The past two weeks I’ve been ramping up my efforts to finish work on the centerpiece of my Numenera campaign, The Paranoid Automaton. I’m glad to say that particular part of the campaign is completely done, all mapped up and detailed and I’m closing in on the end.

By Christmas week, I’m hoping to be done with the first draft of the entire campaign and will begin editing.

I’m also kicking around the idea of doing a playtest of the campaign online using a play-by-play post on a forum. So far I’ve playtested portions of the beginning and middle of the campaign with groups in my city. If I was to do the online campaign, it would cover the whole game. I’ll be posting information if I move forward with this plan.

Recently I’ve noticed that I haven’t really gone into the cyphers, artifacts and oddities which all play a role (however major depending of course on the players) in The Paranoid Automaton.

A good portion of them are of my own invention, and I’ve posted one, the Clone Emitter, on the The Ninth World, which is a  Numenera community website that has a plethora of tools for GMs and players. I’ve mentioned the site before, and it’s a great place to look at all the wonderful ideas the growing community has up their sleeves.

Before I get back to work, here’s a rough draft of an NPC, and a short encounter below the City of Fallenstar, one of many locales featured in The Paranoid Automaton.

AREA 3B –  THE PRISON OF VAYALYN YANA OF FAYAD NOVAN

When the heavy metallic emerald door opens, large amounts of sand fall through the doorway. If the players decide to investigate further, they can wade through all the sand and find themselves in a large metallic emerald room filled with sand up to their knees. In the center is a humanoid sized statue tilting towards the sand. The statue appears to be a violet and amber marble like figure of a woman with long hair, dressed in robes, with her arms crossed and an expression of disappointment on her face.

At the statue’s base is a large circular green and grey panel with blinking red, yellow and blue lights.

The ceiling of the room is heavily damaged with giant black rocks protruding. Damaged parts of the metallic emerald ceiling and walls have littered the room as well.

A Hydradragoon lies beneath the sand in the room and will sense the PCs if they decide to come closer to the statue. The Hydradragoon (DL 4) resembles a large yellow and red 12-foot snake with a bright fin extending from its head to the middle portion of its body.

The Hydradragoon acts as a guardian of the statue and will attack anyone who comes close to the statue and its controls.

If released from stasis (DL 4 to understand the control panel and deactivate the stasis) Vayalyn will awaken and thank the group for releasing her. She’s a 6-foot humanoid of light violet complexion with dark shoulder length dark brown hair and glowing yellow eyes, wearing red and brown robes, and walks barefoot.

The woman says she is Vayalyn Yana (Level 3, HP:12) of  Fayad Novan. She’s unsure when she was abducted, but remembers light silver humanoid beings with four arms conducting experiments on her to explore her powers.

If asked about her powers, Vayalyn will be apprehensive about showing her abilities and says it is only in dangerous situations that she uses her power.

When she does use her power, Vayalyn slightly widens her yellow eyes and becomes unconscious as a red transparent crystal oval shaped cocoon surrounds her. Near the top of the barrier, circles of purple, green, blue and yellow appear as an opening slowly materializes and produces a bright silver 4-foot humanoid (Mind Centurion) made of pulsating bright silver energy.

Vayalyn is completely immobile as the Mind Centurion (Level 3, HP: 9, Damage: 4 by hurling silver flames) is activated. Vayalyn’s cocoon has 12 HP. When the cocoon loses more than half of its HP, Yana becomes conscious and has the option of deactivating the mind centurion and returning to consciousness.

She wishes to return home and if persuaded, will help the PCs locate the Protectorate’s Sword if they in turn help her home which she claims is an isolated desert region in the Ninth World called Fayad Novan. Throughout the campaign, Vayalyn says she is not familiar with any of the locations the PCs may encounter with the exception of Arkaydya. If the players reach Arkaydya, Vayalyn says she’s seen pictures of the “world” before, but thought it was a “floating” world.

Vayalyn will be helpful and loyal to the group, but will on occasion ask the PCs if they truly intend to keep their word on returning her home.

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