The Vaster Blossoms

Session 012 ❖ June 14, 2020

At the edge of the vibrant Valley of Flowers, a field of black blooms border the white of the jungle, growing over the indistinct shapes of skeletons of men, bird-men and apes, and frequented by great bees the size of dogs.

Erebos, Garviel & Rhea step forward and are drawn down into dream by the soporific pollen of the black lotus. Aeris and Caenn improvise masks out of wet cloth and pull them clear.

They approach a tree covered in vines and yellow flowers, which spread out across the ground all around, infesting the corpses of Zyanese soldiers and raising them to do battle.

Proceeding further toward the wreck, they come upon a massive white flower, with a glint of gold sparkling somewhere between its closed petals. Wary now, they debate how to approach it. Aeris fires an arrow, causing the flower to weep sap and unfurl, revealing a tall woman sleeping within it. She bears a deep scar across her face, the wound seemingly filled with gold in the manner of kintsugi.

Waking slowly, she gives her name as Espi. She shares what she recalls of her life - she grew up on a farm with her sister, and loved the trips to the big city to watch the parades. When they were older, both attended a university there. They ate their lunches together on the edge of the fountain in the big square, and studied on long summer afternoons in the gardens of the great cathedral.

Upon graduating, they both earned a place on the crew of the fabulous flying vessel - the Parapraxis.

Then came a war - the ship was stricken, hurtling into the boughs of the White Jungle-

Beyond that she remembers nothing - not the name of her sister, or their city, nor how she came by her scar, nor how she came to be sleeping in the flower. She’s desperate to find her sister, so the party agree to help her look.

Soon they reach the area directly beneath the wreck. It is far overhead, but a tree has grown from the rent in its hull, descending down to within reach. The tree whirls, its trunk spinning continuously, its outer branches dragging through the flowers. One by one, they leap onto it, cling to the trunk and make the dizzying climb up into the wreck. They find the roots of the tree embedded in a spinning, levitating orb of cracked earth, the Lithic Core, part of the magical mechanism that holds the ship aloft.

A walkway runs along the spine of the ship, and they climb onto it. They let their stomachs settle before heading aft to discover, in a small, low-ceilinged engine room, the vessel’s impeller - a magnificent brass device secured to the deck, glowing faintly with magical energy. Elementals of air and lightning have been drawn to its emanations. They decide not to engage these potent entities, and Caenn conjures a web to cover their retreat.

They find a training room, with a statue of a woman identified by a plaque as Jurra Surashari, a blade in her hand, another hanging in the air before her. When the blade is touched, she springs to life to duel the challenger, and Garviel, Erebos, Caenn and Aeris are all bested by her in turn.

In the mess hall of the ship they find a banquet of fresh fruit and rotten meat - the remains of a four-armed white ape, several plumed reavers, and the abdomen of a giant hornet. The noisome feast is bait, drawing the unwary into cruel punji pits hacked into the planks of the floor. Garviel and Erebos both fall foul of these, and the party fight off the trapper as he comes to check his snares - another white ape bearing a fabulous ruby amulet upon his chest.

Down a spiral staircase, they engage more apes who were sleeping below, the largest of which bears another amulet, this one an emerald. They defeat them after a gruelling combat. They encamp aboard the vessel for the night.

Dungeon Master’s Notes

Espi has a simple hook - you’ve found a person, and they need help. She became one of the most consequential and beloved characters in the campaign, however, and from the second year got promoted to a PC.

This was the first dungeon I wrote for the campaign! Oddly, for an abandoned wreck undiscovered deep in the jungle, they made a lot of friends there.