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PLAYER RULES Keep it friendly and PG language please. Non-game chatter is in brackets. OPEN IMPROV means light story and heavy on the improvisation. Come as you like or pick a character from the selected list below. And most of all HAVE FUN!!! |
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE:
Over a year ago in normal space-time, the Universe endured the worst tragedy it
ever forgot. In the supernova explosion of Odin's Eye the Doctor died. Upon
returning to this Universe, the Doctor has found everything far from how he left
it. Worlds are being oppressed and it is all the blame of his people. The
so-called Central Authority controls all interstellar and intratemporal traffic.
A mysterious temporal dispersion cloud is spreading throughout the Universe and
has just claimed Mirabilis as its newest victim. With a tip from time hunter and
former companion Jacie Hunter, the Doctor is off on a new mission: to raise an
army and defeat his people.
SETTING: The newest galaxy created by the Universe, nicknamed "the Sector of Forgotten Souls" by its ragtag inhabitants. Stellar nurseries spew deadly clouds of red dust across small star systems and primordial planets. This corner of space is uncharted, constantly changing and wrought with navigation hazards such as unstable quasars, temporal rifts and treacherous black holes. Only the most suicidal, insane or desperate chose to call this place home. It is also the only corner of the Universe left unmapped by Gallifrey's Matrix.
The Trading Station is the only neutral place in the sector. It's a space station housed within a treacherous asteroid belt surrounding a toxic gaseous planet. All factions come to the Station to trade for needed resources, but none like to stay long. The Station is eerie to most since it is always immaculately clean, un-inhabitated and completely controlled by the Keeper. Also, each party finds all weapons fail to function there and anyone who tries to physically fight is immediately contained or transported off. Entire ships have been known to disappear from the docking port when the captain displeases the Keeper. Trades occur when an offering party arrives, then issues an invite through the Keeper's Relay systems to parties they wish to trade with. Various representatives from the Cybermen, Daleks (humanized and imperial), Wiirn, Cheetah & Pirate remain trapped in what now appears to be a timelord TARDIS.
MAJOR ROLES
The Doctor - [Tuna] - the wandering infamous timelord in his 10th regeneration
Fred - [David] - formerly Eos, an energy being of the People, she's taken on human corporeal form and now travels with the Doctor. Though she is corporeal she still retains some residual qualities of her energy form that result in a higher biolectric field.
Irish - [Rob] - the Doctor's cat who is telepathic, has the ability to morph and sense energy fields
Blackeye McGinty - [Cody] - formerly a space pirate named "Glinty McGinty" before he ran afoul of Jacie and the Time Hunters (aka timelord Squids). He was rescued from the planet Hades before it was time looped, offered assistance aboard Brogan's rebel Ghost Ship and has joined the Doctor's mission to recruit members of an army to challenge Gallifrey.
Sheba - [Jen] - pirate queen of the fierce, feline Cheetah people. Though she appears to be a Cheetah person, she is actually the genetic byproduct of an experiment engineered by the villainous timelady Lady L. Her genetic "mother" is Lady L and her genetic "father" is the Doctor. After starting the Great Animal-Human wars and learning her true heritage, she and her warriors disappeared only to end up eeking out an existence in the Sector of Forgotten Souls. They most often battled with the rogue pirates inhabiting the sector, raiding pirate ships, mauling the pirates and finding their fallen comrades skinned.
The Mandrake - [Joel] - timelord foe of the 10th Doctor who lead several attempts to take over Gallifrey and unseat People's President Rodan from power. Since his last appearance in Checkmate: The Dimensional Paradox when he was presumed dead (consumed by an interdimensional vortex) he has regenerated. Though he has similar facial features and physique, he is no longer the dark-haired, clean shaven archvillain he once was. He now has stark white hair, a stark white goatee, and an obsession with cleaniness. He has taken up residence inside the Sector of Forgotten Souls where he acts as the Keeper of the Trading Station ... a TARDIS transformed into the shape of a space station where inhabitants trade for goods and leave him a healthy cut.
The Beast - an enormous creature, and a strange amalgamation of the parts of other animals: head is lion-like, his body feline-shaped but covered in lizard scales and tufts of red-gold fur. He was once a Timelord named Ventel Sharn, a brilliant Temporal Historian and Amateur Archaeologist, who was a close friend of the Doctor's and more importantly the only brother to Loradnorapeia (the Doctor's deceased wife). As Ventel Sharn, he was kidnapped by the Mandrake and suffered untold cruel experiments at the hands of Mandrake and Rani. Six of his remaining seven regenerations were transferred to the Mandrake and the Rani, leaving him with a swiss-cheese mind and one remaining life altered forever by a genetic virus. As a result of his transformation, he is both absolutely loyal to his master (the Mandrake) and ignorant of his true self. He has only brief moments of humanity when faced with a friendly soul. These moments encouraged him to betray the Mandrake for Brogan and Irish allowing them to rescue the Doctor (in Council of Evil). But most of the time, his synapses are too frazzled to make anything other than the most rudimentary animalistic connections.
Cristoff, Thal Leader - one of the scouts who pursued the Dalek spearhead to Endoria. His sister was killed in the Dalek defeat and he continued the hunt, until the Doctor's friend Brogan sought him out. He observed the Daleks being destroyed by time scoops and learned the true enemy was Gallifrey. He parted company with his brethren (who pursued the Imperial Daleks to this forgotten sector) to join Brogan's Ghost Ship and try to rescue survivors. With her empathic powers, Cristoff has been able to re-establish contact with his Thal brothers.
The Doctor wakens on the floor of a sterile bright white room. He is unaware of how long he has been unconscious and is even cloudy on how he got there. As he sits up, he finds his usual garments have been removed and he is dressed in a pair of nondescript very sterile white scrubs. He's worried to find he has no pocketwatch, no sonic screwdriver, no TARDIS remote or even a jelly baby. Even his feet are covered in simulated plastic slippers. The Doctor remembers his transmat from the Trading Station at the hands of its so-called Keeper and calls out taunting the figure to show itself. The Keeper does in the form of a shimmering hologram of the newly-regenerated Mandrake. Despite his changed appearance, the Doctor instantly recognizes his old nemesis and is nonplussed. The Doctor demands to know what the Mandrake is up to and where his clothes are? The Mandrake simply says they were filthy, unstylish and had to be destroyed. That annoys the Doctor who continues baiting the Mandrake with questions about his true purpose interrupting his very important conference. The Doctor insists he doesn't have time for the Mandrake's chess games. The Mandrake reiterates his demands at the close of the last sim: he demands some answers of the Doctor first. Tired of talking to a shimmering hologram, the Doctor insists the Mandrake talk to him face-to-face and get this over with. With that, the containment room door slides open.
Hours after the Doctor disappeared in the last story, Fred and Irish remain locked up in what was once the Trading Station's Meeting Room. The walls now resemble the interior of a Gallifreyan TARDIS complete with a signature hum. Blackeye reports to Fred (who has seemingly become the Doctor's main representative) that all the representatives (Cybermen, Daleks, Wiirn, Thals, Pirates and Cheetah) are getting nervous despite assurances. They fear this is a Squid trap. Sheba confirms the fear but argues if that were true the extraction teams would have collected them already. Irish returns from his reccie grumbling about the lack of communication from this Voice. It is far too sterile for his liking and too stubborn to let him talk to the Doctor's TARDIS even though he senses the TARDIS is still here somewhere. Cristoff reports similar failures to contact Brogan or anything outside this room. They are all stymied about how to get out and find the Doctor, until Fred begins to sense a presence nearby. She looks to where the glass-walled Observation Room once was (it's now all TARDIS roundels) and comments she feels like they are being watched.
Unseen behind the walls, the Mandrake's Beast sits and watches over his captives. When Fred senses him and casts her eyes straight toward his, he's moved to action.
The Beast appears walking through the wall into the Meeting Room then quickly out another magical door in the room. Before it can close, Fred with Irish, Sheba and Blackeye follow. (Cristoff remains behind to look after the army reps on Fred's orders.) The Beast remains several paces ahead but never quite out of sight of the group. They follow him through the Station's corridors and glimpse him disappearing in a transmat room. They follow and materialize in the wilds of a barely breathable planet resembling Shroud. While Fred and Blackeye adjust to the high nitrous content and Sheba and Irish recover from the noxious odors of the place, the Beast lumbers ahead of them in the fog and waits by a sterile white metallic door. When Fred glimpses him, the Beast passes through the door. They all follow and wind up housed in a decontamination room. The four are treated to an impromptu and somewhat uncomfortable sonic shower. To stop the noise from irritating them, Irish and Sheba destroy the controls stopping the shower in mid-cycle. The door slides open and they stumble upon the Beast waiting albeit a bit confused to see them exit early. The Beast growls at Irish, Blackeye and Sheba but to Fred's gentle approach he merely quirks his head and stares quizzically. Fred approaches the Beast and reaches out to pet the creature in a sign of friendship. When she touches him however, she is treated to a sudden mental shock. In a matter of moments, Fred reawakens the Beast's awareness of his life as timelord Vental Sharn and relives every moment of torture he experienced at the hands of the Mandrake up to the most recent moments of the Doctor's capture. Sheba notices the silent agony in Fred's eyes and pulls the girl away. As soon as physical contact is broken, the Beast returns to his animal existence, knowledge of his self long forgotten except in Fred's now haunted memory. Her friends inquire about her, but Fred has a new purpose and vigor. When the Beast takes off down a sterile white corridor, she orders them all to follow to the Doctor.
The Doctor exits his sterile chamber and follows equally sterile white corridors. The more he walks the more he notices a curious lack of anything black or dirty. There isn't even a speck of dust in a corner. The Doctor walks by an external viewscreen, takes the opportunity to activate it and sees the outside of this TARDIS. It is a planet of pure uninhabitable gas. When he considers where that means he was transported to, the Mandrake's face appears on the Viewscreen egging the Doctor to stop dawdling. A door slides open at the end of the corridor.
The Doctor enters to find the Console Room of a TARDIS, confirming his suspicions about where he is (inside a TARDIS hovering within the gas giant planet the TRADING STATION orbits). But this Console Room is very different from what he expected. Everything is gleaming white with soft edges though nothing but sterile metal and plastic fill the room. There seems to be no organic furniture, bric a brac or substance in the room besides the Mandrake. The Doctor jests his old foe is taking this cleaniness kick a bit too far. The Mandrake banters back neither seeing the joke or allowing for it. The Doctor accuses Mandrake of being part of President Maxim's network of Squids. To wit, the Mandrake is amused (erupts into hysterical laughter) and then highly insulted. Very seriously and filled with venom, Mandrake recalls his escape from the Doctor's old cherished friend Jacie. Unfortunately his faithful ally Kamelion had to be sacrificed in the process, but Mandrake and a few allies survive. The Doctor gathers how Mandrake survives siphoning off supplies as Keeper of the Trading Station. He then turns his argument to the Mandrake trying to enlist the foe's support in challenging Gallifrey instead of lurking in this forgotten part of space.
In the midst of the Doctor's recruitment speech to the Mandrake, the Console Room door slides open unexpectedly. Mandrake turns wild angry eyes on the Beast as it lumbers inside with the Doctor's friends in tow. Irish, Sheba, Blackeye and Fred happily greet the Doctor. Meanwhile the Beast immediately comes before the Mandrake, shoulders hunched, ears drooped and bows in supplication. When a tear falls on the Mandrake's
highly polished black "imatation" leather, the timelord explodes in anger. He kicks the Beast with his cast off "dirty" shoe and demands satisfaction. To Sheba, Blackeye and Irish's amazement they watch as the Beast picks up the shoe and drops it into a nearby incinerator. The Mandrake ignores everyone and busies himself getting a new
highly-polished and identical shoe out of a drawer of similar identical shoes. Sheba and Blackeye debate the insanity of that behavior while Fred whispers what she's learned of the Beast's identity in the Doctor's ear.
When Mandrake faces the Doctor again to answer his recruitment plea, he finds a very different and angry foe to face. The Doctor rails and accuses Mandrake of murdering Ventel Sharn (his brother-in-law) and perverting him to become his Beast slave. No longer violent or angry himself, the Mandrake answers the accusation calmly, matter-of-factly and without the slightest hint of denial or remorse. As Mandrake recounts the story and purpose of stealing Sharn's regenerations, the Beast obediently, lovingly returns to his side and nuzzles Mandrake to earn a gentle pet behind the ear.
The sight of obedient yet tortured slave coddled by his insane Keeper finally drives the Doctor beyond his purpose in raising an army. The Doctor declares he neither wants the Mandrake's help nor will accept his further hindrance. He warns he will defeat Gallifrey at all costs, even if it means defeating the Mandrake first. The Mandrake breaks into a brilliant, disarming smile. Since the Doctor made such a compelling argument, he agrees to join the fight if the Doctor can do one thing. The Doctor is not the least bit interested in the Mandrake's help, but Sheba and Irish can't resist asking what that condition is. The Mandrake announces he will share his key to the Matrix if the Doctor can convince "the others" first. Despite his anger, the Doctor is too dumbfounded to not ask who these "others are".
The Mandrake's answer is to touch a button on his sleeve. In a flash, the Doctor, Fred, Irish, Sheba, and Blackeye are transported away again.
The Doctor has raised a "devil's army" to battle Gallifrey, but will he surpass the objections raised from his penultimate and age-old enemies? Join us next week for part two of Foe's Den in the Sector of Forgotten Souls. To join the group and get next week's script by e-mail, please use our web sign up page or e-mail AlxKeegan2@aol.com.
