Numenera 2: Out into the world.

Scene: The handsome man grabs the oversized metallic hand before the knife fingers can slash his throat. With a twist of his hips and a powerful yank, the arm detaches from the cybernetic humanoid who reels back in shock. The man hurls the still grasping arm at the surprised construct as it wildly ignites a cutting laser beam from one baleful mechanical eye. His cry of defiance as the beam misses him is muted as his throat pushes out a wave of the breathable superfluid in which he exists.

/recordscratch

“Yep, that’s me, Germain. Right now I’m fighting for my life at a nanoscale against cybernetic-saboteurs who are infesting a giant drug-addicted symbiotic life form that I helped rescue from a gravity-controlling would-be despot while searching the world for the means to defend my hometown against semi-mythical celestial slavers. You might be wondering how I got here…”

I have a LOT to recap, having fallen so far behind with recaps that… I have no idea how to start.

In short:

• They assembled to investigate a complex beneath the Inert Cylinder that dominates the sub-settlement of Sham.
• They discovered that the complex housed a time manipulation device and that it warned them of impending doom/maybe caused the impending doom.
• After some deliberations the Council of Elders sent them out beyond the borders of the Makhtesh and find… something, anything to help them avoid the terrible fate foretold by the time machine.
• They journeyed down the Peristaltic Funicular through the mountain and travelled across country to the settlement of Glawv and made contact with the nearby Clave.
• They saved Glawv from the predations of a wannabe Warlord, Halcus, destroyed his warband and rescued a Lattimor who had been held hostage.
• They accompanied the Lattimor home to help him get healed of the various cruel things done to him and in doing so gained restricted access to an archive of technology.
• They got a quick ride to a not-that-nearby city of Tilt which has a University and a LOT of religions.

So how is their Initial Goal of finding a way to prevent the devastation of Lone going?

• They have figured out that the timeline manipulation is REAL dangerous and seems to have accidentally erased Shaar Greyfeather, the Pletbird Poulterer who owned (and used) the tunnel they initially explored. Not only is Shaar not there, people don’t remember him and as far as they all remember, everyone takes care of the Pletbird flock communally.
• They’re racking up Allies: Councillor Acobe went along with their crazy plan to trick their past selves into going and fucking with a time-machine; relic delver Tsuro turned out to be Father Bazzurro of the Order of Truth; she knew a Clave of other (much less useful) Aeon Priests two of which are headed to Lone; the townsfolk of Glawv are grateful and willing to open up trade for their weird malleable amber goods; Vo-Hurrin, the rescued Lattimor, and (to a much lesser extent) his roomie, Dillom collect and store an absolute treasure trove of Numenera plans.
• They’ve made an enemy too. The proto-warlord Halcus is a member of the Sisters of the Eclipse, a network of criminals and marauder gangs. While the drug-peddling Sisters are found throughout the great valley beneath the Makhtesh, the characters don’t seem to have attracted attention beyond the ire of Halcus, who probably turbohates them.
• They’ve secured sources of large edible birds with flammable feathers and malleable amber glass, just in case that’s ever important.