GURPS Time Travel Role-Playing Game
After exhibiting some unusual behaviour this salesman was pressed by JP about the bundle he was toting. He got up to leave, but JP kicked the bundle from his hands and it was quickly grabbed. The salesman ran toward the back of the airship and the party opened the bundle to reveal a parachute!
Their suspicions aroused, they pursued and found that the salesman had climbed on top of the airship. Sally and the Doctor followed, and the Doctor nearly fell to his death! The salesman was seen hacking open the balloonets of the airship. Merle ran to warn the Captain while George and JP prepared the passengers for a crash. The steering mechanism had been jammed and George quickly restored it and then supercharged the motors as the Captain called for more power.
Sally and Dr. Kunkle knocked out and captured the salesman and stopped him from activating his belt mechanism. As the airship crash landed just above the falls, JP leaped towards the shore with a rope and tied up the wrecked ship so that it would not go over the falls. Merle leaped from the aircraft and swam ashore and the party then helped the other passengers ashore.
The "salesman" turned out to be an alien time agent, and used some kind of poison capsule to kill himself, avoiding a torturous interrogation. The agent's time belt was captured. The party then managed to board a train for Rochester and drove a heavy bodied automobile out to Professor Tempore's Farm.
The Professor welcomed them and after a breifing, it was decided that 1902 Dayton, Ohio was a likely place to begin the investigation. The aliens have prevented the airplane from being invented and the party is to find out why. With all systems go, the party straps in and is sent back to 1902. They arrive on a warm summer evening. The sounds of voices and music can be heard not far off.
JP rattles Wilbur's cage at the Bantam Inn, where they gather for drinks after theater. Wilbur leaves, but clearly has an eye for Sally. They talk to Orville and return to his shop with him to look over his work. JP then upsets Orville and he snatches the plans back angrily asking them to leave. Charlie Taylor tells the team as they leave that they should not tamper with events.
The next morning, Wilbur is ready to proceed with his helium dirigible and the team goes to watch, careful not to step in the camel dung. Hector, Wilbur's assistant, is directing activities from camel-back. Wilbur invites Sally to join him on the first helium flight and, despite foreboding and fear, Sally makes the flight with Wilbur successfully. The party returns to the hotel to discuss events and plan their next move.
The party enters the pogo shop and soon begins to tell Orville about a bicycle. They learn about the gas balloon that the father of Wilbur and Orville gave them as boys. As they begin to show how a bike works, a police person on the beat enters the shop and begins to question the strangers. The party attempts to leave but the cop blocks their way. Convinced it is an alien, JP attacks and kills the person, which indeed, turns out to be an alien - the female. They begin to worry more about Sally when they hear that it was Wilbur's assistant, Hector, that picked up Sally in Wilbur's horse-drawn carriage. Momentarily they see what looks like Wilbur hastily posting a note on the side door.
It is a ransom note proposing an exchange of Sally for the alien female body and all time belts. The group moves swiftly, placing the newly aquired time belt on George, and disguising him as the female alien. The bring the body to Wilbur's mansion and attempt to make the exchange. Hector forces them to drag the body up onto the porch and then crawl back to the street. The evil Hector shoots Merle in the right buttocks, just to be spiteful, but the courageous George springs up attacking Hector. The others then spring the ambush and Hector is slain. Sally is freed from this vilianous alien. Wilbur is found bound and naked on his bed. The two time belts are collected and first aid is administered to the injured. There is only enough time left to dispose of the alien bodies and meet with Orvile and Wilbur one last time to encourage them to work together.
The party is drawn back to their own time by the Professor's mechanism. It is noted that there are now five time belts, enough for the entire party. The time belts also allow for disguise, with twelve standard settings (six male, six female, different races and ages), and it can be used create more specific disguises. An electronic ops must be learned specifically for this - it is an alien device. The belts also have translator devices that work very well given time to acclimate to the new language. The light kevlar suits confiscated are all PD4/DR8 armor. The belts and armor will greatly expand the abilities of the group to blend in and take action against the alien intervention. NOTE: This is a game device deliberately provided by the GM. The characters become significantly more powerful. The devices make the characters survivable, adaptable, and able to work in any time or place. Used properly, the party becomes a formidible force to be reckoned with. Abuse of such power is likely to have negative consequences.
After some discussion and a breifing, the group prepared to travel to Paris in 1818 to witness vonDrais' invention at the World's Fair. Using the time belts, they are transported to old Paris near Notre Dame. They encountered children speaking French and began to acclimate the belt translators. They met a child named Francois that wished for a "pagoine", a very popular toy in 1818 Paris. He brought the party to the great fair and directed them to the pagoine hawker. The Professor of Mechanics, von Drais, was there also and was engaged in a conversation. He urged the visitors to try out his new invention, and some did so, managing to avoid inhuries. Karl von Drais was not so lucky, however, and severed a finger of the left hand when it got into the mechanism. In terrible pain now, von Drais laments his misbegotten invention and fears endless lawsuits!
The group administers first aid and tries to deal with the injury and wonders what to do next.
The party finds that a large open circle lies at the center of the building. They investigate the area to the right and find an Akkadian prisoner along with his spoked wheel designs. Two guards attack and are defeated after a struggle. The prisoner, "Wheel-Maker" is released and given normal armor and an axe. He tells the party that the "priests" have declared his design sacreligious. He tells them of the priests' orders that all mares be brought to the temple before age two. The party then investigates the area to the left of the central court, and finds two scientist types and two guards. One of the scientists uses a beam weapon, and the other uses a large syringe filled with horse tranquilizer. This is a tough battle for the party, but they win out in the end, but not without some injuries. They find the genetically altered eggs that are being placed in the mares and these are destroyed. They also find some seedlings of squash and zuchinni plants.
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