Describe your last RPG session in more than 5 words.

[Golden Bee]

(Gumshoes pick up a nun!)

On Ice by Eric S. Trautmann

The Parisian stepped out of the taxi. There was supposed to be a club here, but all she saw was a desperate throng of people, police cars, chaos. She stumbled onto the curb, falling into a strong man’s arms.

“Oh, pardon moi”, said Claudette, caught up in the man’s eyes.

“I’m Marcus… I was just running late, but I think I found the rest of my life.”
Flashback, 1926!

In the Fate of the World Magazine headquarters, we were wondering…

Could our 1930s heroes defeat the Chicago mob at the height of its powers?

We put Eric S. Trautmann, the genius behind a lot of West End Games hits, behind the typewriter and he came up with a doozy.

‘We start with the two fiercest brawlers we’ve got. Tacíto Velasco, lawyer and boxer inhabited by the Jade Jaguar spirit. JP Diamond, ace detective, with a bad case of undeath. But we need an egghead, someone with little sugar to mix with all that gunpowder… we’re bringing back a fan favorite, kind of obscure, sister Helene Ynez. Electrical genius, woman of the cloth, trained with Einstein. Put in Devika Velyapur too. Kid millionaire, Velasco’s number one client.

JP is hired by the Chicago [anti] Crime Commission. A local wise guy has been doing some killing, some bootlegging, and smuggling gems. So our group goes to reporter Eddie Stanchek… who gets whacked, with our heroes caught in the frame job. Normally, they might fight their way out… but they’re smart. Not ‘too smart to get caught’, but smart enough to take on the system… picture it, a Mexican lawyer, taking on the slimiest prosecutor in the Chi Town machine… and getting off with a mistrial!

There’s also this really funny scene where the nun takes off her wimple to sneak into a cruddy smoke joint… Only getting in when she reveals that she doesn’t know it’s a trap! And how does French Ynez rescue Devi from the mob? By calling in a swarm of truant officers! I guess no one in the Cosa thought to pay them off.

The Moon Glow nightclub, that’s gonna be a winner. Owned by the mobsters, but the most glamorous place in town. Our gang will split up. Dressed in her civvies, the sister’ll suffer a case of mistaken identity and get a round of drinks as "Claudette". What French woman could say no? I’m sure the PI will enjoy escorting a drunk woman on a sneaking mission.

Meanwhile, Tacíto is the star of the party. He flirts with the coat check girl and gets a date, as well as the hidden location of the boss’s office. Then, while dancing, a gorgeous woman cuts in to make her palooka boyfriend jealous… when the lunk taps the lawyer on the shoulder, he spins the man around, dips him, makes him look like he has two left feet! The jamoke is laughed out of the room.

This isn’t [just] a funny book though, so the danger comes back. The group makes it into boss Tony Torponi’s office… and the first thing the nun does is reach for the champagne. But it’s not cold… Because the ice in the bucket is the missing diamonds!

The detective is about to put everything together, when the mob boss and his hired assassin come in the door. The guy’s all in white, calls himself Frost, real badass. (I know we already had a Chicago villain called Frost, but she had a weather control machine, completely different person.)

Frost is a real-deal killer, but JP is ready, jumps in for the gun. Jaguar is a smart customer too, hitting Torponi in the throat. Unfortunately, Frost gets a shot off, and the bouncers investigate the noise. Here comes the mob. Tommy guns at close range! Detective Diamond is gonna get winged, but the nun is gut shot…

She pulls herself together, pulls the fire alarm. Jade Jaguar uses the distraction to barrel through the button men. Our heroes flee the club into the Chicago night, gangsters on their heels…

And this is the best part. The only other thing open on the block is a radio station. WXXL* is the hot ticket, and our group gives a diamond to the doorman in order to cut the line.

If you don’t know, radio was often performed for an audience, so our Quartet ducks into the costume room. While Velasco sews up the nun, JP finds the ultimate disguise, complete with a facemask… The Gray Gargoyle!

Mafia leg breakers start to patrol the hallway, so the trio will duck into somewhere else… Which turns out to be the writers’ room. The Gray Gargoyle has licensed his radio show across the country, but tonight’s episode has hit a snare. This is what they have so far:

(Sound Effect: Seagulls, wind, faint sound of cars passing by)

Grey Gargoyle: Give it up Rupert! You've nowhere left to run!

Rupert: No, Grey Gargoyle! I've got the gun! And I've got Penelope, your sweetheart. One step closer, and I'll throw her off the bridge!

Penelope: Don't listen to him, Gargoyle! Use your Tibetan Mind Break on him! He can't stop you!

Rupert: Ha! The Grey Gargoyle can't do that and he knows it! He so much as twitches, and you're history!

Grey Gargoyle (internal dialogue, tell Emett to use the echo effect): He's right! If I use my Gargoyle Power, he'll see me start to disappear, and then Penelope is...is...finished. And Kabir Rupert, my arch nemesis, will have beaten me!

JP suggests that the hero reveals his secret 'Gargoyle gas'. The writing team loves it, sends them over to sound effects, where they create a passable noise with a bicycle horn and some spackle wrap. They better hurry though, Marcus, the actual actor who plays the Gargoyle might show up…

Meanwhile, Frost is getting closer, so Velasco explores the building, and finds the VIP audience section. Guess who’s a big fan of the Gargoyle? The Al Capone outfit!

Our group won't know how to get close, until JP suggests Al would love to meet the lead actor. We have second until showtime, the group goes through all their evidence… Tony had betrayed the commission, screwed up a framejob, and was clearly after Capone’s money. The would-be kingpin arrived too late to argue his case, earning himself not a crown but a pair of concrete boots.
Crime solved, the group has to rush to the stage. The only question left: how’ll the Mexican lawyer do on his date?’

READ ‘ON ICE’ IN OUR NEXT ISSUE!

[*Not a sponsor! -Ed]

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Somewhat predictably, the Sentinel Comics campaign I'd been in for the last month or two disintegrated, with three of the five players quitting at the end of the session and me emailing my own resignation after thinking about it for a couple of days. The GM just would/could not keep out of a grim edgy 90s tone, which wasn't what the game was pitched as going into it. The one player who was enthusiastic about it wasn't even really responsible for that, it was just repeated worldbuilding and story directions from the GM. I can't decide if he just didn't think the other folks would walk away despite several discussions about tone, or if he simply didn't understand the difference between what "four-color Silver Age supers but in the modern day" implies and what we were getting, which was bordering on Wanted (the comic, not the dreadful movie) too often for comfort. The final straw was the unpreventable death of the fourth sympathetic NPC to date, apparently just for shock value and "motivation" to hate the villains responsible.

In the right frame of mind I could play a campaign in the style of Wanted or the Boys, but with most of the group gone it just didn't feel worth it to try to continue. I prefer deconstructions to less mean-spirited anyway, and Sentinels mechanics aren't a great fit for high-stakes, anyone-could-die combat.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

By calling in a swarm of truant officers!

By odd coincidence, my character in TSR's old Gangbusters game was the self-proclaimed Toughest Truant Officer In Illinois. When you have to bring a pair of .45 caliber pistols to collect delinquents from their criminal parents you know you're working in a rough district.

 

[Golden Bee]

(Don't rob emperor Haile Selassie!)

Adwa that ends well!
Semya leaned against the stone telegraph shack. "Funny… Normally a dame walks into your office, right?”

The group had been earning a bit of a reputation lately. Still, it was a surprise when they were invited to Addis Ababa for a meeting with emperor Haile Selassie.

Russian explorer Captain Semya Ivanova and detective JP Diamond were obvious picks. Less likely but still useful were Hawaiian gambler Penny An’Te, stuntwoman Lala Santinella, her daughter the mystic Devika Velyapur. The oddball: the cat burglar raised by apes, Thaza O’Rourke!

A gigantic stele, 30m tall, had disappeared from the capital. It had given the country fortune during the last attempted invasion, and now was utterly gone! Surely the adventurers could handle the situation.

Penny went to work questioning bureaucrats. An interior minister, under cross-examination, admitted to taking enough bribes to make his family wealthy for generations. so he had no fear, his family would be fine no matter what they did to him. Captain Ivanova took the man aside to a private room… and told JP to stand outside and count to 30.
The bureaucrat, now a member of the wealthy elite, was no chance against the Soviet’s greatest mind breaker. After 10 seconds, he was willing to snitch. After 20, he agreed to get back the money.
***
Penny and Lala had shared an up-and-down relationship over the last two adventures. Addis Ababa was not teeming with romantic opportunities, but they took some time to get together in one of the quiet rooms of the presidential Presidio.
***
Semya had names, but wanted more information. She and JP headed to the telegraph office, where she flirted (in native Amharic) with the operator. Detective Diamond told the ravishing ruskie not to waste her lipstick: there was a real man around. She obliged him with a kiss or two, but told him that was a clue… He still had to work for the rest of the case.
A classic story: a war veteran goes home, gets put under a voodoo curse, and falls in love with the coldest blooded woman in the Soviet block.

The telegrams came back: Helmut Wagner was the Italian’s man, a collector of mystic rarities, last seen 100 miles northeast of the capital. The sextet reunited at the scene of the missing Stele, and found not one foot print or tire track! How exactly had the Italians done it?

The answer came after a blisteringly hot drive. As the jeeps crested the hill, they saw an ancient fortress… and floating above it, the missing monolith!

“Found it,” offered Devika.

O’Rourke proved her worth, finding a secret passage in the underbrush. In the fortress, soldiers laughed and gossiped as they headed to the roof. Lala translated… it was time for a mystic ritual!

Thaza snuck behind them… and, overwhelmed by instinct, clambered onto the floating pillar. There’s only so much you can do about a perfect climbing opportunity when you’re raised by gorillas…

The battle was joined. JP threw haymakers, Penny put airholes in soldiers, and all Ivanova had to do was crack her whip. She had a worse rep than Spanish flu.

Unfortunately, the Italians had an equalizer. They were harnessing the power of the enormous artifact, its aura making them tougher and deadlier. Any one of them was a match for the heroes, and there were dozens!

Thaza and Lala were essential to victory. Miss Santinella used her stunt training to belay Miss O’Rourke, who launched from the floating stele, past the roof… penduluming spear first onto Helmut! As the spell slinger in charge, he needed to maintain the magic… hard to do with a lady Tarzan on top of you. Devi, with the help of the groups’ tactics and intel, stole the power of the Stele for the good guys. Penny’s empowered purse pistol shot four hats off four soldiers. (They surrendered.)
She wanted to kill the boss, but schemer Thaza brought up a great point. An Italian arrested for witchcraft would make Mussolini disavow the operation. A few military casualties and talks of massive magic would make Europe dismiss Abyssinia’s problems as bunk!
***
Romance was in the air back in Addis Ababa. JP stopped by the telegram office again, having used his investigative skills to find the best chef in the country. Elsewhere, Lala surprised Penny with a steel commitment ring. Her previous wedding had been a huge flop… And it only taught her how important it was to find someone she loved.

Devika claimed to support the union, because Penny was independently wealthy and didn’t need her. "But no more weddings, I’m still paying off bullet hole damage to the last venue."

The group has lots of reputations.

 

[Golden Bee]

the cat burglar raised by apes, Thaza O’Rourke!

Glazius points out: You say "cat burglar raised by apes" I just imagine a Tarzan yell but very, very quiet.
---
Terror of the Z-bomb! By Paul Wiggidy-Wade Williams
“Was I a cute toddler?”
Kabir thought for a moment. “And do you want me to be nice, Devika?”
“That feels like an answer.”
She swerved around a tourist, Benny Goodman blasting from the radio.
“You were effective. You used the tools available to you.”
“So, a brat.”
“The worst!”

In the 30s, Christmas started only a few weeks before the holidays. D Velyapur, W Callahan, JP Diamond, and adventuring bureaucrat Kabir Rupert were trying to find the presents. Three adult men in boring suits, and a millionaire teenage girl… The recipe for a perfect Macy’s trip!
Devi was trying to get Callahan to wear something that couldn’t be described as "musty". Detective Josiah was arguing the cost of parrot feed. Kabir was checking out silk ties.

The Nazi jet troopers were breaking out the third floor windows and holding everyone hostage. Kabir shoved a mannequin in front of him to approach, then used a judo choke to take out one of the guards. Callahan took the man’s jet pack, using his literally minutes of prior experience to blast into a pack of Raketentruppen. Detective Diamond hustled to the athletic department, returning with a Louisville slugger. The ratzis got a homerun welcome. Devi, mystic extraordinaire, noticed how many mirrors and display cases had been destroyed. She yelled a phrase that she was sure to teach all her friends in Hindi: [CLOSE YOUR EYES!] The invaders didn’t know Hindi, and were stunned by the whammy coming at them from dozens of pieces of reflected glass.

There was a brief interrogation, but it was barely necessary. Floating above midtown was a Grand Zeppelin, broadcasting a message:

“Citizens of New York City, hear the voice of Doctor Schmutzig, and listen well. By now you have already encountered my elite rocket troops and witnessed the destructive power of their weaponry. This attack is to punish those who meddled in my affairs before, and who destroyed my Luftschloss*. “As I speak,” Schmutzig continued, “remotely operated bombs are already moving along 12th Avenue. Exactly when and where they will explode will be a nice festive surprise! Let the deaths of innocents be a warning to those who would seek to foil my plans a second time! Oh, and if your airplanes try to intercept any of my men or vehicles, the bombs will be remotely detonated without warning.”

(*See SKY PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!)

The Duesenberg was fueled and ready. Devi slid behind the wheel, already calibrated with the extra long pedals. It was a good thing she put on the tire chains: New Yorkers had responded to the crisis by abandoning their cars in the middle of the street! Well, the sidewalk was there too.

“Don’t worry, that was just a snowman."

In the backseat, JP and Winston struggled to put together a radio jammer from things in their shopping bags. Eventually, they managed to turn off the bombs' signals… while JP leaned out the window, catching the contraptions with a pink butterfly net.

Situation diffused, the group split up. JP noticed Callahan's rival, professor Nochebuena, being dragged into an alley by fifth columnists. With nothing else at hand, he used a wooden stick-with-a-net to score more runs. 5 to 0 for the home team. Now, to get a cab to Lord Simon's during an air attack…

Kabir, the bureaucrat, had a brilliant idea. There wouldn’t be a better opportunity to raid the German consulate. The office workers claimed they had no idea this was going to happen. (Maybe they were correct: if this were a real ‘all hands on deck’ situation, they would’ve been evacuated.) Still, Rupert wouldn’t relent. They had broken laws from improper firearm use to airspace violations. The only proper thing was to let he and Devi look over the files, while JP, back at the group’s home base, instructed them via telephone.
It was a brilliant strategy. Official cables had ordered surveillance of numerous former professors, physicists who had fled the increasing hatred of German law. (Devi, master of tact, didn’t tell Professor Callahan that he wasn’t on the Nazi’s list of noted mad scientists...but his rival was.)

The twisted tale of German deceit led the group up to Queens, and then to the famous Folies-Bergeres nightclub in Paris. Unfortunately, the burlesque house had a strict 18+ age limit, so Devi spent the evening on the curb, despite repeated threats to purchase the venue and fire the doorman.
Inside, the trio of gents drank champagne and made eyes at the nearly nude dames. They were questioning one of the chanteuses in her dressing room when they heard screaming from the club kitchen. The SS had turned up like a bad centime!

The brown shirts were thwarted when Callahan made a liquor bomb from the chardonnay. Those who survived the initial attack had Diamond’s knuckles to contend with. Au revoir.

(As a sidenote, JP Diamond might be the best investigator in any game of anything. He consistently gets maximum rolls and has it as his top skill. The guy gets more leads than a pet store.)

Some digging by the Big-Easy Bloodhound unearthed the truth. The Nazis needed physicists for an implosion device they called the Z-bomb. Far deadlier than anything else in Earth’s arsenal, it was a super weapon strong enough to blackmail the world. And their command hub was a castle in Bremen. Just infiltrate a heavily guarded Nazi castle, when the group’s sneakiest member was a half-trained tween… easy.

Kabir Rupert was the first man to earn the Order of the British Empire in bureaucracy. Which meant he could do things with paperwork the average person would find impossible. With only a few well-placed phone calls, he had not only secured the group legitimate travel papers, but had ordered them three German uniforms, a Hitler youth outfit, and a motorcar.

A few miles from the castle was an airfield. Callahan had a hunch… the flight logs could tell them just as much as anything in the fortress. A few gestures and some well-made forgeries later, he found out Schmutzig left earlier that day… for Antarctica.

Well, at least it was summer in the southern hemisphere! Some more bureaucratic malfeasance and the group was off to the ice.

The final base required a lot of luck. The group had prepped one series of German excuses: "You idiots, we’re safety inspectors!".
And it >worked.< Not forever, but long enough for the group to be escorted to the big boss’s office. And that meant it was time for sabotage. Devi, amateur burglar, was able to secure the hostage- scientists and sneak them to the base’s airfield. Kabir’s expert judo stealthily dealt with any too-curious guards. Trusting Callahan to destroy a scientific wonder might’ve been a mistake though... It took some extremely stern words from JP to make sure the device was set to self destruct.
The ruse couldn’t hold forever. None of the four heroes were much good at gunplay, so it was a flat-out sprint to the escape vehicle. Also a problem: two lazy soldaten sleeping on the plane! After all that chaos, the plane had barely left the tarmac when the Z-bomb detonated.

The airplane bucks like a wild stallion, and the engines redline as you fight to prevent the aircraft being sucked into oblivion, wing panels peeling away and flying off back toward the base...but finally, you escape!

A thrilling adventure, but a question remained.
Was it too late to order all the presents from a catalog?

 

[Golden Bee]

Empire of the Black Pharaoh! By Paul Wiggidy-Wade Williams

The sickos licked their blades. They would spill foreign blood. Finally, something they wanted from the West.

This was a super action-packed session. Since the gang has been in Cairo for a bit, I was able to bring back a lot of characters.

"QUIET ON THE SET! The Egyptian Princess, scene 40, chariot chase, take one!"

Yep, the gang was making a movie. It starred Elena Altieri, Guila "Lala" Santinella’s movie industry friend… and Professor Hemett Hazoul’s current crush. Aldous Bingen, ex-butler to the stars, was producing. Trudy Truman was providing good publicity, with Tacìto Uriel Velasco as legal counsel. It was a fearsome fivesome! The movie was beset by problems. The chariot chase scene got out of control, a victim of both a sniper and sabotage. Lala was able to jump onto Elena’s chariot and save her before the thing fell apart. But The problems didn’t end there. At night, an invisible intruder tried to steal the star’s necklace, the eye of Ra. It was an ancient artifact… And some folks would kill to get it.

A stuntman died in the chariot catastrophe, so the movie was postponed. The players went to town, but foolishly gave the necklace to in-over-her-head journalist Trudy. While the group tried to fill producer Devika’s massive shopping list, Trudy got grabbed by thugs in an open sedan! The other four hurried to follow, only to be jumped by scimitar wielding sickos.

The group battled back, with dirty-fighting specialist Hazoul in his element. He stabbed one thug with an unpurchased kitchen knife, hurled sand at another, and hit from a third behind a fabric stall, emerging only to stab someone else with a giant sewing needle.

Tacito was a blur of fist and feet, until the shadowy assassin "Mr. Nowhere" revealed himself. Instead of trying to fight the Jade Jaguar fairly, Nowhere turned his invisibility cloak inside out, and threw it on the lawyer! The Abagado’s heightened senses worked against him. He wanted to perceive something, but his mind was overwhelmed…

Elsewhere, Lala drove her stunt cycle through the crowded sûk. The narrow streets stymied the thugs, and she was able to catch up when they cut through a construction site. With Trudy’s help, she grabbed a bucket of white paint… And threw it in the crook’s faces, causing them to spin out! Former sprinter Trudy jumped from the car and barely landed on Lala’s pegs.

The group cleared out the crooks, but Mr. Nowhere escaped. (He wasn’t getting paid enough for this.) Hazoul, a master of outsider science, was able to free Tacíto from the cloak, and figure out how to use it. It had a limited charge, but complete invisibility would be useful… Sometime.

After that, the gang’s investigation led to a series of tombs near Amarna. They passed through a room with a trio of moving flames, and slipped past a flying blade trap triggered by pressure plates. They were once burned (literally), and twice shy. Hazoul used his climbing pitons to nail down all the sarcophagi they passed.

The necklace fit into a slot. With a clunk, it activated a star map that revealed the real treasure was elsewhere within the temple complex. And then the tomb started to collapse.

The gang ran for their lives. Sprint past the flying blades, jump over the plates! Around the burning flames… past the collapsing tunnels. They made it back to the surface only a few steps short ahead of certain doom.
The lawyer and tomb raider put their heads together. A bit of dead reckoning, some calendar work, and mathematics gave them a precise area, only 20 yards beyond where archaeologists had stopped digging.

The next hole in the ground was simple; the trap was corroded by age. Past the puzzle was a strange sphere, like a pockmarked bowling ball with an hourglass inside.

Unfortunately, there was someone waiting for them above. The architect of their misfortune, surrounded by his personal army and with a truck-mounted machine gun…THE BLACK PHARAOH!

Lala got him monologuing, promising to betray the group if she only knew what he was thinking. Hazoul chimed in.

"You should believe her, Italians are duplicitous."

The orb Pharaoh Belloq’d from them controlled time. He would use it to blackmail the world, turning defiant cities into caveman clusters. Egypt would rule the modern world, just like it did the ancient one. To show these imbeciles the orb’s power, he would revert this seemingly broken trap!
***
The trap was electricity based; the group solved it ingeniously. Tacito used the chains he was bound with as an electrical conductor, untying himself, nailing them to the sand floor, and grounding the deadly arcs. Just in time to prevent a swift death. It was time to get revenge on the pharaoh…

…and he had an idea of who to talk to. His criminal contact in Cairo, Mahmoud Al-Adwani. Trudy and Lala used all their social graces to set up a meeting at Shepheard’s Hotel. Sure, T.U. Velasco had freed "Million Dollar" Mahler*, but he would make it up to the crime lord. He’d get rid of a Pharaoh, a costumed idiot who would bring the attention of all the cops on Earth. Al-Adwani said sure… In exchange for a role in their movie. Tacìto agreed as Aldous tried to shake his head ‘no’.

The party was a bunch of sneaks! And although one of them wasn’t very stealthy, they remembered they had an invisibility suit. With that, they were able to slink into the Pharaoh’s compound outside Minya, bypassing his hired guns and making their way into his sanctum. Which appeared to be a rocketship?! It seemed the Black Pharaoh was not only a magician, but a gifted inventor. The players were able to stow away right before lift off. It was just him and masked slasher The Scarab there. (El Principe Del Inframundo was nearby… But Trudy locked him out of the rocket!)

The party was a victim of their own success. They were in close quarters with the villain and a vicious killer. Hazoul, normally a key fighter, was caught between disarming the ship’s weaponry and keeping Scarab contained. Due to his split focus, an energy beam fired… but went wild, reverting a 5-mile patch of Egypt into an ancient floodplain!

Trudy tried to get the radio going, while the beetle-themed brawler kept trying to tear it out of the wall! Lala focused on deception and fighting defensively, doing all she could to keep the non-combatants alive. The Jade Jaguar applied knuckles to skulls. In one moment, he had Aldous dip the ship through the air, using the decreased gravity to jump off a wall… and the increased gravity to land a tooth-loosening punch!

Trudy, slashed in the gut by the Scarab, finally got through to British air command. This was a secured frequency, but, because she helped save Australia, they were duty-bound to scramble the fighters and intercept the doomsday weapon. The Scarab didn’t like that. As everyone else tried to evacuate, he smashed a glass panel above Trudy Truman‘s face, sending down disfiguring shards!

She screamed, and the group decided parachutes were the better part of valor. Lala grabbed her and drove out of the vehicle, her third such rescue of the week. Everyone landed basically on target… Except for Hazoul. He heroically evacuated last, which meant his landing zone was somewhere in the Arabian desert. A few days later, he was rescued at great expense… To the film production. After all the magic he had had to put up with, he was happy to deal with Hollywood accounting.

*In the adventure Graveyard by the Nile.

 

[aramis erak]

Sun Tales from the Loop...
Campaign prep for other group

Sun group was down one player due to GenCon... but since the current mystery is highly tied to 3 of the four PCs, including the one absent last week and the one at GenCon this week...
I used the others (with their permission) to help me do some campaign prep for my next campaign with the other group. Productive, too.
That's going to be a Dark Times Edge/F&D game. I suspect at least one Clone, and know I'll have at least one Jedi.
Given that the Sunday Group's players are 3.5 GMs (One only runs one-shots)... it was productive at covering a weak spot in my skill set.

 

[John Dallman]

GURPS 4e occult WWII campaign:

Duke of Windsor is annoying.

The PCs work for MI6, under cover as the crew of a Short Empire BOAC flying boat. We were sent to Lisbon in Portugal to bring the Duke of Kent home from a trade visit, then our orders were changed, and two RAF Sunderland flying boats arrived to take DoK back to the UK. Our new mission is to bring the Duke of Windsor and his wife back to the UK. He had been living in France, but left for Spain when the Germans invaded. Everything connected with him is legally and politically sensitive, so actual discretion is required from the PCs and we had a chap from the embassy in Lisbon to provide diplomacy.

We found the Duke in a town just on the Spanish side of the Portuguese border and were able to escort him to Lisbon. That went OK. Then the Ritz Hotel, where he'd booked a suite, "felt they could not provide proper security" and cancelled his booking. Substitute accommodation was available, at an out-of-town villa belonging to the richest man in Portugal, who is, of course, closely connected to the authoritarian government of António Salazar. The government isn't pro-Nazi, because the Spanish government is, but it is also difficult to trust.

The Duke has settled into the villa, playing golf, socialising and arranging his financial affairs via telegrams to London. It's been announced that he is to be the new Governor of the Bahamas, and the PCs job is to take him there in their flying boat. This is a bit tricky, because an Empire boat hasn't the range to do that easily. We have a route via Liberia, Ascension Island and Brazil, and after a lot of admin, we have all the fuelling arranged, accommodation booked, and the Duke is in no hurry to depart. Like his historical version, this Duke has never qualified as a mature adult and only really cares about his own pleasures. There are Gestapo agents in Lisbon, and he's invited for a season's hunting in Spain.

We're trying to work out how best to get him to depart; mind-control magic is definitely on the agenda.

 

[Golden Bee]

Empire of the Black Pharaoh! By Paul Wiggidy-Wade Williams

Xmas: Boss Fight Via Telephone!
"They Kill By Proxy..." written by Daniel R. Robichaud II
(The first hour of our session was spent on an expedition to France to stop the yeti… Which was going to lead to Antarctica… Before some pointed out we did a “yetis in Antarctica adventure” two weeks ago. The player who suggested this hadn’t read the summary, or the summary had cut out the yetis because it was already running long. So I ran this module, which I have read through twice and prepped. We usually run four hours so this was a bit truncated, which led to a great ending!)

Washington State, Dec '35. The heroes were summoned to a creepy mansion under mysterious of circumstances. The quartet this time: detective Diamond, Trudy Truman (her face still bandaged from last week!), Professor Callahan and Afghan photog/gunman Javid Kulfi.

The whole event was designed by a twisted creep named Mormo Cutter. He tried to sabotage the cars, separate everyone, and lure them into deathtraps, but the players were way too canny. They saved a fellow partygoer from a paralytic toxin, and set an oil spray surprise for anyone who might try and tamper with Callahan’s Renault Nervasport.

Before dinner, Mormo pontificated on the relationship between life and death. Trudy, gifted with an incredible nose, interrupted. The dinner had been poisoned, probably with a rare curare, and since it was winter, the herb came from the greenhouse behind the mansion. This sent the other guests into an uproar.

Our foursome could’ve calmed the situation down… Except for the screaming Groundskeeper, being sprayed in the face with hot oil! Trudy and Callahan checked on the problem, calling the man out on his chicanery. He responded by trying to bite the bandaged Australian! After a desperate struggle, Trudy opened the hood and Callahan slipped one of the cretin’s arms inside. SLAM!

Back at the dinner table, JP was ready to dispense justice… Until the 80-year-old cook started crying. Everyone was in such a bad mood, making horrible accusations, and she couldn’t handle it! The Southern Gentleman Detective was obligated to comfort her.

Javid, fastidious, was already upset by the disgusting home, wiping and letting events occur. His fellows, already on edge, started to beat the smirk off their host’s face. By the time JP got back, gangster Meyer Polo was feeding poisoned mashed potatoes to the last of the Cutters. The British professor arrived and, shortly after agreeing to carefully search the house for evidence, started unwittingly flirting with Polo. And accidentally invited him on a date.

Going through Mormo’s mail revealed the existence of a “Murder Club!” Someone named EB had sent false claims to all the attendees, hoping that Cutter might get rid of his rivals. The players did some digging, and found out that EB was short for Eddie Boyd, a local Brahmin with friends in City Hall and the local Cosa Nostra. Eddie wasn’t the brightest bulb. He counted on his fingers, and didn’t count on Ziegler Security Services. With a little wiretapping, deception and the help of snitch Francis Mattz, ZSS built a case. Local cop David Ringo initially offered to help, until his daughter got nabbed by the mob. The group found her and delayed the coroner’s Christmas vacation. Ten-year-old Darla was safe and sound, having developed a nasty swearing habit. Trudy Truman tried to tell her father.

“Trudy, thanks for saving me, but in America we don’t like goddamn rats.”

The trial was a battle but Eddie was convicted, with Francis Mattz only getting time served. Almost as if Eddie was the fall guy for Mattz’s plans! Trudy and Josiah were celebrating Xmas Eve when the last domino dropped. They were decorating the penthouse of Seattle’s nicest hotel, with millionaire Devika and the Ringos. Everything was pleasant, until they turned on the radio. Francis's voice looped on the airwaves.

“I’ve an army of murderers, cannibals and savages across the country, and they might live as close as next door. Unless the United States government pays me $100,000 dollars per month for the rest of my life, I will unleash my army upon the populace.”

There was a collective sigh.

“Room service!”
Everyone looked at Devi. “I mean, I ordered every dessert they had a few times.”

A weaselly teenager struggled to bring in the carts. And then was thrown through them by seven feet of pure lunatic. Punching him wasn’t effective, the fireplace poker didn’t do much either. The man had no neck and fists the size of irons. Trudy struggled to open one of the giant windows. Josiah taunted the man into a charge, and threw himself full force into the brute’s legs. The seven-footer fell five stories, his head landing on the dumpster and the rest of him not.

Trudy had a queer smile as she closed the window.

“This Mattz is threatening all of America… I think we should try and fight him via telephone.”

Yes, the players called in the cavalry, hard. Mad scientists located the man via radio signal; he was on a steamer in international waters. Trudy called Century Club members to storm the boat, the Coast Guard and “Typhoon” Mike McGinnitty to distract it on the waves. JP even called in a favor to get a “super telescope” so they could watch the action while eating Christmas dinner.

It was at this point that we all remembered the name of the module. And started laughing uncontrollably.

 

[Golden Bee]

"You’re going to die here, Americansky!"

The Tomb of Doom!
“I also have a question”, said the aspiring novelist in the third row. “Actually, it’s more of a comment.” Querida pinched the bridge of her nose.

Mid-February, New York. Penny An’te, still nominally secretary of Ziegler Security Services, is setting up the new office in Park West. (The last one was firebombed by a mute maniac, but he got killed by a sniper rifle so it’s all good.) the phone, just installed, rings on the only table.

It’s Devika. There’s a big mission, could Penny find Thaza O’Rourke, famed cat burglar raised by apes? And get her to the airfield within an hour? Oh, and pack winter clothing. Already at the plane should be Devi’s horse-fanatic pal, 14-year-old Alice Cavendish. Unless Penny knew anyone else who spoke Mongolian?

Devi put down the courtesy phone and strolled down the hall, knocking on the classroom door of Mr. Sidney Rosenthal. Modern readers might see him as a mix of Andre the Giant and Mr. Rogers, but the wrestling promoters of New York know him as the Invincible Orca!

Unfortunately, Devika asks Sid to recruit the last member of the group, Querida "Q" Wilcox. The cowgirl novelist is holding a reading in New York, her latest gangster thriller… and absolutely everyone who wants a book signed wants a conversation. Rosenthal might be the nicest guy in wrestling history, but he’s also one of the most patient… eventually, Thaza leaves the plane to call the bookstore, and demands Dolores, Peruvian publicist, end the signing immediately.

Sid gets on the plane, gets comfortable, and gets a stack of Devika’s homework. Callahan and Hazoul love assigning homework, but grading it is a different matter.

Miss Velyapur waits until the plane is in the air to explain their assignment: helping her mentor Rafe Lancaster with a mission in Mongolia! On landing, Penny quickly buttonholes the industrialist. She's still mad that he attacked the Lala/Simon wedding with a robot. If he steps one foot out of line, she'll cut it off.
***

The accommodations in the city were rural to say the least. Dried dung was a major heating source.
Devi snarked to Penny that they could make some quick cash selling these guys The Wheel.

The locals had pride though. Q was pushed to the limit by horse racing, and the Orca was nearly pinned by a local competitor! After a lot of drinking and dumplings, Rafe revealed his goal. He had spent a beacoup bucks on a special camel that was capable of finding the hidden tomb of Genghis Khan! And it was a mere two days ride away.

The cowgirl made sure the journey was quick, even though city-boy Sid had never sat in a saddle. On the plus side, the group reached their destination with alacrity. The group was able to survive a betrayal by their native guide and defeat the Mongolians sworn to defend the ancestral mountain. Penny, good-hearted against her best judgment, saved Rafe from a trained–falcon mauling. Thaza and Devi had their hands full with a local shaman, who beat a drum hard enough to cause earthquakes! Luckily, the girl millionaire had picked out the perfect steel necklace from Bloomingdale’s, and the cat burglar silenced the throatsinger.

Being fast was a plus. The minus was arriving in time for a giant battle! The general area of the tomb was already home to Russian, German and Japanese forces, all fighting over the steppe. Why? Rumor had it that the banner of Khan made an army undefeatable!

The party whipped up with a plan to get the camel across the battlefield. Rosenthal & An’Te analyzed the troop movements. None of the expeditions had expected company, and the battle was a fracas. That gave O’Rourke & Velyapur an idea… A dynamite distraction to draw tri-national attention. Wilcox was tasked with riding the camel around no man’s land, discovering the grave‘s location and signaling the others. The camel was much harder to ride than her pet paso Caramelo, but she made it undetected.
A lesser group of adventurers might’ve needed to blow open the tomb entrance. But O’Rourke was a generational talent, and the Indian orphan the perfect sidekick. As the camel wept near an outcropping, Mr. Rosenthal grabbed the keystones and removed them with a mighty heft. The work of dozens of men with shovels, done by him in a New York minute.

The group was able to hide the entrance again from the inside, sending Alice around the bend with the horses and camel. (She was a translator, not a fighter.)

The party’s amazing streak of luck continued. The cat burglar and the orphan were able to disable traps at a sprint, blocking levers and cracking blades as if they were batting away butterflies. They had reached the final chamber when the group heard Alice’s screams from above!

Penny and the Orca answered the challenge. The 6’10" second-grade teacher emerged from the rocks like he was breaching the surface of the ocean. A Russian colonel was grabbing Alice in a hammerlock. The Hebrew killer whale showed the colonel how to really apply the hold. He tried to lift the man into a suplex, when the wily red pulled a knife! Penny couldn’t draw a bead in the confusion…
***
In the final room, Thaza disabled a springing wall spike. The moldering wooden coffin of Genghis Khan laid before them. A place whose builders have been killed to ensure its secrecy. Devi felt a dark presence…
But Lancaster had "every characteristic of the egoistic." He grabbed the banner, and a dark fog covered Thaza’s mind. Rafe wasn’t a rube with more money than sense… he was a God-king, to be obeyed or else!

Q grabbed her lasso, her mind not clouded by the banner’s corruption. She had to get that artifact, or it was curtains for the group.
***
"You’re going to die here, Americansky!" yelled the Bolshevik, knife held low. The Orca fell to his knees…
Finally giving Penny the shot. The pinko’s gray matter landed in the snow.
***
Wppsh! It was tight quarters, but the blue-collar brawler was good with a rope. She made sure to hold the banner indirectly, not wanting to absorb Temüjin‘s spirit. Lancaster’s face was a mask of rage, fury flowing through him even without the artifact.

He lunged at the Peruvian, hate casting shadows across his heart. But he couldn’t reach her… Someone was holding his tie.

He looked back, into the face of his 13-year-old mentee. Into her glowing purple eyes…

"Rafe, you’re my friend, don’t embarrass yourself."

Her mystic friendship dissipated the vengeful spirit, rattling the Khan-man. He was himself again, very apologetic… Maybe they could skip telling Penny this one? And how would they keep the treasure safe from foreign forces until it was safe enough to dispose of? Was there a lingering curse? The nearest safe vault was Cairo…. Which meant a two-day ride to a 15-hour flight!

Querida went back to one of the traps, un-jamming a lever and sending the banner into the endless pit below. The artifact was still there…Just in inner Mongolia.
***
Up on the surface, Rafe and Devika argued whether mind control violated section 8C of their contract. Unfortunately, this clued Penny in that something weird had happened. The argument only ended when Thaza emerged with dozens of non-enchanted artifacts. Not everything was magical in life… But near everything could be sold.