Along the eastern shore of Augh-Chass, the area known as Watcher’s Row sits near the water. This long line of towering machines isn’t ancient; in fact, they all seem to have been built or placed there within the past hundred years, but no one can remember what they are supposed to do or how they got there. If you ask around, most people will say, “They’ve always been there.” But with a little more probing, people will likely concede that they don’t remember Each gedyr has its favorite way of hunting:
some trap creatures and drag them down to their city in the sea, others use their claws, and still others use custom-built melee weapons, typically bludgeoning types.
It is possible to reason with a gedyr. They have a great deal of respect for intelligence and creativity, but they don’t believe that humans have those skills. A smart, quick- thinking human might surprise a gedyr into letting her live, but probably only if she agrees to let the gedyr test her mental capacities for a while first.
CES
Located just off the northwestern shore of Dyn’s Scar, Ces might claim to be a town, but it is really the sprawling habitation of Trau Yad, his children, his employees and servants, and his many bonebreakers. The city is built of concentric rings, each one larger and tougher than the last. In the outermost circle live the bonebreakers, shin traders, and quaaenit, then Yad’s employees, then his servants, then his children, and finally himself, in the smallest,
OMARIS
Located along the northwest border of the Cays, Omaris is the third largest of the islands. Its surface is scarred with hundreds of miles of deep, wide trenches called kibics. These open tunnels crisscross the island, in some places up to a mile wide and nearly half a mile deep (1.6 by 0.8 km).
The floors of the tunnels are made of a soft and porous silvery material that sometimes acts like firmly packed sand and other times like warm tar. No matter its state, it constantly bubbles with tiny holes, each about the size a human thumb. All year long, the holes release a viscous burgundy liquid called glaili, sometimes in small amounts and sometimes in geysers that shoot syrupy streams. A group of nanos in the area who call themselves the glaili strippers have discovered that if they compress glaili inside machines with great force over a long period of time, the liquid turns into something else. They haven’t perfected the process, however; glaili might become a hard lump that can be used to power numenera devices, or it might turn into a device itself. More often than not, it compresses to a lump of pretty, but utterly useless, blood-red stone.
The walls of the kibics are made of a thick the machines always being there, but that
must have been the case because no one remembers their construction.
The machines are doing something—from the outside, it’s easy to hear a low gurgling, as if listening to a stomach digesting its last meal—but anyone who attempts to touch one hears a deafening tone inside his mind. There are no words, but the mental squeal is enough to deter even the hardiest of explorers. That, of course, doesn’t prevent people from attempting to uncover the secret of the watchers, using any devices they can get their hands on to try to overcome the high-pitched defenses.
A group of people have become obsessed with the machines and have built a small town under the southernmost structure. Some believe that the machines hold gods that must be worshipped, others think they are crashed ships that house creatures from another world, and some want to crack them open for the treasures they believe exist inside. In attempts to breach the machines’ defenses, the obsessed have built a number of devices, and some have even blinded themselves, deafened themselves, or tried to give themselves (or each other) lobotomies.
AUGH-CHASS HEARSAY
Shifting Tide: Citizens of Lytum, a town along the western shore of Augh-Chass, are planning a revolt on a nearby group of bonebreakers. The bonebreakers have set up a temporary camp while they search for a well-known thief. Either group would gratefully accept help—and would probably offer something interesting as thanks. Star Charts: An ancient augury named Boath claims that his most recent star chart reading suggests that the Slavering Falls soon will rise and fall in the same day, something that has never happened before. He foretells that the unexpected movement will bring unusual treasures from the deepest sea.
THE WEIRD OF AUGH-CHASS
Broken Connections: There are whispers that Yad’s children are only sometimes conjoined and that the youngest of the three (by about a minute) occasionally disconnects from the others and wanders the shores of Dyn’s Scar, talking into a white box.
A Ring of Tremors: A broken circle of brilliant purple stones welcomes any who set foot within it by shaking the visitors drastically, as if they’ve stepped into a contained earthquake. Most people report a sense of completeness after the experience, but others find that their nails turn bright red and begin to curl.
There is an ancient tale of a horrible flood of glaili that comes once every few hundred years, running through the tunnels with a bestial roar, wiping out everything and everyone in its path. No one alive on the island remembers living through such a thing, so it has passed into legend and myth. Creatures called ern sharcey thrive in dark, damp corners of kibics. These cup-shaped beings grow up to 2 feet (0.6 m) in diameter and spend their short lives rooted to a single place, where they sing to any who pass by. The songs remind listeners of the best moments of their childhood, and they feel compelled to leave one of their most valued possessions inside the creature’s “cup.” Any deposited items disappear instantly, as if warped from existence. Anyone who touches the rim of an ern sharcey momentarily feels as if she were a child again, experiencing great joy but also finding that the difficulty of all tasks is increased by one step for the next ten minutes. Ern sharcey: level 3, tasks related to persuasion as level 5
participants in the “finishing school.” The current leader is a woman named
Gyliam Liamsel, who was captured as a young child and raised within the order. To prove her devotion and gain her rank, she killed her parents and her cousin while they were in finishing school, becoming the youngest leader at the age of 13. She is now nearly 80 and growing frail, but she is not ready to give up her position.
Racknage scholars dress in rusty orange tranirs, a type of robe that puffs out to give them the shape of a spherical body, and their weapons of choice are rondirs. Created by prisoners of the finishing school, these small throwing globes explode upon impact and then put themselves back together. As part of their vows, scholars are also trained with a variety of melee weapons and many kinds of numenera devices.
The order resides in the sprawling ruin that makes up Acknyt. The scholars believe it was once a university of great renown, although its structure and size indicate that if someone did study there, they were likely not humans as the Ninth World knows them today. The walls and floors are sloped at unusual angles and inlaid with sharp points of clear metal, the remaining ceilings stand just 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and the doorways are all tall, thin triangles, about 6 inches (15 cm) wide at the base. Needless to say, the ruins are no longer used for their original purpose—whatever that was. Instead, the scholars have built upon the ancient structures, while attempting to preserve them as much as possible.
The most important place in Acknyt is the Tomb of the World, a large pit, nearly 150 feet (46 m) across and endlessly deep, in which a bright orange globe floats. Every morning before they begin their work, scholars gather at the tomb and stand in silent prayer, waiting for the first shadow to fall upon the globe. When that happens, the globe projects hieroglyphs onto the faces of all living creatures within a half-mile radius, “blessing them with knowledge.” Each time this happens, each scholar receives a small amount of information from the symbols on her face; however, each person learns something different about a different topic, golden cement inlaid with elaborate designs—
spots of light that blink and utter guttural growls, indentations that appear to be the fossilized remains of plants and animals that are extinct or never existed, ancient languages scrawled and carved, and bits of technology and unusual natural elements sunk into the surface. The walls shine in places, reflecting light to produce elaborate sun patterns. In other places, the material seems designed to absorb light, creating spots of deep shadow and utter darkness.
Sliding panels, giant hinged doors, and enormous apertures are scattered along the floor and walls of the trenches. Many of these passages can still be opened, often to reveal large, complicated underground structures. Some are filled with the remains of the dead or the remnants of abandoned cities, ripe for the picking. Others reveal more dangerous opportunities: still-thriving civilizations, unusual ecosystems filled with unknown plants and creatures, or ancient machines that continue to churn out bizarre devices, automatons, or other bits of the numenera—not to mention other humans and sentient beings who also search behind the closed doors.
ACKNYT
Here lies all the knowledge of the world Buried deep within its tomb
It waits for our hands It waits for our hearts It waits for our heads It waits for our will
We will know it as we know ourselves, and better still.
~Racknage prayer said at the Tomb of the World
A place that prides itself on scholarly learning and, more importantly, the active dissemination of that information, Acknyt is home to the order that calls itself Racknage, or “scholars of the world.” Those who take the vow of Racknage promise to discover, preserve, and share the true knowledge of the world, at any cost. Those who do not wish to learn the truth of the world are put to death quickly and quietly (or sometimes slowly and loudly) or brought back to Acknyt as unwilling
Gyliam Liamsel: level 4; Armor 2; wears two numenera slugspitters on her hips that auto-aim for the target’s eyes (creatures that fail a Speed defense roll take 4 points of damage and are blinded for one round)
In combat, blinded combatants use the same rules as if their target was invisible.
Racknage scholar: level 3, all tasks involving deciphering codes and using or understanding the numenera as level 5; Armor 1 Rondirs are marble-sized
orbs that can be thrown or launched, causing 4 points of explosive damage to everyone in immediate distance. After they detonate, they take one round to rebuild themselves. In most places, scholars
have covered the sharp points of the walls and floors with a clear gel that hardens to protect those who use the space. However, rumor has it that some areas have been left untouched and are used for training, discipline, and information gathering.
Invisible target, page 96