RPG Night with Cliff
Cypher System - Numenera -
Devil's Spine
Thanks again to Tim for doing the game write up
Warning this post will contain spoilers for the Devil Spine
Hopefully we will be back to regular updates going forward
Characters:
Delpax 60 40 (Martin) a Mystical Nano who controls gravity.
Chuck the Younger (Tim) is a Weird Nano who rides the lightning.
Dandy Dan (Phillip) is a Forceful Jack who fights with panache.
Dan Maanlie (Caleb) is a Rugged Glaive who performs feats of strength.
Woodchuck (Mark) is a Clumsy Glaive who works miracles.
Finnetti Del Ray (Lex) is a Clever Nani who talks to machines.
Remi (Gracie) is a Empathic Glaive that controls beasts.
Delpax 60 40 (Martin) a Mystical Nano who controls gravity.
Chuck the Younger (Tim) is a Weird Nano who rides the lightning.
Dandy Dan
Dan Maanlie (Caleb) is a Rugged Glaive who performs feats of strength.
Woodchuck (Mark) is a Clumsy Glaive who works miracles.
Finnetti Del Ray
Dag Kastloff, (Mike) a craven Jack who Murders
The day begins and the group rejoins down in the Uxphon bazaar, where they made their way to Sabzia's red tent. She was the information broker who was purported to have information that could lead them them to the Impossible Blade. She was also supposed to have ties to the weapon crafter known as Inosh the Nivigen. Someone as skilled as him was bound to have heard things about a blade like that.
There was only a room for a handful of the party inside the tent, so Chuck the Younger, Woodchuck, Delpax, Bob, Dan Manly, and Dag went inside. Things quickly got down to business. Sabzia offered to sell them information about where to get *an*Impossible Blade. It was hard to tell if she was capitalizing those letters when she talked about it. She was implying there was more than one. The disappointed and confused group decided that seemed like red herring, so they decided to focus on their other lead, and asked to know the whereabouts of her associate, Inosh the Nivigen. The cost was a little too steep for group. Her fee of five shins and two hairs per person was problematic. Those who were not broke, were too paranoid to part with their hairs for any reason. After some negotiation, Sabzia agreed to 5 shins per person, and Dan and Dax fronted the thirty shins to cover the total fee.
A detailed route was described, to a dried out gully bed three days West. The location came with a warning, which was surprising considering the reduced price meant that value added services, like warnings, weren't expected. The warning was that Inosh was not alone.
Three days later the group found a wooden hut in a dried out gully, just as Sabzia had said they would. Near the wooden hut, were three mud huts. Dead and dying reeds sprung from the ground everywhere, and behind it all was a small stream, bubbling past.
As the party approached the tiny village (does it count as a village if there are only four houses?) they noticed four, four-legged, stalky creatures, known as Kriogs, ambling about. They were apparently sapient, as they seemed to be talking to each other, although not in The Truth. The Nivigen was nowhere to be seen yet. They walked directly towards the wooden house in the centre of this village. As they reached the first of the huts, the creatures noticed them, and moved forward as if to block their path, but then parted to let them pass. The mood was definitely tense. Chuck tried greeting them, but his efforts went unrewarded. Just as the party started considering pantomiming “DO YOU KNOW WHERE INOSH THE NIVIGEN IS”, the door to the wooden house opened, and Inosh stepped out to the party. Chuck greeted Inosh. Even though a Nivigen is a two-creature symbiote, with one creature acting as the body, and the other acting as the head, where the two are connected by a neck, of sorts, consisting of tendrils, the combined being known as Inosh still somehow managed to give off a distinct “distressed” vibe.
Chuck greeted him, but with the tension between the party and the Kriogs, and the distressed vibe dripping off of Inosh, it was not a completely surprise when Inosh leaned over and whispered to Chuck, “These Kriogs are keeping me prisoner.”
At that point, it wasn't clear who struck first. Delpax was dragged down by a Kriog, who instantly started gnawing on him. Dan swung at the nearest creature, but somehow tripped over himself just as a fifth Kriog sprung out of the ground and was surprised to find Dan literally falling into its death embrace. The rest of the party lept into the fray.
Dan was quite excited to have someone new to wrestle with. It was unfortunate that even though Dan loved to wrestle, he has no actual skill in the sport. From everyone else's perspective, Dan was clearly pulled to the ground in a death grip, but he didn't give up!
The group worked together effectively to begin repelling the attackers. In one, unnecessarily violent, but cleverly effective move, Woodchuck jammed a cypher, a tiny portable cabin with the little label, “Just add water” into the mouth of a very surprised Kriog. Actually, everyone was surprised. As the cabin expanded from a few inches to 10 feet by 10 feet by 20 feet in the space of a few seconds, all combatants (who still had heads) briefly paused to try and comprehend what had just happened.
Even Inosh attempted to assist in the battle. Although his attacks were completely ineffectual, it was probably at least somewhat cathartic to spasmodically flail in the general direction of his captors, and “participate” in their dispatching.
As the fight wound down to a close Dan, who to this day still lacked any clear victory in the sport of wrestling, struck the final decisive blow. When the last Kriog attempted to escape by running up and over the (gore covered) portable cabin, it lept down towards the stream and bisected itself on Dan's axe.
The bloodied, but victorious party, gathered around a free and grateful Inosh and asked him about the Impossible Blade. Inosh informed them that what they seek lies in the Tomb of Queen Starlocet. He also suggested they go to Barrowtown to learn some legends about this tomb and the queen. He also passed along some information about an insect, who's buzzing is said to be able to communicate with the dead.
At this point the group broke up to rest and recuperate around the village before heading off. Dag was able to commission Inosh to take his cypher that became invisible and then visible again, and fashion it into a small dagger. It was going to be ready to be picked up in a few days.
The only person with unfinished business with Inosh, was Chuck. Chuck felt uncomfortable, but he had an important question to ask, so he worked up his nerve, marched up to the symbiote, and said, “Inosh! We've helped free you and you've already helped repay the favour with the information you gave us on the Impossible Blade, but now I have a bit of a delicate question to ask you.”
---
Three nights before, back in the bazaar in Uxphon, Chuck had spent the entire evening talking with other Weird friends at their Table of Weird Cyphers, impressing them with all the Weird things that had happened to his group so far. Carlitos, one of the proprieters of the table made a special request for rare knowledge. “If you manage to find this Nivigen, I'd be willing to pay quite a lot for knowledge on how they reproduce.”
Chuch the Younger, the Weird Nano who Rides the Lightning, took the request as a personal challenge. As a seeker of all things Weird, he would retrieve this information! Also, he was completely broke.
In front of Inosh's wooden house, Chuck, now shuffling his feet and wringing his hands, finally spat it out, “Inosh, I have a bit of a delicate question to ask you. I am a seeker of rare knowledge, and I've been commissioned to find out how Nivigen reproduce.” Chuck said it so fast, it almost sounded like one, very long word. The Nivigen seemed to understand and only considered briefly before he responded to the Weird request. The good news was that he was willing to share this information. The bad news was that he was similarly curious about humans and wanted to see a demonstration. Those were his terms. He then pointed to Delpax and said, “That human there, and yourself should be sufficient for the demonstration.”
Delpax spit out the reed he was chewing on, and Chuck stared, open-mouthed in shock, glancing between Inosh and Delpax. After a few seconds Chuck whispered to Delpax, “Follow my lead.” Chuck grasped Delpax's hand and proceeded to jump around in a circle around Inosh, all the while chanting an ancient nursery rhyme about sheep and wool, throwing in the odd hoot or howl. Eventually the display came to a close. Woodchuck was rolling on the ground in laughter, while Chuck and Delpax were a bit out of breath.
Inosh, bought it! Although he wasn't very impressed. He thought there would be more of an exchange of genetic fluids.
“Oh, that's Old Style,” Delpax informed him.
Chuck added, “New Style is a lot less messy.”
“Alright,” Inosh said, “I will now give you a demonstration of how a Nivigen reproduces.”
“Oh, we don't need a demonstration,” Chuck started to say, “You can just,”
At that, one of the tendrils from Inosh's neck detached from the body and snaked its way to Chuck's floating extension cord pony tail. The end of the tentacle broke off over the end of the extension cord, and oozed to envelop the end of it completely. “I hope that's everything you need.”
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