First appearance: Pieces of a King Ep 4 - The Warmind · watch it on YouTube
Umbracor is the monastery-fortress of Grandmaster Payne and the heart of the Order of Shadow Ascendant, a stronghold tucked away somewhere in the vastness of The Void. It first came up as an invitation offered at swordpoint and became the next destination for Grimnar, Muffy and Nehebka. Nobody is quite sure whether it is an opportunity or a trap. It is also said to hold Meir, a man Muffy believed was dead.
Description
Umbracor sits off the usual routes. Travellers reach it through the planar veins that run between the realms, then turn down a branch that most people would never see. That hidden path leads “into the raw stuff of the void down an unseen path,” a swirl of blues, blacks and grays that winds like “alleyways through the void.” Getting there takes a planar gate and a waypoint rune. The knight Glauccous had the rune, and the gate flashed open when he raised his brooch.
By Glauccous’s account, Umbracor is home to an order with an open-door policy. “Grandmaster Payne is always willing to welcome other denizens of the Void and even knights such as yourselves from the Dread Fortress,” he explained. “He just wants to have a dialogue.” This Grandmaster is not the Grandmaster of the Void. He is the head of his own order, and Glauccous went out of his way to explain that the name is spelled P-A-Y-N-E and is less menacing than it sounds. “He’s not like, ooh, I’m Grandmaster, I’m gonna whip you.”
The fortress also holds things worth knowing about. Glauccous mentioned that the order keeps “a couple of remnants back at Umbracor,” and that Meir lives there. According to Glauccous, Meir has “painted a bunch of portraits.”
History
Umbracor first came up after the battle against The Warmind in Pieces of a King Ep 4 - The Warmind. Glauccous drew a smoking black blade on the party, though he plainly hoped not to use it. He told them he would “rather you be able to meet Maier alive,” and he made his pitch: they would not have to renounce their allegiances, an offer others had made to Void Knights before. “Come with us to Umbracor and you can meet our Grandmaster.” Nehebka was not impressed. She had seen plenty of people in her own realm make “offers” with weapons drawn, “and they all have died.”
The idea took hold anyway. When Grimnar reached into the Warmind’s brain (hot “brain soup” that sent a static, pins-and-needles numbness up his forearms the deeper he went), he grew wary and had Glauccous take over the job. Glauccous admitted “it’s pretty gross. But you get used to it after the first time,” and said the order already had remnants at Umbracor. Later, talking with Muffy, he insisted that Meir was alive. “He is at Umbracor. I promise you that.” Muffy was not convinced:
Muffy: “Why is he there and hasn’t come home? If he were alive? Riddle me that!”
Glauccous could only say that she would have to ask Meir herself. He also explained that with the Warmind dead, his people could finally travel home through the planar gate “without having to get… shunted through time and space.”
In the end, Nehebka asked Glauccous to take them to his Grandmaster so they could learn more. Grimnar kept the remnant they had recovered “somewhere safe for now, until we know your true intentions,” and Glauccous admitted that was fair. Before they set off, Grimnar closed his eyes and listened to the chaos inside him. A shiver ran up his spine, and it told him he would find answers at Umbracor and come closer to his goals. His heart told him to go while his mind and loyalties told him to stay, but he is chaos first, so he went.
Nehebka took one more precaution. At the gate, with Muffy and Grimnar’s blessing, she bound Glauccous with a geas, clutching the sands inside him so that he would remain their ally for thirty days. Glauccous was already charmed and let the spell take hold willingly. “Hey, we’re allies here. All right, let’s go.” He raised his brooch, the planar gate flashed, and partway through the veins the path veered off into the unseen dark. The party was bound for the heart of the Order of Shadow Ascendant, Umbracor.
Notable Figures
- Grandmaster Payne: master of Umbracor and Grandmaster of the Order of Shadow Ascendant, who says he wants a dialogue.
- Glauccous: a knight of the order who guided the party toward Umbracor.
- Meir: said to live at Umbracor, where he has painted many portraits, despite Muffy’s belief that he was dead.
- Grimnar, Muffy and Nehebka: the travellers who set out for Umbracor after defeating The Warmind.