Hunt For Cadeus (Dungeon World) Session Report 1

28 Jul 2026

This is a session report for a game of dungeon world that I recently ran for some friends! This is a session report for the first two sessions!

Session Report

🎶 Castle — Breath of Death VII OST

Introduction

You are on the tail of a dangerous vampire known as Cadeus Silverpool, seeking to destroy him. You have recently figured out that Cadeus has traveled deep into the forested mountains of the borderlands, to the small town of Crosses, which is known for its dark history… Will you be able to stop Cadeus before he completes his wicked plot within the cursed laboratories of the abandoned Hawthorne Manor?

Player Characters

Cinderclaw (she/they) — Salamander Immolator

Cinderclaw is a salamander, a lizardlike people that live near the fires of volcanoes. They have searing eyes, a long tail and long fingers, orange-red scales with bronze patterning and a crackling voice.

Cinderclaw is a member of the fiery cult to Hkar, a still-gestating god. She travelled a long time in human lands, and had returned to the volcanic islands where the salamanders live with new ideas about sacrifice. She and a few others are attempting to gestate a new god, a thing that requires great sacrifice — the salamanders had an artefact, the last dragon egg; Cinderclaw sacrificed the egg within the fires of the volano, thus teaching Hkar about the power of hope.

Salamanders are great craftspeople, able to forge basic metal tools and objects with their bare hands. These items, while useful, have a greater significance in salamander culture as art.

Ananda (she/her) — Human Cleric

Ananda is a human nun that spends most of her time in a monastery to Utopia. When she travels, she travels in a rough-spun travelers outfit.

Utopia is also another god that does not yet exist. The Nuns and Monks of the Utopian monastery near the Elven Lands believe that the hard work and suffering of today are all part of the inevitable construction of the perfect city of Utopia. Since Utopia is not yet here, suffering is the order of the day until it is built.

Utopia is contrasted to the Religion worshipping Ao, a sun-god with a huge personality and many myths and stories.

Hook Questions

Using the method outlined in Jeremy Strandberg’s excellent blog post My Recipe For Starting Adventures, I put together some questions before the game to ask after character creation to connect the characters to the scenario and ask for some cool player input.

Motive — You have faced the vampire Cadeus before, but he escaped, wounded, but alive. What has he taken from you that you wish to end him for good?

Cadeus has stolen the statue of Hkar, gateway to the infant god of the salamander cult.

Stakes — You know that Cadeus is heading for the long abandoned Hawthorne Manor, former home of the Lord Hawthorne of Crosses and site of a horrible tragedy a generation ago. What plot do you suspect Cadeus wishes to finish within the manor’s cursed laboratories, and what do you fear will be unleashed upon the world if he is successful?

Vampires close enough to gods that they can inhabit god-vessels. Something bad happened with one of these vessels here. Might use the divine power of Hkar to unleash himself as a new dark god upon the world.

Danger — Cadeus’ right hand has been replaced by a false appendage of silvery metal. What terrifying thing have you seen him do with just a single strike from his Silver Hand?

The silver hand is tangible to the spirit world, Cadeus can use it to pull out the souls of the dead and mess with the souls of the living.

Detail – Cadeus always travels with a companion, the mysterious elf princex Elborinne (they/them). What do the rumors say about why they have decided to follow Cadeus’ descent into depravity? What do you suspect the truth is?

Elborinne only wants the heart of Ramonde (he/him), who has himself fallen deeply for Cadeus (a victim of vampire hypnosis or of his own free will?).

Session 1

Ananda and Cinderclaw spend the night sleeping outside in the town of Greybark on their way to Crosses.

In the morning, they speak with a balcksmith, who boasts about his grandfather learning the arts of forging from a salamander. The party learns that the town of crosses has ordered a large number of crudely wrought iron crosses and has ordered several boxes of herbs.

The climb up the forested mountains on the road to Crosses is a slow-going slog. It is evening, a few miles from town when the party is ambushed by Emborinne, disguised as an old man, leading four nightmarish two-legged sewn-together alligator-dog things.

A Utopian circle of safety alerts Ananda to the ruse, however, and the ambush is discovered before long. Cinderclaw defends Ananda from the things’ whiplike poison tails while Ananda subdues Emborinne, breaking their leg. The alligator things flee.

Ananda reveals that Emborinne is wanted back home by the Elven Yew Queen of Westerwood, and that she intends to take them back to the queen when this vampire business is over. Emborinne accuses the two of being selfish, just like Cadeus, only wishing for power for their own gods.

Session 2

The two continue towards the town in the fading light, Ananda carrying the now sulking and silent Emborinne.

They approach a large walled villa on the edge of town, its walls decorated with a cross motif. A guard at the entrance notices the injured Elborinne and asks if the party needs assistance.

The master of the House appears, a short portly man with curly hair and a large nose called Lord Freya Fortuna, who invites the three into the house, and has his house manager, Bartleby( (loyal, tall, grey hair) start binding Elborinne’s broken leg.

Fortuna is the now-dead Lord Hawthorne’s replacement. Asked about hawthorne manor, Fortuna says that the place is now abandoned, condemned by the inquistors after the townsfolk rose up and killed him about a decade ago. Hawthorne’s apparent crimes were apparently troubling enough that the townsfolk faced no consequences for killing their Lord appointed by the Empire.

Fortuna reveals that he has peculiar beliefs about a new type of mystical science calle Manifestology, and believes that the townsfolk are particularly susceptible to the power of belief, and manifested their own villain and his commupance. He believes that he is on the verge of a breakthrough, and that the crosses that festoon the town are a key piece of the puzzle.

He says that central to the uprising was an old cleric of Ao, and that her staffs are on display right outside the town’s imperial temple.

As Fortuna talks, Cinderclaw chats with bartleby, who lets slip that Fortuna is studying the supernatural, and recently borrowed a very old book about the myths related to vampires, and that the book is in the next room over.

Ananda asks for access to Fortuna’s large library of tomes in order to help them in their quest. Fortuna agrees, and further reveals that he was recently visited by Ramonde, who had manage to convince the lord to hand over the key to the Hawthorn family crypt “for reasearh purposes, how could I say no!”, much to the alarm of Elborinne.

Ananda then presses the Lord, asking for the use of his valuable book on vampires. When Fortuna refuses, Ananda uses the power of Utopia to cause the lord and bartleby to fear her staff. Cinderclaw shapes the flames of the fireplace in order to further intimidate the Lord, but goes to far, and the room and its books catches fire! Lord Fortuna, wailing about his reasearch, nearly kills himself in the flames.

In the chaos, Elborrine escapes! Summoning a glittering stag with one of the gems in their tiara, they mount the beast and burst out of the villa’s window.

Ananda makes a deal with bartleby — the book on vampires for Fortuna’s life.

Hkar, in a show of divine power as a reward for the sacrifice of Fortuna’s home, shows Cinderclaw a path of escape through the flames — and Cinderclaw, Ananda, and Lord Fortuna all come tumbling out of the fireplace in Crosses’ only inn…

Open Questions

— What atrocity does Cadeus plan to commit in order to achieve his goal of ascending to godhood? What harm will he do to Hkar, Crosses, Ramonde? Is Godhood all that he wants?

— What is Ramonde searching for in the sealed crypt of the Hawthorne family? Will he succeed in finding it? Is he really allied with Cadeus?

— What extreme act will Elborinne do in order to rescue her love, Ramonde? How will she react if Ramond truely is as wicked as Cadeus?

— What secrets does Lord Fortuna’s book on vampires contain?

— What trouble will the suspicious and supersitious folk of Crosses make? Why did someone in the town order so many crosses and herbs? Is there any truth to Lord Fortuna’s claim that Manifestology is affecting the town?