Two hundred miles southwest of Cairo, you stand with two men in a subterranean stone chamber. The first of your companions would be familiar to anyone with a television or internet access: the enigmatic billionaire and adventurer, Charles Sneed. Tall and muscular, he radiates a physical presence that dominates any room, even this one. This is the inner sanctum of a forgotten temple to Khonsu, the Traveller, an Egyptian god associated with the moon. The room is built around a free standing stone archway, carved with hieroglyphs and other, less familiar writings. Several oddly shaped chunks of humming machinery have been haphazardly affixed to the ancient stone, all wired together and controlled by a laptop on a nearby folding table. The second man types intently on its keyboard. This is Doctor Eustace Mason, Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist. Here, in Chuck’s employ, his theories are being put into practice.
“We’re almost ready.” The scientist says.
Chuck turns to you. You’re ${character.name}, formerly a ${Your previous military rank? Ex: Lieutenant Colonel} in the ${Your previous military organization? Ex: United States Marine Corps}. Now you’re retired, working freelance in the Roughnecks, the Sneed Corporation’s secretive force of elite security contractors. For this mission, you’ve traded your usual drab military fatigues for a far more fanciful costume. Your helmet and breastplate have every appearance of being bronze, but they’re actually crafted from a high tensile polymer with far higher strength than mere metal. A linen waist wrap and sandals complete your dress, giving the overall impression of a wealthy, well equipped Egyptian warrior. This isn’t the strangest equipment load you’ve worn on a mission, but it’s up there.
“We’re trying something a little different this time, ${Your first name, or nickname, used by Chuck?}.” Chuck says. “Normally we’d use a Wardrobe Gate, or piggyback on an existing breach, like we did off Bermuda. But Mason says the Egyptians may have had a whole other method, based on pyramid metageometry and a bunch of big words that give me a headache just listening to him. Bottom line, we’re going to fire up an old temple gateway, and see what happens.”
The billionaire grins widely, something like a shark.
Ready to take point for me, ${Your first name, or nickname, used by Chuck?}?”
You put your hand on the hilt of his sword, and and adjust your helmet. The hidden HUD overlay appears, framing your vision with useful data.
“You got it, Boss.”
Doctor Mason keys in the final sequence. What happens next would blow your mind, if you hadn’t seen similar phenomena dozens of times already. Within the stone archway, electricity crackles, and a swirling vortex of pale yellow light flares into existence.
Taking a deep breath, you step into the portal. The universe explodes around you, flooding your senses with blazing energy as you traverse the void between worlds. It’s exhilarating, and terrifying, and bizarrely familiar, because you’ve done this before, on mission after mission on Chuck’s orders. You’re flung violently forward, and you land face first in sand. You feel the hot desert sun on your skin. You blink the sand from your eyes, and pick yourself up. The first thing you see in this strange new world is