Saturday, February 22, 2014

Norwin Game Knights Event: Numenera - Cryo Jak's Lair

Numenera 

Cryo Jak's Lair

Reminel, Graceful Nano who Talks to Machines
Caldross, Tough Glaive who Masters Weaponry
Benthre, Charming Jack who Fuses Flesh with Steel
Daylen, Learned Jak who Wears a Sheen of Ice
Satha, Clever Glaive who Masters Weaponry
Hawmett, Mystical Glaive who Controls Gravity

Summary

Six Numenera hunters had followed the legend of Cryo Jack and her icy laboratory into the highest peaks of the Black Riage, south of Hidden Naresh and near a great chasm.  A secret path led to the frost covered trail, which in turn led to a giant ice bridge that spanned the chasm and stopped at a circular door in the cliff-face.  Under further investigation by Reminel and Caldross, the icy bridge was incredibly slippery, and would be very dangerous to cross.  Satha took his trusty rock (a prized possession!) and tossed it down the pathway, further revealing that there were no traps.  So the party hatched a daring plan.  Hawmett, who had the ability to hover, would float in mid-air, holding rope provided by the rest of the crew.  Reminel, the graceful "billion-years-in-the-future-ballet-expert", would grab the rope, and drag Hawmett across the bridge.  This worked fine until they reached the halfway mark, where there was a gap in the bridge.  Trying to pass the gap, Reminel fell!  But this was where the plan was brilliant, because Hawmett was able to use his incredible strength to continue hovering while pulling Rem back to the bridge.  So they finished crossing, and with the rope on the far end still being held by Caldross the party tank, they carefully had the rest of the numenera hunters follow them.  

The circular door was imposing and seemingly impossible to open.  Reminel had the ability to talk to machines, but he couldn't focus on a single point to meld his mind to, so Benthre grabbed his x-ray viewer and enabled the cypher.  Able to see two hidden control points within the walls surrounding the door the charming jack showed Rem where to focus his mind.  First the nano disabled the security system to the door, and then he commanded the giant vault to open, revealing a frozen and frigid chamber on the inside.  The party moved into the room and explored all of the features, but only succeeded in finding a single elevator shaft to take them down to the next level.  

The elevator opened into a large chamber filled with frost covered "coffins".  Hawmett was rather excited a the discovery, and started to look in the glass panels of each coffin, seeing alien races of all varieties kept in different levels of stasis.  Caldross was a bit more careful, and had an interest in how these pods worked, so he carefully walked up to one and started examining the control panel.  But then something moved to his right.  As he looked further in the room he saw that six of the coffins had been damaged, and their contents, six seemingly undead varjellen, were up and about and preparing to attack.  Quickly Caldross and Benthre pulled their weapons and started slashing and clubbing the creatures.  The battle was fierce and long, with the party escaping significant damage, but unable to inflict much pain on the brutish creatures.  Daylen's bow would break in the battle, and Reminel would be the subject of a nasty overbearing attack that would cause him to become severely injured.  Satha would remain rather unscathed by the varjellen themselves, but would trip and land in one of the open coffins, causing it to close around him.  Two of his fellow numenera hunters would have to come to his aid, trying to yank him from the coffin while the doors closed around him.  It would be Caldross' blade that would break the control panel of the machine allowing the clever glaive to get free.  

When the varjellen were slain, the party moved into the next chamber which had more pods, a door to the north and south, and a computer terminal of significant complexity.  Using his ability to connect with machines, Reminel moved towards the computer and started dismantling it, revealing four additional cyphers to help the party in their following encounter.  It took a few minutes to decide who was going to get which cypher, and some voting, but once this was decided upon the crew could keep moving.  The troupe would open the door to the north, revealing the tomb of Cryo Jak herself!  

But the riches of the tomb were marred by a try of dangerous holographic frost specters!  These images were projected in the air, but could affect the physical world.  Some quick thinking by Daylen led his eyes to individual "image projectors" that were in the walls surrounding the party.  Directing his blade towards one of the projectors, Daylen found that the specters could be damaged more effectively if the projectors themselves were attacked rather than the specters.  Although it was more difficult to hit them, due to their size, the damage was significantly increased.  So this plan was adopted by the rest of the party, and they all began attacking the projectors.  Most of the numenera hunters were incredibly lucky, and dodged the frost specter's attacks with great ease.  But Caldross came under the attack of one of the creatures, which froze him to his bones and impaired him in a single strike.  No matter, the party continued their onslaught, and using Satha's explosive gadget, they caused enough damage to leave only one specter remaining.  It would be Benthre who would walk forward with a ray emitter to land the finishing blow on the last holograph.  With the riches of Cryo Jak laying about them, the party greedily snatched up their loot and looked forward to further adventures!  

Quotes:

"Why am I made like a ballerina?" - Matthew realizes what benefits the "Graceful" descriptor give his Nano.

"Are you saying it's 'undead dead' or un-undead'?" - Alex wanted to confirm the status of the slain undead varjellen that had been vanquished.

"If you're not dead… you're alive!" - Words of wisdom from Andrew, a veteran RPG'er, to some of the crew's tween-crowd players.  

Plug!

To play the same adventure that we did this evening please clock the following link and purchase Echoes of the Prior Worlds by Ryan Chaddock Games.  You'll find some new material for characters and a whole collection of mini-adventures that are PERFECT for running shorter sessions… or daisy chain them into one massive session!  http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/125687/Echoes-of-the-Prior-Worlds

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