Numenera: Jade Colossus - Session 6

The explorers have found the entrance to the chambers containing the Eye of Transcendence, a terrible and powerful relic from a prior world.

Resources

Game: Numenera (Monte Cook Games)
- Designed by Monte Cook, Bruce R. Cordell, and Sean K. Reynolds
- This and other books from MCG are TM and © Monte Cook Games, LLC. Material is cited here in accordance with the MCG Fan Use Policy.
Additional Resources:
- Numenera Discovery and Destiny corebooks (Monte Cook Games)
- Jade Colossus: Ruins of the Prior Worlds [Jade Colossus] campaign sourcebook (Monte Cook Games)
- Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour’s Guide to the Numenera supplement (Monte Cook Games)
- Ninth World Bestiary [Bestiary] (Monte Cook Games)
- Mythic GM Emulator 2e [Mythic] (Word Mill Games, written by Tana Pigeon)
- “Wizard Dad: Solo Cypher System Hacks” (retrieved 2024-08-28)

Session Log

The session begins with the characters deep within the prior-world ruin popularly know as the Jade Colossus, standing at the entrance to the complex that contains the Eye of Transcendence.

The main character is Draven (he/him), a Graceful Delve who Taps the Void. He has three followers:

Xanthia (she/her), a Rugged Glaive who Masters Defense (level 4, 12 health, 3 Armor, Sword-staff heavy weapon)
Thorn (it/its), a dritch (Jade Colossus p. 135) as a pet (level 4, 15 health, inflicts 4 damage)
Erish (she/her), an Aeon Priest who Controls Gravity (level 3, 9 health, 1 Armor, inflicts 2 damage)

Most of the followers are at or near full Health, but Draven (the main character) is down to 6 Might, 9 Speed, and 6 Intellect, and his next recovery will take a full 10 hours. They have quite a few cyphers at their disposal; whether they can make use of them remains to be seen.

The Chaos Factor (for Mythic GME purposes) is at 5.

Scene 1: Entering the Chambers

Expected Scene: Exploring the first chamber around the Eye of Transcendence.
Testing the Expectation: Expected Scene

The Eye of Transcendence has seen age upon age unfold. It has stared into the abyss of civilizations collapsing, and witnessed the cradle of new civilizations rising to unimaginable heights, only to depart, die off, or transcend. The Eye sees all, and those who wish to see what is normally impossible may gain, for a time, an amazing vision. But seeing with the Eye’s aid can burn the eyes and sanity out of those who are not worthy.

Jade Colossus p. 62

The first chamber is a large, circular room, covered in tiny, sparkling, silver threads. This isn’t the room with the Eye per se, but this antechamber certainly presents an obstacle. There’s no way to get around it; if they want to go forward, they have to deal with these threads, known to explorers as “the sparkle”.

Draven isn’t sure what will happen, so he pulls out his forked sword and gently prods at the sparkle. The threads make a hissing, snake-like sound and dissolve into dispersing mist.

Draven must succeed on a difficulty 4 Might task to pass through the sparkle unharmed. He’s not really in a position to spend Effort, but I will let his skill in balance and careful movement apply, reducing the difficulty to 3. That means he needs a 9 or better on a d20 roll, and he rolls a 13, succeeding.

The others follow him through, but they will need to move carefully to follow the path he’s created.

I’ll set the difficulty for this at 3, defined as “Requires full attention; most people have a 50/50 chance to succeed”.
Xanthia doesn’t have any applicable skills or equipment, so she needs a 9 or better on a d20 roll. She rolls a 5, which fails. She encounters some of the sparkle and has to make that Might task, but she has an asset on defense tasks; unfortunately, that isn’t enough to make her roll of 7 succeed, and thus some of the sparkle adheres to her and starts getting into her skin, inflicting 4 points of damage that ignore armor and staying there for a moment. I’ll come back to that.
Thorn will have two assets from being so small and nimble, so it needs a 3 or better. It rolls a 6, avoiding the sparkle.
Erish doesn’t have any real skills short of trying to create some sort of gravity effect, but that could have seriously unknown interactions. She’ll just try to make the difficulty 3 Speed task (target 9), but she fails with a 3. She also takes 4 points of damage from the sparkle.

Xanthia and Erish feel the sparkle still in their skin as the threads have infected them. As they walk into the next chamber, after about a minute they take another point of damage! Xanthia is down to 7 health, and Erish is down to 4. This seems quite deadly, because the itch is still there.

The effect continues at least until the characters take damage in any other way. Does Erish understand that? I’ll make that a level 4 Intellect task for her, with an asset from her knowledge of the numenera and another for the book she carries, so she’ll need a 6 or better. She rolls a 6, so she understands what needs to be done.

Erish takes out a small knife and scores her skin slightly, incurring another point of damage (down to 3) but removing the sparkle. Xanthia follows suit, bringing her down to 6 health.

Chaos Factor increases to 6.

Scene 2: The Eye of Transcendence

Expected Scene: Visit the Eye of Transcendence alone
Testing the Expectation: Expected Scene

The Eye of Transcendence appears as a disembodied human eye, about 9 feet in diameter. It has a textured, ceramic-like surface mottled black and green (much like Thorn and the midnight stones). The iris is all black except for a burning blue flame of a pupil. Around it, they can see a metallic bracket device that is holding it up with lines of force.

They immediately understand that this is a powerful relic. Erish reminds them of her deal: she gets to carry out the task she came here for, then it’s theirs. Draven and Xanthia nod in assent.

The Aeon Priest approaches and looks into the eye. She looks into it and immediately clutches her head in pain.

She must succeed on a difficulty 6 Intellect task to maintain eye contact. She has an asset on tasks involving the numenera. None of her existing cyphers will help her here. She needs a 15 or better on a d20 roll; unfortunately, she rolls a 2, failing.

Erish can’t hold the Eye’s gaze, as she gets a glimpse of unfiltered reality. She drops to her knees, holding her head this time in despair.

Instead, Draven steps forward, tossing a midnight stone in his hand and comparing the material. They look significantly similar. What happens if he tries to compare them? With his connection to Void Matter, he instinctively knows that there is a connection here.

And, indeed, when he puts them together, the midnight stone smokes away as the Eye gazes into it. He feels a connection forming and looks into the Eye himself.

Using that stone eased the difficulty of the Intellect task by three steps (per the adventure text), lowering it to difficulty 3. I think Thorn can provide an asset, given its similar connection to void matter,and Draven spends a level of Effort (2 Intellect points) for another asset, making it difficulty 1 (target 3 on a d20). He rolls a 4, succeeding.

As the Delve steels himself, he gains a “transcendence mote”, visible as a flicker in his eye. He can use this to gain a vision of the future (granting him an asset on whatever task he uses it for). He could push himself to gain more, but he is tired and drained already. Going further risks his sanity.

Erish pulls herself back to her feet and suggests they continue exploring the other chambers here connected to the Eye to see if anything else might help them understand it further.

Chaos Factor increases to 7, because humans are never in control where a relic of this power is concerned.
Close Thread, “Accompany Erish to find the Eye of Transcendence.”
New Thread, “Recover the Eye of Transcendence for the Heritors of the Colossus.”

Scene 3: Exploring the Chambers

Expected Scene: Investigate the other chambers around the Eye of Transcendence.
Testing the Expectation: Altered Scene

Altered Scenes mean a tweak to the expectation in some way, although not a total change from the expectation (that would be an Interrupt Scene). This time, I’ll roll on the Scene Adjustment table:

d10: 9 Make 2 adjustments (fine, I’ll reroll twice with a d6)
d6: 6 Add an Object
d6: 1 Remove a Character

Therefore, in the next chamber, I’ll add some feature and remove one of the characters. The corridor they followed into this chamber led through an X intersection, so they’ll go back to one of the chambers they didn’t explore yet.

This is another round chamber, slightly smaller than the one with the sparkle, but with a device composed of many overlapping metallic discs suspended from the ceiling. Reddish electricity arcs from its lowest point (about 1 meter above the floor).

Is the additional object an integrated machine (unlikely) or a chamber feature? 17 Yes, an integrated Machine
Integrated Machine: d100 95 Device malfunctions on use, goes dead

There’s a control panel here. Perhaps it can be used to affect the metallic discs to deactivate the electrical arc? Erish steps forward to examine it.

Determining something about the machine requires a difficulty 6 Intellect task. Due to the Altered Scene, as well as the general description of integrated machines, failure here will have a significant consequence. Erish has two assets from her knowledge of the numenera and her reference manual, lowering the difficulty to 4. She needs a 12 or better on a d20 roll, and she rolls a 3, failing.

She doesn’t quite understand how it works, which means everything goes poorly indeed. The control panel starts flashing faster and faster, and the discs emit a high-frequency sound before the electricity arcs out and strikes her!

The electricity inflicts 6 points of damage. Given her health, this kills the Aeon Priest outright.

She falls to the ground, the electricity arcing around her and causing her garments to smoke slightly. The numenera devices she carries go dead, as does the control panel. Draven and Xanthia step back in shock, and Thorn whines slightly but holds back with Draven.

There is likely salvage to be found here, but it seems too dangerous and the remaining explorers are not willing to take that risk.

Chaos Factor increases to 8.

Scene 4: Exploring Another Side Chamber

Expected Scene: Investigate the other side chamber around the Eye of Transcendence.
Testing the Expectation: Altered Scene

This time, I decide the alteration will simply be the appearance of another group of explorers.

Explorer Count: d6+1 = 5
Explorer NPC Types: 4, 8, 5, 10, 6
- 3 Explorers
- 1 Nano
- 1 Aeon Priest
Explorer Situation: 33 The explorers all bear odd antennae-like metallic rods protruding from the backs of their necks. They act as if dazed and uncertain of where they are, or possibly even who they are.
Do they bear the insignia of the Heritors of the Colossus (unlikely)? 10 No

The unknown explorers enter, shambling about slightly. Draven and Xanthia feel like this encounter in the corridors is dangerous. Is something controlling them, or are they just disoriented from the numenera integrating itself into their nervous systems?

Are these explorers headed towards the Eye (50/50)? 13 Yes

The dazed explorers move into the room with the Eye. Draven holds back to observe without really looking into the Eye. Xanthia hoists her sword-staff in case they need to beat a fighting retreat.

Do the dazed explorers look into the Eye (likely)? 20 Exceptional Yes

All five of the explorers stand in front of the Eye, staring into it. They hold its gaze for a moment, and then another, and then time extends as they stand there, transfixed. Draven stifles a scream as he sees smoke rising from their ears. Green flame bursts from their eyes and mouths and they collapse to the ground.

Draven and Xanthia turn from the carnage to the chamber they had indicated they would explore next. It seems to be empty, so they sit for a moment and discuss what to do next.

The Eye is far larger than they’d anticipated. Carrying it back out to the Heritors seems impossible, particularly with just two of them and no equipment that could carry it. However, they’ve mapped the way here, which is likely (given the circumstances) to gain significant favor from the leadership of their organization, the Heritors.

Still, they’d like to take some evidence and maybe some additional related numenera back with them. There were other exits on the other side of the chamber with the Eye; they could check some of those out.

With that plan in mind, and having avoided the dangers that the dazed exploration group might have presented, they’ll move carefully past the Eye and into another chamber connected to it.

Chaos Factor decreases to 7.
Update thread, “Find evidence regarding the Eye of Transcendence for the Heritors of the Colossus.”

Scene 5: Exploring the Final Chambers

Expected Scene: Find evidence regarding the Eye of Transcendence for the Heritors of the Colossus.
Testing the Expectation: Altered Scene
Does the Eye interfere with them somehow as they pass through its chamber (50/50)? 16 Yes

As the group passes through the chamber, Xanthia pauses. She’s the only one who hasn’t looked into the Eye, and why shouldn’t see? Draven will have told her of the transcendence mote, though without his connection to the Void Matter here, she doesn’t have the same connection.

She must succeed on a difficulty 6 Intellect task to maintain eye contact. She has no assets here, so she needs an 18 or better on a d20 roll: she rolls exactly an 18, succeeding.

A flicker appears in here eye, as transient visions of possible futures flit before her vision. Thinking better of it, she doesn’t hold its gaze.

In the next chamber, the floor and ceiling hold incredibly realistic images, overlapping each other. From what they can see in the topmost, least faded images, they contain all sorts of creatures, automata, and even a couple of humans. A tube made of synth protrudes from the wall, broken at the end, slowly dripping a glowing liquid onto the floor among a pile of broken devices.

This could be what they need. Draven pulls out a small vial from his tools to take a sample of the liquid.

This liquid, called “actinic fluid”, could be dangerous. Gathering some of it without touching any will require a difficulty 3 Speed task. He is skilled in careful movement, and I decide to allow his skill in salvaging numenera to apply, so this is difficulty 1 (target 3 on a d20). He rolls a 16, succeeding.

With a vial of the liquid light safely secured, this is the time for them to withdraw. They’ve found what they need, and they can report back to the Heritors with their findings.

Chaos Factor decreases to 6.

Wrap-Up

This concludes this arc. Draven and perhaps Xanthia may or may not be the same characters I use next time I play Numenera. In any case, he’ll get a full 2 XP for this discovery.

With regard to Numenera solo: I’m not sure how much I liked how I used the followers. Perhaps next time I will be more explicit about their modifications (in other words, using the rules as written rather than a community suggestion). Some effects were hard to adjudicate (like the mind swap), but I don’t know that I could have done much better with my current understanding of the rules. (As in most things, experience with specific RPGs leads to better facility with them.)

I’ve said for a long time that the Ninth World is one of my very favorite settings; I’m not convinced that the Cypher System works well for me. I have often thought that treating creature level as HD could port the system back into D&D, though that doesn’t necessarily apply to objects and so forth, which would need a different system. Cyphers are, in some sense, items, but are really treated like temporary character abilities. This is why, for example, Nanos (Mages) have an extremely limited set of esoteries (spells) by default: instead, they have more facility with the numenera.

The Jade Colossus sourcebook is good, but I don’t think it really lets the setting shine. It would better serve my purposes as a supplement to generate smaller prior-world ruins, rather than a single, large one. That’s more to do with the game I want to play, with more overworld exploration to see all the amazing and weird things in the Ninth World.