Suspended by thousands of metal cables over a metal-rimmed pit of unknown (but considerable) depth, Derris Keep is an
extremely defensible sphere of metal and synth. A bridge connects the side of the pit to the only entrance into the keep, which is guarded by a flying, invisible automaton made of solidified air. The door opens only at the touch of someone who
sincerely means no harm to those inside.
The lords of Derris Keep are a strange group of self- proclaimed nobles wielding fantastic powers. These figures joined forces decades ago to separate themselves from the rest of society. Together, they possess knowledge that no one
else in all the Ninth World knows, and they do not part with it freely or easily.
One of the lords of Derris Keep is a creature named Fegorl. He is an apelike humanoid with powerful mech arms and an almost rodentlike head with teeth that look like they’d be useful for gnawing through solid rock. Fegorl is a metalworker, perfecting alloys that
Gulamma: level 9; transformative touch can inflict 12 points of damage
Fegorl: level 7, materials knowledge as level 10; health 30; Armor 3; bite for 10 points of damage
Cabron: level 3, perception and balance as level 4; Armor 2 Cabron poison: level 3; victims have a hard time speaking and move at half speed, and the difficulty of their tasks is increased by four steps; lasts about five minutes
Fellitha: level 6, perception and stealth as level 7; Armor 3; always carries at least two different detonation cyphers with her
The cables suspending the keep, as well as the outer shell of the keep itself, are level 8.
Air automaton: level 6, attacks and Speed defense as level 8 due to invisibility; Armor 3
The third of the lords is Hnuth, a man whose entire body has been replaced with grains of silicate, every one of which his mind controls as if it were a separate limb. Thus, his body flows with elegant precision and can take any general shape he desires. He has a powerful telepathic mind and enjoys crafting numenera devices that involve mental processes. He understands the secrets of the mind, thought, and psychic powers perhaps better than anyone else in the Ninth World.
Hnuth creates weapons called memory launchers. These cyphers look a bit like ray projectors, but they must be “fed” a memory, which is consumed from the user’s brain forever. Once fed, the weapon launches a ball of energy at a selected target within long range. It deals 7 points of damage, and the damage type is based on the memory in some way. Hnuth always carries a memory launcher, and he has at least three or four more secreted about the keep.
NEVOLUIN
The southern edge of the Glass Sea becomes a marshland that stretches for miles. In the middle of the marsh lies a small town called Nevoluin. Thirty-five hundred people make their homes here, most of them hunters, fisherfolk, and farmers. Nevoluin hunters are falconers and bring down prey with blue-tipped falcons, which have eyes all around their heads.
Nevoluin would be unremarkable except for the kodestri—nests of dried reeds and plants built by invisible creatures called vamrei in the swampland around town. The kodestri, once completed, float like balloons or clouds above the ground, drifting in the gentle breeze. Within the nests dwell the vamrei, although what they do inside is unknown. Any other living creature that enters a kodestri disappears, reappearing in that same spot two or three days later (after the kodestri has drifted away). The creature has no memory of anything that happened, but somehow the memories of other events in its life are heightened. Things forgotten are now remembered; faces, names, and
Hnuth: level 8; regenerates 10 points of health per round; can take any shape, even flattening as thin as paper; can communicate mentally with anyone within 1,000 miles (1,609 km) or forcefully read the mind of anyone within long range Blue-tipped falcon: level 2, perception and Speed defense as level 4, attacks as level 3
events from the past seem recent and clear. Creatures that experience this effect multiple times slowly become altered. While their memories and intelligence sharpen, they become distant and disinterested in the world. The experience eventually turns addicting, and it becomes what they crave more than anything else.
Vamrei are thought by many to be primordial spirits of the land. These same people believe that Nevoluin and the kodestri are the true heart of Lostrei. The believers make a pilgrimage to these lands, not to the city of Cheloh, to enter a kodestri and undertake “the disappearance,” which is considered a sacred act.
Kodestri are usually found floating amid the bioluminescent mollusks that reach the surface of the shallow marsh water and extend up into the air at twilight. These creatures are called glowspurts and are said to be beloved by the vamrei. Birds in the area frequently make nests atop the kodestri, which doesn’t seem to disturb the invisible creatures within.
GLASS SEA HEARSAY
The Hunt: The Lords of Derris Keep have sent word to the surrounding lands that somewhere in Lostrei is a jeweled automaton in the shape of a bird. Anyone who can find it, capture it, and bring it to the keep will be rewarded with a treasure unlike anything else in the Ninth World. Spider Eruptions: Small mounds have begun appearing around the shores of the sea, growing steadily until they reach the size of a small house. At this point, they burst like a bubble, and spiders of varying sizes spray outward, gushing like a squirming fountain. The spiders are poisonous and hungry, swarming over any living creatures that get in their path. Some of the spiders are the size of two outstretched hands, but most are just an inch or two across. That’s little solace when they burst out in the hundreds of thousands.
THE WEIRD OF THE GLASS SEA
Blue Teeth: In the last twenty years, about one in five children born in or near Nevoluin has had dark blue bones and developed blue teeth. No one knows why. The change seems to be merely cosmetic, as far as anyone can tell.
Glass Fish: Frequently, when fisherfolk haul in their nets, one or two of the catch will actually be made of glass, useless and inedible. These glass fish are usually thrown back into the sea, for it is said that if one keeps such a creature after it dies, she slowly gains knowledge she would rather not have.
Most of the creatures in the Steadfast and the Beyond (even the visitants) can also be found in Lostrei, although with exceptions and in different frequencies.
Cheloh, page 107 Those who do not adhere to the Gaians’ animistic beliefs see the vamrei as very likely extraterrestrial or ultraterrestrial in origin.
Dear Fabriol,
There is so much blood. What else can one say about a place such as this, where everything, even the sky, turns a bloody red, as though the volcanoes themselves chew giant creatures alive and expel their insides into the air?
The rulers of the Steadfast fear the war of the Gaians, a war that will never come. What they should fear is these monsters (I cannot bring myself to call them humans). And yet, no one I have ever talked to has mentioned them, or given any indication that they are known to exist.
Is it my duty to warn them of this impending doom that surely will come west to decimate the very essence of the world that we know? Or am I merely here as an observer, to watch and record the future that I know will come to pass?
~Naind Oreni, from an unfinished and unsent letter