Preamble: I started a Numenera Campaign called
"The Forever Dream" online. It is played using the site
Roll20, for dice rolls and visual aids, and over
Skype for voice chat. I have four players and we're going to be gaming weekly for the next two or three months. I'm intending for this to be a short campaign with the option to continue at some point in the future. Just FYI, the opening entry can be found
HERE. Additional post can be found by clicked on "The Forever Dream" tag on this blog.
As a reference point to readers, here are the group's characters:
The Session: We gamed for about three hours on Friday, 01NOV2013 starting at 2000 US eastern time. The entire group was present.
Adventure Summery: The story began with a small group of wayward adventurers from the
theocracy community of Bless. They were sent into the massive and insanely dangerous forest swamp which surrounds their home town on an important "Divine Quest." The trade caravan that arrives twice a year like clockwork is a day late.
Suiko's team was dispatched to investigate the trader's uncharacteristic tardiness.
The team left at the crack of dawn. The first leg of the journey was painfully uneventful. The party aimless searched the swamp for hours to no avail. Around midday the group finally caught a break. A large mechanical tread print was found in the mud. The group quickly deduced that it was most likely made by the caravan which happened to be an armored mechanical monstrosity built in worlds past. The tech savvy man named Orion who owned and operated "The Star-Crossed Trading Company" stubbornly maintains it's the safest way of transporting goods through the swamp. "Sure it's expansive," Orion would comment when asked about his caravan by non-Blessairens, "...to keep old Betty up and running but it's worth it. That psychedelic brew those cultist create in that death trap has made me a shin-thousandare!"
Using his impressive feral-like taking skills,
Lucien picked up the caravan's trail and led the group deeper into the swamp. After advancing for a few minutes, the party happened by a brutal sight. A group of 20
Laaks had attacked and were about to devourer one of Bless's most ionic inhabitants. The gravity defying telepathic floating Jellyfish known simply as "Nercos." This odd species is the creation of the Living God "Nercomadusa." There sole purpose is to serve Him and to assist His followers while in their moral shells. Having arrived just in the nick of time, the party rushed to the Jelly's aid.
Mobius used his psychic abilities to lift the Nerco out of harm's way while
Moardeki electrocuted the swarm of small lizards by volleying a few electrically charged crossbow into the water. While doing very little himself,
Suiko led the group to victory by issuing good advice to his comrades.
With the
Laaks fried, the party revived the Nerco and
Mobius contact with it. Lacking the intelligence for direct commutation, the Jellyfish relayed it's story telepathically by sending emotions and flashes of memories. Some time after the group was deployed the Care Taker of the town released numerous Nercos into the swamp unprotected on a search. Although the Jelly didn't specify what they were searching for the group came to the logical conclusion that they are also combing the wilderness for the traders. After the short interaction the group continued onward with the Jelly in tow. Following at a safe distance.
About an hour later the group encountered a very strange and very curious pool of water. In the pool where humans, adhumans, and local wildlife loudly chatting away with each other. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that something very weird was happening. The conversationalists were in fact just severed heads mounted on metal polls. Clearly not a natural phenomenon,
Lucien approached the disembodied heads.With lighting fast speed, a metal tentacle surged from beneath the water and wraped around
Lucien's leg. The creature emerged from the water, revealing it's true nature. The creature was clearly a robotic horror from built ages ago. It had a massive metal torso, two deadly sharp crab like pincher, and a mass of grey tentacles.
Grasping
Lucien, the robot atempted to slam him against a conveniently located jagged rock but it failed. At the last possible second he slipped out of the hold, rolling to (relative) safety. Luckily for the party, the crudely programmed robot momentarily lost it's query which caused it's targeting software to glitch and execute a line of junk code. Abandoning it's primary function, the automation entered "kill everything that moves with reckless disregard to self preservation" mode. Also fortunately for the group, the creature was in disrepair.
Suiko spotted a few weak spots on their fearsome attacker and pointed them out to the party. Exploring their adversary's vulnerabilities;
Lucien,
Mobius , and
Moardeki eventually dismantled the rampaging device but at great cost. The harrowing battle left the entire party tired and wounded. They took a long rest and patched themselves up the best they could before continuing.
While scavenging useful components from the broken robot another Nercos appeared. It relayed to the group that there was a large building in the heart of the swamp and urged the party to go there. The group reluctantly agreed after the Jelly shared some memories of structure. The building execrated water from every orifice and was surrounded by hostile looking abhumans called Margr. But next to all that craziness was fresh caravan tracks. Having no other leads, the group marched forward...surely heading directly into harms way.
Conclusion: The session continued after this point but we stopped soon after. The adventure was not able to be completed within a single game session. However, finishing this write up as the party arrives at building at the heart of the swamp is a logical closing point.
I award the party 2 XP for the discovery/partial exploration of the structure and that was it.
Notes: First off, I apologize for whatever grammatical and spelling errors that exist in this post (or anywhere else in my blog.) Currently, I'm dong all my own proof reading and I'm not very good at it. Feel free to email or message me any mistakes and I'll to my best to fix them in a timely manor.
- This is a Home Brew Campaign takes place in an unknown location within the default
Numenera World Settings.
- The Living God "NERCOMADUSA" and His "NERCO" servants are based on real Jellyfish.
- LAAK are found on page 243 of the Numenera Core Rule Book.
- The creature in the pool was a MESOMEME, found on page 246 of the Numenera Core Rule Book.
- When the MESOMEME grabbed Lucien, that was a GM INTRUSION. Found on page 88 of the Numenera Core Rule Book.
- MARGR are found on page 244 of the Numenera Core Rule Book.
