Time Travel Information, Procedures, and Expedition Plan in PRPG3

This document is intended to organize, correct, and supplement the information presented to the player characters in the 21 July 2018 session of PRPG3.

Expedition plan:

        The first expedition will be to send the party to 30,000 years ago, in the Los Pegasus basin in the west of (what will eventually be) Equestria. In this time, a number of currently extinct Megaflora are believed to be present in the region. The La Neigha tar pits are nearby, and are known to have sometimes trapped megaflora (and megafauna). Megaflora periodically seek sources of water to immerse their roots in to rehydrate themselves, and sometimes fall victim to being lured into the tar pits by the thin layer of water that can form atop the asphalt. Animals seeking drinking water, or hunting the megaflora, encounter the same fate.

        The expedition will be sent back to local autumn, since many motile megaflora at this time of year will probably be slowing down as they put on bulk and get ready to disperse seeds (many annual species will also be dying at this point, and thus somewhat less able to resist being approached and sampled).

        Anatomically modern ponies are believed to inhabit the area, and if present are probably skilled hunters of megaflora. Not much else is known about them.

        No professionally drafted maps are available, but Dawn Sparkle has provided the party with a hoof-drawn rough sketch showing approximate relative orientations of some features in the area:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15621IRIlNFGTKi8JnAG9ReH_Jtms0YuZ

Targets:

        The primary targets of this expedition are megaflora of all varieties. Some common types in the era are believed to include:

• Wooly radishes
• Colossal cucumbers
• The 'killer' tomato (a tomato-like fruit approximately the size of a large beachball and sporting a pseudo-mouth and pseudo-tongue full of sharp tooth-like thorns used to defend itself)
• Running squash
• Freshwater varieties of hayminnow

        Numerous others may or may not be present; most knowledge of what species occurred when necessarily comes from geologic timescale evidence rather than being precise to the year.

        Also of interest are mundane/sessile plants bearing edible seeds or fruits that could be precursors to domestic cultivars, as well as agriculturally significant invertebrates such as earthworms. Samples of any of these would be nice-to-haves, but not as essential as sampling the available megaflora.

Precautions:

        Paradox prevention mechanisms that enforce the integrity of causality (sometimes resulting in harmful or fatal 'fruitcarting' for the would-be paradoxer) are a known hazard intrinsic to temporal mechanics; however, the risk of incurring these mechanisms is preempted through the careful use of integrated fruitcart paradox breakers in the portal control system. These breakers are designed to trip off and close chronoportals before people or objects can pass through, if allowing that person or object to pass could invoke destructive paradox prevention.

        Because of these preemptions, and because the past timeline is fixed and cannot be changed, no special precautions are necessary to prevent contamination of the past with current objects or organisms.

Expedition safety:

        The interlocks for paradox prevention ensure that the time travel process itself is safe, but these measures cannot prevent hazards that might result from ordinary, non-paradoxical causality. Expedition members might encounter dangerous situations in the past. Just as in any other situation, the best approach to handling these hazards is to try to exercise good judgment regarding risk vs. reward.

        Because transmissible illnesses from the future sickening or killing people in the past may not cause paradoxes in many cases, travelers are expected to be vaccinated^[a][b][c][d] and practice good hygiene before departure. As long as these reasonable precautions are taken, modern health standards are believed to be high enough to minimize the risks to past people.

        The inverse, however, may not necessarily be true, and many pathogens can exist in past situations that are rarely encountered today. To mitigate this, travelers will be provided with an alchemical preventive elixir to aid immunity and prevent endoparasites from becoming established. They will also be expected to take a quick decontamination shower upon return to the present, if visiting a past era with potentially unsanitary conditions.

        Cultural differences between past and present can also be a hazard, due to their potential to cause conflicts. Travelers should hopefully communicate and interact with past people in ways that are respectful and non-confrontational. Eg., if goods or services are taken from past people, try to buy or trade them for something that those people would consider to be valuable. Dawn Sparkle will supply the party with some trade goods in the form of obsidian spearheads for this purpose, which are believed to be very desirable items for ponies ca. 30k years ago.

        Wild animals can also be dangerous. Many species of large herbivores existed to prey on the nutritious megaflora, and might be territorial or aggressive towards perceived competitors. Large carnivores also existed to prey on those herbivores. Presumably these predators will gladly eat little ponies, given the opportunity. Of particular note in the tar pit fossil record is a species of sabre-toothed dire squirrel, Sciurus infernalis, and numerous bones of a particular species of bear, Arctos noiazoma^[e]. Some archaeologists and paleontologists speculate based on surprising findings hinting at certain behaviors possibly similar to ponies that these bears may have been sapient, though to what degree, and if so, to what extent they were civilized or feral, remains a mystery.

Supplies and equipment:

        Plants from the recent past are similar enough to those of modern times to ensure that plenty of edible forage is available, so the expedition will not strictly need to bring their own food, and may not wish to in order to reduce weight and luggage. However, bringing modern food is optionally permissible, since past contamination is not a concern.

        Tents for shelter, raingear, and basic tools are available. The expedition will be provided with preservative enchanted specimen containers and so forth.

        A device with a translation enchantment will be provided to help in communicating with past people, should any be encountered.

        A communicator to the present will also be provided. Comms are bidirectional, but must be initiated from the past.

        There will also be two return beacons provided (a primary and a backup). The primary beacon is hard-set to return to exactly 300 seconds (5 minutes) after departure, in the present timeframe's perspective. The backup beacon is hard-set to return to 600 seconds after departure. These gaps ensure plenty of time for the return area to be cleared between potential returns.

Health effects of time travel:

        As explained to the party by Dr. Hour (during timeskip), the chronoportal device does not produce ionizing radiation during operation, and does not expose travelers to magical processes or effects known to present a specific biological hazard. In principle, the device is believed to be safe for unlimited use.