A Look at Discover Your Destiny
over 8 years ago – Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 01:10:17 AM

Hi, backers! Can you believe that we’re poised to cross over the $400,000 mark? And we have, as of this writing, nearly 2150 backers—good news for the defense of Ellomyr, but it still leaves us a ways from unlocking several of the options that will help defend the community. Please spread the word—the clock is ticking!

In the meantime, let’s talk about one of your rewards. Every backer in this campaign gets a PDF product called Discover Your Destiny. But what is it?

Basically, what we wanted to try was a different kind of “introductory” product. Ostensibly, if you’re new to Numenera, Discover Your Destiny will serve as an introduction to the setting and the game. If you’re an old hand, it will help showcase some of the differences introduced in Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny, to get you ready for those products. Either way, it will come out well before the new corebooks.

How is it different? It’s not really a game book at all. It’s two intertwined short stories. One is the story of characters in the Ninth World. True to the gameplay options of Numenera Destiny, they will deal not just with exploring their strange and dangerous world, but working and building to guide their whole community to a better situation, despite the threats that loom large. The other is a short story about a group of gamers in the real world, learning to play Numenera. While that’s a narrative that could be fairly nuts-and-bolts, we hope to incorporate a few twists to make it a compelling story in its own right.

There will be many ways to use this book:

• Use it as a quick and easy reference to the changes, relative to the original corebook, you’ll find in Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny.
• Read it for the stories, both of players and of the characters in the Ninth World.
• Mine the stories for world and character inspiration, either as a player or as a GM. They’ll be full of great color and inspiring ideas.
• Hand it out to your new (or new-to-Numenera) players to help them grasp Numenera, both from a setting and a gameplay perspective.
• Use the events of the Ninth World story as the opening to an adventure or larger campaign.

Discover Your Destiny will be co-written by Monte Cook and Shanna Germain.

Iadace!
—Monte and the MCG Team

The Margr Approach Ellomyr!
over 8 years ago – Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 01:08:25 AM

The Margr approach!

Our campaign’s backer numbers are the resource we have to help the community of Ellomyr. We needed 1950 for just the basic defenses, which you helped us gather just in time.

We also have the following other actions:

• Send an expedition to the nearby Valley of Sins, where prior-world devices can be scavenged to aid us (Cost: 200 backers)
• Send an envoy to the town of Othmar, asking for help (Cost: 50 backers)
• Calm the panicking townsfolk of Ellomyr (Cost: 50 backers)

We just passed 2150 backers, thanks to all of you! So now we need you to decide what we’re going to do. Please vote for your preferred choice.

While we wait to see how Ellomyr fares, please keep spreading the word. Post about the campaign on social media. Tell your friends. Even if they back for just $1, they’ll contribute to Ellomyr’s defense.

Check back tomorrow to see how Ellomyr and its citizens fare against the savage margr horde!

Staven's front room was even fuller than when he’d left for more water. Old Brucha was still there. He'd managed to fall off the watchtower the man had been so helpful in building, though luckily not from the top.

And now there were two more who'd come to Staven for aid.

He poured the water into a basin, listening to the conversation that had started in his absence. One of the newcomers was Jarken, or Jarent, or something like that, who sold books, even though most in Ellomyr didn’t care about such things.

The other one he didn’t know; she must’ve been part of the influx of people who’d come into town in the months since warnings about the imminent attack had gone out.

The bookseller Jarent—or Jadron maybe?—said, “I have a hard time choosing, though, which is more important.”

“People, surely,” said the stranger, cradling her bandage-wrapped hand.

“For me, it’s books. I’d save books over people, if it came to it.”

The raised voices suggested that Brucha and the stranger disagreed with the bookseller. Staven interceded with a forced laugh. “Well! I’m sure it won’t come to that!”

A mental image of bookseller running out of a blazing house with a handful of books came to Staven, into a street littered with hurt and desperate defenders, many with faces he knew. His stomach fell. For whatever reason, up until that moment, the desperation of Ellomyr’s situation hadn’t really penetrated.

“By the Golden Silver,” he whispered. Dread certainty told him that soon he was going to face the greatest challenge a healer ever could: losing people too hurt to be saved.

Iadace!
—Monte and the MCG Team

Stories from the Valley of Sins
over 8 years ago – Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 01:39:50 AM

The explorers are off to the Valley of Sins—and you have helped them on their journey. We received a ton of wonderful creations about the expedition to the Valley of Sins. You surpassed the ten great pieces that we’d hoped for, and your input will be reflected in what wonders an expedition might find.

In this update, we’re highlighting just ten of the many outstanding posts. We also wanted to express how pleased we are with people inviting each other to collaborate across fictions (Junaydi, Aubrey, Ethan, Sean, Skie, and more). Creating community is something that’s really important to us, and it makes us really happy to watch it happen!

At the end of this update, we’ve compiled a number of websites and groups that have sprung up to collect your contributions. If there are other internet places you’ve been storing your artwork, writing, poetry, cyphers, post it in the comments for others to follow along!

Gwen Horwath’s Cacer, an Ultraterrestrial Seeker who Delved Too Deeply

From the Ellomyr G+ Community.

Joshua Wright’s Partoss, part 4, & Arkwiss art

From the Kickstarter comments, presumably to be collected in their Strange Tales of Numenera tumblr along with their quite expansive story Arkwiss.

The arrival in the small town was met with cheers and celebration that quickly turned to grief and fear as the body was off-loaded from the crawler. As soon as it was clear, Id emerged from his place in the engine to help the dying man as much as possible, and Nir crawled into the back to assist. A few of the newcomers to Ellomyr were trained as chirurgeons and medics; a runner went to round them up.

Id worked into the evening with the others in what was ultimately a failing effort to save the wounded man. The automaton didn’t know the exhaustion evident on the faces of the others, but he recognized their grief, even if his machine parts didn’t allow him to express it visually.

After parting way with the other healers, he went to get himself clean of the blood. He hated death. It was always such an unnecessary, messy thing. He’d heard of different ways that humans had come up with over the years to avoid it. One of the most fascinating was the story of a man in a nation to the East who called himself the Changing God. Most such stories were only that, little more than rumor, but he would never understand why flesh-and-blood beings didn’t just figure out how to stop dying.

That’s why he made medicines and other useful cyphers.

By the time he had finished cleaning himself, Arkwiss and Almsqu had gone to sleep, but not before thanking him for his efforts. They would figure out what everything that they had found was in the morning. Nir should also have been in bed, but she complained to him that she couldn’t sleep because she kept seeing the dead men every time she closed her eyes.

Id invited her to sit with him in the cool night air, where he regaled her with stories of gods and demons, heroes and villains. He told the stories of the constellations and the myths about them. All stories he had learned from the Datasphere.

As the first glow of morning started to tinge the horizon, Id realized Nir was snoring lightly, leaning against him. Gently he carried her to her bed, careful not to wake her, then grabbed the packs from the previous day.

There was no time to wait to identify the cyphers. The margr horde was coming.

Junaydi Bin Baharudin’s The Valley of Sins: An Odd Encounter

From the Kickstarter comments. Junaydi has been writing and collaborating all over the place – nice job!

Tierra was a part of a different band than the one Gilthk had joined earlier and unsurprisingly the Valley of Sins proved to be a much more haunted place than she had anticipated, for everyone's senses seemed to be bombarded by a plethora of imagery and other things she couldn't explain at all, save that they were all utterly bizarre. She could've sworn there was Cherub riding a flying blood barm at one point, even though she was still back in Ellomyr:

"LOOK AT ME SISTER! WHEEEEEEEEEEE!! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!! ;D "

Tierra rubbed her eyes and looked back at where Cherub and the blood barm were... And found nothing at all, a true figment after all. She grumbled under her breath but then noticed something out of the periphery of her vision and realized there was a hazy figure with perhaps one eye and a small mouth, with its arms outstretched, with somewhat metallic claws with a visible stomach exposed. It seemed to be flapping its arms like an idiot, seemingly affected by the valley as much as Tierra and the other explorers were, if not even more so.

"An abykos, careful everyone, it doesn't seem to be too hostile...Yet"

With her bow in her hands, she carefully kept the abykos in sight, hoping it didn't wish to pick a fight. She could see that it was pointing to an outcropping with some strange figures entwined on top, a few were holding strange looking devices, as if offering them to placate some mad god that might have left their mark on the Valley of Sins.

One burly, female warrior came besides Tierra; "So? Think we should go over to that place and take those things from their hands? They look useful."

"Perhaps, or the abykos wishes us to fall into a trap and then take whatever cyphers we have for its own consumption, these beings can be quite deceitful. Let me grab a few rocks and test something" With that, Tierra scooped up a few rocks and tossed them in the general direction of the outcropping. At first they fell harmlessly without triggering anything but one rock immediately floated through the air before it could hit the ground, levitating in height and then crushed into itself.

"As I suspected, there's some phenomena around the outcropping that would levitate and crush anything or anyone unfortunate enough to step into it. I think there's a path leading to those figures but it would be a narrow one indeed, so I'll weave my way through without getting caught."

"Sure about that?"

"Of course, I've got these rocks to help check just where I should step."

With that, Tierra began a steady pace of approaching the outcropping step by step. She would throw a rock in a direction and if it wasn't crushed, she'll step into its place and pick it back up but if a rock was crushed in another direction, she'll avoid that part. Slowly but surely, Tierra was inching closer and closer to the outcropping, until she was right in front of the figures, which she could now see were not statues but actual corpses caked in a strange substance like some red tar, not blood at all. Their faces were frozen in horror and agony, which made Tierra grimace.

"Hey! Look out behind you!"

Tierra looked back to see that the abykos was somehow trying to trace her steps, to follow her to the outcropping. Unfortunately it stepped in the wrong place and was immediately levitated in place, shifting in and out of existence in a panic. It shifted to a phase that was completely insubstantial but it wasn't enough to save it. It looked as if someone had folded it neatly like some shirt and it crumpled to the ground unceremoniously without a sound made save for when it was in a solid phase, screeching. Suddenly the air around the outcropping changed, as if the phenomena ceased to be. Stuffing all of the strange devices into her bag, Tierra decided not to take any chances and used her rocks to retrace her steps back to the group, though there wasn't a single rock that was crushed at all on the way back.

The female warrior looked puzzled; "What in an aneen's behind was that all about?"

"No idea, but I've got these objects, so it wasn't a complete waste of our time."

"Heh, you slying seskii, that was pretty good the way you moved around without getting squished like a berry. That abykos wasn't so lucky though."

"Indeed, I think today should be enough, I don't think I wish to stay any longer here than is needed."

The warrior nodded; "Agreed, we're all pretty much eager to leave this valley with our lives whole and our sanity intact, hopefully the haul you've retrieved for us should be enough."

Tierra nodded back; "Then we are of the same minds then, let's get back before-"

A blood barm with Cherub's head leered at her from the outcropping; "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE FROM ME FOOOOOOOOOOOL!!! I AM EVERYWHERE!!!!!"

With her backpack of strange devices inside, Tierra sprinted quickly back to Ellomyr as quickly as she could, with the other travelers she was with gawking at her.

The warrior scratched her head; "Huh, what got her all terrified?"

Viejah ThirdSoul’s Xerces in the Valley of Sins

From their website blog; the story has some swearing but is great! Just don’t read it at work.

Steve Salem’s Val Tarrow, Excerpt from Part 4

From the Kickstarter comments, parts 4-5 so far are about the Valley of Sins. Steve is a #billionandfive backer (one of our original Numenera Kickstarter backers)!

Val Tarrow (A Strong Glaive who Fuses Flesh and Steel) Part 4: The Valley of Sins

Val walked through the crowded square and began to make his way back to the Inn to drown in some well deserved drinks. A short, squat man was hailing passerby with a shrill, almost metallic voice. He couldn’t make out what he was saying, but judging by how his chosen targets were waving him away, he assumed he was trying to sell them something.

“You there!” He shouted, flailing his arms in Val’s direction. “Stop and speak with me a moment. I have a proposition for you.”

The man was covered in a tattered and stained grey robe, which at one time may have been blue. When he moved towards Val, he seemed to almost float over the ground, his robe dragging behind him, one hand carefully holding the robe taught in front of him. He put on a fake, sly smile, and attempted to grab Val’s hand to prevent him from walking off. He could see that his lower jaw was mechanical, covered in paint that may have matched his skin tone at one time, but was now ashen and flaking off in places. He had a pair of tattoos under each eye, a circle with what looked like crossed spear inside of it. His eyes were so brown, they were almost black.

“You look like you can handle yourself.” He said, matter-of-factly. “How would you like to make some shins? Maybe help this little town in the process?”

The little man smiled bigger now, and Val could see that his teeth were stained, brown synth, with bits of metal poking through in places. He attempted to adjust his cloak to cover his armor and weapons, but it was too late, the little man’s momentum wasn’t stopping.

“None of these people here can sense opportunity when it comes knocking.”

He gestured with a gloved hand at the crowds of people moving about. He then reached into the folds of his robe and brought out a small bit of metal. He rolled it around in his fingers, caressing the sides as he held it up for Val to see. As he did, glowing symbols appeared across its surface in bright blue and white. No symbols Val had ever seen before scrolled across it’s surface. Faster and faster, until the little man’s hand was glowing white with the light. He closed his hand and returned the object to the folds of his robe.

“I found this not too far from here. In a place the locals call ‘The Valley of Sins’. You’ve heard of it, yes?”

Val had been back in town for less than half a day, and that’s all everyone was talking about.

“Maybe I…” He began, but was quickly cut off by the man.

“Of course you have. These fools think they can find something out there, blindly groping about in the dark.” He mocked reaching up at the sky in quick movements, then chuckled. It sounded like grinding machinery. “But I know where to look! See?” He pointed at his own eyes, then back at the sky. “I have already found something.” His neck twitched to the side suddenly and his jaw clicked. He shook it off and continued, mumbling. “I just need someone with some strength to assist me. Someone who understands that I will be the one to claim what is out there.” He pushed his lips together for a moment, as if pondering something. “You will be paid well, I assure you. In currency and numenera. Numenera that can help this little town. Do you see now why you should assist me?” He looks up, obviously expecting an answer.

Val slowly raised up his hands and began to back away, remaining silent, worrying that any words he said would simply provoke the robed man into further rambling.

The man sneered and scrunched his nose, then reached into another fold in his robe and pulled out a fistful of shins. He pushed it into Val’s chest insistently, making small metallic grunts as he did so.

Val had to admit, that was more money than he had seen in four years working as a farmhand for the Vint family, and probably meant he could do something with it once this was all over. The many possibilities of a prosperous future flashed across his mind, his hands reaching up and taking the shins, almost on their own accord.

The little man smiled his crooked grin and hissed “Excellent. We leave immediately. Follow.” He floated across the surface of the square and beckoned for Val to follow.

Val sighed and began to follow the little robed man. The thought that this was a terrible idea played over and over in his head as he walked faster to catch up.

Ed Eschler’s Danaan in The Valley of Sins

From the Kickstarter comments.

Danaan writhed against the canyon wall as the witch jammed a needle into his arm, injecting him with a pulsing purple liquid which worked to re-form the shattered bones; he questioned if this was better than being in a cast when the margr came.

"You did well." The witch nodded at him and stood, going over to the creature. The thing was smaller than he thought it'd be now that the mists had subsided and he could see the measure of it in full daylight. It was like an ape, no more than 7 foot tall (though it had seemed twice that height leaping through the mists), its deep blue fur stained a dark cyan by its green blood. He reached for his spear, the tip coming through the lips of its middle mouth, the one that had been screaming "Murderer!" even as it died. His shied had exploded into a rainbow dust in the monster's lowest jaw, and shards of it pocked its lolling tongue.

"I hope this was worth it." Danaan grunted as he pulled at the spear, removing it with a practiced hand. Immediately the witch was at the beast's stomach, cutting not with the hunter's vigor but with the surgeon's practice, carefully examing each organ as she removed it. For his part, Danaan began prying out the creatures teeth: they seemed like they would make fine arrowheads.

"Your neighbors did not die in vain." Danaan didn't correct the witch, that it was the shield he would miss. The farmers wouldn't have survived the margr anyway. "Good! It wasn't damaged in the fighting!" Unlike the rest of the organs, drenched in green viscera, the thing she held before Danaan dripped a thick blue liquid that instantly evaporated on contact with the ground. One of the villagers, his head bandaged, stepped forward and looked with his uncovered eye.

"What is it?"

The witch smiled at him.

"Salvation!"

Aubrey’s Embers of the Ideal: Artifact

From the Kickstarter comments, with thanks to Skie for “support, proofreading, and helping me iron out several item details.”

Appearance: The “lower” half of this circular disk is a spotless, mirror-polished metal beveled like a shield or shallow bowl. However, when light moves across it, the keenest eyes might notice that the metal has a very subtle quality akin to holographic foil, and an incredibly complex pattern resembling circuitry hidden within the glint of reflected light. On the top half, the metal curls up to grasp a strongglass plate. Looking into the plate, one sees nothing but a void, and a multicolored ‘fire’ burning on an unseen surface seemingly ten feet below the disk’s center. The colors, patterns, and movements of the flames are unique to each person, and visible only to them.

Interaction: It is immediately recognizable to each person who views it that the flames are a representation of their own identity. The color and movements seem not to abide by any universal standard, but instead to each individual’s interpretation of them. The only constant is that the flame is always a mix of many of colors, though specific ones may dominate, and the flame always seems to be reaching out to the person, no matter how confident or tentative its movements.

When used, the fire suddenly changes to reflect a dramatic representation of a person’s desired aspect. Just before it changes however, one sometimes catches the brief ghostly image of themselves perfectly mirrored, not reflected, but within the glass.

Effect: The effect of the embers is revealed when one rests their hands, or comparable limbs, upon the surface, and stares into the fire wishing for a single aspect of their personality to be different. When this is done, a sensation of warmth fills the person, and they find the one aspect of their personality temporarily modified with the attribute they wished for, if in moderate excess. This effect randomly begins to end anywhere between ten minutes to an hour, at which point the user’s personality begins to rapidly revert to normal over the course of a minute. The shift in personality may offer an asset to certain tasks, but the person’s actual talents and knowledge remain unchanged.

Drawbacks:

• When intending to change one aspect of themselves, people are sometimes distracted by another they notice (resulting in an unwanted change).
• Effect possesses a reliably unreliable duration.
• The artifact can only effect a person once per day.
• The object has a roughly 1% chance of dramatically magnifying the intended change and making it permanent. Each time this occurs, the chance of this happening again increases by another percent.

secondrevan’s Kira/Tami/Lamaria/Neera… and the Valley of Sins

From the Kickstarter comments. This character is working with multiple personas!

She raised her hand to silence Ord, as they approached the second watchtower, slowly growing taller with each payment of sweat. Three of the builders lay nearby, while their compatriots worked hard. “Any reason you’re not working?”

“Love to. Nothin’ to do” one answered. After glancing at her face, he elaborated. “Can’t build something out of nothing. And we’re not getting the new stuff fast enough. Not enough work here for all of us. Nothing to do ‘cept wait for work”

Part of Kira’s false identity caused a flash of annoyance to streak through her, but the other part kept it from showing. ‘Kira’ knew that frustration didn’t help. “Need more help making arrows. Work there for the rest of the shift. I’ll sort everything out later” she said, as she noted down the problem. Why didn’t anyone tell her immediately?

She moved on, towards the Windriders. Ord started up again. “Between the Valley of Sins and the envoy to Othmar, you’re not going to have to completely rework the schedules. We don’t have enough people for the current schedules. Especially as nearly everyone who can swing a sword is off to the Valley of Sins. No trainers.”

Frustrating, but manageable. She was going to have to change the schedules anyway. There was something else. Ord noticed her look, and stuttered out the other piece. “They want you to go to Othmar. You know, you’re… you’re one of our leaders. You know what you’re doing”

She laughed. “I’m not that sort of person. Better to keep me here”. Ord had attached himself as her assistant, and been adequate. But he was still a villager with little idea of the realities that the Kira persona knew intimately. This identity could manage, not negotiate. And she didn’t think they’d appreciate Kira suddenly changing herself Lamaria or Neeri. Anyway, where they really needed her was in the Valley of Sins.

Ord noticed a change in her walk, as she tried to beat down that last thought. He chose to say nothing. Good. That thought was intrusive. That was not from her. She’d lost her awareness of which thoughts, which feelings, were real. That wasn’t her thought. That was Kira’s. If she went to the Valley of Sins, she wouldn’t go as Kira, or Tani or Lamaria or Neera. She wouldn’t go as any of her personas. She would go as herself. She wouldn’t do that.

They arrived at the Windriders gliding through the air, looking more like a performance than a combat drill. Again, she wished to just find a quiet spot, change into Tani and join them as a Windrider. But she’d made the choice last night to trust in Kira’s decisions. The persona may be fake, but it was tailor made to make the sort of decisions that Ellomyr needed to survive. They didn’t need another Windrider. They needed…

Damn. She was going to the Valley of Sins

Throwontax’s Faël from the Oasis, part 6.1, the Valley of Sins

Excerpt from the Kickstarter comments.

There was something unnerving about this valley, and some people in the other groups had suffered from hallucinations. The group progressed cautiously. As they got away from the rest of the expedition, they heard cries in the distance. Did the other groups already face danger, or was it just the valley playing tricks on them ? Bellisar, the hunter, soon caught sight of a cavern entrance. They decided to explore it. The cavern in itself was quite small and of little interest, but at its far end, it narrowed into a tunnel descending in a slight slope. Zoniya attached a glowglobe to a staff. She then stepped into the tunnel, the staff in one hand and her huge twisted club in the other. Bellisar and the Jack followed. Curtis and Faël brought up the rear. The walls were rough, but the tunnel size was too regular. It seemed unlikely that they were natural cavities. The group was slowly going down through winding passages, barely the height of Zoniya. She had to stoop down while walking, and they could only march three abreast. Faël thought that if they had to fight here, that would be complicated. Fortunately, the tunnel widened into a large cave before they saw anything unexpected.

The ground descended regularly ahead of them. "This cave seems huge." After the confined silence of the tunnel, Bellisar's whisper and its slight echo felt weird. "And silent", added Zoniya. Only the sound of water drops hitting the ground could be heard. Faël hoped it was only water. "Look !" Per'Manwal was pointing somewhere a few meters ahead of them. At first, Faël didn't see anything. Then he spotted the little drops of liquid that were regularly projected from their right, across the cave. A trap ? Something was wrong with these drops. Their movement. The drops passed before them in a perfectly straight line, although they didn't seem to fly that fast.

Zoniya mowed forward a few steps and raised her staff to illuminate the scene. She cried out in pain, quickly lowering her arm, while two slices of the staff fell on the ground with the glowglobe. It rolled down the slope, and then began to levitate upwards. It ascended faster, still going forward, and then abruptly turn to the left, still faster. With a thud, it finally landed on the far end of the cavern to their left. Faël took a small cube from his coat pocket, rapidly turned two of its faces and placed it on the ground. A bright light illuminated the cavern. They were inside a huge grey sphere, big enough to contain the Trilling Shard. From cracks in the walls, other drops were projected across the room in various directions.

Zoniya had dropped the staff on the ground and blood was running from under her wristband. Per'Manwel pointed above the glaive and shouted "Steel spiders! Look around you, their web can cut through iron and flesh more surely than a sisk through cheese!" In the light, Faël noticed strands of spider web above Zoniya's head. Others were now visible around the cave. Something moved above them on their right. Bellisar raised his bow and shot an arrow. It hit the spider. The jack produced a crossbow and shot. As the spider fell on the ground, its legs twitching, Zoniya screamed again, louder. Another spider had let itself drop from her web and had landed on the glaives shoulder. Apparently, it had already bitten her. "Freeze!" screamed Faël, unsheathing his knife. He thrust it into the spider, taking care not to touch Zoniya. The beast fell on the ground. Enraged, the glaive crushed it under her boot before it could move again. At this moment, a third spider fell between Zoniya and Faël, facing the nano. He jumped sideways to avoid its bite. But instead of landing on the ground, Faël began to float upwards. As he began to lift faster, Zoniya grabbed his left foot and pulled him toward her. The end of his cloak had just touch a spider web strand and a strip of brown fabric was floating to the ceiling. Curtis had tried to strike the remaining spider, but it dodged the blow. Unfortunately for it, Per'Manwel was just behind the beast and pinned it to the ground with his rapier in a mighty strike.

The spider was still twitching when Faël bandaged Zoniya's wrist. The cut wasn't too deep, but with the bite on her shoulder, it would be hard for the glaive to use her left arm. Meanwhile, Per'Manwel was carefully cutting the web strands with a small knife with a luminescent blade. With great precaution, he then stored them in a small box he had with him. "We could build some nasty webs for the margr with that!", he exclaimed.

Faël was observing the sphere they had entered. He told his companions: "Look, there's a gate on the other side of the cave. I think this sphere has a tricky gravity system, maybe caused by a malfunction. If we watch our steps and take care that we stay on the ground, we should pass safely." He turned his eyes on them with an inquiring look. They all turned to Zoniya. She looked up at them and nodded: "I'll be fine."

Faël stepped forward: "I'll go first, follow me at a distance and walk in my footsteps."

Siyrren Makes a Decision

From the G+ Ellomyr Community.

She was so tired, the night through the forest had taken her toll. But she couldn’t rest, not quite. Siyrren looked up at the others, who gazed at her expectantly. She was unlike other humans they had met. She was very tall, with slender graceful limbs. Winding and scrolling over over every bit of exposed skin were pale blue tattoos. If you stared into their intricate patterns, you could swear that they moved, ebbing and flowing like the ocean.

Siyrren shifted uncomfortably, she could feel their eyes, crawling across her skin.

“Your son needs medicine, or he isn’t going to survive.” The woman looked up at Siyrren, surprised. Outside the heat and confusion of battle, the resemblance was obvious. The woman nodded silently, looking back down to caress his still face. Her head was pounding, throbbing in time to her heart beat and the spirit of the forest.

“Where have you come from?” Siyrren turned back to the glaive woman. The woman’s back straightened with the question.

“We come from the town of Ellomyr which isn’t too far to the east of here.” Siyrren nodded, but didn’t interrupt. She had come this way to look for the Angry Red River, to test and understand its past. She had heard of the small town near it. As she got closer she had also heard of rumors of an unspeakable terror that threatened the town and those near by. It would appear those stories were true, although she would hardly call a few ab-humans an unspeakable terror. She let the glaive tell her story, closing her eyes and rubbing her temple, willing the growing exhaustion away. An almost inaudible whine came from her shadow. She opened her eyes and put a hand down into the shadow. Four white eyes glimmered up at her.

After several minutes the glaive fell silent, her story reaching the present.

“Now, we will have to turn back, we do not have enough people to continue to the Valley of Sins. Not will Urali and her son injured. And someone will have to tell Klli.” The Glaive looked down sorrowfully at the body that lay near by.

“You travel to the Valley to look for a weapon?” Siyrren spoke louder, drawing their attention away from the body. There is a time to mourn losses, now is not it.

“Not a particular weapon, but anything that will aid us in our defence against the margr. Nodding, Siyrren stood and crossed the clearing to the boy and his mother. Kneeling, she took the canister off her back and set it close to her. She then pulled out a small pouch and took a very small pinch of the dust inside. The Urali moved to protest, but decided the better of it. Siyrren sprinkled the smallest amount, letting it float down into the wound on the boys side. Replacing the pouch, she held a hand out and became inhumanly still. Silence fell on clearing, broken only by the shadow dog’s quiet protests at the rising light. Siyrren focused, the nanites flowing into his blood, stopping the flow. She pushed her mind forward, drawing up the energy the boy needed, but no longer had. After several minutes, the clot grew, sealing off the wounds.

She let out a long exhale, letting the fatigue rest on her shoulders. Siyrren stood, stiffly. Turning to glaive, she spoke hoarsely.

“They will return to the village, I will replace them. We will continue to the Valley of Sin.”

More!

For more #Numenera2 Ellomyr contributions, check out some of these links, or post links in the comments!

• Gaetan’s Logbook, an in-character twitter account
• Hamster of Wrath’s varied characters
• Jennifer Scott’s Mais
• Joshua Wright’s Arkwiss and more
• Maple Moon Creations’s vignettes featuring a variety of characters. There is a Jack and the Beanstalk-like story!
• Aubrey’s Hiero and Ro
• Johoanna Robson’s Terran
• Charlie Rogers’s Coldane
• K. M. Kello’s Ashley Giri Vansu
• Garth/Crixler’s Damos Avephen, a Mad Nano who Fuses Mind and Machine
• Ethan Zarembski’s Malco Harly
• Douglas Miller’s Volos
• LCC’s Ordovico
• Roy Grantham’s Gerthuri
• @ace_the_eagle’s Dream Peddler
• G+ Ellomyr Community
• Cypher System Gaming FB Group

Panic in Ellomyr
over 8 years ago – Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 11:04:44 PM

There’s trouble in Ellomyr. All signs say the abhuman hordes could attack at any moment, and people are beginning to panic. A few loud voices forecast utter doom for the village, despite the defenses in place. Others are suggesting that everyone should just flee. The leaders in the town, including Gurner, the original elder, and some of the stronger-willed newcomers, try to encourage calm. Can they do it? Only if we get 50 more backers in addition to the 1950 backer total we need to put our planned level 5 defenses in place.

And even then, success isn’t guaranteed. After all, there are other things we’ll want to use our resources on. Over the past few days we’ve sent an expedition to the Valley of Sins and an envoy to nearby Othmar, asking for help, and each of them require backers to succeed as well. What if we can’t reach a total to accomplish all three? Well, Thursday night we’ll ask your opinion and you will have to decide how best to use the resources we have, all which will directly shape the story of Ellomyr. Will your choices save it? Put it in greater jeopardy? We’ll know soon.

The man was screaming at everyone in the market. “We have to leave! The margr are too many and we are too few!” His eyes were wild, his calloused hands waved frantically as he talked, and he was attracting a lot of attention from the crowd.

Ilven, a short, muscular glaive with a hammer made of synth and ice, recognized the frightened man. Kelem. Carpenter. Useful. Ilven tried using soothing words, but Kelem was too agitated to be calmed. “You think your weapons and magic can save us, but they can’t! If we don’t leave, we’ll all be killed!”

The glaive sighed, seeing the spark of panic in the eyes of the crowd. The large influx of people coming to Ellomyr meant the kinship of the community was strained. Despite the progress in building defenses for the town, morale was faltering. The people needed a victory they could rally around, a solid core of faith and courage that would inspire them to stick together and protect their home.

Iadace!
—Monte and the MCG Team

Ellomyr: Embassy to Othmar
over 8 years ago – Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 12:33:50 AM

Can you believe the day we’ve had today? Thanks to you helping spread the word, we’ve seen a surge of backers—as we write this, the total is over 2050. That’s halfway to making the excursion to the Valley of Sins a success!

The people of Ellomyr have hatched another plan that could really help the village in the coming crisis. Although far away, the nearest town is called Othmar. Perhaps the people there can be convinced to come to Ellomyr’s aid. An envoy is to be dispatched to Othmar immediately to plea for help. But the world is a dangerous place, and success is not assured. Will the diplomats cross the distance safely, and can they convince the people of Othmar to help? Again, let’s base that on the success of this Kickstarter campaign: if we get 50 more backers, we’ll succeed in getting aid from Othmar.

Of course, the expedition to the Valley of Sins requires 200 backers. If we don’t have the resources to do both, on Thursday we’ll let you know how you can vote to determine how to best utilize what we have at our disposal. You’re literally shaping the story of Ellomyr here, which will be chronicled in the book The Trilling Shard, the exclusive sourcebook which every backer will get as a part of this campaign.

So please spread the word. Hit Twitter and Facebook. Tell your friends. The more people we reach and engage in this campaign, the more resources we have for Ellomyr. The hashtag is #numenera2. Go forth, and seek aid for Ellomyr!

For the first time, Stoyan is about to step outside of Ellomyr. She knows her father would prefer that she didn't. Not today, not ever. But not even her father—always protective, always worried—could say no when her mother asked for something.

So now Stoyan walks next to her mother and the others, their footsteps carrying them past everything she knows, toward the place where the unknown world begins. At least for her. The others have all come and gone from here more times than she can count. Hunting or exploring. Trading and gathering. Now she will too. They’re going to Othmar—a town that Stoyan’s only ever heard people talk about in hushes—to ask for help against the margr attacks. It makes her tremble, excitement and fear rolling together in her belly.

Her mother glances at her, as though she feels her response. "Do you know why I brought you, Stoy?” she asks.

Stoyan shakes her head.

“Because someday, Othmar will need our help, and the rest of us—” Her mother sweeps her hand at the others. “We’ll be gone or dead. Someone needs to remember the time we asked and they said yes.”

In the silence, Stoyan understands that she is being asked a question. “So that when Othmar asks, someday, we will say yes too,” she answers.

Her mother nods, places a hand on Stoyan’s shoulder. It’s a steadying comfort as Stoyan lifts her foot and steps into a brand new place.

Iadace!
—Shanna and the MCG Team