Crudely Drawn Swords - A Dungeon World Actual Play Podcast

Hi Mum The grimoire you gave me details a number of curses and how to focus them in. The glyphs should reverse and send the power out if I reverse them right? I need to amplify a curse resolution key. I’m pretty sure we are going to be in the place of the curses origin and will be conducting the solution. However I think the curse has spread much further then intended and left to germinate. This e...

We’re getting reports that Farmouth has fallen, the walls pulled down and the preceptory of Akone’s order burned to the ground. Assuming they continue to skirt the Woodmarch there is really nothing left between the army of the Ice and us. If they press northwards then we are in serious trouble. I hope things are going better for you, Bambari. I am afraid for our homeland. -Saff

A little more for you, I managed to find a retired Smith-enchanter who was one of the teachers at the Iron Church back when this Hector Korvaylan character was learning. Said he was very bright, interested in the theory behind the processes of enchanting and the source of the power used in the craft. The conversation was a little difficult, actually, because the old fellow had lost most of his hea...

Hector? I no longer have access to the records of the library, of course, but I have asked around and according to Preceptor Merrow there was a squire-in-training with the Iron Church here in the city a long time ago- at a guess this might have been at a similar time to when the Paladin was in training. He was in training to be a church knight and he showed some aptitude for smith-enchantment but...

Dear Saffron, I’m on a bush right now it’s not the best bush, there’s a thorn right up my jacksie. Saff there is a guy called Hector heading the army up. He studied up in Aru-sha apparently. I don’t suppose you can find anything about him? - Bam

I daresay things are going very well where you are now, you’re probably having a cheerful frolic through springtime on the plains. I will wager you don’t have to go to a single boring formal dinner with tiresome aristocrats and wealthy merchants all very keen to reassure us that they have always supported us and always will while we are quite aware that they would turn on us in a moment if they th...

In spite of our spy networks and the careful thought of our best minds, it is hard to grasp why this is happening to us. We lived in peace with Sudec for centuries - they were our friends and rivals. Then the cold revolution happened and suddenly they are driven by this furious goddess of the ice to overwhelm us? Why won’t they negotiate? Why are they always forcing onward with military might and...

Well, I am back in old Merrowvale. The palace is very different now - it feels empty without our royal father and quiet in the absence of Jasmine and Wintergreen, and yet there are people coming and going constantly as it has become something of a command centre for the war effort. Mother is holding up well, trying to ensure that the retreat northwards is orderly and we do not lose our precious tr...

You do not give yourself enough credit - it was your work in deriving the shared principle between both pencil and eraser that made this possible. I suspect the alchemists and smith-enchanters who worked on Reaching Scrolls before never saw the value of the humble pencil, so you really showed those pen pushers. Travelling is a little tiresome, so I will tell you everything I know of the Sleidlar,...

Hi Do you remember when we thought you couldn’t use the reaching scroll once you’d written on it. Before we knew your could rub the pencil out? Those were simple times. Your previous message would have been “beasts attack Farndale - possible connection to Sleidlar. Danger Danger Bambari Lutes”. Trust me when I explain it to the rest, this is how it will go. Are you bored on your journey? Coz that...

I’m writing from Asterope’s Dawnstar, a ship making south towards Merremouth. Among the passengers here is a knight who was present at the fall of Farndale, one of the first battles where the war beasts were used. She has given me some details of the beasts and how they were used. First there were vast bull-necked creatures three or four times the height of a horse, built more like an ox but far h...

Incidentally, I met the Blessed Pelwar yesterday and she mentioned that two days ago the last three members of the crew from The Ghost finally got home, along with the captain, who had made what sounded like a profoundly arduous journey along the Salt Coast, before reaching Maresca, where they persuaded some fishermen to bring them along to Aru-Sha. They were all in bad shape, as you might expect,...

Well Bambari, this is quite an audacious plan! From what I understand of the weapon in question it is very hard to predict what the outcome will be. I think it depends on the nature of the sword, which we know to be a shard of Ulumbraya’s power significant enough that it had to be taken from her before she could be trapped by the old powers. The question is whether the sword is the power or whethe...

Morning, Please let me know if they do encroach on the Woodmarch. My mother lives in the woods and I want to make sure she’s safe. Not that I could do much from here. But I sure as hell would try and fly back. I don't think I can make it that far, certainly not by myself. I think I said before there's a big ol curse affecting this entire land. I’ve been reading up on curses and I think I may be ab...

Along the mountains they seem to be skirting Woodmarch, perhaps there is nothing there to interest them, but every time our armies have tried to hold them on the north road, it has proved both costly and ineffective. I am lead me to wonder whether the presence of the artifact the Paladin carries was somehow slowing them down or making them more careful and now they are evidently aware he is far aw...

I’m afraid the news from the south is not all good - we were hoping that with winter turning, the Icewatchers would have less power to draw on, and to a degree that is true: Our troops are suffering less under the force of their magic, but they seem to have spent the winter training their forces and where they were previously ill-trained peasants, they are now much more effective on the field. I a...

Bambari, good to hear from you! Did you have a bound scrying mirror, by any chance? I have seen some of those, and they always seem to have some quirk or limitation. I once saw one that only showed images as though reflected in turbulent water, another that could dictate exactly what it perceived but at a very great length so picking out the relevant information was extraordinarily hard work. I ev...

Your sister appears to be doing ok. She's anti stealing some gem we’ve been set up with. Before we pulled into your city we were on a boat. Someone stole my stuff and evidently sent a part of my magic mirror to a guy calling himself Death, bit much, and he’s set us up as revenge for killing his insane brother. I guess the mirror part was small enough to send on a well trained bird. It’s all been a...

Hi Saf, Yeah we’ve met them. After our ship crashed we walked in the desert for ages. Then they picked us up. It was pretty fortuitous, if they hadn't rolled past we definitely would have died. A few of them speak our language a little, which is weird because there is such a disconnect between the kingdoms. The sea is obviously not well travelled but it turns out after the harsh desert there's als...

WANTED FOR THEFT AND HIGH TREASON Four very dangerous individuals have been reportedly involved in serious crimes against several hemu and against our entire people. They are all foreigners, pale skinned and sinister of demeanour, with untrustworthy expressions and clear ill intent. One is male, small, appearing as though a very young man, but do not be mislead- he is a notorious criminal famous f...

Well, I hope this is helpful at any rate. That is the overview of what I was able to learn about the bloodlines. If you need any more detail on anything I found, I would be happy to provide it. You have been out in the plains for a while now, how are things going? Did you end up encountering the Lunzideren?

This slender knowledge is most of what I was able to ascertain from the records in our library, however I did speak about the topic briefly with Blessed Pelwar recently, asking obliquely whether any records of the Diabolist’s life survived. The Blessed has some significant scholarship in addition to her formidable organisational abilities and although this sadly proved to be a dead end, it did lea...

So, we know that the lineages precede our histories, they seem to be hereditary as does the aptitude for magic - in the latter case we do see rogue talents appear but I have found no evidence of anyone spontaneously developing an elemental lineage. The lack of scholarly information here is profoundly frustrating, but it is plausible that wherever these originated, there must be a continuous line f...

Unfortunately most of what I have managed to find is not from works on natural philosophy or magical theory - those seem to be the ones that were targeted - instead it comes from folkloric and mythic contexts. The texts tend to be opaque, whimsical and whatever truth they contain is often buried under layers of storytelling. There are however consistencies across stories and ballads and even the i...

I have spent the last week researching into the matter of bloodlines and it has proven very difficult. It is well established that some people are naturally attuned to the latent power of the elements and that this is something that appears to be hereditary. If I include folktales and hearsay there are accounts of people attuned to ice, fire, stone, air and water, possibly even some metals? I do n...