Unknown Armies Play Report: A Dungeon Too Many, Playtest Two Part 2

 LATER, IN A FAR AWAY PLACE...

 

Cactus Garden was a border city, captured at the beginning of the Monarchy’s war with the Djinn Potentates. It sat atop a vast rock formation overlooking a desert of red stone and sand. Water from the pinnacle spilled down to the gardens and farms below.

The city took its name from the dwarf forests of cactus that grew in the foothills of the rock. These were deliberately cultivated by the Djinn, protected from overwatering or clearance by orchardists. They did this so they could use dense patches of cholla to crucify their enemies, tossing victims naked into the dense patches of cactus and watching them impale themselves trying to squirm free. The Old King had the Djinn Citadel converted to his War Palace, where he could direct the war from a safe position reasonably close to the frontline. In the interest of maintaining continuity with the previous rulers, he maintained the tradition of executing people by cactus.

Over the last month, flagellants, mercenaries, itinerant wizards and adventurers gathered in Cactus Garden. Unlike the rest of the soldiers and profiteers flooding into the city, they didn’t come in anticipation of the King’s new offensive against the Potentates. They came to stage a revolt, and that’s exactly what they did. 

 

Every gate in the city was packed with insurgents, attacking soldiers and preventing the Monarchy’s forces from moving freely. The rebellion had no chance of taking and holding the city long-term. They weren’t trying to. Their job was to keep reinforcements out of the War Palace until the Two Adventurers and their mutant brute squad could kill The Old King.

The sounds of battle in the city below were audible fifty feet below as they disembarked the climbing-snail, through the shredded window-grate and into the palace baths. Swords, shouting, lightning bolts and crumbling masonry.

 

Unknown Armies Play Report: A Dungeon Too Many, Playtest Two Part 1

Another day, another Dungeon Too Many.

 

The Monarchy ruled the known world. The Old King ruled the Monarchy. His depredations grew unbearable, slave raids and secret police and torture gardens and the magickal experiments that would go on forever if nobody did anything. That's why the Four Adventurers came to the dungeon at Heart-Of-The-World, to claim the ancient power that would let them kill the old ghoul and create something better.

• Dacian, Failed Monk and Adept of the Tower of Pain
  
• Marrow Bone, Green Man and Avatar of the Knacker
  

The story began with the Two Adventurers descending into Heart-Of-The-World. They didn't know how long they had before the veins and arteries of the underground place collapsed.

 

They knew Heart-Of-The-World was a trap. They knew the power it held was the bait. But if nobody ever survived, where did the stories come from?