Beyond Taunggyi, somewhere in middle Burma.
Mr. Ramsey scanned the jungle for any sign of renewed attack by undead monkeys, glad that the assault had not taken place in a civilized area where he would not have had his gun at hand.
Ramsey: "Now I'll be nervous going anywhere here without my rifle."
Penrington: "Welcome to my world, Mr. Ramsey."
Mr. Steele came to consciousness. The druidess was checking Po, Miss Costorari, and Mr. Penrington's injuries [Po was down 1,1,2; Voronika, 1; Penrington, 3,1], apologizing for the limited resources which curtailed magical healing all the while applying her paramedical skills. Ahead, as the ravine-choking brush thinned, could be seen three large hand-worked stones framing and reinforcing an entry into the mountain. The stream the Party had been following flowed out that opening. Po looked at the mechanical man, "I didn't think you could be knocked unconscious. Are you ready to go?"
Penrington continued to describe his ectoplasmic vision. As the discussion moved to how much the druidess might look like an elder version of her sisters, Po took the time to explain to Mr. Ramsey the Party's previous acquaintance with "Dr. Davis' evil twin."
Penrington: "Did we ever see Dr. Davis project illusions?"
Costorari: "No."
Penrington: "Could a necromancer cast a spell that would allow the image of Dark Moon to cast a spell?"
Costorari: "There is nothing that says FitzCardiff isn't possessing Dark Moon herself."
Ramsey: "Is he inhabiting Dark Moon or her baby?"
Steele: "Good question."
Penrington: "What do we know happened to FitzCardiff?"
Costorari: "We killed his body in Timbuktu. But his spirit wasn't there."
Po to Penrington: "Did you really shoot at a pregnant woman?"
Steele, drily: "If she is pregnant with who we think she might be, even I would shoot." Penrington lifted an eyebrow at the backhanded comment.
The group climbed up to the opening in the mountain. The area before the opening contained large flagstones disrupted by jungle foliage. As well, there was a statue that had been knocked over and was covered in vines. Penrington cleared some of the vines; Po recognized the statue as a Foo Dog - to Anglish eyes, a Chinese "lion" - albeit extremely weathered. He looked but found no sign of its mate.
The druidess and Mr. Forester noticed something on the ridgeline. "Something coming down from the right!" Two shots rang out, blowing a piece out of Penrington's skull [6 pts which had double effect due to it being a head shot. (And it would have been 7 doubled to 14 if the shot hadn't passed through the brim of his "lucky hat", effectively giving 1 pt of armor.)] and dropping Ramsey to the ground with a bullet in his thigh [7 pts]. Miss Costorari faded into the jungle while Mr. Steele fired an explosive Entangle, capturing one of the ridgeline assailants. Po cast his Force Field on as many members of the Party as he could.
Despite his wound, Mr. Ramsey, from his prone position, took aim for a head shot on the left-most rifleman and fired. However, the other sniper shot Mr. Forester in the chest [7 pts], stunning him. Meanwhile, the druidess moved to poultice the injured, starting with a spectacular [10 pts] cure on Penrington (who would recover and only suffer a loss of 2 EGO for a short period of time).
Steele fired another Entangle and Ramsey, continuing to ignore his wound, also fired with amazing accuracy. Ignoring the gun firing past her, the druidess healed Ramsey's thigh. Forester recovered enough to cast his Force Wall. In the resulting silence, Po asked, "Does anyone see any other danger?"
Recovering his hat and rifle, Penrington moved into the jungle to reconnoiter. Sunshine treated Forester's wound, mercifully minor due to the Force Field.
Having worked her way to the ridgeline, Voronika found a carefully-built blind from which she could track its former occupant by his blood stains. She proceeded to follow the track.
Moving more quickly in the relative silence, Penrington found a blind containing a body missing the back of its head. He smiled grimly, thinking, 'Good shot, Ramsey.' Then he heard something moving in the forest. Moving silently himself, he found another blind and became aware of Someone moving away through the jungle, albeit not very quickly.
Voronika continued successfully tracking despite the fact that her quarry had apparently bandaged himself and the "trail" was but freshly-stepped-on vines that would soon recover. She noticed, too, that Someone was following her, but she continued concentrating on her quarry. As she caught sight of same, he turned to confront her.
Suddenly Penrington saw a native with a machete drop from a tree. He fired, hitting the native in the chest [11 pts]. The body fell practically at Voronika's feet. She leapt nimbly over and closed, swinging her sword. The native opposing her blocked the swing with his rifle which crumbled under the blow. He started yelling and she started cursing in Romany. Penrington, vision still blocked by the jungle thicket, knew a few words of the gypsy language; these were them. He rapidly moved forward.
Dropping the now-useless rifle and pulling his machete, the native missed the gypsy. Voronika, however, did not miss him; the wound did not stop the man's yelling. Penrington asked graciously, "Do you need a hand?" The gypsy answered, "He's going to die now." She sliced off her opponent's arm. Then she hit him in the head.
Penrington heard a shout from down in the jungle and calculated it to be an answer to the former-sniper's yells. "There's more coming."
Voronika: "We should go. But... you were wounded. Are you...?"
Penrington, with a deprecating shrug: "Head wounds always bleed a lot."
Down at the cave opening, Po climbed a tree. He could make out more geometric shapes further up: perhaps the temple proper. Down here was clearly an entrance into the mountain itself. Forester checked the entrance, seeing that the only worked stone was at the entrance, all else seemed a rough rock cleft quickly obscured in darkness. He put on his goggles for better vision. Steele looked in and by virtue of his mechanical enhancements, was able to announce, "The tunnel slopes up. And there don't seem to be any warm-blooded creatures lurking in here besides ourselves."
Outside, Sister Sunshine spoke to Mr. Ramsey, "If you want to go in as well, I used to have a Light spell...." Ramsey answered brusquely (though possibly with a shade of gallantry), "I'd rather keep an eye on the mountain." Just then they heard a gun shot. The druidess reacted anxiously. Ramsey consoled her with, "If they had wanted us, there'd be three shots." They watched the jungle until Penrington and the gypsy appeared. Voronika handed the sniper's rifle to Ramsey who looked it over, "It's an old French issue." Penrington warned, "There're more people coming." Po added, "This is a terrible place. Let us be inside or somewhere else."
The group made its way into the narrow mountain tunnel: Steele, Penrington (with a lantern), Ramsey, the druidess (with a lantern), Po, Voronika, and Forester. The radiologist muttered something about the tunnel being a natural rock formation but that the water flowing in its very small channel had not cut the crevice. As the group progressed, they noticed that the water trickled out of a ceiling crack and down into the channel; the crevice beyond the crack was dry. Sister Sunshine recalled, "The oxcart driver said that there was a spring within the temple itself. It must be up there." Penrington mused, "If there were a secret door to the temple, I'd expect it to be..." he looked around, "about there." The hunter proceeded to poke into his designated part of the crevice and found a deep spot where, amazingly, he felt a latch. He proceeded to slide it up and push it in. Click. Voronika then found a spot at door height and was able to push a long piece of rock. Forester then found another push-able spot. Penrington announced, "It's a Chinese puzzle box!" Gradually the group solved the puzzle, wishing (perhaps) that they'd studied the puzzle boxes in the various marketplaces a little more closely. The door finally opened. Voronika said, "Let's go in and close the door behind us. They may not realize we came this way."
The party worked its way up steps that wound around the trickle of stream flowing down the center of the stairwell, up three flights to the top of the mountain. Steele stepped through the doorway into sunlight, reflecting off ruined walls and into a bandit camp! There were some 15 bandits grouped around cook pots and a small stash of rifles. Steele shot an Entangle over the rifles and 4 of the bandits.
Penrington stepped out and set the lantern down. Ramsey followed and shouted, "Bandits!" The others down in the narrow stairway continued up.
Steele rumbled, "Nobody move!" while the two Anglish riflemen took up readied stances. It was possible that the natives did not understand Anglish. [(How barbaric! :-) (By definition.)] As the other Adventurers appeared, a bandit near Steele went for his machete - and got blown away. The other bandits scattered and ran. Steele and Penrington took down several runners with well-aimed shots. Voronika, however, moved over to the entangled men and tried to intimidate them into quiescence. She failed and had to shoot one who broke free while Ramsey clubbed a second. One entangled man was taken prisoner.
The group viewed the camp. All that was left of the temple were the outer walls over which the bandits had fled. The roof had fallen away long ago. The stream's water came from a basin in what had been the center of the temple complex; it ran over a notch in the basin. The basin itself was shallow with the impression of a pair of human footprints in the bottom. The bandits had left about 30 sleeping places and fuel and fresh foods that had certainly been brought from elsewhere. Off to one side, another set of stairs descended down into the mountain and had been, apparently, kept clear for use - although none of the bandits had fled that way or (of course) down the stairs the Party had used.
Mr. Forester examined the spring. "The basin is clearly carved stone. There's no hairline fracture associated with the notch which implies that the notch is intentional and that the stream we followed was not created by an accidental break in the basin." Mr. Ramsey stepped into the basin; his boots were larger than the prints therein.
Po: "What did the horoscope say about this?"
Voronika: "Only that you needed to go to a place or places you had been before you were born."
Po climbed into the basin; his feet fit the footprints very well and he noticed that, although the water was cool, it was warmer in the footprints than he remembered being just previously. Suddenly all heard the sound of a gong emanating from a jumbled pile of rock and vines.
Within the pile they found, reclining, an old native in a loin cloth. He smiled, showing only one tooth. Voronika offered him water; Penrington - recalling the colonel's story - placed a blanket around him. The old man handed the hunter a piece of a Prayer Wheel.
Ramsey, guessing: "Does it have a monkey on it?" It did.
Voronika: "Grandfather, do you speak Anglish?" The old man smiled and pulled the blanket around himself.
Voronika: "Do you speak Romany?"
Po: "Would you like to stay in this place or leave with us?"
The old man smiled and nodded to both speakers. He pulled from somewhere a long black hair, longer than Po's, and offered it to Voronika. He pointed to the Other Stairway - or to the basin. The gypsy felt the hair and saw a momentary flash of a sleeping woman with dark skin and long dark hair.
Searching the camp, Penrington found a box of 99 Burmese coins, many of them gold. He shared the wealth out amongst the Party for easy of carrying.
The druidess noticed her monkey friend washing in the basin. It kissed its hand and then, again, touched the basin. The druidess followed suit. As she finished, she saw a Chinese figure engraved opposite the notch and felt a small stirring that reminded her of the Old Groves back in Anglia. Po translated the figure: "Small happy cloud of pleasure." The last word reminded the druidess of Madeline's tales of the Omani Sultana Pleasure; a woman's name.
Somewhen, the old man must have wandered away, apparently uninterested in the Party's offer of protection. The group followed the stairs he had indicated to a T-junction. Voronika noticed that the hair she held drifted to the right. As well, the druidess felt a Presence to the right. The right passage (after a long walk) opened up into a natural cavern with stairs leading down. At the base of the stairwell could be seen, sleeping peacefully on a stone slab, an oriental woman. Her long hair was spread about her. A closer view showed her to be a mixture of oriental types although she was dressed in a dark blue Chinese-style garment. Voronika placed the hair beside the woman on the stone slab. The druidess started a ritual chant of greeting, using the name on the basin to address the sleeper: Small Happy Cloud of Pleasure. The oriental woman awoke and stretched. "Thank you and welcome," she said in Mandarin. Po proceeded to translate back and forth.
As the Party marshaled its thoughts to explain itself, the woman demanded, "What are they doing here?" She pointed through seemingly solid rock.
Party: "They...?"
Lady SHCOP: "The dead one and the one from far away and the one who would steal the power. He woke my monkeys! How dare he!" The cavern shook as though from an earthquake. "I will keep the one who woke my monkeys. The others are ... even past Chomolungma."
Party: "Where's that?"
Lady SHCOP: "She. She's the mother goddess of the world. The Center. She's in that direction." Steele noticed that she pointed to the NNW. "They are on the other side of her. They sent some of themselves here. The barrier between life and death is thin here now." The druidess considered asking why the barrier was thin.
Voronika showed the Lady a piece of the Prayer Wheel: "Is this a special prayer wheel?" The Lady did not know.
Ramsey: "We were told there was a golden bird near here. I was charged with taking it back."
Lady SHCOP: "People have come here over a long time and have taken all the gold from me. There once was a crown of gold built after he who walked came, but it too is gone. I would I still had some gold." [The mountain was recalling the gilding on the temple roof as her "crown".]
Forester, Voronika, Po, Ramsey and the druidess immediately offered the gold from the bandit camp that they carried. Steele gave half of his gold. The gypsy poked the hunter who, also, gave half of his share.
Lady SHCOP, astonished and pleased: "Thank you. It is better if it were thin so that it could be hung, but, thank you." Voronika gave the Lady her own gold necklace to wear. "But still," the Lady looked at Ramsey regretfully, "That bird is not within my mountain. I see it nowhere. I have never seen one. I have never had one. I am but a young mountain."
Ramsey bowed: "I only asked because, if anyone would know if it had been here, you would."
Lady SHCOP: "I will speak to [female name] to speak to [female name] to speak to [female name] to speak to the Mother of the World for you."
Penrington: "What should we take to the Mother of the World?"
The Lady Mountain reached into her robe and handed the druidess an emerald as big as a fist. "This, if you please." The hunter had to consciously keep his jaw from dropping.
Further questions revealed that the Lady only knew of female mountains. The most local was Hkakabo Razi. The druidess recognized that as the name of the mountain on the northern Burmese border from which the Ayeyarwady River (up which they had steamed) was said to originate.
Ramsey: "Why is the Barrier between life and death thin?" The druidess looked her appreciation at the Egyptologist.
Lady SHCOP: "Ask the Mother of the World or those near her - Dhaulagiri or Annapurna."
Ramsey: "Can you show us the relationships of those mountains to our maps?"
Alas, the Lady Mountain did not understand the limited dimension of paper. Ramsey was able to get her to indicate the direction of other temples on her - but realized that if they were within her territory they could not hold the golden bird of which she claimed no knowledge. Sister Sunshine suggested that, perhaps, the mesmerist had planted the "maguffin" of a golden bird in the Gypsy's mind, the better to ensure that the Fat Man would apply pressure to get Ramsey and his companions to come within rifle shot of this mountain.
There was a discussion of evil and power between the members of the Party. It seemed likely the necromancer who had raised the monkeys and was now being "kept" by the mountain, had established a working base on this mountain for some time. It also seemed evident that the bandits were collaborators if not employees of that same necromancer. How and why and from whom he had been "stealing the power" was not clear. How FitzCardiff and Dark Moon had contacted a native necromancer was also not clear, but their use of a native beastmaster in Timbuktu indicated a pattern of using a local partner. That anyone associated with those two and their desires might want power did not seem so hard to comprehend.
Thence the discussion turned to the Buddha.
Lady SHCOP: "He Who Walks is very nice. He stepped here after coming a very long way. Where he stepped, water now flows." She supposed he had a reason. He seemed to do lots of walking and teaching and reading. She did not know where he walked to, but walking and teaching were what he had "chosen to do rather than become everything."
Someone speculated that as "Guatama" meant "he who walks", the buddha so designated may have been the first Buddha. The group realized that the Buddhists of Burma seemed to have many similarities with what they'd been putting together as the Buddhism of Tibet. Therefore they should ask a local "Tibetan" Buddhist about Bardo and "Temujin in Bardo".
Knowing that almost anything was possible in the Lady's sanctum - if She willed it, the druidess tried to figure out how to request aid in repairing the remaining minor wounds still afflicting her companions.
Next Run: Thursday, 29.April.04
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III
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