[Gardens of Ynn] Session 3 – Wherein Plants Are Acquired

The Ultraviolet Grasslands-isms here are because I ran Gardens of Ynn as an intro to a UVG campaign, as well as to introduce the players to the system we'd be using: Knave with GLOG classes and some house rules for good measure. It's a messy work in progress.

Dramatis Personae

• Limon Field. Lime nomad Steppelander climate migrant. Fled to the Yellowlands during a great drought where he trained as a showfighter in a traveling circus.
• Marceline Chaiya Grove. Grapefruit nomad Steppelander Coffee-maker. A trained Black Gold industrialist from a clan of coffee-middlemen. Recently revealed to be a teenage girl in disguise.
• Gelato "O.G." Kush. Mutant Quarter-Ling Hexad Enforcer Militant. Booted from his squad upon discovery that he experiments with drugs. Storied climber of upside-down cogs and gears.
• Dulce. Mononymous Bourgeois Botanist Dwarf from the Red Land District (RLD). Hails from the cloistered Warwick Cove, and excels in knowledge of Oldtech and gentlemanly manners.
• Yesen il'Aravat. Oroblanco Steppelander General of the Machine-Hunters' Union. Insists gravity is a finite resource and frequently advises against its expenditure (climbing, jumping, etc).

An Auspicious Meeting

Enter Dolce and Yesen, both still stuck in this anomalous garden from previous, failed excursions. Evidence pointing to Prof. Leifbrauer bending the truth regarding to mission success rates mounts. Yesen il'Aravat found himself stranded in the bizarre upside-down cog jungle gym adjacent to the now-inaccessible hedge maze our heroes discovered previously. Suspended above an endless blue sky, the Steppelander encountered Gelato delightedly galavanting about the turning gears. The two met up and navigated their way over to a shadowy amphitheater where Dolce was seated, watching a days-long puppet show. It turned out that rust-colored bees manned these puppets, and upon their play's rude interruption, stung the interlopers in their sternums, melting them into goopy wax instantly.

Meanwhile, at the Statuary

Marceline and Limon were composing themselves after surviving a rusty bee attack when the hive housed in the nearby bisected statue began to drip goop. This goop shaped itself into humanoid form and before long Gelato, Dolce, and Yesen stood face-to-face to the citrus nomads. Reunited with their degenerate pal OG (who found a Ynnian pocketwatch in the deep, wax-filled cavity left in his chest) the party decided to get their bearings by climbing something tall. They headed into a dark wood bordering the statuary.

Limon volunteered to climb a tree and see what was nearby. He began ascending a large tree and it was half an hour before the rest of the group realized he was not coming back down. Halfway up the trunk of this fractally expansive evergreen, Limon met an obstinate caterpillar the size of an anaconda who cryptically advised him that, whichever way you choose to go, going long enough will lead you somewhere in Ynn. Limon thanked the caterpillar (who claimed he didn't have a name but later was revealed to be Jeremy) and went on his way.

At the "Top" of the Tree

Unaware (but hopeful) that the rest of the party were on their way, Limon explored an abandoned kennel. You see, after climbing the tree for the better part of an hour, he found himself actually only a dozen or so feet off the ground—different ground than where he had started. When climber extraordinaire Gelato Kush arrived ahead of everyone else, Limon was halfway through stripping a corpse of its set of chainmail armor, donning it himself. The two heard a crashing (like logs falling off the back of an 18-wheeler like in Final Destination 2) through the nearby hedges and snuck off to take a peek.

What they found was a turtle the size of a cottage with a bonsai tree growing atop its shell lumbering through the hedges. This towering reptile, a bonsai tortoise by the name of Glum, seemed annoyed with Limon for wearing armor stolen off of a previous one of his "pets," but offered to allow him to keep it in exchange for becoming a new pet. Limon accepted, and Glum lifted a tree trunk leg to reveal a bonsai tree sprouting from the ground. He instructed Limon to take the tree with him, care for it, and to do as he is told when called upon. Unbeknownst to Limon, he had just agreed to a pact with a demigod.

Acquiring More Plants

With the party all gathered together once again, they pressed on past the kennels to a tranquil area dotted with greenhouses. Etched into the entrances to each house was an orchid, and through the glass panels everyone could see rows of orchids growing. Dolce pruned some orchid petals while Marceline plucked a flower to wear in her hair and Yesen searched for gardening equipment. While they plundered, Gelato followed some strange-looking tracks that lead towards a lake.

Gelato heard singing. Carefully, he approached the source of the tune and discovered five creatures, vaguely human in shape but comprised of twisted, woven-together rose bushes and with great rose blossoms in the place of heads. He and the rosebush creatures exchanged pleasantries and headed back to the orchid houses. They stated that they—called the Rose Maidens—maintained the orchid houses, and welcomed all to rest on their grounds if tired. The group declined their offer, growing increasingly worried that these flowers' keepers would discover their flower-tampering. Gelato asked for an orchid of his own, which the Rose Maidens agreed to on the condition that when his travels ended, he plant it wherever he calls home.

Marceline insisted that she retrieve the pot and spade for Gelato's orchid, and thus the maidens discovered no wrongdoing. Oblivious to the party's crimes against flowerkind, the caretakers sent everyone off in the direction of a grand procession of ladybugs.

The Frozen Tower

The procession was delightful; there were ladybugs as far as the eye could see, marching ever onward through the gardens. Everyone followed the little bugs, taking great care where they tread, until they were lead to a tower. From a distance, the tower had an odd, glistening quality. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be encased in an inches-thick casing of ice. Concerned for the health of their respective plants, Gelato and Limon opted to "stand guard" outside the tower while Marceline, Yesen, and Dolce ventured forth.

The cold bit into the ill-prepared adventurers fiercely inside the frozen tower. (Every turn they spent inside dealt 1hp of damage to them.) A force from within the only free-standing bookshelf called out to Marceline, nearly compelling her to thaw it. She resisted the impulse, but then decided to spend however long it would take to thaw the shelf and find the source of her own volition. Dolce and Yesen decided that was bad news and ascended the staircase in the back up to the tower's next floor: a giant bird's nest.

A homely, plump fledgling immediately bonded with Yesen after emerging from behind a pile of unhatched eggs. As the two searched through the nest area, Marceline finished thawing the shelf (finding a spellbook) and the "guards" saw two large, angry-looking birds flying towards the open window to the tower's second floor. Limon and Gelato called out to their companions, giving them just enough time to find hiding places before a pair of vicious-looking peacocks burst into the nest in defense of their baby.