Challenger Campaign

050721           Volume VI, Episode 4: Red Martians

Dramatis personae:

Synopsis:
Although the blank piece of Europium foil that Miss Sklodowska had investigated has been stolen, the Party has one piece (liberated by Meri) that has a partial cartouche showing an ibis and a 6-limbed baboon, as well as a drawing of their sponsor’s piece that showed a 9-rayed sun.

A charismatic seer Grigory aboard the airship to Egypt tells Marya of her search for the “rays.” An ambush on pyramid-measurer Petrie’s base camp at Hwara, points the way to a frieze that indicates that 18th dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose took an object of significance to Gaza. A pyramidium, the Party hopes.

The Party follows and is ambushed in a monastery where worshippers of Isis have spirited away pyramidium electrum sheets, in the company of a “Frenchman”, so saith Grigory who happened to be at the monastery. The trail leads to Beirut and thence to Paris.

Trying to rescue Mr. Eiffel and the golden falcon from monks building a pyramidium atop the French Tour during opening ceremonies, the Party was hit by a round of lightning bolts, dying en masse. The Party awakens on Mars where Penrington accepts an armband from Tars Tarkas.

Mars. Date Irrelevant.
Nights on Mars were bitterly cold; days were quite warm. Clothing consisted of leathers and a fine gauze made from a moss. Having arrived in rags and tatters, the Party soon assumed Martian garb. Marya was disturbed to no longer be able to hide her chemically-stained hands beneath gloves. All of the Party’s foci had disappeared between their “deaths” and their awakening on Mars. An indeterminate time passed as the Party mastered the language and customs. Calots, Shetland pony-sized creatures with 10 stubby legs and 3 pairs of tusks, guarded and restrained the Party. Tars Tarkas seemed to be a thark – a warrior – who controlled slaves – both male and female – who wore arm bands much like the one Penrington now wore. The larger green men (8 foot tall) tended to be tharks; no female (6 foot tall) seemed to be a warrior.

Mr. Steele found himself in a strange situation. Metallic silver in appearance, he no longer had the focus of his armor. Additionally, he had no pulse or respiration and no need to eat. As near as he could tell, he had no steam pressure within him. Nonetheless, he was solid and real. The Party had a relatively weak member, Marya [STR 13], experiment with weight. She picked up Penrington with one hand with no problem. She required two hands to pick up the silver man who was Steele, thus implying that he still had greater than usual mass.

Ramsey’s wife Meritaten was concerned because she could “no longer feel the Fire.” Ramsey explained that might be because the temple had crumbled or because she was no longer on Earth. He reiterated to Penrington that his wife’s ashes being in Egypt made it possible for her to be alive in Tibet with the Fire of Life.

Meanwhile, Sherman noticed a sword left out on the ground – and the Antagonistic Martian watching carefully. He warned Penrington who said, “As an honoured guest, I don’t go picking up other people’s swords.” The hunter sought out Tars Tarkas and arranged to play with swords (amidst a great many Martian giggles). His opponent lunged and hit Penrington in the chest [9, 27], stunning the human. Sherman raced forward to stanch the bleeding. Sola moved Sherman’s hand and stuffed a handful of moss in the wound.

Penrington stood up, called out and the two fighters went at it again. Penrington hit the Martian in the shoulder, embedding the sword and downing the green fighter. Simultaneously, taking a hit in the shoulder [7, 21], Penrington blacked out. Servants carried the injured back to their rooms. Sherman sent Meri to find Marya. A calot followed her. “Nice doggie. Maria! Maria!”

At her call, Meri saw movement in a 2nd story window of an unfamiliar building. She jumped for the window. The calot barked and raced after her. Meri landed in an unoccupied room -- um, wrong. It was occupied by a great white ape with huge claws and six limbs. She dodged. It growled. It was between the fey and the window, so she disengaged to move into the building proper – where she spotted two more great white apes. The following ape attacked again and Meri dodged. She found herself on a walkway around a central courtyard. She positioned herself to sweep two hungry attackers, doing a torso [4, 20] and a chest [6] hit without felling them. More approached. She jumped an incredible distance to the far corner of the courtyard. Hooting, the apes followed her. She could hear a dog fight beyond the door; there was only one ape between her and it. She leaped over the ape who swiped and missed as she passed.

“The dog’s mine, so I’ll kill the ape!” Meri attacked the ape, chopping off a hand. She hit it again in the arm[4] while the calot took the throat of the beast. “Come on, dog, this way.” She ran away, then noticed the dog was injured. Returning, she picked it up. “It got hurt. Maria!” The fey resumed her hunt for the radiologist.

Sherman noticed the “levitated calot,” and called Meri to him. A Martian came over to put the calot out of its misery. Meri protested. Sherman parmedicked the dog. Sola looked at them quizzically.

Meri: “Great white furry apes. In the house back there. There were huge numbers of them.”
Sherman: “How many arms?”
Meri: “Two four many. They were vicious.”
Meri tracked the blood back to the house, accompanied by a thark and Sola. The Martians gestured “very dangerous.”
Meri again called “Maria” and something in the window moved.
The thark aimed his rifle and had Sola ask Meri to call again; he shot. An explosion blasted through the upper window, followed by a sound of apes exfiltrating.
Meri: “Where is Maria?”
Sola: “With Rivvas. The soldier is going there because he needs his rifle reloaded.”
Meri decided to let “Fido” rest in the Party’s room, carefully depositing him in the bed next to Penrington.

Sherman came in.
Meri: “You were wrong. He’s fine.”
Sherman examined the moss bandage that Penrington still clutched.
The two men discussed Penrington’s motivation for fighting. “For Queen and Country, whot.”

Next day, Penrington’s erstwhile opponent tried to teach him to spar with the unfamiliar Martian weapon. Other tharks came to watch the small human. [Getting a familiarity.] Steele and Meri joined them (after Meri discovered that the Martian swords – and Steele himself – did not seem to be a metal that she reacted to) in order to get skills up. Sola presented each of the human women with small daggers.

Those with survival skills figured out which parts of the ubiquitous Martian moss were edible and which were used to squeeze milk. No one had time to study which parts were used to make cloth or used to make medicine.

[Everyone acquired one more point of xp for language.]

Sola explained about the upcoming Convocation. She believed that the Number One Jeddak was cruel and would not be amused by human jumping. Sherman realized that there was some personal history between Sola and that Jeddak of Jeddaks. She did not like him and believed that he will have the Party killed.

Sherman asked about the Antagonistic Martian.
Sola: “He is an ambitious young warrior and wants to be known for prowess and would like to be a jeddak in his own right.”
Sherman realized that there was a pecking order based on military skill amongst the tharks, therefore Jeddak Tars Tarkus could whup any of those under his command.

The airship drifted as though it was damaged; it descended to be met by a cohort of Martian troops. The Party inquired about its origins.
Sola: “It is an airship flown by the Red Martians.”
Marya: “The explosions from that ship were larger than those from the rifles. Therefore there may be a larger source of radium there. I want to see that ship.”
Our fighters armed themselves and the Party moved rapidly across the landscape.

Fighting was vicious about the ship. Red Martians look like humans with red skins though dressed as the Green Martians. The main group of Red Martians was under attack by the Antagonistic Green Thark. Discussion ensued as to which side the Party should aid. Although acknowledging that the Green Tars Tarkas had not been unkind and was, perhaps, honourable, sympathy was expressed for the outnumbered Reds and a decision was made to try to steal the kill from Antagonistic by knocking out the remaining 10 reds. The Party fighters leaped into the fray.

Steele laid out the Red leader and, furious, Antagonistic hit Steele in the shoulder [8,24]. Penrington, Ramsey, Meri, and Sherman each attack a Red with the flat of their swords Meri flattened hers. Penrington missed.

Penrington attacked again, dropping another Red.
Antagonistic swung again on Steele who blocked.
A commanding voice from the Green side, shouted, “Hold!”
Steele thought, “Damn! I had him dead to rights.”
The Greens decided to capture the Reds for ransom and quickly overwhelmed them. Unfortunately [on seg 6], Antagonisticdidn’t swing again. In the confusion, Tars seemed to be suppressing a grin. Those knocked out by the Party turn out to be the Party’s prisoners.

Marya examined ship. It had flown a banner gules two piles inverted Or.

The caravan turned around and headed back to the ruined city. The prisoners of the slaves were housed with their captors, to a great deal of low humour amongst the Greens. (Er, this is high humor for the Greens.)

Sola: “Where there is one ship, there will be more.” Therefore the caravan would travel at night after the rifles were reloaded. Marya volunteered to help Rivvas and did very well. Thus she realized:

• that Rivvas did his tasks by rote; he had no understanding of the theories underlying his science.
• that the 3rd Ray blocked something that would otherwise cause the Martian radium to explode.

The Red prisoners awakened confused. The leader was Kal Kailan of Helium. The Party attempted to explain the situation. He understood in the battle that he was going to be killed and had intended to take as many “savages” as he could with him. From him the Party learned: “The twin cities of Helium are 600 hatars NW of here, a couple of days by airship. The loss of my ship will be investigated. There will be many fliers about. We command the air.”
Marya asked about the powering of the ship.
Kal: “The ship has buoyancy tanks. Using the levers drives the 7th ray from one tank to the other. The other levers control the direction.” Basically, he knows how to drive; he is not an engineer.

Kal: “White Martians are legends. It’s said that White Martians were some of the earliest of the races, the most powerful of the Martians. They are the only kind of your colour. [Note: the Party is mostly tanned.] They are significantly strong, able to jump great distances, and come from a place on the third planet called” -- Ramsey and Meritaten recognized “Egypt” in ancient Egyptian – “Kemet.”
Penrington: “We’re from a third planet.”
Ramsey: “My wife was born in Egypt.”
Kal: “So this place is not a myth.”
Ramsey: “I grew up there.”
Kal: “So why are all of you prisoners of the Green men?”
Penrington: “Because when we appeared we were naked and had no weapons, knew nothing of this place or where we were, although they were tall and had guns and swords.”
Kal: “Yes, they are formidable opponents.”
Sherman: “There calling it the third planet implies that this is not the third planet.”
Marya, as though it were obvious: “It is not. The gravity is not that of earth.”
Sherman: “Gravity?”
Kal, gesturing at Steele: “Never heard tale of an aluminum man.”
Ramsey: “Few on our planet know Mr. Steele well. That’s his name.”

Ramsey: “Can your airships fly to the 3rd planet?”
Kal: “No. There are tales that the Black Martians have a base on the nearer moon.”
Sherman: “How many kinds of Martians are there?”
Kal: “The Tree of Life spawned several times. The Red Martians are the highest form.”
Meri: “Do they correspond to the ray colours?”
Kal, a little puzzled: “Martians are red, white, yellow, green, black. But the whites aren’t really from Mars.”
The Red Martians expressed interest in any plan the Party might venture towards escape. They were, however, chained, hands and feet.

Marya proposed using the silver man to signal airships by reflected sunlight, but no ships were spotted the next two days. Kal said that he’d been part of air-search parties that had lasted over a week, but admitted that his ship had drifted off its filed flight plan. “We were on our way from Ptarth back to Helium. We drifted with the wind off our course while repairing a small problem.”

The Party got its first glimpse of a Martian canal bringing water from the polar ice cap. Lack of water was the chief reason for war: each death meant more water per survivor. There’s an atmosphere plant that generates air and was run by two people working in half-year shifts. There are only two.

The door crashed in and 2 thugs arrived on the scene. Fido, the calot, flew past Meri towards the door, and latched its jaws onto the chest of Green Martian #1. Penrington scooped up Antagonistic’s sword and blocked an attack by Green #2. Sherman grabbed Antagonistic’s short sword. The calot took damage.

Meri hit the calot’s target in the head [9], downing him. Steele grabbed his sword.

Penrington swung and hurt #2 in one hand. The Green swung back and hit the hunter’s ankle [4,4].

Steele stepped into the door opening to hold it, spotting yet 2 more thugs outside.

Meri knelt to tend Fido’s wounds and called, “Maria”. Marya paramedicked the calot.

Sherman legged #2 [14, 36].

Steel swung at #3, hitting [in 10, for13, 52] and, deciding that one needed no more attention, swung at #4 , again hitting [in 17, for 17, 17]. The green Martian swung back and Steele aborted to block. The Green Martian’s went down under the Anglish onslaught.

Penrington broke two swords releasing the Reds from their chains. That left the victors with 8 swords: 3 great and 5 short swords. Just enough for Steele, Penrington, Sherman, and Meri, along with the 4 Red Martians.

As the Party began its escape, they found Sola unconscious and bleeding in another room. A Red Martian moved up, sword in hand; Marya stopped him. She paramedicked Sola. Then Meri and Marya carried the unconscious Martian woman along on the escape.
Red Martian: “She’s been your jailer and your guard. Why save her?”
Meri: “She’s been nice.” She picked up Sola’s bag.
Steele: “She is also a healer. We’ll need that.”
Red Martian: “I will never understand you White Martians.”

Taking a little more time, Penrington managed to steal tents and thoats for the journey. The thoats appear to have temperaments related to those of camels. The Party spotted Penrington from their place of concealment: he is of course the only white Martian on 4 thoats.

XP: 2 xp and 1 language point
Next Run: Coventry.

The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.