Challenger 040701

Sheryl A. Knowles - Paper & Pixels

Challenger Campaign

040701 Volume IV, Episode 1: Mummy Murders

[There were 0 EPs awarded, 36 total(a);
0 EPs, 27 total(b);
0 EPs, 14 total(c).
There were 2 SPs awarded, 11 total(a); 2 SPs, 7 total(b); 2 SPs, 2 total(c) .]

Aboard the Challenger Explorer.
The voyage back to Anglia was swift but steady. Professor Challenger proved to be somewhat embarrassed by the ship's name, "It was necessary in order to secure funding," he confessed. This maiden voyage had been commissioned by Her Majesty's Navy; ships like the Explorer were hoped to be able to provide information about the ground forces, etc., over which they passed. Unfortunately most of what could be seen most of the time was simply clouds. The isoquant in which the ship moved maintained a distance above ground level that seemed to be related to the highest point on a plateau mass. Having started at Ben Nevis, the highest point in the British Isles, Challenger and his team had expected to end up in the Pyrenees, that being - as they thought - the next highest point on the European continent. Ending up above the Tibetan mountain ranges was not what they had initially anticipated. For the Explorer's next voyage, Challenger expected that she would be re-commissioned as a military vessel with an appropriate name.

It did not take long for Our Explorers to recognize that they were on a ship crammed full of mad scientists, both radiologists and steam mages. MacGregor took particular care to arrange a private cabin that the two women could share. Rags sealed leaks almost everywhere one looked, and the ship clanked and banged its way through the constant level of crises expected in any normal experiment.

Steele was quickly admitted to the workforce of engineers. Forester spent a great deal of time in the lab with Rutherford, developing something of awe for that young doctor's intellect. Rutherford admitted that he had been recruited when Challenger had visited Trinity.

Sister Sunshine volunteered to assisted the ship's medical officer as appropriate and, when not otherwise needed by the Party, talked to her pony and the Chief Engineer's Chinese servant.

Recreation. The ship had a "home grown" musicale society. As well, various of the crew and staff played cards. None were willing to play the gypsy for money.

Mr. MacGregor and Miss Costorari could often be seen talking together when his duties were done for the day.

Once the ship may dry dock in Scotland, Our Adventurers took a train back to London. MacGregor saw them to the station and told Voronika, "I've got to stay here for now, but I'll see you in London in a few days' time."

London, Anglia. Spring.
Polly Oliver was pleased to see her long-absent boarders. She, however, insisted that the druidess board her Mongolian pony at a professional stable, there being no facilities for such at the boarding house. [I mean, mechanical men are one thing, but a horse!]

The group considered their resources, what could be used to gain the notice of the Society, the Museum, and the University.

Inventory:

Miss Costorari Copy of MacGregor's surveyor's notes on the pass from India to Nepal to Tibet.
Challenger recall device.

Mr. Forester Geology notes on the pass from China to Tibet.
10" beetle.
Fossil samples.
Chunk of radium.

Mr. Ramsey Gold ewer.

Sunshine Sea shell.

Mr. Penrington His hat.

Forester & Ramsey used the notes to construct an attractive map that their sponsor, Sir Horace Weatherby, took great pleasure in presenting to the Society of Geological and Foreign Studies. [Each Party member gained 2 SPs.]

Forester wrote a report, verified by Ramsey, to accompany the donation of the Tibetan high-altitude fossil shell samples Our Adventurers had acquired in the pass above Mustang. [It is not known whether this garnered SPs.]

Other ideas were considered.

The Kalachakra disappeared with Po. Penrington told the story of his adventures to Col. Selby-Forth as explanation for the loss of the prayer wheel piece. Then it occurred to the hunter that developing the skills of a professional storyteller would serve him in good stead in his pub life and probably save considerable coinage (from his own pocket) in wine and ale. Certainly the Party's adventures heretofore could provide ample material for rousing good yarns.
Ramsey considered writing a monograph on the linguistics of the people of the Valley of Life and the "probable" ties of their language to ancient Egypt/Arabia. Although he could not be sure that any of the people he could refer to as "native sources" would have survived the sack of the Ankh by the Mongols, his would not be the first "native culture" to suffer ill effects after a scientific observer had left their ranks (usually due to disease). However, having no professional standing as a writer of linguistics, Ramsey was not sure that such a monograph would find acceptance in the scientific community.
Ramsey also considered writing a monograph on the connection between Egypt and Tibet in the 18th dynasty, but that would doubtless be classed by his peers as speculative unless he could put together an expedition to retrace the approximate route and find archaeological proof of the trip/migration.
It was suggested that Penrington, Ramsey or Forester could give a lecture on the Forbidden City of Lhasa. It's probable that Alexandra David's descriptions of Lhasa and her adventures in disguise will attract popular interest far more than anything Our Adventurers could manage about the same subject. On the other hand, Miss David was last known to be in Switzerland learning mountaineering, not writing or lecturing in Anglia.
The Party considered how to give the Society the location of the former Khan's palace outside Cheng-du such that an archaeological expedition could be organized to do a real dig. All of Forester's photos of the ruins were lost and the rubbings damaged by weather, so there would be nothing substantial for which Our Adventurers could claim credit ... unless, again, a sponsor could be found who wished Ramsey to head an archaeological dig of the area.

Sister Sunshine commented that there were various aspects of the recent adventures that might be of interest to the druidic community. [It seemed unlikely that any of those would garner SPs.] However, she would be interested in any concerns or questions that the other Adventurers would like her to voice to her fellow druids concerning:

LuTang, the Mongolian pony who is an aspect of the Tibetan Old One Annapurna.
What the Party learned about the Wheel of Time.
What the Party learned about the Tibetan Book of the Dead/Bardo Thokal.
What the Party learned about the travels of Buddha as evidenced by the artifacts of diffusion throughout the far east: the Ganesha statue in Mandalay, the Foo Dog and foot prints in the hill temple in Burma, the murals in the palace at Chengdu.
What the Party learned about the now-ruined Ankh and the Valley of Life, in particular the recuperative virtues of the area "between Fire and water" and Annapurna's promise to keep an area dedicated to life.
What the Party learned about the Arms of Kali, particularly the collar that allows mental access and physical morphing.
The shell given by the young Old One Chomolungma (as well as the entire experience of being with young Old Ones of Tibet). First, however, Penrington has expressed an interest in seeing what Miss Costorari can determine about the shell via her peculiar powers.

This discussion also touched upon the possibilities of the Next Expeditions for the group. It was noted that such included:

Cheng-du palace archaeological dig
Egyptian-Tibet connection exploration and dig(s)
Finding the Golden Bird and returning it to safety in Egypt. Last known contact was the Fat Man's Gypsy. Ramsey was emphatic on the point that no sponsor should be found for this particular aspect of an expedition, simply because any sponsor would lay claim to the gold ossuary and that would negate his purpose in finding it.
Abbe - once Pere -- Berenger Sauniere's French-Hebrew find and its possible connection to the Hud (man of the Hebrews) of southern Arabian legend. Is this Hebraic connection actually the treasure of the good father's Rennes-le-Château? Or was there something else that grabbed the attention of Le Louvre's Henri Boudet?
What was that not-a-river in Sister Sunshine's adventure in the past? What connection might the shell have with it? (The shell, when held to the ear, sounds like that "not river", so affirms the druidess.)
Penrington's perfect pearl given to him by the Arabian troglodyte indicated an Indian adventure, perhaps concerning the origin of such perfect pearls. Voronika "saw" an entire necklace of them around the neck of an Indian woman riding in a parade of elephants.

With nothing definite decided about any of the above, Our Adventurers variously tried to catch up on the threads of their lives interrupted by the last adventure.

Forester had realized that his chunk of radium brought from the far past could be of value in many ways. Rutherford and he had determined it was chemically unusual [having many more half-lives left to it than modern radioactive materials] as well as particularly potent.

It could be sold to a well-off radiologist for a substantial sum. Forester might be a very rich man. [Ł]
It could be donated to the Society. [SPs]
It could be kept to enhance his own radiological power pool. [EPs: powers]
It could be donated to one of the universities - Rutherford, no doubt, recommended Trinity - in return for a scholarship, access to bright radiologist-scholars & good laboratories, (and possibly a staff position once his degree was completed.) [EPs: stats &/or skills]

Being rather taken with Sister Sunshine (although he has no idea whether she returned his regard) and knowing that he could not marry until he had completed his degree and was able to provide for a wife and family, the young pedagogue felt drawn towards that fourth option. However, such a choice meant leaving the adventurer's life and - it seemed likely - Sister Sunshine herself. Finding himself unable to decide, he took time out to travel home. He presented his father, an eminent biologist specializing in insects, with the exceptionally-sized beetle that he'd brought back from prehistoric Tibet. After Forester Sr.'s jaw managed to return to its proper position, the older man hunted up an item in his collection: a small beetle with exactly the same colour and general configuration as his new treasure, preserved in amber.

They discussed the care and feeding of the 10-inch beetle.
Forester Sr.: "Your mother would not appreciate it if it gets much bigger."
Forester, grinning: "I don't imagine so. She'd have to set another place at the table."
All in all, (Forester's mother being out shopping,) the two scholars had an enjoyable day together and the senior Forester did manage to remember to tell his son that he was to become an uncle - again.

Meanwhile, Ramsey had turned over his Ahkenaten-era golden ewer to Voronika for conversion into lucre. He had realized that it had no provenience that would be acceptable to either the Museum or the Society, and thus he also did not want to offer it to a collector as a genuine Egyptian artifact even though it was. Therefore it had worth either, literally, "for its weight in gold" or as a simple piece of art in the Egyptian style.

To accomplish her goal of getting full value for Ramsey's treasure, the gypsy used her best efforts to assume the appearance and attitude of an upper-class Anglish lady. She then loitered the aisles of Harrods. It took days before, at last, she over-heard a conversation between two wealthy matrons who were talking of their Egyptian-style decorations. Following through with delicate negotiations over the better part of the week, as the ladies persuaded their husbands, Voronika finally triumphed. One finalized the purchase! Voronika took the cheque to the Bank of Anglia and had it paid out in crisp bank notes. With cash in hand, she was now the very wealthy woman she had pretended to be.

She spent the better part of the day wrestling with cultural expectations and her better nature. She confronted the rest of the Party - Steele, Ramsey, Sunshine, Forester, and Penrington -- that evening with, "I want you all to know that my family will be very disappointed in me and that you are never, ever to tell them - or anyone - what I am about to do." She drew out Ł1200 in 20Ł notes. "That's from the ewer."
Penrington gaped: "Who bought it from you?"
Voronika: "I'm not telling you - because I might sell more later." She described her efforts as a supposed "woman of substance."
Ramsey: "Once the transaction was completed you became a woman of substance."
Voronika, with a slight tinge of regret: "I know. For all of an afternoon. But it was your ewer; it's your money. What are you going to do with it?"
Ramsey looked at the princely sum for a moment and then split it into six shares and handed it around. They each knew that Ł200 was the annual income for an upper middle class bread-winner, say a Police Superintendent.

The next day, Voronika took all her hoarded monies and opened an account in her own name at the Bank of Anglia (knowing full well what would happened to it if her family knew of it and had access to it). Sister Sunshine did the same with her Ł200.

Sister Sunshine visited her father in the druid's grove. Beaming with pleasure, he told her that her little sister [Maddy] was expecting a child come January or February. In turn, with rather less pleasure, she told him that Dark Moon had already made him a grandfather on April 20th. When he lost himself in calculations, she provided him all the data that Voronika had used to do the baby's horoscope. He seemed distracted and worried, muttering, "I must think about this."

The druidess tried to cheer him up by introducing him to Lungta. He did not seem nearly as interested in the Tibetan Old One as she had anticipated, merely asking her if she still resented her sister.
Sunshine, hesitantly: "I do not know. I do know that she keeps very evil company."
The old druid patted the pony. "Daughters! You can't teach them anything. Remember that."

Reading the Times, Ramsey noticed an article about murders that seemed to focus on a mummy's curse. The article mentioned the shocking death of Prof. Turnball in an Egyptian tomb (of which all the Party had been aware before setting off to Tibet). But the more immediate news was the mysterious deaths of his two assistants Andrew Weatherby and James Windibank. The latter had been murdered very recently in London. But, what had caught the Egyptologist's attention was that the former had been murdered aboard the airship Eastern Empress captained by one Herman Ramsey. 'Uncle Herman?' he wondered to himself. There were several articles and letters in the paper discussing the supposedly supernatural nature of the archaeologists' deaths, all characterized by what seemed to be strangulation by mummy-wrappings.

Ramsey did more than wonder. He checked the directory and made his way down to the Thames and to Bentley's Private Hotel. There he found his uncle in the parlour, still ramrod stiff, whipcord thin, and with the bushy mutton chops the Egyptologist remembered of his father's brother. But the older man sat staring moodily at nothing, a partly-empty cup of neglected tea at hand. He roused himself at his nephew's entrance.
Captain: "It's a dark time, my lad."
Ramsey: "I saw the newspaper, Uncle Herman. About the unfortunate occurrence on your return flight from Egypt...."
Captain, gloomily: "The Weatherby murder. It's a curse. It must be. I'd just gotten my commission and this happened on my 1st voyage. I have now been set aside while the investigation is completed."
Ramsey: "Please tell me what happened."
Captain: "Weatherby's companions missed him at a meal. My Purser investigated his locked cabin and found the young man strangled, with a piece of old cloth still wrapped around his neck. Of course my First Officer started the investigation immediately, but the crew - superstitious men - feared for their lives. Nonetheless, we kept discipline and brought the Empress into port. We unloaded. I delivered your father's package for him. Then the Corporation came in to investigate, and they had me set aside. As they did my First Officer..."
'Luther Tenney,' Ramsey recalled to himself from the Times article.
Captain: "The poor lad hung himself, you know. They had our Purser wait too. He drowned himself. The body washed up out of the Thames; he'd tied a weight around himself and threw himself into the waters." It was clear that all these deaths weighed heavily on Herman Ramsey.

Ramsey: "Who was on the Empress, Uncle?"
Captain: "It was a fairly full passenger manifest. Steerage was full of no-names. The crew and staff, of course. Some returning bureaucrats. The Turnball Expedition team - including the man who just died..." 'Windibank,' Ramsey thought to himself.
The older man continued: "...plus that reporter fellow and a baggage servant. The servant was an Eastern European." He shook his head despairingly. "I don't know what to do about all these deaths. On my watch!"
Ramsey: "Uncle, I'm going to discover what's behind these deaths. Is there anything more you can tell me?"
Captain: "It's supernatural. It must be supernatural or - not having apprehended a natural culprit aboard my ship - I will never fly or command a ship again! What shall I do land-locked, Maxwell, my boy? I can't grub in the dirt like my brother. Perhaps I can keep bees?" The older man sagged back into his depression.
Ramsey: "You can tell me where I can get some information. Like the passenger manifest."
Captain: "The Corporation Shipping Office will have that." He gave the address.
Ramsey: "How about that package from my father? Was it for me?"
Captain: "No. I delivered it to the museum. To Lee Downy." That wasn't a name Ramsey recognized as being a curator of the Egyptian wing.
Ramsey: "I'll work on this. I have friends with experience in the strange and the supernatural. I encourage you to have hope and wait for me to write or visit as I find information."
Captain: "Good luck to you, lad."

Returning to the boarding house, Ramsey told his fellow adventurers about his conversation with his uncle.
Voronika: "Funny you should mention the supernatural...."

After visiting the bank, Voronika had resumed her normal persona and gone to visit her family. The normal madhouse of gypsy life had taken on a different tone. Two of her brothers, some cousins and their wives had, she learned, taken wagon to Germany.
Voronika: "Why?"
Gypsy: "Your great aunt's niece's husband's sister's cousin's mother has come visiting. She is - a little spooky. And she is a master at cards - the Tarot."

Voronika was admitted into the presence of the visitor. An ancient crone peered at her with piercing black eyes in the darkened room. The old woman exuded an aura of fearful knowledge.
Voronika: "Hello, grandaunt."
Crone, laying down cards on the small table in front of her: "You have come into a fortune."
Voronika swallowed and said gamely, "Keep going."
Crone: "You are going on a journey."
Voronika, smiling slightly: "That's not shocking."
Crone, sharply: "Why do you think you're here?"
Voronika: "I just wanted to meet you. And I don't have your skill in cards."
The crone laid down the Wheel of Fortune. The picture showed lots of spokes [24] and Voronika had a brief memory of the wagon wheels of the Tibetan Rom. "Fortune covering Death reversed. Very peculiar. You will meet up with death and fortunes will be... tested. Watch yourself carefully, grand-daughter." Then she peered at the girl. "You've been somewhere back at the beginning, haven't you?" She began to shuffle the cards.
Voronika, trying to hide the fact that she was startled at the old woman's perspicacity: "It sounds like you speak of the past."
Crone: "Past, future, all is in the cards."
Voronika, having noticed no ghosts in the house: "Grand-aunt, what has happened? Usually this room is crowded."
Crone: "They're scared of the death that wanders the streets. It seeks. It follows." She laid down a card. It read 'Death'. "It will be following you.." She laid down the card that had represented Voronika.
Voronika: "Not again! What is it?"
Crone: "The cards show it."
Voronika: "How do I get rid of it?"
The old woman laid down five more cards, the Priestess, the 2 of Cups, the Page of Wands, the 7 of Wands, and Strength. "These are your allies."
Voronika: "Where will I be going?"
The old woman laid down the 3 of Coins. "You're incomplete, but I'd say, beyond Germany."
Voronika: "Is there anything I can get for you, grand-mother?"
Crone: "You can tell that lazy good for nothing to send in a warm cup of tea."
Voronika: "I will get it for you myself, grand-mother."
Crone: "What a good daughter!"

As Voronika finished her tale, Penrington scoffed at the notion of fortune-tellers. The gypsy girl looked at him and her dark eyes glittered strangely. "You know my powers. The women in my family have the Gift." The hunter shut up.

Ramsey spoke up. "I noticed an article in the paper about the Czar exiling some of his officers. I wonder if it is a co-incidence that the prediction about you traveling, your brothers' current destination, and those officer's place of exile all meeting, in some sense, the definition of 'beyond Germany'."

On the Trail of the Mummy Murders
The next day Forester left to spend some time at Trinity College, considering his options.

Ramsey and Steele went to the Museum to talk with Mr. Lee Downy. They found him down in Shipping, constructed packing cases.
Downy: "I'm very glad to finally meet you in person."
Ramsey: "I didn't mean to mislead you. I believe that the correspondent you know must be my father, Dr. Ramsey. I've been merely curious as to what correspondence he might be having with this department. I know he corresponds with the curators of the Egyptian Wing. But does my father have you make special crates for him or something like that? It's just a curiousity sort of thing on my part, you know."
Downy: "No, he doesn't have me make crates. I receive them. When he wants it to get here and not be intercepted by treasure hunters. I receive his packages and then turn 'em over to Dr. Feld."
Ramsey recognized that name. "Have you already turned over the latest box?"
Downy: "Yes guv'ner. The box with the beetle in it. And it might have been at risk at that. To tell the truth, I've seen Arabs sneaking around here. There was one following the old guy who delivered the beetle package."
Ransey: "Captain Herman Ramsey. The man who made the delivery."
Downy: "I don't know about a captain, guv'ner. He looked a little lost; a captain carries himself so..." they managed to established that the delivery man had been Ramsey's uncle. "I don't think he saw that he was being followed."
Ramsey: "How tall was the Arab?" They did not manage to get an adequate description from Downy, just that the Arab had "skulked across the street."
Ramsey tipped the man.

Steele, having used his accumulated status in society to become a Scholar in the Museum with access to the Egyptian Collection, volunteered to make an appointment with Dr. Feld. As a scholar, he was entitled to bring Ramsey along as his guest. The assistant, who met him, was amazed that the Naysmith engine would take an interest in Egyptology. "It keeps coming up in my travels," the mechanical man observed drily.

They were taken to the chairman of the dept., Lawrence Feld who shook hands, albeit somewhat timidly, with the steel man. Ramsey took over most of the questioning of the curator after having established his relationship to one of the collection's contributors.
Feld: "Your father sends items of indeterminate province to us, using unusual couriers, because, with some of these items, even Her Majesty's post has been subject to attack. His last package contained a scarab." The curator found item #158-3 and opened the sample box to reveal an Egyptian style scarab constructed of a bluish metal and partially set with lapis lazuli. The style differed from the normal Egyptian jewel in that it seemed to be all sharp angles rather than rounded curves. "It is a symbol of life and death. A potent charm against - or servant of - the Dark Powers. Pettigrew first described their presence in <:blah, blah, blah>." The adventurers tuned out the scholar for a while, intent on their own observations. Steele could not determine of what metal the object was made. Feld finished, "This doesn't seem Egyptian in that it is not made completely out of stone or metal, and Egyptian metallurgists worked in silver, gold or copper."

Feld explained that the scarab had been found by Ramsey Sr. in a portion of the dig that had been known to have been disturbed by thieves. Ramsey Sr.'s previous delivery had been some 6 months ago.

The conversation turned to the Turnball expedition which had been working on the Tomb of Katabet in the Luxor-Karnak area. "Who will catalogue the materials now that the last member of that expedition is dead?" queried the chairman rhetorically. The expedition's notes had, presumably, been sent on to the University; the Museum did not have the notes.

As Ramsey directed the conversation more towards the murders, Feld asked in astonishment, "You're not taking seriously the notion of murders by a mummy?" Steele tried to explain that a normal human culprit might be taking advantage of superstition, but Ramsey became insistent about the Museum's need to take more than casual care of the products of that ill-fated expedition. Feld clearly felt insulted and requested that Steele "escort this man out." After all, the British Museum "is a very safe place."

When the gentlemen reported on their findings, Sister Sunshine said quietly, "Someone may have killed the members of the expedition to prevent the materials that expedition collected being examined or studied. Perhaps," she looked at Steele, "we could volunteer to help catalogue the stuff. We might learn something; find something - out of the ordinary. I would be willing to be an assistant at labeling and recording...."

Further poking of noses determined that, as the newspaper article had indicated, Scotland Yard was not releasing any information at all about the so-called Mummy Murders. There was no indication that the suicides of the two officers of the Eastern Empress had been connected with the Mummy Murders; no indication that they had not, either.

The passenger list of the Eastern Empress in the 'class' at which the Expedition flew, included:

Abdul al Sauid (presumably of the Arabic Sauidi tribe, encountered in a previous adventure)
Akram Fahmi (presumably a Persian)
Mr. & Mrs. Fenwick (presumably those 'returning bureaucrats')
Andrew Weatherby (deceased onboard)
James Windibank (recently deceased)
Anthony Uruburu (presumably the Eastern European servant for the Expedition)
Phillip Travis (by process of elimination, the Expedition reporter from the Times.)

Our Adventurers considered their next steps.

Penrington suggested that Voronika should go to the river and try to talk to the Purser's ghost.
Ramsey suggested that the servant Uruburu should be questioned.
Sister Sunshine suggested that the reporter Travis might have the same information that Scotland Yard had not been willing to release.
And, of course, there was still the suggestion of examining the Turnball Expedition material.

Penrington and Ramsey decided to tackle the reporter. They found him at the offices of the Times, a handsome young Anglishman with a very harried expression, with every evidence of being feverishly up against a deadline. Penrington offered to buy Travis dinner and an engagement was made for that evening.

"You know I'm a reporter, don't you?" Travis made sure, as they sat down to shepherd's pie and ale. The reporter confessed that he really wanted to be an Egyptologist and started to pump Ramsey.
Ramsey: "My uncle has asked me to look into the murders associated with the Turnball Expedition, both before and after. I was hoping your unique viewpoint might help me. I'd also like to know what you observed of the Arab passengers aboard the ship."
Shortly it became clear that the reporter had not observed the Arabs, but was fixated on the discoveries of archaeologists concerning ancient Egyptian burial practices. "The Egyptians had uncovered the secret of eternal life. I want you to tell me what you know about that. See here," he flipped to the back of his notebook to show careful sketches of hieroglyphics.
Ramsey read silently to himself: 'Behold the entrance to the Chamber of Eternity/ Do not disturb these remains....' Then he said, "Was this all?"
Travis, flipping to the next page: "No, there's more."
Ramsey read on: 'Oh, ye thieves and infidels...' It was a fairly standard tomb ward/ warning.
Travis, excitedly explaining his theories: "They shouldn't have messed with it. The ancient Egyptians knew what they were doing. Those excavators didn't know how to read this. It's a secret code. This," he pointed to a glyph that Ramsey knew, "is Mercury."
Ramsey knew it was not, and tried to bring the young reporter back to a discussion of the Arab suspects.
Travis bulled on: "When combined with other powders it is part of the secret of everlasting life. You read the first, third and fifth symbols. It's a map to the alchemical symbols. If we can read it all, we can bring people back to life. That's why they preserved their bodies. This," he pointed to another section in his notebook, "is the formula for the resin saturating the cloth that was used to wrap their mummies. It's part of the secret and I know it."
Penrington interrupted, "Do you see any interesting names, Mr. Ramsey?" thinking that, perhaps Meriaten or Ahkenaten might be mentioned. Ramsey shook his head 'no'.
Travis: "I want you to help read this. You worked in Egypt. You know they knew the secret. I was assigned by the Times to write about the expedition, but my time there was too brief. You know how long it takes to figure it all out."
Ramsey, drily: "I've been learning about Egypt all my life. Did you know that the number 17 was sacred?"
Travis jumped on the tidbit. "That would be one and three and five and eight. The next number is eight! Did you know that?!"
Giving up on getting any objective observations from the obsessed reporter, Ramsey and Penrington bid him goodbye.

Forester had returned and listened to Ramsey and Penrington's description of the reporter. The radiologist commented, "He said he knew the formula for impregnating the mummy wrappings. You don't believe he knows it, but he does. What if we did a chemical test on one of the bandages that was used to strangle the victims? What if that determined that the resin on the murder 'weapons' is the same that Travis believes in?"
Penrington: "Then - the reporter would be the murderer! He'd have done it to get 'the story' in the short time he had with the Expedition."
Ramsey: "But what about the Empress' crew; the First Officer and the Purser."
Sunshine: "The Purser holds the key to the ship's supplies. If the murderer did not have all the ingredients he needed on hand for his 'resin', he might have gone to the Purser...."
Steele: "And the Purser found the body on the ship. And the First Officer was in charge of the shipboard investigation. Perhaps they got too close...."
Ramsey, grimly: "And we know what other officer stands between the murderer and getting off scot-free."

Next Run: We Have a Suspect.

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

Previous Episode | Challenger Runs Index | Next Episode | Challenger Art

Main RPG | Campaigns Info | Home | Players

Miss Costorari	Copy of MacGregor's surveyor's notes on the pass from India to Nepal to Tibet. Challenger recall device.
Mr. Forester	Geology notes on the pass from China to Tibet. 10" beetle. Fossil samples. Chunk of radium.
Mr. Ramsey	Gold ewer.
Sunshine	Sea shell.
Mr. Penrington	His hat.