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So you've decided you want to torture your players by throwing them into horror settings like in Waxwork, but you don't want it to all be an illusion. Good news! Waxwork II: Lost in Time has the answer in Cartagra, a world where good and evil battle it out for eternity by rehearsing bad movie plots.
Tweaking the original horror paradigm, none of the "shades" features work. Everything is entirely real. Unlike the first Waxwork movie, where the pocket dimensions were small and escapable through force of will, Cartagra has no such easy escape route. To find a way out requires a magic item, Solomon's Locket.
This locket, an amulet of many planes, act as an interdimensional compass of sorts. It points in the direction of the gate to the next world – which can be any solid surface. It should be noted that the Locket does not necessarily provide a way home, just a way out.
The characters should ideally have a means of traversing the planes. In fact, the plot of Waxwork II is a great way to confine player characters that are fond of jaunting off too far from their own Prime plane. Perhaps the gods finally decide that anyone who is so adept at hopping planes would make a great minion. These characters, known as Time Warriors, could be good or evil – their unifying characteristic is that they are stuck in Cartagra playing different roles.
Like the first film, a Time Warrior entering a new dimension inhabits a role, lacking any equipment he might have had with him before he went in. One difference from the first Waxwork was that it was feasible for a Time Warrior to bring one magic item (usually a weapon) along with him. This is part of the mysterious rules the gods impose on Cartagra and might not immediately be obvious which one carries over. It might even be entirely random.
How do you get out of Cartagra? Mirrors are the rumored source of exit in one of the fantasy demi-planes. But determining which plane and which mirror should be an adventure in itself. For characters that get sick of traversing the planes like and lack any other planar transportation, the Time Warrior prestige class might be their only way out.
Hit Die: d8. Requirements: To qualify to become a time warrior, a character must fulfill all the following criteria: Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks. Class Skills: The time warrior’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Speak Language (None), Spot (Wis), and Survival (Wis). Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Time warriors gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor. Tracking Bonus (Ex): At 1st level, the time warrior gains a +10 insight bonus on Survival checks to track the quarry. Improved Cover Identity (Ex/Su): At 2nd level, a time warrior establishes three specific cover identities, plus one additional cover identity every four levels thereafter. While operating in a cover identity, the time warrior gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks and a +2 circumstance bonus on Bluff and Gather Information checks. When the time warrior has the option of adding a new cover identity, he may instead work on further perfecting a cover identity already possessed. An improved cover identity grants a +6 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks and a +4 circumstance bonus on Bluff and Gather Information checks while operating in that identity. A specific cover identity may be improved multiple times, each time adding +2 to the bonuses. It is impossible to detect the time warrior’s alignment with any form of divination. This ability functions exactly like an undetectable alignment spell, except that it is always active as a supernatural ability. Only divinations are confounded; spells that function only against certain alignments affect the time warrior normally. Should the time warrior wish to “retire” a cover identity and develop a new one, he must spend one week practicing the new identity before he earns the bonuses. Cover identities do not in themselves provide the time warrior with additional skills, proficiencies, or class features that others might expect of the pretended professions. The time warrior can switch cover identities or don a disguise using the Disguise skill in 1d3 minutes. He can also put on or take off armor in one-half the normal time. Aligned (Su): At 3rd level, the time warrior has the instinctive ability to mimic the dominant alignment of the plane. A time warrior incurs none of the penalties for having an alignment at odds with that of the plane, and spells and abilities that harm those of the opposite alignment don’t affect a time warrior. A time warrior has the dominant alignment of the plane with regard to magic, but a time warrior's behavior and any alignment-related Class Features a time warrior has are unaffected. Uncanny Location (Sp): At 5th level, when a time warrior spends one day attuning him or herself to a person or object he or she is seeking, he or she automatically determines that person’s or item’s location as the discern location spell. Once he or she has established a sense of the location, the time warrior can maintain this uncanny link even if the target moves, but only so long as he or she hunts down this person or item to the exclusion of all other pursuits. If he or she ever turns aside to undertake a second pursuit, the uncanny location ends, and the time warrior must spend another day to reattune him or herself to the target. Knock (Sp): At 6th level, the time warrior gains the use of the knock spell as a spell-like ability once per day. This ability functions as the spell cast by a 10th-level caster. Dimensional Anchor (Sp): At 7th level, the time warrior gains the use of the dimensional anchor spell as a spell-like ability once per day. This ability functions as the spell cast by a 10th-level caster. Freedom (Sp): At 9th level, the time warrior gains the use of the freedom spell as a spell-like ability once per day. This ability functions as the spell cast by a 10th-level caster. Plane Shift (Sp): At 10th level, the time warrior can use plane shift as a 10th-level caster once per day. |
For more info: See my review of the movie.
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