Gardens of Ynn

The characters activate the gateway by inserting Destiny's coin into the octagonal framework. An image is projected onto the far wall of the room, growing more and more solid until it appears - a simple doorway in the wall. It looks like a garden gate. It is.

Sir Blanque, Marion and Destiny step through into a meadow with fields and rolling countryside all around them, apart from the portal through which they entered. Everything is very bright and summery, with vibrant insects and vegetation that seem just a little too bright and too large, much as when one first encounters unknown species in a new part of the world. The characters set off to explore, encountering many strange sights and locations:

• A small stone 'folly' - an artfully constructed pseudo-ruin, full of empty nests.
• Some spectacular orchid houses, albeit with strange rumbling coming from under the ground.
• A metallic hive constructed by five very large bumblebees that drip oxidised nectar. They give these a very wide berth because they think the bees might be dangerous to metal equipment.
• A pit dug into the ground, bearing the marks of picks and shovels. Very large clockwork gears have been exposed, and are starting to rust; Destiny gets her earth elementals to clean them. There is some graffiti - "Druhl was 'ere" - painted onto one of the largest cogs.
• A forest glade covered in beautiful silk patterns, with large worm-like shapes moving within. They edge their way around this place.
• A beautiful fountain in the middle of a courtyard, fed by tubes bearing strangely coloured liquids. Many coins and items of value have been thrown into the fountain, so the characters do the same. Based on the relative value of the items, Sir Blanque and Destiny both gain a point of Power and Marion a point of Constitution. 
• An ice rink that has melted, turning into a shallow pool.
• Two very large winged serpents in the sky, executing a mating dance. The characters leave before being spotted.
• A gigantic chess board in the air, inverted by reverse gravity. They leave this alone too, because of prior experience with dangerous life-sized chess games.
• Some dilapidated kennels operated by clockwork mechanisms.
• A canal with boats, so they take a ride using one of them.
• A strange set of metal and wooden ladders set into the ground with a cart that they can operate, so they take a ride in that [a small railway!]. It takes them across a bridge over another chess set, this time on the ground, with five dead bodies all dressed alike scattered around the board - possibly a small unit of archers? They ride through here to find another chess set, this time with three dead Dharzi, at least according to Destiny. The characters find a small chest that contains a valuable gemstone.
• More kennels and stables, this time festooned by weeds growing through them. The weeds are made of silver filigree.
• An area of woodland lit by a strange tall post with a light at the top [an electric lamp post].
• A giant hermit crab with a magnum bottle of wine for a shell - they easily avoid this.
• A walking topiary in the shape of a cockerel, except it's seven feet high. They give this a wide berth too.
• A beautiful garden of statuary containing more bodies. Destiny worries about the extremely lifelike nature of the statues...
• Glasshouses containing more orchids.
• Hot houses that sing in the sunshine.
• An abandoned campsite.
• Exposed pipework surrounded by more Dharzi skeletons.
• A gigantic firepit venting hot air from the systems underneath the gardens, with masses of silver filigree plants living there.
• Two wooden automata, gardeners that go about their work, ignoring the characters.
• A lock at the beginning of another canal.
• More steam pipes, this time inverted and hanging in the air. The characters jump upwards, traverse the spaces between the pipes, and then jump back down to the ground again.

Eventually, they find a tall tower (eight stories) and enter. It is mostly empty, but half way up they find a painting of two blonde Melniboneans housed in an exceptionally fine frame - one man and one woman. Menastrai? Destiny cuts the painting from its frame to keep for future reference; it's also worth a fortune. Strange baying like the sound of hunting hounds comes from outside and then passes into the distance. The group continues upwards, to find what looks like another painting of the same couple, only this time they talk to the characters in Low Melnibonean, albeit with slightly odd inflections- it's a message imaging system. The two Menastrai welcome the characters and cause a small table to materialise on their side of the the gateway. It contains two tablets and an ancient book. The woman explains, "The tablets contain spells that will help if you need healing of various kinds; the book is a ritual that you, Destiny, need to enact with your gold coin in conjunction with a reigning Emperor of Melnibone. At least, that's what the legends say." The man explains about the Gardens: "They connect various planes of existence, and are powered by automated systems, including defence mechanisms. You have probably seen various sets of bodies around the place; we know that the Dharzi have tried to infiltrate several times. The gardens will detect our transmission to yourselves, and the defences will start to upgrade to deal with you as intruders. You must retrace your steps." The woman finishes: "If you succeed on Melnibone, we will meet again, in person. It was good to see representatives of Melnibone, the sea peoples, and the Nihrain, with some human blood". They vanish from sight.

Destiny examines the tablets - they are both spells to negate effects on the body. One is to purge magical effects, the other to remove curses. The cost is similar to the knowledge she already has for curing disease and poison, a permanent point of the recipient's Constitution or Power. A cursory examination of the book containing the ritual suggests that it is some kind of gateway; Destiny reckons it's possibly a time gate. Sir Blanque muses that perhaps the Gardens are like a positive echo of the Shadow Plane, which would mean that other exits might exist, possibly to other realities indeed.

The way back is more dangerous, and the characters meet several strange groups of creatures:

• Half a dozen vicious looking white apes of very large size. Destiny uses her fire elementals to keep them at bay.
• A strange hybrid animal in the form of an enormous worm covered in zebra stripes, with the head of a bull; it drips some sort of venom. Again, though, the fire elementals force it to keep its distance. Much more of this and Destiny reckons she will run out of elementals...
• Five giant peacocks that strut their stuff.
• A strange tall tree that walks with the aid of a wooden branch - a tree shepherd!?
• Six strange floating orange cowls with no discernible features. Sir Blanque and Marion avoid them, but two of the creatures try to get in Destiny's way. She retreats and joins the others.
• A giant cloud of shimmering motes that tries to exert some sort of mental influence on the characters with no effect [they all have good Power ratings].

Finally, the reach their entry/exit point, where they find their footprints being swept away by a dozen 3' tall mushroom men. Must be some of the local gardeners.

The group exits the gardens and the gateway behind them vanishes as they remove the gold coin from its setting.

Umpire's notes

 This could have been very dangerous. The further into the gardens you go, and the longer you stay, the stranger they become; fortunately for the group they made the right choices of which creatures to avoid. Cate as Destiny was right about possible problems with her elementals. Basically, the longer you remain in the gardens the more of your resources you use, leading to a dangerous point of no return where the threats become more numerous and powerful as the explorers lose their own abilities. Hence all the bodies. However, the party exited before they reached that critical moment. 

Beth got a bit bored at one point, but soon perked up when she joined in the rolling for encounters and locations when it all started to become more dangerous. Rather than me rolling everything up in advance, I had the players roll to see what they found. As you will probably have realised from the narrative, it all starts out reasonably quiet, and then gradually escalates...

There are various ways to use the Gardens. For example, you could change the locations around such that they are in constant flux. I decided not to do this because there were only the three characters; doing something like this could seriously increase the threat rating. Having said that, if they ever do return, the chances are they won't find everything the way it was on their first excursion.