Through Ultan's Door

I finished up my session report from the other night, I made sure Clovis didn't hog too much of the glory, even though he got most of the POV. Let me know how mediocre my mediocre poetry is.

Session 74-76: Recap and the Take This session took the party into the Valley of the Flowers, the crash site of the witch Zalvorex’s vessel, The Parapraxis. The “imago core” (the power source) of the vessel draws from the “underpsyche” (the unconscious) of the crew, serving as a storehouse of their fears, traumas, forgotten memories, and repressed urges to power various aspects of the ship’s operations. The core was damaged in the crash and has been leaking “xenosic radiation” that has shaped the valley into a strange, almost living, environment crafted from Zalvorex’s unconscious. It is a tiny world full of their nightmares, wishes, traumas, and desires. And, as it turned out, it was quick to absorb and weaponize he unspoken fears of the intruders. Before setting out, Zalvorex provided them as well with a list of goods to retrieve from the Parapraxis and strict instructions to “leave everything else just where it is”. The party made its way into the surreal environment of the valley,...

Sessions 71-73: The Take These sessions saw the party penetrate the Sanctorum of the Temporal Maenads. They slew one of the enlightened sages or mad divinities, Esdoreth the Sculptress, and temporarily imprisoned another. They also found the encampment of the temple tenders, slaying Belis, the priest of Thovis. They returned the heirloom to Eleonasha and rescued the other terrified tenders. Creatures Slain or Otherwise Bested Esdoreth the Sculptress 1500 XP Fugue Maiden 200 XP Vorpal Swine 500 XP Belis Priest of Thovis 70 XP 3 Fanatics 30 XP Evasion of Haleska 200 XP Returning the Heirloom and Rescue 500 XP Scroll in Case: Heal, Flame Strike, Blade Barrier 1400 XP Treasure Seized Broken Masks and Headress of Esdoreth 600 GP Necklace the stone of which is a jade chisel 500 GP Go...

Session 70: Recap and Downtime thread This session marked the party’s first trip to Zyan Above! After negotiations with the Chatelaine, a bit of intelligence gathering, and some preparations, the party opened a shimmering priaduct from the childhood memories of Ulantanu, their one time captive (from the Catacombs of the Fleischguild in Session 6) and now willing convert to Cletus’ syncretistic faith. He took the party to an abandoned mill in Volish Hill, where he played as a child when visiting cousins. It was a great redoubt of their imaginary worlds: the secret hideout of their band of pirates, or the jungle base camp for their safari expeditions, depending on the mood of a summer afternoon. Stepping from the pod at the end of the priaduct, the place smelled of damp decay, the broken floorboards rotting underfoot. A dim light coming through cracks in the millhouse fell on the ruins of the threshing apparatus. In the dim light a body could be seen. It’s mask—a face with puffed cheeks ...

Session 68-69 Recap and the Take The last two sessions saw the party return to tackle the King’s Tower. In the first session, the party explored four rooms on the first floor, but found the way forward blocked by a series of mysterious doors. In the second session, things got crazy. The King’s Tower was the one major unexplored site in the intact South Wing of the Summer Palace. Both the King and Queen’s tower open into the legendary palace library, scene of many of the party’s previously (mis)adventures. The entryway to the King’s Tower from the library os sealed by a tessellated gate, a field of arcane force that pulls apart objects flying into its field into ever so many triangles, spread across space. Dozar called upon the Slumbering God to dispel the gate, and although the magic was potent, the cosmic dream of MANA YOOD SUSHAI was greater. Beyond the gate was a chamber with a warm yellow marble floor, shot through with deeper oranges. On a raised dais, three bronze braziers hung b...

Return to the Hanging Palace: Recap and the Take The last three sessions saw the party crawl through a shimmering priaduct to return to their old base of operations at the pagodas of the hanging merchants. There they caught up with their old comrade Bulras, who filled them in on the recent goings on. They ducked some kind of malfeasance from Nekalimon, the merchant on the payroll of Bazekop, Prince of the West Wind. Salinger’s contact informed him that Umpalior the Great was in the process of reclaiming the sewers and undercity, and that goods were often searched by armed guards on the Great Sewer River. The party returned quickly to the jungle, fearing Bazekop’s unwanted attentions, and longing to put the hound Hector to rest in the Burial House of the hanging palace’s gardens. Along the way they were bushwacked by Transit Ivy, murderous vines with a deadly teleportation power. (This is one of my favorite entry on my big Level 2 encounter table for the White Jungle, so I was pleased t...

The Take(!!!) and Downtime Thread for 3/1 Game Baiba and Marjanna scale the great black walls, sending down the rope behind them. Climbing the surging Breath of the Simoom to the rope, the rest of the party mounts the walls, turning once to gaze at the Doomed City, the name of which you each heard spoken once in your mind--let it never cross your lips! The view of the palace in the distance is stunning, inviting, perhaps mocking, you, with its rose brass domes piled one atop another, and marble terraces, with fluted columns, and tiny hammocks swinging in the sweet breeze next to lush plants, pots sparkling with a king's ransom of jewels. One half of your soul knows this is the last glimpse you will ever have of the Palace of the Painted Caliph, and tarries for a moment, entranced and melancholy, but the other half is filled with mirth and a new found determination, thinking, "We have won this round. We will see you again old adversary; perhaps next time we will take the palace...

Session Recap: Enter The Doomed City! The party climbed the steep stairs over the stables to crowd into the Child witch Adrianna's cramped apartments. All the furniture had been moved out. Guttering candles lit a complex diagram in powders of various hues. The pages from Evocations of the Doomed City, retrieved by the party as some expense, were nailed to the wall around the room. The cloying smell of incense mingled with the smell of horses. Adrianna explained to the party what they were in for. She would begin with the Song of Six, calling forth the six vessels that would transport the party to the location of the Doomed City. She explained that as the party members stepped forward into their chosen vessel, their souls would meld with these potent individuals. The union would provide them with the powers of the vessel, but should the vessel be slain, the soul of the traveler might be lost (save vs. death). When questioned she indicated that although physical injuries and maladies...

Sessions 51-55 A Very Brief Recap and Take Well, the campaign has moved into a much more organic mode, at least for the moment. The party is settling old scores and setting up a home base in the waking world. They have also been employing Elixirs of Penumbral Transmigration to open shimmering priaducts that allow them to zip around between the waking world and various parts of Zyan Below that they have visited previously, in order to accomplish various objectives. As a result, only two of the last five sessions have been in the usual dungeon crawl mode. And things are moving in dramatic directions, in some ways alarming, in others advantageous to the party. Here is a terse summary of what I can remember from the whirlwind of the last five sessions. If I don’t write this down, I’m totally going to forget all of this. The Waking World When Ultan got the bad news that Umpalior is reclaiming the Ruins of the Inquisitor’s Guild on the other side of his door for Zyan Above, he agreed to sell...

Session 50 Recap and the Take The party emerged from the Abyssal Dungeon into the dank air of the brambles. Laden heavily with loot, inured and drained of magic, they thought perhaps to camp for the night. They returned to their campsite, a secure hollow not too far from the Sordid Latch. But the hound Hector immediately picked up a scent, and when the party inspected the hollow they could see white circular marks spread on the boughs and thick brambles. Upon seeing the marks, alarm surged from the Petal Blade into Dozar. Drawing on the power of MANA-YOOD SUSHAI (MAY HIS BLESSED SLUMBER THAT SUSTAINS THE WORLD NEVER BE DISTURBED!) he questioned the noble beast in its own tongue. Hector said that something big, with many legs and a strange smell, was moving through the brambles, likely hunting them. He told Dozar that the strange tracks were very fresh. So the party struck out immediately into the brambles, hoping to make the pagodas of the hanging merchants in one long trek. The march ...

Session 45-49: Recap and the Take In these five continuous sessions, the party explored the area beyond the Sordid Latch. During this time, they honored the wishes of a little dead girl to their detriment, releasing the bloody Children of Haldicar. They fought brutal battles with the lost, laughing murder clowns with nothing to lose. They used a squad of skeletons to clear a trapped field, and pioneered the art of wrapping skeletons in barbed wire. They met the cats of Zyan, and learned about their deadly slow war with the humans. They negotiated with their reigning dignitary, the Margrave Nip, nephew to King Catch, the rightful ruler of Zyan, agreeing to find his missing nephew Sebastian. They found an opium den, with four different flavors of lotus to smoke. They visited two undead prostitutes, Mariam and Salome; the houri Satareh brought Salome under her potent charms and promptly broke her heart, but not before she found out where to look for the the gleaming seal. The party waded ...

Sessions 43-44 Recap and the Take Confronted with the Sordid Latch, Salinger easily picked the rusted padlock. With the first of the seven portals overcome, the rusted and wretched door swung outwards. Lantern light fell on a room with walls of tan stone. The ground of the room was cut paving stones, now buckled and broken, and rank weeds sprout up to waist height here and there in the darkness. Against the back wall, five sets of metal shutters were closed, as though they were covering windows set directly into the rock wall. Three were at a height of five feet, and two at height of 12’ in trapezoidal arrangement. After a little poking around, the party yanked open the low, easternmost window shutter with a grating sound, revealing a bricked-up window behind. The party opted to head west, coming upon a set of stairs that led 15’ down to a larger room. The floor was made of massive irregular stone tiles. The northern wall of the room was composed of a black rock, carved into a set of e...

Session 42 Recap and the Take After a successful manhunt and brief sojourn in the waking world (just long enough to receive the latest extortion from their blackmailer), the party returned to Zyan. Hector, immortal hound of King Lathanon, agreed to lead them through the Brambles to the Abyssal Dungeon, where his master took him once a century ago. Descending past the pagodas of the hanging merchants, the party could see the damage wrought by Bazekop’s hurricane of wrath. Not wanting to alert the demon’s human servitors, the party went rapidly down into the stifling darkness and cutting thorns below. Communicating with Hector in the language of hounds, Dozar learned that the quickest way to the Abyssal Dungeon involved crossing an old bridge over a great chasm “in which fly dark things”. Not interested in a lengthy detour, the party proceeded with some misgivings. The bridge was a grand affair, anchored to two massive boles, its massive posts capped with the copper heads of great screa...

Duel at the Hanging Pagodas: Recap and the Take Well, this one was a doozie. The group arrived at the pagodas of the hanging merchants in time for the scheduled duel between the two Storm Riders: Sir Tresken the Vigilant, first PC ever through Ultan’s door, and bearer of the Petal Blade, and Sir Carnes, leader of the rival adventuring party, wielder of the massive blade Inferno. When they arrived the overmerchant Malichar informed the party that a strange gift had arrived from the witch Zalvorex, a fat and torpid sparrow. All attempts at communication with the bird failed. Baffled, the party left the sparrow at their pagoda and set about gathering intelligence on the rival party. In addition to Sir Carnes, they consisted of the following four: (1) Edwin, dyspeptic apprentice to the necromancer Spaldiv. Reports indicate that he is accompanied by a pair of skeletons in antique arms. (2) Little Mara, a murderous acrobat, one of Salinger’s fellow performers at the Temple of Ulim. And (3) V...