The Ashworth Chronicles, final episodes

Episode 5: Ghosts of War

Just when Penelope and Titus thought they were done with the Vishklars’ attempts to derail the Ashworth family history, the Time Lady’s TARDIS catches a new but unpleasantly familiar alert signal coming from the north of Aragon in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War – a time and place where no Ashworth has ever set foot before!  ¿Qué diablos está pasando?

Episode 6: Gorgo, Mormo

Before taking Titus to Avalon to meet his father Lord Ulysses, Penelope decides to take a holiday in 1^st century Rome – visiting old friends, showing Titus the sights and basking into the ceaseless wonders of the Eternal City… unless, of course, she was actually driven there by some mysterious, timey-wimey premonition for a decidedly dark, decisive miniseries finale…

And so concludes our miniseries, The Ashworth Chronicles - but of course, this writeup wouldn't be complete without our traditional post-play notes!

In Episode 5, a shocked and flabbergasted Titus discovered that his young wife-to-be, Victoria Sinclair, a supposedly blasé dilettante, had actually fought along the Republicans and the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War!  Since he could not run the risk of interfering with her timeline before their very first encounter, Penelope had to keep her future adoptive grandmother from the psychic clutches of the nightmare-twisting Vishklar and keep the family history on the right track. This episode also features one Eric Blair, a very British member of the POUM… who would later become famous as George Orwell.

At the end of Episode 5, with everything seeming hunky-dory on the temporal front, Penelope decided that she would conclude this first bout of adventures with Titus by taking him to ancient Rome, one of her favorite destinations. As the GM, I fiendishly decided that this choice, which was really made on a whim, was actually an unconscious premonition which would lead our favorite Time Lady to the time and place where the Vishklars' Three Mothers were hatching a sinister plot to bring about their own rebirth and Rome’s transition into the next Carcosa. 

Fortunately for everybody in Rome, Penelope was able to save the day (and history as we know it after 86 AD) with her usual flair. This adventure involved quite a lot of historical lore about the cult of Cybele, the Magna Mater (actually a red herring); in case you were wondering, its title comes from a famous litany spoken in one of HP Lovecraft’s early horror tales (but is actually an authentic quote from an ancient author, as I learned during my research phase).

And now… we’re taking a break, with Lady Penelope finally returning to Avalon with her new protégé. We’ll return in a few months, with a new miniseries of adventures in time and space!