Worm Jam, pt 3 - Torches Gutter

21 September 2024

Note: this is part of a series on writing for the His Majesty the Worm Game Jam. Check out the intro here and the previous post here!

Contents

• Contents
• Intro
• Keying Round 2
  • A reason to explore
  • A reason to flee
  • A reason to talk
  • A reason to fight
  • A reason to breathe easy
  • A reason to experiment
  • A reason to be surprised
  • A reason to return
  • The Meatgrinder Table
• What's Next?

Intro

Finishing out the groundwork of this adventure before I start the horrific ritual of consolidating everything into a PDF. No point wasting time, let's get into it! We're running back the same keying advice as last post. This time around I'll be exploring the fiery wooden keep of the Punctured Dove.

Keying Round 2

A reason to explore

Last time for this section I wrote the entrance for the dungeon and hinted at the treasure on the moon, so I might as well go ahead and define that.

• The surface of the moon. Something beneath your feet thrums like a giant's heartbeat. The world is cold and silver.

• At the north pole: a masquerade frozen in time. Mercury statues form a dense crowd, dancing in angular, garish poses; they quiver on approach. The state of a woman stands at the exact center, face blurred beneath a rose-gold mask. Her arms curve around thin air as if draped across a partner, but she dances alone.

  • She bears The Mask of the Traitor Rose. On looking another in the eye, its wearer hears a sly voice whisper advice for winning the target's love and affection.
  • Valuable to your average peasant, exceptionally valuable to any lovesick City faction members.

A reason to flee

Already did a dragon, so I'm not doing that one again. I'm eyeballing the Lighting section of my seed again with those six burning towers, plus the burning arrows seen in the Structures section. I like the idea of an impenetrable wall of arrows.

• A vast, blackened expanse leading to the Dove's keep. Endlessly burning arrows smother the field; a keen eye may spot bodies beneath the flames, flesh and bones melting to slag. There is no snow. Six ashen pinewood towers stand imposing along the keep's walls, dripping with cinder.

• An archer stands at each tower, sworn to protect the front gate. Approaching the keep via this path provokes the following reactions, in order:

  • a warning shot landing directly in front of the target.
  • six warning shots landing in a rough circle around the target.
  • a spiraling torrent of arrows, fired alternating from each tower such that there is no break in the stream. They blanket the field - all within must test Pentacles or die.

• The archers are useless in melee and, in fact, cannot turn their heads from the field. Their vows forbid it.

A reason to talk

Last time I fleshed out the factions, but the lovers definitely have servants, right? Or at least something living within their keep. The Moon probably has little glass homunculi built for specific purposes, but who's hanging out in the Dove's keep? I keep coming back to the flames around her as eternal. I like the idea of servants whose job is not to create new fire but just move the existing flames from place to place and freshen up the decor.

• Firetenders! Stooped, bony hags, coughing under asbestos robes - the keep's artists-in-residence. Their tools: long, enchanted paintbrushes that can whip up flame like cotton candy and spread it across any surface. Once they were loyal to the Dove, but time and boredom have flattened them out.
  • Likes: new ideas, new experiences, flamepainting, discussing art, discussing their art, have you seen my latest piece? oh, dearie, it's right this way, you'll love it!
  • Dislikes: stillness, stagnation, their lady's relationship drama

A reason to fight

I haven't really utilized those burned-out husks from the Common Monsters seed yet. Now seems like the time for it! The Dove's core idea involves holding onto her anger, so I'll weave that in as well.

• When life is extinguished, hate fills the gaps. Those who die inside the Keep's walls are warped into husks, crumbling wooden effigies animated solely by the Dove's white-hot, overflowing anger.
  • Not quite mindless: they always target the happiest or kindest party member, if possible.
  • On defeat, the flames within erupt into small, jittery wisps. These rejoin the keep's ambient fire, waiting for their next vessel.

A reason to breathe easy

Gonna pull in the Interesting Rooms section from last post.

• The library. How solemn. Muted sound, dim heat, low flame, cinders. Char covers each shelf in thick layers, but the books, of course, are pristine. Sometimes a lick of fire snakes toward the stacks, close enough to taste, before recoiling like a spooked cat and retreating.

  • The books are, by and large, embarassingly intimate poetry. They're so amateurish you almost want to cry. Who published this stuff?

• Catatonic Mementos litter the space, draped across seats, shelves, and the floor. Each holds a book close to their face.

  • Every so often one wanders in and stumbles drooling to the shelves, drawn by some primal instinct, only to find they are universally born illiterate. They scratch and tear at the pages, hunting for answers, but it's all just useless words. Time breaks them all, eventually.
  • They don't respond to any stimulus. The hiss of their collective breath rides the line between comforting and creepy.

A reason to experiment

This one came to me in a vision while I was at the gym and I had to write it down in my notes app so I'm gonna try and capture that energy here lol

• The Dove tries desperately to force the past down and keep it contained, manageable, like a pet of sorts. Still, the earth overflows. Here in the gardens, memories bulge from the dirt and float lazily in large, glassy bubbles. Silhouettes within dance and mix like oil on canvas. Distant laughter haunts the space.

  • Touching a memory absorbs it through the skin with a sound like slurping oysters. The price: a memory of your own is shunted out to replace it in the bubble. This process cannot be reversed - your cast-off memories refuse to return.
  • The absorbing player describes both the incoming and outgoing memories. The new one fits snugly among the rest, but itches slightly at the back of the head.
  • One may only absorb three memories before their foundation crumbles. On taking a fourth, cross out your character's name and replace it with "The Punctured Dove." Whoever you were is lost.

• A lonely firetender hangs around on retainer to smash the bubbles. She can't reach the floaters by the ceiling and so contents herself playing whack-a-mole with new ones as they're born.

A reason to be surprised

I think now that I've created a big obvious obstacle for entering the keep, I should add a side door with some kind of secret / puzzly method of entry.

• A massive face grown from the keep's pinewood walls. Its features twist spitefully; flaming spirals tattoo its skin.
  • An aura of anger emits from the face. While standing nearby, guild members feel a tug to snap and fight with their party members.
  • As long as truly mean words are spoken in its presence, the vines of the face's mouth curl open, allowing entry to the keep.

A reason to return

Last time in this slot I detailed the Super Special Secret Object that'll pacify the Weeping Moon. This time I'll do the same for the Dove. I'm thinking since the Moon's lung is in a different dungeon level entirely, I'll make this one a little more obvious and accessible.

• The Dove's anger is full-bodied, nurtured over years and years of rotting on her throne, and yet it all hangs on a single keystone - her tongue, bitten off by the Moon during their final kiss. She seethes now in her impotence, full of insults that she cannot speak. Return the tongue and her decades of venom will spill out in one long, violent tirade, until the flames are gone and there's nothing left to say.
  • The tongue is safe nearby, pierced through the left eye of Saint Etienne, former friend of the lovers and leader of the Mending Division. Removing it at this point would kill him, but he's happy to do so if the guild can manage this: find the Moon's lung, and promise to return it at the same time as the Dove's tongue.

The Meatgrinder Table

This is one of the game's most interesting innovations imo - a twenty-one entry random table that covers everything from rumors, lost light, encounters, and flavor. The first five entries are supposed to be torches guttering, taxing the guild's visibility, but frankly I don't think this part of the megadungeon is dimly lit. In this case the book suggests replacing it with hunger entries, which sounds solid to me. Unfortunately I've already titled this post after the torches thing because it's a phrase that sounds nice. C'est la vie!

Having two keeps with very different vibes on the same encounter table feels a little weird, so I'll do my best to ensure the results can be reasonably applied regardless of location.

What's Next?

The herculean task of actually finishing this shit out. I've got a week to do it which seems manageable. My plan is to whip up a quick map with Dungeon Scrawl, put together some cover art with some basic public domain stuff, and throwing it all together using the free creator's kit. After that, my next post should ideally be a return to my depthcrawl design series, which I'm itching to work on. Wish me luck, and take care!