He was just going to fucking step off the edge. Take it on faith. No fucking way! Thankfully Ryan had a better head on him and gave him a better idea. Now they all had walked the narrow path over the giant gapping chasm of complete darkness and were standing on the other side of it looking across. “Well we did that.” Nox said ironically.
Whatever they were to fight was on the other side of the chasm. How it got there? Bravery? Was it stuck now? Did they toss the bridge so it would stay there?
I didn’t really know and my mind went a thousand different possibilities as the stories emerged in my mind.
There was a curve in the cave and that opened up into a wide cavernous maw with dead bodies littering the floor, piles of rocks and a large lake bubbling through an archway.
Nox walked into the room. Ryan grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hold. I thought I saw something.”
Ant didn’t wait as he drew his pistol and shot into cavern well above anything. The bolt of light shot across and bounced across the ceiling between the stalactites before fizzling out.
There was a large sucking sound in the middle of the cavern and a sickly sweet smell emanated from the gigantic cube starting its way towards us. “What the fuck! A gelatin mold is going to eat us! How the fuck do you kill it!”
Nox looked at me and frowned. “Throw a rock at it.”
I looked at him and stared like an idiot. I was an idiot. He was an idiot how the fuck did you kill gelatin? Except it wasn’t gelatin, it was a living breathing translucent creature that sucked and slithered and I so wanted to run and hid. But I picked up a rock like I was told.
The others fired blasters at it. It moved so slowly. Any time it got close to one of us we’d move away from it. It went after Nox first. He was closest. Most of our shots were blowing right through it we had no idea if it was doing any damage or not.
Nox moved out of its reach and it slithered towards Ryan who also moved out of its grasp so it came after me. “Why me? You fucker!” I backed away. And I kept backing away picking up rocks and chucking them at the giant gelatin mold that was trying to eat me. Or suck me? What the fuck! This was not how I was going to die.
Nox slipped and fell on the goo on the floor. Ant slipped next and I thanked the fuck as it chased me I didn’t slide in the shit that it left all over the room.
I backed against a wall and the thing kept coming at me. It was getting so close I felt like vomiting. And then a blaster shot from Ant’s gun landed and the creature burst like a balloon splattering ooze everywhere.
I was covered in that shit. Dripping with slimy ooze I glared at Ant. “Really?”
Ant hid a smile behind his hand. “It’s dead. You can have whatever it left behind.”
“There is some guys that don’t look like they were part of the population that sent us in here. We should look around.”
I was dripping with gross ooze, when Nox came over and smiled. “Want me to help?”
“Uh…” I said. But he hadn’t waited for me to answer him, he waved his hand over over me and the ooze just sort of disappeared. But the funny thing was, I felt the magic, saw the essence of it all. “What did you do? Like how?”
“It’s part of me. You sorta just focus on what you want it to do and it sorta does.” He held his palm flat and a small fire flickered on top of it.
I tried. Cause why the fuck not. I held my palm flat and I concentrated on fire in the palm of my hand. A small spark erupted in the middle and then grew. I jumped for joy and in that moment of excitement the flame vanished.
“Takes practice, but seems you got a little magic in you even though the Shift doesn’t have magic for you at home.”
“I don’t understand anything the fuck you said.”
Nox grinned. “It’s okay. I’m used to that. Let’s look around.” He said with a smile and put his hand on my arm before he slid off to check through a pile of bodies next to us.
I found a few things that looked like they might be useful tools if you lived in this sort of world. Nox had a silver lightsaber looking thing in his hand and was checking it out.
Ryan and Ant both carried a few other things that could be useful. Not that I had any idea what any of it is.
Alex Brizo is an Inquisitive Dream walking Explorer with latent talents who Commands Mental Powers and is an Anchor from Shift #0
Effort: 1
Armor: 0
Recovery:
□ □ □ □
Damage:
□ □
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Speed:
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Intellect:(1)
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ □ □ □ □ □
XP:
■ ■
Abilities: telepathic, hedge magic, decipher, dreamcraft, bond, mental link with drifter, create anchor
Weapons: stun stick 0, unarmed 2 – eased
Setup
L5 Gelatinous Cube, immediate, 25 HP, upon entering a creatures space can engulf, failed speed save 6 acid damage, engulfed creatures can’t breathe, creature is stuck and moves with cube each round stuck creature takes 6 acid damage, engulfed creature can make a might check to escape each round as their action, cube can only hold 1 large creature, or 4 human-sized creatures 1d6 cyphers
Initiative:
- Ooze 1d20: [12] = 12 +1
- Alex 1d20: [16] = 16 -1
- Ant 1d20: [2] = 2
- Nox 1d20: [17] = 17 -1
- Ryan 1d20: [16] = 16
Order: R, N, AB, O, AG
R attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [3] = 3 miss
N attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [1] = 1 miss (GMI: Lose footing and stumble due to slippery surface – 1 acid damage)
AB attacks with rock O: 15 roll: 1d20: [14] = 14 miss
O moves towards N (~15ft)
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [15] = 15 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 21)
R attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [9] = 9 miss
N attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [18] = 18 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 15)
AB attacks with rock O: 15 roll: 1d20: [4] = 4 miss
O moves towards N: ~10ft
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [6] = 6 miss
R attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [5] = 5 miss
Nox moves away from the Cube (~+15ft)
AB attacks with rock O: 15 roll: 1d20: [1] = 1 miss (GMI: Lose footing and stumble due to slippery surface – 1 acid damage)
O moves towards R: ~10ft
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [12] = 12 miss
R moves away from the ooze ~15ft
N attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [17] = 17 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 12)
AB attacks with rock O: 15 roll: 1d20: [16] = 16 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 8)
O moves towards AB (~10ft)
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [3] = 3 miss
R attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [8] = 8 miss
N attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [2] = 2 miss
AB moves away from the ooze (~25ft)
O moves towards AB (~20ft)
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [6] = 6 miss
R attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [18] = 18 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 4)
N attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [8] = 8 miss
AB attacks with rock O: 15 roll: 1d20: [2] = 2 miss
O moves towards AB (~10ft)
AG attacks with blaster O: 15 roll: 1d20: [15] = 15 hit (Ooze HP 25 → 0)
Searching the bodies on the floor yields:
- Shift Saver Artifact
- 1d6 inexpensive personal objects (can be traded with the indigenous people but not really useful otherwise) 1d6: [5] = 5
- 1d6 cyphers 1d6: [4] = 4 => 4d100: [31, 6, 44, 10] = 91
- Effort enhancer (combat) => to Alex
- best tool => to Nox (replaced)
intelligence enhancementburst of speed
Cypher System disclaimer and Open Game License
Numenera, the Cypher System, No Thank You, Evil!, Invisible Sun, and their respective logos are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Content derived from Monte Cook Games publications is © 2013-2023 Monte Cook Games, LLC.
The Mind of Nox 