Winter. Final turn.
Darius decides that now is the perfect time to get the king drunk.
{6} - The dwarf brings King Mermaid some booze. She greedily drinks, and quickly starts hitting on him. Then she vanishes
Locke attempts diplomacy (or dies with the last military forces).
{4} - Locke watches the king vanish, then goes out to attempt diplomacy with the rebels ...
Sir Mangrove wishes for the king to be teleported here (and possibly Asha and <CLASSIFIED>, if she could).
{5} - Not being content to find the City of Gold, but to wish for others to join him?
She considers for several long moments, then relents that his intentions are pure.
The king, High Priestess Asha, and <CLASSIFIED>, are teleported into the City of Gold. They are all welcome to stay as long as they wish, but will never again find the city should they leave.
Arghl Nooo tries to find the legendary City of Gold.
{4} - He has no idea where to even begin looking for the mythical city. Still, he uses magic to slip through the rebel lines, and begins the search.
Hobnob sacrifices the high priestess to close the portal.
{5}
Asha prays for protection.
{4}
A small scuffle ensues. Hobnob easily captures the unresisting priestess, and laughs at her prayers for protection. She then vanished as he was reaching for the sacrificial knife.
<CLASSIFIED> protects the priestess.
{3} - The assassin tried to act as a bodyguard, but was dismissed during her meditations. He would have freed her, but then was teleported.
Slaughtersoul uses painfruit to mutate the local levies.
{2} - Unfortunately, he can't find any painfruit. The granary they were supposedly in appears to have melted.
Locke sallies forth, leading the last of the levies and the berserkers from Undermoon. The rebels greatly outnumber his forces, are happily accept his surrender.
The rebels take the castle. {5} - Darius sneaks out easily.
{3} Hobnob is caught off guard, and takes minor injuries. He teleports away.
{5} Slaughtersoul kills everyone who enters the castle. He gets bored when they stop coming.
{6} The eldritch portal
inverts the castle. Slaughersoul manages to escape just in time, then cuts his way through the confused and panicked rebel lines while falling back from the
things now pouring through the portal.
In the end, the area around the capital is lost. The rebels have a perimeter around it, and more-or-less keep it contained.
For now, it is not a threat to the world.
Locke gets a quiet job writing about liberalism.
Slaughtersoul returns to his dark masters, and becomes a powerful general for the forces of evil.
Hobnob goes off to study more secrets of necromancy. He then founds a bank.
Arghl Nooo eventually gives up on finding the City of Gold, and spends time exploring ancient ruins, finding a few powerful artifacts.
Darius returns to dwarven society, living poor in wealth but rich in spirits.
Sir Mangroove, Priestess Asha, <CLASSIFIED>, and the king, live quite happily in the City of Gold. The king takes up gardening.
<CLASSIFIED> even eventually reveals his name! It's
It's officially over. I didn't abandon it. Success!
If anyone else wants to use this world in a sequel, or create a re-do of the scenario, feel free. I don't expect to do so.
If I
were to run this sort of game again, I think I'd aim for a deeper character focus, with defined character abilities and growth, and set it in a world based off of Disney's Aladdin. Think of it: An ancient city, surrounded by sands that constantly uncover or hide ancient ruins. Some players could be like Jafar, leveraging the kingdom's resources into finding more artifacts or magic lore (while trying to gain more political power to leverage into more ruin searching). Throw in some princes/princesses, trying to secure their own succession while improving the kingdom, a guildmaster or two, and maybe a loyal captain of the guard or other position loyal to the sultan.