Tremors

General Summary

Introduction

Night fell, and the adventurers went to sleep. However, rest did not come to them that night. They all awoke the next morning but none of them felt rested. Some thought about it but as they awakened fully the dreams of the night slipped away leaving them with a nagging feeling of unease. Others remembered in vivid detail being sound asleep when they suddenly felt very cold. An immense void of pitch black loomed over them and threatened to consume them utterly. They heard a thin, pleading voice begging for someone to stand against the darkness. Then the morning came and they woke up feeling troubled and uneasy.

After such a bizarre night, the heroes trickled into the inn at Beyonder's Blades for breakfast. Dilzer, the inkeeper, greeted them with more porridge but also freshly roasted meat from their excursion the day before. Cassandra and Farren talked with several others at the inn and discovered that the entire settlement had apparently all shared the same premonitions the night before. Sirkel was too busy eating to pay much attention to what was going on around him.

A New Arrival

  Lilith walked down the forest path that was still covered in ash. She had not slept well that night and was glad to finally see a human settlement ahead. Hoping they had some food available and maybe even some tea she quickened her pace. She asked one of the guards at the gate about where she could stay for a while and was directed to the town inn. She wasn't one for crowds and so she slipped shyly inside and asked if they had any tea available. Dilzer sighed upon hearing the request for tea. The food maker machine was working overtime to feed the settlement and he couldn't stop it long enough to switch its output to tea leaves. Lilith was disappointed but took a mug of hot water and slipped into a corner table.

Cassandra noticed the new arrival and decided to introduce herself. Conversation was a bit awkward at first but then Cassandra dragged Farren and Sirkel into the conversation. Lilith opened up a lot more once Cassandra found some tea leaves in her pack and shared them. Tentatively, the four began to get to know each other.

A Grouchy Inventor

  Their conversation was cut short when Gwydeon entered the inn. This was quite out of character for the tinkerer, he usually just send a holo-sphere of some sort with messages. The old inventor seemed more out of sorts than usual this morning. He jumped up on a table and demanded everyone's attention.

Gwydeon launched into a tirade filled with many very long words relating to numenera and physics theory that the group didn't really comprehend. The point of his soap-box seemed to be that his temporal instruments were all out of whack; this misalignment seemed to disturb him quite a bit. He demanded that if anyone was "fooling around with the precepts of proper chronitron phasing could they please stop immediately." Having said that, he looked around the room at the puzzled faces and seemed just a bit happier to have gotten that off his chest. He then hopped down from the table and ordered breakfast for himself.

The group were concerned by the inventor's behavior. Farren kind of understood a few of the terms he had used but they didn't make sense put together. The adventurers approached Gwydeon and asked him more about what was bothering him. He listed a bunch of technical readouts and then stopped and attempted to summarize. As best he could tell, the Ninth World had experienced an unusual temporal inversion of brief duration during the previous night. His guess was that might be the cause for the shared nightmares across the realm.

A Foreboding Omen

  Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by raised voices from outside the inn. Cassandra and Farren ran out to see what the problem was. Many people were staring upwards and pointing to the horizon. A group of small black dots appeared in the distance and quickly grew in size to a massive swarm of some kind that was headed straight for the settlement! Cassandra and Farren ducked back inside as a huge mass of Rocira swarmed into Beyonder's Blades!

Cassandra tried to draw Sirkel's and Lilith's attention to the phenomenon outside but the two were deep in conversation about cake and tea and they completely ignored her. Someone opened the door to the inn and the swarm immediately coalesced and swooped inside! The swarm attacked everyone in sight!

Sirkel drew a grappling hook from his pack and began swinging it wildly around and around his head. The whirling hooks struck many of the Rocira dealing damage. Beams of white hot light shot from Cassandra's forehead burning through the mobbing creatures. Farren, along with her companion guardian, struck decisively at the swarm and she was able to bring many to the ground. Lilith jumped to the fireplace, grabbed a flaming stick, and thrust it viciously at the swarm. When they didn't burn quite so much as she liked, she drew her sword instead.

The creatures buzzed quickly through the air, their razor sharp wings sliced through clothing and flesh with ease. Clouds of pheromones filled the air confusing the heroes. Lilith inhaled a whiff of the cloud and was overcome by the sensation of being covered in crawling insects. She dropped her sword, dropped to the ground and began thrashing around trying to get rid of the imaginary insects. Farren was affected a bit differently when she breathed in. Her vision turned red with pure rage; she picked up the closest table and began battering everything around her.

As suddenly as they had appeared the swarm of Rocira left. Many burned, crushed, and sliced Rocira lay on the inn floor while the rest swiftly flew out the door and disappeared. Lilith crawled slowly to retrieve her sword. Farren looked down in surprise to find herself still holding a large table in the air. She quickly set it down. Many of the people around them were muttering about the Rocira being an evil omen. Farren noticed that Kae was in the inn and she asked him about the swarm. He told her that the Rocira, while hostile, normally fled from impending disaster and that their appearance was almost universally taken to mean something even worse was following.

A Need for Research

  The party went back to Gwydeon and pumped him for more information. He tried his best to explain but kept confusing the group with his very technical explanations. He finally suggested they research a couple of phrases as well as their nightmare and see if they could find anything. About then, they all noticed that their communicators had a message from Ivannia which had come in during the fighting. The message was a security notice which said Ivannian sensors had registered a brief temporal inversion and their security personnel would continue to monitor the situation.

The group used their communicators to request the portal open to Ivannia. Morganna Anne Louise Estelle of Ivannia was happy to oblige. Soon, the group left the smoky woods of the Beyond and stepped into the gleaming city of Ivannia. Lilith was fitted with the necessary gravity belt and then the group headed off to the library.

The library was massive, with stacks full of both written tomes and data pads stretching nearly as far as the eye could see. They asked the librarian about temporal inversions and chronitron sequencing and he pointed them towards some technical works. They found a variety of research papers on the topics which the librarian helpfully copied onto a small hologram projector for them. They then took the research and headed off to find something to eat.

Food and Tea

  They traveled to the Pesant district and found a comfortable establishment with savory looking food. Lilith was surprised to learn that the food was all free, and that nearly any kind of food could be made instantly from the food machine at each table. She ordered a hearty looking meal and then had an epiphany: if this machine could make food then why not tea leaves as well? She punched in tea leaves and was very happy when it began producing the aromatic leaves. She only stopped the machine when her pack was bulging with tea leaves!

As the group ate, they discussed their research. They noticed that a man nearby appeared interested in their conversation. He was a scholarly looking gentleman who hovered at a table upon which he had spread several scrolls and data pads. He eventually came over and asked about their research. He too had experienced the nightmare the previous night and was most interested in their work.

Farren finally asked the scholar if he knew of any works referencing the shared dream. He thought for a moment and then his face paled. He explained "There is a fragment of a very old explorer's journal which has a copy of an Eighth World document he discovered. The fragment tells a chilling tale similar to the dream we all had last night". Farren thanked the man and the group went back to the library after finishing their meal.

Cassandra asked the librarian about the journal the scholar had mentioned. The librarian swallowed "oh, that journal" he muttered "yes, we do have it although I always thought it was invented just to scare children with, if its real . . ." he trailed off. "Anyway" he said "its in section F18 row 372 shelf 18". The group hurried over to the indicated journal and eagerly read it.

Sure enough, the fragment of Eighth World script told a chilling tale of an ancient war. The void was growing and none could stand against it. Humanity desperately launched horrific experimental weapons of unimaginable power. These weapons seemed to have no effect. More and more were devoured in the bone chilling silence of the utter blackness and humans fled until they could flee no more. As the abyss stared at them, the hopelessly trapped humans pleaded for someone to stand against the darkness in a final attempt to save themselves.

A Plan of Action

  The tale did not make for pleasant reading, and the fragment ended before the rest of the story was told. The heroes gathered their research (and their tea leaves!) and took the portal back to the settlement. Gwydeon was quite happy with the technical works although he had little use for the journal. He took a copy of their research back to his house to read it over.

The group meanwhile had more immediate matters to attend to. They all needed wood to finish repairing the settlement and so they planned to venture further into the Beyond in an attempt to find or barter for some. Since it was getting later in the day, they agreed to meet up the next morning to set out for the supplies.