Okay, so, I really need to get caught up on blog posts. Also, I should have mentioned this in its own post sooner, but I'm running a Monster of the Week game at Gencon this year. This is last-minute, I know, and by the time you see this it might be too late. But if you want to get in on it, just go to the Event database and search for RPG17110659. I may or may not add another game as a late entry before the convention, I dunno.
Anyhow, we've got another adventure for my Doctor Who group! Geronimo!
So we open up the next morning, the sun rising in Berlin, the first holes in the Wall good and well punched. And the Doctor, as much as he'd like to travel with the group for a while, feels it might be best if they went their separate ways while they cope with how they feel about the Time War.[0] He does, however, suggest someone specific on the planet Calibris who can help them with their TARDIS, a man named Soren. He suggests that while there, they visit Vagabond's Reach, the 'toughest bar in the universe.' He also gives them some suggestions about refueling, like finding someplace like the Cardiff Rift (and he also points out a period of a few weeks where the Rift itself has been particularly active so refueling would be quick and easy). They could also do what he's done and 'acquire' a new Eye of Harmony of their own by capturing a star on the brink of collapsing into a black hole. He doesn't feel comfortable giving further instructions on that, because in his words, if they can't capture the star without his help then they probably don't have the expertise to maintain the system.
He does, however, let them know they if they need him that they can find him in other parts of the Berlin, as he stops in every now and again (and not just on that specific date -- he recommends they check out the Hasselhoff concert sometime) across his various incarnations. They ask if they can see his other faces so they know the order they come in if they do run into an earlier incarnation. He takes them into his TARDIS (which is very different from the last time they saw it), and he shows them his older selves (minus the War Doctor) on the screen, with conspicuous pauses on the transition from 8 to 9 and 10 to 11. They comment on how he seems to be getting younger as he gets older, and he comments that he might try to go older next time because nobody seems to take the younger face seriously. I can't remember the exact wording, but Galaxion stands up for the look, commenting on the Doctor's sense of style and in particular the bow tie (mostly to get a "Bow ties are cool" out of me, playing the Doctor).
But anyhow, they leave, he takes off, and they get in their TARDIS to head off to Calibris.
Cue opening theme.
So the group arrives in Calibris in February of 3021, by our reckoning.[1] Calibris is a mechanical planet that's a travel hub where you can find ships to take you anywhere. If you've got the wealth, there are even wormhole services available. It's an amazing, loud, dirty, chaotic planet with rocket-trains shooting through the middle. Trying to get close to Vagabond's Reach, Eska pilots their TARDIS and parks it in the various tunnels running through the planet.
The group has a bit of a conversation about what to wear, given that this is a world where you could get away with whatever -- which means they have to talk Galaxion out of completely 'Time Lording it up' for fear of peoples' reactions if they get someone who knows about the Time War. So Galaxion compromises with some basic robes -- no funny hats or collars. Eska puts on some basic battle gear. Dreamcatcher sticks with her 20th century Earth fashions, and Magpie goes with his usual 1950's beatnik ensemble.
They head out into the tunnels to discover their TARDIS has taken the form of a ship's escape pod that appears to have been modified into sleeping quarters. (And as much as everyone loves the iconic 'police box' design, the group comments on just what sorts of stuff the Doctor misses out on without a working Chameleon Circuit) They find a food stand nearby to see how people are paying so they know what they can get away with, and get the impression that it's a pretty broad barter economy that allows for hard currency. The Magpie has what I can only describe as a handheld chemistry lab and so he uses it to synthesize some gold dust (gold being one of those things that's valuable damn near anywhere) to use as currency.[2] They eat some of what seems to be some sort of sausage while Eska uses the TARDIS' scanners to get a bead on where to find Vagabond's Reach.
So they get to the bar which is, as I described it, "a little bit of biker bar, a little bit of pirate bar, a little bit of Mos Eisley Cantina, and a little bit of Mad Max." Galaxion asks for the harshest thing they've got, and receives a pint of something that smells like a pine air freshener an looks to be roughly the texture and color of melted chocolate ice cream, and tastes like someone mixed the crappiest beer you can imagine with the crappiest whiskey you can imagine. Eska, horrified by the sight of this, just asks for a house ale -- and gets the same thing. Apparently it's all they have on tap. Magpie and Dreamcatcher just order flirtinis. Galaxion's not only a bit of a lightweight, but he's having some difficulties because the stuff in his 'beer' is interacting with his more-psychic-than-usual brain and he's hearing surface thoughts he shouldn't be.
So now that they've settled in, the Magpie asks the bartender how to find Soren and is directed to a table with a couple of people who clear out so they can talk business. Upon hearing their situation and who recommended him, Soren is all too happy to work on a Type 77 TARDIS instead of the Doctor's usual Type 40. Eska talks to him a bit to try and get an idea of whether he can be trusted to work on their TARDIS and whether he might be helpful regarding their Eye of Harmony problem. And while Soren seems to know his stuff with regards to repairing TARDISes, he just doesn't have the obscenely advanced physics background to basically catch a star in a bottle. While they talk, the Magpie and Galaxion head back to the TARDIS (the latter so he can lie down and let the room spin for a bit) while the Dreamcatcher stays back to get shitfaced.
Eventually, Dreamcatcher and Eska walk Soren back to the TARDIS and Eska leads him to the room with the generator, careful to guide him through the shifting hallways and the ghosts that knock out the lights and menace them and such. Soren takes a look at the dynamorphic generator and says he can get the parts they need and help with the work, but it might take a few days because the recent crash has interfered with his supply lines for parts.
Wait, what crash?
Since the group skipped the surface and parked their TARDIS underground, they missed the massive cleanup operation where a ship crashed into one of the rocket-train stations. Part of it actually went into the train tunnel as well, so it's been a bit of a mess. People have vanished, and there's salvage and construction crews on the surface. Eska immediately panics and heads to the Anathecarcere Vault to check the Skaro Degradation equipment on the off-chance that they have just happened to stumble over one of them. He finds they haven't, but the momentary panic still makes him throw up in a trash can regardless.
So he catches back up with everyone else, informs them that that's not an issue (though while they're there, Magpie and Galaxion are curious to look into the wreck and see what's going on), and then begins discussing payment with Soren. Soren said that if they can part with any interesting tech for parts or maybe one of them could pay it off with labor, that would be fine. (Though he does have to clarify that he's not talking that by trading in tech, he really does mean stuff he can use as parts, not just having a fancy gadget to use around the shop)
Eska decides to just work it off by working in Soren's shop for a week. For some reason[3] he decides the thing to do is to basically pull a 'Prisoner of Azkaban' and, after they're done with other business, travel back in time to the next day so there's a version of him working in Soren's shop while they're doing other stuff. Which shouldn't be an issue, as long as Soren is careful when talking to either of him and the others never actually go inside his shop while he's in there. But Soren's good with whatever gets him compensated for his time and trouble.
That said, there is a brief discussion about going through that crashed ship and seeing if there's anything worth trading to save the trouble, and this becomes an argument between Galaxion and Eska but I can't remember exactly why off the top of my head (and I didn't scribble down the details in my notes).
Anyhow, they escort Soren out of their pain in the ass TARDIS and head to the surface. It's easy enough to find the crash site, and the guy who seems to be in charge of cleanup and rebuilding. Galaxion asks if they can take anything from the wreckage, and the guy points out that it's all smeared down the inside of the tunnel a ways down so that might be tricky. That said, he points out that Calibris doesn't have any government at all so there's no laws against it and he doesn't care enough to physically stop them. They ask a few questions about the wreck and he says there are recordings of it but there's no sign of any black box as far as he knows -- but his priority is rebuilding the station, not sifting through the wreckage for shiny things. The whole time, there are workers coming out with hover-carts full of scrap and junk, all connected with earpiece radios before going back down with more people.
The group decides to go down towards the ship and along the way, try to get an idea of what sort of ship it is from the stuff being brought out. But what's being brought out seems to be a mix of junk from the ship and part of the tunnels so it's tough to gauge. But that's quickly forgotten when the group spots something moving in one of the carts. They stop the guy pushing it and ask him some questions which he is very reluctant to answer. Galaxion tries scanning the cart with this sonic screwdriver and the guy just tries to leave. So Galaxion reaches out with his mind to stop the guy.
They question him with the help of Galaxion's immense mental powers, and his responses are stiff and vague and Galaxion can tell his mind's already been subdued. Then the guy suddenly collapses, frothing at the mouth, and the earpiece sparks out. Galaxion goes to look in the cart, and what appears to be an unfamiliar model of Cybermat jumps out at his face.
Wait, a Cybermat? Oh shit.
Eska grabs him and pulls him back just in time and blasts the Cybermat out of the air. They quickly look over the body and determine that the guy was basically already dead and was being puppeted by Cyberman technology via the earpiece (standard MO). They try to figure out what to do and whether to tell the authorities. Galaxion thinks the problem is mostly contained (time period-wise, this is a few centuries after the Cyber Wars so Cybermen are few and far between because people know how to fight them) but Eska wants to step in to do something. So they decide to split up: The Magpie and the Dreamcatcher will go back up to the surface and warn the authorities (or what passes for the authorities), while Galaxion and Eska investigate further.
Remembering how Cybermen work[4], Magpie tosses Galaxion a bag of gold dust to use on them before he and the Dreamcatcher retreat to the surface. Using the aliases Steve and Andromeda just in case, they talk to the construction foreman, Restan, and tell him what's going on. Upon hearing that they've got a Cybermen problem he leads them to a communications tower (which also serves as an air traffic control tower, sort of) where the guy there starts broadcasting to the various security services. He also begins looking up records of the crash, and talks about getting in touch with a local group called the Cyber Defense Network, who specialize in protecting Calibris from threats like Cybermen and computer viruses and such (mechanical planet, remember).
Back in the tunnels, Galaxion and Eska see the ship coming into view as one of the enslaved locals is leading a bunch of dirty people from the tunnels towards the ship, presumably offered salvaging jobs -- though they're about to become part of the salvage. Eska blasts the cyber-slave leading his impending co-workers towards the ship, and they take off running. Galaxion reaches out with his mind and determines that the people with the glowing earpieces are basically already dead. So Eska blasts open a nearby wall and hacks into the local electrical system to try and overload every surface they can to take out the enslaved locals and hopefully the Cybermen as well. Galaxion offers an alternative of just trying to use his abilities to make the slaves kill each other, since they'll either do it or their brains will shut down like the other one. But they go forward with Eska's plan since it means that it will probably mess up the Cyber-ship as well. So he sets it up, hits the switch, and the electrical current takes out all of the enslaved locals and causes a few explosions on what's left of the ship.
Back at the communications tower, 'Steve' and 'Andromeda' are seeing the footage of the ship crashing. And the guy at the console does some digging through the records and discovers the ship was lured to Calibris with a fake Cyberman distress beacon, but it got close enough that one of Calibris' communications satellites detected the approach and disabled it with a virus (probably not the intent). Its velocity kept it moving towards the planet, where it got caught in the gravity well and crashed. So that's a mystery to go with the metal horror.
Back in the tunnel, a trio of Cybermen emerge from the damaged ship. The design doesn't quite match what Galaxion and Eska know[5], but in a moment of panic Galaxion throws the bag of gold dust like a grenade at them. It bounces off with a puff of glittery dust.
The Cybermen's response?
"Presence of gold in atmosphere detected. Upgraded filters holding."
The backs of their arms pop open to reveal blasters.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!"
And we left off there.
[0]-- Also, the group is in a really weird spot, temporally-speaking, and it makes it awkward for the Doctor to want to spend too much time with them at a stretch. It's a little like his reaction to Jack Harkness.
[1]-- The original Big Finish audio play in which Calibris appears doesn't actually specify any particular time period for the Doctor's visit, so for the purpose of story elements of my own I made an executive decision.
[2]-- This winds up being some great foreshadowing, by pure luck.
[3]-- Like, I think the concern is about wasting time if he just goes to work for Soren after they get their TARDIS fixed? Like the others couldn't just entertain themselves for a few days or jump ahead or something? I dunno.
[4]-- Or at least how they worked before the Time War, back when they were all the Mondasian/Telosian Cybermen (see next footnote). Anyhow, as a reminder, back in the olden days the Cybermen had a weakness to gold -- something about it would clog up their breathing filters and so during the Cyber Wars the best weapon against them was the 'glittergun,' which fires gold bullets which would fragment and choke the Cybermen. Hence my earlier comment about the foreshadowing.
[5]-- For those of you who need the reminder, some of the Cybermen running around in the Doctor Who universe originate in another universe. These Cybermen function differently in a number of ways, one of those being that they lack the gold 'allergy.' For the record, I'm going with Neil Gaiman's headcanon from when he wrote "Nightmare in Silver" that the two varieties of Cybermen have combined into a hybrid 'species.'
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