Session 011 ❖ June 7, 2020
| Name | Title | Class | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aeris | Knight of No House | Fighter | Has no memory of their past. |
| Caenn | the Mage | Wizard | Well-educated and curious. |
| Erebos | the Yellow | Wizard | 100 year old tremulous coward. |
| Garviel | of House Ibis | Cleric | Cast out for breaking his vows. |
| Marus Kiwa | Faithful of Mananan | Cleric | Priest of the Sea-God. |
| Rhea | the Small | Thief | Grew up on the streets. |
The party venture once more through Ultan’s Door with rope and climbing gear, descending into the deep shaft in which they fought the Weaver. They climb down for hundreds of feet, to emerge from a cave in an inverted mountain at dawn, with the sun sinking into view before them.
From the slopes descend great inverted trees, hanging into the void, with white leaves and strange fungal growths. A winding ledge path wraps around the mountain. Following it, they come face to face with a vicious, infernal bird, an Achaierai, which towers over them on its three strong and spindly legs. They succeed in driving the creature off and severing one of its legs.
They come to a place where an inverted tower hangs into the void, and find Ulilamamo and Maneeshaneru encamped there. They rest from the long climb and exchange news and lore. Ulilamamo notes that Aeris seems somehow familiar, and Maneeshaneru reflects on the decline of Zyan compared to the vitality of Pale Echo, what the Zyanese call the world on the other side of Ultan’s door, and mentions the name of the Parapraxis, a fabulous airship wrecked and lost a century prior amid the boughs of the White Jungle.
Meanwhile, Rhea explores the tower, and finds a treasure chest.1
The next morning they depart, and travelling deeper into the jungle come upon a group of Plumed Reavers, cruel avian humanoids. They inquire about the location of the wreck, and the reavers offer to guide them there in return for a slave or valuables - Aeris offers a ring containing a hummingbird heart preserved in amber, one of the relics stolen from the Fleischguild.
The party are taken to a leader or sage of the Reavers, and shown an illustration of an undead creature, with verdigris’d pipes grafted to its skull, and asked if they have encountered it.2 Leaving the mountain behind, they are escorted through the jungle for several days, navigating the treacherous branches and the foul offal rains, before they come in sight of the Parapraxis.
Even wrecked, it remains a fabulous sight. Where a knot of trees and vines forms an expansive valley amid the tangle of the hanging jungle, flowers grow in abundance and a profusion of colours, over and around the marred white and gold of the once-fine vessel, split into two halves amidships.
The Reavers take the ring and depart; approaching the valley, the party encounters a Hypnogic Miasma, an iridescent jelly filled with brain-like organs and knotted ganglia. They defeat it, but unbeknownst to Caenn, he is now infected with the spores of the creature, itself the spore of the terrible Indigo Tyrant Fungus which infests the bases of the jungle trees far above, an infection which will shape the course of his destiny.
At this point we’ve exhausted the two dungeons in the original Ultan’s Door zines, and there’s nothing out for the White Jungle yet, so I have to come up with my own material. This is also the first time we attempt a hex crawl. Here’s the little hex flower map I made of the White Jungle - the original from Ben L’s campaign is a lot bigger:
The plan is to start them in the middle with a dungeon at each cardinal point, see which way they go, and quickly write something for them to do when they get there. They’ve clearly gone for 02, the wreck of the Parapraxis. With how central this fabulous vessel became to the stroy, it’s hard to imagine the shape of the campaign if they hadn’t.