Godshome. As the party saw it in Session 1 Recap - The Baronet’s Commission. Also called the airfield.
A huge ivory tower at the foot of Godshome — the City of the Mount’s holy mountain, about thirty storeys tall. Airships moor all along its pillars. Some of them carry water, with giant bags or tanks strapped to their sides. Many more are packed shoulder to shoulder with pilgrims on their way to the Holy City.
Arrival
Passengers come off the ships at the top of the tower, into a large hall where travellers from different ships mingle. The party arrived aboard the airship Indomitable and were kept behind velvet ropes, away from the crowds coming off the other ships.
The lift
- A passage off the arrival hall leads to a lift. A man stands at it taking tickets, and only ticket-holders may ride.
- Inside, riders are given complimentary champagne. A small ice mephit sits at the top of the car and blows cool air over everyone the whole way down.
- The lift goes down and comes back up for the next group. Lady Rose Larkspur and Mr. Cogsbottom rode it down ahead of the party.
The stair
- Everyone without a ticket has to use a giant stairwell that runs around the outside of the tower to the ground. In the heat the descent takes about an hour.
- Mosaics line the stair, showing the pilgrim’s journey. At the top the pilgrim wears worldly clothes; by the last mosaic at the bottom, a simple brown robe with a cord at the waist.
- A water-seller works the stair, carrying a load of small water bottles on his back and selling them for 2 sp each. He says he has seen countless pilgrims drop dead on the stairway.
- Pilgrims believe a child must be born on the ground of the holy city for it to count. A birth in the tower does not.
Later
The Baronet had spoken of his private airship to Bitter End. What his tickets actually bought was a seat on Ouroboros Airways, which flies from its own field (see below). On the way back to the airfield at midday, the crowds pushed the party into the dead-end alley where the priest of Gruumsh ambushed them.
The Ouroboros Airways field
Seen in Session 2 Recap - Three to the Dawn.
The Baronet’s tickets were stamped with a snake eating its own tail and the slogan We get you there and back again. They gave a different address from the tower: go to the airship tower, turn northwest, and keep walking until you see the big flashing sign. Out in the desert the sand hardens into a salt flat. There, on a pillar, a glowing snake endlessly circles and swallows its own tail above the words Ouroboros Airways. Beside it are a long curved hangar and a strip of polished salt used as a runway. The airline runs a three-winged water freighter to Bitter End once a week, a six-hour flight, crewed by Wingnut and Ramrod.