Numenera is a game published by Monte Cook Games. Its setting is the Ninth World, and this list has ten 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.

1. Cities were built on the Island of the Last Migration during the isle’s rapid industrialisation, cities which now stand empty following the exile of the Gutonons. Creatures have started to reclaim the cities, as has vegetation, but there are rumours of darker things lurking in the back alleys and sewers, beings born of the wastes formed by the industrial period, creatures that hate everything.
2. Fengali Forest is comprised of many acres of submerged trees, which rise above the surface of the water and are connected below by a tangled network of roots. There are rumours that the forest, whose root system continues to grow, has recently started to expand in the area it covers, with fresh trees growing up from the seabed.
3. Ghost crabs can be found in the depths of the Fengali Forest and are dangerous predators, even though they are blind. The crabs seem to appear and disappear and some of those who have encountered the crustaceans state that this is sometimes the case; the crabs are literally appearing out of nowhere, then disappearing again, meaning they could appear almost anywhere.
4. The Corare Sea is rumoured to be home of intelligent predators, part synth, part cetacean, that dwell in its depths, coming to the surface to hunt. Though most of these, if they exist, do not sound as if they are a great danger for any substantial ship, the same isn’t true for smaller craft. Even worse, there’s a rumour of a very rare and gargantuan hunter that, when it reaches the surface, is large enough to swallow a ship down whole.
5. The Fengali Forest consists of submerged trees located about a hundred miles from the coast of the Steadfast. A clan of humans, called Grovers, lives above the water in the trees, and are generally not hostile or aggressive unless they believe their clan or their forest or threatened. There’s a rumour, though, of a splinter group that was forced away from the others who are much more aggressive and seek out travellers to prey on.
6. The Gutonons, the part of the Gutos clan of the Island of the Last Migration that splintered off and sold parts of the island to others, were either assimilated back into the greater clan after the war that devastated the island or fled forever. There are some Gutonons, though, who still plan to return to the island and retake what they believe was stolen from them, and are working to gather enough resources to co0mpletely obliterate the Gutos in the next conflict.
7. The Island of the Last Migration is home to an unusual species of intelligent bees that were nearly wiped out by the industrialisation that devastated the island. Mabon Macabee, one of those who immigrated to the island, discovered the bees and has since become their advocate, and can often be found cloaked in a living coat of them. The bees are rumoured to be even more intelligent than anyone thinks, and that they are working to ensure that that nothing comes close to wiping them out again.
8. The Sea of Secrets is said by some to have a city frozen in the ice to the far south, though few are those who claim to have reached the city and most, if not all, of those would seem to be lying. Recently, a ship in poor state staggered home with most of the crew dead, and those that were alive quickly died of something unknown. Before they did, the captain said they had travelled to the city, and that no-one else should do so.
9. There are rumours of vessels disappearing in the Eldan Frith, though not every vessel that ventures there does. Some claim that a civilisation that lives below the waters of the Frith is responsible, but others say that more vessels are disappearing than would normally be the case, suggesting there is something else active there.
10. Trunked lilies are plants found in the Fengali Forest that blossom with poisonous flowers which quickly kill creatures that consume them. The lilies then grow in the bodies of their victims. Notably, trunked lilies are also known to swim up to 100 miles away from the forest, and then return home. Some claim they have seen trunked lilies even further afield, and that they sometimes act in a manner that almost appears to be intelligent.

Want some items that could be used as oddities? Check out 100 Xenoarchaeological Finds.