The Adventures of the Achronic Omnibus.

[Catsmate]

The Adventures of the Achronic Omnibus.

Yep, I've decided to write up a few of our games, based on my notes and some contributions from the players.
I generally GM.


The Secret of Debensea.
Debensea is a fictional town on the Cumbrian coast, the setting of the eponymous scenario, written for the old BTRC TimeLords RPG¹ (not to be confused with Virgin’s Time Lords, it was nothing to do with the Whoniverse).
The scenario is set, fairly arbitrarily, in the year 989CE, during the reign of King Æthelred, later called “The Unready” (but certainly not at the time).
There’s actually no reason the setting can’t be changed, perhaps with the Vikings changed to other raiders.

There is a river Deben in Suffolk, which seems to have no connection.


Background.
The scenario was a fairly gentle one, with the PCs encountering the locals, noticing some minor anachronisms, learning of a nearby site of mythical import and then being on the receiving end of a Viking raid intended to motivate them to investigate.
I made a number of alterations to fit the adventure into the Whoniverse. A major change was the presence of another time traveller, who’d been attracted to the location by the same odd effect that diverted the PCs; the malfunctioning of a temporal device in a hidden base, established in the early days of the Time Agency, but long forgotten.
This character was intended to join the party as a sixth PC.

• Yep the bus is getting crowded, luckily she brought her own room.

The universe, and even the Earth, were not at stake. Just a couple of hundred people threatened by Vikings with arson, rape, torture and murder.


Dramatis Personae.
To recap our party consists of:

• The Honourable Alicia deVere. Small, slight, blonde and not at all fluffy. Sort-of leader, amateur but highly skilled cat burglar. More Phryne Fisher than Lady Christine.
• Genny Dirk, Alicia’s wife and physical opposite; a starfaring scout from the far future.
• Xavier Trelgor, a burned out physicist who found a second life aboard a bus displaced to a distant planet.
  
• Nicholas Talbott, an overwhelmed techno-geek with a knack for seeing things others miss,
  
• Franklin Kalik, an inquisitive physician stranded a long way from home.

A large group to fit into a double-decker bus, albeit a stretched one.
They generally operate from a number of bases, the principal one being a property owned by Alicia in slightly near future Scotland (complicated by the on-going transition to independence²) which she won from a Russian oligarch in a card game³. Along with a number of Faberge eggs. She likes shiny things.    

The main theme of the game is exploration. World/galaxy/universe level threats are very rare, perhaps one or two per 'season'. The PCs have good relations with several other players in the Quiet Game of espionage, aliens and time travel, and can call on some assistance if needed.


Act One - Arrival.
The Achronic Omnibus⁴ juddered to a bumpy, not-at-all-a-crash landing in open ground, on the top of a small hill, about five hundred metres above the surrounding land. It appears quite pleasant; the climate is temperate with sunshine, a brisk breeze makes the 25°C temperature feel rather cool. There is no alarm from the bus’s environmental sensors, hence the atmosphere is human breathable with no detectable contaminants; there is a persistent beeping from the Tensen, showing a slight distortion in local space-time. This could be a purely natural effect, or an indicator of something odd…

• The PCs checked the device and figured that the effect was partially natural (a 'valley' in time basically) but there was something causing ripples (like minor earth tremors). While the could leave it would be more difficult than usual.
  

A quick look around from the roof, with image stabilised binoculars, showed a lot of grass, some smaller hills, scattered trees (a skill roll revealed they were mostly oak and hazel). Below the hill, slightly north of east, was a settlement near the coast with thatch roofed huts, plots of cultivated land and several small sailing craft out at sea. Guestimated population a couple of hundred and the technology level to be "medieval".
The terrain and flora suggest fairly clearly northern Europe, probably Britain or Ireland.
The travellers gear up (and yes that includes weapons).


Act Two - The Mysterious Monk.
They head down to the village, having determined that they’ve landed on the west coast of England, north of Wales.

On the way they meet the track (not at all a road) seen from the hill and follow it’s curving path as it heads down, assuming it leads to the village. Around a curve in the track they see a monk, cloaked and with a staff propped, sitting on a rock seemingly lost in thought, or perhaps at prayer. Stopping they ask if he can tell them where they are as they are travellers and somewhat lost. He tells them that they are on the path to the village of Debensea in Cumbria; it’s about a quarter-hour’s walk. He’s a traveller himself, from the monastery at Dacre.

Attempting to establish the date they ask who is the king of England is. He answers, seemingly surprised, that it’s Æthelred, who succeeded his martyred brother Edward⁵ some ten years ago. Of course if they go much further north they’ll be in Alba, ruled by Kenneth.

While Xavier taps discreetly at a tablet, the monk stands and gathers himself, picking up his staff. He bids them good day and sktches a blessing in the air before walking off. Meanwhile the PCs are arguing, figuring out that it’s probably around 977 and they're in Cumbria about sixty kilometres from what will become Sellafield⁶, in a few centuries time.

The conversation got loud and the monk seems to have heard this, stopping and turning around. Lowering ‘his’ cowl to show a female face with an impish grin she tells them that it’s June of 989 before bowing and walking around the curve in the road.
Genny jogs over to investigate and gestures the others to join her; they find the monk be gone, disappeared.


End of Part One.

More to come, on no particular schedule.






1. It's in Time Capsules 2 and also Adventure Pack 1.

2. A background detail which is surprisingly fertile for ideas and complications.

3. She cheated. So did he, but she was better.

4. Blame the token Arts student

5. Actually his half-brother. Edward's murder was said to be on the orders of his stepmother (Elfthryth) who intended to put her own son (Æthelred) on the throne. Edward is generally regarded as a pretty poor king.

6. Sellafield is utterly irrelevant to the plot, but the reference helps instill a healthy degree of paranoia.

[grinch]

Splendid! I look forward to seeing what else is to come.

[Catsmate]

Aug 23, 2021 19:31:44 GMT grinch said:

Splendid! I look forward to seeing what else is to come.

Thank you, I hope to have the second part done tomorrow.

[Catsmate]

And 'tomorrow' arrives, time being relative......

Act Three - The town.
When we left our heroes they were musing on the disappearance of another (presumed) time traveller and deciding to continue along the “road” (in the loosest possible sense of the term) to the village they now know is Debensea.

The walk is uneventful, if dusty. After about another half-hour of walking the approach the small settlement, which Genny estimates as being about one hundred people.
Xavier reminds them of the language issue and suggests a download (all the travellers have a Rosetta implant)

• A handy little device that's 'grown' in the brain and spliced into the optical, auditory and language centres. The implant overrides the usual operation of those parts of the brain and filters them through its own translation system. Basically you try to speak and write in your native language and the tiny computer embedded in your brain intercept the nerve impulses and changes what you say and write into the selected ‘output’ language. Likewise for hearing, though reading puts an overlay on what you see.
• This takes some adjustment at first, but quite quickly becomes automatic, and deals with the language problems. The system defaults to using the language spoken around you, so if you’re a multi-lingual environment it can be slightly confusing to switch. You can override the implant and speak and write in any language you’re fluent with at will.
• Generally the chip holds a database of around thirty languages at any one time; these are updated by an external inductive interface. Of course it's reliant on the quality of the linguistic database....
  

It takes but a couple of minutes for everyone to gain the ability to read, write, speak and understand Old English as well as Medieval Latin.

• Xavier’s slate has download packs for several thousand languages in its yottabytes of sub-atomic storage. It also has an "easy-to-use" indexing and file management system that makes Bob look polished.

As the arrive at the village, it's now late afternoon, there is some discreet preparation of less lethal weapons and diversions, and everyone checks their transmat remote and checks the party’s escape and evasion plans. They’ve had some practice at this.

They party walk openly into the village hamlet, and are the subject of considerable attention (strangers are uncommon, and friendly ones more so¹). After some cautious exchanges they learn that the place is indeed Debensea, a tiny fishing village with a tavern of sorts and a small church (the usual amenities of the Dark Ages).
They deflect most questions with vague answers (“we are travellers”) and information on current events (Xavier memorised the equivalent of the Wikipedia page) such as Peace of God. It’s a bit early to discuss the collapse of the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople and the group really don’t know a lot about the period.
There are a few moments when they have to avoid attention at some anachronistic object.

Debensea is a small place, nestled in a small and sheltered bay, about thirty houses, the aforementioned tavern (which Xavier and Alicia veto staying at²), and a church (made of stone). There are no streets, just packed soil paths. There is a distinct smell of dead fish, linked to the ten or so small fishing boats drawn up out of the water, along with several smaller rowboats.

• Here unfortunately the players missed a Clue. Those who mentioned looking at the boats blew their skill checks, and hence failed to notice that the construction of the boats, using non-overlapping planks, is somewhat unusual.

There are two obvious sources of information on odd happenings and other travellers; the tavern and the priest. They opt for the tavern⁴ and the local ale. I'm noting going to go into detail about pre-medieval brewing but the brew would taste rather different to almost any modern brew; very 'yeasty' and bread-like, not at all sweet and distinctly tannic⁵. It was served in pottery mugs or 'jacks', basically tankards made of tarred leather. The PCs had brought some generic, 'worn', silver and copper coins for trade.

The locals were eager to hear the news, most of which was fabricated as the PCs simply didn't know that much, and learned of another traveller, a monk. Obviously the same person as they'd encountered. 'He' gave the name of Martin Luther, which suggests either a mischievous sense of humour or deliberate attempt to signal they were a time traveller.
'He' spoke with the local priest and was also interested in the boats (which pokes the players to check them out) and also details of the local history.

After apparently exhausting the potential of the local pub they decide to stroll over to meet the priest and pump him.

The Church.
The local church is small built of stone and heavy, rough, wood beams and looks like it could be a couple of centuries old. It's dark and pleasantly cool inside. The floor is somewhat irregular stones and the only light is from slit windows (unglazed of course) though there are several soot stained sconces for torches. Nicholas notices an odd runic symbol cut into some of the stones and neither he nor the others can identify it.

Built onto the back of the church is a small house for the priest, a short man in his late twenties named Aldrich, slightly stooped and with poor eyesight. He welcomes them cautiously and seems rather concerned about their religious beliefs. After some reassurance, they mention a monk they'd met on the road, and Aldrich seems to relax. The monk spoke with him three days earlier and then continued on his way. Unusually 'he' refused the priest's hospitality.
 
It takes a some fast talking (and some wine) to get Aldrich to tell them what he discussed with 'Martin'; the monk was curious about rumours of paganism and the 'old gods'. He claimed that the abbot at Dacre had heard stories of unchristian worship and asked him to enquire.

Aldrich is a little hazy about exactly what he old 'Martin', suggesting that something was used to loosen his tongue, pharmaceutical or otherwise. He's not initially willing to discuss the 'false gods' that many of the local people turn to in times of crisis. Xavier asked about the odd symbol, which he remembers seeing in the village⁶.



Aldrich is obviously reluctant to continue, but a goblet of wine laced with crediline (Alicia is getting impatient) loosens his tongue.
He doesn't want to talk about pagan practices as he doesn't want to encourage them. Also he's a little afraid of the villagers in this matter, he's sure they make the occasional sacrifice⁷ somewhere in the hills. The people don't talk to him about such matters.
He mentions that the shipwright, Ransley, seem to be the leader in such matters.

After learning what he can tell the the PCs leave the drowsy priest to rest and head back to the hamlet.
On the way they discuss what they've learned. No-one recognises the symbol, nor does Xavier's searching find any information.
They're more cautious now, the suggestion of 'sacrifices' to 'old gods' having spooked them.

• It actually spooked them far more than I'd expected or intended. Too much Call of Cthulhu....
  

However it's now getting dark and as with most Dark Ages communities the hamlet is shutting down. Candles and oil are expensive luxuries. So the PCs head back to the bus for food, rest and discussion.

• The players seemed rather reluctant to wander in the dark.
  

The bus showed no signs of tampering, or even that anyone had approached it.
While cramped the bus provides hot showers, hot food, decent (by their standards) drinks and security. Some research is done but there's little result; there simply isn't much information in the databases they have about the time and place, or the symbol.
While there are various vaguely similar symbols, none match well.
The PCs various security measures in place, including a stealthy drone orbiting the area, in case of visitors and rest up for the night.
Tomorrow they'll approach Ransley the shipwright.

Comments?






1. The Viking raids began around 925CE.

2. Neither are fond of fleas and lice and know well the hygiene standards of the Dark Ages.

3. I'm sure you remember the distinctions between clinker built and carvel built. Xavier would have noticed but was examining the church.

4. "Don't split the party".

5. No I didn't produce samples, I'm not that dedicated.

6. The dice were not going his way.

7. Animal, this isn't The Wicker Man.

[boredeternal]

Well done! I love your detail about the time period the characters are exploring, and the NPCs seem fun to interact with as well.

The Rosetta implant caught my eye. Did you create the device, or was it lifted from somewhere else? I can't place it if it was.

[Catsmate]

Oct 27, 2021 13:17:30 GMT boredeternal said:

Well done! I love your detail about the time period the characters are exploring, and the NPCs seem fun to interact with as well.

Thank you. This scenario was based on a published one, but I added a fair bit of detail.
I must continue this write-up.

Oct 27, 2021 13:17:30 GMT boredeternal said:

The Rosetta implant caught my eye. Did you create the device, or was it lifted from somewhere else? I can't place it if it was.

I created the device for this game, though I'm not sure if the idea was used elsewhere. Quite possibly it was inspired one something I read or encountered somewhere. Certainly Trek and Niven's Known Space had translator devices, if not implanted ones connected to the nervous system.