Umbrafall

B-class article · First seen: s4 · Last seen: s23
Umbrafall
the City Beneath the Dead Sun
Portrait of Umbrafall.
Location
StatusActive
First seens4
Last seens23
FactionNightwatch, The Hollow, The Broker, Aurelian forces

Umbrafall, the City Beneath the Dead Sun, is one of the six great powers of Eldurae and the party’s base from session 4 to session 11. Once the farming country of Luminara, it was cursed fifty years ago when a ritual meant to create lasting light failed and the sky blackened, and it now lives by selling the poisons, reagents and secrets of its glowing fungus (world brief; [25]). It has no clean public government but real power structures: the Shade Mistress, The Broker, the Nightwatch, the Rat King and the Black Cartels (world brief). The Aurelian conspiracy first surfaced here, through the Dawn Mercy Clinic [57].

Umbrafall
Umbrafall

Overview

Umbrafall is the city beneath eternal night, once Luminara, the farming country whose crops fed much of the land. Fifty years ago a ritual meant to create lasting light failed catastrophically; the sky blackened, the fields died and the old order fell apart (world brief). The world brief dates the failed ritual to the Eclipse of Luminara in 793 A.I. (world brief). Now the city survives by turning its curse into profit: its fungi, mosses and poisonous growths are harvested for toxins, reagents and potions, and since it cannot feed itself well it buys what it needs with what only Umbrafall can sell (world brief).

It is the campaign’s largest visited city. The party arrived in session 4 and based itself here until session 11: the Warrens crawl (sessions 5 to 7), the Black Vein Quarry job (sessions 7 to 10) and the Aurelian conspiracy at the Dawn Mercy Clinic (sessions 8 to 10) all began in its streets. From session 19 the road home runs back through it, and by session 23 the party is a day’s ride away.

Geography and appearance

Perpetual night [23]. Outside the walls the ground is thick with fungi glowing purple, green and blue, all of them poisonous, and the DM named poison as the city’s main export [24][25]. He placed the cause in the region’s past: the fungus grew “after the wizards of Umbrafall broke their sky” [25]. The city clings to the valley floor, with broken towers lit by sickly fungus, black iron lanterns burning green and a bell that tolls “not for time but for warning” [25]. Masked figures drift through the fog [25]. Detect Magic is swamped, because everything in the city is cloaked in magic [26][27].

It is large. The Whisper Coil Emporium lay two to three hours’ walk across it from the party’s inn [28]. The city’s corruption runs a couple of miles beyond its edge [29], and it ends where the darkness ends [30].

Inhabitants

Government / control

There is no clean public government, but there are real power structures (world brief), and the DM’s rulings treat them as real powers, not figures of speech.

  • The Broker runs the market and sells passage through the Hollow; those who took his deal paid no tax, others paid 50 gold [41].
  • The Nightwatch is the official police force of the city, “what was here before Umbrafall became Umbrafall”, and corrupt: it is on the mafia’s payroll, and Risa said that if anyone controlled it, it would be the Shade Mistress [40][42][43]. A release that cost 500 gold officially was bought for 150 under the table [44].
  • The Rat is “one of the main factions of Umbrafall”, a spymaster who was once an ordinary man and pays beggars and children for secrets, and who meets only those he chooses to [39].
  • The Hollow is the deeper power behind the Warrens; its Guardians asked “thieves or servants of the hollow” [45].
  • Aurelian cells have worked here since at least session 10, taking people with magic to Dock 13 and paying the Nightwatch to look away [46][47].

Notable features

  • Black Hollow Market. The underground bazaar where the Broker has his office [48][49].
  • The Warrens and the Gloaming Warrens. The lair beneath the market, which the DM called “the bottom warrens” of the city [3].
  • Wane Quarter and the Glomangol Inn. A thin-fogged alley district and the party’s inn [50]. The Broker also named the Farkjaw, the Blackroot Cask and the Shiver Light Den, and warned the party off the Hollow Ember [51].
  • Whisper Coil Emporium. The potion shop of the dwarf Alston, beside the market [52].
  • Starpoint Secrets. A potion shop run by a fairy, who keeps a string of severed hands of many races hung up as a warning to thieves [53][54].
  • Dawn Mercy Clinic. A small clinic that treats the poor of the city [55]. Its orderly confessed that Aurelians with papers had come for a patient with magic, the party’s first sight of the Aurelian conspiracy [56][57].
  • Nightwatch Jail. Where Vasquez was held [58][59].
  • Dock 13. The Aurelian shipping dock on the city’s east side [47].
  • Black Vein Quarry. A day’s travel north [60].
  • Tallow Ward and Tallowspire. Established Umbrafall place names (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27).

History in the campaign

Session 3: The Lair of Sunset is Nigh and the Death of Cholmondeley

Main article: Session 3

Umbrafall first comes up as a place to raise the dead. After Cholmondeley fell, the table asked whether anyone could cast resurrection, and the DM said probably not in the elf village, but possibly in Velkris or Umbrafall, where it would take a favour rather than coin [1]. The party was wary of the city: one of them said he would not trust its people “as far as I can throw them” [61].

Session 4: The Still Current, the Black Mask, and Hugo’s Pact

Main article: Session 4

The party came out of the Mirestrand marshes through four hours of glowing fungus to the city walls [24]. The DM called it a place of assassins and spies, with poison for its main export [25]. Hugo felt a burning pull to the Black Hollow Market [62], where the Broker offered the party tax-free passage and pay if they killed Maelis Dirn and her giant [63]. Hugo reported in to someone higher in his organisation [64] and, while the others waited at a tavern, signed a pact with the Black Mask [65][66]. The session ended as the party trailed Maelis’s collectors to an opening in the ground [67].

Session 5: Black Hollow Market Tunnels and the Hollow Guardians

Main article: Session 5

The party went underground beneath the market into what the DM called “the bottom warrens” [3]. Detect Magic was swamped by the magic of the whole place [26]. A fungal giant that burst from the floor proved to be an experiment made from the biogloom fungus of Umbrafall and necrotic magic [68]. Two Hollow Guardians asked whether the party were thieves or servants of the hollow [45]. See The Warrens.

Session 6: Maze of the Minotaur and the Titan

Main article: Session 6

Below the city the DM described a great hall that predates Umbrafall [69]. Detect Magic was swamped again, since the city’s night leaves everything cloaked in magic [27]. Maelis’s notes spoke of binding souls to the biogloom root network under the city, with the Titan held by nodes [70][71], and a chamber had been made to draw on the city’s biogloom [72][73]. Her papers also showed shipping through Duskwatch [74].

Session 7: Maelis Falls, Vasquez Captured

Main article: Session 7

The Titan killed Maelis [32]. The Broker paid the party, gave Hugo a greataxe of frost, and pointed him to Silent Intake in Velkris for the shipping papers [75]. He also sent them to the Black Vein Quarry, a day north, for 100 gold [76]. The Glomangol Inn took them in for the night, and the Wraith met Hugo in an alley that seemed “very very real” [77]. Next morning Vasquez was arrested by the Nightwatch while helping a woman with an urn outside the Whisper Coil Emporium [5].

Session 8: Bruise the Cellmate, the Succubus, and the Quarry Ghosts

Main article: Session 8

Vasquez woke in a Nightwatch cell [58]. The urn the woman, Risa, carried held white ash that smelled of lye; the Dawn Mercy Clinic had told her that her sister died and was burned, and Hugo’s theory was aquamation [78][79][80]. “Something’s going on in Umbrafall,” Risa said [81]. The DM described the Nightwatch as a corrupt police force on the mafia’s payroll [42], and Harvo bought Vasquez out for 150 gold [82]. The party then walked eight hours into the fungal forest [83].

Session 9: The Death of Harvo

Main article: Session 9

The session was spent at the Black Vein Quarry, with Umbrafall in the background. The party could not place a dead priest’s pendant of Ilmater, and Caelumn thought to ask about it back in the city [7]. The quarry’s rare ore was being dug “for use in Umbrafall” [84]. After Harvo’s death, Caelumn doubted that even a resurrection on offer in Umbrafall was within the party’s means [85].

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

Main article: Session 10

After five hours’ walk the city felt “like it never noticed you were gone” [86]. The Broker paid the full 100 gold, offered a 200-gold assassination job in Aurelia, and named the Rat as the one who knew most about the city [87]. At the Dawn Mercy Clinic Caelumn’s Intimidation broke the orderly Drew, who said Aurelians with papers had taken Mira Hale and sent her to Dock 13 [88]. In a street an Aurelian Paladin and his men ambushed the party; the Paladin died and the party kept his plate [10][89]. Risa was waiting at the Glomangol Inn [90][91].

Session 11: Owlbears and the Soulbinder

Main article: Session 11

The party woke at its inn, bought rations and tried Starpoint Secrets. When Ruin was seen trying to palm a potion, the fairy pointed to his string of severed hands and raised the price of a healing potion from 50 gold to 60 [92][93]. At the Whisper Coil Emporium the dwarf gave his name as Alston and handed over a black potion that he could not describe [94]. The party left around noon, eastward [95][96]; the DM said Umbrafall ends where its darkness ends, and beyond lies no man’s land before Aurelian territory [30].

Session 12: Eldwythe and the Candy Cottage

Main article: Session 12

In Eldwythe, Thomas Feld, voiced by the DM, said that the town keeps out of the politics of Umbrafall, Arcanthys and Aurelia, lying as it does between them [97]. Caelumn asked after Aurelian soldiers with a prison carriage coming from Umbrafall. Feld had seen none, but said there is “a pretty well traveled” shipping route from Umbrafall to Aurelia [98].

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

Main article: Session 14

With Caelumn and Vasquez cursed by a mummy and losing hit points each day, Hugo suggested finding a healer, and failing Aurelia, Umbrafall [99][100]. Umbrafall was two days away, as far as Aurelia, so the party pushed on to ask Uncle Nibblecheek instead [101][102].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

Hugo took the Aurelian recruit’s signal for a flare like the one the guards in Umbrafall had fired in their fight [103]. In the sewers Vasquez said he would rather be in Umbrafall. Caelumn called it a great city, though he and it “did not get along well” because he “blew up too many things” [104].

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Main article: Session 16

In the sewers under Eldwythe the party met spores and weak biogloom that reminded it of Umbrafall, only diluted [105][106]. The DM suggested that whatever happened in Umbrafall could be behind it [107]. At the sewer mouth he listed turning back for Umbrafall among the party’s options, and Hugo reckoned it slightly nearer than Velkris [108][109].

Session 17: New Hands, the Black Mask’s Renegotiation, and the Rimeclaw

Main article: Session 17

Terry’s recap for the new players gave the choice the party had faced: go back to Umbrafall to regroup, or back to Sevryn to say it had failed. The party voted for Aurelia [16]. Later, listing the places a stranded fisherwoman, Nessa, might flee to, Terry joked that in Umbrafall she would be infected with spores and turned into a zombie [110].

Session 18: The Wyrm Falls, the Catfish Escapes, and Mike Dies on the Road

Main article: Session 18

After the patrol’s maximum-damage blow killed Mike, the DM said that Aurelia is no easy country for a magic caster, which is why he had suggested an alternative route, to Velkris or perhaps Umbrafall, to gain a little more strength [17].

Session 19: A Penitent Priest, an Unmade Leash, and the Pixie in the Dark

Main article: Session 19

Umbrafall is a node on the road home. The DM gave the quickest way to Velkris as back through Eldwythe, Umbrafall and Mirestrand [111], and said that goblins have been seen around Umbrafall, though not many [112]. In his debrief Hugo told the Wraith about the old Umbrafall mining job [113], and she ordered him to “return to Umbrafall” [114]. The order names no headquarters.

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

The party took a job guarding Laura Bennett’s caravan on a board that read “Eldwythe to Umbrafall”, and she wanted guards because that road is prone to robbery [115][116]. The DM added lore: Umbrafall cannot grow or make food, since the whole environment is poison, so food and water are a premium [117]; druids are said to move there to sell goodberries [118]; and necrotechs cluster there, because necromancy is banned in Aurelia, for cheap materials from a supplier whose name the recording does not make clear and for the plentiful corpses [119]. On the approach, patches of blue and green biogloom appeared [120].

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Main article: Session 21

The caravan stopped at Greysmere, “a little bit out of” Umbrafall and roughly a day’s ride from it [121][122]. Terry would not trust the water nearer the city [123]. Fen, a local, said that people from Umbrafall bring some of their dead there [124]. Laura, unsurprised by the undead raids, said Greysmere lives next to a lot of necromancers [125], and she would wait for the party until midday [126].

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

Caelumn summarised the party’s travels for Kole: they went into Umbrafall, where he nearly killed everyone by blowing things up, then came to Eldwythe and down to Aurelia [21]. Terry added that the caravan was bound for Umbrafall, where they meant to follow up some order notes they found in its depths [22].

Status

As of session 23. Active. The party has not been inside the city since session 11 and, at the end of session 23, is in the ridge temple north of Greysmere, about a day’s ride from it [122]. It is still hired to guard Laura Bennett’s caravan the rest of the way, provided it is back by midday [126]. Several threads wait inside: Risa was last seen in session 10 at the Glomangol, and her sister Mira Hale was taken to Aurelia [127]; Drew ran from the clinic [36]; the abductions have not been followed up; The Rat has not made contact; and the Wraith has told Hugo to return [114].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 3, line 1490-1500: Resurrection might be had in Velkris or Umbrafall.
  2. ^ Session 4, line 1436-1520: The city described; the Broker's Maelis Dirn contract.
  3. ^ Session 5, line 265: The tunnels under the market are "the bottom warrens".
  4. ^ Session 6, line 236-365: The hall that predates Umbrafall; the biogloom root network.
  5. ^ Session 7, line 1207-1340: Nightwatch street fight outside Whisper Coil Emporium.
  6. ^ Session 8, line 73-692: Nightwatch jail; the urn; the bribe; the corruption's reach.
  7. ^ Session 9, line 355-362: The quarry's ore is for use in Umbrafall.
  8. ^ Session 10, line 434-473: Back in the city; the Broker pays; the Rat described.
  9. ^ Session 10, line 643-706: Drew confesses the Aurelian abductions via Dock 13.
  10. ^ Session 10, line 772-1054: Aurelian Paladin ambush in an Umbrafall street.
  11. ^ Session 11, line 460-753: Starpoint Secrets, the Whisper Coil Emporium, and the way out.
  12. ^ Session 12, line 424-437: The shipping route from Umbrafall to Aurelia.
  13. ^ Session 14, line 537-631: Umbrafall, two days away, as a place to seek a healer.
  14. ^ Session 15, line 218-824: Hugo and Caelumn recall the city.
  15. ^ Session 16, line 170-1633: Weak biogloom in the Eldwythe sewers; a way back from the sewer mouth.
  16. ^ Session 17, line 105: Umbrafall as the other choice besides Aurelia.
  17. ^ Session 18, line 2311: The DM on an alternative route to gain strength.
  18. ^ Session 19, line 290-583: A node on the road to Velkris; the Wraith orders Hugo to return to Umbrafall, naming no headquarters (the DM's post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27); goblins seen around it.
  19. ^ Session 20, line 417-1757: Laura Bennett's board and her reason for guards; food a premium, goodberry druids, a necrotech hub (cheap materials from a supplier whose name the recording does not make clear); biogloom on the approach.
  20. ^ Session 21, line 44-378: A day's ride from the city; the dead brought to Greysmere; the necromancers next door.
  21. ^ Session 23, line 142-144: Caelumn's summary of the party's travels, through Umbrafall.
  22. ^ Session 23, line 1369-1375: The caravan bound for Umbrafall, where the party means to follow up the order notes found in its depths.
  23. ^ Session 4, line 1474: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 4, line 1436: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 4, line 1442: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 5, line 239: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 6, line 365: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 11, line 555-560: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 8, line 692-693: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 11, line 751-753: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 4, line 1502: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 7, line 610-614: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 8, line 418-422: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 11, line 672: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 10, line 648-652: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 10, line 713: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 8, line 79: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 8, line 564: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 10, line 471-473: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 8, line 174: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 4, line 1506-1518: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 8, line 228-233: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 8, line 459: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 8, line 543-572: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 5, line 891-894: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 10, line 648-664: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 10, line 704-706: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 4, line 1480: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 10, line 446: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 7, line 854: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 7, line 834: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 7, line 1093: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 11, line 460-464: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 11, line 500: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 10, line 465: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 10, line 538: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 10, line 648-666: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 8, line 73: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 8, line 472: Inline citation.
  60. ^ Session 7, line 763: Inline citation.
  61. ^ Session 3, line 1494: Inline citation.
  62. ^ Session 4, line 1446: Inline citation.
  63. ^ Session 4, line 1506-1520: Inline citation.
  64. ^ Session 4, line 1610: Inline citation.
  65. ^ Session 4, line 1626: Inline citation.
  66. ^ Session 4, line 1690-1702: Inline citation.
  67. ^ Session 4, line 1818-1830: Inline citation.
  68. ^ Session 5, line 871: Inline citation.
  69. ^ Session 6, line 236: Inline citation.
  70. ^ Session 6, line 1230: Inline citation.
  71. ^ Session 6, line 1245: Inline citation.
  72. ^ Session 6, line 1404: Inline citation.
  73. ^ Session 6, line 1423: Inline citation.
  74. ^ Session 6, line 1263: Inline citation.
  75. ^ Session 7, line 710-745: Inline citation.
  76. ^ Session 7, line 749-763: Inline citation.
  77. ^ Session 7, line 852-1014: Inline citation.
  78. ^ Session 8, line 117-118: Inline citation.
  79. ^ Session 8, line 140-143: Inline citation.
  80. ^ Session 8, line 155-163: Inline citation.
  81. ^ Session 8, line 167: Inline citation.
  82. ^ Session 8, line 543-576: Inline citation.
  83. ^ Session 8, line 678-679: Inline citation.
  84. ^ Session 9, line 1575: Inline citation.
  85. ^ Session 9, line 1548: Inline citation.
  86. ^ Session 10, line 436: Inline citation.
  87. ^ Session 10, line 446-473: Inline citation.
  88. ^ Session 10, line 648-706: Inline citation.
  89. ^ Session 10, line 1378-1388: Inline citation.
  90. ^ Session 10, line 515: Inline citation.
  91. ^ Session 10, line 1472: Inline citation.
  92. ^ Session 11, line 467: Inline citation.
  93. ^ Session 11, line 500-506: Inline citation.
  94. ^ Session 11, line 672-678: Inline citation.
  95. ^ Session 11, line 693: Inline citation.
  96. ^ Session 11, line 703: Inline citation.
  97. ^ Session 12, line 424: Inline citation.
  98. ^ Session 12, line 425-437: Inline citation.
  99. ^ Session 14, line 535-537: Inline citation.
  100. ^ Session 14, line 565: Inline citation.
  101. ^ Session 14, line 613: Inline citation.
  102. ^ Session 14, line 631-636: Inline citation.
  103. ^ Session 15, line 218: Inline citation.
  104. ^ Session 15, line 821-824: Inline citation.
  105. ^ Session 16, line 170: Inline citation.
  106. ^ Session 16, line 217: Inline citation.
  107. ^ Session 16, line 224: Inline citation.
  108. ^ Session 16, line 1626: Inline citation.
  109. ^ Session 16, line 1633: Inline citation.
  110. ^ Session 17, line 980-982: Inline citation.
  111. ^ Session 19, line 290: Inline citation.
  112. ^ Session 19, line 583: Inline citation.
  113. ^ Session 19, line 448: Inline citation.
  114. ^ Session 19, line 449: Inline citation.
  115. ^ Session 20, line 417: Inline citation.
  116. ^ Session 20, line 468: Inline citation.
  117. ^ Session 20, line 677: Inline citation.
  118. ^ Session 20, line 681: Inline citation.
  119. ^ Session 20, line 1714: Inline citation.
  120. ^ Session 20, line 1757: Inline citation.
  121. ^ Session 21, line 44: Inline citation.
  122. ^ Session 21, line 63: Inline citation.
  123. ^ Session 21, line 162: Inline citation.
  124. ^ Session 21, line 326: Inline citation.
  125. ^ Session 21, line 378: Inline citation.
  126. ^ Session 21, line 383-385: Inline citation.
  127. ^ Session 10, line 666: Inline citation.