The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 7: Motorcycle Emptiness

They discuss Barush, who demands to be smuggled out of the Serai. They think there is a price on his head, and discuss secretly whether they should turn them in. They defer their decision and allow Barush to stay in their luxury room while they decide what to do. Renko does some market research and spends $100 to learn that his sack of luxury hats is worth $100 in Waystone. The Dreaming King mentions that there is a city there called Alphaville, but they point out to the befuddled king that the city is probably long, long gone.

Barush Velk, revolutionary diesel dwarf, poet, and fugitive.

Meanwhile, Barush is trying to convince them to join the revolution. He is disgusted by the debauched luxury the Porcelain Princes live in and says that with the help of their porcelain walker and large armoury they could, with the help of the Obsidian Gnomes, take the Serai. They're ambivalent, and even more so when they learn they need to go to the Death Facing Passage in order to find the secret revolutionary rebel base. The Dreaming King, meanwhile, is lording it over them, which they patiently put up with. Barush tells them that the King has lost all his memories, since the Princes carelessly stored Memory Worms next to his sarcophagus. 

They decide to go to the Way Stone, and then double back to get to the Death Facing Valley, to spend less time in peril from the Death Face. They send the Walker out of the Serai first, and then Renko opens a portal into his mirror in his hotel room and they exit in the full length mirror they are carrying with them, bringing Barush with them, successfully getting him past the checkpoints.

They hurry west, into a truly desolate wasteland that has no vegetation or water. As they head west, dry hot winds blow up, until they are in the throes of a full dust storm that gets stronger as they travel. Bits of shrapnel and debris are flung around. 

Ish suddenly cries out - a shard of black glass has struck her in her eye, and is stuck in there. She decides to leave it in there - oddly she can still see out of the destroyed eye, but she sees the worst of everyone. She puts an eyepatch over it in order not to be disgusted by the annoying foibles of her travelling companions.

At night, Ish tries to enter the King's memories but is unable to. On the third day, they awake to the constant dust storm to find four of their horses are gone. There are tracks - wheel tracks - and Vulcan sends his Vomish bird up to find the thieves - it sees six motorcycle riders in Mad Max style armour leading the horses to the north, but it is driven back by the storm and is unable to follow them or get close. 

The vome bird reports back - and they decide to go after the thieves. They can't carry all their supplies so they drop five sacks of supplies, marking them with a cairn, and head off the trail. They travel as fast as they can, but see no sign of tracks. Finally they exit the storm, and come into some badlands and see a bright light ahead. They come over to a small oasis, with palm trees and low adobe buildings - like a pueblo - and there are their four horses and six motorcycles. Above the pueblo is a low hill, with a metal bunker embedded in the side of it - where the bright light emits from.

Vulcan sends his bird to explore the bunker - it seems to have mirror lined corridors that shimmer and concentrate the light of the sun into a powerful beam that shoots deep into the hill. The bird manages to escape without being burned.

They head down into the oasis - and the riders are waiting for them at the end of the street, telling them to go no further, with their hands on their bolter rifles. The king and Barush take cover. Vulcan steps forward - and all hell breaks loose. The riders open fire, and Renko takes a bullet to the eye. But they prevail - killing four of the riders and two riders hole up in a hut, desperately shouting to be let free.

Six riders were approaching - the wind began to howl...

The group rescue their horses and take the motorcycles. They retrieve some of their supplies but the riders also seem to have several sacks of Cherenko cherries, which they keep half of and gift half to the locals, who are extremely grateful.

They rest and heal that night - Renko drinks a potion to heal his eye but is angry with himself for being shot. The oasis people are welcoming, and the caravan relaxes - not even caring that the two remaining riders manage to escape their holdup and flee into the night.

They use the cover of the night to explore the bunker. Vulcan goes in the top of the hill - there is a pit that leads all the way down into the earth, with mirrors that seem to direct the sunlight deep into the bowels of the earth. After a while there is a mezzanine lined with mirrors. Vulcan drops a torch down into the pit but it just falls seemingly forever. He stops at the mezzanine and examines the mirrors - he tries to pull one off the wall, when hands shoot out of it, and the mirror comes alive and attacks him!

This is the last he remembers - the red war spirit that is haunting them takes him over. When they finally pull him out of the pit, he is exhausted and has smashed all of the mirrors in the pit, rendering the solar passage useless.

They rest at the oasis - Renko manages to make more dog food for the oasis people using the magical implements, which they give to their giant millipedes they use as pets. Lisciac befriends a millipede which he names 'Millicent'.

Renko trades his fancy silken hats for two weeks accommodation among the oasis people, where they rest and heal. The oasis people kindly preserve the Cherenko cherries for them in jars. Ish again tries to enter the King's dreams, but is only able to enter very mundane dreams...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 6: The Dreaming King

Renko, once they return from the raid, parties with the 24 hour porcelain princes. He wakes up in a ditch, robbed, with a dead vome. He decides to keep the vome in case it's worth something. Dante hits the gaming tables once again and ends up with a part share in a cherenkov vodka distillery. Meanwhile, they hear of two Limelanders who are talking about selling a Sky Key. They find them in the market, and introduce themselves. The Limelanders are Ish and Lisciac, whose tribe was wiped out by the Violet city cat warlord Ginger. Lisciac is prone to prophetic visions, and mentions one of the world ending in fire and darkness, and the chosen being rescued by the sky people. This vision checks out with Vulcan, who remembers Adolf's similar visions. 

The pair produce the sky key - a very light football sized blue globe that glows slightly. They ask for $200 for it, which the Neo-neanderthals readily agree to, leaving Ish and Lisciac wondering whether they should have pushed for more. It's not obvious how the Sky Key works - but they are glad to have it. Dante and Renko are a bit dubious as to whether this is the genuine article, but they discuss terms under which the Limelanders might buy into the caravan if they prove their worth. 

The Porcelain Citadel

They rest up for a couple of weeks and decide to attempt another raid on the Pleasure Palace.  They take both walkers and Vulcan sits atop one with the Red Globe that shoots laser bolts. They arrive at the Pleasure Palace and once again park out front. Renko has bought a vertical wheelbarrow to help him carry the kitchen implements out. They slip into the house and into the great hall where the pile of silken hats and kitchen implements still sits. They hear howls outside,and smell the sickly sweet smell of the creaturs once again. Vulcan talks to the grasses who confirm they are in great danger. Out of the tall grasses the creatures come - seven or eight of them. They leap into the walkers with the creatures pursuing them. Two of them manage to clamber up on one leg of a walker. Vulcan blasts one with a laser - missing the creature but searing the bodywork of the walker. With combined bolter fire they manage to kill one creature, but the second one climbs up to the rim of the howda and attacks Lisciac. She manages to defend herself and drive it off with a spear, and they outpace the creatures in their walkers and return to the Porcelain Citadel. 

Renko tries to get the magical implements to work but is only able to make dog food. Lisciac tries to buy an apothecary set, but is shaken down for all her possessions in return for it, including her shaman kit and all her possessions. She runs to Vulcan, who threatens the merchants and they begrudgingly return the trade. 

They decide to head onwards - they only need to find two more Sky Keys, and they spent nearly two months at the Porcelain Citadel. They check they have sufficient supplies and head out towards the Last Serai.

They head westward, leaving as soon as the purple haze breaks. At about three days out, the Porcelain Walker they purchased at too good to be true prices suddenly lurches to a halt. They see if the can repair the technology but nobody can deduce what the breakdown is. They decide they can still make it to the Last Serai provided they load their supplies into the remaining walker and everyone other than the driver (Dante) walks.

After a further day west, they overtake three bedraggled and wounded looking figures. They approach cautiously. It appears to be three bodies of Iron-Pot-Six-Body, a Porcelain Prince, who explains they were ambushed by revolutionaries and managed to escape. They offer a reward of $50 each to escort them back to the Serai, which Ish and Lisciac eagerly accept. 

The Serai itself is a series of low, ancient adobe buildings clustered around a low hill centered around a strange and mysterious antenna. Iron-Pot-Six-Body thanks them and pays them, and they enter the Serai, unmolested because of their host. 

Most of the Serai is actually underground, in a series of ancient and luxuriously appointed chambers burrowed deep into the Earth. The place smells of woven carpet and damask spices. The group check into luxurious accommodation, while the Limelanders choose the slum slave quarters. 

As is their usual first business, they ask around after a sky key - and Iron-Pot-Six-Body is able to help them - he has heard of a sky key. There is a man, King Elre the Dreaming, who is said to be in possession of a Sky Key. The group are extremely excited about this and search the Serai for King Elre - finally finding him deep in a storage room stacked among some boxes - he is in hibernation in some sort of cryogenic sarcophagus. Lisciac sees his REM and realises he is dreaming - she tries to use her dreamwalking powers to enter his dreams but she is unable to. They agree she will try again at night, but again she is unsuccessful.

Meanwhile Vulcan tries to make contact with the local revolutionary cell, using his secret handshake. He contacts Vok, the doorman at his accommodation, who invites him to a cell meeting that evening. Vulcan foolishly offers his services to the revolution and Vok mentions that they need someone smuggled out of the Serai into the west. 

Meanwhile Renko and Dante have worked out how to revive King Elre - but they will need 1,000 litres of pure water. They manage,miraculously, to find a merchant who can procure this for them, but at a cost of $1,000. They pay, and begin the revivifaction process. Meanwhile, they purchase four ponies and four heroic steeds, ready to make a swift getaway.

The Dessicated King

The King awakes! He looks more youthful and healthy, but he is very vague and befuddled. He explains he was entrusted to travel this way into the deep future in order to save the chosen ones from the end of the world with one of the sky keys. The group had already searched him so they ask where it is. In response the king thinks, and then does a series of strange, jerky and specific hand and body movements. He repeats many times until he is certain everyone has memorised them, and explains that this, along with the other two, will allow them to travel to the sky. Vulcan is convinced, but of course realises that the blue sphere that Ish and Lisciac sold them is a fraud. They draw guns and there is a tense standoff. The outcome is not really resolved but Vulcan makes clear in no uncertain terms he wants his money back. But he has to dash to his rendezvous. 

Vulcan finds his revolutionary meeting and is presented to Barush Velk, who has a significant price on his head. He is a poet, who wrote a satirical limerick against the Porcelain Princes. His bounty is $2,000. He needs to be taken secretly to safety amongst the Spectrum Satraps...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 5: A Stately Pleasure Dome

Meanwhile Renco has been partying with the Princes - he wakes up after a week long revel much poorer, hung-over in a ditch with a dead vome beside him.

The caravan try to find out a little more about this Pleasure Palace they want to raid. Apparently a few hardy adventurers have set out already to raid it, but none have returned. They try to find Bestiana the sorceror who summoned the protective wind spirits around the pleasure palace, but they learn that he lives far, far to the east beyond the Circle Sea.

As they've heard that the air guardians can be soothed by a tune on a flute, they buy a flute, although none of them know the tune required and none of them can play a musical instrument.

They leave sissy, who is recovering from his debauchery, behind, and pile into their two porcelain walkers to the Pleasure Palace.

It is a low and minimalist looking place, about an hour away from the Porcelain Citadel, surrounded by tall grasses. They see the main building, a little like a palm springs resort, surrounded by overrun gardens. Outside they see a large obsidian monolith standing int he garden, covered with writing which turns out to be a morose poem. They decide they might want to take the monolith - using the power of the walkers they expertly and cleanly pluck the monolith out of the ground, but they decide to leave it there while they search for more portable loot.

They move the walkers under a patio near the front entrance where a glass sliding door is half open. They dismount and then cautiously enter the Pleasure Palace. They enter some sort of small bedroom. There is a dead body on the floor of what looks like some sort of Limelander freebooter, horribly lacerated. The body looks a few weeks old. They go deeper into the house and come across an enormous elaborate room with a pair of curved stairs up to a mezzanine. They debate taking the elaborate chandelier, but decide to search deeper. They take the right stair and go through a doorway to a rooftop garden with cacti and many porcelain garden gnomes in amusing positions. 

Vulcan, who can talk to plants, tries to commune with the cacti and they warn him 'Beware the winds'. As they say this a mysterious wind springs up, chilling them/ "Don't say we didn't warn you," the cacti say.

They go back down the stairs to where they feel the winds can't reach them, and go through a side door to a large room, open to the sky, where there is a clean water fountain with a moss-covered marble swan statuette. 

They find a master bedroom - they ransack all the fine clothes but Renco decides all he wants to do is keep the many fine hats. As they are ransacking the room they smell a sweet but distinctly unpleasant smell that has no discernable source. 

As they head back to the fountain they hear howls outside - or inside? They backtrack through another door into - a large and well apportioned kitchen with many magical appliances. Renco is taken by the appliances and insists they schlep them to the chandelier hallway, where they are keeping their loot pile. But while gathering up the appliances they find a severed, rotting human leg, lying in a corner. 

When they pass by the fountain room they see a single, large, blood red claw print on the ground - that had not been there before. They see shadows moving in the master bedroom where they had found all the clothing and they cautiously look inside - a window and blinds have been torn open and whatever was in the room is now retreating through the tall grasses.

They realise they are in peril and argue for five minutes about whether they should leave. But greed triumphs over fear and they decide to go back up the left hand stairs and explore the upper stairs. They find an enormous dining room, with a huge marble table, and a large feature window at the far side. Vulcan looks out the window and finds he has a fantastic view out over the long grasses. But moving through the grasses, keeping low, are six or seven huge furred gargoyle like creatures. Vulcan shouts, alerting his comrades, and they blast the windows out with their guns, and then rain bullets down on the creatures. They race for the sides of the house, although they think they have hit perhaps one or two.

Meanwhile, when the sound of gunfire stops ringing in their ears, they hear howls and heavy footfalls coming up the stairs.

Vulcan and Renco try to barricade the door. Dante tries to pull the table over to barricade the door but it is too heavy. The creatures smash at the door, while Dante fires over the heads of Vulcan and Renco to try to hit the creatures.

They are quickly overcome - Vulcan falls back while two of the creatures push through the door and swarm on him. Vulcan lays down a wave of bolter fire, but is overcome and badly hurt. The others, with great difficulty, manage to kill all six of the creatures with the help of their porcelain armour, but they hear more creatures coming, and Vulcan is badly hurt, and they are unsure if they can survive much longer.

Heavily adrenalised, they pus the long table out the window to form a ramp, and slide out to safety. But four or five more of the creatures emerge from the long grasses. Dante decides his own safety is paramount - he throws down his gun, swiftly strips off his expensive but inhibiting armour, and sprints for it. Renco runs for it, but keeps his gun and armour - the creatures rapidly gain on him but he just manages to reach his porcelain walker in time. Vulcan in the meantime has finally remembered that he has acquired some rocket boots in the porcelain citadel. He shoots up back to the roof of the Pleasure Palace and runs across the roof to the other side, and then leaps into the departing porcelain walker.

An angry local

The creatures, perhaps 10 -12 in number, gain on them but Dante and Renco desperately throw out two sacks of supplies - plus the infamous sack of cat coffee behind them. The creatures fall on the spilled supplies and devour them, so our heroes are able to escape...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 4: The Porcelain Citadel

They recover the trail quickly although Adolf stumbles into a copse of grass nettle vines and is badly burned. Soon though they are back on the trail - and overtake a lone traveller - he introduces himself as Varakesh Vamosh, a pilgrim on a holy journey to the Black City. He tells them of various places nearby, and offers them advice on the places they may wish to visit at the Porcelain Citadel. Sissy offers him some Cat Coffee, which he politely accepts. He suggests they might travel together for a time, and they offer him a ride on a horse. 

The Porcelain Citadel

They finally arrive at the Porcelain Citadel, a little rested and well fed on the superior supplies taken from the pursuing Violetlander posse. They find a place to lodge and try to find, with Varakesh's help, a merchant to buy some of their stolen goods. His name is Lazaro Romero, and he runs a vehicle and mechanical repair shop out of the shell of an enormous waste worm. Sissy finds he has a knack for negotiation, and they manage to sell four sacks of their stolen merchandise for $4,000.  Happy to finally have managed to convert some of their salvage/loot into cash, they immediately go on a week long bender, mingling with the immortal and debauched Porcelain Princes. After a week of extreme debauchery and intoxication, Adolf and Dante are exhausted and badly drained, but Sissy wins a cherry pie in a dance contest. Adolf, whose hair turned white  during the gunfight with the Violetlander posse, decides that he can't take the dangers of the Ultraviolet Grasslands, and decides to take his share of the caravan treasure and retire. He sets Vulcan free from his life debt to him, and Vulcan decides he will buy into the caravan and with the agreement of the others, becomes an equal member. 

During their debauch they get to know one of the Princes, Many-Cracks-Five-Body, quite well. Varakesh tells them of a well about a days travel north, where many ancient artefacts were thrown/stored and mentions that a sky key might be amongst them. While carousing the also hear a rumour of a pleasure palace a short way out of the citadel where a Porcelain Prince has died - and their possessions and estate may be up for grabs. They can't resist the lure of a sky key though - this is the reason they were sent from their tribe in the first place after all, so they decide to travel to the well. Sissy buys a couple of healing potions - and Varakesh mentions he has a couple in reserve too, along with a bottle of fine vodka which he says has good restorative properties.

They sell ten horses, as they have an excess now, and with a slimmed down caravan travel north, led by Varakesh. After a day or so he shows them, on a barren plateau, the low stone walled well. It goes down as far as the eye can see. They rig up a block and tackle and some rope, and climb down one by one. Sissy is too afraid to clamber down, but Dante manages to coax him down. Only Vulcan and Varakesh stay up. Those climbing down find a large - well bottom - filled with mud up to about their knees.

On the surface, Varakesh suddenly lets out a metallic scream and his hand melds into a blade - he stabs and slashes at the suprised Vulcan, who shoots Varakesh but instead of blood, the bullet rips away a thin lyer of skin underneath which is mechanical vome tech. Vulcan resists but falls beneath Varakesh's blade - but a red spirit of blood overcomes Vulcan. When he comes to his senses, Varakesh is completely dead and destroyed, and three of the horses have been slaughtered, and the rest scattered across the plateau. Vulcan helps the others clamber back up the well and they recover the horses easily. 

They search Varakesh's body. Aside from the two 'healing' potions - which Sissy quickly identifies as vomish liquid bio malware, and the vodka - which seems to be infected with the same, Varakesh is carrying a large red porcelain or stone sphere, about the size of a cricket ball. They pile all of it, including Varakesh's body, onto the horses and return to the Porcelain Citadel. 

They revisit the merchant Lazaro Romero, and show them their loot. Lazaro is fascinated by the body of Varakesh, and offers them $15,000 for it. They quickly accept, and Lazaro explains that this cleans him out of ready cash, and he can't afford to buy anything else off them. He does tell them that the red sphere is a weapon - a laser blast eye, and shows them how to use it. They store it carefully for future use.

Cashed up, they spend three weeks alternatively resting, healing and carousing. Dante has a run of luck at the gaming tables and finds he has won a Porcelain Walker - a biomechanical vehicle worth quite a lot of money. 

Meanwhile Vulcan has been asking around at the 'Your Life Burns Faster in this Place' party joint, asking about the dead Porcealin Prince. Apparently her (his?) name was Satrasco, and she had hired a wizard to protect her home with wind spirits in mechanical traps, which can be disarmed, but only by freeing the angry spirits within. Three adventuring parties have already tried and have not returned. They decide they will try to raid the pleasure palace. Vulcan manages to buy a pair of rocket boots. Dante becomes fascinated by a set of porcelain power armour and convinces the entire party to buy a set each. They manage, strangely, to trade their remaining horses for a second porcelain walker. The deal is too good to be true, and Sissy knows it, but he accepts anyway. The second show will drop at some point but by then hopefully they will be long gone...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 3: Neanderthal, You're a Desperado

After traveling a while, the caravan gets to know each other a little better. Adolf is irritated by Sissy's way of chewing with his mouth open. Sissy is annoyed by Dante flaunting his elven heritage. Dante is irritated by Adolf's complete lack of self-reflection.

The Ultraviolet Grasslands

On the bright side, though, Adolf admires Dante's very brief toilet breaks, Dante admires sissy's dedication to only killing people who deserve it (he doesn't know about the orphan), and sissy admires Adolf's generosity when buying drinks.

Flush with loot but short on supplies they debate where to go to sell their goods - and decide to return to the Last Chair Salon. They trek a week back to nearly where they came from. At the Salon, they have their horses fed and watered, and try to find a merchant to buy their salvaged goods. They find Frangibar, a local merchant, who can't pay them in cash - but offers to trade them their 9 sacks of salvaged bullion from the well, in return for 1 1/2 sacks of cat coffee. 

For the sake of convenience, they accept. They decide that they can return to the Violet city and sell the cat coffee, upgrade their gear, and then return to the wastes. They set off, and arrive within a day back at the luxuriant shady gates of the Violet City. The guards mildly interrogate them, but their eyes widen when they see the sacks of cat coffee. The guard says this is stolen coffee - he can tell from the branding on the sacks. Sissy tries to argue with them, and finally they reach a compromise - the guards accepts half a sack as a bribe - and the caravan is allowed to keep one sack.

Fuming, they enter the city and set up camp back in Renko's old  slum house, and try to find a buyer for the coffee. But the market is glutted - there are no buyers for the coffee anywhere in the city. They are rapidly running out of ready cash - so Sissy puts word out on the street to try to find more work as an assassin. He hears of a contract to kill Whiskers, a local Cat Lord, but he turns down the contract - it seems very risky. 

The Last Chair Salon

With the last of their cash, they buy some travel supplies - the cheapest nastiest kind - water in flasks, dried dwarven bread, etc. They find out that the cat coffee was stolen from a Cat Lord called Fluffy, and they decide to see if they can shop Frangibar the Merchant. They visit Fluffy's villa, with a small pouch of coffee, and tell her that they know who stole her coffee - but when they explain who, Fluffy is less than impressed - as Fluffy knows Frangibar is simply a middle man and probably an ignorant buyer. He offers them a desultory $20 reward for this information and shows them the door. 

Frustrated and angry, they leave the violet City once more and head to the Last chair Salon, determined to get a refund from Frangibar. They arrive late in the day, and tie their horses up outside Frangibar's store, intent on mayhem. Frangibar greets them warmly but quickly reads their faces, and calls his bodyguard Avros into the room. The demand a refund from Frangibar, who refuses, saying he had no idea the coffee was stolen. Avros draws his gun and cocks it menacingly. In response Adolf quick draws his bolter and blows off Frangibar's head. Avros tries to loose some shots off before fleeing but he is quickly cut down by a barrage of bolter fire. 

Quickly they raid the till - only $50 - and Adolf and Renko push into the back room where they find a large safe - sealed shut. Adolf puts his ear to the safe, and using his knowledge of mechanisms, manages to swiftly crack it. The inside is full of  ancient goods, contraband, and miscellaneous trade goods and salvage. They quickly fill their packs and sacks and leap on their horses and flee the settlement. They're now neanderthal desperadoes.

They push hard westward, using their fast horses to outpace any potential pursuers, taking the high road and the low. After a week or so they meet a group of Lime Nomads, hunters with shiny bright black birds in large nets, travelling the other way. for a moment they worry about having stolen Lime Nomad goods before they remember they already sold those to the late Frangibar. The leader of the Lime Nomads, Viok Perttunen, offers them a deal - he has a rogue Porcelain Slave Body to trade. He explains that the Porcelain Princes are multibody consciousnesses, virtually immortal, and that this is a spare body, that they 'acquired' on the trail. Suspicious and a little cautious, but also very short on ready cash, they decline the deal, but offer Viok Perttunen a stone of coffee as a parting gift. They part on good terms. 

As they reach the High and Low road, and the small watering area there, they realise there is nowhere there that they can buy further supplies. They fill up on water, and they find a high place and check behind them - and they see that there is a large posse of 10 riders behind them - about a days ride behind. Obviously the populace of the Last Chair Salon has assembled an avenging posse to hunt them down.

Sissy digs out his jellyfish and places it in the oasis to try to poison the water supply - but alas, the creature, stressed from the swift travel, is unable to gland enough poison. They have little choice but to hurry westwards, to try to reach the Porcelain Citadel ahead of the posse.

Unfortunately, in their haste, and unfamiliarity with the terrain, they mistake a dry riverbed for the trail, and find themselves very, very lost. They are low on supplies and in deadly danger of starving to death in the wastes. They try to circle out of the gullies to a high point but from there all they can see are endless badlands in the purple haze. 

After many days of searching, with their supplies running ow, they see and here an incredible sight - an entire nomad village, on a large wheeled platform, grinding across the badlands. They watch for a while and then hail the village and ride up to the enormous vehicle. A strange man in Limelander garb hails them - he introduces himself as Beauregarthe, a traveller and leader of this Limelander tribe, and captain of this land vessel. He invites them on board to eat and drink - they eat well and enjoy the village entertainments and fine alcoholic beverages, and then in the morning they get down to business - trying to sell Beauregarthe a sack of their stolen salvage from Frangibar. Beauregarthe is interested- but he has his braves pull their guns and force a sale at 50% of the normal price. The caravan are not too put out by this - they needed the cash anyway, but are annoyed by being put off the village vehicle at gunpoint. 

A Violetlander Posse

Still short on supplies they head off again, looking again for the trail. Finally, with the help of Adolf's vomish bird, they see the trail far off to the south. They head off, and head through various twisted and deep gulleys. 

As they are nearly back on the trail, Adolf has a bad feeling - a rock falls ahead. He sends his bird ahead to see - and sees that the posse has found them, and set up an ambush - five on each side of the gulley, up above, under cover and ready to mow them all down. Using the vome bird as reconnaisance, they carefully back up the gulley, and make their way up a ridge, so they can take out 5 of the posse before the others can catch up.  They check their weapons and then with a whoop and a rush they charge along the ridge top toward the ambushers.

The five ambushers see them and quickly turn around, laying down heavy fire at the charging neanderthals, while the five other ambushers, on the next ridge, realise what is happening and decide to ride down the gulley and help their companions. 

Adolf is filled with blood rage and is hit twice but manages to take out one of the attackers. Sissy and Vulcan ride left, taking the majority of the horses with them into the next gulley, safe from gunfire and with a theoretical clear path to escape. 

Dante takes a bullet to the head and falls to the ground. His spirit leaves his body momentarily but then - he is filled with a war spirit of bloodlust. He rises from the dead, and falls on the posse, slaughtering them all, before charging down the gulley and destroying three of the other posse, with help from Adolf, who is struck by a stray round and rises, alive but in shock, muttering "I'm too old for this shit!"

Two of their pursuers manage to flee and escape. Dante shakes his head and the blood lust clears and he surveys the carnage, but has no memory of it.

Adolf tries to find the fleeing posse members from the sky using the vomish bird, but he can't find them. They gather up the horses of the posse, and their guns and supplies, which amounts to quite a haul, and head back to the trail...

Ultraviolet Grasslands Episode 2: The Steppes of the Lime Nomads

Adolf Thatcher, on return to the city, immediately takes to his bed for rest as he is badly hurt from his stair tumble. 

Sissy, the fourth member of the neo-neanderthals, who, unbeknownst to them is a silent killer and assassin, touts for work. He immediately offers to kill for an undercover police cat and ends up in jail. He is stuck overnight but immediately in the morning he insists to the judge that he is part of an oppressed minority, who was merely joking. The judge feels pity for the poor oppressed Bluelander, and accepts his story. He is set free and immediately goes about finding another contract - successfully this time. He is hired to kill a street urchin who is, unknown to the urchin, due to inherit a large amount of money from a distant relative. The next of kin wants the urchin taken out. Sissy agrees, takes payment of $1000, and lures the poor little girl into an alley where he silently and gruesomely garottes her, slices her into little pieces and disposes of her body in the sewers. He spends most of the money on a silver chainsword.

Meanwhile, Renko has worked out the caravan they want - a fast raiders caravan of two horses apiece (for the four of them and the diesel dwarf), two weeks supplies, and some basic kit. They visit Tiddles where Renko makes a gift to Tiddles of the sacks of books they liberated from Calcidus' tower. Tiddles is grateful, and Renko mentions that he has some small talent as a metaphysical engineer, and there are some spells in the books that might be useful to him. Tiddles promises to find some useful spells for him in the tomes as thanks. Renko presents to Tiddles the remains of Hondo Aberdeen, her previous pet. Tiddles is distraught, but not suprised, and vows to take better care of her future pets.

After some discussion and to and fro, the group agree to borrow $3,200 from Tiddles, an amount Tiddles agrees to, with 100% interest due in one year. Tiddles provides them with an intricate carved box - Tiddles will cast a spell at the end of a year and summon the box back to her - at that time (or before) the neo-neanderthals need to ensure there is $6,400 in the box to repay the principal and interest.

Tiddles presents Renko with a scroll with three dimensional transfer calculations - one that allows him to open a portal through a mirror, a second that allows him to use a living being as an interdimensional portal, and a final one that allows him to summon a pre-prepared object from a great distance.

The group pay for their caravan, and then, with the healed Adolf in tow, decide to throw an elaborate leaving party in Renko's slum apartment. It is a week-long revel, most of which they cannot remember. However a few highlights;
1. Sissy's table dancing routine becomes legendary among the townships
2. Adolf gets into a staring match with an eyebiter and loses an eye. However, due to excellent socialised medicine in the Violet City he is provided a replacement eye, with enhanced x-ray powers.
3. Renko and Dante both gain good reputations and hosts and bon-vivants in the townships.

The party drains the last of their resources and they are now utterly broke, aside from Sissy who still has some small dregs of his blood money remaining.

Sissy buys some Felix Whizz and Cat Coffee for the long journey, and just for the experience.

They leave the western gates, a large caravan of ten horses, only lightly laden. They travel swiftly over the western lands, where the Violet City farms and plantations give way to the Ultra infested borderlands. By early afternoon they arrive at a rugged mesa whereby resides the Last Chair Salon. The proprietor, Marsa Vinoble, welcomes them in, and they have their horses washed and watered, while they order a round of yellow beer, and subtly ask around after the Sky Keys, and also any money making opportunities. 

The first thing they hear is that while none of the neer do wells, prospectors and drunken nomads in the place know of the Sky Keys, word on the steppes is that the Porcelain Princes, who are functionally immortal, have long memories, and know a lot about artefacts from the long long ago. They check their map and make a note that they want to travel that way anyway to get to the Black City.

They buy a few drinks for a grizzled old prospector with a mechanical leg, who lets slip a few clues about where wealth might be found. First off, it is common knowledge that in the basement of the Last Chair Salon is a Vome nest-mother, hooked up to a fermentation vat, who is the source of the Yellow Beer. They momentarily plot whether to storm the basement and take the Vome nest mother, but aren't sure whether they have the capacity to carry the stolen Vome nest-mother and still flee at speed. 

They make subtle enquiries and learn of the following leads;
* Along the low and high roads are many dimensional portals left over from a long ago war - many contain mysterious treasures, many lead to certain death
* North of the Lime Nomads trail is a deep cave containing a lush garden occupied by a cave octopus - a traveller years ago told of it, and he carried many salvaged and valuable pieces of biomantic equipment.
* On the high and low road there is a broken potsherd crown, where many crystal artefacts can be excavated

They quickly narrow in on the Octopus' garden - as the interdimensional portals sound very dangerous, and excavating crystal artefacts sounds like hard work. Also, the octopus' cave is the only rumour where actual evidence of treasure recovered has been confirmed. 

They decide to stay the night - Adolf has the power of prophetic lucid dreaming and he uses that to travel in his dreams high above the Lime Steppes past the great northern trail into the badlands. He flies into a gulley where he sees Lime Nomad shamen performing ceremonies in a deep ravine at a yellow spring leading to a deep pool. He sails through the gullies, expertly avoiding the Ultras in the astral plane, and finds himself observing the great semi-robotic octopus in its lair - it is in a great semi submerged spherical cave, surrounded by serpentlings, with piles of long abandoned biomantic equipment, and strange partly human gibbering homunculi scurrying about, like crabs.

Satisfied he has a strong understanding of how to reach the cave, in the morning he alerts the others and they set out along the northern road into the Lime Nomad steppes. 

They travel for half a week, swapping horses frequently and going at a swift pace. They encounter nothin in the barren steppes - not any other traveller, nor any beasts or nomads. They reach the point where Adolf knows the ravine to be, they turn off the road and head across the parched acrid land to the north, and enter dry badlands. 

As they enter the grasslands they disturb a large flock of Vome birds - large greasy looking crows with black glass goggle eyes and mechanical guts. They circle menacingly around the caravan. Adolf uses Vulcan the diesel dwarf to launch him into the air, and he siezes a bird, much to the alarm of the others. Working quickly, he reprograms the birds bioware to be in servitude to him, and links his biotech eye to the bird. He instructs the bird to calm the flock down, and they travel on in safety, with Adolf's new pet in tow.

Adolf guides them to the right ravine, and after a couple of days careful travel they come across a well-travelled ravine, lined with religious drawings and paintings to long lost and obscure but powerful gods. toward the end of the day they come across a widening in the ravine and a yellow spring, where Adolf had dreamed a Lime nomad ceremony - but for now it is deserted. The spring is fresh and yellow, and springs from a crevice and then flows along a short channel into a deep pool. They peer into the pool and see that it goes down a long long way - as far as they can see. Adolf uses his bionic eye to peer into the murk - a few hundred feet down he discerns a considerable pile of treasure - gold, silver, metal - even a cannon. In the pool Adolf sees a couple of weird and aggressive looking biomechanical fish - technopikes.

Sissy decides to send his pet poisonous jellyfish into the pool to see if it can retrieve any of the treasure - but about halfway down the pike tears a piece off it and it quickly rises up to the surface where Sissy retrieves it from the water just in time before the technopike can bite it again.

They debate how they might block the spring and drain the pool. Finally they decide on a plan. Using the dimensional reft scroll, they hack the spout off their samovar and affix it to their hand mirror from their grooming kit, and Renko opens a portal into the mirror, and then they divert the spring into the samovar, which pours into the dimensional hole into the mirror. The scroll refers to the fact that the gate can be unstable after ten minutes so they retreat to a high place and watch - but nothing obvious happens so they camp near the spring overnight. 

By morning the deep well is nearly drained. Adolf and Dante clamber down and over several trips bring up several sacks worth of treasure - coins, bullion, even an ancient silver cannon. They decide to overload the horses, and carefully pack ten sacks of loot. By their calculations they think they can get to the Lime Nomad Steppe in a weeks travel, which is just at the limit of their supplies. They decide that the Octopus' garden will have to wait for another day when they have more time and supplies - by Adolf's calculations it is still five days away.

As they set off, though, it occurs to Adolf, remembering his lucid dream, that these treasures are most likely offerings from the Lime Nomads, who may take a dim view of them trying to sell these treasures at the nearest oasis...

The Ultraviolet Grasslands - Episode 1

A Prophecy

Our noble heroes

For time uncountable the tribes of neo-neanderthals have lived on the fringes of the Azure Lands, in the wildlands bordering the Psychopapacy of the Emerald City. This has been your home since the first humans were sculpted from solar dust by the Faceless Ones in seventeen years of creation. You are of the Tiphani Blue Tribe. The Psychopapists call you degenerates but your people live by the way of the ancient sky spirits and the laws of the medicine men.

Many of your tribe have been visited by the same dream, the same prophecy - the lands on fire, huge lumbering black stones hovering over the land, blanketing the earth in shadow and smoke, the sky and earth on fire and everything between destroyed.

The elders recalled a time when the First Lings destroyed themselves in iron and machinery and the Second Lings told themselves tales of Vile Ones wreaking the destruction to salve their fragile memories. Ab-plastic magics and half-remembered mentalists stood behind the Springtime of the Monarchies, inaugurating gleaming autocracies to replace the corrupt popular dictatorships of earlier times.

At this time your people travelled into the sky. Your shamen visited the Dornic Realms and many remained there, and many more returned with powerful treasures, songs, lore, weapons. But the third and fifth Cerulean Pontiffs combined to establish the great sky bridge, and stole from the Azure Demi-tribes the three sky-keys, and the Rainbow way was lost.

Flodius Bhel, your shaman, undertook the ritual of the Third New Realism, and when he returned he said that warriors from your tribe must travel to the Black City, for scattered along the way are the three sky keys needed to open the Sky Way once more, and visit the ancestors who dwell in the sky once more to seek their help against the great black fire to come.

Episode 1

The shaded lavender plazas of Violet City

Spurred by the prophecy, three pioneers have been sent to travel to the Black City by the Tiphani Blue tribe. After a long journey they arrive at the Violet City, on the shores of the Circle Sea. They are Dante Thunderstone, Adolf Thatcher, and Rupert Templeton Warburg III, accompanied by Adolf's diesl Dwarf, named Vulcan. They pass out of the dusty trails into the  hinterlands of the Violet City, and are greeted at the city gates by their kinsman, Renko Wrangler, who has been sent at great expense to study magic at the Purple Academy, but who has, unknown to the tribe, dropped out due to a complete lack of magical acuity. 

Tired after their long journey, Renko gives them refreshments in his comfortable shack in the Bluelander slums, and then shows his kinsmen the Violet City - the cool promenades, the lavendar scented streets, the purple river and the cool clean fountains. Renko explains the relationships between the cats and their pets.

In the cool shade of a plaza they discuss how to assemble a caravan to enter the Ultraviolet Grasslands. It requires much more money than they have - so they decide whether to seek an employer, or a patron. Renko suggests they go to the Western Gate, where the caravans assemble, and see if they can find work. They cross the city, and come across fighting pits where confiscated dogs are set to fight street rats. Adolf wins ten dollars but scorn from the onlooking cats by betting on a dog to win. Dante loses twenty dollars betting on a street rat.

They arrive at the western gate and Renko sees a cat pet and her cat look them over, think better of it, and move on. Renko runs after them, and says they are prepared to work - and adds that they are cheap, strong, dumb and expendable. The cat, Tiddles, and her pet, Zidano Verovoko, are amused, and they invite the group to dine with them that evening at Tiddles' palace in the Street of Lavender, to discuss an employment opportunity.

In the meantime, in anticipation of future employment, they go shopping for gear. Renko buys a flail and Adolf purchases boiled leather armour. Adolf wishes to learn more about the three Sky-Keys they must find, and tries to find a temple to the Neo-Neanderthal Sky temple, and manages to make contact with a heavily naturalised Violet city Neo-Neanderthal, who tells him to be at a certain address at midnight to meet others of their cult.

Tiddles and Zidano Verovoko

They arrive at Tiddles' house, and are invited in by an oiled and shiny muscular majordomo. They are offered wine, and they accept a glass each - none of them have ever had wine before. Adolf manages to sneak a bottle of expensive looking wine into his robes without anyone noticing. After a while the majordomo invites them to dinner - they are seated at a table with Zidano Verovoko and Tiddles. 

They are fed, wined, and given dancing girls. Tiddles explains that there is a place a day tot he south where there are continual lightning storms. Tiddles' previous pet, Hondo Aberdeen, went missing there three months ago while hunting for the blue mice that Tiddles craves so much. She is certain Hondo is dead, but she would like to know his fate and give him a proper burial. Tiddles agrees that if they perform this service for her, she will lend them the funds for a caravan. They agree, and Tiddles invites them to spend the night at her palace, and they all accept the offer of dancing girls as companions for the night. They are all dazzled by the unimaginable luxury and decadence they are exposed to. Tiddles gives them a wax mask of Hondo Aberdeen, to help them identify him.

The next morning they have a light breakfast and set off. Adolf manages to sell his stolen bottle of wine for fifty dollars. They travel along the rim of the Circle Sea, through dull Bluelander peasant villages and Cat coffee plantations, until they reach foothills and the sound and sight of distant thunder and lightning. They camp in the foothills, noting the blue mice that run through their camp. 

The mysterious tower
on a lightning blasted plateau

In the morning they hike into the foothills, until they reach the top of a hill overlooking the sea. At the centre of the plateau is a tower, carved as many faces, with brassy metallic tentacles or branches reaching up to the sky. Every few minutes lightning strikes the ground - a circle about 800m in diameter is continually blasted by lightning. About 20m from the tower is the burned and dessicated body of a person. 

Adolf sets aside his metal objects and runs into the blasted circle, scoops up the body and returns to the perimeter with most of it. They examine it but it is so badly blasted, rotted and eaten that they can't confirm it's identity. however, they find a satchel with a small cage with twenty dead mice in it, which convinces them that this is Hondo, and he met his end via lightning while trying to approach the tower.

Renko advocates they have achieved their mission and should return home. Adolf says he is going to explore the tower and the others agree to go with him. They dash to the tower - Adolf leaves his axe behind but the others all carry their weapons and metal items - Dante is nearly struck but all make it to the front door in safety. Adolf reaches out for the metel snake door handle, and it writhes like a living snake and bites his hand. He starts back, and Dante beats it flat with his axe. They kick the door in. 

They stumble into a small empty room, sparkling clean. Adolf uses Dante's axe to hack off a leg off a plastic composite coffee table to use as a club. Thus armed they proceed to explore the tower. They enter a second room - this one is filthy with dust and dirt. A sideboard contains four bottles of wine, which Adolf loads into a sack. At the far end is a vertical shaft with a dial with seven settings. They examine some boxes under stairs and find a trap door. They unbolt the trap door and see a large room full of polymer plastic containers. Adolf and Dante drop down into the room and examine the boxes - they all appear to be full of varieties of human bones. They examine six or seven boxes and then give up and clamber out of the room. Renko takes a shoulderbone as a souvenir. Each bone they see is labelled with some sort of identifier in an unknown language. 

They decide to go down the stairs. In the basement there are various horrible imlements and dissected animal bodies. There is a human body, dissected and then sewn up with gold thread. There is an alcove with several mirrors. Renko looks in one mirror and is blasted with a searing ray of light. He staggers back. Meanwhile Adolf examines the gold thread looking to see if he can untie it. But as he looks closely, he sees something writhe under the skin. Dante immediately lunges forward and beats the abdomen of the corpse several times before they beat a hasty retreat. They stagger up the stairs and then decide to explore the upper stairs. 

On the next floor are several rooms, empty except for pots and pans and long abandoned furniture - then they see more stairs heading upwards - and a thin trickle of blood coming dow the stairs. They find at the top a plastic polymer door with a single glowing panel. Blood is leaking from behind the panel. Adolf tries to smash the panel but fails.  Renko rushes the door and smashes it open. The door swings back and a torrent of blood rushes out of the room and sweeps Adolf down the stairs - he tumbles down the entire flight and is badly hurt. 

Calcidus affecting a casual pose

In the room is a strange sight - a man, seated cross legged inside a circle of salt. It looks like the room had been filled to a depth of about half a meter with blood, but the circle and the man had been untouched. The man says to them, "Ah finally!" He explains that he is Calcidus and he has been trapped in the circle for some time - he just needs them to smudge the salt circle so he can leave. He offers to pay them $100 to do so. Renko demurs - he asks Calcidus about the dissected bodies. Calcidus looks briefly angry, but composes himself and increases his offer to $1000. The group discuss what to do and finally decide to leave Calcidus where he is for now - at which point Calcidus explodes with rage, cursing them with all manner of foul language and blasting them with powerful spells and energy weapons (all of which are safely contained within the circle). A book is open on a stand in the room and Renko quickly takes it. They quickly leave Calcidus to rage ineffectually within his circle. He promises to kill them and everyone they have ever met, and all manner of tortures.

They go back to the ground floor, and manage to decipher the strange markings at the shaft - it is a lift, and they summon a glowing disk, stand on it, and it takes them up to the top floor. There they see a mechanism with a button and four switches, and a large silver dome which Adolf, who has experience with some ancient and alien mechanisms, identifies as a telescope. Adolf realises this could be a way to find clues as to their sky-dwelling ancestors. They press the button and then flick the switches in order. The roof of the tower slowly opens and a telescope slowly extends out. The lightning and thunder, which had been intermittent, now picks up the pace and strikes occur several times a minute. A brazier of coal spontaneously lights up. Renko looks in the telescope and sees a distant world - he zooms into the surface and sees a red light, that has shone from the telescope, form a red circle on the ground. Weird creatures, blue and slimy and mossy, gather around the red light and begin to writhe and dance rhythmically. Meanwhile Dante has been examining the book they took from Calcidus' room and finds reference to the telescope  just in time he pulls Renko back from the lens as a red ray shoots from the telescope and evaporates a large disk of the floor where Renko had been standing. They quickly flick back the switches and retreat to the floor below as the telescope retracts and the roof closes. In the floor below they see a small room with a table and two chairs - an Ultra in the form of a man appears in one chair and offers to wager the soul of one of the adventurers in return for opening the door. Bravely, or rather foolishly, Adolf agrees, and quickly demolishes the ghost in a game of chess. With a cry of despair, the ultra disappears, as does the blue force field around the door. Inside they find an extensive library - shelves and shelves of esoteric tomes. They quickly take as many sacks as they can of books - trying to narrow down those that may relate to the nature of the sky keys and by setting aside most of their supplies and rations, manage to stuff 9 sacks worth and stagger out of the tower under a heavy load. 

They manage to reach the rim of the blasted plateau without being struck by lightning, although the traverse takes them longer as they stagger under the heavy weight of the books. Adolf decides ha can't also carry the wines he has - they open one and share it amongst themselves (except for Vulcan who drinks only Diesel) to celebrate their great find. Then they remember they also must return the body they found to Tiddles, so they bury many books alongside the wine and take up the lightning scorched corpse, and return to the Violet city...

 

Runequest - The Coming Storm - Episode 8

It is deep in Dark Season 1619 and in the Red cow clan, refugees start arriving, fleeing from the impending arrival of - the Crimson Bat, the most dreaded of the Red Goddess' demons. Families brave the cold of the Sartarite snows to flee the approach of the Bat, as it consumes sentient beings only.

Meanwhile Kerolar and Wando are enjoying some warmth and ale in the local Geo's tavern. Vastyr, a local confidante of the Queen, is there, and starts to get into an argument with some Lunar Dog Eaters, who are taunting a refugee family. Kerolar jumps into the fight, and uncharacteristically kicks a Dog Eater straight in the genitals - he goes down. Wando reluctantly joins in, and takes out another Dog Eater, and Vastyr takes a few out before suddenly there is a call to stop - Queen Ivartha has arrived with her retinue! Ivartha is not happy with the spectacle before her - she asks Kerolar and and Wando if they want to be Bat food, because fighting Lunars is how you end up as Bat food. Shamefaced, Kerolar heals the badly hurt Luna
r.

She offers them a chance at redemption - she is bringing her retinue to Dangerford to see what she can do to help her tribespeople there. Apparently the Bat is there, and people are fleeing the place, and are in despair. Kerolar and Wando agree, despite harbouring a suspicion she wants to feed them to the bat. Kerolar is taken by the fierce, powerful Queen, and swiftly pledges his loyalty to her.

They find Kerolar a horse and set off immediately. Wando is taken with Janara, the beautiful trickster adviser to Queen Ivartha, and reciprocates her flirting. Kerlar leaves well enough alone - tricksters are trouble.

After a day or so they arrive at the East Gate of Dangerford. A desperate family is trying to leave, but a Lunar guard is preventing them. Wando attempts to slip the guard a jewel worth a few coins, but the guard refuses the bribe until Kerolar offers him his arm ring, worth a cow at least. He lets the grateful and terrified family past. They enter the town and climb the hill to the East Gate of the Fort. On a nearby hill they see the Bat - enormous, the size of a chiefs hall, surrounded by Lunar cultists. Even at this distance they can see that ticks the size of sheep crawl on the Bat's back. It is a horrifying sight. A pen containing prisoners to be fed to the bat is close by, guarded by armed cultists.

At the East Gate a guard refuses them entry, not giving the Queen the respect she deserves. Vastyr steps up and knocks him flat with one blow of his fist. The step over him into the clan hall, where the clan ring is drawing up a list of proscriptions with the assistance of the Lunars of people to be fed to the Bat. The Lunars are led by Illaro Brokenback, who has lost the use of his legs and has to be carried about in a chair.

Queen Ivartha joins the conference, and Canille, Queen Ivartha's spy, takes Kerolar and Wando aside and tells them to find Koralfin, who will help them make sense of things here. They leave the fort and go back to the town.

They find Koralfin by his description - he is attempting to hold back a number of his fellow clanspeople who are trying to pull a family into the stocks to be fed to the bat. Aside from the general objections, Koralfin loudly protests that this is tantamount to kinslaying, and will lay a further curse on the clan. Kerloar steps forward with his sword drawn and vows that anyone who steps forward to hurt the family will be hamstrung and fed to the Bat. The cultists (the clansmen have joined the cult of the bat as lay members to ensure they are last to be eaten) ignore him, and Kerolar and Wando swiftly cut down three before dragging them, pleading and begging, to the pens and throwing them in without mercy.

Koralfin thanks them - he could not harm them as they were kin. He tells them, and Canille that the local Orlanth Priest has been captured, and he has heard that the Lunars are seeking Ashart Duskeater, the Red Cow Orlanth Priest, is in terrible danger of being fed to the Bat as well.

They relay this news to Queen Ivartha, who asks them to travel as swift as they can to Torkin's Vale and warn Ashart. The duo agree to do so, and set off at once.

Seressin, the Water City

The City of Seressin

I wrote this setting after reading Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and being inspired by the weird fantasy of it. It awakened my inner 14-year old and made me realise how stale a lot of my thinking had been around fantasy. I'd always had an idea of a late renaissance city and loved the idea of a Venice-like place, but drenched in strange magic. so here it is, for your reading pleasure: The City of Seressin.

Seressin, the water city.
Magic drenched, the republic of Seressin is a city attempting to rein in chaos and keep order. Aside from the Eastern Plague, the army of Sand (followers of the Book of Sand) threatens the city by sea and land. The great organic labyrinth of Barbuta grows and changes each year, and the conditerri of the city must be used to keep the creatures within contained, and seal each new exit. The labyrinth is known to be the lair of the Beast of Many colours, a demon and man eater. The maze is a tessaract, a maze in 4 dimensions, and those who enter have been known to leave at different times or different worlds. Where did the maze come from? Nobody knows, but most blame the unknown and ancient sorcerers who rent the veil between this world and the world of dreams. Magicians refer to these as 'the two worlds' because, on reflection, who can tell which is the real one?

The city has holes in its dimension. There are gates opening into other worlds - the so called 'paper windows' and these must be contained. Adventurers sometimes attempt to cross over and loot the treasures within - they must return before the magi of the city arrive to seal the entrance. The gates of the city to the sea are guarded by the Great Hydra, chained and fed, and soothed long enough to pull the chain to allow ships to pass. The great God of Black and White, and his monochromatic Cathedral, rule the city although his worship is corrupt and decadent. The treason wall is a great wall where enemies and traitors are impaled to slowly die. There is the skull cage, where the last king (300 years ago) has his skull after the was quartered and beheaded. At that time the old gods of chaos were driven from the city, although their worship persists underground amongst those who revere the old ways, or who seek power outside the priveliged channels of the monochromatic god. The skull still wears the crown of misery, a magical crown. The mad king's mind still inhabits it. One of the underground cults is 'The One Who Waits' - the god of the treader in dust over whom time has no dominion, and who can bring a glimpse of eternity which inflames the mind. Witch-hunters seek these cults and those who would worship forbidden gods.

One area of the city is the black quarter - an ancient catastrophe swallowed up a section of the city in inky impenetrable darkness. None who have entered have ever left. Occasionally horrific things or the remains of those who have entered wash up from within. Sometimes black water oozes out of the zone, and it is used sometimes for magical purposes or by assassins. The region is infested with the Primeval Dark, a type of matter from far across the galaxy. These dark changes the laws of nature. There are magicians working on ways that people can enter the dark and survive. A small clique of assassins called the Daggers of the Black haze have found a short path into the dark and have a hidden base there. They use portions of the blackness on their knives as poison. they are led by Morrigan the Death-witch. She is a skin covered skeleton, horrific to see, still alive. Her eyes are milky and her teeth white and perfect. From the dark they have brought antifire, lamps and torches that create darkness wherever they burn. They use these to give them cover for their deeds. They are used to the darkness. They use a guide chain to guide them in the darkness.

The black birds are magical harbingers - the magicians of the city may speak with them. Their intent is alien and unknown - they seem to serve some alien purpose but exactly what is unknown. An attempt was made to exterminate them but they made the treaty of the rookery, in which they make payment to the city and in return they stop their war against humanity (they swooped on soldiers and aldermen). The leader of the city is known as the father of the wolf, and he is annointed by the White bishop and Black bishop into his role for five years. The wolf is the spirit of Seressin and protects the city.

The Immortal is Sezeria, a wizened prophetess who is at least 10,000 years old and is protected by her own cult - she was the only of the old cults allowed to remain in the city, as her prophecies foresaw the coming of the monochromatic god. While she appears as an ancient woman, she still menstruates and her menstrual blood is gathered and sold as it can proffer the gift of prophecy to those who imbibe it. She has, on occasion, been known to produce children and these strange and unsettling infants have been either raised with reverence (most die) or sacrificed to dark demons or spirits. Sezeria appears indifferent to their fates. One prominent survivor is Hememi, a crippled man of around 60 who has also some powers of prophecy, and has some small influence and wealth as an interpreter of dreams. While he moves as a cripple on land, some have reported that he sometimes enters the waters, and can move as freely as a fish therein, and can even breathe under water. He is rumoured to have a pool in the basement of his house in which he relaxes.

There is trouble in Seressin as Arcen, the Tyrant, has won an unprecedented and probably illegal third term, citing the war with the Army of Sand as a national emergency. He is popular, but there is a growing resistance to his rule at all levels of society. Some worry civil war may spring up. The Tyrant has the glass medusa as an ally - she can turn men she gazes on into solid glass. She feasts on human flesh - it is the price the tyrant pays to have her as his servant. His executioner is known as the shatterer. The still living glass people are smashed piece by piece with a mace, an excruciating way to die.

A deeper unknown plague is infecting the city - a foreign drug from the southern lands is actually a pleasure giving parasite. For a while it gives pleasure in the form of dreams and pleasant idylls, but users are now finding themselves in the service of an alien parasite that is seeking to build nesting grounds and hosts in which to breed.

To the north, the Solar Empire rules, and hosts the pope of the monochromatic God. 

Also in the lagoon are the circular ruins, the last visible remnants of an underwater city long since sunk under the ground and muck. sometimes great metal machines are uncovered in the ruins - ancient giant robots from a long lost age - none have been made to work but the lagoon is littered with their plastic, metal and ceramic remnants, long crusted in sea slime, molluscs and weed.

Much sorcery is based on Chaoplasm, a malleable ectoplasm from the dimensions of chaos that can be used for many purposes.

There is a Mouse King, directing mice throughout the city. The Mouse King takes the form of a swarming mass of mice in a sewer - if threatened it dissipates and reforms elsewhere. It is a holographic collective consciousness. It is hard to destroy and wants impossibly alien things. Discovering its existence and trying to communicate with it might be the goal of some scientist or wizard. It may be spreading the plague, or it might be preventing it, or indifferent.

The Seed House.
Brought by a merchant from a distant land this mansion has grown from a seed. It is a baobob style tree but a true mansion that has grown. It is still growing. Will it seed? Does it attract insects that will germinate it?

The Walking Tree. 
A tree that grows out of the flagstones in a plaza. Ever decade or so, it uproots itself, and walks across the city and roots itself in another place. None know why it does so, or what manner of creature of plant it is. In all other respects it appears to be a perfectly normal tree.

Marble Lions and the Sundial.
A sundial that shows a shadow from a sun in another dimension. Two stone lions that guard the city. They are not animated statues, but living stone lions, the last of their kind. They are the only creatures immune to the glass medusa.

The Quiet. 
This is a society of magic users. They meet regularly to discuss their theories, and they are torn between competition and collaboration to achieve their goals. The current Director is Jacopo Viterbo. Those caught by the witch hunter have their works and books confiscated, and these are often passed on to the Quiet for safe keeping. However, Viterbo has been researching them on the sly, to increase his knowledge. He has even invited a couple of collaborators. Their egos lead them to believe they will not fall prey to being seduced by dark magicks, and that only happens to the weak of will and the low born. The quiet is served by an intelligent Oran-Utan named affectionately Goffredo.
There are eight Laurea (disciplines recognised as areas of study) in the quiet - 1. Necromancy 2. Geomancy 3. Hydromancy 4. Aeromancy 5. Pyromancy 6. Chiromancy 7. Scapulamancy 8. Chaomancy

The geography of the city is hard or impossible to map because the magic and the paper portals twist space and time and make anything like mapmaking nigh on impossible, at least at a city wide scale. Line of sight is vitally important, as it prevents subtle magicks from twisting roads and paths, or from posh villas from waking one morning to find themselves in a slum. The councillors have erected mirror poles as markers, each with a slightly different hue, to allow those lost in the supernaturally labyrinthine streets to find their way. There are those who believe that this is part of the effect of the Labyrinth of Barbuta, but this cannot be proven. There are navigators, who know the streets by feel and can recognise them at once and adjust if they have shifted - they are known as bridge counters, after an old tale about the impossibility of trying to count the shifting bridges of Seressin. The bridge-counters have a guild, and are easy to find and essential if trying to navigate unfamiliar or distant parts of the city. Many don't bother and simply row around the edge of the city and enter at one of the ports or piers.

The Kettle. 
A great brass head like Zardoz, salvaged and kept at the Reed Port. As the day proceeds it draws up water and heats it via the sun, and then at sunset roars/whistles. In the great workhouses and shipyards this is the sign to knock off work and head home, or to the alehouse.

The Tombs of the Kings. 
The ancient kings had great mausoleums built in their memory and in honour to the old gods. These are still here deep in the city. They are long neglected, and half submerged, however they still contain great treasures but are protected by awful sigils and curses. The guard will intervene if anyone breaks in but once in they usually just seal the doors and let the mummies and spells and traps do their work. None have returned form a raid successfully.

The Risen Isle. 
A sandy isle has risen from the sea at a particularly low tide, with half buried monuments and buildings. A temple to a long forgotten god and perhaps a place where treasures have been left. It must be excavated and of course there is a race to loot the island and multiple adventurers trying to loot it. It has risen because it is built on the back of a long slumbering alien giant, healing after being massacred in an ancient war. The giant has turned slightly in his sleep. If he begins to dream, all in the city and lands will share in his horrific nightmares of terrible ancient wars and battles.

Bleeding Gods. 
The exiled gods bleed from the sky occasionally. Ceremonies from the monochromatic bishops prevent this. The jealous old gods are wounded by their lack of worship and exile. In fits of jealous and narcissistic rage blood rains down from the sky. The blood can form servitors of the old gods, or twist and change nature and animals and people into ancient forms, before civilization and the monochromatic god arrived.

Giant Moths.
Giant moths, shot down by archers who guard the great lighthouse. Sometimes these moths show signs of being marked or tagged by humans - by whom it is not known. Sometimes they carry messages in a distant tongue that is not known. Are they even from this world? Are they from the moon itself, or messages between worlds? The archers sometimes speak of a moth man that they have seen but never been able to shoot. He is considered by them to be a harbinger of doom.

Maps of Hell.
Trenius is a scholar mapping hell with the help of the horrific demons he summons and the ancient books he references. Demons are one thing - but he has found a new spell and he is able to bring forth the condemned dead from hell, quiz them about their local geography, and then return them to hell. But one or two - either they have escaped or Trenius has given them mercy for osme reason - or perhaps he keeps them as servants or slaves - some have not been returned. They are strange tortured (literally) beings, mostly human, horribly disfigured due to their torments, and in some way seeking both their cleansing tortures and possible redemption. Perhaps one seeks to make amends for his crimes while living.

The Vampires of the City. 
Moving through air and water, they nest at various high points and at various depths of slime in the daytime. They can summon mists and swoop down to capture the weak and defenseless. They view humans as their herds.

Well-Witches. 
Witches who live in wells and come out. In the days of kings witches were often drowned in wells for want of a permanent way of killing them, but one such witch, Berenzur, has been freed from her bonds by crabs and beasts of the seas. She is horribly mutilated but she can be brought back to life by revisiting the wounds she suffered on others so that hers are healed. She has been brought back to life by her sister in witchery, who has finally found her after centuries of searching.

Corpse Leeches.
May be attached to a corpse to speak with dead. They are rare, and a type of parasite on a rare tropical ape, but they work effectively on human corpses. Can be used to interrogate a corpse. They are sold by Doctor Porte, who has a room of infected apes he uses as hosts and breeding grounds. He does not know what the leeches will do to a live human subject - perhaps nothing, perhaps something terrible. He would love dearly to find out, but he is not so evil as to infect someone himself.

The Great Spiders. 
Certain parts of the city have been largely abandoned, or have only recently reappeared after being lost in time and space for centuries. In these empty spaces enormous spiders cast webs across the towers and minarets of the houses, and catch birds in their webs to eat. If they are especially large they will catch children or even full grown people. They are wily, poisonous, enormous and hard to kill, and navigate high and precipitous places with ease. In short - they are hard to kill and dislodge. In most cases they are simply avoided - and their young are killed if they attempt to infest anywhere else. But in some cases - where ancient records indicate the buildings contain great treasures, or where a real estate developer wishes to claim the building for his or her own, brave, desperate and foolhardy adventurers might be sent to cleanse the building. Fire, of course, can't be used. The penalty for arson in Seressin is, of course, death.

One building is the lost tower of Jit Oromno, a famed and ancient mage. His ruined tower reappeared 50 years ago, and innumerable attempts were made to loot his laboratory. None returned, and were presumed to have fallen prey to Black Mary, the local nickname for the enormous ancient spider who squats atop the tower. She has many human sized web baubles now. But perhaps a tower collapses or some other way is found into the tower - or perhaps Black Mary is found dead, enticing a desperate band of adventurers to try their luck?

Other Weirdness.
The Eels. Great slime eels that live in the canals. Crab Cows - great underwater crabs that make fishy milk.

Stingray spears. The sea wights who eat the corpses in the great mausoleums of the funeral town. They sell the rags and jewels in return for fresh meat.

Obsidian bergs - black icebergs spawned from an equatorial volcano. Black and sharp as obsidian but as airated and light as pumice. Deadly to shipping in the region.

Black bats roosting in the abandoned tall towers. They cannot be caught because they are the ghosts of a long extinct species, who haunt the Earth in search of something which is also long gone from the Earth. Nobody knows what it is.Salt arrows - spears of salt crystals. They burn and are painful.

Water elementals wild and free in the lagoon. Small pixies flying and breeding amongst the ivy climbing up the walls. They are unintelligent.

Sea honey. Underwater bees and hives. Can dive for them. THe honey is sweet and salty.

Pain elementals - a paper window allows these pain elementals to enter our world. They enjoy pain and are impartial to who suffers - they experience pain and can inflict it at will on others. They simply need to inflict pain.

Fire water. Fuel is short but some water can be infused with fire elementals to burn - there is a special well set up for this purpose - the fire well. citizens pay a fee to the city to gather buckets of water which they can use to fill their fire-bowls. When burned, fire water leaves a residue called water ash which is used as a fertiliser. Smithies use water-charcoal to forge the amazing waterblades, which can be sued to shape and bend rivulets of ice so that they hold their shape and are strong at any temperature, and hold a blade incredibly well. The city guard have a small arsenal of fire blowers that

Fishermen - in the new moon they enter the space between worlds and fish the strange creatures there and return before dawn along the silver trail. There is a special spell that enables them to do this, known as the Boatman's Song. They do not teach it to outsiders.

Tortoise farmers. They herd and shepherd great flocks of tortoises. Usually they ride on a great, trained tortoise, and corral them on shore at night. They can train sharks to be corralling dogs for them.

Suit golems. Golems made out of suits of clothing. Not hugely resilient but often stylish. Terrible as guards, but good as messengers. Often vain.