Vagabonds of Murghabkanda

Game details

Rules and System

This game will be played using Dungeon World.

Campaign Background

The game is set near the mouth of the Murghab River, where the small trading port of Murghabkanda lies. This port, a far flung bastion of the mercantile Khorafan Empire, was built to lodge a foothold on the edge of the great wilderness through which the Murghab River flows. The area is rugged, ranging from barren rocks to fetid swamps to dark, mist-filled jungles, all covering the vestiges of an ancient civilization destroyed by own its own evil and savagery.

The characters are vagabonds, called ayyair in the tongue of Khorafan. They are persons who seek out a life of adventure and hardship, relying on their own cunning and strength to make their way on the edges of what wealthier, fancier people call civilization. They are guards for river convoys, odd-job troubleshooters for the small settlements that are sprouting up in the Murghab Basin, occasional policemen and brigands, and always on the lookout for a lost treasure or a lootable ruin. They are appreciated and sought out when danger threatens, and shunned and reviled in times of peace.

Linguistic Touchpoints and Names

With respect to thinking of names, consider the following linguistic touchpoints. Each of the pages below has the list of names for characters. All characters will need to have a name from one of those lists.

• Humans = Persian/Iranian
• Dwarves = Krygyz/Uzbek
• Elves = Avestan
• Halflings = Tibetan

The Map

• Aneran - In Elvish, the living light. A primordial jungle considered holy by the elves, large portions of it have been razed and settled by the Khorafan Empire under Cambyses.
• Murghab River Basin - a large river complex that empties at Murghabkanda. Not Amazon big, more like Congo or Mekong big. Littered with steep rocky outcroppings, and varying from twisting channels in steep banks to wide flows to swampy muck.
• Murghabkanda - a small trading port that lies on the rocky coast at the mouth of the Murghab River. Founded by merchants and settlers from the Khorafan Empire but not officially part of that nation. A free town, for all the promise and danger that entails.
• Nardaran River - a part of the Murghab River complex, dark and slow moving, full of twists and turns
• Susara - A Dwarven mining village on one of the many rocky outcroppings in the Murghab River basin
• Parsassus - A province of the Khorafan Empire, a demesne carved by axe and fire from Aneran (in Elvish: the living light), once thriving jungles held sacred by the elves. Ruled by Cambyses.

Characters

Dungeon World playbooks can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e31xwvn3nfqmo4n/DW_Sheets.pdf They will be used exactly as written except for the lists of names. Those are superseded by the lists found on the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings pages.

Player characters

Living

Atumaspa Nijara - An Elvish wizard, sharp eyes, wild hair, strange robes, pudgy body.

Nasrim - A Human Bard, Fiery Eyes, wild hair, travelling clothes, fit body

Rashanak - A human thief, shifty eyes, turban, fancy clothes, lithe body

Zari - a human paladin, glowing eyes, styled hair, fancy holy symbol, fit body

Not so Living

Dooga - a thri-keen druid, wise eyes, ceremonial chitin carvings.

Sadly, bitten in half by the mighty river turtle Bakunawa. Death in the form of an animated, discarded chitin, offered Dooga the choice to despoil nature in exchange for life. Dooga instead chose to continue on to the final molt, when the chitin of the material body itself is exchanged for unity with the natural forces of the universe. He was memorialized in the Song of Dooga, a fitting elegy penned by Nasrim.

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Nonplayer characters

Shadee Thrice-Wise - a very wise sage, currently residing in Murghabkanda. Gave Nasrim his lute.

Shabnam Not-So-Wise - a not-so wise sage, student of the Thrice-Wise, currently missing somewhere in the jungles and swamps surround the Dwarven mining village of Susara

Nigora - mayor of Susara

Cambyses the Magnificent (the Cruel to his subjects) satrap of the Khorafan province of Parsassus

Crew of the Mining Barge

Aslanbek - a dwarf, skipper of a mining barge taking mining equipment to Susara

Dastan - big for a dwarf, and not that smart

Adolat - 2nd in command

Guldasta - mining engineer in charge of the equipment

Shairkul - Young lookout

Gulrakhsor - Mule keeper, very sad

Zhyrgal - killed by Bakunawa, much mourned but little known

Creatures and Others

Bakunawa - a really big freaking turtle. There should be a ritual to befriend Bakunawa, but it would require the help and/or knowledge of a Khangua Shaman

Figures on the Hillock - there were four of them, one big and three smaller. Nasrim attracted the attention of the big one for good or ill. They were too far away to see clearly.

The story so far

Chapter 1

Our vagabonds find themselves aboard a barge, powered by mules and crewed by dwarves, skippered by Aslanbek. This barge is taking some mining machinery up the river to Susara, a small mining community on one of the many mineral rich rocky hillocks that poke out of the jungle of the Murghab River.

In the evening, the mules are killed by poisoned darts from the shoreline. As the barge drifts, diminutive lizard people (known as Khangua in the tongue of the Khorafan Empire) attack, hurling spears from the trees. A sharp battle ensued, with Zari demonstrating her bravery and agility in leaping into the trees, but nearly losing her sword, Rashanak showing that he can catch a sword with the best of them, Atumaspa and Nazrim showing that it isn't easy to make a hunting caiman give up it's prey, and Dooga proving he does indeed know the jungle well.

But as the remaining Khangua ran off into the evening jungle, the vagabonds found themselves in a pickle; far up the river with a mule-powered barge and no mules to speak of.

Chapter 2

The vagabonds dealt with the outcome of the death (by poisoned darts) of the mules that powered their barge up the Murghab River to the Dwarven mining settlement of Susara, after beating back an attack of the diminuitive Khangua lizard-folk. Dooga, the mysterious thri-keen druid, communed with the spirits of the dead mules and become as one with them, able to then, in mule form, power the barge at roughly one third speed.

So a tense voyage upriver continued, with Khangua scouts pacing the barge along the side of the river, and the vagabonds keeping watch. At one point the Khangua detonated some mining charges, felling a massive tree and blocking the barges retreat.

After entering a wider part of the river, Zari the Paladin notices that some of the Khangua had climbed upon a nearby small island, and seemed to be doing something on it. However, on closer inspection, she realized that this was no island, it was a massive snapping turtle the size of an inn!

Dooga called out, startling the Khangua on the turtles back, but unfortunately waking the giant turtle prematurely. Dooga prompted Nasrim the bard to sing the turtle a lulaby, which seemed perhaps to be working, but Dooga perhaps lost his nerve, and tried to spear the beast anyway.

This turned out to be a bad move. The giant turtle attacked. Zari leapt onto the beast, attempting to stab it in its neck but mostly battering herself against its shell. Atumapsa the elvish wizard attempted to use Magic Missle, but barely scorched the beast. Nasrim rallied the dwarves to grab a large stake to try to stab the beast, but this only resulted in one of the dwarves being snapped in half.

Dooga, who had been tossed into the river, sought to turn to bat form and distract the creature. But, getting to close to its jaws, he was nearly snapped in two. As the thri-keen druid fell towards the river, dying, Death gave the druid a hard bargain; he could return to life, if only he was willing to turn against the natural order of this place, where life had run amok too long. Dooga refused, and his spirit became one with the jungle.

Atumaspa became invisible, and made her way onto the back of the beast. She noticed that the Khangua had pried a section of shell away, exposing soft flesh marked with strange patterns. She realized that this was the method the Khangua used to control the turtle, by massaging it in this spot, they could put the turtle into a hypnotic state and therefore control it. Atumaspa quickly began the process, and while Nasrim sang an elegy for Dooga, rallying the dwarven barge crew, the turtle, with one last mighty blow that shattered the front of the barge, entered a deep trance, rumbling so that ripples spread across the water.

Atumaspa quickly arranged for Aslanbeck, the barge captain, to hitch the turtle to the rear of the barge, and thus the barge traveled much more quickly. However, Nasrim, in attempting to heal the wounds of Zari, conjured up too much life, and the barge was beset by a pestilence of insects, almost certain to cause sickness among the vagabonds and crew. Nasrim remembered, however, that Dooga had once told her that turtle urine made an excellent insect repellent. And did they not have the largest turtle in the universe?

It is best we pass quickly over the events of the next hour or so, as they are not for the delicate minded. Needless to say, a much smellier but insect free barge continued on and arrived, much battered, at Susara. Dooga and Zhyrgal the dwarf were lost, as were several pieces of the mining equipment the barge was carrying.

Why had the Khangua attacked? What was angering Nardaran, the spirit of that part of the river? And who were the shadowy forms seen just before the turtle attacked?

Links

Pinterest Board

See: http://www.pinterest.com/hansmessersmith/vagabonds-of-murghabkanda/

Ask Hans if you want permission to add pins. This is a board for visual idea for the game.

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