Issue #6, Vol. 2 (April 28th, 2007)
Heroes Rise, Continents Fall
Much like the last game of the first campaign, I had to reconstruct this long, long after it happened.  In this case, nearly 6 years.  I'm going mostly from a combination of the outline of where things were headed and what I can remember.
CAST: I can't say for certain.  Here's what I remember B4 (Jeff) Geoff Gardner (Alan) Rift (Jim) Couch Potato (Joe) Vector (Terry) Thok (Mark) <--I *think* he joined after dinner. (Game was held at Jeff's, which to me indicates that Mark was not there, but I do think he showed late because he got to meet the ancient Atlantean oracle who was an Illithid.  Joe had retired Duplicity and thus played either Couch Potato or Rodeo Clown; whichever it was, the Oracle makes reference to expecting "someone else"--see story below.  Robert was in the Peace Corps, so Dr. T. was the only one of his showing up, as an NPC.  Terry was at pretty much all the games I ran.  B4 was just a guess; Jeff was present and since most of this was action, I think it was him and his phaser included.  Likewise Jim was at nearly all games, including a few I ran at his place.)
RIDING THE MIDGARD SERPENT The characters get into the Sub "Jormungandr", a sub far larger than any they've ever even heard of, having been on the surface when it transported itself through time back to 1943.  Now they need to seize the controls at take this thing away from the Nazis as well as the cargo of modern information that could alter the space-time continuum. Some of the people they encounter and fight are Jotun ("Giant", a huge brick), Parzifal (Like "Percival" of Arthurian legend), Die Spine ("The Spider", a martial artist with gadgets). In addition to the villains and their Nazi minions, there are a few other things encountered: Small, steam-powered robots are encountered.  They appear to simply roam the halls unattended performing maintenance duties.  They are definitely like one that Geoff Gardner used to use in his lab long ago. One of the characters (Off hand I'm not sure which) gets a telepathic communiqué to come to the "Temporal Engine Room". A German scientist greets Geoff Gardner as if he's a visiting dignitary. He refers to Geoff Gardner as "Herr Uhrwerk" (Oor-Verk; The German word for Clockwork). He says to excuse his lack of protocol, he's a scientist, not a soldier. He says Herr Uhrwerk is much younger in person and he's glad to see him up and walking. He finds it appalling how the Fuehrer belittles Herr Uhrwerk and that "cleaning bots" are not an appropriate application of his fine work. He asks about "Frau Uhrwerk" and if she's on board. He asks if he's involved with the creation of the Temporal Drive and if he's there to fix it.  The PCs get pointed in the right general direction. The Temporal Drive System turns out to not be an engine at all.  Inside the locked room labeled as the TDS is instead a disembodied BRAIN suspended in a tube of fluid.  The brain communicates some information. "I Know you somehow, some when." "Are you a liberator or another master?" After some discussion of who the PCs are, "You are not from here!  Your presence will alter things the longer you are present." There is someone else on board besides the PCs and the Nazis.  "I sense others in the cargo bay, destroying the goods and technology of your era.  They are soldiers of some sort."  Rift recognizes them as his hunted "ANACH". "These people are coming your way in waves.  Please detach me from the interface and I will take us all to safety.  Without me they will not be able to transport." ANACH disintegrate any tech and anachronistic knowledge they find.  As they do this, the heroes travel to the future (or rather, return to the "present"). The team are underwater but surrounded in a bubble created by the Brain.  Then, finally something I can quote!  This is directly from the game: "At first the area is exceedingly dark.  But as your eyes adjust you can see that below you in a distance are bits of coral, bright and phosphorescent. [Like the coral the PCs found on the godzilla analogue they fought near Lazarus.]  There's a slight motion to the group of you as if the bubble in which you stand is drifting slightly.  As you try to get your bearings, something approaches. Out of the swirling darkness above come a dozen or so figures, quite obviously swimming easily.  They are sporting spears and tridents, a few trail nets behind them.  They circle and point their weapons at you and the globe in which you are tenuously suspended.  they are speaking to one another, their voices carrying in the water and even into the bubble in which you stand." The players made no aggressive moves and went with them and found themselves in an audience with the Queen of Atlantis. ATLANTEAN TALES There is a massive labyrinthine maze that covers most of the area around Atlantis, a remnant from the days when one had to walk rather than swim.   Interestingly, there are signs of recent combat and in the gargantuan coral are a number of enormous footprints. Nearby there is a spot that used to be a monument.  Now there is just a plaque and the remains of the metal frame that once held it.  The Plaque reads "In remembrance of the Allied Victory over the Axis powers and the defeat of the deep-sea going vessels at Titan's gulch."  The metal framework matches the strange metal that had been attached to the bottom of the wrecked sub in the harbor of Lazarus.  Seems that during a fight here with an enormous amphibious creature, it got within feet of the main building before being repelled, teleported away... to where the player characters encountered it.  It's massive feet dragged the small sub monument from its mooring and took it with it. The players are dealing with the guard captain, a large, strong young man in an armor helm.  After some discussion you find out that they have of late fought with Atlantean rebels led by Murk the Usurper, the treacherous brother of the now-dead Atlantean king. An oral history of Atlantis is read out.  (I'll attached that as a separate document here: ATLANTEAN HISTORY.) Queen Mara has plenty of questions and answers: Where are you from on the surface?  How did you find this location? How are things up top?  Their lines of communication have long been down due to the enemy that encircles them. King Miniton, her husband, was murdered, backstabbed by his brother, Murk.  Now called usurper, he tries to lead a force of outcasts and rabble in an attempt to retake the place. In 1938 they had their first contact with surface dwellers in a thousand years when (then) Captain Samuels helped them destroy some subs created by the Nazis to explore the depths of the ocean, including their hidden city. There's a political divide among the citizens which powers the current rebellion:  Some feel that remaining isolated from the rest of the world will allow the above people to continue to pollute the oceans.  Mara is fearful of such a move, but she is capitulating to the will of the people.  The current divide is over HOW to make contact.  Murk (and many others) feel they should seize the world while its unaware.  Mara feels peaceful contact is always the best approach, just as when they first met Samuels. She made the Allied forces who knew of Atlantis swear to never reveal the location of the city or of its existence.  This means Uncle Slam cannot say anything.  However, when Mara has the guard captain remove his helm and introduces him as her son, it become obvious that maybe her son (the rightful heir to the throne, supposedly) has a great resemblance to Uncle Slam.  If they make contact with the surface and the citizens see Prince Marus and believe he's Uncle Slam's son, then his claim to the throne would likely be revoked by the citizens. A lot of the stuff about uncertainty of Prince Marus' reign comes from "The Oracle". The characters get to meet the Oracle of Atlantis.  He is identified as a very, very old Illithid.  Thok has heard of Illithid that can grow to an insanely old age, but they are rare, the race being so Machiavellian toward one another.  His brain is swollen very large, enough so that some of it is exposed, and his time under the sea and possibly his diet, has caused him to be a shade of green.  He introduces himself as simply "The Oracle" and says his ship wrecked on Earth long ago and that he was saved by the Atlanteans who thought perhaps he was a form of Mollusk.  They brought him back to health from near death and he has since abandoned the backstabbing of his own peoples and his diet of juicy, delicious human brains. The Oracle relays the following. After looking over the group, "I was expecting one other.  One with the ancient symbol of duality."  He foresaw it.  (Problem is, Joe retired Duplicity before he could find out what the symbol was about.  I kept that bit anyway rather than toss it out.  I'm a continuity freak.) He welcomes the guardians of the "fifth city", the city of Air.  He says Antaeon, the capital of Atlantis is the first (or second city, depending on who you ask) to fall. He is unaware of which the other 3 cities are.  He says the legend is that the resources of the five cities compiled could conquer anyplace. He says there are lots of stories about Lazarus but most of them conflict with one another.  It has something to do with the interruptions in the time stream.  He also says that "Each prophet sees his own piece".  Apparently each city has its own prophet or oracle.  This would hold with Nolan Brisbain's weird prophetic writings of the city he created. "One story says your city will fall to an invading force of demons, when the 9 angels are sacrificed, one of each order."  In Catholicism, there are 9 orders of angels--Seraphim, Cherubim, thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels.  When they all die, your city and its citizens are cursed.  When the fifth city dies, so does the known world. [GM NOTE:  Historically, there are a few winged individuals who have died in the scope of the campaign.  Gossamyr of the original Sentinels was one.  Aces High, the young hero and friend of Anthem was another.] In order to slow the progress toward revealing themselves to the surface, she has to put down the rebels.  Queen engages the heroes as emissaries.  They go to the site of the current incursion and prepare to take on the bad guys if necessary. Turns out they don't want to talk much.  Among them are Murk the Usurper, a powerful warlord and gladiator.  Beside him, the sorcerous leader of the Nazi contingent, Ernest Thule.  And last but not least, one "Evil" Geoff Gardner. Seems that Geoff's attempt to time travel resulted differently than he thought.  He was essentially split.  The obstinate, old fashioned, steampunky one came here.  The other, angry from his failure, corrupted by various forces he would employ in the studies that came next, is nothing but a decrepit old man.  However, he has linked what's left of his body into a powered exoskeleton.  He is the one responsible for Atlas (in the underground at Lazarus) and is the one they call Herr Uhrwerk. I remember this being a pretty decent fight.  I also remember the heroes handing the bad guys their asses. Here are things I ultimately can't remember: Did the other Geoff Gardner die or was he taken into custody? <--I'm thinking he died in the fight Did the "brain" live and did the characters figure out its origin?  <--I'm thinking it did and you did not. Back on the surface, the team gave their report to Uncle Slam, who now knows he may have a child down there.  Not long after this he announced a run for President.