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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 5362353" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 48 "Across the Desert” (Episode Two, Chapter Eight) - Thursday, September 7, 1882, 12:30 A.M. </strong></p><p></p><p>The large stone double doors to the underground temple are opened, and from the ropes and pulleys it apparently required a considerable effort. A long staircase down is before them descending seventy feet and ending at a thirty-foot long passageway carved from stone, with a stone door at the end. Using a candle for illumination they see an image of Bast carved onto the door. It appears that gems once were placed in the eye socket but they have long since been removed. Egyptian hieroglyphics are caved above the image of Bast. There is no doorknob. </p><p></p><p>George touches the idol of Bast in his jacket pocket and takes Ruby by the hand and starts to head in. George takes a moment to faithfully copy the hieroglyphics into his journal. Once copies they proceed inside the temple. They make their way down and to the chamber, finding another door with an image of Bast similar to the one before. This door is currently opened, leading to a twenty-by-thirty foot room with pegs and hooks along the high ceiling along the walls which probably once held tapestries. A small side chamber is along the right wall and the corridor continues along the far wall. </p><p></p><p>George and Ruby head over to check out the small side chamber. The side chamber is small, around eight-feet in diameter, with rough and irregular floors wall and ceiling. The room appears to have been part of a natural cave rather than carved out of the stone like the remainder of the temple. The room appears to have been recently swept out, as there is no dust or debris at all in it. Ruby and George continue on down the corridor. </p><p></p><p>The corridor continues for ten feet and then goes into a thirty-foot diameter chamber. The first twenty feet are comprised of three separate carved out sections in the floor, each three feet across, one-foot deep and running the full thirty-feet from left to right wall, with three foot wide sections between each carved out section. After this is a ten-foot section of the room devoid of all furnishings. There is a closed door along the left wall of the section. Ruby detects a magical aura around the door. </p><p></p><p>"This is very curious, what could this room have been used for," Ruby whispered to George. Ruby took a few moments to really think about this room and if a trap was to be set, where it would be. She looked closer at the carved out sections of floor. </p><p></p><p>The first one has a slight green tint on the stone. The middle a slight red tint. The third has a perfumed smell to it. She says, "What in Hades is this?? I wish I had one of those smarty pants here with me to figure this out..."</p><p></p><p>Ruby turned her head and looked at George, then slowly grinned. She was only able to hold in the giggles for a moment. "You have to have SOME idea what this is, no?" Ruby moved closer to the perfumed area and took a large breath in to see if she could guess what the scent was. </p><p></p><p>It occurs to George that these were pools in which the priests and other worshippers would have performed a cleansing ritual before entering the main sanctuary. Each pool would have contained different oil for the cleansing. "Sorry Bast, no oil to cleanse ourselves this time" he whispers to the statue. "Let us leap over these Ruby." says George bounding over each trough as he makes his way to the door. </p><p></p><p>Ruby detects from the magical aura around the door that it has been sealed with a magical spell, and unlike the previous magical doors this is purely 'Wizard' magic in nature and fairly recently cast.</p><p></p><p>"Darn! Obviously that smarmy French guy put a spell on the door. He's pretty powerful; I don't know there is anything I can do to get it open." Ruby kicked at the dirt beneath her feet, frustrated. "Well, let me see just how trapped it is, if I can." Ruby slowly moves towards the door, checking each area for traps but fairly certain the egotistical wizard would be confident enough in his spell he wouldn't need any other traps. </p><p></p><p>Ruby attempts to disarm the magical trap though roguish and magical means. She feels a surge of magical ability from within herself rise to her hands and give off a magical aura as she works the magical trap. She then sees the magic on the door disperse. Ruby bounces up and down a couple of times, unable to contain her glee. "I did it George, I DID it!!" She reaches out and opens the door. </p><p></p><p>They enter along the middle of the long wall large pillared chamber, forty feet wide and one-hundred long with a large arched end that has a large statue of Bast. They recognize the room as the same one they were in three hours earlier. "George, I think we've been here before. But I'm confused. Why would the Wizard block this particular door? Does he know that there is something good in there? Perhaps we should search around down there better?" </p><p></p><p>George looks around a moment remembering the place before. He wonders for a moment why the door was magically sealed. Then in a moment of fear and clarity he has an epiphany. George quickly summons the power of Athena to send a few words of wisdom and warning. He sends a magical message to Abby "Warning! We found a way behind you. Champollion may be behind you."</p><p></p><p>George then sets down the statue of Bast and invokes the ancient Atlantean words and activates the barrier of Bast before grabbing Ruby and running down the hall towards the party.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, back at the exit to the surface Abby and John hear somebody coming up from the tunnel below. Both hide. </p><p></p><p>George and Ruby quickly make their way through the secret doorway into the other section of the caverns and head up towards the exit. When they reach the upward seventy-five feet of corridor that goes directly to the twenty-foot diameter room with the exit they see two figures wearing Eastern-style robes for clothing and climbing ahead of them moving towards the exit, each carrying some sort of suitcase. </p><p></p><p>George and Ruby, still invisible, quickly but quietly proceed up the corridor to get a better look at the two figures. The two figures are almost to the twenty-foot diameter room when George and Ruby near them. As the robed figures reach the room they set the suitcases down on the floor. Their backs are still to Ruby and George when the taller one of the two says, "Where are they? They should be here." The voice is recognized by both Ruby and George as being Mina's. </p><p></p><p>"Nana!" Ruby rushes forward and throws herself onto her grandmother in a big hug. "Thank goodness you're back! The French guy is almost at the Temple! I mean, he made it in the Temple. But I don't think he found the other way out." "Ruby! You'll give Mina a heart attack doing that while invisible!" calls out George a bit too late. George advances on the pair still a bit wary; there was a crafty wizard about still. </p><p></p><p>Both robed figures remove their headscarves, one being Mina the other Alsoomse. Mina says, "And what are the two of you doing skulking around invisibly?" Alsoomse laughs and says, "Well, they are engaged, maybe you don't want to know the intimate details." There is a long silence from Ruby before she speaks again. "I never thought of that..." Another thoughtful pause then laughter.</p><p></p><p>Outside of the room, Abigail and John hear the four voices speaking inside and then Ruby’s laugh. The relax but remain outside initially as they are still keeping an eye out for Fish and Lawrence. </p><p></p><p>And speaking of them, down by the tents, "pssssst, Lawrence!" whispers Fish as they crouch near the temple entrance. "Do you think I oughtta rig a trap? In case we should need to slow pursuit?" Lawrence advises against it. With no indication that Champollion's men are aware of our intrusion, Fish and Lawrence scamper back across the dunes to join their friends.</p><p></p><p>Back in the tunnel "Okay, now that you've distracted me, we have a lot to tell you!" Ruby quickly explains what they found in the tents outside and the Temple. She gets a little more excited telling her about how she figured out the trap on the magical door. "Couldn't do nothing while you away, you know." "How was your trip back here? Hey, where is Nanuet? Is he coming behind you?"</p><p></p><p>George laughs along with the jest. "I wish there had been time for intimate details. Instead Ruby snuck into a tent in the worker's camp then investigated the dig. Champollion found a side door into the temple we came through. It was locked magically but Ruby opened it. I did seal that way with the Bast statue. We also know the British and French armies are still several days away, so we have some time yet." </p><p></p><p>Mina says, "No, James thought it best that somebody who knows their way here stay back with him, in case they need to find us later. Besides, we may need that scroll we found with the priest to be translated, so Alsoomse volunteered to come with us."</p><p></p><p>After George explains what has transpired Mina says, "Champollion already knew that way into the large chamber, that's where we entered when he gave James and I the tour a half century ago. It's the secret entrance that we found that must be kept hidden. Before we move on George I would suggest that you quickly retrieve the magical statue and re-erect the barrier on our side of the secret door in order to prevent them from finding it." George indeed goes back and moves the statue of Bast to protect the secret doorway. </p><p></p><p>Abigail and John come back into the room. Fish and Lawrence soon rejoin them. After the group is back together and everyone is briefed on what they found Ruby says, "So... how the heck are we going to stop the two armies? We're just a rag tag group of adventurers, not war generals." Alsoomse says, "We can decide that later, right now we have a fairly short time window to get away from this area."</p><p></p><p>She heads over to one of the suitcases cases, each two feet high, three feet wide and one foot deep. They appear to each open only along the top and she lifts the panel and removes two metal rods, a tan blanket, a metal stick-like object before closing up the case again. Mina and Alsoomse each lead the group outside, carrying the cases. Once everyone is out they lie the blanket down and then telescope out the metal rods, fitting them into folded and sewn ends on both blankets. They get the others to help extend the rods on both the top and bottom to create a makeshift curtain over the door to the tunnel entrance.</p><p></p><p>Once that is done Alsoomse has them step back. She takes the metal stick and unlatches the side, then waving it outward, the party now seeing that it is a oriental-style hand-fan made of metal. She states a phrase in Japanese and the fan begins to glow. She waves it slightly in the direction of the sheet-covered doorway and a steady gust of magical winds begins to blow, tossing up the sand in the area over the doorway in a manner that looks to have been done naturally.</p><p></p><p>Ruby eyes widen, "That is SO darned impressive..." She gazes at the magical fan a bit greedily, her curiosity of how it works overwhelming her as she steps toward Alsoomse. She snaps out of it when someone coughs, "Oh, ah, right, so where are we staying tonight? We can't just stay in the middle of the desert. Will we go to the city?" she asks hopefully.</p><p></p><p>Mina says, "Yes, but we won't be arriving there until dawn. It is too dangerous to approach a protected city at night, especially now when they are on the lookout for both British and Egyptian Rebel forces. Best that we also approach it from the northern road instead of from the southeast. Let's heat off that direction (pointing to the northeast, rather than the northwest that the city lights shine from). Mina says, "Alsoomse will follow in the rear and continue to use the fan to cover our tracks." Alsoomse asks John and Fish to each carry one of the suitcases.</p><p></p><p>Fish does as asked, all the while admiring the night sky. He gauges the weight of the luggage as he hefts it. Despite the bulky size it is rather light, weighting between 10 and 15 pounds. After a half-mile Mina asks Lawrence and George to each take a turn carrying the cases. And George gladly takes his turn carrying the suitcase. They travel for another half-hour through the desert heading northeast, the city of Zakazik now off to the west of the party's position. The cases are switched off back to John and Fish to carry. </p><p></p><p>"How long is this going to take?" Ruby whines as they trudge along in the desert. "It is rather sandy, isn't it, Miss West?" chortles Fish. Ruby narrows her eyes and gives Fish a good "harrumph" accompanied by a crossing of her arms and pursing of her lips. The nerve!</p><p></p><p>Mina says, "The problem is that sound carries far across the desert and things will soon be getting rather noisy." Alsoomse comments, "We should be far enough now." She points to some sand dunes a few hundred yards off to their right and says, "Head over behind those." As they near the dunes Fish notices that the case he is carrying suddenly doubles in weight. "Oi?" thinks Fish to himself as he adjusts his grip to better lug the weight. </p><p></p><p>They get the cases over behind the dunes and set them down. Mina and Alsomsee then work together at unloading them. From the case that Fish was lugging they first remove a toy horse, standing nineteen-inches high and twenty-six inches in length. Mina comments, "Looks like we got here just in time." They set the life-like horse figure down standing up. They then remove three smaller horse statues from the same case, these being approximately half the size. Each horse has saddle, tack, harness and saddlebags. </p><p></p><p>They go to the second case and remove four of the smaller horse statues as well. While they are doing this the larger of the eight horses doubles in size. "Oh. My. Gods. What just happened?? Are these REAL??" Ruby slowly approaches the horses to see if they are life size statues or actually real horses. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Fish loves horses! He was a circus hand, after all. He smiles so widely, one might think his face will split open! The horse doubles again in size, appearing as a full-sized black Percheron stallion, one of the largest horse breeds. It then blinks its eyes and lets out a loud whinnie. Alsoomse runs up to the beast to calm it, saying "Relax Trooper, you'll be okay, I'm your friend." </p><p></p><p>Mina says, "Yes, all eight are real. Four of them are the riding horses from our barn back in Florida. Two are the horses of our neighbor's the McKinnons. The other two, including Trooper here, belong to the County Sheriff Deputies over at Atlantic Beach. I realized that our showing up in Zakazik would prompt the question of how we got there, so riding in on mounts would solve that."</p><p></p><p>Alsoomse says, "Luiz reduced them all in size, we then gave them all the sleep elixir. His spell does not effect magic, so when they enlarge back in size the sleep elixir remains small and becomes diluted in the larger bodies, causing them to awaken. Of course, waking up in a strange place with some strange people, and at night when it had just been day, can unnerve them." </p><p></p><p>Ruby comments, "Ah yes that makes sense. Well, Nanuet was our animal guy, aside from Alsoomse. I'll just stand back and let you all do your thing...So about tomorrow, we're going to ride up and stay over in town. What's the town like?" Mina says, "Tomorrow will be here before long, we're now only around two hours from sunrise. It's been fifty years since I've been to Zakazik, so it has probably changed considerably since then."</p><p></p><p>The other horses now grow and awaken. Ruby asks, "Are these horses good to go now or do we have to wait?" Alsoomse says, "Let's give them a few more minutes to get acclimated." Mina leads Ruby over to a golden Appaloosa and says, "This one would probably be good for you to ride." Alsoomse interjects, "Yes, she was partial to the female students this last summer. Her name is Peta, which is the Blackfoot Indian name for Golden Eagle." </p><p></p><p>Ruby grins as says, “That was my mentor’s nickname for me.” She moves towards the horse and pets it gently. "Us Golden Eagles have to stick together." She gives the horse a little kiss on it's nose. "I wonder how Mr. Gonzales is doing right now. I bet he would love this little adventure we're on! He's been all over the world too you know." </p><p></p><p>While Mina shows Ruby the appaloosa as well as her own horse, a brown thoroughbred stallion named Nizhoni, Alsoomse introduces the other members of the party to the remaining horses. First Alsoomse introduces them to her own mount, a silver quarter horse named Sooleawa, which is Algonquin for 'Silver'. She then shows them the other horse which was bought last summer for the students to ride, a painted stallion named Ahote, which is Hopi for 'Spirited One'.</p><p></p><p>The two horses borrowed from the deputies are, an odd pair, being the largest and smallest of the eight animals. One is the black Percheron stallion named Trooper while the other is a white Icelandic pony mare named Cave Dweller. Lastly she re-introduces them to the McKinnon mounts. Alan McKinnon's ride is a former cavalry, a gray mare sixteen-hands high of the Frisian breed named Moonbeam. Autumn McKinnon's horse is also a mare, a light brown mustang named Flurry.</p><p></p><p>Fish approaches Cave Dweller, retrieving a sweet from his tunic. "Hello pretty," he coos, "have a snack!" The horse happily accepts the snack and reacts affectionately to Fish. While each person is getting acquainted with the mount Mina retrieves robes and headscarves from the saddlebags for each to wear. They notice that they are all identical in pattern and style except for George's, which has some extra ornamentation. </p><p></p><p>Abby put on the robe and scarf, feeling more secure as she began to look more like the people who lived here. "Mr. Eastman is to be our face then? Makes sense, since he speaks the language. Do you have a more detailed cover story?" Mina says, "No, but a variation of the truth would always work, we were concerned about preservation of the archaeological ruins being in a potential war zone.</p><p></p><p>One thing that you three ladies need to know about this culture - single free women do not go out in public, they stay home with their families until they are married. Thus, it will be assumed that each of you is therefore either a wife or slave belonging to George. Allow that assumption to continue, otherwise you risk being captured and sold into slavery yourself. Despite what you may have read in dime-novels, the life in a harem isn't one of romance and fun."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 5362353, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 48 "Across the Desert” (Episode Two, Chapter Eight) - Thursday, September 7, 1882, 12:30 A.M. [/B] The large stone double doors to the underground temple are opened, and from the ropes and pulleys it apparently required a considerable effort. A long staircase down is before them descending seventy feet and ending at a thirty-foot long passageway carved from stone, with a stone door at the end. Using a candle for illumination they see an image of Bast carved onto the door. It appears that gems once were placed in the eye socket but they have long since been removed. Egyptian hieroglyphics are caved above the image of Bast. There is no doorknob. George touches the idol of Bast in his jacket pocket and takes Ruby by the hand and starts to head in. George takes a moment to faithfully copy the hieroglyphics into his journal. Once copies they proceed inside the temple. They make their way down and to the chamber, finding another door with an image of Bast similar to the one before. This door is currently opened, leading to a twenty-by-thirty foot room with pegs and hooks along the high ceiling along the walls which probably once held tapestries. A small side chamber is along the right wall and the corridor continues along the far wall. George and Ruby head over to check out the small side chamber. The side chamber is small, around eight-feet in diameter, with rough and irregular floors wall and ceiling. The room appears to have been part of a natural cave rather than carved out of the stone like the remainder of the temple. The room appears to have been recently swept out, as there is no dust or debris at all in it. Ruby and George continue on down the corridor. The corridor continues for ten feet and then goes into a thirty-foot diameter chamber. The first twenty feet are comprised of three separate carved out sections in the floor, each three feet across, one-foot deep and running the full thirty-feet from left to right wall, with three foot wide sections between each carved out section. After this is a ten-foot section of the room devoid of all furnishings. There is a closed door along the left wall of the section. Ruby detects a magical aura around the door. "This is very curious, what could this room have been used for," Ruby whispered to George. Ruby took a few moments to really think about this room and if a trap was to be set, where it would be. She looked closer at the carved out sections of floor. The first one has a slight green tint on the stone. The middle a slight red tint. The third has a perfumed smell to it. She says, "What in Hades is this?? I wish I had one of those smarty pants here with me to figure this out..." Ruby turned her head and looked at George, then slowly grinned. She was only able to hold in the giggles for a moment. "You have to have SOME idea what this is, no?" Ruby moved closer to the perfumed area and took a large breath in to see if she could guess what the scent was. It occurs to George that these were pools in which the priests and other worshippers would have performed a cleansing ritual before entering the main sanctuary. Each pool would have contained different oil for the cleansing. "Sorry Bast, no oil to cleanse ourselves this time" he whispers to the statue. "Let us leap over these Ruby." says George bounding over each trough as he makes his way to the door. Ruby detects from the magical aura around the door that it has been sealed with a magical spell, and unlike the previous magical doors this is purely 'Wizard' magic in nature and fairly recently cast. "Darn! Obviously that smarmy French guy put a spell on the door. He's pretty powerful; I don't know there is anything I can do to get it open." Ruby kicked at the dirt beneath her feet, frustrated. "Well, let me see just how trapped it is, if I can." Ruby slowly moves towards the door, checking each area for traps but fairly certain the egotistical wizard would be confident enough in his spell he wouldn't need any other traps. Ruby attempts to disarm the magical trap though roguish and magical means. She feels a surge of magical ability from within herself rise to her hands and give off a magical aura as she works the magical trap. She then sees the magic on the door disperse. Ruby bounces up and down a couple of times, unable to contain her glee. "I did it George, I DID it!!" She reaches out and opens the door. They enter along the middle of the long wall large pillared chamber, forty feet wide and one-hundred long with a large arched end that has a large statue of Bast. They recognize the room as the same one they were in three hours earlier. "George, I think we've been here before. But I'm confused. Why would the Wizard block this particular door? Does he know that there is something good in there? Perhaps we should search around down there better?" George looks around a moment remembering the place before. He wonders for a moment why the door was magically sealed. Then in a moment of fear and clarity he has an epiphany. George quickly summons the power of Athena to send a few words of wisdom and warning. He sends a magical message to Abby "Warning! We found a way behind you. Champollion may be behind you." George then sets down the statue of Bast and invokes the ancient Atlantean words and activates the barrier of Bast before grabbing Ruby and running down the hall towards the party. Meanwhile, back at the exit to the surface Abby and John hear somebody coming up from the tunnel below. Both hide. George and Ruby quickly make their way through the secret doorway into the other section of the caverns and head up towards the exit. When they reach the upward seventy-five feet of corridor that goes directly to the twenty-foot diameter room with the exit they see two figures wearing Eastern-style robes for clothing and climbing ahead of them moving towards the exit, each carrying some sort of suitcase. George and Ruby, still invisible, quickly but quietly proceed up the corridor to get a better look at the two figures. The two figures are almost to the twenty-foot diameter room when George and Ruby near them. As the robed figures reach the room they set the suitcases down on the floor. Their backs are still to Ruby and George when the taller one of the two says, "Where are they? They should be here." The voice is recognized by both Ruby and George as being Mina's. "Nana!" Ruby rushes forward and throws herself onto her grandmother in a big hug. "Thank goodness you're back! The French guy is almost at the Temple! I mean, he made it in the Temple. But I don't think he found the other way out." "Ruby! You'll give Mina a heart attack doing that while invisible!" calls out George a bit too late. George advances on the pair still a bit wary; there was a crafty wizard about still. Both robed figures remove their headscarves, one being Mina the other Alsoomse. Mina says, "And what are the two of you doing skulking around invisibly?" Alsoomse laughs and says, "Well, they are engaged, maybe you don't want to know the intimate details." There is a long silence from Ruby before she speaks again. "I never thought of that..." Another thoughtful pause then laughter. Outside of the room, Abigail and John hear the four voices speaking inside and then Ruby’s laugh. The relax but remain outside initially as they are still keeping an eye out for Fish and Lawrence. And speaking of them, down by the tents, "pssssst, Lawrence!" whispers Fish as they crouch near the temple entrance. "Do you think I oughtta rig a trap? In case we should need to slow pursuit?" Lawrence advises against it. With no indication that Champollion's men are aware of our intrusion, Fish and Lawrence scamper back across the dunes to join their friends. Back in the tunnel "Okay, now that you've distracted me, we have a lot to tell you!" Ruby quickly explains what they found in the tents outside and the Temple. She gets a little more excited telling her about how she figured out the trap on the magical door. "Couldn't do nothing while you away, you know." "How was your trip back here? Hey, where is Nanuet? Is he coming behind you?" George laughs along with the jest. "I wish there had been time for intimate details. Instead Ruby snuck into a tent in the worker's camp then investigated the dig. Champollion found a side door into the temple we came through. It was locked magically but Ruby opened it. I did seal that way with the Bast statue. We also know the British and French armies are still several days away, so we have some time yet." Mina says, "No, James thought it best that somebody who knows their way here stay back with him, in case they need to find us later. Besides, we may need that scroll we found with the priest to be translated, so Alsoomse volunteered to come with us." After George explains what has transpired Mina says, "Champollion already knew that way into the large chamber, that's where we entered when he gave James and I the tour a half century ago. It's the secret entrance that we found that must be kept hidden. Before we move on George I would suggest that you quickly retrieve the magical statue and re-erect the barrier on our side of the secret door in order to prevent them from finding it." George indeed goes back and moves the statue of Bast to protect the secret doorway. Abigail and John come back into the room. Fish and Lawrence soon rejoin them. After the group is back together and everyone is briefed on what they found Ruby says, "So... how the heck are we going to stop the two armies? We're just a rag tag group of adventurers, not war generals." Alsoomse says, "We can decide that later, right now we have a fairly short time window to get away from this area." She heads over to one of the suitcases cases, each two feet high, three feet wide and one foot deep. They appear to each open only along the top and she lifts the panel and removes two metal rods, a tan blanket, a metal stick-like object before closing up the case again. Mina and Alsoomse each lead the group outside, carrying the cases. Once everyone is out they lie the blanket down and then telescope out the metal rods, fitting them into folded and sewn ends on both blankets. They get the others to help extend the rods on both the top and bottom to create a makeshift curtain over the door to the tunnel entrance. Once that is done Alsoomse has them step back. She takes the metal stick and unlatches the side, then waving it outward, the party now seeing that it is a oriental-style hand-fan made of metal. She states a phrase in Japanese and the fan begins to glow. She waves it slightly in the direction of the sheet-covered doorway and a steady gust of magical winds begins to blow, tossing up the sand in the area over the doorway in a manner that looks to have been done naturally. Ruby eyes widen, "That is SO darned impressive..." She gazes at the magical fan a bit greedily, her curiosity of how it works overwhelming her as she steps toward Alsoomse. She snaps out of it when someone coughs, "Oh, ah, right, so where are we staying tonight? We can't just stay in the middle of the desert. Will we go to the city?" she asks hopefully. Mina says, "Yes, but we won't be arriving there until dawn. It is too dangerous to approach a protected city at night, especially now when they are on the lookout for both British and Egyptian Rebel forces. Best that we also approach it from the northern road instead of from the southeast. Let's heat off that direction (pointing to the northeast, rather than the northwest that the city lights shine from). Mina says, "Alsoomse will follow in the rear and continue to use the fan to cover our tracks." Alsoomse asks John and Fish to each carry one of the suitcases. Fish does as asked, all the while admiring the night sky. He gauges the weight of the luggage as he hefts it. Despite the bulky size it is rather light, weighting between 10 and 15 pounds. After a half-mile Mina asks Lawrence and George to each take a turn carrying the cases. And George gladly takes his turn carrying the suitcase. They travel for another half-hour through the desert heading northeast, the city of Zakazik now off to the west of the party's position. The cases are switched off back to John and Fish to carry. "How long is this going to take?" Ruby whines as they trudge along in the desert. "It is rather sandy, isn't it, Miss West?" chortles Fish. Ruby narrows her eyes and gives Fish a good "harrumph" accompanied by a crossing of her arms and pursing of her lips. The nerve! Mina says, "The problem is that sound carries far across the desert and things will soon be getting rather noisy." Alsoomse comments, "We should be far enough now." She points to some sand dunes a few hundred yards off to their right and says, "Head over behind those." As they near the dunes Fish notices that the case he is carrying suddenly doubles in weight. "Oi?" thinks Fish to himself as he adjusts his grip to better lug the weight. They get the cases over behind the dunes and set them down. Mina and Alsomsee then work together at unloading them. From the case that Fish was lugging they first remove a toy horse, standing nineteen-inches high and twenty-six inches in length. Mina comments, "Looks like we got here just in time." They set the life-like horse figure down standing up. They then remove three smaller horse statues from the same case, these being approximately half the size. Each horse has saddle, tack, harness and saddlebags. They go to the second case and remove four of the smaller horse statues as well. While they are doing this the larger of the eight horses doubles in size. "Oh. My. Gods. What just happened?? Are these REAL??" Ruby slowly approaches the horses to see if they are life size statues or actually real horses. Fish loves horses! He was a circus hand, after all. He smiles so widely, one might think his face will split open! The horse doubles again in size, appearing as a full-sized black Percheron stallion, one of the largest horse breeds. It then blinks its eyes and lets out a loud whinnie. Alsoomse runs up to the beast to calm it, saying "Relax Trooper, you'll be okay, I'm your friend." Mina says, "Yes, all eight are real. Four of them are the riding horses from our barn back in Florida. Two are the horses of our neighbor's the McKinnons. The other two, including Trooper here, belong to the County Sheriff Deputies over at Atlantic Beach. I realized that our showing up in Zakazik would prompt the question of how we got there, so riding in on mounts would solve that." Alsoomse says, "Luiz reduced them all in size, we then gave them all the sleep elixir. His spell does not effect magic, so when they enlarge back in size the sleep elixir remains small and becomes diluted in the larger bodies, causing them to awaken. Of course, waking up in a strange place with some strange people, and at night when it had just been day, can unnerve them." Ruby comments, "Ah yes that makes sense. Well, Nanuet was our animal guy, aside from Alsoomse. I'll just stand back and let you all do your thing...So about tomorrow, we're going to ride up and stay over in town. What's the town like?" Mina says, "Tomorrow will be here before long, we're now only around two hours from sunrise. It's been fifty years since I've been to Zakazik, so it has probably changed considerably since then." The other horses now grow and awaken. Ruby asks, "Are these horses good to go now or do we have to wait?" Alsoomse says, "Let's give them a few more minutes to get acclimated." Mina leads Ruby over to a golden Appaloosa and says, "This one would probably be good for you to ride." Alsoomse interjects, "Yes, she was partial to the female students this last summer. Her name is Peta, which is the Blackfoot Indian name for Golden Eagle." Ruby grins as says, “That was my mentor’s nickname for me.” She moves towards the horse and pets it gently. "Us Golden Eagles have to stick together." She gives the horse a little kiss on it's nose. "I wonder how Mr. Gonzales is doing right now. I bet he would love this little adventure we're on! He's been all over the world too you know." While Mina shows Ruby the appaloosa as well as her own horse, a brown thoroughbred stallion named Nizhoni, Alsoomse introduces the other members of the party to the remaining horses. First Alsoomse introduces them to her own mount, a silver quarter horse named Sooleawa, which is Algonquin for 'Silver'. She then shows them the other horse which was bought last summer for the students to ride, a painted stallion named Ahote, which is Hopi for 'Spirited One'. The two horses borrowed from the deputies are, an odd pair, being the largest and smallest of the eight animals. One is the black Percheron stallion named Trooper while the other is a white Icelandic pony mare named Cave Dweller. Lastly she re-introduces them to the McKinnon mounts. Alan McKinnon's ride is a former cavalry, a gray mare sixteen-hands high of the Frisian breed named Moonbeam. Autumn McKinnon's horse is also a mare, a light brown mustang named Flurry. Fish approaches Cave Dweller, retrieving a sweet from his tunic. "Hello pretty," he coos, "have a snack!" The horse happily accepts the snack and reacts affectionately to Fish. While each person is getting acquainted with the mount Mina retrieves robes and headscarves from the saddlebags for each to wear. They notice that they are all identical in pattern and style except for George's, which has some extra ornamentation. Abby put on the robe and scarf, feeling more secure as she began to look more like the people who lived here. "Mr. Eastman is to be our face then? Makes sense, since he speaks the language. Do you have a more detailed cover story?" Mina says, "No, but a variation of the truth would always work, we were concerned about preservation of the archaeological ruins being in a potential war zone. One thing that you three ladies need to know about this culture - single free women do not go out in public, they stay home with their families until they are married. Thus, it will be assumed that each of you is therefore either a wife or slave belonging to George. Allow that assumption to continue, otherwise you risk being captured and sold into slavery yourself. Despite what you may have read in dime-novels, the life in a harem isn't one of romance and fun." [/QUOTE]
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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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