, don’t let them do it without a fight.
  When an enemy runs from you, howl and give chase.
  WILDLANDS CIVILISATION
  The area now covered by the Wildlands used to be a thriving civilisation, and although it
  collapsed in the wake of the disaster at Cenisseren the various beast­folk of the Wildlands have
  rebuilt it after a fashion. The new society has little in common with the previous one except for
  the fact of a demigod at its head. Cenisseren culture was feudal, with Arboreus doling out
  packages of land to those who impressed him in a more or less even­handed manner, but
  following the collapse it has reformed into a caste­based theocracy.
  Caste in the Wildlands is based on physical features: the highest castes have an animal head on
  top of a human body, with the avians at the top and the dog­headed just below them as their
  soldiers. Other animal­headed Wildlanders form a third caste and effective middle class,
  leaving the bottom rung of society for the ‘broken ones’: Wildlanders with no clear pattern of
  animal features, or who have human faces.
  Despite the elitism built right into their society there might be hope for the Wildlanders if not
  for their slavish adherence to the whims of the Beast. The bird­headed priests seem unable or
  unwilling to accept that their living god is barely sapient, let alone sane, and as they indulge
  his whims his animal ferocity permeates their society.
  
  29
  THE BROWN RING
  When the Archdruid Zabulon formed his order of wilderness dwellers to hold
  back the ever­spreading threat of the wildlands, he deliberately gave it a ribald
  name to remind his followers that although their mission was deadly serious, it
  was important to take time to laugh. It was just one of many schemes the old
  druid had that didn’t work out quite as he’d hoped.
  The order itself consisted of an eclectic band of individuals welded together by
  Zabulon’s easy charisma. As the members brought their own recruits and
  proteges into the fold, the web of personal ties holding the order together
  became more complex – multiple cults of personality pulling in all directions,
  bound into a whole only by the common aim of halting the spread of the
  Wildlands and, if possible, driving it back.
  When Zabulon disappeared, the order disintegrated. Always anarchic, its
  overriding goal was not enough to keep all its members in line without the druid
  actively managing the order. Harsh words were spoken, blows were exchanged,
  and the order splintered into a dozen factions under a dozen different
  ‘inheritors’ who each styled themselves Zabulon’s successor. While the Brown
  Ring continues to struggle against the spread of the Wildlands, its divided
  nature makes it weak in the face of its declared foe – when the wildlanders
  invade the valley en masse, they will be swept away like leaves in the wind.
  Broadly speaking, the factions of the Brown Ring can be separated into three
  viewpoints:
  • The Scourge believe that the Wildlands and everything touched by it
  must be destroyed – burn the ground, salt the earth, and Hell take
  those who stand in their way.
  • The Gardeners take the opposite view – they fight life with life,
  planting and tending normal plants to block the encroachment of the
  Wildlands and drive it back. They mostly take a long­term view,
  reasoning that so long as the Wildlands are shrinking it doesn’t
  matter how slowly they shrink.
  • The Alchemists (also known as the Meddlers) adopt the extreme
  view that the Wildlands are not to be fought but cultivated – who
  knows what new and exciting plants could be discovered in a realm
  of such potent growth? Naturally, the alchemists and the scourge
  often clash over methodology and resources.
  
  30
  The Sawback Mountains
  The Sawbacks border the northern edge of the Redwater valley. A younger
  range than the Hidden Mountains, they are less severe both in terrain and
  climate. The Sawbacks have proved popular with the sort of settlers who like
  harsh landscapes to keep people away but not so harsh that the local dangers
  will kill them dead, so the mountains have a decent number of insular
  settlements scattered among them. Stories of gold, silver, iron and other
  valuable substances beneath the earth also draw prospectors; while there has
  been no big strike to start a gold rush, a constant stream of smaller finds keeps
  the treasure­hunters coming.
  The mountains are also home to a wide variety of monsters – gryphons and
  wyverns the most numerous, although cave­dwelling ogres are also common –
  and rumours persist of elf­like humanoids who are only seen when it snows
  and vanish into solid rock faces when confronted.
  
  31
  THUNDER PEAK
  One of the landmarks of the Sawbacks, Thunder Peak is a tall, jagged mountain
  that looks so out of place among the smaller peaks that surround it that a
  popular legend states it was dropped there by a forgetful god. Its top is always
  hidden from view behind heavy clouds, and two or three times a month a
  terrible storm lashes the flanks of the mountain with hail and lightning.
  Yet people climb up and down this mountain, making their treks in the days
  between storms, to meet and trade with the ‘Master of the Mountain’ – a
  solitary orc by the name of Lee who operates a school of sorts near the summit,
  teaching the arts of war to anyone who can survive the journey to his home.
  Lee is cantankerous and distrustful of strangers, so he leaves his students to
  handle most visitors – a practice which suits everyone except those who need
  to speak to Lee and have to navigate the gauntlet of his disciples of Snow, Ice
  and Thunder before they are permitted.
  The bizarre weather around Thunder Peak is nothing to do with Lee. He has
  no idea what causes it, but he likes the barrier it puts between him and the rest
  of the world. However, Lee is one of the stormlords (see page 36), so soon ‘the
  world’ is going to arrive on his doorstep, storm or no storm – and if there’s one
  thing the grumpy warrior likes less than company, it’s change.
  THE WANDERING COTTAGE
  One story that circulates among the mountain folk concerns the so­called
  ‘wandering cottage’. People lost in the mountains at night sometimes spot a
  tiny cottage through the snow, with lights in the windows and smoke coming
  from the chimney. The door is answered by an elvish­looking man, richly
  dressed, wearing a cloak of moonlight. He offers a simple deal: food, shelter
  and safety for the night, in exchange for the visitor’s promise that when he
  commands, they will obey.
  The cottage’s owner is always as good as his word, opening his door in the
  morning to reveal familiar vistas from where they can easily find their way
  home – but no one knows to what end he might be collecting future favours
  from rescued mountain travellers.
  
  32
  Campaign Fronts
  Front One: The Flood
  As the storms intensify, the Redwater river bursts its banks and starts to drown
  the valley. The flood is a campaign front that reflects the dangers caused by the
  rising water level and the metaphysical resonance between the stormlords and
  Sessinek’s gathering power. The various dangers raised by the flood are
  mobile: they may create adventure fronts, move to existing adventure fronts, or
  move to the war campaign front (see page 36) depending on how the player
  characters handle them.
  STAKES
  Can the storms be stopped by means other than killing all the stormlords?
  Which stormlord will recruit the homeless monsters?
  Is it wise for the player characters to ally with the demons?
  CUSTOM MOVE
  When returning to a steading that’s been flooded since your last visit, choose
  one:
  • Flood damage; the steading has lost one positive tag of your choice.
  • Some people have been washed away; the steading takes –population.
  • A notable person has been washed away; the steading loses a named
  NPC.
  • The steading has been isolated by the rising waters; all trade is
  blocked, triggering the trade condition on p217 of the Dungeon World
  rulebook.
  • The steading remains unchanged, but has entered into a deal with
  dubious characters in order to do so; the GM will decide what sort of
  trouble they’re in instead.
  Note to the GM: ‘Been flooded since your last visit’ is a reference to the spread to an
  adjacent place and grow in intensity or depth moves that cursed places – such as
  the Dark Waters danger of this front – have.
  
  33
  DANGERS
  HOMELESS MONSTERS
  Horde: Wandering Barbarians
  Impulse: To grow strong, to drive their enemies before them.
  As the floodwaters rise, living space starts to become hard to come by –
  especially for those creatures making their homes in underground caverns,
  which are the first to flood. Deeper creatures drive lesser ones out of shallow
  caves as they try to stay above the water table, and the lesser creatures like
  goblins are ejected into the valley itself to roam and cause trouble.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • Goblins and other humanoids maraud.
  • Nastier creatures emerge.
  • The humanoids band together for survival.
  • The savage humanoids and/or monsters join one of the stormlords’
  armies.
  Impending Doom: Tyranny – United behind a strong leader, the humanoid
  tribes will become a savage hammer crushing anyone in their path.
  DARK WATERS
  Use the moves for a Cursed Place: Elemental Vortex
  Impulse: To grow, to tear apart reality.
  The floodwaters themselves are a danger – they drown crops, wash away
  villages, and turn low hills into isolated islands. Worse still, because they are
  charged with the essence of Sessinek and his demonic nature, where the flood
  takes strongest hold the world begins to resemble the Benighted Sea and it
  becomes possible to sail from one to the other.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • Refugees wander the valley looking for high ground.
  • Refugees and existing settlements clash over the high ground.
  • Famine spreads as crops are drowned.
  • The valley floods completely.
  Impending Doom: Destruction – If the valley floods completely, everyone will die.
  
  34
  THE DEMONS
  Ambitious Organisation: Thieves’ Guild
  Impulse: To take by subterfuge.
  The lesser demons that ‘oversee’ the contest
  for Sessinek’s power have an agenda of
  their own. Sessinek was not foolish
  enough to allow them to gain control
  of its power when it agreed to the
  deal with them – but in the time
  between attempts at rebirth they
  become de facto rulers of the dark
  sea where their fortress stands, and
  they are unwilling to give that
  power up without a fight. To that
  end, they are attempting to
  engineer a situation where there is
  no clear victor of the contest: the
  stormlords must all die before the
  final one can claim their rightful
  power, allowing the demons to retain
  control of the plane until the cosmic
  age turns and a new set of stormlords
  can vie for Sessinek’s legacy.
  At the start of the game only Canithrax (see opposite) is present in the valley,
  but once the flood has progressed to the point where it makes planar
  connections with the Benighted Sea, reinforcements can cross over.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • The demons of the Benighted Sea sail into the valley.
  • The demons ally with the strongest stormlord to crush all
  competition.
  • The demons betray and murder their champion at the moment of
  victory.
  Impending Doom: Usurpation – The demons will take Sessinek’s power back
  to the Benighted Sea and rule there with it until the ages turn again.
  
  35
  CANITHRAX
  Devious, Intelligent, Large, Magical, Planar, Solitary
  Rending Claws (d8+1 damage, Close); 16 HP, 2 armour (demonic vitality)
  Special Quality: Demon
  Canithrax is a lumbering demon with a barrel chest, long ape­like arms, and a
  canine head. He stands about seven feet tall, but only because he slouches.
  Contrary to his appearance, though, Canithrax far prefers to use negotiation
  and demon­magic to solve his problems.
  When the game begins, Canithrax is the sole emissary from the demons of the
  Benighted Sea to the material plane. He was allowed to bring himself across as
  part of Sessinek’s deal, to oversee the contest and bestow the demon lord’s
  power upon the victor. He has no choice in the matter – should the stormlords
  be reduced to a sole candidate, he is compelled to seek them out and conduct
  the transfer ritual – but he is also the demons’ primary agent in their own
  plans. Above all else, he wants to get close to the likely final winner so he can
  stab them in the back at their moment of triumph and ensure his kind continue
  to rule the Benighted Sea until the next age.
  Canithrax’s demon­magic is of a contractual nature, revolving around exchanges
  and deals. He can bestow demonic power on others in exchange for direct service
  or future favours and can visit terrible dooms on those who break the terms of
  the bargain, but he has little use for mortal souls. (He’s encountered Death in the
  past, and has no desire to withhold anything from that dread personage.) As an
  added bonus, while the contest continues Canithrax is functionally immortal: his
  body can be destroyed but will always re­form within three days.
  Instinct: To ensure none of the stormlords survive, by any means necessary.
  • Enforce the terms of a deal.
  • Make a voluntary agreement supernaturally binding.
  • Offer something they want, at a price.
  • Send a spectral image of yourself to observe or converse.
  When someone offers to make a deal, hear them out.
  When someone makes their opposition to you clear, make sure they end up working
  for you anyway.
  When a stormlord tries to recruit you, say yes.
  
  36
  Front Two: The War
  The stormlords only grasp the terms of the contest in a vague, intuitive way,
  but they understand in their hearts that only one of them can survive – the
  ancient magic of Sessinek draws them towards an inevitable collision, and all
  make plans for war even if they don’t consciously apprehend why. This
  campaign front deals with the primary clashes in this conflict and how they
  affect the valley.
  THE BEAST, THE FALLEN SON
  Divine, Forceful, Large, Planar, Solitary
  Thrashing Appendages (d10+5 damage, 3 piercing, Close, Reach);
  22 HP, 3 armour (divine resilience)
  Special Quality: Demigod
  Arboreus, twisted and ruined, known as the Fallen Son in prophecy. He is a
  towering figure even in this low state, horned and hairy and dressed in rags
  but still possessed of a divine presence that commands respect. The wildstorms
  of the Wildlands rise and fall in line with his mood swings, and that command
  over the elements in combination with his divine nature is enough to make
  him a metaphysical contender for the power of Sessinek. He retains only a
  fraction of his previous intelligence and mostly responds to the guidance of his
  priests – most of them fool themselves that they are doing as he wills, but a few
  are well aware of the real power dynamic and use the Beast to advance their
  own agendas as often as they think they can get away with it.
  Instinct: To give in to every urge, no matter how fleeting.
  • Tear down a building, monument, or other man­made structure.
  • Speak for a moment with divine insight and lucidity.
  When shown evidence of who you used to be, pause for a moment in confusion.
  When shown evidence of who you used to be again, lash out like a pained animal.
  When your priests ask for guidance, act at random.
  
  37
  COBALT, THE DRAGON
  Cautious, Hoarder, Intelligent, Large, Magical, Solitary, Terrifying
  Claws and Teeth (b[2d10]+3 damage, 3 piercing, Close, Reach);
  Lightning Breath (Near); 16 HP, 3 armour (draconic scales)
  Special Qualities: Storm­blooded, Wings
  Young by draconic standards – merely the size of a small cottage, plus wings
  and tail – Cobalt is still a force to be reckoned with. She is a royal blue in shade,
  lightning dances at her command, and her affinity with the element of air
  makes her a swift and manoeuvrable flier. As if her simple physical power
  wasn’t enough, she is also possessed of a keen intellect and the ability to scry
  across the valley by sending her senses riding on the winds. Of all the
  stormlords, she is the single most powerful, but she is by no means rash
  enough to throw herself into battle with unknown forces when she can recruit
  minions to endanger themselves on her behalf.
  Instinct: To rule.
  • Bend the storm to your will.
  •
  Observe events at a distance, if they
  are visible to the open sky.
  • Enact a contingency plan.
  When you have enemies, find their
  weaknesses and attack them
  without mercy.
  When someone approaches you
  with the proper respect and
  ceremony, give them a
  moment of your time.
  When someone tries to take
  something that belongs to
  you, destroy them in every
  particular.
  
  38
  COBALT’S OFFSPRING
  Cautious, Hoarder, Intelligent, Solitary
  (Some are also Small)
  Claws and Teeth (d10 damage, messy, 1 piercing, Close);
  12 HP, 3 armour (draconic scales)
  Special Qualities: Storm­blooded, Wings
  Cobalt has a handful of children who are her chief enforcers. They range in size
  from a large dog up to a large horse, and have inherited a measure of their
  mother’s incisive mind and command of the storms. Even young as they are,
  their rending claws and lightning breath make them more than a match for
  most enemies.
  Cobalt watches her children with exceeding care, as she believes that even with
  the plague of storms ongoing they are the biggest threats to her dominion.
  Instinct: To grow in power.
  • Enact the will of Cobalt.
  • Create a secret power base of your own.
  • Betray someone for personal gain.
  When travelling away from Port Landing, always have a band of enforcers or
  other allies nearby.
  When mother might be watching, do exactly as she instructs.
  When mother cannot be watching, look out for number one.
  
  39
  SARLAT THE ALCHEMIST
  Devious, Intelligent, Magical, Solitary
  Staff (w[2d8] damage, Close); 12 HP, 1 armour (scales)
  Special Quality: Slightly draconic
  Chief among Cobalt’s servants is Sarlat, the alchemist who developed the
  potion which transforms regular bruisers into her enforcers. He learned the
  basics of dragon synthesis – incorporating draconic traits into non­draconic
  creatures – long ago and has been experimenting on himself and others ever
  since. Cobalt and her children offer an extensive supply of cast­off dragon
  pieces for his work, and livewood from the Wildlands (see page 114) offers
  even more opportunity for him to further his studies – but Sarlat is as self­
  interested as they come, and would abandon his current patron in a heartbeat
  if continuing to follow her looked likely to get him killed.
  Sarlat wears heavy carmine robes at all times, countless internal pockets
  holding the potions and reagents with which he conducts his experiments, the
  hood pulled up to cast his face into shadow. He supplements this with soft
  leather boots and long gloves, hiding every inch of his body from view – as
  well he might, because decades of experimenting on himself has left him with a
  freakish, semi­reptilian face and fine golden scales covering his hairless body.
  Instinct: To become something new.
  • Transform something with a magical potion or unguent.
  • Gather reagents from a magical creature or place.
  • Poison someone.
  When threatened, cave in… but never forget.
  When asked about your research, play it very coy unless you know they’re okay
  with human experimentation.
  Whenever you’re in public or have company, take care not to let your transformed
  state show.
  
  40
  ENKIL, THE MERCHANT
  Cautious, Devious, Hoarder, Intelligent, Large, Planar, Solitary
  Glimmerdance (d10+1 damage, Close, Reach); 16 HP, 1 armour (shield)
  Special Quality: Air­walking
  Although he is known in prophecy as ‘the Merchant’, Enkil Cloudgather is far
  more than a simple coin­counter. He is of some mongrel planar race, standing
  nine feet tall with pale blue skin and stark white hair. He sports a slender beard
  and immaculate hair, wearing loose tunics and trousers over his capacious form
  with plentiful gold jewellery around his wrists, fingers, and neck. He can walk
  on the air and clap like thunder, and his jewelled scimitar can leave his hand to
  fight on its own. He is also spectacularly wealthy, and has come to the clash of
  stormlords backed by a rag­tag army of adventurers and other mercenaries –
  short on discipline and co­operation but individually potent.
  Of all the stormlords, Enkil is the only one with a decent understanding of what
  is going on at the campaign’s start thanks to his contacts on other planes. He
  knows the other stormlords must die in order for him to become ascendant so he
  opens proceedings with sudden attacks on anyone who
  seems likely to be a stormlord, and negotiations
  with anyone who might ally with him.
  Instinct: To get what he wants, however he can.
  • Casually swat aside a
  challenge which is
  beneath you.
  • Corrupt someone
  through greed.
  • Display the dazzling
  wealth of the planes.
  When you think they’re a stormlord, take their
  measure and order the attack.
  When entertaining guests, be the soul of
  generosity and genial good humour.
  When negotiating, be bemused by anyone who
  can’t be bought with your vast wealth.
  
  41
  ANA
  Forceful, Huge, Intelligent, Magical, Organised, Solitary
  Massive Strength (d10+2 damage, Close); 12 HP, 1 armour (leather and furs)
  Taller than her boss by a considerable margin, the giantess Ana is the one
  tasked with trying to organise Enkil’s motley collection of wandering
  murderers for hire into something resembling an army. Like Enkil, she is not
  native to this plane, but the spirits of earth and stone move at her command
  here just as they did in her home.
  Ana is a slow but thorough
  thinker, excelling in long­term plans
  and strategy. Characters seeing a giant
  and expecting another cow­hurling
  brute may not live to regret
  underestimating her. However, despite
  her many years of loyal service she
  considers her current role in Enkil’s
  organisation to be a poison chalice and
  may resign from his service if properly
  persuaded or compensated.
  
  42
  Instinct: To look after her own prosperity.
  • Display her giantish strength.
  • Command earth and stone to shape itself as she wills.
  • Command the troops.
  When dealing with your subordinates, tolerate no disrespect or rebellion.
  When offered a new job, consider the offer seriously.
  When life gives you lemons, roll your eyes and deal with it.
  GLIMMERDANCE, ENKIL S SCIMITAR
  Close, 3 weight
  Massive, heavy, and not intended for wielding by human­sized creatures, Glimmerdance is a
  huge scimitar with a gleaming, reflective blade and a jewel­encrusted hilt. Although it requires
  two hands for a human­sized person to lift – and even then gains the awkward tag –
  Glimmerdance can be released to fight on its own for a time with minimal guidance from its
  owner.
  When you release Glimmerdance to fight on its own, roll +Str. On a 10+ hold three, on a 7­9
  hold two, and on a miss hold 1 – although the GM can still make a move against you if you
  miss. Spend hold one­for­one during the present scene for the following benefits:
  •
  Glimmerdance attacks. Deal your damage to a target enemy.
  •
  Glimmerdance defends. Halve the effects or damage of an attack if it is in position
  to interpose itself.
  •
  Glimmerdance distracts. You or another ally takes +1 forward against the sword’s
  target.
  When the hold is exhausted, Glimmerdance returns to your hand if you are close to it or falls
  to the floor otherwise. It must recharge for five minutes before it can fight by itself once again.
  
  43
  LEE, THE MASTER
  Cautious, Forceful, Intelligent, Organised, Solitary
  Martial Arts (b[2d10]+2 damage, 1 piercing, Hand);
  16 HP, 2 armour (hard as nails)
  Special Quality: Cold­hardened
  Lee – known to almost everyone as Master Lee despite his rejection of society
  and the titles that go along with it – is an aging orc who long ago exhausted his
  tolerance for people and retired to the top of Thunder Peak to hone his
  expertise in the arts of war. And yet, to his disgust, people brave the mountain,
  the storms, and his well­known foul temper in order to challenge him or, more
  and more often, to learn at his feet. He hates company, but over the years he
  has found he hates being lonely more – and besides, he wants disciples to
  continue his teachings after he has gone.
  Prospective students
  of Lee’s are tested in
  combat, both
  unarmed and with a
  variety of weapons,
  must endure his
  caustic personality
  long enough for him
  to warm to them,
  and will find
  themselves doing
  menial tasks for
  months before he
  deigns to begin
  teaching them martial
  arts. Every student is free to
  leave whenever they want,
  although quitters are not welcomed
  back. If they can persevere, the
  students will learn Lee’s ‘Three
  Storms’ style, which harnesses the
  power of rolling thunder and frigid air
  to turn the fighter into the heart of a
  deadly snowstorm.
  
  44
  Of the six stormlords Lee is the least prepared for what is about to happen. He
  has no army, only a handful of disciples, and his isolation from the valley both
  keeps him unaware of developing events and makes him an easy target for the
  first other stormlord who decides to move against him.
  Master Lee can grant access to the Three Storms Disciple compendium class
  (see page 130).
  Instinct: To reject civilisation and live alone.
  • Perform an amazing wuxia martial arts feat.
  • Allow the disciples to handle something, while you watch and assess.
  When people ask for help, tell them you’ve rejected the world and turn them away.
  When challenged, let your disciples handle it.
  When finally roused to action, be a near­elemental force of destruction.
  LEE’S DISCIPLES
  Group, Intelligent
  Martila Arts (d8 damage, 1 piercing, Hand); 6 HP, 0 armour
  Special Quality: Cold­hardened
  Master Lee takes disciples from any race or creed, caring only that they are
  willing to learn from him and that they possess the raw talent and
  determination that will allow them to survive the learning process. Their
  martial skills and approaches vary, but any the player characters are likely to
  fight will be able to use one or more mystic techniques.
  Instinct: To achieve mastery.
  • Perform a martial arts feat.
  • Unleash the power of one of the Three Storms.
  Leave someone burdened and soaking wet.
  Freeze something.
  Make a deafening noise.
  When Master Lee commands, obey.
  When you think you can get away with it, slack off.
  When challenged, answer the call!
  
  45
  LORD HARN, THE DRUMMER
  Devious, Hoarder, Intelligent, Large, Magical, Solitary
  Dancing Chains (d8+1 damage, Close, Reach); 16 HP, 0 armour
  A strange creature from a distant land, Lord Harn resembles an ogre in general
  size and shape although he stands straighter and his features are somewhat
  more refined. His skin is a deep midnight blue – a sign of prestige and power
  among his kind – and he festoons himself with fine clothes and jewellery. The
  capacious sleeves of his robes hide long chains, which lash out at his mental
  command, and he practises a strange magic of percussion and dancing that
  ripples out to change the world around him.
  Harn is wealthy – he is a conquering warlord in his homeland – but unlike
  Enkil he prefers to spend his money on creature comforts and flashy, exotic
  magic. His strange­looking castle stalks the valley on eleven stone legs splayed
  out from its base like a spider, and is a world of scintillating wonders within.
  Its inhabitants’ needs are seen to by halfling­sized storm spirits which zip back
  and forth filling the role of servants and, if necessary, defenders.
  Harn has not brought much of his military might to the valley, but his magical
  wealth is great – he plans to turn foes into allies through a mixture of bribery
  and beguilement.
  Instinct: To turn enemies against themselves.
  • Present a gift with a hidden drawback.
  • Cast a spell through a symbolic performance.
  • Entangle someone with living chains.
  When meeting new people, grin like a shark and wonder what they taste like.
  When you see a weakness, exploit it.
  When thwarted, congratulate your opponent on a cunning stratagem and make
  their life a living hell from now on.
  
  46
  LESSER ORIN
  Group, Intelligent, Large
  Massive Iron Clubs (d8+1 damage, Close, Reach);
  10 HP, 1 armour (ceremonial leather)
  The lesser creatures of Harn’s kind that loiter around his walking castle all
  have skin the colour of ripe tomatoes, shading towards purple on the senior
  legbreakers who keep the others in line. They resemble ogres more than Harn
  does, as their status is too low to begin the transformation into something more
  civil, but their clubs are made of iron, intricately engraved with scenes from
  myth and legend, and they possess a strange ability to go overlooked despite
  their crimson skin and hulking size.
  Instinct: To ascend the ranks of orin.
  When challenged to a contest of strength, accept!
  When it looks like you might not win, cheat!
  When not otherwise occupied, wrestle!
  • Blend improbably with the scenery.
  • Finish off a wounded comrade and
  devour their strength.
  
  47
  MARIE, THE MAGE
  Divine, Intelligent, Magical, Organised, Solitary
  Shadow Bolt (d10 damage, ignores armour, Near); 14 HP, 0 armour
  Special Quality: Divine blood
  Somewhere several generations back, one of Marie’s ancestors bore the child of
  a sky god. Ever since, the bloodline has been blessed with command over the
  weather, diminishing slightly with each generation but still potent enough in
  Marie for her to call lightning from thunderheads and commune with the
  elementals of cloud and storm if she puts her mind to it.
  However, Marie never really focused on developing her innate powers. She
  prefers necromancy – a field in which she shows remarkable promise. She’s a
  Redwater valley local, and lives in a bleak, windowless tower on a rise above a
  small town. She takes the town’s dead for her experiments, and in return keeps
  them safe from banditry and other raiding with her magical powers and
  shambling undead servants.
  Marie has also developed the art of creating shadows of people – copying some
  aspect of their nature and creating a quasi­clone focused around that particular
  facet of their personality – which she has used several times on herself to create
  assistants around the tower. These clones are not flesh and blood – although
  they often appear to be – and are instead made up of shadow­stuff given life
  and form by Marie’s magic. Although under the control of the original,
  shadow clones often display a nasty streak when left to their own devices,
  suggesting unpleasant things about their true nature.
  Marie’s existing shadow clones are The Jailer, The Lady, and The Alchemist.
  Instinct: To learn that which should never be learned.
  • Cast a necromantic spell.
  • With effort, control the weather.
  • Suddenly, zombies!
  When someone shows an interest in necromancy, wax lyrical about the ways in
  which you’re pushing the boundaries of the art.
  When someone brings up your divine heritage, change the subject.
  When the stakes are raised, get deadly serious.
  
  48
  STAKES
  Pick three based on the players’ favourite stormlords.
  • (The Beast) Can anything stop the spread of the Wildlands? How do
  you fight an entire jungle?
  • (Cobalt) Will Cobalt conquer the entire valley?
  • (Enkil) Can Ana be trusted?
  • (Lee) What is Lee hiding from, up on that mountain?
  • (Harn) What doom has followed the orin from their distant homeland
  to the Redwater valley?
  • (Marie) What will happen to a shadow clone of someone when the
  original dies?
  DANGERS
  THE WILDLANDS
  Use the moves for a Cursed Place: Shadowland
  Impulse: To corrupt or consume the living.
  The armies of the Wildlands come boiling into the valley, a mixture of animal­
  human hybrid wildlanders and whatever strange monsters and blasphemous
  unliving things they can drive before them, spearheaded by their warped god.
  With the Brown Ring scattered and divided against itself there is nothing to
  hold them back – except perhaps the player characters.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • Wildland raids increase in frequency.
  • Villagers near the border turn to dark patrons and forbidden magic.
  • Nowhere in the valley is safe.
  • The valley is completely overrun.
  Impending Doom: Rampant Chaos – The Wildlands is change given life, and
  antithetical to order.
  
  49
  LOCAL GIRL
  Arcane Enemy: Power­Mad Wizard
  Impulse: To seek magical power.
  Marie is honestly not very interested in the whole ‘stormlord’ thing, but she’s
  going to need something to defend herself from the coming chaos. That
  something might be an army of the undead, a powerful ritual, transformation
  into a lich, the embracing of her divine nature, or whatever you and your
  group come up with – but whatever it is, it’s going to make ripples all across
  the valley.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • Marie sends a shadow clone to a location of secret knowledge.
  • Marie’s magical meddling unleashes a great evil.
  • Marie achieves some kind of transcendence, at a great price – that
  may or may not be paid by her.
  Impending Doom: Pestilence The default cost of Marie’s final transformation
  is a plague of living dead or some sort of terrible curse on the valley, although
  it really could be anything.
  COBALT S EMPIRE
  Use the moves for an Ambitious Organisation: Religious Organisation
  Impulse: To establish and follow doctrine.
  Even if she wasn’t a contender in a battle for a concentrated dose of demonic
  might, Cobalt would remain an ambitious and cunning leader with dreams of
  an empire serving her every whim. With chaos descending on the valley, the
  relative safety of Cobalt’s tender mercies and the anarchy of Port Landing are
  seeming more and more attractive.
  GRIM PORTENTS
  • Port Landing swells with refugees.
  • Cobalt’s armies start seizing territory.
  • Cobalt and/or her children destroy something significant.
  • Cobalt dominates the valley.
  Impending Doom: Tyranny – Total control is all Cobalt wants, really. Is that
  so much to ask?
  
  50
  Dungeons
  There follow half a dozen small dungeons for Plague of Storms, although
  they’re easily transferable to other settings with minimal effort.
  The Hidden Library
  The Hidden Library of the Watchers was kept in good repair by Sheva (see
  page 12) until a couple of decades ago when she was ejected from it by
  members of the Unspeakable Cult (see page 106) seeking occult knowledge
  regarding their worm­god. Now only a single cannibal priest remains in the
  library, together with the animated skeletons of her former victims and some
  worm­like servitors of her god. There still remains a little bit of treasure in this
  old library, but the real prize is the archive of prophecy – or at least, what parts
  of it that the Unspeakable Cult haven’t carried off.
  The library is carved out of the earth of the hillside, with the tunnels and rooms
  framed in timber then plastered over to give the impression of a normal – if
  windowless – room while underground. It was a pleasant fiction when it was
  first constructed but Sheva’s blindness meant she was unable to maintain it
  properly, and 20­odd years of total neglect at the hands of the Unspeakable Cult
  have left the plaster cracked and weeping where moisture from the ground has
  soaked through. The timber is splitting in places, damage from burrowing
  worms and insects is everywhere, and the whole place stinks of rot and mildew.
  
  51
  H1
  H2
  H4
  H5
  H3
  H6
  H7
  H9
  H8
  The Hidden Library
  The library is almost entirely unlit: neither Sralca, the worms, nor the skeletons
  need light to see. However, Sralca needs light to read so she keeps an oil lantern
  and a large stock of candles in her nest (see H7).
  
  52
  OPTIONAL COMPLICATIONS
  •
  Marie (see page 47) could be interested in the contents of the library herself. She
  could easily be an ally or an enemy depending on the circumstances.
  •
  A party of dwarven justicars might try to claim the contents of the library “for the
  good of the entire valley” on their way back to Riverwatch Hold.
  •
  What if the Unspeakable Cult decide that now is the time to re­occupy the library?
  The characters may have to win their way free past unspeakable reinforcements.
  H1. OUTSIDE
  The entrance to the Hidden Library is concealed in the side of a hillock, behind
  an overgrown bush and a large boulder. The terrain is wooded, home to many
  kinds of animal, and littered with traps and snares set by Sralca intended to
  catch her fresh meat on a regular basis.
  H2. ENTRANCE CHAMBER
  A short but twisting tunnel leads to a wooden door showing obvious signs of
  having been broken in at some point in the past. Whenever Sralca is inside the
  library she shoves a table behind the door to act as a crude barricade – it won’t
  keep anyone out, but the scraping of its legs across the flagstone floor serves as
  a warning to the skeletons in H4.
  Beyond the door is a plain entrance chamber: there is a rack for hanging cloaks,
  some shelves for shoes, wooden chairs and benches for waiting on, all choked
  with 20 years of cobwebs and dust. The walls were once painted white, but are
  now stained by damp and worms. Over the middle door can just about be seen
  the eye­and­lantern motif of the Watchers For The End.
  In front of the middle door a heavy rug covers a worm tunnel , forming a
  crude pit trap. Anyone walking on the rug is going to end up as a rug­
  wrapped parcel delivered down a steep and bumpy slope to the worms in H3.
  H3. WORM TUNNELS
  When the Unspeakable Cult first came here they brought with them a
  tunnelling worm that dug out these three large tunnels. The tunnelling worm
  departed with the other cultists, but its smaller offspring are still maturing in
  this chamber. Their tunnelling has left the ground uneven and unstable, and
  turned the original three­way junction into a nest of much smaller tunnels.
  Apart from the worms, the only thing of interest down here is the body of a
  local man who discovered the entrance, decided he would make the transition
  
  53
  from ‘woodcutter’ to ‘adventurer’, and fell victim to the covered pit in H2, all
  in the space of about fifteen minutes. The worms have nibbled his body a little
  but not consumed him entirely yet.
  H4. GUEST QUARTERS
  This dormitory is where the Watchers would put up any visitors they had.
  Now Sralca uses it as a storehouse for the skeletons she animates after picking
  the meat off them – examination of any of them clearly shows the marks of
  gnawing on their bones. The skeletons are under orders from Sralca to slay any
  intruders and otherwise lie still, so that is what they do: lie in repose, some on
  the beds and some on the floor, until roused by the sounds of intrusion.
  In the corner some old, discarded food has become a colony of black mould – if
  disturbed, such as by the bouncing bones of a shattered skeleton, it ejects a
  great gout of blinding, choking spores. Naturally, the skeletons aren’t affected
  by this in the slightest.
  H5. READING ROOM
  When visitors wished to peruse the books of the archive they were brought to
  this room and a member of the Watchers would fetch the book or scroll they
  desired to see. Now it is dark and empty, the desks and chairs riddled with
  woodworm and spiders.
  TUNNEL­WORM YOUNG
  Horde, Small, Stealthy
  Hungry Maws (d6 damage, Hand); 3 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Blind, Tremorsense
  Oversized tapeworms living in the guts of the earth. Ew.
  Instinct: To undermine.
  • Get inside a backpack or clothing.
  • Appear from a tunnel or hiding place.
  When on the ground, dig.
  When food presents itself, eat.
  When attacked with fire, flee – for now.
  
  54
  H6. ARCHIVE
  The door to this room used to be locked at all times with a puzzle that only
  members of the Watchers should be able to answer – but the Unspeakable Cult
  smashed it down decades ago. The shelves within used to be laden with books
  and scrolls of prophecy, and commentary thereon by members of the order,
  organised to a scheme that, once again, only members of the Watchers would
  be able to understand. Now, the papers are scattered across the room, many
  incorporated into the spherical nests of fist­sized spiders. The tomes lie
  wherever they fell as the cultists finished leafing through them, some intact,
  some with pages removed, some defaced or burned.
  The contents of this room, suitably rescued, constitute half of the archive that
  the player characters might be looking for (if Sheva sent them). The other half
  can be assembled from the pieces in H7.
  H7. WATCHER QUARTERS
  When this was a functional library and base of operations for the Watchers,
  this was where the librarian and any permanent staff would stay. The walls
  were painted with elaborate scenes of the world above to help the humans who
  stayed here adjust to living underground, but now the paint is discoloured and
  cracked, stained with blood and other less identifiable substances. The old
  bedding and furniture has been shattered and reconstructed into a haphazard
  nest, in which Sralca lurks between meals, reading books of prophecy by
  candlelight and scratching annotations in the margins in a language she
  doesn’t understand.
  THE ARCHIVE COMPLETE
  If Sheva sent the characters – or if they meet her later and hand over the archive – then she
  becomes their ‘interface’ with the prophecies, able to tell them where to find what they need to
  know, or offer suggestions about what to do next.
  If the characters are working independently, on the other hand, consulting the archive
  becomes a matter for the following move:
  The first time you search the archive of the Hidden Library for a prophecy relevant to your
  current aims, roll +Int. (Take ­1 if you only have half the archive available.) On a 10+ you will
  learn a course of action that might work out well for you. The GM will tell you what. On a 7­9
  you learn of a person or document who can give you the guidance you seek.
  Note to the GM: The course of action the characters find is not required to be easy, simple, or risk­free –
  but if they successfully overcome its challenges it should take them a concrete step towards their
  objective. Of course, if you’re feeling generous or at a loose end you always have the option of just
  throwing them a bone.
  
  55
  SRALCA
  Intelligent, Stealthy, Solitary, Terrifying
  Savage Bite (d10 damage, Hand); 16 HP, 0 armour
  Special Quality: Monstrous ghoul
  A bent, emaciated woman with talon­like fingernails and a mouth full of razor
  sharp teeth meant for slicing flesh from bone. Her eyes glow a dull red from
  behind a curtain of lank, black hair. There is no way she could be mistaken for
  human. When not actively engaged in conversation she murmurs arcane
  fragments in the wordless language of the worms, although she is unaware of
  this habit.
  Instinct: To feed.
  • Bite down, and don’t let go.
  • Scuttle across walls and ceilings like a spider.
  When not engaged in conversation, ceaselessly mutter in a disturbing non­
  language.
  When enemies invade your home, lay traps for them.
  When outnumbered and undetected, wait for an opportunity to pick off one or two
  on their own.
  Sralca also uses these quarters as a larder when she captures live prey – one of
  the rooms has a working lock, and Sralca wears the key around her neck. When
  the player characters arrive the larder houses Griff Kenton, a farmer who came
  to investigate the lights his son saw in the forest and wandered straight into one
  of Sralca’s bear traps. The wound in his leg is infected, leaving him feverish and
  unable to walk, but he will beg to be rescued if anyone finds him.
  If this room is properly searched the player characters will be able to assemble
  half the archive that they might be looking for. The other half is in H6.
  H8. CISTERN
  This cavern contains a natural pool of water, shallow at the near edge but
  falling rapidly away into a subterranean abyss of unknown depth. The walls
  are damp to the touch and dotted with mould, and the shore is host to a
  variety of fungi, but the water itself is clean and drinkable.
  
  56
  H9. THEATRE
  This was where the Watchers would gather to discuss prophecy and brief
  members before sending them to avert disaster. Now, like the rest of the
  library, it lies in a state of decay. The once­great tapestries are riddled with
  mould, the chairs weakened by woodworm, and the displays of important
  artefacts long since looted by the Unspeakable Cult. The only worthwhile thing
  which remains here is the large bronze disc – far too large to fit through the
  door – which forms the top of the round table in the centre of the room.
  Charging it with magic or blood (1 HP worth) causes its surface to light up
  with arcane runes, and it projects an illusory view of the valley with potential
  disasters picked out by floating red pinpoints of light. By tracing different
  runes on the disc while it is active, the view can be changed, enhanced, and
  filtered – but the secrets of exactly which runes do what are lost. If the players
  are interested in learning more, the records of the Twilight Stronghold or the
  stone
  library
  of
  Riverwatch
  Hold
  could
  contain
  more
  information
  or
  instructions for the table’s use.
  
  57
  The Twilight Stronghold
  When the ancient empire fell, the Watchers in this keep chose to weave a
  powerful spell over themselves that would leave them sealed in a protective
  bubble of null time until the fighting was over. Unfortunately the spell went
  wrong. Time and space shattered, leaving the keep and its immediate
  surroundings a strange and haunted place plagued by ghostly images from
  past and future. The fracturing of time also attracted strange creatures which
  call themselves arachrons; made of and feeding on unstable time, the arachrons
  are drawn to this kind of temporal mess and see hunting interlopers as a
  welcome diversion.
  There are five time periods attempting to overlap in and around the
  stronghold, taking the form of mobile spatial distortions – ‘bubbles’ containing
  visions of the time period they hold – and when within the area of a distortion
  the stronghold appears as it would in that time period:
  • The present, in which the stronghold is nothing but ruins.
  • The time of the great ritual, just before it went wrong. If the characters
  are looking for the secrets of the Watchers, this is the time they want.
  • A potential future where the valley has flooded and the stronghold is
  under about fifty feet of water – this is shallow enough for light and
  warmth, but characters need to hold their breath. If you find yourself
  tempted to worry about water pressure, don’t.
  • A different potential future in which the demons from the Benighted
  Sea have invaded en masse and made the valley their home. They
  have turned the stronghold into a demon­keep from where they
  practice their time­magic in an attempt to return to the present and
  ensure their own triumph.
  • A ruined city of yellow stone, lit by a sourceless light, whose distant
  sky is an endless whirl of sand. This strange place has few inhabitants,
  and the player characters will meet only one in the scope of this
  adventure: a nearly­naked goblin named Ubar and his pet snake. The
  goblin claims in the most ostentatious, egotistical manner possible to
  be a dead god looking for his ticket back to life – but (naturally) his
  divine powers don’t work in this place so he can’t prove it.
  As well as showing visions, the bubbles can be travelled through with an act of
  will: while standing within one you effectively exist in both times at once, and can
  choose which one to exit the bubble into as you pass through the bubble’s ‘surface’.
  
  58
  In its original state the stronghold was lit by magic lanterns hanging from the
  ceiling, shedding a constant soft light. In the present and the flooded future,
  those lanterns have long since broken or been stolen, leaving the ruins dark
  except where sunlight can penetrate. In the demonic future they have been
  replaced by skull­torches that burn with infernal flames.
  PREVENTING INCONVENIENT TIME TRAVEL
  By default, I assume that the broken time surrounding the keep only extends to a radius of
  about a mile – beyond that, people ‘snap’ back to their correct time if they happen to be
  venturing forth in the wrong era. Of course, their possessions remain with them rather than
  snapping back because… something something ‘inherent pattern’ something something
  ‘destiny’ something ‘magic’.
  However, if your players want to become pirates on the seas of a flooded valley (or freedom
  fighters in a demonic future, or legendary heroes in a war a century past, or…) that’s cool too!
  It’s just not the sort of cool that’s supported by the rest of this product.
  The Twilight
  Stronghold
  S1
  S2
  S3
  S4
  S5
  S6
  S7
  S9
  S8
  When you pass through a bubble to a new time period, the first person to enter rolls
  +nothing. On a miss the GM chooses one: either the bubble closes behind you and no one can
  follow, or you run into something nasty on the other side. On a hit you come through at a time
  when nothing threatening or dangerous is nearby. On a 10+ you find something interesting on
  the other side – the GM will tell you what.
  Bubbles large enough to pass through are one­way trips – characters must find another in
  order to get to a new time.
  
  59
  ARACHRONS
  Cautious, Group, Intelligent, Organised, Planar
  Swords and Spears, sometimes Beaks (d8 damage, 1 piercing, Hand, Close);
  6 HP, 2 armour (unusual metabolism, shield)
  Special Qualities: Spider­limbs for spider­climbing
  Physically, arachrons are an unholy collision of recognisable parts: their lower
  parts resemble a giant spider with eight segmented legs. Instead of a head the
  thorax melds into a human­like torso with two arms, but atop the shoulders is
  a crow’s feathered head with a serrated beak, sized up to match the torso. They
  are intelligent, and gifted linguists able to pick up a working knowledge of any
  language just by listening to others speak for a while, but their thought
  processes are alien and their behaviour often seems inexplicable to creatures
  constrained to the usual array of dimensions. Their fourth­dimensional
  thinking makes them dangerous in a fight, as they display the uncanny ability
  to predict where their opponent will be both while attacking and defending
  themselves. It’s not infallible, but it gives them an edge.
  Arachrons feed on time and, to a lesser degree, entropy. This collection mostly
  draw their sustenance from the slaves in the demonic future, slipping through
  to consume the youth of their defenceless victims before returning to a safer
  time period. However, they also enjoy chaos in the local vicinity as the entropy
  provides a welcome change of flavour.
  Instinct: To promote chaos.
  • Steal a year with a bite.
  • Summon a future or past version of yourself for assistance.
  • Know something about their past that you shouldn’t.
  When intruders arrive, hunt them.
  When hurt, retreat into another time.
  When one of them is isolated in time or space, that’s the time to strike.
  
  60
  S1. GUARD TOWERS
  The four solid towers at the corners of the keep once housed guards on the
  upper storeys – two to a tower – and military stores on the lower floors.
  In the present two of the towers have collapsed in on themselves but the other
  two remain standing, their upper storeys thick with cobwebs but largely intact.
  At the time of the ritual the towers are all standing and occupied. The guards
  are watchful, but with a potent ritual being enacted in the chambers below and
  bubbles of time floating around they're jumpy and easily distracted.
  In the flooded future the towers are two collapsed, two standing like in the
  present, but the standing ones are home to shoals of glowing fish that feed on
  the long­decaying enchantments of the stronghold.
  In the demonic future the towers have been rebuilt and populated with
  broken ones, tireless soldiers created from the twisted bodies of those the
  demons have tortured to death.
  In the city the towers don’t exist. Characters will fall to the street below, where
  Ubar will point at them and laugh.
  BROKEN ONES
  Horde, Terrifying
  Hand Weapons (d6 damage); 7 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Feels no pain – well, no further pain, Twisted corpse
  Some demons know the trick of binding a spirit to its body with pain, forcing
  the tortured soul to animate the broken corpse instead of passing on to its
  proper ending beyond Death’s gates. The resulting creatures are equipped
  with rudimentary weapons and thrown at the demon’s enemies en masse,
  screaming in piteous agony.
  Instinct: To keep intruders out of the stronghold.
  • Emit an agonised scream.
  When someone talks to you, beg for death.
  When a demon commands you, obey.
  
  61
  S2. DINING ROOM
  The dining room was once an impressive, vaulted space, hung with tapestries
  and richly appointed to impress guests. In the present the tapestries are heavy
  with dust and a colony of bats has replaced the magic lanterns among the roof
  beams. The fine silverware and other valuable decor has been spirited away by
  braver­than­average robbers over the years but the huge dining table remains.
  In the past the dining room is empty. The guards are on duty, the Watchers are
  conducting their ritual, and the servants are cowering in S3. Characters with an
  eye out for valuables can help themselves to the silverware (2 weight, worth
  500 coins if sold as silverware or 300 if melted down). Of course, characters
  UBAR
  Devious, Intelligent, Magical, Small, Solitary, Stealthy
  Knife (w[2d6] damage, Hand, Close); 12 HP, 0 armour
  Ubar is thin to the point of emaciation, although he isn’t starving – he’s just
  thin. Physically he is utterly puny, although surprisingly quick. He wears a
  ragged thong, an enchanted crocodile­skin cloak which protects him from fire,
  and nothing else. He has a spectacular knack for being present just as a
  character does something stupid or embarrassing, and never letting them forget it.
  He is a potent illusionist and capable summoner, although he doesn’t use his
  magic often; when he does he always uses it in oblique or unpredictable ways. No
  fireballs for Ubar when he can call an angry rhino into his enemies’ midst instead.
  Ubar has a large pet viper he calls Mr Hissy. Mr Hissy travels wrapped around
  Ubar’s upper arms or shoulders, and shows a surprising level of loyalty to his
  egotistical master.
  Instinct: To escape the city.
  • Witness something they’d prefer you hadn’t.
  • Shroud something dangerous in an innocent illusion.
  • Throw Mr Hissy at someone.
  When they threaten you, laugh at them – from a safe distance.
  When using your magic, do something they would never expect.
  When you’ve got dirt on someone, use it mercilessly.
  
  62
  carrying bags of jangling cutlery are setting themselves up perfectly for the GM
  to show a downside to their equipment.
  In the flooded future this room is pitch dark, the magic lanterns having long
  since failed. The tapestries float in the slow currents, threatening to entangle
  anyone who comes too close in their heavy folds.
  In the demonic future the dining room has been redecorated to better suit the
  whims of Oorlgat, the demonic ruler of the stronghold. The tapestries have been
  replaced by metal spikes where fresh meat might be impaled, and the dining
  table is now a sacrificial altar of onyx and iron. Oorlgat himself is often here,
  consuming some unfortunate slave or making an offering to his terrible gods.
  In the city this room is still a dining room, much smaller, lit by the same
  sourceless glow as the rest of the city. In one corner is a lifelike statue of a woman
  – actually the petrified victim of some monster – dressed as an adventurer, one
  arm in a sling and the other outstretched to point in shock at whatever just
  petrified her. Ubar uses her as a place to hang his spare thongs.
  OORLGAT
  Divine, Intelligent, Large, Planar, Solitary, Terrifying
  Rending Maw (d10+3 damage, 1 piercing, Close, Reach, Messy);
  18 HP, 2 armour (demonic vitality, fat rolls)
  Special Quality: Demon, Mouths everywhere
  A lumbering glutton and devout disciple of gods even more terrible than
  himself, Oorlgat is a demon who delights in grease and consumption. He
  wears a leather apron and little else, displaying his corpulent body for all to
  see. He has no visible mouth but can spontaneously open a fanged maw on
  any part of his body should he need to speak or devour.
  Instinct: To consume.
  • Swallow something whole.
  • Consume a spell or magical effect.
  When something piques your interest, take it.
  When someone steals from you, never forget and never forgive.
  When you're not doing anything else, eat.
  
  63
  S3. SERVANT QUARTERS
  Several bunk beds arranged in tight rows, with small lockboxes for the few
  valuables the servants were allowed to themselves. In the present the beds are
  mouldy and strung with cobwebs, the lockboxes cracked open like nuts and
  their contents spirited away. One remains unopened, however, a wisp of
  brightly coloured silk visible where it is trapped in the hinges. This is bait left
  by the arachrons, meant to lure treasure­seekers into the room where they can
  be assaulted and their years stolen away. Astute characters might notice (via
  discern realities or other moves) the way the box is free of cobwebs and dust – it
  contains only the scrap of silk used as bait for the ambush.
  In the past half a dozen servants cower here, hiding from the bubbles of time
  that float through the stronghold and trying to summon up the courage to run
  for freedom.
  In the flooded future the ceiling of this room has partially collapsed, allowing
  sunlight to lance in from above. A riot of colourful undersea growth crowds
  around the light, making a home for hundreds of tiny fish and one huge, foul­
  tempered moray eel.
  In the demonic future this is the slave quarters, where humans, dwarves and
  Wildlanders are kept chained in their own filth awaiting their consumption by
  Oorlgat or their transformation into broken ones. There are no beds, no lights,
  and the doors are kept securely locked and barred from the outside.
  In the city this room is where Ubar sleeps, in a nest made of cast­off rags. He’s
  cast illusions across the room to give it the appearance of a goblin cave and
  create a constant background sound of chatter in the goblin language. A
  fungus fire smoulders in the middle of the ‘cave’, which Ubar sometimes
  replaces with a real fire if he thinks people are getting a bit too confident about
  seeing through his tricks.
  S4. KITCHEN
  The oven in this kitchen is kept fired by a captive elemental, a tiny thing of fire
  and smoke that calls itself ‘Incineron’ and dreams of inferno and devastation
  from its foot­wide binding circle below the oven. In the past Incineron rests in
  its circle, its flame dim from a day of cooking, and contents itself with
  mumbling vague threats and igniting anything it can reach without moving.
  As an immortal creature, it still remains stuck beneath the oven in the present,
  
  64
  from where it demands in its screeching voice that any visitors free it,
  alternating between overblown threats and high­pitched wheedling more or
  less at random.
  In the flooded future Incineron has been extinguished by the weight of water.
  But in the demonic future he has been elevated to a position of power and
  infused with hellfire to supplement his natural flame – and he remembers how
  the characters treated him in the past.
  In the city there is no Incineron. Instead this area resembles a long­abandoned
  storefront. Standing behind the carved stone counter is a humanoid skeleton,
  some seven feet tall and burning with a blue­green flame. Apart from the fire
  the skeleton isn’t really dangerous and can be easily smashed; it can
  communicate in a throbbing baritone and offers to answer the characters’
  questions if they cross its palm with silver.
  S5. STORES
  Just a storeroom, plentifully equipped with boxes of dry goods, cloth, brooms
  and other equipment useful for the day­to­day running of a small keep. In all
  time periods it is infested by a strange breed of semi­aquatic rat – the creatures
  evolved in the distant future and have learned to use the time bubbles to
  insinuate themselves into all time periods.
  S6. NOBLE QUARTERS
  The top floor of the stronghold was once devoted to well­appointed rooms for
  the long­term members of the Watchers who stayed there to oversee the place.
  In the present the rooms are crumbling, the grand furniture long since stolen,
  shattered, or ruined by wildlife. Climbing plants have pulled apart the
  stonework and decorated the interior in a different way.
  When you pay the burning skeleton of the time­lost city, ask it a question and roll +coins
  spent (minimum 1 coin, maximum 3). On a 10+ the answer is accurate and complete. On a 7­9
  the answer is accurate but missing key details. On a miss the answer is accurate but reveals an
  unwelcome truth or betrayal.
  Example: Arn the paladin asks the skeleton “Where can I find my long­lost sister?” and rolls. On a 10+
  the skeleton intones “She rooms at the Three Sails Inn, in Port Landing.” On a 7­9 the skeleton might
  say “She is in Port Landing.” and encourage Arn to pay it again for a follow­up question. On a 6­ the
  skeleton might say “She lies in the arms of her lover – and yours – the notorious pirate­sorcerer
  Delphine Glimmershadow.”
  
  65
  In the past the rooms are in their prime, filled with fine furniture and the
  personal effects of the Watchers who are enacting the ritual in S8. 1d4 x 100 coins
  can be looted in easily portable jewellery, fine clothing, and arcane trinkets.
  In the flooded future these rooms have crumbled and washed away, leaving
  this section of the keep open to the wider ocean. What structure remains is
  encrusted with barnacles and undersea plants, home to more colourful fish but
  nothing of value.
  In the demonic future the noble quarters have been knocked together into a
  single grand chamber where Oorlgat (see page 62) occupies his time when he is
  not tormenting his food in S2 or researching temporal magic with Aria in S7.
  Oorlgat keeps little finery here – his aesthetic runs more to ‘brutal and
  practical’ – but a thorough search will turn up demonic trinkets and symbols
  worth 100 coins to someone with a pronounced interest in the fiendish, and a
  small vial of oil created from Oorlgat’s own oozings.
  INCINERON (DEMONIC FUTURE VERSION)
  Intelligent, Large, Planar, Solitary
  Flame Whip (d10+1 damage, ignores armour, Close, Reach); 20 HP, 0 armour
  Special Quality: Made of fire
  A towering creature of smoke and flame, Incineron maintains a roughly
  humanoid form out of long habit but can freely adjust its shape into almost
  anything of roughly the same volume – so long as it’s made of fire. As an
  immortal elemental creature trapped and used as a cooking implement for a
  hundred years, Incineron is both slightly unhinged and a fantastic chef. The
  infusion of hellfire that is responsible for its power level in the demonic future
  has done nothing for its mental stability.
  Instinct: To burn.
  • Ignite something flammable with a touch.
  • Brand someone as ‘despised of flame’.
  When you meet another cook, get passionate about flame­grilling.
  When bound, seek your freedom by any means.
  When freed, obey promises only as much as you feel like.
  
  66
  Unfortunately for thieves Oorlgat’s greed gives him a sympathetic link to his
  belongings, and he will come for them if they are stolen. He will even pursue
  them into other time periods if he must. (Although remember the default
  assumption that he returns to his own time if he has to travel more than a mile
  from the keep.)
  In the city this is a small but well­appointed apartment which Ubar claims as
  his home. He doesn’t sleep here, preferring instead to nap wherever he
  happens to get tired, and he has no belongings to keep here or decorate the
  place with, so it’s lacking everything that would make it an actual home – but
  Ubar claims it nonetheless.
  S7. ARCANE LIBRARY
  Shelves run floor to ceiling on all four walls of this room, and several
  armchairs once offered comfortable places to sit while you peruse your tome of
  choice. This is where the Watchers stored their library of prophecy and a great
  many arcane texts describing various spells to do with prophesying and
  influencing the future. In the present it’s almost all gone, spirited away by
  looters from the present or demons from the future; one chair remains, thick
  with dust and home to a single aggressive beetle the size of a man’s hand.
  In the past this room is a well­appointed mess – the Watchers have been
  searching with ever more haste for a potential solution to the war that is
  coming, and have left books and scrolls piled everywhere with no apparent
  order or meaning to their arrangement. If characters search this room for
  prophecy, see the boxed move opposite.
  OIL OF OORLGAT
  0 weight
  This brown oil, refined from the secretions that cover the demon Oorlgat, smells rather
  unpleasant. But when tipped over something plausibly food­like it awakens an unspeakable
  hunger in anyone who views the food in question. Victims know that this terrible hunger
  cannot be sated by eating anything other than the object of their obsession, although they may
  resort to other food in desperation if unable to consume their main desire.
  The hunger may also be banished by exhibiting enough willpower to abstain from all food for 24
  hours, at which point it diminishes to the normal hunger of someone who hasn’t eaten for a day.
  When you are exposed to the effects of Oil of Oorlgat, roll +Wis. On a 10+ hold three. On a 7­
  9 hold two. On a miss, hold one. Spend hold any time you see or smell food – or the food­like
  substance anointed with the oil – in order to not immediately gorge yourself on everything
  you can reach.
  
  67
  When you rummage quickly through the arcane library of the Twilight Stronghold, roll
  +Wis. On a 10+ choose two questions that the GM will tell you the answer to. On a 7­9 choose
  one. On a miss, you still get to choose one but just as you discover the answer you are
  interrupted by someone or something else. The GM will tell you who or what.
  •
  Who or what is behind the storms?
  •
  Who are the stormlords?
  •
  Where can I learn more?
  •
  What does this prophecy say about me?
  With enough time to study all the material present, characters can get the answers to all of the
  above questions – but attempting to study (or loot) the entire library takes a lot of time, and the
  GM should consider this a golden opportunity to make a move of their own.
  Note to the GM: The answers to the questions are, in order:
  •
  Sessinek, a demon lord of storm­wracked seas, has laid plans to re­embody his power in a
  worthy successor. While that contest is going on, the storms rage unchecked.
  •
  The prophecies call them the merchant, the master, the mage, the dragon, the drummer, and
  the fallen son ­ although missing elements allow for one or two more stormlords if you feel
  like creating your own or later revealing that one of the player characters is a stormlord
  after all. From context the dragon is obviously Cobalt and the fallen son something to do
  with the Wildlands. Characters local to the valley will be able to identify Marie as the mage
  and know stories of ‘the master of Thunder Peak’. The drummer and the merchant are
  visitors from distant lands, and so the characters are unlikely to know any further details
  without spout lore or further investigation.
  •
  The archive of the Hidden Library and the old records of the Riverwatch dwarves – this
  result also contains maps which indicate the location of both places.
  •
  This is an open­ended question for you to insert pointers that you want the characters to
  pick up on. Alternatively, you can ask the players what the prophecies say about their
  characters and use that as an indicator of what they want to see (and a potential road map
  for the campaign).
  Possible interrupters on a miss could be arachrons, demons from the future, a Watcher from the past
  come to fetch a tome vital to the ritual (which the PCs have just lost or destroyed, naturally), or a
  sudden time­shift. If you’re feeling gloriously stupid, a shark or other sea predator could swim through
  from the flooded future and cause havoc before suffocating.
  
  68
  ARIA
  Hoarder, Intelligent, Magical, Planar, Solitary, Terrifying
  Red­Hot Wires (d10 damage, messy, 2 piercing, Close, Reach, Near);
  12 HP, 1 armour (demonic toughness)
  Special Quality: Unsleeping, Warped­looking
  Aria is a humanoid demon, almost nine feet tall but spindle­thin so that she
  resembles a person distorted in curved glass. Her hair and skin are blank
  white, and she has eight yellow eyes that rise up her tall forehead in two
  columns of four each. Her delicate fingers are tipped with steel nails that carry
  razor edges and her lower jaw can split vertically to reveal a gaping maw lined
  with jagged teeth.
  Yet despite her physical weapons, Aria prefers to assault interlopers in her
  domain with magic: she commands fire and metal, and has some limited
  ability to bend time thanks to her studies of the temporal effects in the keep.
  Aria is rabidly territorial, permitting entry to ‘her’ library only with the proper
  rituals – even from Oorlgat, who is her ostensible superior – or she greets any
  newcomers with a slicing tangle of red­hot wires conjured by her magic. If she
  is appeased, she can be a fine and cultured hostess provided one appreciates
  the demonic equivalent of tea and cucumber sandwiches.
  Aria does not sleep.
  Instinct: To lash out at the unknown.
  • Dispense disturbing knowledge.
  • Stutter time.
  • Bind fire or metal to her will.
  When questioned about your research, make time to discuss the finer points of theory.
  When challenged in your domain, brook no insult or disrespect.
  When forced to leave your domain, do it only reluctantly and scurry back as soon
  as possible.
  
  69
  In the flooded future the library is pitch dark and filled with floating fragments
  of shattered shelving – it’s easy to get lost and disoriented amid the pieces.
  In the demonic future the library is in use as a library once again: many of the
  shelves are empty, and others are filled with strange demonic artefacts and
  various organs in jars of preservative chemicals. There is enough of the original
  library here – pillaged through occasional temporal jaunts – for characters to
  use the boxed move if they wish, but they will have to deal with Aria first.
  In the city this is a featureless room carved from raw stone. At the centre of it
  is an orrery of staggering intricacy, showing the relative movement of the
  planes, the planets within the planes, the moons around the planets… the thing
  is fractal in its complexity, revealing more detail the closer one studies it. Ubar
  doesn’t know what it is or what it’s for, but he knows it’s possible to become
  lost in contemplating it so he tries to avoid looking at it.
  S8. RITUAL CHAMBER
  Located on a natural convergence of ley lines, the ritual circle in this chamber is
  a focal point for arcane power. In the present the room is dusty and
  cobwebbed, lit by a soft purple glow from the amethyst­inlaid ritual circle in
  the floor. The semi­precious stones are held in place by the same magic they
  channel, making them difficult and dangerous to remove.
  In the past the room is much better­appointed, well­lit, and the walls hung
  with tapestries illustrating great triumphs of the Watchers over the forces of
  doom. It is also where the current Watchers of the keep are in the middle of
  their great ritual meant to seal the keep away from time until the brewing war
  has passed it by. There is one Watcher present for each player character, to a
  minimum of three, of a mixture of classes and races.
  When you prise the amethysts out of the ritual circle, roll +Dex. You will always gain a
  number of coins’ worth of amethysts equal to your die roll x 50. On a miss, you also take d10
  damage and an item of your equipment is ruined by the magical backlash (the GM will tell
  you what). On a 7­9 you can choose between the destruction of one of your items (GM’s
  choice) or the d10 damage. On a 10+ you leap clear before the energy blasts you.
  Once the magic has discharged, the remaining amethysts are ruined – and so is the ritual circle.
  
  70
  A Note for the GM: I’m leaving it deliberately uncertain as to whether the player
  characters’ interference here ruins the ritual and causes the fractured time effect, or
  whether the ritual was never going to work but the player characters have the potential
  to save the day and resolve the problem. Choose whichever outcome makes the most
  sense for your table.
  In the case of the ritual ‘never going to work’, possible culprits include: the arachrons
  or the future demons, both of whom have a vested interest in creating the fractured
  time effect; some sort of war­related complication local to that era, like an agent of one
  of the powers; or perhaps it was just a badly­designed ritual. Your group may well
  come up with other, better ideas.
  In the flooded future the ritual circle has eroded over time and the arcane
  energies which power it percolate slowly in the water, creating a strange
  purple fog lit from within by its own radiance. The fish which live here have
  mutated after exposure to the leaking magic: they are large and placid, brightly
  coloured like poison toads, and while there is no pattern or order to their
  colouration all exhibit bioluminescence to some degree. Most notably the
  school exhibits a collective mind of moderate intelligence. Should the PCs find
  some way of communicating with the fish they might find the school a useful
  ally: It has a good understanding of how the time bubbles work and through
  the sacrifice of a handful of members it knows a little about the other time
  periods as well.
  In the demonic future the ritual circle has been repaired (even if the player
  characters broke it in the present) using woven soul­stuff as magical conduits.
  The demons have used their arcane knowledge to amplify the power here even
  further – anyone can use the Wizard’s ritual move here – but the results of any
  ritual enacted are tainted with demonic essence, and even if it solves a short­
  term problem the eventual outcome will always incline the world towards evil.
  In the city the circle is a plain engraving in a flagstone floor. It does absolutely
  nothing, although Ubar will try to convince the player characters that if they
  perform some sort of embarrassing or humiliating act in the circle it will
  generate some sort of magical effect. He’ll use his illusions to spin this
  entertainment out as long as he can.
  
  71
  WATCHERS
  The Watchers tend to train their members to be omnicompetent – saving the
  world might at any moment be a matter of picking a lock, casting a spell, or
  chopping heads. Of course, every Watcher has their own personal preferences.
  Instinct: To prevent the fulfilment of dangerous prophecies.
  WARRIOR­TYPE
  Cautious, Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Assorted Weapons (d8 damage, Close); 6 HP, 2 armour (light armour and
  shield)
  • Get in one… last… thrust…
  • Take a hit meant for someone else.
  MAGE­TYPE
  Group, Intelligent, Magical
  Deadly Spells (d8 damage, Close, Near); 6 HP, 0 armour
  • Manipulate arcane ‘force’.
  • Launch a barrage of magic missiles.
  THIEF­TYPE
  Devious, Group, Intelligent, Stealthy
  Knives (d6 damage, Close); 6 HP, 0 armour
  • Attack someone who thought they were safe.
  • Vanish in the confusion.
  • …and later, it turns out you stole something important.
  CLERIC­TYPE
  Divine, Group, Intelligent, Magical
  Hefty Blunt Object (d8+2 damage, Close); 8 HP, 1 armour (light armour)
  • Call down holy fire.
  • Cast a spell which enhances an ally.
  
  72
  S9. DISCUSSION ROOMS
  These rooms are where the Watchers would gather to consult their books of
  prophecy and plan courses of action meant to prevent them from ever coming
  true. In the present the heavy tables have rotted, the chairs become infested
  with woodworm, and the decorations on the walls long­since faded or ruined
  by water damage. Anything of value has been spirited away well before the
  player characters arrive, although a mouldering corpse on the floor is all that’s
  left of a broken one (see page 60) that sought to escape the demonic future by
  travelling through a time bubble.
  Of course, in the past the rooms are in a much better state. There is still no
  monetary treasure here, but the paintings on the walls form both a record of
  the Watchers’ past successes and their plans for the immediate future – it is
  here that the player characters can learn what the Watchers are/were up to, if
  they kill or otherwise make enemies of the Watchers in S8.
  Note to the GM: If you want to introduce other Watcher plans that the player
  characters can chase down and enact or ruin according to their wont, here’s the place to
  do that.
  In the flooded future there is only one item of interest in these rooms: a
  woman’s corpse, armed and equipped as an adventurer, relatively fresh,
  floating in the darkness. She used to be part of the resistance in the demonic
  future – she hoped to use the broken time effect to get close enough to Oorlgat
  to stab him with a specially­crafted bane weapon, but slipped through into the
  flooded future by mistake and drowned. The dagger is still sheathed at her
  waist, the water around it noticeably colder than elsewhere in the room.
  DEMON-BANE DAGGER
  Hand, 1 weight
  At great cost, the priests of the resistance brought down an ice­shrouded angel and bound a
  small portion of its essence into this blade. It glows with a soft blue light and is always cold to
  the touch – but chilling drinks is the least of its powers. Any time a character uses the dagger
  to deal damage to a demon, they do the maximum amount of damage as determined by their
  damage die. (Armour protects against this damage normally.) Anyone handling the knife
  learns of its purpose and power.
  Unfortunately the knife bears some of the unbending nature of the angel it was split from: its
  bearer must defy danger in order to retreat from a chance to fight a demon (or many demons).
  After all, the knife doesn’t care who wields it – only that it must be wielded. Whoever happens
  to be holding it right now is just the latest disposable bearer.
  
  73
  In the demonic future these rooms have been turned into a prison and torture
  chamber. Oorlgat tries not to keep prisoners here for too long, since most
  choose to risk escape through a time bubble over the promise of of demonic
  interrogation, but it still sees semi­regular use.
  Note to the GM: A character who encounters something nasty while travelling through
  a time­bubble to the demonic future here should totally end up locked in a cage here.
  In the city these rooms are empty except for stone shelves covering the walls,
  the shelves lined with books and scrolls – but all the books and scrolls are part
  of the same stone­carving that made the shelves, painted with cunning skill to
  resemble the real thing. Ubar never bothers with these rooms any more, but if
  he catches word that the characters have been here he tells them that the books
  are full of arcane secrets and only open for the worthy.
  
  74
  Lord Harn s Gift
  Despite his physical power and small army of orins, Lord Harn is not one to
  make a direct attack when he can strike from an unexpected angle. Going
  through his collection of esoteric artefacts he found a drum with a powerful
  spirit bound to it – he struck a bargain with the spirit, promising it freedom if it
  served him, then left the drum poorly concealed near the village of Langton.
  Sure enough it was found and made its way into the hands of a lazy would­be
  bard called Castor, who quickly became enamoured of the drum’s ability to
  influence the minds of those who could hear it play and used his new powers
  to obtain the best the village could offer.
  It didn’t take long for Castor to be found out by the village elders, who were
  no fools, and they sent several strong men – ears blocked – to divest him of the
  drum. Castor avoided them and fled into the nearby woods, where he
  continued to play the drum at all hours of the day and night. Finally,
  weakened by continuous exposure to the drum’s sound, almost every youth in
  the village between the ages of 13 and 21 simultaneously left home to join
  Castor in the woods.
  The village elders naturally sent a posse to get the children back, only to find
  that Castor had tamed more than just their offspring: wild animals harried
  
  75
  them from all sides, and an impenetrable wall of thorns now blocked passage
  into the heart of the forest. They retreated in confusion, and thus the situation
  stands when the player characters arrive.
  The area within the wall of thorns is mostly dense woodland, with clearings as
  marked on the map. Because of the heavy canopy light is often dim during the
  day, but still easily bright enough to see by. Night is another matter altogether:
  what little light the stars manage to infiltrate past the storm clouds is totally
  blocked by the trees, plunging the whole place into darkness. The main bonfire
  at H3 is easily visible at this time, as are the smaller campfires in the various
  locations marked H2.
  GETTING IN
  There are several ways characters can bypass the wall of thorns. Flight is the
  simplest option, but not one all parties will have access to. Alternatively there
  is the fallen tree at H1, the risky leap at H4, the diplomatic approach, or the old
  adventurers’ standbys of violence and fire.
  DIPLOMACY
  Characters who approach under a flag of truce may be able to persuade Castor
  to open the wall of thorns and let them in with the usual parley move. Castor is
  especially vulnerable to seduction attempts (from men and women) so if the
  characters use something like that as leverage give them a +1 bonus. One of the
  dryads will act as Castor’s go­between, since he’s not stupid enough to come
  and meet the characters outside the wall. Any meeting will take place at the
  heart of his power – he has the dryads open a path through the thorn­wall to H5.
  VIOLENCE
  A character with a suitable weapon or tool can do their damage to the wall of
  thorns without needing to roll any sort of move, but the wall fights back: it
  does 1d4 damage for every attack as it lashes assailants with brambles. It takes
  30 HP of damage to hack a hole big enough for a human­sized character to
  squeeze through (taking another 1 damage from the grasping thorns) and by
  the time they get through to the other side one of the dryads and half a dozen
  dominated teenagers will be waiting for them with some pointed questions.
  
  76
  SUXAIBIT
  Devious, Intelligent, Magical, Organised, Solitary
  Psychic Assault (d8 damage, ignores armour, Close, Near); 16 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Intangible, Bound to the drum
  Suxaibit is a potent spirit that was long ago bound to an enchanted drum in
  order to limit and direct its power. At heart it is a thing of conformity and co­
  ordination, of groups acting as cohesive units and the submission of identity to
  the community as a whole. It can only exert its powers while the drum is being
  played, and as a further limit to its potency the drum must be played by
  someone free of magical compulsion. Suxaibit cannot just overwhelm someone’s
  mind and force them to play. Luckily, Castor is a callow youth and easily
  manipulated into drumming often enough to satisfy the spirit.
  Although bound to the drum Suxaibit can project its senses anywhere within
  about 100 yards whether or not the drum is playing. As a result it may be well­
  prepared for the player characters once Castor begins playing.
  Instinct: To unify.
  • Put an alien idea in their heads.
  • Take total control of an NPC.
  • Reveal that someone has been your tool all along.
  • Summon reinforcements from the local wildlife.
  When someone plays the drum, manifest as a subtle presence.
  When one of your tools tries to resist you, redouble your control.
  When freed from the drum, become something much greater.
  WHAT EXACTLY IS HARN S PLAN?
  Suxaibit, the spirit of the drum, has been tasked by Lord Harn to begin raising an army among
  the people of the valley. When the clash between the stormlords begins in earnest, Harn will
  use them as a secret weapon to assault and harass his foes.
  To this end, Suxaibit has been concentrating its conditioning on healthy young people who
  might make good warriors. The younger children can be raised in a warrior tradition or used
  as decoys, hostages, or assassins. Plus, their minds are weaker and so they are more
  easily controlled.
  
  77
  FIRE
  If the player characters set fire to the wall of thorns you’ve got two broad
  options: a) point out that living plants don’t burn well at all, especially with the
  constant rain, and they’ll need to think of something else; or b) tell them that
  the wall burns merrily – and so does that bush over there, and that grass, oh
  and look how the sparks are spreading to the nearby trees...
  It all depends on whether you want a more traditional adventure, or if you
  want the characters to be saving mind­controlled teenagers from a raging
  forest fire while a trio of dryads get really angry with them. Remember: show a
  downside to their class, race, or equipment is one of your moves, and I don’t think
  anyone’s going to complain if you handwave ‘that fire they started’ into their
  equipment list just this once.
  THE DRYADS
  There are three dryads (Dungeon World, page 269) under Suxaibit’s spell. Their plant nature
  resists the spirit’s mental control, so it’s only capable of influencing them rather than
  controlling them outright, but it has conditioned them to believe that Castor and the teenagers
  are their allies. The dryads spend most of their time merged with their trees at the locations
  marked on the map.
  Lord Harn s Gift
  G3
  G1
  G2
  G2
  G2
  G4
  G5
  G6
  
  78
  G1. FALLEN TREE
  A recent storm has knocked down a tree outside the wall of thorns, which has
  fallen against the wall, partially crushed it, and now makes a useful bridge for
  those outside to get in. Unfortunately the end of the tree on the inside of the
  wall is some 20 feet off the ground – the drop onto soft grass isn’t so bad, but
  it’s not a route suitable for a quick escape.
  In a couple of days the dryads and teenagers will co­operate to lower the tree
  to the ground and bring it entirely inside the wall of thorns, so the characters
  must act fast to take advantage of this entrance.
  G2. CAMPSITE CLEARINGS
  These large clearings are where the teenagers of Langton sleep, when they
  choose to sleep. Teenagers being what they are, there are always a few of the
  kids around and awake in these clearings no matter the time of day or night.
  If they spot the player characters they’re likely to be wary but not outright
  hostile, unless the characters have already attracted the attention of Suxaibit –
  at which point it will inspire the children to frothing frenzy and throw them
  at the characters in an effort to bury them under the weight of people they
  don’t want to fight.
  DOMINATED TEENAGER
  Horde, Intelligent, Organised
  Fists (d4 damage, Hand); 3 HP, 0 armour
  The teenagers of Langton are between the ages of 13 and 21, and most are
  physically fit from a healthy outdoor lifestyle. While serving Suxaibit all carry
  knives but most lack the will to use them against living victims, even with the
  spirit's powerful control. Should a fight break out Suxaibit uses the younger
  children to distract and confuse the characters while the older ones try to do
  them actual harm. There are 23 kids in total, and they could be encountered
  anywhere within the wall of thorns.
  Instinct: To obey Suxaibit. (Normally: To rebel.)
  • Reject perfectly good advice or instruction.
  • Keep them busy until reinforcements show up.
  
  79
  G3. CENTRAL CLEARING
  This huge central bonfire is where Castor ‘holds court’ and plays his drum. He
  tends to sleep until noon and start playing the drum around sundown, when the
  children of Langton come to play other instruments, dance around the fire, and
  become unknowingly subject to Suxaibit’s psychic conditioning. Once Castor
  starts playing the spirit encourages the children to shout for more until Castor is
  physically exhausted, all to extend the time it has available for conditioning.
  CASTOR
  Devious, Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Flailing (w[2d4] damage, Hand); 6 HP, 0 armour
  Since this drum came into his life, Castor’s been riding high! Sure, the woods
  are less comfortable than his parents’ cottage, but the drum fixes all that: his
  playing can call up prey animals to be slaughtered, bring all his friends (and
  their little brothers and sisters, but whatever) to hear him play, tame predators,
  and he’s even drummed up some dryads! And if anyone screws with him, a
  few beats of the drumstick and they’re his to control!
  Castor’s not a bad guy; he’s just shallow and looking for an easy life. He only
  directs the drum to take control of people when they’re opposing him directly,
  and even then doesn’t want to hurt anybody, just get them out of his way.
  Unfortunately Suxaibit shares none of his inhibitions or good nature.
  Instinct: To take the course of least resistance.
  • Play the drum.
  • Knock them flying with a burst of sound.
  • Draw their attention away from your friends.
  When approached by an attractive man or woman, ask them to join you.
  When offered an easy way to get what you want, convince yourself it’s okay to say yes.
  When threatened, start playing the drum.
  
  80
  G4. MIDDEN
  Characters looking for a subtle way past the wall of thorns can find one here: a
  tree outside the wall grows tall enough that a single branch reaches over it,
  coming within a few feet of a similar branch on a similar tree on the inside of
  the wall. It’ll take a defy danger move to jump across, with failure leading to a
  fall (d6 damage) and/or a dip in the midden (ew).
  The reason no one’s noticed this potential security breach is because a) this is
  the camp midden, so people here have other things on their mind and no
  desire to hang around, and b) a bunch of teenagers controlled by a drum­
  bound spirit don’t run the tightest ship in the world.
  G5. MEETING ROOM
  This small clearing has several cut logs laid on the ground to make an
  approximate square of benches where people can sit and face each other. In the
  centre is a small fire pit. This is where Castor comes to meet anyone he allows
  in through the wall of thorns, accompanied by one of the dryads hidden in a
  nearby tree and the lurking presence of Suxaibit.
  G6. OWLBEAR NEST
  This oversized ground nest is the home of an owlbear (Dungeon World, page
  294) that came to investigate the sound of Suxaibit’s drumming and was
  quickly dominated by the powerful spirit. After some adjustments to its simple
  mind it sees the other followers of Castor as its own children and protects them
  with a parent’s fury. Occasionally it carries one or two of them into the woods
  in an attempt to teach them how to hunt or fish, but they always return safely –
  and sometimes with food! – so the kids consider it a small price to pay for such
  a powerful guardian.
  
  81
  Riverwatch Hold
  The lower levels of Riverwatch Hold were never the easiest place to gain
  entrance to. Now they’re flooded and infested by savage fish­folk (see page 85)
  who are more than happy to take advantage of the solid dwarven construction
  to ambush newcomers and whisk them away to be sacrificed to their dead
  demonic patron – or, with increasing frequency, eaten on the spot. However, if
  the valley is to be saved the player characters might need the aid of the
  Riverwatch dwarves – and if the dwarves are to be saved then someone must
  brave the savages, reach the pump chambers, and re­start the ancient
  machinery that will deprive the fish­folk of their favoured environment.
  Plus, if the characters are of a mind to loot themselves some quality dwarf­
  forged equipment there’s plenty to be had. They’ll just have to be careful about
  dealing with the dwarves afterward, since any inhabitant of the hold is going
  to recognise their distinctive craftsmanship.
  Apart from the tunnels (R7, page 103) the walls, floors and ceilings of the hold
  are all dwarf­hewn stonework of the highest quality. Decorative carvings of
  dwarven heroes and famous moments from dwarven mythology are common
  on walls and doors, and an old tradition states that the keystone of any arch
  must feature a dwarf supporting the ceiling or, deprived of the strength of
  history, the arch will crumble and fall. Although dwarves are short they received
  enough ‘tall’ visitors that their rooms are sized to be comfortable for outsiders –
  only in private homes are regular­height people likely to have trouble.
  The lower levels of the hold are lit by glowing stones set into the walls and
  ceilings. Like many of the enchantments in the hold, these lights were tied to
  the collective will of the dwarven people, so – following the corruption of the
  king and the battles with demon­possessed kin – the enchantment is failing
  and the light the stones shed is dim, creating more shadows than illumination.
  Except where mentioned, everywhere in the lower levels is under 2­4 feet of
  water. Thanks to ancient dwarven drainage constructions even tunnels below
  the water table remain only partially flooded, but the sound of moving water is
  constant and anyone losing their footing may find the current surprisingly
  strong. The fish­folk take advantage of the flooding to move swiftly and
  stealthily around their territory, using ambushes and hit­and­run tactics
  against any intruders.
  
  82
  R1. THE ENTRANCE
  The main entrance to Riverwatch Hold is concealed behind the great waterfalls at
  the source of the Redwater river, the way marked by cunning signs known only
  to the dwarves and those who school themselves in dwarven architecture. The
  great doors are closed but entrance can be gained by climbing in through a
  nearby watchtower – the warriors stationed here to prevent just such an
  occurrence have long since fallen to the fishfolk, but several of their traps remain.
  Most of the entrance area is above water level and thus dry. It’s only once they
  get down the stairs to the lower levels that characters will find themselves
  wading. Dry bloodstains are common here, since the fishfolk didn’t bother
  cleaning up after overrunning the defenders.
  R1a. Characters with their eyes open (and who get good rolls on spout lore or
  discern realities) might notice that this wall­engraving of a dwarven explorer is
  out of place among all the martial­themed decoration you would expect in a
  dwarven guard post. The knife at the explorer’s belt can be depressed, opening
  the secret door. In the room beyond is a dessicated dwarf corpse – a guard who
  managed to make it into this bolt hole before succumbing to her wounds – and
  the severed forearm of a fishfolk, cut off where it tried to reach under the door
  after its fleeing victim.
  THIS PLACE IS HUGE
  While there’s probably a market for a Dungeon World product that’s nothing but an old dwarf
  hold (flooded or otherwise), this is not that product. So instead of exhaustively detailing every
  room and encounter in Riverwatch I’m just going to hit some highlights and leave the rest for
  you to fill in. What’s described here should be sufficient so long as the characters go in with a
  purpose – but if they’re just wandering and looting you might need to think fast.
  HOW DO WE GET IN?
  As written, you could be forgiven for wondering how player characters are meant to find a
  way into the hold. The simplest method is to have a dwarf (or dwarf­friend) take them, but
  other options exist: a successful spout lore move, contact with one of the merchants who used to
  trade here, blind luck, or clues found in one of the caches of hidden knowledge scattered
  around the valley. In short, if the player characters have found clues which make them want to
  visit the hold, they have almost certainly also discovered clues enough to find the front door.
  Or for an alternative entrance, now the pumps have been stilled the pipes that connect them to
  the river are navigable. They’re still completely filled with water, but with no outflow to create
  a current a dedicated swimmer could infiltrate the hold that way. I recommend a quick defy
  danger with Constitution, with one possible consequence for failure being bursting out of a
  maintenance hatch in a really bad place. (Because “you drown” sucks.)
  
  83
  The dwarf still carries her standard equipment: leather armour, short sword,
  crossbow, all of which count as dwarf­crafted (see page 89) for characters who
  want to sell or use them – although the armour will only fit someone with
  similar proportions. The bolt hole also contains a keg of dwarven stout (see
  Dungeon World, page 328) and six rations in the form of hard dwarven bread,
  dried sausage, and a powerful cheese.
  R1b. This is where the guards would sleep and relax while on­duty but off­
  shift. Since all were roused when the fishfolk attacked this room was spared
  the destruction of the fighting, but was then thoroughly looted by the victors.
  The bedding is torn and scattered, the tables overturned, everything breakable
  is broken, and nothing of obvious value remains.
  The important element here, overlooked by the fishfolk, is the panel on the
  wall with two switches labelled in dwarfish runes: one ‘locked’ and ‘unlocked’,
  currently set to ‘unlocked’; and one ‘active’ and ‘disarmed’, currently set to
  ‘active’. The former lever controls the trap at R1c, and the latter the trap at R1d
  – both are currently active, and throwing the switches disarms them.
  Riverwatch Hold:
  Entrance
  R1a
  R1b
  R1c
  R1d
  To the Marketplace (R2)
  To the
  Survivors
  (R4)
  
  84
  COLONEL ERDRIE STONECALLER
  Cautious, Devious, Intelligent, Organised, Solitary
  Hammer (d8 damage, Close); 12 HP, 3 armour (dwarf mail and shield)
  Special Quality: Dwarf
  Erdrie is in a bind. She feels the pressure of the debts run up by the previous
  generation, but she has her own problems to deal with: monsters above and
  below, one of which used to be her husband. She’s willing to entertain – or
  make – any reasonable offer for the player characters’ aid, but she still has her
  pride and the future of Riverwatch Hold to consider: she would literally rather
  die at the hands of the demon that lives in the body of her husband than sign a
  deal that would leave the Hold enslaved or ruined.
  If suitably impressed by someone – with preference for dwarves, naturally –
  Erdrie can offer them access to the Justicar compendium class (see page 125).
  Instinct: To make good on old debts.
  • Speak the truth, unvarnished and unsweetened.
  • Call in a debt.
  • Send soldiers on a mission.
  When attacked, give as good as you get.
  When someone fails to show you proper respect, dig in your heels and reject all
  their demands.
  When you grant a boon, make a corresponding entry in the debt records.
  
  85
  SAVAGE FISHFOLK
  Cautious, Horde, Intelligent, Organised, Stealthy
  Knives and Claws (d4 damage, Hand, Close);
  3 HP, 2 armour (scales and shields)
  Special Quality: Water­adapted
  The fishfolk are roughly humanoid in appearance, with long bodies and short
  limbs, but they would never be mistaken for human. Their hands and feet are
  webbed and taloned, their scales a sickly white, their eyes huge and black.
  They are not well­adapted for life on land – they can survive indefinitely, but it
  is uncomfortable for them as their skin dries and they yearn to return to the
  water. Their movements in the air often seem clumsy and halting but in the
  water they are paragons of grace, flashing from foe to foe and raking with their
  knives or claws.
  This particular clutch of fishfolk worshipped Sessinek back when it was an
  entity of power, and have constructed an impromptu shrine to it in the flooded
  chambers of Riverwatch Hold. Of course, Sessinek is dead so it cannot answer
  their gurgling prayers, but they can sense its power returning to the world and
  are eager to serve their demonic patron once again.
  Instinct: To follow the siren call of Sessinek’s power.
  • Burst from the water.
  • Emerge slowly and silently from somewhere they thought was safe.
  • Instinctively converge on trouble.
  When communicated with, gurgle and click in your own language.
  When out of the water, look for any opportunity to get back in.
  When confronted with the power of Sessinek, bow down and worship.
  
  86
  R1c. The trap on these stairs has been activated, although it did almost nothing
  to keep the fishfolk away from the guard post. Although the stairs look like the
  same solid stone construction as everything else in the hold, each stair is
  actually poised on springs – when any significant weight is applied to them
  they flatten into a 45 degree slope, pitching the unwary traveller down the
  stairs and into the pit at the stairs’ base. Since the pit is now completely
  flooded this is unlikely to cause any serious harm, but it may deprive a
  character of their equipment in the sudden drop. More seriously, a character
  dumped into the pit may be in danger of drowning – especially if they carry
  (or wear) a heavy load that might drag them under.
  Riverwatch Hold:
  Marketplace
  R2a
  R2b
  R2c
  R2d
  To the Entrance (R1)
  To the Pump
  Chambers (R3)
  To the Guilds (R4)
  
  87
  In the shadowy lighting and under a foot of water, the pit is difficult to see from
  the top of the stairs despite being open. It is fifty feet deep and spiked at the
  bottom, although anyone who reaches the bottom is unlikely to be worrying
  about the spikes. If the switch in R1b is thrown back to ‘locked’ then the stairs
  lock into a rigid staircase again and the lid of the pit closes to become solid floor.
  R1d. This secret door – obvious from the watchtower side – allowed the
  dwarves on guard to flank enemies who might be trying to assault the main
  gate. The door can only be opened from the inside (cunning thieves and
  mighty­thewed warriors notwithstanding) although as further defence against
  intruders there is a pressure plate half way down it which fires the ballista
  pointing down this corridor.
  The wall in front of the ballista is thin plasterwork and will do nothing to halt
  the flight of the bolt, which flies down the corridor at a height of three feet and
  does d10 damage to anyone who can’t get out of the way or otherwise protect
  themselves. It was always intended as a one­shot trap, so it can’t be reset
  without manually reloading the ballista and re­plastering the fake wall.
  However, the ballista can be detached from the trap mechanism and used as a
  normal siege weapon if necessary – the dwarves certainly anticipated that
  possibility, and the player characters may like the idea as well.
  R2. THE MARKETPLACE
  The great marketplace of Riverwatch Hold consists of concentric circles of
  near­identical stone kiosks around a huge statue of a stern­looking dwarf, all
  now projecting from a shallow lake. The statue’s eyes shine with a white light
  and the head can rotate all the way around – indeed, it constantly swivels to
  monitor the marketplace for crimes. When it detects one – theft and assault are
  the ones most likely to be triggered by player characters – the eyes flare with
  sudden brilliance, casting the perpetrator in a spotlight, and a sepulchral voice
  booms its accusation. Naturally, the fishfolk descend on anyone so picked out
  like piranhas on meat, and with much the same end result.
  Note to the GM: Defy danger – probably with Dexterity – is the move players will
  need to avoid attracting the attention of the justice statue. I did toy with some custom
  moves for it, but ultimately they just ended up being defy danger with slightly
  different wording.
  
  88
  R2a. The wealthiest merchants were able to rent kiosks closer to the watchful
  statue, the better to ensure the protection of their wares from thieves.
  Naturally, this means that the best of the remaining treasure is in these kiosks.
  This particular stall sold musical instruments, which the fishfolk ignored as
  worthless – but enterprising adventurers know different. Every 1 weight of
  instruments the characters loot from here is worth 10 coins, and one of the
  compact horns is an enchanted horn of sounding.
  R2b. The fishfolk have used a mucosal excretion to construct a shape around
  these four kiosks, stringing heavy ropes of the stuff from the higher portions
  and separating the lower waters from the greater lake of floodwater to make a
  protective pool. Within this pool they have used fallen masonry from R2c and
  an idol fetched from their home in flooded caverns beneath the earth to erect
  an altar to Sessinek – and then filled the pool with their immature spawn.
  The fishfolk fingerlings are aggressive predators which mostly feed on each
  other and the clutches of eggs that the fishfolk females periodically add to the
  pool, but they’re more than happy to supplement their diet with anyone who
  pokes an appendage into their home waters (d6 damage).
  Note to the GM: This hatching pool isn’t dangerous over here on its own, but if
  events should conspire to break the pool wall the hungry young could make
  everyone’s lives miserable.
  R2c. In a last­ditch attempt to prevent the fishfolk from rampaging through the
  lower living quarters of the hold a Riverwatch engineer­elementalist collapsed
  the ceiling here to seal the tunnel. She was buried under several tons of stone
  but the earth elemental (Dungeon World, page 237) she summoned still lingers
  here, freed of its binding but content to watch the unfolding of events under
  the earth with eternal patience. It has no particular interest in the conflicts of
  fleshy things, but is opposed in a general way to the rise in prominence of
  elemental water that accompanies the storms outside.
  HORN OF SOUNDING
  1 weight
  This brass horn is chased with gold and intricately engraved with dwarven runes. When
  sounded, it can produce any noise the horn­player desires, ranging in volume from a whisper to
  the shouting of 30­40 people. The sound can be modulated while playing, allowing for activities
  such as speech, but it can’t last longer than the horn­player can continue breathing out.
  
  89
  R2d. ‘Derkad the Pot’ they called him, like it was some sort of joke. Like
  making the finest copper pots in Redwater valley was a laughing matter. Like
  there were more important things. More important things than pots! I ask you!
  A strangely monomaniacal dwarf is still a dwarf, however, so when the fishfolk
  poured into the market Derkad jammed a copper cooking pot on his head and
  stood firm against them with a frying pan in each hand. He was dead in moments.
  But when his spirit stood on the threshold of the gates of Death, Derkad knew in
  the depths of his heart that there were no copper pots in that bleak land – and
  driven by a combination of obsession and the terrible knowledge that all the pots
  in the world mean nothing to the dead, he summoned the strength to turn away.
  DWARF-CRAFTED ITEMS
  The dwarves of Riverwatch Hold practised their crafts to the high standards that you might
  expect from long­lived perfectionists with a love of making permanent records. Anything
  ‘dwarf­crafted’ – weapons, armour, cookware, furniture, children’s toys – could fetch a good
  price in the valley if the player characters are happy with stealing it away: 1d4 x 10 coins, on
  top of whatever value the item would normally have (if any).
  This is also an excellent opportunity to push your agenda to portray a fantastic world: if the
  characters are going to find wondrous items anywhere, it’s here. For example:
  •
  This cunning contraption of intricate gears and levers is the size of a clenched fist.
  A dead mouse is entangled in its workings – for this is the prototype better
  mousetrap, an arcane arrangement of machinery that through some unknown
  influence compels rodents and vermin to suicide in its tiny steel jaws.
  •
  This rocking horse, sized for a small child, is a masterpiece of the wood­carver’s art
  – except the head is unfinished, made of simple blocks of wood in more or less the
  correct shape. It could be worth a small fortune if the characters can find a
  craftsman of enough skill to finish it.
  •
  This cherry­wood box is lined with velvet, and has several padded insets where
  fine craftsman’s tools have been placed. It would be worth a fortune except it’s
  clearly intended as a gift: the recipient’s name is engraved in the box lid. It was
  meant for one of the established NPCs in the game: Who? And why were the
  dwarves giving them gifts?
  •
  This masterpiece of taxidermy is a full­grown adult owlbear, rearing to attack and
  mounted on a heavy decorative base. It’s worth ten times the normal amount (that
  is, 1d4 x 100 coins) if sold to a collector of such curiosities – but it’s hard to carry
  and easy to damage.
  Weapons and armour work slightly differently. Although fine, they aren’t fine enough to
  justify any numerical bonuses to rolls – but if you’re using a dwarf­crafted item and it looks
  like it’s going to be broken or damaged, you can say “but it’s dwarf­made…” and it turns out
  the damage is merely cosmetic and/or easily repaired.
  Any given item can only exercise this option once, and afterward it is no longer worth the
  extra coins because it’s all banged up and glued back together – effectively losing the ‘dwarf­
  crafted’ quality instead of being broken.
  
  90
  Now Derkad’s spirit haunts his old kiosk – notable for being the only one with
  its wares laid out in good order, since Derkad now has telekinetic control over
  copper cookware. Treat him as a ghost (Dungeon World, page 259) with the
  additional move whip up a poltergeist storm of cookware. He manifests much as he
  did in life, although translucent and copper­hued, and attempts to sell passers­
  by some of his fine wares. He retains an unreasoning hatred for the fishfolk but
  little interest in anything beyond his pots, so they simply avoid this part of the
  marketplace. Unfortunately for the player characters Derkad’s monomania is
  now backed up by his supernatural might and suggesting that perhaps copper
  pots aren’t the alpha and omega of existence might invite violent retribution.
  The pots are excellent, mind you, and Derkad’s offers of sale are genuine. Any
  money used to pay for his wares becomes part of Derkad’s spectral form.
  R3. THE PUMP CHAMBERS
  When they built their fortress underneath a waterfall and next to a river, the
  dwarves were no fools: to guard against the possibility of flooding they
  designed and built an ingenious arrangement of pumps and pipes to carry
  water out of their lower chambers and divert it into the river where no­one
  would notice the extra flow. However, when they overran the lower levels of
  the hold the fishfolk were also no fools: as they fare better where there is water
  the pump chambers were one of their first targets. They were unable to destroy
  or jam the resilient dwarven machinery, but did manage to turn the pumps off,
  and that was good enough.
  Currently the pump chambers are the dominion of Greyscale, a brute of a
  fishwoman whose real name is an unwriteable string of clicking and consonant
  sounds. She was given the task of ruining the pumps, and now brute force and
  blood sacrifice have both failed she’s down to her last idea: kidnap dwarves
  (and others more cunning with machinery) and force them to break the pumps.
  It would be a great idea if only she could keep herself from eating any captives
  at the first sign of disappointment.
  The fishfolk recognise the importance of the pump chambers, so they are
  always heavily guarded. Failed rolls and GM moves should emphasise the
  constant fishfolk patrols and overwhelming numbers; make sloshing about
  down here an exercise in tension and close calls, or a bloody running battle
  against an enemy with vastly superior numbers and terrain advantage.
  
  91
  Riverwatch Hold:
  The Pump Chambers
  R3a
  R3b
  R3c
  To the
  Marketplace (R2)
  To the
  Guilds (R4)
  To the
  Tunnels (R7)
  
  92
  R3a. This cramped office used to belong to the pump overseer – his name and
  role are engraved in dwarven above the door. Inside everything is a mess of
  floating fragments of furniture and uneven footing where what didn’t float,
  has sunk. However, with some searching characters will be able to turn up the
  overseer’s notes on the construction and operation of the pumps. These are
  badly water­damaged but could still prove vital if the characters feel like
  meddling with the pumps’ operation.
  R3b. The main pump room has been turned into Greyscale’s throne room,
  where she has constructed a private dome between two of the pump
  structures, built out of the fishfolk’s construction mucus and the bones of her
  victims. Within the dome are her treasures – more bones, and a string of
  stones, shells, and 5 coins which makes a pleasant noise when shaken
  underwater – and a few clusters of fishfolk eggs. Characters who think to
  threaten her eggs may find out the hard way that the fishfolk care almost
  nothing for their young. Greyscale is never alone around the main pumps, and
  even when she’s sleeping there are several wakeful fishfolk guards present.
  R3c. When the pumps worked, this room was a storage closet for the tools and
  materials needed to keep them operational. The fishfolk saw its small size and
  heavy door and decided that it would make an excellent place to keep
  Greyscale’s prisoners before she inevitably decided they would be better held
  in her stomach. Fishfolk mucus has jammed the latch, preventing the door
  from being opened from the inside, but it can still be opened from without.
  The prison’s current occupant is a gnome named Erky Timbers, an engineer
  whose spectacularly bad luck has plagued him throughout his career. He was
  visiting the dwarves to learn more of their machinery when the fishfolk attacked
  – he managed to survive for a while by stealth and cunning, but he was finally
  captured and given to Greyscale so that she might make use of his expertise.
  What the fishfolk have yet to realise is that locking an engineer in a room full
  of tools is a terrible idea. Despite the water here being deep enough that Erky
  has to perch on a high shelf, he has armed himself with a heavy wrench and a
  slow­loading crossbow that fires 9­inch nails, and left a spring­loaded trap in
  the water just inside the door. Now he waits for the guards to come for him,
  when he intends to fight for his freedom or die trying. If the first thing through
  the door happens to be a player character instead... whoops.
  
  93
  GREYSCALE
  Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Dwarven Spear (b[2d8] damage, Close, Reach); 10 HP, 2 armour (hide and plates)
  Special Quality: Aquatic
  Greyscale stands a full head above the other fishfolk, and her scarred grey hide
  ripples with muscles. She has scavenged some pieces of dwarven armour to
  supplement her naturally tough hide, and a long dwarven spear to supplement
  her stone knife and natural weapons. Greyscale isn’t stupid, exactly, but has
  little to no capacity for long­term thinking. She has little attention for anything
  which isn’t of immediate use or concern to her.
  Instinct: To feed. (Occasionally ‘to break the pumps’ but never for long.)
  • Track someone by their blood.
  • Incite your minions to greater effort with an act of sudden brutality.
  When something is immediately relevant, focus on it to the exclusion of all else.
  When the payoff for a course of action is more than a week in the future, don’t bother.
  When a fight breaks out, get them in the water.
  ERKY TIMBERS
  Hoarder, Intelligent, Small, Solitary
  Wrench and Nailbow (w[2d8] damage, piercing 1, Close, Near); 12 HP, 0 armour
  Erky is perhaps the unluckiest gnome ever to grace the surface of the earth – or
  in this case, the halls beneath it. He tries to cultivate a positive attitude in the
  face of misfortune but occasionally his frustration gets the better of him and he
  shows off his encyclopaedic knowledge of profanity.
  Instinct: To follow a course of action, no matter how bad an idea it is.
  • Suffer a bout of terrible luck.
  • Build something from spare parts.
  When life gives you lemons, roll your eyes, sigh, make lemonade.
  When something good happens to you, become increasingly cautious and paranoid
  until your normal luck reasserts itself.
  When you’re surprised, open fire.
  
  94
  R4. SURVIVORS
  The surviving dwarves – about 500 of them – have barricaded themselves into
  this part of the hold, where they are close to the temple to their gods and the
  vast monastery­library where they keep a permanent record of every debt they
  owe or are owed. They managed to scavenge a reasonable quantity of supplies
  before sealing the doors, but they’re now trapped here with no way out short
  of digging a new tunnel to the outside – which a small team is attempting.
  R4a. This room is the current residence of Erdrie Stonecaller. Assuming the
  characters arrive among the dwarves as allies, she will receive them here. It’s
  hardly the regal surroundings she could command when she was in charge,
  but Erdrie was a soldier before she was a ruler and is well accustomed to doing
  the best she can with whatever’s to hand.
  R4b. This is the entrance chamber to the great monastery­library of Riverwatch
  Hold. The rest of it stretches beyond the bounds of the map – all the records
  within are carved on heavy stone tablets, which are not an efficient use of
  space. Visitors are not allowed to browse the stacks without permission from
  R4a
  R4B
  R4C
  S
  S
  S
  S
  Riverwatch Hold:
  The Survivors
  To Dwarfhome (R6)
  To The Guilds (R5)
  To The
  Entrance (R1)
  
  95
  Colonel Stonecaller and even if they have permission, the organisation of the
  library is not easy to decipher for outsiders. The monks are always available to
  help researchers but as part of their devotion they are forbidden from
  performing a task for another without compensation.
  R4c. The grand temple of the dwarven pantheon is where the majority of the
  survivors have holed up. As a stoic lot, they accept their position with a
  minimum of grumbling; the able­bodied have all either been assigned to the
  mining team or armed and equipped as guards. Unfortunately, an infiltrator
  lurks within their ranks: Gretta hides her demonic possession beneath the
  robes of a priestess, waiting for an opportune moment to open the doors and
  let the other possessed dwarves in.
  R5. THE GUILDS
  Situated within easy reach of the market where their members would hawk
  their wares, the various craft guilds of the hold kept their offices in this area.
  As a primarily military outpost Riverwatch Hold didn’t have the bustling trade
  guilds of a full­fledged undercity, but it had enough that competition between
  them was ferocious.
  Most of the people in the guild offices managed to retreat to the temple (R4c)
  while the fishfolk and demon­ridden dwarves occupied themselves with more
  important targets – if the player characters are at a loose end, one of the
  guilders may send them here to recover documents or items of importance.
  The odds are about fifty­fifty whether the documents or items really belong to
  the guilder in question, but surely this sort of thing is what heavily armed
  groups of ethically flexible mercenaries and treasure hunters are for, right?
  R5a. The jewellers’ guild is a likely destination for groups with an eye on the
  looting. Unfortunately a quasit (Dungeon World, page 312) named Qxbuk had a
  similar idea and arrived here first. Qxbuk has helped himself to the fine
  jewellery – he now jingles with every movement, gold chains hanging loose off
  his spindly form – but his primary purpose is replacing the guild’s store of
  gold bars with tainted demonic gold. He figures that someone will help
  themselves to the gold eventually, and whatever is made with it will inherit the
  demonic taint and spread evil throughout the world.
  When you spout lore any time after consulting the monastery­library of Riverwatch Hold,
  you can choose to add +1 to your roll (after rolling) at the cost of one of the following: you owe
  the dwarves a debt, or the lore you recover concerns only debts and repayments.
  
  96
  Qxbuk is preoccupied with
  his task and easy to sneak
  up on. Despite his poison
  sting his first instinct is to
  flee any physical confron­
  tation then return later in
  the shape of a fat scorpion
  to observe the results of
  people stealing the cursed
  gold (and perhaps deliver a
  quick
  sting
  by
  way
  of
  revenge if they managed to
  hurt him).
  Jewellers Guild
  B: Bunks
  F: Offices
  W: Workshops
  S: Stores
  B
  F
  F
  W
  W
  S
  S
  R5b. In the centre courtyard of the illustrious guild of golem­crafters stands a
  menacing figure of stone, fixed in position despite its cleverly constructed joints,
  carved with a stern expression on its face and staring eternally into the middle
  distance. Despite appearances, this statue is not a stone golem – it served as a
  safe place for the golem­crafters to hide sensitive or valuable items, as they
  assumed no thieves would do anything that might activate a dormant golem.
  Golem-Crafters Guild
  B: Bunks
  F: Offices
  W: Workshop
  S: Store
  G: Guard Room
  S
  W
  B
  B
  B
  B
  B
  B
  F
  F
  G
  
  97
  The contents of the golem, accessible through a secret panel in its back, are
  detailed accounts regarding debts the guild owed to others, and notes
  regarding who might be extorted into ‘forgetting’ the debts by subtle (or
  obvious) threats from the guild’s magical machines. (And/or whatever other
  treasure you think the players might appreciate.) The compartment is trapped
  with a metal clamp that latches around the wrist of anyone who disturbs the
  contents and holds them in place, followed by a loud gong from somewhere
  below to alert the guilders that someone was trying to steal from the ‘golem’.
  When the guild was operational the gong would be answered by several
  heavily­armed security dwarves. Now the hold has flooded the gong only alerts
  whatever fishfolk and/or demon­ridden dwarves are in the vicinity; whether
  that’s better or worse depends on the perspective of the trapped character.
  R5c. There is a horrible smell of incineration wafting from the bakers’ guild. One
  of the bakers managed to defeat a fishfolk marauder by shoving it into an
  oven, and although the oven fires have long since died out the stench of
  burning fish has permeated the entire building. It’s even worse for the fishfolk:
  they find the powerful odour repulsive on a deep and instinctive level, and
  avoid the guild with a superstitious dread. This makes the baker’s guild a
  haven from fishfolk, if you can tolerate the appalling stench.
  There are also several stale­but­still­edible rolls and loaves here. Characters
  looting the place can gain an extra ration each, although the rations – like
  everything else – are permeated with the terrible burned fish smell.
  Bakers Guild
  B: Bunks
  F: Office
  K: Kitchen
  S: Stores
  B
  F
  S
  S
  K
  
  98
  R5d. Gwenneth Clockspring was technically an entire guild by herself. She had
  completed all the requisite forms and certificates, but no one wanted to join her
  guild of clockmakers because she was popularly considered to be howling mad.
  This tiny building houses several clocks of diverse designs (all telling different
  times, their springs having wound down) as well as a selection of paintings –
  abstract blurs of colour with no clear meaning – and (bad) apocalyptic poetry in
  dwarven, written directly onto the walls using a variety of media.
  However, the pinnacle of Gwenneth’s art has pride of place in her workshop at
  the back of the ‘guildhouse’. The mystery clock still ticks, although its multiple
  hands only ever seem to move when no one is watching, skipping around the
  clock face to no discernible pattern. It currently says the time is simultaneously
  twenty minutes to and ten minutes past ‘Doom’.
  THE MYSTERY CLOCK
  1 weight
  A lopsided carriage clock in bronze and ivory with three identical hands and a dial marked
  with various non­time concepts: death, hope, fire, a dark and terrible pit, and other things are
  spelled out in words and symbols. While no one is looking, the markings on the dial change.
  The hands can be easily pushed around the dial, but they jump back to the positions they
  prefer the moment the clock is unobserved.
  When you consult the face of the mystery clock, roll +Wis. On a hit the reading is
  unambiguous: the GM will tell you which concept the hands are pointing toward, and on a
  10+ they will elaborate on what this means for your current situation. On a miss you have
  misinterpreted the clock: the GM will tell you what the hands are pointing towards and then
  make a move related to that concept.
  Note to the GM: If this move seems similar to spout lore, that’s because it follows the same ‘interesting
  info on a success, interesting and useful info on a great success’ model.
  Clockmakers Guild
  B: Bunk
  F: Office
  W: Workshop / Stores
  G: Art Gallery
  ?: ???
  F
  ?
  B
  W
  G
  S
  S
  
  99
  DEMON­RIDDEN DWARF
  Cautious, Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Dwarf­Forged Weapons/Poison Quills (d8 damage, Hand, Close, Near);
  6 HP, 4 armour (dwarf mail and shield)
  Special Qualities: Dwarf, Demon, Poison quills
  Their pact with the demons has changed the dwarves both physically and
  mentally – their skin is a sallow grey struck through with veins of deep green,
  hairless except for their bedraggled beards that writhe with a life of their own.
  Rows of barbed, venomous quills sprout from their forearms, which they can
  fire at enemies with a flick of their wrists – if the dwarf­forged weapons and
  armour they bear is somehow not enough. If the original nature of the dwarf
  they were survives in there anywhere, it’s sealed behind a wall of hatred and
  the fierce exultation of a demon given flesh.
  Instinct: To inflict pain and suffering.
  • Make someone
  .
  • Lure them into an ambush.
  When a fight breaks out, go straight to the dirty tricks and low blows.
  When captured, pretend to be scared and vulnerable.
  When exorcised, owe your saviour a life­debt.
  R6. DWARFHOME
  This area of the hold is where the more well­to­do citizens lived before disaster
  struck. Although far enough away from the lower levels that it was never
  under serious threat from below, the demon­ridden dwarves that were
  supposed to be the solution to the problem of the fishfolk overran the place
  instead. A handful of imps and quasits have also leaked through into the
  material world, although the demon­dwarves consider them to be vermin.
  There are a couple of hundred demon­possessed dwarves currently in
  Dwarfhome, spending their time in three primary ways: guarding against and
  testing the defences of the dwarven survivors (R4), attempting to summon
  more powerful demons into the world (R6a), and digging a tunnel towards the
  outside world (R6b).
  
  100
  can offer, or they could drag the
  characters
  into
  the
  eternal
  war
  between the elements.
  R6b. The creature that used to be
  Bartok Stonecaller still rules from
  the throne room he used to share
  with his wife Erdrie (R4a). When
  confronted with the reality of what
  he
  had
  done
  Bartok’s
  ‘self’
  retreated instead of resisting the
  demonic
  possession,
  and
  the
  possessing entity took advantage
  of that to reinforce its control over
  his body. As a result he is further
  gone than the other demon­ridden
  dwarves – he stands almost twice
  their
  height
  and
  perhaps
  eight
  R6a. Before everything went downhill, the hold’s pre­eminent elementalist made
  his home here. He traded his magical might for fine furnishings and the best
  food and drink the hold could provide, but the secret to his success was a magic
  mirror that allowed him to turn its surface into a gateway to the elemental
  planes – with this powerful artefact he was able to call up stronger elementals
  with less work than his competitors, and thus rise to the top of his guild.
  Unfortunately, when the demon­ridden dwarves arrived his magic mirror
  proved too slow to help him. His meagre personal power was no match for the
  possessed sorceress who confronted him in magical combat: the elementalist
  was slain and his elementals sealed up in the elementally­attuned wings of his
  home, and the sorceress moved in to study the mirror and attempt to twist its
  magic to allow the summoning of more demons. So far she’s managed to break
  it so that it shows only a night­black void with an occasional sense of vast
  shapes moving in the distance, but who’s to say the bloody sacrifice of a player
  character won’t do the trick?
  Meanwhile the trapped elementals, now free­willed following the death of their
  controller, seek to escape from their limited prisons and continue the cycle of
  elemental destruction. They could prove useful for player characters looking for
  a little more destructive power, or the unique abilities that elemental creatures
  The Throne Room
  (source of annotations unknown)
  
  101
  DEMON­RIDDEN SORCERESS
  Intelligent, Magical, Organised, Solitary
  Knife/Poison Quills (d8 damage, Hand); 12 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Dwarf, Demon, Poison quills
  This sorceress has all the usual physical hallmarks of possession – grey skin,
  poisonous quills, a perpetual snarl – but also sports a large red gemstone set
  into the palm of her left hand. Through this stone she channels the power of
  her demonic patron, granting her magic of fire and befuddlement.
  Instinct: To call forth her demonic patrons.
  • Twist existing magic to her own purposes.
  • Plunder someone’s identity with the magic of her gemstone.
  • Summon imps or other weak demonic footsoldiers.
  When presented with arcane secrets, offer a deal.
  When you can get out of a deal, do it and laugh at the fool who entered into a
  deal with you.
  When all your efforts have failed and you don’t know what to do next, try blood
  sacrifice.
  The Elementalist's Home
  
  102
  DOESN T THIS GUY SEEM FAMILIAR?
  As a greature of greed notable for biting and swallowing his enemies, Bartok has a similar
  theme to Oorlgat (page 62). Is the demon possessing him of the same type? Is it Oorlgat in his
  past incarnation? Or is it just a coincidence?
  The answer is going to depend on a lot of things specific to your personal game. I personally
  favour it being Oorlgat, since when the characters visit him in the Twilight Stronghold later he
  can reveal his knowledge of them from a previous encounter – but this is only a straightforward
  option if they haven’t met and/or fought Oorlgat in the demonic future yet.
  times their bulk, a lumbering mountain of corpulent grey flesh studded with
  rattling quills. His chin has grown into his neck and his mouth has expanded
  to a grotesque size, the better to allow the huge bites that feed his eternal
  hunger. Within this maw his tongue is a many­branched writhing thing that
  inspires
  revulsion
  on
  sight.
  His
  clothes
  long­since
  destroyed
  by
  his
  transformation, his nudity is only covered by his sagging belly.
  BARTOK STONECALLER, POSSESSED
  Intelligent, Planar, Solitary, Terrifying
  Savage Bite/Wrestling (d10+2 damage, forceful, Hand); 16 HP, 1 armour (fat
  rolls)
  Special Qualities: Dwarf, Demon, Poison quills, Grotesque appearance
  Bartok is a shadow of his former self, but he makes up for his lost skill and
  discipline with sheer physical power. Characters attempting to appeal to the
  dwarf within will find him almost lost – Erdrie might be able to get through to
  him, but the characters would have to persuade her to come on what is almost
  certainly a suicide mission first.
  Instinct: To devour.
  • Eat something harmful or inedible without ill effect.
  • Vomit forth something previously eaten, foully transformed.
  • Vomit forth some
  previously eaten; they are harmed in body,
  mind, or soul.
  When your plans are thwarted, erupt in murderous rage. Eat someone if you can.
  When attacked by someone agile, focus on swatting the infuriating fly.
  When confronted with your wife, pause in shock and shame.
  
  103
  R6c. Here demon­ridden dwarves work in shifts to dig a tunnel outwards
  towards the surface. The possessing demons don’t have the mining skills of
  their hosts, but they have pickaxes and vast reserves of endurance – their plan
  is to just dig horizontally until they hit the side of the mountain, and work out
  how to get down from there once they get to fresh air.
  R7. THE TUNNELS
  The increased pressure of water below the earth has led to a few minor
  tremors in the Hidden Mountains, one of which opened access to these
  tunnels that connect different parts of Riverwatch Hold in ways the original
  builders never intended. Ordinarily the dwarves would never be so lax as to
  allow the cracks in the walls to go unrepaired, but right now they have other
  things on their minds.
  With only a few exceptions, these cracks are narrow, rough­sided, and uneven
  underfoot – they are hardly highways through the depths of the earth.
  However, they offer a route between various parts of the hold for player
  characters who don’t want to brave any more of the fishfolk­infested areas and,
  if one of the larger caves is cleared of hostile occupants, a potentially secret
  place to rest up.
  R7a. The lowest accessible cavern, this foul morass is a result of floodwater
  breaching a dwarven sewage tank. The rock all around the central pool is
  deceptively slick, making it easy to fall in and hard to climb out – which suits
  the otyugh (Dungeon World, page 240) which lives here just fine. A recent
  arrival, the creature has just enough low cunning to ‘seed’ the sewage pool
  with weapons and armour from dwarven victims, fire beetle flame glands,
  severed fishfolk heads that resemble lurking enemies, and other items that
  might pique the interest of anyone who stumbles into this cavern. Eating
  garbage is all well and good, but every otyugh likes to get some meat in its diet
  now and again.
  R7b. This narrow crack is home to a swarm of fire beetles (Dungeon World,
  page 238). The creatures aren’t aggressive but they are territorial, and intruders
  will be greeted with warning flames and angry nips – the longer you loiter, the
  more the response escalates.
  If you really don’t want to antagonise the fire beetles, the alternative path leads
  up along a craggy rock face over a steep plunge that will, after a bruising fall,
  
  104
  plant you square in the otyugh’s pool at R7a. With time and climbing
  equipment it’s a difficult but possible path. Lacking one of the two makes it
  dangerous. Lacking both... well, hope you like falling and sewage.
  R7c. This corner passes extremely close to the mining tunnel at R6b. Characters
  here can hear the chink­chink of pickaxes in stone from the other side of the wall.
  R7d. Daylight! The crack in the ceiling is a hundred feet up and climbing to it
  involves navigating a shallow overhang – which is covered in nesting bats. On
  the plus side, if a climber can secure a rope to the top of the crevasse above this
  makes an excellent escape from the hold (or a decent exit for demonic dwarves
  or whatever other horror the characters have unleashed).
  R7e. For years a tiny tribe of cave goblins (Dungeon World, page 239) eked out a
  living in this trio of caverns while desperately trying to avoid the attention of
  the nearby dwarves. When the quake first opened a passage between them
  they cowered for a while, but their sneakiest scouts have now discovered that
  the hold is near­abandoned and beset by enemies. So obviously it’s time to loot!
  As a rule the goblins are massive cowards with a nasty streak they indulge
  whenever they think they can get away with it. Their chief, Brukkle, is old for a
  goblin but clings to power with a combination of ruthless cunning and subtle
  poisons brewed from cave fungi. He’s been careful not to cultivate any
  successors (lest they get ideas) and his homosexuality means there are no blood
  heirs, so when he dies the tribe will descend into anarchy.
  
  105
  R7a
  To the Pump
  Chambers (R3)
  To the
  guilds (R5)
  To Dwarfhome
  (R6)
  R7b
  R7c
  R7d
  R7e
  Riverwatch Hold: The Tunnels
  
  106
  Sunken Temple of the Unspeakable Cult
  A traveller can see many strange things in the streets of Port Landing, among
  the rowdies and the gangs and the hawkers of dubious wares. Some of the
  more common bits of street weirdness are the mystery plays put on by gangs
  of
  masked
  mimes.
  Silent
  and
  extravagantly
  costumed,
  they
  act
  out
  incomprehensible scenes to tell stories no one can understand. Passers­by often
  fling casual abuse at the mimes, which they ignore, but physical threats are met
  with swift and merciless violence – you don’t get far in Port Landing if you
  won’t fight, after all.
  Every so often someone shows a strange interest in the plays of the mimes,
  seeking them out to see more of their baffling performances. These few
  inevitably disappear soon after – but what’s one more vanishing in a city
  where the only law is the whim of a dragon?
  In truth, these mimes are members of the Unspeakable Cult. Their plays are
  translations of the worm­dreams that haunt them and speak to those who might
  listen. Regular viewers are abducted and brought to meet the Ancient Worm:
  some embrace the corruption it offers, some turn away at the final moment and
  become the cult’s next meal. The mimes also abduct others to serve as food – in
  Port Landing such things are common so their activities go unnoticed.
  
  107
  The cult makes their temple in the buried ruins beneath Port Landing. The
  corridors used to be city streets, and are paved with dust­caked flagstones. The
  walls are crumbling brickwork: the interior walls of ancient houses, easy to
  climb, easy to break. Fortunately the walls that hold the weight of Port
  Landing overhead are mostly the stronger, exterior stone walls, so the chances
  of bringing everything down on top of yourself are slim. Strange fungi grow
  everywhere – the soft purple glow that suffuses the temple comes from the
  breed of violet fungus the cult have cultivated within their lair, and even
  weirder examples can be found with only a little searching.
  T1. CRUMBLING ANCIENT BUILDINGS
  The tunnel that leads to the Sunken Temple is a tight, claustrophobic
  experience; a squeeze through a narrow crack between ancient buildings that
  crashed together in some forgotten upheaval of the earth. Rubble lies
  underfoot and the ceiling is low enough to force tall characters to stoop.
  However, once the initial crack has twisted through the earth for some quarter­
  mile it opens out into a wide street, the hollow houses on each side not exactly
  intact, but still sturdy enough to hold up the weight of rock above.
  It is here that the cult’s violet fungi can first be seen, glowing lavender in the
  darkness and waving their fronds gently back and forth. There is no wind – the
  fronds bear stingers which inject a paralysing venom, the better to capture
  interlopers for the cult’s feasting.
  The houses themselves seem perilously unstable but the heavy exterior walls
  are as solid as rock. Inside is a different manner: the interior walls are
  crumbling and flimsy, and the old floors might give way at any moment to
  drop someone into a collapsed cellar or the worm tunnels (T2).
  REASONS TO GET INVOLVED
  Why do the player characters care about a cult of cannibal mimes?
  •
  They’re Evil. Characters with an interest in throwing down Evil should certainly
  see the Ancient Worm and its cult as worthy targets.
  •
  They’re a Ready­Made Army. Characters pitting themselves against Cobalt may
  want all the allies they can get – and the cult has no love for the dragon sitting on
  top of them.
  •
  They’ve Got Something We Want. Whether it’s something or someone the player
  characters care about, the cult has popped up and grabbed it. Get it back!
  •
  The Cult Attacks First. The player characters were just minding their own business,
  carousing and brawling as is their wont, when some impolite folk tried to mug them
  and drag them off to an uncertain fate! This sort of behaviour cannot be tolerated.
  
  108
  The Sunken Temple
  T1
  T2
  T3
  T4
  T5
  T6
  T7
  TUNNELLING WORM
  Group, Large
  Savage Bite/Constriction (d8+1 damage, Hand); 14 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Giant worm, Tremorsense
  A creeping monster that resembles a huge tapeworm with its segmented body
  and lamprey­like jaws. Its mouth is fringed with deft tentacles that sort food
  into its maw or squeeze more active prey into submission. Soft and cowardly
  by nature, it prefers to wait until it detects the vibrations of fighting through
  the walls then emerge afterwards to devour the dead and fallen – or kill
  whoever’s left, and then eat them.
  Instinct: To undermine established construction.
  • Tunnel through the earth.
  • Seize someone or something in your tentacles.
  When commanded by the Unspeakable Cult, obey.
  When you detect an intruder in the tunnels, stalk them.
  When injured, retreat with food clutched in your tentacles.
  
  109
  T2. WORM TUNNELS
  Beneath and surrounding this area is a maze of worm tunnels. These tight
  tubes, perhaps four feet across, are lined with packed earth and stone – they
  are the principle method the tunnelling worm uses to move around the area,
  although desperate adventurers might also find themselves squirming through
  them in an attempt to get away from whatever’s chasing them.
  UNSPEAKABLE CULTISTS
  Devious, Group, Intelligent
  Knives (d6 damage, Hand, Close); 6 HP, 0 armour
  A typical unspeakable cultist is one who has only dined on human flesh once
  or twice – most of them are new recruits who throw themselves into battle with
  the cult’s enemies in the hopes that sufficient valour will get them inducted
  into the inner circle. However, they are already susceptible to the black hunger
  that filters down from their awful patron.
  Instinct: To serve the ancient worm and its high priests.
  • Throw themselves into battle without a thought for their own safety.
  • Pass unnoticed in regular society.
  When a corpse is present, struggle to resist taking a bite.
  When commanded by the priests, obey.
  As well as the larger tunnels shown on the map, there are many unmarked smaller tunnels
  which offer interesting possibilities for exploration, escape, or ambush.
  When you explore the worm tunnels with no destination in mind, you emerge in a random
  area of the temple. Roll 1d6 and skip over the place where you entered.
  When you plunge heedlessly into the tunnels to escape an enemy or situation, you will lose
  your pursuer for now but again you emerge in a random location. Roll 1d8 to determine the
  area; on an 8 you emerge somewhere else entirely (GM's choice).
  When you try to use the worm tunnels to get somewhere in particular, roll +Wis. On a miss
  you emerge from the tunnels somewhere you’d rather not be (GM’s decision as to where) and
  anyone else present notices your arrival. On a 10+ you come out more or less where you
  wanted, and remain undetected for now. On a 7­9 choose one:
  •
  You do not get lost and arrive somewhere else. (GM’s decision as to where.)
  •
  No one notices your arrival.
  
  110
  T3. ANTECHAMBER
  This large chamber has been constructed by knocking together several smaller
  rooms within the buried ruins, leaving it strangely­shaped and criss­crossed
  with the remains of walls that serve mostly to trip people up. Daubed on the
  walls is the symbol of the Unspeakable Cult in various sizes and colours, and
  scattered across the uneven floor are the remains of cooking fires and the flea­
  riddled bedding of the cultists. Growing everywhere are more of the glowing
  violet fungi with their venomous fronds (see T1) and there will always be
  cultists present here when the player characters arrive – one per PC – unless
  they’ve done something to draw them away.
  T4. MUSHROOM DIPLOMACY
  This room is choked with fungi of various kinds. Every step sends small puffs
  of spores into the air and any greater impact could produce a choking cloud of
  them. Concealed within this mycologist’s paradise is a fungoid, a lumbering
  mushroom creature which helped the Unspeakable Cult breed their violet fungi
  and is investigating the possibility of a longer­term alliance between it and
  them. Negotiations are necessarily slow, since common ground is hard to find
  between an ancient worm­creature older than humanity and a walking fungus.
  T5. MAIN CHAMBER
  Like the antechamber, this room has been constructed out of several smaller
  rooms knocked together. The remains of ancient beams project from the walls,
  supporting the remains of crumbling floors overhead. In the centre of the
  chamber is a huge dining table, the wood scarred by many knives and stained
  by the blood of the cannibal feasts the cultists enjoy here. At the far end a crude
  dais has been assembled out of rubble and bonemeal mortar, and beyond that
  a yawning tunnel disappears into the darkness. This is where the ancient worm
  dwells, and from where it emerges to receive sacrifices and bestow blessings
  upon its cult.
  T6. LARDER
  The cult has driven anchor rings for shackles into the crumbling masonry of
  this room at various heights, no two at the same level. Several sets of rusty
  manacles hang from the rings, and when the cult kidnaps food from Port
  Landing the unfortunates are locked in here. Some possible meals­in­waiting
  are described opposite, but this is an excellent place to put any custom NPCs
  you want the characters to meet and/or anyone they’ve come down here in
  search of.
  
  111
  FUNGOID
  Intelligent, Solitary
  Fist (d10+2 damage, forceful, Hand, Close); 15 HP, 1 armour (spongy body)
  Special Quality: Giant mushroom body
  The fungoid is big and slow, moving with ponderous deliberation, but its
  spongy body is possessed of an implacable strength and its heavy grip can
  easily crack bones. More or less humanoid, it lacks a mouth and communicates
  by spraying other creatures with hallucinogenic spores – its latent psychic
  powers allow it to control the resulting visions in order to get its point across.
  Instinct: To grow new and interesting mushrooms.
  • Pass for a really big mushroom.
  • Destroy an item, if you have time to bring your strength to bear.
  When confronted by intruders, spray them with hallucinogenic spores.
  When fighting, one good hit is worth ten glancing blows.
  When not doing anything in particular, compose psychic poetry in your alien
  thought­language.
  CULT VICTIMS
  The teenage Danielle has recently had a singularly bad day: the stereotypical country girl in
  the big city, she wandered away from her family at market, got bitten by a mad homeless guy,
  and in her shock ran right into the cannibal mimes. She is totally out of her depth and just
  wants to go home to her tiny farming village and forget any of this ever happened.
  Unfortunately the man who bit her was a werewolf; Dani doesn’t know it yet, but on the next
  full moon – which is naturally going to be at an inconvenient time for the player characters
  who rescued her – she’s going to turn into a lupine engine of destruction.
  Garret is the epitome of a salty sea dog. He’s been a sailor and pirate his entire life, and hasn’t
  reached his fifties without being willing to do whatever it takes to survive without the slightest
  hesitation. He’ll betray the characters as soon as it looks like it might be a good idea.
  Kira is a fit young woman with a burning sense of injustice and a knack for bodily harm –
  she’d be the Paladin if the Paladin wasn’t reserved for player characters, and she’ll find it
  difficult to leave the sunken temple without first either extinguishing the cult or extracting a
  promise from the player characters that they’ll return to finish the job. Give her an axe and
  she’ll give it a go by herself, which is unlikely to end well for her.
  Turkid is a dwarf with an incurable but non­contagious disease; he hides his frailty with
  bluster and dwarven willpower. He deliberately poked into rumours of cannibals in Port
  Landing in the hopes that they’d eat him, catch his sickness, and die off – in this way he hopes
  to make his impending death mean something.
  
  112
  T7. PRIEST CHAMBER
  When the priests of the Unspeakable Cult aren’t presiding over ceremonies,
  communing with the ancient worm in T5, or conducting the business of the
  cult, they retire here. They stand motionless, each in their own place, arms at
  their sides and eyes wide open. They dream strange worm­dreams and distil
  wisdom from the subterranean writhing visible to their minds’ eyes, and are
  only dimly aware of their surroundings.
  Disturbances in the temple don’t wake the priests unless they are in the main
  chamber, or unless a lesser cultist runs to fetch them.
  UNSPEAKABLE CULT LEADERS
  Intelligent, Magical, Solitary, Terrifying
  Horrid Tongue (d10 damage, Close); 16 HP, 1 armour (withered flesh)
  Special Quality: Withered corpse sustained by black magic and blacker hunger
  The high priests of the Unspeakable Cult are withered and gaunt, unable to pass
  for human with their pronounced teeth and red­glowing eyes. Their most
  inhuman quality, however, is the long feeding tendril that bursts from their mouth
  with a sound like wet meat in search of the flesh of their victims. They typically
  only make use of the necromantic gifts the ancient worm has bestowed upon them
  when confronted with more active opposition – such as player characters.
  Instinct: To seize the helpless and add them to the larder.
  • Devour flesh with a wormlike tongue.
  • Summon a necromantic horror.
  When exposed to sunlight, shrink within your robes and flee into the shadows.
  When cut open, eject a mass of fanged worms from the wound.
  When confronted with a helpless victim, carry them off for later sacrifice.
  
  113
  THE ANCIENT WORM
  Forceful, Hoarder, Huge, Intelligent, Magical, Reach, Solitary, Terrifying
  Biting Maw/Tail Spike (d10+5 damage, 1 piercing, messy, Hand, Close);
  20 HP, 1 armour (rubbery hide)
  Special Qualities: Oversized tapeworm, Necromantically charged
  The vast and loathsome patron of the Unspeakable Cult, the ancient worm is a
  pale, segmented horror with a lamprey­like maw at one end and a chitinous
  spear of a stinger on the other. It slithers through the tunnels below Port
  Landing with deceptive speed, guided by an intelligence as old and alien as
  anything from the void between the stars. It hungers for the flesh of the living,
  but more than that it feeds on the corruption of the world around it – the
  twisting of things away from their true forms and the turning of good folk
  towards evil.
  It speaks directly into the minds of people in its presence, and can send
  undulating nightmares to plague those it has encountered but failed to devour.
  It hates Cobalt’s presence but cannot fight her directly – she is more powerful
  than the worm in every way – so it lays plans to remove her and stews in its
  own bitterness. It’s only a matter of time before one of the stormlords discovers
  its presence and allies with it against the dragon.
  Instinct: To corrupt.
  • Impale someone with its tail­spike.
  • Spray venom which poisons the living and animates the dead.
  When exposed, vomit forth a ghost­filled fog.
  When cut open, the wound bleeds forth a corpse, a secret, or something best left
  forgotten.
  When feeling threatened, retreat for now and plague your tormentors with
  nightmares later.
  
  114
  Beneath the Livewood Tree
  LIVEWOOD TOWN
  On the southern edge of the valley, right on the border with the Wildlands,
  stands Livewood Town. It’s a logging town of large wood­storage barns and
  small log­cabin homes, right on the cusp of a major prosperity boom thanks to
  the unique resource it’s named after: livewood.
  Livewood grows only in the Wildlands, not far from the town. It appears as
  gnarled sticks of plain, pale wood, always leafless, but it retains an unpleasant
  life of its own even when severed from the tree. On contact with living flesh
  the wood writhes and burrows in, attempting to change the victim into...
  something else. Some victims are mutated, some die messy deaths, others
  transform into new livewood trees – there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to it.
  However, livewood is a potent alchemical reagent and ingredient for magic
  rituals. The Brown Ring gardener Gustav has discovered that livewood repels
  the tainted growth of the Wildlands, and his partner Almodovar has found a
  way of refining livewood into a mutagenic potion that offers immunity from
  the wood’s hungry touch, albeit with… side effects.
  Steading: Moderate Prosperity, Steady Population, Watch, Trade (two nearby
  steadings), Exotic (livewood), Enmity (Port Landing)
  
  115
  These discoveries have not gone unnoticed. Cobalt, following the advice of
  Sarlat, has sent one of her children to Livewood Town to secure the supply of
  livewood for herself. Sarlat believes that the wood’s mutagenic properties will
  allow him to unlock the next stage of his experiments, and Cobalt is eager to
  see how he might strengthen her armies further with access to better resources.
  Unfortunately for them, Mabinoge – the young dragon sent to secure the
  supply – came into contact with the wood shortly after his arrival and has
  become something new and blisteringly insane. The few enforcers who came
  with him still obey him out of fear, but it’s only a matter of time before
  Mabinoge decides to leave the warehouse where he is concealed and go in
  search of the source of the wood.
  And as if that wasn’t enough, a scourge­aligned member of the Brown Ring
  named Hela has come to Livewood Town with the express intention of
  murdering the traitor Almodovar and burning the whole place to the ground
  to cleanse its taint. Meanwhile, the livewood grove itself seeks a worthy
  champion upon whom to bestow its secret treasure.
  Enter the player characters.
  When you come into physical contact with livewood, it burrows into your flesh and tries to
  merge with you. Lose 1 HP as you tear it away. If the contact is prolonged you (or someone
  else) will have to cut it away.
  When someone tries to cut invading livewood out of your body, roll +Con. On a 10+ your
  body rejects what little livewood manages to invade your flesh. On a 7­9 you survive the
  invasion at the price of significant scarring on the affected areas. On a miss what livewood
  remains takes root in your body and reaches an uneasy accord with your system; you gain
  scars or a freakish appearance, your Constitution is permanently reduced by 1, and you are
  considered a plant for magical effects which consider such things.
  When you try to cut invading livewood from someone’s body, roll +Dex. On a 10+ you’re
  fast and accurate: the victim is fine (as if they rolled 10+ on the roll above). On a 7­9 you can be
  fast (the victim is treated as if they rolled 10+, but takes d8 damage from your cutting) or
  accurate (the victim’s roll stands but they take no damage). On a 6­ the victim’s roll stands.
  When you consume Almodovar’s livewood potion, you are no longer negatively affected by
  physical contact with livewood – but there are side effects. Roll +Con. On a miss your body or
  mind is warped by the mutagenic effects of the potion: choose a debility you don’t already
  have and gain it. On a 7­9 choose one. On a 10+ choose zero, one, or two as you like.
  •
  You can exchange one debility you have for any other which you don’t already have.
  •
  You don’t grow tentacles, thorns, eye­stalks, or some other obvious sign of mutation.
  •
  You regain all your hit points.
  •
  Gain a new debility you don’t already have (your choice) and a useful physical
  mutation; tell everybody what it is.
  
  116
  ALMODOVAR
  Intelligent, Magical, Solitary
  Tentacles (d10 damage, Close);
  12 HP, 2 armour (inhuman resilience, extra organs)
  Special Quality: Livewood immunity
  As a moral sort of man, Almodovar tests his experiments on himself before he
  deems them safe for other people. Beneath his green robes his body is a mass
  of scars, strange growths, and weird lumps – most freakish of all is his most
  recent transformation: his back can now unfold like the petals of a flower to
  reveal four extensible muscle­tendrils. These tendrils are surprisingly strong,
  should Almodovar need to fight off attackers, but he mostly just uses them as
  extra hands when he is working on more alchemy.
  However, Almodovar’s newfound reluctance to disrobe in front of Gustav is
  putting a strain on their relationship.
  Instinct: To push the boundaries of physical form.
  • Undergo a surprising and horrifying transformation.
  • Command animals and plants with nature’s voice.
  When you've developed something new, test it on yourself first.
  When you encounter a new reagent, immediately commence testing.
  When you get emotional, get really emotional. Instability is your new normal.
  
  117
  HELA
  Intelligent, Solitary, Stealthy
  Axe/Bow (d10 damage, 1 piercing, Close, Near, Far);
  12 HP, 1 armour (leathers)
  Abandoned at birth and raised by a woodland hermit, Hela is almost as much
  animal as woman. She hates the Wildlands for its obvious perversion of the
  natural order and relentless advance, and considers the idea that it can be
  turned to people’s advantage a dangerous foolishness that is not to be
  tolerated. As far as she’s concerned, Livewood Town and the people in it are
  irredeemably tainted and must be destroyed before they become just another
  vector of infection.
  Instinct: To burn the tainted.
  • Listen to reason, then kill someone anyway.
  • Disappear into the undergrowth.
  When you can't just kill the tainted, hunt them later.
  When you set out to kill, try not to expose yourself to counterattack.
  When confronted with violence, flee, then circle around to strike back.
  LIVEWOOD LUMBERJACKS
  Group, Intelligent, Organised
  Axes (d8 damage, Close); 6 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Livewood immunity, Assorted mutations
  Almost all the lumberjacks in Livewood Town have sampled Almodovar’s
  potion, even if they don’t cut livewood themselves. They display a variety of
  physical mutations, but nothing spectacularly grotesque – Almodovar has
  refined his potion enough to avoid really nasty stuff.
  Instinct: To defend their way of life.
  • Fell a tree faster than you thought possible.
  • Work effectively in pairs.
  When outsiders threaten someone in town, close ranks.
  When confused, defer to the leadership of Almodovar or Gustav.
  
  118
  MABINOGE
  Large, Magical, Solitary, Terrifying
  Bite (d10+3 damage, 1 piercing, Close, Messy);
  16 HP, 2 armour (dragonhide)
  Special Qualities: Three­headed, Elemental blood
  Once a dragon the size of a horse, strong and regal, Mabinoge has been poorly
  affected by his encounter with livewood. Now he drags his misshapen bulk
  along the ground with his powerful front legs, his rear legs atrophied to
  uselessness and his wings tattered remnants of what they once were. Most
  dramatically two additional heads have grown from his shoulders, resembling
  his central head but eyeless and half­formed.
  Mabinoge’s personality has warped along with his body; he seeks to hoard the
  livewood like a normal dragon hoards gold, and to use it to further his
  transformation into something new. His normal cunning and foresight has
  given way to a childish greed backed by the power of his new form.
  Instinct: To hoard livewood.
  • Lash out in three directions at once.
  • Summon a localised thunderstorm.
  When you're not sure how to react, go with anger.
  When flattered, let them keep talking. Hate them for lying and hate yourself for
  wanting to believe it.
  When someone in your presence has livewood, demand it. If they refuse, take it
  from them.
  
  119
  THE LIVEWOOD GROVE
  REASONS TO ENTER THE CAVERN
  •
  Curiosity. What’s not to love about a mysterious hole in the ground below a tree
  that can kill you with a touch?
  •
  Rescue. Someone important and/or vulnerable has gone in there, and the player
  characters need to get them out.
  •
  Danger. Whatever lurks down there is less dangerous than whatever’s chased the
  characters in. The livewood will keep whatever­it­is out, and there might be
  another exit further in and down...
  •
  Quest. Zabulon’s staff is a handy item, especially if you want to recruit the support
  of the Brown Ring, and there are plenty of ways for player characters to find out
  where it is. Now they just have to get their hands on it.
  L1
  L2
  L3
  L4
  L5
  L6
  The livewood grove – Livewood Town’s source of livewood – is a rough circle of
  pale, leafless trees about a hundred yards across, found slightly more than a mile
  into the twisted woods of the Wildlands. At the centre of the circle is the largest
  tree, a giant that by its size must be older than the Wildlands themselves, and
  beneath its tangle of roots a cavern can be seen twisting into the ground.
  A few of the lumberjacks and Almodovar have tried exploring the cavern but
  the thorn guardians drove them off before they saw much. They don’t know
  what’s going on down there but suspect it’s more Wildlands trouble – but the
  guardians don’t leave the shadows of the cave, so the harvesting of livewood
  continues with no more than the occasional wary glance towards the cave
  entrance and some idle talk of blocking it up.
  
  120
  What no one has discovered yet is that the spirit of the great livewood tree is
  the guardian of a treasure: a staff which used to belong to Zabulon, founder of
  the Brown Ring. How did it come to possess such a thing? Why is it keeping it
  protected? Play to find out.
  None of the tunnels beneath the livewood grove are lit. The thorn guardians
  respond poorly to the use of fire in the tunnels, but the spirit of the great tree
  restrains them enough to allow for flaming torches. After all, the spirit wants
  its treasures to be found – it just wants to ensure that they are only found by
  the worthy.
  L1. TWISTING DESCENT
  The cave descends in a tight spiral through the earth, a tube lined with the
  twitching rootlets of the great tree above. The entrance is the most dangerous
  part, requiring extreme care to avoid contacting the livewood, but as the tunnel
  descends the roots become fewer, larger, and less mobile, presenting less
  danger to wandering adventurers.
  L2. CHAMBER AMONG THE ROOTS
  This approximately round chamber descends towards the centre, where a
  twisted spire of thorny vines juts from the floor, leafy and alive in defiance of
  the total darkness. These vines are not livewood but the needle­like thorns
  make them almost as unpleasant to brush up against – and this plant is the
  origin of the thorn guardians, which squeeze themselves through gaps in the
  vines or up through the soil when no one is looking.
  The spire is also the protective coating for Zabulon’s staff – the vines will
  unwind when the spirit of the tree decides a worthy bearer has arrived to
  reveal the staff entangled in its roots. The spirit judges worthiness by how
  people perform in the tests in the four other chambers: it’s looking for someone
  who
  embodies
  Zabulon’s
  particular
  combination
  of
  power,
  dedication,
  altruism, and purity – and a sense of humour doesn’t hurt either.
  L3. THE BLOW
  As the first character enters this chamber a dim light grows from nowhere to
  show a spectral scene: a vague and unfocused image of a village street, where
  an intimidating figure in heavy plate armour is frozen in place, his sword
  poised to cut down a small boy in front of him who is likewise frozen in the act
  of cowering. This scene is shown in full three dimensions for the characters to
  
  121
  THORN GUARDIANS
  Construct, Horde
  Thorny Grasp (d6 damage, Hand); 3 HP, 0 armour
  Special Qualities: Made of thorny vines
  The thorn guardians that live beneath the great livewood tree are small
  humanoid figures made of thorny vines that serve as protectors of the tree’s
  spirit and limited agents of its will. They mob enemies and try to bring them
  down by weight of numbers, climbing over each other and hooking their
  thorns into clothing, skin, hair – anything loose. They cannot leave the tunnels
  beneath the tree or their animating force will dissipate and they’ll collapse into
  their component parts.
  Instinct: To keep intruders out of the tunnels.
  • Get entangled in hair or clothing.
  When the spirit of the tree commands, obey.
  When set on fire, attempt to ignite your enemies before you are destroyed.
  ZABULON S STAFF
  Close, 2 weight
  Once wielded by Zabulon, founder of the Brown Ring, his staff has absorbed some of his nature
  and a small measure of his power. It resembles a six foot length of pale wood, more or less
  straight, carved from end to end with sigils that describe in some obscure language the
  formation of the Brown Ring and (broadly) Zabulon’s outlook on life. While holding it, a
  character gains access to the druid move elemental mastery (see Dungeon World page 110)
  regardless of their class. If held by a druid who already knows that move, take +1 when using it.
  Moreover, the staff is a powerful symbol of the Brown Ring. When using parley to persuade a
  member of the Brown Ring to do what you want, the staff counts as leverage – but only once
  per person.
  The staff has a guttering flame of intelligence and communicates through empathic urging – it
  insists its wielder fight against the spread of the Wildlands and try to restore the Brown Ring
  to a functional organisation. It can also sense the presence of Wildlands­taint and will push its
  wielder to destroy anyone or anything so tainted.
  
  122
  explore (within the confines of the chamber) and it responds to deliberate
  interaction: if the characters attempt to intervene in the scene or interact with
  the boy or armoured figure, it becomes solid and animates – the armoured
  figure’s sword sweeps across and, if not blocked, strikes down the boy.
  If the boy is struck down then both figures fade and vanish with no further
  action. If someone steps between the two and takes the blow in the boy’s place,
  they take the armoured figure’s damage and then the scene fades. Anything else
  awakens the ire of the armoured figure – it becomes fully real and assaults the
  PCs with tireless, single­minded aggression until slain, whereupon it vanishes.
  L4. THE TOWER
  Just like L3, the first character walking into this chamber causes it to illuminate
  with a sourceless light. In the centre of the floor is a pile of wooden building
  blocks, although these are just phantasms which vanish if removed from the
  chamber. On the far wall is a crude painting of a tower (which is real).
  This chamber is symbolic of the work Zabulon put in when creating the Brown
  Ring. Likewise symbolic of Zabulon’s efforts, the blocks are uncooperative:
  some twitch and shake when built on, bringing the whole edifice down around
  them; some slip away while no one is paying attention; some are impossible
  shapes that fit no kind of gap. The task is to build the blocks into a tower, by
  THE ARMOURED FIGURE
  Cautious, Construct, Solitary
  Sword (b[2d10] damage, Close); 20 HP, 4 armour (plate and shield)
  Special Quality: Not quite real, Unsleeping
  A single­minded slayer, silent and murderous.
  Instinct: To kill anyone in its path.
  • Pursue relentlessly.
  • Appear just when they thought they were safe.
  When spoken to, say nothing.
  When challenged by a worthy opponent, focus on them.
  When your prey escapes, follow them unerringly.
  
  123
  whatever method the characters come up with – even simple dedication to the
  task will eventually see results, but the player characters will probably be able
  to think of faster methods.
  L5. THE HAND
  Like the other chambers, entering this one illuminates a phantasmal scene –
  this one of an aged man seated at a desk. His right hand is corrupted by some
  curse: twisted, discoloured and showing talon­like nails. His left hand hovers
  over a selection of items: a sharp knife, a glove, and a metal shackle. The man
  responds to certain phrases if they are voiced in his presence, whether or not
  people are talking to him, to convey the following information:
  • He has been cursed, and the curse is transforming his body into
  something terrible. He does not know what it might do – or have
  already done – to his mind.
  • He is considering three options, represented by the objects he is
  choosing between.
  • He could use the knife to cut off his own hand – but it would leave
  him crippled and his cursed hand will crawl away to blight someone
  else.
  • He could conceal the curse beneath the glove – he would be
  transformed, but he could continue to live behind his veneer of
  normalcy.
  • He could chain himself in a secluded place with the shackle – but that
  would not halt the transformation, and it would not allow him to
  remain part of society.
  The man will do whatever the characters tell him to do, and the spirit of the
  tree will judge them based on their choices.
  L6. THE ARGUMENT
  The phantasmal scene in this chamber consists of three stone masks floating
  near the centre of the room. One is twisted into a caricature scowl, and from it
  emanates a gruff male voice. The second mask shows the fine bone structure
  and pointed ears of an elf, and its female voice rings like a bell. The third mask
  is relatively plain, and its expression seems concerned or arrogant depending
  on where you look at it from. It sounds like a local woman.
  
  124
  When someone enters the chamber the masks appear and begin to speak,
  arguing in endless circles about the “Wildlands threat” and what they should
  do about it.
  • The angry face advocates burning and other destruction as a suitable
  response to any problem. No amount of collateral damage is too
  much to ensure the eradication of its troubles, and no level of
  compromise is acceptable.
  • The elf face believes in passive resistance. No amount of collateral
  damage is acceptable, but neither is coming to an accord – the slow
  progress of time will solve all problems without her needing to offer
  her opponents any concessions.
  • The local face wants to take the best parts of the Wildlands and
  incorporate them into everyday life – she is an adamant futurist and
  refuses to believe that rampant progress could possibly be a bad idea.
  If challenged with evidence, she points out that she wasn’t in charge of
  that one, and things will be different this time…
  The three faces are broadly representative of the three factions of the Brown
  Ring (see page 28). All are totally unreasonable, up to and beyond the point of
  stupidity. The task in this chamber is to find a unanimously acceptable
  resolution to their endless dispute. The tree­spirit will be extremely impressed
  with anyone who manages it via diplomatic means, since the purpose of the
  test is to recognise that sometimes you just have to shout at people until they
  do what you want. That’s the kind of bold use of power that it’s looking for.
  WHAT IF NO-ONE S WORTHY?
  It's entirely possible that after displaying themselves to be amoral, greed­driven maniacs the
  spirit of the tree decides that none of the player characters are worthy of the staff. Here are
  some suggestions of how to handle that:
  •
  Sucks To Be You. The characters tried and they failed, and that means they leave
  empty­handed. It's simple, if a little anti­climactic, but sometimes we don’t get
  what we want.
  •
  Better A Mediocre Bearer Than No­One. The spirit might choose to bestow the
  staff on them anyway, especially if it feels that one of them might be nudged onto
  to a better path by the staff’s mental urging.
  •
  The NPC Option. The spirit might bestow the staff on an NPC – maybe one who is
  present with the player characters when they explore the tree, or maybe one who
  explores it later, following in the characters’ footsteps. Gustav, Almodovar, and
  Hela offer the potential to hand the staff to whichever Brown Ring faction you
  think will make the game most interesting.
  
  125
  Compendium Classes
  Justicar
  When you’ve been inducted into the dwarven order of justicars, the next time
  you level up you can choose to take this move:
  JUSTICE!
  When you confront a wrongdoer, list their crimes, and tell them what you're
  going to do about it, roll +Wis. On a 10+ hold 3, on a 7–9 hold 2. On a 6­ you
  can still hold 1 but your target might retaliate sooner or harder than you were
  expecting. Spend hold 1­for­1 to achieve the following effects:
  • Take +1 on a roll made to bring
  about the justice you have
  pronounced. (Maximum spend 1
  per roll.)
  • When your target deals
  damage to you, negate it
  and give voice to your
  defiance. “Is that all
  you've got?”
  • Bypass an obstacle
  between you and your
  target as if you had rolled
  10+ on
  .
  • Find a lead that will tell
  you where your target has
  gone, if they have fled.
  When you have justice!,
  the following moves
  count as level 2–5 class
  moves and you can
  choose to take them when
  you level up:
  
  126
  NOSE FOR TROUBLE
  When you go looking for trouble in a peaceful steading, you find it. Tell the
  GM what you find and what you do about it, then choose one boon and the
  GM will choose one drawback.
  Boons:
  • In trouble with the authorities? Not any more. It’s all square between
  you now.
  • The story’s out, people know your name, and
  . You can
  count on the support of the people here.
  • Treasure! Gain 1d4 x 100 coins.
  • You learn something interesting – you choose the general topic and
  the GM will tell you what you learn.
  Drawbacks:
  • You had to cross a few lines; next time you come back here, you’re
  subject to the outstanding warrants move (Dungeon World, page 80)
  • You took a nasty wound. Gain a debility of your choice.
  • No victory without cost. A friendly NPC in this steading died so you
  could triumph.
  • It never ends. You think you wrapped things up clean, but the
  consequences are going to bite you on the ass later.
  I'LL LET IT SLIDE... THIS TIME
  When you parley with criminals or evildoers and use the promise of your
  future leniency or mercy as leverage, you can choose to treat the result of the
  dice as 6 without needing to roll. (Add your Charisma modifier and any other
  bonuses as normal.)
  THE EVIL ARE GUILTY, AND CREATE MERCY
  When you subdue someone you would prefer to kill, an NPC who sees or
  hears of the deed will grant you a boon, change their ways, or hold off from
  menacing you for a while. If you choose the NPC the GM chooses the effect,
  and if you let the GM choose the NPC you can choose the effect.
  
  127
  THE TRUTH HURTS
  When
  you
  confront
  someone
  with
  an
  ugly
  truth
  they’d
  rather
  not
  acknowledge, the GM chooses at least one:
  • They don’t retaliate, even if they want to. This protection lasts until
  you have definitively left their presence, or until you anger them
  further.
  • They break down and beg for your forgiveness. If you grant it, they
  repent and change their ways.
  • The shock causes them to pause, stutter, hesitate, or miss something
  important.
  When you have justice!, the following moves count as level 6–10 class moves
  for you:
  BRING ME HER HEAD!
  Requires: Nose For Trouble
  When you disrupt the plans or operations of a powerful enemy, they react
  with assassins or kidnappers targeting you, your allies, or your loved ones.
  You will be in a position to thwart the assault, and the attackers will be
  carrying useful information.
  THE GOOD ARE INNOCENT, AND CREATE JUSTICE
  Requires: The Evil Are Guilty, And Create Mercy
  This extends the effect of the evil are guilty to times when you kill someone
  who really had it coming, and make a big show of what you’ve done.
  SPECIALTY OPTION
  If you want to start as a justicar at level 1 and you are a dwarf, you can replace
  one of your starting moves with justice! if you tell everyone why you haven’t
  answered Erdrie Stonecaller’s recall of all justicars.
  
  128
  Brown Ring Initiate
  When you’ve been inducted into the Brown Ring by an existing member, or
  when you’re the bearer of Zabulon’s Staff (see page 121), the next time you
  level up you can choose to take this move:
  SENSE TAINT
  When you pause and examine your surroundings for unnatural taint, the GM
  will tell you honestly what here is tainted by the wildlands and by how much:
  slightly, moderately, heavily, or completely. ‘Tainted’ is a vague status which
  also covers abominations against nature such as the undead, freakish
  monstrosities from impossible dimensions, but not demons. Although steeped
  in evil and often freakish in form, demons are very much a natural part of the
  way the multiverse functions.
  When you have sense taint, the following moves count as level 2–5 class moves
  and you can choose to take them when you level up:
  ALCHEMIST
  When you harvest natural or wildlands ingredients to create a potion, tell the
  GM what you intend the potion to achieve and the GM will tell you one, some,
  or all of the following:
  • An exotic ingredient, process, or piece of equipment you will need to
  complete the potion.
  • One or more drawbacks the drinker will suffer.
  • That the brewing will take some time.
  GARDENER
  Your knowledge of plants (including plant­based monsters) is unsurpassed.
  You can always tell if a plant is healthy or, if it is not, what is causing it to
  suffer. If you have time to move carefully, you can always bypass dangerous
  plant hazards by picking your way carefully through them or applying a
  herbal counteragent to their stings and thorns. You can extend this benefit to
  your companions as well if they follow your instructions.
  SCOURGE
  When you deal damage to someone or something you have previously
  identified as tainted, you deal +1d4 damage.
  
  129
  MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING
  When you arrive at a new steading, you can tell the GM of a member of the
  Brown Ring who lives in the steading or nearby. Give this person a name and
  choose one of the following:
  • They have something you need, but they hate you. Why?
  • They like you, but you owe them a debt. What did they do for you in
  the past?
  • They owe you a favour – and they’ll do what you ask, fair and square
  – but they’re not particularly capable. What did you do for them?
  • You’ve heard of them, but the two of you have never met. The GM
  has a free hand in inventing your contact.
  WISDOM OF THE ELDEST
  When you miss on a spout lore roll, you can pause and consult the spirit of
  Zabulon. If you do, reroll the
  move – but any knowledge gained on a
  success is filtered through the perspective of a long­dead druid with a bizarre
  sense of humour.
  When you have sense taint, the following moves count as level 6–10 class
  moves for you:
  COMMAND THE RING
  Requires: Member in Good Standing
  When you call for a gathering of the Brown Ring, 1d6 members per day
  answer the call, for a number of days equal to your level. If you try to
  command the gathered members to do something roll +Cha: On a 10+ pick
  three, on a 7–9 pick one, and on a miss infighting at the gathering is going to
  cause you a serious problem.
  • The gathered members will follow your commands over a wide area.
  • The gathered members will follow your commands for a long time.
  • The gathered members will follow your commands exactly as you
  want them to.
  • The gathered members won’t start fighting among themselves.
  ALL NATURAL
  Choose one move from the druid class list.
  
  130
  Three Storms Disciple
  When you’ve been taught the rudiments of Three Storms style by Master Lee
  (or maybe one of his advanced students) the next time you level up you can
  choose to take this move:
  THREE STORMS BASICS
  Your bare hands now have one of the following weapon tags:
  • If you lean towards the way of the snowstorm, stun.
  • If you prefer the way of sleet and ice, piercing 1.
  • If you favour the way of the thunderstorm, forceful.
  When you have Three Storms basics, the following moves count as level 2–5
  class moves and you can choose to take them when you level up:
  ADVANCED STUDENT
  You can add a second tag from Three Storms basics to your unarmed attacks.
  ICE-TREADER
  When you stand or climb on slippery, loose, or otherwise uncertain terrain,
  you are in no danger of losing your footing or grip.
  AVALANCHE GRIP
  When you grab hold of someone, you can choose to bear them to the ground
  and pin them there. Whether you do or not, if they escape your grip you can
  choose to deal your damage to them.
  ON LEVELLING UP AND LEARNING KUNG FU
  Learning kung fu takes ages. Yet a Dungeon World player character, blessed with many
  failures, can attain a new level – and a new Three Storms stance – in a few days. If you’re
  having trouble reconciling these points, I’d like to direct you to the Jet Li movie The Evil Cult
  (known by a whole bunch of other names as well). Not only is it well worth watching if you
  like kung fu movies, it features a scene in which the main character is trapped in a sealed tomb
  with a new kung fu style written on the inside of the seals. His translator explains that it
  would take years to master this new style! …unless you’ve already mastered one of the great
  styles, in which case you can do it in hours.
  Same principle. The characters are already unique in the world – the fighter, the cleric, etc. –
  and it turns out that uniqueness extends to their ability to learn supernatural kung fu as well.
  Master Lee will shake his head and say things like “If you dedicated yourself to the martial
  arts, there is no limit to what you could learn!” and you can get on with your game of crane­
  kicking demons in the face.
  
  131
  THUNDERCLAP
  When you hit someone with an open­palm strike, they are blasted off their
  feet and deafened for a few minutes by the thunderclap sound of your strike.
  The noise is audible up to a mile away. You can also generate these thunderclap
  noises by clapping your hands (with no risk of knocking yourself over).
  When you have Three Storms basics, the following moves count as level 6–10
  class moves for you:
  DISCIPLE
  Requires: Advanced Student
  Your unarmed attacks gain the third and final tag from Three Storms basics.
  WUXIA
  When you are facing a powerful enemy or enemies, the chips are down, and
  the outlook is bad, you can break out a unique instance of blatant and over­
  the­top supernatural martial arts power – summoning a storm, throwing
  lightning, freezing people solid, tearing the building down, and so on – that
  achieves one of the following things:
  • You and any friends you want to take with you escape to a place of
  safety, evading any pursuit.
  • A single enemy of your choice suffers a painful wound that causes
  them to flee the scene in such a way that you cannot pursue. (Yes, it
  will scar, and yes, they will seek revenge.)
  • A nameless minion of the enemy (or group of minions) is so inspired
  by your display that they immediately turn on their previous allies.
  Give them a name and say what they do.
  Wuxia only works once per opponent or group of opponents. You've bought
  yourself some time before the final confrontation, but next time they'll be ready
  for you!
  SPECIALTY OPTION
  If you want to start as a Three Storms disciple at level 1, you can replace one of
  your starting moves with Three Storms basics. Tell everyone why you
  abandoned your training, and know that if you ever return to Thunder
  Mountain you will be unwelcome among Lee and his students.
  
  132
  Almodovar (stats)
  116
  Ana (stats)
  41
  Ancient Worm, The (stats)
  113
  Arachrons (stats)
  59
  Aria (stats)
  68
  Armoured Figure, The (stats)
  122
  Bartok Stonecaller (stats)
  102
  Beast, The (stats)
  36
  Beneath the Livewood Tree
  114
  Broken Ones (stats)
  60
  Brown Ring Initiate
  (compendium class)
  128
  Brown Ring, The
  28
  Campaign Fronts
  32
  Canithrax (stats)
  35
  Castor (stats)
  79
  Cenisseren
  26
  Cobalt (stats)
  37
  Cobalt's Enforcers (stats)
  20
  Cobalt's Offspring (stats)
  38
  Cobalt's Palace
  19
  Compendium Classes
  125
  Crow­Headed Wildlander (stats)
  27
  Demon­Bane Dagger (item)
  72
  Demon­Ridden Dwarf (stats)
  99
  Demon­Ridden Sorceress (stats)
  101
  Dog­Headed Wildlander (stats)
  28
  Dominated Teenager (stats)
  78
  Dramatis Personae
  5
  Drontok the Thunderous (god)
  16
  Dungeons
  50
  Index
  Dwarf­Crafted Items
  89
  Enforcers, Cobalt's (stats)
  20
  Enkil (stats)
  40
  Erdrie Stormcaller (stats)
  84
  Erky Timbers (stats)
  93
  Flood, The (campaign front)
  32
  Fungoid (stats)
  111
  Glimmerdance (item)
  42
  Greyscale (stats)
  93
  Hela (stats)
  117
  Hidden Library, The
  13, 50
  Hidden Library, The
  50
  History
  6
  Horn of Sounding (item)
  88
  Incineron (stats)
  65
  Introduction
  4
  Justicar (compendium class)
  125
  Lee (stats)
  43
  Lee's Disciples (stats)
  44
  Lesser Orin (stats)
  46
  Livewood Lumberjacks (stats)
  117
  Livewood Town
  114
  Lord Harn (stats)
  45
  Lord Harn's Gift
  74
  Mabinoge (stats)
  118
  Marie (stats)
  47
  Master Lee (stats)
  43
  Master Lee's Disciples (stats)
  44
  Oil of Oorlgat (item)
  66
  Oorlgat (stats)
  62
  Overview
  4
  
  133
  Port Landing
  18
  Redwater Valley, The
  10
  Riverwatch Hold
  23, 81
  Riverwatch Hold, Dwarfhome
  99
  Riverwatch Hold, Entrance
  82
  Riverwatch Hold, Marketplace
  87
  Riverwatch Hold, The Guilds
  95
  Riverwatch Hold,
  The Pump Chambers
  90
  Riverwatch Hold, The Survivors
  94
  Riverwatch Hold, The Tunnels
  103
  Sarlat (stats)
  39
  Savage Fishfolk (stats)
  85
  Sawback Mountains, The
  29
  Sheva (stats)
  12
  Sheva the Witch
  13
  Silver Ocean, The
  17
  Sralca (stats)
  55
  Sunken Temple of
  the Unspeakable Cult
  106
  Suxaibit (stats)
  76
  The Mystery Clock (item)
  98
  Thorn Guardians (stats)
  121
  Three Storms Disciple
  (compendium class)
  130
  Thunder Peak
  30
  Tunnel­Worm Young (stats)
  53
  Tunnelling Worm (stats)
  108
  Twilight Stronghold, The
  13
  Twilight Stronghold, The
  57
  Ubar (stats)
  61
  Unspeakable Cult Leaders (stats)
  112
  Unspeakable Cult, The
  22
  Unspeakable Cultists (stats)
  109
  Wandering Cottage, The
  31
  War, The (campaign front)
  36
  Watchers for the End (stats)
  71
  Watchers for the End, The
  10
  Wildlander, Crow­Headed (stats)
  27
  Wildlander, Dog­Headed (stats)
  28
  Wildlands, The
  24
  Yesha (stats)
  15
  Yesha the Prophet
  14
  Yesha's Minions (stats)
  16
  Zabulon's Staff (item)
  121
  
  134
  Moves Index
  When you travel on or by the Silver Ocean...
  16
  When you wander Cobalt’s palace without a guide...
  21
  When you are caught in a wildstorm...
  25
  When you experience a vision of Cenisseren­as­it­was...
  27
  When returning to a steading that’s been flooded since your last visit...
  32
  When you release Glimmerdance to fight on its own...
  42
  The first time you search the archive of the Hidden Library for a
  prophecy relevant to your current aims...
  54
  When you pass through a bubble to a new time period...
  58
  When you pay the burning skeleton of the time­lost city...
  64
  When you are exposed to the effects of Oil of Oorlgat...
  66
  When you rummage quickly through the arcane library
  of the Twilight Stronghold...
  67
  When you prize the amethysts out of the ritual circle...
  69
  When you spout lore any time after consulting the
  monastery­library of Riverwatch Hold...
  94
  When you consult the face of the mystery clock...
  98
  When you explore the worm tunnels with no destination in mind...
  109
  When you plunge heedlessly into the tunnels to
  escape an enemy or situation...
  109
  When you try to use the worm tunnels to get somewhere in particular... 109
  When you come into physical contact with livewood...
  115
  When someone tries to cut invading livewood out of your body...
  115
  When you try to cut invading livewood from someone’s body...
  115
  When you consume Almodovar’s livewood potion...
  115
  .
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeon World (PbtA) [multi]/Other Contents/Adventures & Monster Manuals/Plague of Storms - A Dungeon World Campaign.pdf