Season 16: Episode 13

Episode 13: Last of the Wampanoags

New England, 1774. Answering a call for help from an old friend, Penelope discovers two communities in turmoil. As tensions flare between colonial settlers and Native Americans, dark forces from a forgotten past are awakening in the depths of the Earth. With the help of allies from each side, the Time Lady must once again face her old arch-enemies… the Lloigor!

As implied from the title and the blurb above, this scenario mixed a somewhat Lovecraftian vision of colonial America with a strong ‘Last of the Mohicans’ vibe and some elements from Algonquin folklore. It also involved several key ingredients from our own continuity about the Lloigor, different time continuums and the telluric Power of the Earth. The “old friend” mentioned above was Alicia McLaren née Maddox, a psychic / time sensitive first introduced in “Stolen Pasts” (season 9, episode 7) and later seen in “Hellfire” (season 10, episode 7) and “Cry of the Banshee” (season 12, episode 1).

As is often the case, actual play brought its fair share of unexpected turns and twists – including a very amusing ‘oops’ moment by Penelope herself during the initial reunion with Alicia ; the NPC had just mentioned the Boston Tea Party – a reference which was not understood by either of Penelope’s companions, so the Time Lady explained that this event was “the first step leading to the birth of the United States of America”, which caused Alicia (whose husband Sean had joined the ranks of the American rebels) to shed tears of hope and joy: “So we ARE going to win!  This changes everything!”  What made this especially funny is that Penelope had, mere minutes before, sternly warned her companions about the dangers of meddling with history and judging the past with the benefits of historical hindsight…

We had a GREAT time. The episode marked a high point in the current season; it was quite epic, with a constantly rising dramatic tension, some very moving moments and quit a few memorable scenes. “Fantastique!” said Sylvie, right after the end…

As the antepenultimate (I love that word…) episode of our current season, “Last of the Wampanoags” also opened the doors to the final diptych, in which the Lloigor will, of course, play a prominent part… See you soon for the penultimate episode!