Welcome to an epic story of the Heroes of the HMGS Middle Earth. It will be told across many issues of this venerable magazine, and recount the great battles as they happened, from this poor old soul's perception point. I will be your guide in this Political war that continues to rage in Middle Earth. I am old and withered from the wars in HMGS Middle Earth, and the fighting now is beyond me. Still, I can recount the heroes and their quest to carry forward with the mission, and so I shall. When we last left our heroes, Historicon 2003 (July in the sunny summer of the glorious Pennsylvania) had just begun. The Board of Directors had accepted a new member to the Inner Sanctum (from the Midwest (next to Mordor, no doubt!)) with much regret. It has been rumored that one of the ancient warrior kings even challenged the boy wonder, but the boy rose above his challengers. Meanwhile, the convention seemed to be tolerable this year compared to the previous year. No program book disaster or major cost overruns this time around. The only flaw was the Flea Market. But our heroes marched on. As the sands fell through the hourglass, so Fall In (deep in the throws of November, cold and windy near the sea in Maryland) did approach. But before they could march to their stronghold, our heroes were dealt another setback. The president had resigned and a hole appeared in the Circle of Power. What would our heroes do? Rumors said the president was never around so this could be a blessing, while other ancient warriors scrambled to find another puppet to install. At this very same time, one of our heroes returned home from a crusade against a different monster not set in Middle Earth, but in a Middle something else. Having been gone, he quickly brought himself up to speed on the latest events. Now, without a leader, our heroes seemed lost, but there was one to step up and carry the ring! A new president was chosen from the fold. As the new president was proclaimed, hope was restored to Middle Earth. Much had been pinned on the plan for Fall In, so they prepared for the siege. All our heroes' hopes lay with the defense of Timonium Deep. One of the most prominent ancient warriors of his time found Timonium to be a jewel and stronghold in the kingdom. He was quoted as saying that this will start a new golden kingdom for our people. As the foes continued to march toward Timonium, the heroes prepared the defenses. But when battle came, many of the ancient warriors did not show. Some held court in the bazaar telling tales of battles past. While the battle raged on many fronts, chances of victory looked grim. Even those allies like the warriors of the Workshop in Nottingham's Kingdom did not deliver the support that was hoped. Only a few new people answered the call to come and fight. Rumor has it that only 300 new faces came to fight with all our warriors and heroes. After 3 days of intense fighting, the smoke cleared, our heroes were still left standing. As the damage was surveyed, it was estimated at over 10,000 florens in damages had occurred. The most vicious rumors have the sum as high as 20,000 florens! Mayhap I say that it looks like those ancient warriors should retire and take the ship to the Elven lands. Now as our heroes stand together they must face the next challenge. Next time, we will cover a winter battlefield in the ancient battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, with a new general, a new face to join our heroes, and those who would try to seize power.  Back to MWAN # 128 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com