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Curse of the Cyclops is a short adventure that players should be able to complete in one or two evenings. It is set after The Chase, and involves the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki. It is possible, however, for it to take place further along the Doctor's time line; the seventh Doctor and Ace, for example, could conceivably tackle the adventure. Additional companions can be provided by using Alison from the appendices, or by allowing players to create their own characters.
Do not read any further if you are to take on the role of the Doctor or a companion: the information that follows is for the referee only.
REFEREE'S NOTES
Curse of the Cyclops is a free-form adventure that partly depends on the skill of the referee to improvise. Encounters are broken into scenes that may or may not take place; the links and route the players take to each scene are not fixed. Think of each scene as an important part of a set in a typical Doctor Who story: the actions and decisions of the players decide when to switch to the next scene.
Unlike a TV adventure, there are no background scenes to fill in details for the viewers: the players know only what their characters experience. It helps, however, if the referee can imagine how the villains of the piece will be furthering their plans while the player characters execute theirs.
There is no fixed time line to regulate when events occur in this adventure. To a large extent, the actions of the characters decide what happens next.
The adventure is broken into three sections: Maps, Scenes, and Friends and Felons. The first provides detailed maps of locations, broken into areas, as well as a schematic diagram showing how each encounter area is linked with indications of terrain -- an actual map of the island is unnecessary. Scenes describes the main encounters that are likely; Friends and Felons details the referee characters that will help or confront the player characters.
Story line
Frustrated by the Doctor's meddling in their plans, the Daleks have plundered the universe for the tiniest trace of taranium in order to set a trap for their enemy. By complicated analysis of the chronons in time-sensitized taranium, Dalek scientists have been able to predict a future time-space location of the Doctor: the island of Athenos on the planet Hellas. The taranium was then exhausted to send a small Dalek time capsule and a suicide force to this location to set a trap to capture and eradicate the Time Lord.
The Dalek capsule, however, arrived on Athenos some 50 years too early, and the ship crash landed, killing the prime science Dalek that would be able to effect repairs. A junior technician Dalek is currently doing all it can to get the capsule fully working, at least so the Daleks can report to the Emperor Dalek on Skaro.
In the meantime, the Daleks have been taken for Servitors of the Cyclops -- a creature that has survived in legend from the earliest Earth colonists, through the settlers' transition to 'new Greeks'. The regressive colonists regard the Daleks as messengers from the gods, and are willing to obey them.
Hellas has one bonus: it is a source of a taranium complex ore that the Daleks now demand as tribute from the Athenosians, Baskets of the phosphorescent ore are delivered to the Dalek craft, now disguised as a Grecian temple, refined by the Daleks, and the extracted taranium stored ready for use when the capsule's time engines are repaired.
In the meantime the Daleks are waiting for the moment that the Doctor arrives, confident that the Athenosians will bring any news of strangers to the high priest, who will then 'commune with the gods' to relay the information.
Expected outcome
The plot will probably unfold one way, although this should be regarded as only a guideline, not a route along which the players should be channelled.
When the Doctor and his companions arrive and begin to explore their surroundings, one character, probably Steven, will encounter Hykronos; at the same time the Doctor and the remaining companions discover the dead body of Hynossos and are captured by an Athenosian patrol and taken to the village for judgment to be passed.
Hykronos waits for the right moment to release the time travellers, and explains why Hynossos is dead. The Doctor should realize he is facing the Daleks.
Either by hiding in the next offering of taranium ore, or by posing as miners carrying the offerings, the Doctor and crew enter the temple, where they are briefly recognized and captured by the Daleks. Fleeing into the capsule and sealing the Daleks out of their own ship, the Doctor explores the small craft, deduces that the Daleks are extracting taranium, and works out how to ruin their plans. Either he fixes the Daleks' time engines and sets the craft in motion in a time loop, or he arranges for it to take off and explode safely out of the way of the planet Hellas.
Escaping through the observation hatch in the top of the craft, the Doctor heads through the jungle, pursued by surviving Daleks, towards the TARDIS. Most of the Daleks meet their doom falling over a cliff to their destruction.
Left with only the Red Dalek to defeat, the Doctor waits long enough on the beach to lure the evil creature into quicksand: the fluoronic acid painfully incapacitates the creature, leaving it to drown when the tide comes in. The TARDIS, finally repaired, takes off ready for the next adventure.
MAPS
Map 1: schematic view of links between scenes
Map 2: the beach
Map 3: the village prison
Map 4: the temple
Map 5: the Dalek capsule
Map 6: the chase
Each map for a scene is divided into areas if it is expected that detailed action needs to be resolved during a scene. The schematic map is deliberately vague: the characters are unlikely to map their progress through the jungle -- captives are not going to be able to do so -- and to an extent it isn't important. If the characters voice doubts, remind them that the Doctor has an 'infallible sense of direction' as far as locating the TARDIS is concerned. If that doesn't give them cause to worry, nothing will!
SCENE 1: ARRIVAL
The tranquil peace of an island paradise is shattered as the TARDIS materializes on a beach of brilliant white sand. Behind the time ship rises a steep but craggy cliff over which vines and creepers climb. At the foot of the cliff is a dense green carpet of plants that in one direction rises quickly into jungle at the back of the beach; in the other direction, the sea laps against the chalk-like rock. Out to sea, waves break over a reef some 100 metres away; on the beach side of the reef, the water lies still and blue, just inviting a weary traveller to take a dip. All this is apparent on the TARDIS's scanner, around which the Doctor and his companions are grouped.
Inside the TARDIS, the central console emits a loud and nerve-shattering bang. Wisps of smoke rise from the panels, but quickly disperse, especially if the Doctor or a companion fans them away.
Examining the circuits in the control console, the Doctor can deduce that a thermal cutout has switched in and that all he needs to do is wait for a few hours everything's cooled down a bit (difficulty 6 against Knowledge, Electronics is applicable). Any companion who catches sight of what the Doctor is looking at (difficulty 4 against Awareness, Keen Sight is applicable) will see the Doctor is looking at a soot-coated circuit that has undoubtedly seen better days.
The TARDIS has landed on Athenos, one of many islands that make up the land mass of the largely oceanic planet of Hellas. Its inhabitants are regressive Earth colonists who once abandoned technology for the simpler, philosophic life of Ancient Greece; each island or kingdom of islands is analogous to an independent Greek state, and has a corrupted Greek name (other kingdoms, for example, could be Thebos, Spartia and so on). Rivalry between kingdoms is intense and it would take a planetary catastrophe for them to unite. The people, however, are generally peaceful.
The Doctor may recall which planet he is on (difficulty 8 against Knowledge); to recall its political status is difficulty 9. He will then know he has landed far in the future along his time stream. Doctors who are prepared to (not the first or second incarnations!) use the TARDIS computer and apply data from sensors can extract this information (difficulty 7, Computing is applicable). Whichever method is used, it is difficulty 10 against Knowledge to extract a minor but useful piece of information: that the sea is a weak fluoronic acid that can penetrate and attack organic materials at a molecular level.
The Doctor and his companions have two choices: they can sit in the TARDIS and wait (1A), or go out and investigate the apparent paradise outside (Scene 2).
1A: Wait and sea
If the players aren't willing to get the adventure moving, the only way is to take it to them. After an hour or so (four research turns) it is difficulty 7 against Awareness to notice on the monitor that something is different: the sea is much closer and the tide is quickly coming in. The difficulty of noticing this reduces by one for each research turn that passes. It is clear the TARDIS is going to be engulfed by the sea; although the Doctor may feel safe, nervous companions might panic him into leaving the TARDIS. The TARDIS is immune to the effects of fluoronic acid.
During this time, if the scanner is on, there is a chance each research turn, starting with the first one after the TARDIS arrives, that a companion may notice movement in the jungle, catching a glimpse of a human face. It is difficulty 5 against Awareness to see the figure -- who is the slightly curious Hykronos. Hykronos, however, cannot easily be lured from the jungle -- he's had his fill of messengers from the gods for a day -- but may well lure a hot-headed companion, such as Steven, out of the TARDIS.
As a last resort, if the companions are determined to stay in the TARDIS, the villagers will in due time troop down to the beach and drag the TARDIS on rollers to the temple, unwittingly delivering the Doctor into the hands of his enemies...
SCENE 2: ON THE BEACH
The real world lives up to the scanner's depiction of a tropical paradise, although the slightly alien sounds of the island's birds and the rasping susurrus of insects makes it seem rather unearthly.
The Doctor and his companions should be encouraged to explore their surroundings. Allow players to send their characters in different directions, even if it causes a small administrative headache. (If you put players in separate rooms to deal with their characters' explorations separately, divide your time equally between them to avoid players becoming bored.) If players find it difficult to envisage their immediate surroundings, lay out some telephone notelets or beer mats to represent the areas in Map 2 (don't point out the quicksand!). Companions can explore the beach, the cliff or the jungle; they can even elect to go for a swim or sunbathe!
2A: In too deep
The TARDIS will be able to furnish any companion with swimming costumes, diving masks, or snorkels; if the Doctor can beat a difficulty of 5 with his Awareness, he can even rustle up some scuba gear or breathing apparatus for no more than two people.
The beach shelves gently towards the reef; there are no hazards to swimming bar the water itself. The dilute fluoronic acid counts as a slow poison, Strength 5, with an attack frequency of 5 action turns. At the end of every 5 turns immersion, roll to overcome a swimming character's Strength with the Strength of the poison (after 5 turns it is 1, after 10 turns it is 2 and so on to its maximum of 5). Attacks continue even if the character leaves the water, up to a maximum of 5 turns later.
Tell any character who enters the water that it feels surprisingly tingly against the skin. After 5 turns' immersion tell them that it irritates; after 10 turns that it hurts. They should get the hint and leave! Any character who takes a shower immediately nullifies the effect of the fluoronic acid. This encounter is not intended seriously to injure any character: it is a clue.
2B: Shore things
Characters who explore the bay have a chance of stumbling into quicksand in the areas marked in Map 2. It is difficulty 6 against Awareness to notice the quicksand (characters in distant areas increase this difficulty by the range to the quicksand); once in the same area it is difficulty 6 against Control to avoid it. Quicksand counts as difficulty 3 terrain on the first action turn, which the character must beat to escape using his Move. For each action turn in which the character tries to escape, the difficulty increases by 1; if the character doesn't try to escape, the difficulty remains constant.
Characters trapped in quicksand will be attacked by fluoronic acid in the same way as bathers (2A).
2C: Science lesson
Fluoronic acid, in the dilution present in the sea, is only a mildly corrosive acid: its main features is that its molecules are small enough to penetrate skin pores and debond many inorganic substances. This the Doctor will know or find out from the TARDIS database or his memory, difficulty 10 against Knowledge.
2D: Body language
Whoever enters the jungle first, or nears its edges, will see (difficulty 3 against Awareness) the body of a man spreadeagled in the undergrowth: it is Hynossos, who has clearly fallen to his death from the top of the cliff. On bending to examine the body closer, the character will be attacked by Hykronos, who sees his chance to avenge his brother's death, even at the risk of tackling a messenger from the gods. The player gets a chance to notice Hykronos's approach, however, using Awareness to beat the difficulty presented by Hykronos's Stealth (Control 4 plus Stealth 1 equals difficulty 5).
During the fight, the action should move away from the body; Hykronos will typically move an area away each time and still attack. Hykronos, however, simply needs winning over: if he wins the fight, he will drag the companion's body deeper into the jungle, where, when the companion recovers, there will be chance to talk and convince him that the TARDIS crew are friendly. If he loses the fight, he will recover in time to alert the companion to the approach of the villagers, urging him into hiding.
If the rest of the TARDIS crew appear, Hykronos will run for it, leaving them to be found and captured by the village patrol.
The main aim of this encounter is to introduce a possible ally who, although initially hostile, can be won over. He should be kept as a free agent in the event of the companions' capture.
2E: Body unbeautiful
If all the TARDIS crew stumble across the body, the Doctor should really investigate it. He will find, difficulty 5 against Medicine (automatic success) that although the native appears to have been killed by a fall, in fact he died before he hit the ground: the native's chest feels like jelly -- the result of a high energy weapon. If this immediately brings to mind the Daleks, there is certainly no harm jumping to such a conclusion.
2F: Caught out
While the crew examines the body, they will probably be too absorbed to notice that they have been surrounded by about a dozen hostile natives bearing spears and bows. 'Murderers! Seize them,' cries the officer in charge. Despite protestations of innocence, the officer will be unswayed by the companions' claims of innocence: there is only one way the truth can be found out -- by consulting the Servitors of Cyclops at the temple. The gods will decide the player characters' innocence or guilt.
The players may choose to put up a fight, but they are outnumbered three or four to one, have no weapons, and hardly a match for their captors. If struggle ensues, crowd companions and attack them with blunt weapons from all sides to knock them out. If a companion is KO'd, don't resolve any further attacks against him: simply have the natives bind him. Obvious weapons will be taken away from the captives.
If no companion has met Hykronos or is a free agent, by all means allow one to run from the natives -- to be met and captured or hidden by Hykronos.
Captured companions will be led through the jungle to the village, and forced to carry the body of Hynossos. If Hykronos gets the chance, he will nobble the back guard and free a companion if no player character is already free. It is extremely hard to memorize the route through the jungle (difficulty 8 against Knowledge, Photographic Memory helps).
SCENE 3: IN THE VILLAGE
Athenosia resembles a picture-postcard village, with squat, white-washed one-storey buildings scattered around a central square. A spring bubbles into a stone trough in the central square, and the overflow of water seeps into the ground. On the far side of the village, a trail leads up through the trees to a sand-coloured temple on top of a hill.
The captives are led to one of the buildings, which is obviously not a prison, but a moderately well furnished, one-roomed house. A guard is placed at the rear window; another stands by the door, which is hastily barred from the outside. Captain Kelsyx explains he is off talk to the High Priest of the Cyclops god, and marches off in the direction of the temple.
Showing abnormal intelligence for guards in a Doctor Who adventure, the two in charge of the prisoners will not be fooled by clever ploys from their charges: if one of the companions is 'dying', then that is his fate -- it is almost certainly the fate the Servitors will decree. This is to allow Hykronos and any free companion to prove themselves: disguised as a native a companion and Hykronos can dummy the guards, biff them with a blunt object, and rescue the Doctor and his friends.
Any objects removed from the companions can be found by the prison door. The two guards are each armed with a spear and a knife, which the companions may deem necessary to take.
3A: If in doubt, run
It is easy, difficulty 3 against Control (Stealth helps), to sneak through the village to the jungle; there are few villagers about, as most are at work in the mines. Only by entering buildings is there a chance of being noticed. Hykronos can explain more about the Servitors, leaving the Doctor in no doubt that the Daleks are at work, that their base is at the temple (Scene 4), and that they need some material from the mines (Scene 7).
3B: Help, we're trapped!
If the companions have somehow all been trapped and Hykronos has been killed, then the guards on the prison will demonstrate usual stupidity and allow themselves to be fooled by the prisoners. A scuffle is bound to occur in which the guards will have no compunction about using their knives (spears aren't practical weapons in a building) to end an escape attempt. Or you could play the adventure this way and allow Hykronos to enter at a vital moment and knock out a guard from behind.
3C: Search me
Investigating the village is risky: there is little to be found: the Athenosians are poor, but happy people who take pleasure in the gifts of the sea and the land. Evidently they are craftsmen, but there is no widespread evidence of metal: spears and knives are made from sharpened shells. Investigating the village raises the difficulty of sneaking about to 5; failure will alert someone to the intruders' presence and the alarm will be raised.
In the largest building, the head man's house, there can be found samples of the complex taranium ore mined by the villagers (see Scene 7) as well as a metal knife made of Dalekanium -- a gift from the gods for the villagers. It is difficulty 5 against Awareness for these items to be found in a 10 action turn search of the house.
Referee's notes
A map of the village isn't important -- handle any searching in an abstract fashion, pointing out the largest house as being slightly ornamented and obviously the most important of all the buildings. Make the companions roll once each research turn they are in the village to determine whether they are noticed.
SCENE 4: THE TEMPLE
To all intents and purposes, the temple looks like a simple Greek temple built out of reddish-coloured sandstone. Steps lead up to a plinth, at the front of which four round columns rise to a triangular frieze, in which a single blank eye is painted. The only entrance is through the columns: a tall rectangle of darkness that looks almost unwelcoming.
If the characters are free to explore, they can discover that the temple vibrates slightly, and there is a faint hum in the air: it's remarkably like being next to the TARDIS (difficulty 4 against Awareness when within one area's range). Scraping at external walls will reveal hard metal beneath: a stucco layer has obviously been applied over some alien object. It is difficulty 6 against knowledge to remember seeing this type of structure before: that of a Dalek time ship.
4A: In with the in crowd
One way to get in 'unnoticed' is to hide in the large baskets used to deliver tributes of taranium ore to the gods. Each night, about a dozen baskets of ore are delivered to the temple, consecrated by the high priest, and left for the gods to claim. In return, the gods sometimes leave gift of metal objects, like the Dalekanium knife in the head man's house. The baskets are easily big enough for a man to hide in, and it is quite conceivable for the characters to arrange to be hidden in the baskets and delivered into the temple.
4B: We did it their way
Characters that have failed to escape the Athenosians will be forcibly brought to the temple and abandoned on the steps for the high priest to emerge and pass judgment. Characters will be brought by guards into the building itself at the same time as the taranium ore.
4C: Of course nobody saw us...
Anyone snooping round the temple will be seen by Dalek security monitors: the Daleks will therefore be expecting any 'unexpected' visitors.
4D: Temple fortune
Once inside then temple, the door to the outside world will be shut, trapping the characters inside. Two pepper-pot shaped doors rise in the opposite wall, and three Daleks glide out of each one -- including the Red Dalek. They fan out, surrounding the characters...
What happens next largely depends on whether the characters are captives or voluntarily in the temple. In essence, however, the Red Dalek knows the characters are there and will take a few seconds to identify the Doctor or his associates: either he will deliver a staccato ultimatum to hand over the Doctor or he will pronounce the Doctor's death sentence. The characters must act quickly: the Doctor must come up with a good reason for the Daleks not killing him (by all means make the player who controls the Doctor sweat a bit!).
The Daleks, however, will not open fire while the characters are near the taranium ore and the ore is in the ship. To do so invites disaster: the phosphorescent ore could produce an unpredictable time implosion, stranding everyone present in time and space -- the Daleks couldn't even be sure they would exterminate the Doctor, nor would they be able to get their mined ore back to Dalek Supreme. If the Doctor realizes this, he is saved, provided he keeps the ore next to him. (And if the Daleks do get the courage to shoot, ensure that Hykronos is the one who gets hit!)
4E: The only way is up
There is only one escape route for the Doctor: into the Dalek time capsule, sealing the doors against his enemies. As a defence against pursuing Daleks (one through each door), taranium ore can be shoved into the barrels of the Daleks' guns (difficulty 7 in hand to hand combat; any Dalek that fires with a blocked gun is destroyed -- and the first Dalek through each door should fire and be destroyed! By this time the companions can seal the doors against the Daleks (who will cut their way out of the main temple door to escape themselves).
While in the time machine, the Doctor can sabotage it to destroy it safely and whichever Daleks are present. The level the characters enter is the control deck: the deck below is the stores, labs and power rooms; the deck above is the observation deck, which has a lift to the roof (the way out).
In the power rooms, taranium ore is being refined and stored ready for the junior technician Dalek to get the time engines working. This Dalek is hard at work and absolutely no threat as it has a claw and sucker arrangement instead of a sucker and gun in its manipulator panel. But from behind, any Dalek looks dangerous.
The Doctor can arrange to destroy the ship by repairing the time engines and setting it to take off and explode in the time-space vortex: an explosion can be triggered by hurling the poor technician Dalek into the chute leading to the taranium refiner, leaving only a short time for the Doctor and company to leave the ship by the observation chamber and clamber down the temple's outside wall. There, of course, they will run into the escaping Daleks and be pursued through the jungle (Scene 7: The Chase).
4F: The time capsule
Treat the Dalek time ship as a simple cube on three levels, at the centre of which is a lift system. Invent scenery as necessary: store rooms are uninteresting: what is important is the power plant room, the control room and the escape route through the observation deck. Dalek lifts are panels set into the floor and are not immediately noticeable: it is difficulty 4 against Awareness to see them, and difficulty 6 against Knowledge to operate them.
The characters should feel under pressure to disable the capsule and get out in a short time. While doing so they can witness the Daleks in the outer area trying to cut through the external door to escape (the Daleks know they can get through this door quickly -- cutting through the Dalekanium doors into the capsule proper is out of the question.
SCENE 5: MAKE IT MINE
The taranium mines are not a vital part of the adventure, but the Doctor might prefer to visit them, say, to obtain materials or examine the ore that the Athenosians are extracting. The mines are open cast, and basically the 40 or so workers just hack away at a cliff with tools given them by the Daleks (pick axes with carbide-tipped Dalekanium heads). Each day the extracted ore is delivered to the temple in the evening.
The taranium ore is very low yielding and has phosphorescent properties: it glows visibly in dim light. It is completely harmless, but would any scientist trust a glowing ore, possibly with radioactive properties!?
A player who tries hard enough might well persuade the miners that the Servitors are not what they seem, playing on the lack of reward for all the effort. But the Athenosians are fond of their gods: only Hykronos knows of their evil and will speak against them.
5A: Open choice
The Doctor might raise the Athenosians against the Daleks, or he might use the taranium ore to construct a MacGuffin capable of temporally displacing the Daleks. Be prepared to respond to the players' ideas.
SCENE 6: THE CHASE
At some time near the end of the adventure, probably after the Doctor has arranged for the Dalek craft to be destroyed, the Daleks should pursue the Time Lord and his companions through the jungle to the TARDIS. Whether the Doctor relies on his 'infallible sense of direction' (difficulty 3 against Awareness) or the companions use a direction finder to pinpoint the time ship's location (difficulty 4 against Knowledge), start the chase about 20 areas from the TARDIS.
Neither the companions nor the Doctor will probably have had time to find their way about the island, therefore they should not know that although the line they take to the TARDIS is indeed the most direct one, it ends with a drop down a cliff! This is intentional: companions that make it to the cliff edge can hide behind trees ready to push any Dalek off the edge, thereby providing a means of destroying their pursuers. Inventive companions may use vines in quickly improvised traps in order to snare and then catapult the metallic monsters over the edge.
6A: Handling the chase
Either draw on paper or set up nine telephone notelets or beer mats to represent the areas given in Map Six. Roughly work out 20 areas distance and place a notelet to represent the location of the TARDIS -- do not tell the players there is a cliff in the way, because they cannot see that far! Use miniature figures or counters to represent the companions and the Daleks, one of which should be the Red Dalek; place one Dalek token in each marked area, and allow the players to place their characters' tokens in any area they wish. Action turn one now begins: ask the players what their characters are going to do; the Daleks will all move towards the companions this turn chanting, 'Search and destroy, search and destroy.'
Jungle counts as terrain of cumulative difficulty 2: it is difficulty 2 to move one area, difficulty 4 to move two areas, and difficulty 6 to move three areas. Companions are able to run at Move 4, the first Doctor can run at only Move 3; Daleks have Move 2 and are at a considerable disadvantage because the referee must roll each turn to see whether they can move even one area!
Daleks will generally alternate which of them tries to move two areas and which move only one or remain stationary and fire. They should always try to move two areas if the characters outdistance them too much. If the companions get too cocky, allow some Daleks to move into the same area as each other and use group fire to make their guns more devastating.
As the characters run towards the TARDIS, lay out more notelets or draw more areas to fill in the terrain. At about the halfway point, Dalek reinforcements should arrive, seeming as if to head off the companions from their goal. Place one or two Dalek counters on each flank, two areas distant from the companions and one area ahead of them, at the end of the action turn -- in effect, the Daleks have just moved into sight that turn.
Continue the chase until the companions suddenly realize that although the TARDIS is only a few areas away, there is a drop of about 10 vertical areas to the beach.
At this point their options are to stay and hide, ready to push Daleks off the edge, or to climb down the cliff using the vines. The climb is difficulty 2 for each vertical area -- characters may use either Control plus Mountaineering or their Move to make progress. To force a Dalek off the edge, use Control against the Dalek's Defence to hit, then Strength against the Dalek's Weight to force it over the edge, adding generous bonuses for drop kicks (+2 general modifier) or for using vines. Any Dalek that topples is destroyed on the beach below (no need to roll).
No Dalek can fire at a companion who is climbing down the cliff -- its gun cannot be pointed at such a severe angle.
SCENE 7: DEATH TO THE DALEKS
Once the companions reach the TARDIS they are safe, although they should deal with any surviving Daleks. If they wait long enough, any surviving Dalek, usually just the Red Dalek, will get to the beach in time to be bogged down in quicksand, where the fluoronic acid in the seawater will make short work of its electronic circuits, trapping the Dalek until the tide comes in and drowns it. Daleks trapped in quicksand should emit puffs of smoke and screech, panic-stricken, 'Cannot move, cannot moove, cannot mooove...' at which point their speech circuits give up in a sort of whining fade.
Or, realizing the potentially incapacitating power of fluoronic acid on the living creature inside a Dalek shell, the Doctor and company could make water bombs and attack any surviving Daleks. The acid would seep through the grilles in the Dalek's top part and down into the creature below.
To allow the Doctor to see the end of the Daleks, you could force a quick electronics repair on him before the TARDIS will take off (difficulty 6, takes 20 action turns). The TARDIS will be fully operational -- and Doctor is free to leave -- once the Dalek menace has been dealt with.
FRIENDS AND FELONS
Daleks
The exact number of Daleks in the adventure is up to the referee. The companions typically see only six at any one time, and the size of the Dalek capsule suggests only a small force is present. In essence, some Daleks need to escape the capsule before it is destroyed; a few others need to come in from other parts of the island, where they have been stationed on patrol, to worry the Doctor in the chase scene. Eight Daleks, including the Red Dalek should be enough: use the statistics in the Time Lord rules, and treat the Red Dalek as a Black Dalek.
Athenosians
Humanoids in appearance, Athenosians have fair, metallic looking hair and well tanned skin: they have mutated slightly from their original human stock to adapt to the environment of Hellas. They typically wear simple white kilts or tunics and sandals. Warriors should be treated as Ancient Worlds soldiers in the rules, armed with spear and knife (both count as edged weapons, inflicting 4 Wounds). No Athenosian wears armour; all of them speak perfect English. They are immune to the effects of fluoronic acid.
Athenosians try to live a Greek ideal of philosophising and peaceful coexistence. They are hard to incite to violence, but murder of their own kind is one of the few things that will provoke hostility.
Hykronos
Strength: 4
Control: 4, Stealth 1
Size: 3
Weight: 4
Move: 3, Running 1, Swimming 1
Knowledge: 4, First Aid 1, Wilderness Lore 1
Determination: 3
Awareness: 3
Daring with his brother Hynossos to look upon the secret rites of the Servitors, the two Athenosians crept into the temple the night before the TARDIS arrived and hid among the baskets of ore. Overhearing the Daleks talking of their contempt for the natives, and thereby learning that the gods were mere creatures, the two ran to reveal their secrets to the village. Unfortunately, Hynossos stumbled on leaving the temple, alerting the Daleks to the brothers' presence. The two were chased through the jungle: Hykronos made it to the cliff and clambered down; his brother was hit by Dalek fire just as he made the edge.
Hykronos is naturally sceptical about any messenger from the gods. He will initially regard the TARDIS crew as enemies, but if he hears them talking or theorizing about the Daleks, he will know they are people he can trust -- and, as messengers from the gods, more than capable of dealing with the Servitors.
He is resourceful, hunting for the village as a living, bright, and willing to contribute to any of the companions' plans. If he is beaten in hand to hand combat by a companion, he will have great respect, as he is quite competent himself.
High Priest
The high priest is an Athenosian under Dalek mind control. He speaks the will of the Daleks and calls on the wrath of the Cyclops to strike down those who might deny their godly status.
He will be present with the ore when the companions are delivered to the temple, but be dismissed by his overlords to prevent him from getting in the way. He has no real role in the adventure, but is a figure that the villagers respect.
