ANÁLISIS DE LOS ESCENARIOS DE RIESGO A PARTIR DE LAS

The people of Antre founded their city based solely on the warmth and other necessities it provided. However, some find that its dangers outweigh its comforts, and perhaps they are correct.

Antre is located in a vast (and likely unnatural) cavern on the edge of the Matemal Mountains. This cavern maintains a comfortable living temperature, and fresh water condenses on the ceiling so that every three days or so, it rains for about fifteen minutes within its confines. Despite the lack of sunlight, green trees and other lush forest growth thrive in the cavern, many of which bear fruit. A faint bluish glow with no apparent source illuminates the entire cavern-city. Primarily, however, the cavern is filled with structures made of a smooth, almost crystalline substance. These buildings rise from the cavern floor, depend from the ceiling, and jut from the walls.

Many of the tall structures rise for hundreds of feet, with dozens of levels. These structures are open in the sense that there are no doors—just doorways that lead in and through each level. However, there are no windows, nor are there stairs. To get from level to level, one must climb through openings the same size and shape as the doorways, implying that the people who once dwelled here could perhaps among and within, so the city has a rather

advanced school for such studies. The teachers and students fall into two groups: the Revs and the Ranns.

The Revs gather the numenera. They know a fair bit about what they’re looking for, but their skills stress identification and scavenging, as well as basic survival.

The Ranns study what the Revs recover. They seek to make use of the discovered numenera, but more, they seek to understand it. Experimentation is encouraged.

The two groups breed rivalries, with the Ranns calling the Revs “rodents” and the Revs calling the Ranns “reptiles.” School staff attempt to keep the rivalry under control, but in truth even the teachers take part in it, encouraging their students to show up the others.

One of the strangest things about the numenera of Arxil is that the devices rely on cold and ice. In the same way that a steam engine might rely on a fiery boiler to give it power—at least according to the Ranns—this technology derives its energy from intense cold. Those who have seen the devices say that the technology resembles that of the machines in the caverns of the Southern Wall. If the devices in Arxil are fueled by low temperatures and the machines in the wall reduce the temperature, that essentially makes them power generators.

The Bitter Legion: A group of about fifty soldiers lives in Arxil. Members of the Bitter Legion wear cold armor that makes them seem particularly large and broad chested; the armor was retrofitted from its original design, which was clearly not meant for humans. Cold armor consists of glistening, translucent plates affixed to a dull metallic chassis. Some soldiers of the Bitter Legion wield traditional weapons—usually heavy sledges or massive bows—but a few carry numenera weapons like slugspitters or

magnetic ray emitters (modified so that they are level 5 artifacts, not cyphers, with depletion rolls of 1 in 1d20).

The current head of the Bitter Legion is

Captain Muisara, a brilliant and faithful

Cold armor: artifact; heavy armor suit that provides +4 to Armor and +1 to Might Edge; no depletion roll, but it functions only at temperatures below freezing

Captain Muisara: level 6, tactics and strategy as level 7; health 25; Armor 4 Darcadian Everlar, page 95 Cyanachor, page 94 Slugspitter, page 311 Magnetic ray emitter, page 293

Stratharian war moth, page 261

sadistically—supposedly by the Angled Ones, or at the very least, someone who has disappeared, never to be seen again.

The people of Antre, then, live in cabins and tents in the areas that are filled with trees and wild growth. About 3,000 hardy souls call the place home, and there would be many more if it weren’t for the Angled Ones. The size of the cave and the density of the structures suggest a city that once may have been home to millions.

Thanks to the fruit trees and other wild plants growing in the warmth of the cave, food is plentiful, and some people have taken to cultivating large gardens. Small game is also available. Although the Angled Ones seem to have swept the interiors free of animal life, some creatures dwell outside the buildings in the caves. A few, like ravage bears or terror birds, present a danger to the inhabitants. People hope to develop more sophisticated defenses—such as a wall—around the populated area in the near future.

Harlis Chomarin: The leader of the people in Antre is a very old man named Harlis Chomarin. He can barely walk or see, but a motorized harness allows him to move as a much younger man (nothing helps with move vertically as easily as they moved

horizontally.

When people first came to the cavern, they found the structures welcoming and settled into them. On some of the lower floors of the buildings near the cave mouth, the wooden staircases and rope ladders they built still remain. But no one dwells in the ancient buildings of Antre today. A few people explore them, looking for numenera, but only the bravest attempt this, and many are not seen again.

Prowling about these structures are creatures that the residents call “the Angled Ones.” These mysterious, apparently insubstantial beings don’t seem to operate according to any understanding of physics. Originally, a few people speculated that the creatures were jurulisks, but the Angled Ones are far more cruel, sinister, and downright insidious in nature. However, it’s a safe bet that, like jurulisks, they are of ultraterrestrial origin.

Few people alive today have seen one of these beings, and newcomers sometimes scoff at tales of the Angled Ones, for they sound like ghost stories. Nevertheless, all those who have lived in Antre for even a short while know someone who was murdered—horrifically, violently, and

Angled One, page 223 Jurulisk: level 7; health

28; Armor 1; moves a long distance each round; drains the energy of all things around it; inflicts 8 points of damage plus 2 points of damage from cold; see The Ninth

World Bestiary, page 69

Harlis Chomarin: level 3, resist deception and persuasion as level 6, all perception tasks as level 1

Terror bird: level 4, stealth as level 8, perception as level 5; health 21; Armor 1; moves a long distance; bite or kick inflicts 6 points of damage (or one of each at two different foes for 4 points of damage each); screech causes those within immediate range to freeze motionless for one round on a failed Intellect defense roll; see The Ninth World

creatures that live deep in its frigid waters. No more than 3,000 people live in Nus, but at any given time, visitors and traders increase this number by another three hundred to five hundred. As a trade town, Nus is filled with all sorts of people, but many of the native men are particularly large, hairy, and brutish.

These barbaric men call themselves

Nusmen and say that they are not of the same stock as other humans. They claim to be a more ancient breed whose size, strength, hardy nature, and resistance to cold make them better than lesser folk. The Nusmen consider themselves superior, but they are few in number. They use their strength to try to take what they want, and they revel in violence and blood.

A point that many outsiders find confusing: there are no Nuswomen. Nusmen mate with “normal” women, and their male offspring are often—but not always—Nusmen. But Nusmen claim no women as part of their breed, which seems to make sense only to the Nusmen. Non-Nusmen scholars scoff at their hereditary claims and look at them as a social organization rather than a breed unto themselves. Even so, the Nusmen are a violent group that believes in using force and intimidation, and they justify their actions based on genetics—although they likely would not use that term, instead saying, “We are of a hardier stock, so we are stronger. The strong take from the weak, and that is just.”

It’s a common occurrence in town for violence to break out between Nusmen and others (or between Nusmen and other Nusmen—they’re a savage bunch). Garla Deadhand holds the title of Lawgiver in Nus, and she spends, in her words, “far too much time” dealing with the unruly barbarians. Mostly, all she and her enforcers

can do is keep the Nusmen in line enough so as not to deter trade.

Garla Deadhand: Garla is the Lawgiver appointed by the town elders twenty- three years ago to run Nus. If something happened to her, the elders would convene to appoint a replacement, but that is the his relative blindness). The harness also has

a powerful detonation cypher built into it, and if Harlis ever dies, it will explode with fiery force. This countermeasure may have made sense years ago to deter murderers or assassins, but today people counsel Harlis that, as a decrepit old man, the detonation is highly irresponsible. Unfortunately, no one can convince him to disable it. (Some people speculate that he, in fact, cannot.) This means that most people in town give Harlis a wide berth. Being nearly blind, he doesn’t notice.

Firemist: Deep in the cavern, well away from the settled areas of Antre, there is an open piazza filled with an orange glow that contrasts with the blue light elsewhere. This glow is concentrated at the center of the piazza with a swirling energy nimbus that flickers like orange flame. The explorers who found it named it the firemist, and it has two primary properties. First, it burns anything that touches it other than the crystalline synth that makes up the city structures, which seems unaffected by its heat. Second, the firemist teleports some inorganic objects that touch it instead of burning them (again, the materials of the city are immune). The objects go somewhere in the city, but the destinations seem to be random. The only reason that anyone knows that the objects were teleported rather than annihilated is that a few have been found later. Perhaps strangest of all, those few objects found are always improved in some way—they are sturdier, cleaner, repaired, or (in the case of powered devices) charged. Thus, when a cypher is used up or an object is irreparably broken, the locals of Antre always say, “Toss it into the firemist,” the idea being that maybe you’ll find it again and it will be usable. However, this is simply a saying. Few people actually do it.

NUS

Nus is a trade town located on a crossroads between Moird, Antre, and Arxil. It is also on the shores of a frozen lake known as Lake Jorai, and many of the locals cut through the ice to get at the fish and other

If the detonation cypher built into Harlis’s harness explodes, it will inflict 10 points of damage to all within short range and 3 points of damage to all within long range.

The firemist inflicts 6 points of ambient damage to anyone touching it.

Garla Deadhand: level 5, all social interactions as level 6; Armor 2 Nus enforcer: level 4, perception as level 5; Armor 2 Typical Nusman: level 5, melee combat and feats of strength as level 6, Intellect defense and other Intellect-based tasks as level 4; Armor 1 The Nusmen are indeed misogynists, but they don’t see women as inferior to “normal” men, just to Nusmen. All non-Nusmen are equally inferior in their eyes.

Haud; and her brother, Dorram. For all intents and purposes, she sees and hears through their senses at all times, making her likely a better leader than most. It’s rumored that Serrain has telekinetic and precognitive abilities. She doesn’t, but she and her family allow people to think it. The Fallen Obelisk: Just off the coast, not far from Dythe, is a massive stone structure. For years, no one knew what to think of it, but one day a traveler from the north was in the area and said that it was an exact duplicate of a structure in his homeland called the Amber Monolith. The only difference is that the Amber Monolith floats in the air and stands upright, whereas this structure lies on its side parallel to the coastline, serving as an artificial barrier island. Presumably, like the Amber Monolith, the so-called Fallen Obelisk is hollow with interior chambers, but no one has managed to get inside yet.

WARMHOME

Warmhome is not a city or even a town, but a single waypoint. It is a well-stocked and well-defended fortress owned by a woman named Vonfidan who claims to be the heir to the throne of a kingdom called Nangefel—a kingdom no one else has ever heard of. Vonfidan says that all the lands south of the Southern Wall were once Nangefel. She also claims that the cold and ice are part of a powerful witch’s curse.

Warmhome is a large structure of stone and glass supplemented by ancient metals and synth. Numenera devices provide heat for the interior, although most visitors still find it chilly. The fortress sits atop a snowy hill with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. Vonfidan has a large retinue of personal guards, a mixture of mercenaries and automatons maintained by her chief technician, Eshinda. Hunters and gatherers provide most of the food for the fortress, bringing back a variety of small game as well as windberries, ruskroots, and edible lichens. The smells of cooking and foods of all sorts fill the halls of Warmhome day and night.

Including guards and staff, about one only duty of the otherwise unstructured

group. This makes Garla more or less an absolute ruler, but fortunately for the people of Nus, she is even-handed and fair. She sincerely wants what’s best for the town and has a real affection for many of the locals. She even has a sort of fondness for the Nusmen, thinking of them essentially as foolish, unruly children.

THE MATEMAL