Leaving on the sky train that runs on a thin rail of light that only comes into being when it is observed by a device in the driver’s cab, they headed to Fortuna, with the Ominous Black Box Containing A Man their sole fellow passenger. And Dillom driving, obv.
They watched the arid valley whiz away under them, travelling in a few hours what had taken them over a week of rigourous hiking. Before hitting Fortuna, Dillom wanted to take them by the Liquid Library as he had some things he wanted to… check. Also, it’s on the way.
There (as Dillom went of to do his thing) his more genial partner, Vo-Hurrim, the professorial, hulking Lattimor, came to greet them warmly. He had a device he wanted them to have, but he didn’t really want Dillom to know about it, it seemed. It was a small handheld antenna that can observe those shining rails that the train runs on. Dillom would never give them this because he’d know that it access to the rails would lead to him playing taxi driver. But Vo-Hurrim thought it would be useful, in a pinch.
Soon they were on their way again and a little while later arrived in the area of the valley where the level dropped and the reddish pink sandstone spires rose. Below, the desert gave way to lush green in the shade of the of the fingers of rock.
Nowhere they saw was more verdant than Fortuna itself, the seven spires that surrounded the aldeia where skirted by climbing vines with broad dark leaves and plump blue-purple fruit visible as they got nearer.
The town itself comprised of dome-like adobe structures built into the ground, so that many houses had airy, well-like spaces as courtyards or workshops. Above all structures, including the tiltbird enclosures and sheds near the vines and crop fields, hung furled sheets of a white cloth, rigged on poles to drop down over every visible structure of note.
A wooden platform tied with thick dried-vine rope stood at approximate train level as this town was not a stranger to flying merchants, being so close to the minor metropolis of Tilt. A few people stood on the platform, a grandee of some sort and some traders with their boxes ready to go.
The Arkus of Fortuna, Belkir greeted them and told them all about the town. It was a successful farming community who prospered by it’s relationship feeding Tilt. Dogleaf, white thistle, carrot flowers, aromatics and the town’s signature humfruit crops brought prosperity due to the accelerated and enhanced growth provided by the spark storms that occured.
The spark storms were dangerous, but predictable, thanks to the Twin… uh… children who lived in the town. But without the warning that the twins provided the town was at the mercy of an atmospheric anomaly that absolutely fried your brains. The storm didn’t start fires or electrocute anyone, but if caught out in the open, it would disrupt the brain waves of any unfortunate.
The handsome white cloth and macrame-decorated turban that Belkir wore was a minor protection, but the best protection was to get under the white cloth and preferably underground until the storm had passed. The Twins predictive power gave the townsfolk enough time to drop what they were doing and get to safety.
But the Arkus had a problem…
One of the simpleton beings that did the predicting had gone missing and without its twin, the remaining being could not prognosticate.
So the Team from Lone got to work sussing out the town. Everyone they talked to spoke rapturously about the humfruit bakery, so after meeting the innkeeper, they went for some humfruit pies and talked to the baker, then the turban maker and jeweller who polished the humming humfruit pits into glowing pearly adornments. They got the impression that while everyone agreed that the Twins were vital to the town’s survival, they were a little tired of their childish ways.
The town is decorated with a pair of large brightly painted statues, one garish orange and the other a bright blue. It was reasonable to think that the wide childlike faces were simply a restriction of the medium in which the statues were made, or the lack of detail due to a lack of confidence in the sculptor. But no, on meeting Anar, the remaining Twin, he looked like a big Orange Gumby (my first description) or Soviet-era Eastern European Animation Teletubby (my later, more evocative description).
With his wide rolling eyes and cartoonish expression, everything was going pretty well until Brogan absolutely fucked a Don’t Frighten The Child roll and sent the big gumby fleeing into his little house.
They spent the next day assembling more information and getting together some things Anar liked to try to coax him out of his giant sulk. They also had a chance to learn about the refugees who flocked here 30 or so years ago after the war between Tilt and the Cloudeaters, all of which was news to them. They also learned the local lore around the spark storms: That the Hunter starts it off by “shooting his arrow” of light at the Storm Finger which casts the sparks to the other spires, the Cobbler and the Needle exchange sparks while the Sailor and Siren call to each other. Finally the Hawk sends it’s spark to the Hunter and the storm ends.
Strabo, being a famed tracker, set to reading the tracks around the town and was able to find a set of deep Gumby tracks far from the heavily trafficked areas. I think Strabo already had the gear to do a spot of climbing and set to it, making his way up the vine-wrapped base of the Hawk, then up sparse climbing tendrils, until he was finally making his way up bare rock. In a crevice in the rock, Strabo found the body of of Davn.
Down on the ground, the others secured Anar’s favourite cake (from the weird little numenera box with legs that makes food for Brogan) they’d met the day before and made him a new whistle because they’d heard he’d lost his other one. With these they were able to get a good look inside Anar and Davn’s house, a childish bedroom which was very obviously split right down the middle. The sides were almost identical, although it was noticed that one of Davn’s rugs were missing.
They stopped by to see Belkir the Arkus and got the impression that the Arkus wanted to be done with the entire spark storm business and and move the entire town to greener, less brain-scrambly pastures. While he was distracted elsewhere, Del snuck over to examine the Arkus’s ledgers. The books were mostly trade manifests but in a hidden compartment Del found the Arkus’s notes. They detailed actual concrete plans to move the town, even if it was against the town’s wishes. What was odd was that the Arkus abruptly came up with these complex plans about a month ago, accompanied by a suspiciously different handwriting style.
As he so effectively skulked, invisible to most observers, he was discovered by Bia, who could somehow get a sense where he was. This led to a bit of an exchange of weird ass powers with Del using his weird squid ink attack and Bia using some sort of paralyzing touch.
Bia relented when she “saw” Del’s Bright Mark on the inside of his wrist. They reached a “let’s stop using our powers on each other” detente and Bia asked the party to join her over dinner that evening as she believed they could help each other.
Confronting Anar about what he’d done went well at first. I mean, for Anar: not so great for Del’s fingers which were snapped in half by the big rubbery oaf while Del attempted to explain how people could be damaged. Eventually, while he did admit to mashing a clay whistle into his twin, he ended up having a tantrum that absolutely trashed his house, thrashing around with astonishing strength. The party left him too it.
The body recovery had gone better: they were able to bring the body down and Frist was able to remove the clay shards from the body. As the body lay in the Aeon Priest’s home, they observed the plastic flesh begin to knit back together slowly. Frist was also able to identify a few redundant… uh, glands?… in the creature that could be harvested. Between that and the pool of cyphers that the Aeon Priest put at their disposal they have an unused bank of numenera.
So far so good. They met with Bia in the private room of the inn where they were all staying and she bought them a pretty, pretty good dinner. The help she needed was getting inside The Storm’s Finger.
