Episode S:1.1 - Time Lock
Starring :: Rhett S., Alicia S., Cameron J, Carlos F., and myself as the characters (this is pre-character generation)
Also with:
The Doctor (McGann, Eccleston, Smith)
The Daleks
The Master
The Time Lords
Scene 1 :: Run from the Valorans
Rhett is a time agent whose ship ran out of fuel some ways back. He stopped to refuel it, not knowing that the place he had stopped was a Valoran planet. The Valorans are very touchy about their territory and their fuels and they have temporal weapons. Three of their starships chase Rhett's timeship, causing damage severe enough that he has to make a blind jump, which lands him on Gallifrey.
Scene 2 :: Class is Out
Timelord students are touring a museum on 20th Century Earth when the teacher announces that class is over for the day. They return to Gallifrey in time to be met by a timelord, who informs them that they are being conscripted to fight the Daleks, who are trying to capture the cruciform. As the students leave, they hear their teacher muttering about how things have changed, the "horrors of war and such..."
Scene 3 :: The Dalek Invasion
The Master leads one group of timelords in resisting the Dalek push toward the cruciform, while The Doctor leads another. The Master is using a Dalek-compatible bolt gun, while The Doctor is wearing white robes and wielding a sword of dalekanium. The Daleks are defeated at the cost of hundreds of Gallifreyans, timelords included. As The Doctor surveys the scene, he is shot in the back by a fatally-wounded Dalek. He quickly activates a button on a watch to summon his TARDIS, which materializes around him and protects him during his regeneration.
The Master is also surveying a battle scene, when a wounded Dalek touches him, and reveals that even though this ground force has been destroyed, the Dalek fleet in space will launch another attack, and this time, led by the Dalek Emperor, they will captured the cruciform. The Master realizes that this will mean the end of the war for the timelords.
Scene 3a :: The Battle in Space
Rhett's timeship and a timelord fleet engage the massive Dalek fleet in space around Gallifrey. Although Dalek casualties are amazing, they are numerically superior, and push the Gallifreyan forces back. Rhett's timeship is disbled in space.
Scene 4 :: In Council
The Master informs the timelord council of the Dalek plans. Rassilon surmises that this next battle might just contain enough strength for the timelords to unleash their biggest weapon, the ultimate sanction. They will win the war "by being the last ones standing". The Doctor is incredulous and disgusted at how far the timelords have fallen, and he vows to stop them. Rassilon is infuriated, and he shouts: "Who do YOU think you are to stand in our way?"
To which, the reply comes: "I am The Doctor."
When Rassilon raises his hand to smite The Doctor, he is instead hit with a Dalek bolt from The Master, and both he and The Doctor leave. As they are walking down the corridor outside the council chambers, The Doctor guesses that The Master is not really interested in helping him. The Master has temporarily changed sides.
"Why?" The Doctor asks. "You know what THEY are."
"Exactly," The Master replies. "I know how evil THEY are ... it's Rassilon and the other timelords who have gone insane."
The Master then excuses himself, saying that he has to leave before the big conclusion to the "party". He then uses a vortex manipulator to escape to the Academy, where he uses the Chameleon Arch located there to escape into the timeline (to be seen later in "The Sound of Drums").
Scene 5 :: The Escape
The Doctor takes the player characters to the Academy, to the Grand Fireplace, which happens to be a Type 87 TARDIS. It has an advanced Rassilon Imprimator, which allows it to imprint with a larger number of persons. The Doctor sets the TARDIS to intercept Rhett's timeship, and then jump across the dimensional wall. Before he leaves, he gives Rhett a universal phone (set to the wrong number).
The Doctor leaves, and the last scene of him is his Type 40 TARDIS in orbit around Gallifrey, applying the time lock (a bright blue beam that causes a field to envelop the planet ).
The PCs and their TARDIS materialize in Cardiff, with their TARDIS disguised as a garage door with a smaller door off to one side. While there, The Doctor finds them, wondering what is drawing energy through the Cardiff Rift. He is VERY stern about this group of timelord noobs that has somehow escaped the time lock, but when it is explained, he muses that "it's probably something I would have done." He then asks to see their phone, and notes that the universal area code is wrong.
---
FINI
The PCs will mostly be involved with some of the fighting, but I will also hand out templates to them so they can be involved in some of these other scenes. I can't wait to see how this goes over with Cameron, who is a HUGE Dr. Who fan. I plan to let him play The Doctor during the Council Room scene. I figure he will KNOW what to say when Rassilon asks him just who he thinks he is. It oughta be a nice "spontaneous" moment.
From Cardiff, the players can do whatever they wish, but I have one adventure seed ready in case they want me to continue setting the stage.
---
Well, what do ya think? I'm playing this in just over two hours from now.
John B.
