The Campaign Chronicles Copyright © 2001 by Aaron Allston

Golden Age
by Aaron Allston

Story Storyline Name Year Episodes Page

1 Red Mask 1937 #1-#6 2
2 Dr. Centigrade 1937 #7-#9 35
3 Crystal Trees 1937 #10-#12 49
4 Dragon Legion 1937 #13 68
5 Tarosia 1937 #14 74
6 Pacific 3000 1937 #15-#16 80
7 Lucky Devils 1937 #17-#18 89
8 American Avenger 1938 #19-#21 101
9 Sand Vikings 1938 #22-#24 119

Golden Age is the follow-up campaign to The Empire Club. Set beginning in the
late 1930s, it chronicles the adventures of pulp-era heroes in a world moving inexorably
closer to the advent of World War II and the first superhero era.

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Red Mask
#1. Too Many Shocks. Played 4/17/99.
Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal
Singh, Becky Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Dr. Paul Turnbull.
Story Date: January, 1937.
The Eldorado Society is officially back in the U.S. after its several months
overseas (see Empire Club #41-#48). Farah is reunited with Kichi and Roosevelt. Dr.
Park hires Tony Victory to investigate Thornton Jenkins, Elizabeth Park’s African 3000
companion. Soon after Christmas, Jean-Paul returns briefly to England, in the company
of Byron Nesbit, to set up the English branch of the Eldorado Society as a functional
group of agents rather than just a mail-drop and warehouse.
On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1936, Walter and Claudia are at dinner. She
expresses gratitude at his having saved her back in Sylvaya, but says that it’s time to
release him from his obligation to marry her, an obligation he entered into in order to
save her life. Walter accepts, then tells her, “I’ve been courting you this whole time and
will continue to do so if you’ll let me.” Her jaw drops.
Then the walls, floor and ceiling tremble — it’s an earthquake! But Manhattan is
not prone to earthquakes. Walter and Claudia move about to help the injured. It appears
that no buildings have collapsed in their immediate vicinity, and injuries are minor. Once
all is settled, Walter and Claudia go for a stroll.
They hear gunshots not far away. Walter must investigate; he tries to give
Claudia his gun, but she says he will need it more than she. He tells her to call the
Society HQ to arrange a ride back. Then he runs off in the direction of the gunfire.
Ahead, he sees a black panel truck hammer its way through a police-car
barricade and turn away, fleeing up the street. Other police cars roar off in pursuit.
Walter gets to the scene of the barricade and sees, up the block, that the First National
Bank of Manhattan has partially collapsed; it appears to have been harder-hit by the
earthquake than the restaurant. He talks to an Officer Hadden Mulligan, who was first
on the scene; walking his beat, he saw the panel truck parked in front of the bank, its
operators setting up something that looked like a big movie camera on the sidewalk.
Then the earthquake happened. Gunfire from some of the men kept him down while
others raced into the bank and raced back out again with bags of loot. He got to a police
box meanwhile and called in the crime, hence the roadblock. He’s certain no explosives
were used; there was no sound of a detonation.
Walter uses a police radio to call Patricia and ask her to send his laboratory kit.
Then he examines the site more thoroughly. Where the “camera” crew stood, there is no
perceivable earthquake damage to the ground. That damage spreads out from them in
a radius, but the area of effect is strongest in a conical formation from their position ot
the bank building.
Muggins and Joyce, at a New Year’s Eve party, get the call from Patricia. They
depart and head over to the bank. Walter expounds his theory that the camera-like
device was a portable earthquake generator. Muggins suggests that the inventor of
such a thing must have practiced somewhere; perhaps there are reports of anomalous
earthquakes elsewhere. Walter calls Officer Chester Brown to hint at his portable
earthquake theory.

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The Society members collect at HQ. Carolina brings her new baby, John. There
is much cooing. She says she needs a nanny if she’s gonna be runnin’ around shootin’
people.
Walter wants an expert on seismic activity. He calls the University of New York,
but it’s no go; they’re between semesters. His calls do lead him to a Dr. Paul Turnbull, a
multidisciplinarian nut and inventor. Turnbull tells him, on the phone, that sonics might
do what this earthquake generator is supposed to do, and suggests that the news wires
might have information on Muggins’ “test sites.” He invites Walter over to see a
prototype sonic destruction device.
At Turnbull’s graystone home, the Society members see his device. It’s a sonic
projector that can be aimed at concrete blocks and other targets. It takes a while to find
the correct frequency to destroy any given target, and that frequency will cause damage
only to targets that resonate correctly — meaning that this exact type of device doesn’t
leave the kind of residue Walter found at the bank site. Turnbull discusses the theory of
psychokinesis, movement of objects by mental power alone. He’d be happy to help
further if the opportunity arises.
They go back to headquarters and drink their New Year’s champagne. Patricia
has some results from newsman contacts. She says that there was an unprecedented
earthquake a month ago in Springfield, MA; it levelled the county jail. The building
collapse was blamed on poor construction, but survivors say it was an earthquake. Four
men, prisoners, were killed. Muggins wants the name of the slain man.
Walter calls the police to find out what news there might be on the panel truck.
The police say the street collapsed behind the truck, forestalling pursuit and shutting
down the subway branch beneath; the truck got away. Walter has to go see the site and
heads out.
He finds the spot of the collapse, barricaded. It’s a rectangular hole in the street,
flanked by parked cars, very precise. He can find no sign of explosives or of the rippling
damage effect he saw at the bank. Was this done from a moving vehicle or set up in
advance? He returns to the headquarters building, then goes home to sleep on the
matter.
Morning, New Year’s Day: Patricia has more information on the Springfield, MA
jail collapse. A reporter she contacted said he’d had a hard time getting information on
the story; the city authorities weren’t cooperative. But here’s what she has:
In the wee hours of December 2, 1936, a pair of early tremors warned the staff
on duty at the Springfield jail that trouble was imminent. Under the leadership of Sheriff
George Wingate, they began an orderly evacuation of the jail. Everyone was out of the
jail except five men when the big shock hit, collapsing the building. Witnesses — mostly
men who’d been released from jail in the month since — reported the jail wavering as if
in a hot sun, then collapsing.
From the rubble, they dug five men: Deputy Roy Blanchard and the last group of
prisoners, whom he was leading out to safety. They were Michael Dole, in for
automobile theft; Joe Canning, in for assault; Hymie Lieberman, in for burglary; and
Fred Hollins, under arrest for public drunkenness.
The heroes go on to Springfield. From a filling-station attendant, they learn that
the new jail is set up in an old Army barracks. En route there, they pass by the old jail, a
pile of rubble that still has markers warning people from walking on the property. They
go on to old Dewitt Field and meet Sheriff Wingate. He acknowledges that there were
two tremors and then a final shock. He answers a question with the information that that
no one who escaped the collapse of the jail was later hunted down. He answers all

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questions but obviously is not appreciative of the Eldorado Society’s presence.
They decide to continue the investigation, first talking to Theo Law, the editor of
the Springfield Chronicle. Law is a smart, savvy guy who was a big-city editor in years
past. He offers some more details about the jail collapse:
First, a panel truck was seen in the field opposite the jail on the morning of the
collapse.
Second, Joe Canning is the brother-in-law of his assault victim, Ellen Canning,
and brother of her husband, Danny Canning. He says that Danny and Ellen and their
son Noah are a nice family, and that Ellen is “a real peach.” Joe, on the other hand, was
a drunken bully.
Third, Mrs. Anna Lieberman, husband of the slain Hymie, claimed that when she
identified her husband’s body, it smelled as though he’d been dead for days, not hours.
Hymie was a second-generation German Jew, and Anna was an immigrant who had
been in Germany during the Great War. Anna had also said that Hymie had been
arrested for burglary only because he was a Jew; he wasn’t guilty of anything.
Fourth, Edwin Springfield, the richest man in town — though he generally didn’t
live here — sits on the Board of Directors of First National of Manhattan.
Fifth, Maybee Construction of New York built the jail. The city claims that the
construction was sub-standard, while Maybee says it was fine. City and private
inspectors have been looking at the wreckage for a month, each claiming the other’s
side is incorrect. Edwin Springfield does not sit on the Board of Maybee.
Sixth, one of the surviving ex-prisoners, and source for a lot of what Law knows,
is now employed over at the hardware store.
They thank Law for his help and go over to Pop Lanning’s for a steak, best in
town. Then they head over to Morton’s Hardware store. There, they meet Chet Morgan,
a big, erudite man of Welsh descent pushing a broom. His employer lets him talk to the
Society folk.
Morgan says that he did see the silhouette of a panel truck in the field opposite
the jail in the time between their evacuation and the collapse of the jail.
He also says that another prisoner, a juvenile by the name of Stevie Torrence,
was unusually nervous in the days leading up to the collapse; he wanted to be out of
town already and was very relieved when he was released, a day before the jail
collapse.
Morgan says that Stevie had a friend, another juvenile named Tony Wolfe, also
an orphan, age 15, who had left town two or three months ago; Morgan suspected that
Stevie was going off to meet Wolfe somewhere else.
Morgan turns out to be a former English teacher who can no longer hold down a
job because of his battles with the bottle — battles he usually loses. They feel sympathy
for him and would like to help, but he says it’s no use.
They return to the newspaper office in case Theo Law has pictures of Stevie
Torrence and/or Tony Wolfe. As it turns out, he has glossies of both of them, and every
other orphan who has lived at the local orphanage; once a year, he photographs them
all so their photos can be distributed in hopes of finding people to adopt them. They get
pictures of the two youths.
They head out to the Lieberman farm. They find Mrs. Anna Lieberman, a stocky
and taciturn woman, working on her barn door, doing repairs. She invites them in and
introduces them to her children — daughter Josephine (Josie), age 13; son Saul, age 9;
and daughter Edwina, age 5. Anna can’t understand a word Caroline says because of
Caroline’s accent; Caroline turns it off. They get the story of Hymie’s stay in the jail. He

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was arrested on a trumped-up charge of burglary, his third arrest on suspicious or
specious charges, and was serving a 30-day sentence. She hadn’t been allowed to see
him for three days before the jail collapse, and when she finally had to identify his body,
she was absolutely certain that he’d been dead all those three days. She smelled plenty
of death during the Great War.
Caroline is impressed with the politeness of Anna’s three children. She tries to
hire Anna as a nanny, but Anna is determined to make a living on her farm. She
recommends her daughter Josie instead, and Caroline offers to hire her. Anna says
she’ll put the question to Josie.

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#2. The Earthquake Masters. Played 5/1/99.

Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal
Singh, Becky Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Jack Tanner.
Story Date: January, 1937.
Morning, back at Eldorado Society HQ, Muggins has an idea: Use the Eldorado
Society’s legion of newsboy contacts to try to track down the missing kids and the panel
truck. Caroline suggests asking Stan Wakowski to keep his eyes open, and Muggins
also thinks of asking Antony Endrizzi. The group discusses ways to cause trouble to bad
police departments and sheriff’s departments. They also discuss trying to find out the
“putty man” who tried to kill Caroline’s child. It’s obvious that the society is running into
more and more “peculiar” — as in superhuman — people. Muggins wants to track the
data on them, to help determine whether there is some sort of link between them, and
suggests the society may need a librarian for the task. Tarkin points out that, whether or
not there’s a link between these superhumans, the society has had to deal with several
and will probably have to deal with more in the future.
Walter goes out to determine whether the street that collapsed under the fleeing
truck was marked or prepared ahead of time in some way. He can find no sign of such
preparation. He talks to a cop involved in the pursuit, and the cop says that this wasn’t
the truck’s original flight path anyway; it was detoured by a fruit truck that broke down in
the middle of the street. Walter: “Everything I learn about this makes it worse and worse.
They can do it on a whim!”
Late in the day, Antony calls. He reports on a boy seen in a soup kitchen in
Yonkers a month ago. When that boy had a nightmare, the building shook. The kid,
whom witnesses match to the picture of Tony Wolfe, fled.
Miss Rawlins shows up to report on an estate in the Hamptons that was just
knocked down by earthquake tremors. The estate belonged to Edwin Springfield.
Details are sketchy; it happened not long ago. Walter wants a report on other properties
Springfield owns. The heroes pile into cars and head out to the estate.
An unsympathetic cop, obviously soured at the thought of the Eldorado Society
coming in and solving everything, makes them park outside the estate and walk in, but
the chief investigator inside, Dudley Williams, is more cooperative. The Springfield
butler, Ian Holcroft, knows Muggins from his days buttling for the St. John-Smythes. He
reports that a circus truck showed up on the property; there were two leaders, one
Italian-American and one American; the American set up camera-like equipment outside
while the rest, under the direction of the Italian-American, led all the servants and staff
outside. Then the man with the camera-like equipment activated it, the ground shook,
and the mansion came down. The others, especially the Italian-American, were
infuriated — they apparently thought they were going to be able to plunder the mansion
first. They left soon after, leaving the servants unharmed.
Muggins privately asks Holcroft if his employer is a decent man. Holcroft hedges
a bit, then says that Springfield’s brother Edward, his original employer, who died during
the Great War, certainly was. That’s answer enough for Muggins.
Holcroft recommends that Muggins talk to the maid Antoinette Lemarque, who
thinks she recognized one of the robbers. Even under his mask, she thinks it was
Bradley James, a former valet of Springfield’s who was recently discharged. She liked
Bradley; it’s what got him fired. Springfield goes through three or four valets a year,
apparently lavishing his spite on this one servant’s position.

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The heroes wonder about the camera device. Is it the earthquake generator?
(Walter thinks not, because of the speed and accuracy with which they knocked down
the street behind the panel truck.) If not, what is it? An augmenter? A disguise for the
fact that the wielder of the power has it as an innate ability? Muggins proposes the
latter, and that the man’s partners also don’t know that he possesses the power.
Walking out of the estate, Walter finds paint scraped off on low-hanging tree
branches. It’s tempra paint, evidently used to disguise the panel truck as a circus truck.
Muggins points out that they must have purchased quite a lot of such paint, probably
very recently. They’ll have Miss Rawlins call around on that matter. They return to New
York.
Muggins contacts the Servants’ Exchange to ask about Bradley. The Exchange
says that Bradley James has been withdrawn from the registry, due to his having lost
the endorsement of the company that placed him at his last employment. They list his
address on East 34th. The heroes head out that way.
They talk to his sister, Ellie James, through the door; she won’t admit them, and
soon turns on her radio to cut off further exchange. But her neighbor, Mrs. Horwitz of the
blue hair and World of Chintz apartment, knows all that goes on at this floor. She makes
tea and talks to them. Ellie, she says, is 17, going through secretarial school. James
was fired because a female employee smiled at him but not at Springfield, and
Springfield fancied the girl. Mrs. H. says that a boy matching Tony Wolfe’s picture visited
James about five weeks ago in the company of a big, brooding man. Since then, Ellie
has not talked much to strangers.
In the hall, M uggins recommends slipping a note under Ellie’s door saying that
Bradley is hanging out with bad men and is in danger; the note would give the Society’s
hangar phone number, which will allow the Society a certain amount of anonymity.
Walter reluctantly acquiesces.
Their researches having uncovered the fact that Springfield’s Manhattan home
was in the Gorsham Hotel, the heroes head off that way. To find out which room is
Springfield’s, Tarkin takes a note to the front desk for him while Muggins watches. The
desk clerk tries to refuse (Springfield isn’t accepting mail here now), but Tarkin insists.
The clerk does wait until Tarkin has turned away before placing the note, but Muggins
sees it go in the slot for Room 617. They head up to the sixth floor.
At the correct door, as Matthew is preparing to pick the lock, Matthew hears
something on the other side of the door. Walter tells him to knock. A workman answers.
The heroes claim to have come from the Hamptons estate, and the workman says, “Oh,
you’re the inpsectors, come on in.” This hotel suite has recently been savagely trashed,
and the workmen are putting it back in order. Raiders put holes in the wall, took every
piece of furniture, pried the safe out of the wall, wrecked the bathroom fixtures, and
smashed the chandelier. But they’d paid for parties for the residents all around,
pretending that they were radio contest winners, which covered the noise. This was
three weeks ago — after the jail fell, before the bank robbery.
The heroes head off to the Empire Club for socializing and to ask about
Springfield. While Sally Rand fan-dances in the main dining room, they talk to munitions
millionaire Oslo Jensik, who knows but does not like Springfield. Springfield does hire
valets as whipping-boys; he’s nice to others but vents his pettiness against this one
position.
Trevor, who has been on station out at the hangar, calls for Park. Ellie has called
and wants to talk. Park says for her to suggest a site where she’ll be comfortable and
they’ll meet here there. She asks to meet them at Gramercy Park, near her secretarial

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school.
Twenty minutes later, they’re at the park. Muggins, Walter, and Joyce station
themselves in the park and meet Ellie James, a nice, if nervous, young blond lady. They
tell her that her brother is in trouble, which she suspected. On questioning, she says
she knows of another hotel owned by Edwin Springfield: The Autumn, or something like
that, somewhere within driving distance, but not close driving distance. She also knows
the names of Bradley’s visitors: Tristan (not Tony) Wolfe and Harry Cimino. They
reassure her that they might be able to help Bradley. They return to the car.
Dr. Park knows of Harry Cimino. He was a member of the Cimino Mob, nephew
of the mob boss. The mob was nearly wiped out in a shootout with the New York Police
Department six months ago.
Back at HQ, Patricia Rawlins finds an Autumn Leaves hotel in New Brunswick,
NJ. Walter suggests they go armed — tongue-in-cheek, as though it were merely an
option. Muggins is sad because his Drilling is gone and his new one is not in to replace
it.
They reach his hotel. Muggins presciently wonders if this is where Springfield
keeps his mistresses. There is a panel truck in the parking lot; is it the right one?
Muggins marks the wheels with lipstick to aid future identification in case it is. A
uniformed driver with a clipboard approaches, asking what they’re doing. “Listening,”
says Muggins. “Is it saying anything?” “Not yet.” Irritable, the driver gets in and says,
“Well, listen now.” He honks the horn three times to give Muggins something to listen to,
then drives off.
The heroes go to the nearest coffee house and order something to eat. Edna
Allen, the waitress and owner (for the last 17 years) knows a fair amount about the
hotel. It’s owned by a “Seasons” corporation. They phone this in to Patricia, who comes
back with the information that the Seasons Corporation owns four hotels: This one, the
Winter Delight near San Francisco, CA, the Summershine in Atlantic City, NJ, and the
Spring Haven near Chicago, IL.
A police car arrives at the hotel and its driver trots into the lobby. The heroes rush
out to see what’s going on. They discover that the hotel clerk, Bill Kent, was knocked
out earlier, though he’s now awake. A handful of gangsters broke in, held him in the
office behind the front desk, and quizzed him on the most efficient way to empty the
hotel of guests. They cleared out the safe. When they heard three honks from outside,
they prepared to run for it, and clubbed him. Muggins looks out in the parking lot; there’s
no sign of a panel truck. Dr. Park offers medical assistance to the clerk. Later, the clerk
offers him a room for the evening, at no charge, for his help.
They get back to the diner and tell the others. It’s obvious the hotel is a target.
Matthew will disguise himself and stay in the lobby with Carolina and Angela. Dr. Park,
Muggins, Joyce, Walter and Claudia will be in the hotel room. Tarkin and Tal Singh will
stay out in the car.
They check in with Patricia. She says that the newsboys have found Stevie
Torrence at a flophouse on 98th in Manhattan. Walter, Claudia, and Tal take off to get
him.
Outside the flophouse, they hear familiar, not-dulcet tones: “Well, if it ain’t the
Eldorito Society.” It’s Jack Tanner, practically a grown man, and in fine shape from all his
boxing training. Jack leads them to Stevie’s cot and they tell him they’re looking for
Tony, too. In the car, they fill Stevie in on what Tony’s been up to.
Stevie tells them more about Tony. Tony’s dad became something of a drunk
after his wife died of cancer. He was thrown into jail a couple of times on public

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intoxication charges, but cleaned up afterwards. However, Mr. Springfield saw him on
the street and was annoyed to see the “drunk” still out and about, and said something to
the sheriff, who ran him into jail. Shortly after, Mr. Wolfe “left town, never to return,”
meaning he was killed in jail.
The heroes spend much time in the car ride and then in the hotel room trying to
persuade Stevie that there is justice in the world. He simply doesn’t believe it.
Tarkin comes in through the window to report that he has seen riflemen setting
up on a roof opposite the hotel and elsewhere at street level. Muggins and the others
realize that Mr. Springfield has brought in reserves to kill Tony. Carolina recommends
calling the FBI. Walter suggests heading off the panel truck before it returns. Carolina
wants to get in position to snipe on the shooters to cause them to fire prematurely if they
do get Tony in their sights.
Jack and Stevie are assigned to be street-level spotters. Walter, Tal and Claudia
go down to the armored Rolls-Royace. Muggins and Joyce go down to the Maybach.
Angela and Matthew will act out the part of a couple strolling around the hotel property.
Caroline, Park, and Tarkin go up on the roof with their rifles and other firearms.
Time passes. Carolina’s group spots the snipers on top of the building opposite.
The hotel fire alarm goes off, even though no one has seen the panel truck
return. Walter and Carolina spot, among the people streaming out of the building, a
laundryman walking back to a laundry truck large enough to accommodate the
“earthquake machine.” Park, Walter, and Matthew also spot him because of his calm
deliberation. So, unfortunately, does one of the enemy shooters. Carolina sees the man
stub out his cigarette and knows that he’s about to shoot. She fires, deliberately
shooting high, and throws off his aim; his shot takes Tony’s cap off his head. Tony runs
to the truck and hops in the back, leaving the rolling laundry rack on the sidewalk. The
laundry truck takes off.
Tarkin, Park, and Caroline fire at the barrel flash. Caroline accidentally hits,
taking the man in the neck and killing him. Matthew and Angela take off after Tony on
foot, and Walter in his car. Muggins, around back, sets his car into motion and begins to
drive around the hotel side.
The enemy snipers return fire against the Eldorado Society shooters. Dr. Park is
grazed in the left hand. Tarkin downs another sniper.
Matthew almost reaches the laundry truck — he can’t reach the body, as it pulls
away from him, but does get his hand on the handle of the door, which is swinging free.
He is hauled off his feet. Angela fires at one of the truck’s tires and blows it out; it
continues forward, its tire ripping itself to shreds She continues after it on foot (in high
heels, yet), and Walter accelerates, still bringing up the rear.
Muggins finds himself headed straight for the laundry truck’s side. He swerves to
the right, parallelling the truck, and both vehicles bounce over the curb between the
hotel parking lot and the street. Matthew, somehow, holds on. Tony/Tristan asks him,
“What are you trying to do, you maniac?” and extends a hand to haul him in to safety.
Matthew says, “Trying — thank you! — to save you.”
Meanwhile, Jack Tanner and Stevie Torrence, running back to the hotel, come
across two gunment getting into their car. Jack wades into them and beats them both
bloody and senseless. He piles the bodies into the back seat, hops in with Stevie, and
tears off after the laundry truck.
The Carruthers Brothers sign atop the snipers’ building lights up, illuminating
them. The Eldorado Society snipers have no trouble suppressing them. Some of the
enemy snipers run away.

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Bradley, driving the laundry truck, roars off down the highway. Angela makes it
across the street all right because traffic stops for her (“Thank you!”). Muggins and
Walter’s cars begin to gain on him. Tony orders Bradley to pull over. The two armored
cars flank the laundry truck to protect it from remaining shooters. Angela hops in the
Rolls and Tony and Bradley jump into the Maybach.
A big Chrysler roars up from behind, but Jack Tanner is at the wheel, flashing
them a big smile, and Stevie Torrence is in the passenger seat, flashing them a terrified
grimace. Soon after, the Eldorado Society snipers in a “borrowed” car catch up to the
convoy and all roar off to a diner where they can talk.
The heroes are pleased that Jack has caught two prisoners, and react agreeably
to the question, “Can I keep the car?” They’ll find some way to arrange it. Carolina takes
Walter aside to ask him when they’re going to make Jack Tanner a full-fledged member.
The two thugs are very unconscious, so the heroes talk. They suspect that the
weak link in the Springfield cover-up will be the coroner. But they still have to find bodies
of people slain by the sheriff’s department. Angela says they must be buried in a
secluded place. Carolina suggests the sheriff might own the property, and Muggins says
Mr. Springfield might. Dr. Park suggests just paying off the coroner.
Carolina tries to hire Bradley as a valet. He can’t accept — he’s wanted by the
police. But Tarkin points out that a good alibi for the time of the Springfield estate
destruction will end the case against him; the maid Antoinette’s identification of him was
a tentative one, and he was wearing a mask.
They try to figure out to do with the captured gunsels, but do decide that they
want to help Tristan Wolfe; in spite of his quest for revenge, he has been very
conscientious about preserving human life. They want to talk to Patrick O’Shea, their
FBI contact, about the evidence they need to bring down the sheriff... but they’re
unaware that O’Shea resigned from the FBI back during the Berlin Olympics. (Not that
this would make it impossible for him to provide the information, of course.)

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#3. From Bad to Worse. Played 6/5/99.

Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal
Singh, Becky Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Jack Tanner, Tristan Wolfe, Hiram Colter.
Story Date: January, 1937.
They check in with headquarters. Patricia, working late, says that Anna
Lieberman called Carolina to accept her offer for employment of her daughter Josie.
She’s putting Josie on a bus for New York. Carolina is pleased.
Dr. Park wants to use his resources to put economic pressure on Springfield,
whittling down his resources.
They talk at length with Tristan, who thinks he has been “given” this power —
which is his naturally, the “camera” device just a trick to persuade his ganster friends
that it’s something based in a machine — for a reason, vengeance for the lives of his
father and the others killed by the sheriff’s department. The others say maybe so, but
it’s not necessarily by the means of knocking down buildings and endangering
innocents; it’s a wonder he hasn’t killed any innocent people yet.
Bradley comes in to say that one of the guys tied up in the car is awakening.
Walter frets because of their lack of a safe house, but Tristan has a storefront in Newark
that will work. They go there, set up a bare bulb for interrogation, and place the gunsel
under it.
Park interrogates the man. The guy, Hanny Delpin, is defiant and hates Wolfe
with almost a religious zeal. He says that his boss, Red Mask, will kill the Earthquake
Masters (i.e., Wolfe and allies), who are not human and must be expunged. This is all
very weird and not what Walter expected.
Matthew is brought in to hypnotize the prisoner. It takes an unusual amount of
time to do so, but the man eventually nods off and is made to relive the events of
yesterday. He received a call from the American Legion Hall saying that Red Mask was
conducting a meeting. He attended the meeting, where Red Mask gave his men their
mission, then went home at Red Mask’s orders to send his wife Louise (a secretary at
Woolworth’s since 1917) into hiding.
Matthew tries to implant the suggestion that the Eldorado Society constitutes the
good guys in this situation, but something goes tragically wrong; Hanny Delpin
undergoes a seizure, bites his tongue nearly in half, and begins strangling on his own
blood. Dr. Park keeps him from choking, but he has to be gotten to a hospital. They
conduct him to the Newark hospital, with the story that Dr. Park found him in the midst
of his seizure. Dr. Park guarantees the cost of his treatment, then they leave.
They take the second prisoner. His wallet gives his name as Mookie Jones. As
he is slowly regaining consciousness, they give him some morphine — his jaw is
thoroughly shattered. They put him on a Newark park bench and Walter stands by in
nearby shadows to watch him. He awakens, groggy, taking his bearings for quite a
qhile. Then he hails a cab. Walter motions his car up and follows.
They drive into Manhattan, to a flophouse on 88th. Mookie talks to the night clerk
for a time, obviously having trouble getting his message across, then gives the man a
note. Then he goes up to his room. Walter follows, absently slipping the desk clerk a
fiver, and Tal brings up the rear. They see Mookie enter his fourth-floor room. Not long
after, the man starts moaning as the morphine wears off.
Soon after, Walter hears whistling coming up the stairs. It’s a doctor. He is
admitted, treats Mookie, and leaves. After that, the night clerk comes with a message

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for him and passes it in to Mookie, then leaves.
Walter picks the room lock and he and Tal enter. Mookie, seated in front of the
radio with a half-empty gin bottle in front of him, doesn’t even notice. There’s a crumpled
note in his hand. Walter takes it, which Mookie does notice, and reads it: “Stand by to
wait for further instructions.” The very drunken man says “Gobbago hopika” to him.
When that doesn’t work, he laboriously scrawls out a note: “Gobbago hopika.”
Eventually Walter figures it out: “Got to go hospital.” But Walter shakes his head.
Mookie eventually passes out. Tal Singh goes downstairs to tell the others to wait in
stakeout. In shifts, they drive their conspicuous Rolls and Mayback out of the
neighborhood, trading them out for more appropriate vehicles.
In the car, Tristan acknowledges that he’s a freak and understands ordinary
people wanting him dead; his powers threaten their existence individually and even as a
species. Carolina is angry with that outlook. He modifies it to say “sport” instead of
“freak,” but that isn’t enough. Carolina argues passionately on behalf of the “freaks.”
Walter, during one of his shifts in the car, wrestles with ways a man with sport abilities
like Tristan could have a normal life as well, could have friends and a sense of
community, and begins arriving at the concept of a “secret identity.” He proposes it to
Tristan.
Carolina has to head out an hour or so before dawn to be at the bus station on
time.
Walter and Tal are back in the door when they hear someone meddling with the
doorknob. They flank the door. It unlocks and swings open. A bald, portly man with a
shotgun marches in emotionlessly. He aims at Mookie in the chair and Walter knocks
the barrel upward; it discharges into the ceiling and Walter’s hand is burned. Tal checks
behind the shooter to see if there’s another, then hits the shooter, breaking his jaw,
knocking him out. They hear exclamations from other rooms in the flophouse.
They leave the shotgun assassin there and take Mookie off to the hospital. En
route, they tell him that the assassin was his “instructions.” He doesn’t believe it. But he
will take Walter’s phone number, Walter having promised him soldiers for Red Mask.
The phone number is actually that of Tristan’s storefront. They send Joe Harper to that
store to stand by the phone.
Carolina is at the bus station on time to welcome the wide-eyed Josie Lieberman.
The Society members check in at HQ, where Rawlins, now off-duty, has left a
message: An Inspector O’Donnell in Newark wants to see Dr. Park now. Dr. Park finds
this fairly alarming. He calls the Newark PD, where a sergent tells him to leave a
number; O’Donnell will want to call him back. Park calls the Park Family lawyer to alert
them of possible problems. O’Donnell calls his home and talks to Trevor, who calls Park
to say that O’Donnell wants him to go in to the Newark precinct house. Park does so,
reaching it about dawn.
O’Donnell says he’s the coordinator of an ad hoc task force that crosses four city
and county lines; it’s investigating more than 20 murders. He quizzes Dr. Park about the
man he “found” last night. He suspects a connection between the Autumn Leaves
incident and what went on in Newark, but Dr. Park admits only to being a resident at the
hotel when it happened. O’Donnell doesn’t appreciate the lack of information. He tells
Park athat a Pauline Delpin, age 18, was found last night wandering the streets of White
Plains, NY. She was in shock from two gunshot wounds and was coated with cement. It
turns out that she and 28 to 30 military wives and dependents were taken to a
construction site where foundations were to be poured, machine-gunned, and had
concrete poured over them. She alone survived and crawled out, to be found hours

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later.
Dr. Park rushes back to Eldorado Society HQ to “deposit this expository lump on
the carpet.” The heroes are appalled. Muggins arms himself with his new pistol, a
prototype for the Walther P38.
Angela, sensing that they’re dealing with a far more twisted mentality than they
had hitherto realized, calls Inspector Colter, her NYPD contact, a police expert in
deviant-psychology crimes. He agrees to meet her at Bernie’s Brown Derby Diner. He is
half-dismayed to be meeting all the nuts he met at the “Chains of the Ape” episode
(Empire Club #15). Colter is O’Donnell’s NYPD contact in the special task force. He
says that two of the New Brunswick shooters were captured, injured, and one was
found dead. The family members of the servicemen killed in White Plains died about
noon yesterday, so they were gunned down well before the New Brunswick event took
place.
They ask if he’s ever heard of the Red Mask. Colter has an eidetic memory and a
fascination for trivia about aberrant psychology, and he has. There was a magician who
played in Europe during the Great War who went by the moniker Red Mask.
They tell Colter about Edwin Springfield, which he knows about. He’s aware of
Springfield’s new valet, George Tears, a former Notre Dame running back who now,
inexplicably, is a snivelling worm of a man, a sudden change in personality Colter finds
very weird.
The Eldorado Society decides to investigate the American Legion hall,
Springfield’s dead brother Edward, Red Mask, and the flophouse clerk who had the note
with the phone number Mookie asked him to call, while Colter will investigate George
Tears.
Over the next few days, Matthew talks to numerous magicians, including Hector
Ward, aka Hector the Invincible, Daffy Ward’s father. He knew Red Mask. He says Red
Mask toured Europe from 1912 to 1917. He never revealed his name and never showed
his true face — unless it was to one of the many women on his arm. He never took
money for his performances. Hector suspects him of emerging from Shanghai or Hong
Kong — he was upper-crust English, but spoke Chinese fluently. He got a lot of his girls
in trouble and dumped them unceremoniously. Technically, he was not proficient in
sleight of hand, but his illusions were good — and startlingly violent, often utilizing
guillotines, axes, and swords. One of his tricks was to take an audience member, offer
him $100 or a similar sum if his trick hurt, and put a long needle through his arm; the
audience member never felt a thing, though there was blood. The next day, they
sometimes showed up in pain, and Red Mask would give them the money, though he’d
be amused at their distress. He spent like there was no tomorrow. In one conversation
with Hector, he’d suggested that he’d survived the Titanic sinking.
The others try to put together Tristan Wolfe’s next Earthquake Masters plan. It’s
tricky; Tristan isn’t sure what he’d do next after his hotel destruction failed.
Muggins suggests staging the Return of Red Mask, having an alternate magician
perform as Red Mask to lure the real one out of hiding. Or maybe as Red Mask, Jr.,
“inheritor of his secrets.”
Muggins also digs out a roster of Titanic survivors and pores through it, trying to
find answers there.
Hector Ward calls up to say that he remembers one of the girls Red Mask got in
trouble. She was a silent-film actress named Simona Hughes. He got her in trouble in
1916 and she disappeared. The heroes check out public records and find references to
the scandal, but there’s no record of what happened to Simona Hughes after 1916.

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They call Rachel Stapleton to ask her help.
She reports back later in the day that Simona Hughes’ real name was Sally Ann
Meadows, now Sally Ann Williams, a models’ agent in New York. She gave birth in
1917. The heroes get a 4:30 p.m. appointment with her and visit the Lowenstein
Agency, where she is a top agent.
Sally is a tobacco-voiced, “Hello, sweetie,” Jewish-mannerism broad with a
weathered face. She readily admits to having had the trouble in question with Red
Mask, though she points out that her daughter, Simona Williams, was born in wedlock.
(Simona is a student of a weird science called archaeoeconomics, studying the
interrelationships of the economies of ancient civilizations, going for her Bachelor’s this
year, though she is only 20. She’s also a track star. Angela is fascinated by this
speciality.) She also admits to a strange thing: Though she knows Red Mask’s face and
true name, she has never been able to utter, or communicate in any way, his name to
anyone, despite years of psychiatric treatment. The heroes aren’t surprised.
Muggins offers her a list of the Titanic survivors and asks her to point individually
at each name. She does so... but skips right by one Winston Hardy Saxe, even though
Muggins has her repeat that page. She says she didn’t see Red Mask’s name in the list.
As the heroes prepare to depart, Sally Ann asks if Muggins would be interested
in doing a cigar advertisement.
Carolina looks Saxe up in the Social Register. He’s 50, born 1886, a resident of
Hong Kong. He has been married seven times, each woman a wealthy beauty. He has
had numerous children by them. Six of the wives have died, three by suicide, three by
accidents; he married his first wife in 1912.
Does he have any children in the area? Yes, a son, Edward, age 17 (born 1919);
he’s a prodigy society reporter in Boston.
They dig up pictures of the two Springfield brothers and Saxe; no two are the
same person.
Information on Edward Springfield says he died in 1917, leading an infantry
charge. The heroes wonder if perhaps Red Mas was responsible in some way.
They get a call from Hiram Colter in Florida. He has news, too. They decide to fly
down to see him. Carolina nixes Angela’s recommendation for ear-plugs; the mechanics
of Red Mask’s stage show makes it clear that he didn’t need to speak to his victims to
make them do his will. Instead, they plan for backups, writing a long letter to Jean-Paul
so he can rescue them or achieve revenge if Red Mask gets them.
They land in Florida and go off to see Hiram in his hotel. Saxe is #1 on his
suspect list. Saxe turns out to have been an old friend of Springfield’s, introduced to
Edwin by his brother Edward during the Great War, and he has recently been here, in a
hotel where Edwin had rooms, at the same time Edwin was interviewing valet
applicants, including the luckless and now nutless George Tears.
Colter admits to breaking into Edwin’s offices here and finding a journal full of de
Sade-ish mental torture scenarios — sort of an ongoing instruction manual in emotional
cruelty. He was apparently writing these for some correspondent. The heroes decide
that Red Mask has the power, but no imagination; Edwin Springfield has the imagination
and profits from Red Mask’s power.
Angela thinks the only way to deal with Red Mask is by self-defense: Lure him
into an attack and respond appropriately.
What has Saxe been doing since 1917? Where was he before 1912?
The scenario they come up with: Edward met Red Mask in Europe in 1915 or so,
and a year later introduced Edwin to him. Edwin and Red hit it off wonderfully. Red

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arranged for Edward’s death so Edwin could inherit. Edwin supplies scenarios to Red,
who does favors for Edwin. Edwin has never been married.
This all suggests that Edwin and Saxe are both misogynists of the highest order,
and that the killing of the dependants in White Plains was not just cleanup — it was
gratification. They think of bringing Stephen van der Veer in for consultation, since he is
both psychiatrist and occultist.
Their plan: They will choose on another site for Tristan to knock down. It’ll be one
Springfield could predict, one of his hotels, perhaps. They’ll let their scouts be seen and
tracked back to their “headquarters,” luring the watchers back to that trap. They’ll grab
one or more watchers and try to break their conditioning, and thus have a way to place
Saxe and/or Springfield at the White Plains massacre site.

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#4. The New Generation. Played 6/19/99.

Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal
Singh, Becky Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Jack Tanner, Tristan Wolfe, Hiram Colter, Edward
Saxe, Fritz von Burkhardt, Stephen van der Veer, Gilenne.
Story Date: January, 1937.
The Society has a Boston private investigator look into young Edward Saxe.
Saxe lives in a low-rent apartment in Boston not far from the Globe. He was raised at
his father’s house in Hong Kong and educated in private school there. His column is an
entertaining one; he treats Boston society as though it were made up of Hollywood
celebrities. He’s not a ladies’ man. The heroes decide that he’s sufficiently different from
his father to make a visit worth the risk. They fly off to Boston.
At the Boston Globe, editor Godwin Mulgrew conducts them to Saxe’s desk, in
the noisy city room, where Saxe sits hammering away with speed and accuracy on his
typewriter. He wears a cheap suit. Introduced to the Society, he recognizes them and
asks if Muggins is here with an announcement about his impending nuptuals. Alas, no.
Can they talk privately? He accompanies them to a nearby bar that serves food that will
stay down if properly treated.
He talks frankly about his father, whom he obviously does not care for, and does
so with a poise, maturity, and cynicism inappropriate to a 17-year-old boy. He says that
at age 12, each child gets “the talk” from their father. “The only reason you’re alive is
because your mother was too stupid to prevent it. But since you’re here, let’s make the
best of it. You have two choices: You can stay out of my sight, or you can entertain me.
Fail in this task and I’ll kick you out on the street, I don’t care how old you are. And don’t
worry about inheritance — whether you stay or you go, you won’t get a penny from me.”
Most children end up leaving early; Edward left at age 14, with the help of some British
nobles in Hong Kong, and had prepared for departure by spending the previous two
years in intensive study of skills that would give him a job out in the world.
The heroes are appalled at Winston Hardy Saxe’s coldness toward his children,
and at Edward’s matter-of-fact acceptance of his own distance from society, which he
feels set apart from. He is obviously an ethical youth, but emotionally an outcast.
When further questioning makes it clear that the Society is aware of Winston
Hardy Saxe’s superhuman abilities, Edward answers questions about them. Yes, he
shares his father’s ability, perhaps not as powerfully, but he does not use it; it fills him
with loathing. He says that the children are all immune to their father’s powers, as are a
certain number of other people — often characterized as “spooky” — whose adamant
refusal to bow to his will inevitably cause the elder Saxe to go on tirades and tantrums.
The last time Edward saw this was five years ago, when Saxe was apparently turned
down by a Parisian model named Gilenne.
They bring up the fact that they have encountered many, many superhumans in
the last few years. He says he has interviewed a researcher studying that very
phenomenon, a Dr. Howard Haight. They’re interested.
Edward tells the Society that Winston Hardy Saxe is not their biggest problem.
Saxe’s children are. Raised in a loveless world by a sociopath, some of them potentially
possessing powers like Saxe’s — who knows what they will turn into as they mature?
Carolina is dismayed by his ready acceptance of the thought of suicide to prevent his
father’s evil from spreading further. He says it’s not a decision he has made... just a
possibility he has considered. They ask him to call them if ever he approaches that

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decision.
His parting advice to them: “Don’t get caught.”
Heading back to New York, they discuss this unwelcome and welcome news.
Tarkin wonders about setting up an entertainment that would draw Saxe out. Carolina
suggests something like the gladiatorial combat that Lanier arranged. Muggins says that
it might be good to adapt an idea from Springfield’s journal of nasty scenario ideas, and
they all applaud that idea.
Back in New York, they call Hiram Colter and ask him to meet them at Eldorado
Society HQ. They also have Patricia look into the model Gilenne. Patricia makes a few
phone calls and comes back with some preliminary information. Gilenne has been an
artist’s model in Paris for about ten years. She’s actually Polish. She’s an aspiring artist
and a heartbreaking beauty, famous for short-lived affairs with artists and celebrities in
Paris. The heroes decide to hire an artist to paint her to give them an excuse to bring
her over; Tarkin recommends his sister-in-law Heather O’Malley.
Colter shows up and the Society members quiz him about the scenarios from the
journal. Colter says they’re sick, designed to cause incredible emotional distress to their
victims, chiefly women. He gives two examples.
In the first scenario, the organizers build a maze too small for anyone but a small
child or baby to crawl through. They construct it so portions of it are visible, through
glass panels, to the outside, and other portions are not. In some places there are blades
and other damaging apparati. In others, baby dolls are placed on tracks to be dragged
across in sight of the onlookers, directly toward some of the more dangerous traps.
Then, the organizers kidnap a young mother and her baby, and force her to
watch as her baby crawls through the maze.
In the second scenario, the organizers find a situation, which often happens in
the underworld, of a prostitute mother selling her barely-adolescent daughter to
someone else in the business. They buy the daughter through a front, then arrange for
the mother to receive a lot of money, for example through a lottery. Now the mother,
carefully chosen as one who suffered agonizingly from the necessity of selling her
daughter, has money enough to buy her back. They leave clues to the buyer’s identity
that sends her all over the place, into one dangerous or heartbreaking situation after
another.
Again, the heroes are appalled. But they are swiftly distracted by gunshots from
outside. They race downstairs, with Muggins instead going to the second-story window
to look out. He sees many silhouettes racing away — the majority of them trading
gunfire with a single silhouette pursuing them.
Outside the door, they find a dead man on the sidewalk, and part of another one
— an arm, cut off at the elbow, a pistol still in the grip. The door is splashed with blood.
There is also a big cloth satchel on the sidewalk. Angela and Caroline lead the pursuit of
the gunmen while Walter checks out the satchel. It’s filled with dynamite and clock
timers.
The distant gunmen pile into a car, still trading gunfire with the lone gunman. The
car starts up and heads back toward the Society’s front door. Caroline shoots at the
engine block, hitting it and damaging its engine, while Angela shoots out the left front
tire. Walter, seeing the car and gunfight heading his way, heaves the bag of dynamite
inside the front door, where it slams into Joyce, but she catches it. She follows his
direction and runs back inside with it. Meanwhile, Jim shoots out the left rear tire, and
Muggins shoots into the engine block. The car loses control and rolls over onto its top,
skidding to a stop just yards short of Walter and company.

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The heroes keep their guns trained on the vehicle. Out crawls one survivor, who
drops his gun.
The solo gunman comes walking back, a gun in one hand and saber in the other,
and identifies Angela. It’s Fritz von Burkhardt, finally out of the hospital. “I’ve just applied
for American citizenship, and now, first night in town, I’ve killed somebody. Do you
suppose that will stand against me?” They rush him into the building to get him out of
sight of the police.
Jim identifies the gunmen as surviving members of the Cimino crime gang.
Obviously, Harry Cimino, Tristan Wolfe’s former partner, is not taking Wolfe’s departure
well, and the Society has somehow been identified as an enemy, probably because of
the New Brunswick events. They give the severed arm to the survivor and tell him to
take it back to Harry... as a sort of cease-and-desist letter. They let him go, then deal
with the police, describing a mysterious attempt on their lives by the Ciminos.
After the police leave, the Society members, irritated by all their frustrations,
decide to have a night on the town. They go to the Cotton Club for dinner and dancing.
Claudia is happy to learn new dances. Joyce reluctantly admits to Muggins that she’s
illegitimate and that the LeDuc family of France, her father’s people, doesn’t want to
have anything to do with her. She does this in order to give him an opportunity to back
out if he wants. He points out that he doesn’t know whether or not he’s legitimate, and,
by gum, she’s a hero of the Normandie, and the LeDucs should be begging to add her
to their family trees. She’s cheered by this and appoints him her publicist from now on.
Before they retire for the evening, they arrange for agents to look for a
warehouse for them in Atlantic City, and wire Paris to hire Gilenne for a modelling
contract.
The next day, they go visit Stephen van der Veer, occultist and psychologist, and
describe the characteristics of the mind control they believe they are facing. He’s
excited by their description, because it matches theories he’s held of a biological, rather
than supernatural, form of mental compulsion. He explains that the human body emits
an electromagnetic field and theorizes that it sometimes can extend far beyond the
mere inches from the flesh that is its usual housing. He believes that this field, with
some individuals, can extend for miles (giving a mother premonition of danger to her
child, for example), or can actually interfere with another person’s brain and chemistry,
resulting in the sort of mental compulsion the heroes believe Saxe possesses. This sort
of compulsion can actually make changes to others’ memories and beliefs.
The heroes speculate that maybe an electromagnetic energy emitter could “jam”
the signal. Walter suggests surrounding the victims’ heads with a Faraday cage. But
they are cheered by this evidence that Saxe’s power might not be omnipotent.
They call Sally Ann Williams and ask for an appointment with her and her
daughter later today. They get one for 6:30 p.m. at the agent’s office.
They also receive a telegram from Gilenne, indicating that her flight will arrive at
Floyd Bennett at 4:30 p.m.
Walter begins ordering sensitive electronic equipment for the library. Meanwhile,
Muggins and Caroline in the Rolls and Park in the Maybach head off to the airfield.
Gilenne is a dark, solemn beauty wearing a tight blouse, baggy pants, and wire-
rimmed glasses, an unusual look. They take her in the Rolls back to HQ and talk to her
about Saxe. She is dispassionate about the whole situation... indeed, about everything.
She says she was on a modelling assignment in Paris in early 1932 when one of
the artist’s friends came by, with Saxe in tow, to visit. The artist and his friend retired to
another room. Saxe cordially told Gilenne not to put her clothes back on; he’d just join

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her. He began taking off his clothes, but she continued to dress, making him angry.
When he put his hands on her and became insistent, she broke his right arm at the
elbow, bending it back 90 degrees. It has apparently never been the same since. She is
a practitioner of savate, a fighting style from Marseilles. She says that, subsequently,
hoods have tried to kill her, but she has dangerous friends. She hints that many or all
who have tried to kill her have died.
She admits that she is “spooky.” She says that, by concentrating, she can make
everyone (actually, every living thing) in a room feel nervous.
They take her out to lunch, then set her up in a room. She’s happy they have a
gym.
Claudia speaks privately with Walter. He has mentioned needing a librarian,
initially for this task of coordinating data about the special humans, and she volunteers
for this position.
They head off to the appointment with the Williamses. Sally Ann introduces them
to her daughter Simona. Since their last talk, she has told her daughter about her
biological father. The Society admits to wanting to talk to her about her educational
speciality, archaeoeconomics, but also about helping against her dad. Does she,
herself, have any unusual abilities? She says no, except that she’s an athlete, and can
cause herself to reach the runner’s “second wind” by willpower alone, which gives her
an edge in long races; she says she can run for hours. If she treats herself properly
afterwards, eating and drinking and cooling down correctly, she can even do so without
suffering any ill effects the next day.
She’s anxious to help. She’s unhappy with the way Saxe treated her mother.
Claudia and Simona closet themselves for discussions of the way Sylvaya will be
affected by interaction with the outer world.

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#5. Oh, Just Shoot Them. Played 6/26/99.

Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal
Singh, Becky Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Jack Tanner, Tristan Wolfe, Hiram Colter, Edward
Saxe, Fritz von Burkhardt, Gilenne, Dr. Howard Haight, Pauline Delpin, Alexander
Sapperstein.
Story Date: January-February, 1937.
The Society gets in touch with the University of Pennsylvania to reach Dr.
Howard Haight. He eventually calls from Minneapolis; he and his assistant, Dr. Fred
Brown, are there looking for the source of what he suggests may be mystic phenomena.
He agrees to come out if the Society will also arrange transportation for his assistant.
The heroes want to have both Saxe children (Edward Saxe and Simona
Williams), Tristan, and Gilenne in for preliminary tests. Walter is reluctant to convince
Edward Saxe to use his powers. They examine Gilenne and Tristan first. Gilenne has a
lot of new bruises, but it turns out they come from sparring with Tarkin, savate vs.
karate.
Walter hooks up his oscilliscope-based readouts and puts Gilenne in the mad
science food-strainer-looking helmet, then asks her to do whatever it is she does to
make people nervous. She shrugs... and suddenly everyone, with the exception of
Carolina, gets nervous. There’s nothing dramatic about it; it’s a subtle effect. There are
wave-form variations in her oscilliscope readings. Walter asks her to direct her more
potent form of the mental compulsion at one of them, and Carolina volunteers. Carolina
feels an adrenal reaction but no real fear. There is a spike on the oscilliscopes, and
Walter calls for champagne; he has tangible evidence of both direct mind-to-mind
communication and the ability to detect and measure some forms of psychic
phenomena!
They continue to test her base-level ability, and the heroes are able to tell the
moment of onslaught the first few times, but eventually grow paranoid and are unable to
tell when the power is doing it and when it isn’t. Muggins volunteers for the second use
of the more potent power. When it hits him, he does have a fear reaction — and a
flashback to the similar assault he suffered at the hands of Riegert Aachen in Brandauer
Hospital (Empire Club #44). He mentions encountering someone with her ability in
Berlin and she asks if it was someone named Aachen. When the heroes’ surprise dies
down, she admits to being related to him — the trait runs in the family.
They test Tristan. His brain-waves do alter when he’s using his power, but the
pattern is no pattern — it’s a randomized variation that appears all over the “map” in
unpredictable ways.
Late in the day, Dr. Haight and Fred Brown arrive and are announced. He
describes his studies, which have been going on for many years. He says that he, too,
has seen a rise in the numbers of people with unusual powers, and that the weird thing
is that there is no detectable common source to the increase — all across the board,
from people with odd mutations to people arising out of a tradition of so-called “magic”
to self-trained crimefighters and inventors, the numbers are increasing. He tells the
story of how, last year, he was alerted by a surgeon of a young man who was gunned
down interfering in a bank robbery — stepping forward to volunteer to be taken prisoner
so that a young mother wouldn’t be, he was shot 22 times by a .45-caliber Thompson
SMG. But he wrestled the gun away from his attacker, beat that man and his
confederate unconscious, and survived the many hours of surgery necessary to remove

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all the bullets. Haight is compiling statistical data on the phenomena he is observing.
Haight also mentions that he sees a lot of his preternatural subjects concentrating in
groups like the Savage Company, Wildman Investigations, and the Eldorado Society.
Muggins privately suggests to Walter that the Eldorado Society help fund
Haight’s research.
Speculating about the rise of preternatural people, he says it’s not precisely an
evolutionary matter, because the environment is not hostile to normal people to the
point that they are in danger of extinction. But his criteria for classification as a
preternatural in his studies demands that a subject have a trait that is significant to
personal survival, and he’s astounded at how many such preternaturals he is
encountering. He mentions a weird theory — not his own — suggesting that true
sapience developed in mankind only a few thousand years ago, and that the mere
ability to stand upright and converse and use tools are not themselves characteristic of
sapience.
Angela and Muggins volunteer to be tested.
Haight suggests that Winston Hardy Saxe’s powers might be suppressed by
drugs.
After Haight and Brown leave, the Eldorado Society heroes speculate on ways to
lure Saxe out. Someone suggests staging a kidnapping of Gilenne, as if performed by
someone else who wants revenge on her, then inviting Saxe to her punishment nad
execution. Tarkin suggests fabricating another survivor of the White Plains murder
scene, someone who “comes back from the grave” to plague Saxe and cause him to
make some sort of attack. But they do desperately need to test Edward Saxe and see if
they can determine which of them might be immune to the elder Saxe’s powers.
They fly to Boston in the DC-3 and call the Globe, then meet young Saxe at the
same bar. They try to persuade him to let them test his powers. He points out that
there’s no way to tell whether, when consciously using his powers on someone, he
might also unconsciously be changing their perceptions, particularly of him. The heroes
find this a little spooky, but decide they still want to do it, and he reluctantly agrees. He
goes to tell his editor, then returns to join them for a flight to New York.
That night, they get down to tests of Edward Saxe. They find that he is indeed
capable of mental compulsion not requiring the intermediary communication of speech.
He first asks Walter if Walter wants his subjects to be aware of what they’re
doing. The question gives Walter the heebie-jeebies, but he says that the subjects
should be tested both ways.
Edward Saxe compels Dr. Park to fence with his fountain pen in an unknowing
state, then scrawl his name on a pad of paper in a knowing state. Muggins, unknowing,
takes off his shoes, then juggles them as he recovers himself. All in all, some of them
are immune to his powers; others are not. Unfortunately for Walter, his desire to build
some sort of defensive mechanism, like a Faraday cage enclosing the head, proves not
to be successful; Edward can affect a person so long as any part of the person is not
contained within the Faraday cage.
Immune: Gilenne, Matthew, Carolina, Tristan, Simona.
Not Immune: Jim Park, Muggins, Angela, Tarkin, Fritz.
Not Tested: Tal Singh, Walter.
Carolina says that, to create a ghostly survivor of the White Plains shooting,
they’ll need descriptions of a broad range of victims. The heroes agree that the ghost
should be a woman, because of the misogyny of their enemies, and Carolina, because
she’s immune, wants to portray her. They call Inspector Colter to ask about victims who

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are of Carolina’s approximate size and build. Colter recommends the actual survivor,
Pauline Delpin, who is big and athletic. The heroes wonder if she, too, might be a
“preternatural” — she survived an attack that would have killed most humans. Carolina
asks to meet Pauline, and Colter says he’ll try to arrange such a thing.
Later still, he sends a police wagon to pick Carolina up, and accompanies her to
the safe house where Pauline is recovering. Pauline is a serious, striking-looking young
woman. At Carolina’s request, she tells more details of the massacre story.
The family members were served water and sandwiches with some weird grainy
spreadable cheese with little red flecks in it she wasn’t familiar with (pimento cheese).
Then, later, the panel trucks that had brought them to the warehouse returned to pick
them up again. They drove for a while, then descended a ramp and stopped to let the
family members out — in an earthen pit in a construction site. At the top of the pit were
six men in identical strange garb, four of them with submachine guns. The clothes
included identical dark coats, pants, fedoras, shoes, faceless red masks, and gloves.
One of the men without SMGs spoke to them, his voice similar to Cary Grant’s,
telling them how everything would be just fine if they cooperated and caused no trouble.
This gave the panel trucks time to finish offloading and drive back up the ramp. Then
this man more or less giggled and said, “Oh, just shoot them,” which is when the gun-
toters opened up. Pauline remembers running toward the ramp, being hit, and blacking
out. Then, later, she awoke when the cold cement started pouring on her; she was
almost immediately beneath the cement mixer at the bottom of the ramp. She crawled
out under the mixer and was able to hide from the men until they left.
Carolina wants to replicate the costume exactly. Pauline suggests meeting her
tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at Macy’s. Colter forbids it; she’s injured, she’s in protective
custody, he adamantly refuses. Pauline says she’ll meet Carolina there.
Colter drives Carolina back to Walter’s. She decides that this fake haunting plan
shouldn’t just be to lure Saxe and Springfield out; she now thinks the heroes should
convince them it’s a true haunting, and torment them.
The heroes try to find out if any Cary Grant movie is playing, but none is tonight.
But they get an idea of his accent from an impersonator Matthew knows. This fellow
says that Grant developed his unique accent as a “mid-Atlantic” compromise between
his English roots and his American audience. Gilenne says that Grant is at least in the
correct vocal range for Saxe.
Walter puts Matthew and Carolina in charge of the haunting of Winston Hardy
Saxe. They arrive at a whole dance-card of things to do to him:

• Messages in Blood
• Cement Footprints
• Impossible Spook-Like Intrusions Into Saxe’s Quarters
• Pimento Cheese Sandwiches With Bloody Thumbprints On Them
• Door Blocked By Cement Block With Human Bones Imbedded; It Disappears
• Finding Spent .45 Casings
• Mirror Image of Haunter Outside Window

The next morning, at 10:00 a.m., Pauline Delpin is indeed at Macy’s, and seems
to have little or no trouble moving about in spite of her injuries. As they shop for the
correct colors and types of clothing, Carolina tells her the scope of what they’re up
against, about Saxe’s powers. Colter shows up, irritated; Pauline left last night while
Colter was still driving Carolina back to Walter’s. Carolina ends up with a costume

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identical to the shooters’, except for the mask, which must be made, and a Thompson
SMG.
Back at Walter’s, Walter donates his old Thompson, the one he used before
being given a Grant SMG. The others sew up a mask based on Pauline’s description.
Tarkin points out that involving Gilenne, though he’s reluctant to do so, could be very
good for the mission; her more subtle power could convince people that a haunting is
taking place.
Muggins works up a substance, based on plants little-known locally, that can
induce vomiting; he may introduce it into Saxe’s meals. Matthew works up tubes that
can be worn under the pants that will allow someone to leave wet-cement footprints.
Matthew is eager to help prove that Red Mask was no great shakes as a magician.
The heroes fly to Miami and check in to the Creighton Hotel. They can’t get
rooms directly above Springfield and Saxe, but can get them directly below. They take
the rooms below, and another set three stories above. Jim, Angela, Matthew, Carolina,
Tarkin, Muggins, Trevor, Joyce, Gilenne, Tristan, Jack Tanner, Fritz, and Becky check in
here under assumed names. Walter, Claudia and Tal check into another hotel — Walter
and Tal are too conspicuous, with their tremendous height.
Their next step is to figure out where Saxe and Springfield will be the next day...
and they discover that, of all of them, not one has the detective skills pertinent to this
assignment. Exasperated, they wire Alexander Sapperstein and ask him to join them.
He agrees to.
In the wee hours of the night, Sapperstein arrives. He is filled in on the task. He
disguises himself with an apparent throat wound and scrawls several notes, then
leaves. He returns with Saxe’s usual itinerary:

Sleep until 1 p.m.

Breakfast
Spend time on the phones
Dine at 6 p.m.
Leave at 7 p.m. Remain out until all hours at various entertainments, including
cockfights, boxing matches, dances, etc.

How did he find all this out, they ask?

He did a usual questioning and bribing, but by presenting the appropriate parties
with a note mentioning Saxe by name, he pretty much ensured that anyone already
“modified” the way Saxe likes to change them would be unable to see his name,
therefore he was able to limit his questioning to people not modified that way. Muggins
is impressed. The others like the idea of every representative of the “ghost” to appear
with some sort of injury, like Sapperstein’s fake throat wound — it’s a ghoulish touch.
The haunting will begin tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, they will station Carolina
within view of the Saxe/Springfield limosine as it departs the hotel. Sapperstein
suggests using a rolling food-vendor cart to cross Carolina’s path so she can disappear
— she can jump onto its back as it rolls past, so she’s suddenly just gone.
While Springfield and Saxe are gone for the evening, the heroes will break into
Saxe’s room and scrawl “Oh, just shoot them” in human blood on the mirror. This will be
complicated by the fact that Saxe leaves a guard on duty in his rooms while he’s gone,
but the heroes are confident. Gilenne will be in the room beneath, using her spooky
power to keep the guard nervous and frantic, but will turn the power off when Saxe
returns.

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The next morning, Saxe and Springfield will be served somewhat moldy pimento
cheese sandwiches with their breakfast.
The heroes get some sleep. The next day at lunch, Alexander reports that he’s
found out what the evening’s entertainment will be: Saxe and Springfield will be judging
a beauty contest of Latina women, sponsored by local businesses, taking place at the
Milflores Hotel. This alarms the heroes — doubtless Saxe and Springfield will be
compelling a couple of these local beauties to return to the hotel with them. Sapperstein
suggests calling them partway through the pageant, as a woman silkily suggesting that
she’ll be waiting for them in Saxe’s room. That way Saxe will have less reason to induce
a couple of innocents to come away with him. Alexander has also come up with the
maid’s pass-key to the Saxe and Springfield rooms.
At the appointed hour, Carolina gets into costume and stations herself, with
Joyce and Muggins, at the hotel side door closest to the spot where she’ll set up.
Sapperstein has already rented the vendor’s cart and he and Carolina, out of costume,
have already run a couple of testing passes to make sure their timing is right.
Park, Tarkin and Fritz take up position in a window overlooking the scene, in case
they just need to shoot someone.
Angela gets into position on the street in view of Carolina’s station, so she can
witness and provide backup.
The heroes on watch in the lobby see Springfield and Saxe arrive at ground floor
in the elevator. They alert all parties, who rush to get into position.
The limosine pulls out. Carolina puts on her mask and hat, then turns so that
she’s in full view of the limo as it turns the corner. The limo hurtles past, then puts on the
brakes. The food cart trundles by and Carolina jumps onto it, rides it around the corner
to the door, and hops off to be admitted by Muggins and Joyce. Meanwhile, Saxe
comes charging up to where Carolina was while Springfield indulgently wanders up
behind; it’s obvious that Saxe saw Carolina and Springfield didn’t. Saxe forces a
passerby to talk, but that passerby didn’t see anything. Saxe, baffled, turned to leave...
and Springfield spots Carolina’s wet-cement footprints. Saxe is spooked, but Springfield
isn’t. They leave.
The heroes return to the Eldorado Society main room and exchange stories, then
set up for the second stage of their night’s mission.
Sapperstein, in woman’s clothing but with a bloody knitting needle through his
arm (a Matthew the Magnificent illusion), goes downstairs to arrange for a maid to come
up to Saxe’s room. When the maid cones up, Matthew the Magnificent follows her to the
room. He listens, giving her enough time to clean the bathroom, then sneaks in. The
maid is under the watchful eye of the guard. Matthew gets into the bathroom and writes
the words up on the mirror. He watches the guard and maid pass en route from one
bedroom to the next, then sneak out. The door squeaks slightly when he opens it — he
nips out and closes it, making it squeak again. But he is unseen.
The heroes have dinner. When it is done, Joyce makes the phone call to Saxe
and Springfield. Gilenne sets up under Saxe’s room and makes it spooky. The heroes
make a hole in the floor that they can put Dr. Park’s stethescope up through.
About 45 minutes later, Saxe returns. They hear him walk around, then hear him
go into the bathroom, and “Holy bloody God!” Saxe abuses the guard, who assures him
— both normally and under mental compulsion — that no one entered the room except
the maid. “I thought I heard a squeak, but it could have been anything.” The mirror
shatters, and Muggins remembers that, when frustrated, Saxe grows violent. Saxe
stomps out of his room. The heroes rush to the room under Springfield’s and listen to

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the conversation when Saxe arrives there. Springfield doesn’t seem to be taking this
situation too seriously, which the heroes like; it may drive a wedge between the two.
Muggins wonders whether Gilenne, with her extensive travelling in Europe, might
have ever seen Bryn Gunther. He shows her Bryn’s picture. She hasn’t. But Sapperstein
has. When doing investigative work a while back for Clark Savage, Jr., he saw this
young lady in his company, at his school, Technopolis.

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#6. The Haunting of Winston Hardy Saxe. Played 7/17/99.

Starring: Carolina Allcot Blanc, Jim Park, Muggins, Matthew the Magnificent,
Walter Ransley, Tarkin O’Malley. Guest-Starring: Joyce LeDuc, Tal Singh, Becky
Dupree, Claudia Verlon, Jack Tanner, Tristan Wolfe, Hiram Colter, Edward Saxe, Fritz
von Burkhardt, Gilenne, Pauline Delpin, Alexander Sapperstein, Elisabeth Shields,
Genevra Maurelle.
Story Date: February, 1937.
The next morning, the heroes set up the food switch. Matthew and Becky, the
trained magicians, are to perform it. Becky intercepts the room service deliverer and
distracts her magnificently; Matthew is a little less adroit at switching his food plate for
the deliverer’s, but pulls it off. Matthew and Becky eat the Saxe/Springfield breakfast
while the others listen through the stethescope to what goes on in the room above.
When Saxe lifts the cover off the tray containing not the expected breakfast but a
handful of stale pimento-cheese sandwiches, one of which has a big, bloody thumbprint
on it, the listeners hear a spate of alarmed swearing from Saxe. Springfield is not
disturbed; he laughs at Saxe, and Saxe goes stomping out of the room.
The heroes consider driving a bigger wedge between Saxe and Springfield by
making Saxe suspicious that Springfield might be behind all these weird events. But to
do so would be to allow Saxe to realize the weirdness is not truly supernatural. They
decide to hold onto the supernatural aspect.
They decide the next events will be concrete-related. Tonight, they’ll fill the
bathtub of one of the two with concrete, with a few human hairs on top. Tonight they’ll
also build the door-blocking wall of concrete for use tomorrow. Walter suggests
fabricating a chute to stretch from their upper-story rooms into the Saxe or Springfield
bathroom three stories below to allow for a miraculous appearance of the concrete; they
can use Gilenne, peeking through the bathroom keyhole, to keep the guard from
approaching the bathroom.
They need to know everything they can about what Saxe and Springfield are
doing, so Walter decides to tap the phones. Sapperstein heads out to find out what he
can about the night’s activities by the two targets. Walter also notes that the cement wall
across the door won’t prompt Saxe and Springfield to shut the door, allowing the heroes
to get away; they must provide a motivation for them to shut the door. He suggests
having a great stink of corruption or a great amount of blood pour out the mouth of the
skull inset in the concrete. Saxe or Springfield would surely shut the door against such
an offense. The heroes decide on both blood and stink.
Sapperstein returns to say that Saxe has been making inquiries about Miami
youth gangs — their hangouts, their habits, their rivals. He seems to be concentrating
on two rival gangs, the Panteras and the Lolos (Lobos Locos). The heroes suspect that
Saxe and Springfield are planning to cause a rumble between the two gangs.
Walter decides on an additional plan for today: Saturate the stuffing of the
Saxe/Springfield limousine with blood, using hypodermics so the seat covers are not
stained until the two men sit down on them. So tonight the heroes will execute the
bloody-seats and cement-bathtub plans, and they will make the door-blocking cement-
and-bones sculpture. Carolina has the idea of mounting the cement door-blocker on the
bottom of a roll-away bed, in order to get it out of sight more easily; Matthew is
chagrined that the idea wasn’t his.
Walter and Sapperstein depart to make some wiring changes to the hotel’s
telephone switchboard. While Sapperstein acts as a guard, Walter runs wires so that all

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calls to and from either the Saxe or Springfield rooms also ring on listening-only phones
in the rooms beneath theirs.
Meanwhile, Tarkin rigs the ropes for the descent from the upper-story room to
Springfield’s room, and sets up the concrete mixer.
Meanwhile, Dr. Park sets up the limousine blood equipment. He first obtains and
experiments on a car seat from a junkyard.
At 6:30 p.m., the heroes go down to the parking garage where the two victims’
limousine waits. Matthew has no trouble getting into the Lincoln’s locked door. The
heroes inject the blood, then return to their rooms. At 6:55, they hear Saxe and
Springfield leave, and Sapperstein, in the lobby, reports that the unfortunate men are in
Miami-chic white suits. Five minutes later, the two men return to Saxe’s room, angry and
shaken. Springfield asks if they’re still on for this evening; Saxe says yes, everying is
set up. They dress in fresh clothes and leave again.
The heroes move up to the upper-story rooms. Tarkin deploys the rope and
Matthew climbs down to unlock the bathroom window, and does so effortlessly. Tarkin
carries Gilenne down on his back and they enter Springfield’s bathroom. The other
heroes deploy the hose down to him and begin sluicing wet concrete down it. After
some time, Tarkin gestures with a cut-off sign and they end their efforts. Tarkin climbs
back up with Gilenne, and Muggins realizes, with a bit of envy (“Tarkin, you bastard!”)
that Tarkin has had the opportunity to carry her around twice and to spend plenty of time
alone with her.
Matthew climbs down to lock the door, but, getting into position with the rope, he
slips and falls off. He catches himself on Springfield’s balcony, then swings down to the
balcony beneath while the other heroes haul the incriminating rope up out of sight.
Springfield’s guard, Murphy, comes out on the balcony to investigate the sound, and
then stays there, shakily smoking a cigarette, for some time. When he goes in, Matthew
sneaks into the room whose balcony he now occupies — and realizes that he’s
sneaking up on Angela and Fritz. This is their second listening station, of course — it’s
the room right beneath Springfield’s. He goes back up to the upper-story room, accepts
having a rope tied around his waist (because the rope-burn injury done to his hands
makes it hard to climb), and is lowered to the bathroom window, which he re-locks. He’s
hauled up to the safe room again.
The heroes in the listening station hear the guard from Springfield’s room visit
Saxe’s and beg to use the bathroom there; he claims his is out of order. The heroes are
amused.
Hours later, Saxe and Springfield return to their respective rooms. When
Springfield sees his bathroom, he summons Murphy in. He gets an explanation. He is
cold and deliberate. He calls Saxe to explains. Saxe, in turn, tells him that the chemical
reports are in, and that the blood on the mirror was human blood. At one point, Saxe
does a bit of a Cary Grant impersonation — it’s apparently just a habit of his. Springfield
and Saxe agree to sleep on this problem. So do the heroes.
They’re up early to set up the doorway-blocking scheme for their victims’
breakfast. Sapperstein steals servants’ uniforms. The heroes assemble the rollaway
bed. Walter fails in his efforts to make a stinky enough chemical, but Muggins, with his
esoteric botanical knowledge, is able to get his hands on extract of Sumatran
corpseflower odor from a local botanical garden and is able to turn it into a horrid
additive for the blood.
Sapperstein’s stolen uniforms fit Matthew and Muggins. Fritz and Angela act as
one couple’s worth of interference, Park and Joyce another, at either end of the hall.

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Saxe goes to Springfield’s room this afternoon for breakfast. The heroes hear
room service arrive. They get into position with their gear. They wait for an opportunity
when the hallway is mostly clear, and Matthew knocks, three heavy booms. Muggins
slips a clip under the door opposite and holds onto the attached rope so someone in the
other room cannot open its door. Matthew puts his eye to the little eye-hole in the
cement. When the door opens, he squeezes the trigger... and hears an anguished male
scream from beyond. When the door closes, Matthew closes up the braces that made
the cement wall so immovable, wipes down the blood on the face of the cement, throws
a blanket over the whole rig, and the two ordinary bellhops roll the rollaway bed down
the hall to where Fritz and Angela are guarding the top of a stairway. Elapsed time: A
few seconds.
Walter listens on the phone as Springfield, inarticulate with horror, calls the front
desk. The desk clerk can’t understand him but promises to send a detective up. The
heroes are delighted that Springfield’s self-control has finally slipped.
Carolina hears Saxe and Springfield talk. Saxe opens the door, seeing only the
blood. He tells Springfield to tell the detective only that someone threw blood — not to
mention the ghostly wall. The detective arrives, asks some questions, and leaves.
Saxe asks Springfield if they need an exorcist. Springfield doesn’t even know
what that is.
They call downstairs to check out. Then Springfield calls the airfield to file a flight
plan for Springfield, MA. He’s running for home.
The heroes rush off for one final Miami event — they’ll position Carolina, in her
ghostly garb, at the end of the runway so Springfield’s pilot sees her as they’re taking
off. They accomplish this, though they have no idea what the pilot’s reaction is, and then
make their own flight arrangements for New York.
Muggins mentions using bloodhounds to find the graveyard in Springfield. Tristan
ponders the word “bloodhounds.”
The heroes decide to broaden their haunting activities in Springfield, MA. The
idea: That the revenant who haunted Saxe and Springfield in Miami has followed them
to Massachusettes and is bringing the dead back to unlife to join her in the haunting.
They’ll work on Deputy Blanchard and Sheriff Wingate as well as the principals. Tristan
volunteers to be made up as his own dead father. Muggins didn’t want to suggest it, but
is relieved that the boy came up with the idea, too, and is willing to do it.
Carolina thinks they should make Anna Lieberman’s their HQ for this operation,
and the others agree, subject to Mrs. Lieberman agreeing.
The heroes also decide to get in touch with Father Damien Bugenhagen. If Saxe
and Springfield try to obtain an exorcist, Bugenhagen’s expertise may enable the
heroes to slip in a ringer. Also, his knowledge of supernatural matters might enable
them to make their false haunting more convincing. But when they call his church in
Rome, a curt voice gives them another Rome phone number to call. That one is
answered by Rabbi Shmuel Lowenstein, and is the headquarters of the new Veritas
League. Rabbi Lowenstein says that Damien is in Africa, on a safari, but the Veritas
League can supply them with an appropriate expert. When they identify the nature of
their haunting — their false haunting — he recommends member Elisabeth Shields,
who is known to several Eldorado Society (Walter, Muggins, and Carolina) members
from previous encounters. They arrange to bring her and her nurse, Genevra Maurelle,
to the U.S.
The heroes make preparations and wait in New York. Carolina makes
arrangements with Anna Lieberman. Muggins has the idea of leaving bloody snow

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angels in the snow in front of Springfield’s mansion; Walter gets to work on puppet-like
structures that can do the job. Two days later, Elisabeth Shields and Genevra Maurelle
arrive. Miss Shields explains that the Veritas League was founded by Damien to
investigate claims of the supernatural.
They test Miss Shield’s with Walter’s equipment. When exercising her so-called
psychic powers, her “Is anybody out there?” reachings, she can make variations in the
wave form.
How to get all their personnel and equipment out to the Lieberman farm unseen?
Josie says that flatbed trucks, pickup trucks, and school buses are good for remaining
anonymous on those rural roads at night and in the early morning hours. Carolina
wonders what to get Anna as a house-guest present; Josie recommends a radio, but a
used one, so Anna won’t think it’s too expensive. They also buy lots of groceries to take.
They gather their supplies and equipment, loading it onto flatbeds, and head out,
timing things so they arrive at 3:00 in the morning. Anna greets them and says that the
Springfield estate, a mile away, is overrun by men with guns; Springfield is definitely on
the defensive.
The next morning (THURSDAY), Carolina and Matthew go out to set up an
observation post nearer the Springfield estate. Muggins goes to the office of Theo Law
to speak to the newspaperman. After determining Law’s dedication to the truth, Muggins
trades exclusive information to him in return for Law’s help. Law tells him that deputy
Blanchard is back on limited duty. In response to Muggins’ questioning, he says that
Winston Hardy Saxe was indeed in town once back when Chet Morgan was still a
teacher, at a time when Edwin Springfield and Morgan had a dispute over the teaching
of evolutionary theory; Springfield, a Presbyterian, insisted that Morgan condemn the
theory before his pupils, and Morgan wouldn’t do so. (Muggins suspects that this is the
origin of Morgan’s descent into alcoholism.) Have their been any big, messy deaths at
the mansion in the last twenty years or so? Yes, the worst of them being that of valet
Schuyler Bernard; the man apparently went through a years-long descent through
unusual sexual practices (including pederasty and bestiality), then finally committed
suicide by throwing himself off one of the front-gate towers to impale himself on the
spikes at the top of the fence.
Muggins returns to their temporary HQ and the heroes discuss plans. Among the
things they’ll do to Springfield and Saxe:

• Bloody snow angels on the lawn.

• Have the ghost of Bernard Schuyler show up when Springfield is attending
church; he’ll rise from the front row, his body perforated, and stare accusingly at
Springfield as he walks out of the church. A hoist will yank him to the church roof
so people can’t see where he went.
• Estate gate guards will get to see Carolina and two or three additional ghosts.
• Gilenne, in a shroud, will walk the streets of Springfield, her spookiness power
active, carrying a still “baby,” just to spook the population.

Early that evening, Gilenne dresses up. When darkness falls, she strolls through
downtown, not speaking to or looking at anyone she walks by; the heroes covering her
passage see people moving to the other side of the sidewalk to be well clear of her.
After she returns to the farm, Carolina dresses in her shooter drag. Gilenne and
Joyce dress up in shrouds. Tarkin gets in position to get into the estate, using Carolina
as a distraction, so he can do some reconnaissance. The “ghosts,” wearing white

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covering, move up along the road to the Springfield estate, pushing a sled uncoiling a
long stretch of rope leading back to one of their trucks. On cue, the three ghosts stand
and Gilenne uses her more subtle power on them. Muggins, their spotter, with
binoculars, watches and notifies Carolina when the guards notice the ghosts. When a
guard at the guardhouse calls in and then unlimbers his rifle, Carolina opens fire with
her SMG (firing blanks). When the guards begin to return fire, Carolina and the ghosts
drop onto the sled and pull their white covers over them; the distant truck drags them
and their sled over the hill and to safety.
The next morning (FRIDAY), they build more of the gear necessary for tonight’s
activities. Tarkin returns at lunchtime, frozen almost stiff; they put him in a bath and put
a hot drink in him before they let him talk. He reports that the guards number 25 to 30,
without about a third outside at any given time, and says there are dogs on the estate.
Springfield and Saxe apparently saw Carolina last night through the front second-floor
window, and Tarkin later heard Saxe say that he couldn’t summon “it” (Carolina) with his
powers. Tarkin says that, because of the dogs, building the snow angels should perhaps
be done closer to the outer walls.
The heroes ask Miss Shields if she can actually provoke the ghost of Bernard
Schuyler into activity. She doesn’t know. She’ll actually have to do a seance there to find
out. They wonder whether she is immune to Saxe’s power, and call Edward Saxe to ask
if he’ll consent to another round of tests. But Edward Saxe’s editor, Mulgrew, says that
it’s goodbye and good riddance to young Saxe; when the boy announced the other day
that he couldn’t come in to work the next day (because, it turns out, of Walter’s tests),
Mulgrew fired him. Walter is outraged. The heroes call Hiram Colter and ask for him to
find Edward Saxe.
They continue making their preparations for tonight’s events. Walter taps the
phone line from Springfield’s estate. Colter calls back late in the day. Young Saxe has
thoroughly disappeared. Tristan, who had not heard before about Saxe’s
disappearance, admits to some knowledge of it. He says that Edward Saxe and Pauline
Delpin came to him for money to help conduct their own investigation. Apparently,
young Saxe misinterpreted Walter’s reluctance to ask Edward to use his powers to
mean that those powers were, in fact, evil, and when Edward decided he had to use
them against his father, he “knew” he could not work with the Eldorado Society. How
Pauline came to get in contact with Saxe is a mystery to him, but he gave them money.
He does know that Pauline bought up a second set of clothes identical in style to
Carolina’s shooter drag.
How to get in touch with these crazy kids? They figure that young Saxe and
Delpin will come here, and, since Saxe is a newspaperman, that he will probably read
the local paper. They place an ad: “Edward From Boston: We’re sorry you took the tests
wrong, we need your help. Call our building. Signed, your admirers from New York.”
The snow-angels team heads off. Tarkin and Tal Singh will enter the estate with
Walter’s gadgets. Carolina, Muggins and Park stay close as sniper support, while
Gilenne stays with them in case she can spook the dogs. They see Tarkin and Tal climb
the walls and clamber in along tree branches; then they wait a long time.
Some time later, Tarkin and Tal reappear, sneaking out as successfully as they
sneaked in. Tarkin reports that they found a good long branch, and Tal held him by his
heels over the ground while Tarkin manipulated the snow-angels-creating frameworks,
meaning that they’ve pulled this off without leaving a single footprint.
Finally, in the distance, they hear the sound of dogs barking at the estate. They
move out.

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Later that night, they hear Winston Saxe call the Catholic church at the nearest
town. He demands an exorcist. The priest, mindful of the way these things are done,
offers to dispatch an investigator, the first necessary step in any such action, and Saxe
grows furious with him. He hangs up.
Carolina asks if now is the time to bring in their own supernaturalist. The
consensus is that it is.
Springfield next calls Morton’s Hardware to talk to Chet Morgan. Saxe asks
Morgan, in an increasingly pathetic and hilarious fashion, how to get rid of ghosts
(Morgan is an intelligent man and a former teacher — he should know, shouldn’t he?)
Morgan says to ask the help of the Catholic church, but Saxe says they have nothing to
offer. Morgan suggests a Blavatskyite. “What’s a Blavatskyite?” Morgan explains about
the psychic researches of the 19th century of Madame Blavatsky. Walter asks Miss
Shields if she can pretend to be a Blavatskyite. She says, “If Dr. Park keeps me
supplied with stomach powders, yes.”
The heroes race off to the hardware store to see Chet Morgan, but the place is
closed and Morton won’t open the door for them. Matthew can’t pick this lock (not too
odd for a hardware store to have a good lock), so they dial in on a pay phone and
Muggins, in order to get past Mr. Morton, suggests that he’s calling from the Springfield
estate. Muggins talks to Morgan, does not give his name, and say that he can get in
touch with a Blavatskyite, Elisabeth Shields. And if Saxe offers to help him for his aid,
that he should ask not to need to drink anymore. Morgan, amused, says he’ll take this
under advisement.
The heroes return to the farm. What is Miss Shields supposed to do if she gets
in? She’s supposed to feed the fear these people are feeling. She’s supposed to inform
Saxe and Springfield that a powerful spirit, a ghost whose name is Pauline, is bringing
women and children from unconsecrated graves back into a sort of life-in-death, and
they’ll haunt the two men forever. How are they to undo this? The graves must be found
and dug up, and holy water poured on them by Saxe and Springfield. The ringleader
ghost, Pauline, can only be defeated through direct confrontation with the two men.
The next morning (SATURDAY), the newspaper arrives. The heroes breakfast.
Shields and Maurelle depart to visit Chet Morgan and introduce themselves.
The phone-tap buzzes, indicating an outbound call from the Springfield estate.
But, inexplicably, it’s young Edward Saxe calling Eldorado Society HQ, answering the
advertisement in the paper. Patricia Rawlins, at HQ, tries to get his number, but he can’t
leave it; he can’t be called here. Walter realizes that Edward is in the Springfield estate
— he has used his powers to sneak in! He frantically tries to hook up the mouthpiece to
this phone, but can’t get it assembled before Edward hangs up.
Patricia calls Walter, who tells her what this all meant. Walter decides to use Miss
Shields to get in touch with Edward. He sends Muggins racing off to the hardware store
to head her off while he calls. Walter gets hold of her and lets her know. Soon after,
Muggins’ car is passed by a limo carrying Miss Shields, Miss Maurelle, and Chet
Morgan out to the estate.
Hours pass. The heroes make Tristan up to look like his dad. He’ll visit Deputy
Blanchard in Carolina’s company. They go to Blanchard’s home and climb over the
backyard fence. Tristan dashes his clothes with the corpseflower “cologne” and creaps
up to the back wall of the house. He’s lucky; he sees Blanchard near one of the back
windows, and yanks the deputy out, to the ground. “You killed me!” Blanchard swims
backward across the dirt, frantic to escape, and Carolina moves to head him off.
Blanchard bumps into her legs and finally sees her. “Bury me to get rid of me.”

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Blanchard faints. Tristan and Carolina sneak off, but not far. They observe Blanchard
waking up, running back into his house, and then roaring off in his car. They follow.
Anna gets a call from the Springfield estate, Miss Maurelle, very terse: “They’re
preparing an expedition.” (Click.) She relays the word to Walter. Muggins relays word to
Theo Law. The heroes load up into their vehicles and head off to a spot where they can
watch the road from the Springfield estate.
The heroes follow the caravan of seven estate cars out along a northern farm
road, to an abandoned farm property. The heroes drive past the turnoff Springfield’s
men use and then hide their cars and creep back across on foot. They see Blanchard’s
car arriving and duck down; Blanchard joins the Springfield party, which includes Saxe,
Springfield, and Sheriff Wingate. The men bring out shovels and begin digging in one of
the fields.
Carolina and Tristan creep up on the scene, but Carolina steps onto the boards
atop a dry well and falls through. Sheriff Wingate comes out to investigate. At the
heroes’ suggestion, Gilenne uses her power on him and Wingate nervously returns to
his men. Tristan helps Carolina out and the two join their friends.
The diggers find a body. They keep digging. Another car arrives, bringing armed
men carrying a water bottle. The holy water!
Sheriff Wingate, still alert to what spooked him, finally spots some of the heroes,
despite their position of concealment. He quietly informs Saxe, who tells Springfield and
then moves from group to group of men, telling them to be ready to fire. He gets back to
his car and says “Go!” The men drop their shovels and go for their firearms. Saxe dives
into the backseat of his car, Springfield following him.
Tarkin is grazed in the arm. Matthew shoots the deputy, the bullet taking the man
in the heart. Sheriff opens up on Sheriff Wingate with her SMG, hitting him with three
slugs, taking him down.
Walter tells Tristan he can save lives now by convincing the shooters not to fire.
Tristan stands up and summons his earthquake power; his earthquake rips across the
ground toward the burial field, widening as it goes, and then knocks down many firers. It
also splits graves open and catapults body parts into the air. Gilenne does what she
can, hitting one of the still-standing gunmen with her full power; he screams and runs.
There is a succession of bright flares from Saxe’s car, and Saxe backs out,
pushing Springfield as he goes, and turns around. His chest is riddled with gunfire. A
second Carolina in shooter drag comes out of the car, holding a second Thompson
submachine gun, and the heroes realize that Pauline Delpin is here. Saxe is already in
shock, mortally wounded. He has a handgun in his grip.
Walter directs Tal to get Tristan down, and Tal knocks the youth to the ground. As
Springfield runs from the ghostly manifestation of what has been torturing him, Walter
kneecaps him, hitting him twice with a burst from his Grant SMG. Springfield goes down
screaming. Meanwhile, shooter after shooter throws down his gun and puts his hands in
the air, looking confused, and the heroes realize that Edward Saxe is also on hand.
Matthew shoots at the “really lousy magician” (Saxe) and hits him in the shoulder.
Carolina, simultaneously sympathetic and cold-blooded, shoots Saxe in the head: She
doesn’t want Pauline to be guilty of Saxe’s death. The shot blows Saxe’s brains out and
drops him.
The other gunmen surrender.
Edward Saxe emerges from the driver’s compartment of Saxe’s car; he is in
chauffeur’s livery. The heroes approach. Edward says he’s flushed several weeks of
memory from the gunment he has “hit.” Walter asks if he can restore their memories

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instead? He’ll try. But the first one he does so was one of the men who shot wives and
children, and that man collapses under the strain of his sudden guilt. Edward is pained,
but decides that everyone should remember what has happened to him, and continues.
Blanchard and Saxe are dead. Springfield and Wingate survive. The state police
are summoned. Miss Shields, Miss Maurelle, and Chet Morgan are brought out from the
estate, safe and sound.
Pauline shows Walter the bulky, horrid bulletproof vest she has been wearing.
She asks if Walter can design something more lightweight and flexible... in case she
wants to keep using this suit. He agrees to do so. How did she come to hook up with
Saxe? When she broke out of the safe house where Colter had been keeping her, she
first looked at all his records and decided to embark on her own plan of vengeance.
The story, as it is released to the press, has the Eldorado Society stumbling onto
the criminal gang responsible for the White Plains murders and conceiving the plan to
haunt the killers. Theo Law has a tremendous scoop, and it generates a lot of adulation
for the Eldorado Society.
In the days that follow, the authorities find 48 bodies in this field. Wingate
confesses. Edward Saxe is able to restore George Tears to normal, and the valet is able
to show the authorities where Springfield keeps his most personal journals... including
the ones in which the White Plains massacre is joyously described. Chet Morgan
reports that he has, indeed, miraculously lost the need to drink.
Before she returns to Europe, Elisabeth Shields, in order to prevent an
embarrassing conversation later, tells the heroes that Damien Bugenhagen is no longer
a Catholic priest — he was defrocked after a dispute with his superiors, hence his
foundation of the Veritas League. Walter thanks her and Miss Maurelle for their help.

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Dr. Centigrade
#7. Men Of Tomorrow. Played 12/9/00.
Starring: Walter Ransley, Angela Billings, Jim Park, Matthew Dupree, Carolina
Blanc, Tarkin O’Malley, Muggins, Farah Alee. Guest-Starring: Tristan Wolfe (The
Rattler), Simona Williams (The Savage), Pauline Delpin (Lady Ghast), Terence Saxe
(Dr. Hemlock), Tal Singh.
Story Date: March, 1937.
Farah is accepted by one of the colleges she’s applied to — Technopolis, an
experimental college near Syracuse. The caveat is that she has to study hard for the
next few months to be able to pass the college’s severe high school equivalency test in
order to be admitted. Muggins decides that they should go up there and evaluate the
place before deciding. He, Walter, Angela, and Farah go.
The town of Technopolis, situated around the Technopolis campus, is a Planned
Community with an interesting mix of architecture, over-planned and over-engineered,
all fairly new; the college has only been in existence since 1931. They meet Denver
Haskell, the president of the university, who explains the college’s unusual structure.
Farah will be able to progress as fast as she is able to learn; tests, which can be taken
any time, determine whether a student has learned enough to be accredited for a
course. The library is set up so that students can request books not on hand; if the
request is accepted, the student pays for half the book and the university for the other
half, and the university keeps it. Haskell says that Technopolis was conceived “on a
drunk” between himself and several other educators at a conference a few years back,
and funded by one of their number, a multimillionaire. Many of its educational
innovations are his. His motto: “Our job is not to teach students. Our job is to provide an
environment in which they can learn.”
They tour the library, the laboratories (messy multidisciplinary things that remind
Walter of his own lab), the athletic facilities (there are no team game-type sports here,
but plent of track and field, swimming, and other individual athletic studies, plus a deep-
diving facility where they test new diving suits and equipment), etc. They find that Farah
does not have to stay in a dormitory, though she can; they’ll simply have to find her a
roommate who can put up with her monkeys. They are all pleased with the facilities and
Farah decides it suits her, so long as Muggins approves. She also asks if there is a
doctoral graduate she can talk to about the school, either here or in the city. Haskell
says that there is one, a Zachariah Albritton, in New York; he already had Ph.D.s, but
came here for another.
A day or two later, back in New York, Walter and Tal are in Walter’s lab working
on his latest Mad Science experiment, in which he tries to interfere with the forces of the
universe enough to create an antigravitational field. In a heavy aquarium lies a thick iron
plate; electrical poles protrude into the aquarium to provide current. Walter pulls the
switch on his device and the plate disappears with an almighty “Bang!” Then plaster
starts to float down. Walter looks up to see a metal plate sized hole in the ceiling... and
in the ceiling of the floor above... and in the ceiling of the floor above... and stars beyond
that.
A pounding starts on the door, and Tal Singh admits Pauline Delpin, bruised and
worried — though these two characteristics are not related. She’s worried because she
saw the metal plate ejected through the roof. She saw the direction it went. She’s

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bruised because she tried to interfere with a bank robbery today, and the heavily
concealed robber beat her up; he was huge and inhumanly powerful. She’s here to see
how Walter is doing on the lightweight body armor he promised to design for her. He
shows her the partial prototype.
Walter, Tal and Pauline go driving to find the metal plate. Several blocks to the
east, they find a spot where police are looking at a crater in the sidewalk. The metal
plate is there, all right. The police think it must have been dropped out of an airplane.
Walter explains that it was a failed experiment and apologizes, offering to pay for the
sidewalk.
Back at home, he calls the roofers, then calls around for information on the bank
robbery. His repeated experiments with the antigravity device don’t cause the incident to
occur again. Walter can’t figure it out.
The next day, Dr. Park, having lunch at Rinaldo’s restaurant, sees a big man in
overcoat, bandages, scarf, gloves, hat, et al smash into the place, grab a man eating at
another table, and turn to leave with him. Park jumps the kidnaper, intending to throw
him to the ground, but the man weighs two or three times what he should. The man
strikes Park across the back, knocking him out.
Park awakens a minute or two later with Trevor tending to him. They rush off to
the Maybach and give pursuit; Trevor saw the big man clamber into the back of a
moving van and saw the direction the van went. In minutes, they catch up to the van. It
detects pursuit and begins trying to shake the Maybach. Park, using his new, improved
car radio (it works from the front, while the car is still moving), calls for the Eldorado
Society. In moments, Walter and Tal, Muggins, Angela and Matthew, Carolina, and
Tarkin (on his Harley-Davidson) are rolling in pursuit.
The van, with the Eldorado Society vehicles and two police cars in pursuit, turns
onto the Williamsburg Bridge. Dr. Park tells Trevor to get around in front; Trevor zooms
around on the left side, despite the driver’s best effort to bump him off the lane.
Meanwhile, Angela pulls up onto the sidewalk to the right of the van’s lane; Matthew
clambers up onto her roof and Angela honks to warn pedestrians to leap aside. Walter
has Tal pull up immediately behind so that Walter can more easily shoot out the rear
tires. The van’s passenger unlimbers a submachine gun.
Walter shoots out a tire. The passenger sits on his door’s window opening to fire
a submachine burst at Park’s Maybach; his grouping is fantastic but the armor holds,
just barely. Park tries to return fire with his Winchester lever-action but suffers a misfire.
Matthew throws a knife at the man with the submachine gun. His blade punctures
the man’s right hand and he drops the gun. He looks back and Matthew smiles at him.
The van’s rear door opens. The coated kidnaper is there but the kidnap victim is
not. The man picks up a big, heavy-looking wooden crate (the van is loaded full of them
and other boxes and furnishings) and lifts it to throw. Walter says “Tal: Brakes.” Tal
manages to brake and maneuver so that the crate misses Walter’s car.
Tarkin tries to follow Angela up onto the sidewalk, but fails and wipes out; he
manages to put his bike down quite capably and ride it to a stop.
Matthew leaps over to the van, grabbing a handle between the cab and the rear.
He only catches it with one hand and dangles there. Angela draws her handgun and
fires with her off-hand at the gunman, winging him in the shoulder.
Walter shoots out the other right rear tire. The driver loses control and the
swerving van heels over onto its left side. The gunman and the big man in back are
thrown free; the gunman lands on his back on Angela’s roof, then smacks onto the
sidewalk, while the big man hits the guard rail on the side and falls into the East River.

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The heroes and cops take charge of the situation. Tarkin comes driving up on his
slightly wobbly motorcycle. They determine that the van was stolen from someone
moving to Cincinnati. The kidnap victim, callow heir Elvin Hogle, has no idea why he
was grabbed, unless it was for blackmail purposes. The driver and the gunman are
taken into custody by the police.
After dealing with the police, the Eldorado Society decides to canvas the shore
on either side for sightings of the big man. Muggins, asking around at the 81 st street
docks, finds someone who saw the big man walk out of the water, stand there (not
responding to questions) for about ten minutes, and then get picked up by a man in a
panel truck. The man was middle-aged, balding; he and the big man did not exchange
words.
Pauline calls Walter; she may have some information on the big guy. She’s
invited out to join the Society at a bar near the 81st street docks. She brings Terence
Saxe, another son of Winston Hardy Saxe with her. He’s a scientific sort and said that,
in examining the wooden joiners between sidewalk sections at Rinaldo’s, he found one
spot that the big man had stepped on and indented, pointing to a personal weight in
excess of 650 pounds. Walter wonders if they’re dealing with a robot, or maybe a man
in an automated suit. Muggins suggests dealing with it with a large magnet.
They go visit Inspector Hiram Colter, Angela’s contact in Homicide. He doesn’t
have any direct knowledge of the Big Man case, since there’ve been no homicides, but
does arrange for them to talk to one of the two men in the van. The gunman is still in the
hospital, but the driver, Moses “Moe” Menger, is unhurt.
They talk to him. Rather than lean on him, Dr. Park tries the bribery approach.
What would it cost for Menger to talk? “Get me out of here and give me a thousand
dollars and I’ll talk to you for a whole day.” Dr. Park calls one of his high-powered
lawyers and they wait.
The lawyer, David Angorman, shows up, looks into the situation, and determines
that only the Eldorado Society members saw Menger in the van. Without their
testimony, he could have been a passing motorist or pedestrian. He tells the police that
the Eldorado Society won’t testify, and the investigating officer confronts them with that
question. They reluctantly agree that they won’t but tell him that this will open up the
case to bigger and better arrests. Menger is cut loose. He asks if they can eat while he
talks and they go to Rinaldo’s. They negotiate a slightly better deal, though, giving him
$500 up front and promising him another $500 if the information is good.
He says that he was working for a guy who had them call him Professor or Dr.
Centigrade. Menger never knew his real name, but says he is a really smart guy who
wants money and revenge — revenge on “the panel,” whatever that is. He drives a
panel truck with six brackets in the back. He leaves notes for Menger and the others to
follow. He has an accent; Menger says that it’s the same accent as a lot of musicians he
knows but he doesn’t know what it’s called, and none of his dining companions can
duplicate it.
Menger’s fellow workers included Pete Fairmont (the gunman, captured), Rennie
“Ringo” Marshall (gunman), Johnny “Two-Note” Mailer (jazz musician and driver), and
Menger. All four seem to have been chosen for the same reason: All are very, very
tough and durable. Menger, for example, fell out of a three-story window when trying to
escape prison and smashed down onto stone surfaces without being hurt. It should
have killed him, or so the prison doctor said; all four men have been to prison.
What’s Dr. Centrigrade’s next plan? Some sort of shipyard, Menger says. He
draws them a map of the site; he’s seen a map but doesn’t know where it is.

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Why was Menger in prison? He explains that he used to be a professional racer;
driving and racing were all he loved to do. But he was drunk once before a race and
wiped out, piling into a crowd and killing a couple of people. After that, and after prison,
he was blacklisted and could never race professionally again. So now he drives for a
different employer. The Eldorado Society ponders this and Carolina offers him a job as
her chauffeur. They persuade him to think about it. They give him the other $500 and let
him go on his way.
They leave, too, and Muggins, doing a little research, determines that the map
shows Roostmuller’s Shipyards. Hez Pfister gives him that information, and shows him
the weighted clubs he’s now making for more posh customers. Muggins orders one, and
wooden knuckles.
At ES headquarters, they find that Patricia Rawlins has a call for them from
Tristan Wolfe for Pauline. He tells her that Fairmont has escaped the hospital (he
overpowered a couple of cops) but that he, Tristan, has followed the man. It’s time for
their team to intervene. She invites Walter along and the Eldorado Society elects to
come. Walter warns her about guns.
Pauline reverses her coat and puts on her Lady Ghast outfit. A block short of the
flophouse Tristan told her about, they pull to the curb. An apparition materializes beside
the car: A man-sized reptile with a snake head, reptile feet and hands, a black overcoat
and hat — Walter draws his gun but the thing pulls its head aside, revealing it to be a
mask with Tristan’s face beneath it.
Pauline joins Tristan and the rest of her team on the fire escape. They climb up.
Angela climbs after them. The rest go up the stairwell to the third floor. One of Tristan’s
partner, a woman in what looks like nothing but mud and a loincloth (though her matted
hair conceals her breasts, whatever her pose or orientation), lowers herself upside-
down on ropes from the roof to look into the window. She indicates that there are three
inside, one armed; Tristan, Pauline, and another team member, a man in dark clothes,
mask, and overcoat decorated with weird violet tracery, leap from the fire escape into
the window. The muddy woman swings in.
By the time Walter and crew come in through the front door, the fight is done;
Tristan and allies have overpowered the men and taken away their guns. Two of the
men (Johnny Two-Note and Ringo) are writhing on the floor, ill; Fairmont is in Tristan’s
grip. All are terrified.
Tristan introduces his team to Walter. He is the Rattler. Pauline is Lady Ghast.
The muddy woman is the Savage; Walter recognizes her as Simona Williams. And the
fourth, whom Walter recognizes as Terence Saxe, is Dr. Hemlock.
They question Fairmont. He says that his hospital room got hot and there were
dancing lights on the ceiling. They spoke to him and told him to escape, to come here
and await orders. He did. He’s mostly healed already. Muggins practices Fairmont’s
voice, and when the phone rings he imitates him. The Professor tells him where the
panel truck is and to obey the instructions on the steering wheel.
Tristan volunteers his team to go get the panel truck. Meanwhile, the Eldorado
Society will go to Grady’s Shipfitters and fix up a reception committee for the big man,
whom they assume to be in the back of the panel truck, as per the usual modus
operandi described by Menger. Tristan’s group will drive the truck via the “long route” to
Grady’s.
Quote of the Episode:
Walter, explaining to the policeman about his device — “It was tapping the forces
of the universe.”

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Muggins, asking about Johnny Two-Note: “Is he a good musician?” Menger: “I
refer you to his nickname.”
Jim Park, to Muggins: “Don’t take any wooden knuckles.”

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#8. Rising Temperatures. Played 12/16/00.

Starring: Walter Ransley, Angela Billings, Jim Park, Matthew Dupree, Carolina
Blanc, Tarkin O’Malley, Muggins. Guest-Starring: Tristan Wolfe (The Rattler), Simona
Williams (The Savage), Pauline Delpin (Lady Ghast), Terence Saxe (Dr. Hemlock), Tal
Singh.
Story Date: March, 1937.
Muggins continues to be intrigued at the speed with which the driver of the panel
truck found the big man at the dockside.
The Eldorado Society reaches Grady’s Shipfitters. Currently in the dry berths:
The Society’s own Buttress and a sword boat. They decide to set up on the Buttress
side — it wouldn’t do to endanger the property of a paying customer, after all. They
have the security guard get the generators up and running, and rig a big, crude
electromagnet on one of the shop’s industrial winches. In doing so, Walter comes to
some important conclusions about electromagnets and how they should be set up. The
heroes also put down a big pool of oil for the big man to step into; they set up a net and
a steel-cable lariat in the overhead rigging.
Walter sets up on the Buttress’ radio, the better to find and jam radio signals
being put out by the big man. Jim Park takes control of the electromagnet/winch. Tarkin
gets up into the rigging in charge of the cable lariat. Tal Singh and Matthew take either
end of the net. Carolina, Angela, and Muggins stand by with rifles and carbines, the
better to pour lead into the big man if necessary.
There is a honk from outside — Tristan’s group has arrived with the panel truck.
The security guard admits the truck, and Muggins ground-guides it in so that its rear end
stops just over the pool of oil. Walter checks for radio transmissions and finds none.
The big man throws open the truck’s rear doors and looks around. He descends
and walks menacingly toward Muggins. Park activates the electromagnet and expertly
swings it into place. The big man snaps up against the magnet and is helpless.
Or not. The big man pulls the scarf and bandages away from its face, revealing
its robotic metal head, and opens its faceplate. Inside is a roaring fire — which begins to
emerge, becoming a wash of flame with its own head and arms, which strike at the
electromagnet wiring.
Caroline and Muggins shoot into the open faceplate with their rifle; Angela fires at
its legs. Matthew abandons the net and moves across the ceiling framework to the wall,
intending to descend to the fire hose below. The Rattler snaps his .45s into his hands
and fires on the big man. Dr. Hemlock tries to use his powers on the big man and
announces that his target has no nervous system to affect.
As the fire-thing’s attacks threaten to burn through the electromagnet’s wiring, Dr.
Park maneuvers the robot above a bin of scrap metal. Walter orders Tal Singh to set up
a spike for the thing to drop onto. Tal clambers down the net and rushes over to the bin,
where he finds a sharp-ended pole; he levers it so that the sharp end is pointing
upward. Matthew gets to the fire hose.
The robot drops prematurely. Walter shouts to alert Tal. Tal leaps clear. The robot
is impaled, its armpit sheared through by the spike. Matthew fires the water hose,
spraying water on the fire-thing, diminishing it. The fire-thing flees, burning its way
through a window and disappearing into the night sky.
The rattled members of the Eldorado Society and Tristan’s group (whom he says
he has named the Bloodhounds after a casual remark made by Muggins in their earlier
encounter) collect themselves. The robot is leaking hydraulic fluid from its faceplate;

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Caroline’s and Muggins’ bullets have done damage to its interior. The heroes bemoan
the fact that they had no photographer.
They give the shipyard’s security guard a bonus and his assurance that he’d
have everything cleaned up and covered over by the time the morning shift begins work.
They take the robot to the Eldorado Society laboratory. Walter offers to test the
Bloodhounds to determine what he can of the nature and extent of their unusual
powers. He works through the night determining the abilities of the robot.
Moe Menger comes to Carolina’s house and accepts her offer. He also proposes
that the Eldorado Society buy a taxicab, giving them an inconspicuous vehicle to
counter their very flashy Maybachs and Rolls-Royces. She likes the idea.
Walter assembles the results of his night’s work. The robot isn’t technically a
robot, because it was both powered and “driven” by its fiery occupant. The fire-creature
heated chambers that drove the hydraulics, allowing the thing to move, but the robot
itself had no other power source, no senses, no communications equipment. Walter
finds this unsettling. Examination of the window the fire-thing burned through suggests
that its temperature could not have been less than 1100 degrees F.
Dr. Hemlock arrives with another clue. He has been looking into the thought that
Dr. Centigrade’s master’s or doctoral thesis was rejected by a review panel. He’s found
a good match, one Shelton Rowe, a doctoral candidate at the University of Louisiana a
few years back. Rowe’s thesis involved scientific examinations of pyrokinesis —
debunking most claimants, supporting others. But his thesis was rejected. Rose
managed to convince the panel to witness live scientific proofs of his assertions, but his
demonstration was a cruel failure.
Muggins finds a Manhattan address for Shelton Rowe; it’s on 95th street, near
Harlam.
Carolina arrives. She tells the others of Moe’s idea for a stealth cab. She
proposes giving him money to put one together and refit it to give it a better engine,
hidden compartments, armor, etc. They have her call him and bring him in. All discuss
the matter. He recommends against armor — it would slow the vehicle too much, and
speed and maneuverability are what a chase vehicle needs. They counter-propose front
armor — windshield, radiator. He things that would probably work. They give him $3,000
and carte blanc; this is also a test of his honesty, though they don’t tell him that. He also
says that light but bulletproof tires would be a big help; solid tires are okay, but they
weigh too much.
The heroes hire the Sapperstein Brothers to go check out the Rowe address.
The Sappersteins soon report that Rowe did live there, but had moved out a week ago,
telling one of his neighbors that he now had much more appropriate accommodations.
Moe brings in a new Yellow Checker cab and he begins working on it.
Muggins gets a call from the Port Authority that his cat has cleared quarantine
and it’s time to come pick it up. (His cat?) He realizes that he has forgotten all about the
jaguar he and Angela saved in England (see Empire Club #42 and #43). He and Angela
drive out to pick it up; Angela brings tranquilizer darts just in case. The jaguar looks
healthy. What’s its name, Muggins wonders? (He never checked this out before.) The
name it had been given at Verlon Prince’s circus, the name on its crate, is Scooter.
Muggins is appalled. He gives it the name Balam, which means “jaguar” in Maya. The
two of them truck it back to the Eldorado Society HQ.
Later in the day, Walter recreates his antigravity experiment with Pauline present
and all other conditions recreated as they were the other night. This time, it is a
success! It works again and again... so long as Pauline is within 200 feet or so. Walter

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turns to figuring out why this is so.
Roostmuller’s Shipyards are robbed early that evening. The yard’s safe is torn up
from the floor and taken. The security guard on duty saw a big man do it. The Eldorado
Society members disgustedly realize that their enemy has another robot body.
A black panel truck pulls up outside Eldorado Society HQ. The heroes prepare to
repel an attack by the second robot body, but what emerges from the rear of the panel
truck is Professor Rudolph Horst. He is making delivery of the first 1937 Horst Special,
which the Society purchased months ago. They have him autograph it. They also order
another one, for the Bloodhounds, which he says he can deliver in about three months.
Dr. Howard Haight returns Walter’s call. Walter describes the situation with Dr.
Centigrade’s super-thugs, and asks him about Shelton Rowe. Haight says he knows of
Rowe, who styles himself Dr. Rowe, and who claimed to be able to make fiery astral
projections.
On the radio news that night is an account of mobsters trying to kidnap a young
socialite, with the kidnaping thwarted by a “giant reptile in an overcoat” (The Rattler).
The next morning, Terence Saxe shows up with a copy of Shelton Rowe’s thesis.
It was submitted in 1934. It describes two pyrokinetic subjects with verifiable powers,
“Centigrade” and “Truck Farmer.” This brings up the question: If the thesis was rejected
at the University of Louisiana, what is Rowe doing here? Muggins asks about educators’
conferences, and quick research reveals that the North American Educators’
Conference is about to take place here in Manhattan at the new Waldorf-Astoria. Dr.
Park arranges for them all to get memberships/invitations. Park endows a chair in
forensic medicine at Technopolis and does get memberships — three full-level
memberships (for Dr. Park, Angela, and Walter) and several attending memberships (for
the others).
In the next couple of days, the Bloodhounds make more fearsome attacks on
criminals: A murder attempt on New York Attorney Thomas Dewey is foiled by a savage
woman in a loincloth, for example. Dr. Park looks for a tire manufacturer who’d be
interested in taking on the challenge of the bulletproof tires. Angela obtains pictures of
Shelton Rowe. Muggins sends Mercedes his Czech 8mm to look at; Carolina takes it to
Mercedes and asks for some exotic weaponry and ammunition that might penetrate the
robot body. Mercedes gives her a .470 Nitro Express with hand-loaded rounds including
fully steel-jacketed slugs. It’s actually too heavy a weapon, with too great a kick, for
Caroline to enjoy firing, but she does take it. Mercy mounts a bipod on the front to
reduce kick under braced circumstances.
Walter’s examinations of Pauline Delpin reveal that she projects a very subtle
electromagnetic radiation field that interfered with his antigravity field manipulation. By
duplicating her emissions with a device and then modulating them, he is able to perform
his antigravity tests successfully and consistently. Now, he has to develop a smaller unit
that could carry a man aloft, and to find a test pilot for it.
Moe continues working on the cab. He replaces the engine and improves the
suspension. He gets it up to a 160 mph vehicle, though he believes the speed will drop
some with passengers and the armor they plan to put on it. He takes Caroline on a high-
speed drive up and down the East River, outpacing police cars. They make
arrangements to test it at Dashing Dan Donohue’s trace-track.
On the morning of the start of the educators’ conference, they are all in
attendance. Caroline carries her huge rifle in an oversized art portfolio.
They meet Dr. Zachariah Albritton, who is in attendance; they see him trade
insults with another educator, a theologian, and Albritton beat the man with rather nasty

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nerve pinches. Muggins quizzes Albritton about Technopolis, which Albritton
recommends, so long as the student is very disciplined and driven. They also discuss
bulletproof tires, idiots, the effects of radiation on living tissue, etc.
All the University of Louisiana educators who rejected Rowe’s thesis are present
— Dr. Timothy Dexter (chief of medical sciences), Dr. Handel Carter (psychologist and
parapsychologist), Dr. Jason Horton, Dr. Solomon Lutz, Dr. Florence Jones, and Dr.
Joshua Alvin. Walter talks to Dr. Dexter, who is busy getting loaded before moderating
his first seminar. Dexter admits that Rowe threatened him. Walter attends Dexter’s first
seminar. Angela attends Dr. Carter’s, which is on the scientific method in examination of
claims of the paranormal; in it, Carter praises Rowe (though without using his name) for
proper implementation of scientific testing, even though it proved that Rowe did not
possess the abilities he thought he did. Angela and Walter both note their respective
doctors being given papers by conference workers; Angela sees the words “change,”
“schedule,” and “afternoon” on the one Carter is given.
Caroline checks out the front desk for a Dr. Shelton Rowe. He is checked in, as
of a couple of weeks ago. The staff won’t tell her what room he’s in. She tells the others.
They send flowers to “Dr.” Rowe and follow the bellhop carrying them. The bellhop
takes them to Room 1733. Muggins, lingering after the bellhop has gone, sees the room
door open a crack, suggesting that Rowe is there now. He sneaks off to tell the others.
Angela and Walter compare notes and realize that both their doctors were given
notes. That’s suspicious. Since the notes seemed to rever to a change in schedules,
they go to the conference organizers and ask about schedule changes. They find that
all six of Rowe’s review panel members have been switched to a late-afternoon
seminar, “Recent Developments in Peer Review Processes,” a title which amuses
Walter mightily. They surreptitiously check out that seminar room, which is currently in
use for a seminar, and see nothing suspicious. Matthew sneaks into the hotel access
corridor behind the seminar rooms and notes the location of the firefighting equipment.
They make a plan. Carolina, Muggins, Angela and Dr. Park will set up to watch
the peer review seminar; Muggins will be in the hotel access corridor. Walter, Tal,
Matthew and Tarkin will set up to be near Room 1733. When trouble starts in the
seminar room, Muggins will call Room 1733, which the others will take as the signal that
events are hopping. Walter and company will barge in on Rowe in his room while the
others deal with the robot.
The seminar starts, with Dr. Dexter moderating. A few minutes into it, an
amplified voice addresses the panelists: “Actually, Dr. Dexter, you and your antiquated
notions stand in the way of the progress of knowledge, and I am now going to
demonstrate to you the folly of those notions.” The robot stands up from under the dais
the panelists were on, toppling them, and uses its internal fire to seal the door into the
hotel workers’ corridor. Angela tries to lead an escape for the audience out the main
doors into the room, but they’ve been locked. She begins shooting the lock.
Muggins calls Room 1733. Walter’s crew hears it and Matthew picks that door.
Walter’s crew moves into Shelton’s suite; he’s not in the main room. They spread out.
Walter opens the door into one of the bedrooms and sees a dark shape with handguns
there. Walter fires first, just as that dark shape is saying, “Walter!” Walter’s shot is a hit,
and he realizes that he’s just nailed The Rattler.
Carolina gets her rifle out and shoots the robot. The round ricochets. The robot
says, “How dare you interfere with my demonstration? Don’t you know guns are no use
against me? Here, take your best shot!” He opens his arms wide, inviting Carolina to
shoot again.

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Muggins kicks his door in; the lock, fused with heat but still molten, yields and the
door flies open. The panelists make a run for that door. Carolina fires at the robot and
punches clean through its armpit, spinning the thing down to the ground; the bullet
buries itself in the far wall.
Up in Room 1733, the other Bloodhounds come out of hiding to help the Rattler.
Matthew answers the phone and they hear Carolina’s gunshot over it. Walter leads
them in a mad charge downstairs. All except the Rattler and Lady Ghast descend.
Angela, aggravated by the obstinance of the door, backs up a few steps and
charges into it; she slams it open. The audience begins escaping. The robot, getting up,
cries “Come back! Come back!” Angela, forced outside by the torrent of escapees, now
tries to reenter the room, but can’t.
Muggins moves in with his fire hose. Dr. Park moves forward, to within a few
paces of the robot. The robot says, “This could have been so easy. But you had to make
it hard.” It sounds bitter and angry. It walks toward the wall. Muggins tries to fire his
water hose at it, but the water does not emerge; it has been sabotaged. Park slams into
the robot, but the robot slams into the wall, halfway through it. Caroline calls for them to
tie it up, and Muggins and Park use the fire hose to do so, impeding its movement so
that it can’t proceed.
Angela tells the largest man present, “Get me into that room!” He evaluates the
gun in her hand and decides she’s serious. He forces his way into the room, Angela
behind him, and she sees the robot’s situation. Realizing that the robot’s fiery contents
might be able to escape via the face-plate into the next room, she heads out again. But
that room is now evacuating, its audience made afraid by the robot head and torso now
protruding into the room, and she’s faced with the same situation. But her oversized
educator has stayed with her and performs the same service for her.
The robot says, “Damn them. Damn them.” It pulls open its faceplate and the fire-
thing emerges, looking around. It flies into the main hall and toward the hotel lobby.
Angela follows it outside and sees it flying away through the sky. A taxi pulls up and its
driver, Moe, asks, “Taxi, lady?” Together they follow the fiery thing.
They manage to keep it within sight until its descent onto the roof of a building
shared by two businesses, Shiverson Garments and Beckerson Tool and Die. They
head back to the hotel.
Meanwhile, Walter decided to talk to the police on behalf of the Eldorado Society,
while the rest hide out in Rowe’s room. They search the suite. Dr. Park works on the
Rattler, giving him the bullet as a souvenir.
When Angela returns, Walter points her upstairs. Before she goes to talk to her
fellows, she seeks out the big educator who helped her; he’s talking to the cops, but she
finds a moment to speak to him. His name is Jim Barnes, football coach at the U of IL,
and she arranges to have a drink with him later.

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#9. Test To Destruction. Played 12/30/00.

Starring: Walter Ransley, Angela Billings, Jim Park, Matthew Dupree, Carolina
Blanc, Tarkin O’Malley, Muggins. Guest-Starring: Tristan Wolfe (The Rattler), Simona
Williams (The Savage), Pauline Delpin (Lady Ghast), Terence Saxe (Dr. Hemlock), Tal
Singh.
Story Date: March-April, 1937.
When the Eldorado Society and Bloodhounds get to the building the fiery
projection disappeared into, they find that the Tool & Die shop is indeed his
headquarters — there’s a partially-assembled robot there — but it has been abandoned.
They put their members on alert for possible revenge attempts.
Moe, Carolina and others test out Moe’s cab at Dashing Dan Donohue’s test
track. Moe knows Dash as “Little Dan” from Moe’s own days on the racing circuit. He
says that Dash needs a girlfriend named Dot. The cab tests out well, briefly achieving
speeds up to about 160.
Muggins has his jaguar cell/environment built at his home. Angela realizes that
Balam’s behavior calms when Muggins is around. They arrange for examinations of
Balam in a semi-wild environment to determine whether he was raised in the wild or in
captivity. His skills suggest both — he hunts as though he were raised in the wild, but
brings his kills back to Muggins when not hungry. He watches people, and sometimes
prey species, without stalking behavior, as if curious. He even responds oddly to
gestures; when Muggins points, Balam looks in the direction Muggins is pointing rather
than at Muggins’ finger. Angela assumes Balam has a modified set of instincts, is very
bright, or both.
Walter, working on reducing the size of a rocket propulsion unit for his antigravity
projector, finds several patents already in place that, taken separately, seem just to be
good patents for improved rocketry controls, but which, taken together, point to
someone else developing a rocket pack. Walter contacts the inventor, also named
Walter, Walter Wayne. Wayne admits to inventing a rocket pack — his Wayne Effect
creates what acts like a limitless amount of fuel but is very hot and loud, the massive
amount of thrust needed to keep a man just in the air causing his controls to overheat.
They exchange inventions, imagining a rocket pack that is half Ransley Antigravity, half
Wayne Effect, and thus not prone to overheating. Wayne also talks about his
internationalistic radicalism and the Cities of the Future domes he wants to build.
Angela and Jim Barnes have coffee. Jim says he saw a red-headed, red-bearded
man in the seminar audience speaking the robot’s lines simultaneously with the robot,
but the police wouldn’t believe him because they could find no radio equipment
suggesting the robot was under the control of someone in the audience. Jim saw the
red-headed man see Angela pursuing the flying fiery thing, and the red-headed man
followed her. It’s the first any of them realize that Rowe was in the audience.
Carolina suggests running something in the newspaper acknolwedging Rowe’s
abilities and requesting a meeting. Tarkin points out that the Ransley/Wayne apparatus
might allow someone to follow the fire creature. They decide to run the apparatus.
Walter calls in Dashing Dan Donohue to be a principal tester of the rocket pack.
Park quizzes Moe about Angelo Scolaro. Moe suggests that a secret portion of
Scolaro’s gang is now running heroin.
At the testing of Walter’s version of the Rocket Pack, Wayne is crushed because
Walter’s reengineering, implementing both technologies, is better than his. But Wayne
has developed a belt-sized radio that the rocket-pack pilot can use while flying. Wayne

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demonstrates the original rocket pack for Dash, then Dash is allowed to try Walter’s
new, improved model. From the first minute, he flies as though he were born to it.
They decide that they’re going to form a secret society of rocket rangers. For
now, all pilots will wear the same outfit and will appear at events where the others are in
their civilian IDs, just to convince people that the civilian IDs can’t be the rocket pilots.
Walter Wayne is brought into the Eldorado Society. Carolina christens the rocket pack
with a bottle of champagne, and nothing but the bottle breaks. Walter even begins
considering a trip to the moon. They have a big celebratory meal.
Two days later, Rowe responds to their advertisement. They arrange a midnight
picnic to talk, on an empty property on the shore of Long Island. They take the Horst
Special there. A crude Rowe robot made out of a water heater lumbers out of the water
and they talk. Rowe says that he fainted halfway through the set of experiments he was
doing to prove his psychic powers and that the thesis review board rejected his thesis
as having failed on that point. Rowe is irrational; he will be satisfied by nothing less than
a doctorate from the University of Louisiana and an acknowledgement by the university
that they were wrong to reject his thesis. The heroes argue mightily with him, but he
yields not an inch on that point. He leaves.
The heroes visit the educational conference on its last day. Most of the U. of LA
educators are still there. They have a different story than Rowe’s. They say that they
rejected Rowe’s thesis because Rowe was unwilling to take a set of tests of their design
— that his tests seemed to be scientifically verifiable, but they’d only be satisfied if they
designed the tests and built the apparatus to be sure. He didn’t faint; he became
increasingly irrational, then passed out, and later wouldn’t believe that they wouldn’t
allow retesting simply because they wanted to design and control the tests. Still, Walter
agrees to try setting up a new set of tests — if Rowe agrees to abide by the board’s
tests and the tests are successful, will the university grant him his doctorate? The
assembled doctors agree to recommend it. Walter drafts a carefully-worded statement
and broadcasts it on the frequency Rowe has agreed to monitor.
Rowe calls. He agrees to the setup, but first must find someone to rescue or
avenge him if he is betrayed. The next day, there is a report that a National Bank
armored car has been robbed; the drivers and guards, feeling the temperature soar to
blistering levels, exited the vehicle, and someone drove off in it. Walter uneasily decides
that Rowe has found funds for his eventual rescue.
They work with the University of Louisiana to set up the tests. At Tarkin’s
suggestion, they rent an old, abandoned (silent-era) New York film studio on Long
Island. The professors show up and set up six experiments:

Burn a book from its center outward

Burn all the oxygen within a sealed, airtight chamber
Boil alcohol in a sealed tube
Burn the face of a cinder block wall evenly
Layer different levels of heat within an undifferentiated volume of air
Naked within an insulated lead chamber, ignite something outside the chamber

The Bloodhounds are brought in to provide exterior security. Walter begins

checking and rechecking the experiment apparatus to make sure it’s all okay. Rowe
arrives; he’s much more mellow than before, even dreamy.
Dr. Calvin Monroe, president of the university, shows up to interrupt the
proceedings. He says they’re not necessary. He presents Rowe with his doctorate.

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Carolina suggests that he take the tests anyway, to prove his assertions. He agrees.
The first test takes place without problem. But then Dr. Hemlock staggers into the
building, mostly paralyzed, unable to talk or gesture, straining horribly against the
compulsion that holds him. Carolina brings in the Rattler, who can’t explain it. They
carry him to a side room where Dr. Park works on him with Angela’s help.
The second test is successful. Walter wonders if Dr. Monroe, who is similarly
weird and dreamy, is exercising mind control on Dr. Hemlock. Tarkin recommends
Angela take him out with a dart, and she does, but Dr. Hemlock remains locked.
While the third and fourth tests take place, Angela and Muggins interrogate Dr.
Hemlock, who is (barely) able to respond by blinking. A woman came with Dr. Monroe,
he “says,” and she looked at Dr. Hemlock and froze him this way. Now she can’t be
seen, he indicates. Muggins goes out into the main room and, in Mayan, says “Brothers!
There is a lady not seen here who can only be smelled; she came in with the school
man.” Angela gives Dr. Hemlock some curare, which eases his distress.
The fifth text goes well as the heroes surreptitiously look for the woman. They get
whiffs of an expensive perfume.
Once Rowe is within the chamber, naked, for the sixth test, Walter realizes
there’s a problem: Calculating the weight of the chamber and comparing that to its
volume, its weight is not correct for the materials from which it is supposed to be made.
It must have a hollow area in its floor or ceiling. With a knife, he digs at its base and
finds dynamite planted there.
Things get really strange. Everyone gets mental visions of the dynamite from
Walter’s perspective. Everyone hears a woman’s voice warning Rowe of treachery.
Walter drags Rowe from the chamber and it explodes, hitting some people present with
chunks of lead. The lights go out. Everyone is blind — except Angela, who, curiously,
can see everyone present, including a woman standing at the side of the stage near
Matthew. Matthew lunges toward the woman, but she trips him. Angela charges the
woman, who hears Angela coming but apparently can’t see her. The woman turns on
the house lights (she was standing all this time by the switch) and, as they come up,
she vanishes — becomes invisible. The woman says, to Rowe, “Now they’re going to
kill me. Goodbye, my love.” Angela sneers at the melodrama.
The woman escapes — apparently by climbing a ladder to the roof and using her
mesmeric abilities to put the Savage to sleep. She disappears. The heroes get the
situation under control. Rowe is suspicious and certain of treachery (Walter: “I saved
your life, you moron!”), but the review board and the reawakening Dr. Monroe agree that
he passed his tests, proved his assertions within the scope of the scientific method, and
deserves his doctorate. Rowe says that the woman is Georgina Ivanov, who met him
and fell in love with him just this last week; she’s the daughter of Gregor Ivanov, a
famous Soviet parapsychologist and paranormal researcher. Rowe denies that he
robbed the armored car, and the heroes realize that it might have been Georgina,
putting the blame on Rowe. Angela realizes that she can indeed see in the dark, where
she couldn’t before — how odd.

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Crystal Trees
#10. Oh, the Humanity. Played 1/6/01.
Starring: Walter Ransley, Carolina Blanc, Muggins, Matthew Dupree, Angela
Billings, Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley, Jim Park. Guest-Starring: Shara, Lt. Thomas
Covington, Wolfgang Grant, Numitorius Fortunius, Gloria Chesterfield, Max
Dracheschild, Damien Bugenhagen, Merikare, Obsidian, Tal Singh, Randal Wesley.
Introducing: Arthur Volkner, aka Windstorm.
Story Date: May, 1937.
Walter tests Angela, looking for a reason for her sudden manifestation of unusual
visual senses. All he can determine is that she has very good, instantaneous night
vision, very highly defined.
Meanwhile — actually, a couple of months back (March 1937) — on Zorandar,
the Utor tells Wolfgang that he may marry Shara, and that he may not. He may marry
her, but must marry her first among his own people, by a priest of his own kind, in a
temple of his kind. Why? Because he has learned from Jack Hayden that men of
Wolfgang’s people often marry native women in the manner of the women’s people,
only to abandon them later, with the white folk not acknowledging the validity of the
native marriages or their offspring. Wolfgang accepts this dictate, but angrily confronts
Jack Hayden. Jack tells him that he didn’t tell this to the Utor to spoil things for
Wolfgang — hell, Jack’s own mate, Sula, is an exile of the Zodari people. No, Jack was
just explaining the words and actions of the Rosencrantz mechanic, Spike, who is a bit
of a bounder that way. Not mollified, Wolfgang stomps off and challenges Spike to a
fight (a “knock-down,” the first one down being the loser). Spike accommodates him and
they brawl, a flurry of blows that ends with Spike being knocked out. Merikare is
fascinated by boxing.
On the day of departure for Wolfgang’s expedition back to Earth, the group
(Wolfgang, Shara, Covington, Randal, Gloria, Damien, Max, and Merikare) travels to the
volcanoes south of the great river and enters the lava tube used by Randal’s previous
expedition. They reach the bottom of the crater; Randal successfully invokes the
mysticism of the fog and fog arises. They begin to climb toward the top.
Meanwhile (May 5), back on Earth, Walter Ransley and Walter Wayne conduct a
trial of the newest version of the Ransley/Wayne Rocket Pack at Walter Wayne’s facility.
This time it’s mounted in a brace and being test-fired for a protracted period. It has been
on for an hour now and its controls have not overheated. Wayne describes to Walter his
theory that the Wayne Effect generator stresses time and space to open a pinpoint hole
into a universe of antimatter; as that antimatter seeps through, it encounters air in the
rocket pack’s firing chamber and annihilates, creating explosive thrust. If this is
antimatter, it’s a good idea not to open too big a hole into that universe. Walter’s
reengineering of the rocket pack controls is far superior to Wayne’s, and Wayne is
disappointed in his failure, so much so that he fails to recognize the worth of the belt-
carried radio apparatus he has invented for the two rocket pack pilots.
Suddenly, smoke starts pouring out of the rocket pack. Wayne jumps to switch it
off.
Meanwhile, back on Zorandar, the expedition is stretched up along its climbing
route. Suddenly most people there see an image of a cave floating in midair. In the cave
are men seated around a campfire; they wear Balkadari (Earth) clothes and have their

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eyes closed. At their necks is an emblem, a red eagle superimposed on a pair of
crossed spears. (Bugenhagen recognizes the symbol as that of the Volkskriegeren, a
German mystical society though disbanded fifteen years ago.) One of their number is
standing to one side and sees the expedition members. He is on a level with an is
mesmerized by Shara. He speaks to her, though she cannot hear the words; he sees
Bugenhagen and mouths his name. Then the vision ends... but as the cave “departs,” it
creates suction enough to drag the expedition members off the crater wall. They fall.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Ransley/Wayne experiment is suddenly showered
by Wolfgang’s expedition, members of which come falling out of the air. All land well and
the two groups quickly recognize one another, before trouble erupts. They adjourn to
Wayne’s company cafeteria. The Eldorado Society members call their headquarters for
clothes for the expedition members, and Wolfgang explains their errand — investigating
Greenleaf and its actions with the crystal trees, and the terrible danger the trees
represent. On a happier note, he explains his upcoming wedding to Shara.
Patricia and Trevor show up with clothes. The natives are persuaded to wear
modern clothing; Shara is even coaxed into a brassiere. Knowing of the trouble it took to
get Farah Alee into civilized dress, they have brought more flowing, less restrictive
clothes than they might have.
Wolfgang feels an inexplicable blast of rage, an intent to murder. It quickly fades.
He wonders if it is an emotion of the tree(s) they are hunting.
They head off to a restaurant, Jungle Sam’s, which has jungle decor and a wild
ambience that the Zorandar folk might find more comfortable — or at least seem less
obvious within. (Ironically, Jungle Sam’s is the nightclub/restaurant founded by Sam
Duquesne in 1926 on his return from Zorandar, though nobody here knows this.) The
Zorandar natives are very uncomfortable riding in cars at such high speeds.
At the restaurant, Gloria sends a cable to the University of Minnesota, where her
father teaches when he’s not on digs, telling him that she’s back.
After dining, everyone repairs to respective rooms; most of the Zorandar arrivals
are in a hotel, but Angela has taken in Shara and Gloria. Wolfgang, in his hotel, has a
dream of someone’s thoughts: “Why did they kill him? He was a wise man.” Shara has a
dream in which her room is visited by the man she saw in the volcano. He introduces
himself as Arthur Volkner and says he is flying in from Tibet to see her. Where is she?
She tells him she is on a place they call the long island. Volkner says that he is in love
with her — love at first sight, love with his whole heart — and tries to persuade her that
they belong together. She says she is promised to Wolfgang, the Cholotan. Volkner
says that he is the Chosen of Gungnir. Shara awakens. She rehearses telling the others
of this dream so that she will not forget it.
The next morning (May 6), Wolfgang awakens and ponders the meaning of his
dream. Was it a tree-seed angered by the death of the great crystal tree? No, the word
“man” definitely referred to a man. Merikare goes up on the hotel roof to greet the sun.
Since the Greenleaf Tobacco corporate headquarters are in Savannah, GA,
Walter goes out to the airfield to prep the DC-3 for a trip to that city. But Wolfgang
receives more alien thoughts: Sadness, alienation, no place on this world, surrounded
by enemies. This time, Merikare, through his tone, feels it, too. Covington asks
Wolfgang, “Have you tried talking to it?” Wolfgang tries, and reaches the distant mind:
“Who? Another?” Wolfgang identifies himself, and the distant mind knows him, identifies
him by name. The distant mind is — or, rather, was — Niviro. Now he has no name. He
is hunted by enemies, men who think he killed his employer, the scholar Johann
Goldstein. He is aboard Hindenburg, now bound for New Jersey, hiding where he thinks

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his pursuers will not find him. Wolfgang promises to rescue him. The trip to Savannah is
delayed.
Tarkin calls around and finds that Hindenburg was supposed to put in at
Lakehurst, NJ this morning but was delayed by headwinds; it will arrive tonight. The
heroes plan a rescue and come up with a novel solution: Dash and Wayne will fly out to
intercept the airship just off the New Jersey Coast and will carry Niviro free of it. Since
the rocket packs are noisy, flaming things, Dash will maneuver into the zeppelin’s path
and cut thrust, using only the silent antigravity to rise to the ship’s level, and will
climb/bounce his way along to the rendezvous point on the zeppelin’s top. Wayne will
stand by in reserve.
Shara remembers her dream and describes it. She asks Wolfgang if he loves her
with his whole heart. He is distracted by side comments and forgets to answer. Gloria is
startled; she knows Arthur Volkner. She met him four years ago; he was a German
archaeology student working with Carl Blegen’s department at the University of
Minnesota. She knows him as a nice young man.
Carolina acquires kilts and claymores for Nemakhem and Merikare.
Later, Niviro contacts Wolfgang, saying that Hindenburg has sighted land. The
heroes head off in various vehicles including the Horst Special. Dash and Wayne debut
the Atomic Ranger uniforms, which are mostly black leather: Coat, pilot’s helmet, boots,
belt, gloves. The only parts that aren’t leather are the aviator goggles and jodhpurs.
Both wear an atom symbol on the chest, emblematic of the Atomic Age. Wayne’s rocket
pack is now modified so that his palm orientation jets can now be opened up full to blast
at a target; he got the idea from Dash saying that he was going to carry guns.
They reach New Jersey and set up on the coast near Lakehurst. There are a lot
of police at the landing area. After a little while looking through binoculars and
telescopes, they spot Hindenburg. Dash and Wayne take off.
They maneuver before the airship. Dash cuts his thrust and rises while Wayne
circles. Dash performs his maneuver expertly and gets to the ship’s top; he bounces
across its surface to the rendezvous hatch, from which rises a barefoot black man in a
suit, Niviro — though he introduces himself as Obsidian. Dash explains that he’ll be
carrying Obsidian off the airship on this pack. “Don’t worry, this will be fun.” Obsidian
climbs onto his back and Dash lifts off with antigravity alone. When he’s clear enough to
be safe, he engages the thruster. Obsidian says, “This is godlike.” Rejoined by Wayne,
they head back to their fellows.
Walter heads over to Lakehurst to find out what all the police are for. The police
say that there’s a murderer aboard Hindenburg.
Dash, Wayne and Obsidian land with their fellows. Obsidian is much younger-
appearing than the last time they saw him, as Niviro; he now appears 25 or 30.
Obsidian tells his story. He and Orane got off at Addis Ababa, but Orane, injured,
hindered their travels and was arrested for being an alien without papers. Niviro was
subsequently able to rescue Orane. After Orane had healed enough to travel, they did
so, eventually reaching South Africa and Niviro’s village. But Niviro’s family rejected him;
Niviro had to be dead, they said, and the man who came with his name had to be an
evil spirit wearing his face. They took from him his name, his family name, his place-
name, and his praises, giving them to the marker on his grave, so he is without a name,
hence his use of the gladiator name the Nova Romans gave him. He travelled back to
the valley that gives access to Koram and sent Orane home by that route, Orane never
having grown accustomed to this world, and Obsidian travelled on alone. In Cairo, he
hired on as bodyguard of a Jewish occultist named Johann Goldstein. He travelled with

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Goldstein to Berlin, where the man picked up his research papers, and then on to
America, where Goldstein intended to begin a new life. But Goldstein was murdered, his
papers destroyed, and Obsidian blamed for the murder. He hid in the rigging of the
zeppelin, staying where it was too hot for the searchers to go. How was Goldstein
murdered? He was bent over backwards until his spine snapped, and apparently lived
for a while after that, being tortured/interrogated. What were his papers on? Volkische
groups in Germany — nationalistic mystical societies.
Meanwhile, Hindenburg maneuvers into position over its landing zone and drops
landing ropes. Then a bright orange-yellow light blossoms within its stern and the
heroes realize that it is on fire. The heroes (minus Obsidian, who is told to stay in the
Horst Special) rush over to help. Dash and Wayne fly over in their rocket trooper outfits
and Dash catches and saves the first person to jump from the zeppelin’s gondola. They
save dozens of lives, especially Dash and Wayne — and Wolfgang, who is able to stay
beneath the descending zeppelin long past the point any other human can, to the point
that his clothes catch on fire; he is not hurt and rushes to safety.
After dealing with the authorities (the rocket troopers don’t; they fly off), the
heroes return to Eldorado Society HQ to decompress, and so so. Then Patricia
announces the arrival of Arthur Volkner and presents Shara with his card. She is
puzzled at how he knew where she was. He is shown up to meet the entire group. He is
polite and cordial, apologizing to Wolfgang for courting his fiancee. He asserts that he is
the man for Shara, she the woman for him, but Shara reacts coldly to his overtures.
Angela asks Volkner to leave. He is unhappy but does so.
Upon Arthur’s card is now his hotel address. It wasn’t there before. Matthew
detects the tingle of true magic on the card.
They launch investigations into Arthur Volkner. Was he on the Hindenburg? He
appears to have been doing archaeological digs for a couple of years on his own money
rather than university money — where is the money coming from? Damien calls the
Veritas League for information.
The next morning (May 7), the Veritas League calls back with some facts.
Arthur Volkner was disowned two years ago (1935) by his father, a Berlin banker.
His last official dig was in 1935, in Norway. He is now sought by German authorities for
failure to perform military service. There is no record of his arrival in the United States.
The heroes fly down to Savannah, GA today. The Greenleaf Tobacco
headquarters is a converted plantation mansion, surrounded by stately grounds and
well-guarded. They plan a raid anyway, especially after the crystal detection devices
faintly reveal the presence of bad-crystal energies within. Meanwhile, a plane overflies
the mansion, trailing a banner that reads, “Marry Me, Shara.”
Patricia Rawlins calls their hotel. It appears that private detectives in the New
York area are circulating pictures of Obsidian. The authorities have announced that the
killer of Goldstein was one of the people who died aboard Hindenburg, but detectives
are looking for him.
Gloria calls Carl Blegen at the U. of Minnesota and finds out that her father is
now in Africa, headed for the site from which she disappeared, obviously looking for her.
Asked about Arthur Volkner, Blegen says that the boy found a spear a couple of years
back and went funny in the way some archaeologists do, claiming that it was the spear
Gungnir of Norse mythology. Blegen told him to leave the profession until he collected
his senses. Gloria asks the archaeology department’s secretary, Rosa Jameson, to
send telegrams to stop her father and get him back home.
That evening, the heroes plan their intrusion into the Greenleaf building.

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Covington, Max, Obsidian, Matthew, and Shara will go in; everyone else will stand by as
backup. The intruders bring climbing gear, thermite bombs (for the tree or trees), and
backpacks. They get over the wall, across the dog-patrolled grounds, and to the base of
the building wall. Obsidian jumps up to a second story window, confirms the room
beyond is clear, and hands everyone else in. They head down the stairs toward the
tree’s signal.
It’s strongest in the basement level, beyond guarded doors. From the stairwell,
Matthew projects his voice to make the guards look the other way, allowing the heroes
to rush them, but he fouls up and they look his way. He ducks back. Max stomps his
way back up the stairs to suggest that the caller is leaving. One of the guards comes to
the stairwell; Shara and Obsidian grab him. Matthew throws his knife at the other guard,
hitting him in the chest; Covington charges the guard. The guard, not stunned, gets his
gun out. Covington grabs it, but the guard pulls the trigger anyway, alerting everyone
else in the building. Matthew’s second knife puts the guard down.
Max and Covington take up position near the bottom of the two stairwells while
the other three get into the room beyond the doors. Niviro communicates via crystal with
Wolfgang, telling him to knock a hole in the bottom of the rear wall of the building. Shara
finds two crystal trees, small ones; she and Matthew plant thermite bombs on them.
Obsidian looks behind the curtains draping off a portion of the room, and finds a
horrible thing there — a man half-integrated with a crystal seed. Crystal tumors and
projections grow from his body.
Guards come charging down the staircases. Max leaps up into the midst of his
group, rolling down the stairs with them. Three are hapless — one injured and out of the
fight from the first moments — but the fourth is a big, tough guy who wrestles around
with Max in spite Max’s superior skills. Meanwhile, Covington guards his stairway with
suppression fire.
Shara asks the crystal-amalgam man if he wants to be dead. Though inhuman,
inarticulate, in pain, and in less than full possession of human intelligence, he takes that
as a sign that the intruders mean him harm; he gets up and attacks. He cries out, his
voice hurting the other crystal-wearers.
Muggins and Angela, driving the two cars, blast their way in through the gates
and drive around to the rear of the building, returning fire against the guards. Angela
slams on her brakes and scatters some of the pursuing dogs. Walter covers them with
tommy-gun fire.
Max sweeps a kick across two of his attackers, knocking one out and probably
breaking the neck of the second, and then is taken down to the ground by his tougher
opponent. Shara swaps places with Covington at his station; she fires up the stairs at
the enemies and blows the brains out of one of them, spectacularly. Covington gets into
the main room and sings crystal songs at the crystal-infected man, slowing him.
Matthew is able to wrap the man up in drapes pulled off their frameworks, then plants a
thermite bomb under the wrappings.
Max wriggles free, draws out his fighting cane as a diversion, and kicks his foe,
knocking him out.
The people in the car don’t have explosives. But Wayne straps on his apparatus
and demonstrates his modification to it; with jets of fire from his palm, he blows a hole at
the base of the wall.
The thermite goes off, incinerating the trees and the crystal-infected man. The
heroes in that room call for a retreat. Everyone squirms out the hole Wayne made;
Obsidian hands up the file cabinet from the room.

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Everyone escapes. The crystal signal dies back at Greenleaf Tobacco HQ. The
heroes make it back to the hotel, with Wayne chanting, “The hand-thrusters worked, the
hand-thrusters worked...”
An initial look at the papers suggests that there were four crystal seeds brought
from Zorandar, so one must still be missing.
Wolfgang, bolstered by booze, has a private talk with Shara, which suggests to
her that he does love her with his whole heart.
Quotes of the Episode:
Matt, to Sean, after Shara’s dream — “It sucks to be you, Wolfgang.”
Shara, as Hindenburg catches fire — “Is it supposed to do that?”
Earl, as Walter sprays suppression fire and Greenleaf guards duck (or don’t) —
“He’s selecting for height!”

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#11. Monster Fight! Or, A Good Secretary Is Hard to Find. Played 1/13/01.
Starring: Carolina Blanc, Matthew Dupree, Angela Billings, Dupree, Angela
Billings, Dash Donohue, Walter Ransley, Jim Park, Muggins. Guest-Starring: Shara, Lt.
Thomas Covington, Gloria Chesterfield, Max Dracheschild, Numitorius Fortunius,
Merikare, Damien Bugenhagen, Wolfgang Grant, Obsidian, Tal Singh, Randal Wesley.
Introducing: Silver Wolf (1930s); Georg Lubojevic (1930s).
Story Date: May, 1937.
The heroes return to their hotel. Shara, Angela, and Gloria find their room
bedecked by flowers — a present from Volkner. (Gloria: “Humph!” As organizer for her
dad’s expeditions, she often had to send flowers as if from the students on her father’s
digs to their girlfriends back home.) Shara hands out flowers to those who find them
pretty, including Gloria. (Gloria: “That’s so sweet!”)
Covington, Max, Gloria, Angela, and Wolfgang stay up after the others have
retired to study the papers Obsidian retrieved from the Greenleaf basement. Max finds
an alarming document, the first page of which reads:

“Proposal For an Investment Against Hostile Actions

“Whereas, the increasingly unstable and unpredictable political climate is a detriment to
economic security; and
“Whereas, continued gains being made overseas by foreign military powers threaten not
only Greenleaf client states but also the political and economic security of the United States; and
“Whereas, should the United States find itself in conflict with foreign military powers, a
rapid and undetectable means of transportation of personnel and materiel would substantially
benefit both the United States and whatever agency had provided that means to the government;
“Therefore, let me propose that the crystal tree seed whose implementation has not yet
been determined either by Providence or the Board of Directors be taken from this place and
relocated in the heart of German, that Greenleaf and American interests be protected by its
presence; and that seedlings taken from that tree be located to the hearts of Japan, Russia, and
other nations that are known to have interests other than America’s at heart.
“(Signed, Joshua Darby)”

The rest of the document proposes likely sites and types of sites in Germany
where the fourth crystal seed might have been taken and planted.
The front door into that suite is kicked in and a black-furred wolfman — a
genuine, huge, growling, hairy, terrifying article — enters, flanked by two begoggled
men with submachine guns. They demand that “the black” be handed over.
All reason flies from Gloria’s brain and she transforms — into a
human/sabertooth tiger mix. She launches herself over the table and slams the wolfman
to the ground, gnawing at his gut. The two animal-men begin tearing into one another.
Most of the people in the two suites not already awakened by the sound of the door
being kicked in are awakened by the roars of the two combatants.
Max picks up the heavy table and charges the gunmen. They step aside,
allowing him to run between them; one turns to shoot him in the back while the other
keeps his aim on the people seated where the table had been. The first calls out, “They
refused!” in German.
Numitorius reaches his bedroom door and opens it. Unable to reach the gunmen
in time, he throws the claymore Angela obtained for him at the gunman aiming at Max. It
misses, but the other gunman aims for him. Niviro leaps past Numitorius and into that
gunman, carrying the both of them into the midst of the wolfman/Gloria fight.
Wolfgang, no longer under that man’s gun, draws his knife and throws it at the

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other gunman. It’s a beautiful shot, hitting the man’s wrist at its centerpoint, and the
broad-bladed knife cuts the hand clean off, preventing him from firing on Max. But the
man doesn’t scream or faint; he glowers at Wolfgang in an unsettling way. Angela fires
on the man, hitting him in the chest, but he stands up under the punishment. Dash gets
to his door and fires on the one-handed gunman, a gut shot — that finally puts the man
down. Angela, realizing that not everyone is aware that Gloria is the weresabertooth,
begins intoning to herself, “Don’t hurt the cat, don’t hurt the cat,” half-mantra and half-
prayer.
The French doors into the adjacent suite is kicked in and men with guns pour into
the suite. But some of the suite’s occupants are up and armed. Merikare, naked and
with sword in hand, rounds the corner and slashes one across the stomach, stunning
him. Shara moves into line of sight of them and fires, wounding one in the arm. Carolina
charges them, but gets tripped up, tumbles into a chair, and goes rolling in the chair out
through the shattered French doors.
The French doors behind Covington, Angela, and Wolfgang is kicked in at the
same moment... and there stands another wolfman, this one rust-brown and not so
huge as the other. Covington draws and fires, hitting this wolfman in the stomach. But
the wolfman merely waggles a finger admonishingly at him. It lunges for Covington, but
a hand clamps around its neck from behind, slamming it to its knees, and Covington
and the others can see the silhouette of the man whose hand it is out on the balcony.
There are more men still on the balcony. Randal Wesley gets his rifle out his
window and begins firing on them.
Carolina, still stuck in the chair on her back on the balcony, looks up to see a
third wolfman — silver, slimmer than the others — looking down upon her. But this one’s
body language is odd; it seems saddened rather than aggressive. Instead of attacking
Carolina, it steps over the balcony rail and drops out of sight.
Max drops the table and gets his bearing. Seeing what’s goining on in the
adjoining suite, he charges through the doors and grabs one of the three men now
facing Merikare; he chokes the man into helplessness. Merikare’s two remaining
opponents fire, but the nimble warrior of Nemakhem twists aside and they miss.
The rust-colored wolfman stands and leaps backwards, carrying both it and its
attacker through the balcony rail and to the street below. There is a metallic crash at
street level.
Matthew gets into the main room and feels a curious unwillingness to hurt the
weresabretooth. Instead, trusting greatly in his skill with firearms, he shoots the black
wolfman, hitting it in the hand. It howls.
Shara shoots a second gunman in the chest, putting him down.
Tarkin gets out of his room and moves up to the Monster Fight. He leans in,
grabs Obsidian’s arm, and hauls him free. Obsidian is a little clawed but in good shape.
The same can’t be said for the begoggled gunman who went in there with him; that man
is in pieces.
Carolina sees that there is another man on the balcony, trading shots with
Randal; the bodies of two companions are near him. His back is to Carolina. Still stuck
in her chair, she cracks her whip at him, hitting him in the base of the spine. The sudden
pain causes him to stand upright from behind cover and Randal shoots him in the head.
Covington steps out onto the balcony, checks on Caroline, and looks over the broken
rail.
On the street below, the rust wolfman and his attacker — now revealed as
Volkner — trade blows in the street. Neither hurts one another significantly, with both

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wolfman claws and boxing blows apparently ineffectual. Covington shoots the wolfman,
which causes it to break off the fight and run. Volkner gives pursuit on foot.
The black wolfman is weakening — Gloria, though bloodied, has done much
damage to it. Angela tries to stop the fight before the wolfman dies — she interposes
her hand, with its gun, in between the two half-human fighters and tries to calm them.
The wolfman surrenders... and Gloria, though still mostly of animal mentality, decides to
break off the fight. The wolfman begins to lose its fur, height, and muscle mass.
There are sounds of sirens coming. The heroes grab up the papers to conceal
them from the authorities. Volkner steps in off the balcony. Persuaded that the
weresabertooth is Gloria, he offers to take her up to his room on the fifth floor, where
she won’t be seen. Angela and the papers accompany them up there.
The former black-furred wolfman, now a tallish man with bite and claw wounds all
over him, says he is dying — not from his injuries, but because the wolf-spirit has left
him. He does, in fact, die within minutes.
The police arrive and the scene dissolves into an eternity of getting things
straightened out. It turns out that the night clerk, a night porter, and the concierge were
also killed, shot.
A couple of hours later, with the police finally gone, Volkner descends to talk to
the others. Gloria, still a weresabertooth, her wounds dressed by Angela, is asleep on
Volkner’s bed, Merikare watching over her. Volkner says he has heard something of the
black wolf — an invoked spirit whose occupant is called Geistwulf or Ghost-Wolf when
in wolfman form. He’s baffled by the presence of the other wolfmen. He knows of true
werewolves, about whom all the movie facts are nonsense — no silver bullets, no
transmission of the curse through bites, etc. But this is something he knows nothing of.
The heroes decide that, in spite of this assault, they must go to Germany and find
that last crystal seed to destroy it.
Gloria awakens, wearing loose bandages and nothing else, in a strange room,
but Merikare reassures her. Merikare rebandages her and gets her some clothes. They
rejoin the others and Gloria gets the story, which she initially rejects — but if it’s a lie,
obviously, everyone is in on it.
Wolfgang spends a little time continuing his campaign to poison Shara against
Volkner.
Why was this attack made? Why are these men so anxious to get Obsidian?
They ask if his employer, Johann Goldstein, had given him anything. Yes, Obsidian
says, a pocket watch. They examine and open it, and against the back of the case is an
acetate envelope carrying microfilm. They need facilities to print from it, and so decide
to return to New York. They transfer the microfilm to Muggins’ watch.
En route, Volkner explains the difference between mysticism (based on intuition,
instinct, awareness and will) and sorcery (based on a more balanced combination of
intellect and intuitive grasp of the manipulation of magic). Carolina chides Wolfgang for
not having given Shara a ring yet. He tells her she ought to mind her own business. He
says he did give her a gun... and Carolina finds that to be an appropriate and romantic
gesture. Her sympathies turn a little more toward Wolfgang.
In New York, they get back to Eldorado Society HQ, only to find the front door
replaced. Within is Tony Victory and a mess suggesting the place has been thoroughly
searched. Victory explains that he’s dealt with the cops, but it looks as though someone
broke in the armored front door and kidnapped secretary Patricia Rawlins. This explains
how Obsidian’s pursuers found where Obsidian and the Society were. Victory has
already contacted the New York-area loved ones of the Society to warn them to go to

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ground; Moe Menger is with Josie and Carolina’s baby, and Jack Tanner is with Joyce.
Walter enlists Joe Harper and his newsboy legion to find out anything they can
about Patricia’s kidnapping. Then he makes prints from the microfilm. It’s a copy of
Johann Goldstein’s book about mystic volkische movements in Germany. The heroes
who can afford a lack of sleep settle in for a long night of reading.
(May 8, 1937) Volkner says that the details he can confirm from Goldstein’s book
suggests that it’s an accurate and detailed history of a number of secret societies. He
can’t confirm the accuracy of details concerning societies he knows nothing about, and
there is, in fact, one detail about one such society that runs at odds with the official
record: The group known as the German Brotherhood of the Cleansing Light is listed as
still being led by one Reinhart Zimmerman, but Volkner says that the man is supposed
to be dead. He was one of the Nazis who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923;
when the Nazis encountered the police and the police opened fire, he was shot down.
His blood is on the flag Hitler uses to consecrate all official Nazi flags.
Volkner later says that he has been able to use his mystical powers to “look in
on” their enemies; because he touched the rust wolfman, he has been able to look for
him mystically. He witnessed an argument between the rust wolfman and the silver
wolfwoman in their human forms. It seems that the men in goggles, known as the “New
Men,” were the leaders of last night’s assault. Now the male wolfman wants to continue
the prosecution of Obsidian and the female wants to return to Berlin for orders.
Half a day of more mundane investigation reveals that a charter plane from
France arrived in New York at 7 a.m. on the 6th, then took off yesterday at 7:30 p.m. for
Atlanta. It did not arrive in Atlanta and has not been seen since. Walter figures that this
is the enemy’s mode of transport, and that Atlanta was listed because it was in the
same direction as Savannah. They put out an APB on the plane and soon get news that
it has been back in New York; it took off for Nova Scotia a few hours ago. They call
Nova Scotia and find that the plane took off about an hour ago, bound for Iceland, part
of the usual route for Europe. The Society’s DC-3, faster and with greater range, can
catch up a lot of that time, but the enemy plane will still be at Reykjavic an hour or more
before they will.
So they call Jean-Paul Blanc in England and ask him to take off immediately in
his fastest plane to get there ahead of the enemy and do whatever it takes to keep them
there until the Society arrives. Then they race off to get to the airfield.
During the flight, anthropologist Angela quizzes Volkner more about the
mysticism he follows, and realizes that his description of its “symptoms” closely match
things she has recently been experiencing. This is worsened when she discovers that
several people heard her saying “Don’t hurt the cat” last night, though she never said it
out loud.
Later, Volkner tries to use his powers to look in on the wolfmen again, and his
“launch” drags the mind of Angela along. She remains quiet as they race above a
landscape that is half real, half symbolic, and find the plane of their enemies. They listen
for a few moments to the rust wolfman (whom they can see) talk to the silver (whom
they cannot). However, the rust wolfman begins to detect them, so Volkner pulls them
out and they return to the DC-3. Only then does Angela admit that she was along for the
ride.
They arrive in Reykjavic and land. Volkner has those who don’t have passports
stand with him at the back. The boarding inspectors don’t see those folk and the plane
is cleared. They find that Jean-Paul’s plane is here (though Jean-Paul and Byron Nesbit
are nowhere to be found) and that the French plane is in a hangar. Asking the

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authorities, they find that the French plane landed two hours ago, the English plane two
and a half. Volkner and Angela fly off mentally to see if they can find the rust wolfman,
and do; he’s on the plane, chewing out the pilot for letting the women leave. The
wolfman snaps the pilot’s neck.
Walter calls for an assault on the hangar. They arm and armor up, then charge in.
There’s a mechanic working on the plane’s engine; he has it partially dismantled.
It’s Jean-Paul. The others charge the plane and up the stairs. The rust werewolf leaps
out over their heads, sailing for the wall of the corrugated-metal building, but several of
the heroes fire upon and hit him. He hits the wall with a splat and falls at Numitorius’
feet. Numitorious stabs him with his sword, which injures and puts him unconscious.
Patricia is not aboard. While the heroes are searching, someone steals Jean-
Paul’s plane. Since it’s his speed plane, not even the rocket packs will be able to catch
up to it. Muggins gets on the radio on the Eldorado Society frequency and talks first to
the pilot and then to the other occupant — the silver wolfwoman.
She says that Patricia is safe in a hotel, and gives the name of the hotel and the
number, and that the other operative is safe in jail (Byron). She doesn’t want the other
wolfman back, though she says they might get a ransom for him from the Lubojevic
family in Budapesthe. She says she’s not their enemy. They ask who is. She says his
name is Zimmerman. She even asks where she should leave their plane.
Captain Laufyson of the local army arrives, eventually determines that this is a
police matter and hands it off to them. Negotiations with the police go well, especially
after Patricia is retrieved from the hotel. Patricia says that the rust wolfman, Lubojevic,
wanted to kill her but the woman wouldn’t let him; when he stepped out for a few
minutes, the woman took Patricia to the hotel, got her a room, bound and gagged her
there. Byron, once bailed out, says that he tailed the two women to the hotel, waited
until the blond woman emerged, tailed her some more — and then was accused by her
of being a masher and tossed into the pokey by sympathetic police. The police,
recognizing that there is weird stuff going here and aware that they don’t want to deal
with it, decide that the pilot of the French plane fell and died of a broken neck, and
they’ve never heard of a wolfman.
They bandage the wolfman up and then tie him in a fishing net. They get into the
air, headed on toward England. When the wolfman, Georg Lubojevic, awakens, they
question him. He says he has been a wolfman since the ‘32 Olympic Games, at which
he was bitten and transformed. The men who rule him sought him out and found him
after having found the blond woman, Silver Wolf; he doesn’t know how they found her.
He and Silver Wolf are of a type, belonging to a “pack,” but Ghost-Wolf is something
different, and he rules them. Since this Ghost-Wolf died, the current chain of command
is broken; Lubojevic could in theory hide from them now. Much of what goes on with
Lubojevic is “the wolf” portion of his mind ruling him. He is a slave to Ghost-Wolf and
just wants to be free.
Merikare takes Lubojevic’s side when he learns that the gypsys were (according
to legend) descended from Egyptians. Gloria dislikes Lubojevic but grudgingly decides
that she wants to free him and Silver Wolf. The heroes ask Lubojevic if he is capable of
keeping his word if he gives it never to harm the Society members or their loved ones.
Lubojevic says he thinks so. They decide to free him in England.
Gloria talks to Volkner, asking if he saw anything during their previous
association (four years ago, when he was a grad student working with her father) that
would have hinted at her transformative power/curse. He says no, though one curious
thing about her was the pendant she wore, a silver disk with a cats-eye gem at the

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center, surrounded by five symbols: an arrowhead representing Apollo, a letter V
representing Hermes, a lamp representing Nabium, an eye representing Odin, and a
wedjat representing Horus — five symbols for gods of light and reason, arranged at the
points of an unseen pentagon around the stone. He thinks it was an invocation for
reason to suppress or constrain whatever was represented by the stone.
Quotes of the Episode:
Carolina, whenever awakened suddenly — (groggily, desperately) “You’re going
to wake the baby!”
Carolina, to Wolfgang — “You actually remind me of my husband. Of course,
things fall on his head a lot.”

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#12. Where Sabretooths Dare. Played 1/27/01.

Starring: Carolina Blanc, Tarkin O’Malley, Matthew Dupree, Muggins, Walter
Ransley, Dash Donohue, Farah Alee. Guest-Starring: Shara, Thomas Covington,
Numitorius, Max Dracheschild, Gloria Chesterfield, Wolfgang Grant, Damien
Bugenhagen, Obsidian, Jean-Paul Blanc (npc), Byron Nesbit, Arthur Volkner, Tal Singh,
Walter Wayne, Randal Wesley, Claudia Verlon.
Story Date: May, 1937.
Gloria asks Volkner to draw an image of the pendant she used to wear; he does.
Gloria and Angela talk to Lubojevic to find out if he will explain how he controls his wolf
side. He says that, to the extent he can control it, it is by identifying some people as
pack and others as non-pack (resulting in a reluctance to hurt members of the pack),
plus comparing degrees of desire (for instance, comparing the human’s desire to
escape with the wolf’s desire to tear into an enemy).
Shara asks Volkner about the “Aryans” and talks to him about Zorandar; he
finally realizes that her homeland is in another dimension, a “land not connected to this
one by sea or land,” as he describes it.
(May 9, 1937) Early, the DC-3 reaches England, and later London. They find that
Silver Wolf and her pilot have left Jean-Paul’s speed-plane here, and have even had it
fueled. They let Lubojevic go, but suggest to him that it would be bad for him if they ever
see him again.
Since it is only three days to King George’s coronation and four until the
Valletri/Whitstone wedding, the heroes decide to remain in England for the time being,
though Angela and Damien go on to Berlin to find some property to use as a temporary
base and to do some initial snooping around. Meanwhile, Walter works on expanding
the range of the device that can detect Sathass crystals, Volkner arranges to create
false passports for Shara, Covington, Numitorius, Wolfgang, and Obsidian. The Society
members have to stay at the Society headquarters building in London; with the
coronation on hand, there are no hotel rooms to be had in London.
Gloria tries to contact people who knew her in the past and might remember the
pendant Volkner speaks of. Unfortunately, of the likely candidates all students of her
father, Rosemary Kaplan is now digging at Aswan, Carter Haines is digging in Arizona,
and Martin von Hel is apparently in Spain, fighting the Fascists. Gloria resolves to find
someone she studied with. Within a couple of days, she does track down native
Londoner Lydia Arrowsmith, one-time archaeology student and daughter of a minor
English lord, who definitely remembers Gloria’s pendant. She says that Gloria explained
it away as a gift from an old friend of her father’s, and that Gloria was unconsciously
compulsive about the thing — in fact, even as they’ve been having lunch, Gloria has
reached for the pendant several times as if to reassure herself it’s still there, a
mannerism Lydia remembers from the past. Gloria uneasily realizes that she’s right.
Walter has a tough time boosting the range on the detection device; his
modifications are big and clumsy, best suited if carried in a car. Unfortunately, while they
can test it on Wolf’s, Obsidian’s, and Merikare’s gems, they can’t test it on a crystal
seed without an example on hand.
Farah arrives to attend the coronation. Covington, after due and lengthy
reflection, decides to “stay missing” — he was declared dead in 1933, seven years after
his disappearance, and for now he’ll leave things that way. With vast numbers of
wealthy and famous people in London for the Coronation, Wolfgang is able to sell many
of his Zorandar gems (not Sathass crystals) for a good price to help fund this mission

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and his return expedition.
Gloria turns to trying to figure out when the pendant disappeared. She calls
Damien in Germany to ask if he ever saw it. He says he did; she was wearing it when
she arrived in Zorandar. She asks around among her Zorandar allies; the last time any
one of them can remember seeing it was shortly before they climbed into the mountains
of the Mongols.
Gloria asks Matthew to hypnotize her to help her remember the pendant. He
does so. He helps her remember Peter “Lippy” Lippert seeing the pendant just before
the Mongol Mountains and asking about it. He appraises the gemstone in it and
concludes that it’s worth quite a lot. Ranging back in time, Gloria recalls being given the
pendant by a Dr. Stefan Radescu, who hypotized her and taught her to focus on the
pendant whenever she felt an “attack” coming on. Focusing would help her “pour the
animal into the gem.” Awakening, Gloria concludes that Lippy stole the pendant, and,
since she’d been conditioned not to think about it, Gloria didn’t know it was stolen.
In Germany, Angela and Damien rent a small business building, a former
publishers’. They determine that Greenleaf Tobacco has a public office here in Berlin.
Damien calls the Veritas League to let them know that he’s okay.
Wolfgang finally telegraphs his cousin Mercedes to let her know he’s still alive.
She returns a cable, telling him that she’s very happy to hear that he has survived; she
asks if he needs anything, such as money, guns, or help. Wolfgang also cables his
parents near San Diego; they are overjoyed to hear that he’s still alive.
(May 12, 1937) Walter attends the coronation of the new King George, then the
consequent parties at Buckingham Palace. The others attend the parade (Shara is
made very nervous by the teeming crowds) and other celebrations, including a late-
night drinking binge at a succession of pubs. Farah is offended that Muggins didn’t think
to have any suitors to introduce to her; a discussion ensues of the merits of having
fathers choose one’s mates and the usual folly of marrying just for love. Farah
demonstrates her ability to out-drink just about anyone. Volkner, though not participating
in the contest, gradually becomes very drunk and morose.
(May 13, 1937) Though their heads ring with hangovers, the heroes attend the
Carlo Valletri/Helen Whitstone wedding. Miss Whitstone is a beautiful 18-year-old
daughter of a prominent English lord, and Shara gets to see the majesty, the pagentry,
the lengthy boredom of a lavish Catholic wedding.
(May 14, 1937) The heroes fly to Berlin and are met at the airfield by Angela and
Damien. Volkner recommends that Muggins not be the one to deal with authorities; he is
not well beloved here because of his sin of miscegenation (i.e., he wedded a non-white
and produced a non-white daughter... one who beat German athletes in some of her
events). Muggins and Covington wager on who will get shot first in their current mission;
the wager is £10 and a bottle of brandy or whisky, depending on who gets shot.
At their temporary base, they decide to talk to Gustav Krieseg, a sometimes
associate who is now a lieutenant in the SS. That will be tomorrow; for today, they’ll
drive around Berlin, looking for signals on the detection device. Obsidian will stay in the
building during daylight hours. They drive around but do not pick up any signals.
(May 15, 1937) In the afternoon, Angela, Gloria, and Sir Walter visit the SS
offices. Krieseg meets them in a forward lobby and conducts them back to his office.
They explain that they’re investigating possible criminal activity by the Greenleaf
Tobacco Company and ask if there are any ties between the company and the German
government. He goes to get a file on the company. While he’s gone, they look at his
shelf of books in the office — works in German on eugenics, mental illness, and criminal

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behavior. He returns with a file on Greenleaf and says that he can find no indication of
any ties with the government. He could tell them more, such as privileged information
on the company’s financial records, but would have to arrange with them to have official
SS authorization to investigate the company; it would give them greater freedom and
power, but he’d have to insist that they report their findings. They decide to decline.
Angela asks if she can copy down the names of the works in his library, which are of
some interest to her, and he agrees, also recommending that she look into the works of
his uncle, Dr. Anton Burkhardt, an eminent eugenicist and sociologist. Gustav does give
them a copy of Greenleaf’s annual financial report, which has a lot of the information
they’re interested in on German corporate officers and locations of offices. They thank
him and leave.
In the early evening, they have dinner at a beer hall and make sure everyone is
informed. They decide they need to perform a break-in at Greenleaf’s Berlin office. Then
Patricia Rawlins stiffens — she just saw Silver Wolf walk by outside. Angela, Byron and
Damien hurry out to follow her.
Angela gradually catches up with her, takes her arm, and identifies herself by
mentioning Patricia’s name. Silver Wolf agrees to meet with her, at a local library
already closed for the evening. Angela and companions return to the others.
At the rendezvous, Carolina and Obsidian wait in the car; the other heroes pick
the library’s rear door and sneak in. Shara can smell a wolf, signs that such creature
has recently passed through this part of the building. In the history section, they find
Silver Wolf in her human form. She’s willing to talk with them.
She disputes a lot of what Lubojevic said. She points out that the man is a liar.
Would German volkische gunmen ever use the services of a gypsy? Lubojevic
convinced them that he wasn’t a gypsy — that as a child he’d been kidnapped by
gypsies. This is proof that he has lied, because either he is or he isn’t. She says she is
under no “pack compulsion” and that Ghost-Wolf exerted no control over her or
Lubojevic; in fact, all of them took orders from the New Men, the mystically-enhanced
members of the organization. She says she is in full control of herself when in wolf form,
and that the curse of lycanthropy is transmitted through a bite. She indicates that she is
only a pawn with the Germanic Brotherhood of the Cleansing Light and would prefer
that the Eldorado Society not look into why she serves them.
Why is the Brotherhood attacking them? Silver Wolf says that its leader, Reinhart
Zimmerman, was once a student of the mysterious and terrifying mystic named Gruber,
about whom little is known. In 1923, Zimmerman stole something from Gruber,
presumably knowledge or powers, and fled. Gruber promised to kill him. But fate
cheated Gruber; Zimmerman died, gunned down by the police, during the Beer Hall
Putsch. His blood is on the flag that Hitler uses to consecrate all official Nazi flags. But
Zimmerman, of course, survived, and after Gruber faded from sight (1928) he re-formed
Gruber’s organization, the Brotherhood, and became its leader. Zimmerman is terrified
that Gruber will discover that he still lives and will return from retirement, or whatever, to
kill him. That’s the only reason for these attacks. The heroes decide to try a new tactic:
Send a letter to Zimmerman by way of Silver Wolf (she’ll explain that Angela came up
beside her on the sidewalk and slipped the letter into her purse), saying that the
knowledge of his survival is now too wide-spread for Zimmerman to kill everyone who
knows, and if Zimmerman tries again, the Eldorado Society will make it known to the
world. Silver Wolf says that this will probaby work until Gruber dies or Zimmerman’s
secret is revealed by other sources. The card they write merely says, “Leave us alone
or we reveal to the world that Reinhard Zimmerman is alive. Signed, the Eldorado

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Society.”
They arrange to communicate further with Silver Wolf via the personals columns
in the Berlin and New York papers; any message starting “Words are as precious as
silver and gold” is an alert from the other.
They part. The Eldorado Society decides to stage its raid tonight. They drive to
Greenleaf Tobacco and watch from outside, timing the movements of the one guard,
who emerges once an hour to take a five-minute walk around the building. On one of his
tours, Max, Tarkin, Gloria, Angela, Covington, Shara, Numitorius, Matthew, Wolfgang,
Dash, and Obsidian enter the building; Carolina, Merikare, Muggins, Walter, Tal,
Damien, Volkner, Wayne, and Randal wait outside; Byron climbs to the building roof to
act as watcher there; and Patricia and Claudia wait at their temporary base.
Tarkin monitors the activities of the guard, who confines himself to the ground
floor warehouse area, while the others toss the second-story offices. They find a safe in
the accounting office and Max, to his own surprise, is able to open the combination lock,
but it contains only ledgers and a little money. They begin looking at the paperwork.
Gloria finds the crucial key that might point to a new site of Greenleaf activity in
the area; on a list of places and people who receive regular deliveries of complimentary
cigarettes, the address of 11 Alloisstrasse, Thalburg (a small village near Berlin) has
recently been added; the address receives 15 cartons of cigarettes per week (that’s 300
packs per week; assuming two packs a day per person, this is a ration for about 20
people. They replace everything where they found it and sneak back outside.
They drive off. Then they drive back, pick up Byron Nesbit, and drive off again,
arriving in the region of Thalburg around 2:00 a.m. Just outside the village, Walter’s
detection device begins blinking.
Alloisstrasse turns out to be a winding single-lane road leading out of town. All
the addresses on it are estates, rather widely spaced. They decide that of Dash and
Wayne, one will get to go in with the main group, while the other remains behind,
because they have small radios that will help coordination. Max flips a coin and Wayne
wins. Tarkin will wait with Dash.
The address 11 Alloisstrasse is that of the walled estate of the local castle, Thal
Schloss. As the heroes wait across from the closed main gates, Angela sees beams of
red light crossing through the air just above the ground right behind the gates, and at
intervals beyond, in the grounds. No one else can see them. It seems like a
sophisticated adaptation of photoelectric eyes.
Obsidian and Max leap up to the wall-top and help others up; they set up a chain
for hoisting people to the top, handing them over the wrought-iron spikes there, and
lowering them to the ground on the other side. Shara smells dogs here; it suggests a
regular patrol. The heroes decide on speed and move into the trees, following Angela’s
lead to avoid those tricky beams of light. Volkner drops behind, though no one notices.
They move through the trees and come within sight of the schloss. There is a
moat. Angela can see a sniper nest on top of this face of the building, and caught sight
of a little glimmer of light from the wall immediately over the drawbridge. They decide on
a commando raid against the sniper from an angle he can’t observe; Max, Covington
and Obsidian will go. From beneath a side tower, Max throws his grapnel, hooking a
support beneath the widening portion of the tower, and climbs. From the support, he
must climb sheer tower face to the roof, but does with little difficulty, and drapes a rope.
Covington and Obsidian follow. From this position, they are 90 degrees to the left (their
left) of the sniper. Max and Obsidian sneak down the sloping roof to a point halfway
between their position and his, then climb sloping roof to be just beside the sniper’s

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platform, while Obsidian waits with a throwing knife in hand.
Max and then Covington jump up to assault the sniper. He hears, swings his rifle
around. Max catches the rifle barrel and kicks the sniper in the head — snapping the
man’s neck, to both their considerable surprise. Max is disturbed with the ease by which
he killed the man.
He, Covington and Obsidian descend through a trap door in the platform into the
schloss, into a staging room used by the sniper, and thence to the uppermost balcony
overlooking a non-linear open area leading down to ground level. They can hear music
from a Victrola, hear occasional discussions, smell savory roast beef. Obsidian alerts
Merikare and the two groups of heroes converge on the same third-story window, by
which the outside heroes are let in. They now realize that Volkner is no longer with
them.
Covington uses his Crystal Singer ability to sing an unpleasant note to the crystal
seed. It responds with emotions of hatred and he can feel its presence ahead of them,
probably on the ground floor. They descend to the ground-floor ballroom and move
toward the darkened room containing side corridors and the garden beyond; he thinks
the seed is in the garden.
A man enters the darkened room and sees them. Carolina gestures for him to be
quiet but he shouts, “Intruders!” The heroes shoot him dead (Merikare’s arrow and
Matthew’s knifes doing the fatal deed, among other ammunition) and rush forward.
Someone in the garden shouts, “First one in is a dead man!” Shara is first into
the garden entrance and the man, armed with a rifle, hesitates, obviously unwilling to
shoot a woman. Max is in next, and the man switches to him, shooting him in the thigh,
a bad injury. Max falls.
Gloria reaches the doorway — having transformed into her weresabretooth form
— and stands over Max, growling at his attacker. The two other men in the chamber
pale, and one of them faints. Max has time to pull his pistol and shoot the gunman; the
shot takes him in the arm and kicks his rifle out of line, but the man simply stands there,
unable to look away from Gloria.
Matthew, Shara, Numitorius, Angela, Obsidian, Byron, Merikare, and Wayne
enter the room. They compel the still-conscious men to surrender and find the crystal
tree, now a crystal sapling, in a tabletop box of earth. Gloria paces around deciding who
to eat. Wolfgang treats Max’s injury. Covington and Obsidian take up position at the
entrance to one side hall, covering it; Carolina and Randal cover the other. Muggins,
Walter, and Damien cover the way back into the ballroom, with Tal waiting with them.
Greenleaf men enter the ballroom from a distant side room. Walter and Muggins
perform suppression fire. Men also enter from side corridors and those protecting those
spots also perform suppression fire. Gloria finds the men’s meal of sausage and
hungrily consumes it.
Wayne, using his backpack palm-thrusters, begins to incinerate the little tree.
Wolfgang finds that he can’t stop Max’s bleeding; he calls for help. Walter hands off his
submachine gun to Byron and goes back to help. Byron proves adept with the SMG and
Walter is able to stop the bleeding.
There is a distant, ominous clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-clank-BOOM the
heroes cannot readily interpret. (It is Volkner, dropping the drawbridge.)
The attackers grow in number and their rate of fire increases, but Wayne says he
has destroyed the tree. Covington sings for it and can’t find any sign of it. The mission is
a success.
The distant outside door into the ballroom is kicked open and Volkner enters.

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Greenleaf men shoot at him — shoot him, in fact, but the bullets do no more than flare
up and incinerate fractions of an inch from him. Volkner asks if they want a car and they
say yes. He goes out, then backs a car in through the ballroom and into the cross-
corridor room. They hastily load Max in, pile people on top of him for protection. But
there’s no way to get everyone in — some will have to ride on the running boards —
and especially no way to get Gloria in.
Wayne says he can fly out through the top — the garden is not roofed. Volkner
says to leave Gloria to him. The others take to the running boards. Wayne flies out and
Muggins puts the car in gear. As they enter the ballroom, Randal shoots out the
chandelier to plunge the chamber into darkness and the heroes return fire against the
Greenleaf shooters; four of their shots find brains, one vitals, and the Greenleaf men are
effectively suppressed for the moment.
Gloria the weresabretooth won’t let Volkner near her. He picks up the body of the
dead Greenleaf man and backs away with it, taunting her with fresh meat and making
motions designed to drive a feline crazy. She eventually gives in and jumps him. He
grabs her, dropping the body, and winds blast through the garden, flinging the two of
them up into the sky.
Muggins drives the others to their own cars, where Tarkin, Dash and now Wayne
await. They load Max into a non-damaged car — though the one they took from
Greenleaf, despite all its bullet holes, is still running — and wait, watching back down
the road. But Volkner arrives from behind them, releasing Gloria, who backs away from
him and prepares to attack him.
Volkner’s retreat and soothing words from Muggins and Merikare prevent that
attack, but Gloria’s too agitated to change back to normal. When the heroes realize that
food is what is needed, Wayne performs the final insult against Greenleaf: He rockets
back into the schloss, steals their dinner, and brings the roast beef back to Gloria. After
she consumes it, she does get sleepy and transforms back, the others already having
hung a coat upon her.
The heroes return to Berlin and their temporary base. Covington and Muggins
give their bet bottles of booze to Max and much drinking is done. Patricia and Claudia
also have a present for Max: They talked to the local office of the gun manufacturer
Mauser, claimed to want to subject Mausers to some field comparisons with Grants, and
were given the gun he wanted, the model chambered for .45. He’s pleased.
(May 16, 1937) In the morning, the heroes fly to Switzerland, where Max can get
treated in a real hospital without Nazis investigating the gunshot wound. Carolina talks
privately with Walter, recommending that Wayne, Tanner, and Volkner become official
members of the Eldorado Society.
Covington asks Obsidian what he wants to do. Obsidian says that this is his
world, and it is full of evil. Though he has no family here now to recognize him, he
chooses to stay and do what he can to watch the Nazis and their badness.
Volkner talks privately with Shara. He says he has taken her measure and is
certain that she will never waver, that the one thing that Wolfgang has for her that he
cannot try to match is history. Anything more he could do to try to win her from Wolfgang
would hurt her and he will not do that. So he concedes the field and apologizes for any
trouble he might have brought her. She tells him that he has not caused her trouble, has
only caused her to think, and she honors his actions and his choice.
Angela takes Volkner aside. She’s troubled about remarks he’s made concerning
his inhumanity; she wants to reassure him otherwise. He says that his instinct says he’s
human, his intellect says otherwise, and when they conflict, like any true mystic, he

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follows his heart. He also says that she must study mysticism to develop her own
powers; otherwise it’s like a six-year-old having a handgun and no training. She agres.
At dinner, Walter makes a speech about the future, about this changing world of
theirs and the Eldorado Society’s role in it — which includes an obligation to seek out
these ultrahumans and try to steer them toward acts benefitting man. He formally invites
Wayne and Volkner into the Eldorado Society. Wayne accepts, though he thinks that he
should spend most of his effort now developing the Atomic Rangers rocket-pack corps.
Volkner, his heart still heavy, requests time to think about it, so he can do so with a clear
head. Walter agrees. Walter also offers help to Obsidian.
Bugenhagen also offers the help of the Veritas League to concerns like those
Walter cites.
Max decides that he will stay behind on Earth when the Zorandar expedition
returns; he feels his place is here, and it is here he can do the most good. Merikare, on
the other hand, knows he must return to Zorandar, but worries about the gypsies who
are obviously being persecuted by the Nazis.
Quotes of the Episode:
Muggins, talking about Lubojevic — “If he does that again, I will find him and I will
shoot him.” Angela — “Um...” Muggins — “And I will give you a blood sample.” Angela
— “Thank you.”
Aaron — “If Merikare is mixing his drinks, then he’s going to spend some time
worshipping a god other than Ra.”
Beth — “I’m crocheting electric-eye covers out of cat fur!”
Walter, when the enemy gunman warns that the first one in is a dead man: “We’ll
push the women in ahead of us!”

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Dragon Legion
#13. Wedding Guests. Played 2/3/01.
Starring: Walter Ransley, Carolina Allcot, Muggins, Dash Donohue, Tarkin
O’Malley, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Shara, Thomas Covington, Wolfgang Grant,
Damien Bugenhagen, Max Dracheschild, Gloria Chesterfield, Walter Wayne, Obsidian,
Mercedes Grant, Michael Greene, Tal Singh. Introducing (1930s): Musashi Mura aka
the Mirror.
Story Date: May-June, 1937.
While the heroes wait in Switzerland, Gloria experiments to control her shape-
changing. She buys cats-eyes, locks herself up in hotel rooms with plenty of food and
with tests of intellect she wants to perform as a sabretooth or were-sabretooth, but she
finds only that the cats-eyes seem to precipitate, rather than retard or restrict, her
transformations. She does have made a chain that she can wear in human form as a
necklace but which will act more as a collar when she is transformed, and will later add
a small container to it with a very light cloak (for modesty) within.
(May 23, 1937) The Eldorado Society and Zorandar heroes return to England
(without Volkner, who remains behind in Switzerland, though he has assembled a
preliminary “lesson plan” for Angela’s mystical studies). Covington, through Walter,
contacts his family to tell them that he’s not dead... but will soon be disappearing again
for a lengthy period.
(May 24, 1937) The heroes depart England and make the lengthy trip back to
New York.
In the days that follow, Wolfgang cables his parents that he will be getting
married. They reply by offering their ranch for the event, and Wolfgang is enthusiastic
about that. Shara asks Wolfgang if he’s sure he wants to get married, and he assures
her that he is — that before, he thought of marriage as a tether, and now he thinks of it
as an inspiration. But Shara herself shows signs of getting cold feet.
Gloria receives word on her father and learns that he was last seen encamped at
the valley where Gloria, Lippy and Damien disappeared many months ago. He, too,
appears to have vanished. Walter receives word that Joe Harper and his newsboys
found the car that Patricia was kidnapped in; it belongs to the Guiding Light Ministry, a
local church, and is still in their possession. The heroes wonder if it was stolen and
returned, or if someone at the Ministry is hand-in-hand with the Germanic Brotherhood
of the Cleansing Light.
Many Eldorado Society members have also received invitations to the Pacific
3000, which will involve speedboats as well as cars and will take place in a couple of
months.
Patricia arranges for Numitorius’ sword to be fixed.
The heroes see a personal ad from Silver Wolf in the New York paper. Its
message: “The party you wrote will comply for now.”
Walter Wayne hears about and reports on a really good deal: Pan Am, which was
to begin commercial zeppelin service, has backed out because of the Hindenburg
disaster, and is offering their flagship zeppelin up for sail for $300,000, a portion of its
value. Wolfgang is tempted, but only has about $75,000 available to him from gem
sales. Wayne volunteers the cost of refitting and maintaining the zep until it can set sail,
a substantial investment. Max volunteers some of his personal fortune, up to $100,000.

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Walter Ransley volunteers some Society money, about somewhere between $50,000
and $100,000. Tarkin recommends that Wolfgang ask Mercedes for the remainder, but
Wolfgang is reluctant; he wanted to hit her up for guns, guns, guns. Tarkin also tells
Wolfgang that he should take a printing press back to Zorandar, and chides him for not
thinking of it first.
(May 31, 1937) The heroes depart for California by train. Shara is intimidated by
Grand Central Station but eventually grows accustomed to trains. Walter works on
developing a rugged, reliable, easily repairable engine for use by vehicles in Zorandar.
Shara struggles with considerations of what sort of wedding she wants.
(June 2, 1937) The train pulls into the station in San Diego. Waiting them are
Wolfgang’s parents, Robert Grant and Lisl Huber Grant, and a bunch of their ranch
hands with ranch vehicles. They’re eccentric folk and greet Shara warmly.
At the ranch, they meet cousin Mercedes, who, to Wolfgang’s surprise, has
grown up into adult gorgeousness, and all sit down to dinner. Robert asks if it’s all right
to have a photographer take the couple’s picture for listing in the local paper’s society
column, and they agree to it. Covington gives Shara a silver sixpence for her shoe, in
accord with ancient wedding custom. Wolfgang asks Covington to be his best man —
indirectly, by telling his parents that Covington is the best man. Dusty and late for lunch,
Mercedes’ ward Michael Greene, twelve years old and rowdy, bursts in, but Mercedes
sends him out to eat with the ranch hands — after he cheerfully antagonizes Shara and
Gloria.
Days pass. People make preparations and do shopping. Photographers and
dress designers are hired. Robert finds a Los Angeles priest who is familiar with
Hollywood weddings and eccentricity in general and won’t ask too many questions of
Shara; he is Father Theo Dooley, the former silent actor Theo Stone. Gloria gets young
Michael to give her a horseback tour of the ranch; she later helps him do the chores he
abandoned to accommodate her.
(June 5, 1937)
Wolfgang, walking on the ranch house’s porch, is addressed by a silhouetted
cowboy inside the corner room (Walter’s and Tal’s): “Wolfgang Grant, why are men
coming to kill you?” “This time?” he asks. They talk. The cowboy admits the killers have
been hired by Japanese employers. Wolfgang admits to having had disputes with some
Japanese in recent times. Before the conversation can progress, the ranch’s cook
barges in and the mystery cowboy slams out past him and disappears. The cook didn’t
recognize him.
Wolfgang calls in the Zorandar heroes and the Eldorado Society. They conclude
that the Japanese hirers probably are related to the Japanese Wolfgang and the others
fought in Zorandar, and have decided that he must die because he was the leader.
Wolfgang talks to Mercedes and tells her the whole Zorandar story. Wolfgang
then talks to Robert, Lisle, and Shara, telling his parents the Zorandar story, which they
accept fairly well.
Meanwhile, Covington and Max climb the ranch house roof to take a look around.
Eventually they spot an occasional glint from one of the hills that bracket the road
leading into this valley. Binoculars reveal it to be just a too-large dark blotch against the
hillside... and it occasionally glints. With Gloria, they take a circuitous route around climb
the hill from the other side, and sneak up on the spot. It’s actually a blind made of
tarpaulin the color of surrounding stone, and inside is a set of binoculars... and a tacky,
hours-old pool of blood. Under the blanket the watcher was lying on is a little trench with
a rifle case, containing an expensive custom Remington with expensive Swiss optics on

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it, a sniper’s weapon. They also find dainty tracks of what are probably a woman’s feet
in slippers or socks behind the blind, leading around to the front, but no arrival or
departure tracks. Covington claims the glasses. They return to tell the others.
They set up watches, including one atop the house and one behind it, to protect
the house from all approaches. Mercedes arranges for the serial number of the rifle to
be run.
(June 6, 1937) At breakfast, Mercedes receives a telephone call informing her
that the serial number of the rifle belonged to one Dennis Liggott, a Los Angeles private
investigator.
Father Theo Dooley arrives for breakfast and mentions the car he saw pulled
over to the side of the road, just at the turnoff to the ranch on the other side of the hill,
as he was arriving. Angela, Covington, and Gloria drive out to the spot and look it over.
The car is unlocked, still cooling. In the back, under a blanket, are two rifles (neither as
good or long-range as the first one), food, and a canteen. Tracks beside the car include
a man’s size 10 shoe leading away and what look like cow prints. Closer examination
proves them to be the prints of a bipedal cow. The three go back, get horses, and follow
the footprints. Within a couple of miles, they find a man sprawled unconscious in a dry
river bed.
The man, a white male in his thirties, with a knock on his head from when he
tripped and fell, awakens when Caroline shakes him. He screams. He’s terrified. His
name is Styles McCready, a San Diego private detective, and he has seen Satan.
They take him back to the ranch house. He calms a little but is still rattled. He
talks to Father Theo and confesses his sins, then comes in to talk to the others. He
admits to being here to assassinate Wolfgang. He says it was nothing personal, just
business, but after his encounter with the Devil, he’s given up his life of sin. He arrived
before dawn to relieve Dennis Liggott, the man on the hill, but found him missing, with
only blood remaining. Styles returned to his car, where Satan appeared to confront him.
Satan was tall, with red skin, black hair and eyes, black-haired goat legs, goat hooves,
tails, etc., the whole package. (Damien is interested in the fact that he didn’t have goat
eyes.) Satan took his Colt revolver from him and bit it in half, then told him his soul was
forfeit because he was a sinner. Satan persuaded him to write a letter to his employer:
“Dear Mr. Sakura: You’ll have to do your own dirty work. We quit, you yellow bastard.
Signed, Styles McCready.” Satan let him run away.
The heroes go out and find half of Styles’ gun. Gloria also looks at Satan’s tracks
again and decides that they are indeed oversized goat tracks. Covington, Carolina,
Angela, Max, Gloria, Muggins, Tarkin, and Damien drive out to Linda Clara, the nearby
town where the private eyes had rented a house from which to stage. Most set up out in
front of the house, while Muggins and Angela go around to the back alley. When the
main body of heroes ring the front doorbell, nothing happens up front... but Muggins
sees Satan in an upper-story window, peeking out. Satan emerges from the back door
and hurries across the lawn to the back gate. Angela hurries up, gun drawn, to be there.
As Satan steps through the gate, he steps into sandals and wraps a sarong around
him... and as he steps into the alley, he is transformed into a Caucasian dark-haired girl,
about 15. Angela confronts her and holds her at gunpoint. The girl shouts for police,
which alerts the others around front, who come around to join them. Frustrated, the girl
suggests they go somewhere else to talk. When they suggest the ranch, she says that
it’s all right with her.
At the ranch, she talks to them. It’s obvious that she has the power to change
shapes. She gives her name as Myra. She defers thanks from Wolfgang, because she

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wasn’t actually attempting to protect him — that was a side effect of her investigation.
She is investigating an organization called the Dragon Legion, which threatens the
legitimate government of Japan. Her group intercepted transmissions from the Dragon
Legion instructing its San Francisco agents to kill Wolfgang Grant. She has eliminated
the hired agents because she believes it will draw out their employers — since Grant is
to be married very soon and will probably depart to an unknown honeymoon destination
after that, the time to strike is now, tonight or tomorrow night (the night of the wedding).
Though she is very poised, she admits to being fourteen years old, and to have
had this shapeshifting gift — and to have received agent training — for two years.
Wolfgang’s use of the term “Nips” to refer to the Japanese perturbs her a little, and the
heroes realize that she, despite her Caucasian appearance, is Japanese.
The heroes invite her to stay for the wedding. She agrees; all she wants is for
one of the attackers to get away so she can track him and then interrogate him. They
give her the cover identity of Myra Allcot, Carolina’s niece, and she adopts a good
Southern accent to match Carolina’s.
Shara is fitted for her dress, in traditional white, but strapless and very elegant.
Wolfgang is relieved when the wedding rings arrive. (Hers has three wolves on it in
relief, with an emerald in the mouth of one of them; his has tree branches and leaves in
relief, with Shara’s face peering out at one point.)
Merikare, Max, Covington, Myra, Angela, and Gloria go into San Diego to get
their clothes for the wedding. Merikare settles on a white tuxedo with gold tie and
cummerbund.
Randal sets up the benches for both the wedding and the reception by putting
wire loops beneath them — loops suitable for holding rifles and swords. Gloria sets up
four spears as banner poles.
The rehearsal for the wedding goes well, and nothing untoward happens that
night.
(June 7, 1937) Wedding preparations begin before dawn. Angela and Merikare
try to figure out where to stash their bows; Father Theo offers his lectern and brings it
out.
At wedding time, all assemble. Carolina, stunning in a burgundy formal that will
conceal possible bloodstains, doesn’t have a gun; she knows she’s surrounded by
hardware. The wedding proceeds without problems, everyone says his or her I-Dos,
and Wolfgang manages a very theatrical clinch and kiss at the climax of the ceremony.
Everyone drifts over to the reception area, where eating, drinking, and dancing
begins, and continues into twilight and full dark. Carolina teaches Merikare to dance.
Randal contrives to dance with Angela.
Walter spots an area of reflected light blotted out for a second. Assuming it’s the
prelude to attack, he pulls his Walther and makes sure those around him have noticed.
Angela pulls Randal out into the darkness and looks for targets. Walter holds up his
cufflink, which he detonates. Its flash reveals five Japanese man with kama charging
toward the tent — the nearest only six feet away!
Tarkin draws his katana from under a bench and steps before Wolfgang, which
puts him beside Walter. Covington steps before Wolfgang, up onto a bench in front of
him, and fires at the afterimage of one of the men, missing, as does Dash. Max shields
Shara.
The nearest ninja moves into Tarkin’s range and Tarkin swings, slicing through
the man’s midsection. The man slams into Walter, bleeding and dying, unable to attack.
Tal Singh stabs him through the heart and shoves him away from Walter.

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Numitorious and Gloria arm themselves with spears; others draw handguns.
Myra, dancing with Muggins, gives him a kiss goodbye and transforms into a bird of
prey — she flies out the other side of the tent.
Numitorious and Gloria stab at the next ninja in. She hits, shearing his lower arm
off. Walter aims in classic duellist pose with his .357 Grant and shoots another in the
stomach. This leaves two to reach the edge of the tent and hurtle in their suicide attack
against Wolfgang. Max attempts a feint with his sword against one, following through
with a kick, but his timing is thrown off because the man didn’t bite on the feint.
Carolina, however, throws a hook into the ninja’s balls. He does stumble on past her, all
the way to Wolfgang, but, in amazing pain, he cannot strike at his target. Obsidian stabs
him through the heart and kills him instantly.
The last running ninja reaches Wolfgang, who, alerted to the suicidal tactics of
the attackers, manages to grab the man and slam him to the ground; the ninja’s kama
flies out the other side of the tent and hits a chicken.
Wolfgang’s maneuver drops him below the flight path of a bullet headed his way;
there are five more ninja, snipers, out in the darkness in the direction from which the
previous five emerged. Myra, out there, clobbers one and carts him off; Angela sees
that action. Angela can see the heat traces of the men out there and opens fire on them,
shooting him in the gut. Randal, aiming close to accurately from her directions and
waiting for a muzzle flash, shoots the next one.
Covington gets his hands on a BAR and falls atop Wolfgang, covering him.
Incoming gunfire shears the laces on the back of Carolina’s dress, tugs at Covington’s
pocket, and whips Obsidian’s hat from his head. Muggins fires into the darkness, hitting
another target, just a graze, while Damien’s blind shot with his shotgun blows the head
off another sniper.
Now there is only one sniper. Carolina asks a ranch hand for a handgun and he
hands it over, but begins betting that she can’t hit a target with it in the dark. Angela,
Carolina, and Randal fire on the last sniper; all three hit, the ladies hitting his arms,
Randal hitting him in the chest. He goes down dead.
The situation is in control and Robert Grant calls the sheriff. He comes out with
deputies and gets statements in the midst of all the revelry. The wedding photographer
shoots pictures of the bodies on a wagon, in the style of the dead-outlaw photos of the
1870s, the heyday of Robert’s father Josiah “Fanner” Grant.
Pranksters tie a cow-bell to the underside of Wolfgang’s and Shara’s wedding-
night bed in the gardener’s cottage. Eventually Wolfgang and Shara retire and guards
are set up around the cottage.
(June 8, 1937) Myra enters Carolina’s room fresh from a bath, wrapped in a
towel, and dresses in her garments, which were brought here. Carolina awakens during
this and they arrange to have breakfast, during which Myra will tell them some things
she’s found out. They do wait until later in the morning, for Wolfgang and Shara to
rouse.
Myra thanks Damien for the idea of appearing to the Japanese as an oni. She
got plenty of information. She says that the Dragon Legion, led by General Watanabe
Ishiro, has access to a place they call Soranda (Zorandar) where they can refine metals
and gasoline, which will make them much more powerful in Japan, perhaps giving them
the strength to legitimately or illegally take control of the government. (Wolfgang asks if
they are using slave labor. She says yes. He is unhappy.) They can get to Soranda
through a naval strait flanked by two radio towers, the towers making the transition
possible. The Dragon Legion set these up in early 1925 and began sending resources,

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including their inventor, through, but lost contact the next year. Contact remained broken
for ten years, but recently the towers on the far side were used and contact was
reestablished. With that contact apparently was a warning about Wolfgang Grant.
Myra’s intent is to destroy the towers on this side, if Wolfgang and company can
do the same thing on the other side. But it turns out the zeppelin cannot be made ready
within her time-frame. They settle on another plan; Myra will take Merikare and
Covington through the towers so they can get a fix on the stars, then return, and she will
destroy the towers. When Wolfgang leads the expedition back in the zeppelin, they will
travel to that place and destroy the corresponding towers... and will make sure the
inventor never sets up any new ones. Wolfgang will free the tribes working for the
Dragon Legion there.
Mercedes volunteers enough money to finish purchasing the zeppelin. She also
tells Wolfgang something he didn’t know — that a zeppelin equipped with the right kind
of hooks can launch and retrieve biplanes. Wolfgang is thrilled by that.
Wayne recommends that Wolfgang take more personnel — adventurers, the right
kind of adventurers — to Zorandar.
Damien asks for a copy of Johann Goldstein’s book on German volkische
societies, which contains information that could prove very helpful to the Veritas
League.
Max, when it arrives, gives Wolfgang and Shara a belated wedding present: a
very costly, very old, very stolen sculpture from the Classical era.
Quotes of the Episode:
Aaron — “Gloria, to what is probably your intense frustration, you keep waking up
naked with beef fat smeared all over your face.”
Shara — “Are there evil spirits here?” Matt — “Well, there’s tequila.”
Numitorius, as the heroes try to find a priest suited to this wedding — “All the
priests and priestesses I know are either buried in lava or had to move.”
Styles McCready — “I have Satan’s pen! I have Satan’s pen!”
Bob, about Satan’s tracks in the dust — “Does that make them prints of
darkness?”
Mark — “Having to do disaster recovery planning for a wedding is just wrong.”

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Tarosia
#14. Failure Must Be But a Challenge to Others. Played 2/10/01.
Starring: Angela Billings, Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley,
Benjamin Samuels, Rachel Stapleton. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Claudia Verlon,
Walter Wayne, Randal Wesley, Patrick O’Shea, Chet Morgan.
Story Date: June-August, 1937.
Upon the Eldorado Society’s return to New York, several members find the first
set of instructions for the Pacific 3000 in their mailbox. According to these instructions,
each team needs one car and one boat (range 500+ statue miles, must be able to reach
20 knots, must have a decent radio, motor launches and motor yachts recommended).
Walter Wayne volunteers his yacht, an 80-footer called Tomorrow. Sir Walter is
happy to accept but would like to have a Wayne Effect generator as its primary
motivator. They work up one that can be bolted into place and removed easily to bypass
inspections, and keep Tomorrow’s standard engines in place. They also arrange to have
the Eldorado Society’s small submersible winched aboard and carried in a sling, and to
have a towed array that makes noise like the yacht’s engines in case they need a
torpedo decoy. Dash puts in a request to turn the towed array into a speedboat; if they
need it to distract torpedoes, he can pilot it out some distance and use his rocket pack
to get clear of it.
Meanwhile, in California, Rachel goes shopping for a sailor suit, arranges with
Patrick for him to handle the car side of things while she handles the boat side of things.
She contacts actor Kent Morrow, a motor boat enthusiast who has had recent success
with his movies about the killer called the Crusher, to see if he’d like to provide the boat
for a chance to participate in the 3000. He can’t; he’s spending the summer with his
daughter Lillianne Moreau. Rachel invites him to bring her along. He’s in. She also
contacts Benjamin Samuels and invites him into her crew. He’ll end up doing the car
choosing, and picks a Packard V-12.
Walter perfects his metal scales for bulletproof vests. Claudia immediately siezes
upon them and begins fabricating vests and other items — bulletproof suits, bulletproof
hats with concealable fold-out hangings to cover the head in the fashion of a mask,
bulletproof Merry Widows for the ladies, etc.
(July 2, 1937) Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, three-fourths of the way into
their round-the-world equatorial flight, are lost at sea. Rescue operations are begun
immediately.
(July 18, 1937) The U.S. government ends rescue operations, having come to
the conclusion that Earhart and Noonan are lost.
(July 20, 1937) Representatives of all the accepting teams meet for dinner in San
Francisco. Rhadamanthus Carpentier explains why rumors of changing 3000 courses
and lack of hard information have abounded. He has arbitrarily changed this 3000 so
that it will be all a water route. The midway point on the route is (comparatively) near the
spot the Earhart/Noonan plane probably went down. The rally will be conducted for four
days, then there will be a five-day respite during which some crews can rest and relax,
some can work on their boats and engines, and some, if they wish, can enter the search
for the crash site. Then the rally will resume. At the end, at Fiji, there will be speedboat
racing.
Despite the fact that this change means there won’t be any driving portions to the

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rally, and some participants are oriented solely toward driving, the participants approve
the plans.
As Walter and Claudia leave the hall that night, they spot a large, loud man being
loaded, handcuffed, into a paddy wagon. He’s shouting, “It’s a lie, it’s all a lie!” Walter
thinks he recognizes the man. Then, as the paddy wagon drives away, he realizes
where he’s seen the man before: It was Chet Morgan, the teacher Winston Hardy Saxe
had made into an alcoholic and later cured. But what’s he doing here, and what’s all a
lie?
(July 21, 1937) On the day that the loading of smaller craft onto Carpentier’s
specially-rigged cargo vessel begins, Walter visits Chet Morgan in jail. It appears that
Morgan called his employer, the principal of a local grade school, to get him to throw
bail, but the man, after coming out to see Morgan, declined to do so. Morgan says that
he’s a lifelong radio enthusiast, and set up a new radio set here in California after
obtaining a new teaching job. On July 3, 11:23 in the morning (Pacific Time), he heard
an SOS from Amelia Earhart. He says that it used the correct call-signs, “KHAQQ”
(Earhart) to “NRUI” (Coast Guard cutter Itasca) on Earhart’s nighttime frequency, and
that weather conditions were a little strange at that time, making such a lengthy
transmission possible. In the transmission, Earhart said their provisions were good but
that there was no vegetation, that she was unhurt but that “captain” (followed by static,
presumably Noonan) had been hurt on coral. Morgan says that no one will believe him
because he’s a known drunkard. Walter believes him and bails him out.
Walter gathers the Eldorado Society and Rachel and Ben, whom he knows to be
trustworthy. He considers the possibility of embarking now for the crash zone rather
than loading Tomorrow onto Carpentier’s ship and searching at the appointed time.
Wayne points out that the only way to get from here to there without prearranged fueling
stops en route would be to use the experimental Wayne Effect boat engine all the way
there. Walter’s willing to risk it, as are the others. The travel would take six or seven
days, giving them a couple of weeks to search before the 3000 begins.
They put out a call for other Eldorado Society members and allies to join them —
anyone not already in the San Francisco area can fly in and meet them at Oahu. They
limit the invitations to people who have already seen the jet-packs in operation.
(July 22, 1937) With Chet Morgan along as radio operator, they launch for the
South Pacific.
(July 23, 1937) The Wayne Effect engine conks out. They bring it up and
examine it. It appears that the engine, which is functionally identical to the jet-pack
thrusters, is here burning much dirtier material (i.e., sea water instead of atmosphere),
resulting in tremendous amounts of carbonized gunk fouling the thruster tube. They
clean it out and hit on a solution, which is shutting down the engine once per day or so
and then starting it up with a somewhat increased blast to blow the day’s accumulation
of gunk out. Meanwhile, Rachel, “feeling domestic,” prepares food in the galley,
including live shrimp in the water glasses.
(July 24, 1937) Tomorrow reaches Honolulu. A very tired Randal Wesley, straight
from the airport, joins them.
(July 25, 1937) After reprovisioning, Tomorrow heads out for Howland Island.
(July 29, 1937) Late in the day, Tomorrow reaches Howland Island. Commander
Thompson, captain of the itasca, is on hand to welcome them and has set out a dinner
for them; they dine under a pavilion on the beach.
There is much discussion about Amelia Earhart, whom Thompson doesn’t
appear to have much respect for, for reasons such as her choice not to listen to the

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Morse frequencies Itasca usually broadcast on.
Thompson says that the island’s civilian radio operator has volunteered his cabin
and bathtub for anyone who’d care to make use of it. Rachel does, and leaves him a
glowing letter of the “Thank you for last night” variety.
(July 30, 1937) Chet Morgan tells the others that he contrived to see Itasca’s
radio logs last night. They were signed off on by Thompson, by the ship’s radio operator,
and by Howland Island’s civilian operator, Yat Fai Lum. He tracked down that civilian
radio operator this morning and discovered that the man, a Chinese-born Hawaiian,
claims never to have signed off on the logs. In fact, his true name is Yau Fai Lum, which
he offers as proof of the deception; he’d never misspell his own name.
Morgan also looked at Itasca’s charts, and determined that the ship, on July 2,
steamed 122 nautical miles NNW on the line of position Earhart and Noonan were
probably following. The cutter then turned eastward to investigate flares seen in the
distance, though the flares were probably shooting stars and meteorites, and then
returned to Howland. Subsequently it searched the area south of Howland along the line
of position. It was another ten days before other ships and planes searched north along
the line. Most searching has been done south of Howland, because north of the island
there are no habitable sites; if Earhart crashed there, she is dead, and the search effort
wanted to concentrate on areas where she might be found alive.
Walter decides to follow the line of position NNW, beyond Itasca’s steaming
distance, and see what there is to be found. Their travel time four hours, then Dash and
Wayne suit up in Atomic Ranger gear and blast off to search from the air while
Tomorrow continues steaming along the line of position.
Hours into the search, Dash overflies a volcanic island with no vegetation and no
sign of habitation. His eye is drawn to the interior of the volcano’s cone, which looks
deeper and blacker than it should. He descends into it and finds that the cone opens out
into an unnatural cavern beneath — a cavern with its own volcanic cone directly
beneath the surface cone. The air here is moist and warm like a rain forest, and there
are signs of rope descent on one portion of the volcanic flue. He flies back to Tomorrow
with the news, then uses the speedboat to lead the yacht back to the island. With the
speedboat, he finds a gap in the coral reef surrounding the island.
The hour being late, Walter decides to investigate the volcano in the morning.
They take a quick circuit of the island and, on a far beach, find a lot of fist-sized stones
laid out in no comprehensible pattern. Rachel, Patrick, and Dash decide to camp on the
beach while the others remain on the boat.
Late that night, the tarpaulin serving Rachel and Patrick as a tent disappears
while guard Dash watches — it has been hit by a rock hurled from the near slope of the
volcano. More rocks come sailing in, big and fast enough to do considerable harm,
though none of them is hit. Dash sees something white and apelike throwing them, then
fleeing by climbing up the volcano slope.
(July 31, 1937) Measuring the spot from which the gorilla was throwing rocks,
they determine that the thing had to have stood 12' tall.
They form up a search party, with everyone going in, leaving the boat unguarded
— but they take the precaution of disabling the normal engine and removing the Wayne
Effect engine.
They descend by rope into the cavern; Ben is first and quite capable. He anchors
the rope and the others descend. They move down the near slope of this second
volcano and soon find a flat piece of rock that has been carved on many times. The
oldest of the images seems to be that of a bird. Of the others that can be discerned, one

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is a Japanese symbol that Tarkin interprets as the word “Taros” — meaning a monster
of some sort. The most recent, still livid, says “Death Aw”.
The heroes hear distant animal noises and can smell vegetation. They continue
their descent and their eyes adjust to the gloom. Now they can see that the cavern
ceiling and portions of the floor level are overgrown with luminous lichens or algae; the
floor is heavily overgrown with other forms of vegetation as well, including fernlike
growths and many different types of huge fungi. Walter takes samples.
They find what looks like a game path and follow it. Alongside it they find an
empty sextant case. Some distance beyond, they find a pond. Walter takes a sample of
its water, but as he is lifting the bottle, his arm is arrested — a manlike primate, covered
in hair and with jutting teeth, takes the bottle from him. It hurls the bottle at a giant black
mushroom on the other side of the pond, and the mushroom ominously releases a cloud
of spores. The heroes take this as a warning. The ape-man leaves.
Angela takes a second sample anyway, in an atomizer bottle. The heroes tie
scarves around their faces while near the black mushroom.
Angela, with her enhanced vision, seems something moving their way, something
that stands taller than the surrounding “trees.” The heroes move off the path and watch.
The approaching thing turns out to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex — black, somewhat
pustulent, and aware of them. It turns toward them and charges. Benjamin steps in front
of Angela and fires his shotgun. The T. Rex snaps at Walter, but Tal knocks him aside —
and the dinosaur’s huge mouth comes down to cover his upper body, teeth closing on
his waist. The dinosaur lifts its prey up to chew and swallow.
Wayne fires the hand-blasts from his rocket pack, searing the side of the
dinosaur’s face, and Angela shoots it in the eye. Randal and Patrick pump rounds into
its chest. It rears, roars, hurling Tal away, and flees.
Walter and the rest charge over to where Tal lies, crumpled. Walter is quick to
realize that Tal is not bleeding. They check the Sikh’s condition and find that he is
wearing one of Walter’s new bulletproof vests; he is deeply and multiply bruised but his
life is not in danger. Walter is grateful.
Dash proposes going back to the boat to get bigger guns. Walter asks for his
submachine gun. Dash and Wayne go back and quickly return with the heavier
armament.
Meanwhile, Angela has peered deeper into the gloom and determined that this
cavern is actually a series of caverns, with natural arch supports suggesting doors
between them. She spots the ape-man climbing one of the arches and entering a cave
above it. They go to stand beneath the cave and call up to the ape-man. They are
startled when it calls down, “Go away.” They convince it to talk with them, promising to
go away if it will, and climb up to its cave.
The ape-man admits to having been here about a month. It is, in fact, Fred
Noonan. They ditched on top of a coral reef, secured the plane there, and salvaged
whatever they could, but a storm a couple of nights later tore it free of its securing lines
and slid it into the sea. He and Amelia discovered a white gorilla playing with the stones
they’d used to spell out “S.O.S” on the beach and saw it flee into the volcano. They
followed and found fresh water and vegetation here, enough to sustain them after their
provisions ran out. But they ate a black mushroom and immediately thereafter began to
change. Fred changed this way, and believes that he is cancerous; his gut is in constant
pain and his health is failing. Amelia left a couple of days ago so that the “animals” could
“take her,” since she chose not to commit suicide directly. Noonan doesn’t say how she
changed.

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Noonan is in the final throes of some life-threatening condition, and soon dies.
The heroes bury him, then set off in search of Amelia Earhart. Randal finds her shoe
prints and they follow her trail. Randal also spots places where she has cut herself on
vegetation and later brushes against leaves reveal more blood blotches, suggesting that
she hasn’t bandaged herself. Angela proposes that she doesn’t care.
On their trek, Angela sees a rock off to the right of their path hunker down. She
alerts the others. The rock, the first of several albino giant iguanas, charges. Angela
fires with her submachine gun, seriously hurting the first iguana; it and the others flee.
Later, Angela spots a gigantic albino gorilla watching their progress and following
them. She leaves it an apple and it does eat the fruit. It continues to follow them.
Earhart’s trail leads to a rocky flat area with a steamy pool at the center. On the
other side, Angela can see something odd — it looks like vertical heat waves moving,
rather like the leading or trailing edge of something she cannot otherwise see. They also
see one of the gorillas go up to the pond to drink, but it quickly retreats from something
it senses there. That “something” hurls rocks at it and shouts after it, in a woman’s
voice, “Come back here, you coward!”
Walter calls out to the woman, asking (unnecessarily) if it’s Amelia Earhart, and
coaxes her out to talk to them. She is indeed dramatically changed. Her skin, down to
the whites of her eyes (but not her teeth) is black — not a reflective black, but a matte
black that absorbs all light reaching her, so she always seems a silhouette. She has lost
all her hair. She no longer eats, though she must drink or become dehydrated. Her
physical changes are distressing, but are not directly the reason she has decided to die
here. Indirectly, they mean that she can no longer fly again — no one would work or hire
a pilot like her. Flying is all she ever wanted to do.
Walter has an alternative for her, and has Dash demonstrate the Ransley/Wayne
Rocket Pack. She’s amazed by it and Wayne offers his up for her to try. Under Dash’s
direction, she is soon able to control it as if born to it. Wayne invites her to join the
Atomic Rangers and she agrees to. Rachel demonstrates that clothes and sufficient
makeup can allow her to move among normal people, at least for short periods of time.
They get her pack and hike out, with Dash and Wayne providing air cover. Angela
throws away the sample of the dangerous spore-laden water. She also leaves a candy
bar for the curious gorilla. By nightfall, they get out of the cavern system and up to the
surface again.
They decide to keep the island a secret, not revealing to the world its location or
amazing flora and fauna. Amelia wants to remain dead to the world, so they decide to
take whatever artifacts of hers and Noonan’s they can to some island south of Howland
and then find them again in the midst of the 3000.
Does Amelia, now calling herself Jean Atchison, want to go back to the world via
Wake Island? No, she wants to stay with the crew of Tomorrow for now. She’ll be
disguised as a Negress so no one will take notice of her.
(August 1, 1937) Using the submersible, the heroes find the Lockheed Electra at
the base of the reef and get cables attached to it. Tomorrow hauls the plane up. They
tow the plane south.
(August 2, 1937) They submerge the Electra in the bay of Gardner Island, SSE of
Howland and still on the line of position, and plant some other artifacts, including
Noonan’s sextant box, in the jungle. Rachel radios Bertie O’Shea to bring out makeup
gear sufficient for Jean’s needs, including full-eye contact lenses.
Angela expresses a wish to learn to track and climb proficiently, and Randal
offers to teach her.

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Quotes of the Episode:
Earl, about the possibility of the Eldorado Society choosing its Horst Special for
the driving phase of the 3000 — “Horst by his own petard!”
Rhadamanthus Carpentier, beginning his explanation for the change in plans —
“One of our own has gone down.”
Mark, about the volcano caverns — “It’s a little piece of Zorandar!”
Walter, after seeing the Tyrannosaurus Rex — “I hope we don’t run into a black
Amelia Earhart!”

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Pacific 3000
#15. Pacific Waters. Played 2/24/01.
Starring: Ben Samuels, Rachel Stapleton, Angela Billings, Dash Donohue,
Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley, Muggins. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Claudia Verlon,
Walter Wayne, Randal Wesley, Patrick O’Shea, Chet Morgan, Rudolph Horst, Lillianne
Moreau.
Story Date: August, 1937.
(August 14, 1937) Most of the Pacific 3000 competitors have arrived at Wake
Island.
Rudolph Horst tells Walter that he has delivered the 1937 Horst Special the
Eldorado Society ordered (for the Bloodhounds) to the Society headquarters just before
he came out here.
Muggins and Joyce LeDuc are among the last arrivals and are filled in on the
Society’s recent activities. Muggins’ yacht, Remembrance, features a diving suit and
appropriate gear (air compressor, etc.), a .30-caliber machine gun (not to be in evidence
while the yacht is in Japanese waters), a small smuggling chamber, a line-throwing gun,
a folding sea kayak, and his Jaguar Balam.
(August 15, 1937) In the morning darkness, the competitors assemble on their
boats for the official start, which is to be at dawn. They include:

Bitter Fruit (Trawler Yacht): Rudolph Horst, Seamus Cavanaugh (sailor)

Checkmate (Speedboat): Howard Hughes and mechanic
Cheetah III (Speedboat): Malcolm Campbell, Bedford “Buzz” Bixby (mechanic)
Crusher (Motor Yacht): Benjamin Samuels, Rachel Stapleton & Patrick O’Shea, actor
Kent Morrow (46) and his daughter Lillianne Moreau (18), Angus Besworth
(mechanic)
Dying Flushman (Motor Yacht): Recently-divorced porcelein fixtures tycoon Mark
Banion, his new girlfriend Elise Thompson, and crew
Faded Splendor (Motor Yacht): Carlo Valletri & Helen Whitstone
Gold Coast (Motor Yacht): Shipping tycoon Jean-Marc LeDuc, shipping tycoon Jean-
Jacques Baselaire, and newspaper tycoon Jean-Louis Montclaire; the boat is
affectionately nicknamed “Jean-Jean” by the other competitors.
Ouija II (Motor Yacht): Japanese businessman Musashi Haruhiko, his teenaged son
Nobio, and his teenaged daughter Mura
Rapier (Motor Yacht): Detective and adventurer Vincent Wildman, Polish von vivant
Shiela Kowalski
Rattus Rattus (Decrepit Motor Yacht): Newspapermen Jack Lance and Nellie Hale
Lance, filmmaker Josef Pantermuehl
Remembrance (Motor Yacht): Muggins (sailor), Joyce LeDuc, Jack Tanner, Byron
Nesbit, Sparky Jones (mechanic)
Tik-Tok (Motor Yacht): Californian nisei inventor Bill Takamura, Ed Compton
(mechanic), and Frank Hanley (sailor)
Tomorrow (Large Motor Yacht): Angela Billings, Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley,
Walter Ransley, Tal Singh, Claudia Verlon, Walter Wayne (sailor), Randal Wesley,
Chet Morgan (radio).
Trajectory (Motor Yacht): Lionel & Eleanor Gideon and Julia Temple

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Wings (Motor Yacht): George Putnam (Amelia Earhart’s husband) and crew

The route is to be:

Day 1 (8/15): Wake Island (U.S.) SE to Bikar Atoll (Japan)

Day 2 (8/16): Bikar Atoll (Japan) SE to Maloelab (Japan)
Day 3 (8/17): Maloelab (Japan) SSE to Makin Island/Taritari (British)
Day 4 (8/18): Makin Island/Taritari SE to Peru (British)
Days 5-9 (8/19-8/23): Rest/recreate, overhaul engines, or search for
Earhart/Noonan
Day 10 (8/24): Current Position (minimum 400 miles away) to Vaitupu
(British)
Day 11 (8/25): Vaitupu (British) SSW to Rotumah (British)
Day 12 (8/26): Rotumah (British) S to Viti Levu/Fiji (British)
Day 13 (8/27): Speedboat Races

At dawn, Rhadamanthus waves the flag and the rally is off. The speedboats roar
out ahead of the pack; Horst’s Bitter Fruit lags behind. But even in the distance, people
hear Bitter Fruit’s engines get louder and louder as the trawler yacht gains speed, then
all watch in surprise as the front end of the boat rises up on hydrofoils. Bitter Fruit swiftly
overtakes the pack and passes it by, Horst laughing madly from the cabinhouse. Walter
Ransley and Walter Wayne both smack themselves in the foreheads for not thinking of
hydrofoils themselves.
Still, at midday, Tomorrow passes Bitter Fruit by; Horst’s yacht drifts idly in the
sea as Horst furiously works on the engines.
By now, the temperature is warm enough to induce shorts and sloth.
Rachel is feeling domestic today, and takes charge of the little galley. But the
meal includes live shrimp in the water-glasses.
Wayne shows Ransley a first-draft design he’s come up with for a Rocket Car
using their respective technologies. It’s a speedy, maneuverable design, the size of a
small truck, that should be able to fly at speeds of up to 500 mph.
Throughout the day, the boat crews intermittently spot Japanese vessels keeping
an eye on the rally route. Toward nightfall, Walter, acting as lookout, spots what he
thinks is a man clinging to wreckage some distance off the port bow. He sends Dash out
in the speedboat to investigate. Dash finds the man, an islander by his coloration and
tattoos, clinging to what looks like a deck hatch. He hauls the unconscious man aboard
and takes him back to Tomorrow.
After being treated for his injuries, including splinter or shrapnel damage to the
right side of his face, neck, and shoulder, the man awakens. He speaks no English, just
a few words of Spanish. His name is Matok. He was fishing, and someone dropped a
bomb on his boat.
They reach the first night’s port of call, Bikar Atoll, but before they can put in, they
receive a communication that a representative of the Imperial Japanese Navy wishes to
board and speak with them. A launch delivers naval Lieutenant Endozo, who asks if
they have seen any refugees; he’s asking all the competitors. The navy is searching for
bomb-throwing anarchists who attacked one of their ships earlier today. Walter says
they haven’t seen any bomb-throwing anarchists. Matok has been hidden in the little
smuggling bay that houses the deck gun and the two Rocket Packs; the Rocket Packs
themselves are laid out in the dining cabin, open, guts strewn everywhere, looking just

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like an unfinished Mad Science project. The lieutenant leaves.
Tomorrow puts in at the beach, where a sumptuous buffet and tents have been
set up. (Yes, it’s only tent living, but there are also butlers, wine stewards, and other
servants walking about.) Cheetah III, Trajectory, and the Dying Flushman are not yet in.
The Eldorado Society and friends gather to figure out the situation with Matok.
With a little more linguistic breadth, and discovering that Matok speaks a little
German, they get more information out of him. He is from the island of Yap. His boat
was fishing near a little uninhabited island when a Japanese plane came and bombed it.
There is something in his story about a big black fish, but they can’t extract the
information.
The heroes suspect that he saw something there that he wasn’t supposed to see
and was attacked for it. But they need to have someone who can speak this man’s
language. Walter goes to talk to Rhadamanthus Carpentier, informing him privately of
the situation, and asking him to find a Yap translator.
News comes in that the Japanese have attacked Shanghai, and that British and
U.S. civilians are evacuating.
(August 16, 1937) Most of the heroes wake up aching, seldom-used muscles
sorely tested by these activities at sea. They learn that Cheetah III, Trajectory, and
Dying Flushman did come in during the night, though some earned negative points for
arriving late.
The boats launch. Today, Horst’s Bitter Fruit holds up better.
Angela compiles tests results on “Jean Atchison.” They indicate that she is not
vulnerable to daylight. She has no sense of taste or smell now. Angela suggests that her
light acuity may develop to the point that she acquires a sense of “taste” regarding light
intensities and frequencies.
Lillianne Moreau has a long talk with Rachel. She’s a bit upset. George Putnam
made a pass at her last night. It’s far from the first pass made at her, but she’s a little
unnerved by the fact that he should be grieving or desperately worried for his wife and
instead he’s making passes. She told Putnam, “My daddy wouldn’t like that,” but Rachel
advises her to tell him next time that she’s just not interested; it’s best not to give him
any hint that she might be interested if not for other circumstances.
Turning attention to merriment, Rachel decides that it’s time to impress someone
— in the Royal Navy fashion. They need to kidnap someone to be an impressed
crewman tomorrow. She and Lillianne settle on Rhadamanthus Carpentier. Rachel
prepares the galley — their prisoner will be a “galley slave” — and builds a dummy they
can leave in Carpentier’s bed aboard his support ship tonight.
The various boats all reach Maleolab. Before they make landfall, Muggins tells
Jack Tanner and Byron Nesbit to go out there and make some friends their age. Then,
when they make landfall, they discover that Carpentier has brought in lots of friendly
Micronesian natives for a native feast, and Jack and Byron manage to make new
female friends and go off for a feast of their own. Muggins shrugs.
Carpentier introduces Walter and company to Eluk, a diver and fisherman from
Yap. Lt. Endozo still being present, they retire to the Tomorrow. Eluk translates for
Matok. Matok says that he was on his family fishing boat (five other men of his family
were aboard) and were fishing off the east coast of Nekalamoro, an infrequently-visited
atoll with a reputation for being haunted. They heard several distant booms from the far
side of the island. A couple of hours later, their nets caught a “giant black fish” made of
metal. They know it was some sort of submarine, but it was configured like a fish, with
fins and other fishlike features, including mechanical teeth apparatus up front; it was

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about 30' long. The fish addressed them in a mechanical voice from a spot on its front
fin, speaking to them in Japanese, which none of them spoke. A few minutes later, it
began trying other languages. All this time, the fishermen were attempting to get the
“fish” free from their nets, untangling the nets from its propellor so as not to have to cut
their nets to ribbons. Eventually the speaker got to languages the fishermen
understood, and it became apparent that it was ordering them to free it from the nets. A
few minutes later, they were able to do so; it submerged and disappered. But a few
minutes after that, a Japanese torpedo plane flew overhead, turned around, and
dropped a torpedo on them. The fishing boat was destroyed. Matok doesn’t know
whether any of his kinsmen survived.
Walter theorizes that perhaps the black mini-sub is not Japanese, that it
performed some act of sabotage on a Japanese facility on that island, and that the
Japanese response (the torpedo plane), finding only one boat in the vicinity, assumed
that it carried the saboteurs and attacked the boat. Walter plans to ask Carpentier to get
Matok back to Yap.
Wayne speaks to Dash about the organization of Atomic Rangers. He asks if
Dash wants to be an official member, or is more inclined to be with the Eldorado
Society, or both. Dash says both. Wayne is to be captain of the Atomic Rangers and
take the code-name Captain Atomic. All the other pilots will be lieutenants; Jean
Atchison will be Lt. Neutron. He tells Dash that Dash should come up with his own
name; he recommends a name related to atomic theory or particles. Chet Morgan is to
be the Rangers’ radio operator.
Rachel sabotages the buffet, setting up a dish of desserts that look like rum balls
— but are instead balls of sand.
Later, Rachel and Lillianne deliver the dummy to Carpentier’s ship, but can’t get
into his cabin; it’s locked. Attempts to trick the purser into leaving his cabin so they can
steal his key also fail. Finally, Rachel has Lillianne have delivered a bottle of
champagne to Carpentier’s cabin; Rachel, passing the cabin as it’s being delivered,
puts some tape across the lock so it doesn’t catch when closed. They sneak in and set
up the dummy in his bunk.
Rachel has some sleeping pills. She asks Angela for pharmacological knowledge
about the dosage to use. Angela has them tell her why. She reluctantly recommends
that they use some of her, Angela’s, Amazon treatments, which she knows much better.
Rachel is happy. They have another conspirator. Rachel and Lillianne lure Carpentier
away from the party to talk to him; Angela sneaks up and pricks him with a drug-laden
thorn. He passes out; Rachel and Lillianne cart him and install him in a big duffel bag.
Others pass George Putnam having a quiet conversation with Sheila Kowalski,
but it doesn’t stay quiet. Sheila: “Well, I think you really ought to show me what you’re
offering me. Why don’t you come with me over to the fire and take it out and we can all
have a good look at it.” (Shouting:) “Hey, everybody, Mr. Putnam has something to show
us!” Putnam is driven off.
Joyce tells Muggins that she’s just learned that one of the Jean-Jeans is named
LeDuc... and is from Marseilles, where her father, Pierre LeDuc, was from. Muggins
goes to talk to Jean-Marc. Jean-Marc both to being a stockholder in the LeDuc
vineyards that produced the wine Muggins and Joyce discovered during the North
African 3000, and to having a son named Pierre, the majority owner of that vineyard.
Muggins says that it’s very likely this Pierre is the father of Joyce. Jean-Marc says he
would have no problem accepting Joyce, a hero of the Normandie, into the bosom of his
family — but he has to be sure she is his granddaughter, and that means getting a

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confirmation from Pierre.
(August 17, 1937) The rally competitors launch. Within minutes, Dying
Flushman’s engines conk out. Soon after, Gold Coast and Ouija II both experience
engine problems. It’s the point in the rally where the hardware begins to conk out.
Later in the day, Kent Morrow asks Rachel about the duffel bag in the galley. “It’s
our galley slave!” she tells him. Still later, Carpentier wakes up and staggers up onto
deck. Rachel informs him of his duties — to cook for the crew. Still, she gives him
access to the radio, so he can inform his people that he’s not really missing. He retires
below decks and gamely begins working on a meal.
Jack talks to Muggins. He met that Japanese girl, Mura Musashi, last night, and
discovered she was very bright, very cultured. He’s not intimidated by that, but is
curious as to how to impress a girl like that. Muggins offers him some advice.
When the competitors pass Tarawa, they are flanked by a flotilla of well-wishers
from the island, throwing flowers and gifts, playing music, etc. The event cheers
everyone.
At dusk, Carpentier serves up a meal for his captors, a large dish full of roughly
triangular organic-looking things in a transparent brown sauce. He describes it as “larva
in orange sauce.” Rachel and Angus dig in and find it delicious. Lillianne has half of one
and can’t continue. The others don’t try any at all.
Tonight’s landfall is Taritari, which is in British territory. Just before reaching
Taritari, the competitors can see the lights of the Japanese cutter at rest just within
Japanese waters, at the territorial boundaries.
Late in the evening, Crusher reaches Taritari. Carpentier is freed from service.
Lillianne gorges at the buffet. Word of the kidnapping spreads. Rachel is roundly
congratulated. Muggins and Angela have some of the larva in orange sauce — there
are plenty of leftovers — and also find them great. Carpentier admits to those who ask
that they weren’t really larva, just elaborately-constructed dumplings with meat and fruit
interiors. Many ask for his recipe even without knowing it wasn’t larva.
Dying Flushman eventually limps into port, having earned a number of negative
points for lateness.
(August 18, 1937) The rally competitors launch. It’s an uneventful day of
competition. The boats all arrive at Peru, where a large-scale Hawaiian feast has been
set up for everyone’s dining pleasure.
(Augist 19, 1937) It’s the first day of the mid-rally break, and many exhausted
competitors get to sleep late.
Crusher, which is in good shape, goes searching among islands west of the line
of position not yet searched. Muggins takes Remembrance back to Tarawa to do some
sunken-wreckage diving and to train Jack and Byron in same. Tomorrow drops Randal
and Angela off on a hilly atoll so he can begin training her in climbing and tracking skills.
(August 20, 1937) Word comes in via radio that the U.S. cruiser Augusta, at
Shanghai, was hit by Japanese shell; 1 sailor died and 18 were hurt.
(August 22, 1937) The Japanese begin systematic bombing of Shanghai. The
same day, Bill Takamura and his Tik-Tik find Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra at the
bottom of the lagoon of Gardner Island. He radios the others. Many boats, including
Crusher, Tomorrow, and Wings head out that way.
(August 23, 1937) Many of the competitors arrive. Takamura explains that he has
an experimental balloon aboard Tik-Tok; he searched from the air with it, his yacht
towing his balloon, and found the Electra here. The competitors raise the plane, through
use of Tomorrow’s submersible and powerful boom winch, and scour the island. They

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find a few items belonging to Earhart and Noonan, including her shoe heel and his
sextant case, but do not find them. Tarkin “opines” that, with food or fresh water running
out, Earhart and Noonan probably built a raft and tried to make it to another island... and
probably drowned.
Current standings:

Boat - Points
Bitter Fruit 0
Checkmate 0
Cheetah II 1
Crusher III 0
Dying Flushman 4
Faded Glory 0
Gold Coast 3
Ouija II 1
Rapier 0
Rattus Rattus 0
Remembrance 0
Tik-Tok 0
Tomorrow 0
Trajectory 3
Wings 0

Quotes of the Episode:

Horst — “This confection tastes like sand.”
Lillianne, explaining what she would have liked to say to Putnam — “I’m sorry,
but you’re big, weird, and insensitive, and I’m just not attracted!”
Rhadamanthus Carpentier, after being hit by Angela’s thorn — “Bloody
mosquitoes.”
Walter, after witnessing the Shiela Kowalski/George Putnam confrontation —
“Was that about what I think that was about?”

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#16. Storm Waters. Played 3/3/01.

Starring: Ben Samuels, Rachel Stapleton, Angela Billings, Dash Donohue,
Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley, Muggins. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Claudia Verlon,
Walter Wayne, Randal Wesley, Patrick O’Shea, Chet Morgan, Rudolph Horst, Lillianne
Moreau.
Story Date: August, 1937.
(August 24, 1937) Everyone is awakened before dawn by an explosion. There’s a
bright glow from the water where one of the competition boats lies burning. Angela and
Dash jump into a speedboat and roars out to rescue people in the water. The burning
boat is Tik-Tok. One of the injured men in the water, Ed Compton, cries, “Bill’s still on
the boat!” The other injured man, unconscious, is Frank Hanley. Dash makes it onto Tik-
Tok’s deck.
Dash makes it below and finds himself in blinding, choking smoke. Dash gropes
his way to Bill Takamura’s bunk but finds it empty yet warm — recently-vacated. He
checks under the bunk, finding it empty, and goes looking elsewhere. Above, the Ouija
II crew uses extinguishers to begin putting out a fire that has erupted in her own engine
compartment.
Angela leaves the boat in the hands of Ben Compton. She gets into the smoky
passageway and calls after Dash. She finds an unconscious man but can’t see who it is;
she drags him slowly toward the stairs up to deck. Ben has nosed Crusher close; he
drops anchor and comes over. Ben is able to grab the unconscious man and carry him
above deck. Meanwhile, the crew of the Ouija II puts out her fire but suddenly abandons
ship with cries of “Bomb! Bomb!”
Dash makes it out of the burning boat all right, but Tik-Tok cannot be saved; the
explosion and fire have done too much damage already. The heroes retreat on the
speedboat and Crusher. The unconscious man rescued from aboard is Bill Takamura.
He revives on the beach and is driven to rage and tears by the attack made on him.
Why was it done?
The bomb aboard Ouija II has still not gone off, so Walter, dresses in his armored
vest and wearing Wayne’s Captain Atomic armored gloves, goes aboard. He is able to
defuse the bomb, which is a crude ad-hoc thing using an alarm clock as timer and
gasoline in a glass bottle as the explosive element. It looks as though the clock slid
down or fell over, pinning its winding key and keeping it from keeping time. Walter
disarms it.
It is not lost on the heroes that both Ouija II and Tik-Tok were owned and
operated by Japanese or Japanese-Americans. Since neither seemed to be a
contender for victory, this appears to be an act of retribution for Japanese war actions in
Asia.
Frank Hanley must be hospitalized, but mechanic Ed Compton, whose burns are
minor, stubbornly hopes to continue the rally, even if on another boat. Rachel invites him
to join Crusher’s crew.
After dawn, at the appropriate time, the boats launch. The winds are whipping up
and news reports a storm brewing up in the west. Its winds are strengthening and it is
anticipated to head northeast and miss the rally course. Still, the weather is harsh
during this leg of the rally. No one sees a periscope as they travel.
The competitors put in at Vaitupu. There, the organizers have a dinner set up and
a full big band for entertainment. Many of the ladies have packed formal dress; Rachel
manages to appear in a stunning outfit. Lillianne sings a couple of numbers for the

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entertainment of the crowd, and does a good job; Muggins does some Hollywood-style
dancing.
(August 25, 1937) The day dawns with the weather still choppy. The weather
network reports a chance that the big storm will turn due east into the rally path, which
puts all competitors a little on edge. Carpentier reluctantly gives the go-ahead for
today’s leg. Rattus Rattus’ crew considers pulling out but decides to forge ahead.
Jack Tanner demonstrates great potential as a shiphandler aboard
Remembrance. Word comes in that Rattus Rattus has foundered, but Ouija II, close at
hand, is able to maneuver alongside and save her crew.
At the end of the day, Checkmate is first in the standings, Bitter Fruit, Tomorrow,
and Crusher are all tied for second. Howard Hughes is physically exhausted.
(August 26, 1937) The weather is still bad, but not bad enough to call off the
day’s leg. All boats launch. Dash notices that the dashboard gauges and radio have
been removed from Tomorrow’s speedboat (he could feel the injury to the speedboat).
His eerie power to see what vehicles have seen, feel what they have felt, pin the theft of
components on Ed Compton, who is now aboard Crusher. Dash, worked up into a fury,
gets on the radio and begins cursing Ed Compton’s name. “He gutted my speedboat!”
Rachel hears the radio call, even over the static caused by atmospheric disturbances,
and tells Patrick. Rachel lures Compton above deck for a lunch while Patrick rifles
Compton’s duffel bag. Some small portion of the parts are in the bag, but not all of them.
They confront Compton with the theft. He admits to it. “I needed the parts.” His
brother was the sailor killed aboard the cruiser Augusta. Now he’s on a mission to kill all
Japanese. He has set up a bomb on Ouija II. It will be set off when it receives a strong
signal from one specific weather reporting station on the rally path. Compton lunges for
the bridge. Ben swings at him but misses. Compton grabs an axe, preparing to wipe out
the radio and controls. Patrick draws his gun and warns Compton to drop the axe.
Compton ignores him, starting a swing, and Patrick shoots him. The bullet hits
Compton’s spine and kills him.
Rachel gets on the radio and alerts all competitors and support boats to
Compton’s efforts. Ouija II is not responding to radio calls; Compton may have
sabotaged the boat. Gold Coast radios in to say that Ouija II is not too far away; they’ll
turn to try to reach her. Remembrance and Wings, also comparatively close, turn to
reach Ouija II.
Muggins explains the situation to Byron and Jack. They’re both up to do what’s
right. Ben radios Carpentier to ask if the weather station will choose not to transmit at its
regular hour. The station responds in the negative. If it doesn’t provide its weather
information, dozens of boatloads of people might die rather than just one.
Angela tries to use the power that Arthur Volkner demonstrated in order to find
the Musashis. Her mind goes floating out over the ocean in search of them. To her
surprise, she actually finds Mura. “Slow down your boat so others can catch up.” Mura
senses her presence and hears “boat.” Aggravated, Angela keeps trying.
Mura talks to her dad, mentioning the presence she feels and a bad feeling about
continuing. As Angela tries again and again, Mura hears more and more of what she’s
trying to communicate. Then Angela snaps awake — she’d left a request with Walter to
awaken her after a specific amount of time, and that time has come.
Remembrance punches through the swells toward Ouija II’s estimated position.
Her crew finally sees Ouija II with Gold Coast drawn up alongside... but the bomb goes
off, mortally wounding Ouija II and damaging Gold Coast.
Muggins maneuvers Remembrance alongside Gold Coast. His crew fires

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Muggins’ line-gun to attach a line to Gold Coast. Byron and Jack go across, while Joyce
stays above deck to help and Muggins keeps control of the boat.
The three Jean-Jeans and Musashi Nobio make it across the line to
Remembrance. Byron and Jack can’t find Haruhiko or Mura. But Mura pops up from
below the water, at some distance off the starboard bow — she’d dived in to try to save
her father but couldn’t. Joyce fires the line-gun in her direction. Mura is able to grab the
line and is reeled in.
Gold Coast founders and goes under after Ouija II does. The heroes, though they
saved five lives, are glum because they couldn’t save the sixth.
Elsewhere, Checkmate has foundered, but Howard Hughes is rescued by Bitter
Fruit.
The survivors reach Fiji. Crusher, Tomorrow, and Bitter Fruit reach the island with
no negative points, and so tie in victory. Professor Horst is elated at having won, finally,
even though he hasn’t won a solo victory... and then he remembers being delayed by
saving Howard Hughes. “Hughes, you bastard! If not for you, I’d have been the sole
winner!” The heroes marvel at Horst’s ability to say the wrong thing at any given time.
George Putnam talks to Walter about writing an autobiography.
The storm reaches Fiji too, and the heroes are socked in by the weather for four
relaxing, if torrentially wet, days.
(August 30, 1937) The Musashi clan has arranged to send out members to come
to Fiji and retrieve Mura and Nobio. Bill Takamura says that Ed Compton and his brother
Mike lost their father in the World War; Ed, the older boy, raised his brother but had
problems with the law, while Mike went into the Navy.
Angela gives Mura her card, telling her to call if ever she needs help. Angela also
asks Dash how he knew Compton had stripped the speedboat. Dash says that the
speedboat, Jennifer, had told him.
The speedboat races prepare. Dash, Malcolm Campbell, Ben, Muggins, and
Angela, the latter two in loaner boats, all decide to compete. At the end of the first
straightaway, Ben and Campbell are in the lead. In the slalom, Muggins performs
brilliantly and pulls out ahead, with Ben dropping to second place and Campbell to third.
At the turn, Muggins retains and even increases his lead, with the other standings
remaining the same, and Dash inexplicably at the rear of the pack. In the return slalom,
Muggins retains his lead and the standings remain the same. Then, in the return
straightaway, the positions remain unchanged and Muggins is astonished to find himself
the winner. Ben is disgruntled at taking second place, even though it’s his first time
controlling a speedboat. Dash is in shock, never having finished a race in last place
before.
Walter Wayne considers building a zeppelin-style gondola with antigravity gear
so as to have a flying HQ for the Atomic Rangers. Angela decides to train as an Atomic
Ranger, but not to join the company.

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Lucky Devils
#17. Charmed Lives. Played 3/10/01.
Starring: Muggins, Tarkin O’Malley, Carolina Blanc, Matthew Dupree, Walter
Ransley, Dash Donohue, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Tony Victory,
Byron Nesbit, Captain Atomic.
Story Date: September-November, 1937.
In the time since the end of the Pacific 3000:
Walter Ransley continues working on his rocket ship, leasing portions of Dashing
Dan Donohue’s racetrack for the purpose. Walter also continues working on an
Eldorado Society Rocket Car, though it progresses more slowly.
Walter Wayne purchases a zeppelin gondola and builds in Ransley Antigravity
and Wayne Effect generators to turn it into a flying headquarters for the Atomic
Rangers. In addition to the pilots mentioned earlier, he has hired Chet Morgan as his
radio operator. He, too, works on a Rocket Car, and his is soon finished.
Randal Wesley moves to the New York area and begins experimenting
systematically with his fog mysticism.
Pierre LeDuc proves to be quite a gadabout, impossible for Muggins to track
down.
Arthur Volkner sends more study plans to Angela.
George Putnam continues to press Walter about a biography.
On August 27, Farah takes her college boards, passes them (in fact, she aces
them), and is accepted into Technopolis.
On September 1, Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard, SS captain Gerart Weiss, is
assassinated by party or parties unknown, hit by a large-caliber bullet that kills him
instantly.
On September 4, Kasia Vadas, the mistress of Kurt von Schuschnigg (Prime
Minister of Austria) is sought after fleeing a sniper attack and disappearing. Members of
the Eldorado Society wonder idly if this has anything to do with the murder of Gerart
Weiss.
On September 5, in Austria, a prominent bank’s Board of Directors meeting is
intruded upon by Herr Todt, a crazy man in a Death costume who trashs their guards
and declares that it is time for them all to die. He is intruded on in turn by Windstorm, a
man in a costume something like an officer’s uniform but in blue with gold Nordic runes
all over it. The two supers have a knock-down drag-out fight; it graduates to the streets,
cars are knocked around, buses are knocked over, innocents are endangered and
saved. Herr Todt eventually flees. This is the first recognized costumed superhero fight.
On September 10, Tony Victory phones in his first report on his ongoing
investigation of the Prince Royal Circus, the circus operated by Vernon Prince.
It debuted in 1927. It had an annual circuit: London, Paris, Monaco, Bern, Rome,
Beograd, Athens, Istanbul, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Koln. At each site, it spent a
luxurious week setting up and breaking down, performing for two weeks. Its off-season,
spent at Vernon Prince’s English estate, wasy May through August. As a circus, it was
terminated (by the Eldorado Society) during its off-season in 1936.
Victory has been able to find evidence that the circus did take a casino setup
wherever it went and conducted illegal gambling. The head of the casino operation was
one Lawrence Gant of London, ably assisted by his brother Henry Gant. He is

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continuing his investigation.
On September 13, the Hungarian Minister of Economics, Miklos Fodor, is
assassinated by a sniper. This now seems to be a specific campaign of murder against
foreign leaders. But in all three cases so far, the targets of the assassination or
attempted assassination have been in the company of their nations’ leaders, and the
leaders were not killed. Is the sniper missing, or is he issuing a warning to those
national leaders, or does he have some other agenda?
On September 16, the Atomic Rangers have a splashy debut against a gang that
seized the cruise vessel Horizon. Two hours after the ship was discovered to be off-
course and missing, one hour after the gang had seized it, Captain Atomic (Walter
Wayne), Lt. Photon (Dash Donohue), Lt. Neutron (Jean Atchison), Lt. Nucleus (Pierre
DeBassey), Ensign Positron (Joe Harper), and Ensign Electron (Annie Kun) finds it,
raids it, and frees it.
On September 22, in Turkey, the chief political advisor of Kemal Ataturk, Kedar
Inalcik, is assassinated by the sniper.
On September 30, in Athens, Nikos Andropolis, the personal valet of Georgios II,
king of Greece, is assassinated by the sniper. The Eldorado Society heroes can find no
specific link between the victims or estimate a route for the sniper’s continued
depredations.
On October 1, Claudia completes and turns in to St. Martin’s Press a translation
of the Temple of Maccius version of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad.
On October 5, reports coming in from the Spanish Civil war speak of one battle
between hellish forces. Fighting for the Nationalists: a man in a gray uniform, with gray
skin, who could not be killed, and who seemed to be able to subvert enemy soldiers to
his side. Against him: A horned devil who directed ghosts and a beautiful woman who
directed fire-demons. The battle seemed to be inconclusive. Later reports give these
three individuals the names the Gray Soldier, Diabol, and Mari.
On October 6, reports of an assassination attempt (by sniper) made against a
member of the cabinet of Yugoslavian king Peter II are hushed up. (Eventually news
trickles out that foreign minister Stefan Radak was killed.)
On October 13, banker Dietrich Gold, a business advisor to the government of
Switzerland, is killed by the sniper.
On October 22, Albert Chapman, a business advisor of the ruling family of
Monaco, flees a sniper attack and vanishes from sight.
On November 1, Nichelle Cardin, the mistress of French premier Leon Blum
(Socialist, intellectual, Jew), is assassinated by the sniper.
And Muggins, reviewing notes on world events, recognizes a pattern in the series
of sniper assassinations. They are closely related to, though they do not match exactly,
a reverse of the path taken by the Prince Royal Circus.

City Stop Victim Murder, Date

London #1
Paris #2 Nichelle Cardin #9, 11/1/37
Monaco #3 Albert Chapman* #8, 10/22/37
Bern #4 Dietrich Gold #7, 10/13/37
Rome #5

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Beograd #6 Stefan Radak #6, 10/6/37
Athens #7 Nikos Andropolis #5, 9/30/37
Istanbul #8 Kedar Inalcik #4, 9/22/37
Budapest #9 Miklos Fodor #3, 9/13/37
Vienna #10 Kasia Vadas* #2, 9/4/37
Berlin #11 Gerart Weiss #1, 9/1/37
Koln #12
* Survived the assassination attempt.

The parallels between the two sets of information are too close for coincidence to
be a factor. However, there are some puzzling items on it. Why were there no killings in
Koln and Rome? Koln, of course, is not a center of government, and is a German city,
so perhaps the Berlin assassination fulfilled the portion of the killer’s plan that might
otherwise have involved Koln. As for Rome, though, no one believes that an
assassination attempt made to a confidant of Mussolini would have gone unreported.
And it appears that there is one murder yet to go, in London.
Muggins calls for a meeting and briefs the others. They wonder if the two
survivors were deliberately missed. And since this all relates somehow to Vernon
Prince’s plans, could the assassinations have been tests of Luck?
Police Investigator Niles MacDougal of Edinburgh, Scotland calls. He says that
Tony Victory has been savagely beaten and lies unconscious in the local hospital.
Papers in his possession alerted MacDougal that Victory was working for the Eldorado
Society. The heroes have no idea why he might have been attacked, but promise to
come to Edinburgh as fast as possible to answer police questions. Muggins calls Byron
Nesbit in London to get the U.K. branch of the Society up there, then arranges for the
fastest possible trip to Scotland: He calls Captain Atomic. Captain Atomic would be
happy to take them across the Atlantic in the Rocket Plane. But Muggins does arrange
for a civilian pilot to take the DC-3 across via Iceland so they can eventually have their
own transportation on hand.
The heroes enjoy, if that’s the word, a 500+ mph flight across the ocean. They
land outside the city and relax with a quick picnic lunch, then leave Matthew and all the
weapons behind and make a very public flight over to the hospital, landing in the
parking lot outside, a photo opportunity — Captain Atomic helping his Eldorado Society
friends. Captain Atomic takes off again and the Eldorado Society enters the hospital.
They meet Inspector MacDougal, who says that things have happened during
their transit. “A dwarf” apparently kidnapped Tony Victory out of the hospital, leaving
behind a dummy. The dummy was, a while later, shot by a sniper from a building across
the parking field. The heroes visit the roof of the other building, but find no leads.
MacDougal tells them that an Edinburgh resident heard a gunshot. Emerging
(eventually) to investigate, he found Victory, beaten but not shot, in an alley. The heroes
tell him about Victory’s investigation into the circus, which they suggest was a criminal
organization. MacDougal recommends they check in at the Gryphon Arms. They do.
From there, they call the Society HQ in London and get Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul says that
Byron is in Edinburgh and has Tony Victory — he was the “dwarf.” The heroes go to
Byron’s hotel room, where Victory lies still unconscious. Byron says that, when he got to

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the hospital, he discovered that the hospital staff had been questioned about Victory by
“some wop,” a tall, handsome blond man with military demeanor. Sensing trouble, Byron
arranged to steal Victory. He heard the gunshot that killed his dummy as he was leaving
with Victory. He’s distressed to hear that he has been called a dwarf. He wonders if he
should wear elevator shoes.
The heroes inform Inspector MacDougal that Victory has been found. They also
ask for the address of the alley where Victory was found. But they decide to look at it in
daylight tomorrow.
Before dawn, Victory wakes up. He says that he had been tracing the
movements of one Ewan Brookston. Brookston was a successful gambler, a regular
visitor to the Prince circus casino, and a confidant of the former king, Edward VIII.
Brookston had, after Edward’s abdication, moved to Edinburgh. In investigating
Brookston, Victory discovered that a big military man was stalking Brookston. Victory
found the military man in the alley, sighting in on Brookston through a window. Victory
knocked the barrel aside and the shot missed. The military man proceeded to beat
Victory senseless. This bothers Victory, as he’s pretty good in hand-to-hand combat.
They assemble an artist’s sketch of the sniper, then get it into MacDougal’s
hands. They visit the alley and find Brookston’s apartment in the building. They find the
bullet imbedded in the windowsill. Brookston’s apartment has been tossed; they toss it
again.
Among other things, they find newspaper clippings from all over Europe,
clippings of the other sniper killings. Beside the name of each victim is handwritten the
word “Charm?”.
Matthew finds a cunningly concealed loose floorboard. Below it is an almost
empty cache; there are some gold sovereigns there in the back, loose. A scrap of paper,
torn through, says “394 Chil” in handwritten letters.
A neighbor who opportunistically hovers and looks as though he intends to clean
out Brookston’s goods as soon as the heroes have their backs turned says he heard the
gunshot, heard Brookston run upstairs to the roof, heard someone come up the stairs
moments later and enter the apartment. The heroes call MacDougal to let him know
what they have found — and to convince this neighbor to leave the apartment alone.
They find an address matching the letters on the scrap of paper. The business at
394 Chilton is a photographer’s and engraver’s. The proprietor, elderly Mr. Ethan Tighe,
says he doesn’t know Ewan Brookston or the military man pursuing him. He does take a
copy of the artist’s sketch.
They call Victory at the hotel. He says that MacDougal has called with an identity
for the sniper. The man is Colonel Dante Silviani, an Italian Army sniper and confidant of
Benito Mussolini.
They return to the hotel and call the Gideon estate in the Hamptons, where Julia
Temple lives. Julia is the one person living to whom they have access who might know
something of these events. She and Claudia speak in Latin to thwart any
eavesdroppers.
Julia says that, just as the casino was a special insider’s treat of the circus, there
was a special insider’s treat of the casino. It was called the Circle, and only people that
Vernon Prince wanted to entice and impress were invited there. One of the things that
visitors were allowed to do was shoot at Julia. They were very impressed when they
failed to hit her. They did this with important people at each of the major circus stops,
except for Koln, which was just where the circus collected itself at the end of its yearly
run.

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The heroes get a call from Ewan Brookston. He invites them to meet with him at
the photographer’s place at 6 in the evening. They are definitely on time. Ewan
Brookston has an interesting story for them.
He says that Vernon Prince had a long-range plan. Prince would give each ruler
in the nations visited a Charm, a companion/aide with extraordinary Luck abilities. The
Charm was supposed to be loyal to Prince. Prince would allow that ruler to grow
dependent on the Charm. Then, eventually, Prince would begin demanding concessions
of the ruler. This way, he would gradually bring all Europe under his sway. The Charms
were unaware of one another and the rulers were unaware that there were other
Charms.
One problem did arise in the course of the setup of this plan. President von
Hindenberg’s Charm, Adolf Hitler, turned the tables on Prince by seizing power from von
Hindenburg. Hitler apparently felt no loyalty to Prince, and had been able to find the
table into which his luck-bearing silver nails had been hammered. Hitler hid the table so
Prince could not find it.
A year ago, after the death of Vernon Prince, Henry Gant, right-hand-man of
Prince’s right-hand-man Lawrence Gant, at Lawrence’s directive, travelled the circus
route, visiting each ruler (other than Hitler) in turn and telling them that they’d better
knuckle under now or lose their Charms.
Things didn’t go quite as well as the Gants had apparently presumed.
First, King Edward of England refused and, rather than subject his nation to the
sort of bad luck that could descend upon his nation that the Gants could theoretically
cause to happen, he abdicated.
Second — and here Brookston is theorizing — it appears that, while most of the
other rulers acquiesced, Italy’s Benito Mussolini was much tougher than anticipated.
Henry Gant disappeared in Italiy. It seems likely that Mussolini grabbed him and learned
from him the details of the Charms plan. However, it appears that Gant didn’t reveal all
before he died. Hitler had apparently set up his own bodyguard to appear to be a
Charm, and it was that bodyguard who died, so it seems that the Italians have
calculated the identities of the Charms from their movements and influences rather from
direct knowledge from Gant.
It seems obvious that Dante Silviani, a World War veteran and accomplished
sniper, was Mussolini’s charm, and was ordered to began his own tour of the continent
and deprive all the other leaders of their Charms. Not all of the Charms died, of course,
but those who did not die fled and were lost to their respective leaders, which is
probably just as good to Mussolini’s way of thinking.

Nation Charm Fate

England Ewan Brookston Fled
France Nichelle Cardin Murdered
Monaco Albert Chapman Fled
Switzerland Dietrich Gold Murdered
Italy Dante Silviani At Large
Yugoslavia Stefan Radak Murdered
Greece Nikos Andropolis Murdered

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Turkey Kedar Inalcik Murdered
Hungary Miklos Fodor Murdered
Austria Kasia Vadas* Fled
Germany Adolf Hitler At Large

Though Brookston has not been the Charm of the United Kingdom for some time,
it is obvious that Silviani came here to kill him, so Brookstone is going to flee. Mr. Tighe
is making him some forged identity documents. The heroes, impressed with Tighe’s
skill, far from arranging to turn him in, put down payments on false-ID passports for
themselves as well. Angela will have a Swiss passport, Muggins a Cuban.
The heroes return to their hotel. MacDougal has called the hotel and wants to
see them at his station. Muggins first calls Julia Temple to warn her about Silviani; then
the Society members go to the police station.
MacDougal reports that Silviani has disappeared. Before he left, he sent a
telegram from his hotel. The telegram was to L. Gant at the Wheel of Fortune nightclub
in Georgetown, VA. It read, “0 left. Time for a visit.”
They thank MacDougal and plan to return to the U.S.
They call the Sapperstein Brothers, now at the Wildman Investigations
headquarters, to inquire about Lawrence Gant. It appears that Gant has recently been
taking over the Washington mobs. His brother Henry disappeared several months ago
and is presumed dead. The Sappersteins do some calling around and call back with the
news that it appears that the Gant gang is now arming for war.
The Society calls in Captain Atomic, who has spent the last couple of days fine-
tuning the Rocket Car, and blast back to New York. They radio the DC-3 pilot to tell him
to come back.
In New York, they check in with Julia. She says that Lawrence Gant is lucky, a
job benefit. They also brainstorm ways to find the luck-nail tables; they would dearly
love to deprive Hitler of his. The heroes call Lawrence Gant and hint that they know
what’s up; they arrange an appointment to see him, and head down to D.C.
There, they hook up with Alexander Sapperstein, whom they have sent ahead.
He reports that the Gant gang has men on rooftops all around the Wheel of Fortune
nightclub. They prepare to enter the nightclub, though Dash stays outside with his
rocket pack.
They meet Lawrence Gant, who admits that at least some of the story told by the
Eldorado Society is true. He’s confident that Silviani can’t get to him here, at least not in
the short run. He proposes to cooperate with the Eldorado Society, and vice versa,
since they have a common enemy.
Quote of the Episode: Byron — “The dwarf police are after me.”

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#18. Charmed Deaths. Played 3/31/01.

Starring: Muggins, Tarkin O’Malley, Carolina Blanc, Matthew Dupree, Walter
Ransley, Dash Donohue, Angela Billings. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Alexander
Sapperstein.
Story Date: November, 1937.
As the heroes are being shown out of the Wheel of Fortune, they see, through an
open office door, a pair of very dirty workmen resting. Carolina concludes that Gant is
having a tunnel dug out.
Once they’re outside, Walter decides to bring Claudia in because of her greater
experience with lucky warriors, and Muggins begins looking around to see which of the
closest hotels would best serve their accommodation purposes. They see a girl of
perhaps 14 ejected from the nightclub. She’s furious. She picks up a crate from a truck
parked nearby and prepares to hurl it through a window. The heroes intervene and talk
to her.
Her name is Daphne Doyle, and she is 14. She’s a schoolgirl at a private school
in Georgetown. Her sister, Della Doyle, 24, is a former schoolteacher but she is now,
well, “Larry” Gant’s moll. Della lost her teaching job when her school, hard-hit by the
Depression, closed and she could not find another position. Lawrence Gant made her a
proposition (he’d put Daphne in a school and pay all the Doyles’ expenses) and another
proposition (which the heroes can guess). Della, boxed in by circumstances, agreed.
The heroes ponder whether those circumstances were normal or brought about by
Gant’s luck when he decided he wanted Della.
But now, some Italian soldier has kidnapped Della and sent Daphne in with the
news that Della will be killed if Lawrence doesn’t leave the nightclub. Lawrenced has
refused.
They go back in to talk to Lawrence again. He admits to the exchange Daphne
described. He has refused because it is certain death and does not even necessarily
offer any hope to Della. But he will call the Eldorado Society as soon as Salvini lets him
know where Della will be.
The heroes check into a hotel. Walter goes off to the train station and returns with
Claudia. They discuss tactics to be used against lucky soldiers. Carolina recommends
that Walter fabricate an armored blanket to throw around hostages in tight situations.
Sapperstein is assigned to look for Dante Silviani’s rooms.
The phone rings. It’s Lawrence. He says that Dante has informed him that Della
will be at the Bedford Ironworks and Automotive plant in southwestern New Jersey at
midnight. But then Sapperstein calls. He just saw a load of Gant thugs leave the
nightclub and head southwest — the opposite direction from New Jersey. Muggins tells
Sapperstein to follow the thugs. Dan will race off to the Ironworks in his rocket pack and
the rest of the Eldorado Society will follow. Claudia waits behind in the hotel room.
Muggins gives Daphne a .38 snubbie.
Dash reaches the Ironworks and reports in by radio. He flies around the dark
facility, which appears to have been closed for years. The doors are all chained, but
some of the windows are shattered. Dash flies in, looks around, finds no sign of Della.
At five minutes of midnight, Dash stops searching. He pulls out and flies to the
other heroes, who are just arriving.
Claudia calls on the radio. She reports that Sapperstein called her on the phone.
He followed the cars of gangsters. They dropped off one of their own a few blocks from
their destination, but Sapperstein stayed with the main body. They went to a building

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under construction. They climbed up into it. Someone shot a woman tied to a post on an
upper floor. The gangsters fled. Sapperstein climbed up to the victim, but it was a
dummy dressed in woman’s clothing. He will now return to the building where the one
man was dropped off.
The heroes leave the Ironworks and get back to their hotel. Claudia says that
Sapperstein has just called, requesting a ride. He did return to that building and
knocked out the man as he emerged. The man had, in a case, a sniper’s rifle. His
identification says that his name is Angie Verdi.
They go get Sapperstein and Verdi. They call the Wheel of Fortune, but Joe
Spinelli answers and says that Lawrence is unavailable — “In a bad way.” They go to
see him. Spinelli talks to them and is free with his story.
Joe’s brother Tony Spinelli is Lawrence Gant’s right-hand man. After sending
some men to rescue Della Doyle, Lawrence decided to leave the Wheel of Fortune via
his new escape tunnel, which was complete — they’d dug to a nearby building’s
basement. But Lawrence admitted that the gang sent to rescue Della was actually sent
to kill Dante and Della too. Della had apparently saved her own life by telling Dante that
she knew how to “do the luck.” Lawrence set up a sniper a block or two away from the
building to make sure that Della didn’t emerge alive. Tony, who was sweet on Della, was
outraged, but Lawrence shot him in the stomach and then continued on into the
basement. When he opened the door to the stairs up, someone, presumably Silviani,
blew his brains out. Tony is still alive, being operated on by the best slug-yanker mob
money can buy.
So Della is still alive, and Dante probably thinks her life is worth preserving. They
call Della’s apartment just in case, and she answers. Her guarded answers offer little
information but suggest that Silviani is still there. They race over to her place but she
has left in the meantime. She has left a note for Daphne — “I’ve found a new man and
I’m leaving with him. I left you some money in the cookie jar.” The cookie jar contains
several hundred dollars. On the side of the note are a number of symbols, including
hearts, XXXs and OOOs, and other symbols which Angela recognizes as Pittman
shorthand. They send Sapperstein and Dash to the airport, hopefully to head off Dante
and Della if they go that way, and get the note to Daphne.
Daphne interprets the Pittman this way: “Plans for cabinet. He knows I know
Luck.” Plans for which cabinet? The U.S. cabinet? If Silviani and Mussolini are able to
replicate the Luck transfer games, they could compromise the U.S. government.
The doorman at Della’s apartment remembers the car that last brought her and
took her away. It had plates of the Italian embassy. They drive by the embassy and the
consulate. The car is at the embassy. They decide to stage a rescue raid, wearing
masks and bandanas, speaking German and Itza Maya.
Tarkin goes to the Wheel of Fortune to request some firepower. He returns with a
Thompson SMG with a 100-shot drum, four pump-action 12-gauge shotguns, two
potato-masher grenades, and a tripod-mounted .50-caliber M2HB.
They gear up this way:

Angela Blowgun, slung, machete, .38, 9mm, .38 Super SMG

Carolina Armored vest and hat, .38 SMG, .45 Smith & Wesson
Claudia (at car)
Dash Twin .357s, 12-gauge shotgun

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Matthew .45 revolver, throwing knives. .45 Thompson SMG
Muggins Pistol, .50-caliber MG, armored vest, knife, sap
Sapperstein 12-gauge shotgun
Tal 12-gauge shotgun, knives, armored vest
Tarkin Two knives, twin .45 ACP Grants, Verdi’s sniper rifle
Walter .45 ACP Grant SMG

Tarkin has also found out that Gant did have a plan to subvert members of the
U.S. cabinet, starting with Frances Perkins (the female Secretary of Labor), Harold L.
Ickes (the Secretary of the Interior), and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (the Secretary of the
Treasury).
They swap the ratty old spare onto one of the wheels of their car, then punch a
hole in it. Claudia drives up to a stop in front of the embassy and contrives to change
the tire in an inept and distracting way. Meanwhile, Matthew and Tarkin climb the estate
wall, sneak up on the watching guards from behind, and kayo them (despite the fact that
Matthew’s guard bent over to pick up a coin and Matthe missed him on the first strike).
Everyone else climbs over.
They get to the right (dark) side of the house and clamber up to a second story
window. Matthew gets the window, which opens into a bathroom, open. He enters the
bathroom and begins checking out the rooms to either side. The one toward the front of
the house is a bedroom; in the bed is a sleeping woman. He summons Angela up to the
bathroom window and asks for a dart so he can drug the woman. But just after he gets
the dart, the woman in question enters the bathroom. Matthew lunges forward and
pokes the dart into her neck. She gasps but collapses.
Matthew manages to carry her back into her room and dumps her on the bed. He
opens the window — bigger and lower than the bathroom window — and gets the
others up into it.
They have the option of taking the corridor straight out from the woman’s room,
which heads along the front of the building and probably toward the sounds of
celebration they here, or the one 90 degrees to it, leading along the right side of the
building. They go right. They find an empty bedroom, a bedroom with a boy in it — and
then someone comes down the hall toward them. They all press into the boy’s bedroom.
The person in the hall passes them by and a moment later a door closes.
The heroes peer out into the hall. Another of the doorways is now lit from the
other side. They surround it; Muggins stands by with his sap. They knock on the door.
The occupant opens it and addresses them sternly in Italian. It looks like the Italian
ambassador. Muggins swings at him but the man grabs the sap, yanks it out of his
hand, gestures at it, and begins lecturing him. Angela hits him with a dart and he
collapses. They take his keys and all enter the room.
It doesn’t get any less complicated. Calling for his papa, the little boy from down
the hall enters the room. They grab him and restrain him.
A little reconnaissance proves that there’s still a party going on in the main room
downstairs, but the long hall to the other wing of the building goes in plain sight of the
ballroom below. They decide to go up to the roof, across, and down again. They do so.
Caroline is the only one to make noise, but — unknown to the heroes — Dante Silviani,
in his bedroom below, hears them. He arms himself and moves out into the hallway to

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investigate.
They pick an unlit window toward the rear of the wing. They descend and enter it.
The bed is still warm. They open the armoire and find a case for a sniper rifle. Oops.
Matthew gets to the door and takes a peek. He sees a brief glimpse of Silviani to the
right, just turning the corner into the main hall. Muggins sets up his .50-caliber in the
corridor, pointing that way.
Opposite Silviani’s door, in the hall, Angela sees that the portrait of Benito
Mussolini is tilted. She slides it aside and finds a hole for some strange sort of
cylindrical key. The heroes pick the lock and the section of wall slides aside, revealing a
small office with an Italian Army officer in it. Matthew covers him. That’s when Silviani
chooses to come back around the corner. He snaps a shot that hits the tripod of
Muggins’ SMG, wrecking it. Muggins must strain to hold and aim the weapon now.
The heroes respond with a terrifying flood of lead, none of which hits Silviani.
The army officer in the office responds to questions by indicating that he does not
speak English. But Matthew notices that he was reading the smash bestseller Gone
With the Wind and gets stern when demanding information. He forces the officer to
produce Della. The officer presses a desk button and another wall section slides open
into Della’s cell. She’s under the bed, having heard all the gunfire.
Dante, popping out from behind the corner for snap shots, eludes all return fire
and manages to shoot Angela (her armored Merry Widow reduces the damage to a
nasty bruise) and then Caroline (the bullet penetrates her lung). She is not knocked out;
she’s too tough for that. But she is stunned. Her return shot appeared to hit Silviani.
Angela and Dash make it up to the corner and peer around. Silviani is gone. Now
they don’t know where he’s likely to appear. Walter calls a retreat. Tarkin carries
Carolina out and down to the ground. Dash carries Della down. Once everyone is out,
Tarkin goes up on the roof with the sniper rifle.
The heroes race around to the front wall. Silviani is at the front of the roof but no
one sees him as he prepares to fire — no one but Claudia, parked across the street.
She turns on the headlights and blares the horn, then ducks for cover. Silviani shoots at
her, drilling the driver’s seat where she was.
Tarkin, braced on the roof above Silviani’s room, shoots at the sniper and hits
him in the back of the knee. As he staggers off-balance, Carolina and Dash fire, hitting
him in the stomach and chest respectively. Matthew fires a burst, hitting him in the thigh
and chest. Then he drops out of sight.
The heroes race for the car, shouting “Greater Libya and Abyssinia!” — all but
Angela, who hangs back waiting for Tarkin. Tarkin keeps firing for nine more shots, then
descends, joins Angela, and they all leave. Tarkin just kept shooting until he ran out of
ammo, putting round after round into Silviani’s head... just to be sure. Really, really sure.
Thirty minutes later, they’re at the Wheel of Fortune, a subdued celebration as
the slug-yanker, former surgeon Mervyn Fried, works on Carolina. His surgery is
brilliant. He removes the slug, repairs the damage he can, gets everything patched up
and closed. Carolina awakens secure in the knowledge that she’ll have another
interesting scar to show Jean-Paul.
The next day, Caroline, less affected by anaesthetics, points out that Silviani
doubtless wired Italy about what Della knows. Della and Daphne will have to be
relocated; the Italians may come for her otherwise. Would Della like to be a private tutor
for Hollywood stars? She would, but she’d like to be able to change her name. After all,
she’s a fallen woman. She doesn’t want that to follow her. The heroes don’t point out
that changing her name would have been a requirement for a successful identity

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change in any case. It turns out that Della does know how to effect the transfer of luck.
Lawrence Gant, who had never told her, still talked in his sleep.
The heroes discuss again trying to find out where Hitler has hidden his nails
table. They’ll see if they can get Reni Liefenstahl to give them copies of all her
photographs of Hitler; perhaps there’s a clue in them.
Muggins wants the Eldorado Society to have its own printing press.

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American Avenger
#19. Mob Violence. Played 4/7/01.
Starring: Carolina Allcot, Matthew Dupree, Angela Billings, Walter Ransley, Dash
Donohue, Muggins, Tarkin O’Malley. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Randal Wesley.
Introducing: The Radiance (1930s), Miss Fortune, Raymond White.
Story Date: December, 1937-January, 1938.
In the time since the end of the last adventure, the Italian ambassador to the U.S.
has been replaced by Carlo Valletri. Della and Daphne Doyle have been relocated to
Hollywood under the names Sandra and Shawna Stover. Dash has seen an advance
screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and pronounce it to have “excellent
stunt work.” Walter has been proceeding well with his Moon Rocket, but is having
trouble with space suits; the task of keeping pressure and air flows correct, reliable, and
easy to operate is proving too great for even his engineering genuis.
On December 23, the Eldorado Society heroes are all over New York, preparing
for Christmas. Across the radio comes news of a massive riot beginning in Chinatown,
which is just north of City Hall. Walter calls the others and the Atomic Rangers. The
Atomic Rangers will be in as fast as they can, but their HQ is half an hour’s flying time
away.
Angela is first to arrive in the vicinity, stopping at the verges of the crowd and the
line of policemen that protects City Hall. From up Chinatown way, she can hear the
distant sounds of metal hitting metal, like a fan with one blade pulled out of alignment.
She asks a cop about what’s going on. He doesn’t know; his job is to keep City Hall
safe. From the crowd, Angela hears phrases like “they had it coming” and “one-man
tank.”
Walter, Muggins, and Joyce arrive. Joyce remains behind to direct late-arriving
members of the Society while Angela, Walter, and Muggins enter the danger zone. They
move past the police barricades and the crowd cheers the Eldorado Society going to
work.
Up ahead, the near streets are deserted, but movement in the distance suggests
action. Soon, they approach two groups with violence on their mind: A group of
Caucasian youths carting off an Asian girl with rape evidently on their mind, and a group
of Caucasian men carrying an Asian boy toward a lightpost with a noose, hanging their
obvious plan. Angela moves toward the girl, Walter and Muggins toward the larger gang
with the noose. But a weird fog coalesces around the youths manhandling the girl and
there arise from within the sounds of fists meeting flesh.
Walter shoots the noose rope as it goes taut and the Chinese boy falls unharmed
to the pavement. The men attempting the hanging are enraged and charge the
Eldorado Society.
Meanwhile, moving into the too-familiar fog, Angela bumps into Randal Wesley,
who controls the fog. He has rescued the Asian girl and beaten up her attackers. He
exchanges a few words with Angela and then heads off toward Walter and Muggins.
The attackers of Muggins and Walter swarm over them. Muggins draws his baton
and defends himself vigorously, but the angry men of the mob hit Walter twice. Carolina
and Tarkin, arriving late, charge to help him and Walter. Carlolina attacks one of
Muggins’ attackers; he blocks her hook, but the blow smashes bones in his hand. Tarkin
kicks one of Walter’s opponents, sending the man skidding back 12' along the sidewalk.

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Meanwhile, Dash and Matthew arrive separately back at the barricades. Dash
moves through the barricades on his motorcycle, picks up Matthew, and roars toward
the combat. Some people in the crowd yell encouragements like “Go get those Japs!”
Angela fires a warning shot against people throwing bottles and bricks from
windows. “This is over and it’s time for you to go home!” she cries. But they redouble
their efforts and others at street level call her a Jap-lover and charge her.
Walter sits up from where he fell and uses the Ransley Cannon to kneecap his
other attacker. Ransley’s fog swoops in on their attackers from the rear, absorbing two
of them; there is a nasty smack noise and one of them is propelled right back out again.
Members of the mob swing at Muggins, Carolina, and Tarkin, which the more
sophisticated fighters avoid. One member of the mob, seeing the way Tarkin fights,
identifies him as a Jap. Tarkin uses a thoroughly Western hook to piledrive the man’s
genitals, putting him out for the count. Carolina puts down two opponents with one-two
blows. Walter gets up and reaches over to pinch the shoulder of one of his opponents,
which puts that man down.
Dash, roaring up toward the engagement, sees that Angela’s back is against a
wall — she’s being charged by a mob and has only her .38 Super SMG to defend
herself with. He doesn’t want her to have to kill or be killed. He drives straight at that
mob. Matthew drops off and skids to a flamboyant stop right in front of one of the men,
swings, and hits the man a beautiful shot in the chest that puts the man down. Dash
sticks out a hand to clobber another man in the mob.
The fog moves in on the crowd from behind and another man drops,
unconscious. The rescued Chinese boy, however, gets the noose off his neck and cries,
“Eldorado Society!”
Muggins intimidates his injured foe into leaving. Muggins charges at Angela’s
foes, knocking one down from behind. Angela only has to fire on a couple of attackers
now and sends them scurrying away with near misses and grazes. Matthew confronts
one of the last of the attackers, telling him “Cease and desist” in his most commanding
fashion, and the man is confused. He calls for his friend Murray and says it’s time to go
home.
With the crowd dispersed, the heroes — joined by Randal, who drops his fog —
march up the street toward the clattering-metal noise, which has continued. When they
get to the next intersection, they find that a fight is going on within it, surrounded by a
crowd of both Caucasian and Chinese witnesses.
The fight is between a silvery tripodal robot (Radiance) and a man in a red, white
and blue stand-up tank (American Avenger). As they near the situation, Walter and
Muggins find themselves getting angry, but don’t know what they’re angry about. The
Caucasians in the crowd are cheering the American Avenger and are obviously waiting
for him to beat the tripod robot so they can get back to mobbing “Japs.” The heroes
decide to end matters by taking down the American Avenger. Walter spots high tension
wires crossing overhead, power lines for the trolly; he wants to hit both the metallic
opponents. Carolina shoots for the line over the American Avenger and hits it; it falls on
the tank-robot and electrocutes it, apparently damaging it. It flees. Walter calls for the
others to go after it, but it gets away. Meanwhile, the Radiance protects the crowd from
the wire as it licks around and spits sparks.
Walter and Muggins snap out of their anger. (Walter: “Did I just go funny?”) Both
sides of the crowd also seem to calm down and the Caucasians head off to their own
neighborhoods.
They talk to the Radiance, who admits that he is a robot, a learning robot. He

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says that American Avenger is a man in a robot suit, and the man is the former lab
assistant of Radiance’s creator. The heroes ask to see Radiance’s creator and
Radiance promises to deliver their request.
Heading back to their headquarters, the Eldorado Society members talk to the
press, giving them their impressions of the riot. The people of Chinatown are grateful.
Randal accompanies them back to their headquarters.
They get a call from Zachariah Albritton... who is also Radiance’s creator. They
go to Albritton’s town home. It’s the sort of crowded lab in which Walter feels instantly at
home.
Albritton says that his former assistant’s name is Lionel Drew. He says that
Radiance is loaded with tanks of gaseous attacks, and that he suspects Drew has
adapted the technology to have an invisible gas attack that enrages people. American
Avenger apparently harangued the crowd, rousing their ire against the Japanese, and
then led them on a chemical-induced rampage against anyone who looked even
approximately Japanese. Carolina invites Albritton and Radiance both to her house for
Christmas.
Muggins recommends that Radiance join a group like the Bloodhounds; they
would help give him insight into human behavior. Radiance says that he has met a
mystery man — mystery woman, that is. Her name is Miss Fortune. Muggins
immediately suspects that Miss Fortune is Julia Temple. He’s startled.
Back at HQ, they discuss these events. Carolina is concerned that Albritton, an
archetypal mad scientist, will move on to a new project before Radiance is emotionally
mature. Muggins says that Radiance needs an extended family, which is why he was
talking about Radiance hooking up with mystery men. He thinks it would be a good idea
for Radiance and Miss Fortune to work together.
The next day (December 24, 1937), the radio has accounts of the riot. Everyone
deplores the violence, but Ted Rayburn, a rabidly anti-Japanese senator, comes just
short of supporting the American Avenger’s actions and promotes restraints on
Japanese in the U.S.
Present at Carolina’s Christmas party are Carolina, Jean-Paul (just in from
England), Little John Blanc, Josie, Muggins, Joyce, Farah, Albritton, Radiance,
Alexander and Marcus Sapperstein, Moe Menger, Walter, Claudia, Tal, Angela, Randal,
Matthew, Becky, Jack Tanner, and Patricia Rawlins. Richard Archbold, Marion Allcot,
and Cooter Sims can’t make it because of distance or other commitments. Farah and
Josie are the cooks, and both do a good job. Albritton gives Little John a book about
Robin Hood; Carolina gives Radiance a book and Joyce gives him a medal. Matthew
performs magic. Jack Tanner flirts with Farah, but Farah privately tells the others that
“he eats too much” to be a suitable husband.
The next day, Muggins and Alexander go drinking together. Muggins learns that
Alexander has taken employment with Wildman Investigations to give him a steady
income, in part so that he will be a more acceptable suitor. Muggins is impressed with
that dedication. Alexander also mentions that Vincent Wildman investigated what he
calls an “outbreak of werewolves” years ago in Los Angeles. Muggins realizes that he
must be speaking of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, which is where Georg Lubojevic
was infected with lycanthropy.
Muggins drinks Alexander under the table, however. And Muggins later wakes up
with a scrap of paper, written in his own handwriting, that reads “Don’t swim in
petticoats.” He has no idea why he wrote that.
On December 28, President Roosevelt asks Congress for a larger navy.

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Meanwhile, the American Avenger shows up in Chicago, exorting crowds to violence
against the Japanese. Tarkin calls Mercedes to borrow the anti-robot rifle in case the
Society runs into American Avenger again. Carolina writes a letter to the New York
Times decrying American Avenger and his methods.
On December 30, the Times runs the letter.
On January 1, 1938, the Times runs a letter in response from Senator Rayburn,
who questions Carolina’s lucidity and patriotism. In foreign news, Jewish doctors in
Germany are stripped of their insurance under the new Nuremburg Laws; Muggins
writes Ayala to tell her she should invite Jewish doctors to emigrate to Brazil.
On January 3, the American Avenger pops up in San Francisco, and riots and
burning result therefrom — San Francisco has a big Chinatown. The heroes decide to
head out there and see if they can run him to earth. They pack up their anti-robot game,
their harpoon gun, and Walter’s portable laboratory. When Walter tries to call Albritton,
he is referred to a hotel in California. Obviously, Albritton is on the same errand. He calls
Albritton there. They discuss tactics to use against American Avenger. Albritton
recommends tank-style caltrops.
Muggins calls Julia and invites her over. When she visits, she admits that she is
Miss Fortune. She loves being Miss Fortune. She says she’s three people: Julia, the
unwilling mistress of Prince Verlon; Julia Temple, hiding her shameful past and
pretending to be normal; and Miss Fortune, who doesn’t have to hide or worry about her
past, who doesn’t have to pretend to be like anyone else. She is free as Miss Fortune.
Muggins is a little concerned by this dichotomy. Muggins does recommend that she look
up Radiance. She’s aware from the news that he’s in San Francisco; she’ll go there to
run him down.
Walter decides to take the Eldorado Society to Los Angeles instead. He believes
that LA is American Avenger’s next, logical destination. Overnight, the Society flies to
Los Angeles. They check into the hotel that morning; that afternoon, they call Albritton
and get ahold of Julia Temple, who is at Albritton’s hotel suite. She says that there was a
clash between American Avenger and Radiance today. American Avenger used a
hidden bomb to hurt Radiance badly. But Miss Fortune was there and was able to
convince the crowd that American Avenger had endangered their children. She was
able to convince them to throw stones at American Avenger. American Avenger
retreated and Miss Fortune rescued Radiance.
Walter talks to Albritton. Albritton admits that LA is probably the best place to look
for American Avenger next. Walter begins working up coil-wire bombs and caltrops; the
heroes buy Dash a tuxedo (his first) that will still allow him to pop out his revolvers on
command.
On January 5, a Japanese cargo ship is sunk by a torpedo off the coast of
California, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The heroes consider
leading American Avenger into a chase and dropping caltrops off the backs of
motorcycles to cripple him. Matthew recommends pretending to be Japanese. They
decide they ought to have five or six motorcycles, but they only have three members
(Dash, Muggins, and Tarkin) who are proficient motorcyclists. Dash says that this is the
homeland of stuntmen and Walter agrees that he should hire some. The heroes go
shopping, picking up six good used motorcycles and a hardy truck. Dash hires three
gutsy stuntmen — Texan Raymond White, his Californian cousin Jim White, and Larry
Bain.
On January 6, the heroes set up what they figure will be the first day of their
stakeout. They’re a block from the edge of Los Angeles’ Chinatown and they have

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radios tuned to various stations.
Dash, Muggins, Tarkin, Raymond, Larry, and Jim each have a motorcycle with a
caltrop lashed to the back by a quick-release knot. All of them have bandanas for
masks. Raymond and Tarkin, who speak Japanese, will be in charge of taunting
American Avenger.
Moe is behind the controls of the truck. In the back are Matthew, in charge of the
harpoon gun, Carolina, in charge of the robot rifle, and Angela, who is in charge of the
extra caltrops.
Walter and Tal are in possession of a sports car; Dash’s Rocket Pack is in the
trunk.
Julia, directed here by Claudia, arrives at the scene. She says that the Radiance
is being repaired and will be all right.
Raymond mentions, just to avoid any possible misunderstandings, that Carolina
shot his grandpa once, but that he doesn’t hold it against her. It turns out that he’s the
son of Reece White and the grandson of Coyote White, whom Carolina faced in Empire
Club #6, four and a half years ago.
The heroes hear a loudspeaker blare out some Souza music and a speaker
announcing, “Men and women of America, see what’s being done to you!” The heroes
have gotten lucky and struck oil on their first drilling. The American Avenger is nearby.
They gear up. Carolina reminds the motorcyclists to wait for the robot to emerge. All but
the truck heads on over to the site of the loudspeaker. There, a large panel truck is
parked near a temporary stand; on it is a lectern and a well-dressed man speaking.
The American Avenger suit emerges from the back of the truck and begins to
address the crowd. But Tarkin, speaking English with a Japanese accent, with his
bandana on, roars up to harrass him. “I am American,” Tarkin says, “and you’re not fit to
lick the horse droppings from my boots.” Speaking of horse droppings, he flings some
runny manure onto American Avenger’s suit.
American Avenger tells the crowd to pull these traitors off their bikes. Members of
the crowd surge forward to do so. Dash punches the first one to reach him. Tarkin kicks
his first assailant in the groin. Rayman punches his in the chest. All three knock their
attackers down. They mock American Avenger and then roar off.
Walter decides to change the plan. He has Tal come after him and together they
sneak along the edges of the crowd to the man who had first addressed the crowd.
While the motorcyclists are doing their performance, they get up right behind the man
and Walter tells Tal to kosh him. Tal does. He puts the man over his shoulder and the
two of them sneak back to the car. Julia, meanwhile, gets into the American Avenger’s
truck, changes into Miss Fortune, and steals the truck to follow the impromptu parade.
American Avenger, rolling fast, catches up to the rear of the line of motorcycles.
Jim White maneuvers in front of him and drops his caltrop, but American Avenger slides
to the side, eludes the caltrop, and slugs Jim. Jim and his motorcycle go down, but
before they disappear in the rear-view mirror the heroes can see that Jim is riding his
downed motorcycle to a controlled stop; he’ll be okay.
Next is Muggins. Muggins drops his caltrop and American Avenger eludes him,
too. American Avenger shoots through the gap between him and Raymond, putting him
between the two lines of motorcyclists. His upper body swings around so he’s facing
backwards, facing Muggins and Raymond.
Back in the truck, which trails the parade, Carolina takes a shot with the robot
gun. Her shot hits American Avenger but does no harm.
The bikers, on a prearranged signal, turn left onto a cross-street. American

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Avenger is caught off-guard. He has to reverse to follow, but gets back behind the bikers
before the heroes’ pickup truck catches up. The order of travel is now:

Motorcycles (Dash, Larry, Tarkin)

Motorcycles (Muggins, Raymond)
American Avenger
Pickup Truck (Moe, Carolina, Matthew)
Sports Car (Walter, Tal, Prisoner)
Panel Truck (Miss Fortune)

Before American Avenger catches up again, Dash signals a switch. He drops

back a rank and Muggins accelerates to the front rank. Dash signals a double attack
with Raymond. Raymond goes first, dropping his caltrop to force American Avenger to
drift left into Dash’s path... then Dash drops his caltrop. American Avenger wavers,
drifting back rightward, and runs over both caltrops. American Avenger catapults in a
forward fall as his treads seize up. He swings at both bikers but misses both, and he
crashes down onto the street, skidding forward.
Matthew and Carolina both fire again. Both Matthew’s harpoon and Carolina’s
slug hit in American Avenger’s treads. Moe decelerates, tightening the line between the
harpoon gun and American Avenger. American Avenger flails his arms and gets moving
again, swimming along the top of the ground, though Moe throws the truck into reverse
and impedes him greatly. Matthew leaps across the hood of his truck and atop American
Avenger. Miss Fortune brings her truck up and around, positioning it in front of American
Avenger, slowing it further.
The heroes take advantage of the delay to set up another attack. They position
Larry beside the rear of the panel truck. At a coordinated signal, Miss Fortune drifts
right, Larry drifts into position just ahead of the American Avenger’s head and drops his
caltrop, and Moe stands on his brake. American Avenger loses his trip and drops
facefirst onto the caltrop, piercing the robot suit’s head.
The pilot inside the suit, Lionel Drew, gives up. He opens the top-of-the-head
hatch. He’s trapped by the caltrop spike and can’t get out.
Walter calls the police and they show up. As their sirens get near, Miss Fortune
leaves her stolen truck and steps fluidly up onto the running board of a passing car; she
disappears into the distance.
In the aftermath, as the heroes acquire details, they learn that the panel truck
was rented in San Francisco — rented to the Jones Shipyards, a boat and submarine
builder. The man Walter and Tal have captured is Carter Jones, a cousin of the business
owners. Muggins notes that whipping up a war hysteria could mean important
shipbuilding contracts.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Farah and Alexander go on a date.
Quotes of the Episode:
Dash, about Farah’s suitors — “Get them all in one place and you won’t need as
many hand grenades.”
Walter, to Tarkin, about the manure — “Where’d you get it?” Tarkin — “I just
made it.”

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#20. Along Came Jones. Played 4/14/01.

Starring: Carolina Allcot, Matthew Dupree, Angela Billings, Walter Ransley, Dash
Donohue, Muggins, Tarkin O’Malley. Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, the Radiance, Miss
Fortune, Raymond White.
Story Date: January, 1938.
The heroes give their story to the police, who are happy that American Avenger is
caught. The heroes are allowed to return to their hotel. There, they talk about what has
just happened. Having seen the inside of the American Avenger suit, Walter and
Muggins do not think it was a one-off. Could there be more?
Raymond White, ever polite, visits and accepts some coffee. It is soon evident
that he’d like some way to get in touch with Miss Fortune. Muggins promises to send
her Raymond’s message and contact information. When, later, he does so, she also
asks if there’s anything she can do for him. He asks her to look into the Jones
Shipyards, since they’re in San Francisco.
Muggins and Angela hit the public records to find out more about the Shipyards.
They discover that the company is family owned and is in debt.
(January 7, 1938)
The Eldorado Society takes the train up to San Francisco. They visit the Empire
Club for a bit of refreshment and to ask about local-area private detectives, and end up
hiring Richard Caine.
After they’ve checked into their hotel, Julia calls with some news. She spent
some time at bars near the shipyards, listening and prodding out bits of information. She
says that the company has built two prototypes of a line of submarines it hopes to
interest the U.S. government in; the firm’s fortunes have been gambled on that
prospect. A month ago, the first of the two boats to be finished, the JUB-1 (Jones Under
Water Boat) or Cutlass, went on its first trials and disaster after disaster struck —
maneuvering difficulties, an unintended bottoming that almost killed the crew, etc.
Immediately afterwards, the ship’s engineer/designer, Elliott Craven, and its entire sea-
trials crew were fired. Cutlass was reassigned to the shipyards’ old manufacturing site,
now called the Annex, on the north end of the Bay, for repairs and refitting.
Richard Caine arrives and gets the story. They ask him to look for manufacturing
tools, machinery, or plans that involve something like tank treads, a sure sign that the
shipyards is related to the American Avenger suits.
The heroes invite Elliott Craven to dinner. Interested in meeting the famous Sir
Walter, he accepts. He recommends Cansino’s Restaurant, which has an interesting
mix of seafood and Baja Californian recipes. He talks freely about the disasters that
nearly sunk Cutlass. He couldn’t be there for the trials — he unexpectedly contracted
diptheria right before they were to take place — so another engineer, contractor Lionel
Drew, was the engineer on the run. Does Jones Shipyard have any sort of tread
assembly work? He thinks so; he believes the Annex is building some sort of
amphibious car with tank treads.
Back at the hotel, they get a call from Richard Caine. Part of the doom and gloom
exhibited by the Jones personnel, he believes, is because company president and
owner Davis Jones has recently retired; though he retains his ownership and even the
nominal title of president, he no longer visits the site and leaves everything in the hands
of his brother, Executive Vice President Stanley Jones. Other company officers include
Medford Enwright (Vice President in charge of Projects, he built Cutlass and is in
charge of finishing the second submarine, Claymore; he was not fired when the Cutlass

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construction crew was), and Hoyt Evans (Vice President in charge of Annex
Operations). He has addresses for all these people, plus Lionel Drew.
Julia visits. She has found out more information. Another thing that appears to
have hit Jones Shipyards hard, and may be part of why Davis Jones retired, is a
covered-up embezzling scandal. Apparently, Davis Jones’ personal secretary, Bridget
Loggins, a beautiful young woman, used her wiles to embezzle a tremendous amount of
operating capital from the company and then disappeared. Davis Jones retired
immediately afterwards. Just before she fled San Francisco, Miss Loggins moved into
an expensive Nob Hill town home, a residence far outside the range of her salary,
evidence of her embezzling.
(January 8, 1938) In the news, 30,000 Italian farm workers are emigrating to
Germany to aid in the labor shortage. The heroes know through Claudia that the bulk of
them are actually from Sylvaya, and will be using the moneys they earn to buy more
lands throughout Tuscany.
Caine reports that he has learned that Davis Jones was a very happy man just
prior to his retirement. He didn’t personally announce his retirement; he sent a letter to
his officers. Caine also reports that he can’t find any member of the fired sea-trials crew;
they all appear to have seagoing employment right now. He has found out that the
Claymore is almost ready for its own sea-trials.

Timeline of Events
March 1937: Construction Cutlass Begins
April 1937: Construction on Claymore Begins
June 1937: Davis Jones Retires
Mid-November 1937: Cutlass Sea Trials Begin
December 1, 1937: Cutlass Sea Trials End

The heroes ask him to look into the last address of Bridget Loggins.
That evening, the heroes drive by the Jones Shipyard Annex. It’s mostly dark,
with a single light in the main office building. It’s somewhat run-down. They wonder if
the Cutlass is really there.
They go on to Lionel Drew’s apartment building. They have to pick the lock into
the lobby, then the lock into his apartment. They discover that the heat is on in the
apartment; did Lionel leave it on just before departing for Los Angeles, or is there
someone here? The heroes put on handerchiefs as masks. Walter sends Tal back to the
car to honk in case of trouble from outside. The heroes look around a bit and see typical
apartment fixtures; it appears, from the decoration, as though a woman lives here, too.
A light appears at the bottom of a bedroom door down the hall and a woman’s
voice asks, “Is someone there?” She waits a moment and adds, “I’ve got a raccoon and
it has rabies.” The heroes creep back to the front door. As they’re passing out through
the front door, that bedroom door opens and a raccoon comes out and charges them.
They pull the door closed against it (forgetting to re-lock the door) and hurriedly depart.
Determined to get something accomplished tonight, they return to the Annex.
They spy on the security guard making his rounds, and see him moving behind the
office building’s windows. They move around to one of the smaller doors on the
construction building and attempt to find security devices on it. They do, but it has
sophisticated security devices of a type Matthew hasn’t seen before. Instead of breaking
in, they have Dash, using his rocket pack in antigravity-only mode, carry himself and

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Matthew to the roof. The windows just under the roof are painted, making it hard to
detect any security, but the metal smoke flue is just wide enough to accommodate
Matthew. He descends and goes to the door from the inside. He finds that, when
opened, it will pull its top hinge assembly to another position, apparently triggering an
alarm. He opens the door but keeps it from pulling its hinge out of line. The heroes
enter.
The construction building does have a submarine shape covered in tarpaulins.
But when the heroes peek under the tarpaulins, they discover it’s a fake: a couple of
pieces of genuine submarine hull and a lot of junk stacked in the correct shape.
They also find the assembly line for American Avenger parts.
In the adjoining office, they find plans and design notes for the American Avenger
suit. Walter looks them over. Walter discovers that there are two related suit designs,
one optimized for land and one, propellor-driven, for sea. The data present suggests
that two suits of each type have been built; they are referred to as Land-One, Land-Two,
Sea-One, and Sea-Two. The Sea versions can emerge from a submarine through a
torpedo tube.
Walter decides to confiscate the plans. They’ll set a small fire in the office that will
destroy these records and plausibly account for the plans’ absence. But first, they’ll
investigate this building and the adjoining main office. They see how it was once a fully
operational construction facility, but now the office is for the most part abandoned; it has
a couple of “showroom” offices. One of them is where the guard stays. They stealthily
spy on him and see that he’s amply armed with a submachine gun, a gast mask, and
some interesting-looking grenades. The heroes withdraw, set their fire, and depart.
(January 9, 1938)
In the morning, they decide to surveil the Lionel Drew apartment. The police are
there, systematically taking things from the apartment. The woman from the previous
evening leans out the window and asks one of them, “Do you like cupcakes?” When he
replies yes, she shouts, “Then have some, you fink!” and begins hurling cupcakes down
at him.
By mid-morning, the police are through with their activities and leave. The
newspapers mention Lionel Drew, though they don’t mention his shipyard connections,
and indicate that he was denied bail. He’s also being indicted for murder in New York
owing to the fact that some of the mob violence victims died.
The heroes meet Caine for lunch and trade information. Caine says that Bridget
Loggins moved into the Nob Hill place a month before the embezzlement was
discovered at the shipyards. She was officially fired but not prosecuted. She left the
apartment two days after that. All her neighbors who had met her liked her immensely.
Caine tracked down her former home and former roommate; that roommate, a secretary
for another company, is baffled by these events
Caine calls around and finds out about the Drew apartment. The cohabitant of
that apartment is Drew’s girlfriend, Lorna Fishben, a singer from New Jersey. Last night,
she reported a burglary. This pleased the police, because previously they didn’t know
where Drew lived; the address on his driver’s license was a fake. So they investigated
the alleged robbery and then served a search warrant and began acquiring evidence for
use against Drew.
The heroes suspect that all these activities add up to the officers of Jones
Shipyards being forced to do things they don’t want to. They decide to contact
Executive VP Stanley Jones. They look into his social activities in order to find a way to
contact him without arousing observers’ suspicion. He golfs and attends his men’s club

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on Mondays, and tomorrow is a Monday. He also aspires to join the Empire Club some
day. Instead of waiting, through the club itself, they issue him an invitation to dine
tonight. Caine will follow him from his office or home to make sure he isn’t followed.
That evening, the heroes receive a call from Caine, who is calling from the lobby.
Jones is here and was not followed from home. Stanley Jones joines them in a private
room. They make introductions all around and then Muggins begins questioning him. He
holds up a pretense that nothing untoward is happening, but it swiftly crumbles, and he
tells his story.
He says that Bridget Loggins was indeed an embezzler. She was caught in the
act. When Davis Jones threatened her with prosecution, she said that she had found
enough irregularities in the shipyards’ public records to sink the corporation if they
moved against her. With both parties having much to lose, they agreed on a
compromise. She would leave the company, would keep the money she had stolen (on
the order of $375,000), and she would not be prosecuted. She agreed and left.
But a mere two days later, she and a pair of co-conspirators — Lionel Drew and
the Jones’ own cousin Carson — kidnapped Davis Jones and threatened both to kill him
and to reveal all that information if Stanley didn’t comply. The shipyard continued to
funnel money to the conspirators and gave them the Annex, plus access to technicians
and parts, allowing Drew to build his American Avenger suits.
Then came the Cutlass trials. They were a disaster, largely because of shortcuts
the construction crew had had to take owing to the financial irregularities the company
was facing. Cutlass sank, killing the entire crew but two survivors, who made it to the
surface with use of Momson lungs.
Several things are mentioned in the back-and-forth of this explanation: The
names of the two survivors (former petty officer Emil Maynard and crewman Joshua
Smith), the identity of Lorna Fishben (whom Stanley Jones hadn’t known about), and
the existence of Bridget Loggins’ personnel file (which the heroes want to examine for
clues, and which Jones promises to deliver).
Carolina advises Jones not to do anything that would make him or Davis Jones
unnecessary to the conspirators. They give Jones their phone numbers before he
departs. Angela sends word down to Caine to shadow Jones on the way home as well.
The heroes then ponder whether Jones is a victim or not; they’re not sure. Angela is
suspicious of him, and Caroline noted Jones’ intense interest in the conspiracy-to-
murder charge filed against Drew in New York; Jones wasn’t aware that those not
directly involved in a murder could be charged with the crime and even executed.
The heroes return to the hotel. Caine calls from a pay phone to say that Jones
drove back to the shipyard, very fast, rather than going home. Out of curiosity, they call
his office number and find that it is busy. They call Caine back. They authorize funds for
him to hire a full, 24-hour surveillance team to watch Jones.
They call Julia at the Albritton suite to inform her, and allow her to inform
Radiance, about the additional American Avenger suits.
(January 10, 1938)
At 3 a.m., the heroes get a call from Richard Caine. He’s in jail. He reports that
someone arrived at the shipyard earlier this evening and drove to the main office
building. Minutes later, Stanley Jones drove off, again in a hurry. Caine sent his relief
man, Joe Rabinowitz, after Jones while he, Caine, followed the man who arrived later.
Caine followed that man straight to the Drew/Fishben apartment. Caine was reaching
the landing of the Drew/Fishben floor when that man staggered back out of the
apartment, an angry raccoon savaging his face. The man shot the raccoon and

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prepared to shoot Fishben, but Caine shot him in the face. Consequently, he’s in jail. He
says that Lorna Fishben is at the police station, too, and is willing to talk to the Eldorado
Society now.
Muggins calls a bail bondsman for Caine. Walter, Muggins, Angela, and Tal go
down to the police station and talk to Lorna in the lobby. She’s upset, though her
raccoon, Pancho Villa, is in the hands of veterinarians and will probably survive. They
take Lorna back to their hotel. She’s impressed with them (she saw the Rocket Rangers
movie) and knows that her boyfriend, Drew, is a bum. She doesn’t know anything about
his business activities. The heroes suspect that Stanley Jones arranged her murder, but
aren’t certain exactly why.
The heroes get more sleep. When they awake, near dawn, Caine joins them for
breakfast. The heroes learn that Lorna is due to perform tonight, and they suspect that
this will be a draw for another murder attempt.
The phone rings. It’s Stanley Jones. He says that the personnel file on Bridget
Loggins is gone, stolen. However, the files on the two surviving sailors are still there.
He’ll send them over to the hotel — sometime after 1 p.m.? The heroes promiset to be
here at 1.
Carolina immediately rents the suite above this one. They’ll move there in the
hours prior to 1 p.m. and spy on their normal suite, just in case this is a prelude to
assassination.
Joe Rabinowitz shows up in the company of Karen Hampton, Bridget’s ex-
roommate. She does have pictures of Bridget and supplies one to the heroes. She well
remembers the night everything went wrong for Bridget. Bridget had moved out about a
month before. Bridget showed up at Karen’s door, crying. She told Karen to pretend that
she hated Bridget, from now on. She told Karen to hide all pictures that showed the two
of them together. There must be no evidence that Karen had liked Bridget, else Karen
might be in danger.
Karen drops a surprise: Bridget was Davis Jones’ fiancée. But on this night
Bridget said that it was all over. She was never going to be able to see him again.
Everyone graduates up to the rooms above, but nothing happens. At 1 p.m.,
many return to the main suite, though the exhausted Richard Caine remains asleep on
the couch upstairs; Lorna, Karen, and Carolina wait there as well.
Minutes later, a delivery man delivers the personnel files to Muggins in the
downstairs suite. The envelope is too small to contain a bomb. There’s no sign of
poison. Is Stanley Jones on the up-and-up? The personnel files look authentic, but are
brief and innocuous.
Then the door is smashed in and an American Avenger suit rolls in toward
Muggins. Tarkin tackles Muggins out of the way. Matthew jumps up on the suit’s back
and scrabbles around to cover the eye-vents. Angela rips open a cushion to provide
material for that task. Tal hauls the prone Tarkin and Muggins away from the combat
zone. Muggins pantomimes shoving the suit out and off the balcony. Dash flicks his
guns out from his sleeves and begins two-fisted shooting.
Carolina gets her robot rifle and gets to the upstairs balcony. The best way down
is probably by whip, so she returns to get that weapon.
Tarkin gets to his feet and picks up a sofa, brandishing it. (He is probably the first
character in Earth-AU to brandish a sofa.) American Avenger charges him, swinging a
robotic fist. Tarkin charges with the sofa, using it like a battering ram. He hits the suit in
the head, hard enough to send it leaning back, but the robot’s blow catches him in the
side, stunning him.

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Matthew finally gets his hands over the suit’s eyes and hangs on tenaciously.
Angela climbs up to help. Walter runs up and begins pushing the suit. Tal joins him, then
Muggins. The robot begins rolling backward toward the balcony.
Caroline cracks her whip, grabbing her own balcony, then swings down to the rail
of the balcony below... and sees the American Avenger suit heading straight toward her.
She ducks to the side. The American Avenger flails its arms, trying to scrape the
coverings off its eyes, and hits Angela in the butt, hurting her pelvis. She hangs on.
Walter, Tal and Muggins strain, pushing themselves to the limit, and the American
Avenger picks up backwards acceleration. Tarkin staggers after the suit. The suit hits
the balcony rail and teeters at the edge, three stories above the street.
Tarkin grabs Angela’s belt and tugs her to safety. Matthew merely steps off. The
American Avenger driver finally can see, and what he sees is sky, then street, then sky,
then street...
It crashes onto the street, sending people scattering. Amazingly, it begins to rise.
But the Radiance appears, zooming in from up the street, and hammers it into
submission.
In the aftermath, the heroes interview witnesses in the lobby, who say that the
robot suit entered the lobby and took the elevator up in the company of a man in hat
and coat. The heroes don’t find the man, but suspect that it’s Stanley Jones.
The heroes get a phone call from Miss Fortune. She brought Radiance here and
saw the robot entering the lobby with the man. She followed the man when he left. She
gives the address that is his current location.
The pilot of this American Avenger suit, Ned Turms, is alive but injured.
The heroes, including the Radiance, head off to that address, a small walled
estate. Tarkin and Angela go around back, climb the wall, and tie a rope across the
lower part of the back door to trip anyone emerging.
Walter and the others drive crashing through the front estate gates. They spread
out to enter the house from multiple doors and windows. A man comes sailing out the
back door, trips, and crashes down the stairs, apparently knocking himself out. Angela
presses her stiletto heels into his shoulder joints to make sure he’s not faking. He’s not.
It’s Stanley Jones.
In the basement, in a welded steel cell, the heroes find a bearded Davis Jones.
Dash gets the car jack and they use it to get him out of the cell. Davis Jones tells them
that the Cutlass was never destroyed; it’s out there right now, sinking Japanese
shipping. He believes that Stanley kidnapped him when he did because he’d just gotten
engaged to Bridget, which meant she, instead of Stanley, would become his principal
heir. Stanley wanted to accelerate conflicts with Japan so the shipyard would get an
order from the U.S. Navy. The heroes take him back to the hotel.
Hours later:
Davis, with the help of Karen Hampton, has gotten in touch with Bridget Loggins.
For the last several months, she has been living under the identity of Bonita Alvarez,
acting as a secretary for Dominguez and Sons Importers, Tijuana. She returns to San
Francisco for a joyful reunion with her fiancé.
The authorities have taken Stanley Jones into custody. He is being charged with
kidnapping, conspiracy to murder, and a host of other crimes. Despite his obvious guilt,
his brother Davis is saddened, because Stanley will likely die in prison for his crimes.
Representatives of the U.S. Navy arrive. There’s actually very little they can do.
The Cutlass’ depredations are taking place in international waters. The U.S. government
can’t be involved.

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The heroes and Davis Jones decide on another tactic. The Claymore is close to
being ready for its own sea trials. They will set it up for real trials... with live torpedoes...
against her sister ship. Walter, using parts from the Annex, will build a third Sea-Suit.
(Dash volunteers to pilot it; others, including Carolina, also have diving suit experience.)
Angela and Muggins have submersible piloting experience. Davis Jones arranges to
have the Ponte Device flown in from France to give Claymore a slight sensor edge.
Davis will also arrange to have the boat’s original engineer, Elliott Craven, brought in for
the mission. The U.S. Navy will help to the extent that they’ll authorize immediate
beginning of those sea trials and will send a representative to evaluate the Claymore’s
performance.
Quote of the Episode:
Muggins — “This was beyond our planning. We didn’t know what to do when we
met a raccoon.”
Denis — “Suddenly, the hackles on the back of my neck rise. I look up and see
the countless eyes of the raccoons in the rafters.”

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#21. Claymore and Cutlass. Played 4/28/01.

Starring: Carolina Allcot, Matthew Dupree, Angela Billings, Walter Ransley, Dash
Donohue, Muggins, Tarkin O’Malley.
Story Date: January, 1938.
(January 13, 1938)
It has taken three days to complete Claymore’s provisioning and outfitting.
Claymore’s resources, matching Cutlass’, include eight torpedo tubes and 22 torpedos,
and a deck gun.
In that time, Walter, with Dash’s help, puts together an American Avenger sea-
suit. In so doing, Walter discovers a weakness in the suit design; in the armor overlay in
the lower back flexion point, damage won’t get through in a straight line to the operator,
but will allow water to trickle in.
The Ponte Device arrives as requested. The heroes mount it in a quick-raise rig
beneath the forward deck hatch.
Walter also adapts Dash’s miniature radio to broadcast very low frequency
pulses.
There are reports of Japanese shipping vessels being sunk north-northwest of
Hawaii.
The Eldorado Society meets some of the boat’s officers and crewmen, including
Captain Chester Wilkinson, commanding; Dole “Pots” Potter, XO; Chief Stu Barker,
engineering; Hank Wood, chief pilot; Danny Ramirez, hydrophones/sonar; and Dive
Master Lex Duke. The U.S. Navy representative aboard is Captain Hanny Schweitzer.
They have a lunch with the officers, during which they and Captain Wilkinson work out
the chain of command. The Eldorado Society is in charge of the mission, Wilkinson in
charge of the boat; only when not doing so would endanger the boat should members of
the Society attempt to countermand his orders before the crew. The Eldorado Society is
content with this.
The Claymore launches and performs quick, abbreviated sea trials. The boat
descends to 450', then returns to the surface. It performs a test firing of Dash in the
American Avenger suit out the bow tubes. He circles around the boat, knocks on the
hull, dives down an additional 100' to the suit’s rated crush depth, and feels some
wetness in the suit. It appears to be a small seal problem. He returns to the boat and
backs into the bow tube, a graceful and successful recovery.
(January 14, 1938)
The Claymore heads for Honolulu. Muggins is checked out on the submarine
controls and deck gun. Carolina learns some Morse code. Tarkin trains in the American
Avenger suit, which they call the Torpedo Suit. Carolina receives formal dive training
from Lex Duke. Walter fine-tunes the torpedo magnetometers so that an impact with a
Torpedo Suit is more likely to cause them to detonate.
While they’re in transit, Davis Jones, back in San Francisco, arranges for support
for them. He hires Captain Howie Janes and his trawler, Fiddler Crab, to carry depth
charges, extra torpedoes and supplies and to act as a surface resource.
(January 21, 1938)
Claymore reaches Honolulu. They meet Captain Janes and see Fiddler Crab.
Davis Jones radios with information about the men they’ll be facing, based on the
confessions of his brother. Captain Joseph Thayer, formerly of the U.S. Navy, is
commander of Cutlass. His chief conspirators include financial officer Frank Armitage
(who had always promoted selling the JUB line to China without worrying whether the

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U.S. Navy was interested), Oliver Chaney (mechanic and American Avenger suit pilot),
and Lonnie Stevens (diver and suit pilot). In addition, there is a Chinese government
agent on the Cutlass, evaluating her performance.
Muggins recommends searching along well-travelled Japanese shipping lanes.
They do so.
(January 23, 1938)
Claymore’s radio operator hears a strong transmission in Japanese. Tarkin
translates. “Help, we are the Blue Coral, we have been hit by a torpedo. We are
sinking...” Claymore heads on that bearing and alerts Fiddler Crab to come as well. Half
an hour later, they come within visual range of the sinking freighter and descend to
periscope depth. There is no sign of the enemy submarine nearby, but it could be lying
silent.
Fiddler Crab begins taking on survivors. Claymore launches dash out through the
torpedo tube, and even allows him to wear the Torpedo Suit for the voyage. Dash circles
around, looking for enemies, but hears noises made by men trapped below decks on
Blue Coral. He finds the nearest spot in the hull and begins hammering at it, denting it
in, eventually tearing a hole in it. He peels the hole open and frees five men who
otherwise would have drowned.
Meanwhile, the Claymore’s hydrophone operator hears the noises of another
submarine leaving the area. Claymore follows, rigging for silence, and dives as it
pursues; Dash is left behind.
Cutlass’ hydrophone operator hears Claymore and Cutlass fires two torpedoes
from the stern, then turns to prosecute. Captain Wilkinson fires two torpedoes and dives
Claymore through an inversion layer.
One of Claymore’s torpedoes hits something metallic, alerting Dash that trouble
is brewing. He zooms toward the engagement zone. Despite the impact, there is no
subsequent noise of a boat breaking up and sinking. He soon finds the victim of the
torpedo — the remains of one of the Torpedo Suit operators, already being chewed on
by sharks. Dash hauls along the torso and hand he finds, in hopes of eventually making
an identification.
Cutlass’ torpedoes miss Claymore but hit the ocean floor mere yards from the
submarine. Claymore is rocked and loses engine power. She sinks to the ocean floor.
Matthew and Tarkin are banged up; the hydrophone operator’s skull is fractured.
Carolina and Angela help him; Muggins and Matthew get on the hydrophones. Walter
goes to work on the engines. Dash hears these explosions and turns toward them, but
can’t find Claymore. He can, however, hear incoming propellors, boats responding to
Blue Coral’s distress call, and rather than be out where there is no support when his
batteries run dry, he heads back toward the site of Blue Coral’s sinking.
Walter and Chief Barker get the engines up. Claymore, battered, comes back up
to speed and turns back toward Blue Coral.
Dash sees that there are two incoming ships, one American, one Japanese. With
their greater deck space, they are taking the Blue Coral survivors from Fiddler Crab.
(Some rescuees are describing being saved by an “iron mermaid.”) Dash realizes that
the Japanese boat is another target for Cutlass if that boat is still around. He hears the
engines of a submarine and turns back to investigate. He swims close, but it’s JUB-2,
so he knocks on the hull, “shave and a haircut, two bits.”
Muggins and Dash hear a torpedo in the water. It has probably been launched at
the new Japanese freighter. Dash zooms in that direction, trying to head off the torpedo,
perhaps destroy it as it passes. Carolina requests that Captain Wilkinson surface the

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boat; she wants to snipe on Cutlass’ periscope. He acquiesces, but points out that if a
fish (torpedo) comes their way, he’ll have to crash dive.
Carolina gets up atop the sail and spots the enemy periscope, a mere eight
hundred yards off the port bow. She takes a shot at it with her robot rifle. She misses.
Dash gets into position ahead of the torpedo, but his calculations are a little off;
he sees it coming at a steeper angle to his position than he realized. He zooms toward it
but can only punch it a bit as it passes. Still, the punch causes it to veer, and it misses
the Japanese freighter’s bow. In the distance, it begins to circle, angling to reacquire the
freigher.
Carolina fires again, surprising her comrades — since when has Carolina ever
had to fire twice at a target? — and misses again. The captain of Cutlass sees the flash
of her barrel in his peripheral vision and swings the torpedo around to see what caused
it. She fires a third time and shatters the lens and mirror. She jumps down into the sail
as Wilkinson cries, “Prepare to dive! Prepare to dive!”
Both submarines dive. Fiddler Crab’s captain, anxious to protect the civilians on
both freighters, motors above Cutlass’ estimated position and rolls depth charges.
The torpedo reacquires the Japanese freighter, but this time Dash has computed
its approach angle correctly. He grabs it as it zooms past and he both squeezes it and
uses his propellor to redirect it until it is crushed and sinking safely away from the
civilian traffic. But now both subs are gone again and he’s down to 5% power. He zooms
toward the Fiddler Crab and is hauled aboard with only 2% power remaining.
The depth charges damage Cutlass. The boat breaks off and heads to the
southwest. Claymore shadows her from as great a distance as Wilkinson dares. Fiddler
Crab, with Dash still aboard, brings up the rear. Fiddler Crab’s motors recharge the
Torpedo Suit’s batteries and her compressed air tanks refill the suit’s as they travel.
Cutlass’ actions and course suggests that she thinks she is not being followed,
and that she is headed straight for Bari Island, an uninhabited atoll in the western
portion of the Hawaiian chain. The heroes watch as Cutlass cuts around the far side of
the island. They decide to wait for nightfall and stage a commando raid; they might be
able to acquire the boat intact that way.
At nightfall, they circle around the far side of the island and use the Ponte device
to pinpoint the location of the Cutlass. There are a large metal contact and a smaller
one in the bay on that side. The larger one is probably a provisioning ship. They load
the Eldorado Society and a prize crew into inflatable rafts; Dash gets into the Torpedo
Suit and is armed with a bunch of limpet mines. The boats row and Dash sets
revolutions toward the bay.
As they near the site, they see they were correct; Cutlass and a freighter lie side-
by-side in the bay. Most of the crew seems to be camped out on the beach. The boats
row toward the submarine’s stern. The prize crew boat hangs back. As they get near,
they see a guard on duty at the stern; Angela and Matthew ready their respective
weapons. Angela fires her blowgun, hitting her target in the thigh, putting drugs into his
bloodstream, knocking him out. They get their boat alongside and prepare to board.
Tarkin and Matthew, silent, are first aboard. Matthew tosses the guard’s rifle into
the drink. Matthew moves further toward the bow and spots another guard in the sail.
He gestures to Angela, who hits the guard in the chest with a dart. It only alarms the
man, who opens his mouth to shout. Matthew hurls his knife to silence the man — and
misses. The man shouts, alerting the boat. The heroes charge in.
Walter, Tal, Tarkin, and Muggins drop into the aft hatch. Matthew, Carolina, and
Angela stay up on deck and move forward.

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Walter, Tal, and Tarkin charge forward into the aft engine room. Muggins goes aft
toward the torpedo room. Carolina climbs the sail; the guard is still shouting up there but
is out of sight. She sticks her hand over the rail and yanks it back; the guard shoots at it,
missing. She swings over the rail at another point and stomps the man in the stomach,
knocking him out.
Angela, continuing to move forward, sees a guard at the bow aiming at Carolina.
She draws her Browning and shoots him, a shot to the heart; he falls off the boat.
Muggins, sure that the torpedo room is secure, waves the prize crew in. When
they’re all aboard, he dogs the aft deck hatch closed. Meanwhile, Matthew and Carolina
drag the unconscious sail guard below and dog that hatch closed. Angela gets down the
bow deck hatch and dogs it closed. She moves forward into the bow torpedo room.
There, she sees that the inner hatch to Tube #5 is opened, and the last American
Avenger suit is inside; the man in the suit appears to be hammering at the outer hatch.
If he knocks it open, he can escape and the submarine may flood and sink. She
helpfully wraps some steel cables around the American Avenger suit’s torpedo, then
shuts and dogs the inner tube hatch. Moments later, the American Avenger pilot knocks
that hatch open and the tube floods.
Meanwhile, Dash has finished placing limpet mines on the supply ship. He
moves toward the Cutlass and hears the pounding noise. But by the time he reaches
the bow, the hatch to Tube #5 is open and empty. Dash knocks on the hull and Tube #3
opens for him. Moments later, Walter retrieves him into the forward torpedo room.
The boat secure, the supply freighter exploding and sinking, the heroes steer
Cutlass out to see and radio Pearl Harbor.
(January 25, 1938)
The crew of Claymore and prize crew of Cutlass party Hawaiian style in
Honolulu. The economic future of Jones Shipyard seems to be on course again; the
Navy is definitely interested in the fast, sturdy JUB-class submarines.
It turns out that the pilot of the last American Avenger suit, Lonnie Stevens, did
sink to the bay’s bottom. He crawled toward shore until his suit’s batteries died, then
sprang the hatch and swam to safety. He was among the many people the U.S. Navy
took into custody on Bari Island.
Miss Fortune and Radiance did return to New York.
Walter, at Caroline’s recommendation, leases the patents to the American
Avenger suits to serve as the basis for his own Moon Suits.

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Sand Vikings
#22. Blood Feuds. Played 5/12/01.
Starring: Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley, Matthew Dupree,
Carolina Blanc, Jean-Paul Blanc (npc). Guest-Starring: Tal Singh, Byron Nesbit,
Claudia Verlon, Becky Dupree.
Story Date: April, 1938.
In the news since the last episode, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden
resigns, citing displeasure with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s methods to seek
settlements with Germany and Italy. A costumed mystery man called Superman debuts
in Chicago. The government in Washington begins claiming numerous small islands in
Pacific. Germany occupies Austria and Hitler makes a triumphant visit to Vienna;
Hermann Goering warns Austria’s Jews to leave the nation.
Walter is at Dash’s racetrack, working on his moon rocket, when he gets a
staticky call from Byron Nesbit. Byron’s in York, England, and his words include
“murder... cleaver... mean old man... I’m at the city walls.“ Walter can’t get more out of it
than that but promises to show up. He returns to New York and assembles the Eldorado
Society. The next morning, they take off for York: Walter, Carolina, Little John and Josie,
Matthew, Becky, Dash, Tarkin, Walter, Tal, and Claudia.
Many hours later, they land in York’s airfield. They inquire about accommodations
and decide upon one called the City Walls, since that was evidently what Byron meant.
They find Byron and get the story from him. Recently, the Michaelson Canning
Company began construction on a new fish cannery in the nearby town of Hull. Their
construction crew immediately uncovered portions of a very old boat boat and the site
foreman called in an archaeologist, Scots-born Nicol Douglas, the “mean old man” of
whom Byron spoke. Douglas, familiar with the archaeology and legends of the area,
began digging out the boat and speculated that it might be the famous Gunnbjorn Alfson
Feud Longship. He immediately arranged for a local judge to protect the area because
of the boat’s possible historical importance. Byron doesn’t know what that theoretical
historical importance is.
The legal protections granted to the archaeological site infuriated the men of
Depression-era Hull, who are counting on that cannery to bring them jobs. Nicol
Douglas, his son/assistant Alan Douglas, and their archaeological crew became the
targets of venom.
One dark night just four days ago, during a Hull town meeting where the ship was
under discussion, local resident Monroe Tedmon got drunk, commandeered a bulldozer
at the construction site, and tore the Viking ship out of the ground. He shoved its
wreckage two hundred yards to the side, off the construction site. People who departed
early from the town meeting, including Nicol Douglas, got to the site mere minutes after
the bulldozer had been there.
Somebody killed Monroe Tedmon beside his stolen bulldozer, hacking him to
death with a weapon similar in weight to a meat cleaver. Nicol Douglas was blamed for
the murder. The blade wasn’t found; the opinion of the York police chief, Arthur
Townsend, was that he’d tossed it into the river nearby. Investigators are still dredging
for it. The murder investigation is now under the auspices of Townsend.
Two nights later, Father Ronan Andersen of York was murdered, also by some
sort of meat cleaver. A priest at the York Minster, he was found slumped against one of

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the old city walls. Written on the wall above him in his own blood were words in Latin.
Inspector Townsend has arrested Alan Douglas, opining that he found the Tedmon
murder weapon and took it to protect his father, then, during a visit to York (ostensibly to
see a barrister), killed Father Andersen to divert blame. Byron came up to York to
investigate at the time of the first murder, then talked to Alan Douglas on behalf of the
Eldorado Society; Alan Douglas did request their help. Nicol didn’t; he apparently
doesn’t believe Byron is with the Society.
The heroes visit the York Minster, where Ronan Andersen was priest. They speak
to a young father, Neal Mulroney, who helps to the extent that he can. He says that
Father Andersen was a very nice man, with no enemies. He was a scholar, an expert in
stained glass. He is of a local father; his brother Dougall Andersen is a well-respected
chocolatier (York is famous for its chocolates).
The heroes go to visit Nicol Douglass in the Hull jail. He is indeed a mean old
man — abusive, belligerent, and loud. He’s incredulous that Byron would be a full
member of the Eldorado Society. But, pressed on the point of the historocity of his dig
site, he tells that tale.
The story of the Gunnbjorn Alfson longship dates to around 900 A.D. At that time,
the Danish-descended Jorvik (York) family of Tyrfing Sotisson began a blood-feud with
the family of Gunnbjorn Alfson of Borgundarholm, Denmark, their distant cousins. It
began as an elaborate set of insults and culminated as a challenge: Tyrfing and
Gunnbjorn agreed for all the men of their respective families to meet and fight until men
from only one family were left. Gunnbjorn lost a wager and became the “visiting team,”
agreeing to travel to Jorvik. He spent months building a special boat for the feud trip and
set stail.
However, he and his boat never showed up. Since they never returned to
Borgundarholm either, the assumption was that they sank. The family of Tyrfing
Sotisson won by default. Not that it mattered too much; within a generation or so, the
Saxons re-took York, driving the Vikings back to Denmark.
At any rate, because of the elaborate decorations and lavish construction of this
boat, Nicol Douglas believes it to by the Alfson ship. He’s heartbroken by its destruction
and says that it’s only right that the man who wrecked it was killed — it’s just that he
didn’t do the killing.
The heroes visit the site of the killing. They read the Latin words left in blood
above Father Andersen’s body. Claudia translates them as “died as coward scabby
bastard more;” “scabby” may also be translated as “pox-ridden.”
The heroes leave to visit the site of the boat. They seriously consider the
possibility that the killings were the work of a Viking spirit. The wreck site, still being
worked by Douglas’ students and a new archaeologist brought in by the government, is
a mound of rotted debris that has been properly girded and covered by gridding strings.
The heroes find the grid lines particularly poignant.
The heroes meet two of Douglas’ students, Dolores Trent and Marion Coward,
and also meet Douglas’ replacement, Joseph Lewiston. Lewiston seems to be a yes-
man anxious to help the canning company continue with its project, so the heroes deal
very little with him and instead talk to the students. They are allowed to examine some
of the artifacts brought out of the boat jumble. One of these items is a very lightly
corroded bronze cloak clasp-pin with the name Gunnbjorn spelled out on it in runes;
Matthew feels the prickle of genuine magic within it.
Next, they go visit the dead priest’s brother, Dougall Andersen. He’s a vigorous,
rotund middle-aged man. He shared his brother’s interest in stained glass but was not

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as great an expert in it. The heroes ask him for permission to examine the father’s body.
Andersen is happy to provide it, and calls the funeral parlor to provide it... but the parlor
director suggests that this wouldn’t make the police happy. Andersen, infuriated, storms
down to the parlor with the heroes in tow. He confronts the funeral parlor director and
instructs him personally to allow the Society to examine the remains. The funeral parlor
director scurries off (and calls Inspector Townsend).
They examine the body. The wounds do suggest a dull blade wielded with
tremendous force. The wounds have been cleaned; the heroes cannot find metal
slivers.
Inspector Townsend arrives. He’d prefer that they leave this matter to the law; he
disputes the helpfulness of “amateur criminology.” He does answer a question or two
and says that the forensics expert found no metal at all in the wounds, just “dirt from his
surroundings.”
After they leave, Andersen gives them a note instructing the coroner to release
his findings to the heroes. They visit the hospital next and meet Dr. Alvis Winders, the
coroner. He’s happy to help; he’s familiar with Walter’s work in chemical analysis. He
says that there were no metal fragments in the wounds, only sand and glas crystals. He
believes the weapon must have been made of glass or something like it.
The heroes go off to dinner, inviting Douglas’ students to join them at Terry’s
Restaurant. They have lots of talk about archaeology and adventures. It turns out that
Dolores has found an odd footprint lined with powdered glass.
The lights dim in the restaurant. A few moments later, as the lights rise again,
screaming begins from outside. The heroes race out. A few doors down, a man’s body is
slumped in a store doorway. Words are written in his blood on the glass above him.
Claudia translates them as “fight like warrior no fizzling fear,” where “fizzling” might also
be “gas-passing” or “farting.” The victim’s name was Edmund Bryant; he worked at
Terry’s Restaurant. A female witness was a few yards behind Bryant, walking in the
same direction, when she suddenly became blind and deaf. When her senses returned,
a few moments later, she stumbled over his body and began screaming.
The police arrive. After Inspector Townsend has had a few minutes to examine
things, he has officers sent out to the boat wreck site, where they arrest archaeology
student Alan Baily, who was there alone guarding the wreck. Townsend’s theory has
mutated; now, he casts the Douglases as heads of a modern Viking cult whose
members are collectively determined to sacrifice victims to the ancient Norse gods.
Though no line damage has been detected, Townsend believes that the light dimming
was just the result of some sabotage to the line, and that the woman’s deafness was
nothing of the sort: When the lights went out, she was too frightened even to scream,
but since she was trying to scream and could not hear herself, she assumed she was
deaf as well. The heroes repress their contempt for Townsend’s theories.
The heroes now believe that some supernatural revenant, disturbed by the attack
of the bulldozer on the boat, has awakened to continue Gunnbjorn Alfson’s blood feud
with the descendants of Tyrfing Sotisson.
The next day, they visit Dougall Andersen again. He estimates that fully 50% of
the population of York is descended in some way from the Vikings who were here in the
10th century. Of them, half are male. Thus there are about 22,500 potential victims of
this feud.
They get the autopsy report from the last murder, under the table, from Dr.
Winders. It, too, has glass slivers in the wounds. There is no sign of unusual heat or
cold in the injuries.

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The heroes look into other recent cases of “hysterical blindness” and find a report
of a pubkeeper who experienced such a thing; when he came out of it, about a minute
after the attack’s onset, a keg of his beer and six of his tankards had been stolen. That’s
all.
The heroes visit the dig site, taking Andersen with them owing to his expertise
with stained glass and other glass forms. The students are at work but gloomy.
Andersen examines the powdered glass that Dolores found and pronounces it similar to
what happens when sand is exposed to great heat.
The heroes make arrangements with the students, then go to the York
constable’s office. They ask him to lock up all the currently-free archaeology students
tonight so they’ll have an alibi. The chief constable, Dean Meadows, agrees to do so.
Matthew will be locked up with them in case they need protection.
Walter wonders if this Gunnbjorn Alfson was supposed to be some sort of
sorcerer. Dolores tells him that of course he was. His name, Alfson, is literal — “Elf’s
son.” He was supposed to be the son of one of the dark, sometimes malicious,
magically adept Norse elves.
Walter calls Bernard Spilsbury at Scotland Yard. He’d like a reputable journalist
to come to York to chronicle things and help keep Townsend and his wild suppositions
at bay. Spilsbury promises to send one.
That evening, at twilight, the archaeology students allow themselves to be locked
up in York. Walter, Tal, and Dash will walk York’s deserted streets and look for trouble.
Carolina will protect Dougall Andersen. The others will be at the hotel or at the boat’s
site, guarding it. The students in jail are provided with meals and, courtesy of Matthew,
booze and cards.
Later in the evening, Walter sees a silhouette of a man trying to force himself into
a ground-level flat. He, Tal, and Dash charge forward, going blind as they near the man.
They rely on memory and launch themselves at him. Dash and Tal hit the man high and
low; all roll down the steps together. Dash and Tal grapple with the man, or so they think
— they’re actually wrestling each other. The man grabs Walter by the foot and drags
him away from the other two, then slashes him in the chest with a sword... but Walter’s
vest armor holds.
Tal and Dash realize they’re combatting one another, do mutual cheek-patting,
and rise to find Walter. Walter pulls out his Ransley Cannon and fires it into the air. The
sword-bearing enemy runs away and the vision and hearing of the others clear.
Nearby, reporter Clive Hanson has taken a photograph or two of the exchange.
He’s the man sent by Bernard Spilsbury. He says that the attacker was tan in color and
dressed in medieval garments.
(Meanwhile, across town, another Sand Viking breaks into police headquarters.
As the policemen there flail around blindly, he kills the dispatcher and injures Townsend.
In the dispatcher’s blood, he writes words in Latin above the body, words that translate
as “death sling not enough line dies.”)
Walter talks to the occupants of the flat, Janice Clough and her ten-year-old son
Jimmy Clough. Janice says she knew she was under attack from the outset, because
the intruder didn’t knock or ring or anything — he just started trying to hammer the door
down. She want to brace it and went blind as she did so, but held the door. Little Jimmy
went to get the knife and the German helmet his father brought back from the Great
War; thus armed in armored, he waited behind his mom. The Viking did knock the door
in, throwing Janice down. Jimmy never went blind. The heroes suppose that he allows
his victims to see the fate that awaits them. It was then that Tal and Dash hit the tan

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man and the door jamb, followed by everyone rolling down the steps.
Walter tells the Cloughs to pack up and go somewhere they can hide; Janice will
take Jimmy to her sister-in-law’s. Walter calls the police station and gets in touch with
Townsend, who says, “There are two of them, then,” and tells Walter to come over.
Walter and companions do, after escorting the Cloughs, and learn of the attack on the
police station.
Townsend is still not receptive to Walter’s theories about the Sand Vikings, but
does cut the archaeologists loose — all of them.
With the Society certain that supernatural forces are afoot, they ask the
Douglases about supernatural experts and resources in the region. Alan Douglas says
he knows Evelyn Fairbanks, noted English supernaturalists, and will call to see if he can
use her library to research these events.
Clive visits the Society in their hotel room with his just-developed photos, which
show the “tan man” Sand Viking striking at Walter with his sword.
Quote of the Episode: Matthew, when being told he and the archaeologists are
being released — “We paid for all night!”

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#23. The Blood Oath. Played 5/26/01.

Starring: Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley, Matthew Dupree,
Carolina Blanc, Angela Billings, Jean-Paul Blanc (npc). Guest-Starring: Tal Singh,
Byron Nesbit, Claudia Verlon, Becky Dupree. Introducing: Bernard Wright.
Story Date: April, 1938.
The next morning, Angela’s plane finally arrives. She joins the others for
breakfast and is filled in on events.
Later in the morning, Alan Douglas returns from his all-nighter at Evelyn
Fairbanks’ occult library in Manchester. He says that their enemy sounds like a revenant
on a mission of vengeance. There’s no one formulaic way to deal with it; it may hvae bo
be destroyed, permitted to carry out its mission (perhaps only symbolically), or even
negotiated with; it appears that Alfson is intelligent, which could be a factor. The records
indicate that unbroken rings or hemispheres of iron could be effective against his
powers, and that metal blades might be of special effectiveness against Alfson, if he
truly is a “son of an elf.”
The heroes consider negotiating. Alan Douglas says he’s heard of a German boy
who has been able to speak a dialect of Old Norse since he was a small child, in the
absence of anyone who could have taught him. The heroes decide to try negotiations
with Alfson, and to send for the boy if he can be kept safe and is willing to help.
Angela wants to see the ruins of the ship, so the Society heads out there. There,
the archaeologists are thrilled. Dolores says that they’ve found a stone tablet that
contains the text of the feud agreement between Gunnbjorn Alfson and Tyrfing Sotisson.
The heroes are also cheered by this; perhaps, somewhere, in its language, they can
find a “legal loophole” they can exploit. Unfortunately, Dolores says, the document is in
an odd variety of Old Norse and they haven’t been able to translate it completely.
Another thing the archaeologists have found is a rune-casting set made of obsidian.
Walter, checking things at the hospital, hears of accounts of “hysterical blindness”
in the Copperage and Castlegate areas.
The heroes get back together for lunch and to exchange information.
In case it’s useful, they visit the city’s castle, paying sixpence for a tour. The
castle was built by the Saxons after the departure of the Viking rulers. It was originally a
wooden fort; the current castle is a stone building erected on the same hill site. They
see its dungeons, then go visit the streets beneath the castle hill.
They ask locals about blindness and learn that Mr. Keegan Born, a sausage
seller, has had bouts of it accompanying thefts of his product. They visit his shop. He is
a merry man made exasperated by the nightly theft of his sausages. Whoever the thief
is, he kicks in the front door, steals a quantity of sausages, and departs without being
seen. Mr. Born has had bouts of blindness when he has been present at the times of the
thefts.
The heroes separate again.
Walter sends word for Clive Hanson to visit. When Hanson does, Walter
arranges for him to set up a camera at the Born sausage shop to catch an image of the
nightly intruder.
Carolina and Angela visit a blacksmith. Carolina commissions a set of iron
knuckles; Angela, an iron sword. They also buy, on Walter’s behalf, iron shavings and
particles, and have them loaded into shotgun shells for Walter.
Darkness falls. Angela takes possession of her sword, Carolina of her knuckles
(made from folded horseshoe pairs), Walter of his shotgun shells. The cameras have

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been set up. Hanson set up the flash attachment separate from the camera itself.
The heroes set up on the street outside the sausage shop, some distance down
the street in both directions. They eat sausages, finding that Mr. Born’s homemade
sausages aren’t as good as some of his imports, and watch.
Around 8 p.m., they hear a scraping noise. From a crack between two buildings
directly opposite the sausage shop, a sand-colored, unarmored Viking emerges. He
struts across the street, kicks in the shop door, endures a bright flash of light, and
enters, his body language suggesting he’s angry. After some crashing noises, he
emerges with an armload of sausages and reenters the crack.
Most of the heroes run up to the crack and see that it’s too narrow for a man,
even Matthew, to navigate. Angela runs around back to see the Viking emerge from the
opposite side of the block. She shadows him as he turns away and proceeds a block,
then turns left into an alley. She follows him and finds the alley is a dead end... though
there is a ground-level arch-shaped hole, barred, that the Viking probably entered.
The heroes reunite and go to the building over that alleyway hole. Matthew picks
the front door lock to allow them to enter. They find a basement entrance, but it isn’t as
far back as the hole the Viking descended; it appears that there is more basement or
other construction behind the rearmost basement wall.
Walter goes to knock on the door of the apartment above the mysterious portion
of building. Mrs. Gweneth Meadows — co-owner of the building with her son Dean — is
willing to talk to him. She’s willing for the heroes to dig through a wall to enter that
portion of the underground, but knows what’s there; it’s a runoff sluice to the storm
drains.
The heroes return to the hotel.
The next morning, the news tells of two citizens of York killed last night. Hanson
shows up with hos photograph from the sausage shop; it’s a wonderful portrait of a
surprised Viking all made of sand. Walter finds that the Clough flat was broken into and
vandalized; it looks like the Viking from the other night returned to search for him.
Hanson photographs the stone tablet and makes a print of the top portion of it.
The heroes dispatch it by special courier to Berlin, the home of young Bernard Wright,
the boy who is supposed to read Old Norse. In five or six hours, it will be in Germany.
Matthew figures out that the boy Jimmy Clough was probably protected by his
steel helmet. The Society decides to get steel helmets for everyone working with them.
They begin soliciting helmets from curiosity shops and Great War veterans.
Late in the day, William Wright, father of Bernard, calls to talk. He says that his
son Bernard could translate the tablet without difficulty, and reads off the following
translation:

Here before the gods, and great Thor, in the eleventh year of Ranulf,
do we agree that the clans of Gunnbjorn Alfson of Borgundarholm
and Tyrfing Sotisson of Jorvik

That’s where the print of the tablet ends. Would William be willing for his son to
visit England? William would like that very much. (Walter gets the impression that
William would like for his whole family to depart Berlin.) But the authorities like for the
boy to be there. If Walter could pull some strings, William could send Bernard over for a
visit. Walter agrees to do so. He’ll use Professor Horst, Gustav Krieseg, and others who
have German leaders’ ears to make that request.

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The heroes acquire their helmets. Night falls.
The heroes set up outside the sausage shop again. Matthew hides in the shop to
see if he will go blind while he wears his metal helmet when the Sand Viking arrives.
Across town, Dash, Angela and Byron, on patrol, encounter a Sand Viking trying
to bash his way into a second-story window at a fire escape. Angela approaches, draws
her new sword, and slashes the Viking with it. The Viking comes over the rail to land
before her and attack her. She dodges its first swing but it hits her anyway — however,
her armor holds and she is only bruised. Dash draws his revolvers and puts round after
round into the Viking, doing it some harm. Byron leaps up onto the fire escape, then
kicks down at the Viking’s hand as it swings at Angela; the kick disarms the Viking.
Dash and the Viking both leap for the glassy sword. Dash gets his hand on it first.
He swings it and hits his opponent. Angela swings at the prone Viking’s ankle and hits,
her sword biting through sand to clank against something beneath; she realizes that
something hard, probably his skeleton, lies within. She begins aiming attacks to strike
bone, and tells the others. Byron yanks the fire escape’s metal rail bar free, drops, and
brings the rail down on the Viking’s head, smashing it in. The Viking slumps. Angela
gets a last shot in, “killing” the dead thing, and sand pours off his skeleton.
Meanwhile, Matthew witness the entire Sand Viking sausage theft. The intruding
Viking is angered by the flashbulb, smashes the flash attachment, and steals too much
sausage by way of petty revenge.
The heroes get back together again, Angela’s group carrying a bag of sand and
bones, and exchange stories.
The next morning, while the Society is having breakfast in the main suite, there’s
a knock at the door and a tall, skinny boy of 12 enters. It’s Bernard Wright. His story is a
simple one; as a child, he started having dreams in Old Norse, and could soon speak
and read it. He doesn’t know why this is. They take him out to the boat site to look at the
actual carving. He translates it so:

Here before the gods, and great Thor, in the eleventh year of Ranulf, do we agree that
the clans of Gunnbjorn Alfson of Borgundarholm and Tyrfing Sotisson of Jorvik may not
both survive, but only one, and so agreet to meet, that only one survive. Let it be
known that we swear before the gods that we shall meet in Jorvik in the spring, and all
males of one clan or the other shall perish ere we be satisfied, and may the wild hunt
come for us if we shrink from this bloodletting, nor may the gates of Valhalla admit us if
we refrain. Alfson of Borgundarholm and Tyrfing Sotisson so swear.

Nicol Douglas doesn’t believe the boy can read Norse. Alan’s more of a believer.
He suspects that there must have been another copy of this document, one presented
to Tyrfing Sotisson, with the names reversed so Tyrfing’s comes first. The heroes go to
York’s Viking museum to inquire as to whether that document is present there. Curator
William Craddock says he’s seen it — not in the museum’s collection, but in the
historical collection (the Records Room) of the Minster. They proceed there directly and
Father Mulroney shows them the stone carving. They take pictures of it.
The heroes are curious as to whether Bernard has any other unusual abilities. He
admits that he can make iron hot by holding on to it — by “putting anger into it.”
The heroes go to the alley where the sausage-stealing Viking disappears. They
have Bernard translate a note for them, and leave it there. It says, “We need to talk.”
They return to their hotel and make preparations; then, at nightfall, they collect

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again at the alley. At 8 p.m., a Sand Viking flows up through the bars and coalesces.
The heroes, with their helmets on, talk to him through Bernard. Erik Gudmonson is this
Viking’s name; his voice is a screechy whisper. He agrees to take the message to “the
Jarl” (Alfson). The Jarl will decide where the meeting will be. Erik will meet them, to tell
them, on the river side of the castle. They obligingly head over to that spot.
An hour later, Erik arrives to fetch them. He leads them under an ancient bridge
to a crack in the earth. The crack twists and forks, then opens into a Roman catacomb.
One of the catacomb chambers is set up as a long hall with a throne at the end. Five
Sand Vikings and their leader, Gunnbjorn Alfson, await them. Gunnbjorn is different from
the rest; he is not made of sand. His features are Nordic but his skin is jet-black, pliant,
and as warm as any of the humans present. He looks like he is about 30 or 40. He
wears armor, unlike the others, and it seems to be made up of glassy scales. His voice
is normal.
Gunnbjorn offers them food, and they break bread and drink beer with him and
the others. Flame inside the mouths of the Vikings consumes whatever is taken within.
They ask Gunnbjorn why the feud began. He says that it is because Tyrfing grew
jealous of him. When they were youths together, they raided together. Over time, Tyrfing
grew old and weak while Gunnbjorn didn’t. The heroes suspect that Gunnbjorn is not
dead like the others — he may, instead, be ageless.
Gunnbjorn says that his feud boat made it to the coast near Yorvik but was
overtaken by a storm. They fought it for three days but eventually sank. He was in the
process of killing his warriors with his sword — that they might die nobly and enter
Valhalla — when the mast fell over on him. When he awoke, a long, long time later, he
was being driven up the beach by a metal monster; he slew the man who attacked him.
Since then, he and his Vikings have hidden here. He has not been among the ones who
have killed modern-day men of York; he only killed the one who drove the metal beast.
He and those with him have the power to summon darkness and silence, to
move within them, to know when an enemy is a descendant of Tyrfing.
Walter convinces him that no one alive today claims proud descent from Tyrfing.
That means, since Gunnbjorn is alive and Tyrfing’s line is dead, that Gunnbjorn is the
victor of the feud. Will he leave off vengeance? Gunnbjorn is willing, but he and a
representative of the city, a descendant of Tyrfing, must make a new contract, a new
oath.
Gunnbjorn’s men react with disbelief. They are not willing to give up their
vengeance. (Perhaps it is because they are thrilled to live again and unwilling to give up
their Viking ways; perhaps it is because they want to enter Valhalla.) They want to
exploit this world of masterless weaklings. The Sand Vikings part from their leader and
disappear into the depths of the catacombs.
Caroline suggests that a monument be built to the duel expedition. Gunnbjorn
believes that a Saga is more appropriate. Bernard is willing to help write it.
The names of Gunnbjorn’s men are:
Erik Gudmonson
Brandolf the Short
Dag Runolfson (the sausage thief)
Gudbrand the Snaketongue
Sigfus Styrson (the one Angela, Byron and Dash killed)

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#24. The Fury of the Northmen. Played 6/9/01.

Starring: Dash Donohue, Tarkin O’Malley, Walter Ransley, Matthew Dupree,
Carolina Blanc, Angela Billings, Jean-Paul Blanc (npc). Guest-Starring: Tal Singh,
Byron Nesbit, Claudia Verlon, Becky Dupree.
Story Date: April, 1938.
The heroes leave. They get in touch with Mayor David Ingersoll, who is of an old
area family and is willing to help. They also get in touch with Townsend, who agrees to
accompany them and not to interrupt the oath ceremony.
During the night and the next day, they compose a document of peace, ending
the feud. Bernard translates it and enscribes it in several copies in clay. These are sent
off to a kiln to be fired.
Later in the day, the potters bring back the documents. They fired six copies; two
broke, so four remain. The major brings in reporters for the event. Clive Hanson is
among them.
Together, during the day, they and the Society travel to Gunnbjorn’s hideout.
Nicol Douglass is mesmerized by the catacombs. Here, a day before, he’d thought his
archaeological career was over; since then, he’s found both copies of a thousand-year-
old treaty and now catacombs dating to Roman times. He has to be hauled along,
otherwise he’ll stop to peer at every niche in the walls, every crypt, every coin on the
ground.
They reach Alfson in his thronal chamber. They explain flash photography so he
won’t be alarmed, then the photographers begin clicking away in earnest. Alfson
accepts Mayor Ingersoll as a descendant of Tyrfing and thus his cousin.
Gunnbjorn examines the new treaties and pronounces them sound. He reads
them aloud and the mayor repeats after him. Then they cut their palms and mix blood
and spit to seal the ceremony.
The major is happy. But Gunnbjorn is saddened. The last purpose of his life is
gone, and so is the world he knew.
Now Inspector Townsend arrests Gunnbjorn for conspiracy to commit murder. He
did wait until after the ceremony was done; now it’s time for him to do his job. Gunnbjorn
is offended. He assures himself that the Eldorado Society isn’t involved in this treachery.
Then he has Bernard tell them to look up. The Eldorado Society does. Gunnbjorn opens
his mouth and a bright flash of light fills the chamber, blinding everyone else. When
Townsend’s eyes clear, Gunnbjorn is gone. So is his copy of the agreement.
The heroes grimly prepare for the night’s Sand Viking depredations. But, hours
later, there have been no reports of killings. Finally one comes in: The Eastin family is
dead, all but the oldest son. He and the family lorry are missing. The dead members of
the family are cut to pieces, with sand and glass all about. The heroes realize that the
four remaining Sand Vikings have left; they are no longer bound here by their feud, so
they can go anywhere to pillage.
Walter tries to arrange an amnesty for Gunnbjorn. If he helps the authorities with
the investigation, will they drop charges? The Mayor says that he’ll speak to the
prosecutor about it. He calls back shortly afterwards. The prosecutor will drop the
charges — the Hull killing was arguably self-defense, and Gunnbjorn hasn’t killed in
York — so long as Gunnbjorn doesn’t commit further crimes in the course of these
events.
Walter has Bernard write a message for Gunnbjorn asking for a meeting at the
ruined ship. They copy the message and distribute copies all over York. Since

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Townsend will see the messages and know Bernard wrote them, Byron helps Bernard
hide from the authorities.
At moonset, Gunnbjorn shows up at the ship. The heroes bring out their picnic
basket. They ask Gunnbjorn what the other men will do. They’ll go to where the greatest
wealth, most powerful warriors, and most beautiful women are. The heroes guess that
means London. Gunnbjorn agrees to help them. With his permission, they dress him in
modern clothes and teach him the rudiments of the pistol. Gunnbjorn also says that
protection from the darkness and silence curse doesn’t require a full helmet — just a
coronet of iron.
By morning, there are no further reports of Sand Viking crimes in York. But there
is a report of a lorry full of madmen kidnapping a girl, the daughter of a petrol station
owner, from nearby Leeds yesterday afternoon. The heroes load into the DC-3 and fly to
London, then rent cars and drive up the roads back toward Leeds.
In Leicester, they hear that the bank at Nottingham, further north, was robbed an
hour ago by tan men. These men dressed in overcoats and had shotguns. They killed
two bank guards. They left the lorry behind there and took another vehicle to escape;
there is no description of that vehicle.
Walter tells the Leicester police to expect an assault on one of their banks. The
Society goes cruising, picks a particularly juicy-looking bank and stakes it out. Later,
they see police staking it out. Walter and Caroline talk to those police. Later, the police
come back with word that the Sand Vikings have detoured to Coventry and appear to be
in the company of a notorious gangster called Edmond “Blue-Eyes” Jones (so named
for the collection of human eyeballs he keeps in a jug).
They go to Coventry. There, Inspector Fergus Wilkins tells them a little about
Jones. He appears to have headed from Coventry to London with his tan-colored
cohorts.
Gunnbjorn opines that the men will not hit another bank immediately; they’ll revel
for a while, then plan a robbery. Oddly, though, there is no word of four strange tan men
revelling in the appropriate quarters of London. Carolina uses this time to give
Gunnbjorn more shooting lessons.
The heroes are visited by Frances L. Filbert, a retired cracksman. He’s heard
about their inquiries into tan men. He was brought in by Blue-Eyes Jones to talk about a
job, an infiltration through very good, very modern security. He saw the tan men there.
He accepted the job but, as soon as he had an opportunity, fled; he was certain he’d be
killed if he refused, and he’s out of that life. So he’d like some money from the Eldorado
Society so he can lie low. One reason he knows something is wrong is that Blue-Eyes
Jones would never use as good a cracksman as Filbert; Filbert’s speciality was in
getting in and out undetected, without trouble, while Jones loves trouble. Filbert
concluded that Jones needed him to get in somewhere with tight security, and then
they’d blast their way out. They ask him if he knows of any place with security of the sort
they were asking him to face. He can only estimate, he’s never seen it, but he thinks
Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are equipped in such a modern fashion.
Would the Vikings wish harm to the British Royal Family? Certainly, says
Gunnbjorn. How could they take control of England if they do not first kill those who
currently rule her?
Eek.
Walter immediately calls Buckingham Palace and requests an audience with King
George VI. He stresses the emergency nature of his call. He is granted an audience for
9 p.m. That evening, he, Angela, Bernard, and Gunnbjorn visit the palace. Their

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weapons are taken, including Walter’s cufflinks, which impresses Walter greatly.
They speak with the king. George VI mentions that he is holding a royal family
ball tomorrow in Buckingham Palace. The heroes know that must be the event the
Vikings and Jones plan to hit. The king knew Jones in the Great War and, as his
commanding officer, even had him busted down for crimes unbefitting an officer.
Gunnbjorn, at the king’s invitation, demonstrates the power of his sorcery. He
summons a brief, localized storm that pours rain down on the Palace. Walter is quite
impressed. George VI accepts the danger as real; in fact, he was told by his wife’s
astrological advisor, a man named Duncan Coward, that danger would be brewing for
the royal family.
The king decides to hold the event, but to bring in ringers for the royals. He asks
if the Eldorado Society would like to attend. They definitely would. After they leave the
palace, the rattled Walter takes the others out for a drink.
The following morning, the heroes decide that Bernard can’t be at the event. He
spends his time teaching Gunnbjorn a few more words of English. Tarkin and Angela
have some weapons delivered early to the palace, including her shotgun and his
katana.
That evening, they show up dressed to the nines at the Palace. The Palace staff
gives everyone a mask; the event is suddenly a masked ball. The heroes note that the
masks are held in place not by ties or ribbons but by thin iron bands. Again Walter is
impressed. Carolina shows off by wearing a formal gown she could not use to smuggle
a nickle.
The king and other royals are there for the first part of the party, but perform a
series of cunning switches with their doubles.
Matthew feels a twitch of the “real stuff,” magic. He alerts the others. Minutes
later, armed men burst in from the two doors at the tops of the staircases and from the
main double doors into the hall. They carry a wide variety of weapons, from .455
revolvers to Lewis guns. “Tonight the royals die!” cry the English gangsters among
them.
Caroline draws her guns from Jean-Paul’s pockets and gets behind a statuary
pedestal; Jean-Paul gets in position with her, covering her. Tarkin, Angela, and Walter to
under the balcony at the left side of the head of the room, where some of their tables
await. Matthew draws a handful of knives and flicks them at one of the men carrying a
Lewis gun. He kills the men instantly. Dash pops .38s out of his sleeves as he runs for
cover.
Gunnbjorn turns against the men entering the front of the room. He breathes fire
on them. Those who anticipate the breath and duck away are the two Sand Vikings in
that group, but one of them, Brandolf, orders the others to shoot at Gunnbjorn. They do,
riddling him with fire.
The false Royal Family draws weapons and opens up on the gangsters above.
The other man with a Lewis gun sprays the royal stage. “Princess Margaret” is hit, a
messy kill.
Tarkin emerges with his Winchester carbine and fires on those at the maindoors.
He hits one. Carolina shoots the second Lewis gun, knocking its ammunition drum off.
Dash fires at Blue-Eye Jones, missing the nimble gangster. Jones returns fire and hits
him in the chest; his armor soaks up the blow but Dash is thrown back and down. Byron
leaps up to the balcony above, grabs the ankles of one gangster, and drags the man
through under the rail to crash to the floor below. Byron jumps up and down on top of
him until he stops moving and is all crunchy.

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Gunnbjorn continues advancing on those shooting at him, his body jerking under
the gunfire, spraying blood everywhere. He draws his new handgun. Angela fires on
those shooting at him and hits two with her shotgun blast. Walter brings out his SMG
and sprays them as well, hitting three of them.
Two of the balcony gangsters drop sticks of dynamite on the royal stage. The
surviving false royals jump clear. The dynamite explodes, sending pieces of stage
everywhere.
The gangsters’ return fire against the heroes is mostly ineffectual; the heroes are
too-well positioned behind cover. But one of them reassembles the Lewis gun and gets
it working again, and Matthew, out in the open, is hit in the thigh, a hard, messy wound.
Jean-Paul takes a shot in the chest and his felled, but his armor soaks it up.
Gunnbjorn is almost to his foes, who are firing round after round of shotgun
ammunition into him. He falters, and falls on his face.
Walter begins racking up enormous kill numbers against the gangsters. Angela’s
iron-loaded shotgun shells finally kill one of the main-door Vikings. He howls and
perishes. The Viking named Dag drops down in front of her and fires a shotgun at her;
she drops behind her table cover and the heavy tabletop protects her. Tarkin switches to
katana and swings at that Viking. He misses... or so it seems at first. Then that Viking’s
head separates from its neck and that one, too, falls to pieces.
Carolina shoots another Viking, this steel-jacketed slug going between its eyes
and blowing up its head. That one, too, goes to sand. Blue-Eye Jones, seeing the way
the combat is going, backs through the door he came in through and disappears.
The last Sand Viking is charging down the stairs. Dash rushes toward it, dropping
his guns, whipping out his crowbar, and swings. He smashes its thigh in. The Viking
grabs at his crowbar and misses. Dash keeps hammering, breaking bones with every
blow, until that Viking goes to sand.
The remaining gangsters surrender. Royal guards come pouring in. Nothing can
be done for the false Princess Margaret, who turns out to have been a man. The false
King George VI turns out to be Geoffrey Palmer, the heroes’ long-time Intelligence ally.
Gunnbjorn is still alive. They take him to a hospital fast and operate on him.
Though his body seems less affected by bullets than normal humans, he’s still badly
hurt. But he survives the multiple operations and begins healing rapidly.
The next day, George VI thanks the Society. He says that there will be a
Distinguished Service Award to come later in the year, and offers his personal gratitude.
He offers to help Walter with anything he needs. Walter, ever generous, wants that help
to be offered to Gunnbjorn, in the form of a royal pardon. George VI agrees and says he
will offer Gunnbjorn a home in England. The English Poet Laureate will be put to work
on Gunnbjorn’s Saga, and Bernard Wright will have a job helping in the translation.
Byron and Bernard seem to have become fast friends. The Society sends the
cracksman Filbert off on a vacation.

These Chronicles of the Golden Age Campaign are

Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Aaron Allston.
Unauthorized Duplication or Distribution Prohibited.

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