The Nightmare Switch: part 4

In the first light of the morning, the companions left the cave behind them and resumed their pursuit of the creators of the tracks, heading westward toward distant hills. Cannis was leading the others, and they made excellent time through out what was an otherwise uneventful day. As the light began to fade in the early evening, the party came upon a small series of small low hills, forming the start of the hill range they had spied earlier in the day. The trail they were following led into a narrow valley between two of these hills. Sharp eyes and smart thinking quickly brought a sentry to their attention, positioned just below the brow of the nearest hill, and indicated a small column of smoke rising from the valley floor. It looked like they had caught up with their track-makers! It was decided that they should stealthily make their way across the desert floor, passed the valley entrance and attempt to climb the low hill to the west of the camp; this would allow them a better vantage point over the camp and also allow them avoid the sentry on the eastern hill.

It took an hour or more of careful movement across the desert, avoiding the sentry's gaze, before they made their way up the side of the hill and crouching down amongst the broken boulders and scant foliage over-looking their quarry's camp. The sight that met them when they looked closer was not what they expected. Instead of a small band of Aeon Priests, it was in fact a larger group of abhumans, Margyr to be precise. The bestial abhumans had set up a camp and looked like they were preparing their evening meal (which looked a lot like two human legs...). What is more, they had a number of items laid out on a blanket which appeared to be the band's loot, and one of those items looked to be size and shape of the missing cylinder. The leader of the group was huge example of a Margyr, twice the size of the rest and bellowing orders to the rest. The companions quickly discussed what they could do to get hold of the cylinder. The cooking legs pretty much ruled out diplomacy, and so taking it by force seemed to be the best option they had, using their cyphers to even up the numbers somewhat.

The game in progress over Google Hangouts

The initial assault on the abhumans was marked by the use of Nord's gravity detonation cypher, thrown into the middle of the group to try and think their ranks. When the dust settled from this, 5 of the Margyr had vanished and their huge leader was flat on his back, struggling to recover from the unexpected attack. Nord the proceeded to start firing arrows down on the leader as Cannis moved forward to engage a clutch of the abhumans who were advancing up the hill side to attack with their spears and axes. Six positioned himself so he could use his esoteries on the advancing throng but failed to get a blast off. Further problems were thrown up when the attacking abhumans were able to bring Cannis down (a 1 rolled on Cannis' speed defense, resulted in one of the spears tripping him... I love GM intrusion!). A thrown detonation cypher from the Margyr leader exploded at the feat of Nord and Six, but they were able to leap aside, avoiding any damage from it. Nord replied with a called shot to the giant's eye (a difficult shot, which Nord managed to get a 17 on the roll of and inflict a wicked wound upon his enemy), which dropped the leader, and eased the pressure on the companions. Cannis made light work of being prone, slashing and stabbing at the warriors in front of him and reaping damage upon them whilst they inflicted several wounds back on the redoubtable Glaive. Six managed to blast once or twice with Onslaught, but when he failed with one attempt (again rolling a 1!) the sentry from the far hill appeared behind him, having advanced whilst the party were distracted. Now alert to this danger, Six attempted to bring this sentry down but once again failed to hit with his mental blast; in addition he received a nasty wound in return from the sentry's axe. Nord seeing his friend in danger bull-rushed the sentry, knocking him aside and bruising him in the process. The following turn saw Nord dispatch the sentry with a thrust of his two bladed weapon, allowing the companions to focus on the warriors facing Cannis.

With their leader dead, the remaining Margyr were in a blood-lust fuelled rage, and pressed their attack heedless of the tide turning against them. Cannis was able to get back to his feet when his friends joined the fight, and with the numbers more or less even, the two Glaives and the Nano were able to use their superior training and abilities to overwhelm their opponents, dispatching them quickly before surveying the battlefield. By the end of the fight, all the abhumans lay dead, whilst the companions were cut and bruised but alive. Exhausted but exhilarated, the companions cast their eyes over their spoils, seeking that they had indeed recovered the missing cylinder, and also confirmed that the Aeon Priests had meta grisly end (their remains being some of that which was cooking over the fire). Nord decided that the skull of the leader would make a fine trophy, much to the consternation of his friends, and set about "recovering" it. Meanwhile, Six and Cannis discovered that the abhumans had an artifact in their possession, a pair of rods which when combined together created a blast of lightning. This was perfect for a Mechanical Nano who Rides the Lightning, and Cannis was happy to have the dangerous thing away from him! The abhumans also had 3 aneen which they used as pack animals, and the party decided to use them as mounts after a period of rest, so that they could return to the Faceted Dome and replace the burned out cylinder quickly.

By the following evening they were back in Redstone, having fixed the damaged machine in the dome, and hopeful that the nightmares would now stop. Upon telling the mayor of Redstone this, they were greeted with cautious optimism, which the following morning turned to stupendous joy after a night's undisturbed sleep. This joy was tempered somewhat by the news of the death of the Aeon Priest clave but was still worthy of celebration. Deymish was paid for his cargo by the mayor in thanks, and in turn the companions got their pay for being riverboat guards.

This brought about a close to my first Numenera adventure as a GM, which had taken a mere 2 sessions to run. However, it has now set in place ideas for a continuation for the three characters, as it the game was extremely enjoyable for all involved. Hopefully this means I will be able to write up some more sessions as and when they are run.