The party follows Alansari to a shrine of the ancients, adjacent to an apartment for the Order, in the Eastern Market area of the city by the East gate.

The party learns that Bandit King and his crew stormed through the city gates and went directly to the storeroom behind the shrine where two containers of translator microbes were being held. The microbes were to be distributed throughout the Steadfast and allow the Aeon Priests and their agents to understand any of the languages spoken throughout the Steadfast.

The party first question Zorian, the priest in charge of the shrine where the microbes were stolen from. She says that the Order has things under control and that their help is unneeded. While in the midst of their investigation a merchant named Durzak picks them out as adventures and tries to sell them a “artifact” that has psychic control power. The party identify it as only a cypher and bargain him down to a good price and Gerard Jr. buys it from him. The party goes to a tavern and Gore chats up the locals and buys them a round. They learn about the bandit raid and that the Bandit King is probably hold up in the Red Swamp south east of the city. Alansari ends up getting a little drunk for the first time on a “long Island” while at the tavern. The party then proceeds to the gates to question the guards there about the attack.

At the gate Gerard chats up Lammal, one of the guards there, and offers the old guard to drink his wine cask with him when he gets off duty. Gerard meets Lammal in an alley near the gate and learns from him that the guards on duty when the bandits managed to storm through the gate unimpeded were Evert and Orza. Evert is an older guard who Lammal says is lazy, and Orza is new to the guard force. The party suspects that Orza is possibly in the employ of someone and allowed the bandits in on purpose. Gerard and Lammal finish the wine cask and Gerard may have given Lammal an old fashion afterwards, no one else was in the alley so it’s impossible to say for sure.

The party return to the Church of Truth in the center of the city to report to Petra. They sleep there overnight and set off early in the morning for the Red Swamp south east of the city.

The party travels west on the Wyr for a few days then up the Ingal river, a tributary of the Wyr, and docks in Drammon. Drammon is a port town just south of Shallamas. The party spends one last night on the ship and Bumble dreams of looking into a mirror but the face he sees looking back at him is the face of an old man. The party sees a streak across the sky as they disembark and sees multiple objects fall from the sky towards the ground in the distance.

While making their way through the crates piled around near the dock invisible assassins try to kill the party. With great effort they dispatch the assassins. The assassins had special numenera suits to make them invisible, and one had a message on them that made it obvious that the assassins had been specifically instructed where to find the party and to kill them. It is not known by who.

They make their way out of Drammon and travel north into the large trade city of Shallmas that was the home town of Cook. The party experiences one of the “echoes” that the city is know for, which is the ghost-like apparitions of people replaying events that have already past. The party meets the High Priest Petra at the Order of Truth’s Church in the middle of the city. Petra is in charge of all the Aeon priests in this region. Dobbins, Senna, and Chaalk defer to him and give him a report of the events since they encountered the spiders at their dig site.

Petra meets privately with the party and expresses his thanks for the party’s good work. He pays them for their work and also manages to get them to give up their gate access key for a bonus. He also express interest in contracting them to do some work for him. Much of his help has been called away north to the crusades and Petra needs capable and competent help that he believes he can trust.

He wants them to further investigate the stargates and potentially move some of the gates from their locations to more strategic locations. He also believes the skyfall they saw earlier in the day was an omen from the ancients and the party should investigate the site for gifts from the ancients. But first Petra wants the party to take care of an important and sensitive issue for him. The Bandit King Poelle and his lackeys have stolen something of great importance to him and Order and he sends the party with his young apprentice Alansari to investigate and hopefully bring the stolen property back without too much fuss.

The party continues northward from the town that was overtaken by abhumans. They travel along the path for days with mountains to the east and forest to the west. They see a few farmsteads that look abandoned and run down. Bumble picks up a glimmer from the datasphere that appears to just his mind. A woman with 4 arms, 3 faces and 2 extra floating hands appears before him and warns of severe weather incoming. The party takes shelter on his advice and a spared the worst of a thunderstorm with lightning and highwinds.

Eventually they arrive at a walled city called Osgar. The guards make them wait and be inspected by a physician before entering because of fear of the fungal infection. They also chastise the party for indecent exposure for leaving their entire faces uncovered. The group fashions some face coverings and enters into the city. The party goes to the market while the priests and diggers seek out the Order of Truth’s church in the city. The party spends a long time in the market, but after much discussion finally decides not to buy anything and head to the church. The church in the city is small and the priest there can only provide them with information on their location and the best way to travel. The churches in the Thaemor are mostly new and underfunded since the ruler of the nation just recently allowed the Order official access to the nation. Goredard spends some time looking through the church library.

The party goes out to a tavern that evening and makes a contract with a man named Ramash who works on one of the trading vessels on the river Tarcil which the city is adjacent to and has a large port on. After spending the night at the church the party heads to the docks to meet with Ramash. On their way to find the ship they see the dockmaster. The dockmaster is wearing one of the metal masks that changes with the wearer’s expression that they know the agents of the Syndicate to wear. Gore puts on the mask the woodsman acquired earlier and has Bumble put on the other matching mask that he has in his possession and accompanies him. Cook speculates that perhaps Bumble has this mask in his possession because he was a member of the Syndicate before he lost his memories.

Gore speaks with the dockmaster, whose name is Saren, and is able to convince him that he is a Syndicate member. He is invited to Saren’s house for some tea and discussion. Gore manages to get away with his ruse the whole time. Saren asks if he will be booking passage to the Sanctuary but Gore tells him that he has other secret business to attend to.

After leaving Saren’s house Gore rejoins the party and they find Ramash’s ship. Ramash arranges for the whole party to have passage on the ship for 5 shins a piece. The captain also demands payment for the drones so Gore pays 10 shins for them. The trade ship sets sail north up the river Tarcil bound for Navarene.

Gerard Jr. manages to bring himself back into proper phase covered in strange light bending goo. Goredard manages to fashion an effective converter for Bumble’s port. Bumble interfaces with the tower’s system and is able to send away the flying blades and the two other automatons headed to their location clearing the party’s way for escape. With the town to the east located the party returns to retrieve the rest of their traveling band to head that way.

When they return to the mountains they find Dobbins, who is an even more nervous gibbering mess, with Chaalk the other priest. Chaalk tells them that the young digger boy in the band went exploring and returned as a hulking monstrosity. The diggers were very upset by this and they’ve formed an angry mob to confront the mutants by the giant crystals. The party finds Croxley and Jori fending off the mob with the flailing tendrils growing on the ground which have become engorged and violent. Digby is there as well, he has grow taller and more muscled with thick reddish skin like a carapace. He has an additional pair of crab-like arms coming from his abdomen, a pair of antennae on his head, a third eye on his forehead, and possibly other less visible mutations… He says Croxley told him he is the chosen of Mehir and that he is meant for great things. He wants to stay with Croxley and realize his destiny which is greater than digging holes for the rest of his life. The diggers are arguing with him and trying to attack the mutants who they blame for Digby’s horrible transformation. Gerard Jr. uses his excellent people skills to diffuse the situation and make the diggers see that Digby should make his own decision. They aren’t entirely happy but agree to stop attacking and come away with the party. Croxley says that Mehir has chosen Digby as his divine vessel and that it is time for them to go out into the world and spread the world of Mehir once again. Croxley fetches his giant centipede Bourdois and leaves Mehir’s Teeth in the care of Jori so he and Digby can accompany the party through the portal into new lands.

On the other side of the portal the woodsman leads the large band through the tangled and marshy forest. They camp at the edge of the forest that night. In the morning they notice a herd of Chocobo in the more open fields to the east. The woodsman is unable to successfully capture one so they all head out over the more open terrain towards the town. As they walk they notice they are being watched by a cloaked figure. Gerard Jr. and Goredard break off from the party to speak with the observer. As they near the figure shouts “Ignore Me!” in a strange mechanical voice and moves away over the hill. The two press forward and question the figure for more information. Getting closer they notice the figure’s robes float several inches above the ground with no visible feet and within the cowl all they can make out is a purplish metallic oval rimmed in silver. They have a confusing conversation with the figure for a few minutes learning nothing definitively. Finally the watcher says “beginnings and endings are irrelevant” while turning away from them and disappears in a blink of multicolored static.

They all travel a bit further and are suddenly right in the path of a herd of chocobo stampeding to get away from flying predators diving down on them. They try having Senna form a shield in front of them but she buckles under the pressure so the woodsman gets to the front with Digby and they make loud predator noises which succeeds in parting the stampede around them safely. The finally reach the town around midday, but find no people around. Cook says the town smells of fungus and opts to keep an eye of the rest of the band because of the smell. The rest of the party enters the town to investigate.

They discover the town is inhabited by large black bird abhumans who hide around corners and in buildings and pelt them with stones and debris. The former inhabitants of the town appear to have fallen to a horrible fungal plague that infected and finally killed them erupting mushrooms from the corpse’s eyes and mouth. The abhumans use the mushroom spores against the party in their guerilla warfare and Gerard inhales a lungful of them becoming infected, but fighting off their effects for the time being. The party battle and kill a couple of the creatures. They find the creatures collect sacks of worthless odds and ends, but they do find a few shins among the mix. The save 2 shins aside for Cook knowing how excited he’ll be. The woodsman also finds a weird root that seems to have some medical properties and claims a small knife that an abhuman tried to poison him with. After burning down two buildings the party uses the distraction to sneak away and explore the city. They find stores of potatoes along with other preserved food within the town. They try to sneak out with their loot but are discovered and have to make a break away. Goredard falls behind and is forced to hold his breath as he runs through a giant plume of spores. The party all make it out safely and the abhumans do not give chase.

The party circle the town wide and begin following a cart path north. After another few hours of travel they set camp for the night. Gerard Jr. awakens with with a nasty cough. He shakes off the worst of the effects but they fear that he is infected with the fungal spores. The woodsman uses the weird root he found with other herbs to concoct a bitter healing draught which Gerard Jr. drinks and rids himself of the fungal infection. The party then sets off north in hopes of coming across some less terrible civilization.

The party takes a rest on the bridge after their encounters. Before they rest Bumble receives a shock of some sort from Goredard and begins to feel little flickers of memory. While he sleeps Bumble has dreams of his childhood and parents. He remembers a happy time playing and sees glimpses of both his parents. The woodsman speaks with the Talex a bit more but learns nothing useful. Testing out his new phasing control Gerard phases out a bit too far and is unable to fully solidify himself for the rest of the session.

Leaving the bridge the party discovers the large dark space is now light up dimly and looks like the open inside cavity of a huge animal. There is a large orifice in one wall that they fly the moth through. The travel down a tunnel and encounter another closed orifice that does not open for them. Returning to the large cavern they land and explore a very large metallic rectangle resting on the floor of the open area. Unable to find a way inside they abandon the object and return to the moth production area. The drones have cleaned up the area some and built 3 more moths. They explore the idea of bringing a moth through the gateway but the wings extend far beyond the gateway radius so they abandon the idea.

They dial the address gleaned from the gate and return to the place that Gigerotta came from. They find themselves in a mossy forest that is marshy in areas and dominated by reddish twisting vines in many areas. They follow Gigerotta and encounter a few others of her clan that are living in a dense vine snarl for shelter. They are directed by the group to a place where the “bad people” are located that have attacked them previously. The woodsman navigates them through the dense forest to a tall metallic tower to the west of the stargate.

Goredard scouts ahead and finds the tower is being circled by large flying blades. They send a blue drone toward the entrance in the tower it is encircled by the 3 blades, a light from the tower shines down on it and a robotic voice is heard from the tower. The drone continues to walk and is quickly cut down. Goredard and Cook sneak inside the tower. Bumble is discovered trying to reach the tower by the blades and they encircle him. The woodsman jumps from cover and activates his visual displacer to distract the blades. Two blades attack the woodsman but are mislead by the visual displacer and smash into each other doing severe damage to themselves. Bumble and the woodsman make it safely inside the tower and the blades take up a spinning position blocking the entrance.

Inside the tower they find a blue beam of light in the center of the single tall narrow and otherwise empty room. Goredard throws a stick into the light and it floats upward. He then steps in the light and floats to the second floor where he encounters and robotic form that immediately fires at him. Cook leaps into the light and travels to the upper floor to assist. As the woodsman tries to enter the light he encounters another robot dropping down the light and is forced to jump back as the robot lands in the middle of the beam barring the path. Goredard and Cook take out the robot on the upper floor and then look to aiding the woodsman and Bumble on the lower floor who are having a little bit of trouble. The woodsman steps in front of Bumble as he throws an energy sphere causing the woodsman to turn quickly raking Bumble with his weapon. The woodsman is a little off his game after that, but they together are able to take out the remaining robot.

Ascending the tower again and they find 4 robot docking ports on the 2nd floor and on the 3rd floor observation windows with augmented reality interfaces and zoom enhancement capability. They utilize the observation tower and Goredard finds a town he figures to be only a full day’s journey away. Goredard also gets the idea to strip out some of the equipment from the robots to fashion a converter for Bumble’s port to the robot docking interface.

The party travels through the stargate to the dark cave with carapace-like walls and balcony-like structures that look out into pitch black that they briefly visited earlier. Here they encounter a seemingly feral woman calling herself Giggerota who came here accidentally through the stargate while escaping some “bad people”. She speaks very basic truth/common and has been there for an indeterminate time feeding off the bodies of the blue drones and insects being grown here. Goredard uses his knowledge of the stargate to obtain the address for the location Giggerota traveled from in a “cache crystal” in the gate. They dial the address and see sunlight and grass on the other side. Suddenly a glowing translucent figure appears and reaches out with tentacles into the gate draining the power from it. It reaches out with a tentacle to Gerard and gives him a psychic image of a glowing sphere with ghostly worms flying around it. The creature is hungry for energy and scared of the worms. The creature then shifts into a ball of glowing tentacles and flies off over the balcony into the pitch black.

The part resolves to investigate. They discover that the dead blue drones in the chamber have a data module inserted into a port on their heads. They remove some and insert them into two of their drones which emphatically state “build more moths” and begin work on a insect craft that appeared to be growing here, removing it from a cocoon and inserting synthetic parts. In a few hours they have a fully operational “moth” so they and Giggerota pile in and fly off in the direction the energy creature went. They find another balcony platform where they land to find two passageways.

They travel down one and find a large chamber with a bundle of organic fibers running down the center through floor and ceiling. The bundle of fibers has a indent on one side with a small raised platform. A lens is positioned on the wall in front of the platform. Nearing the platform causes a holographic hand template to appear. A few of the party try to activate the template unsuccessfully and then Gerard phase shifts and tries even more unsuccessfully to activate it. They travel into what appears to be a medical bay with cryopods. They accidentally activate some medical drones which malfunction and lash out. Goredard is injected with a chemical but manages to shrug off the worst of the effects. They quickly dispatch the drones. They further explore and locate a few cyphers. On their way out they see the template again. The woodsman who had been taking an old man nap earlier decides to try the template and the room springs to life with light and humming. A voice comes from all around them and says. “Hello Divine Shadow. I am Talex, are you my captain?”. The party discovers they are on a spaceship that the woodsman can command. Talex displays a planet on its lens in front of them. Talex says its positional thrusters are not working and its weapon is also not working because something is draining the power, but it thinks it could fire the weapon and would like to destroy something.

The party travels down the other passage and encounter a locked door that the woodsman opens with the energy key in his hand. They find a long hallway with white walls that glow slightly. At the end of it they discover a chamber with a white glowing sphere surrounded by energy shielding. There is a circular catwalk around it and a control panel on the far side and all around there are are small ghostly worm-like creatures with reaching tentacles floating about with room. Sometimes they reach their tentacles into the sphere and draw energy. The party scouts the area cautiously, but soon draw the attention of the worms. Goredard and the woodsman make for the control panel as they all battle the glowing worms. Gerard notices he seems to be closer to the phase state these creatures are in and during the battle one worm reaches its tentacles into Gerard and seems to drag him more out of phase. After the party finishes off most of the worms the larger energy creature reappears. The last remaining worm attacks the large creature it but is struck down and the larger creature begins to drain the energy from the sphere so the party attacks it. Goredard examines the controls and with his transdimensional knowledge is able to uses them to dial down the energy the sphere is drawing into this plane, thus depriving the creature of its energy supply. Cook expertly leaps from catwalk and delivers a finishing blow with his dual forearm blades. Gerard is still out of phase and begins to flicker erratically. His stabilization device begins chirping so he activates it and Goredard does some quantum surgery and realigns another broken piece of crystal with the fully stabilized portion bringing Gerard back in sync and one step closer to full control of his phase state.

The party returns to the control bridge and they convince the woodsman to test out the Talex’s weapon on Mars. The Talex fires and they shortly see a large energy beam impact the surface and leave a crater many miles across that is clearly visible from space. Satisfied with the test the party rests up from their ordeal.

The woodsman is awoken by Alaric and his blue drones standing over him. Alaric gives him a list of gate addresses that he remembers from his time as Divine Shadow. Senna the aeon priest tells the party that the 3 priests and 9 diggers are all counting on them to get the group back to civilization and that the party won’t be able to get paid unless they can reach a bank or church that will accept Dobbins script. A young boy named Digby gives the party 4 cyphers that diggers had collected to help them in their efforts.

Two of the cyphers they used immediately on Gerard. One is called a “contingent subroutine” which integrated into his body through his skin and will activate if he becomes incapacitated or dies causing his body to protect itself from danger. The other cypher is a comprehension graft which, unfortunately for Gerard, worked like the belly button worm from the “Matrix”. It now allows him to understand Cluster, the language spoken by Alaric and that the energy key granted to the woodsman.

The party then explores the additional 5 addresses on the list that Alaric gave them. The first location is dark and smells of dirty human and rotting meat. Goredard explores and discovers decomposing giant insects and hears sounds that he suspects are feral humans so he returns through the gate to report. The second location is under and ocean and sends a surge of water at the party knocking them to the ground, but the woodsman quickly deactivates the portal and avoids and serious problem. The third location is on the top of a large ziggurat like structure that is in the middle of black drit desert with blowing dust. Senna believes it may be the desert in the Dark Hills in the South of Navarene. The fourth location is pitch black with a stone floor. The fifth and final location they check is located on a crystal floating high above the ground.

The party returns to the fourth location which turns out to be a small stone room that also contains a large obelisk, and two big boxes, one with large green crystal sphere and the other with a large black cylinder with strange symbols and ports. The find a large iron door lock from the outside. Gerard phases through it and finds himself in a hallway sparsely lit by torches. He explores along the hallway lined with similar doors before finally finding a stairway up out of the basement. He phases through the locked basement door to find a larger stone corridor lined with pillars and some outside light through small windows. He hides behind a pillar as two armored men walk down the corridor. He decides to speak to the men who draw weapons and demand to know what he is doing in their stronghold. He tells them of the portal in the basement and one guard fetches a black robed man in a metal mask that unlocks the basement and storeroom. The robed man offers the party passaged out of the stronghold if they give up the stargate dialing device. They finally agree, giving the dialer to the man and bring the priests, diggers, and Alaric/drones through the portal.

The robbed man instead of letting them go leads them to a courtyard where two other guards are on duty. The robbed man then orders the guard to kill them and joins in the attack throwing esoteric energy beams. It turns out that the party has stumbled into a stronghold belonging to the Syndicate, a shadowy organization known to be powerful and ruthless, who feel it would be better to kill the party that just let them leave peacefully. The Syndicate are the group that Cook’s parents purchased his cybernetic upgrade from. The group took them into indentured servitude when his parents became unable to pay back the debt, and tried to repossess Cook as well but he escaped them.

The party kills the four guards and the Syndicate member in a heated skirmish. Senna shielded the refugees who huddled in a small group during this. The whole group then flee back to the stargate while being assailed from the balconies and hearing the sounds of more backup on the way. The woodsman loots the Syndicate agent for their dialer as well as his mask, shins, a cypher, and a key. The group arrives back at the gate safely but instead of just escaping Goredard uses his extensive knowledge of transdimensional numenera and programs the gate to dial the underwater address immediately after they deactivate it after their escape. The party all cross over to the mountain top location near Mehir’s teeth and see guards burst into the room just as they deactivate the gate connection.

Assumably the storeroom gate began to dial itself as guards and robbed Syndicate members rush into the basement after the escaping party. As soon as the gate connected water bust from both sides, expelling over 30,000 gallons of water per minute, nearly instantaneously filling the small room and sending a torrent of water rushing down the hallway in both directions. Most certainly drowning all pursuers in the basement and quickly flooding all the other basement rooms. Depending on how long the gate stayed connected the damage to the fortress and even surrounding area may be extensive. The party can only hope and imagine for now. Whatever the final scenario they can rest assured they struck a significant blow to the organization responsible for destroying Cook’s life, not to mention numerous other reported underhanded deeds.

The camp is attacked by giant spider creatures known as culova. The Aeon priest Senna holds off the attackers with a force field esotery and the party engages in battle with them. They’ve already taken heavy hits when three more appear from the forest including one giant “queen” culova. The party is eventually forced to retreat back into the cave behind the force field. They explore the other ruins that the diggers were excavating in hopes of finding the teleportation device that Alaric provided them the control device for. They find the teleportation device they seek and activate it. They go back for the others and retrieve the 3 Aeon Priests and group of diggers shielded in the cave. Using Bumble’s projection cypher they distract the culova long enough to escape to the stargate.

On the other side of the stargate them are in a ruined building set back into a rift in a mountainside. Near the site they find a large crystalline structure with strange waving tentacle plants growing around it. There is a ramshackle hovel with two mutants living in it. They worship a being they call Mehir who is the patron of mutants apparently. The crystal structure is a holy place for mutants they call the teeth of Mehir. One mutant called Jori wears a dirty brown robe over his pinkish skin and has deformed claw hands with one that forms three fingers into a spear of fingernail 2 feet long. The other known as Croxley is a prophet of Mehir. He is bald and green with red pupils and 3 strange long fingers per hand. Croxley invites the visitors to receive the blessing of Mehir. Cook agrees and Croxley uses the crystal device to mutant Cook giving him increased sense of smell but reducing his endurance (reducing his Might edge by one) and also giving him strange hairy lumps on his arms neck and possibly elsewhere. Bubmle accepts mutation also and becomes more muscled (5 might) but also has his face deformed (making interactions on step more difficult) and gave him and odd aroma. Cook tries the mutation gamble again and has his nervous system enhanced (5 speed), but also has his brain weakened (making memory and cognitive tasks 1 step more difficult) and also causes him to grow a slender tail with coarse hair. The party having had enough of the mutation gambling goes back to the stargate to make camp with the priests and diggers.

The party returns to investigate the pillar room some more. They climb one of the pillars to find a preserved brain in a capsule. The party then investigates the cryopod room and obtains 3 blue drones from stasis that obey simple commands. A man in one pod dies and releases an energy stream which the woodsman grabs at and it enters his body. They use the “key” to activate the pedestal in the chamber with pillars; “chamber of the divine predecessors”. The party converses with the predecessors’ brains over giant glowing screen and one asks them to take it with them so they agree. Gerard removes the brain from the equipment and takes it. The brain activates a secret compartment and gives them something to access a teleportation network. They meet the Aeon priests in the cave outside the ruin and relate their exploration to them while also convincing them they didn’t steal anything. Goredard converses with Cardinal Ocato through a numenera sphere and when asked about a “key” he manages to convince him they know nothing about it.

On the other side of the door Gerard opens it for the rest of the party. They encounter the visage of a very old man on several large view screens that identifies himself as Mantrid. Many mechanical arms buzz about flying through the air. The arms attack the party. They destroy a few arms and finally force Mantrid to stand down when they attack a container holding his preserved organs. They engage him in some conversation and get some information about the facility out of him. While they converse with Mantrid the two large guardian droids they saw earlier in the room with pillars come clomping down the hall towards the room. Cook activates a force screen cypher in the hall to hold them off and also closes the door.

They talk more with Mantrid and he gives them access to the bioscholar’s vault while bargaining for his life. They take an elevator down to loot the vault obtaining a few cyphers and a symbiote artifact that Cook link’s with (decreasing his max might by 1). The also salvage 6 shins, a large cube containing many preserved biological and chemical samples, and a small white crystal cylinder power source. After returning from the vault the guardians get past the force shield and enter the room. The party engages the droids and Mantrid changes his mind about a truce and attacks the party when he believes he has a chance to kill them. The party resume attacking Mantrid’s organ jar and Gerard smashes it open with an onslaught. The arms release the other party member they were holding and all attack Gerard in retaliation. The party is eventually vicorious against the guardians while also battling the arms. Bumbleschmumkin shields an injured and impaired Gerard with his own body from the attacks of all the arms . Gordard turns the guardian’s weapon on the arm drones taking out the bulk of the remaining and together they handily finish off the couple of stragglers.