Mysteries of the Ninth World 24: Mungrun Revisited

a globe floats in the center of a room as a person looks in at it from a hex square in the wall

As they descend into Hell. the adventurers encounter enemies and challenges from scenarios past.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Landan, and Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 23: Back to Hell

Green slime with bones and arrows filling it opens it's maw toward the viewer

Heading into the last arc of this campaign, the party begins to make their way to Hell, hoping to finally stop Dagon and the threat he’s brought to the Ninth World

Note: Some of the imagery in the episode might be upsetting for those with PTSD.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Landan, Michael, and Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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GenCon Interview with Monte Cook about Numenera 2 and Invisible Sun

Covers for Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny

While we were at GenCon last week, we had the chance to sit down with Monte Cook and get some more details about Numenera and Invisible Sun. In this interview, he discusses what the three new character types in the forthcoming Destiny will look like and how they might interact with the types from the core book, whose new incarnation will be called Discovery. We also asked him about how the cards in Invisible Sun will be used and hear about some of the other new products MCG brought to the convention.

Official Numenera 2 Announcement

Image TM and © 2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC

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Homebrew Monsters: Octopus Dragon and Mantis Dragon

A dragon-like sea creature with blue rings, and spikes and 4 legs ending in claw, four ending in tentacles

While the bestiaries for Numenera, The Strange, and Cypher System have plenty of wonderful creatures for your players to encounter, sometimes you see something you know your players need to encounter during their adventures.

A dragon-like sea creature with blue rings, and spikes and 4 legs ending in claw, four ending in tentacles

Octopus Dragon (Level 7)

While it bears little relation to the intelligent octopodes that reside in the deep, the Octopus Dragon was named for it’s resemblance to them. A cunning predator, the Octopus Dragon camouflages itself to match it’s surroundings and ambushes it’s prey. An Octopus Dragon can breath air, but prefers the ocean, where it’s a more effective hunter. Octopodes despise any association with these relatively mindless predators and will pay handsomely to anyone who brings evidence of a successful kill.

Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: Anywhere in the Ocean, Solitary
Health: 35
Damage Inflicted: 8 points
Modifications: Stealth as Level 9, Speed Defense as Level 6 due to size
Movement: Short
Combat: The Octopus Dragon can make two attacks in a round, a bite attack, a claw attack, and/or grabbing with it’s tentacles. The bite attack is venomous and requires a Might Defense roll if the attack succeeds. On a failed roll, the victim becomes respiratory muscles begin to seize up, and breathing becomes difficult. They take an additional 2 points of Intellect Damage (then Might, then Speed) each round as oxygen struggles to make it to their brain. To stop the progress of the venom, someone must pass a level 6 heal check, assisting with false respiration.
The tentacle attack prevents the Octopus Dragon from moving, but allows it to grab onto a target, increasing the difficulty of avoiding it’s bite or claws by two levels. To avoid being grabbed, the adventurer must succeed on a Might Defense roll, level 7.
Interaction: The Octopus Dragon is not intelligent like the Octopodes it resembles. It cannot be reasoned with. Patient predators, they use their superior camouflage abilities to blend in the with terrain and attack when prey draws near.
Use: When a party is investigating something on the sea floor or in a coral reef, the Octopus Dragon might be laying in wait. They are drawn to numenera, or semi-precious jewels, and will kill to add them to their hoard.
Loot: Like most dragons, the Octopus Dragon keeps a hoard, usually in a nearby cave. While typically composed of pearls and shells, adventurers may also find several oddities, 2d20 abadis, 2-3 cyphers or even an artifact in the hoard. If time is taken, a careful explorer might be able to extract enough venom for three uses from the mouth of the Octopus Dragon.
GM Intrusion: The PC fails to realize that the Octopus Dragon has another limb that has been camouflaged, and it now uses it to attack the PC.

A dragon like creature with front arms like a preying mantis, and dragonfly like wings

Mantis Dragon (Level 6)

With a silhouette that shocks with its very wrongness, the Mantis Dragon is an enormous hybrid that is as deadly as it is frighteningly alluring . With their ability to enthrall prey, Mantis Dragons typically wait until their targets are too close to even contemplate escape before capturing them with their hypnotic hum and fluttering of wings. Many an unlucky explorer has been ripped apart by a Mantis Dragon’s powerful forelegs, dumbly smiling all the while.

Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: Grasslands, temperate and tropical climates, Solitary
Health: 28
Damage Inflicted: 6
Modifications: Stealth as Level 7, Perception as Level 7
Movement: Short, Long when flying
Combat: The Mantis Dragon has powerful forelegs that it uses to clasp and cut apart it’s prey. Once grasped in the strong forelegs, it’s a difficulty 8 Might Defense roll to escape. The Mantis Dragon does an additional 2 points of damage each round once it has a creature in it’s clutches.
The Mantis Dragon frequently mesmerizes it’s prays with it’s wings. As an action, the Mantis Dragon may spread it’s wings and move towards it’s prey in a slow rhythmic motion, emitting a low hum. Each creature in line of sight must make a Level 6 Intellect Defense roll or become mesmerized by the patterns in it’s wings and the sound it makes. On a failure, the targets are stunned and unable to take actions until the Mantis Dragon ceases it’s dance, or they suffer harm from an attack.
The Mantis Dragon can also bite it’s prey, though it’s preferred attack is to crush a victim in it’s forelegs.
Interaction: Mantis Dragons are predators, and cannot be reasoned with.
Use: The Mantis Dragon, blends into the surrounding environment, rather then tracking it’s prey. The party might venture into its territory and it sees a chance for a meal, or hunters in the region have reported the Mantis Dragon as a threat on their ability to hunt for food for their families.
Loot: Mantis Dragons hide their hoards well, and it will take some time to discover it’s location. The hoard typically consists of 2d20 shins, several oddities, and 2-3 cyphers, taken from previous meals.
GM Intrusion: While an adventurer is in its clasp, the Mantis Dragon takes to the air, and drops them. The adventurer has moments to try to stop their fall.


Images from Gomalemo on Tumblr

Review: Predation

Cover of predation shows a person on the back of a dinosaur fighting of three assailants with a flame thrower and spear

Like most kids, I loved dinosaurs when I was growing up. It was a few hours away, but I made several pilgrimages to the Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, Utah to pretend to dig up dinosaur bones and learn about why the Utahraptor was the best raptor. (Don’t hold me to that, it’s just what they told me). So I think, like many, opening an RPG where you get to live alongside dinosaurs re-opens a lot of childlike glee.

Predation is the most recent addition to Monte Cook Game’s Cypher Systems line, an adaptation of the wonderfully flexible Cypher System to bring you dinosaurs and science. The setting is that a few hundred years in our future, the Space and Time, Intg. (SATI) corporation started sending ‘commuters’ back to the Cretaceous Period for some now unknown reason. Nine years after this time travel began, all of the machines on the Cretaceous side of the Gre-Vakian c trials malfunctioned, trapping the commuters in the past. Now we’re 100 years after The Last Commute, and Grevakc is its own society, made up of the descendants of the 20,000 people left to live with the dinosaurs. These people are the descendants of scientists and soldiers and have all kinds of advanced technology to build their communities. However, they all know that at some point they’re civilization is going to be wiped out by an asteroid, and many are desperate to find the secrets of time travel once more.

Continue reading Review: Predation

Mysteries of the Ninth World 22: Ummm…I’m Debilitated

Map of Innsmouth showing the port, the streets, and all of the important locations from Lovecraft's story

Escaping from Innsmouth is a little more complicated then expected.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Landan, Michael.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 21: The Esoteric Order of Dagon

A building that looks like mausoleum in black and white. The sign reads "THe esoteric order of Dagon"

The party travels to a new reality to retrieve a book. Should be easy, right?

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Michael, Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 20: Grand Theft Numenera

A  metal bracelet of a snake eating it's tail

As the heist begins, the party finds that security might be better then expected.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Landan, Michael, Shaunna.
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 19: The Best Laid Plans…

Overhead view of a city full of dirigibles and mist

The party needs to pull off a heist in order to get the information on their next step. However, reality keeps interrupting their perfect plans.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, Chuck, Michael.
System: Numenera

More information on the game Megan is running to benefit the SPLC can be found here!

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Numenera: The Hideous Game

A pale creepy figure with long fingers and no eyes, but mouths covering it's head

Three adventurers try to find the answer to the nefarious game that is being played on the citizens of Qi before it’s too late.

GM: Megan
Players: Aser, John, Richard
System: Numenera

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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