In reply to Oak (msg # 16):

"Weirdness. Potential." He says.  "We have a time portal here.  You will have a Recall Disc." He pulls out a metal disc that fits in the palm, and has a cover over a red button.  It also has a countdown clock on the other side.  "Emergency recall or timed pick up. If we're jumping someone else, we might not be able to immediately pick you up."


"We can jump a minimum of a week with a plus or minus of a week as to accuracy.  We've sent agents as far back as Agincourt, but the accuracy, and frankly the chance of surviving decreases greatly as you leave this century.  We sent back eight to that battle, one arrived, five years early, and that was a success.  Otherwise, we'd all be speaking French.  One of the chief constraints is electrical power.  We have jumpers at many points, and only so much power from our nuke plant.'


He checks a dial on the wall.


"Right now, we are at 72% capacity from our batteries and our plant, and a single emergency jump is going to run10-20% plus whatever normal."

"Is my mission to gather information and report back, or am I also supposed to attempt to fix the problem?"

"How discreet do I need to be?  If I am attempting to capture agents, do I need to do so in a way that won't attract undue attention from the locals?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:58, Wed 23 Jan 2019.

In reply to Oak (msg # 18):

"If you can capture an agent in reasonable safety, do so.  Discretion is valuable.  You might do something completely obvious, and it has no effect.  On the other hand, you might do something minor, like drop an out of context quarter, and someone picks it up and glances at it, and Time changes.  But better to complete your mission, and better to get back safe than to worry about time changes.  Odds are,  you'll be fine.  Most people are internally woven into their time stream, its only the few who are loosely connected."

I nod thoughtfully.

"Do you have any advice?  What do you know now that you wish you knew before your first mission?"

In reply to Oak (msg # 20):

"Hmmm. Ah. My grandfather was a carpenter.  He always said 'measure twice, cut once.'  Decide what you're going to do, make sure it works, and then do it before you get the shakes.  There is no shame if you can't hack, Mr. Oakmaster.  Some fine, brave lads took one step into the Past, and lost it."

He sends you to Costuming.  You can pick any sort of ordinary male clothing for that era, and they have a very quick tailor who will fit it to you.  He flits about, like a bird, quick, precise, not needing to do things by rule since as he grumbles once 'I bin cutting suits for gents since Silent Cal was in office."

You're given your sensors, and  a needle tranq pistol with a dissolvable needle.  Four shots.  You're also given a revolver with twelve bullets.  If you needed more, its assumed you've messed up, badly.

"If the jump may be off by up to a week, what way is best to monitor with as little disturbance to the time stream as possible?  For example, should I rent a room in a motel nearby?  Will I have whatever cash needed to buy food, etc.?"

In reply to Oak (msg # 22):

"Use your discretion.  You might land in a swamp.  And yes, you will have a thousand dollars of that time's money.  Now..."  You've already been dressed, and he leads you to the basement which is a large empty space with a horseshoe of electrical wires at one end propped against the wall.

Techs come and weigh you, and measure your height, and make adjustments.  And then '1,2,3' a large switch is thrown, and power hums through the cables, and makes the mustache end float up as well as your hair.  A shimmering space appears in the horseshoe.

In some ways, it is a familiar feeling.  I have been transported into different universes, unknowing of the circumstances that awaited me, many times.  I was even able to create the portal ability for Ring, and have walked through such gateways.  And yet, there is a certain excitement at the prospect of time traveling.

"God be with you till we meet again."

I nod, and smile at him, and step forward toward the shimmering space as a memory verse springs from my lips.

"I will bless the Lord at all times..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:14, Fri 08 Feb 2019.

POP!!

You work your jaw instinctively after you arrive.  The different pressure pushing down on your ear.

You're standing on a small town sidewalk, facing a road.  A fashionably dressed young mother for the Sixties is across the two lane road looking in a window at a dress, while her infant in his baby cart is staring bug eyed at you.

I check my scriff senses for vectors, and my pyramid dials for time wobbles.

Then I glance up and down the road, looking for newspapers.

Then I give the infant a big smile, and wave gently with my fingers...

In reply to Oak (msg # 26):

No scriff.

There is a wobble about 3 on a ten point scale.

The baby sticks his fist in his mouth, and then takes it out, and laughs back at you.

Assuming that I don't see any newspapers, I attempt to read the thoughts of the woman to figure out when and where I am...

In reply to Oak (msg # 28):

The first level of her mind is of whether she can get her husband to agree to buy this new dress.  The second level is a watchful paranoia with no words about her baby for even as she's not looking at him, she's listening to him.  Deeper, you check recent memories of Wheat Bran cereal, and irritation that her husband glanced at another woman, and then you find her using her date planner.

Zooming in on the day you see...

May 17, 1962

And glancing down the street you see 'Blythesville Bank'.  Her memory confirms it.  You are in Blythesville, Virginia, a small town of thirty thousand.

I nod thoughtfully, and experimentally attempt to look at her via Sight.

If successful, I then attempt to examine my surroundings via Sight to see if that can detect anything that might have any connection to the dial wobble.

Then I stretch out my precognitive senses to see if I can detect any potential clues, including potential timeline branches.

Then I start strolling around town to get my bearings.

As I do, I keep an eye on my pyramid dial (and Sight, if applicable), making a mental map of the town and tracking any variations of the dial readings...
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:29, Thu 21 Feb 2019.

In reply to Oak (msg # 30):

She glows with the symbol of a baby, and a cross, and a mother hen.

The Bank seems to have a black shadow over it that looms high.

The timeline wobbler suddenly jumps to max as you hit your precog.   You see a glimpse of a red barn, a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, and two men shaking hands.  Shaking from energy drop, you fall out of precog.  So many possibilities had rushed at you.

You pass the courthouse, and out of the immediate downtown past an A&W with roller skating car hops and a tobacco factory and suburbs going east....The wobbler stays steady...you have spent about an hour walking.

I turn around, and start heading back toward the vicinity of the bank.

From my wanderings, I consider the best place to eat and to rent a room, ideally with a view of the bank.

I also keep an eye out for familiar looking red barns, Rolls Royce Silver Shadows, or men from the vision.

And now that I am away from Time HQ, I make another attempt to see if Ring is online...

In reply to Oak (msg # 32):

Dolly's Diner is just down the street from the bank, and it has ten cent coffee, milkshakes and burgers along with a jukebox.

The Dew Drop Inn is a bit further away, but you can barely see the bank.

OOC: Is Ring online?

I make my way toward the Dew Drop Inn, and examine it via Sight as I approach...
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:00, Fri 01 Mar 2019.

In reply to Oak (msg # 34):

Ring is not online.

The Dew Drop Inn has a swimming pool and a sleeping family in Sight.

You get closer, and you hear kids screaming in glee from the pool and the splashing of water after someone yells 'cannonball'.

When you reach it, you see beyond it, a farm with a red barn.  Its not the red barn you saw though.

A convertible drives past you, and you see one young woman with long hair and a tied dyed shirt.  Otherwise, it seems like the Sixties have not reached this small town yet.

I go ahead and procure a room with a view of the bank.

Once there, I stretch out my clairvoyant senses, first looking over the bank, then searching for the red barn of my vision...

In reply to Oak (msg # 36):

Studying the shadow, you see it looks like the Omnidroid's shadow.

Three miles out of town, you find the barn, but no Silver Shadow or men from the vision as your AC chugs away keeping the room cool.

I examine the insides of the bank and of the barn as well as the outsides, looking for any clues for what is amiss, and praying for guidance as I do...

In reply to Oak (msg # 38):

Looking inside the barn, you realize that you saw it was nearly empty of hay, and this is full of hay.  Also, after you pray you further note that there are no thin tire tracks such as a Rolls uses, but instead just large tractor tires in the mud outside the barn.  Near the barn is an old white peeling paint farmhouse and a shed, and inside the shed looks like the tractor that caused the marks.  There is a nice truck parked next to the farmhouse.

You slip into the bank, and look about, and suddenly you feel as if you're being watch....a blazing blackness, a smell of burning gasoline, and the screams of terror hit you so hard that you're knocked out of your vision, off your bed, and rolling against the AC unit in the hotel room.  It stutters and then chugs on.

Stunned, you look down and see smoke drifting up from your shirt, and a few char marks here and there on your shirt.

I take a rest from psi and look for a newspaper.

After reading it, I pray, and stretch my post-cognitive senses toward the bank...

In reply to Oak (msg # 40):

May 17, 1962 says the paper.

Roy Orbison is playing in NYC.
John Glenn is speaking before Congress to try to convince them to spend more money on space exploration.
The Jaguar (local high school football team) played the Spartans and won.
The 'Importance of Being Ernest' is scheduled as a play this weekend.
Local banker Jack Johnson has received approval to build a rocket control systems factory just north of town.
A shooting match is also scheduled for this weekend with a prize of $500 for first place.
A strong statement by local family doctor Jonathan Hawkins on the benefits of the new polio vaccine.
The DOW Jones is doing very well indeed.

You engage your post cognitive senses gradually as you keep your eyes on the bank.  Its a near idea circumstances, time, comfort, sight of the target all in your favor.  As you slip into the past, you spot a notable event five years ago.

A pair of hooded men rob the bank, and in the process shoot a heavy set man with nice  clothes on.  They get captured later, but you see the man only returns to work a year later.  He's the bank president.  But you can see that he's still suffering from his wound, and  he's not working very hard.  Four years after he is shot, you see him shaking hands with a smiling, somewhat younger man.  And then you see a deed is handed over.

Looking at the younger man, he looks tough and smart and ruthless.  He walks into his office, and the first thing he does is spit on an American flag on the wall.  But then he wipes it off, and leaves the flag hanging.

Your view fades.