Numenera adventure - the Dangerous End

I recently ran my first streamed Numenera game. The following are the notes I made for the session. This was a one-shot, so I focused on the scenario and how players would respond to it. I don't typically create a lot of notes for a game so I feel this is a good representation of my prep.

I also feel like there are a couple things that really add to a Numenera game: XP cards and  a Cypher Deck. The XP cards make it easy and fun to trade in XP during the game, which I really like. The Cypher Deck makes the chore of generating random Cyphers painless and fun. I definitely recommend these products!

The adventure notes follow with additional after-game notes made in italics.

The Dangerous End

Background

Sallice

A settlement on the edge of the Steadfast, Sallice is dangerously situated but the opportunities are too good to pass up. Recently the market for Numenera found in surrounding ruins has made Sallice a target. More raiders and abhumans are appearing, attempting to take the settlement by force. For now, the settlers have been successful in misdirecting and avoiding their foes, but a fight is coming.

Hallik Isos

An explorer in their younger years who lost most of their head to a caustic substance. They have replaced it with a smooth synth shell with a series of small eye pods. Hallik is a Determined Seeker who Explores Dark Places.

I never had Hallik make a roll or use any character abilities but using a Character Sentence to describe him made my mental picture of him a little clearer.

The Cave of Miracles

What You Found

Not a cave, an ancient construct of synth with energy conduits laced throughout. Panels glow and feel warm to the touch. A thrum of power  runs through the building like a pulse.

I focused on particular phrases, trying to avoid words like metal or plastic or defining the construct as 'living' or 'organic', allowing players to make that conclusion for themselves.

What Lies Ahead

I think a great way to deal with the large structures in Numenera is narratively. Rather than preparing a map for my game, I kept my descriptions loose. There were enough details for me to talk about the rooms but the loose descriptions allowed me to fill in details and make it seem like the spaces were just too big to take in all at once.

The Main Chamber

Filled with ancient machines and technology, this chamber is ripe for the picking.

Concerns:

It seems like you’re not the first ones here

Some of the signs are fresh

Not all the signs are humanoid

This list of concerns gave me things to tell the players about the room. I could have had them make a roll, but these were all things I wanted to make sure were known.

Hallik wrests a cylinder free from the wall. It pulses blue briefly and begins to slowly leak a luminous fluid.

Speed 6: a series of mechanical tendrils explode from the wall, grabbing Hallik and pulling him in. A series of lights illuminate along the walls, tracing to the far side where passageways open in multiple directions.

The Capillaries

To keep up with the light: Speed 6

To track where the light is going: Intellect 6

These tunnels are rounded and smooth, laced with thick corded conduits. There is a low pulsing sound throughout.

Hunting through the tunnels deep below the Cave, there are signs of other people again, but also machines stopped inert throughout the tunnels.

Processing

Robots are taking Hallik apart, separating his organic and inorganic components. He screams once and goes limp as his body is dissected.

The robots turn on the other organics in the room.

As Hallik is processed, parts of the far wall’s panelling illuminate.

The outline of a door becomes clear. Systems seem to be coming online.

The Control Room

The center of this room is a tall column with the illuminated silhouette of a humanoid inside. It slowly rotates, its eyes focusing on the presence of the party.

The room is full of controls and exotic interfaces but the view is dominated by a large viewport that shows what must be an image of the world taken from orbit. In the center of the view is the area above the Cave. The screen pulses and focuses. You can see Sellice in the corner.

Smaller screens show rooms that are similar to what you have seen in the Cave. One of these shows the end of a long narrow passage. You can see that people have built dwellings against the walls of the passage. They are gently moving about their day, preparing a meal and doing simple craftwork with scavenged materials.

This was not a complete scene. Most of the time I rely upon what players say in the moment to drive the action. The players helped me fill in the detail and decide how the construct would react. The characters' abilities and personalities told me what they hoped to do in this session, so I gave them the opportunity to make those things happen.

The Barrel

The further rooms become superheated instantaneously. You can see the dwellings of the scavengers evaporate.

The screen goes from a deep blue to a blinding white with light.

The ground around the target is eradicated. The soil has been scorched from the earth, leaving bare rock that burns and smolders.

In our play-through, a GM Intrusion in Control made the PCs aware of this room. The many monitors allowed them to see robots appearing to eliminate the scavengers. They fought off the robots and the scavengers escaped. The weapon was not triggered until they had finished their work.
This was a combination of good Cypher use, a GM Intrusion as plot complication and a successful Level 7 Intellect test to control the construct. 

Resolution

I made this as a list of possible outcomes and complications. They could have been good GM Intrusions or further plot if the game felt short or unresolved. 
The Control Room item was the only one I used.

Processing

In the room where Hallik was disassembled, you can see him rising again. His skin seems normal and unblemished, but then he suddenly splits open violently, becoming a monster much like Lillith.

The Control Room

Lacking further direction, the machines begin to infer their future targets. Seeing similar beings in the hills many miles away from Sellice, they prepare to fire again.

The Barrel

Again, this chamber becomes filled with blinding light.

Sellice

In Sellice, the people saw blinding light surround their settlement. It burned the land and destroyed their crops. It ruined the roads and eliminated the landmarks that were so familiar. But their enemies were destroyed.

XP Awards

I give 2 XP at the end of any session of a Cypher System game. I also give 2 XP for completing the story objective. I think 4XP is a great amount per session because that is the needed amount for a character Advance, so every sesson players have the opportunity to move closer to their next Tier.