Alternate Dimensions

[Aramanthus]

Those are some interesting ideas Mr Twist. That last one reminded me of "Rimmer's World." Please keep these coming!

[taalismn]

George 243454: "Why do _I_ have to play a woman?!"
George 180052: "Because we said so, -wench-! Now gimme a beer!"
---And so civil war broke out---

[MrTwist]

question: What happened to the Moon in Broken World?

Reply: Busted into pieces, just like Earth.

[Aramanthus]

So I suppose that the fragments might be able be colonized by the peoples of earth.

[MrTwist]

So I suppose that the fragments might be able be colonized by the peoples of earth.

Or used as raw materials. I figure some of the wars that break out between colonies would likely be the result of needing more raw materials to produce things. Bomb the heck out of your enemies and take what you want.

[Aramanthus]

That does work too! Resources is something that the human race would need if desperately!

[taalismn]

I see grand construction projects like giant reed and rope bridges being strung between the moonlets...

[taalismn]

Any form of life that can muscle its way through an ocean of jello, I'm not sure I want to meet...

On a related subject, you might want to check out Wayne Barlow's book 'Expedition'(much of which was adapted as the CGI program 'Alien Planet')...that features an ecosystem with a condensed gelatinous ocean where the whale-equivalents walk along the rippling topside, scraping off the upper layers of the bio-emulsion and eating it...

[Aramanthus]

That was an excellent program...."Alien PLanet" that is! I also would hate to meet those creatures that can muscle their way thru an gelantinous ocean.

[taalismn]

Somehow, if the oceans were th consistancy of jello...I see big balloon-tired vehicles driving across its surface....

[Aramanthus]

That would be a very cool world to discover! It was a great show!

[Aramanthus]

That would be an interesting world to adventure in!

[taalismn]

what if life evolved on venus (the hell world we all now) and then eons later preceeeded to invade earth in 1942. lava monsters vs nazi anyone.

The Venusians try to 'Venera-form' Earth by inducing runaway Greenhouse Effect...Triggering volcanoes, burning forests....dumping CO2 and other pollutants into our atmosphere, ...though our salvation might be an inadvertant 'nuclear winter'.

[taalismn]

The Venusians would be particularly active in the Pacific THeater...Ring of Fire....making Japan, various islands(including around Java), Hawaii, and western continental North America major sites of their incursions and activities....Italy would also be another area of their interest...

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Max Brooks World: Zombies walk amongst us! Only spread through bites and fluidic transfer (blood and stuff), reanimates within two hours and hungers for FLESH! They do prefer human, but will eat any type of meat they can get. Only by destroying the brain will they die, standard Romero rules for destruction.

[Lenwen]

Personally I'd like to see the other Dimensions that the Lord of the Deep has already taken hold of . That thing is just incredibly awsome ! Arms that can reach up to 2,000 miles !! DAMN !! I would like to see as I said the other worlds that , that thing already owns if any at all or dimensions as it were ..


-Lenwen.

[Aramanthus]

Those are some interesting ideas! I like the Venusians trying to colonize earth. But like always........ all of the ideas are great!

[MrTwist]

Personally I'd like to see the other Dimensions that the Lord of the Deep has already taken hold of . That thing is just incredibly awsome ! Arms that can reach up to 2,000 miles !! DAMN !! I would like to see as I said the other worlds that , that thing already owns if any at all or dimensions as it were ..


-Lenwen.

Read some Lovecraft. The Lord of the Deep always seemed like a Lovecraft-inspired thing to me. When it comes to alien intelligences, you have to consider their motives. What do they really want?

[Aramanthus]

A universe totally controlled by Alien Intelligences would be a very scarry place to be a citizen of!

[taalismn]

HP Lovecraft already saw it...it drove him mad...Be careful what you wish for..

[Aramanthus]

LOL That is what I heard about the man too. Could be what threw him over that edge!

[taalismn]

Henry Turtledove's just come out with a new book which has an Atlantean continent in mid-Atlantic....his is more bar-shaped than Australia-shaped....

[Aramanthus]

I saw that too. (Harry Turtledove's latest that is.) If you read it tell us what you think of it.

[taalismn]

I'll see what I can do...He's usually pretty good about things like this...

[Aramanthus]

I know. I've read a lot of his stuff before!

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Okay, here's a bit of a silly one, but what the heck. Whenever people sneeze, their hair and skin colors randomly change for two hours before returning to normal.

[Lenwen]

In that world I would hazard a guess that most men would be pourposefully making thier wives sneeze .. For a ahh.. roleplaying reasons haha least that is what I would do Accidentally spilling pepper on them to make them sneeze lol OOPS I'm sorry baby .. but tonight your name is Jessica Alba ....


-Lenwen.

[taalismn]

...Or when they sneeze, they must roll versus ME or accidentally astrally project for 1d4 melees...Out of body experience...
That would seriously suck if you had a sneezing fit while driving down the highway....suddenly finding yourself(POV) outside your car, zipping along side it, and for the next 15-60 seconds trying to climb back down your 'cord' in time to steer around that car that you're gaining on....

[Aramanthus]

LOL That was a great one! And another interesting problem with Taalismn's suggestion. Poor patient undergoing surgery when the doctor sneezes.

[Aramanthus]

How about a world where everyone alive there was living light constructions in nature. In other words this universe was fully animated.

[taalismn]

A world where the 3-dimensional and 2 dimensional collide...in other words you have entire cultures living in convenient flat surfaces of our own...

[Aramanthus]

LOL! That is a great one! You just have to watch out for "Dip"!

[taalismn]

Rather sketchy treatment of an idea of mine, for a supra-dimensional organization behind the dimensional veils:

Interdim----
“Mister Zeus? Letter for you...please sign here and thumbstamp here...I’m also here to pick up some packages you need delivered?”

Interdim(pronounced IN-ter-DEM) is a mysterious agency that monitors interdimensional traffic, conducts interdimensional communications between the more prominent and civilized world-lines, and, on occasion, had been known to interfere with world-lines that have become unstable, dangerous to neighboring world-lines, or otherwise ‘diseased’.
Interdim may appear to possess god-like powers for an organization, and advanced technology beyond anything seen elsewhere, but what most Megaversal adventurers will encounter of Interdim are average-seeming employees going about their rounds of delivering the megacosmos’ communications....mail, parcels, and the odd prophecy, with little to suggest in their demeanor or behavior that they work for a company that spans infinite time/space.

Symbol:
Interdim’s logo is a silver sphere bisected by a thick vertical white line, flanked on either side by silver-grey paralllelograms...a representation of Beta Prime intersecting the planes of several parallel world-lines.
Uniform and equipment colors are typically light blue, white, and silver.


Interdim History
“We’re a proud and honorable service, with a history that stretches back...dang, how long DOES our history stretch back?”

Little is known of the agency’s history, save that it seems to be incredibly ancient, but has undergone numerous ‘facelifts’ as the agency’s racial/species composition has changed, leaving little of the architecture and physical culture of previous generations for observers to extrapolate from. For the last hundred thousand years or so, Interdim has been dominated by human(and human-sept) culture, including, supposedly, Atlantean influence, but there is evidence of earlier non-human control of the organization. The current feel of Interdim is an ultra-modern organization with lots of fresh paint, even though they’ve been around for thousands of years.
Anybody who wants can dig into the agency logs and archives....but that’s a LOT of digging akin to searching through post office delivery records and supermarket surveillance tapes going for nearly a MILLION years....

Interdim Facilities
“Ah, home sweet artificial planetoid home....where a hard-working slob can get musket balls pulled out of his ass and get his legs re-attached...”

The major Interdim facilities are artificial worldlets and free-floating arcologies known as ‘Primes’ that lay within so-called interdimensional ‘safe zones’ or ‘crawl spaces’ in the energy interstices between universes. In these regions of space, which may be natural or artificial(nobody’s telling), conditions appear ideal for being able to monitor other universes with impunity...while tightly controlling all travel in and out of the immediate space/time. Primes serve as the main dispatch, training, outfitting, and command/control centers of the organization. Most Interdim employees will call a Prime their home, or will spend a substantial portion of their careers based out of a Prime.

The best-known of several known Primes is Beta Prime, a presumably artifical planetoid with an Earth-like temperate environment. Most of Beta Prime’s surface area is dedicated to training and relaxation areas for Interdim employees, and resembles landscaped industrial parkland, with reserves given to ‘wilder’ environs such as rain forest, desert, and mountain terrain. The polar regions, however, are dominated by massive mountain ranges of glowing crystal that are believed to be the locus points of giant interdimensional scanners or teleportation devices.

The next largest known ‘Prime’ is Gamma Prime. Gamma Prime is a somewhat smaller, but no less impressive, artifical construct; a giant ring-shaped arcology whose circumference is broken by a tall spire-like asteroid. Gamma Prime acts as a separate branch headquarters, but is believed to be able to take over most of the functions of Beta Prime in the event of service disruption.

(Note: The nomenclature suggests that there has to be an ‘Alpha Prime’, but nobody has ever seen or visited it....company employee rumors range from Alpha Prime being the supersecret headquarters of Interdim and thus kept out of the public eye...Other stories suggest that Alpha Prime was destroyed eons ago and never replaced...Yet another rumor is that Alpha Prime never existed at all, and is simply a piece of strategic misinformation.)

Besides the main facilities, Interdim has millions(billions) of smaller camps, safehouses, monitoring outposts, and depots throughout the Megaverse....Some are public knowledge in the worlds they are located; most are disguised. Interdim also has controlling interrests in millions of businesses and facilities, especially warehouses, hotels, and resorts, giving agents in the field a range of places where they can hide out, camp out, rest up, and touch base in the course of their work.


Interdimensional Communications
“You wouldn’t believe how many ‘fairy godmothers’ subcontract out to us to deliver various gifts....transformation wands, lucky tokens, magical wedding dresses, healing potions.....sometimes we just bring them over from the manufacturers, sometimes we gotta take them all the way to the recipient...that last gets a little tricky, since what orphan weif is expecting to sign a shipping reciept offered by some stranger in postman’s leathers when what they’re expecting is Angela Landsbury to set them up for the palace ball!”

Interdim’s bread and butter---its lucrative commercial side---is interdimensional communications. Interdim primarily uses live ‘runners’---couriers---to transit space/time and deliver hardcopy/media messages and packages to various interdimensional cultures and pan-Megaversal civilizations(there are a surprising number of them, courtesy of magic and archaic technologies, even if the present culture hasn’t advanced much beyond steam engines and gun powder). However, the agency also uses a variety of other communciations means: wormhole transmissions, courier drones, psionic amplifier-broadcasters, magic messengers, solar smoke signals....if it’s been used to communicate, Interdim has likely used it. A number of oracle societies find it convenient to use Interdim to deliver prophecies and warnings to various parties(imagine if the Oracle of Delphi used UPS), and several pantheons of Gods use Interdim to pick up goods for them, and deliver messages and gifts (Zeus often uses the service to send special material blessings to his many kids, and several pantheons have used Interdim to exchange peace offerings and secret love notes).
Not surprisingly, Interdim has a large presence at Center, on Phaseworld, and a smaller branch office in the UWW. Most Three Galaxy peoples, however, know Interdim only as a small-time courier company, with only a few folks knowing the true extent of the organization.


Possibility/Probability Monitoring----
“Come on in; we’re monitoring seven-el-zee-pee-forty-six.....Emperor Norton’s about to propose marriage to Queen Victoria face to face, and the girls are betting the boys this time around she accepts!”
“No way! Put me down for three hundred dimcreds against THAT happening!”

Interdim is constantly cataloging and monitoring trillions of world-lines as they split, diverge, branch, merge, evaporate, coalesce, live, and die. Using a combination of technologies, psionics, and magicks, they can also extrapolate the most probable outcomes of a given event or sequence of them.
The best prediction results come when Interdim has an established ‘baseline’ world-line...an unsullied worldline(or set of them) where Interdim can observe(with the the aide of ‘fastforward’ techniques) what would happen in a given situation. Using ‘Coventry Protocols’, Interdim deliberately refrains from interfering in these baselines, in order to see what would be the result(although if a ‘baseline’ becomes too unstable, Interdim may move to re-shape or terminate the world-line).

Reality Engineering
“Remember the old saw about a butterfly in the Amazon beating its wings and whistling up a rainstorm in Africa that alters the entire waterflow in Asia, leading to economic waves in America and the alteration of entire governments in Europe?
We are the butterfly...”

It isn’t really a common topic to hear discussed at any Interdim facility, but Interdim does engage in ‘reality engineering’. For the most part, this is of the ‘quantum butterfly’ type; small actions intended to snowball and nudge the course of events into ever greater changes. It might be as simple as collapsing a well that might otherwise become a source fo disease that will stop an Industrial Revolution in its tracks by killing an inventor in his youth, or it may be as drastic as an industrial accident at a nuclear fuel plant that kills off an entire building of mercenary nuclear weapons engineers. Sometimes it’s the introduction of a new technology, other times it’s an idea whispered in the right ear, or a handful of money passed to the right hand; history is given a little ‘push’, one possible future averted, and another, more favorable one takes its place. The agent who accomplishes the task may never see or know what it its he or she has ultimately accomplished, but the Interdim strategists will know if he’s succeeded. The scale of activity is mind-boggling, the stakes mind-bending.
In the most extreme cases, it has been hinted that Interdim has the ability to cut off entire world-lines from interdimensional commerce, or even collapse a world-line altogether, altering the very properties of underlying space/time with the Megaversal equivalent of a Doomsday Device. Hinted-at lesser devices, such as Wormhole-Pinchers or Slipstream Scramblers may be used locally to disrupt naturally occurring interdimensional gateways, especially if the dimension has no prior evidence of interdimensional travel by any other means...Interdim can safely lock away dangerous cultures while still maintaining the ability to access them by ‘back doors’ not known to the troublesome natives.

Time Travel
“Time Travel is virtually indistinguishable from interdimensional travel”

Interdim DOES have the capability to travel through time, but it is a far trickier proposition than one might think; since one cannot really tell if one is travelling through time or into an alternate dimension.
This creates difficulties for Interdim, especially when performing wide-reaching dimensional interventions....travelling into the past of a specific world-line for the express purpose of preventing a dimensionally-catastrophic event is useless if all one is doing is creating TWO sister universes...one where intervention prevented the event, and one where the event still took place, only to threaten other realms of reality, including the new sister-universe!
Even when true time travel is achieved, the work of the time-traveller becomes extraordinarily stressful. Different worldlines react differently to efforts to meddle in events; some world lines are temporally mutable while others are viciously inflexible, fighting paradox tooth and nail, to the point where events may conspire to insure that time travellers are the agents of the very actions they seek to prevent!
Among the experienced plane-hoppers of Interdim, those agents trained and certified for Temporal Action are regarded as both elite operatives, and as insane(both for joining such a stressful position, and for the massive pressures placed on them).

The Archives
“The answer’s here...but only if you ask the right question.”

Interdim’s real treasure is its massive archives of data on history and interdimensional studies, an incomprehensibly huge collection of data acquired first hand by Interdim, or purchased from various sources.
Interdimensional data is often organized by the most prominent and distinctive feature of it, a rather subjective system that can prove frustrating for newcomers to the database, even with the advanced library search algorithims employed by the Archive Librarians(it is rumored that entire generations of Interdim archivists have lived within the Archives, religiously worshipping the system). References to A234-Progenitor-5293568C-^^^-23]4-Tilsa436SinoTilesianCCCBBBCCCCX(and that’s the abbreviated version) can prove daunting to the casual researcher. Even more daunting can be the sheer mundanity of most of the records....centuries and centuries of recorded everyday life that may seem to be the ultimate voyeurs’ treasure trove, but which can be dull in the extreme to the average observer. However, since massive changes can start out as the subtlest of events( a flap of a butterfly’s wings, a disparaging remark to a disgruntled Austrian art student, a moment of sloppiness on the part of an aerospace worker...), such records can become the centers of attention, subjected to massive analysis and backchecking, Interdim tries to be thorough in documenting even the seemingly mundane.
For those in a rush, Interdim employs semi-sentient ‘Omni-Spheres’....virtual matter constructs that act as fast-access data terminals connected to the Archives. Omni-Spheres may be the archetypal ‘crystal balls’ of myth and legend...these basketball-sized crystalline terminals can display any number of records, including live access from Interdim’s vast remote sensor network. Access to high-level Omni-Spheres is a rare and tightly controlled privilege, since these ultimate and impartial librarians can access data that could, in the wrong hands, spell the ruin of entire dimensional sectors.

[taalismn]

Organization
Interdim is extremely careful with their recruitment and hiring policies...after all, giving people access to billions of universes is no small responsibility. Interestingly enough, most of the staff are recruited through the Deathline---

The Deathline
“It was strange...One moment I’m staring at the oncoming truck, grateful for having pushed that kid out of the way but wondering how the HELL I was going to get myself out of the way...the next I’m standing there watching the police bagging somebody...no...some BODY...while this other guy I assumed was another cop...she was wearing a blue uniform...is asking me to step aside so we could talk...I thought they were going to ask me about the accident...Only a little later, I was being told ABOUT the accident...
...And who was in that bodybag....”

“We learned that someone else was using something similar to the Deathline to recruit agents of their own....but they were training those folks to kill other interdimensional travellers...like us....They were racking up a real score across one of our more travelled phase-space routes when the agency sent some troubleshooters in to investigate....Kinda ironic when we began facing off in the na-shadows of that reality....two groups of dead folks not so different from each other originally slugging away at each other with high-tech weaponry...only we’d been given a choice in the matter...”

The ‘Deathline’ is the euphemistic name for the process of recruiting promising new members by taking them out of phase of a base time-space line where their senseless death is inevitable, in a technique similar to Quantum Immortality. For all intents and purposes, these people are dead, and their existance-line extinguished...but for the offer of continued, and more meaningful, life in the service of Interdim. Once signed, these people can never return to their home timeline. Though this seems heavyhanded, even cruel, those who Interdim selects invariably choose to join(though some, especially those with fundamentalist beliefs, elect to be memory-wiped and re-merged with their baseline selves and share their fate) ....why not life(and one meaningful and full of adventure?), when the alternative is rather more final(and fatal)?

Training
“You’d be surprised how easy to make and effective a slingshot is....I once put out the optics on a Kill-obot at ninety feet before it could cut me in half with a laser. Learning a new language and coming to appreciate the subtlties of home beer-making was even MORE useful in my experience...I once got into the Imperial Suite of Emperor Nero-Fabius the XXIII with my knowledge of Latin and a bottle of home-suds...After a lifetime of state dinners and sickly vintages, that poor guy was practically dying for some good hops-brew.”

While Interdim certainly has millions of specialists, the primary focus of training for field agents is flexibility; mental endurance and a certain pragmatic open-mindedness are valued qualities...Since Interdim agents may be called upon to travel through a dense alien jungle inhabited by hostile machine intelligences one day, traipse through Victorian Baghdad the next, make nice with proto-hominids on a glacier wasteland next day, and finish off the week skirting the authorities in an Aztec-dominated galactic empire, being able to cope with dramatic change is a must! Hypno-training, memory RNA quick-learn treatments, and data-implants with VR sim routines can go only so far in preparing employees for what could face them.......Interdim agents must learn through experience the best times and ways to bluff or bully, or turn and run away. Mental resilience is also taught; employees must never depend on ‘normality’ as a crutch....Interdim employees will routinely see in the course of their work the sort of things that would unhinge most people, or cause them to lose their nerve...And when eating live grubs and hot blood makes the difference between starving, getting the locals to help you on your mission...and a messy death...losing your nerve is NOT an option.
Basic Training for Interdim Couriers gives the following skills/Bonuses:

Language/Literacy
(4 of choice at +15%)
Disguise(+15%)
Intelligence(+10%)
Sociology(+15%)
Wilderness Survival(+10%)
Navigation: Land(+10%)
Pilot: Two vehicles of choice(+15%)
W.P.: (One ancient W.P. of choice)
W.P.One modern W.P. of choice)

Bonuses: +1d6 ME, +1d6 save versus Horror Factor, +1d6 save versus Mind Control/Torture, +12% save versus coma/death, +3 save vs poison/death/disease, +1 Dodge, +1 Initiative

Composition
“I need some guys with four arms and preferably blue fur for a package delivery in Zefun-2323B section....who we got on call tonight?”

The current face of Interdim is predominately Human(oid), though there is still a large percentage(45%) of non-humans, including a large number of species not encountered anywhere else at large in the Megaverse.
Couriers are charged with delivering sealed communiques to their destination with a minimum of interference in the world-line. Because of their survival experience, senior couriers are often graduated to Shaper Teams, responsible for intervening in dimensional events. Experienced agents and their teams are kept together, but are often rotated regularly to teaching and administration tasks, to share their experience with initiates and lower ranked employees.
The very top echelons of Interdim are rarely seen, but are most likely near-deity beings(‘bosses who really ARE gods’). On these lofty shoulders rests the responsibility to make decisions that can effect hundreds of world-lines and trillions of sentient beings.
Working for Interdim comes with its share of perks....good pay, excellent health care, interesting work, the support of an organization that cares, access to the Megaverse, and, because Interdim has a lot invested in its employees....Immortality.

Immortality

“I kinda lost track of how many times I’ve died in service....”

One of the perks of being an Interdim employee is the choice of personal immortality....Interdim offers employees a variety of options:

Physical----Genetic, chemical, and surgical alteration of the body itself to keep the body continually vigorous and active. This effectively augments the recipient with superhuman abilities like Regeneration and Longevity. However, as one Physical Immortal put it, it’s ‘immortality you feel in your bones’.

Sequential----Sequential means the creation of a succession of incarnations, typically using pre-recorded and stored persona-recordings or back-up ‘eternity chips’ implanted in the body of the employee themselves, and downloaded into new clone bodies. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages....Persona-recordings, unless constantly updated, may suffer from being ‘on the shelf’ too long when used, and miss large chunks of the person’s experiences. including knowledge of what last killed them. Personal ‘eternity chip’ implants may be lost or damaged by the same events that terminated the employee. Another downside is that many Sequentials come to feel that they are merely copies of the original person, and frequently have gaps in their chronological memories, depending on how frequently the biolog has been updated.

Virtual---Some employees elect to take Virtual Immortality, which works as a reverse form of Sequential Immortality....uploading themselves into a super-matrix and then downloading copies of themselves as needed into customized physical ‘shells’ as needed. These ‘avatars’ then re-load their surviving memories into the core matrix when their missions are completed, re-integrating the memories into a whole. Virtual Immortals tend to see their VR-state as their true state of consciousness, with their forays into ‘reality’ as the extensions of that existance. Rarely more than one avatar is active at the same time. Among the more pervasive disadvantages of Virtual Immortality is a certain sense of detachment with physicality, and sense of disorientation when avatars rejoin the collective consciousness....In some long-term avatars, a separate sense of identity may develop, with a resentment of the collective consciousness.

Quantum----This bizarre process actually clones the employee through the use of divergent space-time, creating two or more separate individuals. This is more of a ‘twinning’ process than a continual act of immortality, as each created individual is recognized as a separate person in their own right, and comes to be ever more divergent from the others as time passes. Some Quantum Immortals, however, do claim to have a telepathic or empathic feeling or connection to their quantum-clones, exchanging dreams or information in moments of great stress or at the time of death. Occasionally, Quantum Immortality may be reversed; two or more ‘quantum-clones’ voluntarily re-merging to form one individual, consolidating the separate sets of experiences in one person---however, this has its own share of problems; the sudden intensity of simultaneously experiencing two or more lives at once can badly disorient the volunteer, and can lead to stress and insanity without proper psychological support on hand.

Interestingly enough, not all employees take one of the immortality options, and many, after several hundred or thousand years of continual existance, elect to voluntarily terminate naturally, retiring from duty, tired of existance.

Technology

“This, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a CLUB....no moving parts, no power source, no jammable targeting system “
----Senior Agent Basco Drivets, Interdim Weapons Instructor

While Interdim possesses fairly incredible technology in its dimensional travel and monitoring network, the average employee rarely sees this sort of technological omnipotence....In fact, when operating in the field, Interdim prefers not to flash its technology around . Their primary goal in their day to day work is to get messages to the destination, and get the messangers back.
Whenever possible, Interdim tries to adapt and use familiar technologies, especially those indigenous to the regions where they are operating....However, most of their locally acquired gear is subsequently modified with special features, or simply used as a cover disguise for more advanced technology underneath. This means that the average Interdim operative will be found in the field with fairly mundane hardware at their disposal, with little hint of the incredible technological network behind them.
However, in those areas where Interdim can operate openly, they make use of some fairly sophisticated and distinctive gear of their own design. Interdim has mastered space/time technologies, such as zero-point energy sources and virtual singularity communications and transfer systems.
Most field gear has a rather drab commonplace appearance that is indicative of human-designed mass production, but which conceals its true sophistication.

Uniforms
“Your clothes should not be smarter than you are...The uniform doesn’t represent Interdim; YOU do...even if you have to finish your run stark-naked, people should know you for that professionalism, not because you wear a fancy outfit.”

Standard Issue Interdim uniform(where remaining inconspicious isn’t an issue) is a set of overalls, somewhat like battle fatigues, in a light blue color(think militant mailmen), with hiking boots and gloves, similar to a rescue worker’s. The uniform is actually made of tough non-allergenic, chemical-reistant megadamage fabric, with integral electronics inside the fabric, including bio-monitors, environmental sensors, and bio-comp medical kits, capable of injecting the wearer with a variety of anti-venoms, chelating chemicals, toxin-neutralizers, stimulants, anti-psychotics, allergen drugs, and other useful chemicals.
Depending on the situation, different dress and personal gear may be requested.....from loin cloth and bodypaint to full A-G-equipped power armor, but the ‘Interdim Blues’ are the standard dress for most assignments. The ‘blues’ are comfortable all-purpose outfits, but which have energy-disipation fibers woven into their fabric, rendering the wearer impervious to stun weapons and neural disruption. An active environmental monitoring system constantly checks the wearer’s immediate surroundings for hazards such as airborne contaminants, radiations, gases, and toxins.
Features Common to Interdim Uniforms:
*Megadamage Fabric(typically 15-40 MDC)
*Energy Disipation Fibers(energy stun weapons and nueral disruptors have NO effect)
*Sensor Jammers---This feature effectively cloaks the contents of the clothing(including the person) from security scanners, giving a false reading
* Biomonitor
*Pocket-Med---A set of basic medication ejectors and pull-tab hypos for applying coagulants, IRMSS and RMKs, pain-killers, and stimulants.
*Environmental Sensor---Alerts the wearer to radiation, toxins, and scans in their vicinity.
*Short Range Communicator---For regional communications and personal messaging between field agents; a cuff or collar short-range (80 miles) ‘spritespace’ communicator.

Portable Dimension-Com
“With the advent of portable dimensional communicators, the Megaverse just got a little smaller.”

This is a compact field-portable belt radio with handheld microphone that allows Interdim field operatives to communicate with other agents and with their out-dimension base facilities. Its exact means of operation is unknown, but the D-Com is rumored to use microscopic virtual singularities to ‘skip’ messages across interdimensional space.
Weight: 3 lbs
MDC: 80

Interdim Universal Energy Weapon(UEW-1)
“Your gun should be your LAST resort in a situation, NOT your first.”

A light, compact, multi-mode particle beam heavy pistol that has a passing resemblance to an Ingram, Calico, or Mini-Uzi SMG, the UEW-1 is the standard-issue sidearm of Couriers who expect trouble. The UEW-1 is modular in design; barrel extensions, stocks, and various sighting packages can be clamped on, making it into a long range rifle with sensor-scope capabilities. It can also be fitted to fire special rifle grenades, if necessary. The UEW-1 is light enough to use one-handed. It may not be the most powerful weapon available, but the UEW-1 is reliable, versatile, and has virtually unlimited magazine capacity. It’s designed to be used after being dragged through swamps, acid fog, hard vaccum, freezing rain, raging infernos, dips in the ocean, being buried underground, being embedded in ice, chewed on by acid-blooded aliens, hit with corrosion magic, and abused by klutzy operators, to name a few of the conditions Interdim agents regularly run into.
Weight: 4.5 lbs
MDC: 50
Range: 2,000 ft
(w/ barrel extension/Rifle Mode) 5,000 ft
Damage:(Pistol Mode) 3d6 SDC, 5d6 SDC, 2d6 MD, or 4d6 MD per shot
(Rifle Mode) 3d6 SDC, 6d6 SDC, 3d6 MD, 6d6 MD, or 1d4x10 MD per shot
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Regenerating power pack with 45 MD shots(450 SDC shots); regenerates at 1 shot every three minutes.
Special Features:
*Laser Rangefinder--+1 to strike
*Proofed Against Magical Disruption----Energy Disruption spells do NOT affect the UEW-1
*Non-Ferric Construction---Cannot be detected by metal detectors, nor is affected by magnetic fields.
*Scatter-Shot Muzzle Clip----Reduce weapon damage by 1/3 and range by HALF, but shot spreads to cover a 30-degree wide arc

Interdimensional Travel
“I don’t know who I pissed off in Dispatch....it seems every other time I get sent out via direct-Gate, they manage to flub the re-entry coordinates and I end up in some lady’s shower, or a bath house, or a nudist colony, or a dressing room....If it weren’t for the InternaDoc implant I got, I’d have been beaten to death about a dozen times by time...”

Interdim employs a variety of means to travel between universes, from wormholes and traditional Shifting, to d-space-hopping spacecraft and spacial-temporal conveyors.
The most commonly used d-porting means is a ‘Will-o-Wisp Probe’, a small virtual matter probe about the size of a basketball, made of semi-translucent semi-solid energy, that opens up a dimensional gateway beneath it. This allows Interdim to scout out a situation before risking personnel, as the Wisp is small, hard to see, and expendable. When the operators are satified that a landing zone is safe, the Wisp then deploys a grav-shaft and opens up a dimensional gate...the Couriers and their equipment simply drop through the gate and float down to the ground(this is referred to among Couriers as ‘the Jump’). Once it has gated personnel to the scene, the Wisp returns home for its next assignment, leaving the agents to continue the mission, until they are ultimately retrieved by another Wisp-gater. Chance observations of this mode of transportation in operation have often led to reports of ‘flying saucers’ and ‘beam-ups’.
Larger spacecraft are also used as a couriers and transport craft, but these are not regarded as appropriate for operations on ‘restricted’ worlds, where the products of obviously alien technology are less easy to conceal. However, larger craft also allow a greater degree of flexibility, and immediate support, not available to Wisp-gated personnel. Typically, Interdim operates nothing bigger than a courier or light freighter for their operations, souped up for speed and stealth.
Other means, more familiar to the average dimensional traveller, are also used; D-Gates, Wands of Transit, Wormhole Amulets, and the like, are often used by Interdim as back-ups or in regions where such devices are known(and less likley to attract attention...Even when Interdim’s existance is known, it is often wise not to flaunt umfamiliar technologies).
Even with all this technology, Interdim’s interdimensional travels are not always reliable; pertubations in the fabric of space/time sometimes throw teams off-course, forcing them to find circuituous routes to their true destinations. Interdim travellers are also all too familar with Rift Spiders and other monsters. When such happens, the incident, and its cause, are of great concern to Interdim, who will try to track it down and identify it. Rescue teams may have to be dispatched, and couriers may find a milk-run has turned into a gauntlet-run through hostile space...


Military Power
“Your gun is your friend...but it’s not your BEST friend...”

Interdim is not predominately a military power, and its employees tend to avoid the ‘dripping with weapons out the wazoo’ look, but one doesn’t stay around the Megaverse as long as they have without acquiring some serious firepower. Its operatives have access to some pretty exotic weaponry, and in a pinch, Interdim can outfit its ships and vehicles with fairly heavy weaponry. And, of course, there are the rumors of heavier weapons cached away.....weapons capable of collapsing universes....
Most operatives, however, carry only basic minimal weaponry for self-defense; usually a UEW-1, a hold-out non-lethal weapon, and a reserve melee weapon(typically one they are culturally familiar with). If an intervention is called for, Interdim typically assigns heavier weapons to a squad, or as many as a company of operatives, but the service tries to be precise and discrete in its use of force, rather than try to take on hostiles in an open slugging match. However, if a situation becomes too chaotic, or the stakes are critical(like a horde of xenomorphs taking over a major interdimensional transit hub or dimensional travel is attacked by concerted dimensional raider attacks across a dozen or more planes) Interdim may call a full-scale mobilization of reserve combat personnel, with the rest of the staff as second-line, or may simply discretely insert a shiva-bomb to sanitize the root of the problem.


Life Caches
“Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with my ride broke down, no food or water, no money, clothes worn to threads, my communicator hasn’t sqwuacked in over a month, gangrene’s creeping up my arm, and the air’s starting to smell funky....then I find this little cupboard of heaven waiting for me....bless the being who stuck this life cache here...”

Because of the relatively few numbers of Interdim agents available, the large areas to be covered, the extended nature of many mission assignments, and the fact that Interdim firmly believes that NOTHING ever goes according to plan, many agents find themselves in desperate need of support, when and where they are least likely to get it. Interdim can’t maintain fully-staffed offices of trouble-shooters and support personnel everywhere in the Megaverse, so they’ve kindly provided for their field agents by setting up life caches or life hutches---similar to the small supply depots set up by terrestrial Yankee whalers on desolate islands where shipwrecked mariners might wash up and seek shelter. Concealed about the Megaverse are supply caches to give Interdim agents much-needed shelter, supplies, and emergency aide---enough to give agents their second wind. Most supply caches offer little more than a cubbyhole, some changes of clothing, basic gear, and some local currency, but more elaborate caches may conceal heavy armament, interdimensional teleport gear, and heavy-duty transportation.
A typical example of a ‘life hutch’ is the Model 7 Survival Tower, a mass-produced, easily implaced, megadamage survival shelter that has become popular since Interdim became predominately human(oid) in composition. The Survival Tower is a short, squat, turret-like structure(900 MDC), fully environmentally-sealed(can even float in an emergency, and is impermeable even to Intangible beings), with both a basic nutrient synthesizer/recycler, and stored provisions adequate for sustaining twelve people up to 6 months. An external sensor suite provides surveillance-level monitoring and basic security coverage. Its interior holds basic furnishings(a work station, first aid bench, several fold-out cots, and floor padding) for up to twelve people. The Tower features a multi-channel communications suite, including long-range FTL radio, and dimensional communicator. The outside walls even feature a set of swing-out blast cannon(4,000 ft range, 6d6 MD per blast +2 strike, 6 shots per melee auto-mode) in the unwelcome event the shelter should come under seige. The Model 7 is (by Interdim standards) cheap, easy to produce, takes up little room in a D-Freighter’s hold, and can be readily dropped/situated all over the places Interdim agents are likely to need them most.


Relations:
“You can’t be around as long as we have without making a few friends...and more than a few enemies....”

Splugorth---- Interdim avoids all dealings with the Splugorth. The Splugorth have tried in the past to overwhelm and pry secrets out of Interdim employees, but Interdim has proven too slippery(or else the captives have shown a disturbing tendancy to suicide and vaporize) to hold onto. While Interdim has yet to overtly move against the Splugorth, they have on several occasions warned cultures in imminent danger of being conquered by the slavers, and have facilitated mass escapes or the transfer of defensive technologies. While not the top threat to interdimensional security, the Splugorth are regarded as thoroughly unpleasant troublemakers who Interdim would not be sorry to see go, and their empires divvied up.
(Note: The discovery of the GOOD SPLUGORTH alternities raises some questions, though....Does their existance also mean that there’s an EVIL Interdim out there intent on unraveling space/time? Interdim suspects so...they even have a name to go with it...Aerihman...)

Naruni Enterprises---Interdim finds the Naruni only marginally more palatable to deal with than the Splugorth...NE has tried hard in the past to acquire many Interdim technology secrets, and has relented only after Interdim threatened to stop making orders of weapons and equipment, and actively boycott the arms company. Since Interdim has often helped Naruni Enterprises in opposing their Splugorth rivals by facilitating their trade to threatened worlds, this threat actually has some weight behind it....threatening to hit the Naruni in their pride and their wallet. For now, Interdim tolerates the Naruni, doing business with them, but not letting them get past the lobby.

Cerebellus Demons----These arachnoid monsters are considered a scourge by Interdim, since one of them tried to infiltrate Interdim several centuries back. The creature was killed before it could penetrate too deeply into Interdim’s mysteries, but the organization found the whole experience too gruesome and worrisome for their peace of mind. Since then, Interdim, either through proxies or directly, has been hunting the foul beasts and eliminating them where ever they are found.

Mechanoids---Interdim recognizes the Mechanoids as a threat that MUST be stopped, but they lack the means to accomplish such a task with one decisive shot; the Mechanoids are spread over too many worldines to effectively contain without doing massive damage to the underlaying fabric of space/time. For now, Interdim assists Mechanoid-hunters in tracking down Mechanoid incursions into the Megaverse, and distributes information about the killer cyborgs to threatened cultures.

Prometheans---In the Three Galaxies, Interdim probably has the most traffic with the Prometheans of Phazeworld, and has a public office in Center, though the average 3G Interdim employee rarely, if ever comes in contact with these masters of space/time. Senior officials of Interdim appear to meet regularly with the elder Prometheans to discuss matters of Megaversal importance, however, and it is likely that the Prometheans play a major, if understated, role in directing and outfitting the agency, given the types of space-phasing technologies regularly used by Interdim.

United Worlds of Warlock---After the Prometheans, Interdim does the most business with the UWW, mostly due to the magicians’ knowledge of interdimensional travel.

The Cosmic Forge---Interdim doesn’t know where the Cosmic Forge is...or so they claim. Some outsiders who have learned some tantalizing information about Interdim’s operations have recently begun promoting the theory that Interdim knows the location of the Cosmic Forge...a rumor that Interdim would very much like to squelch before someone begins popping Interdim employees in search of the cosmic Holy Grail.

Rifts Earth---Interdim is keeping a close eye on Rits Earth, owing to all the convergent and divergent world-lines that have are revolving around it. Already, in less than a hundred years, Rifts Earth has spawned several divergent ‘shadow lines’ of different possibilities(including Splugorth Conquest Earth, NEMA Resurgence Earth, Coalition Victory Earth, 5ST Domination Earth, and Demonland Earth), as well as had a profound effect on several hundred nearby world-lines due to crossover and cross-contamination. Interdim has thus openned up a number of offices/observation posts on the various Rifts Earths, and keeps a constant eye on traffic and events around the dimensional nexus.

Time Patrol(s)----Interdim invariably runs into various temporal security or chrono-policing groups in the course of its missions. Most of these organizations tend to be narrow-focus groups, dedicated to policing the time-lines, temporal integrity, and timestream flow of an individual planet, culture, or galaxy, while Interdim concerns itself with the Megaverse as a whole. Relations with these groups range from the cordial to the outright hostile, so Interdim operatives can’t always count on the support of the local Time-Cops.


UPS---Universal Parcel Service----A newcomer to the Interdimensional scene is UPS, which prides itself on being Interdim’s rival with regards to interdimensional parcel transfer and communications. Smaller and tighter than Interdim, UPS has begun to make a name for itself, with its distinctive dark brown uniforms and dark brown delivery vehicles(often concealing substantial firepower). Interdim regards UPS as a young egomaniac upstart that may be getting itself into deeper waters than it suspects, and worries about what may happen if inexperienced UPS tries to go into the Reality Shaping aspect of operations, or intrude into new world-lines before Interdim has a change to adequately survey them. Though often snubbed by UPS workers, Interdim occasionally has to rescue UPS crews that have blundered into bad situations beyond their ability and understanding to escape.
Though lacking all the high-tech toys of their Interdim opposites, UPS employees are nevertheless quite adequately equipped, and often carry more raw firepower. Their infamous dark brown hover vans are a case in point; often nicknamed ‘gunboats’ for their heavy armor and concealed heavy armaments.


Gods-----Interdim really does try to avoid the attention of those beings known as gods, even though it can be claimed the agency often treads the same territory as them. It seems most likely, however, that the various pantheons have decided that the agency is neutral ground, and that any overt moves by either side to destroy or subvert it will result in an all-out retalliation by the other....so Interdim walks an uneasy path between being considered useful pawns and insignificant insects. However, contact with the pantheons is sometimes inevitable......The Hellenic Pantheon seems to have the most contact with Interdim; Hermes, in particular, seems to look after the megaversal messengers with some fondness, Athena has been known to pay the occasional visit to the Archives, and Zeus has been rumored to have used Interdim to slip the occasional love note or child support payment to his many mortal mistresses, away from Hera’s jealous eye.

[Aramanthus]

Cool organization! I'm going to work on another RCC myself. Pleus I've still got some ships to turn out.

[taalismn]

Figured we needed a) Interdimensional Mailmen, b) Behind the Scenes Manipulators of Probability, c) Archivists of Alternate Universes.

[Aramanthus]

I have an organization of my own I should post here after I type it up.

[Aramanthus]

I'll type it in later this weekend. It's an Intelligence Organization who supports the non-kreeghor/ non-sploogie powers of Phase World. My Federated States have contact with them too.

[Aramanthus]

That is an interesting alternate universe. Glad it ended earlier than that! There is a comic series that cover that event. Something called "Luftwaffe 1946."

[MrTwist]

Linked Worlds

Nobody knows exactly why they are linked, or who put the whole thing together. Somehow there are multiple identical earths rotating in earth's normal orbital path. Each earth is connected to two more(one on each side) through a series of multiple platforms dotted around the landscape. There are four hundred platforms that link to either adjoining planet.

Each platform has a single button that transports whatever is on it to the neighboring planet. The platforms are indestructible, and it is impossible to open them up or scan them to see their interior workings. When used, the person on the platform will be accelerated at incredible speeds with no G forces affecting them. Any obstruction in the path of transport(like planes) means the traveller becomes intangible and passes through. While in transit, sometimes it is possible to see a ring of giant spherical chrome objects obiting perpendicular to the path of transport halfway between earths.

The trip between earths varies from earth to earth, though a particular set of transports from one earth to the next takes the exact same amount of time each. This has lead people to believe the earths aren't arranged equidistant from each other but in varying distances. The geography is pretty much identical between earths, though various differences may occur. It seems whatever was behind linking the worlds didn't protect it from meteor strikes and what not.

Nobody knows exactly how many worlds there are linked in this fashion, though estimates range from less than a hundred to more than a thousand. The simple fact is nobody has been able to traverse successfully from one side of an earth to the other, transport, and then repeat the process until they return to their original earth.

The different earths contain many varied cultures of many varied tech levels. So while the geography is pretty much identical from world to world, the contents of the surfaces are definitely not. Because of population bleed(people travelling to either neighbor world), most worlds are rather similar to their neighbors. That's not always the case since some worlds have drastically different dominant lifeforms.

Citites generally spring up around the platforms because of the advantage of trade not only with neighboring peoples on your own earth, you can trade with those on the linked earth. That is, if whatever is on the next earth is actually hospitable. Because of the large enormity of earths, it's quite possible your neighboring world contains an indigenous population that is hostile.

The platforms themselves are of varying width, and always are on the surface. If covered by something(lava flow, etc...) for more than one hour they will either teleport the covering object[s] fifty feet off to the side in the case of smaller stuff or teleport the platform itself above whatever is obstructing it.

The one main difference between the worlds, beyond lifeforms, is the abundance of magic. It seems that the various earths have random amounts of ley lines, nexuses, and available magical energy. On some worlds it is almost non-existant, whereas other worlds might have enough to almost compare to Rifts Earth. No matter how much, or how little, dimensional travel to and from this Linked Earth world is highly difficult. This only pertains to the actual solar system that contains these linked earths and the other planets(identical to our own, like Mars, Jupiter, Venus, etc...).

The chances of a random rift taking someone here is slim, same with technological or any other methods of dimension travel. Why? Very simple. Anyone trying to travel here appears in a featureless large room, big enough to hold whomever/whatever is trying to get access. There is no noise, though there is light. After about a minute in this room, which has indestructible and impossible to scan walls, the people are returned to where they came from. In a very, very, few cases the traveller actually ends up on one of these worlds. There is no method to determine whether or not one actually is allowed to travel here.

The same thing goes for dimensional travel from this world to others. Big room, short wait, then you either go back to where you came or get to travel.

[MrTwist]

That one just popped into my head. I figured it would be interesting because in one dimension you have a whole bunch of alternate earths to pick from. Don't like the one you are in? Travel to the next. You might find high tech civilizations, dinosaur overrun ones, feudal magical kingdoms, and a whole crapload of just various stuff.

[taalismn]

Strip-Mall World----all of civilization is based alongside a single massive corridor or road that may stretch into infinity.....the sun rises and sets perpendicular to the road, but nobody who ventures more than 5-10 miles off the road in either direction ever returns...and nobody who's every gone in either direction has ever linked up at the other end, nixing the idea that the Road is on a spherical planet....Likewise, nobody's ever managed to get more than 5-10 miles up in altitude above the level of the road...and as far as anybody can tell, there is no curvature of the planet/plane...Various civilizations of various technologies have arisen alongside the Road, but there is no logical progression or arrangement of them in respect to each other...Mountains and valleys rise in the path of the Road...it travels through deep jungle and glacier ice...Through tunnels and across rivers....
Some people say one end lies in Heaven, the other Hell...others claim it starts in the Big Bang and ends in the Big Crunch...nobody knows for certain...

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Unbreakable World: All native inhabitants of this this world all have Invulnerablity, healing factor, longevitey, and SNPS. It is also like SPicers world, a complete lack of magic and psionic powers, so brute force is really the only thing that can stop them.

Planet of the Capes: Everybody, without exception, on this planet has at least one super ability (most have on emajor and one minor). Let the chaos run loose!

Were-World; Everybody is one type lycanthrope or another. Gangs and armies soon form (type is passed down through your mothers side), and countries form up around the different types soon after.

[Aramanthus]

Those were some great ones!

How about ..... Silica world. An earth where life developed with silica as it's base instead of carbon.

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Dragon's Breath: The inhabitants of this world are able to breath fire (like the classic European dragons) out of their nose and mouth at will.

Planet of the Cape-Killers: It is considered treasonous to be in possession of superabilities if you aren't a government agent. The penalty is death.

Friendly Fuhrer: Hitler comes to power after WWI, but instead of being a total arse-monkey, he instills a great sense of communal pride in the Germanic peoples. The do end up conquering their neighbors, but through trade and treaties instead of brute force and armies.

Mechano-Men: Due to a freak, global sized Rift, all people on this planet have been turned into living machines. Children are no longer 'born', but are BUILT by their parents. Fuel efficency soars.

Winged Wonders: The native peoples of this Earth are all born with one type of wing or other (feather, leather, insect, etc.). Ina additition, they can communicate with birds. Millions of scarecrows rot away due to neglect.

Medivel Mayham: This one might have already been posted, but if so, meh, here it is again. Gunpowder was never invented. Bows, swords and spears remain as the most common form of weaponry to date.

Everytime you sneeze, you youthen one minute. But pepper never came into existence on this world.

Theocroacy Free Zone: For some reason or other, NO gods or religions exist in this dimension. Think of how the laws in those societies would have evolved, as many of our current laws are based on them.

[taalismn]

Unbreakable World: All native inhabitants of this this world all have Invulnerablity, healing factor, longevitey, and SNPS. It is also like SPicers world, a complete lack of magic and psionic powers, so brute force is really the only thing that can stop them.
Were-World; Everybody is one type lycanthrope or another. Gangs and armies soon form (type is passed down through your mothers side), and countries form up around the different types soon after.

a) On this world tactical nuclear weapons were developed as POLICE weapons...

b) NORMAL people are considered to be aberrations and monsters(ala _I Am Legend_)....Silver is considered a strategic, rather than a monetary, metal...

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

a) On this world tactical nuclear weapons were developed as POLICE weapons...

COLD fusion weaponry. Within five minutes of their use, the Nuclear flash-bang deployment site is clear of radiation and toxic particles, and the perp is still blinded and deafened, slap the cuffs on him and haul him off to jail. Oooh, or anti-matter assault rifles, laser weaponry that splits the atoms of whatever it hits. Very nasty peoples, if you get on their bad side.

[Aramanthus]

Yeah. I agree, those are great ideas!

[MrTwist]

Frozen World

Not literally frozen because of cold, but frozen in time. For some reason time has stopped in this world. The world is a replica of Pre-Rifts Earth, down to every detail. Time just stopped at 3:54pm(pick the time zone of your choice) on August 17th, 2003.

While the world doesn't move around visitors, visitors are free to move around and interact with the world. Whenever you touch an object, you bring it 'back to life' as long as you are touching it. What actually is happening is you are bringing it into your 'time field', so to speak, and reanimating it.

Unfortunately for travelers stumbling into this dimension, anyone not from this dimension immediately starts bleeding time. You have 24(minus 1D10) hours before you end up permanently frozen, just like this entire dimension. When you touch an object, you lose 3 minutes from this alotted time no matter how long you are in contact with the object. This reflects the fact you are loaning the touched object some of your own time. When you are no longer touching an object, it still has those 3 minutes where it keeps going and can interact with the world, although nothing it touches will reanimate.

Somewhere on Earth there might be a way to restart time to it's normal flow, but that's left to the GM.
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I figured this would be a very strange world to visit. As an aside, the time stoppage could have been caused by any number of possible sources and restarting time to it's normal flow could be the subject of an adventure for a group of players with nothing else to do. It's not suggested that a GM bring a group to this world that doesn't have a way to travel dimensions since it would really suck if the PC's get frozen along with everyone else.

Since this could be a random destination for a rift, there might be other visitors trapped here and frozen just like this world. Maybe in the skies over New York there are a group of Splugorth minions surveying the area, forever frozen. Downtown Dallas might have a group of Wolfen mixed in with the humans, unknowing they had a time limit for their incursion.

[taalismn]

Creepy idea...