[Scenario Seed] The Sands of Terror
Dec 28, 2019 15:18:30 GMT
jezmiller, Hedgewick, and 1 more like this
Post by Catsmate on Dec 28, 2019 15:18:30 GMT
The Sands of Terror was a proposed scenario for the FASA Doctor Who RPG by J. Andrew Keith, submitted to FASA in 1986.
It involved the Celestial Intervention Agency dispatching the PCs to Earth in 1911 to clean up the mess left by the Doctor's defeat of Sutekh in the TV episode Pyramids of Mars.
The outline is rather vague, and rather inaccurate in it's portrayal of the position of the Turks in Egypt and (incorrectly) mixing in a young T. E. Lawrence, but worth consideration as a scenario idea.
Starting Point.
For the pre-Time War environment being dispatched to clean up after the Doctor fits quite well. There was a lot of anachronistic tech left lying around the Old Priory1 which would have been of great interest to individuals and governments.
However in the New Who setting this won't really work that well. A later incarnation of the Doctor could well decide to pop bak and clean up the mess of his earlier self or other time travellers might want the Osiran artefacts for themselves.
England.
The English element of the project seems pretty straight-forward; remove any bits of Osiran technology that survive the fire (or arrive just after the Doctor and the grab them more-or-less intact; an Osiran time corridor might be very useful). Outside the house there were the 'canoptic urns' that generated the energy barrier, the remains of the pyramidal war missile2, and servitor robots not taken to Mars by Scarman and whatever other bits and pieces are left around.
Don't forget the fire; not only is this part of history, and not to be tampered with, but it's likely to attract attention.
Egypt.
Egypt in the period before the Great War was a complicated place; eleven million people (>90% of then Sunni Moslem) ruled by a mix of local, Ottoman and British systems and interests. Practically Egypt was a British possession, though de jure Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire; the period from 1880 to 1914 is referred to as the 'veiled protectorate'. Britain controlled the Egyptian economy and asserted control over the country to secure the Suez Canal, the vital link to British India.
In the recent past of 1911 was the Mahdist wars, an Islamic revolt that controlled Sudan for a period (famously claiming the life of Charles "Chinese" Gordon3) until it's suppression by British and Egyptian forces.
The current ruler of Egypt is Khedive Abbas II, who's become hostile to the British and was described by Lord Kitchener in 1911 as "wicked little Khedive" who should be deposed.
Lots of potential for the PCs to get into trouble then. Even without further complications...
First complications.
Assuming the party arrive in Egypt soon after Sutekh's destruction4 by whatever transport the have then they should beat any of Fu Manchu's minions or Torchwood operatives. Though if these antagonists have agents in place (which seems likely) then their lead may be minimal as there are telegraph links. Torchwood probably keeps a wary eye on archaeologists and may be able to call on British forces or use the bureaucracy to impede the PCs, if they arrive in Alexandria or Cairo.
That's when things get interesting; the PCs pick up an alien distress call.
Firstly PCs have to clean up the Osiran traces in Egypt, removing all advanced technology (and dodging any traps) while avoiding grave-robbers, archaeologists, Torchwood agents et cetera. There's all the time pressure of wondering what's happening with that alien signal.
What do the PCs do with the devices they've found? What are they and do the PCs understand them to any degree? Do any of them carry the taint of Sutekh's mental state? Might a PC fall under the influence of an echo of Sutekh's mind?
If the next phase is moved to what was then Mesopotamia then the PCs will need to travel there (By TARDIS, Vortex Manipulator, flying bus et cetera).
The meteorite.
An optional complication is to include the Nakhla meteorite, which fell in Egypt on 28 June 1911. The stone originated on Mars and showed signs of water and possible of amino acids and bacterial traces.
Mesopotamia.
In 1911 Mesopotamia, what's now Iraq, Kuwait and parts of Syria and Turkey, was a province of the Ottoman Empire and sight of one of the interesting engineering projects of the period; the Berlin to Baghdad railway.
The signal.
In 1902 a Rutan scout crashed in the English Channel and terrorised the inhabitants of lonely Fang Rock. Now another Rutan scout was investigating Earth for the Host, until intercepted by a Sontaran long range fighter patrol. In the clash both ships were damaged and fell to Earth in what might charitable be called controlled crashes into the desert.
Both craft are small, single occupant vehicles, with light armament, intended for long duration reconnaissance patrols. However they each pose an immense threat to human history as their technology is far in advance of Earth's and the international situation is somewhat tense. Imagine a Great War where battlefields, factories, fleets and cities are subject to aerial bombardment from aeronefs using recovered counter-gravity technology. Or captured soldiers turned against their country by Sontaran hypnotic programming. Or Rutan medical technology used to create hybrid monsters (as in Evolution).
The PCs should realise, or be prodded to realise, that this situation must also be dealt with.
The Crash Sites.
Both spacecraft landed fairly close to one another. Unfortunately they were witnessed by Turkish forces operating near the railway, and their German5 advisor.
The aliens both survived, Sontarans are tough and Rutan are, well, gelatinous. Both craft are too damaged to manage interstellar flight but might be capable of atmospheric flight, if this suits the game.
Currently the sites are being investigated by a group of Turkish and German soldiers, who've realised the essential details; they're spacecraft from beyond Earth and far more advanced than humanity. They want to study and move the craft but the former is difficult, as experts would have to be covertly brought to the site and the latter means moving the craft to the railway. Naturally they're paranoid about spies, British and Russian especially.
They don't know that the Sontaran and Rutan pilots have survived...
The Aliens.
Both aliens have only minimal equipment, neither was prepared for a infiltration mission, but both have the gear expected for a long duration mission. Both are trying to kill each other, recover their ships and use the other ship for parts to render theirs operational.
The Rutan is capable of shape-shifting and has used this to infiltrate the village and is preparing to send a distress signal to the Host.
The Sontaran is holed-up near the oasis with a portable generator to 'recharge' and an operational transmitter (the source of the signal the PCs detected) at a safe distance. He has some weapons (sidearm wand , rheon carbine, perhaps grenades and a meson blaster too) and other gear. This might include neural control implants, as used by Kaagh, but he certainly has the ability to mind control humans to a degree.
Lawrence.
T. E. Lawrence was historically working under Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 exploring the northern Sinai, on the Turkish frontier east of Suez. Nowhere near the railway.
But, given that he did a bit of wandering on his own, and that the "scientific expedition" was actually cartographic reconnaissance of the strategically valuable area from Gaza to Aqaba, he might well have ended up in the Iraqi desert.
He, and his "Arab waterboy", might well appear as a complication or deus ex machina.
Unfortunately it's a few years early for Harry St John Philby to pop up.
The Humans.
The outline describes the human leaders as "a sadistic Turk and a very militaristic German" which is annoyingly a bit stereotypical. The Turkish commander could be no worse than a Torchwood agent6, a Young Turk7 simply out to better his country. The German could be a wide-eyed engineering officer, fascinated by the glimpse of a new world outside Earth's atmosphere.
Objectives.
References.
1911 Britannica on Egypt
Wikipedia on the The Berlin–Baghdad railway
1911 Britannica on Mesopotamia
By Nile and Tigris; Sir E.A. Wallis Budge's 1920 narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Was the priory site and estate acquired by Torchwood after the fire? Is this why UNIT ended up there?
2. Surely a few kilos of dodgy dynamite wouldn't have completely obliterated it?
3. And more than fifty thousand others.
4. It would be very, very bad to arrive too early and risk being controlled by Sutekh or modifying events of his attempted escape. Though having the PCs hiding in the desert (in a London bus?) to wait out events might be an amusing side-trip.
5. Frankly the Sinister German is overdone and could be dropped; it also smacks, to me anyway, of a tough of racism suggesting the Turks were incapable of managing things themselves.
6. Though that could be pretty bad.
7. In the literal sense. The "Young Turks" (who were monolithically neither) were revolutionaries who revolted in 1908; they wished to modernise Turkey and replace the Ottoman Empire's absolute monarchy with a constitutional government.
It involved the Celestial Intervention Agency dispatching the PCs to Earth in 1911 to clean up the mess left by the Doctor's defeat of Sutekh in the TV episode Pyramids of Mars.
The outline is rather vague, and rather inaccurate in it's portrayal of the position of the Turks in Egypt and (incorrectly) mixing in a young T. E. Lawrence, but worth consideration as a scenario idea.
Starting Point.
For the pre-Time War environment being dispatched to clean up after the Doctor fits quite well. There was a lot of anachronistic tech left lying around the Old Priory1 which would have been of great interest to individuals and governments.
However in the New Who setting this won't really work that well. A later incarnation of the Doctor could well decide to pop bak and clean up the mess of his earlier self or other time travellers might want the Osiran artefacts for themselves.
England.
The English element of the project seems pretty straight-forward; remove any bits of Osiran technology that survive the fire (or arrive just after the Doctor and the grab them more-or-less intact; an Osiran time corridor might be very useful). Outside the house there were the 'canoptic urns' that generated the energy barrier, the remains of the pyramidal war missile2, and servitor robots not taken to Mars by Scarman and whatever other bits and pieces are left around.
Don't forget the fire; not only is this part of history, and not to be tampered with, but it's likely to attract attention.
- For an early complication maybe Torchwood was able to detect the emanations from Scarman's project and is on it's way, or waiting outside the force field...
- For more fun remember my Doctor Who Manchu? Well Ward/Rohmer had Fu Manchu's first visit to Britain occurring in 1911; if he was Chang's son maybe he has the technology to detect Scarman/Sutekh's meddling with Osiran technology? Due a multi-sided struggle to recover the artefacts and thence on to Egypt.
Egypt.
Egypt is a tributary state of the Turkish empire, and is ruled by an hereditary prince with the style of khedive, a Persian title regarded as the equivalent of king. The succession to the throne is by primogeniture. The central administration is carried on by a council of ministers, appointed by the khedive, one of whom acts as prime minister. To these is added a British financial adviser, who attends all meetings of the council of ministers, but has not a vote; on the other hand, no financial decision may be taken without his consent. The ministries are those of the interior, finance, public works, justice, war, foreign affairs and public instruction, and in each of these are prepared the drafts of decrees, which are then submitted to the council of ministers for approval, and on being signed by the khedive become law. No important decision, however, has been taken since 1882 without the concurrence of the British minister plenipotentiary. With a few exceptions, laws cannot, owing to the Capitulations, be enforced against foreigners except with the consent of the powers.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition.
In the recent past of 1911 was the Mahdist wars, an Islamic revolt that controlled Sudan for a period (famously claiming the life of Charles "Chinese" Gordon3) until it's suppression by British and Egyptian forces.
The current ruler of Egypt is Khedive Abbas II, who's become hostile to the British and was described by Lord Kitchener in 1911 as "wicked little Khedive" who should be deposed.
Lots of potential for the PCs to get into trouble then. Even without further complications...
First complications.
Assuming the party arrive in Egypt soon after Sutekh's destruction4 by whatever transport the have then they should beat any of Fu Manchu's minions or Torchwood operatives. Though if these antagonists have agents in place (which seems likely) then their lead may be minimal as there are telegraph links. Torchwood probably keeps a wary eye on archaeologists and may be able to call on British forces or use the bureaucracy to impede the PCs, if they arrive in Alexandria or Cairo.
That's when things get interesting; the PCs pick up an alien distress call.
- The scenario outline places this is the Iraqi desert (Mesopotamia) so it's up to the GM to decide whether to keep this location (and hence move the action from Egypt) or move the beacon to Egypt.
- Running with the first option probably removes most of the Fu Manchu and/or Torchwood elements and substitutes German and Turkish antagonists. I shall go with this option for the rest of this piece.
Firstly PCs have to clean up the Osiran traces in Egypt, removing all advanced technology (and dodging any traps) while avoiding grave-robbers, archaeologists, Torchwood agents et cetera. There's all the time pressure of wondering what's happening with that alien signal.
What do the PCs do with the devices they've found? What are they and do the PCs understand them to any degree? Do any of them carry the taint of Sutekh's mental state? Might a PC fall under the influence of an echo of Sutekh's mind?
If the next phase is moved to what was then Mesopotamia then the PCs will need to travel there (By TARDIS, Vortex Manipulator, flying bus et cetera).
The meteorite.
An optional complication is to include the Nakhla meteorite, which fell in Egypt on 28 June 1911. The stone originated on Mars and showed signs of water and possible of amino acids and bacterial traces.
Mesopotamia.
In 1911 Mesopotamia, what's now Iraq, Kuwait and parts of Syria and Turkey, was a province of the Ottoman Empire and sight of one of the interesting engineering projects of the period; the Berlin to Baghdad railway.
The signal.
In 1902 a Rutan scout crashed in the English Channel and terrorised the inhabitants of lonely Fang Rock. Now another Rutan scout was investigating Earth for the Host, until intercepted by a Sontaran long range fighter patrol. In the clash both ships were damaged and fell to Earth in what might charitable be called controlled crashes into the desert.
Both craft are small, single occupant vehicles, with light armament, intended for long duration reconnaissance patrols. However they each pose an immense threat to human history as their technology is far in advance of Earth's and the international situation is somewhat tense. Imagine a Great War where battlefields, factories, fleets and cities are subject to aerial bombardment from aeronefs using recovered counter-gravity technology. Or captured soldiers turned against their country by Sontaran hypnotic programming. Or Rutan medical technology used to create hybrid monsters (as in Evolution).
The PCs should realise, or be prodded to realise, that this situation must also be dealt with.
- If you want to relocate the crash site to Egypt, perhaps the Rutan and/or Sontaran scouts were attracted to Earth by the emissions from Sutekh's prison being opened. They should be very interested in acquiring such advanced technology for the Greater Glory of their respective empires. Cue a multi-sided war in the Egyptian desert...
The Crash Sites.
Both spacecraft landed fairly close to one another. Unfortunately they were witnessed by Turkish forces operating near the railway, and their German5 advisor.
- Where exactly the crashes occurred is probably of no real importance. The GM should allude to one of the larger towns on the railway such as Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad or Basra but have them sufficiently far distant as to be functionally irrelevant. If they're on an operational section of the railway they should be accessible in a few hours, much longer by horse. There is a small oasis settlement nearly, which has been taken over by the Ottomans as a base.
- Basra had a British presence as it was a centre of the oil industry and important to the Royal Navy. Aleppo may have resonance with players, given recent events.
The aliens both survived, Sontarans are tough and Rutan are, well, gelatinous. Both craft are too damaged to manage interstellar flight but might be capable of atmospheric flight, if this suits the game.
Currently the sites are being investigated by a group of Turkish and German soldiers, who've realised the essential details; they're spacecraft from beyond Earth and far more advanced than humanity. They want to study and move the craft but the former is difficult, as experts would have to be covertly brought to the site and the latter means moving the craft to the railway. Naturally they're paranoid about spies, British and Russian especially.
They don't know that the Sontaran and Rutan pilots have survived...
The Aliens.
Both aliens have only minimal equipment, neither was prepared for a infiltration mission, but both have the gear expected for a long duration mission. Both are trying to kill each other, recover their ships and use the other ship for parts to render theirs operational.
The Rutan is capable of shape-shifting and has used this to infiltrate the village and is preparing to send a distress signal to the Host.
The Sontaran is holed-up near the oasis with a portable generator to 'recharge' and an operational transmitter (the source of the signal the PCs detected) at a safe distance. He has some weapons (sidearm wand , rheon carbine, perhaps grenades and a meson blaster too) and other gear. This might include neural control implants, as used by Kaagh, but he certainly has the ability to mind control humans to a degree.
- There's no reason the players will immediately suspect that both aliens have survived, unless they speak to them. Given that they can track the Sontaran signal they may not realise that there is a Rutan around too.
Lawrence.
T. E. Lawrence was historically working under Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 exploring the northern Sinai, on the Turkish frontier east of Suez. Nowhere near the railway.
But, given that he did a bit of wandering on his own, and that the "scientific expedition" was actually cartographic reconnaissance of the strategically valuable area from Gaza to Aqaba, he might well have ended up in the Iraqi desert.
He, and his "Arab waterboy", might well appear as a complication or deus ex machina.
Unfortunately it's a few years early for Harry St John Philby to pop up.
The Humans.
The outline describes the human leaders as "a sadistic Turk and a very militaristic German" which is annoyingly a bit stereotypical. The Turkish commander could be no worse than a Torchwood agent6, a Young Turk7 simply out to better his country. The German could be a wide-eyed engineering officer, fascinated by the glimpse of a new world outside Earth's atmosphere.
Objectives.
- The PCs need to eliminate the threat to Earth's known history by destroying the two spaceships and other devices or persuading the aliens to leave. And survive.
- If the setting is Egypt they also need to recover the Osiran technology and ensure the aliens don't return to search for more.
- Unless you're planning a sequel a few years later...
- The locals want to examine the technology and move it elsewhere for further study. Killing or (better yet) capturing the aliens would be good too but the latter would be tricky. They might also want to obtain any information from the PCs, especially if they've let ship that they're time travellers.
- The aliens want to kill each other, steal sufficient parts form each others ships to make one operational, and leave.
References.
1911 Britannica on Egypt
Wikipedia on the The Berlin–Baghdad railway
1911 Britannica on Mesopotamia
By Nile and Tigris; Sir E.A. Wallis Budge's 1920 narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Was the priory site and estate acquired by Torchwood after the fire? Is this why UNIT ended up there?
2. Surely a few kilos of dodgy dynamite wouldn't have completely obliterated it?
3. And more than fifty thousand others.
4. It would be very, very bad to arrive too early and risk being controlled by Sutekh or modifying events of his attempted escape. Though having the PCs hiding in the desert (in a London bus?) to wait out events might be an amusing side-trip.
5. Frankly the Sinister German is overdone and could be dropped; it also smacks, to me anyway, of a tough of racism suggesting the Turks were incapable of managing things themselves.
6. Though that could be pretty bad.
7. In the literal sense. The "Young Turks" (who were monolithically neither) were revolutionaries who revolted in 1908; they wished to modernise Turkey and replace the Ottoman Empire's absolute monarchy with a constitutional government.