The Story So Far...

Quicklinks to all episodes:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6
Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12,
Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16, Episode 17, Episode 18,
Episode 19, Episode 20, Episode 21, Episode 22, Episode 23, Episode 24,
Episode 25, Episode 26, Episode 27, Episode 28, Episode 29, Episode 30,
Episode  31, Episode 32, Episode 33, Episode 34, Episode 35, Episode 36,
Episode   37, Episode 38, Episode 39, Episode 40, Episode 41, Episode 42,
Episode 43 (or the epilogue/credit cookie).


Here is a summary of the of The Misplaced Hero for those who want a refresher on who did what to whom, or who just don't want to read it all to find out what's going on:

Episodes 1-6

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6

Alex is an idle college student in present day Michigan.  His rich and mysterious parents died when he was young, and his only other relative was his eccentric Great Aunt Flavia.

Flavia had created her own made-up world, including a secret language, and whenever Alex would visit, they'd play wild adventure games together, pretending to be in this world.

One day Flavia fell in the lake when they were out boating.  She disappeared for hours, then reappeared with odd injuries.  She wouldn't explain, but that night she gave Alex a ring, and told him that he was a "misplaced hero" and that if he ever got tired of this boring world, he should go jump in the lake -- but that he should be sure to wear that ring if ever he did so.

Now in college, Alex is an idler who intentionally fails classes so he doesn't have to graduate.  He upsets Professor Thornton (a.k.a. Old Thorny) when he writes a paper -- intending to fail -- which analyzes a work of modern literature from Aunt Flavia's wildly romantic and heroic point of view.

Thorny is burnt out and cynical, and this essay awakened something in him. He gets very drunk and thinks "jump in the lake" sounds like good advice to him. Alex tries to stop him from jumping in a nearby river, but they both fall in...

And when they come to the surface, they are in a completely different river, in a completely different world.  This river is swift and sweeps them toward a waterfall. They struggle ashore and Alex realizes that they are in the world he thought Aunt Flavia had made up: Awarshawa.

Alex can see reflections of home in the water, so he assumes that it was the water and the ring that brought them there. They can probably get home by jumping back in.  But while he's thinking about this, Professor Thorny, who is still drunk, wanders off.


Pick up the story at Episode7
or go back and start at the beginning with Episode 1


Episodes 7-12

Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12,

There are soldiers rushing up and down the isolated country road they are on. Thorny gets himself arrested by Colonel Pookiterin, a security officer looking for spies.  Lina, a peasant girl who tried to help him, is arrested too.

Alex sees Pookiterin and his crew push Thorny into a car and drive away.  He learns from the local peasants that they are likely going to the village at the foot of the falls, where they have a headquarters. He also learns that there was a train wreck full of important foreigners up river.  Everyone assumes that Thorny and Alex were from the train wreck.

Meanwhile down in the village, Captain Rozinshura is the district "facilitator."  He is an old school revolutionary, and bureaucrat, who believes a nice drink will settle most problems -- but a nice drink won't help him deal with the train wreck, which has political ramifications, as there were important foreign diplomats involved.  He needs resources, particularly doctors, and he isn't interested when Pookiterin shows up with some arrested "spies."

However, Rozinshura overhears Thorny say his name is "Doctor Thornton" and he then intervenes.  Even though Col. Pookiterin outranks him, Rozinshura's orders are to take care of the train wreck victims, and those orders supercede all others.  Rozinshura takes Thorny into his own custody, and sets about sobering him up.


Lina is left in Pookiterin's hands.

Alex runs and tumbles down the hill and finally makes it to town, looking like he's been in a train wreck himself.  He learns that Thorny was taken into the inn, which is the army headquarters for the district.  He scouts around, pretending to be a wreck victim in shock.  The cook, Niko, rounds him up, and gives him a dry army jacket to cover his wet clothes, and sends him back out to where the other train wreck victims are waiting for word and help.

While he was inside, Alex saw Lina being questioned by Pookiterin, and he decides he must rescue her too, if possible, when he breaks in to rescue Thorny.


Pick up the story at Episode 13
or go back and start at the beginning with Episode 1


Episodes 13-18

Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16, Episode 17, Episode 18,

(quick draft -- sorry it's so long)

The crowd of train wreck survivors are disgruntled.  They haven't had news of missing friends and family. Many are missing luggage, and they don't like being shuffled off into a school.  Alex suggests they all storm over to the inn and demand answers and assistance.  That will make for a good cover for him to sneak into the building and find Thorny.

In the meantime, Thorny is questioned by Captain Rozinshura, who only rescued him from Pookiterin because he thought Thorny was a doctor.  When he discovers that he's only a doctor of philosophy, he starts to send him on his way.  But then he sees, mixed in with Thorny's personal belongings, a book.  The book has a piece of paper with notes on it -- fragmentary information about a coup and assassination, to happen soon.  There are names on the paper, but he can't tell if they are the assassins or the projected victims, or who to tell about it.  SO he can't trust anybody with the information until he knows more about where it came from.

Rozinshura questions Thorny about the paper, but Thorny doesn't understand.  All he can say is that he had a student named Alex who gave him a paper, and that Alex is an invisible hero.  Rozinshura assumes that he's just too drunk to make sense, but that this Alex is the real spy, who gave the paper to the unwitting Thorny.  But he won't learn more until Thorny is sober enough to make sense.

Just then, the crowd of wreck survivors come pouring into the inn.  Rozinshura gives his keys to the cook and asks him to hide Thorny somewhere so no one will talk to him before Rozinshura can.

Since all of his forces are up at the wreck, or scrounging resources, Rozinshura, Niko the cook, and the company's female clerk, Tralkulo, are the only ones there to deal with the crowd.  His plan is to have the cook feed everybody as quickly and well as possible, while he and Tralkulo run around and listen to grievances and settle everyone down.

To that end, Rozinshura gets some volunteer help from Evans, a valet, and Lady Featherdale, a level-headed aristocrat who is happy to play bartender.

In the meantime, Alex saw the cook lead Thorny down a hall toward the back of the inn.  Alex follows, but they lose him in the twisting halls.  In his search, he finds a heavy locked door, which he assumes is where Thorny is imprisoned.  He also finds a linen closet with dry clothes -- Awarshi uniforms. On the floor he finds one of Thorny's soggy socks, and so he assumes they stopped there to find some dry clothes.  But the trail is cold.

The cook will know where he put Thorny, and he was friendly to Alex earlier, so Alex heads for the kitchen in hopes of getting more information....

Pick up the story at Episode 19
or go back and start at the beginning with Episode 1