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.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
March 1932 cont.: The Purple Dragon
Joan Garrick has been having nightmares in which a Chinese man in a tall hat beckons to her with long nails. Ham surmises this may have something to do with his efforts to help her remember what she does as the Maid, so he's headed over to check on her.
"Good, Ham. Take someone with you if you think it best," says Doc Caliban.
"I have intercepted a whispering spirit, which was sent by Lo Pan to his minions at the Wing Kong Import-Export Exchange on Fisherman's Wharf. The message was,
"Egg Shen is alive, and he has reached Caliban. Both must now die. Caliban will come out from his fortress for a disaster spiced with the exotic. Use the Purple Dragon."
"We know, therefore," continues Doc, "that some showy public emergency is being planned to bring us into an ambush. I will go to the Presidio, where I am consulting with the Navy Department, and keep my public appearances. If the enemy attacks, they will do so without the element of surprise, and on territory favorable to me."
"You others, meanwhile, are free to strike at Lo Pan. There is every hope we can interrupt him before the Purple Dragon, whatever that may be, is ready to use. We do not know what powers Lo Pan has at his disposal, as he is a very old Summoner and can command the Three Storms of Hunanese legend, among many other spirits."
"Therefore speed and surprise are of the essence. If we use everyone, he will have a wide variety of Powers to try and counter. We may be able to spare this city a terrible misfortune."
Doc then equips himself with a brown business suit of voluminous cut, lined with armor and laden with hidden gadgets. He takes the elevator to the lobby, making sure everyone sees him leave, and takes a cab, loudly ordering it to drive to the Presidio.
Once he is gone, Egg Shen rolls up a black carpet and slings it over his shoulder. Things inside it slosh like jars of pickles.
"Howlin' calamities!" Monk bursts forth. "We just saved you from this Lo Pan character, and now you want to come with us right into his lap?"
"Of coursah, Monk. It is-uh my destiny. Besides, without me, you'll never survive in the lair of the Boddhisatva of the Underworld, the ultimate evil spirit."
Monk points accusingly.
"You know something you're not telling me, Egg," he scolds.
"Lo Pan has been cursed by Ching D'ai, the God of the East. His flesh, and bones, are atomized. Lost on the wind. He becomes ... only a dream. An EVIL dream."
Monk blinks.
"What?"
"Lo Pan cannot harm us unless he regains mortal flesh, which is his dearest-uh wish," says Egg Shen. "But there is something even Lo Pan must acknowledge -- that all motion in the universe is the result of tension between positive and negative furies. And when they are out of balance, as they are in Lo Pan, then we will use lightning and fire to separate the entangling hedge, and at last bring order out of chaos."
"Well, great, sounds like we can't lose!" says Monk, trying to sound sincere. "What's in the bag?"
"Magic potion!" says Egg.
"A magic potion. Great," says Monk. "Whaddya do? Drink it?"
"Yes!"
"Thought so."
The Wing Kong Exchange is a long, two-story warehouse fronting on the docks. It has a front entrance, worker's entrance, loading docks for ships, a truck loading area, a railroad spur, and a big, wide, flat roof.
"Good, Ham. Take someone with you if you think it best," says Doc Caliban.
"I have intercepted a whispering spirit, which was sent by Lo Pan to his minions at the Wing Kong Import-Export Exchange on Fisherman's Wharf. The message was,
"Egg Shen is alive, and he has reached Caliban. Both must now die. Caliban will come out from his fortress for a disaster spiced with the exotic. Use the Purple Dragon."
"We know, therefore," continues Doc, "that some showy public emergency is being planned to bring us into an ambush. I will go to the Presidio, where I am consulting with the Navy Department, and keep my public appearances. If the enemy attacks, they will do so without the element of surprise, and on territory favorable to me."
"Therefore speed and surprise are of the essence. If we use everyone, he will have a wide variety of Powers to try and counter. We may be able to spare this city a terrible misfortune."
Doc then equips himself with a brown business suit of voluminous cut, lined with armor and laden with hidden gadgets. He takes the elevator to the lobby, making sure everyone sees him leave, and takes a cab, loudly ordering it to drive to the Presidio.
Once he is gone, Egg Shen rolls up a black carpet and slings it over his shoulder. Things inside it slosh like jars of pickles.
"Howlin' calamities!" Monk bursts forth. "We just saved you from this Lo Pan character, and now you want to come with us right into his lap?"
"Of coursah, Monk. It is-uh my destiny. Besides, without me, you'll never survive in the lair of the Boddhisatva of the Underworld, the ultimate evil spirit."
Monk points accusingly.
"You know something you're not telling me, Egg," he scolds.
"Lo Pan has been cursed by Ching D'ai, the God of the East. His flesh, and bones, are atomized. Lost on the wind. He becomes ... only a dream. An EVIL dream."
Monk blinks.
"What?"
"Lo Pan cannot harm us unless he regains mortal flesh, which is his dearest-uh wish," says Egg Shen. "But there is something even Lo Pan must acknowledge -- that all motion in the universe is the result of tension between positive and negative furies. And when they are out of balance, as they are in Lo Pan, then we will use lightning and fire to separate the entangling hedge, and at last bring order out of chaos."
"Well, great, sounds like we can't lose!" says Monk, trying to sound sincere. "What's in the bag?"
"Magic potion!" says Egg.
"A magic potion. Great," says Monk. "Whaddya do? Drink it?"
"Yes!"
"Thought so."
The Wing Kong Exchange is a long, two-story warehouse fronting on the docks. It has a front entrance, worker's entrance, loading docks for ships, a truck loading area, a railroad spur, and a big, wide, flat roof.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
March 1932: Black Blood of the Earth
Doc Caliban sends his people to bring Egg Shen, a Chinese fleeing the Japanese Imperium, to the Continental's offices. In Chinatown, Egg is snatched by Chinese with super-strength, who throw him around like a baseball and jump between buildings with the greatest of ease.
Claire almost rescues Egg Shen, but hits the pavement a little too hard and loses him. Brutes attack Claire, George and Melody, but Melody sets one on fire and Claire teleports another halfway into a concrete wall.
Francis' car chases the kidnappers, eventually crashing into the kidnappers' van in a dead-end alley in Chinatown. Many Chinese gangsters are waiting for them, displaying Brute powers and martial arts skills in abundance.
Dex lands and takes one out, then gets in a karate duel with a Brute. The Brute tears Francis' machine guns out of his armored car and swats Dex with them, but Dex is able to hit him with a capacitor bomb, then another, then ANOTHER, and the Brute finally goes down.
Many karate guys jump around and kick the car into scrap, but somehow Francis stays alive until his buddies get there. Melody hits a Brute with flames, but he's tough enough to survive it. He isn't tough enough to survive being knocked backward by the flames into a fireworks factory, though. Boom!
George and Melody hit one of the Brutes at the same moment, overcoming his toughness. Everyone is down but the good guys ....
Then a bystander flexes hard enough to shred his shirt, revealing smooth, oddly shiny skin over massive muscles. Thunder crashes, green lightning flares, and his eyes glow green.
Then this man waits for someone to take him on. George tries hitting him with lightning, but this guy looks offended and takes control of the storm.
"He's a Brute ... and a Weatherman ... and wait, he just Traveled," says Francis, taking notes.
The guy yells something in Chinese, but Egg Shen replies, "The storm is not yours alone, Thunder! It serves the positive furies of the universe!" and he throws a sapphire into the air. It brings down a really big lightning bolt, which does not bother Thunder one bit. He shouts, a wave of sound knocking Egg Shen into an alley, followed closely by Ham.
Claire thinks she recognizes the oddly smooth sheen of Thunder's skin. It looks like skin that's less than one hour old: brand-new skin, smooth as a baby's cheek. She remembers that one other person with skin like that can't survive being Traveled, so she takes a deep breath and Travels with Thunder to Alcatraz.
Thunder's molecules come apart in a cloud of green mist and one hellacious boom.
Later, Egg Shen explains that the gangsters were Lords of Death, the junior members of a very old Chinese gang, the Wing Kong Society. Thunder is one of the Three Storms, three spirits who can be commanded by a master of Taoist alchemy and sorcery. The others are Rain and Lightning.
Thunder will be able to be re-summoned into a new body on the new moon, two weeks from now. Until then, only two more Storms survive ... plus the Brutes of the Wing Kong, who have started drinking the Black Blood of the Earth to gain their powers. And whoever summoned the Three Storms, who must be a mightier and more learned wizard than Doc Caliban himself ...
Sources:
Everyone in this episode is from Big Trouble in Little China.
Claire almost rescues Egg Shen, but hits the pavement a little too hard and loses him. Brutes attack Claire, George and Melody, but Melody sets one on fire and Claire teleports another halfway into a concrete wall.
Francis' car chases the kidnappers, eventually crashing into the kidnappers' van in a dead-end alley in Chinatown. Many Chinese gangsters are waiting for them, displaying Brute powers and martial arts skills in abundance.
Dex lands and takes one out, then gets in a karate duel with a Brute. The Brute tears Francis' machine guns out of his armored car and swats Dex with them, but Dex is able to hit him with a capacitor bomb, then another, then ANOTHER, and the Brute finally goes down.
Many karate guys jump around and kick the car into scrap, but somehow Francis stays alive until his buddies get there. Melody hits a Brute with flames, but he's tough enough to survive it. He isn't tough enough to survive being knocked backward by the flames into a fireworks factory, though. Boom!
George and Melody hit one of the Brutes at the same moment, overcoming his toughness. Everyone is down but the good guys ....
Then a bystander flexes hard enough to shred his shirt, revealing smooth, oddly shiny skin over massive muscles. Thunder crashes, green lightning flares, and his eyes glow green.
Then this man waits for someone to take him on. George tries hitting him with lightning, but this guy looks offended and takes control of the storm.
"He's a Brute ... and a Weatherman ... and wait, he just Traveled," says Francis, taking notes.
The guy yells something in Chinese, but Egg Shen replies, "The storm is not yours alone, Thunder! It serves the positive furies of the universe!" and he throws a sapphire into the air. It brings down a really big lightning bolt, which does not bother Thunder one bit. He shouts, a wave of sound knocking Egg Shen into an alley, followed closely by Ham.
Claire thinks she recognizes the oddly smooth sheen of Thunder's skin. It looks like skin that's less than one hour old: brand-new skin, smooth as a baby's cheek. She remembers that one other person with skin like that can't survive being Traveled, so she takes a deep breath and Travels with Thunder to Alcatraz.
Thunder's molecules come apart in a cloud of green mist and one hellacious boom.
Later, Egg Shen explains that the gangsters were Lords of Death, the junior members of a very old Chinese gang, the Wing Kong Society. Thunder is one of the Three Storms, three spirits who can be commanded by a master of Taoist alchemy and sorcery. The others are Rain and Lightning.
Thunder will be able to be re-summoned into a new body on the new moon, two weeks from now. Until then, only two more Storms survive ... plus the Brutes of the Wing Kong, who have started drinking the Black Blood of the Earth to gain their powers. And whoever summoned the Three Storms, who must be a mightier and more learned wizard than Doc Caliban himself ...
Sources:
Everyone in this episode is from Big Trouble in Little China.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
February 1932: The Spook Legion
Ghosts are ransacking homes in Salisbury, England, stealing newspapers and scaring children. The Continentals (minus Doc Caliban, and of course Heinrich) find a laughing criminal Fade called Ghost Captain haunting Stonehenge, plus a blond Traveler with a quick knife hand.
There is an active portal in Stonehenge which leads to the fair world. Claire is able to Travel through it, and discovers that Heinrich did not, in fact, disappear completely, but Faded into the fair world. She can with effort move people back and forth from the two Stonehenges, but before she can reunite Monk with his favorite dragon Georgie, Ghost Captain starts shooting at her.
Ghost Captain punches Dex through his helmet, or rather through his helmet, without touching the iron. Dex counters with blinding smoke and an arc-light, which seems to drive the attackers away.
In Salisbury itself, gray-rubber-suited ectomorphs attack with long silver pistols. They do not speak, but one of them, braver than the others, makes hand signs which Francis does not understand. They Travel away, return with a net, and try to snare Francis, but he Movers them aside. He can't nail them before they Travel, though.
Other invaders are watching from high places. George catches one on a church steeple and electroshocks him before he can Travel. Another fellow tries to imitate Francis, but George isn't fooled, and punches his lights out with a pair of iron knuckles.
Francis pursues. The guy's gone, but a policeman said he saw someone run off over a garden fence. Francis goes over the fence, sees no sign of anyone, decides he's been tricked, and returns, but of course the alleged policeman is gone.
Meanwhile, at the town library, a bunch of small mechanical men are gathering books for a massive dwarf taking notes at a table. He startles when Melody speaks, then runs away, diving through a window head-first and taking a shot at it with a sawed-off shotgun on the way out. He is too much in a hurry to take his documents with him.
The dwarf hastens to Stonehenge and disappears in a flash of lightning. The portal has been closed from the other side; Claire can no longer access the fair world.
The notes the dwarf took track events in the fair world with similar events in the grim world. For example, the rebellion called the Ingratitude occurred 140 years ago on their side, whereas the rebellion called the American Revolution was 170 years ago on our side. The Burian Concord was 30 fair world years ago, versus 60 years since German Unification. The fair world seems to experience major historical events about 30 years later than we do. Which means they're coming up on time for their Great War, a fact which the dwarf recorded in his notes.
They also stole several copies of the Domesday Booke, the original census of England from the 9th century. What they want with that is a mystery.
While the fairies' goal -- research grimworld history for clues to their own future -- doesn't really seem all that evil, especially by the standards of the Grimnoir, their instant readiness to kill anyone who finds them suggests that they can't be allowed to keep popping in.
Also, two townsfolk abducted by the fairies are rescued. They say the man who took them was all made of wires and gears, attended by many smaller mechanical men.
There is an active portal in Stonehenge which leads to the fair world. Claire is able to Travel through it, and discovers that Heinrich did not, in fact, disappear completely, but Faded into the fair world. She can with effort move people back and forth from the two Stonehenges, but before she can reunite Monk with his favorite dragon Georgie, Ghost Captain starts shooting at her.
Ghost Captain punches Dex through his helmet, or rather through his helmet, without touching the iron. Dex counters with blinding smoke and an arc-light, which seems to drive the attackers away.
In Salisbury itself, gray-rubber-suited ectomorphs attack with long silver pistols. They do not speak, but one of them, braver than the others, makes hand signs which Francis does not understand. They Travel away, return with a net, and try to snare Francis, but he Movers them aside. He can't nail them before they Travel, though.
Other invaders are watching from high places. George catches one on a church steeple and electroshocks him before he can Travel. Another fellow tries to imitate Francis, but George isn't fooled, and punches his lights out with a pair of iron knuckles.
Francis pursues. The guy's gone, but a policeman said he saw someone run off over a garden fence. Francis goes over the fence, sees no sign of anyone, decides he's been tricked, and returns, but of course the alleged policeman is gone.
Meanwhile, at the town library, a bunch of small mechanical men are gathering books for a massive dwarf taking notes at a table. He startles when Melody speaks, then runs away, diving through a window head-first and taking a shot at it with a sawed-off shotgun on the way out. He is too much in a hurry to take his documents with him.
The dwarf hastens to Stonehenge and disappears in a flash of lightning. The portal has been closed from the other side; Claire can no longer access the fair world.
The notes the dwarf took track events in the fair world with similar events in the grim world. For example, the rebellion called the Ingratitude occurred 140 years ago on their side, whereas the rebellion called the American Revolution was 170 years ago on our side. The Burian Concord was 30 fair world years ago, versus 60 years since German Unification. The fair world seems to experience major historical events about 30 years later than we do. Which means they're coming up on time for their Great War, a fact which the dwarf recorded in his notes.
They also stole several copies of the Domesday Booke, the original census of England from the 9th century. What they want with that is a mystery.
While the fairies' goal -- research grimworld history for clues to their own future -- doesn't really seem all that evil, especially by the standards of the Grimnoir, their instant readiness to kill anyone who finds them suggests that they can't be allowed to keep popping in.
Also, two townsfolk abducted by the fairies are rescued. They say the man who took them was all made of wires and gears, attended by many smaller mechanical men.
Friday, January 16, 2015
January 1932: Fade to White
A fairworld criminal, Dragon Blake, brings his dwarf thugs and his brass dragon to Berlin. He breaks in, letting zombies out, which draws Doc Caliban's interest.
Blake is using a spell which resembles the Fade Power; every time he crosses over to the fair world, zombies nearby are deanimated. Apparently there are no undead in the fair world, so the lightest touch of their magic sets zombies free of their bodies.
Blake is robbing the german natural history museum of dinosaur bones, for some reason. A fight erupts, with the brass dragon breathing on Heinrich and Francis. They both go crazy!
Francis uses his Mover power to bring every gun in the building to his hands, then shoots them all at Blake and his dwarf buddies. Heinrich, meanwhile, tackles Black and Fades into the soil, then comes up without him. Blake, it seems, is marooned deep underground, probably fused with the bedrock.
Heinrich, still mad, then touches the portal spell to the fair world. The fair world is soaking in magic; it supplies him all the power he needs to Fade all of Berlin, causing all one million zombies to collapse, their long exile in their dead husks ended. Unfortunately, Fading that hard causes Heinrich to Fade completely out of existence, trading one life for a million trapped souls.
A statue of Heinrich is slated to go up on the Unter den Linden, carrying his trademark antitank rifle.
Sources: all mine, baby. This time.
Blake is using a spell which resembles the Fade Power; every time he crosses over to the fair world, zombies nearby are deanimated. Apparently there are no undead in the fair world, so the lightest touch of their magic sets zombies free of their bodies.
Blake is robbing the german natural history museum of dinosaur bones, for some reason. A fight erupts, with the brass dragon breathing on Heinrich and Francis. They both go crazy!
Francis uses his Mover power to bring every gun in the building to his hands, then shoots them all at Blake and his dwarf buddies. Heinrich, meanwhile, tackles Black and Fades into the soil, then comes up without him. Blake, it seems, is marooned deep underground, probably fused with the bedrock.
Heinrich, still mad, then touches the portal spell to the fair world. The fair world is soaking in magic; it supplies him all the power he needs to Fade all of Berlin, causing all one million zombies to collapse, their long exile in their dead husks ended. Unfortunately, Fading that hard causes Heinrich to Fade completely out of existence, trading one life for a million trapped souls.
A statue of Heinrich is slated to go up on the Unter den Linden, carrying his trademark antitank rifle.
Sources: all mine, baby. This time.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
December 1931: Nothing Bad Whatsoever Happens
Isn't that nice, for a change?
(Season break; end of first series of the Continentals.)
(Season break; end of first series of the Continentals.)
Sunday, January 4, 2015
November 1931: Short Live the Queen
Katrina Krasnik, a resident of the Austro-Serbo-Hungarian Empire, has married King Edward of Great Britain. The Grimnoir naturally fear an Aussie plot (not an Australian plot, thank heavens) to influence the British. So they want to get their Finder, Doc Caliban, within range of Miss Krasnik to see if she's a vampire, a Mouth, or just a gold-digger. (That last is in jest; Doc doesn't understand women any more than the rest of us.)
The European Grimnoir should be on the case, but only one, Jack Hawksmoor, turns up. Seems they've had a couple of last-minute emergencies that have taken the attention of most of the Euros, and he can't seem to find the other English Grimnoir, Jenny Sparks, anywhere.
Hawksmoor is a unique Active, termed a "Citizen" by Doc: he is perfectly adapted to live in cities. He can jump and climb like Spider-Man, travel between cities, find people, and see through windows. Any window, anywhere. So getting into Buckingham Palace is blue tea for him, plus he can lead the others.
Jack calls Claire a "Blinky", George a "Bluebell" and Heinrich a "Shade", because, you know, England. They have their own names for all the Powers. And he thinks the Scots names for them are a hoot.
Once inside the Palace, everyone's Powers increase dramatically. Melody is able to keep from bursting into flame, but just barely. George shocks himself, Doc sees ghosts everywhere, and Monk feels the itch of every rat and spider in the place. Ham stays resolutely silent.
Extra Power isn't bad, so they sneak in further. They are spotted by Earl Grey, a Finder who sees the spirits in the steam from his tea. He's accompanied by Bulldog, a thin bespectacled librarian who may be the world's strongest Brute. Jack, Doc and Dex (in his antimatter-powered iron armor!) have their hands full with Bulldog. Everyone else dodges into different parts of the Palace.
Heinrich and Francis run into Franks, who is here on a secret mission. He can tell us, but then he has to kill us. He visibly thinks it over.
George, Melody, Ham, and Monk find the Royal Astronomer, who is looking at a chart of the sky. The chart updates continually; it's like a window to the stars, free of clouds, sunlight and glare. It shows a drifting crystalline starfish with tentacles, which Dex (were he here) would recognize as the Power itself. It also shows a narrow pyramid with many sculling wings and rows of red eyes diving toward the Power, on course to impale it like a harpoon.
The Astronomer is pleased by this. Soon, he says, he will be free of the Power at last! The Grimnoir don't see why that's a good thing, but then, they aren't demons trapped on Earth by the Power's influence. Once it's dead, they will regain their true strength and ... well, he doesn't say exactly what they plan to do, but he's got an evil laugh. Everyone's Powers fade out, so Melody shoots him. He didn't see that coming.
Once the Astronomer is blown to bits, he howls a last despairing demon-scream, which is answered by someone on the other side of a wall. Our heroes shoot two drums of Tommy-gun ammo through the wall, shooting the living heck out of Katrina Krasnik, who was being fitted for her wedding dress. She's a demon, obviously, and heals all her wounds with a gesture. This would be a difficult fight even if we HAD our Powers; since we don't, it's pretty bad.
Fortunately, the mirrors are expensive, backed with silver. And we know silver is poison to demons. Wounds made with silver don't heal; the offending weapon has to be plucked out of the wound first. So a handful of broken mirror fired from Heinrich's shotgun is going to take forever to fix!
This is not merely theoretical. Heinrich shoots her, and yes, it does indeed take forever.
Everyone feels a cold shock as the black creature from space (called a Void Ripper by Franks, as if he knows) stabs into the body of the Power.
Franks says, "Habbakukinell -- what the Hell are you doing here? Instead of in Hell." Habbakukinell recognizes Franks, who replies, "I beat you into surrender once, I can do it again," and punches her through the stone floor, although this blow destroys his hand.
As the Power ebbs, the demon gains in strength. Soon she's spitting poison and swinging razor-edged wings around like it's no effort at all. Dex holds forth his chemical virus which he made to destroy the Predator, after his in-depth interview with the Chairman. Dex says "Once I drink this, I will have ten times the access to the Power that I --" and doesn't even get to finish his sentence, because Katrina grabs it with her frog-tongue and swallows it whole. Green light erupts from a hole in her stomach, then two, then ten, then she's all green, then she's just gone, her matter converted into light and fear.
Unfortunately, that was all the virusol Dex had, and the Void Ripper is still sawing away at the Power up in space. Heinrich realizes that the chart in the Astronomer's room can see the Power in real time -- perhaps it reaches both ways? If only we had some kind of super-bomb that could fly up there ...
George, meanwhile, is concentrating on his Grimoir ring. He has a perfectly etched image of the Chairman, because Ham told everyone not to forget anything about their last encounter. George tries to contact the Chairman, who after all knows all about the Space Predator, and the Power spares one tentacle from grappling with the Void Ripper to send George a surge of Power. George uses every watt of that magic to make electricity, shoots it through the chart into the Void Ripper, and shocks it to death.
Every Active on Earth gets his Power back as the Power (the entity) recovers its health. Did the Chairman, in fact, save the world? No, as it turns out, because the Power sends an extra treat of Power down the line to its favorite human, George, whom it believes to be the Chairman.
George, although he may later reconsider, makes no attempt to correct the Power's mistake.
Franks admits to Francis that he's here to arrest Doc Caliban. And now that Francis knows the truth ... unfortunately, they are separated in the wild fight with the Palace's desperate demons which follows, so Franks doesn't get to arrest Doc, nor does he get to kill Francis. For now ...
Sources:
The Void Ripper is from the Chronicles of Old Guy, which I heartily recommend.
Jack Hawksmoor, like Jenny Sparks, is from The Authority.
Bulldog is from the World War II superhero game Godlike. That is also the source of the dice mechanics I use in this game, sorta-kinda.
Earl Grey is my own invention, from a Godlike game set in Colditz that I hosted 15 years ago.
The Astronomer is not the one from Wild Cards, and a good thing, too!
Katrina Krasnik originally appeared as a Communist agitator whose Dreamlands image was supernaturally beautiful, in a Call of Cthulhu/Dreamlands game in, let me see, 1988. All I had to do was point out that her limbs were as white as the foam on the wave, and the curve of her neck as graceful as a swan, and the boys lost all interest in killing her. The girls' interest in killing her, paradoxically, increased a hundredfold.
The European Grimnoir should be on the case, but only one, Jack Hawksmoor, turns up. Seems they've had a couple of last-minute emergencies that have taken the attention of most of the Euros, and he can't seem to find the other English Grimnoir, Jenny Sparks, anywhere.
Hawksmoor is a unique Active, termed a "Citizen" by Doc: he is perfectly adapted to live in cities. He can jump and climb like Spider-Man, travel between cities, find people, and see through windows. Any window, anywhere. So getting into Buckingham Palace is blue tea for him, plus he can lead the others.
Jack calls Claire a "Blinky", George a "Bluebell" and Heinrich a "Shade", because, you know, England. They have their own names for all the Powers. And he thinks the Scots names for them are a hoot.
Once inside the Palace, everyone's Powers increase dramatically. Melody is able to keep from bursting into flame, but just barely. George shocks himself, Doc sees ghosts everywhere, and Monk feels the itch of every rat and spider in the place. Ham stays resolutely silent.
Extra Power isn't bad, so they sneak in further. They are spotted by Earl Grey, a Finder who sees the spirits in the steam from his tea. He's accompanied by Bulldog, a thin bespectacled librarian who may be the world's strongest Brute. Jack, Doc and Dex (in his antimatter-powered iron armor!) have their hands full with Bulldog. Everyone else dodges into different parts of the Palace.
Heinrich and Francis run into Franks, who is here on a secret mission. He can tell us, but then he has to kill us. He visibly thinks it over.
George, Melody, Ham, and Monk find the Royal Astronomer, who is looking at a chart of the sky. The chart updates continually; it's like a window to the stars, free of clouds, sunlight and glare. It shows a drifting crystalline starfish with tentacles, which Dex (were he here) would recognize as the Power itself. It also shows a narrow pyramid with many sculling wings and rows of red eyes diving toward the Power, on course to impale it like a harpoon.
The Astronomer is pleased by this. Soon, he says, he will be free of the Power at last! The Grimnoir don't see why that's a good thing, but then, they aren't demons trapped on Earth by the Power's influence. Once it's dead, they will regain their true strength and ... well, he doesn't say exactly what they plan to do, but he's got an evil laugh. Everyone's Powers fade out, so Melody shoots him. He didn't see that coming.
Once the Astronomer is blown to bits, he howls a last despairing demon-scream, which is answered by someone on the other side of a wall. Our heroes shoot two drums of Tommy-gun ammo through the wall, shooting the living heck out of Katrina Krasnik, who was being fitted for her wedding dress. She's a demon, obviously, and heals all her wounds with a gesture. This would be a difficult fight even if we HAD our Powers; since we don't, it's pretty bad.
Fortunately, the mirrors are expensive, backed with silver. And we know silver is poison to demons. Wounds made with silver don't heal; the offending weapon has to be plucked out of the wound first. So a handful of broken mirror fired from Heinrich's shotgun is going to take forever to fix!
This is not merely theoretical. Heinrich shoots her, and yes, it does indeed take forever.
Everyone feels a cold shock as the black creature from space (called a Void Ripper by Franks, as if he knows) stabs into the body of the Power.
Franks says, "Habbakukinell -- what the Hell are you doing here? Instead of in Hell." Habbakukinell recognizes Franks, who replies, "I beat you into surrender once, I can do it again," and punches her through the stone floor, although this blow destroys his hand.
As the Power ebbs, the demon gains in strength. Soon she's spitting poison and swinging razor-edged wings around like it's no effort at all. Dex holds forth his chemical virus which he made to destroy the Predator, after his in-depth interview with the Chairman. Dex says "Once I drink this, I will have ten times the access to the Power that I --" and doesn't even get to finish his sentence, because Katrina grabs it with her frog-tongue and swallows it whole. Green light erupts from a hole in her stomach, then two, then ten, then she's all green, then she's just gone, her matter converted into light and fear.
Unfortunately, that was all the virusol Dex had, and the Void Ripper is still sawing away at the Power up in space. Heinrich realizes that the chart in the Astronomer's room can see the Power in real time -- perhaps it reaches both ways? If only we had some kind of super-bomb that could fly up there ...
George, meanwhile, is concentrating on his Grimoir ring. He has a perfectly etched image of the Chairman, because Ham told everyone not to forget anything about their last encounter. George tries to contact the Chairman, who after all knows all about the Space Predator, and the Power spares one tentacle from grappling with the Void Ripper to send George a surge of Power. George uses every watt of that magic to make electricity, shoots it through the chart into the Void Ripper, and shocks it to death.
Every Active on Earth gets his Power back as the Power (the entity) recovers its health. Did the Chairman, in fact, save the world? No, as it turns out, because the Power sends an extra treat of Power down the line to its favorite human, George, whom it believes to be the Chairman.
George, although he may later reconsider, makes no attempt to correct the Power's mistake.
Franks admits to Francis that he's here to arrest Doc Caliban. And now that Francis knows the truth ... unfortunately, they are separated in the wild fight with the Palace's desperate demons which follows, so Franks doesn't get to arrest Doc, nor does he get to kill Francis. For now ...
Sources:
The Void Ripper is from the Chronicles of Old Guy, which I heartily recommend.
Jack Hawksmoor, like Jenny Sparks, is from The Authority.
Bulldog is from the World War II superhero game Godlike. That is also the source of the dice mechanics I use in this game, sorta-kinda.
Earl Grey is my own invention, from a Godlike game set in Colditz that I hosted 15 years ago.
The Astronomer is not the one from Wild Cards, and a good thing, too!
Katrina Krasnik originally appeared as a Communist agitator whose Dreamlands image was supernaturally beautiful, in a Call of Cthulhu/Dreamlands game in, let me see, 1988. All I had to do was point out that her limbs were as white as the foam on the wave, and the curve of her neck as graceful as a swan, and the boys lost all interest in killing her. The girls' interest in killing her, paradoxically, increased a hundredfold.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
October 1931: The Secret of Stonehenge
En route to Britain, the Traveler encounters a lightning storm of shocking intensity. Coming right at the bronze zeppelin is another airship, a silver-and-glass creation like a flying chandelier. The ships collide, nose to nose, but seem to pass right through each other ...
... and suddenly everyone is aboard the silver airship, with their own ship receding in the distance!
Before they can take stock of the situation, small airboats grapple their ship and fantastic figures descend. Dwarves with brass steam-powered armor, other dwarves with black bronze picks and hammers, inhumanly quick Black Elves with mirror-sharp swords, and tall, thin, pale Elves with swords and arrows!
A large, sprawling fight breaks out. Doc locks himself in the engine room, transforms into a werewolf, and howls a call to Tranth, the Craftsman God:
Tranth, hear me! Give me a spark from your forge. Give me a wind from your bellows. Give me a blow from your hammer. And I will build you a construction more ingenious, more glorious, than any have offered you before."
Sources:
The fair world, and Doc's prayer to Tranth, are from Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston.
... and suddenly everyone is aboard the silver airship, with their own ship receding in the distance!
Before they can take stock of the situation, small airboats grapple their ship and fantastic figures descend. Dwarves with brass steam-powered armor, other dwarves with black bronze picks and hammers, inhumanly quick Black Elves with mirror-sharp swords, and tall, thin, pale Elves with swords and arrows!
A large, sprawling fight breaks out. Doc locks himself in the engine room, transforms into a werewolf, and howls a call to Tranth, the Craftsman God:
Tranth, hear me! Give me a spark from your forge. Give me a wind from your bellows. Give me a blow from your hammer. And I will build you a construction more ingenious, more glorious, than any have offered you before."
Sources:
The fair world, and Doc's prayer to Tranth, are from Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
September 1931: The Lightning Maker
A German named Heydrich says he can make normals into Actives with a marvelous machine. He wants Actives to seize power in Bavaria and join the Austro-Serbo-Hungarian Empire.
Doc determines that Heydrich is a faker, floating people in the air and telling them they can fly. Heydrich gets very angry and starts blowing up entire buildings; like the Chairman, he's one of those guys that has ALL the Powers! Apparently on Jan. 1, 1900, several people were born with the potential to use all the Powers at once. The Chairman, as well as the Spellbound, were born on Jan. 1, 1800. Heydrich, like them, is a "century baby", which is why Doc's interest was piqued in the first place.
Francis floats a cable up to touch Heydrich's leg and George channels every ounce of his magic, his health, his will and his soul (minus one teaspoon!) into Heydrich, who just plain explodes.
Bavaria does not, in fact, join Austria. The wicked Austrians are once again thwarted, and the Grimnoir have a friend in Munich, in the person of a police agent named Goering, who was some kind of war hero back when.
Sources:
Reinhard Heydrich was, in real life, number two man in the SS and way smarter than his boss. He was a good bet to succeed Hitler if the Reich had won the war.
Goering is, of course, Hermann Goering, chief of the Luftwaffe and the Prussian police.
The "century baby" concept is from Planetary.
The idea of pretending to give people superpowers so they can join a master-race movement is my own, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone else had thought of it.
Doc determines that Heydrich is a faker, floating people in the air and telling them they can fly. Heydrich gets very angry and starts blowing up entire buildings; like the Chairman, he's one of those guys that has ALL the Powers! Apparently on Jan. 1, 1900, several people were born with the potential to use all the Powers at once. The Chairman, as well as the Spellbound, were born on Jan. 1, 1800. Heydrich, like them, is a "century baby", which is why Doc's interest was piqued in the first place.
Francis floats a cable up to touch Heydrich's leg and George channels every ounce of his magic, his health, his will and his soul (minus one teaspoon!) into Heydrich, who just plain explodes.
Bavaria does not, in fact, join Austria. The wicked Austrians are once again thwarted, and the Grimnoir have a friend in Munich, in the person of a police agent named Goering, who was some kind of war hero back when.
Sources:
Reinhard Heydrich was, in real life, number two man in the SS and way smarter than his boss. He was a good bet to succeed Hitler if the Reich had won the war.
Goering is, of course, Hermann Goering, chief of the Luftwaffe and the Prussian police.
The "century baby" concept is from Planetary.
The idea of pretending to give people superpowers so they can join a master-race movement is my own, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone else had thought of it.
August 1931: The Thunderbolt Ship
Japanese-Americans build an airship with a Peace Ray mounted on it to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet in San Francisco Bay. They use the naval supplies stolen in The Terror in the Navy.
The Continentals shoot down their airship with some help from the Chairman, who is outraged that the plotters raised up zombies from a Japanese graveyard. "Ghosts" (whites) are of no consequence, but Japanese dead belong with their families in the afterlife, not tottering around like beasts!
So the Chairman kills his followers, and explains to the Continentals why he wants to make the human race strong: the Power is alive, and there is another being which is hunting it. The Power has come to many worlds, given their inhabitants powers, and tried to develop enough power to defeat the Predator, but each time it has failed. When the Power flees a world, the Predator eats all the Actives on that world, but that is not enough, and it pursues the Power once more. This time, when the Predator catches up to the Power, the Chairman intends for humanity to drive the Predator off, and save the human race.
Francis and Heinrich think that's a great idea, and want to know how they can help. Later, they suspect the Chairman used his Mouth power to trick them.
Sources: The Chairman's plan is straight out of Hard Magic.
The Continentals shoot down their airship with some help from the Chairman, who is outraged that the plotters raised up zombies from a Japanese graveyard. "Ghosts" (whites) are of no consequence, but Japanese dead belong with their families in the afterlife, not tottering around like beasts!
So the Chairman kills his followers, and explains to the Continentals why he wants to make the human race strong: the Power is alive, and there is another being which is hunting it. The Power has come to many worlds, given their inhabitants powers, and tried to develop enough power to defeat the Predator, but each time it has failed. When the Power flees a world, the Predator eats all the Actives on that world, but that is not enough, and it pursues the Power once more. This time, when the Predator catches up to the Power, the Chairman intends for humanity to drive the Predator off, and save the human race.
Francis and Heinrich think that's a great idea, and want to know how they can help. Later, they suspect the Chairman used his Mouth power to trick them.
Sources: The Chairman's plan is straight out of Hard Magic.
July 1931: The Terror in the Navy
Ghost skeletons with machine guns are hijacking ships out of the air!
(You know what ... I'm not topping that sentence no matter how hard I try.)
(You know what ... I'm not topping that sentence no matter how hard I try.)
June 1931: The Dean of Death
John Sunlight has been raising the dead, but in ways which spare them the constant pain of most zombies. One he raised with fire, one with ice, one with radiation. In each case he has resurrected geniuses in various fields, coordinating their efforts to construct a negative-matter inverter. This turns regular matter into negative matter, which reacts explosively with regular matter. (Moderns would call it antimatter.)
As a first test, he blew up a section of the ocean near Catalina Island. Then he plans to do a second test shot on Los Angeles, to impress his buyers: a Japanese spy, a Soviet spy, and a Polish spy.
On the way to John Sunlight's hideout at Griffith Park observatory, Francis and Dex shoot a pursuing car off the road. It turns out to be driven by Count Ramadanoff and his daughter, Ludmilla. He's a Heavy, she's a Brute, and they wreck Francis' armored car pretty thoroughly until Dex fraudulently identifies himself as a fellow Communist. Then they let them go.
A fight breaks out at the observatory. John Sunlight has drained all the electricity in the greater Los Angeles area for his demonstration shot. The Japanese spy turns out to be a Massive, and nothing we do can hurt him. Francis levitates a wire onto the Japanese, then flicks switches to direct the stored electricity into him. This explodes the observatory, and incidentally explodes the Japanese.
Tadeusz Byreika, the Polish spy, grapples with John Sunlight. John Sunlight is hurled through a glass cabinet, but not only survives, but pops up dressed in brightly-colored formal garb with a monocle and a huge brass revolver. He demands to know "who's got fire?" in this group, but then everyone shoots him.
Byreika turns out to be Doc Caliban in disguise. The Ramadanoffs arrive, and are taken into custody by Agent Franks of the War Department.
Sources:
Byreika is from Monster Hunter Legion.
Ludmilla is Ludmilla X from Tom Strong comics.
John Sunlight is the Doc Savage villain from Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Ghenghis.
Franks is from the Monster Hunter series, especially Monster Hunter Nemesis.
"Who's got fire" is from Doc Sidhe, by Aaron Allston.
As a first test, he blew up a section of the ocean near Catalina Island. Then he plans to do a second test shot on Los Angeles, to impress his buyers: a Japanese spy, a Soviet spy, and a Polish spy.
On the way to John Sunlight's hideout at Griffith Park observatory, Francis and Dex shoot a pursuing car off the road. It turns out to be driven by Count Ramadanoff and his daughter, Ludmilla. He's a Heavy, she's a Brute, and they wreck Francis' armored car pretty thoroughly until Dex fraudulently identifies himself as a fellow Communist. Then they let them go.
A fight breaks out at the observatory. John Sunlight has drained all the electricity in the greater Los Angeles area for his demonstration shot. The Japanese spy turns out to be a Massive, and nothing we do can hurt him. Francis levitates a wire onto the Japanese, then flicks switches to direct the stored electricity into him. This explodes the observatory, and incidentally explodes the Japanese.
Tadeusz Byreika, the Polish spy, grapples with John Sunlight. John Sunlight is hurled through a glass cabinet, but not only survives, but pops up dressed in brightly-colored formal garb with a monocle and a huge brass revolver. He demands to know "who's got fire?" in this group, but then everyone shoots him.
Byreika turns out to be Doc Caliban in disguise. The Ramadanoffs arrive, and are taken into custody by Agent Franks of the War Department.
Sources:
Byreika is from Monster Hunter Legion.
Ludmilla is Ludmilla X from Tom Strong comics.
John Sunlight is the Doc Savage villain from Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Ghenghis.
Franks is from the Monster Hunter series, especially Monster Hunter Nemesis.
"Who's got fire" is from Doc Sidhe, by Aaron Allston.
May 1931: The Derrick Devil
Oil wells are being set afire in Los Angeles. Turns out to be a former burglar who is permanently on fire, having been resurrected with some kind of fire spell. Unless he's in the midst of burning oil, he's painfully cold, so he was setting the fires for warmth. Supplying him with fuel oil in exchange for staying in a salt mine is satisfactory to both sides.
The firebug says his boss, John Sunlight, is the one who made him this way.
Sources:
John Sunlight is a Doc Savage villain.
The firebug says his boss, John Sunlight, is the one who made him this way.
Sources:
John Sunlight is a Doc Savage villain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)