The AVENGERS - 1889 Back Issue Bin

GM Commentarys

Take a gander here to see commentaries on each issue and references for Easter Eggs and story ideas from where they were "re-imagined". Note, while not spoilers specifically - these notes will give some "behind the scenes" ideas and details.

Age of Wonders - the AVENGERS 1888

issue #1

M&M presents:
INVASION FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - Part I: "the Avengers Cometh"
October 19, 2007.
GM: KEVIN

ISSUE RECAP:

• Opening Cut-Away Scene: the Horrible Case of Bloody Jack - Ripper Recap PART I - these scenes have opened on the scenes of "the Ripper" murders.

Gathered together by the Queen - the Wasp, Marshall Rodgers, and the Argonaut read the letter from the Queen and their induction as the first of the new Avengers. Sir Nicholas Fury arranged them on the British Rail headed toward the Welsh country-side. It seems the Isle of Wight has a problem...

Along the train toward the Isle Gentlemen and Ladies watch as the Men of Renown get to know one another. And suddenly the train is rocked!

Decerning that the train is in danger of careening over the edge of a large cliff face as the train tressle is out, Fury bid the Avengers into action.

After much well planned work, there are little injuries and no casualties - save the train engine and the first three cars. The most odd of the events is the thwarting and driving away of strange "Moleoid" beasts... As the team assembles to rush on to the Isle of Wight, Fury bellows the immediate need on the coast.

Arriving at the ferry docks on England's side of the 3 mile channel, the heroes learn that the Empire Guardsmen have faced some beasts coming out of the massive hole that has destroyed the Osbourne House. As men and women that escaped the creatures on the Isle, having "coal burns" across their body's the heroes find an odd cocoon that men are trying to move. It seems inside of this volcanic was a guard, trapped and a little worse for ware - but not dead!

As the heroes questioned the guards and arrived on the Isle, they quickly learned these "Magma-Men" were spreading their radius of heated ground. While the massive chasm sits without activity.

Determining descression might be the better part of valor, the team retreats to search for answers, answers they believe will be had by Henry Pym...!

TEAM ROSTER: Marshal America, the Wasp, Argonaut

ISSUE APPEARANCES: Nicholas "the Fury" Dee, the Moleoids creatures, the Magma-Men (stone-apes)

ISSUE CAMEOS/MENTIONED: Ripper, Queen Victoria, Pym

EXPERIENCE POINTS

2 Power Points for this story first issue.

3 Power Points (if each player completes your wiki page entry)

TOTAL CURRENT Level & Experience: PL8; 125pp

See you next time True Believers!

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issue #2

M&M presents:
INVASION FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - Part II: "Small Challenges"
November 4, 2007.
GM: KEVIN

ISSUE RECAP:

• Opening Cut-Away Scene: the Horrible Case of Bloody Jack - Ripper Recap PART II - these scenes have opened on the scenes of "the Ripper" murders.

Rushing back to London to find Pym in hopes of explanation or aid, the team learns that Pym had formerly been working in Paris with a mechanics group but now has been relocated to work with Starkweather.

Lady Van Dyne telegraphs Starkweather to arrange his aid in finding Pym. Even though it is late at night when they arrive, the Wasp's allure aids entrance to Starkweather's home.

The team learns that Pym is working on Starkweather's new textile factory machines and has a "laboratory" in Whitechapel. Starkweather gives the Avengers the apartment address and notes on the location his investigators have learned where Pym frequents a brothel and opium den.

When the Avengers arrive at Pym's apartment they find the entire floor has been seemingly condemned and boarded over. After some investigation the team learns that Pym has reduced everything (using his "Pym Perfumes") within the apartments to a mini-city so that he can have immense areas for his colonies of insects and his lab work.

After minor dealings with the Pym Perfumes and insects the team search to find Pym not there. Lady Van Dyne retires for the evening as Argonaut and the Marshal seek Pym at the opium den...

Pym had struck the ire of the den's owners and now was being beaten by tough ruffins, but Marshal America saves the scientist before breaking his nose himself for his bad behavour.

Pym wakes the next morning in the cells of the Tower of London. The team interogate him until they're satisfied that he's not directly responsible for the events on the Isle of Wight. But they learn much from the scientist about the natures and connections of the trenches and mythology and the faerie realms.

During these discussions, Commander Dee brings to the attention of the team the appearance of at least 8 total of these 200 meter holes in different parts of the world and across the Empire. Argonaut speculates that these holes are actually forming Antipodes on the opposite sides of the globe from one another!

Together Pym and Argonaut guess that the strange "Menhir" with the odd silver etched symbols in them, reportedly on the edges of these holes have some sort of powering mechanism or something...

To end this issue the group makes plans to assault the Magma-Men, hoping to capture the large rock at the center of the disturbance believing that it is a key to the invasions!

Antipode Calculator

Dimensional Pits 1888: a guide to the locations of the holes that began in Issue #1, as determined by Argonaut.

TEAM ROSTER: Marshal America, the Wasp, Argonaut

ISSUE APPEARANCES: Henry "Hank" Pym

ISSUE CAMEOS/MENTIONED: Ripper, Anthony Starkweather (and his iron armored bodyguard), Virginia "Pepper" Potts (executive secretary to Starkweather), Edwin Jarvis (butler to Starkweather)

EXPERIENCE POINTS

TOTAL CURRENT Level & Experience: PL8; 125pp

See you next time True Believers!

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issue #3

M&M presents:
INVASION FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH - Part III: "Burned"
November 16, 2007.
GM: KEVIN

ISSUE RECAP:

• Opening Cut-Away Scene I: Leading in to foreshadow upcoming story arcs - Avengers 1888 Issue #4 Preview 1
• Opening Cut-Away Scene II: the Horrible Case of Bloody Jack - PART III - these scenes have opened on the scenes of "the Ripper" murders.

The Avengers seal their plans to invade the Isle of Wight, hoping to rush in and steal the stone Mehir, believing that will diminish the effects on/of the Magma-Men.

As night wanes Argonaut toils away into sleepless hours working with his "father" Master Pym to create a Lava-Skiff to be used to approach the magma-laced land around the hole at the former Osbourne House site.

On the morn the team loads cargo onto the [insert name of SHIELD carrier here] and sailed down the Channel toward the Isle of Wight.

Arriving in the boiling seas two miles out from the Isle, Argonaut gave word (card) and the carrier's cargo-hold opened to the ocean, jettisoning them out to ride the heated waves.

Holding tight and ducking the siring waves the Avengers used the Lava-Skiff's armor to ride up the, now partially melted, white cliff-faces of the Isle.

Quickly approaching the Avengers could see the movement of the "Stone Apes" as they spread their magma menace.

Only quick thinking saves Marshal America when lava melts the steel bottom of the skiff, spashing heat into the passenger flat then suddenly...

The Magma-Men attack, flipping the Lava Skiff into the air! Marshal America climbs the flipping hulk landing on the bottom-side as it pitches and begins to sink as Argonaut splashes down and begins to sink in the volcanic lake!

Meanwhile the Wasp rushes toward the Mehir stone, blasting Magma-Men as she flies. Then explodes the base of the Mehir into gravel.

The Crown Chief of the Magma-Men watches, ordering his minions to attack as D and Wasp swarm the pit.

But it is Jinku, the Witch Doctor that proves to be the chief threat as pulses of heat radiate from the ground through the legs and hearts of the Magma-Men - she commands them to wrap the flying heroes in their porous molten rock snares! Marshal America yells out for his teammate as the Wasp's cocoon smashes to the ground, while D summons up his mystics to thwart the Earth from jailing him! As Jinku raises her trump card, the captured Professor Harver Rupert Elder of Eton, on a gust of heated air!

Seemingly pleading with his king to stop the invasion, Molto, watches as Jinku is brought from the sky - seemingly killed and falling into the pit... He runs and leaps into the black following his Jinku! As the Professor falls with them.

Elsewhere the land-locked Avengers survive the onslaught of the Magma-Men, as Argonaut "swims" his way back to the skiff just in time to see the magma landscape super-cool with the fall of Jinku the Witch Doctor!

Rushing the pit D swoops in to save the Professor. Now blinded and slightly mad from his subterranean "hollow earth" experience the Professor calls out for the sake of his peopl... STUDENTS who were still lost somewhere at the beautiful Valley of Diamonds.

Marshal America and Argonaut close quickly as the massive Mehir stone falls and hovers nearly a foot above the ground, hanging on what D sees and the world "ley lines" - interconnected across the land to the other Mehir stones and through the hole to its antipode! The good Marshal raises his Star-Spangled Saber to slice the malignant artifact in half - when suddenly D yells out "HOLD!".

With the eldritch heat of Jinku the Witch Doctor fading the Magma-Men cannot bare the surface world and begin to solidify into stone statues of their former selves. Only the Crown Chief King yet crawls back toward his home. With his crown breaking from his brow, it is an Avenger that aids him! Lady Van Dyne, respecting the nobility of the king, helps the hobbled scion into the darkness as the volcanic pit begins to close.

And looking back, Wasp sees she is the only one small enough to enter the collapsing hole to find and save Professor Elder's students as she, without a goodbye, zips into the black.... (to be continued in "The Wasp at the Earth's Core!")

The team has won the day and the world is save, from the evil hands of the Magma-Men, a threat no single man of renown could thwart! For more see: EPILOGUE to Avengers #3

TEAM ROSTER: Marshal America, the Wasp, Argonaut, Dr. Estrange

ISSUE APPEARANCES: Crown Chief King of the Magma-Men, Molto, Jinku the Witch Doctor, Professor Harver Rupert Elder of the King's College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor,

ISSUE CAMEOS/MENTIONED: Spyder-Man, Mr. Scorp, Ripper, Sgt. Kasteel

EXPERIENCE POINTS

2 Power Points for this stories climax issue.

TOTAL CURRENT Level & Experience: PL8; 127pp

See you next time True Believers!

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issue #4

M&M presents:
AVENGERS UNDONE - Part I: "No More Time"
November 30, 2007.
GM: KEVIN

ISSUE RECAP:

• Opening Cut-Away Scene I: the Horrible Case of Bloody Jack - PART IV - these scenes have opened on the scenes of "the Ripper" murders.

The Avengers "wake" in darkness. We open in media res, why are they in the dark? What has happened before?? - THAT is not important now!

Seeing the mighty team fall to prey to "the mountain" which has apparently collapsed on them, during the exciting viewing of John Henry's steam-drivin' race beneath a train tunnel outside Tombstone, AZ - the man-legend realizes that he needs to call on a greater power to help free the trapped men and Avengers - hopefully there are survivors!

Beneath the mountain Argonaut strains his cogs and wheels holding a small cavern of air for the dozen or so railworkers. Spyder-Man strains to aid the metal giant as Dr. Estrange begins to comfort the oriental railworkers in their own language.

In the distance a small pecking can be heard from beyond the collasped tunnel... could something be coming for them??

Dr. Estrange reaches out asking for his Eldritch forces to aid the heroes in holding the mountain while Argonaut fights to create structures to hold the mass.

The distant pecking begins to be accompanied by a lyrical sound... a germanic sound of man... SINGING!!

And with a spinning dodge flip Spydey leaps from the collapsed wall and in the breach stands the Odinson!!

Here we see the site of the Egyptian pit and Mehir standing stone. A shadow hangs on the pyramids from far above.

The great Sphinx

Focusing on the area that held hidden Rama-Tut's Valley Temple and the Terracotta Warrior tomb.

Following the rescue - the Avengers make arrangements to rush to Egypt, where Commander Dee has telegrammed to make the team aware of a massive cloud formation above the Giza Plateau, where another one of the Birfrost, one of the great pits with the Mehir standing stones. Another "Gate to The Well of Urdr". The Avengers realize that this information could be weeks old at this point and Dr. Estrange agrees to delve into dark ritual to attempt to bridge the gap though the non-Euclidean portal...

But then the Odinson calls out - THOR HAILS HEIMDALL FOR AID!! And in an instant the Bifröst (Rainbow Bridge) explodes from the pit... A massive hoof is heard on the echoed depths. The Asgardian Charriot of Heimdallr, an Æsir of Norse mythology. Heimdall is the guardian of the gods who will blow the Gjallarhorn if danger approaches Asgard. His senses are so acute that he can hear the grass grow and he can see to the end of the world; he can hear a leaf fall; he also requires no sleep at all. He is moreover the guardian of the Bifröst Bridge - the bridge leading from the realm of mortals, Midgard, to the realm of the gods, Asgard, which the gods travel daily to hold their councils and pass judgments at Urdarbrunn (Well of Urd) under the shade of the tree Yggdrasill.

Riding the Bifröst is beyond expectations and yet it also calls to the Gods that ride the charriot... Heimdallr looks into the depths beneath the bridge seeing for the first time in ages the gathering of Trolls, Hydra, and Beasts from Hel... They are awakened and climb to the gates! With a mighty leap the Bridge-Watcher leaps into the defense tossing the reins of the goat-driven wagon to the Unknowable Spyder-Man! (goats: Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr).. the same wagon that scorched the land and cracked the mountains cracked as Thor traveled in his wagon across the Earth at the dawn of time.

Watching his friend-brother pull his sword to fly into battle the Odinson nearly leaps into the fray but holds back to stay with his new companions as Spyder-Man pulls the reigns as if he were meant to drive the mighty wagon! The Odinson has been tasked to protect and watch Midgard and it is with the Avengers that are now his new brothers-battle!!

Exploding from The Well of Urðr, the holy well - the Well Spring, where the world tree Yggdrasil feeds, the Avengers see the great desert expanse. The Great Pyramids of Egypt loom in the foreground at the causeway and above a shadow permeates the land - massive and dark, covering the monuments. Scattered around are the fallen. Many dead, some survivors of the battles that had raged here as the thing from above took down the majority of the British Empire's armed forces standing to protect the land.

Riddled with strange shell-casings and fire-damage the fallen seem to have been trying to advance on the Great Pyramid, tomb of Rama-Tut, or perhaps they were holding a defensive line...?

Meanwhile, Argonaut has been unusually argumentative and resistant to the joining of "new" teammates to the Avengers and the mighty machine seems uncaring as he walks away from the carnage toward the Great Sphinx front-facing. There the Avengers re-assemble at Dr. Estrange's call... Something had been found!

Beneath the paws of the monument lay an opening into Rama-Tut's Valley Temple... there in the sand lies a great tomb opening to a host of warrior statues! These "terracotta soldiers" in the forms of slaves with the heads of raptors and pharoah alike, as well as camels, leapards and great serpents!

Without a though Thor leaps into the pit to examine the statues. The Odinson's leap "activates" something and several of the warriors come to life, attacking the Norse God!!

As Thor is wrapped in the coil of what he calls "Jörmungandr" (the Midgard Serpent or World Serpen)... The Avengers spring into action. With a few blasts of eldritch and mechanical means the heroes learn that any "force" seems to empower and expand these clay-statues!! Bringing them to life as they grow doubling in size!!

Spyder-Man and Dr. Estrange manuver to aid their new teammate and out of nowhere the marvel machine rattles the warrior statues with a chain of fire from his newly attached gattling guns - Argonaut was purposely awakening the beasts!!!

With some massive strikes Thor learns that nothing can stand the blows of Mjölnir for long - as the Odinson crushes the giant snake. And so to does the mage, when Dr. Estrange litterally rips the warriors apart with control of the element of earth!! But all is still not content... As Spyder-Man seeks out the hidden underground path to the causeway bullets riddle about him... Argonaut is firing on a fellow Avenger!!!!

And with that we end this incredible issue... Will the Avengers survive this treachery? What has happened within Argonaut's innards that has caused this definance?? Who is the horn-helmed figure that watches from the Great Pyramid of Rama-Tut in the distance???

Tune in next time True Believers!

Giza Plateau Map Details

TEAM ROSTER: Argonaut, Dr. Estrange, Spyder-Man, Thor

ISSUE APPEARANCES: Thor - Odinson, the Unknowable Spyder-Man, John Henry the Steel Drivin' Man, the Terracotta Warriors

ISSUE CAMEOS/MENTIONED: Mr. Scorp, Whiplash, the Ripper, Tombstone's Railbaron, several of Henry's rail-workin' troupe, a mysterious figure on the Pyramids

EXPERIENCE POINTS

0 Power Points for this issue.

TOTAL CURRENT Level & Experience: PL8; 127pp

See you next time True Believers!

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AGE OF WONDERS - "The IMPERIALS"