Note: Michael and Sunny were not present for this run. Forester was played by Will.
| Dramatis personae: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Don | Benjamin Steele | Former airship steel mage, now enlivening the Naysmith machine. |
| Barry | Arvy Penrington | Avaricious ex-military man "out of Africa" . |
| Marian | Voronika Costorari | Lovely gypsy bargainer; seer of spirits. |
| Will | Maxwell Ramsey | Egyptologist and sharp-shooter. |
| Sunny | Andrew Forester | Graduate student, radiologist, chemist, photographer, and tutor. |
| Mike | Mortimer Homme | Forester's Cambridge roommate; walking dead man. |
| Sheryl | Sister Sunshine | Lame druidess-healer, companion to the Tibetan pony Lungta. |
| NPC | Lungta | Pony avatar of Annapurna, mountain of Life. An Old One. |
| NPC | George McGregor | Surveyor for Prof. Challenger; admirer of Miss Costorari. |
Synopsis:
A series of murders related to a supposed Katabet Tomb mummy's curse is ruining the career of Mr. Ramsey's uncle, an airship captain who brought to Anglia from the tomb a peculiar mechanical scarab with a Swiss makers mark. Penrington captures the Times reporter Travis as a possible culprit. Even closer to "home", Mr. Forester's new roommate is viciously disemboweled by something unknown but brought back to a semblance of life by Lungta. The mysterious visitor Mr. J.A. Smutts (of the triangle-eye symbol and the plain ring) introduces the concepts of Nosophorous, the plague carrier, once known as Katabet, and the possible counters of the long-lived Count de Saint-Germain and the Dagger of Tihuta (the latter believed to be en route to the Ottoman sultan) The Party now believes Travis is an insane agent of Nosophorous, "the Master."
Lord Truro engages Miss Costorari and party to obtain surviving manuscripts from the ancient Library of Alexandria; his accountant seems to have draconian and mystic measures for tracking expenses.
Following St-Germain to Vienna, Our Heroes meet an imposter. They also learn of a rich industrialist, Karl Kellner, and his friend, Lord Theodore Ruess, who seem to have strong interests in the Ordo Illuminatus. In an attempt to meet these two, Our Heroes attend a symphony performance and follow Herr Kellner to a magic portal under the stage where a mysterious woman, Lady Kira, has them attacked. Major Lasher - whom the Party believes is THE St.-Germain - arrives to close the portal, rescue Kellner, and provide some explanations, particularly that OUR plague carrier is Katabe of Arcadia, the "King Arthur" of his kind (the nosferatu), and can only be destroyed by himself. Mr. Homme contains a piece of the Plague Carrier. He can be kept at bay by someone wielding a weapon of Honour and Valor or heaven-sent.
(The "plain ring" has been seen on Smutts, Homme's uncle Detective Gregson, Druid Woodward, and a painting of an early Eckrenford baron associated with St-Germain. It seems to have some association with the Tibetan "White Lodge".)
Mr. Forester determined that the early battles of Vienna took place in the vicinity of the present-day Ringstrasse (Ring Street) on which now stood the music hall and within which stood the Druidic Grove and the Museum of Teutonic Knights, etc.. Our Heroes set forth after dark in a hired carriage to an unfrequented back alley with access to the sewers. Lungta's lead was fastened to the back of the carriage.
Mr. Steele lowered most of the group, Penrington first, ten feet down into the dank cesspool. Some four inches of, ahem, "water", ahem, flowed about their feet. The walls were brickwork and Voronika, the last one down, could tell the tunnel paralleled the Ringstrasse. Penrington, followed by Mr. Forester and Miss Costorari, led the way. Mr. Steele, at the back of the line, marked the walls with a crowbar. Sister Sunshine, sandwiched between the mechanical man and Mr. McGregor, could see the Scotsman taking particular note of each turn.
As Voronika entered a sump room, she could distinctly hear voices. The druidess, on the other hand, felt the same ominous feeling she'd had on passing through the old walls of Vienna proper. Mr. Forester, unfortunately, slipped off the edge of the catwalk that ran around the room under the sludge; he got thoroughly soaked but managed to keep his camera out of the wet.
Out of the corner of her eye, Voronika saw the quick movement of a running figure.
Voronika: "I'm beginning to see refugees."
The group came to a four-way intersection; the tunnel construction had become old stone with some brickwork amongst which could be seen an occasional tile decorated with Roman symbols. Voronika saw hurried figures some of whom seemed dressed in Roman cuirasses and others of whom carried antique rifles. They seemed to be running from inside to outside the Ringstrasse. She said, "Voices seem louder to our right." Our Heroes headed to the right.
Voronika saw a ghost emerge from a wall and correctly deduced the existence of a sealed entrance. Sister Sunshine started feeling the pounding of a martial drumbeat that seemed to match her heart rate. Her voice was unsteady, "The Old Ones here were very martial and are still hungry."
Again the explorers entered a sump-like room. Voronika could clearly see Roman soldiers fighting with short spears and, at a different angle, peasants from a later era staggering under heavy weights. The shouts were mingled Latin and Old German. The gypsy thought that some of the peasants disappeared into the floor. "Let's check out the floor."
Penrington heard the clatter of arms and covered the area with his gun, but saw nothing.
The floor indicated by the gypsy was haphazard brickwork, very unlike the piled-rock construction of the rest of the area. She asked Mr. Steele to attack the brickwork with his pick. As he worked the druidess felt more strongly the sound of drum and fife-like voices; she started her ritual with which to talk to an Old One.
Penrington glimpsed a spear out the corner of his eye. Uncertainly he growled, "I don't want to fire my gun every time I think something's coming at me."
Voronika, wryly: "Welcome to my world."
Sister Sunshine could see the rubble of ancient towers. Tall dark-skinned Janissaries charged the fortification; the German peasants turned to face the attack. Penrington saw the attack as well and called out, "Mr. Steele, can you see this?"
Steele looked up from the deepening tunnel, "See what?"
Penrington found himself spattered with blood as a Janissary impaled a German, now solid in front of him. "Oh-oh. How big's that tunnel?"
Steele: "Big enough for anyone but me."
Forester headed down the hole.
The Turk charged Penrington with a scimitar but missed. McGregor took on the next attacker. Ramsey noticed that the Janissary were not protecting their flank and deduced that the room of their time was smaller. He surprised one with a bayonet in the belly, gutting him. [Note-the Janissaries were actually attacking through a small breach in the wall, which is what narrowed their advance. The Viennese that were trying to fill in the breach were quickly killed, but most of the real defenders were not, which is why there weren't many of their ghosts present.]
In the upper room, Sister Sunshine called out, "Power is building!"
Ramsey called out, "This edge of the room they can't seem to see!"
Both Penrington and McGregor backed up towards Steele to cover the gypsy as they continued to fend off Janissaries.
The druidess said, "I think I could communicate with song. Does anyone have suggestions?" The others being busy, she started to vocalize the melody from the previous evening's symphony: Mahler's First.
Sister Sunshine reached a pastoral movement in the music; the battling figures turned ghostly. She knew, with quiet desperation, however, that the music included a series of building crescendos interspersed with such quiet moments.
Voronika called down, "Is there anything down there?"
Forester: "A Big Guy with a shovel leads the defense."
Penrington: "The shovel is saving the day. It's a weapon of valor!" He slipped down the hole.
Steele: "Is there anyway to neutralize the explosive if we buy you some time?"
Forester, thinking chemically: "It would dissolve in a slow stream of water."
Steele: "Can we redirect the sewage?"
Forester to the hunter: "Keep an eye on the Big Guy's shovel. He's probably one of the Knights who happened to be at hand." Penrington could see that the Knight was forcing the Turks back into their tunnel. As he watched, though, one of the infidels slipped past and aimed a dagger at the Big Guy's back. In less time than it took to consider the matter, Penrington decided to take an active part in the battle: he swung and disabled the would-be assassin in the leg. [6]
On the floor above, trying to defend the druidess from the on-coming Turks, Ramsey took a blow to the chest [5,15] which staggered but did not stun him.
McGregor felled another Janissary.
Carefully, Voronika worked her way down the hole.
Steele had embarked on hydraulic engineering, trying to ensure a steady stream of sewage into the lower room.
Ramsey was hit in the chest again [4,12], still gamely protecting Sister Sunshine.
Penrington: "We know which side should win. So I think we should just join in."
Steele: "I still don't see anything, but Miss Costorari says it's safer down the hole if you are careful of the explosives." The mechanical man thought to himself, 'I do wonder why I don't see any of this. Something about being bound to iron?'
Ramsey, still fighting somewhat desperately, positioned his rifle to take aim.
Steele shouted, "No loud noises!" The Egyptologist looked startled, then nodded his understanding.
Ramsey and McGregor both blocked their opponents.
Voronika and Penrington both followed the Big Guy into the tunnel and, amidst the press of peasants, saw that Turks were attacking the wooden supports for the tunnel.
Voronika in German: "The Turks are trying to collapse the tunnel!"
Penrington thought to himself, "We get to watch him be heroic."
Big Guy shouted: "Get back!" He proceeded to attack the roof with his shovel.
The ghostly roof tumbled down. As the dust cleared, those below could see that the tunnel now ended in a dirt fall.
Voronika: "We have to dig. It came down on him. We have to dig!"
Penrington started tossing rock and dirt aside with his hands. The gypsy went back for the pick.
Ramsey and McGregor continued their protective blocks.
The tunnel filled with choking dust. Penrington could no longer dig.
Forester commented: "You are doing it all wrong for proper archaeology."
Penrington coughed: "Tough! Take this bag of dirt."
Below, the diggers eventually found old bones, dried leather clothing, metal bits, a pouch with hardened beans, some old coins, bronze buttons emblazoned with the double-bitted axe symbol of the Teutonic Knights, and - at last - a very old shovel.
They climbed up through the muck that Mr. Steele had arranged to neutralize the gunpowder to find the druidess healing Mr. Ramsey's injuries.
Then the group retraced its way back to the outer world and the waiting carriage. Lungta snorted in disgust at the miasma accompanying them.
Research revealed that the name of the battlefield commander was known: 70-year-old Commander Von Salm. Ramsey maintained that there should be a list of survivors, the dead, and the missing in action. Given that many of the German peasants had also died in the tunnel collapse and that the gunpowder had never been removed from the sapper room, it seemed likely that the Big Guy would have been listed as MIA.
Voronika tried to get an attendant at the museum to give information and learned that the city had been defended by Teutonic knights and Spanish mercenaries. Out of 1000 knights, 18 had been MIA. One of those had been listed in the record of the siege as the knight who had, on the first night, led a sortie of 100 cavalry to destroy a gun emplacement. His name had been Eck von Reischach. With no further data, Penrington decided that von Reischach could well have also been the wielder of the shovel.
Forester took time to analyze the beans that Voronika had found. "It's not drinkable, but it's chemically coffee. It's noteworthy that the year after that siege, the first coffee shop opened in Europe, here in Vienna."
After a day of river travel, Morty felt another tingle on the back of his neck. The druidess determined the direction to be east of south. Katabe was moving east faster than the group.
Because it had been said that the meteorite from which the Dagger of Tihuta had been forged fell to earth about the same time as Katabe had been created, the party reasoned that the plague carrier had come from a region called Tihuta. However, Steele thought to himself, 'I admit I've yet to see the logic in that conclusion.' Mention of that name elicited from one fellow passenger the comment, "Tihuta is a restaurant on the Rosenplazan in Buda." Thus Our Heroes disembarked in Buda; no such restaurant was found. Penrington then resorted to his knowledge of the streets to ask if there were a gypsy restaurant in the area. He was told, "Yes, but it would be dangerous for the likes of you."
Next Run: Tihuta?
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III
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