Numenera: Disenchanted Tales - Session 2

Numenera: Disenchanted Tales - Session 2

Oh Hans of Little Words

Elsa, a Graceful Nano who Wears a Sheen of Ice

Anna, a Swift Jack who Entertains

Merida, a Rugged Glaive who Carries a Quiver

Summary

A billion years beyond “once upon a time”, Elsa, Anna, and Merida rode their Snow Lopers Sven, Cutey Pants, and Fred across the snowy/sandy desert of Matheunis in search of the whereabouts of their friend, the cryomutant Olaf.  They were about 20 miles outside of Nihliesh, en route to the Fields of Frozen Flowers when it looked like a storm was brewing on the horizon.  Fearing that it could be the Iron Wind, Merida took out one of her cyphers, a headband that improved her perceptive abilities.  Unfortunately, due to the enormous curly red mane of hair on top of the archer’s noggin, she couldn’t use the headband properly, and she still could not determine what the oncoming storm was comprised of.  It could be snow, rain, or nanites... or all of the above.  So the party needed to hide and wait out the inclement weather.

Using a bit of swift thinking Anna darted back and forth across the path, desperately looking for somewhere to hid.  There was a cave in the distance, so the jack guided her friends to the entrance and peered inside, only to see a dark form staring right back at her!  The form had a face, and the face was somewhat bird-like and very, very frightening.  Merida looked over Anna’s shoulder, and confirmed that the creature was a “Murden”, an abhuman known for lies and trickery despite the inability to speak.  The creature, once noticing that the party was entering the cave, kept it’s distance but still invited the three princesses further into its makeshift abode.  Being that the murden couldn’t talk to the party, though, it was apparent that another method of communication would be needed.

And so, with the help of Anna’s excellent communication and interaction skills, the princesses began a very complicated game of charades with the murden [with the GM’s help of course].

The murden was very interested in helping the party.  It showed them that it had an area prepared in the cave where they could sleep, and even helped cover the cave entrance with a large tarp, and care for the snow lopers.  This was a bit disconcerting to the princesses, who worked desperately to figure out the creature’s intent.  It kept inferring that it wanted to be their friend, and that it wanted to travel with them.  When Elsa asked what it wanted, it showed them some of its collection of junk, and shared a desire to acquire more.  When asked if it knew who the princesses truly were, the murden confirmed that it was aware of their status in Nihliesh.  Again, the murden tried to get the party to bed down for the rest of the evening, and make them comfortable.  When Elsa tried to move towards the murden, however, she felt her mind start to scramble.  She reached out, trying to figure out it’s name, and a shrill voice just screeched telepathically to her “HANS!”  

Noticing that Elsa was having issues with her head after connecting with the murden, Merida decided that the bird-like abhuman was no good.  She was going to put a stop to this encounter for two reasons.  First, she feared that the murden did indeed want to do extreme harm to the princesses.  [The second reason was that Mommy figured out it was 10pm, and despite a 2 hour weather delay for school the next morning, it was getting late for the Jack and the Nano to still be up role-playing]  So the red-headed glaive pulled out her great sword, charged the murden, and even with psychically induced headache, managed to chop the noggin off of the bird-man’s shoulders.  The princesses then sorted through the murden’s belongings and pushed the body outside into the storm, which lucky for the characters, was only sleet... with a vague chlorinated smell.  

Quotes

“Is it a bunny in there?” - Even when the GM mentions “dark, creepy, creature”, Evie still thinks “bunny”.

“He’s gonna eat us when we go to sleep!” - Carrie’s paranoia may have been a bit inaccurate, but she had the gist of the situation. 

“He doesn’t have a high ‘courage-ness’ or whatever that’s called” - Carrie’s answer as to why the Murden didn’t want to go out in the storm.

“Merida’s the brave one, her movie’s called BRAVE!” - Carrie pointing out the obvious as a response to Mommy’s cautious play-style.

“Maybe we should kill this guy... I think he’s a punk.” - Mommy knows when to throw down the gauntlet.