Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 6910550" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 98, “Back to Zakazik" September 12, 1882, 2:15 AM.</strong></p><p></p><p>The group of Mina, Freya, George, Ruby, Lawrence, Abby, and Fish head towards the dirigible. Neferka's ogre bodyguard Mengesha joins them. George is happy to see that the assigned man is Lieutenant Colonel Dhahabiya Hassan, the man who assisted him with coordinating activities back at the telegraph office. Before they depart Gonzales approaches Ruby and whispers to her "The man you shot was Paul Cezanne, a French painter and apparently also a sniper. He is part of the French wizards group."</p><p></p><p>Ruby gulped a little but swallowed the guilt down. "Well, he was trying to kill the other French guy and one of us could have gotten killed!" She pursed her lips in displeasure and started stomping off into the airship. She stopped abruptly, turned on her heel, grabbed the dead man's weapon, then stomped off into the airship. Abby watched Ruby stomp inside. "I don't enjoy ending a life either, certainly not a talented one, but there is nothing wrong with defending ourselves." Lawrence shrugs and adds, "He chose to pick up a rifle rather than a paintbrush today. I hope there won't be any other artists trying to kill us today."</p><p></p><p>It takes George only minutes to re-familiarize himself with the airship's operation. Ruby composed herself during the trip, she just wouldn't let herself dwell on the necessities of war. During the ride on the airship she looked over the artist's weapon, now in her possession. The possibility that there was magical ammunition intrigued her and she spent most of the flight figuring this out. The weapon itself appears to be a fairly regular European-made rifle, which would have been inaccurate at the 300 yard distance he had fired from unless he were a superb marksman. Yet the shots were surprisingly accurate, supporting her theory of magical ammunition.</p><p></p><p>The balloon flight to Zakazik takes just under an hour. As the dirigible nears Zakazik they can see in the distance to the east the town of Tel-el Kabir, where from the hundreds of visible lights as it appears that both armies are preparing for the forthcoming battle. They soon reach the city and approach the Zakazik Grand Hotel. It is 3:15AM when they reach the roof, where a quartet of hotel employees assist in grabbing and securing the ropes to anchor the craft.</p><p></p><p>As the party exits they are greeted by Sultan Ali Ramuel, the nephew of the Hotel owner, who had first welcomed Ruby and Mina upon their arrival in Zakazik a week earlier. When they were landing Ruby saw the Sultan waiting there. She quickly fixed up her hair and adjusted her robes. Miraculously, even after having gotten shot not long before, they were pristine. Aphrodite had definitely been watching over her this night.</p><p></p><p>Abby stretched and got herself up from the ball she had curled herself into. Her exhaustion was enough that, even with those she couldn't count among those she might trust, she had gone straight to sleep. At least that had kept her from wondering what had happened to Cal and the others at the pyramids. She could only trust that he knew what he was doing and would be alright. "Gods, I'm tired," she muttered, and dug for her glasses. She followed Ruby out, warm, sleepy to sun in contrast to her vibrant fire. Her bright blue eyes behind her glasses took in everything around them. Let Ruby do the talking, she would do the watching.</p><p></p><p>Ruby exited the airship and greeted the Sultan with a sparkling smile. "Sultan Ali Ramuel, what a pleasure it is to see you again." A wide grin covers his face and he exclaims "Ah, dearest Ruby, it is indeed a pleasure to see you again. I suspected the craft would contain only elderly Frenchmen, my eyes certainly find this to be a marked improvement." Turning his eyes to Mina he says, "And the beautiful woman who you claim is your Grandmother. Hard to believe, clearly a case of child bride."</p><p></p><p>Ruby gave the man a little bow as her grandmother came up behind her. "Such a charmer you are Ali. And I am happy to see it's you here greeting us and not some form of trouble. But I must admit, I didn't think we would find you here. Hadn't you told me you would be out of town by now? I fear your prediction of bad times coming was correct." He says "I have been away and am now back. You are quite right, bad times are indeed coming. I do not know if it is the truth or not, but word has just reached us that the King has been killed."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, it's quite unfortunate that bad news is true." Ruby shook her head sadly. "And that is why we are here to fetch the Princess. It's urgent that we find her now. We've brought along her personal bodyguard to confirm this and for her protection. Is she in the same room as when we left?" He replies, "No, she left here at sunset with her husband on board this same balloon that you just arrived on. She is not with you?" "No, no she is not. We are afraid she has been kidnapped! Someone impersonated her. Could we please have access to the room they were in immediately before they left? Was it the same room I met with her before her marriage?"</p><p></p><p>He says, "I can bring you there, but it is mostly empty. The Frenchman Louis Dagurerre oversaw the collection of her things a couple of hours ago." "That bas....!" Ruby stopped short and took a deep breath in to regain her composure. George swears in a few languages. "We would like to see the room anyway. When and to where and how did Dagurerre leave?" She let the long breath out and exclaims "Yes, We would like to look around, you never know what we might find. If you see Mr. Dagurerre could you please quietly let us know? We'd all be most obliged."</p><p></p><p>The Sultan replies, "He and Mr. Chevreul arrived at around 1:00AM. Chevreul collected up most of his laboratory items from the Frenchmen's rooms while Dagurerre oversaw the collection of the Princesses items. They left ninety-minutes ago on another balloon, one about half the size of yours. It flew away to the north. Since that time the Princess's room has been vacant and locked. About a half-hour ago another Frenchman and colleague of theirs, the Mathematician Jean-Gaston Darboux, arrived with word of the King's death. He is currently in the rooms that the other Frenchmen had stayed in."</p><p></p><p>George perks up. Lowering his voice he says, "Ok, Freya, go see if you can get airborne and head north and find the other airship. Don't engage, just follow it and see where it lands. Then head back and report." Freya agrees, but decides to wait until the Sultan and his four assistants exit the roof before transforming into the dragon form and taking flight.</p><p></p><p>"Sultan, if you would show us to the Frenchman's room, we have a few questions for Mr. Darboux," adds George with an edge to his voice that left no room for the Sultan to decline. Lawrence asks, "George, are you planning on a little rough-and-tumble?" George says, "Yes, but that will have to wait until Ruby and I get back to our room. In the meanwhile I need to punch someone. And I would prefer a Gallic face right now." *Snort* Lawrence shakes his head. "Kids these days. In any case, that sounds about right."</p><p></p><p>They head downstairs. The Sultan lets Ruby, Mina and Mengesha into the Princess's room and then continues on with the other men. They spend the next ten minutes looking around. Ruby notes that nearly all of the Princess's clothing is still in the closet. Mengesha also comments that nearly everything that the Princess brought with her is still there, with the one notable exception being the large steamer trunk that she had originally brought her things in. Ruby asks, "That trunk was large enough to fit the Princess in it, wasn't it Mengesha?" "Yes, it would have been," is his concerned reply.</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "So they smuggled her out in the trunk so no one would see it was her, while they had the actress play her. The question is, how long ago did they move her and where. I only hope that Freya can find them to the north." Ruby tapped her lips. "I wonder...," She casts the familiar detect magic and gives a good look around the room. Despite the vast number of the Princess's things still remaining in the room, none appear to be magical, an indication that the French wizards apparently did the same before departing. Ruby sighed. "I knew it was a long shot. I think we've found all we will in here. Let's go see if the others are having more luck." She stood wistfully at the door for a moment before leading her grandmother and the guard to the other room.</p><p></p><p>While George, Lawrence, Hassan and Fish are escorted by the Sultan to the rooms of the French. Rather than knocking the Sultan uses his pass key to open the door. Lawrence and Fish have been in this suite before but it is new to Hassan and George. They enter into a large room with chairs and couches. A well stocked bar is along the side wall and several empty wine bottles are in a wooden waste basket beside the bar. Off from this room is a long corridor with four doors on each side of the corridor. Two of the four doors are open. One leads to the dining room and Lawrence notices that the large map of Eygpt is now gone.</p><p></p><p>The other open door is to the kitchen, which Chevreul had converted into a laboratory. There appears to be somebody in that room. Lawrence calls out, "Hello, who's there?" He replies in French "Hello, I am Jean Darboux." A man then exits the room who is clearly NOT the French mathematician Jean Darboux, as Lawrence and George recognize him as Maurice Beaujoulais. They last saw him approximately twelve hours earlier in Cairo as the palace was being bombed by the Dreadnaught. The Sultan steps forward and says to Beaujoulais "Mr. Darboux, these people wished to speak to you."</p><p></p><p>George hesitates for a fraction of a heartbeat as his eyebrow raises then slowly speaks "Hello Mr. Darboux, how do you do. May we have a word with you?" He says, "Why yes Mr. Eastman, my associate Mr. Chevruel said you had a question regarding my recent journal article about Geometric Theorems." George begins to expound upon mathematical ideas. Not wanting to listen to a pair of academics discuss math, the Sultan excuses himself. Lieutenant Hassan decides the same and says that he will go check on the status of the Egyptian Army in Zakazik.</p><p></p><p>As soon as the Sultan and Hassan leave and the door closes George rushes up to Maurice grasping his hand. "Well this is a surprise Maurice. How is is we find you here? And where is Darboux? There is much trouble afoot and time is wasting"</p><p></p><p>Maurice replies, "Well my friend, the last half-day or so appear to have been busy for both of our teams. How I got here is a long story. When we last were together the Egyptian Palace was under attack from the Dreadnaught dirigible from above. Your team headed up to deal with the threat, but my main priority at the time was my wounded and unconscious colleague Henry Jekyll. That he was also in the form of a Rhinoceros further complicated matters.</p><p></p><p>So Callum and I raided the King's treasure room and "borrowed" a magical carpet from his magic trove, to get Henry out of there. We headed to a safe house in Heliopolis until the animal transformation potion wore off. Meanwhile, young Henry Jones and Callum had heard rumors at that point of Freya's destruction of the Dreadnaught and that the balloon gondola and it's French passengers were prisoners of the United States Navy. That was your doing I assume.</p><p></p><p>The next news was several hours later, that General Orabi had met with the King and murdered him in cold blood and that Chevruel and Daguerre had escaped. Jekyll was in better shape then, and I realized that Zakazik was probably the destination of the French wizards, so we boarded the carpet and flew here. Henry Jones snuck into the hotel disguised as an Egyptian servant boy, discovering that the French had come here and left in a hurry. Given their hasty departure I decided to investigate, so took a page from your friend Abigail's book and assumed one of their identities to gain access to their rooms. I chose Darboux because my latest intelligence said he is currently with their team way down in Nubia, and his face wouldn't be well known."</p><p></p><p>Gesturing to the closed bedroom door Maurice says, "Take a look, it appears that I arrived just in time." George moves forward commenting, "Oh and wait until you hear the whole story from the slaying of the king. It's a doozy." "Do tell," Maurice state." Ok, first let's see this room. Have you heard anything about the princess? We believe the French have her captive." replies George heading up to look into the room. In the center of the bedroom is a huge block of melting ice, approximately six-feet high, six-feet deep and eight-feet wide. In the center of the ice there appears to be a large wooden crate, with a small wooden box on the top of it.</p><p></p><p>Fish gestures that he wants a word alone with George. Lawrence catches the signal and engages Boujoulais in conversation. As Lawrence engages Maurice in conversation, George heads over to inspect the contents of the room. As he does so he sidles up to Fish. "Yeah?" he whispers from the side of his mouth. Fish whispers "This guy's story has holes in it big enough to drive a carriage through. About a half-hour after the dirigible crash I spotted him near the palace, along with Callum Stuart, Henry Jones and that other kid. I followed them from Cairo to Gizah, and they got there on a carriage pulled by an old horse, no magical carpet."</p><p></p><p>George whispers back to Fish "So is he playing double agent, self-aggrandizing, or is this NOT actually Maurice? What does your gut tell you?" Fish says, "Hard to say, none of us really know the guy, if this is him. All I know is that his story doesn't stand up to what I saw."</p><p></p><p>Ruby and her team arrive at the wizard's rooms. George and Fish and looking into one of the side rooms while Lawrence is talking to the American of French descent, Maurice Beaujoulais, who was working with the British spies. "Maurice, pleasure to see you again," Ruby said as she swept into the room. "What are you doing here?" He replies, "Averting a disaster and trying to stop a war!" Ruby says, "As are we! I am so glad you made it out of the crumbling palace okay. So, what is your plan here? Have you seen the Princess?"</p><p></p><p>She does not sense any overt deception from him. He says, "No, but I haven't left this suite since I arrived. I've been rather busy." He gestures into the room that Fish and George are looking into. Inside the center of the bedroom is a huge block of melting ice, approximately six-feet high, six-feet deep and eight-feet wide. In the center of the ice there appears to be a large wooden crate, with a small wooden box on the top of it. "What this?" she asks with furrowed brows, looking it over closely.</p><p></p><p>"You said you arrived just in time. Just in time for what? And what is in the boxes?" George asks Maurice. Maurice says, "The large box is filled with dynamite, the smaller box has the clock and triggering mechanism for the bomb, and the crate itself has magical "Pyrotechnics" glyphs on it, to increase the explosion ten-fold. Daguerre and Chevreul apparently didn't want to leave any evidence or witnesses behind so decided to blow up this building up after they left. When I found this the clock was down to six minutes remaining. There wasn't time to evacuate the hotel so I created the ice barrier to muffle the blast. We were fortunate, as the ice also appears to have also stopped the clock in the process."</p><p></p><p>Lawrence says, "Smart thinking, Maurice. We should get this out of here now that the clock has stopped. That ice won't last long in this heat. We'll need a cart or something to get it out of the city. Carrying it out ourselves will be too slow. Did you find anything else?" He replies, "Yes, Chevruel's laboratory was filled with burners, beakers and pots. But he took whatever liquids he was working on with him as well as his ingredients. It would have been helpful if I knew what it was he was concocting in here." Lawrence replies, "Rats. Chevruel escaped after the king got killed. Maybe he didn't clean his gear out completely."</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "We have to save this city again, eh? We should be getting paid!" She kneels next to the boxes and sits back on her feet while continuing to inspect the bomb. "Can you dispel the pyrotechnics on the box? Do you think that part of it will go off in some way if I try to disarm the bomb?" He says, "Probably not, as Daguerre and Chevruel are both much more powerful wizards that I am. The creation of the ice around it, which lifted the boxes two-feet higher in the air, did not set it off. So I think that it is safe to move them. Although I doubt we have the strength to do that due to the weight of the ice. I estimate that it will probably be a good three to four hours until the ice is fully melted away.</p><p></p><p>Young Henry Jones, still dressed as an Egyptian servant boy, arrives at the room. He announces "News of the deaths of the King and of General Orabi have now reached the Egyptian Rebel camp. Orabi's second-in-command General Fehmy has taken charge and has dedicated the upcoming battle to be fought to honor Orabi as a martyr to their cause. The troops appear to be very motivated." George asks Henry to search for any notebooks or writings or samples that were overlooked in the lab.</p><p></p><p>"Well...," she paused as she looked to George and her other friends. George and Fish both have apprehensive expressions so she wasn't sure just how much she should share with this man or if they should trust him at all. She continued with measured words, "We might have a way to move it but it is uncertain when we could do so and time is running out so we shouldn't count on it. Out of curiosity Maurice, whatever happened to the other man who was with you at one point, Cal I think his name was?"</p><p></p><p>He replies, "Callum Stuart and Doctor Henry Jekyll. They took the flying carpet north. That was the direction that the dirigible had gone away to, so we assume that Chevruel and Daguerre are heading up to their battleship." "How many of those huge ships do they have?!?" Ruby said exasperatedly. He says, "Just the one, and it's not an airship, it's an actual Battleship. The ironclad three-mast ship Armide was part of the French Navy. They sold it to the wizards a short while ago, and the Wizards then magically enhanced it."</p><p></p><p>She says, "We destroyed one of their huge airships earlier today, the dirigible gun ship that attacked the palace. And we currently have another of their ships in our possession." There was a long silence while Ruby tried to ponder out what was just said. "I'm confused. They have a flying battleship, like, a real ship ship?" He says, "No, it doesn't fly. It is a real ship, although they've used magic to dramatically increase its speed on the water. The original Battleship Armide had a maximum speed of 10 knots, around 12 miles-an-hour. They've quadrupled it, so it goes close to 50 miles-an-hour. I only know of two other ships that can achieve that type of speed."</p><p></p><p>She asks, "Which two ships would that be?" Gesturing to Willamina he says, "One is James Parker's ship Magnificence, which my sources indicate will be arriving in Alexandria at around noon today. The other is a ship under my command and is currently waiting in Herakleion, fifteen miles east of Alexandria. That ship is secretly watching the French ship Armide, with orders to sink it if they attempt to escape with Princess Neferka's dowery. Those priceless Egyptian artifacts should not be allowed to leave Egyptian waters."</p><p></p><p>"My grandfather has a fine ship, yes." Again, she was afraid to give too much away. "How do you know when his ship is arriving?" He says, "It was seen crossing into the Mediterranian Sea just before dawn almost a day ago. Based upon the ship's speed, and my assumption that he wishes to reunite with his wife as soon as possible, I estimate it will reach Egypt at noon." Clever not admitting to his sources... she thinks. "Well, yes, I do believe my grandfather's ship is on its way here. But that isn't going to help us with this bomb. I can try to disarm it myself though it is something a little different than I have dealt with before."</p><p></p><p>While this conversation is going on George further examines the ice block, which is now around 20-inches on all sides of the chest, so will not currently fit through the door. The outside corridor leads to the staircase down to the main floors and up to the roof. There is also a large picture window on this floor that could be broken and the block of ice would fit through. He concludes that it must be removed as it would probably bring the whole building down if it explodes anywhere inside. George, still pondering how to deal with the bomb, leaves to explore the other doors off this hallway. Based upon Maruice's estimate on the melting, in approximatley 90-minutes enough will have melted to get it through the door.</p><p></p><p>Ruby is confident that she could disconnect the triggering mechanism from the explosives, however, she is totally uncertain about the magical glyphs on it and the possibility that disarming it might set some of them off. "If it comes down to it, I know I can disarm the bomb. I'm not positive about the magic on it but I have Aphrodite to protect me. If it comes down to it, that is. Otherwise, WE could get it out of here, take it in our airship and drop it in the middle of the desert. Right?" Maurice smiles and says, "I like your plan. We could drop it anywhere we want, in the desert, in the middle of this battle that will start in a couple of hours, or on the French ship Armide."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 6910550, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 98, “Back to Zakazik" September 12, 1882, 2:15 AM.[/B] The group of Mina, Freya, George, Ruby, Lawrence, Abby, and Fish head towards the dirigible. Neferka's ogre bodyguard Mengesha joins them. George is happy to see that the assigned man is Lieutenant Colonel Dhahabiya Hassan, the man who assisted him with coordinating activities back at the telegraph office. Before they depart Gonzales approaches Ruby and whispers to her "The man you shot was Paul Cezanne, a French painter and apparently also a sniper. He is part of the French wizards group." Ruby gulped a little but swallowed the guilt down. "Well, he was trying to kill the other French guy and one of us could have gotten killed!" She pursed her lips in displeasure and started stomping off into the airship. She stopped abruptly, turned on her heel, grabbed the dead man's weapon, then stomped off into the airship. Abby watched Ruby stomp inside. "I don't enjoy ending a life either, certainly not a talented one, but there is nothing wrong with defending ourselves." Lawrence shrugs and adds, "He chose to pick up a rifle rather than a paintbrush today. I hope there won't be any other artists trying to kill us today." It takes George only minutes to re-familiarize himself with the airship's operation. Ruby composed herself during the trip, she just wouldn't let herself dwell on the necessities of war. During the ride on the airship she looked over the artist's weapon, now in her possession. The possibility that there was magical ammunition intrigued her and she spent most of the flight figuring this out. The weapon itself appears to be a fairly regular European-made rifle, which would have been inaccurate at the 300 yard distance he had fired from unless he were a superb marksman. Yet the shots were surprisingly accurate, supporting her theory of magical ammunition. The balloon flight to Zakazik takes just under an hour. As the dirigible nears Zakazik they can see in the distance to the east the town of Tel-el Kabir, where from the hundreds of visible lights as it appears that both armies are preparing for the forthcoming battle. They soon reach the city and approach the Zakazik Grand Hotel. It is 3:15AM when they reach the roof, where a quartet of hotel employees assist in grabbing and securing the ropes to anchor the craft. As the party exits they are greeted by Sultan Ali Ramuel, the nephew of the Hotel owner, who had first welcomed Ruby and Mina upon their arrival in Zakazik a week earlier. When they were landing Ruby saw the Sultan waiting there. She quickly fixed up her hair and adjusted her robes. Miraculously, even after having gotten shot not long before, they were pristine. Aphrodite had definitely been watching over her this night. Abby stretched and got herself up from the ball she had curled herself into. Her exhaustion was enough that, even with those she couldn't count among those she might trust, she had gone straight to sleep. At least that had kept her from wondering what had happened to Cal and the others at the pyramids. She could only trust that he knew what he was doing and would be alright. "Gods, I'm tired," she muttered, and dug for her glasses. She followed Ruby out, warm, sleepy to sun in contrast to her vibrant fire. Her bright blue eyes behind her glasses took in everything around them. Let Ruby do the talking, she would do the watching. Ruby exited the airship and greeted the Sultan with a sparkling smile. "Sultan Ali Ramuel, what a pleasure it is to see you again." A wide grin covers his face and he exclaims "Ah, dearest Ruby, it is indeed a pleasure to see you again. I suspected the craft would contain only elderly Frenchmen, my eyes certainly find this to be a marked improvement." Turning his eyes to Mina he says, "And the beautiful woman who you claim is your Grandmother. Hard to believe, clearly a case of child bride." Ruby gave the man a little bow as her grandmother came up behind her. "Such a charmer you are Ali. And I am happy to see it's you here greeting us and not some form of trouble. But I must admit, I didn't think we would find you here. Hadn't you told me you would be out of town by now? I fear your prediction of bad times coming was correct." He says "I have been away and am now back. You are quite right, bad times are indeed coming. I do not know if it is the truth or not, but word has just reached us that the King has been killed." "Yes, it's quite unfortunate that bad news is true." Ruby shook her head sadly. "And that is why we are here to fetch the Princess. It's urgent that we find her now. We've brought along her personal bodyguard to confirm this and for her protection. Is she in the same room as when we left?" He replies, "No, she left here at sunset with her husband on board this same balloon that you just arrived on. She is not with you?" "No, no she is not. We are afraid she has been kidnapped! Someone impersonated her. Could we please have access to the room they were in immediately before they left? Was it the same room I met with her before her marriage?" He says, "I can bring you there, but it is mostly empty. The Frenchman Louis Dagurerre oversaw the collection of her things a couple of hours ago." "That bas....!" Ruby stopped short and took a deep breath in to regain her composure. George swears in a few languages. "We would like to see the room anyway. When and to where and how did Dagurerre leave?" She let the long breath out and exclaims "Yes, We would like to look around, you never know what we might find. If you see Mr. Dagurerre could you please quietly let us know? We'd all be most obliged." The Sultan replies, "He and Mr. Chevreul arrived at around 1:00AM. Chevreul collected up most of his laboratory items from the Frenchmen's rooms while Dagurerre oversaw the collection of the Princesses items. They left ninety-minutes ago on another balloon, one about half the size of yours. It flew away to the north. Since that time the Princess's room has been vacant and locked. About a half-hour ago another Frenchman and colleague of theirs, the Mathematician Jean-Gaston Darboux, arrived with word of the King's death. He is currently in the rooms that the other Frenchmen had stayed in." George perks up. Lowering his voice he says, "Ok, Freya, go see if you can get airborne and head north and find the other airship. Don't engage, just follow it and see where it lands. Then head back and report." Freya agrees, but decides to wait until the Sultan and his four assistants exit the roof before transforming into the dragon form and taking flight. "Sultan, if you would show us to the Frenchman's room, we have a few questions for Mr. Darboux," adds George with an edge to his voice that left no room for the Sultan to decline. Lawrence asks, "George, are you planning on a little rough-and-tumble?" George says, "Yes, but that will have to wait until Ruby and I get back to our room. In the meanwhile I need to punch someone. And I would prefer a Gallic face right now." *Snort* Lawrence shakes his head. "Kids these days. In any case, that sounds about right." They head downstairs. The Sultan lets Ruby, Mina and Mengesha into the Princess's room and then continues on with the other men. They spend the next ten minutes looking around. Ruby notes that nearly all of the Princess's clothing is still in the closet. Mengesha also comments that nearly everything that the Princess brought with her is still there, with the one notable exception being the large steamer trunk that she had originally brought her things in. Ruby asks, "That trunk was large enough to fit the Princess in it, wasn't it Mengesha?" "Yes, it would have been," is his concerned reply. Ruby says, "So they smuggled her out in the trunk so no one would see it was her, while they had the actress play her. The question is, how long ago did they move her and where. I only hope that Freya can find them to the north." Ruby tapped her lips. "I wonder...," She casts the familiar detect magic and gives a good look around the room. Despite the vast number of the Princess's things still remaining in the room, none appear to be magical, an indication that the French wizards apparently did the same before departing. Ruby sighed. "I knew it was a long shot. I think we've found all we will in here. Let's go see if the others are having more luck." She stood wistfully at the door for a moment before leading her grandmother and the guard to the other room. While George, Lawrence, Hassan and Fish are escorted by the Sultan to the rooms of the French. Rather than knocking the Sultan uses his pass key to open the door. Lawrence and Fish have been in this suite before but it is new to Hassan and George. They enter into a large room with chairs and couches. A well stocked bar is along the side wall and several empty wine bottles are in a wooden waste basket beside the bar. Off from this room is a long corridor with four doors on each side of the corridor. Two of the four doors are open. One leads to the dining room and Lawrence notices that the large map of Eygpt is now gone. The other open door is to the kitchen, which Chevreul had converted into a laboratory. There appears to be somebody in that room. Lawrence calls out, "Hello, who's there?" He replies in French "Hello, I am Jean Darboux." A man then exits the room who is clearly NOT the French mathematician Jean Darboux, as Lawrence and George recognize him as Maurice Beaujoulais. They last saw him approximately twelve hours earlier in Cairo as the palace was being bombed by the Dreadnaught. The Sultan steps forward and says to Beaujoulais "Mr. Darboux, these people wished to speak to you." George hesitates for a fraction of a heartbeat as his eyebrow raises then slowly speaks "Hello Mr. Darboux, how do you do. May we have a word with you?" He says, "Why yes Mr. Eastman, my associate Mr. Chevruel said you had a question regarding my recent journal article about Geometric Theorems." George begins to expound upon mathematical ideas. Not wanting to listen to a pair of academics discuss math, the Sultan excuses himself. Lieutenant Hassan decides the same and says that he will go check on the status of the Egyptian Army in Zakazik. As soon as the Sultan and Hassan leave and the door closes George rushes up to Maurice grasping his hand. "Well this is a surprise Maurice. How is is we find you here? And where is Darboux? There is much trouble afoot and time is wasting" Maurice replies, "Well my friend, the last half-day or so appear to have been busy for both of our teams. How I got here is a long story. When we last were together the Egyptian Palace was under attack from the Dreadnaught dirigible from above. Your team headed up to deal with the threat, but my main priority at the time was my wounded and unconscious colleague Henry Jekyll. That he was also in the form of a Rhinoceros further complicated matters. So Callum and I raided the King's treasure room and "borrowed" a magical carpet from his magic trove, to get Henry out of there. We headed to a safe house in Heliopolis until the animal transformation potion wore off. Meanwhile, young Henry Jones and Callum had heard rumors at that point of Freya's destruction of the Dreadnaught and that the balloon gondola and it's French passengers were prisoners of the United States Navy. That was your doing I assume. The next news was several hours later, that General Orabi had met with the King and murdered him in cold blood and that Chevruel and Daguerre had escaped. Jekyll was in better shape then, and I realized that Zakazik was probably the destination of the French wizards, so we boarded the carpet and flew here. Henry Jones snuck into the hotel disguised as an Egyptian servant boy, discovering that the French had come here and left in a hurry. Given their hasty departure I decided to investigate, so took a page from your friend Abigail's book and assumed one of their identities to gain access to their rooms. I chose Darboux because my latest intelligence said he is currently with their team way down in Nubia, and his face wouldn't be well known." Gesturing to the closed bedroom door Maurice says, "Take a look, it appears that I arrived just in time." George moves forward commenting, "Oh and wait until you hear the whole story from the slaying of the king. It's a doozy." "Do tell," Maurice state." Ok, first let's see this room. Have you heard anything about the princess? We believe the French have her captive." replies George heading up to look into the room. In the center of the bedroom is a huge block of melting ice, approximately six-feet high, six-feet deep and eight-feet wide. In the center of the ice there appears to be a large wooden crate, with a small wooden box on the top of it. Fish gestures that he wants a word alone with George. Lawrence catches the signal and engages Boujoulais in conversation. As Lawrence engages Maurice in conversation, George heads over to inspect the contents of the room. As he does so he sidles up to Fish. "Yeah?" he whispers from the side of his mouth. Fish whispers "This guy's story has holes in it big enough to drive a carriage through. About a half-hour after the dirigible crash I spotted him near the palace, along with Callum Stuart, Henry Jones and that other kid. I followed them from Cairo to Gizah, and they got there on a carriage pulled by an old horse, no magical carpet." George whispers back to Fish "So is he playing double agent, self-aggrandizing, or is this NOT actually Maurice? What does your gut tell you?" Fish says, "Hard to say, none of us really know the guy, if this is him. All I know is that his story doesn't stand up to what I saw." Ruby and her team arrive at the wizard's rooms. George and Fish and looking into one of the side rooms while Lawrence is talking to the American of French descent, Maurice Beaujoulais, who was working with the British spies. "Maurice, pleasure to see you again," Ruby said as she swept into the room. "What are you doing here?" He replies, "Averting a disaster and trying to stop a war!" Ruby says, "As are we! I am so glad you made it out of the crumbling palace okay. So, what is your plan here? Have you seen the Princess?" She does not sense any overt deception from him. He says, "No, but I haven't left this suite since I arrived. I've been rather busy." He gestures into the room that Fish and George are looking into. Inside the center of the bedroom is a huge block of melting ice, approximately six-feet high, six-feet deep and eight-feet wide. In the center of the ice there appears to be a large wooden crate, with a small wooden box on the top of it. "What this?" she asks with furrowed brows, looking it over closely. "You said you arrived just in time. Just in time for what? And what is in the boxes?" George asks Maurice. Maurice says, "The large box is filled with dynamite, the smaller box has the clock and triggering mechanism for the bomb, and the crate itself has magical "Pyrotechnics" glyphs on it, to increase the explosion ten-fold. Daguerre and Chevreul apparently didn't want to leave any evidence or witnesses behind so decided to blow up this building up after they left. When I found this the clock was down to six minutes remaining. There wasn't time to evacuate the hotel so I created the ice barrier to muffle the blast. We were fortunate, as the ice also appears to have also stopped the clock in the process." Lawrence says, "Smart thinking, Maurice. We should get this out of here now that the clock has stopped. That ice won't last long in this heat. We'll need a cart or something to get it out of the city. Carrying it out ourselves will be too slow. Did you find anything else?" He replies, "Yes, Chevruel's laboratory was filled with burners, beakers and pots. But he took whatever liquids he was working on with him as well as his ingredients. It would have been helpful if I knew what it was he was concocting in here." Lawrence replies, "Rats. Chevruel escaped after the king got killed. Maybe he didn't clean his gear out completely." Ruby says, "We have to save this city again, eh? We should be getting paid!" She kneels next to the boxes and sits back on her feet while continuing to inspect the bomb. "Can you dispel the pyrotechnics on the box? Do you think that part of it will go off in some way if I try to disarm the bomb?" He says, "Probably not, as Daguerre and Chevruel are both much more powerful wizards that I am. The creation of the ice around it, which lifted the boxes two-feet higher in the air, did not set it off. So I think that it is safe to move them. Although I doubt we have the strength to do that due to the weight of the ice. I estimate that it will probably be a good three to four hours until the ice is fully melted away. Young Henry Jones, still dressed as an Egyptian servant boy, arrives at the room. He announces "News of the deaths of the King and of General Orabi have now reached the Egyptian Rebel camp. Orabi's second-in-command General Fehmy has taken charge and has dedicated the upcoming battle to be fought to honor Orabi as a martyr to their cause. The troops appear to be very motivated." George asks Henry to search for any notebooks or writings or samples that were overlooked in the lab. "Well...," she paused as she looked to George and her other friends. George and Fish both have apprehensive expressions so she wasn't sure just how much she should share with this man or if they should trust him at all. She continued with measured words, "We might have a way to move it but it is uncertain when we could do so and time is running out so we shouldn't count on it. Out of curiosity Maurice, whatever happened to the other man who was with you at one point, Cal I think his name was?" He replies, "Callum Stuart and Doctor Henry Jekyll. They took the flying carpet north. That was the direction that the dirigible had gone away to, so we assume that Chevruel and Daguerre are heading up to their battleship." "How many of those huge ships do they have?!?" Ruby said exasperatedly. He says, "Just the one, and it's not an airship, it's an actual Battleship. The ironclad three-mast ship Armide was part of the French Navy. They sold it to the wizards a short while ago, and the Wizards then magically enhanced it." She says, "We destroyed one of their huge airships earlier today, the dirigible gun ship that attacked the palace. And we currently have another of their ships in our possession." There was a long silence while Ruby tried to ponder out what was just said. "I'm confused. They have a flying battleship, like, a real ship ship?" He says, "No, it doesn't fly. It is a real ship, although they've used magic to dramatically increase its speed on the water. The original Battleship Armide had a maximum speed of 10 knots, around 12 miles-an-hour. They've quadrupled it, so it goes close to 50 miles-an-hour. I only know of two other ships that can achieve that type of speed." She asks, "Which two ships would that be?" Gesturing to Willamina he says, "One is James Parker's ship Magnificence, which my sources indicate will be arriving in Alexandria at around noon today. The other is a ship under my command and is currently waiting in Herakleion, fifteen miles east of Alexandria. That ship is secretly watching the French ship Armide, with orders to sink it if they attempt to escape with Princess Neferka's dowery. Those priceless Egyptian artifacts should not be allowed to leave Egyptian waters." "My grandfather has a fine ship, yes." Again, she was afraid to give too much away. "How do you know when his ship is arriving?" He says, "It was seen crossing into the Mediterranian Sea just before dawn almost a day ago. Based upon the ship's speed, and my assumption that he wishes to reunite with his wife as soon as possible, I estimate it will reach Egypt at noon." Clever not admitting to his sources... she thinks. "Well, yes, I do believe my grandfather's ship is on its way here. But that isn't going to help us with this bomb. I can try to disarm it myself though it is something a little different than I have dealt with before." While this conversation is going on George further examines the ice block, which is now around 20-inches on all sides of the chest, so will not currently fit through the door. The outside corridor leads to the staircase down to the main floors and up to the roof. There is also a large picture window on this floor that could be broken and the block of ice would fit through. He concludes that it must be removed as it would probably bring the whole building down if it explodes anywhere inside. George, still pondering how to deal with the bomb, leaves to explore the other doors off this hallway. Based upon Maruice's estimate on the melting, in approximatley 90-minutes enough will have melted to get it through the door. Ruby is confident that she could disconnect the triggering mechanism from the explosives, however, she is totally uncertain about the magical glyphs on it and the possibility that disarming it might set some of them off. "If it comes down to it, I know I can disarm the bomb. I'm not positive about the magic on it but I have Aphrodite to protect me. If it comes down to it, that is. Otherwise, WE could get it out of here, take it in our airship and drop it in the middle of the desert. Right?" Maurice smiles and says, "I like your plan. We could drop it anywhere we want, in the desert, in the middle of this battle that will start in a couple of hours, or on the French ship Armide." [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
Top