Using his Psychic Encyclopedia, Axander ran a scan and search of the figure in the ice. The result was "sad old man in the street", but he dismissed first appearances and refined the results to Gallifreyan history and weaponry, the Patrex Chapter, and the Time War, with cross-references to art history and the concept of the memento mori, the concept of the remembrance or reminder of mortality.

Then, frozen in the ice, its eyes snapped open...

Looking into its eyes, eyes grey and empty, full of regret and sorrow, Axander was struck to see it looked at once both completely normal and utterly inhuman.

It was a TARDIS. Well, almost a TARDIS, or not quite a TARDIS. Axander recalled reading of the Type-102 prototype and the Type-103 line of TARDISes, fully sentient TTCs capable of life-like humanoid exteriors that could be altered with a chameleon circuit (though a Type-103 once got stuck in the form of a 1960s British policewoman). They were initially designed for improved companionship and interaction with Time Lords, for use as assistants, but in the Time War they found more use as spies and as vehicles a Time Lord could take with them (allowing an easy escape when locked up with one's TARDIS).

But in those dead eyes, there was none of the life and wonder of a TARDIS like Elona or a regular 103. There was only death and horror and unhappy endings. Axander saw the Time Vortex all twisted and rotten.

This wasn't a TARDIS at all, not one bit. It was like someone had taken a Type 103, and gutted everything that made a TARDIS a TARDIS, snuffed out its life, and left only a hollow shell with the ability to travel the Vortex and sense all time-lines. And in that shell they'd installed a terrible engine.

It was the work of a cruel madman, but in grim and morbid insight, Axander understood the artistic meaning, why this was a memento mori: it was a symbol of death for the Time Lords, a reminder that the Time Lords would die, that a TARDIS could die. This Memento Mori was a personification of Death in all its forms. And someone had turned into a weapon.

As for the weapon, maybe Tarys would know.


OOC: And your TTC +2 bonus makes it 19. I'll divide the knowledge results up amongst our two Time Lords so you can both contribute. Given the likely difficulty, Axander wouldn't know the full story anyway, and the secret stuff is Tarys's field.

The Type 102 and 103 lore is from a different, darker Time War. I'm imagining something similar in the TV Time War, maybe less cruel than what was described in the novels. It doesn't play into this, I'm just raiding it for background.

For all his seeming cowardice, Axander didn't back away startled or in shock when the figure in the ice opened its eyes. Instead he merely stared, and his own eyes widened as his jaw slowly fell open. There was little telling from his own perspective how long he stared into the creature's eyes. There was little telling from his own perspective when he started taking steps closer to the wall of ice, either, but that happened just the same.

"Oh no... How could they? How could they take a creature of such infinite beauty and do this to you? We're supposed to be protectors, guardians, scholars. This...this is a weapon, carved out of a living being. It's a capsule. Life and light and knowledge and hope, and they took all that out of it. Is this what it takes to fight daleks? Or is this just what they made us think it would take?" With a deep breath and a pained sigh, Axander took a step back and pulled out his comlink.

"Tarys. I found it. The Momento Mori, it... It's a capsule. A humanoid model, but weaponized. I don't know what to do. It's almost thawed, Tarys. Can we fight it? Do we run? Can we run?"

Tarys does not respond, for what must seem to Axander like an agonizingly long time, while the possibilities cascade down around her.

Finally, she acts.  "Come with me! Hali!  Quickest route to the anomaly site, please!" she calls to the others examining the friezes.

She starts to run, keying her comm as she goes.  "Axander!  Stay put; I'm coming to you.  If anyone has a chance of directing that thing, it is us, because as horrid as it may be it is ours.  Ours to make right.  And perhaps, just perhaps, this is a time when two terrible things may each be made each other's undoing."

She searches her memory.  She'd heard of plans to create revenant TARDISes, as delivery systems for weapons that no capsule with an active empathic core -- a soul, one might say -- could be trusted to deploy without risking an inconvenient bout of conscience.  They had never been in her specialty, but maybe that association could jog some clue as to the nature of the Momento Mori itself....

Anomaly Site – All:

'So, you did make and send the Memento Mori!' Toz Raz accused venously at Axander's realisation. But the Yag Haz was, for now, playing nice.

The archaeological team and hangers-on all reunited at the anomaly site to discuss this latest find, and this latest threat.

The archaeologists stared worriedly at the man in the ice; Ortega was uncharacteristically out of ideas to excuse it. 'That poor man!' Hali mewed sympathetically. Vax was disturbed, but more inclined to treat it like any ice-mummy, similar to Ötzi and others found on Earth, as a subject to be studied. 'We have scanning equipment that will penetrate the ice and analyse the body.'

It wasn't long before the communicator squawked, and they heard Captain Borys's voice, Russian accent thick and tired. The old soldier sounded worn out. 'Alright, I've got the plasma system pumped and purged. Sky Light's running a new line down so we can start cutting through the cave-in. What's going on down there?' It had been some time since he'd been updated, not since the cave-in.


OOC: Tarys, you can make the roll, Ingenuity + Knowledge/Technology, with Feel the Turn +2 and a bonus +2 for being of the Patrex Chapter. The Possible Knife is probably pointing to it.

Axander whirled on Toz Raz, a previously unseen intensity to his voice as he glared at the insectoid.

"You listen to me, you psychopathic little man. My people created that thing as a weapon, a weapon so devastating it could instill dread even in us, a species that is literally timeless, just by looking at it. It's wrong, do you understand? What, in all the hells of all the religions of all the universe, just what did you do to warrant this as a response? Why is this here? The Time Lords would never have interfered with your people if all you were doing was the conquest of the known universe. That sort of empire rises and falls and we simply document it. The weaponry you have in that armory was paltry compared to what my people have ignored. What did you do?" He'd taken a few steps toward the Yag Haz during the rant, and when he remembered himself, turned back to the creature in the ice. He didn't dare leave it unwatched for too long.

On the others' arrival, he glanced to them and shook his head.

"There's no man in that ice. It's a space/time vessel. A warship of my people. Is there a way to thicken the ice, rather than melting it? I'm afraid letting it out would kill us. Some of us more than others."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:13, Mon 29 May 2017.

09:19, Today: Tarys rolled 21 using 2d6+12 with rolls of 4,5.  Ingenuity (5) + Knowledge(3) + Feel the Turn(2) + Patrex(2).

With compound eyes and clicking mandibles, the Yag Haz only glared malevolently at the Time Lord. It was saved of the need for an answer when the others showed up.

'Thicken the ice?' Vax wondered, surprised and disturbed by the talk of ships of time and space bearing terrible weapons. He swallowed, answering 'We can't. All our activity here is generating heat. Our machines, the plasma torches, even just breathing. The ice will continually melt until we leave. Even the planet is thawing in its current orbit, and we don't know how long for...'

'No! This could be the amazing archaeological find I've been looking for! We have to excavate!' Ortega raved.

Hali twitched her whiskers, turning her small eyes upward. 'Another cave-in could bury it...' she said softly, already aware of the danger.

*

Upon laying eyes on the man in the ice, Tarys was struck by the same horrified realisation as Axander. It was indeed a revenant Type 103. She'd heard a rumour about a project that had birthed such monstrosities...

Axander's Psychic Encyclopaedia bleeped, having found a possible match...

Tarys delivers a stinging open-handed slap across Professor Ortega's face.

"Silence, you strutting fool.  Or you are going to get your heart's desire in the worst possible way: your name is going to be carved across the length of history. You'll go down as the man whose expedition loosed a horror that killed half a galaxy. I'm guessing that infamy is not what you had in mind."

She draws a deep breath.  "Axander.  We need any information you have on Ataghast the Dour.  He'd be in the Chronicles of Patrex, or perhaps in the Codexes of Shada if our chapter has decided to 'unremember' him.  There were tales, whispers, connecting him to a recursive necroscopic weapon.  Something that traced down the lines of death that connected to a person, something that collected and rechanneled all the negative potential time bound up an individual, and those they had killed, and those they killed... you get the picture."

She frowns.  Apart from Toz Raz, there weren't a lot of particularly likely targets that the Momento Mori might fix upon, if it came active and took free rein.  Besides herself, that is.

"The scholars here found records that suggest this whole planetoid has been fitted with a Magnetron, and it's en route to Gallifrey right now.  No need to explain what the Remember-Death would make of our homeworld.  On the other hand, there also seems to be an impressively expansive web of death being trailed out by Toz Raz and his people.  Enough to cut a swath through this galaxy that the Enemy would be proud of, I think."

OOC: I may have raised the stakes there slightly. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 04:06, Wed 31 May 2017.

Axander stared at Tarys as she explained what the thing was in more militaristic terms, and afterward gave a shaky nod and brought up his book again. As he looked down at the Encyclopedia, it had already found the entry. He read while she explained the planet's current situation.

"In case we don't make it out of this, I'd like most of you to know you've been brave and most admirable, far beyond what you'd signed up for on your expedition. Not you, Professor, you were a cowardly fiend even before things went wrong and if we do make it out, I suggest you rethink how to treat people." He took a couple of deep breaths to steady his hands before giving Tarys that information.

"Right, Ataghast the Dour, aptly named. Morbid fellow, wrote tales of undead revenants of various types wreaking vengeance on the living who'd wronged them, when that fell through he went into shaped temporal projections of...uh...the observer's death, or their undeath. Yes, his art was literally focused around the concept of memento mori. Last known information is quite recent, prophetic rants about the destruction of the Time Lords in the Time War. Art historian, known as an authority on artistic and conceptual weapons like our friend in the ice here. The entry came up on its own cross referencing the Type-103, then N-forms, and then Ataghast. Any help?" Axander kept glancing up at the thing in the ice, and was pretty obviously barely holding together. He seemed to handle the situation much better when he wasn't looking at it, and so dragged his eyes to the full Time Lord in the room.

Ortega looked hurt in body and spirit by the slap and the insult, but responded indignantly 'How dare you?! Please leave my trench immediately!' before his students herded him away. He was trying to avoid looking at the Yag Haz, like ignoring it and hoping it would stop existing was the only possible defence he could think of, as with all inconvenient bits of evidence encountered on this expedition.

Vax stepped up, a puzzled and worried look on his face, like a man who knew he was about to sound like his blinkered professor, but had no other option when confronted by figures of legend. Someone had to ask it. 'I'm sorry, but... Time Lords? Gallifrey? They're just myths, aren't they?'

Meanwhile, slowly defrosting, a sheet of ice cracked loose and slid off the wall, shattering on the snow, bring them a inch closer to the Memento Mori...

"There are certainly days when I feel like one," Tarys muses.  Glancing at the thawing abomination, she adds, "And we're certainly getting closer to being a chimerical scrap of history every moment."

Tarys sighs.  "Axander, that tallies with what I remember,  but I'm not sure it suggests a course of action.  The only other thing that could be relevant, from the stories I'd heard, was that some of them place the Doctor near the foundry where this monster was forged, when our chapter made this obscene little secret vanish.  But that practically describes every rotten and doubtful thing Gallifrey would like you to forget about: the Doctor is a frighteningly useful bogeyman for the right sorts of stories."

Drip.  Drip.  Drip.

"Well.  The Trace Locator did bring us here.  Assume it's true.  It's what I'd thought of, at first -- that the Doctor was trying to counter this planetoid, hurled through space at Gallifrey, and was trying to make two wrongs cancel each other out to make -- well, not a right, a null perhaps.  The great problem with that theory is that I don't see from there just how to make it work out that way."

[Gonna poke a button to at least make something happen. Boss, if Story Point spends are acceptable, I'd like to spend a point for "I'm Stumped" to get a nudge in the right direction. If the backstory on the monster was a nudge, then...we may need a harder nudge. :P]

Axander looked at at the Vax sadly as Tarys answered his question. It was certainly not a thought he'd been hoping to confront.

"Tarys, assuming we get out of this alive, that thing behind me raises a great many questions that will be extremely uncomfortable. For me. First let's focus on making it to that point." He pulled up his little electronic book and started poking buttons again.

"That creature is a time machine, meaning once it gets free, we are all dead. As you can see, we aren't dead, which means it won't get free, or at least not completely operational. That's hope. That's us winning. So long as we still exist, we've already stopped it from destroying worlds, understand? Good." He very carefully didn't point out that they might not survive the process, but he also very carefully wasn't looking anyone directly in the face when he gave his little speech.

"Now let's get solutions. The planet's rushing to Gallifrey. We could adjust its course, send it into nothing. Or maybe a sun. But we need a way to save the Yag Haz eggs and make sure this psychopath..." with a glance at Toz Raz, "...isn't the one who raises them. I'll not murder a whole race to save my own skin. There are missiles. Blow up the ice? No, wouldn't harm the capsule. Put it in a missile and launch it into space? No, that'd free the thing and be extremely bad. New plan, we stick everyone aboard Boris's ship and get them to safety while Tarys and I heroically hold the thing here until the planet crashes with our homeworld, destroying any changes to the universe the Time Lords make from that point on? That's dramatic, but more a trilogy ender than a first adventure. Are there working environmental controls, perhaps? Could we drop this chunk of ice into the Magnetron and foul both up. This would be a dramatically appropriate time for a brilliant suggestion from anyone but the Professor. And that would make this an appropriate time for some sort of retort from him that turns out to be the answer. Anyone have anything?"

[Axander is really into stories. Kind of his thing. Hopefully that quirk helps in place of any ability with gadgets.]

Cue Professor: 'I've had quite enough of this. You pair are ridiculous frauds – claiming to be Time Lords, of all things, those fanciful legends from the future. It may earn you a few credits in the outer colonies, but not here!' he ranted hotly, breaking away from his speechless students. 'You don't believe this nonsense, do you?' he accused them, then cajoled them. 'We've made a serendipitous discovery! We've found the lost world of the Yag Haz! Those foolish Draconian astronomers didn't know how right they were, when they warned there was only a 73% chance of this rogue planet being the Yag Haz world. I laughed when they proposed the planet had been motorised to have travelled so far so fast...' At some point, loudly but unnoticed in the regular delusion, Ortega's mind had broken on the horrifying revelation that his expedition had stumbled across the last base of these psychopathic alien marauders, and awoken them – something he really should have expected and had tried desperately to ignore – and that whatever happened next was all his fault. His only option was to retreat deeper into blinkered obsession and shift the goalposts of his theories.

'Professor?'' Hali squeaked in shocked. 'You knew...' Vax whispered.

But he went on. 'Now, we shall carve out this poor ice-mummy. He hardly looks like some terrible superweapon, does he? We must have some respect for the dead. Tissue samples, carbon dating, and genetic analysis will confirm the date of freezing, to corroborate that plant matter we found. However, we must keep the body frozen in ice to prevent decay, or it awakening and slaughtering us all, as these lunatics would have you believe. Perhaps a freezer on the Yermak could be cleared...'

'And, then, I suppose, we must, of course, report this to the, uh, SSS...' he conceded at last, however hesitantly. 'But only after we've completed our research! Those gung-ho soldiers will try to take control when they find out...'

'Is someone going to tell me what's happening down there?!' Captain Borys radioed in again, sounding increasingly worried.

*

By racking their expansive and highly evolved brains, the Time Lords, scholars, and practical engineers would come to realise a few important details, or at least an understanding:

• If the Memento Mori was a TARDIS, then why hadn't it simply dematerialised out of the ice?
• But it was a zombie TARDIS, lacking all higher and indeed outer functions of a true TTC. The Type 103 was dead, no more than a husk, used as a delivery mechanism and camouflage for the weapon itself. It could only follow its crude programming and mission parameters.
• So its ability to travel the Time-Space Vortex was probably limited to launch and return. It hadn't had cause to return yet, so its mission wasn't complete.
• The Doctor had been sighted at the foundry where these things had been created. Right before the rogue weapons had disappeared.
• Tarys checked her Temporal Trace Locator – it pointed straight at the Memento Mori. It carried a trace of the Doctor's timeline. He had indeed had a hand in it. Now she just had to get close enough to collect it...
• Their other quest now, of course, was to find not temporal traces but continuity references leading them to the location of the Temporal Exterminator much sooner than would have been hit by it in the future.
• Its mission was to destroy the Yag Haz. And whatever unknown aliens aided them. Daleks, probably, but why not make utterly sure? No one else lived here anyway. The Memento Mori would also protect itself, of course. It shouldn't attack Time Lords, but renegades working for the enemy were a possibility. It had to have priorities.
• The few survivors had frozen themselves. Not quite dead, yet not quite alive. The Memento Mori probably didn't know what to do. It had been frozen itself, engulfed in the freezing atmosphere, and gone dormant.
• It had no sense of time, or rather, a sense of all of it. It was very, very patient. It could afford to wait until it reacquired a target.
• Toz Raz was no longer frozen and was now a valid target for the Memento Mori. As were the other beings with it. It just had to wait until it was released from the ice. It couldn't break free on its own.
• Patrexes were too much into their art to design actually efficient weapons. They made up for it by being mind-shatteringly terrifying. What would Ataghast the Dour do?
• So the Memento Mori would only walk, in the slow yet inexorable shuffle zombies were known for, symbolic of Death's unhurried yet inevitable pursuit of the living, always just behind you.
• The Yag Haz carvings had shown human soldiers blasting them to smithereens. Where had they come from? Well, Ataghast the Dour had liked his revenants. His Memento Mori would surely bring back temporal echoes of those slain by its target, who would then take their revenge, as little more the muzzle flash of its actual time-energy-empowered disintegration attack.
• How did it actually attack then? Again, art supplied by the answer: Death stretching a long bony finger at the one whose time was up. It only had to point.
• Surely there was a fail-safe or abort switch? This was a weapon designed to bring genocide to the genocidal, to kill the most terrible killers. Its attack was powered by the lives cut short by the target. So if a target had ended no lives of consequence (animals didn't count, sentient lives only), then there'd be no power behind the attack. Only the completely innocent were immune.

And as for how to destroy the Memento Mori, or at least nullify its threat:

• It still had the shell of a TARDIS, and would be as hard to destroy. Only the most extreme weapons or cosmic forces could do it. The Daleks had such weapons in the Time War. But where might they find some? Otherwise, blowing up a planet or something of that scale might do it... Ironically, the best weapon around here able to do the job was the Memento Mori itself.
• On the other hand, freezing in ice seemed to keep it dormant. If they could freeze it deep enough or for long enough, it might wait until the destroying the Yag Haz and everything else was moot.
• Although a mindless zombie TARDIS, its remaining instinctual intelligence was still enough to follow orders and pass as a human, or least a president of a large nation. It could be reasoned with. Surely the Doctor had done the same when he'd commandeered it.
• Providing it with no valid targets, that is, only innocent beings, would probably keep it off their backs long enough.
• Whatever they did, they had several hours to work it out in.

This message was last edited by the GM at 10:17, Sat 15 July 2017.

"This frozen rogue planet hiding a dead civilisation? Not so frozen. Not so dead." Trace said into his radio. "Oh, and there's a lot of talk about existential threats to the fabric of galactic civilisation. And the prof is one nervous break down away from maniacal laughter and releasing something best left deep frozen. I think. Its all very confusing."

Vax looked from Professor Ortega back to the thing, this "Memento Mori" that the two supposed "Time Lords" were shouting of.  The Time Lords were a myth, as were things associated with them or at least that was what Vax had been led to believe.  But myths always had a beginning and legends always started with a grain of truth.  Maybe these two were liars as the Professor said, but that didn't mean that everything they said was lie.  If this was something from the Time Lord myth, then undoubtedly it could be dangerous.

Moreover, the Professor was acting more and more unhinged as time passed by, more unhinged than Vax had ever seen him.  Vax didn't trust the Professor, and knowing the man, he trusted the Professor even less than he trusted the "Time Lords."  Vax made a mental note to keep an eye on Ortega.

He decided to take a different tact with Ortega. "Professor Ortega, you seem agitated, why don't you sit down for a moment?" He said to the Professor, moving to look him in the eyes, "Regardless of what we do now, we need to keep this...being on ice for the time being, yeah? Then we can worry about getting it somewhere safe for study?"

There was a long pause on the communicator. 'Yep.' Borys drawled at last. 'I knew he'd be the type... Sky's gonna start cutting though the blockage. How are things looking down there?'

*

Ortega glared at Vax, looking dangerously stubborn...


OOC: The Professor would resist, so let's make an opposed check: Presence + Convince seems right.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:58, Thu 20 July 2017.

Here goes nothing:
09:34, Today: Vax Kent rolled 12 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 4,3.  Presence (3) + Convince (2)

Trace looked back at the group arguing in front of the ice wall. "So we got one the natives alive and talking. Not a friendly bugger. And there's a figure in the ice that the two people we met on the surface are calling a Momentum murray or something. The ice is starting to thaw and they sound really sure that it would be A Bad Thing if this guy woke up." He took a step away and looked up towards the roof. "The thawing is making the ice instable. Tell Sky to be extra careful or she could bring the whole cavern down on top of us."

Still holding the radio, he returned to the others and looked at the figure in the ice for a few moments before turning back. "So, are Time Lords attracted to 'interesting times' or is it your presence that causes them. Because this is getting to be a pattern."

Axander simply took the accusations from Professor Ortega with a tired expression, then shook his head and went back to theorizing with the others. He rather liked the idea that they could talk to it. He also rather liked the idea that it wouldn't harm innocent targets, but he had no idea quite what it would construe as "innocent".

"Tarys, I don't quite know how to suggest this with any sort of tact, but...if you'd be so kind as to keep back from the weapon? If you could get information on the planet's trajectory, that would be ideal. We need to keep this place from reaching its destination. You might consider taking Toz Raz with you. Just in case." And then he turned to Trace.

"Well, ostensibly we're only to observe, record, and catalogue any such events. The goal is to eventually record all of history, from the beginning of this universe to its end. Direct involvement is strictly prohibited, though there have been exceptions. And at the moment we're on a mission from a man considered a renegade for his sheer amount of involvement. The instructors at the Academy chafe at any mention of him, which we find most amusing, as he's our Lord President. Or...was, rather. But, ah...yes, I begin to see your point." he gave a sheepish look to the dripping ice covering the super weapon.

"I don't suppose you'd have a means of keeping that creature frozen, would you? If not we may have to actually thaw it and hope it can help us stop the planet itself, which would be a very satisfactory ending to such a story, but honestly part of what I like about heroes in stories is not being one of them."

Unfortunately, Professor Ortega proved to be dangerously stubborn. 'If I appear agitated, it's because I'm surrounded by superstitious fools. Scholars of my standing are always pestered by cranks and crackpots, people with wild theories of lost civilisations. Regardless, I am still in charge of this expedition. Now, lad, go fetch the saws. We might not have plasma torches, but we may yet cut this ice-mummy out.'

Hali sighed; though she doubted the sense of this, she was young, a good student, and still idolised the boastful professor. She was the golden girl of Ortega's group, really. 'I'll go get them, sir.'

'Good girl!'


OOC: Ortega rolls 15, which gives you a "No, But..." failure. Vax doesn't calm Ortega, but is still seen as on his side.

*

Having relayed instructions to Sky Light, Borys answered Trace, his voice fatherly and concerned. 'Alright, lad, but it could take time. I want you to stay safe down there. Are you in any immediate danger?'

"Unless you, and I can't believe I'm saying this, know how to change this planet's course and send it back into the void, I wonder if our best bet would be to collapse the roof of this ice cavern and bury everything under a few thousand tons of ice." Trace said to Axander.

Picking up the radio, Trace chuckled. "Dunno, but if you hear strangled screams and staticy calls for help you'll know we've hit horror movie territory. But right now? Unless someone decides to release the ice man early we'll probably be fine."

Bluetooth listened to what the others were saying, but they might have been speaking Ixotlot! Oh, a few words here and there made sense but didn't seem to have any correlation with any of the other words.

There was some sort of Mummy Memento in the ice still. The professor was insanely wanting to free it from the ice and dissect it.

The planet was on a collision course with some place called Gallifrey.

Tarys and Axander were Time Lords. Myths. And he was the King of Farawayland. He wasn't, but he could say he was! And since there was no such place as Farawayland, who was to say that he wasn't? And, who knows, maybe just by saying he was, he was!

"Okay, I know this all has to do with temporal mechanics, though I don't know how, and I don't even know what that is, but I keep getting these... flashes... that seem to say I do."

"So this ice planet has some sort of motive force that is putting it on a collision course with another world. We can't seem to find this motive thingy, to shut it down or turn it around, and we don't have any other means to change the course of this world."

"So, might it not be easier then to move the other world? It's a time thing, isn't it? We don't have the time to stop it, or not much time anyway. Is there some way to move either planet ahead in time? No, that's silly."

"It's just... I've read all these fictional tales of time travel. None of it's real, of course, but as long as we're considering wild ideas, I've got lots of those!"

"We seem to be working on the premise of causality. So, put this mummy in a temporal loop. Throw in a miniscule progression so that the loop keeps repeating a little bit further into the future with each loop. Eventually it'll loop into the end of the universe."

It made no sense, of course, but it was a wild idea.

Axander turned his attention on Bluetooth, who was trying to piece together everything they'd been talking about. The young Time Lord patiently addressed him, occasionally glancing at the dripping ice, and occasionally glancing at the Professor and Hali.



"Yes, you do seem to have more awareness of it than is normal. That's either very good or very bad. Let's go with good until we have reason to think otherwise. But that monster that looks like a man is indeed...well....it's a zombie time machine, to put it simply."



"We don't yet, but we will. Just need some determination, investigation, and an expert programmer or two. A planet converted to a vessel is likely more easily treated as a computer system than a rocket ship. Also, we know where the rocket shaft is, and might be able to disrupt it, but also run the risk of destroying the planet. I'd very much like to survive whatever plans we come up with, if it's at all possible."



"Ah...um... Well, if we can get in contact with them, that might be possible. We should definitely try that, so long as we don't tell them I'm here. That would be very bad for me. Again, would like to survive our plan."



Axander gave Bluetooth a look as though the tiger man had grown an extra cranial appendage without the benefit of a warning, took a deep breath with closed eyes, and opened his mouth to speak. Then paused.

"Oh...oh my word, that's brilliant. That is exceptionally brilliant! It's a Capsule! Tarys, the Memento Mori is a capsule, right? More or less functioning, more or less intelligent? We could initiate its HADS! Well, it's a zombie, so it may not have any survival instinct, but if it does, we could put it out of commission, at least buying us some time, by putting it in enough danger that it would jump a second into the future and stay there! Oh, Bluetooth, that is a marvelous suggestion. I mean we can't do a proper time loop until we can get back to Elona, but there's still plenty we can do before then!"

"Really?" Bluetooth responded.

"That's really a thing?"

"So, what are these things we can do? Rewind the clock? Strangle the cuckoo bird?"

"I mean, we're just waiting for the ice to melt, right? Why? Isn't that a 'bad' thing? Do we have to get this memento thing out of the ice first? Shouldn't we just let it stay frozen?"

He reconsiders what people were saying. The professor was clearly megalomaniacal by now. He probably had a brain tumor... that was making him act this way. After all, he'd already seen that there was one Yag Haz survivor, so why couldn't this mummy come alive? The professor wanted to dissect it--he was just as clearly in denial!

"So, this mummy thing... it's still alive? Sort of? And you think we can talk to it... reason with it?"

"What do we say? You're a bad boy? You mustn't do this! I'm not all that good at this reasoning  stuff, but, what the hell... I'll give it a try."

He walks as close as he can get to the thing in the ice.

"Oh, I don't know what you are, but apparently you are still alive inside there somewhere, so I know you can hear me. My name is Bluetooth."

"This frozen world is on a collision course, but there's no longer any reason for you to do that. You've been on a long journey, and while you were in transit, the universe's cosmic wheel has turned. Oh, it hasn't turned all that much, but it's turned far enough to make this action unnecessary. Pointless, even. And wrong! This is now a bad thing. You can stop this from happening."


[OOC: I'm hoping it still has its universal translator working. Spend as many story points as he can to make that happen? Get it to respond?]

Making his entreaty, Bluetooth put his cat-like face up close to the ice, peering through at the distorted image of the Memento Mori. He glimpsed an old human-ish man in a shabby gray raincoat, with a tired drawn face, stringy grey hair, and grey eyes, cold and dead, grey and empty, full of regret and sorrow.

Nothing happened for a long time, while the hapless archaeologists returned with their saws, and while the ice melted a little more before their eyes. One had to wonder if it had really heard him, if it had really understood or was even capable of it.

Then it punched a fist through the ice.

Shards of frozen air showered over Bluetooth, stinging and cold, forcing him back. Crashing and smashing, the Memento Mori proceeded to widen the hole, with grim determination to haul itself out and proceed with its deadly mission.


OOC: The stated Difficulty for persuading it is 27, which I suspect will be way beyond just you and Story Points. :)
15:02, Today: GM BadCatMan, on behalf of Bluetooth, rolled 13 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 4,5.  presence + convince.
I've gone with Disastrous failure in order to knock this into motion.