Re: [HOE] Portal in the sky...

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> I used two main sources when I was developing Helstomme's portal.  
> The first was the Devil's Tower trilogy - esp the third installment.
> 
> The second was a story about Hellstromme doing some R&D using a train.  
> That one was a doozie.  It is in one of the Trilogy with No Name
> books.

Marshal spoiler space
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


My personal theory (not that it's really original or anything) is that the
way to travel through time is by going into the hunting grounds. The
spirit world exists outside the flow of normal time and so by first going
into the hunting grounds and then doing the right things there (rituals,
traveling to the right spot, killing the right creature, talking to the
right spirit, really it's all just a matter of visualization) you can exit
out at any point in time. Maybe there's a limit that you can't travel back
before the Reckoning because the spirit world isn't powerful enough before
then.
That would explain why Stone came back when all the good guys had powers
and cool skills instead of killing them all while they were babies, or not
even born yet or something.

Another part of my world's time travel dynamics is the idea of Temporal
Energy (taken from another game). Basically when time began it was because
there was a giant explosion of energy, this temporal energy permeats
everything and is what moves things along in time. Without it time
wouldn't exist. However as you travel into the future the temporal energy
weakens (like difference between the raging waterfall in the mountains, at
the water's source, and the babbling brook by your house).
Temporal energy has a very slow decaying effect, this is why things tend
to wear out and fall apart ("wear and tear" is actually caused by T.E.
exposure). However inanimate objects tend to move with the TE which is why
they don't fall apart right away.
However if you were to move an item out of it's normal time and into
another then strange things happen.
If you move an item into the future then the amount of TE exposure it's
getting is less than normal. Items moved into the future tend to become
stronger and sometimes even more powerful (they really don't mak'em like
they used to). 
If you move an item into the past then it's TE exposure goes up and it
starts to break down quickly until it finally either stabilizes in a
weaker state or falls apart completely.

These effects are not seen in animate objects (people) for some reason
they are more resistant to TE.

The main reason I did this was:
When I moved my Deadlands posse into the future their 3d6, single shot
pistols were going to get them killed. So I gave them a little boost.
Interestingly the harrowed in the group wound up gaining -2 AV because his
body was technically inanimate :)
Also, when they came back to the past carrying all kinds of super-powerful
goodies (and an errant syker) all their stuff eventually fell apart, so
they weren't too powerful back in the past.

But I digress...

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


	"Dyslectics of the world untie!"