Through Ultan's Door

Campaign News for 3/22/2018: The Contest of the Apprentices (and Aftermath) On the final day of the Festival of the Sybarites, after Mordrovo’s humiliating performance, and Adrianna’s tour-de-force, come the other apprentices. Here is a taste of the spectacle. Spaldiv, sickly and pallid, leering through teeth green with grave moss, walks onto the field with majestic airs. In a voice that echoes with spectral tones, he calls the dead from the depths of the earth. And lo! They claw their way from below. (“The bastard has seeded the field in advance with his filthy cadavers!” Adrianna whispers under her breath.) Zombies climb, almost without number, out of holes in the torn earth. The stench is overwhelming and cries of fear and retching can be heard among the crowd. The zombies bear a throne of bone on their shoulders and pull behind them huge nets full of bones. They set to assembling, through interlocking joints and hinges, balls and sockets, a skeletal behemoth of bone, a many-armed m...

A year and eight months later, we have the Evocation of the Doomed City in hand. Adriana is bound to win at the Festival of Sybarites, so we don't need to assassinate anyone!

Campaign News for 10/5 The sights and sounds of Rastingdrung wash over you, a welcome homecoming after journeys parlous and absurd. The city is a bustle with preparation for the coming Festival of Sybarites. The streets have begun to swell with foreign dignitaries, having purchased their festival tickets early for an extended debauch. The Crimson Censors are about, stirred to great vigilance by the usual paranoia about foreigners, but suddenly strangely powerless. Court gossip is focused squarely on Lord Kex of Viridistan, nephew to the World Emperor. He came two weeks ago in a swaying palanquin atop a white elephant, accompanied by a mighty entourage. His bare green chest and unnaturally tall and graceful form have become a fixture around the court. Fishwives state with great certainty that he has been sent to seal through marriage the World Emperor’s alliance with the city state. Civic pride prevents them from asking what his interest in an alliance with this backwater might be. Busi...

Campaign News 8/3 Having emerged from the Sordid Latch into the darkness of the brambles, the party, exhausted and wounded, finds a secure hollow in the brambles to camp. Staring into the flames of the dim campfire you briefly kindle, Unasi reflects. “You asked me about the were-panthers and a strange tool you called ‘the flexible vistrum’. It is true that I have not heard about it, but there are many strange treasures seeded in the belly of the God-Who-Died. The slaves are not allowed to approach the holy gauntlet of the Panther Priests, and the masters do not speak of its secrets. Who knows? Perhaps what you seek is to be found among the challenges of Umata-Shi?” The question hangs in the air along with the smoke as the flames are extinguished and the party lies to rest their weary bodies. As Cletus’ thoughts turn over the events of the day, the wilderness of the eastern region of the dungeon tugs at his memory, until Ulantanu’s loving description of the city’s wild hollows returns s...

Campaign News for Session 32 (3/9) The party retreats to Shirishanu's grove, bearing the mangled corpse of the wizard Titus. After a burial in the woods, and a few pious and solemn words from Cletus, the party makes camp in Shirishanu's grove. The party lights a fire and cooks a fine meal of flying airracuda near the dangling boughs of the cosmic willow. The grove is tranquil, unearthly and melancholy in its beauty. The quiet sounds of the opulent fountain bubbling in the dusk of twilight lulls the party to sleep by the embers of the fire. As the moon rises, the grove is bathed in dappled moonlight. The watch is an eerie one, with Lathanon's shade appearing, now weeping, now wandering distractedly through moonlit pools, now right by the watchers side, sometimes speaking, sometimes silent. In the small hours just before the party awakes, the last watcher has a wondrous experience. An animal the size of a horse, but longer, moves into the grove. It's hide is a shiny cara...

Campaign news for 2/2: The party spends the night at the village of the Panther Priests. They respect your daring (mad?) intention to seek the Summer Palace, and are hopeful that if you survive, you will return to run their Gauntlet in the belly of the God Who Died. You are served a meal of roasted jungle meats, garnished with succulent, colorful fruits. The slaves serve the food to the other villagers who recline on woven matts. Among the masters, the five panther priests are identifiable by their regalia--fetishes, jewelry, and headdresses. They are shown deference by all. When the meal is concluded, and Salinger offers to perform, drums are immediately produced. At Balkata's orders a sweet fermented liquor is passed around in hollowed gourds. The matts are cleared from the center of the feasting area. The slaves sit further back, climbing on tree limbs so they may see over the heads of the villagers. The ridiculous turban of Regimund Cruft can be seen bobbing up and down among t...

Campaign News 1/26 Preparations continue apace for the approaching Festival of the Sybarites, which is now six weeks away. Entertainers have begun to arrive in Rastingdrung, the usual mix of acrobats, mountebanks, jongleurs and minstrels. Word has leaked from workmen that the Chatelaine is constructing an obstacle course replete with sharp blades, spikes, and broken glass. The palace has also put out a call to the slavers of Ruined Ghinor to procure blind slaves in great quantities. Together, these rumors perhaps give a clue about the entertainments she will be providing to her noble guests. Some of these guests have begun to tickle in to Rastingdrung. The most remarkable so far has been the Lord Kex of Viridistan, who arrived with is honor guard in a silk palanquin atop a white elephant. His greenish skin and braided black beard were glimpsed briefly as he was conducted to private bathes in the Temple of Ulim. This event is extremely rare, since there is little reason for dignitaries ...

Campaign News 1/5 Some news from Rastingdrung, for a change. With only seven weeks until the Festival of the Sybarites, preparations are in full swing. Craftsman and merchants pour in from the corners of Ruined Ghinor, selling their decorations and wares, and constructing stages and festival booths. The Scarlet Censors have put themselves on a strict diet, and can be seen red-faced and huffing, training for their run of shame in a special track in the hills above Rastingdrung. While the carvers are busy producing their icons of the saints for the Parade of the Blasphemers, the miners and fishers have begun their work on their irreverent puppets. A huge hook-nosed and pinch-faced paper mache version of Valmoreaux, Captain of the Storm Riders, has been glimpsed in a barn in the outer city. The Chatelaine’s High Chef Giacarno is preparing the menu for the special dinner for the Chatelaine and her guests. After a long string of failures and executions, Giacarno survived the last festival w...

Campaign news for 12/15 Upon your arrival back to the Pagodas of the hanging merchants, you see that Ulram has expanded his operations considerably. He now stocks a larger selection of tradable goods for dealign with the jungle denizens, and has two pagodas for his jungle animals, one devoted solely to birds. From the bird pagoda, you hear a constant stream of birdsong and squawking. Malichar complains mightily about the noise. "In truth, we can expect no better from a member of the clan of gutter cleaners. He has risen above his station, and is clearly mad on power. I'm afraid this will continue indefinitely--until someone teaches him a lesson." Almost as soon as Malichar has finished this statement a guard from Nekalimon's pagoda enters his store looking for the party. "Someone," the guard shudders, "is here to speak with you. You should not keep him waiting," he adds ominously. He have a feeling that Ivar has finally come knocking. We will pick ...

At the hanging pagodas Malichar greets the party with his usual enthusiasm. You feast on luscious fruits and strange meats from the jungle, and wash away the horrors of the jungle with the potent wines of Zyan. In your day of rest you witness the coming and going of a band of plumed reavers. They fly up out of the darkness of the chasm below, their glorious plumage matted and reeking with jungle decay. They are surly and silent, and move with a violent contempt. They enter Nekalimon’s pagoda with covered baskets, and emerge bearing arms and armor. Ulram’s papers have finally come through. To the horror and Shock of the overmerchants Malichar and Nekalimon, Ulram is now owner of his Pagoda. This title comes with dominion over several abandoned pagaodas, one of which he promptly offers to you for your use, unconditionally and permanently. Note that Ulram is expanding his operation, and now has two guards—not nearly as many as Malichar, but not nothing. You may choose whether to extricate...

Campaign News for 9/20/2016 After careful questioning of your new companions, it turns out the root warrens of the mole rats are conveniently on the way to the village of the masons. The root warren is located in hex 1710 of Level 2, beneath the peak of Mount Vanothoe. The village of the Chittering Masons is in Hex 1211 of Level 2, far to the west, near the shores of the Endless Azure Sea. (I have attached the current map of Level 1 for reference. The hex numbers line up on Level 1 and Level 2.) The hut of the Empty Witch is a cozy place to spend the night. After discussing your plans, you eat a nourishing if flavorless meal of heaping bowls of steaming gruel. Spirits are high after your victory against the witch, and there is a feeling of camaraderie about your impending trip into the depths of the White Jungle. Once Selwin is done imperiously directly his linkboy Gerrald to polish his arms and armor, he settles down by the crackling fire to recount an inflated version of the tale of ...

Campaign News for 6/1: Upon your return from the cleanup of the cavern, the guards at the harbor cheer you, swords raised. As they help you from the boat, they inform you that something strange happened at the pagodas during your trip to the waking world. A great vine, thick and green rose wavering out of the canyon, entwining itself around the rope bridges. The guards hacked at its thick stem, but to no avail. Forming a pod at its front, it pushed its way into the pagoda of a terrified Malichar. When the pod opened, the onlookers saw a pale white face staring out from its interior. At this point a dark screen descended over the windows and door, obscuring the scene and sound within from the many figures pressed in to look. After a period of ten minutes, the vine withdrew, sinking back into the jungle below. They tell you that Malichar is eager to speak to you. After congratulating you on your assault of the Lurid Toads, and appraising your goods, Malichar carefully posts sentries outs...

Campaign News 7/28 Since returning from your successful raid on the Children of the Spore, your stature has clearly risen at the pagodas. Malichar takes a proprietary pride in your accomplishments, smiling and jesting with you in his booming voice. He sates your prodigious appetites (Dozar and Sleestakarus) with only the slightest hesitation, and the mellow and complex wines of Zyan flow freely. There is now a festival air around your pagoda, which is well-lit and passably furnished, and overflowing with your goods and possessions. Meanwhile, lank Nekalimon stares bitterly, skulking about your pagoda trying to catch your attention and interest. Your lessons on valuable plants with Ulram continues. He is frank with you that he hopes you might become a more natural and easygoing source of products than the ones with whom he usually deals. You witness some remarkable sights. Malichar rouses you from deep sleep one night to show you the splendid sight of a storm forming in the chasm below....

Campaign news for 7/14 consists of a list of six rumors/hooks that the party has acquired by speaking to the hanging merchants. (1) Passage down the great Sewer River has been impeded recently by the Lurid Toads, bloated white amphibious parasites. They have erected a slime dam in a large natural cavern upstream, and are demanding an ever-increasing fee of (very) fresh meat for passage. This is not a small inconvenience for the merchants who regularly ferry their wares to and from Zyan above. In an unusual act of cooperation, they have pooled their resources to offer a bounty for the dam's permanent removal of 2500 GP. (2) There was until recently a fifth pagoda occupied by an estimable merchant named Ulaptaloom, a member of the clan of money changers. In a most horrible turn of events, the occupants of this entire pagoda were seized a month ago by the children of the spore. Although the children have a kind of immortality through splitting and dividing, they raid because they mus...

Campaign News 7/7 Life has returned to normal in Rastingdrung. The hewers are back at work, hauling timber from around the shores of the lake with renewed gusto. Everything is in full bloom. The fisherman have made their whimsical sacrifices to the Bishop--the [supposed] great talking fish of Lake Wooling--in preparation for the arrival of the schools of river gos, a strange species of slippery silver fish that migrates to the contaminated waters of the lake to spawn on the summer equinox. The Voluptuaries find themselves on shaky ground. Popular resentment towards them is boiling over, emboldened by the Chatelaine's recent humiliation. After an unusual incident in which a Scarlet Censor was openly pelted with rotten fruit by a mob, the Voluptuaries are taking a light touch to the enforcement of hedonistic mores. They scheme for a return to their former position. With summer around the corner, the palace has just begun preparations for the yearly Festival of the Sybarites. Secret ...

Campaign News for 6/30 The tensions mounted between the hewers and the carver, and their respective supporters at court, in the wake of the defeat of the carver's mercenary force. Just when it was reaching the breaking point, the Chatelaine finally took the reins of power again returning to court in a most decisive fashion. In a surprising move, she has sided with the hewers, taking the opportunity to humble the Voluptuaries. The violence has been pinned on a mid-level priest name Gondrogo who Captain Valmoreaux executed with great relish. The High Voluptuary was even made to offer a humiliating public apology for the overzealous action of his underling. The hewers got their higher prices, and trade and production has begun again. (Most of Rastingdrung's trade with Wolsdag and Loktole and points beyond is in timber and fine furniture.) In a further slight to the Voluptuaries, the Chatelaine has welcomed the charismatic reptilian hero of the hewers to her Court, where he has reg...

Campaign News 6/23 The Guild of Hewers has continued to refuse to supply shining timber to the Council of Carvers until they up the customary fees. Using mercenaries supplied by the Voluptuaries, the carvers tried to break the strike, but the lumberjacks surprisingly routed the sell-swords in a nighttime clash. According to wild rumors, the lumberjacks were aided by a strange warrior: a charismatic saurian gladiator from distant lands. In light of their victory, various rivals to the Voluptuaries at court have thrown in with the Hewers, including the Captain of the Storm Riders, Sir Valmoreaux. They are demanding that the organizers of the violence be brought to justice. The Chatelaine remains withdrawn and has not stepped in to halt the conflict. In other news, the Chatelaine’s Fifth Apprentice, the unwholesome Spaldiv has casually paraded before shocked members of the court several necromantic hulks of alien forms, including white swine with the hands of children, and a corpulent hul...

Campaign news for 2/26  The driving rains have finally come to an end, as the Chatelaine has emerged, pale and sullen from her mourning. There is a whispered rumor that she may finally take up with her apprentice Almuric, from whom she has been aloof despite his rather obvious charms. Speaking of Almuric, two gangsters disguised as footman were found with crushed torsos and partially devoured innards in the tunnels leading to the area formerly housing his managerie, where it is his magical apparatuses are rumored to be kept as well. What fearsome beast might have accomplished this defensive act is a matter of speculation. The Council of Carvers has entered a cold war with The Guild of Hewers following their failure to renew the contract on shining timber. Rumors suggest that the Hewers have been emboldened by the discovering of a new entrance to underwater chambers beneath the ancient refinery on the shore of lake wooling. (What they may have found, no one outside the guild knows.) The...

Campaign News 1/15 Strange lacquered armor and fine antique weapons have begun showing up on the black market. In a perhaps related event, the gangs of Rastingdrung have taken to wearing tattered robes of fine patterned damask and outlandish hats of an unfamiliar style.The haberdashers are, naturally, outraged by this turn of events. Everyone expects the Scarlet Censors to step in at any moment and put a stop to this unorthodox sartorial development. A duel of "Count" Valdir, the doltish paramour of the Chatelaine, and Bashar an attache to the representative of the Merchant's Guild has resulted in Valdir's death. The Chatelaine has withdrawn into seclusion to grieve. Since then, the skies have been black, with ceaseless rain falling for seven days now. The sewers are overflowing; if the storm does not break soon, disaster may ensue. Bashar is, of course, nowhere to be seen. Since her withdrawal, the court has been in chaos as simmering feuds and resentments between co...

Campaign News for 11/20 The dramatic public trials of the recently exposed cell of heretics were well attended. All the accused presented monotone confessions of their grotesque crimes. On the basis of this damning evidence, the High Voluptuary sentenced the traitors to quartering. The forms of the gigantic black war crows could be seen fluttering high above the crowds, each desperately trying to escape the cords attaching them to a limb of the unfortunate convicts. They jerked around like tiny rag dolls, pulled this way and then that by the gruesome tug of war. Spectators were treated afterwards to cranberry ale. The cult leader is still nowhere to be found. Things have been quiet in Rastingdrung since, with one exception. Two days ago some boys were playing at being Storm Riders in the silver fens at the edge of Lake Wooling, when they came upon a macabre sight. One Agemar, a bald overseer at the slave markets, was floating face down among the reeds. His neck had been cut clean throu...