Synopses

After each Gencon, I'll post updates to the stories. Trying to do it during the convention would be silly! The format I'm using here will be based on the title of the book that Paddy wrote but the synopsis would be what actually happened in game, not what Paddy wrote.

Book 1 - A Colossal Return

An antique stolen from Jacqueline's exhibit at the British Museum is followed to Greece where a giant walking statue is delivered to Turkey and set loose upon the innocent citizens. The group works together to stop the statue and retrieve the artifact. The artifact is a controlling gear for the original Colossus of Rhodes which was rebuilt in order to conquer Turkey.

Book 2 - Her Majesty's Iron Soldiers

Body parts kept turning up in the turgid Thames. The odd part is that the parts were surgically removed. The other odd part is that the parts were all appendages. Clues and opportunistic shadowing led to an out-of-the-way place in the country where soldiers were turned into half-soldier, half-machine. The building was destroyed along with all of the soldiers, equipment, scientists. Somehow Magus Amassis was able to walk away from the explosion without damage.

Book 3 - Death from the Skies

News came to Brother Vladimir that people in his village were dying mysteriously. Word then came to him that the Russian government was sending an airship to drop death from the skies. Jacqueline was able to rent an airship to intercept them. A night battle in the skies in which the bags of disease was dumped into the English Channel, never to bother Man again.

Book 4 - A Turkey Dinner

Reports of the Turks conquering Greece using giant war machines got the group to venture to Greece. They split up into two groups. Jacqueline's group were able to convince him (mind control him) to turn over financial control of Turkey over to her and to recall the 6 war machines back to Turkey. The other group was able to destroy the war machine plant and take the plans for building them.

Book 5 - Zombie Apocalypse

Reports of bodies being stolen from battle sites all around the world got the group to investigate. They were able to discover that a necromancer was using them to build a zombie army to protect him as he was killing the Houses of Parliament in order to zombify them and turn the British government over to him. They were able to stop him before he had killed the Members of Parliament. Paddy showed he can turn invisible.

Book 6 - Voyage To The Bottom Of The Ocean

Jacqueline received an invitation to join an expedition to explore the bottom of the ocean to find Atlantis. The group found a glowing underwater city inhabited by fishpeople, but they were not able to visit due to lack of air in city. They did find out about history of ancient war of gods that sank the city. They were also able to arrange an agreement of an exchange of information.

Book 7 - Into The Deepest, Darkest Jungle

Jacqueline has come across a legend of a hidden treasure from an ancient civilization in South America. The group found their way to the site and made their way through it. They discovered that the traps became more advanced the deeper they went. So advanced that not even Montague could understand how they were made. Once finding the treasure room, they found a cube that,when touched, displayed a ghostly image of an insectoid-type creature chittering away. When the group left the treasure room, they encountered former Sultan Hasan bin Mustafa with a group of his own. He had also somehow recovered his mind control gem. The group defeated the Sultan's group and re-recovered the gem.

Book 8 - Space: The Next Frontier

The group was invited to attend the launch of Britain's first orbital space ship. The group was able to successfully prevent two different assassination attempts on the attending diplomats, ambassadors, etc. They also prevented a German Colossus from stopping the launch. The launch was successful however, the landing back at the launch site created a new problem. When the capsule door opened, a creature very much like the one in the cube stepped out. Before anyone can do anything, the British army shot and killed it and then took the body.

Book 9 - Chrononaut

The group was invited to attend a demonstration of a “time machine” in Britain. The inventor turned out to be have been the original inventor of the time travel system in the 28th Century but due to an accident, he was shot back to the 19th Century where he had to recreate time travel with 19th century materials. An alternate timeline was created from this accident and duplicates of the group tried to prevent the inventor from returning and resetting the timeline.

The group was able to allow the inventor to return and the duplicates disappeared. Montague didn't say much more but it is obvious that he is more deeply involved with the time travelers than he let on.

Book 10 - Message Received, We Await Your Reply

The group listened to the box found in story 7. After a while the image of the insectoid was able to translate to English the following message:

“Please! Please! Whatever you do, do not bring your war to our planet. Our xxxxxxxx drives are down and we are running on our --------- drive. We are trying to get home as fast as we can”

After a few more minutes, it then said:

“We are returning. End transmission.”

Through various investigations they found out the following:

The asteroid field was a planet inhabited by the insectoids and apparently destroyed by humans in the past. The insectoids are now claiming Earth as their own. However, it will be several years before they arrive.

The astronaut from the first rocket who didn't come back is in an alien spaceship in orbit above the Earth.

The group concluded that the ancestors of the Atlanteans were the ones involved in the war that destroyed the aliens' planet.

The group was able to steal the alien body and gather information from it before it was destroyed by the aliens from remote control.

The group has started testing the equipment found in the South American pyramid. The are working on plans to power them up from the Niagara Fall hydroelectric dam.

Book 11 - Think Tank

Jacqueline and Oscar Wilde, along with a significant number of other notables had disappeared. They were traced back to an underground cavern in Norway where the team discovered a secret lair with rows of brains in jars. The group found out that the mechanical brain had been collecting brains for thousands of years to try to understand why humanity rises then falls. It is trying to stop that. Eventually the group was able to shutdown the intelligence and restore the people to their respective bodies. But before that happened, the intelligence predicted that civilization will fall again and soon.

Book 12 - Uncle Sam Wants You. NOW!

Jacqueline's “husband” shows up and tries to begin to go over the finances but it turned out that he was a shapeshifter. The group captured him and relocated him to an empty warehouse for “interrogation”. They didn't get too much information and ended his usefulness. Shortly after that, they were attacked by another group of supers. It took a little while but the group was able to defeat them. They relocated to yet another empty warehouse to “interrogate” the survivors. They were able to learn about a “Department of Paranormal Control” apparently run by a Colonel Masters. After some investigation, the group was able to get Col. Masters in a secluded area and convince him that the group is not a threat and to establish a detente.

Book 13 - The Theory of Evilution

Brother Zachariah was a traveling faith healer preaching the gospel and ranting against “witches”, i.e. people of extraordinary ability. But a short time after he would leave, hate groups would start up and begin terrorizing people who they believed are supers. He was gaining popularity to the point where he could hold a revival in Madison Square Garden. The group tried to intercept him before he could make his appearance but were thwarted by subterfuge. Once Brother Zachariah started calling out members of the congregation for their sins, he pointed to Broyan and called him a sodomite and denounced him for it. He also called out to Vladimir as a brother in Christ, told of his dark side and claimed to be able to heal him of it. Vladimir went up on stage to confront him on it. After a short fight involving several of the group, Zachariah was rendering deeply unconscious. After finding a safe place in which to interrogate him, he was revived. The group finally convinced Zachariah to undo what he did.

Book 14 - Things Man Was Not Meant To Know

The attorney for the estate of Jacqueline's “in-laws” showed up to deliver the news that Jacqueline's widowed “mother-in-law” recently died. As her husband's legal representative, she was requested to attend the reading of the will at the estate in upstate New York. Upon arriving, you were greeted by the same attorney and were introduced to the other relatives. After some snooping around, the group deduced that there is a cult in the family worshiping the “Ancients”, beings of great power. Later in the night, a secret door was found and everyone went down. A little exploration took you to a ceremony in which someone was being sacrificed. You were too late to stop it but not too late to get caught. You were surrounded by a being that you couldn't understand and were taken into the realm of the 4^th dimension. It took all of you to get yourselves back. Once back, you arranged to have the remaining cultists arrested and imprisoned.

Book 15 - A Stone's Throw Away

On their way back from an adventure and dropping off members, Jacqueline decided to visit Stonehenge before dropping off Montague. As they were hovering above in the airship, they noticed that one of the lentil stones was hovering over the monument. And then they noticed a young man seeming to manipulate the stone. He also had a book with him similar to the others that Jacqueline has stashed away. After trying to resolve the poor fellow's pining away for his “sweet sixteen” (and failing), they reached an agreement that the poor fellow would translate the book he had and also translate the titles of the books Jacqueline has for passage to where he wanted to go. The group just met a young Edward Leedskalnin before he builds his Coral Castle in Florida. Book 16 - Parts Is Parts Dr. Solvig was suffering from organ failure and was going to die unless she got treatment very soon. Jacqueline put the word out to find someone that can help. She received word that there was a “Doctor” Adam Newman who was helping poor people with seemingly miraculous cures. The group was able to track him down and arranged to have Solvig's failing organ replaced. During their time with him, they realized that this “doctor” was the original Frankenstein's monster and he was helping the poor and those he couldn't help, he harvested their organs. They also found out that he was creating his own “army” of reanimated people, many of whom he taught his secrets of reanimation that he got from Dr. Frankenstein. As it turned out, that book was actually another ancient tome and Jacqueline was able to acquire it amicably. The group concluded that as long as the “monster” did not provide a threat to the group, they'll leave him and his “army” alone. Book 17 - Look At What We Dug Up One of Jacqueline's research expeditions turned up an interesting find in China. Upon arrival, they found a vast army of clay buried beneath the ground. Further research turned up the original tomb of first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. What they didn't know was that someone else had sneaked inside and found the Emperor's armor and put it on. That armor controlled the clay army and soon the group was under attack by them. They were able to eventually defeat the person in the armor, only to find out that it was Ling Song, Jacqueline's Chinese cleaning woman! Further research showed that she was in league with former sheikh Hasan bin Mustafa and had been for a LONG time. Book 18 - Terror In The Skies Jacqueline had had enough of the airship pirate and as no one else was doing anything about it, her group would. When they found it and caught up with it, the found out it was no ordinary airship. Instead of being covered in a cloth-like material, it was covered in some sort of ceramic! And very smooth! The group, being the group, was able to easily overcome any resistance and take over the airship. It is not like any airship ever seen! The inside and outside seems to defy gravity in a way the group can't figure out. It has been taken back to Jacqueline's airfield for further study.