Session Narrative
Mayor Bart finds them at the Salty Siren in the morning, his expression carrying the particular apology of a man who knows the timing is terrible and has no choice. A messenger from Belleville arrived last night: traders and travellers are being terrorised on the jungle roads around the town, ships are refusing to dock, and the paths are in desperate need of attention. He asks if the party will investigate.
They say yes. Because they always say yes, and because staying in Pegport feels impossible right now.
The journey to Belleville takes three days overland through terrain that shifts from the clean pirate shores of Pegport through the Smee Jungle’s dense, mist-wrapped palms, along the Bluebeard Coast’s jagged cliffs and pine forests, past the sulfurous slopes of Fire Mountain, through Crocodile Creek’s muddy banks — to the Glades, where stagnant water and rotting vegetation and poisonous things make for an unpleasant final approach.
Each day of travel involves navigating three roles: the Navigator (making decisions about direction), the Scout (reporting on terrain and hazards), and the Watcher (keeping an eye out for trouble). The rolls determine what they encounter — from beautiful scenery to manticores, from useful locations to doomsday preachers. The random elements of the journey are the texture of travel through a world that is alive and uncaring.
Belleville itself is extraordinary: a small port city built entirely on stilts, its buildings connected by wooden walkways high among the trees, the ground below lost in dense jungle. Everything is green here. The light that filters through the canopy is green. The sounds are green — bird calls, water, insects, things moving through foliage. Mayor Barnaby Highbrow welcomes them to the Coconut Grove Inn and explains the problem.
Something in the jungle is terrorising the trade routes. Terrible roar. Huge teeth. Yellow eyes. Ferocious claws. No one has been hurt. Yet.
Key NPCs
- Mayor Barnaby Highbrow — Belleville’s mayor. Earnest, worried, excellent at hospitality. Suspects Lost Boys but is open to being wrong.
- Trader Joe — Has PTSD. Keeps saying ‘It just kept saying I’ll eat you up.’
- Troutnose Dave — Insists there is more than one. There is a whole pack of them. He saw it.
- Little Danny Carp — A local boy who used to visit the creatures. He hasn’t been here for a long time.
- Elvira Oldlace — Reports that one of them called itself Maurice.
Encounters & Mechanics
Travel Encounters (Day 1)
Navigator DC; Scout DC; Watcher DC. Results per the encounter table: 5=clear, 10=beautiful/useful, 15=hazard, 20=serious threat, 25=disaster.
Travel Encounters (Day 2)
As Day 1. Day 2 hazards include a doomsday preacher (DC 12 Persuasion to pass peacefully), a mob chasing a witch (DM’s discretion), and possibly a volcano.
Travel Encounters (Day 3: The Glades)
Poisonous snakes (DC 13 Con or Poisoned 1 hour), rotten boardwalks (DC 12 Acrobatics or fall into swamp, DC 14 Str to pull out), will-o-wisps at night.
Loot & Rewards
| Item | Notes / Value |
| Belleville Hospitality | Free stay at the Coconut Grove Inn. Mayor Highbrow’s gratitude is worth future favours. |
DM Notes
The three-day travel section is procedural but atmospheric — use it to rebuild the party’s sense of forward motion after Maevis’s death. The Belleville witnesses’ accounts are deliberately fairy-tale coded: Trader Joe’s ‘I’ll eat you up’ is from Where the Wild Things Are. The party who recognises this will be ahead. The party who doesn’t will find out in Session 25.