Hi all,

A little while back, I wrote a one-shot Numenera adventure focused on introducing the
world of Numenera with a "punch in the face" kind of adventure. I wanted to convey
the weirdness of The Ninth World to new players like a gunshot, while also allowing a
new GM to have minimal NPC interaction, and the players to have to work together in
the Weird of the Ninth World.

"Cylinder" is the result. The adventure will take about an hour, and can be placed
before The Beale of Boregal or wherever you want, and it should hopefully leave your
players with a real "What in the fuck just happened?!" kind of view of Numenera, but in
a good way. To me, being a new GM in general, let alone running a game for the very
first time, is nerve racking, especially when it comes to players interacting with NPC's.
Thus, Cylinder is an admittedly railroaded adventure that allows the GM to tell a fun
story, let's the players figure out the game mechanics, and in the end, leaves them with
a (hopefully) very memorable experience. So, without further ado, I give you:

==== Cylinder ====

The recommended setting is starting the players out as Peregrines on The Wandering
Walk (the starting location of the recommended Core Book Quest, "The Beale of
Boregal".)

Players should have a background story as to why they are on The Wandering Walk,
but you could put Cylinder in any remote area honestly. Just ensure the area is remote,
and have a reason why they're there if possible, for best results.

The players start out in a remote region of The Fifth Stretch of The Wandering Walk,
heading East from The Black Riage Mountains. Being completely alone, the players
come upon a broken down, abandoned, wooden wagon. Investigating the wagon will
reveal a small cypher, that creates a 15-foot transparent dome force field over them,
when activated. (You can have them role to understand what the cypher does or
roleplay this out however you want, so the players are introduced to cyphers. Try to
encourage them to understand how they work, because it will be needed momentarily.)

Shortly after finding the cypher, either while they continue onwards or immediately,
one of the players will be suddenly hit in the chest by a meteor, however the meteor
will bounce off like a rubber ball. It will deal 1 might damage to whomever it hits,
knocking them on their butt. The meteor, when observed, is bright red in color,
perfectly smooth, and feels like glass -- hard. If thrown, it will bounce like a rubber ball.

Moments later, hundreds of these red balls will come streaking in from the sky like rain,
dealing might damage to players intermittently and introducing a fear of panic. The
players can either weather the impacts, leaving them very hurt (in which case resting
will be needed, which will come later), or they can use their cypher to create a force
field to wait out the bombardment.

Upon looking up, the players will notice a large 200 foot diameter, 2-dimensional, solid
black circle descending from the sky, and hovering some distance perpendicular to The
Wander.

Instantly, the circle transforms into a silver, metallic cylinder, roughly 5 stories high,
and slams into the Earth violently.

Once the dust settles, the entire area is dead quiet. The ground is covered in bright red
glass-like spheres, except curiously, not near the cylinder. The Cylinder has no visible
entrances, and is smooth and cool to the touch.

If the players approach the cylinder, they will notice a perfectly circular area around the
cylinder, where no spheres appear to be. Walking through the spheres is difficult, but
manageable, since they're visible. Once they step into the "clearing" around the
Cylinder, they will need to make Speed rolls to not slip and fall on the now invisible
spheres. Also, anything red in the area, becomes invisible/transparent. (This means
player clothing, etc).

If all the players succeed in their speed rolls to not fall and hurt themselves (1 might
fall damage), introduce a GM Intrusion to one of the players, and have them fall
anyways, knocking themselves unconscious. That player, immediately vanishes the
moment they fall unconscious. (You can play this out where they fall, are semi-
conscious, and then drop into unconsciousness so the players truly get the trigger, after
some thinking.)

The key to get into the Cylinder, is to be unconscious within the perimeter. The players
can rest; perhaps if they didn't use the cypher, they could use their 10 hour rest.
Regardless, falling asleep or otherwise making themselves unconscious, will teleport
them inside the Cylinder.

Once inside, the players will regain consciousness. All of them are laying on a synth
platform, surrounded by a synth "tube". Any spoken word will cause the shielding to
fold away, allowing the players to get up. (Calling out to each other will activate this).

The "room" is a 200-ft diameter solid, silver, metal, circular room. It is lit by unknown
origins, completely silent, and there are no visible exits. (The players are at the very
top of the Cylinder, but won't be aware of this now)
Running down the walls of this room, into the floor below, is a strange thick black
substance, that oozes down the walls eerily. It is encased behind a wall of clear hard
synth that is unbreakable by any means the players have.

In the center of the room, there is a 10-ft diameter circular area with a strange control
panel, of sorts, next to it. Succeeding a Numenera(INT) check, will active the platform.
Any player on the platform will instantly be dissected into 1-inch slices (horizontally) by
a clear synth material. There is no pain, and the only feeling is a cooling effect and
slight "thud" of force as the material slices into them, and stops fast. (In other words,
they are sliced into 1 inch horizontal segments, and the material stays in place, holding
them together.) They are unable to move at this point, but can still see their
companions in this horrific sliced-up-but-held-together state.

Moments later, slice-by-slice, their bodies are transported one level lower. Each slice
leaves at it's own interval, so they can watch their friends being pulled downwards like
cars driving off at a fresh green light. Once on the lower level, the material vanishes
from their bodies, and they are whole again.

The next floor is filled with humans laid out on slabs, with synth tubes going into their
necks, and exiting out of their ankles. The blood is being drawn out of their bodies, to
the outer wall, and mixed with the black substance. A perception(INT) check, will show
that these people are Peregrines, who bear the bloodscar common with people who
walk The Wander.

The substance mixed within the walls, is fed to evenly spaced extruders, that are a kind
of cylindrical faucet, which forms drops of a bright red, thick substance. As the drop
falls from the faucet, it forms into a sphere (instead of a drop), instantly hardens, and
falls down a 1-inch opening slit that surrounds the entire floor, to the room below.

In this room, there can be heard a slight thudding sound occasionally, though very
faint. It's not rhythmic, but sounds more like someone banging occasionally on
something, in no discernible pattern.

Investigating the Peregrines, players will find they are all dead. Award each player 2 XP
for discovering the inner mechanics of The Cylinder. Be sure to explain to them why
they are receiving the XP. Reward the discoveries, not the combat.

Getting back on the center platform in this floor, the activation panel goes both up and
down. Going up will simply lead to the top room, with no other options but to go down.
Going down, however will again slice the players up, and transport them below.

On this floor, there is now a loud hum. Against the wall, on one side of the circular
room, is a human sized, lanky and stooped over automaton, with large metal spheres
as hands, similar to the head of a typical mace. The spheres are roughly 1 foot in
diameter (so quite large). The automaton doesn't notice the players appearing in the
center of the room, and it is busy tapping, and occasionally pounding on the clear synth
wall, that is catching the red spheres from the floor above. The spheres form a 1-
sphere-wide wall of red spheres around the entire room, all being filled from the floor
above. Occasionally these spheres won't settle correctly, so the automaton will beat
against the walls to knock them into a nicely organized stack.

The players can try to get a surprise round here, so you can introduce that mechanic to
them, or the automaton can simply notice them, and attack.

It first speaks complete metallic sounding gibberish, before pounding the ground
incredibly hard, causing 1 Int damage, due to the loudness of the pounding. After
pounding the ground, it attacks.

The automaton is the following level, depending on the number of players:

1-player, level 2.

2-players, level 2.

3-players, level 3.

4-players, level 4.

5-players, level 5.

Before each attack, it can pound the ground, inflicting 1 Int damage to all players, and
then make it's physical bashing attack against one player. (Use the pounding sparingly)

Upon destroying the automaton, players will find 1d6 cyphers, of which one will be a
cypher that renders everyone unconscious, and another that detonates after 20
seconds.

If the players go down one more level, they will enter the final room, where a large
rapidly spinning/rotating gyro will be thrumming away incredibly loudly. The sound and
throbbing effect of the gyro will cause 1 Int damage every 2 minutes in the room.

Searching the room for 10 minutes (which will cause 5 int damage) will reveal an
artifact -- a "Blooderbus", which is an "gun like" artifact with a sharp point on it.
Stabbing oneself with the Blooderbus will fuel it with 5 red sphere shots that will do 8
damage each, at long range. The artifact depletes and disintegrates on a 1-4 roll on a
d6. Award the players another 2 XP each for finding the Blooderbus.

The players should find a way to destroy the gyro, perhaps with the cypher from above,
and render themselves unconscious before the detonation occurs, using the other
cypher from above.
If the players leave without destroying the gyro, the Cylinder immediately turns back
into the 2-dimensional black circle, hovering high above the ground, and then shoots
off into space, never to be seen again. All of the red spheres melt into the Earth, and
leave no trace. Giving XP to them at this point is hit-or-miss.

If the players destroy the gyro and escape, the Cylinder collapses into a molten metal
heap, that forms into a huge metal statue (with a common shared base), of all of the
players. The statue is too large and too heavy to move. All of the red spheres melt into
the Earth, and leave no trace. If or when the players ever come back to the spot to
show off the statue or otherwise, it's gone, with no sign it ever existed. Award the
players 2 XP each.

After this scenario is done, lean over the table, looking at your stunned players faces,
and say, "Welcome to the Ninth World."

Slam the book shut, and order some pizza to get ready for your main adventure. :)

I've had quite a bit of success with this adventure with new players, so I figured new
GM's and new players may enjoy it.

Anyways, enjoy!