This is a KULT scenario for a single character. As an adventure, it is quite open-ended, leaving the final resolution, if there is one, completely up to the GM and the player. It can also be used to develop a character that will then continue onto other adventures.
The character is a nurse (which I'll call "Sarah" for ease of reference) who works in the emergency ward of a local hospital. Her long hours and the pressure of her job keeps her single, and she rarely dates, usually too tired to bother, or with too few hours to get serious with a romantic encounter.
She has a taciturn personality because of her constant exposure to death and her horror at what we humans inflict upon each other. She sometimes suffers fits of depression but can usually find a weak smile when treating children or the elderly. She truly cares about human suffering.
She suffers from insomnia due to rotating work shifts and the constant disruption of her schedule as she is usually on call. These bouts of sleeplessness provide her with long, dimly-remembered hours in front of the television, and it is not uncommon for her to wake up to static and white noise several hours after the television stations have signed off.
Then something happens, or maybe nothing. Sometimes we have no explanation for the things that occur in our lives.
Television was originally invented by a team of Lictors working for Chesed. It was created as a media seditive to both pacify us and feed us more of the Lie so that we would not try to break out of the Illusion. On rare occasion, televisions were also used to stop time so that the Lictors could travel about openly working alterations in the Illusion, patch tears in the Veil, change the direction of political movements, or "inspire" someone to create or invent something essential to the Archon's plan.
Since Chesed's disappearance, various Archons have tried to take over the media, particularly Tiphareth, but none have had any great measure of success. There are those few individuals however, due to some quirk of their minds, can see through television to Reality, can still feel Chesed's influence through that glass screen as it relays its electronic entertainment and despair. The character in this story is being driven toward such a mental break where she will see through the Illusions that the television presents. The journey may enlighten or destroy her, depending upon the capacity of the player to understand what is happening.
As the GM, you should try to play the scenes at the hospital. Invent a half dozen cases for the player to work with during her shift: a knife or gunshot wound to a gang member or a victim of a drive-by shooting, an old man who has fallen in the tub and broken a bone, a small child that has swallowed something poisonous (or was fed something poisonous by a stranger), someone who had a serious accident in the kitchen and scalded or cut themselves, or maybe a heart attack victim. The cases should be random, but appropriate for an emergency room. Some will surviveþmost will not. You should provide the details and let the player work out each case with the help of appropriate NPC hospital staff. You have been successful if the player begins to experience some of the strain, helplessness, and depression that the character feels. The player should be slightly relieved that the shift is over and that it's time for the character to go home.
Sarah's life is running as roughly as ever...maybe a little worse.
Gang battles in the neighborhood are up and bloodier than usual. Children are being gunned down in the subsequent shootings. Some pervert is breaking into the houses of the elderly and raping both women and men with equal desire. Few clues are left behind since he doesn't penetrate his victims himself but prefers using a baseball bat to administer his affections. Those who protest are given a few "love taps" to soften them up.
Between these two problems, calls in the emergency room are up and Sarah is busier than usual.
On an evening after an exhausting double shift, Sarah sits down in front of the television with some half-cold fast food. After only a couple of bites, the television starts having reception problems. A montage of images, some of which Sarah recognizes as her family members, flickers across the screen. She begins to hear voices of forgotten friends, the sounds of emotional times with her father and mother, scenes from the hospital that have touched her deeply. This will continue for about 10 minutes.
If during this time, Sarah gets up and touches the television, she notices light suddenly flowing through her apartment windows. When she checks out the window, she will find that the sun is rising. The last five hours seem to have passed without her being aware of them. She feels neither tired nor fully rested.
From now on, whenever Sarah sees a television that is turned on, she will begin to see images of her life and the lives of her loved ones flash on the screen dodging between the stream of normal programming. No one else will see these images. She will feel a strange compulsion to put her hands on the flickering screen (roll against CHA). If she gives in to this impulse, time will be dramatically altered. Each time this occurs, the time shift will become more erratic. Time shifts can be forwards or backwards.
Here are some ideas for time shifts that Sarah could encounter:
Everything looks the same as it did before; the time on the clock has not changed by more than a minute or two.
When she eventually goes into her bedroom, she notices that there are five messages on her answering machine, although she can't recall the phone ringing. When she listens to the messages, she discovers that they are from her supervisor at the hospital and a couple of her friends wondering why she has not shown up for work. The last call is from her supervisor who is very agitated and is threatening to fire her if she does not report soon. Three days have passed.
She experiences several instances of deja-vu, as the same cases and injuries come into the emergency room. She cannot remember them directly, but when a patient comes in, she realizes that she is reliving the experience.
Sarah's only hope is to surrender to the power that is altering her reference to time. She has the capability to remain conscious of the time slips with practice. To do so, she must voluntarily lay her palms on the television screen (before making the CHA roll) to reach for the flickering images. When this happens, she gains three points in the Lore of Time and Space. This does not give her spell abilities, just an intuitive knowledge of the Lore. Spell abilities would have to be developed separately under the discretion of the GM.
When Sarah fails her Lore roll, she finds herself tumbling through the white vastness of the television static. Shapes and images of all kinds roll past her. Voices, both known and unknown, echo through the chaotic expanse. After a time she will find herself back at the television where her journey started. Time will shift randomly.
When Sarah succeeds with her Lore roll, she involuntarily performs a modified version of Time and Space Walk. Since Sarah does not have any training or experience with this spell, she will naturally find herself in distant locations and times very quickly. The GM may wish to reduce the effects of the spell for purposes of game balance. For example, one hundred yards could equal 10 miles, instead of 1000 miles. Each hour that Sarah is travelling could be equal to one day instead of 100 years. In addition, Sarah has no control over whether time flows forwards or backwards. There is an equal chance of either. So if Sarah walks into the Realm of Time and Space and walks 100 yards, she will see the world slip past her in fast forward motion. When she stops walking, she will be across town, 10 miles away from her apartment 12 hours earlier or later in time (depending on which way time went). If she then spends half an hour getting back, a total of 24 hours will have slipped. It could be the next day or the previous day. It will take some quick thinking and planning on the part of the GM to anticipate where Sarah will go during her travels and "when" she will end up when she returns.
When Sarah's Lore rating reaches 20, she will be drawn through the Realm of Time and Space to Chesed's deserted citadel, close to the top, overlooking the city of Metropolis from several miles up. The GM may develop the adventure in many possible ways from this point. Also, once her Lore rating reaches 20, the GM should increasing Sarah's Lore rating by only one point for each voluntary trip she makes.
It is possible to slowly transform Sarah during her travels through Time and Space. For example, when she arrives at Chesed's citadel, she may have various body modificationsþclaws, body armor, tentacles, etc, that make her a more natural inhabitant of Metropolis. Maybe these affect her mental balance, maybe not. Or maybe she looks unchanged but she now has superhuman STR, AGL, or CON, or some other types of powers that make her situation survivable, or she carries an artifact that protects her. Maybe she is an incarnate of one of the forgotten gods. Or possibly, she occupies a completely non-human body, that she is actually a denizen of Reality, but the Illusion has blinded her into thinking that she is human. She has somehow forgotten her true heritage. Maybe her consciousness has been transferred to the body of another entity, like a reversed form of Possession. Maybe she becomes a ruthless predator on the streets of Metropolis, and yet back in the Emergency room, the incoming wounded look strangely familiar, or strangely appetizing. Again, this could affect her mental balance or haunt her dreams, repulse and disgust, cause new disadvantages. A skillful GM could convince the player of all of these possibilities at various points during the game.
Then again, maybe she just dies a brutal death in Chesed's tower and the game ends.
Hope you enjoy it! Comments are always welcome.
Richard Fichera aka Frater VI <FraterVI@aol.com>
ftp://users.aol.com/fratervi/Kult