Crudely Drawn Swords - A Dungeon World Actual Play Podcast

Four rogues, or more accurately three rogues and one rogue sword, have made a perilous journey from the Mirefort through the mysterious swamp-savannah to the edge of the forest where the hermit Akashobya may offer them respite on their urgent mission to warn the bastion-city of Foothold of a dreadful impending danger. But a new danger awaits them, along with the opportunity to right an ancient wrong...

It was the broken age, an age of disaster and peril, a time where the only way to survive the brutal onslaught of endless chaos was for each person to know their place. Who they could trust, who they would follow, who could protect them. Only a few brave rogues had the wherewithal to live outside the strict laws, to forge their own path and fight alone. This begins the story of four of these celebrated rogues, the notorious yet admired swords without master.

Once long ago there was a city, the capital of a grand empire. Now there is a ruin of shattered rock, home to ogres and crows. How did this great metropolis fall? To find out, we put together a team quite apart from The Hawks to turn a Microscope on that period of history...

Spoiler Alert: Do not listen to this episode unless you want to be hit with spoilers for the whole of Crudely Drawn Swords up to the end of Season 3. Definitely don't start here! This is our end-of-season retrospective, where we answer listener questions about the show so far and whatever other important matters they wanted to know about. This was originally streamed so if you wanted to enjoy it accompanied by our faces you can see that here: https://youtu.be/mYzbnTlPU64 If you watched the stream already, jump to the end to catch up on the goofs we cut from the finale.

[Correspondence ends]

Bambari you are making a journey few westerners have managed since the days of the Stone Empire - I don’t know whether even Jack of the Wild made it that far across the plains, almost to the eastern barrier range. Your accounts will be extraordinarily valuable for scholars interested in those realms and, I suspect, as a record of a changing world. Be careful, Bambari. I have enjoyed our correspondence and you have so much potential. Please think twice before you make any decisions that put you in danger. I truly hope that one day I will get the opportunity to hear your stories of the wide world in person. -Saff

Saffron, I’m really sorry we are taking so long. I wanted to destroy the sword to destabilise Hector's power. But Percy won’t let me. He thinks it’s too big a risk. I think we’re losing anyway so we should take a chance. I’m not going to debate it anymore and I’m not going to try and destroy the sword. But I am going to use the power available to us. It’s too much of a waste not to. I’ll try and get back as soon as possible. I’ve got a plan. It’s high risk, but the risk is only for me. Bam

I knew that when you wandered out in the world you would be capable of great things and it sounds like that is exactly what you are doing! There won’t be many people around who have experience like you do. The birds have told me about the soldiers at the edge of the woods, but fortunately they know that it is a narrow band of forest between them and the mountains and there isn’t anything to interest them this way except a narrow strip of marshy woodland. Most of them don’t question how they know this, but I’m sure you can guess. Good luck in your grand working! Mum.

How exciting for you! You’ve got the principles of the curse breaking just about right, but the danger with undoing a Great Work is that there are an awful lot of strands and many of them will be stretched very tight, like trees under a heavy snow ready to spring back the moment it starts to melt. When that balance starts to shift and the tension is released expect the power to be released unevenly and perhaps very suddenly. The best way to make it safe, aside from the usual glyphs of warding and slowing ( model the glyphs on a series of dams - you don’t expect any one to hold back the power, but together they should be able to even out the flow and make it more manageable ) is to stabilise as many cardinal points of the curse as possible - the more components of its original creation you have available to you, the better off you will be. Of course anything capable of anchoring this kind of power for any length of time is likely to be imbued with enough magic to have some degree of will of its own - be careful of them!

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 entire land is humming with curse energy. It’s like the biggest harvest ever seen. When this curse is lifted it all needs to go somewhere. I’m going to use the glyphs to send the key out and then reverb all the power back to us. I then need to funnel it all into one thing. Let me know if my calculations are wrong. I know that the armies have marched and taken the towns and villages nearby. I hope you are ok. I hope the woods have been ignored. Please let me know you are safe. I’m working on a way of being back as soon as possible. Love Bambari

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 hearing and my sign-language is rather weak, but from what I could gather Hector was memorable both as a smart student and because he left under a cloud - he had spent some time as a journeyman and was working on his masterpiece but when the time came to submit it for evaluation, he vanished, taking the piece with him. As you might imagine this is very much frowned on by the church - especially as he seemed to vanish from the kingdoms altogether at that point. The forgemaster had not heard of him reappearing again, although he talked to the Quesitors about it at the time, and suspected that Hector might have tried to push his craft too far and ended up “sublimating” both himself and the piece, something which has apparently been known to happen, but the Quesitors seemed to feel it was worth investigating in detail. No luck on those files, but I will keep trying. -Saff

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 as he advanced that seemed to tail off somewhat. Their records show that something went wrong and he ended up being dishonourably discharged from the knighthood - but the records of the event are apparently locked away under a Quesitors’ seal, which suggests something untoward occurred but also that access to them is forbidden at the highest level. As a member of the royal family I may find a way to circumnavigate that, but it will take me a little time, I fear.

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 thought there was any profit in it. I do not trust any of them and I am glad to have Tartasha with me, I trust her scimitar far more than anyone’s good will. I’m getting a bit frazzled from having to be a princess again. I don’t really enjoy it. I suppose that is probably why Jasmine is so determined to turn her back on it. At least she has not turned her back on us; assuming your mission proves as valuable as we hope, it may be that when the historians make a final reckoning of these events she proves the most valuable member of House LaGorge. I hope I will be around to dispute their findings. Am I rambling? I think I might be rambling. Dutiful dinner calls. Enjoy your wonderful, empty, plains. -Saff