Challenger Volume III, No.12

Sheryl A. Knowles - Paper & Pixels

Challenger Campaign

040610 Volume III, Episode 12: Recoveries & Inquiries

[There were 0 EPs awarded, 33 total(a);
0 EPs, 24 total(b);
0 EPs, 10 total(c).
There were 0 SPs awarded, N+9 total(a); 0 SPs, N+5 total(b); 0 SPs, N total(c) .]

Ankh Caves, above the Valley of Life, near Mustang, Tibet.
Steele noted that the druidess was pointing NNE, indicating that the silver thread from Forester's body went that way; there seemed no significance to that direction. Her hand also seemed to be angled upward.

An elderly dark-skinned man with a scanty beard and a large staff entered Forester's room and examined the stricken pedagogue. In Tibetan, he introduced himself as Oros, priest of the Temple of Fire. He was "pleased there's no frostbite" damaging the comatose man.
Po: "Do you recognize his neck gear?"
Oros: "I have read of it but never seen it before: the Noose of Kali. It is placed around the neck to separate the soul from the body."
Po: "Can you remove it?"
Oros: "Surely the Hes can remove it, but it appears that the Ka has left this body already. Still, he yet has his shadow."
Sunshine: "Why is his shadow significant?"
Oros: "If the shadow is gone, there is no chance of recovery."
Someone: "How can we get his Ka back?"
Oros: "The gurus - learned ones - of this land can retrieve Ka, but none has passed near here in a very long time."
Someone: "Where is the best place to seek such a guru?"
Oros: "My knowledge of places outside this mountain is limited - but I understand that there are temples scattered all over."
McGregor: "You trip over Buddhist temples all over these mountains."

Po suggested that the druidess try her detect magic through his clairvoyance spell in order to follow the silver cord that only she could see tethering Forester's body to the Unknown. Then he paused, disturbed, and muttered something about his powers not working. Po also described how he "felt" the mountain within her healing spell and speculated on her being able to obtain the mountain's help in restoring Forester. As Sunshine had already used all her appropriate spells on the unconscious man, she could not think of another way to contact the mountain's spirit without searching out its physical presence as they had "Small Cloud" in Burma.

Voronika complimented the Scotsman on his marksmanship. Sister Sunshine nodded, adding, "All three of your shots counted." McGregor brushed the compliments lightly aside by admiring the gypsy's swordmanship. Voronika: "My grandfather taught me."

Oros had had a stretcher brought for the still-injured Penrington; the hunter waved it off.
Po to the disturbed priest: "You've not had much dealing with Anglishmen."
Voronika: "They are stubborn and proud."
Oros: "Yet, if they would be Healed, take them between the Fire and Water."
The priest led the way through the corridors of the mountain, exiting out where another valley could be seen. It was a couple of miles long, with three distinct areas: farms and a village where people and yaks went about apparently normal lives; a field of fire some 5-6 hexes high and 10 hexes across surrounded by nothing within 10 hexes; and snow melting into a waterfall on the far side of the valley.

The Party followed Oros past a series of stone altars that stood between the fire and the waterfall. The injured members - Po and Penrington - were instructed to lie down each on an altar. As nothing seemed to happen, the druidess discussed with the priest the differences in the use of fire and healing in their two cultures. Still nothing seemed to happen. When asked, Penrington admitted that it was more comfortable to be prone than up and walking. Still nothing seemed to happen. Eventually Sunshine simply examined the men's wounds - and found not even a trace of scarring. She wondered aloud if this was the healing phenomenon responsible for Ramsey's lack of a shoulder scar. The Egyptologist pointed out that the Hes had expected to see the scar, so these healing altars could not have been used on him when she knew him.

Penrington to Po: "Why are you worried about your powers?"
Po: "I killed someone. You may not have noticed, but I have tried always never to kill anything, not even to eat animals that had been killed for food. Killing a human is many times worse than that."
Penrington: "It was in self-defense and to defend the rest of us."
Po: "In my beliefs, if there is a choice between killing and being killed, I should die. Taking a life to save a life is not condoned by my beliefs."
Penrington: "I think you did the right thing."
Po: "I was incautious. I should have been aware of the mountain edge."
Nothing the hunter could say shook the Chinese boy from his apparent gloom as the group returned to Forester's side. Ramsey left to seek out the Hes again.

Encouraged by the group, Po tried a clairvoyance spell. It worked. Cautiously, directing the boy's mental "eye" by her verbal commentary, the druidess "followed" the silver cord. She saw it leave the room into a corridor banked with brilliant red and green plants. Then her vision caught up with the Old Man of her own spells; he had one hand on the silver cord and was brushing aside tropical palm fronds that drooped in his way. Through the plants he emerged from the mountain into a mauve meadow where grazed an orange creature long of neck, legs and tail, near a staircase of marble that climbed up into a pink sky. Atop the stairs, the Old Man faced a spiraling multi-colour portal into which the silver cord extended. Sunshine described entering the tunnel which looked (rather than sounded) to her like a stream of glockenspiel notes. The music spilled out of a cave into a lake covered with bright green giant lilies. The Old Man stepped from pad to pad, and arrived at an isle of giant strawberries and cream. At the top of the island, Forester crouched, using his hands to frame - camera-like - a view of a massive cherry. Around his waist the silver cord was wrapped like a belt.

Throughout all this, the rest of the party, also watching Po's clairvoyance view, saw none of what the druidess described. They saw only an expanse of sky and clouds.

Sunshine called out, "Please, my friend, bring Mr. Forester back." From somewhere she thought she heard an answer: "That which leads you does not speak for you." She held out her hands into Po's clairvoyant window, calling, "Mr. Forester, come back to us. Come home." But her companions saw that her hands only rippled the vision. There was no response. She sank back to sit next to Forester's body, arms wrapped around herself.

Po then said that he would try to use telepathy to reach the wandering spirit. Penrington encouraged the druidess to physically follow the silver cord NNE. She made it through plain corridors to the entrance of the Ankh caves and stepped out to where the cord seemed to stretch up into the sky. There was no stairway. Suddenly, "It's gone!" Sunshine exclaimed. Penrington grunted, "Let's go back in and check on Forester."

Meanwhile Po's consciousness had entered Forester, listening to the breathing that sounded distant, as though it came through a reed. Po located the tube by sound and dived in, spiraling around until he was dizzy. He emerged on the strawberry hilltop. "I think you're too close, Mr. Forester." The photographer looked up, "Oh, hello, Po." The Chinese boy tried to talk his teacher into abandoning the cherry and attempting to enter the "tube". With "your camera is this way," he finally succeeded and the two seemed to dive into the string wrapped around Forester's waist.

Back in the sleeping room, Sister Sunshine could once again see the silver cord. It extended from the unconscious pedagogue to the glowing, floating form of the boy. Steel had his hand on Po's shoulder and was repeating, "Po, I'm here. Come back this way." Voronika, thinking that sound alone would help, had started reciting something in Hindi.

Po realized that he and Forester were sitting in a pleasant sitting room by a cozy fire. The room appeared to be that of Mrs. Oliver's boarding house, left behind in Anglia months ago. The room looked normal and a daily paper was folded on the reading table. Po refused to believe any of it was real, so he concentrated on Forester, explaining, "We should return to Tibet."
Forester: "That's an expensive airship trip."
Po: "Our bodies are still in Tibet. You have no memory of returning from there, do you? This is a figment of your imagination. We need to leave your imagination and return to Tibet. Have I ever lied to you?" As the teacher opened his mouth, the boy amended, "I may have misled you, but I have never lied to you."
Forester looked puzzled and then pinched himself.
Suddenly Po found that they were both in the school room at Smithee's Form for Young Gentlemen. Recognizing the Anglish superstition that one needs to be pinched in order to wake from a dream, the boy pinched the pedagogue. "Ow!" Forester exclaimed as the room dissolved into an uncomfortable tumbling morass. Faintly Po could hear Steele's voice, "Po... Here... This way."

Forester groaned.
Penrington: "Lay still, lad."
Po had resumed his normal appearance and started, "Wandering off by yourself was not a good idea...!"
Penrington, more gentle than Sunshine had seen him before: "Don't lecture the lad."
Forester: "My head hurts so badly."
Sunshine, softly: "Unfortunately, my healing spells do not work on hangovers."
Forester groaned, "Everything hurts!"

Po was apologizing to Penrington and Voronika for having behaved so impulsively in the fights with the ninja when Ramsey returned. "The servants say that She is in the Fire speaking with the dead; it is dangerous for her to be disturbed."
Penrington: "Dangerous for her or for you if you disturb her?"
Ramsey: "How would I know? Possibly both."

The next morning after breakfast, the Hes appeared, looking tired and haggard [No pun intended.], to see Forester.
Ramsey: "Thank you, Lady, for coming so promptly."
Hes: "I have heard, My Love, of your friend and the noose of Kali..."
Ramsey: "Po called his spirit back, but we cannot release him from the collar."
The Hes reached towards the pedagogue's unwanted ornament. She touched it and it turned into a band of fire and disintegrated, leaving Forester's skin unmarked.
Hes: "I see that you have encountered some of the Eight Arms of Kali. How many did you kill?"
Penrington mentally reviewed the battles: "Seven."
Hes: "There are those - Feydadeen (Those Who Give their Lives) - who have given their lives to Kali. These were an Arabic sect whose fortress was wiped out 600 years ago by Ogdai Khan."
Ramsey: "That was the one who followed Genghis."
Hes: "It is a dark ceremony they follow. An individual has to die to enter the service of Kali."
Penrington: "Are the Arms -- people who have died, or people who have pledged their deaths to Kali?"
Hes: "They have died and been reanimated with some of the powers of Kali."
Voronika: "Their spirits are still with their bodies."
Hes: "The Ka must be kept with the body, but the shadow is gone. One who places the neckband on a victim can draw on all that victim's knowledge as well as take their shape."
Penrington, objected: "Not all their knowledge. He couldn't use Forester's camera..."
Steele, quieting the hunter: "Not all their power, perhaps; which is a different thing from knowledge."
Hes: "The Seven will find new volunteers by the dark of the next moon. You are safe here. If one were to enter our doors, I would know and burn them where they stood."
Voronika to Po: "You did not kill; he was already dead."
Po muttered, "Possibly," but, nonetheless, looked a bit relieved.
Po to the Hes: "Was your retreat prosperous?"
Hes: "I saw that great dark forces are gathering. Many horsemen approach. Enemies who would normally fight each other are working together. They would not show me their purpose." Scornfully, "I think they do not know."
Ramsey: "You do not look rested."
The Hes put a hand on the Egyptologist's shoulder: "I am fine, My Love. But I am tired." To the others, "Please rest and be welcome."

Some time later, Our Adventurers donned the white clothing of the mountain-dwellers and were admitted into the Hes' presence in the Great Hall. Ramsey was already ensconced in the lower throne.
Hes: "What would you know of me?"
Ramsey: "How is it that Akhenaten could have been in this temple so far from Egypt? We have no knowledge of such a connection over those distances so long ago."
Hes: "When his twins were born, Akhenaten consulted the auguries and the stars. The stars sent us here. Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius..."
Voronika, surprised: "That's happened before. Dr. Davis' mother told us that 'Jupiter was retrograde in Aquarius' when her twins were born and that meant that they had to separate the twins because they did not know which would be evil and which, good. There seems to be something of a parallel between Dr. Davis, the healer, and her twin Dark Moon, the manipulator, and the Hes, guardian of Life, and her twin Meketaten , priestess of Death."
Hes: "Father brought us both here, leaving our baby sister with our mother who reigned over Egypt in father's place. My twin sister disappeared into the town below. Later we learned that she had there found the Temple of Death in that Valley of Death. It is a pit as deep as our Ankh is high. She sent her assassins after my father, but they were unsuccessful, thanks to My Love."
Po: "Have you tried to deal with the village below - the town of Mustang?"
Hes: "I guard this place. I protect the Temple of Life. However, there are new powers that range this world," she looked at Steele and then in the direction of Forester, "and that is disturbing. I do not know what those will bring."
Po: "Who was the caretaker of the Fire and the temple before you."
Hes: "There were priests here but none who had ever walked through the Fire."
Sunshine: "Then how did you know to walk through it yourself?"
Hes: "The priestly lore indicated it was possible. Others had tried but none had survived - they were consumed."
Sunshine: "What differed for you?"
Hes: "I knew I would survive; it had been so prophesied." She smiled meaningfully at Ramsey.
Voronika: "Are your servants 3000 years old too?"
Hes: "Our Valley is protected by the Fire. There my people live, grow old, and die. None remember me from that time, except My Love."
Voronika: "How did your valley's fire come to be lit?"
Hes: "I walked into the Fire. When I came out, both my father and Ramses were gone. I know not how long that time was; it did not matter. The fire of the valley was lit after I walked through the fire; it is a reflection that I make from the Fire of the Temple of Life at the top of the Ankh."
Ramsey: "Can others walk through the Fire as well?"
Hes: "To stand in the fire - if it does not accept you - is to be consumed. You need to understand how to deal with it before you step in. Yet, while there is a Keeper of the Fire, there is no need for another." Voronika: "Were it me, I think I would go crazy living 3000 years in one place. What did you do for all that time?"
The Hes looked slightly puzzled. "There is much to learn. I listened to visitor's tales. I studied the wind, the fire, the rocks, the snow. There is much to be seen within something simple. What have you come to learn here?"
Sister Sunshine repeated the Prophecy of the Grove.
Hes: "Two of the Powers were addressing you, sending you this way. Temujin - Ironsmith - died between 600 and 700 years ago; he was a Power throughout these lands. Of Bardo I have learned from Buddhist visitors. They are the most recent to come to these lands. Their magi bound the Bon."
Voronika: "The bon?"
Hes: "The Bon were here before the Buddhists came from the south, from India. They were bound into rocks and such. Before the Bon, there were others, still older. Mountains change much more slowly than people do."
Po: "In Bardo, would you know what 'from the from' means?"
Hes: "I am not skilled with prophecy. I would guess that it means to leave behind everything that makes you what you are."
Voronika showed a piece of the prayer wheel. "Have you ever seen something like this?"
Hes: "It is a part of one of the mandalas; some are used as prayer wheels. The piece I have seen has the Tibetan symbol for dog."
Voronika: "Where did you see it?"
Hes: "It was given to me."
Steele: "Do you still have it and would you be willing to let us use it?"
Hes: "I was told it would be a key for me."
Ramsey: "The one we will form from the pieces we are collecting was the one that started the use of prayer wheels."
Hes: "Yes, the kalachakra with the months-of-the-year animals. Mine was a gift 650 years ago from a young boy, about 15 years old, and an old man, who came down this mountain. The Boy was sad and gave me the piece before he continued down to the village below. After only a night of rest, the old man went back up the mountain taking only a blanket with him. They gave no names and told no stories other than the boy telling me this would be a key for me."
Ramsey: "That date relates to the death of Khan."
Hes: "The Khan fell off his horse 662 years ago and died."
Penrington: "Was that boy similar to our Po?"
Hes, studying the Chinese lad: "The same but different. The boy who came knew himself better, but he was very sad."
Po: "Perhaps your piece is the key to your first meeting with Mr. Ramsey?"
Hes, turning to her love: "Do I understand that you intend to seek the last of these pieces?"
Ramsey: "Prior to meeting you, that was my intention. Now the situation is different. Clearly. Somehow I reached you in the past and this might be the key to that."
Po: "It is possible that all the pieces when assembled will in part lead to Ramsey going back in time and saving your father."
Ramsey: "I hope it will also allow us to thwart the convergence of Dark Powers."
Hes: "If this will lead to your remembering me, it is a key. I will join it with yours. But only if I go with you."
Po: "To the Valley of Time? And the mountain with his head in the clouds?"
Hes: "I cannot say. All the mountains here are female."
Ramsey: "For my part, I am delighted that you will accompany us. But I worry that you will be exposed outside of your Place of Power."
Po: "Will not your Temple be exposed without you?"
Hes: "My armies will protect the Temple and my people. I will travel with My Love."
Voronika whispered to the druidess, "Can't you try to talk to Annapurna? She might know of the mountain with his head in the clouds."
Sunshine: "Where shall I hunt for her? All these corridors belong to the Old One that is the Hes."
Hes: "I will ascend to the Temple and fetch the piece of prayer wheel."
Sunshine: "I would like to - uh - may we go with you - to observe?"
Hes: "You are welcome in our halls."

After the audience, which the Scotsman did not attend -- being engaged in the reconstruction of some of his surveying instruments, the group considered how to deal with McGregor. Voronika was forced to admit to having searched the Scotsman's possessions. Some felt that his ambiguous but probable ties to Challenger meant that any credit for Discoveries, future - and possibly past, would be at risk of being claimed by Challenger, albeit most felt that such were not at risk from McGregor himself. He seemed a proper Anglishman. Voronika did note that the Scotsman had been "cagey about what he's doing, who it's for and where he's been."

Penrington maintained, "It would not hurt to offer the man a place in our party."
Voronika: "He's another gun and another set of eyes. Otherwise he must winter here or brave the mountains by himself."
Sunshine: "It cannot be safe for a lone man, as we have seen. As a surveyor, he could be of great help when it comes to our describing the passes for our Sponsor."
Po: "But we will be taking him deliberately into danger. None of you can say we will not."
Ramsey: "And as an Anglishman he will feel it incumbent to accompany us, whether he wants to or not, simply because there will be danger. We would be offering him no choice at all."
Sunshine, recalling how closely McGregor had guarded her in the fight with the ninja, whispered, "I would not want him forced, even by himself."
Penrington stood firm.

Someone wondered if McGregor could possibly be "possessed" as Forester had been. Ramsey asserted, "Were he possessed, he would not have survived entry to this place." Others remembered the Hes' claims and her power, evidenced when the deadly collar turning into a harmless band of fire.
Steele muttered, "On the other hand, the doppelganger is NOT the one who wears the band; that would be the original McGregor, somewhere else entirely. Though the Hes did claim that she would deal with any such impostor trying to enter, it does seem as though the one mimicking Forester intended to try just such an entry, so I suppose it might not hurt to verify that the Hes is sure McGregor is not such a one. (For all we know, he was tended to by her minions and she's never actually seen the man herself, and that might make a difference?)"

At the appropriate time, the Party assembled in a room in back of the thrones where a ceremony was conducted by an elderly priest. Golden ewers filled with water were handed to each of the participants. Thence they were led to a flight of stairs. Steele realized that they'd be climbing the Ankh and declined as his operational efficiency had not been improving. The rest climbed six double flights of stairs to a room where they conducted another ceremony with the water, including drinking some of it. The break refreshed them, allowing them to tackle the next set of stairs. This pattern of stairs, rooms, and ceremonies was repeated several times as the group climbed higher and higher. Finally the stairs branched and the group followed the Hes up one of the flights that ended in a room where the other branch seemed to end as well. That room held a ladder up to a trap door in its ceiling. There was a young priest in attendance up here. On one wall was inset into the rock a 6-foot disk flanked by two great gold wings. The disk appeared to be at least one inch thick and of gold. Penrington's eyes gleamed although it was obvious that the ornament was too massive to be moved. On a ledge before the winged disk lay a long, flat object covered with a red cloth. The Hes lifted the cloth and revealed the prayer wheel piece with the dog symbol. She gave it to Ramsey.

Voronika looked at the trap door. "May we go up there?"
The Hes indicated a pause and nodded to the priest who started a ceremony. He went to each of the corners of the room where a quarter pillar extended into the room.. He chanted at each pillar. Then he pulled on a velvet rope; the trap door opened. The Hes climbed the ladder, followed by the Party. The view was spectacular. The area was bounded by four warmly glowing pillars and what must have been an invisible wall of resistance because, despite the exposure and the height, they felt no risk from wind.

Gazing in all directions, the sharp-eyed noticed dark masses moving from various directions. "My stars," cursed Penrington, "those are armies on the move. Horsemen." Po said, "Mongols." Voronika, grimly, "And they're all heading this way. We're trapped." The Hes said, "It will be a few days yet before they get here." Penrington: "There's no where for us to go but up the mountain, where the Old Man went, and hope...."

Solemnly the Party started to prepare for departure. When someone mentioned the direction, McGregor said, "I though you chaps said you wanted to head back to Peak 15, had something you needed to do there? Admittedly it's difficult to get to even when you can see it. But ... why up this mountain?" Penrington, grimly explained about the converging armies. The Scotsman's mouth firmed. "I'm going with you, of course."

That evening, Penrington had the druidess go over the Prophecy, line by line, as he tried to sort it into directed segments and attribute meaning to the phrases.

(A)	(a)
The Shattered	Po has been referred to as "shattered" 3 times.
Reflects itself	There have been multiple buddhas(?)
In order to be one.	One = Enlightenment.
(B)	(b)
Temujin in Bardo	Jenghis in the antechamber to reincarnation.
Comes to be one.	The legend that Jenghis will return to rule.
(C)	(c)
The Doom of the Moon now passes	Instead of Maddy/ Silver Moon, Sunshine must deal with Desiree/Dark Moon.
From younger to Elder
From Moon to Sun.
(D)	(d)
Accept the mantle.	Po must accept the Buddha's mantle(?)
(E)	(e)
You shall go and come back again,	Po/boy-like-Po goes/went down, now up Annapurna?
Ere you find the mountain with his head in the clouds,	Huh? We know of no male mountain in the area.
On your way to the Valley of Time.	Where the Wheel of Time/ kalachakra / our prayer wheel gets used and Ramsey goes back in time?
(F)	(f)
Leave your resentment.	Sunshine resents Desiree.
(G)	(g)
La	Element, vitality, Earth.
Sok.	Element, life potential, Air
Lu and Wangthang and Lungta.	Elements: health/Fire, personal power/Water, Wind Horse/Aether
Mustang Horse.	Lungta, Wind Horse, Aether. Sunshine's pony.
(H)	(h)
Those you bring with you	Meritaten & McGregor? Party as a whole? The prayer wheel pieces - ox, serpent, dragon?
Those you seek.	FitzCardiff & Desiree? Chomolungma? The mountain passes? Ramsey back in time? Prayer wheel pieces?
(I)	( i )
At this time... do not be afraid...	Counsel for Po's expected journey into Bardo?
Stop short on the brink of a triple abyss.

As the group prepared to leave the caves one last time, Meritaten turned to Ramsey: "My Love, be careful and don't use the great sound from your rifle lest the snow be loosened by it and sweep us away in its fall." Penrington sighed ... and unloaded his rifle.

Next Run: Where is the Rat?
Note: Next Run will start at 7 as it is expected to be lengthy.

(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III

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