Continuing their adventure, the team of the Toybox travels through the forest towards Furtarntia. In their journey, they face a fierce and giant monster. In town, they try to learn more about their situation as well as to warn the people of the impending attack by the League of Chimera.
What follows is an account of the events during a session of my Toybox Campaign. This summary is written out in a prose format which may, for the sake of telling a story to a wider audience, take liberties with the events. Any internal thoughts I portray the characters as having are my assumptions rather than confirmed by my players. Any future conflicts of personality are more likely a result of my assumptions, rather than actual player inconsistency.
If you want to stay updated on the events of the Toybox crew, but don't want to read through the whole prose write-up, a summary follows at the end.
If you want to start the story from the beginning, check out the first episode.
If you want to see what just happened, check out the previous episode.
If you want to continue the story, check out the next episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
Episode Main Cast
Episode 104
Catching Up
Before they could examine the body, however, from the red energy leapt another figure: User, with both his weapons drawn and ready for battle. When he saw that there was no battle to be fought, he lowered the weapons.
"What's wrong with him?" User asked, looking down at Jack's body.
"He showed up at the same time you did," Katrin answered.
"Oh," User answered. "He wasn't in the Toybox."
"No, we sort of...got separated," Alal explained. "He and Clio went after our friend in blue."
"You split up?" User asked.
"Something like that," Alal said.
"So what are we going to do about him?" User asked, nodding towards Jack.
"We could try to carry him with us," Katrin said.
"Oh!" Alal chimed in with sudden realization. "If the Toybox called him to us for getting too far away, we could just bring the Toybox with us and the nanotech tether will just bring him along."
"That might not be the best idea, since it seems like he got knocked out and maybe hurt by that tether," the well-dressed woman said.
"Yeah, I'll see if I can help get him up," Alal said, kneeling down over Jack's body to check his vitals.
Meanwhile, User looked to Scarlet. "Can I hold the Toybox for a while?" he asked. She had picked it up after it had shrunk back to it's 3in x 3in size and put it into her bag. She looked at User for a moment, meeting his stare.
"Sure," she shrugged, reaching into her bag and fishing out the cube. She handed it to User, who put it into his own pack.
"Hey," Jack was saying, sitting up. "That wasn't fun."
"I guess now we know not to get too far from the Toybox," Alal offered. Jack nodded.
"Let's keep going," Katrin said.
"Where are we going?" User asked.
"Furatarntia," Scarlet offered.
"We're going to see the Aeon Priest there," Alal explained. "Hopefully they can tell us something about the Toybox."
User nodded, and the group set out for what little was left of the day.
Brain Food
As night began to fall, the team set up their campsite: a fire around which they could set up their sleeping rolls. They divided the night into three watches: the well-dressed woman, who had decided to go by Sara, and Katrin; Jack and Alal; and Scarlet and User.
"Okay, you guys are pretty smart," Scarlet said to Jack and Alal. "And you seem to have a decent control of the nanotech, but you also don't wear armor and aren't as physically hearty as some of the rest of the team."
"Yeah," Alal said. "Putting the two wizards on watch together may not be the brightest idea."
"What about Mizuki?" the well-dressed woman asked.
"Hmm?" Mizuki asked.
"Why don't you go on watch with them?"
"Oh, sure. I can do that," Mizuki answered with a smile.
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| Image by Scott Purdy See more at: http://scottpurdy.deviantart.com/ |
Sara and Katrin's watch went quietly, as did that of Jack, Alal and Mizuki. User and Scarlet's watch was coming to an end when they saw a monster come out of the shadows. It was green with six pincer-like legs, a fierce mouth with sharp teeth, and several round orange bulbs upon its back.
"Guys!" Scarlet called out. "Wake up! We've got company!"
As the others groggily woke up, the monster crouched low to the ground. Several of the orange bulbs launched off of its back. Where they came down, they burst open and small creatures that looked like brains floated in the air.
Katrin drew her daggers from beside her sleeping roll and charged the beast, swinging both her blades. The first made contact with the beast, but she could feel some of the blow absorbed by it's caripiece. The second missed the creature altogether.
User drew out a cypher he'd been carrying and activated it, generating a shield of nanotech around himself. Meanwhile, Sara began to launch into an encouraging speach, filling the team with confidence in their ability to strike down this monster.
Scarlet ran up alongside Katrin. She threw one punch at the creature and it shifted quickly out of the way on it's pincer-like legs. However, it wasn't fast enough, and her second punch made contact. She was amazed that striking such a hard thing didn't hurt her hand at all.
Jack and Alal each focused their minds on the creature. Jack caused the nanotech around the creature to strike it, while Alal sent shadows into the creature's mind to strike it from within. Alal could feel the brain-creatures trying to strike back at them in response, but he knew that at least his mind was too strong for their feeble strikes. The creature squealed in pain at these unseen strikes and lunged forward at nearer and more visible opponents.
The creature's teeth latched onto Katrin, digging in deep and refusing to let go. She pulled against the creature's grip, but it was firm. Reaching her arm back into her pack, Katrin found a small glass orb with gas trapped inside. She smashed the orb against the creature's head. As the gas was forming, Scarlet rushed forward and bashed the creature in the mouth. It let go of Katrin just in time.
Everyone near the gas from Katrin's cypher saw it turn into an abomination. A terrible creature of nightmares. Both parties fled from this abhorrent thing. When the Toybox crew had gotten some distance away, they could see that it was just gas-apparently mind-affecting gas. However, the monsters had run away and not looked back.
When they felt safe that the creatures weren't going to return, Jack raised his hands over Katrin's wounds. The power of the nanotech flowed through him, and she felt the wounds come to be healed.
When they felt safe that the creatures weren't going to return, Jack raised his hands over Katrin's wounds. The power of the nanotech flowed through him, and she felt the wounds come to be healed.
"Well," Jack said. "I don't think I'm going to get back to sleep after that."
Into Town
Evening was setting upon the land as the crew of the Toybox and Mizuki, their guide, drew near to the city of Furatarntia. The buildings were blocky. None were particularly tall, but they were larger than most of the structures conducted out in the wilds of Vendernovem. To some degree, they looked like structures that were found in some of the ancient ruins with the notable difference of not being ruined. They looked clean, new, and uniform. Each was made of the same grey material, with windows of a shimmering mirrored glass.One building stood out amid the sea of similar buildings. It was a large green/purple building in the center of town that was bulbous extending up from the ground.
On the far side of town, a road extended out to the south-east.
"Is that the Prinapoleia?" User asked, nodding towards the abnormal building.
"Yeah," Mizuki answered.
"Why does it look different?" Jack asked.
"Well, it was here before the rest of the town was built," Mizuki said. "It wasn't built by Mirkibri; we just built Furatarntia around it."
"I see," Jack answered.
"What are you going to do?" Sara asked.
"Oh, I'm going to go to the W.R.E.N.C.H. assembly in town to give them the flatpacks we found," Mizuki said. "You guys can come with me if you want."
"Yes, that could be useful," Alal said.
W.R.E.N.C.H. Assembly
"Come in," said the voice from inside. They entered and were met by an older man. His face and arms were covered in scars. One of his legs had been replaced with a wooden alternative. Nonetheless, he smiled when he saw Mizuki. "What did you find?"
"I found two flatpacks," she explained, drawing them out of her pack.
"That's excellent," he answered, taking them from her. He went over to a machine along the wall of the room and pressed the first one up to it. A nearby screen displayed an image of a building that looked something like a hospital. He touched the next pack to the machine, and an image like a tower showed on the monitor. He took the packs and set them on the desk before turning to look at the Toybox crew.
"So, who are these people?" the man asked.
"They saved me," Mizuki said. "And they helped get the flatpacks. And they defended me from a monster attack on our way back to the city."
"Well," the man said, turning to face the crew. "You have my thanks. My name is Kuro. I run the W.R.E.N.C.H. assembly here. Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"If you have a place we could sleep, that'd be appreciated," Scarlet said.
"Of course, I'll send word ahead to Ayano. Is there anything else I can do?"
"Do you know where Orrila is?" User asked.
"Orrila..." Kuro's voice trailed off as he thought. "Ah, yes, the capital of Milave. I know of it. I've not been there myself. Most of my interactions with people outside of the city are with people from back home. I don't deal much with the rest of the civilized world."
"Do you know how far away it is?" User pressed.
"I don't know exactly," Kuro said. "It's quite a ways southeast of here. A long journey, to be sure. Is there anything else?"
"Yes," Alal said. "Do you know of the League of Chimera?"
"Yes," Kuro answered. "They're a gang of mutants. I've dealt with them before. They're pests. Why do you ask?"
"We found this note," Alal said. He began to pat the pockets of his robes searching for it, but to no avail. "Did our friend in blue have it?"
"Nothing," Katrin corrected.
"What?" Alal asked.
"He said he was called 'Nothing,'" Katrin explained.
"We're not calling him nothing, it would be too confusing." Alal said. "Anyway, we found a note saying that they were infiltrating the city and that they wanted to take over the Prinapolia."
"I see," Kuro said. "Well, I'll have some people look into it."
"We found the note on the body of a mutant who was controlling a group of abhumans," Alal explained, trying to stress the significance.
"Yes, well, these pests do like to build their little nests," Kuro said. "I'm sure they won't be much trouble."
And then Sara began to talk. Sara had a gift for speaking and getting people to tell her the truth about things. She could get them to say more than they would otherwise, and often not even realize they had said it. She got Kuro to talk about his past experiences with the League, and about how he knew of particular League members who were present in the town. He was watching those he didn't find to be threatening in hopes that if there was a real threat, they would lead him to it. He really did think they were just a small threat, not worth too much concern.
"Thank you for your time," she said at last. "We're going to go talk to the Aeon Priest now."
"Yes, of course," Kuro said.
Prinapolia
As they were leaving the headquarters, User spoke to Sara."You should use that speaking ability of yours all the time," User said.
"Yeah," Sara answered. "It is useful, but it also drains me. I think I could really only talk like that so many times in a day."
"I see," User said.
"Did he seems just really unconcerned about the whole 'mutants want to destroy your city' thing?" Jack asked. "Like, suspiciously so? Him and Mizuki both, right?"
"They're not suspicious," User said. "They're just hyper-optimistic."
When they arrived at the eye-sore of a structure in the middle of town, they found that where a door should have been, there was simply a green bubble. Alal examined the bubble for a moment, then raised his hand and knocked upon it.
A few moments later, the bubble oozed downwards to the ground, and they were met by a young man, probably around fifteen years old. He wore older clothes and it was hard to say if they were brown naturally or because of exposure to dirt.
"How can I help you?" he asked.
"We're looking for the Aeon Priest, Lorinda," Alal said.
"Oh," the man said. "Follow me."
They followed him in through the Prinapolia. The hallways of the building all appeared to be round, with walls that looked somewhat liquidy. Regardless of the texture of the walls, it was clear that they were moving.
Eventually the paths lead to a larger, domed room. Some of the walls in this room caved in, forming shelves, upon which there were many books. A woman wearing an Aeon Priest's robes stood atop a ladder near one of the shelves, looking at one of these books.
The young man cleared his throat.
"Yes, what is it? I am really very..." as she turned to look at the young man, she spotted us. "Ah, we have visitors! Hello, I'm Lorinda. How may I help you?"
"We wanted to warn you," Alal said.
"Warn me? Of what?"
"We found a note left by the League of Chimera that talks about their intentions to take control of this building," Alal explained. "We told the people at the W.R.E.N.C.H. headquarters about it, but they didn't seem too concerned. Since it affects you directly, we figured we would let you know."
"Ah, I see," Lorinda said, concern showing on her face at least a little more than it had on Kuro's. "Well, I'll have to look into this and try to make sure that we're ready here. I thank you for letting me know."
"Do you know anything about the Aeon Priests in Orrila?" Katrin asked.
"Orrila?" Lorinda questioned. "That's a ways away. I've not been there, but I understand that they have a decent sized facility there. Why?"
"No reason," Katrin said.
"We lost our memories," Jack started.
"He lost his memory," Alal cut in.
"Right," Jack said. "I lost my memory."
"Do you know what might have caused that sort of thing?" Alal asked.
"Sure," Lorinda answered. "There's any number of nanotech device that might affect one's mind or memory. We understand so little of the technologies of the past, some objects may have been purposed to do that sort of thing, while others may have memory loss as an unintended side effect based on the influence that time and deterioration have had on it."
"Do you know any way of reversing it?" Jack asked.
"There may be a way," Lorinda said. "But I don't have the knowledge or tools to do it here. Orrila may have the technology to do it, if that's why you ask about them. However, I can't promise that they would have that capability."
"User, why don't you have her look at that thing you're carrying, in your bag," Katrin suggested. User shot her a quick glare before reaching into his bag.
"What can you tell me about this?" he asked, drawing out a glass prism. Lorinda took it and looked it over.
"It's a glass prism that produces a bunch of different smells," she said, handing it back to him.
"Not that thing," Katrin said. "The *other* thing you're carrying."
User sighed and brought out the shrunken Toybox. He handed it to Lorinda. She looked it over carefully. Unsatisfied, she took it over to her desk and looked at it, using many tools and lenses. She brought it back to User and handed it to him.
"I'm not sure what this is," she said. "I don't have the tools to analyze it properly here, but I can tell you that it's a very powerful artifact with many different nanotech effects built into it."
"Do you know who might have the tools to analyze it?" User asked.
"I don't know," she said. "Orrila might. Maybe you could even go to Qi."
"Do you know of anywhere closer?" Alal asked.
"Well, there's always Yrkallak Tower," Lorinda offered. "It's a place of great learning and study. They might have the tech to look at it."
"How far away is that?" Alal asked.
"Oh, probably a week to a week and a half south east of here," Lorinda said.
"Is it on the way to Orrila?" Alal asked.
"Sure, depending on what way you're taking," Lorinda shrugged.
"Great, I think that's all we need for now," Alal said.
"Okay. Well, have a good night!"
The Message
The next day, the Toybox crew woke up ready and excited to set off on their journey to Yrkallak Tower. As they left the hostel, they saw a crowd gathering on the city street. User pushed his way through the crowd to see what it was that was attracting this much attention. When he saw it, his face fell.An oval-shaped automaton with eight long mechanical legs-like a spider-stood in the middle of the crowd, about half the height of a normal person. Coming from the top of the automaton was a flag which bore one word on it: "User."
Sighing, User stepped through the crowd towards the automaton. It stopped when he drew near, and a red light flashed, scanning him. A hatch under the automaton opened, and a small scroll rolled out. User picked up the scroll, and the automaton scurried away through the crowd.
User and the rest of the Toybox crew separated themselves from the crowd before reading the note where they couldn't be overheard. It read:
“User and friends,
It is of great importance that we meet soon. I will be waiting for you at Morio Tower, to the south of Furatarntia. We have all the time in the world, so we must act quickly.
-Mr. F.”
"I get it," User said. "He says we have all the time in the world, so we must act quickly because the world's going to end. Clever."
Episode Summary
- The team is attacked in the night by an odd monstrous creature
- The team arrives in Furatarntia where they accompany Mizuki to the W.R.E.N.C.H. assembly in town.
- The team discusses the plot of the League of Chimera with Kuro, the leader of the W.R.E.N.C.H. assembly in town.
- The team goes to see the Aeon Priest Lorrinda to warn her about the League's plot and to try to gain information about Orrila and the rest of their plight.
- Lorrinda points them towards Yrkallak Tower a place of great learning and study.
- Before the team can leave town, they find an automaton bearing a flag with User's name on it. The automaton delivers a note calling "User and Friends" to come and meet the note's writer in a place called Morio Tower.
If you want to start the story from the beginning, check out the first episode.
To continue the story, go to the next episode: Episode 105: "I wish I had a Real Name"
If you want to see what happened immediately previously, check out the previous episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
To continue the story, go to the next episode: Episode 105: "I wish I had a Real Name"
If you want to see what happened immediately previously, check out the previous episode.
For more information on the Toybox Campaign, check out the Toybox Homepage.
Numenera, The Strange, the Cypher System, and their respective logos are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Content derived from Monte Cook Games publications is © 2013-2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC.
"Jack asked" sounds a bit like Jack ass. Also, I'm a child lol.
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