UVG Location: The Pylon Kraal Above Moon River

Here my interpretation of the place (see page 59 for the original). Feel free to steal anything you want. For context, my group have been tasked to find an intact satrap suit, so I figured that they would infiltrate the place to get rid of Post-Satrap and take their, but no. They are currently at the Spectrum Run to find a suit. Fools with a death wish they are.

I designed this for my own use, so you may spot descriptions where I was a bit, say, lazy. Everything is stated for Electric Bastionland (or its variants).

The tax

Any caravan entering the Satrap’s land have to pay a tax. The Tollmasters are responsible for its collection here. Here is how it is computed :

• 20€ per weapon. This includes bombs, letter openers, etc. Heavily armed groups are not welcome here, no no no sir. Sacs of glittering goods or shining spices for trade are all that matter.
• 100€ per week of travel between the intended caravan’s destination and the Spectrum Palace. Please be honest when answering.
• 5€ per mule or horse. Grazing beasts are not profitable sir.
• -5€ per sack of goods. You want this rebate don’t you? Let us inspect your cargo.
• -15€ per mechanical vehicle. We sell fuel at the Spectrum Palace if you want. We extract it from the dreams of an old beast, it’s always fresh and filled with otherworldly reflections.

Feel free to add/remove stupid tax laws. It should be a bit cumbersome to compute. Of course, there are other crossings if the group desnn’t want to pay (see page 61). But then you don’t have the Spectrum Permit for Roaming the Prismatic Lands of the Satraps.

The Tollmasters

• The Pylon Pirates: HP 3, stats 12/12/4, laser-musket (1d6) or spear (1d6). There are 20 of them.
• Viki Six-lives: HP 6, stats 5/5/20, lasso or smoke bomb. Six lives, of course, so she will come back one day later if killed.
• Surot Two-eyes: HP 2, stats 5/5/20, armor 3 (seer powers), always act first (seer powers), laser-musket (1d6). Once can ask for an interview with her (cost 1d6 x 1000€, you gain +1 to all travel-related tests for a week, you make a new discovery at a place you have already been but you must wait one year to go there for that will make the difference between infinite wealth and terrible death).
• Post-Satrap 48: HP 5, stats 10/10/10, armor 1, all following spells at will:
  • A thousand faces: everyone around the caster plus the caster themself takes the illusory appearance of a selected target. Hopefully chaos ensues.
  • False alarm: an illusory fire vortex, hot and impressive but without danger. Radiates from the caster and fills the room in 2 rounds. Hopefully everyone feels.
  • Sun Flash: everyone is blinded, except people with sunglasses (and they get to say a cool one-liner). Hopefully the satrap’s allies kill enough people.
  • Invisibility: targets self, and lasts until the end of the next round. Hopefully the satrap can use it to flee without harm.

Map and key

Map of the pylon kraal occupied by the pirates, adjacent to the road. The shape is loosely inspired by the illustration page 59.

Made with the truly excellent Dungeon Scrawl tool

A1. Great Fushia Hall. Domed space, with colors slowly shifting from magenta to pink. 10 pirates are stationed here, playing cards and telling stories.
The entrance door talks. It will only let satraps and their friends enter, but think anyone that shines is a satrap. Loudly announce the name of the visitors when they enter.
Three stairs lead upward. The first has an impeccable carpet and lead to an extra-dimensional trap: a small room with an item that the PC desire, resting on a pedestal, lit by projectors, and covered with a poison. The second one has a luminous carpet and leads to B1. The third one has an old carpet and goes up forever while magically alerting the pirates that someone is in there.

B1. Warehouse. 30 sacks of food and 3 random treasures (page 175). Smells fishy (is it the food), and the smell will stick to the players until the take a bath if they search the room.

B2. Tea room. Beautiful carpets and 2 old samovars. 4 pirates, Viki and Surot. The pirates use this room to make deals (should your players try to find people to buy/sell goods at this destination).

B3. Corridor. Wood carving tools and wooden panels on the south wall.

B4. Quarters. Multiple hammocks neatly aligned. 4 pirates sleeping. 2 random treasures (page 175).

C1. Corridor. Decorated with wooden panels telling the story of the fight between a lord of lightning and a Balrog.

C2. Bedroom. “Viki + Surot” written on the door. Should anyone else enter, Sun Flash as per the spell described earlier and rings an alarm. 2 random treasures (page 175).

C3. Light Sauna. Satraps come here to bask in the strange lights emitted by the floating orbs in the room. Any satrap regains all its stats at the start of its turn while in this room. Post-satrap and 2 pirates operate the place.

C4. VR-Room. The walls project the landscape of random destination in the UVG. The PCs can try to operate the control panel to get a vision of any UVG destination. but there is a 33% chance that the machine malfunctions and cease functioning.

C5. Observatory. Couches, plushes and a nice view on the Moon River.

Conclusion

I would like to revive this blog. I will try to detail more discoveries like that. I kinda need to anyway, having a UVG campaign running (about 50 sessions so far!).