Post by Craig Oxbrow on Jun 30, 2010 19:59:38 GMT
The Door In Time
Two men and two women separated by millennia of human history, brought together by a man from out of time.
Kai: A Time Lord, a man who escaped a war no-one escaped.
Nimue: A druid priestess gifted with second sight and the power to move with her thoughts.
Lieutenant Daniel Carter: An American flyer stationed in Britain during the Second World War.
Effie Scott: After sixty years, two children and the death of her husband, she thought she had lived a full life already.
Gabriel Anderson: The only survivor of Hypatia, a hub of intergalactic travel in the fiftieth century.
--
Episode One: The Fires Of Time
Hypatia, one of the central stations of Galaxy Five, is under attack.
Captain: Who are they?
Gabriel: No-one we know, ma'am!
Captain: Well then, see if you can analyse what their weapons are doing!
As Gabriel runs, a bolt of green light hits the station and it starts to collapse in on itself.
The corridor behind him starts to unravel, sections falling away into darkness and disappearing.
A hand reaches out and grabs him, pulling him into a door and then slamming it shut.
--
The Blitz thunders over London. Tracer fire and explosions light up the night. A single fighter roars over the city... pursued by something sleek and metallic firing beams of green light.
Dan: I've got a bogie on my tail - never seen anything like it!
He yells in surprise as a beam envelops the fighter and everything outside blurs. He goes into a spin...
--
And finds himself flying in broad daylight.
Dan: Uh...
He pulls up sharply, managing to plough up a green field
A grey-haired woman stomps out.
Effie: Hey!
Dan: Uh... hello?
Effie: Are you alright?
Dan: ... Yes? I think so...
Effie: Good, that was... are you from an air show or something?
Dan: Air Force. Uh, it was... dark...
He looks around, bewildered by what he sees. Big Ben where it should be, but new and different buildings, people in unfamiliar clothes, strange brightly-coloured cars.
Effie looks him up and down.
And across the field, a set of swings start to rattle and sway in a sudden breeze, as an echoing grinding sound starts to get stronger, and stronger...
And a door that wasn't there before appears in the wall.
A man steps out of it, looks around, checks his watch and grimaces.
Kai: Ah. Yes. Just in time.
The Fires Of Time
by Craig Oxbrow
--
Effie helps Dan down from the cockpit.
Dan: So, uh, you know the way back to the AFB?
Effie: I'm sure we can find it. Joyce has satnav.
Dan: Eh?
Effie: Come in and sit down, have a cup of tea.
Dan: Definitely still in England then...
He stumbles after her into the community centre, looking around, stunned.
Effie: Help yourself.
Dan: I don't have my ration book with me.
Effie pauses.
Effie: You sound like my mother.
Just then, Kai strides in and Gabriel follows him. Gabriel manages to make his grey overalls look less strange than Kai's Napoleonic military dress jacket and pinstripe trousers, or Dan's Air Corps uniform.
Effie: Erm... tea?
Kai: Excellent! Yes! Haven't had a cup for three thousand years.
He brings up a cane, adjusting something attached to the handle. A yellow light flashes and a whistling sound fills the air.
Kai: A-ha. Yes. Nexus point of the temporal disturbance.
Effie: What? Nobody's making a disturbance here except you.
Kai: Now see here. Time is falling apart.
Effie: What?
Kai: How do you explain this?
He points at Dan.
Dan: Hey!
Kai: He's supposed to be in 1943.
Dan: What do you mean "supposed to be"? I mean, it was night just a moment ago...
Effie: No, it's been bright all morning. Joyce, can you call... um... someone?
Kai: Could we have no more shouting?
Effie: Nobody was shouting except you!
Gabriel: Look, can everyone calm down for a moment?
Everyone looks at him.
Gabriel: It's all quite simple. The fabric of time is being manipulated.
Everyone looks at him.
Kai: It's a little early for humans to be quite so casual about time travel. They haven't even colonised another planet yet.
Gabriel: Oh, you didn't tell me we were in the Earth Age.
Dan: So, what, you're from the future?
Kai: Well, to you everyone here is from the future. (thinks) Unless someone from further back has arrived...
He checks the readings on his cane handle.
Kai: No... although something might be about to...
He gulps a cup of tea, turns and dashes out. Gabriel, Dan and Effie run to catch up.
Kai: Look, it's really nothing to worry about, but those of you not from this time and space should come with me, I'll figure out why... ah, is that a ball of wool?
He pulls it out of Effie's bag.
Kai: See, time is like this. It can be a single strand, or it can be seen from outside as a... big ball of... uh, anyway, at the moment someone or something is doing this -
He points the head of his cane at the ball and it explodes.
Effie: Hey! I just got that!
Kai: Oh. Erm.
He hands it back and hurries on. She glowers at him and starts trying to untangle it as she follows.
Kai: So, what went wrong? I saw with you (to Gabriel) but how about you? (to Dan)
Dan: Jerry had this new plane I'd never seen before, there was a green light...
Kai: Green?
He waves his cane at him, looks at it thoughtfully.
Kai: Now there's a novelty. You're sort of pivotal, sooner rather than later. Come on!
Dan: Are we going back to my time?
Kai: Little further out than that.
He reaches the door and opens it. Gabriel walks in, Dan follows and stops.
Effie glowers, shakes her head, and steps in as well.
Kai: Ahh, you're not technically involved, ma'am...
Effie: I am now. Effie Scott.
Kai: Kai.
Effie; Kai?
Kai: Kai.
She retrieves her mobile phone from her bag.
Effie: Hello, it's mum. Just letting you know I might be... away...
The door leads through to what looks like a cathedral made of brass and granite, with a central console surrounded by sofas and beanbag chairs. Kai runs over to it and starts pulling levers and flicking switches.
Effie: How is all this behind that door?
Gabriel: Dimensionally transcendent.
Effie: (deadpan) Oh, thanks very much.
Kai: Time machine. TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The door is the link to the location.
Effie: Like the wardrobe to Narnia?
Kai: ... Yes! Except you don't have to go in backwards.
Kai throws a switch, the grinding of ancient engines fills the room...
Kai: Now then. Let's see if we can't work this out peacefully.
--
Roman: Burn the witch!
A hut materialises in an overgrown wood, and the door opens.
Effie looks out.
Effie: Okay, we're in a forest.
Kai: Mm-hmm.
Effie: And...
Dan: Do you hear somebody running?
A young blonde woman in homespun wool runs full-tilt towards the hut.
Nimue: Romans!
Kai: Romans?
Nimue: Yes!
Effie: Actual Roman soldiers?
Kai: Romans shouldn't be here.
Nimue: I know!
Dan: Yeah, I thought we were going to my time.
Kai: I did say earlier.
Nimue pushes past and runs inside... and skids to a halt.
Nimue: Why is your hut so big on the inside?
Effie: It's a long story. (to Kai) So, why are we in Roman times?
Kai: Ah, well...
He looks out.
Kai: That might have something to do with it.
Striding through the woods are a group of Roman troops... and a group of robots resembling brass Classical statues.
Kai: I'd say something has gone slightly askew.
--
Effie: So, where are we and why do the Romans have... robots?
Kai: Both good questions. Roman robots... Rome-bots. (shakes head) No. Definitely not Rome-bots.
Effie: Well?
Kai: Miss...?
Nimue: Nimue of the white lake. The Romans have never based themselves in our island before.
Dan: She sounds Irish... and for that matter if she's from eighteen hundred years ago how come I can understand her at all?
Kai: She is... and the TARDIS does that. Added bonus feature. Anyway, Nimue, they just showed up... with friends?
Nimue: Yes. Seemingly from nowhere.
Kai: Show us.
Nimue: They are trying to kill me.
Kai: All the more reason to help us sort it out, eh?
Nimue glares at him.
Nimue: Why do you care? This is not your world.
Kai: ... How did you know that?
Nimue: I am a chosen priestess. I see past sight.
Kai: Really? Fascinating. I will have lots of questions. Later.
He looks out, raises his cane, makes it whistle and looks at it, then nods.
Kai: Okay, let's get a little closer. Quietly.
Nimue reluctantly follows. Effie steps out, looking at her phone.
Effie; You're from the future, can you figure out how the camera on this thing works? My kids got me it for Christmas.
Gabriel: I'll do my best.
Dan follows... discreetly checking the magazine in his pistol before putting it back in his pocket.
--
Kai: Now then. What's wrong with this picture?
Nimue: The Roman fort. Built in a week.
Effie: And... it's got a radar dish.
Kai: Oh, that's a very good point too.
They approach cautiously.
Two Romans stand guard.
Roman Alpha: Why they can't let the Antikythera stand outside, I don't know.
Roman Beta: They'd rust or something.
Roman Alpha: Aye, brilliant idea bringing them up here then wasn't it?
Kai: Ah, excuse me!
Kai steps out. The legionaries go for their spears.
Kai: Yes, good.
He looks back to the others.
Kai: Don't panic.
Effie: Who's panicking?
Kai: I don't know. Am I panicking?
Roman Alpha: Halt and be recognised!
Kai: Sorry, you wouldn't recognise us. But did you say Antikythera?
Roman Alpha: Aye, the... automata.
A robot marches clankingly around the rampart. It stops and its head turns to listen.
Kai: They're new, then?
Roman Alpha: ... Yes...
Kai: And... what does that dish do?
Roman Beta: We don't ask.
The others look out.
Nimue: What are you all doing here anyway?
Roman Alpha: New orders... The Empire is to strengthen its borders, and...
The automaton reaches a guard tower, and an alarm sounds.
Kai: Oh. That's new as well, I take it.
The gate opens, and a group of automata start to step out, levelling spears.
Nimue snarls, a blue light shines inside her eyes - and the middle robot's leg explodes at the knee. She charges over it as it topples.
Roman Alpha: Hey! Halt!
The others run after her.
Effie: Did you know she could do that?
Kai: I really didn't.
Inside, the fort is a bizarre mix of traditional Roman décor and equipment with advanced technology.
Kai: Oh, now there's a thing...
Dan: Admire later, run now!
Kai points towards a well in one corner.
Kai: Power cables are all coming from there...
Dan runs over to it, looks down, grabs a cable and slides down.
Kai: Dan, that... really wasn't a good idea...
He trails off as soldiers and robots surround him.
--
Down below, Dan finds himself in a narrow corridor lit up by blinking lights.
Dan: I don't think they had electric light in Rome either.
Stranger: Not yet.
A man in a hooded robe steps out, holding some sort of metallic device.
Dan raises his gun.
Stranger: Guns don't belong here either.
Dan: Well, it isn't staying. What's all this for?
Stranger: Just an experiment. Someone nudged time, I wanted to test how far it could be pulled...
--
Kai and the others are marched into the centurion's office.
Kai: It was the mention of Antikythera that really caught my attention.
Effie: Not the robots and satellite dishes?
Kai: That's where someone found a clockwork astrological clock dating back to early Rome. By the apogee of the Empire, the Romans had almost everything they needed for the Industrial Revolution sixteen hundred years early, but it never quite happened...
Effie: Yes, until now.
The centurion looks up.
Centurion: I don't hold to it myself. I prefer the old ways. Killing my enemies with my own two hands.
Kai: Er... quite.
Centurion: So, you say this is wrong. I can believe that. But I have my orders.
Nimue: And they are...?
She narrows her eyes as the centurion says nothing, then smirks.
Kai looks askance at her.
Nimue: You don't even know, do you?
Kai: Look, we don't have time for all this. This is wrong. You know it's wrong, we know it's wrong, let's put a stop to it.
Centurion: Perhaps it is wrong, but it strengthens the Empire.
Kai: The Empire is plenty strong without it. You've got centuries left in you, don't worry about that. Your retirement plan is perfectly safe.
Centurion: I've heard enough. Automaton, crush them.
Effie: I thought Rome was supposed to be civilised.
Kai: We're not catching them at their best.
He taps his cane and it emits a piercing whine. The looming robot stops, shakes, and bits of it fall off.
Centurion: Alright, how can I help?
--
Dan: So what's with the radar dish? There aren't any planes to track, are there?
Stranger: No, nothing like that. It's to signal a Sril armada.
Dan: ... Huh?
Just then, a trap door opens and Kai starts climbing down to join them.
The Stranger runs through a side door.
Dan: He got away!
Kai: Well, not to worry. Worry about what he's done.
Dan: He said something about an armada.
Kai: Whose?
Dan: The... Sril?
Kai blanches.
Kai: The Sril. Paranoid hypertechnicians. Dedicated to destroying any species with a threatening level of technology, and the changes here mean the human race qualifies. It could be worse... but not by a great deal. Come on, we have to knock out that dish!
--
The others wait up above... with their hands in the air, and the Centurion with them.
Effie: Apparently not everyone agrees with our new friend.
Kai: Oh. Um... hang on.
He goes to tap his cane, the legionaries covering the group turn to menace him, Effie opens her bag, finds a bottle of perfume and sprays it in one's face.
Dan fires his gun into the air. The Romans duck.
Dan: Run!
Kai leads the way.
Kai: Where to?
Effie: Where to? You're the one that knows what's going on!
Kai: Right. Yes. Basically all this technology means an alien race is tracking the signal from the dish and they'll wipe out the human race if we don't turn it off.
Gabriel: In that case, that way!
He runs for the dish tower and the others follow.
Kai: Right. I can distract the robots with my sonic cane -
Effie: "Sonic cane"?
Kai: Well, I had to put the sonic somewhere. But anyway, I need a plan for the human guards.
Dan clicks the safety on his gun.
Kai: And that is not the plan. We can't kill these people.
Nimue looks disappointed.
Kai: Does anyone have any loose change?
--
Nimue sneaks around, raises a hand - and bounces a pound coin off a Roman's helmet.
Roman: Oi!
The guards rush out after her, leaving the robots to guard the dish.
Kai: Small problem. There's ten of them. I think I need a distraction for them as well.
Dan: Well, how many could you take?
Effie: Two or three?
Kai looks doubtful.
Kai: If I'm quick.
Gabriel: How about if you route your probe through the dish?
Kai: Good idea.
Gabriel: I was in charge of engineering for a major space station, you know.
Kai: Mm. Oh, and I'll need a ball of wool again.
Effie looks at him sourly.
--
Kai sneaks back in, as Dan and Gabriel step out.
Dan: Excuse me. Is this the road to Rome?
Kai dashes past as the automata look at Dan and Gabriel blankly.
He reaches the controls, starts tying string around particular switches, plugs the head of his cane into a speaker, pulls the string...
And a pulse runs through the entire fort.
The robots stop and shake apart, the Romans cover their ears... everything starts to vanish.
--
Gabriel sees Hypatia restored - and destroyed - and restored - and destroyed...
Dan sees a glowing crystal filling a room and growing as he watches, as men in white coats run.
Kai blinks.
Kai: Cora... no.
Effie hears a snatch of "Days" by the Kinks, feels sunlight on her face as she turns...
And then they are in the woods where the fort once stood.
Effie: What just happened?
Kai: I seem to have cancelled the entire paradox. But... I'm not quite sure how.
Dan: So, er, can we go now?
Kai: Not quite yet. This is a sign that... there's something else at work here.
Nimue approaches.
Kai: Now then, if I'm right she won't even remember us.
Nimue: Hey, you. Where did the Romans go?
Kai: ... Ah. Right. It affects her as well.
Nimue: Did you use your stick on them?
Kai: It's not just a stick, it's... look at the scrollwork...
Effie: So, if not home, where?
Kai: Well. Hm. Next stop... Nineteen Forty-Three!
Roll Credits!
--
Next Time...
Kai: ... Eighteen Forty-Three.
A man running for his life across a snowy field, pursued by something unseen.
The travellers entering a grand country house.
Kai: Time is wrong here...
Nimue, in an early Victorian gown, backing away in horror at the sound of an echoing howl.
An eye that looks like glass narrowing.
Kai: RUN!
--
The Door In Time Unlocked
(OOC behind-the-scenes)
This group originally formed for another game, but when it fizzled early we came to an agreement to try the new Doctor Who game as it had just been published. I'd previously been part of a playtest game, but wanted to give it a go as a GM.
It's a basic Time Lord and Companions setup, for maximum variety of its thirteen episodes.
The players created a highly diverse cast, so I needed a reason for the Time Lord to pick them all up. I could have started in medias res but decided to introduce everyone on-screen. I also needed a reason for there to be a Time Lord, but we'll get to that.
The Rome-Bots are a tribute to the first Doctor Who story I have clear memories of: The Iron Legion, the main comic strip from the first issues of Doctor Who Weekly, by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Dave Gibbons. I resisted the temptation to just run the whole story as-is.
This session was on January 16th, so any resemblance to the Cracks In Time storyline in the current series of Doctor Who is, at least initially, coincidental. Time going wrong all over is an obvious plot hook, really.
--
Coming Soon...
Something glittering, transparent white, running through a darkened hallway.
Terracotta soldiers turning to look at Dan.
Effie standing up to a seven-foot alien in space battle armour.
Two fleets of spaceships locked in battle above the Earth.
Nimue screaming, blue light blazing from her eyes.
A shadow spreading across the floor, with nothing to cast it, reaching out to the travellers.
Gabriel running from a dozen armoured figures firing lasers after him.
A room flickering from modern to futuristic.
Kai raising his cane defensively as something charges towards him.
Two men and two women separated by millennia of human history, brought together by a man from out of time.
Kai: A Time Lord, a man who escaped a war no-one escaped.
Nimue: A druid priestess gifted with second sight and the power to move with her thoughts.
Lieutenant Daniel Carter: An American flyer stationed in Britain during the Second World War.
Effie Scott: After sixty years, two children and the death of her husband, she thought she had lived a full life already.
Gabriel Anderson: The only survivor of Hypatia, a hub of intergalactic travel in the fiftieth century.
--
Episode One: The Fires Of Time
Hypatia, one of the central stations of Galaxy Five, is under attack.
Captain: Who are they?
Gabriel: No-one we know, ma'am!
Captain: Well then, see if you can analyse what their weapons are doing!
As Gabriel runs, a bolt of green light hits the station and it starts to collapse in on itself.
The corridor behind him starts to unravel, sections falling away into darkness and disappearing.
A hand reaches out and grabs him, pulling him into a door and then slamming it shut.
--
The Blitz thunders over London. Tracer fire and explosions light up the night. A single fighter roars over the city... pursued by something sleek and metallic firing beams of green light.
Dan: I've got a bogie on my tail - never seen anything like it!
He yells in surprise as a beam envelops the fighter and everything outside blurs. He goes into a spin...
--
And finds himself flying in broad daylight.
Dan: Uh...
He pulls up sharply, managing to plough up a green field
A grey-haired woman stomps out.
Effie: Hey!
Dan: Uh... hello?
Effie: Are you alright?
Dan: ... Yes? I think so...
Effie: Good, that was... are you from an air show or something?
Dan: Air Force. Uh, it was... dark...
He looks around, bewildered by what he sees. Big Ben where it should be, but new and different buildings, people in unfamiliar clothes, strange brightly-coloured cars.
Effie looks him up and down.
And across the field, a set of swings start to rattle and sway in a sudden breeze, as an echoing grinding sound starts to get stronger, and stronger...
And a door that wasn't there before appears in the wall.
A man steps out of it, looks around, checks his watch and grimaces.
Kai: Ah. Yes. Just in time.
The Fires Of Time
by Craig Oxbrow
--
Effie helps Dan down from the cockpit.
Dan: So, uh, you know the way back to the AFB?
Effie: I'm sure we can find it. Joyce has satnav.
Dan: Eh?
Effie: Come in and sit down, have a cup of tea.
Dan: Definitely still in England then...
He stumbles after her into the community centre, looking around, stunned.
Effie: Help yourself.
Dan: I don't have my ration book with me.
Effie pauses.
Effie: You sound like my mother.
Just then, Kai strides in and Gabriel follows him. Gabriel manages to make his grey overalls look less strange than Kai's Napoleonic military dress jacket and pinstripe trousers, or Dan's Air Corps uniform.
Effie: Erm... tea?
Kai: Excellent! Yes! Haven't had a cup for three thousand years.
He brings up a cane, adjusting something attached to the handle. A yellow light flashes and a whistling sound fills the air.
Kai: A-ha. Yes. Nexus point of the temporal disturbance.
Effie: What? Nobody's making a disturbance here except you.
Kai: Now see here. Time is falling apart.
Effie: What?
Kai: How do you explain this?
He points at Dan.
Dan: Hey!
Kai: He's supposed to be in 1943.
Dan: What do you mean "supposed to be"? I mean, it was night just a moment ago...
Effie: No, it's been bright all morning. Joyce, can you call... um... someone?
Kai: Could we have no more shouting?
Effie: Nobody was shouting except you!
Gabriel: Look, can everyone calm down for a moment?
Everyone looks at him.
Gabriel: It's all quite simple. The fabric of time is being manipulated.
Everyone looks at him.
Kai: It's a little early for humans to be quite so casual about time travel. They haven't even colonised another planet yet.
Gabriel: Oh, you didn't tell me we were in the Earth Age.
Dan: So, what, you're from the future?
Kai: Well, to you everyone here is from the future. (thinks) Unless someone from further back has arrived...
He checks the readings on his cane handle.
Kai: No... although something might be about to...
He gulps a cup of tea, turns and dashes out. Gabriel, Dan and Effie run to catch up.
Kai: Look, it's really nothing to worry about, but those of you not from this time and space should come with me, I'll figure out why... ah, is that a ball of wool?
He pulls it out of Effie's bag.
Kai: See, time is like this. It can be a single strand, or it can be seen from outside as a... big ball of... uh, anyway, at the moment someone or something is doing this -
He points the head of his cane at the ball and it explodes.
Effie: Hey! I just got that!
Kai: Oh. Erm.
He hands it back and hurries on. She glowers at him and starts trying to untangle it as she follows.
Kai: So, what went wrong? I saw with you (to Gabriel) but how about you? (to Dan)
Dan: Jerry had this new plane I'd never seen before, there was a green light...
Kai: Green?
He waves his cane at him, looks at it thoughtfully.
Kai: Now there's a novelty. You're sort of pivotal, sooner rather than later. Come on!
Dan: Are we going back to my time?
Kai: Little further out than that.
He reaches the door and opens it. Gabriel walks in, Dan follows and stops.
Effie glowers, shakes her head, and steps in as well.
Kai: Ahh, you're not technically involved, ma'am...
Effie: I am now. Effie Scott.
Kai: Kai.
Effie; Kai?
Kai: Kai.
She retrieves her mobile phone from her bag.
Effie: Hello, it's mum. Just letting you know I might be... away...
The door leads through to what looks like a cathedral made of brass and granite, with a central console surrounded by sofas and beanbag chairs. Kai runs over to it and starts pulling levers and flicking switches.
Effie: How is all this behind that door?
Gabriel: Dimensionally transcendent.
Effie: (deadpan) Oh, thanks very much.
Kai: Time machine. TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The door is the link to the location.
Effie: Like the wardrobe to Narnia?
Kai: ... Yes! Except you don't have to go in backwards.
Kai throws a switch, the grinding of ancient engines fills the room...
Kai: Now then. Let's see if we can't work this out peacefully.
--
Roman: Burn the witch!
A hut materialises in an overgrown wood, and the door opens.
Effie looks out.
Effie: Okay, we're in a forest.
Kai: Mm-hmm.
Effie: And...
Dan: Do you hear somebody running?
A young blonde woman in homespun wool runs full-tilt towards the hut.
Nimue: Romans!
Kai: Romans?
Nimue: Yes!
Effie: Actual Roman soldiers?
Kai: Romans shouldn't be here.
Nimue: I know!
Dan: Yeah, I thought we were going to my time.
Kai: I did say earlier.
Nimue pushes past and runs inside... and skids to a halt.
Nimue: Why is your hut so big on the inside?
Effie: It's a long story. (to Kai) So, why are we in Roman times?
Kai: Ah, well...
He looks out.
Kai: That might have something to do with it.
Striding through the woods are a group of Roman troops... and a group of robots resembling brass Classical statues.
Kai: I'd say something has gone slightly askew.
--
Effie: So, where are we and why do the Romans have... robots?
Kai: Both good questions. Roman robots... Rome-bots. (shakes head) No. Definitely not Rome-bots.
Effie: Well?
Kai: Miss...?
Nimue: Nimue of the white lake. The Romans have never based themselves in our island before.
Dan: She sounds Irish... and for that matter if she's from eighteen hundred years ago how come I can understand her at all?
Kai: She is... and the TARDIS does that. Added bonus feature. Anyway, Nimue, they just showed up... with friends?
Nimue: Yes. Seemingly from nowhere.
Kai: Show us.
Nimue: They are trying to kill me.
Kai: All the more reason to help us sort it out, eh?
Nimue glares at him.
Nimue: Why do you care? This is not your world.
Kai: ... How did you know that?
Nimue: I am a chosen priestess. I see past sight.
Kai: Really? Fascinating. I will have lots of questions. Later.
He looks out, raises his cane, makes it whistle and looks at it, then nods.
Kai: Okay, let's get a little closer. Quietly.
Nimue reluctantly follows. Effie steps out, looking at her phone.
Effie; You're from the future, can you figure out how the camera on this thing works? My kids got me it for Christmas.
Gabriel: I'll do my best.
Dan follows... discreetly checking the magazine in his pistol before putting it back in his pocket.
--
Kai: Now then. What's wrong with this picture?
Nimue: The Roman fort. Built in a week.
Effie: And... it's got a radar dish.
Kai: Oh, that's a very good point too.
They approach cautiously.
Two Romans stand guard.
Roman Alpha: Why they can't let the Antikythera stand outside, I don't know.
Roman Beta: They'd rust or something.
Roman Alpha: Aye, brilliant idea bringing them up here then wasn't it?
Kai: Ah, excuse me!
Kai steps out. The legionaries go for their spears.
Kai: Yes, good.
He looks back to the others.
Kai: Don't panic.
Effie: Who's panicking?
Kai: I don't know. Am I panicking?
Roman Alpha: Halt and be recognised!
Kai: Sorry, you wouldn't recognise us. But did you say Antikythera?
Roman Alpha: Aye, the... automata.
A robot marches clankingly around the rampart. It stops and its head turns to listen.
Kai: They're new, then?
Roman Alpha: ... Yes...
Kai: And... what does that dish do?
Roman Beta: We don't ask.
The others look out.
Nimue: What are you all doing here anyway?
Roman Alpha: New orders... The Empire is to strengthen its borders, and...
The automaton reaches a guard tower, and an alarm sounds.
Kai: Oh. That's new as well, I take it.
The gate opens, and a group of automata start to step out, levelling spears.
Nimue snarls, a blue light shines inside her eyes - and the middle robot's leg explodes at the knee. She charges over it as it topples.
Roman Alpha: Hey! Halt!
The others run after her.
Effie: Did you know she could do that?
Kai: I really didn't.
Inside, the fort is a bizarre mix of traditional Roman décor and equipment with advanced technology.
Kai: Oh, now there's a thing...
Dan: Admire later, run now!
Kai points towards a well in one corner.
Kai: Power cables are all coming from there...
Dan runs over to it, looks down, grabs a cable and slides down.
Kai: Dan, that... really wasn't a good idea...
He trails off as soldiers and robots surround him.
--
Down below, Dan finds himself in a narrow corridor lit up by blinking lights.
Dan: I don't think they had electric light in Rome either.
Stranger: Not yet.
A man in a hooded robe steps out, holding some sort of metallic device.
Dan raises his gun.
Stranger: Guns don't belong here either.
Dan: Well, it isn't staying. What's all this for?
Stranger: Just an experiment. Someone nudged time, I wanted to test how far it could be pulled...
--
Kai and the others are marched into the centurion's office.
Kai: It was the mention of Antikythera that really caught my attention.
Effie: Not the robots and satellite dishes?
Kai: That's where someone found a clockwork astrological clock dating back to early Rome. By the apogee of the Empire, the Romans had almost everything they needed for the Industrial Revolution sixteen hundred years early, but it never quite happened...
Effie: Yes, until now.
The centurion looks up.
Centurion: I don't hold to it myself. I prefer the old ways. Killing my enemies with my own two hands.
Kai: Er... quite.
Centurion: So, you say this is wrong. I can believe that. But I have my orders.
Nimue: And they are...?
She narrows her eyes as the centurion says nothing, then smirks.
Kai looks askance at her.
Nimue: You don't even know, do you?
Kai: Look, we don't have time for all this. This is wrong. You know it's wrong, we know it's wrong, let's put a stop to it.
Centurion: Perhaps it is wrong, but it strengthens the Empire.
Kai: The Empire is plenty strong without it. You've got centuries left in you, don't worry about that. Your retirement plan is perfectly safe.
Centurion: I've heard enough. Automaton, crush them.
Effie: I thought Rome was supposed to be civilised.
Kai: We're not catching them at their best.
He taps his cane and it emits a piercing whine. The looming robot stops, shakes, and bits of it fall off.
Centurion: Alright, how can I help?
--
Dan: So what's with the radar dish? There aren't any planes to track, are there?
Stranger: No, nothing like that. It's to signal a Sril armada.
Dan: ... Huh?
Just then, a trap door opens and Kai starts climbing down to join them.
The Stranger runs through a side door.
Dan: He got away!
Kai: Well, not to worry. Worry about what he's done.
Dan: He said something about an armada.
Kai: Whose?
Dan: The... Sril?
Kai blanches.
Kai: The Sril. Paranoid hypertechnicians. Dedicated to destroying any species with a threatening level of technology, and the changes here mean the human race qualifies. It could be worse... but not by a great deal. Come on, we have to knock out that dish!
--
The others wait up above... with their hands in the air, and the Centurion with them.
Effie: Apparently not everyone agrees with our new friend.
Kai: Oh. Um... hang on.
He goes to tap his cane, the legionaries covering the group turn to menace him, Effie opens her bag, finds a bottle of perfume and sprays it in one's face.
Dan fires his gun into the air. The Romans duck.
Dan: Run!
Kai leads the way.
Kai: Where to?
Effie: Where to? You're the one that knows what's going on!
Kai: Right. Yes. Basically all this technology means an alien race is tracking the signal from the dish and they'll wipe out the human race if we don't turn it off.
Gabriel: In that case, that way!
He runs for the dish tower and the others follow.
Kai: Right. I can distract the robots with my sonic cane -
Effie: "Sonic cane"?
Kai: Well, I had to put the sonic somewhere. But anyway, I need a plan for the human guards.
Dan clicks the safety on his gun.
Kai: And that is not the plan. We can't kill these people.
Nimue looks disappointed.
Kai: Does anyone have any loose change?
--
Nimue sneaks around, raises a hand - and bounces a pound coin off a Roman's helmet.
Roman: Oi!
The guards rush out after her, leaving the robots to guard the dish.
Kai: Small problem. There's ten of them. I think I need a distraction for them as well.
Dan: Well, how many could you take?
Effie: Two or three?
Kai looks doubtful.
Kai: If I'm quick.
Gabriel: How about if you route your probe through the dish?
Kai: Good idea.
Gabriel: I was in charge of engineering for a major space station, you know.
Kai: Mm. Oh, and I'll need a ball of wool again.
Effie looks at him sourly.
--
Kai sneaks back in, as Dan and Gabriel step out.
Dan: Excuse me. Is this the road to Rome?
Kai dashes past as the automata look at Dan and Gabriel blankly.
He reaches the controls, starts tying string around particular switches, plugs the head of his cane into a speaker, pulls the string...
And a pulse runs through the entire fort.
The robots stop and shake apart, the Romans cover their ears... everything starts to vanish.
--
Gabriel sees Hypatia restored - and destroyed - and restored - and destroyed...
Dan sees a glowing crystal filling a room and growing as he watches, as men in white coats run.
Kai blinks.
Kai: Cora... no.
Effie hears a snatch of "Days" by the Kinks, feels sunlight on her face as she turns...
And then they are in the woods where the fort once stood.
Effie: What just happened?
Kai: I seem to have cancelled the entire paradox. But... I'm not quite sure how.
Dan: So, er, can we go now?
Kai: Not quite yet. This is a sign that... there's something else at work here.
Nimue approaches.
Kai: Now then, if I'm right she won't even remember us.
Nimue: Hey, you. Where did the Romans go?
Kai: ... Ah. Right. It affects her as well.
Nimue: Did you use your stick on them?
Kai: It's not just a stick, it's... look at the scrollwork...
Effie: So, if not home, where?
Kai: Well. Hm. Next stop... Nineteen Forty-Three!
Roll Credits!
--
Next Time...
Kai: ... Eighteen Forty-Three.
A man running for his life across a snowy field, pursued by something unseen.
The travellers entering a grand country house.
Kai: Time is wrong here...
Nimue, in an early Victorian gown, backing away in horror at the sound of an echoing howl.
An eye that looks like glass narrowing.
Kai: RUN!
--
The Door In Time Unlocked
(OOC behind-the-scenes)
This group originally formed for another game, but when it fizzled early we came to an agreement to try the new Doctor Who game as it had just been published. I'd previously been part of a playtest game, but wanted to give it a go as a GM.
It's a basic Time Lord and Companions setup, for maximum variety of its thirteen episodes.
The players created a highly diverse cast, so I needed a reason for the Time Lord to pick them all up. I could have started in medias res but decided to introduce everyone on-screen. I also needed a reason for there to be a Time Lord, but we'll get to that.
The Rome-Bots are a tribute to the first Doctor Who story I have clear memories of: The Iron Legion, the main comic strip from the first issues of Doctor Who Weekly, by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Dave Gibbons. I resisted the temptation to just run the whole story as-is.
This session was on January 16th, so any resemblance to the Cracks In Time storyline in the current series of Doctor Who is, at least initially, coincidental. Time going wrong all over is an obvious plot hook, really.
--
Coming Soon...
Something glittering, transparent white, running through a darkened hallway.
Terracotta soldiers turning to look at Dan.
Effie standing up to a seven-foot alien in space battle armour.
Two fleets of spaceships locked in battle above the Earth.
Nimue screaming, blue light blazing from her eyes.
A shadow spreading across the floor, with nothing to cast it, reaching out to the travellers.
Gabriel running from a dozen armoured figures firing lasers after him.
A room flickering from modern to futuristic.
Kai raising his cane defensively as something charges towards him.