The first problem, of course, is that all the villains are right freakin' there, watching us die. Doc tries to get Count Volokoff monologuing, which works.
Then Heinrich says the Grimnoir have another Traveler besides Claire, We should go search for him at once!
Everyone leaves except two SS vampire guards and the skeleton of Dr. Dippel, still slowly making his way to his operating theater on two canes.
Now George and Claire can shift their positions, making the seesaw sag to the right. This slackens the wire around Dex' neck.
The SS guards see this and react! One runs off to summon help, and one aims his gun at Doc.
Claire teleports him into her place and jumps out again. The gun goes off, spraying a blast of bullets. Because the tube is made of Cog-devised transparent aluminum, it does not shatter. Each bullet bounces around until it hits something, making the captive vampire considerably less of a threat, although if possible even more frightening.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Fortress Frankenstein
After the events of BLOODY BERLIN, Franks wants to go to Castle Frankenstein, where he was made, and find whoever has restarted Dr. Dippel’s work. And kill them.
Dex flies ahead and gets in a dogfight with two biplanes and two enormous winged vampires. The vampires are evaded, but one of the biplanes fights Dex to a draw. Eventually he helps the pilot land his damaged plane, and he agrees to help Dex against the vampire Count Volokoff.
Inside the castle the Grimnoir face off with Grimnoir from Paris who have been enthralled by vampires. One by one, each hero is stabbed with a needle in the back of the neck and falls unconscious.
When they awaken …
George and Claire are in a balanced glass tube. Melody is in a chamber filling with sharp icicles; only by heating them can she prevent being punctured. Francis is in a chamber full of mustard gas, keeping it away from his head by exerting his Mover power. Doc is holding up Dex’s full armor, except for the helmet, which is attached to Dex’s neck by a taut, razor-sharp wire. Another such wire attaches his neck to Claire’s tube.
Count Volokoff explains:
“Should Miss Claire teleport away, George’s end of the tube will fall, into the flames created by Miss Melody. Also, her end of the tube will rise, cutting off Mr. Dex’s head. But presently, either Dr. Caliban’s arms will tire, or the ice upon which Mr. Dex’s helmet rests will melt. Either will precipitate the same calamity as your Traveler’s absence.”
Also present are their old comrade Heinrich, who does not look happy; Victoria the Brute, who is seriously bruised; Pevnost the Traveller, with one arm in a sling; and Franks’ left hand, on a surgical table, not attached to any other Franks.
A skeleton wearing spectacles totters in on a cane. His bones are held together with wire.
“And since you have never met, may I introduce, before you meet your end, Herr Doktor Johann Dippel?”
Dippel is, of course, the fellow who made Franks 150 years ago.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Secret In The Sky: May 1933
Howard Stark and UBF have been tricked into manufacturing flying saucers for aliens! Fortunately, the Continentals have located an alien base above America. They blew it up, but saucers fled to another base over Britain!
Here we see the Excalibur (in red and orange) pursuing two UFOs toward an Alien Base. But three other, different saucers have launched from the base!
The Excalibur crew use Crackler and Torch guns to disable the UFOs, and move past them. But the other saucers fly colored flags and commence firing ... with machine guns!
Doc identifies the signal flags as Royal Navy. Are we fighting space Brits?
The British ships swing wide as a fleet of rockets labelled CCCP come rocketing in. This is, of course, the symbol of the Soviet Union.
Dr. Van Cortlandt clouds men's minds to hide the Excalibur. Excalibur docks with the alien base, while an enormous Soviet rocket heaves into view! The British turn around to the Excalibur's last known position, firing into the Soviet rocket formation.
Claire and Ham jump to the alien base. Ham finds the leader, commands him to obey, and orders all the ships to go to Jupiter. That should get them out of our hair!
Francis uses his Mover power to pull off important tubes on the outside of the giant Soviet rocket. It skids sideways. A man in a leaky rubber space suit climbs out on a rope (yes, a rope) and tries to fix the damage with a hammer. Ah, Soviet engineering.
The human ships are emptied by Claire, although all their crew are still controlled by the Wire. Unfortunately, all the other saucers in the area arrive and start blasting away at the Excalibur! Dex' shields work pretty well until the fuel runs out. George gives a huge heave of electricity and propels the ship back toward Earth, but the incoming saucer fleet opens fire! Only five saucers survive the Excalibur's counterfire, but that's enough to blow holes in the Excalibur from stem to stern! IS ALL LOST?
I guess all is sort of lost. How do you feel about owing the Chairman? Because the battleship YAMATO, reported sunk in Tokyo Bay some weeks ago, is actually now a space battleship. And it blows away the saucers, allowing Excalibur to crash-land in the South Atlantic. She can be repaired, probably -- and this time with more fuel capacity!
Epilogue: There is still an alien base above Russia, manufacturing UFOs. Oh, and our captive alien leader, Semdahl, has plenty to say about the alien invaders.
For one thing, they aren't Martians! They rule the Jupiter system, which has six inhabited moons and a couple of barbaric moons. The invaders themselves are from Io.
They serve Kharg, the Maximum Leader, who in turn serves Volens, their god. Seems every planet has a being which gives magic to its people, and harvests it in return. Ours is known as the Power; Jupiter's is Volens. And Mars, Mercury and Venus each has its own alien caretaker.
Kharg wants to kill the Power, but his ships are swatted out of the sky when they get close; So he wants humans to crew his ships, because although the Power could probably kill them just as easily, it won't, humans being its crop. Therefore Kharg has taken over top Earth minds and is building space ships through the governments of America, Britain and Russia. The other three leading Earth powers, which Semdahl knows as Frawnce, Deutschland, and Osterreich-Ungarn, are controlled by vampires, who cannot survive space travel.
George tries to get Semdahl to switch sides. Once Doc replicates Semdahl's breathing gas, Semdahl seems willing to go along. But ... DARE WE TRUST HIM?
Here we see the Excalibur (in red and orange) pursuing two UFOs toward an Alien Base. But three other, different saucers have launched from the base!
The Excalibur crew use Crackler and Torch guns to disable the UFOs, and move past them. But the other saucers fly colored flags and commence firing ... with machine guns!
Doc identifies the signal flags as Royal Navy. Are we fighting space Brits?
The British ships swing wide as a fleet of rockets labelled CCCP come rocketing in. This is, of course, the symbol of the Soviet Union.
Dr. Van Cortlandt clouds men's minds to hide the Excalibur. Excalibur docks with the alien base, while an enormous Soviet rocket heaves into view! The British turn around to the Excalibur's last known position, firing into the Soviet rocket formation.
Claire and Ham jump to the alien base. Ham finds the leader, commands him to obey, and orders all the ships to go to Jupiter. That should get them out of our hair!
Francis uses his Mover power to pull off important tubes on the outside of the giant Soviet rocket. It skids sideways. A man in a leaky rubber space suit climbs out on a rope (yes, a rope) and tries to fix the damage with a hammer. Ah, Soviet engineering.
The human ships are emptied by Claire, although all their crew are still controlled by the Wire. Unfortunately, all the other saucers in the area arrive and start blasting away at the Excalibur! Dex' shields work pretty well until the fuel runs out. George gives a huge heave of electricity and propels the ship back toward Earth, but the incoming saucer fleet opens fire! Only five saucers survive the Excalibur's counterfire, but that's enough to blow holes in the Excalibur from stem to stern! IS ALL LOST?
I guess all is sort of lost. How do you feel about owing the Chairman? Because the battleship YAMATO, reported sunk in Tokyo Bay some weeks ago, is actually now a space battleship. And it blows away the saucers, allowing Excalibur to crash-land in the South Atlantic. She can be repaired, probably -- and this time with more fuel capacity!
Epilogue: There is still an alien base above Russia, manufacturing UFOs. Oh, and our captive alien leader, Semdahl, has plenty to say about the alien invaders.
For one thing, they aren't Martians! They rule the Jupiter system, which has six inhabited moons and a couple of barbaric moons. The invaders themselves are from Io.
They serve Kharg, the Maximum Leader, who in turn serves Volens, their god. Seems every planet has a being which gives magic to its people, and harvests it in return. Ours is known as the Power; Jupiter's is Volens. And Mars, Mercury and Venus each has its own alien caretaker.
Kharg wants to kill the Power, but his ships are swatted out of the sky when they get close; So he wants humans to crew his ships, because although the Power could probably kill them just as easily, it won't, humans being its crop. Therefore Kharg has taken over top Earth minds and is building space ships through the governments of America, Britain and Russia. The other three leading Earth powers, which Semdahl knows as Frawnce, Deutschland, and Osterreich-Ungarn, are controlled by vampires, who cannot survive space travel.
George tries to get Semdahl to switch sides. Once Doc replicates Semdahl's breathing gas, Semdahl seems willing to go along. But ... DARE WE TRUST HIM?
Friday, April 3, 2015
May 1932: The Scarlet Jaguar
A scarlet jaguar, boiling hot, leaps into the Continental Detective Agency seeking Doc Caliban. No one admits to being Doc Caliban. Eventually Franks appears and punches it in the throat, allowing everyone else to pile on.
The jaguar was evidently sent by S.V. Vasathana, an Indian gentleman living in Hidalgo, a remote province of Mexico. Monk whistles -- Hidalgo is where Doc Caliban gets his vast fortune! There's a lost valley of Mayans there, all of whom have the Mover power. Doc rescued them from criminals back in the Twenties, and now and then they send a burro-team laden with gold to the port of Hidalgo.
Doc and Monk remain in San Francisco, battling Doc's werewolf self, which has come unstuck since the encounter with Lo Pan. William Harper Littlejohn, alternatively yclept Johnny, accompanies his entourage in Doc's lieu. He is an habitual neoverbalist and polysyllabic sesquatorian, but also an expert archeologist and geologist.
In the city of Hidalgo, a red-haired man observes the team landing. Melody follows him, but is too late to stop him from sending a radio message. She does, however, use her Torch power to prevent him from blowing up the radio equipment.
A scarlet jaguar lands and attacks! And ten minutes later, another, and then another. George blows one up in a gag worthy of Bugs Bunny, but they just keep coming. Melody and Franks apprehend the red-haired man, an Irish soldier of fortune named Ward. His nickname is Amber, on account of he's ambidextrous, with both hands as well!
Ward says Vasathana can Summon red jaguars. Ward told him where the Continentals were, and Vasathana did the rest. He is now, in fact, at that very same Valley of the Vanished which Doc spoke of! Our heroes rush there, as much as anyone can rush on burro-back.
Johnny calls out in Mayan, but the valley folk do not budge the big stone sealing the valley. Francis and Franks, together, manage to move it. Then someone almost shoots Melody in the head. Shimmering strands of silk are threaded among the trees, the work of another of Vasathana's summonings: a terrifying bear-headed spider creature which Amber Ward spoke of. This makes running through the jungle very difficult.
Claire teleports ahead and locates the shooter. He's in a hut with two Dark Elves and three dwarves. Francis manages to knock the dwarves' heads together and Claire returns an electric grenade which one of the Dark Elves throws. The other Dark Elf, however, attacks Francis and would have sliced off his arm were it not for Melody's split-second intervention.
George works around to the side and sees a pale man in bright colored clothes working in a ritual circle. The man sees him, and George summons up a wind to blow the circle's dust away. But by ignoring him and patching the circle, the man finishes his spell and fades away into nothingness. All the stones of the circle shatter at once.
Apparently, Vasathana and the man in the circle, whom Ward knew only as the Changeling, had no interest in the gold, or the Mayan's Power. They wanted to dig up the old stone circle, then use it once. And apparently, they have.
The jaguar was evidently sent by S.V. Vasathana, an Indian gentleman living in Hidalgo, a remote province of Mexico. Monk whistles -- Hidalgo is where Doc Caliban gets his vast fortune! There's a lost valley of Mayans there, all of whom have the Mover power. Doc rescued them from criminals back in the Twenties, and now and then they send a burro-team laden with gold to the port of Hidalgo.
Doc and Monk remain in San Francisco, battling Doc's werewolf self, which has come unstuck since the encounter with Lo Pan. William Harper Littlejohn, alternatively yclept Johnny, accompanies his entourage in Doc's lieu. He is an habitual neoverbalist and polysyllabic sesquatorian, but also an expert archeologist and geologist.
In the city of Hidalgo, a red-haired man observes the team landing. Melody follows him, but is too late to stop him from sending a radio message. She does, however, use her Torch power to prevent him from blowing up the radio equipment.
A scarlet jaguar lands and attacks! And ten minutes later, another, and then another. George blows one up in a gag worthy of Bugs Bunny, but they just keep coming. Melody and Franks apprehend the red-haired man, an Irish soldier of fortune named Ward. His nickname is Amber, on account of he's ambidextrous, with both hands as well!
Ward says Vasathana can Summon red jaguars. Ward told him where the Continentals were, and Vasathana did the rest. He is now, in fact, at that very same Valley of the Vanished which Doc spoke of! Our heroes rush there, as much as anyone can rush on burro-back.
Johnny calls out in Mayan, but the valley folk do not budge the big stone sealing the valley. Francis and Franks, together, manage to move it. Then someone almost shoots Melody in the head. Shimmering strands of silk are threaded among the trees, the work of another of Vasathana's summonings: a terrifying bear-headed spider creature which Amber Ward spoke of. This makes running through the jungle very difficult.
Claire teleports ahead and locates the shooter. He's in a hut with two Dark Elves and three dwarves. Francis manages to knock the dwarves' heads together and Claire returns an electric grenade which one of the Dark Elves throws. The other Dark Elf, however, attacks Francis and would have sliced off his arm were it not for Melody's split-second intervention.
George works around to the side and sees a pale man in bright colored clothes working in a ritual circle. The man sees him, and George summons up a wind to blow the circle's dust away. But by ignoring him and patching the circle, the man finishes his spell and fades away into nothingness. All the stones of the circle shatter at once.
Apparently, Vasathana and the man in the circle, whom Ward knew only as the Changeling, had no interest in the gold, or the Mayan's Power. They wanted to dig up the old stone circle, then use it once. And apparently, they have.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
April 1932: Wake the Dragon
Lo Pan tries to wake the Dragon with his Three Storms: Rain, Lightning, and Thunder. But their bodies have been destroyed by Clare and George. What to do?
He's already possessed Joan Garrick with the spirit of Lightning. He then has Rain possess Marie, the radioactive girl, and Thunder possesses Kendrick Blair, the Derrick Devil. But what about Doc, who's missing?
Our heroes intercept an earthquake and descend into the ground along with William Harper Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist who luxuriates in neolatinate polysyllabic sesquepedalia. Or as Dex would say, he likes big words.
One by one, the Continentals encounter the Three Storms. Clare teleports Marie to Alcatraz, out of danger. George calls Blair by name and snaps him out of it, after several massive blows from various forms of Power have failed. Clare also presents Joan with her sword, handle up in the shape of the Cross, and Joan (well, her alternative personality, the Maid) awakens. Lo Pan screams in fury -- they're stealing all his possessed spirits!
But when Clare teleports to Lo Pan, the wizard has a captive: Doc Caliban! Yes, Doc has a silver needle in his neck holding him motionless, and Lo Pan is about to step into Doc's body and possess him!
Clare, however, teleports Doc away. Which is good, because the moment the needle is removed, Doc turns into a werewolf. Lo Pan had hoped to beat the wolf into Doc's body, which isn't so ridiculous a notion, if you ask Agent Franks.
George slips on silver knuckles and boxes Lo Pan. When Lo Pan touches the purple crystalline spine of the Dragon, his spirit energy is drained away, and he fades into nothingness, although he does manage to get a threat to George's grandchildren at least half-uttered, though short on details.
The Dragon goes back to sleep, rolling over. This crushes some of the Wing Kong Brutes, and undermines the cavern, which collapses. George goes back for Joan, reminding the Maid that Joan's body will be harmed if the roof falls. The Maid uses her sword to take herself and George back to the 14th century, then tells him to rest a while till his hour comes round again. He asks if this is goodbye, but she says, only for a time. For the crusade goes ever on and on, and crusaders meet again. When he wakes up, it's 1932.
He's already possessed Joan Garrick with the spirit of Lightning. He then has Rain possess Marie, the radioactive girl, and Thunder possesses Kendrick Blair, the Derrick Devil. But what about Doc, who's missing?
Our heroes intercept an earthquake and descend into the ground along with William Harper Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist who luxuriates in neolatinate polysyllabic sesquepedalia. Or as Dex would say, he likes big words.
One by one, the Continentals encounter the Three Storms. Clare teleports Marie to Alcatraz, out of danger. George calls Blair by name and snaps him out of it, after several massive blows from various forms of Power have failed. Clare also presents Joan with her sword, handle up in the shape of the Cross, and Joan (well, her alternative personality, the Maid) awakens. Lo Pan screams in fury -- they're stealing all his possessed spirits!
But when Clare teleports to Lo Pan, the wizard has a captive: Doc Caliban! Yes, Doc has a silver needle in his neck holding him motionless, and Lo Pan is about to step into Doc's body and possess him!
Clare, however, teleports Doc away. Which is good, because the moment the needle is removed, Doc turns into a werewolf. Lo Pan had hoped to beat the wolf into Doc's body, which isn't so ridiculous a notion, if you ask Agent Franks.
George slips on silver knuckles and boxes Lo Pan. When Lo Pan touches the purple crystalline spine of the Dragon, his spirit energy is drained away, and he fades into nothingness, although he does manage to get a threat to George's grandchildren at least half-uttered, though short on details.
The Dragon goes back to sleep, rolling over. This crushes some of the Wing Kong Brutes, and undermines the cavern, which collapses. George goes back for Joan, reminding the Maid that Joan's body will be harmed if the roof falls. The Maid uses her sword to take herself and George back to the 14th century, then tells him to rest a while till his hour comes round again. He asks if this is goodbye, but she says, only for a time. For the crusade goes ever on and on, and crusaders meet again. When he wakes up, it's 1932.
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