Brackenwake
Chapter 02 · Blossom and deep forest
Blossom falling on a river the trees have swallowed, and a court that never comes down.
A sense of place
A jungle of flowering giants on the southern shore: sakura canopy over old-forest trunks a hundred feet high, a river braided under roots, cliffs of dark stone with faces cut in them, rope bridges and platforms in the crowns. Wet, loud with birds, nothing straight.
On the horizon
The Temple of Faces: a cliff a quarter mile long with a hundred faces carved into it, each the height of a house, vines over every mouth. The first Dragonsworn, and one of them is Malachar, young.
The paths within
Settlement
A village of platforms and rope bridges two hundred feet up in the blossom crowns, lit by lanterns at night.
Speaker Ilthenar, Saelith Thornwake, the elven market, archery and tracking training, the Court's dark bargain
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Great landmark
The carved cliff and the temple cut behind it, entered through the mouth of the largest face.
Brother Tomas among the faces; the dungeon behind them
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Dungeon
Galleries behind the cliff where the first riders learned the sight, walls of eyes.
Spiders, Legion cultists, the Keeper of Faces; your face added to the cliff
2 dungeon levels · Boss: The Keeper of Faces
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Wild country
The valley floor where the whole canopy sheds at dawn and the river runs pink for an hour.
Mother Web's hunting ground, the Blossom Fall event where everything hidden shows
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Wild country
The river braided under the trees, fordable at three places, alive with fish.
Fishing, giant spiders at the fords, the Legion's Purse buying elders at the lower ford
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Shrine
A dragon shrine half under the river where the roots have lifted the stones.
Offerings under clear water, the first true-name rumour
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Mine
A cave under the cliff where the roots have gone green-gold.
Verdite in the wall, iron, thorn grubs
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Landmark
Terraces of the old temple grown into the cliff face, reached by climbing roots and rope, a hundred feet of vertical garden.
Rare forage on every terrace, a harpy roost at the top, a view of the whole Deep
Climbing: roots are handholds, and a wet root after rain gives way. Fall damage applies.
Landmark
A still pool under the canopy that shows no reflection by day.
By moonlight the water shows the true shape of anything held over it: an unidentified item, a cultist in Court robes, a face
Identify without a scroll, one item a night, and a spy in the Court can be unmasked here, which decides the Speaker.
Cave
Sinkholes in the jungle floor webbed over, a cave maze beneath joined by silk bridges.
Giant spiders, silk to harvest for the tailor, Mother Web's brood
Silk bridges bear your weight; cut a bridge behind you and what is chasing falls.
Out on the road
From the world plans. Encounters and events may change during development.
Lives woven through the land
The characters, secrets and dragon’s journey through Verdant Deep.
A forest of flowering giants, blossom falling on a river, a temple of faces cut into a cliff with vines over every mouth. Someone in the canopy, watching, with a bow. A spider the size of a cart passing under them without looking up.
Wet, green, loud with birds, the blossom of the sakura biome over old-forest trunks. Verticality: rope bridges, platforms, the canopy village. Nothing here is straight.
The Verdant Court, an elven people who kept the old dragon temples and have forgotten why, live in the canopy and do not come down. They know the dragon for what it is on sight and split over it: the Speaker wants to give it to the Legion and buy peace; the Huntress wants to raise it as a weapon. You have to win the Court without losing the dragon, and the temple under the faces holds the first of the dragon's lost gifts: the sight. The Legion is here too, quietly, buying the Court.
The Temple of Faces: a dungeon behind the cliff where the first riders learned the sight. Spiders, cultists of the Legion, and the Keeper of Faces, a Wraith that was the temple's last priest and tests you with the dragon's own eyes. Beating it grants the sight and puts a new face on the cliff: yours.
Mother Web in her canopy. The Blossom Fall, an event each dawn when the whole canopy sheds and, for a minute, everything hidden is visible. The Legion's Purse, a Bandit captain in Court robes buying elders.
Eats fish and fruit. Becomes a drake at the end of the realm, and the Court sees it happen, which decides the Speaker.
