The Nightmare Switch: Part 1

Well last night's Numenera game got underway as planned, and it was a blast! I cannot remember having quite as much fun running the game as I did last night, despite the limitations of running over Google Hangouts (which, in honesty aren't that bad). We got started on, and made it about halfway through, the Kickstarter exclusive adventure The Nightmare Switch, and I had a party of three characters taking part in it who break down as follows:

• Nord Dar: A Graceful Glaive who Carries a Quiver
• Cannis: A Rugged Glaive who Howls at the Moon
• "Six": A Mechanical Nano who Rides the Lightning

The adventure started with the characters on the deck of a boat in the canals of Seshar, under the command of a man named Deymish. The players were hired as guards to ensure the boat reaches the village of Redstone safely. I decided to get the game warmed up nice and early and give everyone a chance to experiment with their characters and the rules, so when Nord Dar's player mentioned that there had been no bandits about, I immediately offered a GM intrusion! The player duly accepted and 4 bandits dived from the cliff walls using glider suits (imagine a flying squirrel). Things started swimmingly, with the players all getting the initiative, and Nord Dar scoring a natural 20! I gave him an extra action on his turn for this roll as a major effect and the players set about ridding the boat of bandits. Nord hit one of them with an arrow whilst he was in the air (scoring a groin shot, as dictated by the player) and missing with his second arrow. Cannis made short work of one of the bandits by dropping him in one blow, unarmed (the effects of getting a 19... that +3 points of damage proved lethal). Six attempted to blast one with the power of his mind, but failed his roll, so in fact stared intently at the bandit, to no effect. All of the players managed to dodge the blows from the bandits weapons and launched follow up attacks of their own: once again Cannis dispatched one of the bandits in one blow, this time with his broadsword, and Nord kicked out at the injured one. However poor old six again failed to hit with his Onslaught attack, and the bandit he faced decided that he had had enough of being stared at and walloped Six with a club to the face. The injured bandit fled, deciding this boat was clearly too well defended, leaving one bandit facing 3 armed opponents. Nord thought it best to try a little intimidation to end this situation without further bloodshed, but seeing as he had little skill in intimidation, he decided to scare the bandit with the only thing he knew would work: interpretive dance! Now, I see that this is ridiculous, and I set a difficulty higher than the bandits level (5), which was reduced by Nord's player to 4 for being trained in performing arts. The player rolls.... and comes up with a 15, a success! So disturbing was Nord's noiseless, wordless performance that the bandit threw down his weapon and fled, diving over the edge of the boat without heed for his own safety. From this point on I knew this was going to be  one weird campaign!

With the warm up out of the way, and the players now a little more familiar with how the system worked, I had the boat arrive at Redstone, and the characters helped Deymish offload the medical suppliesd that were his cargo. Carrying them up the slope into the village, the characters noticed that the inhabitants all looked worse for wear: bleary eyed, sleepy, drained; no one looked like they had slept for a week. Deymish spoke to an acquaintance and he relayed the story of the horrible nightmares the whole town had suffered and how some had be driven to flee the village and some even to suicide. This startled the characters, and they questioned this man further, asking if anyone or anything new had arrived recently, or if anything strange had happened. Unfortunately the poor man told them nothing out of the ordinary had happened except the nightmares, and that the whole village would soon be driven mad or worse. Seeing that their was little point trying to dig further with this man the party headed up the hill to the tower of the Aeon Priests to deliver the supplies.

The village of Redstone, where sleep proves a terror.

At the tower they met with a somewhat recalcitrant guard, Hataniah, who told them the priests were busy and they should come back tomorrow. She also told them, no she could not take their delivery. Nord once again decided to try his social skills, this time trying to bribe Hataniah into looking the other way whilst they walked past. However this was a very difficult roll (level 6 = 18 target roll) and Nord failed miserably. The guard's face darkened and she told the characters in no uncertain terms to get lost, which they decided it might be best to do. Heading back to the boat (with their cargo) all were grumbling about not being able to make the delivery. The party thought it best at that point to eat and make a drink with their sole Numenera artifact (a box which produced a mixture of chopped dark brown leaves, which when steeped in water produced a tasty beverage...).

As evening approached the characters, minus Deymish who stayed on his boat, decided to head to the centre of village life, the Redstone Arms tavern. Here they hoped to find more about what was going on, but upon entering they were met by the sight of a half empty tavern, dull eyed patrons, untouched drinks and a bar man slumped over the bar, barely rousing as they entered. Nord, could take the misery no more and thought to lift the spirits with a song. Once again though, Nord had no skill in singing, and no backing music to drown him out. This did not deter him though, and he launched into a rousing song, with Nord's player rolling: a 1!! Free GM Intrusion time (oh dear). Nord's awful caterwauling pushed the bar's occupants over the edge, with several screaming, more weeping and one launching into a bout of cutting himself to escape the horror of their situation. With this awful scene before them, the characters retreated to the boat and thought things might look better in the morning. They bedded down for the night, and one by one dropped off. Then the dream happened....