Evom

Evom

3 (9)

The Evom were a peaceful race of visitants that often came to Earth to study the planet's ecosystems. The visitants would often build structures that resemble modern bio-domes where they could conduct experiments on native plant-life. In essence, the Evom were interstellar botanists.  Their visits to Earth were often shrouded in secrecy and they were careful not to alert any of the planet's native races to their presence. For this reason, their facilities are often found in the remotest areas of the Ninth World.

Eventually the Evom stopped visiting Earth and the remaining members of their research teams were stranded. The stranded scientists never knew what happened to the Evom, but they were eventually wiped out by a more advanced aggressive species. Their facilities on Earth remained, but the Evom that were left behind eventually died. It is possible that one or two of these creatures remain hidden away in stasis. 

PCs can, however, encounter the Evom in other ways. They would frequently load their consciousness into advanced devices that could later be activated for data retrieval. The retrieval takes the form of a projected hologram that is capable of communicating with the the being that activated the storage device.  The projected Evom can answer questions about the flora and fauna of the Ninth World as well as some information on the Evom and their mission to catalog and create new plant-life. 

Motive: To confer lost knowledge, to prevent the destruction of knowledge
Environment: Ruins
Health: 9
Damage Inflicted: 2
Armor: None
Movement: Short
Modifications: Knowledge of Evomian Numenera as level 8, Knowledge of Botany as level 8
Combat: The Evom were a peaceful people and were more likely to run that fight.  However, they possess a strange orifice on their forehead that can be used to spray a toxic gas into the air in the immediate area. Those affected must pass a level 4 Might task or all actions are two steps more difficult until the PC spends their 10 minute rest.
Interaction: PCs will most likely encounter an Evom as either a hologram or as an actual live being entombed in a statis chamber.
Use: The PCs encounter an Evom that has been placed in stasis. The Evom might know the location of a spacecraft that he could use to return home and find out what happened to his race. Of course, the craft is broken and the creature will need the PCs help in repairing it. Whether the PCs wish to travel with the Evom is up to them.
Loot: An Evomian projector can be looted for 1d6+1 cyphers.

GM Intrusion (Interaction): While conferring with an Evom, it gives bad information that leads to a mishap appropriate to the situation.

GM Intrusion (Combat): The PCs have found an Evom that has gone mad after years of stasis. Its toxic spray inflicts 4 damage (ignores armor) in addition to its other effects.  

Dust of the Cold Wind

Environmental GM Intrusion

A character ingests the Dust of the Cold Wind and contracts a potent poison that rides on the particles and debris that are blown around the The Cold Desert . 

This poison has no effect at first, other than a nagging cough. The next day a difficulty 4 Might test is required.  If the test is failed the PC is wracked with a horrific cough as the toxic particles affect their lungs. All Might and Speed tasks have an Initial Cost of 1 until the sickness can be cured.  All actions involving Stealth are increased by two steps, as the PC finds it nearly impossible to stop the cough.

The affected character can attempt a difficulty 4 Might task every day to fight off the condition. A capable healer can act an asset, reducing the task from 4 to 3.

A healer, shaman, or mystic can attempt to cure the malady as a level 4 Intellect task.

Ovoid Portal

Artifact

Level: 4


Form: A 6" flat oval substance about three feet in width and five feet tall. The Ovoid has four protrusions that look like teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom.

Effect: When activated, the portal will unfurl and attach itself to a wall via its toothy protrusions. Once attached, the ovoid portal gives a violent shudder and takes on the appearance of rippling water. Afterwards it offers access to any open space on the other side of the wall, up to 40' away.

The portal can only offer passage through materials that are level 4 and lower.

Depletion: 1 in 1d6

Dreet

Dreet   

2 (6) 

The Dreet are an intelligent race of feline like creatures who's numbers have dwindled to near extinction levels.  They dwell exclusively along the banks of the Tithe River and Araand Rivers, near Navarene and the Cloudcrystal Skyfields. A very specific form of plant called Dreetus grows along the shallow banks of these rivers. For reasons unknown to even the Dreet only the nutrients found in the Dreetus bulb can sustain them.

Over the millenia Dreet have developed an ability to shift the color of fur to match their surroundings, making them experts and hiding from predators.  The strange  feline creatures stand about four feet high and have extremely long ears that are excellent at picking up even the smallest of sounds.

Dreet can communicate with just about any creature that can speak, using its superior intellect to puzzle out the proper linguistics needed for communication.

Over the years, Dreet have become quite skilled at finding Numenera and identifying their uses.

Motive: To survive
Environment: The Tithe and Armand Rivers
Health: 8
Damage Inflicted: 2
Armor: None
Movement: Long
Modifications: Knowledge of Numenera as level 6, Defends as level 5 due to camouflage, Percieves as Level 6
Combat: Dreet rarely engage in combat unless absolutely needed.
Interaction:
Use: When the PCs are traveling across the Tithe River they come across a herd of Dreet that are moving as fast and quietly as possible away from an errant Herder that has decided the creatures need to moved further away from the river, away from the vital nutrients that sustain their lives. The Dreet can offer sage advice on Numenera devices, or perhaps point the PCs towards a complex that is controlling the Herders.
Loot: The shores of a Dreet haunt are sometimes littered with 1d6+1 cyphers.

GM Intrusion: A PCs stumbles across a Dreet, accidentally exposing its hiding place to a predator that was stalking it. The Dreet is extremely angry with the PC.

Sopoforic Pollen

Environmental GM Intrusion

While exploring a strange looking forest, the PC causes an exotic plant to emit a toxic pollen that has a soporific effect. The character's aggressiveness is greatly decreased, causing any Might task that the PC spends Effort on to have an Initial Cost of 1. The effect lasts for 1d6 hours. During that time, the PC must consume twice the amount of food that they normally would.

The Doppelganger Effect

Glimmer

The PCs are traveling along a road, or even in a city when they come across two people fighting, one savagely mauling the other.

A quick level 2 Intellect task quickly reveals that the two people are twins. Not only are they twins, they are exact duplicates, down to every article of clothing.

If the PCs are able to break the fight up (the person that is being attacked will die without their help, after which the doppelganger dies as well), they find that the aggressive person has strange white eyes, and becomes violently enraged when they see their twin.

To make matters worse if the PCs harm the strange doppelganger any damage they inflict they upon the doppelganger will also be inflicted on the person who's form it assumed.

When questioned about how this happened the original person that was copied points the PCs to a strange device that he found nearby. After touching the device, the doppelganger appeared and became enraged upon seeing him. It chased him until it finally caught up with him.

The doppelganger will not speak or communicate with the PCs, or anyone else for that matter. If left to its own devices, it will continue to seek out its twin.

Important Questions

• What, if anything, can be done about the doppelganger? 
• How will this effect the person that was copied?
• Could the original device help undo this?
• Could this device be used as a weapon, or should it be destroyed?

You rolled a 1.. again? (Part I)

When preparing a Numenera adventure, I always write down a few intrusions that are relevant to the environment or story that I'm trying to convey to the players.   Before I started writing these ideas down, I would invariably forget to give a couple of players an intrusion, causing an inequitable distribution of experience points in the group.

Writing these intrusions ahead of time gave me more freedom to focus my creativity on conveying the world and interesting characters that the players encountered. I'm also pretty good at handling impromptu intrusions based on the characters actions.  I thought I was as prepared as a GM could be... until I encountered "that" player.  That player happened to be my son. On two separate occasions, he rolled five ones in one encounter. The first one was funny and I came up with something pretty fast. "Okay, your weapon flies free from your grasp and lands a few feet a way, it will take an action to get it back".. or.. "the last cypher injection that you took had some kind of strange effect on you, your next task has an increased difficulty of one"... "or you trip and fall"..  It can be taxing to dole out a high number of memorable or meaningful intrusions in one encounter.

There are a couple of ways to handle that many player created intrusions.  Monte Cook Games  recently released a fantastic GM Intrusions Deck. Having these cards at the table is like having an extra GM there helping you come up with ideas when you need a helping hand.

While the GM Intrusion deck is great, I have found another way to handle player rolled intrusions using Dungeon World's GM Moves list.  A GM Move is essentially an action that a GM can make in response to the player failing a roll. So basically, its just like a player rolling a one.

Dungeon World GM Moves

• Use a monster, danger, or location move
• Reveal an unwelcome truth
• Show signs of an approaching threat
• Deal damage
• Use up their resources
• Turn their move back on them
• Separate them
• Give an opportunity that fits a class’ abilities
• Show a downside to their class, race, or equipment
• Offer an opportunity, with or without cost
• Put someone in a spot
• Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask

As you can see, these moves are very much like intrusions. Print out this list and tape it to your GM screen and you will never run out of good ideas when your players roll too many ones!

Happy GM'ing!