Numenera is a game published by Monte Cook Games. Its setting is the Ninth World, and this list has eight rumours for that setting. The rumours, which are similar to the Hearsay that can be found in the official books, can be used as adventure hooks or as simple misinformation.
- Archeol is a miniature city within the Caecilian Jungle, where the buildings rise no higher than the knee of a human. Those who have visited the city say that it is clearly inhabited, but the inhabitants have not been seen as yet. One Nao has postulated that the city is a reflection of an ultraterrestrial city, one that is in fact full size, and that its inhabitants can only be seen by travelling to their home dimension, something the Nano is hoping to achieve.
- It’s said that an immense, frog-like beast lurks somewhere within the Caecilian Jungle, preying on any creature that ventures too close to its home. The creature reputedly despises everything else and considers trespassers as nothing more than food waiting to be eaten. There are no first-hand accounts of this beast, because no-one is said to have survived the encounter.
- Le Temple de Frogue is one of the locations of interest said to be within the Caecilian Jungle and is said to be a fertility symbol, a giant temple constructed in the shape of a humanoid frog. There are rumours of strange beings lurking in the region of the temple, creatures of mud and flesh and frogs, and it’s said that sometimes these creatures venture away from the temple, seeking new people to incorporate into more of their kind.
- Mechanical creatures lurk in the Caecilian Jungle waiting for the foolish to enter so that they can be preyed upon. There are rumours that some of these creatures are more impatient, and unwilling to wait for prey to approach them. Instead, they raid out from the jungle at settlements and camps in the surrounding region.
- Scattered on the edges of the Caecilian Jungle are a number of makeshift camps that have been set up by those who decided not to proceed any further into the jungle, instead stopping and selling supplies, maps and equipment to those who do proceed. There are rumours that some of these camps are more dangerous to visit than others, for the inhabitants of these camps deliberately send people astray, to be robbed, sold into slavery or killed.
- The Caecilian Jungle is known for the strange creatures that can be found it, including, reportedly, carnivorous plants that have been enhanced. There are rumours, though, that some of these plants managed to escape from where they were being kept penned up and are now spreading out into the rest of the jungle and, perhaps, even beyond it.
- The Malingering Valley in the Caecilian Jungle is filled with cold springs that sometimes erupt in cold water and ice steam. One of the things that the eruptions may produce is small creatures carried up from the bowels of the earth. It’s said that sometimes these are things that have never been seen before, and sometimes a hefty reward is said to be offered by interested parties for any creatures recovered that have never been previously encountered.
- The Westwind is a tornado within the Caecilian Jungle that is in constant movement, and can carry away anything from a small animal to a tree. The Westwind constantly changes its size, but there’s a rumour that recently it has only been getting larger, never smaller again. It’s also said that the Westwind’s movement has become more purposeful of late, as if being directed by something.
Want some items that could be used as oddities? Check out 100 Xenoarchaeological Finds.