# 001_20220220 The Shadow Prince ([[Mörk Borg]]) ## Recap > [!tldr] 001_20220220 The Shadow Prince > We were each being held in an oubliette, beginning to lose track of time. Our wardens made us deal: freedom, in exchange for a task. The Shadow King's young son, Aldon, has gone missing, and they want us to retrieve him (alive). They said he was somewhere in the Accursed Den. > > We travelled towards the Den, but it was hard to tell the morning as the sun never rose. We realized it was the last day we would ever know. > > We entered the Accursed Den and found ourselves in an underground cavern bisected by a river. Black butterflies flew lazily over it. Belum stopped to take some items that might be able to be used in her weird decoctions. > > We took the first door to the left, following a smell and a strange music that we could hear from behind the door. Karva scouted ahead, but immediately jumped aside to let Gilbert pass. We all entered a dining room, with rotten, day-old food and a motionless, pale man staring into an orb. Karva and Gilbert got some scrolls. > > We decided we'd go first to through the door in the east, because Karva thought the rotten smell might mean a dead prince and an early cue to escape while we still could. > > For next session: I get mork-spiration! Roll a d6 and add it to any roll of my choice. I need to declare its use before my roll. ^summary %% - [[Marco Polo]] (GM): Michigan - [[Erica - Belum]]: Michigan (Marco met her when she walked into a game store) - [[John - Gilbert]] : California ## Safety tools Movie Rating: G, PG, PG-13, R (I'm not comfortable with NC-17). Lines: None of this will be tolerated Veils: This is ok, but I'd rather not go into detail. Movie Rating: R Lines - Rape - Violence against children - Discrimination (homophobia, racism, sexism) from players Veils - Sex - Torture %% ## Characters - Erica: Belum, Occult Herbmaster - witch with creepy potions - John: Gilbert, Wretched Royalty - money only cares about money - Me: Karva, Gutter Born Scum - stuttering street urchin ## It begins We are in an oubliette: deep hole in the ground where prisoners are kept. 20 feet high. We're in separate ones and the walls are thick enough that we can't hear each other. There's a crack of light. Two men each open the top of the oubliette. We're all here for heretical theft. One of them, a person with a goat head, speaks. ![[morkborg-goathead.png]] - He is a courtier of the Shadow King (Belum was born near a manse of the Shadow King.) - The king's son, Aldon, is missing, and without him, the crown would have to be given to the Shadow King's brother, Aldon's uncle. - If we get Aldon back discreetly, we will be released with wealth beyond our dreams. Aldon is a young royal child. - He is in [[The Accursed Den]]. Bring him back unharmed and bring him back to this compound. ```ad-info title: The Goal Discreetly bring the young prince Aldon back, unharmed, to the prison compound. ``` First omen: _You shall know the last day is come. The sun shall set and never rise._ No sun tomorrow! ### The Cavern of Dark Butterflies It smells extremely stale in here. Really musty and dank. There is a river with black, crackling butterflies. ![[morkborg-entrance-of-accursed-den.png]] North: two doors Northwestern door leads to dining room ### Dining Room with the Unmoving Mage ![[morkborg-dining-room.png]] - Table - Man who is ashen gray, pupilless, dressed in a dusty cloak. Had a scroll on him (below) - Door to northwest: feels colder, soft string music is coming from there - Door to east: rotten stench coming from that door, feels very warm I find a scroll: *Eyelid Blinds the Mind*: d4 creatures fall asleep for one hour unless they succeed a DR14 test. The food has been here for about 24 hours. Our plan: Go through the door in the east. --- ## Karva's thoughts - Our jailor mentioned that in Aldon's absence, the Shadow King may rule. Is it possible his brother may send his own agents to stop us? - We have no proof that our jailors will actually do what they say. Be ready to run at the first sign of deception. - Would holding Aldon hostage be more lucrative than returning him obediently? Might be smarter. Money doesn't care about no-money street scum like me. - What is a young prince doing in a dungeon like this? If the reason is something they want to cover up, it may be easier for them to kill us to silence us. - Why did Moneybags give me a bow? What service of mine does he expect to have bought? ## My thoughts on [[Mörk Borg]] - There are no abilities that explicitly cover knowledge or intellect-based skills. Presence seems like the best fit for these, but does this cause Presence to be more valuable? - Freely available character, dungeon, and monster generators dramatically reduce time needed to start playing, but creating a character is fun and already includes significant flavour/roleplaying notes. - The world of Mörk Borg is low-magic: "spellcasting" is done via scrolls that are one-use, difficult to cast (they require a Presence DR12 test), and come from a limited number of uses per day. - Classes are asymmetric: some are front-loaded, and others get better over time. - 5 extra classes available on website! - [[Cypher]]-like mechanic of reducing DR, though this is in addition to modifiers - Some of the options in random tables are weird, or the meaning must have been lost in translation.