Spring, 1889. Greater London.
Once again discussion resumed on how Penrington should convince Lt. Eversole to propose marriage to Katie, the granddaughter of Col. Lynn Selby-Forth. The group recognized that the colonel might have contacts who could sponsor a trip to Tibet. That could be at least as important as custody of the piece of Prayer Wheel Selby-Forth owns. Penrington decided to tell Eversole that, if there was no understanding between Katie and the lieutenant, then Penrington intended to ask the girl out himself.
The group then discussed the possibility of going to Switzerland to (a) learn mountaineering and (b) to find a mountaineering magnate who might finance a trip to the tallest mountains in the world. Po asked, "Are they the tallest mountains?" Penrington answered, "I don't know but we don't have to tell him that."
On a separate tack, Voronika handed the coin she'd bought in Chinatown to Po. "Does this coin detect as magic to you?" Penrington interjected, "Have you tied it to a string and seen if its movement indicates anything?" Voronika, coolly, "No." Po proceeded to cast some sort of dispel magic on the coin.
On the night that Penrington intended to hunt up Lt. Eversole again, he noticed that Forester was in formal dress. After some good-natured ribbing, the tutor admitted that he was going to the opera. "There's supposed to be a very good tenor tonight." Sister Sunshine appeared at the head of the stairs, impeccably attired in her formal druidic best. The hunter's jaw dropped for a moment and then he said, "Well, have fun." Lowering his voice conspiratorially, "I've come up with a plan: I'll tell the guy I'm going to ask her out. Do you think it'll work?" Forester answered drily, most of his attention elsewhere, "I wish you the best of luck."
At the bar, Penrington dropped his bombshell on Lt. Eversole. The younger man sputtered, attempting to form sentences and finally coming out with, "If this was 50 years ago, I'd challenge you for that! It's simply not done!"
Penrington, cheerily: "I'll let you know how it goes."
Eversole: "But... but... but..."
Penrington exited.
Four days later, Penrington received a note from Col. Selby-Forth. When he responded to the summons, the colonel greeted him, "I've got a bit of bubbly for us." As he poured he continued, "Don't know what you said but you certainly lit a fire. He showed up last night banging on the door. Yes, quite a fire." The old man chuckled, "She's off doing the shopping now."
Penrington: "Congratulations to them both and to you too, sir." They clinked glasses. "I think they deserve each other."
Selby-Forth: "Just between us two, she's a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. I'll see if I can get him posted to the home guard. Well done, Penrington!" The elderly gentleman proceeded to write a note authorizing Penrington to take the Prayer Wheel piece from the Society for Geography and Foreign Studies.
Penrington: "By the way, we're still looking for some financial backing for that expedition to Tibet. Would you know any one who'd be interested? Anyone from those old China days? It's good to have a sponsor for such things...." As the colonel started thinking, the hunter went on, "Seeing that you're an honourary member of the expedition, I thought you might be able to suggest someone, but I really don't mean to intrude...."
Selby-Forth broke in, "There's my old colonel. That is, the General, now. Back when I was a captain in Kangdoo, he was my colonel. Why don't you come back tomorrow night? We'll have a little dinner and I'll introduce you. Bring a date if you like."
Penrington, realizing that said dinner would likely include the awkwardness of meeting Lt. Eversole again, accepted with all the grace he could muster.
Meanwhile, in the intervening days.....
Po to Voronika: "Do you want to investigate the shopkeeper who sold you the coin? Do you want to see if Chan's family re-opened his shop?"
Voronika: "I'm not the best person to do this...."
Po: We'll wait a couple of days to let the hue and cry die down. Then we'll go back." The Chinese boy turned to others of the group. "I noticed that Mr. Ramsey and Sister Sunshine fell behind during our last trip." He looked his question.
Sunshine: "I am somewhat slower than most people, particularly when they are hurrying." [She has -1" running.] She touched the druid's staff at her side, "I suffered an injury as a child that sometimes causes me to limp. But I do have a ritual that can increase other people's ability to run, although it does not work on myself."
Po: "Would you consider it improper to be carried by a mechanical man?"
Sunshine, puzzled: "What is improper about that?"
The group proceeded to gather a list of some of the rituals the Sister could do which -- amongst the expected rituals of Old Ones recognition, birth, marriage, and death rites, and various Heals -- included blessings to others' presence (group), OCV & DCV (group), strength, and running (group), as well as drains to opponents' running (area) and physical defense (area).
A couple of days later, the group took another field trip to Chinatown where it was found that Chan's shop now sold pottery. The coin shop also had a new-to-the-group proprietor, an Anglish-dressed middle-aged Chinese man with excellent language skills. Miss Costorari showed him her coin.
Voronika: "I was given this and I don't know what it is."
Shopkeeper: "It is a coin from western China. It appears authentic. From one of the border kingdoms, I think. That area is barely civilized as it is; beyond that are barbarians: Mongols, desert dwellers, Nepalese, Tibetans..."
Voronika: "Is it worth much?"
Shopkeeper: "It is a minor curiosity. If you're interesting in selling...?"
Po, breaking in: "Do you have anything else from a similar region?"
Shopkeeper: "Barbarians make little of any worth."
Po, showing idle curiosity: "This is a fine shop. Is it yours?"
Shopkeeper, a little stiffly: "I am the shop keeper."
Voronika, with a tiny impression of conciliatory apology: "A week ago I was near and an older man was here."
Shopkeeper: "My nephew minds the shop at lunch time."
Voronika: "I may have been mistaken."
The shop's theme was dragons; even many of the coins the shopkeeper showed featured dragons. "The dragon is all knowledge." He had nice patter. Miss Costorari bought a small incense burner for a reasonable sum.
[Unknown to Our Heroes...]
After the foreigners left the shop a shadowy, aged voice came from the back room, "And so..?" The shopkeeper turned, "The coin is no longer."
Having warned her that any discussion of his own military career was to be strictly avoided, Penrington took Voronika, dressed with precise propriety, to the colonel's dinner. For a moment as the door opened, both imagined viciously serenading cats as the wails of chamber music issued from within. The colonel introduced the two to the Happy Couple and General Samuelson-Alder and his wife. Lt. Eversole scrutinized Penrington's every moment with the bride-to-be. Katie was a fine hostess. Voronika was a fine guest. Mrs. Samuelson-Alder was just as inane as the two girls.
General Samuelson-Alder to Penrington: "Have you served in South Africa, sir?"
Penrington, thinking rapidly: "I've been on several expeditions in Africa, sir. The most recent was to Timbuktu and then to Yemen."
General: "Ah, Yemen. A vile people! It must have been a different Penrington. Unusual name, what? I understand you are off to China now?"
Penrington, happy to have wiggled off the hook, "Indeed, sir. We are hoping to discover information about the fabled lands of far western China."
General: "I think there's a lot more there than meets the eye. There was an Anglishman. A strange old fellow enormously at peace with himself."
Penrington: "Anglishman?"
General: "He'd gone to a strange plateau. Straight from flat plain to mountain, he said."
Penrington: "That might have been Tibet. You went as far as Kangdoo, I understand?"
General: "Putting down the rebellion. They burned three airships. We had to teach them a lesson. We ran the last one to ground in Kangdoo." He took a drink. "The people out that way are different. They ran around in short sleeves even in cold weather. They had great vitality, great personal energy. If they could be brought into the fold, like the Gurkhas and the Punjabi, the Empire could use another division the likes of those." He continued musing about the eastern Tibetans, "They were very sure of what they were doing. None were rebels. The rebels were a bit afraid of them!" After a few more pleasantries from Penrington, the General said, "What are you after? Diamonds? Gold? Strange powers and customs?"
Successfully concealing the fact that the mention of wealth always made his blood run high, Penrington managed to convince the General that knowledge and wealth were of equal importance in the proposed expedition.
The general nodded. "No 40-foot-tall gold statues. No cities made of solid gold. And supposedly huge diamonds. But I'd heard mostly of prayer wheels in Tibet. Spin'em and the wheel repeats the prayer for you. Oughta work. Particularly if they use steam."
Penrington: "That it ought." Jokingly, "But I wouldn't take it amiss if there were 20-foot-tall gold statues."
General: "Give me a good rifle any day over a prayer wheel."
The conversation moved on to funding an expedition. General Samuelson-Alder had had an aide who was now in the government who might have suitable connections. He gave Penrington an introduction to Sir Horace Weatherby.
By the 2nd brandy, Penrington noticed that the young lieutenant was still looking daggers at him. The hunter called it an early evening, and he and Miss Costorari said goodnight.
Sir Weatherby lived in a nice part of London. He had served in the 82nd with General Samuelson-Alder and had, since, taken several business trips back to China. He introduced Penrington to his young assistant, Augustus Hillary. The men talked. Sir Weatherby has seen the plateau east of Kangdoo. "It is Tibet and rises up to mountains that bar the monsoons of the south from the arid regions of China. The language there is Chinese with Indian influences, as though there's been trade from the south." Penrington realized that Sir Weatherby wanted evidence of that trade route. "There must be a pass through those peaks. That would be a remarkable addition to Her Majesty's maps." He paused, "But... the pass would have to be named."
Penrington: "Weatherby Pass would be a fine name."
Weatherby: "Who's your cartographer?"
Penrington: "Mr. Forester. Drew our maps on the Yemen expedition. Fine set of maps."
Weatherby: "I don't know a Forester. Perhaps I could meet the man. Make an appointment with Mr. Hillary."
As it transpired, Mr. Ramsey also had cartographic skills. Penrington, Ramsey and Forester all kept the appointment. Mr. Forester was able to show the maps of Yemen which were, indeed, very good. There was some discussion of the suitability of using native names for places on Anglish maps.
Weatherby: "Mr Arvy Penrington, a word with you please."
Penrington stepped aside somewhat cautiously, realizing that he had never given Sir Weatherby his given name.
Weatherby: "I've done some asking around. Two fellows in Foreign Service were quite forthcoming. Fascinating tales. I do hope you understand that it would be best if this were known as the 'Weatherby Expedition'. They informed me that you'd keep meticulous accounts. Just so we understand each other."
Penrington realized that he meant that he had contacts that could find the hunter anywhere in the world. He assured his sponsor that he had no interest in having his own name recognized in conjunction with the expedition.
The group's collective jaw dropped when they first saw the tickets to Hong Kong - at £150/ticket!
Voronika tried to skim enough off of the expedition allotment to get some working capital from which to make a profit. Po, however, could give no advice as to appropriate trade goods, China having been a self-sufficient civilization for centuries. Penrington suggested blankets. Voronika decided that gold was always a universal trade good.
In terms of "extras", the gypsy and hunter found themselves thwarted somewhat. Mr. Hillary already knew that Mr. Penrington had his own fine rifle and that Mr. Steele's natural equipment obviated the need for a firearm for the mechanical man. That left as "spares" only the rifles for Po - who had never yet used one - and for Sister Sunshine who admitted that she had no skill in shooting. Because it was springtime, Mr. Hillary was also aware that supplies of suitable winter clothing and boots would be cheaply priced.
The gypsy consoled herself with taking possession of the umbrella-with-hidden-rapier that she had commissioned on the group's return from Oman. Not a substantial weapon, but - at least - a weapon that could go to Society Functions.
As plans firmed, opinion within the Party leaned towards a training expedition to Switzerland. To go to China, normally the group would leave from Portsmouth to Port Said, then through the canal and the Red Depression to a couple of stops in India (Mumbai, in the west, and Chennai, in the east) and then on around Asia. If the group took a side-trip to Switzerland, it would save time and money to ship most of their goods to Port Said from Anglia; but, themselves, to take train from Switzerland through Italy and then a smaller airship across the Mediterranean to Port Said.
Thus the group took a packet from Folkestone to Calais. The weather during the passage was OK. Aboard the small vessel, Sister Sunshine felt for the first time the emptiness caused by the loss of the presence of the Old Ones of the British Isles. She also had a sense that the Protections surrounding Po had been left behind. She told the young Chinaman of this sensation.
Locomotive from Calais to Paris. Po clairvoyed the train for Mongols and found nothing but French, Anglish, Arab, Chinese, and a few miscellaneous persons, including one clinging to the underside of the train car. In Paris, Mr. Steele noted that the strange iron sculpture [Eiffel Tower] had not yet been completed. A gaggle of French children trailed the mechanical man. An occasional pebble pinged off his back accompanied by childish shrieks and giggles.
Sister Sunshine asked to visit the cathedral and the group decided to accompany her. Miss Costorari stopped by a shop to buy lunch materials. The cathedral had a cave-and-running-water motif. The walls reverberated with song. Sister Sunshine tried to realize therein her normal sense of serenity, even knowing that the Old Ones there spoke French and would not communicate with her. Mr. Ramsey said he could speak French but was not much of a teacher; Mr. Forester offered the druidess his French grammar from his earlier adventure. The druidess resolved to study the grammar and engage Mr. Ramsey in practice conversations as much as possible. It would not be in time for this visit, however. She would not be staying long enough in any place in Europe to gain proper introduction to its Old Ones. She could only pay her respects as an alien.
Passing through Paris' Chinatown, Voronika for a moment was sure she spotted the elderly shopkeeper with the long moustaches who had sold her the Tibetan coin. No one else saw him.
The next day the group took locomotive to Switzerland. Miss Costorari arranged for meals for the group on the train. Partway through the day, they had to transfer to a slower train winding its way up a mountain valley. The rail gauge was narrower and the train only pulled two cars.
The trip ended at a station in Zermatt, a mountain village consisting of silly-looking narrow houses in bright colours as though drawn for a children's book, backed by piles of snow that were really mountains. The male residents seem to favour short pants with tall stockings; the women, brightly embroidered peasant garb. Ramsey's Egyptian French proved useable vs. the Swiss French, and the group - although it had neglected to wire ahead for reservations - was able to find adequate lodging. The concierge, whose prices seemed matched to his education, moved from French to Anglish in speaking with the group, and then to passable Chinese in addressing Po. He hoped that the druidess would become comfortable. And he was fascinated with the "luggage-carrying machine."
Po learned that Chinese often come with mountaineering expeditions as cooks and servants, so many of the mountaineers having served in the military or foreign service in Asia and so acquired manservants. The concierge expressed surprise that Po was not a manservant to one of the members of the expedition.
Penrington tracked down one of the SfGaFS mountaineers from his list: Randolph Neal. The conversation turned to local climbing conditions. Neal observed that the other climbers had left in the pre-dawn, to catch the most stable conditions. "The Snow's compacted down to steady ice. No one's attempted Cragholm because it's now unsteady and the Himmerhel is expected to go any day now." [Made up names of local peaks and glaciers-there are lots of such peaks in the Alps.]
Penrington admitted that his Team was completely inexperienced. Mr. Neal charitably offered to lead the group on a "2", walking the upper meadow. He offered basic tips: take plenty of water, wear layers. As he looked Our Heroes over for their afternoon "walk", he stopped at Po. "I insist that the boy wear boots." Po complained, "I can barely walk in them; how can I climb?" Voronika murmured, "You need the practice."
Then Neal turned to the mechanical man. "What about that? A statue..?"
Steele: "I don't think you need be concerned about me, sir."
Neal, in surprise: "A talking statue!"
Ramsey: "Try thinking of him as an ordinary member of the Party."
Neal: "It's over 6-feet tall and made of metal!"
Someone: "At least you don't need to worry about boots for him."
Ramsey: "You will have to take into account his extra weight."
Neal: "I have no experience with this; I really can't suggest what equipment it will need."
Mr. Neal set off at a good pace. Miss Costorari kept up with the mountaineer but, over time, the rest of the group formed a straggling line. Mr. Ramsey helped the druidess over rough ground. Everyone discovered that their energy levels dropped more rapidly than customary and that breathing seemed more difficult. [Altitude & thin air = -2 recovery.] Even Mr. Steele found that the airflow through his bellows was slower and that the lower temperature increased his fuel-burn rate.
Mr. Neal and Miss Costorari discussed mountain flora and altitude sickness. The mountaineer mentioned that he'd once climbed with an oriental-looking bloke, a Sherpa, who complained about an area like this "smelling thick." Apparently he came from mountains even higher than the Alps. Mr. Neal didn't know of any climbers who'd explored China. "It's a pricey ticket," he commented.
The group stayed for a week, practicing the "meadow walk."
[After a successful CON roll, recovery becomes only -1. Except for mechanical men, who don't adapt.]
[The Party members may take either Mountaineering or TS: mountains. Steele, Ramsey, and the druidess all opt for the latter.]
They also become acquainted with the local's custom of blowing horns as signals, their strange vocalization (yodeling), and an instrument of torture (accordion) used, the locals said, for music.
Miss Costorari did, at last, invite the druidess to examine the piece of prayer wheel. Unfortunately, having no contact with the Old Ones of Switzerland, Sister Sunshine could only hand it back. None of her powers work yet outside of Anglia.
During one morning walk, Po noticed some tuffs of white fur an arms' reach or more above his head on the bark of a tree. Miss Costorari pulled down a tuff. It seemed consistent with what one would expect of an animal brushing against the bark, but it felt more like troglodyte fur. It was definitely not the grey of the fur used for Mongol hats. Po checked but found no Mongol pony prints. But then, footprints in the snow lose distinction after a very short while. [Some Players commented on Abominable Snowmen as Swiss troglodytes.]
Mr. Neal didn't recognize the fur and couldn't recommend asking the locals about it. "They're superstitious about people living in the mountains or under the ice."
Voronika, curious: "Do people live under the ice?"
Mr. Neal: "Of course not."
Po asked about Neal's mountaineering hobby.
Neal: "A year ago I climbed Kilimanjaro." Ramsey recognized the name and the two discussed the area in Africa.
Penrington asked about Neal's future plans. The mountaineer thought he might try Sweden next.
Later the hunter brought up amongst the group the idea that Neal might be hired to help the Party through the Chinese mountains. Miss Costorari pointed out that the budget allowed the hiring of a native guide but that it couldn't be stretched to accommodate another £150 ticket to Hong Kong. That ended that.
The following week saw Italy through the windows of a passenger train. Then the air trip from Reggio di Calabria to Port Said where Our Heroes transferred to the giant class liner HMS Titanic. [Not 1st class this time.] The trip went as planned, a day or two spent in India (on the west coast, Mumbai), another week's journey around the subcontinent to the east side, another couple of days there, and then on to Rangoon, Burma. Twice a week vessels traveled between Rangoon and Hong Kong - where we'd be actually in China.
As the ship pulled into port, one could see that the Rangoon cliff face was lined with waterfalls just as, the old-timers might recall, the Niger cliff face had been. Rangoon sprawls across the delta of a large river. The travelers found their way to the Anglish enclave which was backed by jungle. The concierge explained that upriver was Burma's rice valley. There was no railroad, but one could travel up-valley by boat. The Burmese Highlands had been conquered by the Anglish about a year ago. Rumour saith that there are still bandits in those hills. The current Burmese government "is a triumph of the Foreign Service and the Army." Mr. Ramsey suggested that the wait for the Hong Kong ship might be a good opportunity for the group to investigate the origins of the package containing his piece of prayer wheel.
Next Run: The Burmese Connection.
The next run will be on Weds., 31.Mar.2004.
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III
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