Ptolus Front: The Malady

A Dungeon World front for Dissolution, involving the events surrounding the malady lock.

During their sortie into the Banewarrens, the team sent by the lich Aggah-Shan recovered a number of artifacts, including the malady lock. The undead wizard isn't afraid to use them to further his plans, tricking an ambitious underling to sacrifice themselves by releasing the Malady.

Dangers

Aggah-Shan

Type: Machiavellian lich

Impulse: to necrotize this prison planet

Grim Portents:

• Goth Gulgamel conquered
• The power of the entropy sphere harnessed
• The book of inverted darkness located
• Præmus killed with necrotic energy

Impending Doom: Rampant Chaos

Infected Hordes

Type: Plague of the Undead

Impulse: to spread

Grim Portents:

• Prostitutes in the White House suddenly start biting customers
• Infected chaos cultists swarm Midtown
• Infected penetrate Dalenguard
• Malady escapes Ptolus, infects world

Impending Doom: Pestilence

Quarantine

Type: Misguided Good

Impulse: to contain the infection, no matter the cost

Grim Portents:

• Ptolus sealed by order of the Commissar, districts isolate themselves
• Someone or something surrounds Ptolus with a spell that prevents teleportation in or out
• City Watch stops fighting infected, focuses on suppressing movement of population
• Metallic dragons destroy citizens fleeing city by air
• Ptolus and all its inhabitants sterilised by mass-destruction magic

Impending Doom: Destruction

Lilith

Type: Demon Princess

Impulse: to replace all order with her own

Grim Portents:

• Activity seen within the Dark Reliquary, even during the day
• Headquarters of the Knights of the Pale sacked, shrine corrupted
• Demons setup infection free zones for any willing to pledge fealty and their soul

Impending Doom: Tyranny

Power Vacuum

Type: Cabal

Impulse: to control Ptolus' resources

Grim Portents:

• Various groups (guilds, organized crime, the shuul, Inverted Pyramid) take up the mantle of the (decimated) City Watch to protect neighborhoods
• In reaction to the death of Kirian Ylestos, son of the holy Emperor, the Church becomes much more active in seizing control of locations, but force if necessary.
• Groups openly clash with both "official" organizations and each other to exert control over territory
• Government dissolved and replaced with a new order

Impending Doom: Usurpation

Cast

• The Unlikely Six
• Aggah-Shan, trouble-making megalomaniac
• Cassiadora, dragon with a long view of history
• Maeda Von Rustal, high priestess of the Temple of Teun
• Nireus Pard, overlooked bishop of Lothian
• Matthias Fenta, male human cleric of Melann (Goddess of Farming)

Locations

The White House

A brothel controlled by Aggah-Shan provides the first vectors for the Malady. The diversity of the clientèle allows the disease to slip into many otherwise well guarded places (several noble houses, the Holy Palace, etc.). When the Malady is first released, Aggah-Shan will be in the catacombs beneath.

Pythoness House

An early casualty of the Malady, even briefly infecting the dragon Cassiadora.

Goth Gulgamel

Aggah-Shan's phylactery is holed up in Goth Gulgamel, along with the malady lock itself. Both remain hidden from a totally unrelated contingent from the Pactlords of the Quaan who have moved into the fortress. Reaching this location requires somehow getting past the air quarantine.

Bladechapel

The home of the Knights of the Pale initial provides a safe haven for citizens; however, Lilith has it in her sights, so its safety may not last.

The Temple of Teun

The temple's iron walls and community-facing staff provide excellent protection from the infected, making it a fortress against the Malady. Those lucky enough to reach it before it was sealed fair better than most, though collectively, those inside are forced into some hard choices.

St. Valien's Cathedral

Infected are driven from the Cathedral by a holy aura erected around the the place. Bishop Nireus Pard has stunned everyone by turning the place into the center of operations for the more militant actions of the Church in "fighting the infection" and taking over various places, while the archbishop pursues more humanitarian goals. A teleportation circle under the cathedral greatly assists movement of church forces.

Custom Moves

Infection

Bite of the Infected

When you take damage from someone infected with the Malady, you become infected as well.

Infection Spreads

When you are infected with the Malady, each hour roll+CON. On a 10+ nothing happens. On a 7-9, temporarily loose a point of Constitution (and associated HP). On a miss, temporarily loose 1d3+1 points of Constitution (and associated HP). If your Constitution hits zero, you die. If you die while infected, you soon rise as a zombie.

Malady Lock

Unleash the Malady

When you open the malady lock when the disease is fully contained, the Malady escapes and, in a burst of necromantic energy, everyone nearby is infected with the Malady and you instantly die. You rise as a ghost a few hours later.

Command the Malady

When you feed the Malady lock your blood, take 1d4 damage and roll+CHA. On a 10+, hold three. On a 7-9, hold one. Spend hold to issue one of the following commands to the lock:

• "Rest" causes all infected with the Malady to become non-contagious until the sun next rises.
• "Stop" makes the Malady very vulnerable to disease curing magic. If someone is cured of the malady, all infected nearby are also cured.
• "Spread" invigorates the Malady, increasing the Save DC needed to resist it by +4 until the sun next rises. This cannot be issued in the same period as “Rest”.
• "Reveal" allows you to instantly know the location of every being infected with the Malady until the sun next rises.
• "Look" allows you to see instantly through the eyes of any being infected with the Malady you know of (including knowledge gained from a “Reveal”) for the next 10 minutes.

Contain the Malady

When the Malady infects less than one hundred beings, the following command is added to the list of those that can be issued

• "Shelter” commands the Malady to return to the box on which the malady lock is mounted. Any that remain die instantly, as the Malady kills them out of spite.

Stakes

• Who will control the Malady lock?
• Will Ptolus continue to exist?
• Will Lilith be able to unseat Raguel?