From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Tender- Conscience, a native of the town of Vain Delights goes on the pilgrimage of Christian and Christiana to the Celestial City. He stops at some of the same places as they, but he encounters new places not visited by either Christian or Christiana and her party. All of the lands that are outside of the Wicket Gate and the area encompassed by the "walls and borders of that region, wherein lay the way to the heavenly country" are known as the "Valley of Destruction." The time that Tender-Conscience begins his pilgrimage is a time of drought and heat, which is emblematic of a time of the persecution. Some of them are deterred in their progress, and return to their old homes in the Valley of Destruction during the night. Tender-Conscience has a difficult time crossing the Slough of Despond, and he does not get by it without being covered in mud from it. This mud has the effect of weakening the body and blinding his eyes, and Tender-Conscience gropes along until he is overshadowed by a bright cloud from which a hand appears that washes away the mud enabling Tender-Conscience to continue his journey with vigor. At the Wicket Gate Tender-Conscience does not escape the arrows shot against callers from Beelzebub's castle. These stick to his flesh and cause him to bleed profusely. Good-Will lets him in, and registers his name as a pilgrim. He gives Tender- Conscience a crutch that is made of wood from the Tree of Life (Lignum Vitæ). This crutch stanches the bleeding and strengthens Tender-Conscience, who must bear with the arrows of Beelzebub until he reaches the House of the Interpreter. The Interpreter removes the arrows of Beelzebub from Tender- Conscience's body and lodges him for the night, showing him the same emblems and scenes enjoyed by Christian, Christiana, and their children and companions. The next day the Interpreter goes a little way with Tender- Conscience to where the King's Highway is walled on either side by the Wall of Salvation. Before they reach this wall they come to two farms on either side of the way. The farm on the right is well-cared for and the one on the left is not. The Interpreter tells Tender-Conscience that this provides an example to pilgrims that they should be like the caretaker of the farm on the right, who gradually improved his farm until it was in its present good condition. Tender-Conscience when parted from the Interpreter comes to the place where Christian found the cross and the sepulchre. On either side of the cross were now erected two houses as competing lodging places for pilgrims. On the right was the House of Mourning, and on the left was the House of Mirth. The House of Mirth is like an ale house with carousing men, but the House of Mourning is tended by pious women called "matrons." Tender-Conscience decides to go to the House of Mourning despite the agitation induced in the men of the House of Mirth, who form a mob surrounding the House of Mourning demanding that Tender- Conscience be handed over to them. Three shining ones appear to Tender- Conscience promising to rescue him. The first shining one breathes on Tender- Conscience making him a new creature, the second clothes him in a white robe in place of his crimson clothes, and the third one gives him a sealed roll. With this change Tender-Conscience is able to get by unrecognized by the men from the House of Mirth and, so, go on his way. At the Hill Difficulty Tender- Conscience had the choice of the three ways: the one going up the hill also called "Difficulty," the one going around the right hand of the hill called "Danger," and the one going around the left side of the hill called "Destruction." The broadness and pleasantness of the two byways induced Tender-Conscience to take the right-hand byway Danger. He thought that this way would also lead him to the top of the hill, but the growing denseness of the forest surrounding the way and the howlings of wild beasts that he heard induced him to go back to the foot of the hill. He then remembered the Bible passages that characterized the right way as narrow, so he chose to go up the hill by way of the steep and narrow path. Working his way up the hill, he is taken into two caves tended by Good-resolution and Contemplation where he is shown alabaster statues of famous pilgrims from the Bible who had gone on before, and an image of the Celestial City from a carved diamond. He is given respite and food by Good-Resolution, who warns him about places he should avoid staying while on the hill, and then he continues on the path, where he is stopped by a flattering man Spiritual-Pride, who convinces him there is a quicker way to his award, and leads him to a tower of Lofty-Thoughts with the plans of throwing Tender-Conscience off it, and dashing upon the bottom of the hill below. Tender remembers the warnings from Good-resolution, and he runs away, going on further he is stopped by an old man, Carnal-Security, who also convinces him to turn from the road, and he leads to a grand palace tended by the old man's wife Intemperance and his daughters Wantonness and Forgetfulness, where he is enticed to drink wine, dabbles with Wantonness and fall asleep in Forgetfulness' arms. Servants carry him inside and put him on a bed, and music begins to play with the intent of keeping him asleep until he dies, in which case his corpse would be carried down the hill to the path of Destruction, tossed into the fiery Lake of Destruction at the end of the road and die the 'second death'. Tender's crutch awakens him, and he gets up, and a storm and voices in his ear urge him to escape. On the way he runs into Gluttony who tries to get him stay for a feast that is prepared for him; avoiding that, he runs into the old man, who tries to convince him to stay, and if he will not to take another drink of the grapes before he leaves. Tender continues to run from the debate, and as he passes the fountain in the palace courtyard Wantonness, who is bathing in it, arises out naked and tries to seduce Tender. He narrowly avoids her grasp to escape, and run back to the main highway on the hill, and reaches the House Beautiful and is let in due to his pass. At the palace, Tender has long conversations with the virgins Discretion, Charity, Prudence, and Piety about how he escaped danger on the way up the hill, and then is taken to a feast, where he was served by others of the society (Temperance, Decency, Frugality and Bounty). He then has a conversation on how they came to that place themselves to take on their positions (they were devotees to the woman Religion who originally lived there, and promised to keep her rules), and the discussion of the role of healthy food and moderation in a Christian lifestyle. Tender sets off again, reaching the Valley of Humuliation, which has been covered with traps, nets and gins set up by the prince of the air, to stop high-minded pilgrims from proceeding further. Tender realizes he has to crawl under them in order to make any progress. He reaches a bridge, and is met with men in rowboats he thought might be murderers and robbers who infested the place. They began to shoot arrows at him, some of which missed him, and others which hit the shield he had received from House Beautiful. The men shooting at him included Worldly-honour, Arrogancy, Pride, Self-conceit, Vain-glory, and Shame. The last of these wounded him in his cheek, but barely drew blood. He continued on until he was past the bridge, and could again walk upright, and then praised the Lord. Tender finally reached the Valley of Shadow of Death... ===== Francis finally recovering from a rattlesnake bite, he continues the trek to Oregon with Lottie and Billy. On their way they encounter a greenhorn English adventurer and his servants, Jason Grimes, murderous outlaws and a wagon train of men heading west to establish farms for their families. They finally find Mr. Tucket's family in the end and start all sorts of businesses with the gold and silver. Billy Becomes a trader to China. Francis and Lottie develop feelings for each other and get married. It ends by saying that Francis thinks about Mr. Grimes before he sleeps every night. It was published in 2000 by Random House. It was later turned into a five-part omnibus, entitled Tucket's Travels, along with the rest of the novels in The Tucket Adventures by Random House and released in 2003. ===== Originally, the First World War was a complete wake-up call for the human race, leading to greater internationalism and a "Never Again" spirit towards war that would eventually wear away the differences between the various power-blocs. By the 2020s, a global League of Nations oversees a planet totally at peace. The fledgling Nazi Party, in this 'original' timeline, simply faded out after the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Many in the modern aristocracy, corporate dynasties, and others feel they have lost out because of the social transformations enabled by decades of peace and co-operation. This group come up with a plan to build a functional "time machine" and change history for their benefit. Their scheme is to go back as far as they can (roughly a century, to the very early 1920s) and mentor the fledgling Nazi Party. They regard the Nazis as the perfect tool for destroying the Soviet Union and establishing an elitist tyranny with which they can live the lives of luxury and entitlement they believe have been stolen from them. This 'Uptime' initiative sends 21st century advisors, armament, and nuclear weapons to support Adolf Hitler. The Hitler that they seek to advise soon develops other plans. Learning about the original history from his time traveling advisors, Hitler uses these lessons to ensure that Western Europe falls swiftly, followed by dropping a few of the Uptime nuclear weapons to wipe out the Soviet Union. He then destroys his end of the "time conduit" and declares independence from his former sponsors. By the 1970s, Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan have conquered everything other than North America, Australasia, and parts of South America. Africa has suffered an enormous genocide every bit as complete as the one inflicted upon the Jews, and the Axis powers stand poised in 1975 to start a final war that the United States is bound to lose, given the military power of Nazi Germany. An organization in this altered 1975 discovers the secret behind the Nazi successes of the previous decades. The group decides that it will build its own time machine to go back and stop the present nightmare of Nazi world domination. This 1975 time machine is not as advanced or powerful as the original 2020s machine, so they can only open a gate to 1939. The plan is to establish a military alliance between the 1975 America of President John F. Kennedy and the 1939 America of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The team starts noticing that events they had no hand in are different (such as the Joe Louis versus John Henry fight and the death of Pope Pius XI) and with Einstein's help realize that all possible outcomes already exist and all time travel does is take you to one of these other branches. Realizing why things have gone wrong, it is up to the 1975 Uptime agents, cut off in 1939, to keep the western Allies, including the United Kingdom and the United States in the fight, while working to close off Hitler's gateway to the alternate 2020s before he gets his atomic bomb and missile advantage. In the end, they succeed, and this second "alternate timeline" they create turns out to be our own world. They also realize that the United States of their own time knew they couldn't really change their present and was in reality planning to escape to the reality they would create just as the people backing Hitler had planned to do. To prevent their United States or Nazi Germany from invading our world they have the gate destroyed. Historical figures in the book include Isaac Asimov, Wilhelm Canaris, Winston Churchill, Duff Cooper, Anthony Eden, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, John F. Kennedy, Frederick Lindemann, George Pegram, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Leo Szilard, and Edward Teller. Of these, only Asimov and Teller were still alive when the novel was published in 1985. ===== Francis, a recently laid-off CEO, takes up dressing up as a woman Romanian fortune- teller to earn money.Têtu, July–August 2007 issue, page 212 ===== For a whole week, Toriyasu and his little sister, Meeko, have been missing their pet dog, Papadoll. Toriyasu thinks he ran off, but Meeko claims it was an alien abduction. Though Toriyasu mocks Meeko for her over-imaginative ways, she isn't far off from the truth. On the way to school, Meeko sees what looks like a cat in clothes slipping into the shadows. Later that evening, three anthropomorphic feline scientists, Henoji, Suttoboke and HoiHoi go into Toriyasu and Meeko's room intending to take Toriyasu with them on a trip. Instead they end up waking and taking Meeko as well. She accompanies them in their vehicle (a balloon that resembles a cheshire cat) with a tired Toriyasu. The cats soon reach their own world: Banipal Witt, a world of incredibly strange variety. Suddenly, they run into the Sleeping Cat, the very support of Banipal Witt. If the Sleeping Cat wakes, their world would be destroyed. The two children soon find that Banipal Witt is far different than their home: Three minutes in the human world is one day in Banipal Witt and the cats are only anthropomorphic in Banipal Witt (Henoji having remarked that, because of the human world, their life expectancy has decreased). Both Toriyasu and Meeko are turned into anthropomorphic kittens by the sun of Banipal Witt (which is magical in nature) as soon as they set foot on Banipal Witt. Soon, the kids meet the leader of a resistance: Master Sandada, a powerful wizard. Sadly, in the absence of the trio sent to find Toriyasu and Meeko, Sandada has fallen victim to a curse from Lady Buburina, a dictator-like princess that has gone insane and (due to an enchantment) turns anyone she touches into a balloon. Sandada was unable to protect himself, because his last line of defense- a mystic glove called the Sorcerer's Arm -was stolen by DohDoh, his apprentice that had fallen to insanity due to a curse. Master Sandada explains that he brought Toriyasu here to catch Papadoll, who has supposedly been wreaking havoc across Banipal Witt. ChuChu, DohDoh's younger sister and the strongest fighter for the resistance, comes to warn that Papadoll has been abducting more villagers and is approaching their location fast. Papadoll soon arrives and the kids can't believe their eyes: Their dog has been turned into a giant, flying monster. DohDoh leaves Sandada with an ultimatum from Buburina: If Sandada doesn't surrender before the next sunrise, great disaster shall befall Banipal Witt. Meeko manages to get Papadoll to calm down, but an interruption from Toriyasu sends Papadoll into a fit of rage. In the confusion, Meeko is taken hostage and things begin to look grim. Some time later, Sandada explains that when a creature from another world is touched by the sun twice, they become what Papadoll has become. Expectedly, Toriyasu freaks out, demanding to go home, but the others manage to reason with him because of the fact that he needs to save his sister. Meanwhile, at the palace, the prisoners (including Meeko) attempt to break out. Meeko comes close, but ends up trapped near the throne room. Listening in on a conversation between Buburina and her parents, she finds out that Buburina's power is supposed to be a punishment that was cast by a wizard who sought revenge against her for sending his daughter to her death (even though Buburina claimed that it wasn't her fault). Back at Sandada's manor, Toriyasu (along with Henoji, Suttoboke, HoiHoi and ChuChu) are sent by Sandada to Buburina's palace to knock Papadoll out with a pill that contains sleeping powder that Sandada claims would make an animal like Papadoll sleep for a week and Papadoll's chain. Before leaving, Sandada says that only Toriyasu has the power to turn Papadoll back to normal. Later that night, Buburina calls an assembly to inform her prisoners of their fate. She tells her prisoners of her plan to create a giant mouse that would be used to wake the Sleeping Cat should anyone rebel against her, sending Banipal Witt into turmoil. Meeko, however, ridicules Buburina's plan, claiming that Papadoll wouldn't do that. Meeko demands the return of Papadoll and insults the princess by calling her a witch. Buburina, having been upset by Meeko's insult, tries to turn her into a balloon and pop her, but finds she cannot (the curse only affects people from Banipal Witt). Realizing that Meeko is a human, Buburina plans to make Meeko her new monster slave once the sun rises. She then turns all her prisoners into balloons (so that she can finish her mouse balloon) and throws Meeko inside also. Under cover of night, Toriyasu and the others prepare to sneak into the castle to free Papadoll and save Meeko. Unfortunately, the plan goes awry, as Toriyasu accidentally wakes Buburina up when the rope he is on slips, setting off alarms all over the castle. Toriyasu and ChuChu make an escape, while Suttoboke (who broke off from the group because he got Meeko's scent) runs into DohDoh in an attempt to save Meeko. Quickly, Toriyasu and ChuChu (after having a bonding moment) regroup in time to see Suttoboke and Meeko release the mouse balloon. With Buburina's plan falling apart at the seams, DohDoh goes to try to kill Meeko and Suttoboke, while Toriyasu and ChuChu go to try to get Papadoll under control and stop Buburina. In the ensuing air battle, Toriyasu suffers through a temporary depression caused by DohDoh's taunting (having remembered a time when he beat Papadoll to release some built-up anger that had been caused by teasing from three neighborhood bullies). DohDoh, however, is dealt a hard fate by karma, as he breaks the mouse balloon when he gets too close to the castle and loses his hold on the Sorcerer's Arm. Toriyasu, remembering what Master Sandada had said before he left, regains faith in himself and tries to take Papadoll back. Buburina, however, refuses to give back Papadoll and nearly makes Toriyasu fall to his death after Buburina tears Papadoll's collar off. During his fall, Papadoll finally remembers Toriyasu (having ignored Buburina's orders to eat Toriyasu) and Toriyasu remembers how much Papadoll means to him (shown in flashback form). Toriyasu then goes insane for only a few seconds before regaining composure after landing on one of Buburina's victims. Using the victim as a means of transportation (even though the said victim tries to protest as best he can to this idea), he reaches Papadoll (avoiding seeking missiles fired by Buburina) and regains control of him with ChuChu's help. However, the signal tower (the enormous flare gun-like device that lights Banipal Witt's sun every morning) goes off, leaving Toriyasu and the others only a few seconds to save Meeko. Quickly, they rescue Meeko and make it home. Buburina and DohDoh both end up with miserable fates: Buburina is left sinking into a small lake, and DohDoh tangled in what remains of the mouse balloon. Toriyasu and Meeko return to normal (no longer transformed by Banipal Witt's sun), Toriyasu and ChuChu develop a relationship and the cats say that the two can visit any time and they can also choose to be cats again if they want. Before returning home, Meeko makes a prediction that Buburina will make a comeback. The next morning, Toriyasu and Meeko return to a normal life. Unbeknownst to the children, Meeko is right again: The cats go to Toriyasu and Meeko's school due to some urgent business that came up only recently, leaving the movie on a cliffhanger. ===== Mary (Myrna Loy), a writer working on a novel about a love triangle, is attracted to her publisher (Frank Morgan). Her suitor Jimmie (Robert Montgomery) is determined to break them up. He introduces Mary to the publisher's wife (Ann Harding) without telling Mary who she is. ===== The series is named after the lead character, a half-Icelandic half-Danish police officer named Hallgrim Ørn Hallgrimsson, nicknamed "Ørnen" (the eagle). In the first episode, a new international criminal investigative unit is being formed under Thea Nellemann (Ghita Nørby), and Hallgrimsson (Jens Albinus) is persuaded to take the job as the lead investigator for the unit. He puts together a small investigation team that are experts in their respective fields. Their cases cross the borders between Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia and various other countries; and involve biker gangs, former Russian KGB, possible terrorist threats and international fraud. Throughout the series Hallgrimsson deals with recurring flashbacks and possibly post-traumatic stress from a childhood incident. ===== In 1925, London solicitor Arthur Kidd travels to the coastal market town of Crythin Gifford in North East England to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Alice Drablow, a reclusive widow. Upon his arrival Kidd meets Sam Toovey, a local land owner who is unsettled to hear of the Drablows. Kidd finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about Drablow's home, Eel Marsh House. Kidd attends the funeral with local solicitor Pepperell. He notices a woman in black in the church, then again amid the gravestones. He mentions the woman to Pepperell. Elsewhere, a truck drops lumber and cripples a Romani child. Kidd goes to Eel Marsh House over a tidal causeway. Driver Keckwick knows the timing of the tides. Kidd sees the woman again in the graveyard. Terrified, he flees into the house. While looking around the study, he finds two death certificates as well as pictures of a young woman who resembles the Woman in Black. After hearing some disturbing recordings made by Mrs. Drablow on wax cylinders, he heads back to town. In town, Toovey tells him not to go back to the house, but Kidd insists on returning. Toovey loans Kidd his dog Spider. Upon his return, Kidd hears a bouncing ball from upstairs. Spider starts whining and leads Kidd to a door that cannot be opened. Kidd gets an axe to break the door, returning to find the door has opened by itself. Kidd sees an immaculately clean child's nursery. Kidd notices that a lead soldier is somehow in his hand. He realizes that the generator is running down. Unwilling to be left in the dark, Kidd rushes outside toward the generator. Outside, Spider answers a high whistle and runs away. The noise of the horse and child start again. Kidd, frightened almost into madness, rushes locks himself into the house. He records his fears onto the wax cylinders. From various sources inside the study, Kidd learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Goss, gave birth to a child but was unable to care for it. The Drablows adopted the boy, insisting he should never know that Jennet was his mother. One day, Jennet kidnapped her son and tried to escape via the causeway. The pony and trap became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard. Toovey arrives at Eel Marsh House, brought by Spider, and listens to Kidd's theories. Toovey says that seeing the Woman in Black presages the death of a child. Kidd packs to leave. However, amongst the papers, he finds the lead soldier. He points this out to Toovey, and they go up to the nursery. However, when they reach it, the room is a mess, with all the toys smashed and the furniture in shambles. Kidd collapses. Kidd awakens in the town inn to the sound of the child's laughter and finds the soldier yet again in his hand. After asking out loud what the child wants of him, the child replies that the soldier "is for you". The Woman in Black appears, hovering over his bed, and shrieks into his face, terrifying him into unconsciousness. Kidd returns to London and his family. His boss instructs him to look through the box of papers from Crythin Gifford. At that moment, his two assistants come in and say that there was a customer for him, a woman dressed completely in black. Delirious with terror, Kidd searches madly through the box for the toy soldier. When he does not find it, he burns all the papers and the box, and half his office as well. His boss fires him and the Kidd family leaves London. Later, Arthur and his family are boating on a peaceful lake when Arthur sees the Woman in Black. Petrified, he does nothing. A tree falls on their boat, drowning and killing them all. ===== Two hundred years before the start of the adventure, the royal line of kings of Pellham was deposed and replaced by a High Council. The current council is well-meaning but hopelessly incompetent. Excitement and unrest grip the land of Pellham, and the people agree that a drastic change is needed for the kingdom to survive. An ancient Prophecy of Brie foretells that a king from the past will return to restore the kingdom. The symbols of the ancient kings have been recovered, the keys to the royal tomb are in hand, powerful magics to revive the long-dead king have been secured at great cost. The king's burial location remains unknown.Blake, Bob. The Bane of Llywelyn, TSR, Inc., 1985. The player characters must find where he is buried. ===== Swords of the Undercity is the first AD&D; module for use with their Lankhmar – City of Adventure supplement, designed for 4-5 characters of levels 8-12, and is a 32-page adventure with a Gamemaster's screen-style card stock cover. The module Swords of the Undercity contains three connected Lankhmar scenarios. "The Secret of Urgaan of Angarngi" describes the living tower of a mad sorcerer (and is based on a story by Fritz Leiber; "The Web of Mog" involves the player characters with minions of Lankhmar's Spider God; and "Claws of the Shree-kah" pits the characters against ancient horrors in the city's sewers. ===== The module contains three magazine-sized scenarios for the Lankhmar setting, the first of which is called "The Curse of Valinor". In this scenario, the player characters become involved in intrigue among Lankhmar's nobles. The second scenario, "Return of the Rats", is a continuation of Swords of Lankhmar, in which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser go missing and the PCs are recruited to find them. The player characters are shrunk and sent into the Rat Kingdom of the Undercity to find Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The third scenario, "One Night in Lankhmar", begins in a gambling den. The scenario pits the player characters against gamblers, assassins, and illusions. This 10th to 15th level adventure is designed for the LANKHMAR City of Adventure setting and the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. It cannot be played without the Lankhmar City of Adventure book or the AD&D; rules published by TSR, Inc. ===== Conan Unchained! is a scenario set during Conan's days as a Kozak raider, and a pirate on the Sea of Vilayet. The module includes rules for playing in the Hyborian Age with AD&D; rules, and provides character descriptions of Conan, Valeria, Juma, and Nestor from the fictional Conan novels.D&D; Module CB1: "Conan: Unchained!" - Part 1 from SomethingAwful.com Some of the scenes include being captured by Kozaks and traveling to a mysterious Island to rescue Princess Amrastisi.D&D; Module CB1: "Conan: Unchained!" - Part 2" from SomethingAwful.com ===== Conan Against Darkness! is set during Conan's reign as King of Aquilonia, and features a battle against the Stygian arch-mage Thoth-Amon. The adventure leads to the forbidden city of Khemi, and the catacombs beneath the city's sacred pyramids. The adventure requires the use of some variant rules specified in the publication. These include "Fear", a faster healing rate and "Heroism". The publication includes four new monsters (Winged Gaunts, Crawler in the Dark, Serpent Folk, Fire Guardians), several new magical items and game statistics for the four suggested player characters - Conan, Pelias the Sorcerer, Nzinga the Amazon and Prospero the General. ===== Test of the Warlords is a campaign setting and scenario concerning the establishment of dominions in the land of Norwold. The module includes a description of Norwold, including its land and rulers, dungeon and wilderness encounters, and guidelines on how to handle large battles. The fame of the player characters have earned them the right and title to run a realm of their own, under the supervision of the king of Norwold, a newly colonized region to the north of Mystara. But even from the start, with all the troubles of establishing your own pockets of civilization in as yet untamed wilderness, Norworld has become the center of attention in the struggle between two old enemies: The sorcerous empire of Alphatia and the war-mongering realm of Thyatis. ===== In this scenario, the player characters are sent to see why communication with a distant barony has been cut. The module includes a complete description of the barony, a wizard's tower, and a village which has been taken over by undead. A strange black cloud hangs over the Norworld barony of Two Lake Vale, which is cut off from the rest of the world. As the player characters move to investigate, they encounter armies of the living dead and other vile creatures besieging the last pockets of human resistance. The only relief is to find and destroy the dreadful Deathstone, which is responsible for the black cloud, thereby facing the united forces of an evil sorcerer, a powerful priest, and a mighty dragon. ===== The scenario Sabre River involves an expedition to the Tower of Terror. The module includes a dungeon inside an active volcano, an underground river trip, and a new monster called the sabreclaw. A mysterious curse has hit a barony in the realm of Norwold: The waters of the Sabre River have been tainted, bringing death or evilness to all who drink from them. The player characters are charged to seek out the source of this curse, in the company of Cutter, a young boy who is strangely immune to the effects of the curse. In fact, Cutter plays a more vital role in the restoring of Sabre River than one would expect. ===== Earthshaker! is a humorous scenario regarding a giant mechanical war machine and the factions trying to control it, from the inside. The adventure also covers the player characters attempting to run a dukedom. The player characters are charged with the responsibility of stewardship over the barony of Vyolstagrad while the baron must attend the king's court. The matters are already difficult with internal and external problems, but then a strange carnival appears with a hugely tremendous exhibition: A colossal humanoid machine of iron, called the Earthshaker. While the machine itself poses no threat, a band of unscrupulous villains seek to attain control over this iron titan, and only the player characters stand in their way. ===== In Where Chaos Reigns, the player characters travel through time to four alternate realities in an attempt to save their own reality. The module includes new magic/technological items. The player characters are chosen by mysterious forces to fix a breakdown in reality. Far away in dimensions, is Aelos, where time is breaking down. This is affecting the 'main' reality. For example, flowers bloom out of season, fish fall out of the sky and the moon has turned blue. Even the entities known as the 'Immortals' are powerless to help, it is up to the player characters. ===== Train operator Andrea Marcocci has to witness the suicide of a desperate man who jumps in front of his train. Under the influence of this shock he starts making mistakes. A check up by a doctor reveals that he's at the brink of becoming an alcoholic. Due to this evaluation he is degraded and must accept a salary cut. ===== The story revolves around two characters: magician Felix Harrowgate and thief Mildmay the Fox, who live in vastly different parts of the city of Mélusine. They are tossed together by fate when Felix is accused of destroying the crystal Virtu, an orb which channels the magical energy of the magicians in Mélusine. ===== Felix Harrogate, having recovered from the abuse he suffered in Mélusine, is ready to regain the power and status that he lost. With his half-brother Mildmay and Mehitabel Parr, a young governess, he decides to return to Mélusine to repair the Virtu. ===== The Easter bunny is ill, Granny needs to find a replacement for him and suggests Bugs Bunny. When she reaches the Warner Bros. lot, she finds to her disappointment that Bugs is tied up in filming Knighty Knight Bugs but offers to work out a solution after filming wraps up. Meanwhile, Daffy Duck, partially overhearing the conversation, eagerly offers Granny his services, but always dresses up in the wrong Easter-related outfit (such as an Easter egg or an Easter basket). Still tied up after filming two more shorts, Bugs decides to suggest other Looney Tunes stars, who are likewise unable or unsuited. In the end, Bugs offers to serve as the bunny's replacement if the work can be delayed until a week after Easter; Granny considers this unacceptable, but the Easter Bunny, apparently well, arrives, and thus Bugs's services are no longer needed. In the end, the supposed Easter Bunny reveals himself to be Daffy in an Easter bunny suit (finally getting it right), which neither surprises nor disappoints Bugs or Granny, having known all along it was Daffy. ===== A criminal known as the Tall, Dark Stranger robs a bank, and Inspector Elmer Fudd mistakenly arrests Bugs Bunny for the crime. Escaping from jail, Bugs sets out to prove his innocence while evading Elmer, who is searching for him after his escape. Soon word spreads about Bugs Bunny being a national fugitive. When a reward gets placed on his head "eaten or alive", this inspires Wile E. Coyote to hunt him down, and Elmer also hires Yosemite Sam as a bounty hunter. After some chases and a side story involving Sylvester and Tweety, Bugs ends up dangling from the beak of a Mount Rushmore-sized sculpture of Foghorn Leghorn; he’s rescued by the Tall, Dark Stranger, who turns out to be Porky Pig (he was trying to keep the story going). Elmer apologizes to Bugs then arrests Porky, who remarks "As always, the butler did it!" Porky concludes the special from inside his jail cell. ===== A Venetian musician is affected by an incurable disease. He arranges to meet his wife, who is now living with another man in another city, but does not tell her about his condition. They walk through the streets and channels of Venice. They remember the happy times when they lived together, she in blissful ignorance of his terminal illness. He has to play a classic concert piece, recently discovered, but with no known composer, the 'Anonymous Venetian', in a concert hall. She finally realizes that she is still in love with him. ===== A qualified surgeon is urgently called by a party in a small and inadequate private hospital to operate a man in critical condition because of a suicide attempt. This is the protagonist of the film, Benedict Parisi, whose first name seems prophetic of his story. In the waiting room is the companion Joan Micheli, pregnant with him, which--Benedict being alone in the world--gives consent to the risky operation. Her mother, Immaculate, however, hovers in the wings like a vulture, hoping he will die, because she aspires to marry Giovanna off to a lawyer friend of the family, as a better social and economic proposition. The narrative is interwoven with flashbacks to the early life of Benedict. He is an orphan, a lively lad growing up in village in the Latin Valley, under the tutelage of a maiden aunt who is filled with religious scruples, though given to libertine assignations, with which she indoctrinates him. The child is sleepless at night, because of noises from his aunt's room, which is visited by local men: his aunt instead tells him that the noises are a matter of remorse for his bad habits, and he is overcome by guilty feelings resulting from his repressive environment. When the day of his first communion nears, for which he prepares with accentuated religious devotion, he, with the other communicants, is given an effigy of "celestial friends," saints who are expected to assist them until they embrace Jesus. Benedict receives the effigy of Saint Eusebius. On that very night the boy is awoken by noises - one of the aunt's lovers, Giovanni, happens to be visiting. He runs to his aunt's room, and she hides the man in her closet. But the intruder's presence is soon revealed, and the aunt papers over his presence in her room by claiming that in fact Giovanni is St Eusebius. Benedict is told not to inform the priest of what happened, -to do so would only offend the "celestial friends" by what would be a sin of pride. The next morning, while he is affixing a picture of St Eusebius in her wardrobe to commemorate the occasion, he has a glimpse of his aunt, who returns from the bath, in a state of nakedness. She discovers him, and warns him not to say anything to the priest, even in the confession which will be the prelude to his first communion. This prohibition leads to him refraining from telling all of his 'sins' in confession to Father Quirino, and, ashamed by a sense that he has committed a sacrilege, during the first communion he feels that the host has stuck in his throat, and in a panic at incipient suffocation, runs away, only to slip from a wall and fall into a ravine Despite local fears that he has come to a sorry end, he emerges unharmed, and the people proclaim that he has been the beneficiary of a miracle. The boy is dressed up like the saint, and carried in procession, as though he were a veritable icon. The aunt exploits the opportunity this concatenation of coincidences affords her, by ridding herself of this troublesome burden, by sending him to the Franciscan monastery, where he then grows up to maturity. Among the friars, who take to admiring him for his simplicity and naivety, he works as a labourer. The brotherhood await for some 'sign' that will indicate his vocation in life. During a visit by a travelling salesman, Uncle Checco, h catches a glimpse in the car, of a photo of a nude woman, and the vision, together with his fantasies of being at the wheel of a vehicle that travels daily throughout the wider world of the countryside below, disturbs him. It provokes his desire, and also his fears of leaving the security of the monastery. While working in the fields one day, a schoolteacher is bitten by a snake, and pleads with him to save her. He kills the snake (symbol of the primal temptation) and, when he explains to her that the venom must be sucked out through an incision, proceeds to suck her upper calf, spitting the poison out, yet massaging her legs in a frenzy of barely disguised ardour. He has, he tells the friar in a drunken moment, found the sign they were all waiting for. He joins Uncle Checco and travels about seeling cloth and undergarments. It then becomes vendor of clothing, especially undergarments. The activity "little debonair" does it again collide with the ministers of God, in the same bed in which those women, attracted by new fashions, visit his truck. But Benedict, blocked by his scruples, unable to take advantage of easy opportunities that come his way as well as meeting and chatting with a beautiful village girl who had come to him at night to buy panties French and willing to pay in kind . Until, during a sleepless night, he met a pharmacist atheist, Oreste Micheli, who sympathizes with him and tries to pull him away from religious scruples and the faith itself. It also leads to a prostitute but Benedict does not consume the relationship because the woman is married. In love, loved by the beautiful daughter of the pharmacist Joan Benedict believes he has given peace to his existence. Orestes has never married the mother of Joan, Immaculate, a woman on the contrary very observant if not bigoted, that continues to threaten want to report the alleged sexual abuse that gave rise to daughter. Giovanna, as Benedict is a virgin, is rather close to the ideas of his father, and leads the young man to overcome his resistance and finally get rid of her sexual inhibitions. But he is torn between the desire to marry, a decision welcomed by the mother, and the sympathy for the ideas of Orestes. When you finally decide to get married at the crucial moment Benedict hesitate to assent to the formula Giovanna bed and is in its place no answers. The two young men, by mutual agreement, give birth to live together as husband and wife for six years. Shortly after the discovery of the pregnancy of Joan, Orestes has a heart attack. In the absence of Benedict, Immaculate Conception, the mother of Joan, torpor of takes advantage of the imminent death of Orestes to give him the last rites. The pharmacist atheist, dying, without gloss, kiss the crucifix which the priest approaches the lips. Benedict arrives in time to witness the scene and shocked by the alleged conversion of his beloved "father" runs away and tries to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff over the sea. Conducted in the hospital, will be saved, then abruptly ridestandosi the words of the professor-surgeon who says the evidence of success of the operation: "It was a miracle!" ===== As morning approaches, Tom sneaks into the living room and sees a female goldfish swimming in a bowl. Tom does not want to eat such a sweet creature at first, but he assuages himself that he must eat. He extends his arm into the bowl and gropes for the fish, but she lets out a bubble that drifts into Jerry's hole and carries the message: "Help!" Jerry wakes up and grasps a long, slender pin. Tom, triumphant in his success, sneaks back out of the living room, but is soon seen leaping out through the door and through a window in pain from being struck with the pin. Jerry returns the fish to the bowl. Tom revives and removes the pin from his behind, but soon finds he is stuck in a trash can. He pops his arms and eyes out of the can and tests himself with the pin; it will not work on the steel. Tom grabs an axe and rushes into the house. Jerry is terrified at the sight of the "evil trash monster" and runs toward his hole, suffering numerous near misses from the axe. Tom continues chopping at the hole, but Jerry inserts Tom's tail in the axe's path. Tom soon realizes that he's cut up his own tail and screws it back on before he hears a whistle. It is Jerry waving at him, with a grease slick set out for the cat. Tom cannot see the grease and slips on it. Jerry closes the door on Tom, which smashes him into the lid of the can. Tom walks out as Jerry shows him the door and he falls onto an open trash can. The trash man soon collects him and he is dumped into the trash truck, which drives away. After a few seconds, the cat walks back down the street, fuming. Tom goes to the garden and he removes tacks from inside his foot, and he begins his plan for revenge. He sneaks back into the house with a hose system and sees Jerry standing guard with another long pin. Tom hides under the table and builds his hose system with a lot of residual noise. Jerry and the fish appear terrified. Tom emerges and lays the hose around the house until he runs out. Jerry begins scratching his head when suddenly the fish disappears down a hole in the bowl. Jerry pulls her out and realizes that Tom is sucking into the water and spitting it out so that he will eventually swallow the fish, except that Jerry already pulled her out of the hose without Tom knowing. Jerry fills a large container with water to serve as a temporary bowl. Whilst Tom is still at it, Jerry sees all the water disappearing from the bowl and then sees part of the hose. Jerry comes up with an idea and dashes off while Tom is beginning to get frustrated. After some time, Tom notices that the room he is in is now half-flooded with water and he still hasn't got the fish, but he continues on sucking and spitting out the water, unaware that Jerry has hooked up the other end of the hose to a full bathtub. Jerry waves at the passing truck labeled "SEA VIEW PET SHOP" and it dumps its cargo in: a large green shark, which sees Jerry and attempts to devour the mouse, but is sucked into the hose by Tom. Tom, who apparently has filled the entire room with water, then sees that he has sucked the shark into the hose. In an attempt to push the shark back into the bathtub, Tom puffs up the hose but the shark bursts it. The shark chases after Tom and bites his tail which rips off Tom's fur. Tom swims off half-naked through the wall and the grass. With Tom gone, Jerry begins to charm the fish, but is soon terrified by the shark that has entered the fishbowl. Jerry panics and follows the same route Tom took out of the house before the shark can eat him while he charms her with a grin. ===== Elgin (William Katt) is a college student who spends much of his time studying literature and concentrating on his physical fitness by playing solitary soccer. One day, he overhears his friend David (John Heard) making love next door. He then hears David's girlfriend pounding on the door, demanding to know who's in his room with him. Shelly (Beverly D'Angelo) comes into Elgin's room wearing only a towel, implying she was the woman with David just a moment ago. Shelly says she will only be there for a short time until David finishes making love with his girlfriend; but it takes a lot longer. David thanks Elgin by setting him up with Shelly. Elgin first sees Caroline (Susan Dey) during a meal. After the meal, Elgin and Shelly separate from David and his girlfriend, ending up in his room. Shelly declares that she likes Elgin and offers to make love to him. When she disrobes, he is shocked and spurns her advances. In a later scene, Elgin is working as the busboy at the school's cafeteria. There, he has his first conversation with Caroline but ends up spilling tea on her and her book. She still leaves her dormitory name on a sheet of paper and he goes to see her with a new copy of the book. After a rough start, she agrees to go and have coffee with him. She alludes to having another boyfriend, but he is smitten and decides to join a class she is in, three weeks after it had started. After talking to Caroline, Elgin learns that her father had died a long time ago. They go on their first real date to the symphony and the chemistry between them becomes clear. Caroline introduces Elgin to the other man, John (Robert Loggia), who is already married. She is visibly shaken by this meeting and asks to spend a night with Elgin, because she doesn't want to be alone. Their love making is interrupted by David who says Elgin is late for work. Elgin runs to work and David convinces Caroline to take a ride back to her dorm on his motorcycle. Elgin spots them together and he fights David in a jealous rage; but feels better when Caroline tells him that she's not interested in David. Elgin gets fired for being late to work. David and Caroline watch Elgin while he plays a successful game of soccer. Elgin and Caroline were making love again when he asks about John (Robert Loggia), who worked with her father as a lawyer, and whom she had known all her life. He gets jealous after he learns that she slept with John, but Caroline gets mad about the entire conversation. Elgin gets nervous when he can't get hold of her, but finds a note which tells him to join her, alone, at her family's estate. Elgin meets Caroline and they pick up where they left off, but she resists him while they are in her childhood playhouse. She told him that this is the place where her father committed suicide. The phone rings before they drive together back to school. During the drive, Caroline tells him that it was John on the phone. Carolin explains that John wants her back, and they can't see each other any more. Elgin pulls his motorcycle out from the back of the car and leaves her on the side of the road alone in the car. Elgin returns to his dorm to find Shelly sitting by his door. Shelly declares her love for David, but thinks he doesn't feel the same. Elgin turns Shelly down for sex a second time. Elgin runs into Caroline saying goodbye to John. She told Elgin that she's with John and it's over between them. Elgin gets drunk and again finds Shelly at his door. Elgin accepts Shelly's third proposition; but she leaves in the middle of their tryst when he calls her Caroline. Elgin goes to Caroline's shared class, but leaves in the middle of the lecture when she doesn't show up. Elgin then goes to see John at his office. He professes his love to Caroline and asks John if his intentions are honorable. John says he has a shaky marriage, but his kids are important and doesn't know if he can divorce his wife. Caroline shows up in Elgin's room in the middle of the night, makes love to him, and then brings him breakfast in the morning. John decides he won't get the divorce, but Elgin is mad that he's second best. Elgin runs into David at school and he tells him that he and Shelly are engaged. Elgin takes Caroline back, despite this fact. This eventually tears him up inside and he tells Caroline his love for her is gone and their relationship is over. He says goodbye to her as she leaves him alone on a train. He is shown back playing solitary soccer as the credits roll. ===== George, his wife Eleanor, his brother Sam, Sam's wife Carry, and his daughter Maya are on their way to a family reunion, however they decide to stay at an abandoned campsite for the night. On their way there, they encounter a group of college students. After they arrive, George takes Eleanor fishing while Maya goes swimming and Sam and Carry have sex in a tent. However, soon, a massive fog sets in. Maya heads back to the campsite and hears screaming. When she arrives, she sees Sam being horribly dismembered. Maya flees back into the woods and encounters her parents. She tells them about Sam's death, but they are skeptical. Then, Carry's severed head lands next to them and Eleanor is attacked and killed by an unseen monster. George and Maya flee and attempt to barricade themselves inside a cave, but George is dragged into the fog and killed. Maya successfully closes off the entrance to the cave, but hears another monster behind her and screams before the screen cuts to the title. The next day, the seven college students arrive at the same campsite. After they set up the tents, the couples have sex. Dan and Molly have sex in a canoe and Larry and Brandy have sex while skinny dipping. Meanwhile, the single members of the group (Leslie, Mike and Jona) explore the same cave from earlier in the film and Jona tells Leslie that she is in love with Dan. They then find Maya barely alive. She promptly turns into a zombie and bites Mike before Jona beats her to death with a rock. Mike, due to being bitten, turns into a zombie and is killed by Leslie. Leslie and Jona exit the cave and are chased by more zombies, with Leslie killing the reanimated George. They then split up to find the others. Leslie attempts to save Larry and Brandy by paddling out to them on a raft, but reanimated corpses in the lake kill Larry. After Leslie pulls Brandy onto the raft, Brandy discovers that she was bitten, and Leslie mercy kills her with a knife. Meanwhile, Jona helps Dan and Molly out of the canoe. Dan and Jona race ahead, while Molly lags behind. Jona goes back to help her, but instead kills her by stabbing her in the neck with a stick, and tells Dan that she was eaten by zombies. Dan and Jona run through the woods for several hours and finally make it to a road and celebrate by making out. They see a car coming and think that they are saved, but they soon realize that the driver is a zombie. The car veers off the road, hitting and killing Dan. The zombies chase Jona back to the canoe, where a crowd of zombies, including a reanimated Molly, rip Jona to shreds. Leslie discovered an abandoned military base in the woods, where she fins an old grenade. Leslie repairs an old armored vehicle and tries to use it to escape, but the car is blocked by a swarm of zombies. She is able to blow up enough zombies with the grenade so that she is able to get away. Leslie drives to the city, only to discover that it has been overrun with zombies. She is last seen driving into the desert, with her ultimate fate being left uncertain. ===== Former brawler and womanizer Luke Fargo (Van Heflin) returns from the American Civil War to his Southern hometown a greatly changed man. Following his traumatic experience at the Battle of Vicksburg, he has become a minister, intent on rebuilding the town's only church. He is greeted with disbelief by his friends, including Matty (Nancy Kulp), and with outright hostility by the rest of the townsfolk, as he had fought on the Union side. Particularly opposed to him is Yancey Huggins (Raymond Burr), who sees a threat to his iron-fisted control of the town. Fargo encounters two very different women from his past. Southern belle Georgina Descrais (Allison Hayes), impoverished by the war, tries to revive their former romantic relationship, as does the local madam, Selma (an uncredited Jean Willes), but he rejects them both. Meanwhile, teenage orphan tomboy Lissy (Joanne Woodward), who had been living in the parsonage, takes a strong liking to him. She continues residing there, which causes Fargo a great deal of trouble, as the townspeople, aroused by Huggins, suspect him of falling back on his old scandalous ways. He does not help matters when he reluctantly gambles on a Sunday with prosperous businessman Albert Loomis (Philip Carey), winning a horse race to obtain lumber for the church, and is goaded into fighting Yancey's men. Finally, the bishop is called in to resolve the situation. He learns that Fargo, not knowing any better, had not been ordained. After hearing how much good Fargo has done in the community, the bishop makes him a real minister and then tries to get him to marry Lissy. When Fargo proves reluctant, the exasperated Lissy hands the bishop her rifle to prod the hesitant (though not unwilling) groom. ===== Annabel Greene is a girl who has it all—at least, that's how it seems on TV commercials. Annabel's life is far from perfect. Her friendship with her best friends Clarke and Sophie ended bitterly. This left her alone and friendless at the beginning of a new school year. Her sister Whitney's eating disorder is weighing down the entire family, and Annabel fears speaking out about her past and her lack of enthusiasm for modeling. Annabel and Clarke were best friends before meeting Sophie. When Sophie joined their friend group, she bullied Clarke about her allergies and not using makeup. One night, Annabel ditched Clarke to hang out with a boy, and Clarke didn't speak to her again. Later on, Annabel got raped by Sophie's boyfriend Will Cash. Sophie walked in and thought Annabel was fooling around with Will. In the midst of her isolation, she meets Owen—a music-obsessed, intense classmate who, after taking an anger management class, is determined to tell the truth. With his help, Annabel may start facing her fears—and more importantly, speaking the truth to herself. ===== While out in the snow, Pluto hears meowing noises coming from a bag floating on a drifting ice floe. He saves it, only to lose interest when he finds an orange kitten inside. The kitten follows him home and Mickey immediately adopts it. Pluto becomes jealous of all the attention the kitten gets and is coerced by his shoulder devil to get it in trouble. Despite his shoulder angel's attempts to talk him out of it, Pluto tries to trick the kitten into attacking Mickey's goldfish Bianca, only for it to accidentally knock down the fishbowl. When Mickey demands answers from Bianca, she points to Pluto, knowing that he's the one trying to get the kitten into trouble in the first place. Mickey angrily kicks a guilty Pluto out of the house for the remainder of the day as punishment, and Pluto angrily blames his shoulder devil for getting him into trouble. Eventually, the kitten ends up being outside as well while chasing a ball, accidentally falling into a well. The angel tells Pluto to save it, but the devil furiously tells him to let it drown as retribution for getting him kicked out. Finally having enough, the angel chases off the devil by punching him into oblivion and convinces Pluto to do the right thing, only for him to fall in too. Hearing Pluto's cries, Mickey saves them both and comforts a near frozen Pluto, feeling very remorseful for kicking him out. After receiving a nice hot bath from Mickey and a thank you kiss from the kitten, Pluto is told by the angel "Kindness to animals, my friend, will be rewarded in the end". ===== A story of many Irish men and women from various backgrounds and how a teacher, Nora O'Donoghue (known as "Signora"), and an Italian evening class changes their lives over the course of a year. Each chapter deals with the life story of one or more students in the class. In a Dickensian way, they bump into each other and are affected by the decisions of those around them. ===== Ella Brady, a young science teacher, falls in love with a handsome, suave businessman (Don Richardson) who is married but assures her that his marriage is "dead". For some time she is happy with the torrid affair, and manages to overlook some inconsistencies in what he tells her. Until the moment when he is exposed as a corrupt swindler and runs away out of the country and out of her life – leaving Ella, her family, and many people in Dublin without their savings. Ella is disgraced and quits her teaching job to work more than 60 hours a week at Quentins restaurant, with the Scarlet Feather catering company, and with a film crew, to help out her family. The book mostly concentrates on Ella's attempt to get funding for her friends' film company for a documentary about the restaurant Quentins. She struggles to get over Richardson, whom she still loves, and with whether or not to give the fraud squad access to a laptop he left in her possession. Eventually, her efforts to get funding lead her to meet a new man, Derry King, an American businessman with an Irish heritage which he hates because of the way his drunken Irish father treated him and his mother. Smaller plot points revolve around the background of Patrick and Brenda Brennan (the managers of Quentins), Ella's girlfriends Deirdre and Nuala, and many of the regulars at the restaurant; the main plot is interspersed with various vignettes in the lives of people who had been in contact with the restaurant in one way or another, these interweaving with each other and with Ella Brady's life in various unpredictable ways. ===== D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly), an inexperienced Gascon youth, travels to Paris to join the elite King's Musketeers. On his way, he encounters a mysterious lady at a roadside inn. When he picks a fight with one of her escorts, she becomes suspicious and has him knocked unconscious. His letter of introduction from his father to de Treville (Reginald Owen), the commander of the Musketeers, is burned. When he awakens, he continues on to the city. In Paris, he nevertheless presents himself to de Treville, who recognizes d'Artagnan's description of one of his assailants and, saying "A man is sometimes known by the enemies he makes", makes him a cadet. The young Gascon spots the very man and in his haste to confront him, annoys three of the most skillful Musketeers: Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote). Each challenges him to a duel. At the appointed place, upon learning they are all there to duel the same man the master swordsmen are amused by the newcomer's audacity. Before they can begin, however, they are interrupted by Richelieu's guards, who try to arrest the Musketeers. Outraged that the three are outnumbered, d'Artagnan joins them in dispatching their foes, displaying his superb swordsmanship in the process. As a result, he is welcomed into their ranks. Later, d'Artagnan rescues (and falls in love with) Constance Bonacieux (June Allyson), a confidante of Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury). The queen had been given a matched set of twelve diamond studs by her husband, King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan). Foolishly, she gives them to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton), who is also the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Knowing of the queen's indiscretion, Richelieu (Vincent Price) sees a way to persuade the King to go to war with Britain. Richelieu arranges a ball and suggests to Louis that he have the Queen wear the diamonds. D'Artagnan and his three friends volunteer to travel to Britain to retrieve the jewels, but along the way, they are ambushed by Richelieu's men. One by one, the Musketeers are forced to stay behind to hold off their pursuers. Finally, only d'Artagnan and his servant Planchet (Keenan Wynn) are left to reach the Duke. However, Richelieu had already sent the beautiful Milady, Countess de Winter (Lana Turner) to work her wiles on His Grace and steal two of the studs. The Duke's jeweler is able to make replacements quickly and d'Artagnan races back to France. He arrives just in time to save the Queen from disgrace. Admiring d'Artagnan's resourcefulness, Richelieu has Constance abducted in an attempt to enlist him in his service. He also assigns de Winter to help persuade the young man. D'Artagnan tries to learn where Constance is being held from Milady, but begins to fall under her spell instead. When Athos discovers that the Countess de Winter is actually his treacherous wife, he tries to warn d'Artagnan, but is not believed. Then d'Artagnan finds out that Athos was telling the truth: He sees a brand on Milady's shoulder, the mark of a common criminal, just where Athos had told him he would. Fighting breaks out between Britain and France. The Queen succeeds in freeing Constance and sends her to Buckingham for safety. When the war goes against him, Richelieu gives de Winter a carte blanche and sends her to Britain to assassinate his foe. The Musketeers learn of the plot and send Planchet to warn the Duke. Athos confronts Milady and recovers the carte blanche as proof of Richelieu's treachery. De Winter is imprisoned by the Duke and placed in the custody of Constance, but when the latter lets her guard down de Winter kills first her, then Buckingham. Athos and d'Artagnan arrive too late to save them. D'Artagnan and Athos return to France with a self-imposed mission: find the Countess de Winter and give her justice for the murders of the Duke of Buckingham and Constance. They lose track of her on the road to Lille and return to Paris. Captain de Treville informs them that de Winter has not been seen in the city, and warns the Musketeers that she is under Richelieu's protection; if they continue their vendetta, if they are not killed they will have to flee to Spain as wanted men. They elect to proceed after Aramis recalls a conversation between Milady and Richelieu concerning the granting of a title and an estate near Lille. Caught once again by the Musketeers at that estate, the ancestral home of Athos, she begs for mercy but finds none, even though her husband still loves her despite her many crimes. Seeing this, she calms herself and walks with dignity to her execution. The Musketeers are ambushed by Richelieu's men, captured, and returned to the Royal Court for judgment. As Richelieu is about to have them sentenced to death by the king, d'Artagnan produces the carte blanche. Richelieu is compelled to recommend to King Louis that he grant Aramis's wish to enter a monastery; Porthos, an introduction to a rich widow; Athos, the restoration of his title and lands; and d'Artagnan, a commission as a Musketeer and a mission to England, for "the English lead too dull a life." The four, dismissed by the King, stride from the throne room in triumph. ===== The game features two twins who are attempting to re-take control of their land, Alurea, after a monster unexpectedly attacks, destroying everything in its path. The people of Alurea have lived in peace for a thousand years and have forgotten how to fight, yet the land's only survivors, the twin sons of the king, must take up the challenge and return their kingdom to its former glory. The two twins, aged around 15 at the time the game takes place, venture forth in search of a legendary stone known as "Dragon Blue Eyes", which is rumoured to be able to put everything back to rights. ===== The main story of the show concerns Esther, a Polish-Irish teenager from Buttevant, County Cork, who travels up to Dublin to study in college. There she encounters strong discrimination, for being a "culchie". She lives with Susan Costigan (or Gleeson, depending on the episode), described by Esther as "a woman with red hair", her daughter Kylie, her son Nathan (who becomes possessed by voices in the episode "Omen"), and her husband Declan. Kylie becomes Esther's friend, and they are seen stealing items (such as a dog) in the episode "Margarita". The series' other main characters are Esther's father, named Jack, and her Grandad, known to Jack as "Daddy", who live in Buttevant. She has a sister, who is unseen throughout the series, who Jack mentions a few times ("I have two daughters – two of them – and one of them's a boy"). Grandad is an extreme authority figure, as seen in the first episode "Buttevant", often sending Jack to the "bold chair" if he disobeys him in any way. He constantly berates Jack, calling him a "great big disappointment". The two of them are mostly seen drinking vinegar (Jack thinking it was whisky), and being visited by Soupy Norman, the title character. Soupy is always extremely aggressive and inebriated, and is only ever seen stumbling into the pair's house, delivering rambling, nonsensical rantings to the two men, always trying to punch Jack. In one episode, he asks to marry Esther's sister. He refers to Esther as "that culchie bitch". The Soupy Norman sequences are always taken from the same scene from First Love, and are repeated every episode. The series has a subplot of Sean, a Dublin youth, trying to make a living in the city. He does this by applying for increasingly strange jobs, such as a builder, walking a dog with "canine leg disorder", running the "Red Car Bar" nightclub, and helping Satanic spirits in the episode "Omen" (a reference to the film The Omen.) In the final episode, "Straz", a character called Soupy Dave (who is sometimes seen throughout the series trying to sell Jack and Grandad shady goods such as prawns and whale meat) is contracted by Jack's estranged wife (rarely seen before this episode) to kill him, using a number of surreal techniques. ===== Igor Davidov, an international journalist, possesses dangerous information about high-ranking traitors, including an Army General, a State Duma elected official and a well-known nuclear scientist who plan to sell weapon grade uranium to a Middle East country. The traitors realise that someone has leaked their plans. They trace the leak to Igor. Events turn nasty. The villainous General Astrahantsev kidnaps the children of loyal Commander Usoltsev, a veteran of the Chechnya war; the nuclear scientist is murdered. The conspirators succeed in framing Usoltsev and Davidov on charges of murder and drug dealing. Both men, who had not previously met, soon find themselves in a remote prison camp. They try to discover the real reasons for their being in prison. Then with the help of criminals they escape from the camp to seek justice. They face many more tests; not everyone will live through the experience. ===== The story begins a century after the events of The Two Swords. Drizzt Do'Urden still wields Twinkle and Icingdeath and he now wields Taulmaril, Cattie-Brie's magical bow. Drizzt defeats a group of bandits calling themselves Casin Cu Calas, a group that wears black and travels through the Orcish Kingdom of Many-Arrows and slays Orcs in their sleep. He is angered when one of them mentions Bruenor Battlehammer's past weakness by allying with the Orcs. The sixth heir to the throne of Kingdom of Many-Arrows, Obould the Sixth, is visiting the house of a "beautiful" Orcish maiden who is set to marry an elf from the Glimmerwood (formerly Moonwood). The book then returns to the "past" where Drizzt, with his traveling companion Innovindil, are returning from the journey to the grave of Ellifan. A group of Orcish shaman start conspiring against Obould, and coax forth the Half Ogre-Half Orc Clan Karuck. Innovindil and the rest of her clan are attacked by Clan Karuck, where Innovindil and her Pegasus are slain. Hralien and his friend find her corpse in a tangle below a tree. Another drow, Tos'un and one of the instigators of the Orcish war, has been living in the area alone. Hralien begins hunting for Tos'un, believing him to have masterminded the ambush as it was too well organized to have been orcs. The real mastermind is a powerful Gnomish wizard named Jaculi, that has been trained by Illithids and other powerful creatures, who has been secretly controlling Clan Karuck's different Shaman for centuries. Back in Mithral Hall Drizzt accompanies Bruenor to a place they believe to be the ancient and lost dwarvern home of Gauntlgrym. With Regis and the dwarves Thibbledorf Pwent, Torgar Hammerstriker, and Cordio Muffinhead they enter, only to discover a cavern full of powerful, otherworldly monsters. Regis and Drizzt silently share doubts about this place being Gauntlgrym, upon seeing the buildings. The buildings look like ones you'd find above ground, and not under. After a vicious battle with two monsters from the Plane of Shadow, they enter into a massive building and find statues of Orcish and Dwarven scholars and tapestries of Orcs and Dwarves living together. A frustrated, dejected Bruenor takes several scrolls and heads home to Mithral Hall. Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar search for Colson, Wulfgar's surrogate daughter, and with the help of Alustriel, ruler of the city of Silverymoon, finds her in the town of Nesmé. Once she is retrieved, Wulfgar leaves the Companions of the Hall to return her to her original home of Auckney and her birth mother, Meralda, before departing for Icewind Dale and the Tribe of the Elk. Cattie-Brie, saddened by Wulfgar's departure, returns to Mithral Hall with Alustriel. To avenge Innovindil's death, Hralien goes to find Drizzt in Mithral Hall and asks him to capture Tos'un Armgo. Tos'un also wields Khazid'hea, a sentient sword previously wielded by Catti-brie. Clan Karuck gathers up several tribes along the River Surbin and races towards dwarven and Silverymoon wizards as they finish construction on a bridge across the river. Several dwarves are slain in the nighttime battle as well as a very powerful wizard. After collecting the dead the next morning, Alustriel, who gave Catti-brie three wizardly items, promises to train Catti-brie in the Arts. After several days of work, Nanfoodle and Regis finally decipher the text on the scrolls. As it turns out, the language is a mixture of Dwarven and Orcish alphabets. According to the text, Dwarves and Orcs had lived together for centuries, and relations were continuing to improve. After gathering information from Regis, Nanfoodle determines that the only reason the city fell is because something melted the permafrost beneath the city, sucking the entire town and its population under. Drizzt departs Mithral Hall and eventually captures Tos'un. Bruenor, Regis, Hralien, Torgar Hammerstriker, Thibbledorf Pwent and Cordio Muffinhead track down Drizzt and together with a bound Tos'un they set out to kill King Obould Many-Arrows and end the war. Throughout the book Clan Karuck chieftain Grguch has made Obould's armies restless. Obould sends his Shaman to parlay with the dwarves, apologizing for the attacks and sends a messenger to Grguch. The runner sent to Mithral Hall is captured by treacherous Orcs, and the other messenger is slain by Grguch himself. Grguch, believing he is following the ways of Gruumsh, prepares an assault on Obould's encampment. As Bruenor and his group marches towards Obould, Drizzt and Hralien search for a way to prove Tos'un innocent. After hearing a discussion between two of the original conspirators proving Tos'un innocent, Drizzt heads off with Bruenor alone. Grguch and Obould are in a desperate battle, with Obould slowly gaining the upper hand until the Jack-possessed Karuck shaman, Hakuun, starts firing lightning bolts at Obould. Drizzt forces Bruenor to choose the destiny of the land and Bruenor leaps atop the back of Obould, and spring boards himself into Grguch. Drizzt runs after Hakuun and slays him and the shape shifting Jack. Bruenor is fighting a terrible battle with Grguch which ends with a disemboweled and headless Grguch. A battered Bruenor and dying Regis are brought before Obould. As Obould stares down at Bruenor, the Shaman messenger meant for the parlay heals Regis at Obould's command. Obould lowers his weapon and seemingly agrees to a parlay with Mithral Hall and the North. Hralien allows Tos'un to live in the Moonwood and the group returns home. In Garumn's Gorge, Bruenor and Obould sign a treaty, ending the war and establishing the Kingdom of Many-Arrows. Catti-brie takes on the enchanted robes of the wizard Jack and accepts the mentoring of Lady Alustriel and Nanfoodle. Back in the future, Hralien and Drizzt remain with the captured members of Casin Cu Calas. They discuss Tos'un and his elven wife Sinnifain and their children, the renaming of Moonwood, and the current state of the Orcish kingdom before they part ways once again. ===== Raj Dixit (Ajay Devgn) is a respectable average man who lives with his younger brother Rahul (Dushyant Wagh). Suman (Namrata Shirodkar) and her parents (Shivaji Satam and Reema Lagoo) are his neighbors, somewhat of surrogate parents to him at times. The obstacle in Rahul's life is not Rahul's physical handicap, cerebral palsy, but his imperative need for Raj. Suman is in love with Raj and declares it openly. Raj needs a wife who would be willing to accept Rahul in her life. With her feelings ignored by Raj, Suman begins to date someone else in the neighbourhood, much to the chagrin of her parents, and finally leaves home. Khanna (Prem Chopra) takes advantage of Raj's quiescent personality and asks him to marry his niece, Madhuri (Sonali Bendre). It doesn't take long before Raj accepts the offer and develops a relationship with Madhuri. Raj explains to Madhuri that their relationship has little room for growth, as lovers anyway. Madhuri is of the opinion that Rahul should be sent to a special school, which Raj strongly detests. Madhuri ends the relationship and beings to avoid Raj. Raj gets tired of looking after Rahul for 15 years and now wants to have a normal family life. He changes his mind and admits Rahul in a special school. Raj and Madhuri rekindle their relationship. However, Raj begins to miss Rahul and that adversely affects his work. Meanwhile, Suman returns home after a break. Finally Raj, Madhuri, Rahul lives altogether happily. ===== Emilia Greenleaf is an attorney living in New York city with her husband, Jack Woolf. Emilia is the stepmother to Jack's remarkably intelligent eight-year-old son, William Woolf. William lives primarily with his mother, the medical doctor Carolyn Soule. It is Emilia's job, however, to pick up William from his nursery school every Wednesday afternoon. When she picks him up, Emilia is often subjected to snide glances and whispers from the other mothers because, it transpires, her relationship with her husband began when he was still with his wife. They had an office affair, and eventually the marriage dissolved. Later, the reader discovers that Emilia and Jack have recently lost their daughter, Isabel. They kept the little girl for 3 days, then she died during the night of SIDS in her mother's arms after being fed. The bulk of the story deals with the results of Isabel's death, including the strain this puts on Emilia and Jack's marriage, as well as Emilia's feelings towards William. Emilia does not particularly like William (in fact, she describes him as "insufferable" early on in the story), but tries to be a good parent to him. This is hindered by the fact that William serves as his mother's mouthpiece, and sometimes speaks in a very matter-of-fact way about Isabel's death. ===== ===== The Arcane Brotherhood has long held the city of Luskan in their power, but when corruption eats away at their ranks, Captain Deudermont comes to the rescue of a city that has become a safe haven for the Sword Coast's most dangerous pirates. But rescuing a city from itself may not be as easy as Deudermont thinks, and when Drizzt can't talk him out of it, he'll be forced to help. The story begins with Captain Deudermont and the Sea Sprite crew still fighting pirates. One of the captured pirates raises questions of the effectiveness of Deudermont's actions, suggesting that Deudermont is allowed to capture pirates purely as a show and then stating that the Arklem Greeth, a lich who controls the Hosttower in the city of Luskan, supports the pirate trade. On Deudermont's return to Waterdeep, he meets with Lord Brambleberry of Waterdeep, and the two of them decide to stop Arklem Greeth and his pirate crews. Meanwhile, Drizzt and Regis decide to travel to Icewind Dale to learn the fate of Wulfgar. Their path leads them to Longsaddle, home of the Harpell family. During their visit, a philosophical debate ensues about crime and whether the 'greater good' justifies the use of severe punishment. Drizzt and Regis leave Longsaddle and head for Luskan, where they meet with captain Deudermont and learn of his plan. They decide to help in the fight. The task of saving Luskan is presented as moral conflict between trying to better the city at the risk of destroying it or accepting stability under less morally pure rule. After a few battles that tear the city apart, Arklem Greeth blows up the Hosttower, killing a large percentage of Luskan's population. With the war apparently over, Drizzt and Regis continue on their path to Icewind Dale. There they find Wulfgar living in a cave invaded by a carefree Drizzt and Wulfgar many years ago, testing himself against the harsh seasons before he plans to return to his people. Back in Luskan, while Deudermont tries to rebuild the city and keep the people of Luskan safe and fed, the High Captains work against Deudermont, hoping to turn the people of Luskan against him and assume the position of rulers. Eventually, civil war breaks out in Luskan. Drizzt and Regis return to help. The final battle sees the death of Deudermont, the sinking of the Sea Sprite, and the return of the rule of the High Captains in Luskan. Drizzt and Regis leave the city with the rest of Deudermont's crew. ===== When the Spellplague ravages Faerûn, old friends and foes alike are caught in the chaos. The blinding light released from the destruction of Crenshinibon burned out the eyes of the mighty Hephaestus, leaving him angry, sullen and defeated. A strand of Mystra's falling Weave released the necromancy of the ruined shard, reviving as apparitions the seven original liches that created it and giving sentience to the dead mind flayer Yharaskrik. Yharaskrik tricks Hephaestus into breathing onto Crenshinibon again, which transforms the dragon into a dracolich. Yharaskrik compels Hephaestus to smash Crenshinibon into his skull, binding them together. Yharaskrik's sentience then binds with Hephaestus/Crenshinibon, the three becoming the Ghost King. The three minds, with no privacy and never alone in the one body, had a great shared power: the dracolich's flight, strength, breath and an aura of death and disease, the militant and strategic mind - as well as psionic powers - of the mind-flayer, and the Crystal Shard's necromantic powers and patience combined. Seeking revenge on those responsible for his blindness, the mind of Hephaestus immediately set his sights on Jarlaxle Baenre. Traveling with the silly, but undeniably dangerous, dwarf Athrogate, the latter rhyming the whole way, Jarlaxle snapped out of Reverie one night at the intrusion of the dracolich threatening to find him. Not unintelligent, Jarlaxle had not missed the Spellplague beginning around him as Mystra's Weave itself collapsed. And after being attacked - first by the undead and second by one of Crenshinibon's liches, who he inadvertently destroyed when he threw his pocket hole dimension over the top of the lich, which collided with the dimensional gate the lich contained - they caused a rift and the lich disappeared. He knew the only way to survive and perhaps stop this horrid monstrosity of a foe was to enlist the help of the mighty drow Drizzt, as well as the holy Deneirrath priest Cadderly. He also knew, due to the last encounter with Cadderly - ending in a threat should Jarlaxle ever return to Spirit Soaring - that the only way to get Cadderly was to get Drizzt, and the only way to Drizzt was Cadderly. As he journeyed to Mithral Hall, attempting to discern a way to get the drow on his side, he learned of a terrible side effect of Mystra's falling Weave touching Drizzt's wife Catti- brie. He then decides his only chance - maybe Faerûn's only chance - was to convince Drizzt that Cadderly was her only chance and to let him go with him as well. After using a disguised Athrogate to convince Bruenor and Drizzt that Cadderly was Catti-brie's best hope, Jarlaxle meets up with Drizzt, Bruenor and Pwent, explains to him their plight and how their problems may be connected. Meanwhile, Spirit Soaring is filled with priests, mages, sages and scholars of all sorts, all gathered to discuss the recent failures in magic, the failure of some gods to answer but not others and other effects of the Spellplague. Shortly after Cadderly's children and the druidic dwarf Pikel arrive at Carradoon, the town starts being assaulted by the Ghost King's undead which, despite their great martial prowess, drives them and the town's people deep into caves under the mountain. At the same time creatures of the Shadow Plane begin assaulting Spirit Soaring but the combined might of the remaining empowered priests and wizards, led by Cadderly, hold them off until sunrise, when they retreat. Shortly after, as the remaining people at Spirit Soaring equip themselves with magical weapons of the cathedral's collection, their patrols begin to report heavier losses as magic begins to fail completely. Cadderly attempts to find Deneir and finds his god weaving the Metatext and therefore himself into the broken Weave to fix the damage and stabilize it. Soon after, a group of priests and mages who have lost faith sally forth against Cadderly's advice to escape and return a few minutes later as zombies at the forefront of an army of shadow creatures, who had returned even during the day. Drizzt and company run into Danica, Cadderly's wife, who had been out searching for their missing children when she stumbled across what appeared to be the death of Ivan Bouldershoulder at the Ghost King's foot. Barely escaping alive and with Jarlaxle's help, she recovers in time for them to reach the battle at Spirit Soaring. They attempt to press through with the unconscious Catti-brie on a wagon but not even a fierce charge by the dwarven heroes followed by the speed of the drow could break through the unstoppable tide. Seeing his wife and some friends in danger, his need to act called out and something answered. Reciting off unknown spells, he creates a flying horse and carriage out of a cloud and rides down to rescue the fighters below displaying godlike power in the form of potent and great unknown spells. The Ghost King is defeated but escapes to the Shadowfell, where he recovers rapidly. He returns and is defeated a second time, disappearing to the Shadowfell again. Cadderly uses Catti-brie as a conduit to enter the Shadowfell to finish off the Ghost King. In the end, Cadderly defeats the Ghost King at the cost of his life and becomes the new Ghost King, forever reinforcing and guarding the ward containing the rift left by the old Ghost King. The rift is in the shattered remains of Spirit Soaring. Catti-brie is allowed one last night with Drizzt, before she and Regis both die from the Spellplague and are taken by Mielikki as a reward partly to Drizzt. The goddess puts them into a pocket paradise plane for all time. ===== The trilogy continues the tale of the infamous assassin, Artemis Entreri, previously featured in books as Drizzt Do'Urden's self-proclaimed archenemy, and the cunning drow mercenary, Jarlaxle, previously relevant as the leader of Bregan D'aerthe, an outlaw group of drow based primarily in and around Menzoberranzan, that does business mostly with the drow of Menzoberranzan. Continuing the story of Artemis and Jarlaxle told in the Paths of Darkness series, Artemis and Jarlaxle begin an adventure that tests their skills, their minds, and their souls. While the two characters are antagonists in the Drizzt Do'Urden series, in The Sellswords trilogy they are the main characters of some of the few books in Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels that do not focus on the legendary drow warrior, Drizzt Do'Urden, as the hero of the novel. The Sellswords develops the two characters more deeply than was possible in the other Salvatore books, giving the reader an in depth view of the mind of the cold, calculating Artemis Entreri and the ambitious, opportunistic Jarlaxle. ===== =====