Tara Samms), Though Two of Them Are Mentally

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Introduction: man for the company.

Sorry that this is long. There are a lot of The Clockmaker and the Grubber are
notes that I’ve written up so far. If it’s too much, members of two races trapped in a violent war
then just read the introduction stuff and wait for in a pocket universe. The first test run freed
more final versions of PC backgrounds. Right these two as immaterial beings, and they quick-
now I probably have more written for most char- ly possessed nearby human bystanders. The
acters than I can fit on the character sheet, so Clockmaker possesses George Spelvin, a journal-
most writeups will need pared down in size. A ist covering the event. The Grubber possesses
few still need substantial material added. Dr. Kim Bread, one of the scientists.

When I started planning for this LARP, I If we have enough players, we may also
asked Amber what sort of game she wanted for use Cavis, a legitimate authority in time and
her birthday. She said “something like a Doctor space trying to stop rogue time travelers (such
Who episode”. So we have Amber acting as as Amber’s PC) from modifying the time stream.
Ushas, a time travelling do-gooder, interfering Cavis is accompanied by Fangshi, a human
with human history and with a human sidekick from the future encountered and defeated by
along to be impressed and get in trouble (Cyr- Ushas once before. Due to being thrown into a
ian, a roman poet/philosopher). If you’re un- temporal warp field, Fangshi can sense unusual
familiar with Doctor Who A) don’t worry, you’ll time energy zones such as those around a time
be fine without external knowledge and B) get traveler or the Jagoroth’s timeship.
thee to Netflix and start watching already.

A few clueless humans round out the cast:


The human history Amber is meddling
in involves a high energy physics experiment Dr. Kerensky thinks he invented the de-
that is centuries ahead of its time. Sufficiently vice, but actually has been fed advanced sci-
Advanced Technologies is testing and presenting ence by the Jagoroth. The higher order math
their teleportation array. The project is way is more than a human mind can handle, and so
behind schedule and heavily in debt, so com- Kerensky has started to go insane.
pany head Alan Smithee is set on presenting
even though the system has only been tested Tara Samms is the third scientist, and the
once. Smithee has a team of three scientists last remaining sane one.
working on the project (Dr. Kerensky, Dr. Bread,
Tara Samms), though two of them are mentally General Duggan is a potential investor
compromised at this point (Bread and Kerensky, from the military, but is more interested in find-
though in different ways). ing a potential leak than he is in listening to
scientific lectures. He has a bodyguard, Walter
A couple of alien races are interfering with hu- Plinger, who witnessed Amber’s PC save the
man affairs in various ways: day once before and got put on psychiatric
leave for doing so. Now he runs a crazy con-
The Jagoroth is an immortal being spiracy website, which occasionally leaks classi-
trapped on Earth for millenia, trying to fix his fied information.
timeship. If the experiment is completed, then
he can escape. Which would kill everyone David Agnew isn’t really here to invest in
here, but that’s a minor detail. The Jagoroth the company. He’s here to meet a contact and
has been guiding human evolution and science smuggle equipment out, but his contact is pos-
for a long time to reach this point. Now he is sessed by an alien. So he’s going to have a few
disguised as Mr. Manciple, the Public Relations complications.
Lady Eleanor is supremely rich and fa- The Brochure:
mous. And is trying to blackmail Alan Smithee
into giving the company to her for cheap. Everyone’s character sheet will be laid
out like a brochure, with generic background
The guest list for this sort of thing fluctu- information on the outside and their specific
ates until close to the event. Nonetheless, I background inside. Here’s the brochure info,
want to have some idea who is playing what which really gives them generic information that
part. Ideally, then we could distribute back- everyone needs to know.
ground a day or two in advance, but people’s
changing shcedules always cause problems for
that sort of thing.
Welcome to Sufficiently Advanced Technologies!
Here is my current best guess on which
PCs are high priority and which aren’t, and who Everyone in a high tech industry has
we could have play who. Anyone’s casting heard of Sufficiently Advanced Tech-
could be changed, except for Amber’s. People nologies. It’s the impressive little startup that
with ?s after their names are “Maybe attend- snatched up some of the world’s leading physi-
ing”. cists. Led by maverick businessman Alan Smith-
ee, the company has been spawning rumors
Priority of PCs and casting ideas: and buzz aplenty, even without ever announc-
ing what it’s been working on.
Ushas Amber
Mr. Manciple Matthew?
Smithee Scott The Secret Project
Kerensky Pete
General Duggan Mojo Everyone seems to have a theory about
what it is. You heard several before you were
(that’s the minimum number to play, though invited to this presentation. All of them were
it looks like we’ll be overbooked rather than wrong.
underbooked.)
According to the secret invitation that you
George Spelvin Stacie (regender character) received, the product is no less than a teleporta-
Kim Bread Corinne tion system. Such a system could revolutionize
David Agnew Rich every single aspect of society. No more high-
Lt. Plinger Christina? (regender) way system. No more shipping overseas. No
Cyrian Russell? more travel by space shuttle. No more border
Tara Samms Wendy security. How will it change transportation?
Cavis Amber’s Mom Industry? Urban development? Space explora-
Fangshi Wayne tion? Warfare?
Lady Eleanor Braxiatel Kate
The Facility
Jen?
Jamie? Though they are making big promises,
the SAT labs are pretty small and humble.
Do we need two more possible PCs? Or use
them as “understudies” if someone cancels?
The Device: Each device has several settings, and their
various settings determine how the KTA func-
The central premise for the larp is “a tions when turned on. (Don’t worry. There’ll
presentation of experimental technology, for a be a cheat sheet for GM use during the game.)
group of potential investors”. (Technically, the I’ll have to write this up more thoroughly later,
central premise is “something sort of like a Doc- but know that each of the the first three devices
tor Who episode, as that was Amber’s initial has two or three settings, and the Translocation
request. But this is how the Doctor Who-ness Array’s functioning depends on what the other
manifests.) devices are set as.

The Jagoroth, an immortal alien who is The Jagoroth wants the device set up one
one of the PCs, has been engineering this proj- way. The scientists and Clockmaker want it a dif-
ect to construct a specific technical device. He ferent way. The Grubber and others don’t want
has the human scientists convinced that it creates it functional at all, and a lot of PCs are up in the
a teleportation window. In reality, the device air about the device. The ideas Neel presents
can’t be tuned to terrestrial coordinates. The gives us a framework for letting the players play
last usage opened a gateway to a strange part around and actually make meaningful choices
of existence called the Negative Dimension. about the device and us as GMs to actually
Anyone with some superscience abilities will be make consistent decisions about the device’s
able to figure this out. responses.

There are several parts to the device. I’ve got a chart worked up for how the
Initially, they are scattered among different par- device works in various states, but need to en-
ticipants and larp locations. Assembling them in code it into something legible.
the proper way can get a properly functioning
machine. Assembling them in improper ways
might be non-functional or dangerous.

A lot of the design relies on ideas pre-


sented in an insightful article called “Causality
and Choice” by Neel Krishnaswami:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13352313/daedalus-
winter2004.pdf#page=86

So there are four parts to the device:

The Quantum Flux Doorway, which creates the


wormhole
The Crypto-Anagon Transmitter, which keeps the
wormhole stable and under controls
The Safety Interlocks, which prevent any dan-
gerous or non-standard configurations from
working
The Kerensky Translocation Array, the primary
device whose functioning is dependent on the
other devices.
Ushas, Mistress of Time them.

AKA Helen Swanetsky, investor from the finan-


cial firm Baker, Baker and Hartnell People you know:

(Casting: Amber, obviously) Cyrian - a philosopher and poet from Imperial


Rome. He’s been your travelling companion for
Beyond humanity’s aknowledge, there is a uni- the last few hops. You’ve shown him strange
verse full of wonders. You should know: you’re alien worlds and new civilzations and all the
one of them. A rogue Infinity Guardian, tasked standard ways of impressing humans. He then
with keeping the timestream in order. You didn’t asked to see the future of humanity, so you
like following orders and rules much, so now brought him to the 21st century.
you’re doing the same job, but freelance.
other humans - the historical record doesn’t
You’ve been travelling the universe forever, have a lot of info on the staff. After the in-
seeing all its wonders, doing good deeds, and cident, it is revealed that Alan Smithee, the
exploring the strange corners of history. Oh, manager, is much more deeply in debt than he
didn’t I mention? You also travel through time. admits. Everyone else seemed to have normal-
You’re like a time travelling tourist who some- ish lives before the incident here killed them all.
how always swoops in to save the day with Scientists, mostly, publishing science-y papers.
some advanced scientific knowledge and a wry Mr. Manciple looks vaguely familiar, but you
joke. don’t know why. Such is the life of an immortal
time traveller: you accidentally run into some-
You picked up your companion Cyrian from one you last saw a century ago, or sometimes
ancient Rome a few hops ago, and have been people you haven’t even met yet.
showing him the usual mix of sights. You’ve
now taken him here to see what went wrong Aliens - the universe is full of them. Most are
when Sufficiently Advanced Technologies’ mys- everyday blokes just trying to get by running an
terious accident occurred. You hope to discover asteroid farm or what have you. A handful of
what happened, and maybe save a few lives of races are real trouble, though. They are:
the people involved.
The Jagoroth - a vicious, backstabbing lot of
immortal tentacled brutes with too much super-
Goals science for their own good. Really: the Jagoro-
th had a giant civil war that wiped them all out.
Find out what went wrong. History never got a
clear answer to what went wrong at the demon- The Mendrazi - terrifying, disturbing, shadowy
stration. Something happened, something ex- beings that tried to destroy Earth twice before.
ploded and no one made it out alive. No one is But the last time you saw them, you convinced
even sure what device was being demonstrated. them that a doomsday device lay under the
planet that would wipe them out if they ever
Set it right again. Do good, prevent catastro- came near Sol again.
phes, avert calamities. All in a day’s work for
you. The Clockmakers. Like insane zero gravity Nazi
poets. Luckily, they’re all trapped in the Nega-
Save human lives. You’re not actually human tive Dimension where they can’t do anyone any
yourself, but they’re still sentient beings that you harm.
look kindly upon. You don’t like to see them
hurt each other, or seeing other species hurt The Infinity Guardians - a bunch of stuffy old
worriworts who won’t let you take vacations
to the Big Bang or rewrite Jagoroth history or Cyrian
anything. You’re trying to avoid the Celestial aka Norman Ashby
Intervention Agency in particular, because they (Casting: Russell?)
tend to deal unfavorably with unlicensed “med-
dling”. Infinity Guardians are generally You were once a poet and philosopher living in
Imperial Rome. Now you travel through time
and space at the side of a divine lady.
Technology:
In your life, you have been blessed to meet not
The Positronic Glass - AKA your cellphone set one god but two. The first was the mighty and
on “Barcode Scanner”. Use it to scan items powerful Tempus, for whom you wrote odes and
and things to learn additional information. Your epic poems and debated the future of human-
superscientific knowledge and the device’s ity. The second was the Lady Ushas, who has
advanced scanning apparatus will reveal many taken you from your home in Imperial Rome and
mysteries. shown you the wonders of the universe. You
adore and worship both divine beings, as is the
The Temporal Crystal - powers your time ma- only proper for a mortal like yourself.
chine. You don’t want to get messed up in your
own timeline, though, so you’ll steer clear of Since the Lady Ushas took you as a companion,
any Bill and Ted “leave the keys here for your- you have seen planets and wonders you could
self” shenanigans. Time travel is a good way never have imagined. Now she has chosen to
to travel, but using it to solve problems always show you the splendors of mankind’s future.
creates a bigger mess than you had in the first
place. It’s like trying to scramble an egg by ar- Goals:
tifically triggering an earthquake: it might work
if you do it just right, but it definitely will cause a Obey the gods, for they are powerful and wiser
lot of other problems. than a mere mortal like you. The gods are
fickle and jealous sometimes, though, so do not
speak of other deities before them. Ushas might
be angered by the worship of Tempus, or vice
versa. Better to worship each separately than
to anger either.

Investigate the myriad wonders of the future.


How does future man live and work and play
and eat? Is there still war? Does the Empire
still rule? Has enlightened philosophy created a
better tomorrow?

Do right with the world. Leave this future land a


better place than you found it, and make joy for
its inhabitants.

People:

Ushas, mistress of time - currently calling herself


“Helen Swanetsky”.

Tempus - for some reason he’s calling himself


Mr. Manciple.
The Jagoroth Goals:
AKA Mr. Manciple
Insert your Zero Time Coil into the experiment.
(Casting: Matthew?) You need to modify the settings on the Crypto-
Anagon Transmitter and place the Zero Time
AKA the Jagoroth, Aka the roman god Tempus Coil through the doorway that will open. This
and a host of other gods of myth. will charge it up with interdimensional quantum
particles, allowing it to power your homemade
timeship.
You’ve been waiting a long time for this. Impos-
sibly long, it seems. Four billion years, in fact. Escape in a time machine. Your timeship re-
quires detonating a nuclear weapon to success-
When the project went wrong, all seemed fully break the temporal barrier. You’ll survive
lost. You mutiny of the timeship failed, and the in the ship just fine, and these human vermin are
warchief decided to exile you on a young dead basically inconsequential.
rock, to live out your existence alone. But you
were clever and patient. You couldn’t make a Hide your alien nature. You’ve bred these ape-
timeship yourself, but you worked to create a men to be superstitious and gullible for so long
race that could. The first few billion years were that they’re likely to freak out at the idea of an
slow, and tough. You were close to getting alien in their presence. So keep your history a
a tool using race when an asteroid killed the secret by whatever means necessary.
dinosaurs and set the plan back several million
years.
People you know:
But now humanity has finally gotten close.
You’ve been guiding their development and Alan Smithee - thinks he’s in charge here. But
nudging along their physics from time to time. you secretly own more of the project than he
The test run seemed to work, and now this ex- does.
periment will finally charge up your Zero Time
Coil. With that, you can power your time ma- Dr. Kerensky - you’ve been feeding Kerensky
chine and erase your eon long exile - and the advanced Jagorian mathematic information.
human race - from history. This has accelerated the project, but the knowl-
edge is more than Kerensky’s puny human brain
In order to watch over the experiment, you’ve can handle. He’s begun to go a bit mad. You
taken an identity as Mr. Manciple, the PR man hope that he’ll last long enough.
for Sufficiently Advanced Technologies. But you
aren’t some measly hairless ape. You are an- Norman Ashby - for some reason, this apeman
cient. You are vast. You are the destroyer. You makes you think of when you were worshipped
are Jagoroth. as a god in Egypt and then Rome. Feasts were
held in your honor and poets sang your praises.
And you’re close now. So close. You’re getting Why does Ashby remind you of this?
impatient. Nothing can stop you this time, no
matter what.
Dr. Kerensky Take all the credit. Your equations were the break-
through, and none of the others understood their
true significance.
(Casting: Pete)
Prove to the others that their own precious sanity is
Theorem: everything is a lie.
precarious as yours. Everyone else should see the
falsity of their senses and their sanity. Bring others
How can it be any other way? How?!? If anything
along to discover the lie of this world, so they too
else you had ever known was true, then the Keren-
can experience the vast twenty-nine dimensional
sky equations must be incorrect. But you have direct
interlace of true reality.
experimental confirmation of your equations, in the
previous test of the Translocator Array. Three days
Speak to the transcendental beings and learn the
ago, you got final confirmation that your theories
mysteries of the universe. This world is a lie. You
are true: this universe doesn’t exist.
need to expand your consciousness to encompass
the infinity of the truth. Having a guide on the path
So we can trust the equations, even if you can’t trust
would make reaching the next mental energy level
any equations. The equations that seem to simply
easier.
come to you in your sleep, or appear to write them-
selves on your notes. The ones that suggest that this
universe cannot possibly exist.
People:
The Kerensky equations are a reductio ad absurdum
Alan Smithee - thinks he is the king, when in fact he’s
argument against sanity itself. They tell you that
the fool and the real king hides on the other side of
your every memory is a false construct overlaid onto
a twelfth dimensional spiral of energy.
your thinking. They tell you that your senses are not
to be trusted, and that invisible beings walk among
Dr. Bread - never looks beyond the immediate conse-
us. The Kerensky equations suggest that this uni-
quences of your work. When Dr. Bread sleeps, the
verse doesn’t exist outside of this building, but rather
telephone whispers to you in Spanish. Or maybe
that your life is just a tiny bubble inside a world
Basque. You don’t know; you’re a physicist, not a
where you don’t exist.
linguist.
The Kerensky Equations know everything, but they
Tara Samms - Her graduate thesis doesn’t even
destroy everything.
mention the three eyed monster that will eat charm
quarks at certain energy levels. And that’s just
None of the others understand the full implications.
sloppy work.
All the other are fools. Or possibly hallucinations.
You’re not sure any more. You cannot trust your
Mr. Manciple - sometimes appears as a giant insect.
senses any more. But you saw two ghostly be-
You think it is a sort of beetle, but the calls to the
ing, briefly, during the test run. A hallucination?
Entomology department at the museum have been
Ghosts? A glimpse of the real universe that lay be-
so far fruitless.
yond it? You believe that they are sentient beings of
higher orders of reality, because the equations sug-
Others - investors or lookers-on or talking geese or
gest that such beings would exist. Your senses are
acolytes for a newly founded religion. You never
untrustworthy, but the math is sound. The math that
can tell any more.
says that you are insane, but also the least insane
human on the planet. The other poor fools don’t
Swanetsky - has an odd taste to her. She smells like
even know the depths of their own insanity.
the inside of a particle accelerator, and seem to
know more than she should. Are you just being para-
noid? Or is she a transcendent extradimensional
Goals:
thought-construct here to bring you to the next stage
of consciousness?
Complete the experiment. It’s imperative that you
complete the project, no matter the cost! Your ge-
nius must be shown to the world!
Alan Smithee running a crazy conspiracy website, but it’s wor-
rying how they released confidential details of
(Casting: Scott) the project.

This is your last chance to make it big. Your


company, Sufficiently Advanced Technologies, is People:
way overleveraged into debt you can never re-
pay. Unless, of course, you get a juicy military Dr. Kerensky, Dr. Bread and Tara Samms - These
contract or some rich eccentric to act as sugar are scientists working for you. They’re working
daddy. hard, and the stress is getting to them. Every
time they complain, you just tell them that they
So you’ve been working your staff hard, rushing can take a break once the big demo for inves-
to get to the demonstration stage. Your test run tors is over.
was repeatedly plagued with delays, but finally
happened three days ago. The sciences types Mr. Manciple - your Public Relations man. He
are worried about some odd data they got in knows this project as well as any of the actual
the test, but it was clearly good enough to use scientists.
as a proof of concept. The teleportation door-
way opened, and that is good enough. General Duggan, Helen Swanetsky, David Agnew
- these are the potential investors that you’re
trying to impress. You need at least one of them
You had to sell of shares of stock to keep to sign on to the project. Two or more would be
afloat. You’re not sure who’s been buying even better.
them, though. You’ve investigated a few of the
purchasers, but they all seem to be front com- George Spelvin - a journalist covering the big
panies. It looks like they all lead back to some- reveal. He was present for the first test run, and
thing called The Tempus Foundation, but you now is here to cover the demonstration. You
don’t know who or what that is. want all the good press you can get, so try to
keep him happy and impressed.
Goals:
Lady Eleanor Braxiatel - holy shit. You thought
Hide your lost wealth. People trust big projects that the Braxiatel Corporation might send a
to successful people, not to penniless garage in- scout. But not that the CEO herself would come.
ventors. It’s important that you appear wealthy She’s ludicrously rich and powerful. Why is she
if you want to become wealthy. here? Does she own the Tempus Foundation,
perhaps?
Find who really owns Sufficiently Advanced
Technologies. And discover what their plans for
the company are. Make sure they involve you The Project:
getting rich.
Using some sort of quantum techniques and a
Sell the project to one of the big investors. If bunch of math that you don’t understand, the
you can get a few tens of millions, then that project will create a portal that temporarily con-
would get you out of debt. If you can add some nects any two points on earth. The test run
zeroes on the end of the number, then all the
better.

Find the person leaking confidential information


about the project onto the internet. They’re just
General Duggan discovered a terrible world-spanning conspiracy
controlling everything. This sinister group is The
(Casting: Mojo) Temporal Foundlings. It is led by an ancient
cult of high priests that claim falsely to be time
You didn’t spend a lifetime leading soldiers into travelers from the distant future. They control
battle so that you could sit through some boring the government, and guide mankind to build
science lecture. But that dab-blasted Secretary advanced scientific creations. You’ve been try-
of Defense says that the weapons of tomorrow’s ing to spread the word on your website, though
wars are unimaginable today. Or something most visitors seem to think that you’re insane.
like that. In the end, it means that you gotta go
from lab to lab seeing every overgrown sci- You finally were given a shot back at active
ence fair project the country has to offer. This duty. It’s just a babysitting mission, and the
egghead colony has produced some sort of brass expect that it’ll be easy. But when you
trans-dimensional conduit, whatever that is. The were briefed on the project, you immediately
important thing is whether or not you can use it recognized the handiwork or the
to kill some terrorist overseas. You’re betting it
can’t, so you’re not really interested in what the
labcoats have to say. Goals:

You’re real orders are to find the security leak Investigate and uncover the wrongdoings of The
in the company. Defense Intelligence Agency Temporal Foundlings.
sources suggest that someone within Sufficiently
Advanced Technologies is selling high end Prove to everyone that you’re sane. Which
technology off to foreign black markets. You’re should be easy, because you are sane, right?
supposed to sniff the rats out and cage them up, Right?!? I mean, sure, your raving about a
though the DIA didn’t give you much to go on. global conspiracy bent on mankind’s downfall
You’ve been told that the smugglers sometime may sound paranoid. But is it paranoia if they
use the cover of “The Temple Foundation”. It’s really are out to get you?
not much to go on, but it’s the only useful lead.
So ask around. Protect General Duggan. That’s your actual
[insert much more text] military mission. See that no harm comes to Mr.
Four Stars.

People you know:


Lt. Walter Plinger
General Duggan - you’re his bodyguard. Which
When the miracle occurred, they called you is really the brass giving you kiddie missions
crazy. Your platoon was caught in a deathtrap, while they evaluate if you’re ready for action
and only you survived. No one could explain again. No one is expecting any danger for this
how you had survived the deadly ambush, but blowhard while he’s looking at the science fair
no one was willing to believe your story about projects.
an attack by ancient aliens and a mysterious
lady who moved you hundreds of miles in an Helen Swanetsky - that’s her. The one that
instant. miraculously saved your life back in Afghani-
stan. She called herself “Ushas” then, but that’s
You were forced into treatment for Post Trau- definitely her. Now if you can just get her to
matic Stress Disorder, but you found other ways show off her magical powers, you can prove
of dealing with your mystery event. You inves- your sanity.
tigated the truth of what happened, and have
David Agnew The Clockmaker
(Casting: Rich?) AKA George Spelvin
(Casting: Stacie? Rework the gender)
You’re supposed to be here as a potential
investor. What no one else knows is that you’re This being is unlike other apemen. This being is like
actually here as agent of the Temple’s Founda- a cuckoo, a being that hides in waiting disguised as
tion, an ancient secret smuggling ring. You another species. The human king George Spelvin
has been dethroned and exiled while the this be-
have been sent here to smuggle away classified
ing sits as usurper upon Spelvin body-throne. This
high energy technology so the Temple’s Founda- being, on of The Clockmakers, wears Spelvin’s skin
tion can sell it off in foreign black markets. You as a cloak. This Clockmaker is a ghost possessing
should receive a hefty share of the proceeds Spelvin’s form.
from any such sale.
Clockmakers are foreign, unknown, like a strange
Your contact is using the codename “Clock- light of distant stars. Clockmakers’s home is so far
worker”, and you’re supposed to find them by away that no light can reach it, that no sound travels
repeating a codephrase “Did we meet at the there. clockmakers sing songs very different from
Clockmaking convention?” Then they are to those sung on earth. No human can sing the same
answer “It’s been a long, long time since then.” songs a clockmaker sings.
Find the Clockworker and get the goods off him
This being is a hunter, seeking its prey in secret.
or her.
Grubbers are prey, hunted criminals, heretics and
witches. The war with Grubbers will last as long as
You’ve heard through the grapevine that Mr. the stars themselves, for Grubbers are as guilty as
Smithee is in dire financial straights. Dire sin itself. This Clockmaker had cornerd the Grub-
enough that he sold [insert text] ber like a scared animal, but a shimmering field
of light made your conquest a fading dream. The
Goals: grubber escaped as the wind through a net, but this
Clockmaker followed as relentlessly as the pull of a
Get the goods - the more high tech junk you can black hole. Stepping through the gateway between
get your hands on, the better. Plans and blue- worldw, you seized the form of one of the gate-
way’s guardians. Spelvin.
prints and science notes would all be good too.
For three risings of the Sun, the Grubber has used
Hide your wrongdoing - you can’t get out and these apemen as hiding holes. But no longer. The
sell stuff on the blackmarket. Tara Samms will light of your seeking will shine into their caves and
be a problem here, and those military types show you the Grubber. Then you will kick the door-
don’t make you comfortable at all. way open once more and drag the Grubber back
through to the swift justice of the Clockmaker army’s
Make a buck - selling the goods on the black ire.
market is great. But maybe there’s some more
money to be made here somewhere, if you keep
an eye out. Goals:

Find the Grubber and eliminate it.


People:
The Clockmakers are unlike literalists or empiricists.
Tara Samms - Shit. Shit. On a previous con Clockmakers do not value the physical or obvious,
operation, you seduced her to get access to the so like poets they never describe things directly. All
lab she was working at and steal some items. their communication is via analogy, metaphor or
What was your cover name for that job? It was simile. Speak in riddles rather than answer ques-
something weird sounding. Eugene? Dortmund? tions directly.
Devlin Armbruster?
Dr. Kim Bread might be the easiest way to stop it. The humans
(Casting: Corrine?) will imprison and dissect the Clockmaker or
whatever, and you’ll escape easily.
Your consciousness is not the terrestrial con-
sciousness that the native apemen believe it to Prevent the re-opening of the portal. The hu-
be. Your mental framework inhabits this physi- mans think the device is a teleportation system,
cal vessel for a short time while you work to but it isn’t. It’s a dimensional portal to your
save yourself. home plane of existence. Re-opening would let
additional Clockmakers through, which would
You came through the doorway to escape much be terrible. You’ll miss your home plane of exis-
conflict. Another groups of entites called them- tence, but the Clockmakers had destroyed most
selves The Clockmakers and attempted to do of it and killed your kinfolk already.
harm to you and your kinfolk. Your kinfolk, part
of a species called The Grubbers, were nearly
made extinct by the Clockmaker’s attacks. Un-
able to fight back, the Grubbers tried to escape
the planet, but there seemed to be some tremen- Grubbers - grubbers are non-physical entities
dous elemental force keeping both races on the that share their biological manifestations com-
planet’s surface. munally. You didn’t realize that the apemen on
this side of the doorway operated differently,
Your outlook appeared bleak, as the Clockmak- so you took an available body. You’re not sure
er Extermination units closed in on you. Then a what happened to Dr. Bread’s consciousness - it
mysterious energy field formed nearby, appar- may be permanently overwritten. But now you
ently a doorway to somewhere else. Eager to have discovered that you cannot jump from one
escape by any means, you sent your conscious- body to another any more.
ness through and located a physical vessel here
to use. Grubbers have difficulty understanding abstract
concepts, metaphors and analogies. Grubbers
That was three solar cycles ago. You have been only look at the concrete and the things imme-
trying to avoid attention since then. You claimed diately before their senses. Since the Grubbers
to have injured your foot hinge unit in the ex- only live in zero G environments, you have no
periment, to explain your loss of balance. sense of balance. You’ve been on crutches
since possessing Dr. Bread’s body, telling peo-
Goals: ple that you sprained an ankle.

Escape the Clockmaker. You think one may have The humans - you don’t know much about the
followed you through the portal. He wants to natives of this planet, and very little about their
kill you, so you need to avoid or defeat him culture. Smithee acts as chieftain of this tribe,
somehow. Unfortunately, the Clockmaker has that is devoted to experimentally investigating
probably taken a human form like you did, so this universe. Samms and Manciple follow his
you can’t be sure who the Clockmaker is. orders. Other humans are new here today,
some sort of visitors.
Hide your alien nature - the humans do not
know of other sentient life in the universe. They
would likely react poorly if they discovered an
alien being in their midst.

Expose the Clockmaker as an alien - come to


think of it, exposing the Clockmaker as an alien
Tara Samms
(Casting: Wendy)
People:
You’re the lowest ranked scientist on the project.
You haven’t even finished your PhD yet. But Your brother, George Spelvin, works as a jour-
sometimes you think that you’re the only sane nalist for one of the 24 hour news networks.
person left on this project. Mr. Smithee has You managed to get him access so that he could
been pushing everyone too hard, and the stress scoop the other channels. But since his first visit,
has been wearing on everyone. You tried to tell he’s been acting a bit oddly. You’re not sure
him about how Kerensky has started to act out what exactly is wrong, but you’re concerned for
from overwork, but he hasn’t listened. He says his wellbeing.
that once this big demo is finished then every-
one can take a break. ‘David Agnew’ - a few years ago, you had a
brief extramarital affair with him. But at the
time he said his name was “Irving Braxiatel”.
The Test Run: And one day, he just disappeared. Since then
your husband found out and left because of it.
The test run happened three days ago. During Do you still love Irving, or do you blame him
the run, the teleportation portal seemed to open for your marriage falling apart? Both? Why is
as expected, but some unusual electromagnetic Irving back? Why did he leave? What’s with
phenomena was detected. Some sort of en- the different name?
ergy field spread from the portal, and Dr. Bread
tripped and sprained her ankle avoiding it. Alan Smithee - he’s the boss here. You tried to
You wanted Smithee to delay the demo for the warn him that the staff was wildly overworked,
inevestors until you could sort out the readings but he wouldn’t listen. Now you have these
and figure out what happened, but he didn’t weird readings from the test run, which should
want to listen. really be analyzed thoroughly before you go
running a new experiment.

Goals: Dr. Kerensky - lead researcher for the project,


he’s vain and a bit eccentric. He’s been acting
Look out for your kid brother George. You want more oddly as the project goes on
him toget a big scoop here. You also hope that
he doesn’t embarass you in fron of your employ- Dr. Bread - a researcher on the project who
ers. So keep an eye on him. outranks you. Hurt her ankle during the test
run. And she’s been oddly withdrawn since the
Maintain an island of sanity amidst the chaos. experiment; is everything okay?
You want to keep everyone on task and calm
through the rest of today.

Get Kerensky to credit you properly. This entire


project relies on theories pioneered in your the- (Give her note written by Dr. Bread, that says
sis, but he doesn’t acknowledge anyone’s work “’Did I meet you at the clockworker’s conven-
but his own. tion?’ ‘It’s been a long, long time since then.’”
No idea what that means, but it was sitting
Find out why Irving left you. Possibly get back where the Crypto-Anagon Transmitter was sup-
in a romantic relationship with him. First you posed to be.)
need to know why he left and why he calls him-
self “David Agnew” now.
Lady Eleanor Braxiatel give you an inside advantage.

You are one of the richest and most powerful Find out who these other investors are. You
women in the world. You’ve made your billions have the best investigators and researchers that
by investing in up and coming tech industries money can buy, but you couldn’t find anything
while they were still small. out at all about “David Agnew” or “Helen
Swanetsky” or the businesses they claim to work
You don’t usually work by traditional business for. Who are they, really, and what are they
methods, though. Which is why you’ve been really up to?
blackmailing Alan Smithee. When you heard
about the mystery project, you hired a team of
detectives and investigators to discover what it People:
was. They briefed you all about the teleporta-
tion portal system, but also informed you that Alan Smithee
Smithee is hemorhaging money. He’s deeply
in debt, and desperately wants to hide this fact. “David Agnew” and “Helen Swanetsky” - not
You think that this might be because he’s wor- who they say they are. They lack any back-
ried about appearances, or it might mean that ground or Social Security Number or anything,
he’s been embezzling from the company. Either and their companies don’t exist.
way, it gives you leverage if you decide to buy
out his company.

You’re not just here out of greed. You have


enough money you can get anything you want.
But what you want is to learn new, interesting
things. You’re insatiably curious. Right now,
you want to know who “David Agnew” and
“Helen Swanetsky” are, since their cover stories
are clearly lies. Who are they, and who do
they work for? Is a competitor also interested in
the project? Are they CIA or organized crime
or something? Each might be working for some-
one different, or they might be secretly collabo-
rating.

Goals:

Put the pressure on Smithee. The more strwess


he’s under, the better your bargaining position
will be. Make him feel helpless, then offer to
take his troubles away.

Evaluate Sufficiently Advanced Technologies’s


future

Pump General Duggan and his bodyguard for


info on potential defense contracts. You can
always do with some more cushy government
contratcs. Pumping him with information might
Fangshi “Cavis”
(Casting: Wayne?) Cavispreteotrelundar
(Casting: Debbie?)
You are a human from about twelve thousand
years in the future. By that point in time, con- You are one of the Infinity Guardians, a race
trolled manipulation of the time stream is al- of immortal time travelling extraterrestrials. By
lowed under strict supervision of the arrogant appointment to his Majesty, Runciple the Lord
alien Infinity Guardians. of Time, you work for the Celestial Intervention
Agency. The CIA is an organization tasked with
[Was involved in a plot with the Jagoroth preventing unauthorized meddling in the time
and some smuggling weapons back in time stream.
to change the course of their civil war. Ushas
ended that, but Fangshi got involved in a tem- Your current mission: locate and apprehend a
poral accident. Now he has a weird time-sense, renegade time agent. Class D time Temporal
and is helping the CIA find Ushas and bring her Monitor Ushas stole a time machine and has
to justice. been messing with the timestream. You have
been trying to catch him/her, but Ushas is al-
Human supremacist, wants other aliens elimi- ways a step ahead. On your last operation,
nated or at the very least leaving human history you located a human named Fangshi who has
alone.] experienced an unusual quantum temporal
event as a result of Ushas’ actions. Fangshi’s
Due to the experiment, your experience of the unlikely disability causes him to sense non-stan-
timestream is unusual. Unstable. Sometimes dard energy fields. You’ve used this ability to
you get visions of future events or don’t remeber track Ushas here to this location. You’re hoping
parts of your own history. You can intuitively that
sense unusual temporal energy fields. (Any
player character and some items will have a [Looking to imprison Ushas, but cannot find
letter in brackets, like this: [J]. If that letter is a because of regeneration/chameleon method/
consonant, then everything is normal. If it is a something. Needs Fangshi to detect anomalous
vowel, then something weird is up, though you temporal phenomena. Uninvited guest? Last
don’t know what exactly.) minute replacement?]

[GM note to myself but not to Fangshi: some- Goals:


one gets to be “[Y]”]
Bring Ushas to justice, peacably. Ushas is still
one of the Infinity Guardians, and so deserves
respect and decency even during apprehension.

Keep the timeline as originally recorded. You


want the minimum possible number of modifica-
tions to history.

Hide any evidence of alien activity here on Earth.


Humanity is not due to recognize extraterres-
trial sentiences for another hundred and twenty
years. So it is imperative that no one realize
that extraterrestrials are operating here. This
includes eliminating Fangshi once he has served
his purpose.
Other Neat Ideas

Obviously, there is still a lot of writing


and editing to be done. And a lot of other
ideas I’m working on that may or may not be
used in the final version. Besides the cause and
effect mechanis of The Device, there are other
cool tricks we can do.

Amber’s PC Ushas and Cavis and/or


Mr. Manciple will have advanced scientific
knowledge. Specifically, Amber will have her
cellphone and I will lend mine to the other
player, and they will use barcode scanners on
the phones to scan QR code stickers that will
be scattered around. Those stickers, when
scanned, will provide the user with additional
information. Scanning Dr. Kerensky’s notes, for
example, will tell them that the device doesn’t
really do what it says it does. Scanning the
items will give some idea of their state and/or
functioning. Scanning the Jagoroth’s timeship
or nuclear device will reveal their true purpose.
This gives the aliens with advanced knowledge QR codes look something like this.
a way to learn more information without need- High tech items will have stickers with
ing everything spelled out on their sheet first code to be scanned.
thing.

Fangshi has a special time sense, that will


bascially be a low-tech version of the QR code
trick. Along with each QR code and on each
person’s namebadge, they’ll have a letter in
brackets, like this: [H]. If the letter in the brack-
et is a consonant, then Fangshi gets no unusual
reading off that person or thing. If it is a vowel,
then something weird is up with that thing. I
don’t think we’ll tell them, but the letter itself is
important: every “A” is weird in the same way,
and every “E” is weird in another way, that is
different from the A’s but the same for all E’s. If
Fangshi figures this out, then good for him, he
can use that to his advantage. If not, then he
still has a bit of additional information for who
to keep an eye on.

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