“Empire of the Rani”
“Empire of the Rani” (5ND01)
by Christopher Bulis
Game Master: Adam Players: Brian, Erin
Game Date: 9 September 2017
Characters: The Doctor, The Master, Ori
Adversaries: The Rani
Allies: Ptolemy Caesar
Time: 5 May 10 BCE (Dominion Year 10)
Space: Rome, Romano-Egyptian Dominion, Terra Nova
Synopsis: The TARDIS comes to ground in ancient Rome and is rendered powerless, stranding Ori and the Doctor in a landscape of disturbing anachronisms. They escape from a sealed tomb to find the skyline of the imperial capital broken by the startling shapes of smokestacks and electrical towers, and a majestic airship looms above the Colosseum. The so-called Romano-Egyptian Dominion is in the throes of an age of rapid and dangerous transformation, all thanks to the prophecy and divine guidance granted by a mysterious oracle. Unravelling the origin of this demented alternate history, the wayward travellers become embroiled in a dangerous game of politics and deceit, a contest that pits brother against brother against sister as the children of Cleopatra—Cleopatra Selene, Alexander Helios, and Ptolemy Caesar—compete for control of an empire on the verge of developing weapons capable of destroying their world.
Convincing the triumvirate to trust the Doctor won’t be easy, for he has been afflicted by dangerous transformations of his own and grows more unstable with each moment spent in this twisted timeline. In unexpected bursts of elemental energy, the Doctor is regenerating, regressing through past incarnations! As the Time Lord is transformed from wide-eyed bohemian to whimsical tramp to crotchety old man, an overwhelmed Ori comes to see that no one is as they seem, least of all Cleopatra Selene, for behind the guise of this wicked queen schemes one of the Doctor’s oldest and most unpredictable enemies. The earthbound Rani has been waiting for the Doctor to return to the era of the Roman Empire, and she intends to make the most of her revenge!
Character Sheet: The Rani
“They’re so easy to control only because of what they believe. The rho waves work better on these humans than I’ve ever seen before, with any species. It’s absolutely fascinating, from a scientific perspective. My scientific genius, backed by elite cohorts of Roman legionnaires who will bend to my every bidding… Maybe I will build my new empire here, but more likely I will find another world, one far from your meddling interruptions, Doctor.”
The Doctor isn’t the only renegade Time Lord roaming time and space in a stolen TARDIS. While he may have the Master under lock and key, there are equally dangerous adversaries at large. The Rani is certainly among the most brilliant of the Doctor’s many enemies. A scientific genius prone to obsession and unrestrained by any notion of ethics or morality, her calculated interventions into the evolution of the Earth and other planets could have catastrophic consequences for all life. In attributes, her ingenuity is unsurpassed. Her skills in knowledge, science, and medicine are formidable. During a confrontation with the Doctor in Roman Britain, the regenerated Rani reinforced the threat posed by her reckless intellect—and revealed that she knows more about his role in an unfolding cosmic conspiracy than he does!
“The Origin of Evil”
“The Origin of Evil” (1ND04)
by J. Andrew Keith
Game Master: Adam Player: Brian
Game Date: 13 July 2014
Characters: The Doctor, Selene
Adversaries: The Rani
Allies: Claudius
Time: 20-21 August 43 CE
Space: South Gyrwas, Roman Britain, Earth
Available: IN PRINT
Synopsis: England. 43 A.D. Titus Flavius Vespasian has gone missing and the Second Augustan Legion faces a crushing defeat as its warriors die in waves. The barbarian hordes that oppose them possess uncanny strength and organization. A rogue TARDIS has landed amid this bloody theatre of war and the Roman invasion of Britain has gone terribly wrong. The legionnaires speak in hushed tones of the Sacred Wood of the Britons, the fountainhead of otherworldly evils that has brought chaos to this land and seemingly sealed the fate of the empire. Joining forces with the Emperor Claudius, the Doctor and Selene set forth on an expedition to this fearful place. There, they will face one of the Doctor’s greatest foes, and the terrible secret that she possesses will redefine human history as they know it.
