Cogflower Campaign Post Mortem

When I got the pdf of the Ultraviolet Grasslands early in 2020 I didn’t read the whole thing. Instead I marveled at the illustrations, traced the roads to the Black City with my finger and decided to run UVG from beginning to end. I wanted to experience the Grasslands in a leisurely pace, travelling together with the players over the whole map. We left the Violet City, crossed the Trail of Vomish Dreams, descended into the Three Sticks Lake and climbed the Totem of the Sky. At the City Mountain we fought with the Veterans of the Psychic War and in the Umberlands we fulfilled the last wish of a depressed Autofac. A year later the caravan arrived at the Black City.

Below is a look back at memorable moments, comments on the specifics of our experience with the setting and suggestions about what I could do differently if I’d run it again. 

System and Characters: I love the d40 hero table and chose Whitehack mainly as a flexible system that made realizing these concepts easy, yet mechanically sound. We had a Redland District Folk Hero, Yellowlander Climate Migrant, Secret Azure Cultist, Metropolitan Accountant Monk, Volkan Diesel Dwarf, Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, Black Gold Industrialist, Tumult Fisher Wizard, Cogflower Necromancer Lawyer, Wildfolk Demon Hunter and a Moon Mountain Witch, and they were all memorable characters. The heroes were rolled completely randomly although when in later stages of the campaign a player rolled a character type that was already chosen they would pick another of the three numbers to determine the hero instead. The two remaining results then decided the reason they were on the road and their starting item. Initially I wasn’t entirely convinced by the second column (Why are you on the road) but the quests turned out to be crucial for wrapping up the campaign and finding a satisfying end. Luka skillfully equipped many discoveries with potentially quest relevant content e.g. it is probably not a coincidence that there are plenty of replacement bodies to be found and a Mother Silicone in the Dark Hospital when “Finding a body for Mother” is one of the character goals. To incentivize pursuing their goal, the PCs earned XP when working towards it. In most cases it meant that there was a certain chance per Discovery they would find something related to their quest or that they ticked a progress clock when they used their action at a Destination to work on a project.

What I’d do differently: Maybe use a different system. The Whitehack “groups” that allow advantages on rolls worked well enough and performing miracles like Doodlebugging, Augury, Ghostly Brotherhood and Fishing in the Sea of Dimensions were fun to see in action and fitted the setting perfectly - but combat was slow and I never worked out how to make the Deft's attunement interesting. I’d probably try something simpler like Will Hilton’s Into the Grasslands or Mike Fernandino’s UltravioletWorld. 

Caravan and Travel: Travelling through the vast landscape felt appropriately epic, every leg of the journey taking at least one week. The travel procedure provided a satisfying structure and we got into the groove pretty quickly. In the beginning market research and trading was fun albeit not entirely successful. However they hit the jackpot when through some random rolls they first found Black Lotus at a discovery and then sold it at the Puce House for a multiple of its value. At that point market research and resource management became less of a focus but the players enjoyed the freedom their wealth gave them. Likewise when they arrived at the Behemoth Shell they encountered (again through a random roll) Great Folk Bone Farmers who sold them the nutritious marrow beets that solved their resource problems for large parts of the journey.

Seeing the caravan grow from one coach to several unique vehicles and numerous retainers was certainly fun. Most of the time I forgot to take vehicle speed into account, they only once accrued additional travel days and we handwaved it away.

What I’d do differently: I’d have more travel vignettes and campfire scenes, give retainers a bit more character by involving the players in establishing their irritating mannerism and alluring quirks. I could see giving vehicles traits as well and letting the players describe how they decorate their rides to make them more memorable. Maybe taking inspiration from Into the Odd and introduce a rival caravan.

Destinations and Discoveries: The stars of the show, incredibly evocative and visually interesting. The encounters and misfortunes helped to reinforce the theme of the place although the middle result of the misfortune table didn’t add anything immediately gameable. I really enjoyed the intro descriptions and often read them aloud as boxed text when the PCs entered a new destination. The weather descriptions were fun as well and further defined the feel of the place.

Memorable misfortunes include mysterious puncture wounds (Gall Grass), blinded by a speck of biomechanical garbage (Trail of Vomish Dreams) and a shard of hard light being lodged in one eye (Fractal Trees). The hands down best discovery was Johnny-7 who became a major NPC in the campaign, followed by the Lurid Pines - which took five sessions to clear out and bestowed Hamish with hamster reflexes.

What I’d do differently: It might be more interesting to replace the middle result on the misfortune table where nothing happens with a minor inconvenience that matches the theme of the area. I could also see adding a destination-appropriate faction encounter (to entangle the PCs with the factions) and maybe a caravan to the encounter table.

Factions: Early on the PCs aligned themselves with Syruss Sensible, blew up the Broken Line and stole a Porcelain Walker. At the Jade Baobab the PCs prevented members of the Second Hand Clan to sell Rainbowlanders into indentured service for the Porcelain Princes. In the second half of the campaign the Ultras organically emerged as the most influential faction of the campaign after the players encountered Soba de Garoba at the Gemstone Tomb in the Lake of Oil and Sama Zivani at the Lonely Lodge. Based on the rumor table on p. 167 it made sense to involve them in Azures plot to cause the end of the world. More important than the major factions were the groups the PCs belonged to, mainly the Cult of the Blue God and the Machine Humans. The setting with its apocalyptic cults, trade companies and revolutionaries has a lot of potential for faction play without actually involving the major factions.

What I’d do differently: To make the factions a bit more visible in the Grasslands I might add an entry to the encounter table that indicates to which sphere of influence an area belongs e.g. have one random encounter result for the Cat Lords East of the Porcelain Citadel

Statistics:

20 months of in-game time 

13 months of real world time from March 14 2020 to April 10 2021

15 characters, 14 players

100+ hours of actual play: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BBgImD4UPRGy4yIEaL0HwYohPc-X8af

 

The Black City

Characters in the Last Session:

Naida: A  Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Otis, the animatronic bear. 

Saffron, a Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother.

Kozue: An Wise Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sister of the Near Moon. Her singing spirit (appearing as a wingless, serpentine creature to those who can see it) in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse.

Azure Dee: A Blue God Cultist on her journey to the Black City where she is supposed to bring the apocalypse by sacrificing Vile organs. The Vile are a species of (demonic?) rulers from the Long Long Ago. She is accompanied by Cataract, a Wire-and-bone biomechanical salamander. She has undergone mutation after being exposed to a vome infection that made her muscles grow uncontrollably. The mutation has slowed down after a week of therapy sessions in the solarium of the Pylon Kraal.

Hamish Mac Rainbow: A Redland District Folk Hero with a black motorbike and rainbow-colored beard. Wielder of the Fractal Blade. Slayer of  a maddened Ka-Elemental. His heroic reputation vastly exceeds his actual deeds but he's working on living up to the legend.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

Kozue and Azure traverse the ash dunes on the stolen motorbike. Sama warns Kozue of the spatial-temporal dangers of the Pre-City and the Moon Witch builds a simple construction from her tripod to indicate distortions in the landscape to Azure. When they pass the brutalist-fungus building of the Dark Hospital Kozue senses the presence of Soba, who wishes her luck.

Naida shakes Hamish out of his drug induced delirium and explains the urgency of the situation but Hamish had already partially been informed by the Secretary and is ready to save the world. They grab N’Keth and the reluctant Saffron (who convinces them to first visit the Dark hospital in order to bring Vicar's body to mother) and pursue the witches in the Redlander Autowagon with Amberto in the turret protected by the ill-fitting diving suit from the Lurid Pines. Naida spots the space-time anomalies through the monocle that N’Keth made for her from the hard light that was lodged in her eye and is able to evade them. They arrive at a moltenstone plaza surrounded by hollowed out sculptures and enter the endless dusty corridors of the Dark Hospital.

Azure and Kozue are hit by the toxic dust of the Pre-City and feel jolts of pain running through their bodies. Azure spots automatons in leather and lead armor who seem to extract something from the grotesquely contorted bodies of dried up travelers with silvery rods. Azure engages with a rather big one, manages to prevail and continues her journey with a new armor ... but when she touches the rod she is overwhelmed by painful memories.

In the hospital old wooden tv-sets hanging under the ceiling show the heroes on black and white vertically shifting screens, a boiler clicks and gurgles, they hear the monotone beeping of a life support machine. Saffron follows the sound of a ringing telephone while the rest fights off waves of plastic faced nuns with blades and syringes. When Saffron picks up the phone they hear for the first time in a long while their mother’s voice, and although she is confused and unable to remember anything she indicates to Saffron her location. They venture deeper into the building passing racks of synthetic limbs and an auto surgery with the replacement body Soba inhabited for a while lying disemboweled in one corner.

The witches arrive at the Black City: And then, in all that structured desolation, that tiered advancement of fractured chaos, was revealed a city beyond the skills and fashioning of any portion of humanity they had ever encountered; a city on a scale that beggared belief; a city of twisted obsidian blades, outrageously curved, bizarrely patterned structures of indecipherable purpose and huge, sweeping vistas leading to canyons and strata and ranks of glistening, glittering edifices, one after another after another. And then they blink and they see before them an elegant city of glassy black towers, elegant promenades, parks and lakes of molten mercury. In the parks they find statues that mock the Blue God and on the walls of buildings the faces of the comrades they are about to betray. But Sama Zivani, the Eater of Dreams spurs them on and leads them through the Black City to a grassy cliff-top with a small black pyramid and a withered altar.

Saffron lowers Vicar’s body gently into a dentist chair surrounded by wired instruments and begins singing with the sweet voice of a 56k modem, modulating and weaving together mother’s time-fractured mind. Outside in the corridor N’Keth holds off the Soba-possessed body of the Quarter-Ling Avatar while Hamish and Naida blow up an army of Dark Hospitallers. Finally Saffron collapses into mother’s lap and she cradles her gently. Later she leads them to an underground metro station that transport them to the Black City.

At the cliff-top spirits in the form of pale mice-deer graze peacefully. Azure performs the ritual placing the vile organs around the pyramid while Kozue constructs a protective structure from the poles of her tripod refusing to aid Azure in her preparations. When the heroes emerge from the Black City they are too late: A blue glow spills out of the five vile parts while at the same time a blue storm escapes the five portals around the Black City. A mass of mouths and eyes and tentacles arises from the oily sea. Naida finds an elevated position to take aim at the Blue God while Hamish and Amberto draw their weapons and jump towards the apocalyptic entity. Mother in Vicar’s body evokes source code that detaches the Black City from their reality. When Azure realizes that she had failed the Blue God she enters the Black City and blows herself up in an eruption of blue light.

N’Keth partially paralyzed from toxins injected by the plastic faced nuns takes out his pipe and - invited by Kozue - sits down next to her, smoking and watching quietly. Far above, inexplicitly, the Near Moon smiles over them.

 Actual Play: https://youtu.be/CnWgsy70yic

 

The Last Camp

Characters in the last Season

Naida: A Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Bounty, the animatronic bear.

Saffron, a Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother who might create new machine humans.

Kozue: An Wise Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sister of the Near Moon. Her singing spirit (appearing as a wingless, serpentine creature to those who can see it) in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse in order to power the Near Moon's departure from the world. She is a host for Sama Zivani, a powerful Ultra, who she vowed to bring to the Black City.

Azure Dee: A Blue God Cultist on her journey to the Black City where she is supposed to bring the apocalypse by sacrificing Vile organs which will summon the Blue God. The Vile are a species of (demonic?) rulers from the Long Long Ago. She is accompanied by Cataract, a Wire-and-bone biomechanical salamander. She has undergone mutation after being exposed to a vome infection that made her muscles grow uncontrollably. The mutation has slowed down after a week of therapy sessions in the solarium of the Pylon Kraal.

Hamish Mac Rainbow: A Redland District Folk Hero with a black motorbike and rainbow-colored beard. Wielder of the Fractal Blade. Slayer of a maddened Ka-Elemental. His heroic reputation vastly exceeds his actual deeds but he's working on living up to the legend.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

They arrive at the Fool’s Wall, a berm of petrified wood and radiation blasted sand, poorly shielding the Last Camp from the bio hazards to the West. Beyond the wall, past dunes of ash they see the swirling black cubes of the Black City rotating in the distance.

The Last Camp

Azure consults her tablet and memorizes the location of the obelisk where the ritual to conjure the Blue God will take place. Kozue notices half-thought glyphs unfurling in the corner of her eyes and sends her fetch to read them. A symbol takes shape in the dust telegraphing urgency and doom at the Black Obelisk.

Hamish checks in at the Spectrum Embassy, a plasteel replica of the Behemoth Shell where he is greeted by techno shaman Aaris Max who runs the Fading Light Diner - and days of wild celebrations follow. Hamish starts speaking in tongues when the Last and Most Devine Secretary of the Black City possesses him. The secretary tells tall tales of voyages a true hero might undertake with a void ship that had been stranded in the city for a long time.

Saffron talks to the Cogflower representative Executive Circolangolo who demands to see the books but is reminded that the journey is not over yet. They also inquire about the Dark Hospital and what lies ahead. A revolutionary tells them about those who enter the hospital but leave with a limb missing and about the plastic faced nuns who took it. Her spies whispered about the time fractured mind of mother that hides in the endless corridors of the hospital.

The Dark Hospital

Naida climbs the Shell to find Ostins reading a message from the Legion. He wordlessly hands over the strip of paper that proclaims Azure a Blue God cultist. They decide to take action.

When Azure performs her augury a vision projects itself into the smoke of the incense: A shadow is cast over the black obelisk while she hears Ostins and Naida discussing her fate. She finds Kozue in discussion with a wildly gesticulating hermit in rags and persuades her to aid her in the final ritual. They bump into a drunken Hamish who happily lends them his bike. Azure and Kozue disappear into the night leaving a cloud of iridescent ash behind them on their way to the Black City.

Hamish's Black Metal Motorcycle

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/cxYqIDRRdek

Discoveries in the Void

Now that you have a working void ship and taken to the stars, what will you discover in the void?

d6 Discoveries among the Fast Stars

1 Void Gate
2 Abandoned Space Station
3 Asteroid
4 Abandoned Spaceship
5 Anomaly
6 Oddity

1 Void Gates

1 Mouth of a Dead Vile God (rotting). Obstacle: Filed teeth

2 Crystal Gate reflecting the Sun (radiant). Obstacle: Blinded by light

3 Ceramic Ring with Neon-Runes (non-Euclidian). Obstacle: Unholy Fire

4 Swarm of Von Neuman Probes (inquisitive). Obstacle: Cracking the entry code

5 Ivory Portal (lewd) covered in ivy and obscene carvings. Obstacle: Grabbed by creepers

6 Circle of Prismatic Fire quickly rotating (dazzling). Obstacle: Hard light piercing the hull

Destination of the Void Gate

1 Crashed through a random gate in the UVG 10.000 years in the past (roll a d32 for Destination and set the gate near a Discovery). Roll for the name of the historic period you landed in (p. 182).

2 Crashed on the surface of the Moon. A brutalist abandoned moon station and a ruined temple of the Moon Witches (L5, obscure) are close by.

3 A Void Ship graveyard circling around a black hole. Loot: Roll on Abandoned Spaceship and Crashed Void Ship table. Obstacle: Sucked into the hole

4 An ancient battlefield in empty space. Loot: Ship weapon

5 A quasi-stellar lighthouse guarded by Star People (L3, cryptic). Loot: Star metal

6 Surface of a matryoshka world, spheres within spheres illuminated by artificial suns. Towers leading inside. Every level has a different biosphere.

2 Space Stations

1 Void Ship Refueling Station (fully automated)

Encounter: Service Robots (L2, confused)
Hazard: Gas leak
Loot: Fuel

2 Conglomerate of Brutalist Compartments: Primitive Science Station (byzantine)
Encounter: Thawed genetically modified Super Soldiers (L4, soviet)
Hazard: Radiation
Loot: Power Armor

3 Alien Observatory (non-Euclidean)
Encounter: Flying brains (L3, tentacled)
Hazard: Weightlessness
Loot: Optical instruments

4 Tomb of the Vile (sinister)
Encounter: Doom Druids (L5, drumming)
Hazard: Cursed Wards
Loot: Vile part

5 Alien Terraforming Dyson Sphere (musky)
Encounter: Fungoids
Hazard: Alien Atmosphere
Loot: Seed bombs

6 Rotating Wheel: Von Braun Space Station (cramped)
Encounter: Rogue AI (L8, soft voiced)
Hazard: Laser Traps
Loot: Processed Space Food

3 Asteroids

1 Endless pits (rocky) with giant worms (L6, cavernous)

2 Trash Asteroid (oppressive heat). Between mountain of junk Ur-Ling villages (L4, polite) are at war over etiquette.

3 Ice Asteroid (deceiving). Underground Supercomputer (L12, Apollonian) runs simulated world as soon as someone enters the caves.

4 Pirate Shanty Town (Dionysian) inside Volcano. Loot: Treasure Map (roll Oddity for location of the treasure and Anomaly for obstacle)

5 Sentient Meat Asteroid (apocalyptic). Encounter: Butcher Priests (L3, laconic)

6 Lumpy Felt Asteroid (cross-stitched). Encounter: Glass bats (L2, vampiric)

4 Abandoned Spaceship

1 Generation Ship with Biomes. Ruination: Contagious disease

2 Hollowed out Asteroid. Ruination: Hull breach.

3 Massive Freighter. Ruination: Acid spitting aliens (L8, stealthy)

4 Pilgrim Ship. Ruination: Ritualistic suicide. Encounter: Ghosts (L2, frantic)

5 Battleship. Ruination: Mutiny

6 Bioship. Ruination: Sentient Parasites (L1, genteel)

5 Anomaly 

1    Null Space Sink Holes

2    Time Loop Bubbles

3    Void Ghost Apparitions

4    Micro-Fungal Asteroid Storm

5    Radiant Fog Field

6    Solar Gale Turbulence

6 Oddity 

1    Inverse Void Monolith (anti-geometrical)

2    Fractal Flesh Pyramid (cancerous)

3    Tentacled Black Hole (eldritch)

4    Populated Air Sphere (Cambrian)

5    Space Whale Mass Migration (sublime)

6    Eyeball Planet around a Red Dwarf (unblinking)

 

The Endless Houses

The Quarter-Ling avatar looks up from the ground ready to cut the fishing line, but Kozue manages to calm the confused creature down. He can’t remember his name or how he had acquired the runes on his body. Kozue takes him in, feeds him and starts to study the strange symbols. There is a map tattooed on his back and words scratched into his skin: “Find Soba” on his shoulder and “Mother Silicon” next to a building on the map. She identifies one of the symbols, a triangle marked “Sky”, that signifies a portal to the fast stars.

Beyond the Dead Bridge lays endless ruinland, a mind-numbing grid of abandoned houses strangles by slow-ivy. Glowing figures lurk in the shadows. They make camp in a surprisingly well preserved high rise. Naida scouts the surroundings and spots a group of silk veiled nomads with their velblood camels. Sherman befriends them with the rest of his rabbit monkey stew. Naida buys a batch of their spider silk.

Kozue prepares a ritual to help the Quarter-Ling avatar recalling his name and trace back his memories. She carves a network of grooves into the ground leading to a placeholder of the avatar's name. She then cuts into a vein on his arm. When the blood finds its way through the maze the mechanical eyes of the avatar light up and Teredo mutters: “I need to go to the Dark Hospital”. Drained from the power of the reversed augury Kozue falls to the ground, lifeless and without a heartbeat only to be revived by Naida. However Teredo turns around and flees when Sami Zivani, the Ultra, steps forward and asks him to take her to the Dark Hospital.

They travel for a week and finally reach the Fools Wall, a radiation blast berm of earth, sand and dead dryland coral that marks the edge of the Last Camp. Inside of the Dwarven autowagon N’Keth hears the warning sound of a hidden meter reading: “Electro-magnificent Radiation”

Dead Bridge II: The Totem of the Sky

The next morning N’Keth returns to his task of locating the power source of the bridge projector. He concludes that the machine is missing a radiant stone and his mind immediately turns to building a converter who would transfer the energy of the Bio-Diesel engine of the Dwarven autowagon to the bridge projector.

Meanwhile at base camp Kozue and Sherman prepare to cross the Dead Bridge. Kozue conjures a fire elemental from a pyre she built and Sherman fishes a lizard cologne out of the otherworld. Boldened by their preparation they decide to abandon the plan of reactivating the projector and start to cross the bridge. N'Keth who had returned to work on the engine abides.

Repelled by the lizard stench the biomechanical spiders refrain from engaging with the party. After two days they arrive at a huge skeletal tower, miles high and buffeted by the winds that rises from the center of the bridge. When they pass through they find warning signs in several languages and synthetic veins pumping pink and red saps up the tower. Kozue is reminded of the pink goo that was feeding the mother vome back at the Garnet Ford.

Before they start the ascend N’Keth cobbles together a makeshift harness from fishing line and various bits and pieces to safeguard the climbers against being blown off by the wind. After hours of climbing they find a platform to rest for a while and enjoy the spectacular view. To the West lie the Endless Houses, the ruins of a city that must have been destroyed by an apocalyptical event. On the platform they find the carcass of an Androform Husk gruesomely killed by a large predator, which N’Keth concludes must have been the Vile he is chasing. They continue until night falls and huddle together on a barely wind protected platform high above the bridge. The next morning after hours of climbing the air gets so thin that they finally decide to turn around.

Two days later N’Keth who is working on the biofuel fermenter notices a figure from the rear of the caravan approaching fast: A Quarter-Ling covered in apocalyptic runes and wielding an ancient spear. Kozue quickly draws protective symbols on the dirt and elevates them into the air such that the runes when viewed through the dust loses its terrifying effect. Sherman unable to hear N’Keth shouting for support from the turrets (over the loud country music Vigo is listening to) spots the attacker through the rea-view mirror and convinces Vigo to turn the Truck so that he can get a nice shot – with his camera!  

Without slowing his advance the Quarter-Ling strikes at Kozue who parries the blow. N’Keth runs to the truck and mans the turret but stricken by fear he misses the attacker. The Quarter-Ling vaults over the truck dealing another blow but missing N’Keth. With a flick of his wrist Sherman shoots the fishing line at the tattooed creature trapping his legs. Unable to keep his balance the Quarter-Ling falls to the ground.

 

Dead Bridge

Characters in Season 13

Naida: A Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Bounty, the animatronic bear.

Saffron: A Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother.

Kozue: An Wise Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sister of the Near Moon. Her singing spirit (appearing as a wingless, serpentine creature to those who can see it) in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

Sherman: A Wise Tumult Fisher Wizard, Zoologist for the Tumult University Press and enthusiastic photographer, studying magic creatures for scientific journals. Skilled with his fishing rod and able to hook up objects from other dimensions. Equipped with a dwarven designed camera and a thermos of blood wine.

They leave the Ivory Plain and reach the end of the world - or so it seems. As far as they can see there is a bottomless chasm filled with noxious fog. Ruined towers file the rim. A single archaic bridge of crumbling livingstone and dryland corals disappears into the distance. Warned by Kozue's vision of interdimensional monsters and biomechanical spiders they approach the bridge carefully - with the notable exception of Sherman, who runs to the rim eager to explore the strange fauna of the area. He takes photo's of the spider webs under the bridge and spots three short and squat figures with mechanical eyes hanging in the nets and wielding tools. Sherman identifies them as Quarter-Lings.

Saffron discovers a perilous climbing route down the chasm but decides to not further investigate. Instead they try to communicate with the prisoners using Ostens as a translator. The Quarter-Lings proclaim that they are forced into maintaining the bridge by the spider queen.

N'Keth investigates the towers and concludes that their purpose is to establish a force bridge over the abyss. Unfortunately the mechanism is destroyed beyond repair. However he notices a less damaged tower to the North. While Sherman tries to catch one of the monkey rabbits that the Quarter-Lings mentioned as being the favorite food of the spiders, the rest of the party takes the Redlander truck to the tower.
They arrive at a great plaza carved into the rim with seven great ironstone helices around a projector aimed at the other side of the chasm. When N'keth approaches the towers he spots a glowing radiation ghost stuck in a loop but ignores them. However, despite all efforts he fails to understand the complex mechanism that activates the force bridge and they decide to make camp on the plaza.

Back at the Bridge Sherman manages to take a stunning photo of the flower encrusted spider queen drumming her orders through the vibrations in the web.

d6 Crashed Void Ships

When you find a crashed Void Ship roll 3d6 for type, state and special facility.

 

Void Ships

1 Saucer: Bigger on the inside, confusing controls

Weapon: Claws

2 Rocket: Cramped, many airlocks, jello food dispenser

Weapon: Laser Cannon

3 Bioship: Intelligent, moody, contains hot springs

Weapon: Ink squirt gun

4 Golden Barge: Luxurious but no cushions, polite but forgetful service droid

Weapon: Harpoon

5 Null-Space Submarine: Dark and claustrophobic, cloaked

Weapon: Torpedo

6 Zeppelin: Badly isolated, restaurant and bar

Weapon: Bombs  

Void Explorers studying the crashed Sky Chariot

State of the Chariot

1    Crashed and burned (toxic fumes and fluids leaking)

2    Destroyed (d6 scrap parts)

3    Destroyed (d6 alien technology)

4    Damaged but repairable

5    Fully functional

6    Fully functional with extra facility 

Damaged but repairable

Special Facilities

1             Kettle and assortment of tea bags (mostly rosehip)

2             Coffeemaker

3             Cold shower

4             Hot shower or sauna 

5             Fully equipped bar withy animatronic bar keeper

6             Roll twice  

The only Void Explorer actually happy about the Rosehip Tea Bags

Ivory Plain

The caravan leaves the Spectrum Palace in the ultraviolet twilight of the morning. N’keth moves from one vehicle to the other greasing long neglected parts, tightening screws and loosening pistons. Saffron is tending the machine human body while Naida keeps a watchful eye high on the Porcelain Walker. Kozue - aware of the distress her presence causes to some in the caravan - keeps her distance and walks next to the autowagons.

They follow the trail West through regular hills until they reach the deep flat landscape of the Ivory Plain where herds of beasts graze on palely glowing grass. Although most of the time the endless sky is covered with grey clouds the UV radiation is strong and so focused in some places that Saffron gets a terrible sunburn that makes their fur patchy and fries some internal wires.

The Lonely Lodge

They make camp on the plain. Kozue and N’Keth leave the camp to visit the Lonely Lodge, where it is rumored wisdom can be gleaned by those who spend a night there. They find a building carved out of a granite outcropping, overgrown by vines with empty windows and a looming doorway. N’Keth smells the faint odor of wild beasts that frequent the Lodge and Kozue senses the presence of Fae in the multicolored vine blossoms and moving shadows of the carvings. Inside, the building is bedecked by moss and vines, water dripping from the ceiling and gathering in pools and fountains. Naked stairs lead to the upper floor where they rest for the night.

N’Keth lies down on the thick moss and immediately falls asleep while Kozue is guarding him. The moon and stars cast strange shadows that start to deepen and change when a powerful Ultra approaches. Kozue realizes that N’Keth is in danger when Sama Zivani, Eater of Dreamers introduces herself. The Moon Witch allows Sama Zivani to possess her body and take her to the Black City. N’Keth unaware of the deal that protects him from being devoured is visited by a massive Dwarven figure carried by turtles and holding the holy manuals of Volkan. On the scripture a map of the western Grasslands can be seen over which a shadowy creature moves with appendices on its head and small human-shaped parasites hanging from its body. It must be the Vile N’Keth is hunting! When the Diesel Dwarf awakes he can see Kozue gasping from the intense coldness of Sama’s presence inside of her.

Sama Zivani

Saffron, Naida and the caravan guards decide to use the opportunity and go on a hunt. Saffron glides on their furry kite over a herd of massive scaly bovines, trying to lure one away while Ostins and Naida take aim from the Porcelain Walker. Suddenly the air is filled with the terrifying screeches of gigantic predatory birds. Naida rappels from the Walker while killing one of the birds with a head shot while Saffron keeps the other at bay with laser rays shot from their eyes. Ajax comes to the rescue dropping down onto a terror bird that pecks at Naida, and releases poisoned darts from his tail. Amberto is laughing maniacally as he unloads the turret onto the last remaining bird. The smell of grilled poultry fills the air.

The Avatar of the Noetic Biosphere

When they leave the camp and move West they hear the sound of singing and come upon a great herd of beasts, that stampede towards a Giant looming in the distance. Naida recalls stories of a deity that reigns on the Ivory Plain who the nomads call the Avatar of the Noetic Biosphere. They all watch in wonder as the herd starts touching and fusing and melting together in an act of self-sacrifice to the earth elemental.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/8lAwqS8sjqQ

 

 

Spectrum Palace II

Awoken by N’keth, who decided to repair the janky heater of their room in the early morning, Kozue performs an augury by concocting a tincture of eyedrops that blinds her but allows her to see beyond the veil. In her vision she sees an iridescent horror emerging from below the Dead Bridge over a chasm where flower encrusted biomechanical spiders build their nests.

The Chasm

Saffron and Naida search for Amberto. When they finally find him on the Hill of Return polishing the glass plate that covers its top they discover to their surprise that he is wearing the dun garb and mindless smile of an Ecstatic. Saffron spots a crystalline rash above Amberto’s ear and decides to have Kozue examine him. They return and find the Moon Witch stumbling blindly through the room.

N’keth and Vigo visit the rehearsal of a Half-Elf theatre company. The Volkan Dwarf is utterly puzzled by the experience. When Vigo offers him a joint in order to make the experience more palpable N’keth eats it. Vigo watches in disgust.

A Disturbing Play

Kozue finds out that Amberto is infected by crystalline brain fungi and after some deliberation the party decide to remove the infection. The operation takes the whole night: N’keth donates blood to lure the blood elementals out, Saffron extracts them and Kozue applies them to the infected skin. When Amberto starts shaking uncontrollably Naida and N’keth restrain him while Saffron guides the elementals to the last tiny crystalline spores inside Amberto’s skull. Finally he opens his eyes.

After two weeks the caravan leaves the Spectrum Palace behind, slowly crawling over the trail that lead West towards the Black City.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/Vv8787nCuyo

  

Spectrum Palace

Characters in Season 12:

Naida: A  Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Otis, the animatronic bear. 

Saffron, a Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother.

Kozue: An Wise Elven Moon Mountain Witch, a soothsayer from the Sister of the Near Moon. Her singing spirit (appearing as a wingless, serpentine creature to those who can see it) in a pink bottle aids her in her auguries. She has dreams of the world ending and seeks hidden messages about the looming apocalypse.

N’Keth: A Strong Volkan Diesel Dwarf, bat eared, hyena snouted and with furry skin, who is tracking a Vile intruder from the Void. Armed with a fierce Warhammer and protected by his Holy Symbol, an unageing plastic spork.

In the modernist building that the party is occupying during their stay at the Spectrum Palace  Kozue sends her fetch inside the perfectly round puncture wounds on Naida’s neck. She identifies tiny micro-vomes that are feeding on Naida’s energy. The witch conjures a star metal elemental from the material she had harvested in the Cholan Woods and orders it to remove the vomes with thin wire protrusions.

A building at the Visitor's Camp

Having spent a couple of weeks at the Spectrum Palace N’Keth, a Volkan Diesel Dwarf and new member of the Cogflower Caravan, has made the acquaintance of Selesta, an Ecstatic for the Satraps, who promised him to ask around about the Vile intruder he is tracking. Together with Saffron they meet just outside the Rainbow Wall that protects the entrance to the palace. Selesta tells him about a hidden lodge somewhere on the Ivory Plains, that grants those who spend a night there an answer to their most pressing question in their dreams.

A Rainbow Wall (of sorts)

Selesta takes Saffron through the Rainbow Wall to the Hall of the Welcoming Eye, where Ecstactics and visitors meditate around a giant gleaming shard, to the Crystal Fungal Field deep inside the palace. A moss-green Satrap with spidery limbs and spindly hoses plucks crystalline fruits from modified trees. Satrap 75 agrees to introduce her to the art of soul transfer.

Hall of the Welcoming Eye (artist's impression)

Kozue visits the Blue Paper Abbey, a former library of prim, pastel livingstone and finds a lumpy Satrap in an Egyptian-blue suit sitting in front of an ancient board game. Satrap 226 invites Kozue to join them. The Moon Witch deploys a devious strategy for the game. While they are playing Kozue asks them about possible signs of the apocalypse. They are none around, the Satrap explains, but there are ghosts from the Long-Long Ago who congregate at the Dead Bridge who might be able to help her. When the Satrap falls for her in-game trap and loses, they glow in delight.

 Actual Play: https://youtu.be/YdD35s7cBYM