Seventy years ago, something happened.
History records a great catastrophe; the aptly-named Mount Misfortune, thought to be long extinct, suddenly and violently erupted. The city of Frowlsburgh, located at the base of the mountain, was annihilated – nine thousand souls consigned to oblivion in the blink of an eye. And the technological wonders that city was known for were lost to the world. Bits and pieces surface constantly, dug from the ashes by scavengers, but without the mechanical prowess of Frowlsburgh’s engineers, their secrets have never been unlocked.
More unnerving still is the creeping void that has slowly, inexorably, been subsuming the area ever since the calamity. Black as the night, silent, and utterly inescapable, it is to all appearances pure non-existence. Nothing has ever emerged from the darkness, and nothing has ever been discovered about it, save only that it is growing, and that the rate of its growth appears to be increasing.
Today, the ruins of Frowlsburgh are known as the Necropolis Mechanica – the graveyard of machines. The area has been declared off-limits by the authority of three generations of Grand Mayors, and stories abound of the spirits of the victims still haunting the ruins, their anguish feeding the growing darkness. These are, of course, merely stories: old wives’ tales to frighten misbehaving children.
What is true is that strange reports have been coming back from the sentries. Reports of an odd creature roaming in the ruins. A creature that looks like a man at first blush, but is not a man. A creature of legend and of nightmare.
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Time and Again is a fantasy adventure set in the Grand Mayory of Crowlston. This world contains a mixture of magic and technology – magic is a rare and specialised discipline, accessible only to a select few individuals, and at great personal cost. Technology is clearly the future, but is currently in its infancy, as great engineers are only beginning to harness the potential of clockworks. The steam engine is not even a faint glimmer in a theorist’s mind yet.
The players, ideally four to six, will take on the roles of a company of adventurers hired by the Grand Mayor of Crowlston to investigate the strange rumours emanating from the Frowlsburgh ruins. The tone for the game will be lighthearted for the most part, with moments of serious drama. Jokes and gags will not usually be out of place, but there will be times when it’s all business, so please take care to match the tone of the scene when writing.
Hosted and narrated by:
Darien Sumner (Darien)
Started 06/10/14.
Scenes played: 8
License: Community License