Recuriting Call, a Burrito Con #6 Play Report

A one-shot play report for Timewatch designed by Kevin Kulp.  Recruiting Call was run by Shane Leahy at the 2021 Burrito Con #6 organised by Neil aka Old Scouser Roleplaying.  You can find this scenario in the core rules for Timewatch.

...Here Be Spoilers (and a slight amount of artistic licence)...

You are agents of TimeWatch, defending the timestream from the depredations of radioactive cockroaches, psychic velociraptors, and human meddlers. 

Go back in time to help yourself in a fight, thwart your foes by targeting their ancestors, or check out a scroll from the Library of Alexandria. Just watch out for paradoxes that may erase you from existence… or worse.
What you thought was a simple recon mission over Nazi Germany in 1942 quickly turns out to be much more, including recruiting one of the greatest TimeWatch agents of all time.

Germany, 1942

Flak bursts around the Bristol Blenheim, actually not flak, more like searing bolts of fizzling purple energy, one such bolt erupts through the fuselage and slices the pilot almost in half, at this, the plane begins a rapid descent.  

Bristol Blenheim

There are now five occupants of what is sometimes known as the "Tin Henry".  Altani, a 12th-century warrior and descendent of Genghis Khan sits in the co-pilot seat, her face drips with blood and gore from the pilot, she reaches across to grasp the controls, whilst observing for the next run of the Meschersimitt 109 that put a hole in them.

A wild-haired neanderthal is charging up the plan towards the front "BIG LIGHT.  SKY FALL.  FAAARKKK!" he keeps shouting as he barges past the others, this is Uurrk.  A small lizard creature pokes his head out from the top turret, he caws gently, observing the smouldering hole in one side of their plane.  Dr Breen is busy pulling wires out of a cabinet and soldering them together into a shiny hand-held device, she looks at the Lizard, "Eyes on the enemy, Skegg",  she turns and shouts out "Vidh, what can you see?". 

Vidh, morphs and flows into the lower observation port at the front, he sees the Me 109 turning and heading straight for them, he replies to Dr Breen, "It's coming round again, I'll try and find a better vantage point for a shot."  He spots a small opening leading into the wing, his silvery arms elongate and narrow until, slowly, he disappears into the foot-wide cavity.

Altani is battling with the controls, she is slowly pulling the plane out of the dive, when she notices Uurrk next to her, "BIG LIGHT.  FAAARKKK!", Uurrk says as he points to the hole.  Altani just grimaces as she continues her struggles.  Uurrk picks up the pilot and throws him out of the seat and through the windshield, he then gently picks up Altani and moves her over to the pilot seat.  Uurrk then gets in the co-pilot seat.  Wind whips at his long hair, he slowly puts his hands up in the air, "YEEAAAHHH! BIG DIPPER!!"

Uurrk

Skegg is in the gun turret, he pulls down his goggles and takes aim at the Me 109 as it swoops towards them, a hail of bullets heads towards the fighter plane, which banks and the bullets sail off into the distance, Skegg makes a quiet clicking sound and adjusts his sights.  Vidh is crawling through the wing, seeping into gaps, trying to find an opening that will give him visibility on the enemy.  He can hear another fizzle and pop and a large hole opens up in front of him, he oozes towards it.

Dr Breen has been observing the plane, noticing how it jumps around in the sky, there is definite chronal activity centred on the plane, could it have time travel capability?  She slots a final element into her device and points it at the enemy as it swings by, there is a large explosion of light that blinds everyone but Breen.  

Altani sees the plane ahead stop swerving and is able to line up the Blenheim right behind it, "All yours, take it out!", she cries.  Dr Breen has already activated her Autochron to jump time and space and land on the Me 109, but nothing is happening, the other plane is giving off too much Chronal interference, it definitely has a time travel capability.

Messerschmitt ME 109

Vidh now appears out of the wing stretching and pulling out his hands from within the hole, one of his hands has a Pacifist stun gun in it.  He turns and looks at the Meserchsmitt pilot next to him, he's slid open the canopy, he's old for a fighter pilot and he's shouting at Vidh in Engish, "I will kill you for what you did to Greta!!"  Vidh ignores this, puzzled though he is and fires the gun, the pilots sumps onto the controls and the plane veers into the Blenheim.  Altani sees this, tries to duck under the Me 109, as it cuts across and above them, but only succeeds in seeing it hit the other wing to Vidh's and shear it off.

The occupants of the Blenheim watch as the Messerschmitt spirals down to the ground, crashes and smoke drifts up from the wreckage, a group can be seen heading towards it.

"Time to go.  The Citadel has called us in.", shouts Dr Breen, over the noise of wind and engines whining.  Autochron's are activated and the figures on the plane shimmer and disappear.  The Blenheim plunges to the ground, exploding in a ball of fire.

The Future, Citadel

Hypatia, the ancient Egyptian mathematician and astronomer is now briefing the group.  They all sit relaxing in their Chronomorphic Armour, essentially blue and black striped jumpsuits that adjust their wear to the clothes of the time period they are based in.  

This is the headquarters of Timewatch, a group of agents committed to keeping time on the straight and narrow and finding like-minded folks throughout history to help them.

Hypatia

Hypatia continues to outline their next patrol, this last one was just as military observers, she's not sure who the German pilot was and frankly, they have bigger fish to fry.  The target of the new patrol will be Amelia Earhart, she's to be recruited to be a Timewatch Agent.  She will crash on the island of Nikumaroro in July 1937, they should arrive later, make sure she is safe and then attempt to recruit her.  Hypatia hands over a long slender black rod, with a digital display on it, "This is a Paradoxometer, it needs to read zero percent before you can bring her back.".  "Why?" says Breen.  Hypatia replies, "Time paradoxes, future events that her survival may change, you need to make sure it is zero, or all hell will break loose!"

Nikumaroro Island, 1937

The agents have split up and are scouting the small Pacific island where Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan are supposed to have landed.

Nikumaroro Island

A crackle on the radio of Dr Breen and then the voice of Altani comes through, "We've found two bodies, carry on around the island and meet us."  Shortly, the group is back together and standing over the two figures, almost skeletal.  Breen inspects them, concluding that they were both shot from distance, a sniper rifle.  Altani spends time looking around, "There!", she points to a small grassy knoll, "It's the perfect point to set-up and take them out, remember that mission in Dallas?  Come on, let's go."

A few moments later they stand on the top of the hill, rocky outcrops provide good cover and the observant Skegg, finds a cigarette, sniffing it, he announces, "Sturm-Zigaretten." then swallows it.  Wermacht boot prints suggest at least four people were here, strangely the pattern suggests a 1960s production.  "Time-Travelling Nazis?", ponders Vidh.  

Nazi smokes

From this vantage point they survey the island, they see that the two corpses would have been easy prey for a well-trained sniper.  Uurrk has a flash of knowledge transfer, his forgery skills are being uploaded. Uurrk is very animated, excitedly he points to a makeshift camp, "FAARRK! CAMP!".  The others look confused until Dr Breen translates, "He means fake camp, obviously, the Germans set this up, but Amelia and Fred were killed the second they set foot on this place.  Someone knew they were going to crash here." 

Vidh has been busy mining the grassy knoll with explosives.  Altani decided the best course of action was to travel back a few months before Amelia crashed and take out the Nazis before they take out Amelia and Fred.  The group spend a few weeks on the island, some enjoy this more than others but eventually, they hear the drone of an aircraft, a boat plane comes into view, landing down gently a little way off the island.  A group of five men busy themselves getting the boat in to shore and camouflaging it.

Dornier Boat Plane

The timewatch group are crouched within the long grass, on the edge of the lagoon, their suits hiding them from prying eyes.  Skegg is animated, pointing out one of the Germans, this fellow seems to be ordering the others around.  A closer inspection suggests it is a younger version of the Messerschmitt pilot,  killing him would create a paradox, as they had already fought him when he was older.  The plan needs to change.  

A bold plan is hatched, plans up to Z with a large number of appendices have been considered, but it's back to plan A, charge in kill the Germans, incapacitate the pilot and when Amelia arrives convince her to join the crew.  Uurrk is waving at the group and pulling something through the grass, it seems to be a series of interconnected bamboo struts with woven palm fronds, as Uurrk stretches it out, it forms a roughly birdlike shape, "UURRK. FLY.", he points up and grins.  The group ponders the merits of this plan.

A little while later Uurrk is Autochron'd high above the island, the wind blows through his hair, he smiles and then looks down, the island is a tiny speck.   The smile is gone.  He gulps as he banks the hang glider to the left and then points the nose towards the ground.  Wind rushes past him, the bamboo creaks and he hears a snap, bits of palm frond start to disintegrate as the speed increases, the island becomes bigger at an alarming rate.

Uurrk in flight

Meanwhile, there is a pitched battle on the ground, Skegg and Altani are in the middle of this, fighting hand-to-hand with the Nazi.  Vidh is a large chrome ball, rolling along the beach, eventually seeking cover behind some rocks, his long arm stretches around the rock, whilst his neck goes the other way, in his hand he holds a stun gun, which is firing off blasts towards the group of Nazis.

The pilot, shoots and wounds Altani but they fire back staggering him, he collapses to the ground.  The other Nazis fight on, Dr Breen and Altani, take down two Nazis and Vidh, though badly hurt takes down another.  One more Nazi falls unconscious and then there is just Skegg and a final Nazi facing off against each other, Todt can be seen next to the Nazi, groaning.  The final Nazi, has a crazed look in his eye, he pulls out a grenade and rushes at Skegg.  The group cry out, remembering the buried explosives, they run.

Out of the sun, a shape appears and a cry is heard, "SCALY DOG! UURRK! FLY!  YOU! FLY!"  In a balletic move, Urrkk flys down onto the knoll scoops up the unconscious Nazi pilot, touches the ground briefly before lifting off again and gliding down safely to the beach. The last Nazi is dumbstruck but quickly turns to see Skegg leap into the air and activate his AutoChron, taking him a few seconds into the future.  The Nazi looks forlornly at the grenade in his hand before the fire, noise and pain engulf him.  The others see Skegg wink out of existence and the whole knoll disappears in a massive explosion, as the smoke clears, the tiny figure of Skegg appears above the crater and then falls with a cry, into the hole.

Skegg's close call.

The group go to find Skegg, helping him and the others that are wounded to recover and they make their way down to the beach to see how Vidh, Uurrk and the captive Nazi are.

Altani suggests that information from the pilot is critical and he needs to be interrogated, she heads off into the jungle to gather equipment.  Meanwhile, the rest of the team are in the boat plane, they find information on the pilot, he is called Oskar Todt, they tie him to a seat whilst they wait for Altani to return and whilst they wait, they investigate the plane.  

The plane is a Dornier but has a number of time travelling enhancements, in fact, it seems the equipment from the Messerschmitt has been installed in the boat plane.  Dr Breen tinkers with the boat plane, they cannot kill Todt, otherwise, the time paradox will collapse upon them, so at some stage, they will have to send him back, but not without a few deficiencies embedded into his time travel system.  

Altani arrives back and lines up a series of cruel and unusual implements in front of Todt, she slaps him hard across the face.  The questioning begins, as Altani leans in, whispering, "I will enjoy your screams..."  

Todt is obviously scared but, in true supervillain style, cannot stop himself from monologuing;

• He talks constantly about Greta, his daughter and his wife being taken 
• Altani brandishes her tools in front of Todt
• Dr Breen bluffs, "We have Greta and we can give her back to you."
• Todt screams at them "You stopped me from marrying Amelia's mother!!"
• Altani's fist smashes into Todt's jaw and his head slumps forward

The group try to piece together this information when they hear the distant sound of an aeroplane engine.  It is Amelia, her plane in trouble and heading for the island.  The boat plane is still undercover, so they throw on a few more branches and head into the jungle with Todt.

Amelia and Fred have crashed on the beach, managed to pull out a few supplies and have got a fire going, the team continue to observe, in the morning they will approach Amelia and talk through the Timewatch offer.

Amelia and Fred are shocked and concerned, surrounded by a motley crew of individuals and trying to take in the wild and crazy stories they've been told.  But it seems that Amelia may be coming round to joining Timewatch, for an adventurer of her time, this could be the ultimate experience.  As Amelia sighs and is about to say something, we see her body phase in and out, like a dodgy TV.  She screams and falls to the floor, Dr Breen rushes over, scanning her with the Paradox, it is at 50%.  After more investigation, Dr Breen announces, "I've only seen this once before, when someone is never born, we need to go back in time."

It is likely that from Todt's conversation, he is planning to head back to the 1890s and woo Amelia's mother, leading to Amelia never being born, instead, Greta will exist. The Timewatch crew need to stop this happening AND make sure Amelia's mother meets her father.  Going back to before Todt arrives in the USA seems safest, they identify the ship he arrives on and with information secured they leap into the time vortices to stop Todt once and for all.

RMS Campania, Atlantic Ocean, 1892

The plan is simple, the Timewatch team will time travel to the RMS Campania, locate Todt's cabin and throw him over the side, disappearing into a different time period with Todt - Amelia's mother will then be free to meet her husband, and Amelia will be born.  Todt will be an unforunate footnote in history.

RMS Campania

The group take on different roles and enjoy a few weeks of travel across the Atlantic:

• Altani is a crew member working in the ship's laundry department
• Uurrk is also on the crew, but deep in the bowels of the ship, undercover as a stoker
• Vidh has transformed into an elegant upper-class lady, enjoying the delights of first-class
• Skegg is disguised as the Chief Petty Officer, hoping to get his hands on the ship's roster and avoid the real Chief Petty Officer
• Dr Breen is also a passenger, disguising herself as Amelia Earhart's mother, aiming to put Todt off his guard

After sometime Todt's room has been identified and Altani has made a few "laundry" visits, uncovering that there is both a bodyguard for Todt and a cache of weapons from the 1940s.

Opportunities are scarce to get Todt on his own, but luckily, promenading along the deck, Vidh spies Todt with one of his henchmen, coming towards her, she sighs relief and contacts the others.   The team had been pushing for Vidh to plunge through the piping system, as "nobody expects a polymorphic robot to be hiding in the latrine", thank god they can now go to a more straightforward and less unpleasant plan.

Vidh pretends to fall and then uses her morphing abilities to slip between the henchman and pushes into Todt, trying to lift him up and over the side.   The others, having been contacted, are already in place, Dr Breen shoots the henchman with her pacifist disguised as a parasol.  More henchmen have appeared and Altani throws a basket of laundry at them, various unmentionables rain down on them as they try and rush forward.  A blond-haired woman, dressed in figure-hugging leather and pointing a very futuristic gun at them, cries out from above, "Father, I am coming!" - Greta!!

Greta Todt

The scene on the deck is pure chaos, but Uurrk doesn't know this, he is coming up from the boiler room and is directly below the combatants, he looks up, and briefly sees Vidh and Todt struggle against the rail above.  Uurrk leaps and grabs hold of a porthole, then starts to swing upwards until he is close to the upper deck.

Todt has got the upper hand on Vidh, pushing her away from him as he pulls out his gun, but there is a look of surprise on his face as two muscular, hairy arms wrap around him and start to pull him back over the railing.

Skegg, wearing a jaunty sailor's cap has entered the fray, bolts from his Pacifist slam into the Nazis, whilst a bolt of purple light crackles over his head and hits Vidh, Vidh watches as her chrome arm starts to disintegrate, the group turn to look at Greta, she laughs and aims again at Vidh.

Altani has been aiming her Pacifist at Greta and the shot hits her square in the chest and she crumples to the deck.  The other Nazi's continue to fight back, but then they turn, as they see Todt being pulled over the side by Uurrk with the two of them plunging into the icy water below.

It is a matter of moments to then clean up the rest of the Nazi scum, and pull Todt and Uuurk from the drink, before Autochron's are activated and they head back to the island.

Conclusion

Amelia is well again and after some thought has accepted a role at Timewatch.  Hypatia calls in and gives thanks to the group for rescuing and recruiting the greatest time watch agent ever.  Amelia looks somewhat confused as the team congratulate her.

Timewatch's greatest acquisition

Todt is handed over to a Timewatch abandonment crew, his memory wiped and left in some godforsaken area of time and space, never to be seen again... ?