Chapter 85, “Your mission, if you choose to accept it”, Wednesday, March 15th, 1882, 11:30 A.M.
The man introduces himself to them as Marc Andre Guillieult. He is tall and thin with a full head of white hair and a white-and-gray van dyke beard. He is attired in an ivory-colored three piece suit with gold necktie over a white shirt, gold cufflinks, gold necklace, four gold rings with fancy gems. They introduce themselves.
He says, “Thank you for coming so quickly.” Arcade replies deadpan “We travel light”. The waiter arrives and Guillieult orders for the entire table in French. He then reaches into a vest pocket, removing a pinch of green powder, which he causally drops onto the flames of a lit candle in the center of the table and makes a short incantation. He explains, “That will keep others from eavesdropping on our conversation.”
As the meal is served he hands Arcade a copy of the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, stating, “This was from two days ago.” Arcade reads:
Mystery at Sea The British merchant ship, the S.S. Jesmond, made an unscheduled stop in its journey on its way to our city. It had departed from Messina, Sicily with a cargo of dried fruits on February 26th.
When the ship reached an area 200 miles west of Madeira and 200 miles south of the Azores they noted that the ocean had become unusually muddy and that the vessel was passing through enormous shoals of dead fish. The ship's Captain David Robson then saw smoke on the horizon, which he presumed came from another ship.
The next day the fish shoals were even thicker and the smoke on the horizon seemed to be coming from the mountains on an island directly to the west, where, according to the charts, there was no land for thousands of miles. Captain Robson anchored offshore, worried that this uncharted island was surrounded by reefs. Even though the charts indicated an area depth of several thousand fathoms, the anchor hit bottom at only seven fathoms.
Robson went ashore with a landing party and found a large island with no vegetation, no trees, no sandy beaches, bare of all life. The shore they landed on was covered with volcanic debris. With no trees they could easily see a plateau beginning several miles away and smoking mountains beyond that.
They headed toward the interior in direction of the mountains but found that progress was interrupted by a series of deep chasms. To get to the interior would have taken days. They returned to their landing point and examined a broken cliff, part of which seemed to have been split into a mass of loose gravel as if it had recently been subjected to great force.
The sailors then found an arrowhead in the broken rock, and Captain Robson send for picks and shovels form the ship so that the crew could dig into the gravel. He and his crew soon uncovered crumbling remains of massive walls. They continued to dig near the walls for better part of two days, finding bronze swords, rings, mallets, carvings of head figures of birds and animals, and two vases or jars with fragments of bone, and one cranium.
Then they found what appeared to be a mummy enclosed in a stone case, encrusted with volcanic deposit so as to be scarcely distinguished form the rock itself. The rock sarcophagus aboard the Jesmond as dark clouds began to roll in off of the horizon, and Robson resumed his course. This reporter has examined the artifacts and they appear to be authentic. Robson's plans to donate the artifacts to the British Museum upon his return to England.
Morgana states, “So you believe that this mysterious island that suddenly resurfaced was Atlantis?” Hank says, “Can’t be, that’s a city in Georgia, not an island.” “Atlantis! Not Atlanta, you dolt,” Morgana exclaims. Guillieult reiterates what Gonzales had told them about the dangers and risks of these items falling into the wrong hands, adding “Especially the sarcophagus.”
Louie asks, “What’s so special about it? Just box with dead person.” Guillieult says, “Not just a dead person. To receive such an elaborate burial coffin he would have been an Atlantian Emperor, one of their most powerful mages. Atlantian wizard magic was renown, but their knowledge of clerical magic was lacking. Whatever ailment killed this Emperor could most likely be reversed using today’s medical science and the most powerful of clerical magic spells could be used to resurrect the dead. This man from Atlantis could be revived! There is no telling what knowledge he might possess, which could be abused and corrupted by whoever possesses him!”
The group ponders this. Morgana says, “There is another unpleasant possibility. Don’t powerful wizards have the possibility of become powerful undead when they die?” Guillieult says, “Yes, I believe the term you are looking for is that of a Lich. A Lich could be equally dangerous if allied with an nation seeking conquests.”
Guillieult then says, “Mr. Gonzales indicated that you might be able to help me to remove those items from the ship they are on before it sets sail.” “When will that be?” Morgana asks. He replies, “Saturday.” “No problem,” Hank exclaims. Morgana says, “Actually, there could be many problems. How many men are on the ship and how many guards?” Guileful replies, “When I looked yesterday there were a dozen city police on the dock and a small skeleton crew on board.” Louie comments, “When you say skeleton crew you mean few of them, not undead, right?” Guillieult replies, “Oui.”
Arcade says, “Look, before we agree to anything I’d like to take a look at this ship. Why don’t you give us directions to where it is docked and we’ll go have a look? We can meet you back here at supper time.” The French wizard agrees. Arcade’s Gang gets up and departs, leaving Guillieult with the check for the meal. Once outside Louie comments “The food was good there.” Arcade says, “I thought so too, that’s why I wanted to get a free supper as well.”
They wander through the city and down to the earth and stone levee that protects the city from Mississippi River flooding. On the other side of the levee are stairs down to the docks. They group keeps their distance, but manage to get within a few hundred feet of the Jesmond. The dozen New Orleans police are standing on the dock in different spots in groups of twos and fours. Arcade says, “We’ll need to find something to distract them.” Sam says, “We could hire some prostitutes.” Hank replies, “That would distract us.” Louie adds, “Then just hire them for Sam then.”
Arcade says, “We not only have the problem of the police, but getting a sarcophagus and those other items off might attract attention. These docks are a fairly open area. It might be easier if we just steal the entire ship.” They debate the merits of that plan. Hank agrees to the plan provided they agree to sail it to Texas. Arcade says, “We can hire a crew to sail it around South America and on to Arizona.” Hank says, “There are no ports in Arizona! It’s all mountains and desert!” Arcade replies, “I didn’t mean all the way back. You can sail up the Gulf of California in Mexico to Puerto Penaso, that’s only around fifty miles from the Arizona border.” Hank replies, “I still like the sound of Texas better.”
Morgana asks, “What is the alternative?” Arcade replies, “Fighting our way onto the ship, find the items including a large stone sarcophagus. Take them off of the ship and then bringing them through a crowded city, and then finding a way to get them to Baton Rogue to put on a train. Stealing the ship is a much easier solution.”
Louie comments, “Seems like a big thing to steal. Let’s just put a hole in the side of the ship and take it out that way.” Hank replies, “Easier said than done, and we’d still have to sneak it through the city without being seen.” Arcade says, “We would all wear hats as disguises.” “What about the sarcophagus?” Sam asks. “Put a hat on him too,” is Arcade’s answer.
Morgana says, “If we steal the ship we would still have to sail it close to 100 miles downriver before we reach the Gulf of Mexico. They could get word ahead to Navy ships to cut us off.” Hank points and says, “I see Navy ships docked right over there. We could wind up having a running gun battle down the Mississippi.” “Sounds like fun,” Arcade replies. “But not necessarily easier,” Morgana comments.
Hank says, “I like the idea. It’s like piracy! As soon as your steal-the-boat plan is approved I’m going to go out and buy myself an eye patch and a parrot.” Louie says, “Why not wait until Saturday and steal it as it leaves?” Morgana replies, “Three days from now? It might be too late then. We’d better assume that the French and Spanish already know about the items and are working on their own plans to steal it.” Louie says, “So we’re one of a dozen or so groups planning the same thing?”
“Maybe they already taken it?” Sam comments. Arcade says, “The police wouldn’t still be there if they had.” “Only if the police know,” Morgana adds. Hank says, “Yeah, the police seem to only be on the dock. Somebody could have come in by boat on the water side.” “Hey, we can do that,” Arcade says. Morgana adds, “I can’t swim.” “Then don’t fall into the water,” Hank exclaims.
Morgana says, “Why don’t we try to get on board now and find where these items are.” Arcade, “Because we haven’t agreed to do this yet. Let’s meet this guy for supper and see how much he’s planning to pay us before we risk arrest or worse.” The others concur and they head back to their hotel to just relax until suppertime.
They meet with Guillieult for supper. After the meal Morgana asks what type of magical assistance he can provide. He explains that he has a large number of spells at his disposal, although he would need to first study for them. “Could you make our whole group invisible?” she asks. He says that he can. Louie says, “Can you make large hole in side of ship?” He says that he can do that too, that a Passwall spell creates a temporary hole.
Arcade says, “So it comes down to either my idea of stealing the ship or Louie’s idea of rowing out to the ship, putting a hole in the side of the ship, pulling out a one-ton coffin, rowing it across the water and back across the harbor without sinking, and sneaking it through the city.” Guillieult replies, “Either of those plans is viable.” The group continues to debate both options.