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CHAPTER 2: THE CAMPAIGN CONTINUES

THE TEMPORAL TANGENT
Continuing the TMNT® alternate reality adventure where the players try to find their way home.

THE PROPOSED HISTORY

THE RECENT PAST - In Brief
In the year 2010 a scientific research company called Xenoco have been experimenting with a new product of theirs. The VMTM (Vehicular Mounted Time Machine) had just been fitted with its radioactive isotope power source and was being prepared for a journey back in time. Xenoco had been working on different variations and configurations of VMTM; this latest trial was their most ambitious yet.

The technicians at the nuclear power plant had successfully installed the isotope unit. However, the machine has a fatal error that the players discover only when the machine reaches its destination. This error results in the VMTM malfunctioning during any voyages, stranding the players in a hostile and alien environment. The radioactive isotope is safe but the temporal capacitor is in need of replacing when it arrives at its designated landing time. This is a deliberate manufacturing ploy by Xenoco, it makes their time travellers absolutely dependent on the company for supplies and, in some circumstances, rescue.

THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD - THE PRESENT
Xenoco have been studying, and experimenting on, the local flora and fauna of the early Cretaceous period for 6 months with some interesting successes. This is their first major experimental time camp and it is well equipped for most eventualities. Their base location, in space and time, has been chosen for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the Cretaceous period, of 66 million years ago, seemed far enough back in time not to cause any unwanted repercussions if they were to tamper with the local wildlife, while also offering a diverse ecosystem to study.

Secondly, the fact that there is supposed to be no intelligent life makes it easier for them to cover their tracks when they finish and pull out.

Thirdly, major tectonic movements are predicted for their chosen location, aiding them in the erasure of anomalous materials.

The time camp is situated near to an active volcano, which is set to explode in the next few weeks. The research team are understandably disconcerted when their ride home doesn't materialise on schedule. Search teams of specialist troops are already out looking for the VMTM in the vain hope that it just landed outside of the expected drop zone.

The players will have to survive in this exceptionally hostile environment, get the temporal capacitor repaired and then attempt to get home again, unless they want to stay in the Cretaceous period... Only one person in this area is willing, and able, to help the players. There are no doctors and only a limited amount of equipment available.

A TWISTY TURNY THING

MUD PUDDLES
give them a toy, then break it
The players jumped into the VMTM and roared off, hoping to avoid the nuclear response team. The vehicle hits 50mph and there is an explosion of light and sound (everyone in the vehicle make SR vs. 16, equivalent to a non-lethal toxin, or pass out). A faint smell of burning can be noticed as electrical activity surrounds the vehicle and the temporal capacitor burns out.

BOOM - blinding light, BOOM - impenetrable darkness, BOOM - blinding light, BOOM - impenetrable darkness. High-pitched white noise assaults the players' senses. The vehicle controls are locked. Through the windows New York can be seen deconstructing. BOOM - blinding light. For a fraction of a second the civil war rages, BOOM - impenetrable darkness. Eventually there is nothing left but grassland and swamp. Native Indians can be briefly seen in the distance BOOM - blinding light, a woolly mammoth BOOM - impenetrable darkness, a jungle springs up and is replaced by snow and ice BOOM - blinding light. A sabre toothed tiger, BOOM - impenetrable darkness.

The vehicle is ejected into a confusion of jungle, plants and steam. A control roll, at -50%, is needed from the driver to get the vehicle safely stopped. If the control roll is failed the vehicle shoots out of the undergrowth and off a 6' embankment into the edges of a swamp, unless it is secured it will begin to sink.

The VMTM is repairable, should any damage occur in the crash, but the time machine seems to have a component burnt out. Unless time travelling skills are available, the time machine will not be able to be repaired by the party, they probably can't even figure out what the burnt out part is supposed to do!

Crash landing near the swamp is one of the safer places to be, most of the large dinosaurs would become stuck in the boggy ground. The only things to worry about are the giant crocodiles that live in the swamp and river.

WELCOME TO THE CRETACEOUS
servile survivalists castaway in time
Weird plant life and strange wild life, in an unrecognisable setting, surround the party. Unfamiliar sounds and scents are easily detectable. Huge alien trees and bizarre foliage surround the group. A dense cloud cover blots out much of the light. Odd insects crawl into and over the players' equipment. A black cloud of soot can be seen issuing from the mountains to the North East.

The players are going to have to stay alive in this inhospitable environment until they figure out what is going on and how to rectify the problem. This will mean exploring, building a shelter, finding food and fresh water.

MEET THE LOCALS
ah, look at the cute little reptiles
The party will need to explore, and if they haven't figured it out yet, the cretaceous period is full of interesting dinosaurs letting the players know that they are in a prehistoric setting.

I assume that the players have some knowledge of dinosaurs, even if it is just from watching Jurassic Park in character. Therefore, most of the 'famous' dinosaurs will be instantly recognisable; their reputations can lead them. The less well-known dinosaurs could prove to be more challenging, not knowing whether they are herbivore or carnosaur for example.

DINO PSYCHOLOGY
group hugs, group hungers
Velociraptors are by far the most organised of the giant reptiles and deadly because of it. They will hunt in packs of between 4 and 12 (depending on the party strength). They are adequate climbers, and can occasionally be found hiding in some of the larger trees. They lure their prey in to premeditated ambush zones, where they swarm over any prey unlucky enough to have been lured by a single creature (or bait, as it is more commonly known).

Rhamphorynchus, a flying, fur covered, tailed, large toothed, beaked critter, is another interesting example of an unusual dinosaur. Another pack, or flock, animal that uses superior numbers to bring down healthy prey. An initial trial by one Rhamphorynchus will set the tone for how the whole flock deals with their prey. If the prey is wounded a feeding frenzy will encourage the Rhamphorynchus to swarm around the unfortunate entity. If the prey seems healthy and dangerous they will wait and attack at the most inopportune time.

The large herbivores, such as the Triceratops, Stegosaur, Brontosaur, etc. tend to stay together in large herds. They will not be overtly hostile, unless their young are perceived to be in danger. With some of the exceptionally large dinosaurs there is a very real danger of being crushed under foot by accident, more so than being attacked.

I see the Stegoceras, bipedal boneheads, as being unpredictable. Like rutting stags they challenge each other for the rights to mate and to lead the herd. I suggest that any other large entity, such as a car, will engender a butting frenzy as the Stegoceras try to drive of the new threat. I see them as territorial in the extreme.

Why anyone would want to go swimming in the Cretaceous period is beyond me, what with Elasmosaurs, Ichthyosaurs and the Pterygotus. However, should the players fancy a dip in the sea they can expect several varieties of giant sea monster. The Elasmosaur is possibly one of the largest and its main danger, as with all of the sea creatures, is the fact that it is very hard to see coming and moves very quickly in the sea. Thinking about it, anyone going swimming deserves to be eaten…

Which leaves us with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the tyrant king. A more singular and efficient killing creature has never existed. I plan on having the T-Rex turn up with some serious munchies. The Tyranosaur is primarily a solitary predator, although pairs may be seen during nesting times, fiercely territorial over a huge area, and typically hungry. Any meeting with the king dinosaur should leave the players little room to doubt its superiority.

XENOCO AND CO
have we met before?
The Xenoco Cretaceous camp is home to 15 Guards, 4 of which maintain vigilance in the watchtowers, and 5 scientists with specialities in palaeontology, prehistoric life and genetic mutation, if threatened they will immediately surrender. All of the personnel have long range, military grade, walkie-talkies with a 5-mile range. The guards have access to some heavy weapons as well as their more usual lightweight weaponry. The guards are all recruited from the military special-forces division, and as such they will remain cool and calm in the most catastrophic of situations.

A 30' high chain link fence surrounds the base, controlled from the Guards Quarters, with a vicious electrical current running through it. The fence is not marked as being electrical, after all dinosaurs cannot read, anyone touching the fence will take 3d6 damage, it will take three climb rolls to scale the fence and 3d6 damage will be taken each time a climb roll is made, a failure indicates that the player is immediately thrown to the ground, taking 2d6 per 10' (not the usual 1d6).

There are 9 cages for the restraint of life forms; most of these cages are occupied. The observation area contains most of the scientific equipment, including some heavy-duty dinosaur tranquillisers.

The base has 4 rugged off-road vehicles and 1 heavy-duty vehicle for transporting dinosaurs. The crane and winch set-up is used to transport dinosaurs up from the plains below.

The maintenance area contains food for 20 for a month, an advanced mechanical tool set, extra ammunition, as well as tools and equipment for the renovation of a damaged time machine. Advanced medical supplies can also be found among the equipment. The Xenoco base has tried its best to be self-sufficient; they are prepared for most hazards and can deal with most expected problems.

If time is pressing on and the players don't seem to be able to discover the Xenoco base, they can stumble on to the search party looking for their missing time machine. The very fact that another group of modern age humans is in the area should be enough to encourage the players to find the base, and its supplies. How the players find the base is largely immaterial, torture will reveal no more information than covertly following the search party.

SKIZZ WHIZZ BIZZ
so just what and who the hell are you
Skizz is a time travelling Dromaeosaur, a variety of raptor. Intelligent even for her species, the Xenoco scientists inadvertently enhanced her intellect. This new 'gift' allowed her to fool her captors and make an escape through time, with the Xenoco backup time machine.

Since her escape she has been on a random trek through time, visiting the far-flung future and many places between then and the Cretaceous, before stumbling on the 79th level of null time. Once arriving at the 79th level of null time she was incarcerated, as normal, until she managed to negotiate her release with Lord Simultaneous. She is now a qualified Time Lord and has decided to visit her roots before continuing her journey through time.

Skizz has ditched the old Xenoco time machine and is now using an ultra-future Monocycle equipped with a portable time machine built in. She is not the best of temporal navigators and has occasionally become lost in time.

The party can encounter Skizz in a couple of ways. If the party are being observant then they may see the monocycle fade in, accompanied by a flash of light and weird atmospherics. Alternatively the party could spot the strange tracks left by the monocycle, which will allow the party to catch up with Skizz.

Skizz can be useful in a number of ways. She has insider knowledge of the Xenoco base in the Cretaceous period. She can fix the players time machine and set it up for a return journey to the players' correct time (that's what she says anyway!).

THE BIGGER PICTURE
imagine a garden hose or a bent spring…
If pushed Skizz will try to explain temporal physics, navigation or mechanics to the players.

A HASTY RETREAT
big bad rumbles as the volcano blows its top
The volcano will erupt! When it does there will be a huge black cloud ejected into the air blotting out the sun, a pyroclastic flow (super heated ash flowing like water) swamping the area for about 10 miles out, a rain of semi-molten rocks and the inevitable lava flows. On top of the volcano problem will be the panicking dinosaurs. Huge lumbering monsters will trample everything in their way as they put as much distance between themselves and the volcano, the carnivores will take advantage of the confusion and bring down or scavenge the easy prey.

This will be the final cataclysmic ending to this section of the campaign. With the players struggling to get a decent breath of fresh air while dodging random boulders falling from the sky, and trying to get their time machine working again.

WHERE TO NOW
there's no place like home, there's no place…
Once the players have their time machine repaired they can stamp on the accelerator and hop off back to the future, hopefully avoiding most of the volcanoes' devastation. Once the vehicle successfully reaches 50 mph the time machine will activate (everyone in the vehicle make SR vs. 16, equivalent to a non-lethal toxin, or pass out). A faint smell of burning can be noticed as electrical activity surrounds the vehicle and the temporal capacitor burns out.

BOOM - blinding light, BOOM - impenetrable darkness, BOOM - blinding light, BOOM - impenetrable darkness. High-pitched white noise assaults the players' senses. The vehicle controls are locked. Through the windows the Cretaceous Period can be seen falling to a bleak and barren wilderness. BOOM - blinding light. For a fraction of a second the land is covered in a blanket of snow, BOOM - impenetrable darkness. Eventually there is nothing but grassland and swamp. Native Indians can be briefly seen in the distance BOOM - blinding light, BOOM - impenetrable darkness, early settlers are seen taming the land BOOM - blinding light. A brief image of modern day New York is seen on fire, BOOM - impenetrable darkness.

A CONTINUATION...
A number of things may happen at the end of this section, here are, what I see as the alternatives.

The Xenoco scientists fix the time machine.
For the Xenoco scientists to fix the players time machine they will have to have been beaten. This will not make a very caring work environment and they will deliberately set the time machine to a random jump forward through time beyond the players desired destination. They can work out that the players probably don't know what is going on until it is too late, and considering that the players don't know how to set the machine up themselves the scientists are fairly safe from any repercussions.

They will send the party off through time and wait, hopefully, for a rescue mission from Xenoco in the near future, rather than the distant future.

With the help of Skizz the players fix the time machine.
Skizz can sound very knowledgeable and competent about temporal navigation and mechanics. However, Skizz is not a great temporal navigator; in fact she's not even a good one. There is really only a slim chance of the players arriving at their desired time period if they let Skizz loose on the controls. By her own admission she has been all over the temporal time stream before arriving at the Cretaceous.

The players decide to fix the time machine themselves!
So for some mad reason the players have no choice but to set the time machine up themselves! This is just a possibility, but one which should be accounted for. Essentially the players will careen off through time to arrive at an unknown time period. I suggest rolling on the 'Temporal Mishap' table p86 TDTMNT.

FINAL DESTINATIONS
With the exception of the players setting up the time machine themselves. I plan on depositing the players in the 2113 setting of After the Bomb, back in New York (or N'Yak), and continue from there with the next section 'OPEN SPACES'.

THE SOLDIERS

THE SCIENTISTS

THE DINO STARS

RANDOM CRETACEOUS ENCOUNTERS
A random encounter can be inserted between all of the major plot hooks, if the party seems as though they can cope with it. Two or three random encounters may be put back to back if the party is travelling a long way .

I've never been to the Jurassic period. Every location here is selected with the Blind Chance, pin in the map method.