Jack Stickyfingers and Forge Ironson wiped the sweat off their brows as they gazed down at the melee around the great bronze doors. Their period of community service would end when they had confirmed that the mad wizard Grundloch had indeed invaded the halls, bent on using some arcane device within to rule the world.
The problem was, relations seemed to have broken down between the lizardmen and the goblins who watched the outer walls. At present, they were crouched behind improvised barriers, yelling at each other and launching the occasional half-hearted sortie. As the pair watched from above, two of the lizard men crept up a small ravine, aiming to flank the goblins. The heroes nodded at each other, the thief mouthing "those two first" to the surprisingly lanky dwarf.
The twain paused, the diminutive thief focusing on his target spot and the dwarven cleric mumbling silent prayers to Morphie, god of trickery and secrets, the Lord of Fatal Practical Jokes. As the lizards crept by, Forge leapt down, his great mace swinging. Sadly, his shadow gave him away, and the lizardman he attacked spun away from the blow, his tail whipping to take the feet out from under the unfortunate dwarf. The other end of the equation worked perfectly, however. The spinning lizard inadvertently thrust himself onto the the sword of the backstabbing thief, ending his life. The second lizard sold his life dearly, pounding the heroes with a bone hammer.
The heroes picked their way onto some boulders above the fight, resting. As they caught their breath, Forge attempted to cast his Cure Light Wounds, at which point the two learned that Morphie doesn't seem to enjoy heroes who need healing; he'd rather the wimps worked it out another way.
A burst of energy lit up the hillside where they crouched, alerting both the lizardmen and the goblins of their location. Seeing their foully slain comrades, the lizardmen began rumbling up the hillside, forgetting the goblins. Meanwhile two goblins began hauling on a camouflaged rope attached to something up the hillside.
Seeing the approaching lizards, Forge attempted again to heal, only to have a bit of rock underfoot give way, pitching him onto his back downslope of the boulders at which point he realized that a) the boulders here had been stacked and wedged in a way to cause a landslide, and b) the two goblins were hauling on the trigger!
Swearing mightily, Forge leapt with two agile bounds, clearing the landslide area safely. Sadly, Jack was surprised by his yell and missed his footing, pitching himself down into the same ravine area Forge had so recently occupied. Forge came to his assistance by grabbing one rope of the trigger, so that only the western half of the hillside came away. The lizardmen were swept away, but now the remaining three goblins ran out to support the trap crew.
Thinking quickly, Forge stopped resisting the pull on the eastern trigger. Yelling at Jack to move, he added his weight and strength to the pull on the rope, sending the eastern half of the trap cascading downhill. Jack wedged himself into the rivulet, eventually emerging soaked and bruised but generally unhurt. The same could not be said for the three goblins.
As Forge fought hand and tooth against the remaining goblins, he was winged by a spear covered in some psychadelic substance, giving him ferocious hallucinations. Jack, literally emerging from an open grave in the rivulet took a goblin by surprise. Eventually, only the two heroes were left, standing with their single hitpoint each over the dead goblins.
During the ensuing after-encounter conference with his god, Forge also gained in determination. Morphie relented, allowed the two to heal now that their opponents lay dead. He also granted the wise dwarf the ability to cast damaging effects at his enemies.
An attempt to be stealthy revealed the difference in skill levels, as the wily thief whispered down the hill only to be followed by his dwarven companion in a minicollapse of gravel that rang the bronze doors like a gong. Determining that no creature responded to the noise, they entered the hall, only to stop as a booming voice announced, "Forge Ironson, seeker of secrets" and "Jack of no particular abode" to the world. They were confused as their weapons glowed until Forge consulted the spirit of the stones in the great hall, finding that the announcement system and peacebond area was an ancient method of his people to create a safe public arena for meetings or negotiation. Jack seemed particularly put out that Forge could speak with the stones but he was unable to hear the other side of the conversation.
Since their last answer of the stones was that the western stairs led more slowly and gradually to their goal, the two took the stairs. Jack wisely noted a trap created by later inhabitants and demonstrated the way to avoid the triggers. Step down, one to the side, shufflestep, turn and reach down with the leg, then hop over the last two steps. When it was the dwarf's turn, with no little trepidation, he asked Jack to redisplay the steps. Jack did so, but the dwarf's legs were not as steady during the full-body turn, and he set off the trap, cascading the two downstairs.
Due to his recently practiced powers of evasion, Jack rode the wave of rubble adroitly, alighting in front of two promising vaulted doors. Sighing in exasperation, he turned and actually left the area to see where his dwarven companion had washed up. As Forge picked himself up, he was confronted with three glowing insects the size of housecats, buzzing angrily and beginning to radiate heat from their foresections. Worse, one flew directly to where the thief crept down the stairs, evidently having some method of sensing him in the shadows. Forge quickly crushed one insect. Jack leapt into the air, his shortsword bisecting an insect at the cost of flaming vomit coating his chest. Forge attempted to use his god's power to shrivel the last bug, only to be distracted by a spiritual voice in his head. The final insect was lining up to fry the angry cleric, only to find itself spitted on Jack's gladius a moment later. "Incoming!" Forge called to Jack, indicating the direction from which they had come. Nervously, the two gripped their weapons, breathing heavily from the exertion.
This proved to be a momentary respite, as three ghosts floated down the stairs. The two elected to stay and use courage to deal with the uncanny nature of the ghosts. This proved to be a mistake, as Forge was uneffected, but Jack was left ineffectually attempting to climb the walls in his terror. The ghosts said, "You will do as we say" and "I will walk in the sun again," but the heroes ignored them. Still insane with terror, Jack lay down on the rubble and attempted to cover himself with small rocks. Forge attempted to banish the ghosts, to have no effect whatsoever. Eventually, Forge used his god's power and his good right arm to banish two ghosts despite the freezing effect of their dispersion. As Forge disrupted the first, Jack popped up. "Oh, you can KILL them," right as rain. The third ghost entered Jack and walked away with his body up the stairs as Forge struggled with the second specter. Forge ran up the stairs after finishing the undead, to find Jack standing in the sunlight with ghost steaming off him happily. "That was an odd experience," said Jack. "I dreamed I was in my mum's kitchen."
The two reentered the dwarfhold and this time stopped at the doors that Jack had admired. With a quick twist of his wrist, he opened the locks, remarking to Forge, "As craftsmen, your people build the best locks in the civilized world, but as users, you never change them from the default combination." The two searched inside, finding three mummified manacled bodies and otherwise empty shelves. Jack discovered a secret shelf, and as Forge began the ritual to speak with stone, Jack found a rope of tricks he began to call Twisty. Twisty was apparently lonely, as it wound around Jack's hand in a friendly manner. Placed in his pack, it stretched one end up onto his shoulder like a housecat.
Meanwhile, the ritual was strangely altered by the magical resonance. The magic allowed Jack to hear the stones, and he unwisely wasted half of their (extra) questions asking things like, "Does it usually sound like this?" The two squared their shoulders and proceeded into the depths. What happened there will come another day.
Game commentary As GM, I must say that I loved this game. The relatively simple mechanics were easy to teach and everyone quickly got into the "Add my modifier and see if I beat 6 or 9" mode when using moves. It really helped people just describe what they wanted to do and then we quickly assessed the move implied by the description. Instead of picking a power in D&D 4E, it seemed more organic to the story.
I also enjoyed the way the goals affected GM play in that I "yes and"ed the players in ways I might not have in more traditionally structured games. In the first fight, I had the lizardmen flanking the goblins, who were pretending not to notice in order to lure them into the kill zone of the avalanche, but when the cleric decided that he grabbed the rope on one side so only one side of the landslide fell, I just added that extra rope. Similarly, when the cleric accidentally drew notice when killing off the last firefly, I had a disembodied voice in his head notice him, intending it to be the idol in foreshadowing for when it used his spells against them in a later scene. Instead, he told the thief that there were incoming enemies, so I had the hungry ghosts from upstairs come down and confront them there.
I also appreciated the way that this first adventure gave the characters multiple reasons to use all those basic moves and special moves for their character in a fun way. Having the thief seemingly effortlessly open the vault door and find the trick rope made him seem competent and cool, and the cleric used every trick on the sheet between turning undead and questioning the stones of the hall.
There are a couple of difficulties with the sample nature of this PDF. There actually isn't a full set of information about leveling up, but I found it in the free download PDF (The HACK versus the BASIC) I had read first, so that was okay. There's a question about how certain powers interact fluffwise - does Turn Undead bypass the armor of the undead? If so, the ghosts were particularly hard targets because they had 5 armor and the first round of Turning had no effect whatsoever. Also, the PDF (and download) never quite come out and say what hold 1 and +1 forward mean. I assume that I am doing this correctly, but I'm going to wait for the real release to find out.
The only negative I heard from players is that the "character folder" for the cleric is a bit too much for this beginning player. She did a lot of flipping between the character sheet and the spells when she was searching for the rolling mechanics material. I plan to take care of that with a specialized character sheet with everything that she tends to use the most on the front.
I look forward to seeing the finished version early next year.
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