Smoke was standing in the doorway, holding a pinkish purplish box, which meant there was a bit of a blockage into the talkiphone box. 'The Fists called-out for them before... Slowpokes!' she shouted at the newly arrived Fists.


OOC: Aren't we safely behind a force-field?

OOC: Edited my post to take that into account.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:00, Sat 24 May 2014.

"Where are you going?" Warlock says.

Erysk looks back and forth between the crew from the TARDIS, and the Fists that have just arrived.  "I'll deal with this," she says firmly to Trav.  "You should go."

Trav, you should make a roll to scan the device.  It's OK by me if you want to have a "remote" for using the TARDIS sensors in a situation like this one.  It would be very helpful if you gave me an idea of what you were trying to figure out with your scan.

'We're outgoing?' Smoke asked, surprised by the sudden change of plans. 'But we just visited.'

The Kang looked for Erysk in all the running about. 'Erysk! I didn't eye-spy your army of goannas!' she called, disappointed that she couldn't keep her promise. But mayhaps the big blue ball picture-spout wasn't sound-and-safe. 'Come-out with us! Run with me! You can talky more with Traveller!'
This message was last edited by the player at 08:16, Sat 24 May 2014.

Trav aims her sonic back through the door to the TARDIS at the main control panel. The main vortex, artron and spectrum sensors align on the ball. She wants to know what that ball is made of, it's telepathic characteristics, and what connection it has to time travel and the Time Vortex, if any. She also wants a full schematics and materials readout of the thing.

OOC:14:36, Today: The Traveller rolled 27 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 6,5. Trav scans the blue ball - 2d6+Ingenuit 8+Science 6+Research Capsule 2.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:37, Sat 24 May 2014.

"Smoke Alarm is right! Warlock, Erysk, please, come with us. We need your help!"

OOC: Can I or someone else make a Presence+Convince roll to have them come along?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Sat 24 May 2014.

OOC: Mayhaps not Smoke Alarm? :)
08:32, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 7 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 4,1. presence(2) + convince(0).

The newly arrived Fists look at Warlock and the group around the TARDIS.  "What's going on here?" one of them demands.  He starts moving forward.

Warlock, for his part, is moving for the TARDIS.  He looks back at the Fists, saying, "I'll explain later!"

Erysk hesitates, as though there's a complicated explanation that she means to offer up, but finally she shakes her head and sighs, and follows Warlock.

The leading Fist springs after Warlock.  However, when he hits the force barrier being projected by the TARDIS, there's a stuttering noise and a flare of light, and he skids back a couple of feet.  Trav notes that the interior lights visible through the TARDIS door flicker for an instant.

The readings that Trav takes on the device seem fairly comprehensive.  It looks like the bulk of it is a form of primitive time stream extrapolator: a device to collect and assimilate projections of likely futures from present conditions.  It also includes a basic telepathic amplifier and projector, and from what Trav can see of its workings, it looks as if its strength is fairly limited -- several times as powerful as a TARDIS's translation circuit, for instance, but its ability to actually control or modify behavior is well short of what an unaided mesmerist could manage.

There are a few key components made from exotic materials, but ones typical of the current period, and this seems to have forced major compromises to the design.  It uses a crude and bulky phasing coil devised from dwarf star alloy, for instance, where similar components Trav saw built during the Time War were much more elegant, using Level 10 materials like validium.  Thus the whole device is much larger and requires more power than one Trav could design and build, or so she thinks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:36, Sun 25 May 2014.

That's weird. The force field should be permitting him in. Trav checks her Ipad and its emulation app - is the TARDIS detecting warlock as a hostile?

OOC: Hey I'll totally make a presence + convince roll.

Sorry; not on much for the weekends and feeling a bit headachey so not great IC post to go with the roll.

19:58, Today: Sereth rolled 15 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 3,4. Presence + Convince.

OOC: And is it just me, but did the Guardian's post read like it was the Fist leaping at Warlock that hit the forcefield?

OOC: That was the way the Guardian meant it to read, yes.  The Fist was turned back.  Warlock and Erysk get safely to the TARDIS.

Once back inside, Trav gives Warlock a snug. "Good to have you back, baby." The door is locked tightly.

"Now, I need to keep you safe. Would you mind hanging out in the zero room for a while, while I examine you? I'll make sure the scutters bring in everything that you need to be comfortable - a futon, video game systems, laptops and tablets, movies, junk food!" She leans down and says hello to the TAROT. "Hello my little baby! Good to see you again, I hope you and Warlock here have been ok!" She is of course careful not to touch the TAROT. Sereth might note that Trav treats the TAROT as she might treat the sword of another warrior or knight, but also as a person too.

She looks over to Fist Erysk. "Fist Erysk, welcome to the TARDIS. That means Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. This is my home. I'm glad you decided to come. A lot of what we'r going to be talking about will be confusing, so feel free to interrupt to ask questions."

After making sure all heads are accounted for, she throws down a lever. The column wheezes and groans as the TARDIS pulls up into temporal orbit near Arsuran prime. "Part of me wishes we destroyed that ball, but that would make your job of explaining things to the other Fists all the more difficult."

Trav turns one of the flat screens on the control panel towards her. "So, where do we start? I think we have a lot of information to exchange." At her cell phone summoning, the scutters appear with carts laden with Kronkburgers, coffee, soft drinks and other food. One cart has organic fruit, tea and vegetables from Trav's garden and other places. "Fist Erysk, that's for you - I often have dedicated vegetarians come onto my ship so I always make sure to have food alternatives for them." One scutter at the back also has on a cart Trav's safety environment - that silver column with the crystals stcking out, surrounded by tablets and laptops, where she held the TAROT and the mathematical entity from the beginning of her career. beginning of my career, she thinks. I had already been doing this thing for 200 years by then.

Trav lets everyone make introductions and talk while she takes care of her top priority - analyzing the data from Phillipe/Warlock that was taken from her sonic. She's only seen one thing like this once before - when she struggle, alongside the Doctor, with Faction Paradox against Grandfather Paradox, and the Doctor's timeline was almost rewritten by Faction technology. It was one of the few adventures that the Doctor and the Marshall had as allies, although she wasn't directly involved in the action. She's also reformatting her sonic and re-installing the operating system, while backing up the data.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:11, Sun 25 May 2014.

Smoke cheered as Erysk made her choice to come-out with them. Mayhaps now she could eyespy things without Fists in her eyes. Then she waved to the other Fists, calling out 'Build high for happiness!' before she disappeared inside the talkiphone box.

Inside, she laid out the welcome-mat for Erysk. 'This is the brainquarters of the talkiphone box. There's the couch and that's Puddy and there's the puter control and there's the fish in the walls and there's the round things... Us have a hide-in in the air ducks.'

Smoke dumped her pack on the floor and pounced on the foodcart. 'Kronkburgers! Fizz-ade!' she whooped, snatching them up. Popping open the cans, she presented them in two hands first to Erysk and then to Wall Lock in a welcome-in gesture. 'Blue fizz-ade. It's icehot. Drink and be seated.'

Interesting. The briefest frown crossed his face but then he shrugged, and bowed to Traveller.

"If you'll excuse me. If you're serious about going directly to Lucin next; I need to rest up. I do not believe he'll be as easy as your friend here was to convince."

Sereth smiled sardonically; aware that Warlock had been far from 'easy' to convince.

He kept his suspicions about Lucin to himself for now though.

Warlock gets an unhappy look: he backs away from Trav a step.  "The Gehennans kept me penned up, too," he says.  But he throws up a hand and says, "Very well.  I suppose I deserve it."


Even with that caution, the psychic impression Trav gets from the TAROT is very much unlike her first interaction with it, back on Earth.  It doesn't make an overt response, and there's a spike of tension, like the TAROT is a cat with its back arched and its fur standing straight up.

Or perhaps tiger would be a closer feline approximation.


OOC: This will be an Ingenuity + Science roll.  Not an easy one, either, even for Trav.

Erysk cocks her head at Smoke Alarm after the latter's exuberant cataloging of the TARDIS landscape.  "....Yes, ah, quite."  She gives Trav a quizzical look.  It's hard to tell if she's disturbed by the bigger-on-the-inside vessel, as she seems to be mostly trying to keep up with Smoke's recitation.

When Smoke Alarm presents her with the fizz-ade, Erysk takes a cautious sip, and gradually finishes the drink with the air of one very determined to be polite and agreeable.

'Where are we, umph, outgoing now?' Smoke Alarm asked around and through a mouthful of Kronkburger and fizz-ade. She and Erysk were still coated in the slippy-dippy lubricant.

OOC: When you say "not an easy roll to make" that's a signal that it's worth blowing an SP on.
04:13, Today: The Traveller rolled 25 using 4d6+16 with rolls of 1,2,5,1. 2d6+Ingenuity 8+Science 6+Research Capsule 2+2d6 - Trav analyzes blue ball and Phillipe/Warlock data. 2 SP left.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:06, Mon 26 May 2014.

"Not right now, babe. We need to talk with Warlock and Erysk and give him a check up.  Fist Erysk, If you follow the spiral staircase, you'll find a stand up shower. I can also get you new clothing in whatever style you like. Please, make yourself comfortable."

"Baby, I'm not here to judge you, and you can your partner can leave anytime you like. You and Erysk and your Tarot are my guests. The reason I want you in the Zero Room is to protect you from long range manpilation by the Gehennans. I'll get to work, I don't want to leave you cooped up in there any longer than you have to. I'll also be talking to you - you know a lot more about these clowns than me."



That's fine  - the TAROT was surrounded by a much older, and gentle presence - her TARDIS. Much like an older animal can communicate with a younger one, she hopes her old, wise time machine can leave impressions and pass on learnings to the younger device, and help to put it at ease.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:46, Mon 26 May 2014.

Trav, as she is examining the data taken from her sonic by Stan, frowns. This seems to be massive time line manipulation. Perhaps some outside force is attempt to literally rewrite into becoming this Beast. That made Phillipe into literally his own worst enemy.

She brings up a sub window for her navigational database. She may have to consult with a group of people she swore she would never speak to again.

OOC: Posting musings for the audience.

The more the Traveller pores over the data, the more it bothers her.  She can confirm what Stanley says is true: that the genetic sequences contain matches to Phillipe, Evers and Fortuna, among the myriad configurations it contains.  A Time Lord's genetic code contains within it the blueprint for generating countless different incarnations: those that a Time Lord passes through in her life and those she will never experience.  Warlock's is no different in that respect.

But as Trav tries to identify the source of the emergent form that Stanley described to her, she finds it difficult to pin down.  It's as if the patterns are actually reconfiguring themselves, to hide from her analysis and lie dormant away in some other portion of the code -- until called on, perhaps.  It's an adaptive algorithm embedded inside Warlock's DNA!  Harmless enough in the captured copy of the data that Trav is examining in her isolated work environment, but that same logic is also hidden in the actual genes of the person she picked up from Earth when he thought he was only a normal human.

It seems as if someone who worked on the code set it up to protect itself in this way.  Trav thinks that if she had designed something like this, she would have set it up with a key so that she, or other authorized researchers, could disable the code's defenses.  What key, though?

Trav rubs her eyes as she leans back in her chair. She passes the data to Stan and Amanda, with Smoke and Sereth nearby, also sharing it with Warlock and Erysk.

"Another Time Lord is behind this, most likely. It's almost like the pattern of Warlock's Rassilon Imprimatur was deliberately encrypted. I could bang away at this for millenia and get no closer to unlocking this. The genetic imprint on Phillipe *was* designed to keep my prying eyes out - back when I myself was someone else." Trav feels that this cypher was put onto his imprint to keep him safe from meddling rogues such as herself and the Master. The fact that Evers doesn't remember anything makes sense - it could be that a regeneration protocol was enacted that burned away the meddling of the Gehennans. When she became the Traveller again, she had to start with the skills she had in her second incarnation, all the study and brilliance of the Marshall scoured from her.

She also throws up the various 'show imprints'. It seems as if she is being taunted. "It seems as if someone is throwing us clues. But I have so many things on my mind right now that I really can't summon up the brain juice to solve this puzzle. If anyone has any ideas, I'm game."

"There's only two ways of resolving this, Warlock - either I look up some people who I swore I'd never see again, or going back to your beginning. If I can be at where and when you began, I can get the key to the puzzle that is you, and unlock it. The other way is to call upon some old, old... acquaintances of mine. Have you ever heard of the Witches of Karn?"

Trav holds her hands open. "I don't want to proceed until I find out how you feel about it, Warlock. You deserve to be able to dictate your own future."

Stanley doesn't say anything, but thinks that it is probably for the best that Warlock stays in the Zero Room. One of the Scutters has brought him a glass of water and he takes a sip. He walks over to Trav to see what she is doing.

Stanley takes a look at the data Trav sent. "Genetics isn't really my area of expertise, but this is...well it is special. I already had an idea that it had to be some sort of encoded algorithm, because of the way the pattern kept changing. If it was designed to keep you out, then I don't think I can be of any help."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:17, Mon 26 May 2014.