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Post by metacrisis on Mar 22, 2010 5:44:20 GMT
So...fingers crossed. After months of dwelling and planning and stewing and masterminding, my small group of gamers and I are about to embark on our renewed adventures in time and space.
We were once a band of 6 or 7 gamers – cast adrift on the winds of time with a Time Lord, an Alzarian, 4 graduate students of the Academies on Gallifrey, a polar bear, a giant cat…I don’t fricking remember – it was the 80s and we were young and impulsive….
Any way… it’s just the three of us now, myself and the last two students, Time Lords in their own right now, and an entire universe to save.
The two of them are stuck in an alternate universe, one created in the attempt to thwart the Final Sanction of Rassilon. They are the last of the Time Lords (for their universe anyway). Causality has been damaged by an imperfect removal of the Time War (so I don’t have to pay strict attention to cannon, and I can freely steal ideas from the new books and TV shows and no one can chastise me for it.)
Oh…and, their TARDISs are fused together to keep them operating (they can't get away from each other.) (It's like the Odd Couple in Time and Space.)
Anyhow…I could be spending my precious time putting the last touches on their first adventure: The Curse of the Blood Cypress…but I wanted to post something here at last.
There’s black magic (psychic powers), Zombies (the Gelth), and voodoo dolls (Tissue Compression Elimination…wait…maybe They Are Not Alone?!?)
Wish me luck
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Post by metacrisis on Mar 26, 2010 2:43:36 GMT
The Curse of the Blood Cypress has been broken; the people of earth are safe.
I am pleased to report that the first game of our campaign is over and the characters and game system survived.
I should mention that most of our games eventually give way to desperate improvisation; I’ve grown to expect that the players will come up with ideas that exceed my plans – and always surprise me. Basically what I do as a GM is come up with the setting and several key scenes and then sit back and watch the characters run rampant through the plot. Our style of gaming is great for Doctor Who – and I found that the system supported us perfectly.
So…the plot as it transpired: (I will ask the player’s permission to post character information here, until then I will refer to the Time Lords with their first initials, “A” and “T”.)
New Orleans, 1862. It has been raining for weeks. It might be the weather that has folks on edge, or maybe it’s the new rules of Major General Buttler, or perhaps it’s rumors of the dead walking the streets.
We open with a quick descriptive scene highlighting the rainy setting, the massive and intimidating cypress tree deep within a near bayou, the cemetery (with statues of lamenting women – foreshadowing alert), and the sputtering gas lit streets of the city.
The Last of the Time Lords arrived in secret (before the story starts). “T” shows up in the study of Father O’Callighan. The priest mistakes him for a scientist from the Smithsonian – a specialist he’d sent a telegraph to – someone who might be able to answer his questions. Meanwhile “A” ingratiates himself with the Union soldiers inspecting the levies. The scenes are intended to give the players a chance to use the system – research, socializing, and conning. They also uncover some key information. There has been vandalism against several pump stations in the city – leaving a few inches of water through out much of the community. The gas system is breaking down – ostensibly because of water in the system. The zombie brought to the priest resisted all of his attempts to exorcise it – but when one of the parishioners bashed it in the head it collapsed. Before the creature expired it managed to mutter something that was unintelligible to the priest – he struggled to write the strange words down in hopes that he could translate them. It was T who could identify what the zombie said: “This world is ours.”
“T” inspected the formerly animated body that was locked in the church. He discovered traces of coal and creosote as well as some strange residual proto-organic energy. “T” sets about to create a Proto-energy detector with Jiggery Pokery and “A” went to the near by gasification plant to follow up on a hunch (he’d already rumbled the Gelth – apparently mention walking dead and gas lines in the same breath and the mind immediately leaps to the Gelth.)
After a brief encounter with the confederate resistance “A” and “T” met up at a local café to pool notes and drink chicory coffee while the owner of the place tries to remember when he put the giant clock in his front room. Of course the clock is their conjoined TARDIS and it is counting down to a doomsday event.
The Time Lords decide to try the Proto-organic Energy Detector out on the town. It doesn’t take much time for them to run afoul of an attempt to damage another pump. It becomes clear that the saboteurs are followers of one of the oppressed and hunted voodoo cults of the city. “A” tries to charm his way into their fraternity and at the same moment “T” picks up a spike on the Detector. There is a burst of flame from the gas lamp and a ghostly apparition appears. It pleads for them to “Pity the Gelth…” but when the Time Lords do not just turn over the planet to them the Gelth raise three bodies from their watery grave and pursue the Gallifreyans.
OK so this was where I had a few problems. I thought chases were going to be a breeze – but not so much. “A” has a high Coordination but did not have the Athletics skill (we may be amending that before the next episode). “T” has an average Coordination but a high Athletics with the Area of Expertise of Running. “A” was off like a shot – and “T” struggled to push himself to go faster. I may not have explained “doing something crazy” well enough because it didn’t go so smoothly. In the end the voodoo cultists saved the Time Lords by bombarding the Zombies from nearby rooftops.
The grateful travelers pick themselves up and head off; they have an appointment with Father O’Callighan. As was pointed out, Time Lords like wizards are never late…they arrive just in time.
Except that day.
When they arrive the rectory the study has been torn apart and blood is spattered against the walls…
Commercial Break…
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Post by metacrisis on Mar 26, 2010 8:13:33 GMT
OK…back to the adventure.
Everyone pulled their useful Gadget from their pockets and began waving them around. The blood on the wall was human – and worse, it had once belonged to the priest. With all that compact technology waving around it was almost no time at all that the Time Lords discovered a secondary genetic match for the missing priest – the voodoo doll left behind as a warning turned out to be the not so missing priest.
He was the victim of Tissue Compression Elimination – forbidden Gallifreyan technology.
And if that didn’t get their attention there was still more information for them to discover. The room was saturated with residual energy from the void – as if the assailant had stepped through the walls of the universe to kill father O’Callighan.
But why?
“T” and “A” linked their minds to try to initiate a connection through the Time Lord Reflexive Link. What they manage to do is trigger a mild flashback to the last moments of the Time War.
When they wake up the sun has begin to set and the doomsday clock on the TARDIS has ticked off 2 more minutes. It was time to get serious.
They returned to their ship to give the area an intense scan for Void energy and any sign of the Gelth. The map produced is intimidating. There are several locations where the Void appears ready to punch through into reality. The walls of the universe in the rectory have been weakened by the attack on the priest, and there is another similar pattern of intrusion close by in the Garden District. There are general weak points near the gasification plant and the St Louis Cemetery, both of those show sign of Gelth activity (as was predicted). But there is another location of Void Energy near at hand. It is out in the cypress bayou – and the name of the adventure was more than enough of a clue to get their attention.
But first things first – the Time Lords agree to start at the location in the garden district – and after a quick hike through the wet streets they find themselves at the mansion commandeered by the union. There is a great deal of activity.
They use “A’s” connection with the army (and brazen Time Lord hubris) to get inside – only to discover that they are late again. Major General Buttler has been killed – the army assumes he is missing and the voodoo doll left behind is a threat from the Voodoo cults. “A” uses his rather clever “Psychic Notebook” to establish a connection to the Major General’s wife – the only witness to his death.
There is only one stop left – the energy signature in the bayou – and a meeting with the Voodoo Queen.
There was some debate about exactly how to get across the swamp (neither of them are particularly capable physically – they might need someone like Leela to keep them alive). Eventually they arrive at the patch of land near the Blood Cypress.
The swamp is packed full of people. Anyone who had followed the path of Voodoo and did not want to deal with the restrictive rules have fled there. They spend their time chanting and dancing, but more than that they are raising the psychic power of their gathering. They are joined together in a mission and their leader is Marie Laveau. (This was another fun moment for me because I knew that at least one player would know who she was – and he reacted perfectly to her reputation.)
But Marie is there to help even though I am mocked for my bad accent (still better than Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean if I say so myself). She shares a cigar and some rum with them and addresses them as Lords of Time. They quickly realize that she has been using the psychic power generated by her followers to keep the Void from seeping through. Her people have been damaging the pump stations to keep the water level high in the city so the “Hungry Dead” (Gelth) will not have complete access to the city.
She explains that all of this was shown to her when she was a child. She slept a night beneath the blood cypress believing that it would reveal secrets to her – but the secrets remained hidden until the walls in the universe began to tear. She knows that the Lords of Time are there to save them all – because that is what they do. She is there to help them and together they will be like three stitches across the rip in the sky (she uses three “X” shaped stitches to show them what she means). Then she asks them what they plan to do.
There are several moments of open mouths before “T” announces that the plan wasn’t important since things usually involve them showing up – doing something – and saving the day.
Fortunately they do manage to come up with a good idea. Using the psychic power generated by Marie’s followers routed through Block Transfer Computation and adjusted on the fly – they intend to seal up the rip before it opens. (Like I said they come up with answers I would never come up with. Since it was in keeping with the setting I took some story points and let them roll.)
Before things could progress too far the military showed up (they followed the Time Lords) and then the Gelth arrived (they followed the military). From the hollow beneath the tree the Time Lords hear the shooting start – and they feel the power levels drop as the followers are distracted or killed.
Marie is given one last secret from the tree – the final note of the curse. She steps into the threshold of the rip – her life force and the last of the generated power sealing the opening and trapping her in the breach.
However – before it completely closes “T” makes one last stab at connecting with the supposed Time Lord on the other side of the Void (my players can not let ANYTHING go). “T” is able to identify the Time Lord out there – and the answer strikes him speechless.
The Void is closed off and the Military and the Voodooists are working together to drive off the Gelth. I explained that Marie’s Daughter would carry on her name – even disguising herself as her mother to keep her reputation alive.
I expected that we could move on to the last scene of the adventure – but my players were not done yet.
With the opening to the Void closed the Gelth were sealed out and those already in the world were doomed unless they could find the proper environment for them. It was as if my players had a reflex link of their own. As one they announced that they intended to save the Gelth. They’d lost their planet and bodies as a result of the Time War after all, and while they’d behaved badly they were still the Time Lords responsibility. (Again – an unexpected twist from my friends) we found a home for them on Titan and ferried them over in the TARDIS).
The final scene of the adventure took place in New Orleans in 2010.
They have brought cigars and rum to share with an old friend on her birthday. As they wait in the St Louis cemetery #3 a group of tourists wander by to gawk at the tomb of Marie Laveau. The guide explains that believers mark the tomb with three “X’s” to ask Marie to grant their wish.
The ghostly image of the voodoo queen appears to the Time Lords. They drink a toast to her and she tries to communicate something from the other side – something about the two of them and the alternate universe on the other side of the Void from her. But alas…they can not hear her and she fades away… and they continue on their own path.
Next Time: Doomflight
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Post by whichdoctor on Mar 30, 2010 23:43:28 GMT
Oooh! Love the title!
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Post by metacrisis on Mar 31, 2010 3:02:02 GMT
thanks Whichdoctor! I'm trying to keep to the feel of the show as best i can. Of course it all goes out the window with Episode 3: Werewolves of Chiswick.
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Post by whichdoctor on Mar 31, 2010 13:35:58 GMT
Uh, is this post-Journey's End Chiswick? Will you be running into Donna?
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Post by metacrisis on Mar 31, 2010 18:31:58 GMT
Ha ha ha haaa I adore Donna and so my players are convinced that there will be a Donna appearance. Since our campaign takes place in an alternate reality from the TV series -- one in which nothing from the last 15 years has taken place -- I don't have to worry about Donna's head exploding because she remembers too much. That being said I am tempted to have them bump into a sassy ginger who flashes them an "Oi sunshine, do you mind?" But that would be expected...maybe they'll meet Nerys!
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