Sunday, May 21, 2017

Season 11, Episodes 9-10

Episode 9: Facing the Dragon
Can the bonds of love and destiny survive and transcend regenerations? This question brings Lady Penelope back to the Otherworld of the Tanu to stand before her royal lover (and former enemy) King Fenn – only to find that the tormented monarch is about to face a mortal ordeal of his own, with the future of his kingdom hanging in the balance…

Episode 10: The Lost Abbey
Suffolk, 1911. Lady Penelope teams up with psychic detective Everett Blake to investigate the ruins of a medieval abbey where two Cambridge men have mysteriously disappeared. What sinister pact did the Last Abbot of St-Waldred seal with forces better left undisturbed?  A not-so-classic ghost story featuring Weeping Angels, Reapers and Montague Rhodes James… 



Notes on Episode 9: This episode was entirely based on Sylvie's wish to have the newly-regenerated Penelope return to the character of King Fenn, who had played a major role in her previous incarnation. We had no preconceived idea of what would happen when they'd meet again face to face: would it result in a painful or friendly separation? In a continued or renewed relationship? In a somewhat unresolved situation?  In the end, their bond was renewed yet changed - "regenerated" if you will and Penelope decided to spend three (unplayed) years without travelling in time - taking the "long path" for a short while... 

Notes on Episode 10: I've been wanting to do a scenario with the great Montague Rhodes James as a NPC for AGES but could never quite find the proper way to do it, since involving MRJ in explicitly fantastic events (i.e. like Shakespeare in "The Shakespeare Code" or Charles Dickens in "The Unquiet Dead") would not have felt right, considering this author's well-known "reticence", to use a typically Jamesian term... But this episode gave me the perfect opportunity, since it was also the first one involving a new (occasional) player-character (the Edwardian psychic detective Everett Blake, played by our longtime friend Cyrille): this 'teamp-up' focus allowed me to use MRJ as a source of precious scholary information and (yes) "warnings to the curious", without actually confronting him to the menace (and then some) of the Weeping Angels - not to mention the Reapers and the decaying, half-immortal Last Abbot of St-Waldred. I also peppered the story with all sorts of Jamesian references - Cambridge academia, scholarly bits of church history, lonely ruins in the Suffolk landscape and a central villain bearing some deliberate resemblance to the typically Jamesian evils practitioners of the dark arts found in stories like "Number 13", "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" or "Lost Hearts". 

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Season 11, Episode 8

The Sixth Lady's first adventure (and a fantastic moment of actual play)!

Episode 8: Spark of Genius
Vienna, spring 1787. In the dazzling days of Mozart’s reign, the freshly-regenerated Lady Penelope meets those who live for music – and those who prey on their souls. Can the Time Lady protect a 16-year old Ludwig van Beethoven from the stealers of genius?  And is there any hope left for those who have lost the irreplaceable? A battle of wits, allegro con anima.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Season 11, Episodes 6-7

The Quest for the Key to Time has ended with two FANTASTIC episodes!

Kudos to my player, muse, wife, soulmate & Time Lady ;)


Episode 6: The Sixth Segment
In an unexpected twist of timelines, Penelope’s quest for the final segment of the Key to Time brings her back to her beloved Vienna – but in 1934, under a very different zeitgeist. There she will meet her double, two old friends and a face from oblivion. A tale of vivid memories and forgotten realities. Featuring Sigmund Freud and the Count of Saint-Germain.


Episode 7: The Dark Dimension
The quest for the Key to Time concludes with a dolorous blow, as the Dark Dimension invades the TARDIS and the vital essence of its passengers, extending its entropic tendrils of despair around the heart and soul of Penelope’s beloved ship. Locked in January 1934, Penelope and the Doctor must find a temporary safe haven to spark their last and desperate move against the encroaching Dark. A tale of creeping shadows and points of light, featuring Albert Einstein and a box full of hope – and ending in Lady Penelope’s regeneration!