1

Credits
An adventure by J.C. Clements, Esq., Frank Frey, and Shane Ivey, Esq.

Editor
Stefan Küppers

Editors-in-Chief
Dominic Hladek, Stefan Küppers

Cover Artwork
Thalia Brückner

Interior Artwork
Rich Longmore

Map Artwork
Daniel Jödemann

Proofreading
Daniel U. Thibault

L ayout
Daniel Bruxmeier

Space: 1889 is © 2017 Frank Chadwick. All rights reserved.

This edition is © 2017 Clockwork Publishing, under license of Frank Chadwick.
The Ubiquity Roleplaying System and logos are trademark of Exile Game Studio, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the
purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only.
The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge
to the trademark or copyright concerned.
This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is
purely coincidental.
This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

www.clockwork-publishing.com

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 Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chapter 4: The Chamber of the Night. . . . . . . . . . 24

The Journey by Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 1: The Season. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Journey by Land. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Dongola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Invitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Desert Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
At the Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Merawi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Lord Bury’s Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Deadly Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
By Desert to Meroë . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Ruins of Meroë. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 2: The Exhibition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Journey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Chapter 5: The Crystal Bridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Main Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A New World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Attractions and Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Memories of Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
That Damnable Prussian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Perimeter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Collection Opens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Martians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
A Deadly Pursuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Control Room. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Aftermath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Catastrophe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Into the Badlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 3: To Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

If They Took Edison’s Flyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Egypt and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Intelligence Officer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Cairo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Aswan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Wadi Halfa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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 On the Trail of the Gods
A Space: 1889 expedition organized by J. C. Clements, Esq., Frank Frey, and Shane Ivey, Esq.

Introduction
In May of 1888 the London social season has begun—and so has Africa—discoveries that may have implications for many other
deadly intrigue! An obscure naturalist’s discovery in the deserts sciences and for history itself. They first hear of Whitman in
of the Sudan may rewrite history and lead to an ancient treasure London while investigating a sinister Prussian soldier-scientist
from a long-lost civilization. The characters follow clues from the named Hans Vogel.
halls of the Royal Exhibition to the wastes of Mars, contending Hans Vogel dreams of a sterner German Empire, with only
with rivals obsessed with the power the discovery may unlock. the military at its head. In order to pursue his objective, he has
How long can mere mortals survive along the trail of the gods? rallied kindred spirits, the Blutsbrüder, the Blood Brothers. Just
like himself they are fanatics that mean to establish a realm under
military rule, and to that end would take the risk of—briefly—
destabilizing the German Empire.
At the behest of a new patron, the characters journey to Glasgow
Character Recommendations for the International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry,
a months-long showcase of science and industry (it opens on May
Nations: Any. 8th, 1888, and will run until November of that year). Whitman’s
Characters: Any; especially Academics, Discov- research is presented at an archaeological conference by his
erers, Reporters, Scientists, Soldiers. daughter, Alice, and the presentation proves explosive. But not
as explosive as the bombs that suddenly go off across the Exhibi-
tion. In the confusion, Vogel and his men attempt to abduct Alice
Whitman. They mean to find Alastair Whitman and force him to
bend his discoveries to their ruthless cause.
Blood Brothers As the smoke clears, the chase is on. The characters must pursue
Vogel (or his compatriots, if they dealt with Vogel in Glasgow)
through the war-torn Sudan to Whitman’s research sites. Wondrous
On the Trail of the Gods, the characters learn of an archaeolo- discoveries lead to Mars, where ancient secrets lie forgotten be-
gist named Alastair Whitman making astonishing discoveries in neath the red soil, and where a cataclysmic confrontation awaits.

4
 Chapter 1: The Season
In which the Social Season of England commences and the heroes are given a mysterious invitation.

May marks “the Season,” the social season of 1888, when the elite have been made about them at their favorite pubs, at regimental
leave their country estates and move to London houses. There are headquarters, with the local pastor, and so forth, as appropriate
coming-out parties and debutante balls for young ladies, charity to each character. One Viscount Bury has sought to learn about
events, and Derby Day. The Queen opens Parliament and the Royal their aptitudes, temperaments, and reputations. Characters who
Academy meets. The Season has been the heartbeat of the upper reside away from town may have come to London to ascertain
class of British society for over a century. It draws not only the the purpose of these inquiries.
British elite but great families from across Europe. It is governed The characters may want information about Viscount Bury.
by strict protocols, and it is widely known that British etiquette Seeking him out leads nowhere at first—his schedule is quite
is considered the gold standard of civility, manners and behavior. full—but a summary of what they can learn follows in the form
The characters are in London, or have been drawn there if of a magazine feature.
they reside elsewhere. They have variously learned that inquiries

TH E ATH A NA EU M Page 27

AN EXPOSITION ON VISCOUNT BURY AND THE ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE

By Frederic George Stephens

William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albe- Castle, Hamilton, Ontario, on 15 November tions; to afford opportunities for reading
marle, KCMG, PC, styled Viscount Bury, 1855. They have ten children. papers, and for holding discussions upon
__
served in the British Army before entering colonial subjects generally.’
parliament in 1857. His background and education First called the Colonial Society, the So-
Initially a Liberal, Lord Bury was elected ciety received its first Royal Charter in 1869,
Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich Keppel was born in 1832 in London, England, which led to it being renamed the Royal Co-
in 1857, and later represented Wick Burghs the only son of General George Keppel, 6th lonial Society and in 1870 the Royal Colonial
from 1860 to 1865 and Berwick-upon- Earl of Albemarle, by his wife Susan Coutts Institute. Its first home was above a shirt shop
Tweed from 1868 to 1874. In 1859 he was Trotter, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st at No. 15 The Strand, where it remained from
sworn into the Privy Council and appointed Baronet. He was educated at Eton. 1870 until 1885. In this modest space the
__
Treasurer of the Household under Lord organization’s library collection first began
Palmerston, a post he held until 1866, the His service to the Queen to be assembled.
last year under the premiership of Lord As the Institute grew, it was felt that the
Russell. In 1870 he was appointed a Knight Keppel became an ensign and lieutenant in the initial premises would not satisfy its objective
Commander of the Order of Saint Michael 43rd Regiment of Foot in 1843, a lieutenant of being a ‘meeting place.’ In 1883, therefore,
and Saint George. On 6 September 1876 in the Scots Guards in 1848 and an aide-de- a lease was obtained for land in Northum-
he was summoned to the House of Lords camp to Lord Frederick FitzClarence in berland Avenue, and a clubhouse formally
through a writ of acceleration in his father's India in 1853. From 1854 until 1856, he was opened in 1885.
barony of Ashford. Superintendent of Native Affairs in Canada.
__
Two years later Lord Bury was appointed
Under-Secretary of State for War in Lord The Royal Colonial Institute
Beaconsfield's Conservative administration,
where he remained until the government fell The Royal Colonial Institute was born of the
in 1880. In 1881, he became a Volunteer Aide- British Empire on Friday June 26, 1868. At
de-Camp to the Queen. He was once again a meeting in the Willis Rooms, King Street,
Under-Secretary of State for War from 1885 St. James’s, it was agreed that a society with a
to 1886 under Lord Salisbury. He wrote a his- London headquarters should be formed which
tory of American colonization entitled Exodus would take an interest in colonial and Indian
of the Western Nations in 1865, A Report on affairs. The elected chairman of the Society,
the Condition of the Indians of British North Viscount Bury, declared that the intention
America in 1880, and was the principal author was ‘to provide a meeting place for gentle-
of Savage Truths: A Comparison of the Native men interested in colonial and Indian affairs
Peoples of the Americas and the Martians of the (and later) as well as those of our burgeoning
Kraag in 1887. Martian colony; to establish a reading room
Lord Albemarle married Sophia Mary and a library, in which recent and authentic
MacNab, daughter of Sir Allan Napier intelligence upon colonial subjects may be
MacNab, a Joint Premier of the Province constantly available, and a museum for the
of Canada (as it was called then), at Dundurn collection and exhibition of colonial produc-

5
 The Invitation
military service and does not speak for the Kaiser. Nevertheless,
Bury suspects Vogel is up to something, and it won’t be anything
good for Britain.
Early one morning, when all the characters are in London, each Vogel is expected to attend a play at the Criterion Theatre
of them is approached by a courier. This smartly-dressed man tonight. Lord Bury offers tickets to the characters and asks if
recognizes the character by name and gives them a sealed letter. they’ll determine what the Prussian up to.
The seal belongs to an organization granted a Royal Charter. The Lord Bury does not, of course, negotiate the details of com-
courier, alas, can offer no further information, being merely a mes- pensation—he has men of business to handle such details—but
senger. Each courier has only a small card bearing the recipient’s he promises that good service shall be rewarded with all due
name and address and an artist’s likeness. Upon delivering the consideration by the Crown and membership into the Institute,
letter, the courier continues on his way. which of course has considerable resources. He provides notes
Each letter bears the letterhead of the Royal Colonial Institute, that the characters may present to his business agents to reimburse
The Imperial Club, 25 Northumberland Avenue. It invites the any expenses incurred (within reason). Tailor the incentives to
recipient to visit the Viscount Bury at the institute on the 22nd of the positions and interests of the characters.
May 1888. Each letter is written and signed by the Viscount’s own
hand and instructs the recipient to bring the letter to the meeting.
Upon arrival at Northumberland Avenue, each character is
greeted by a butler who requests to see the invitation. Each
At the Criterion
character in turn is brought to a lounge. The butler assures them
periodically that the Viscount will arrive soon, and in the meantime With the Season at hand and several important events commencing
servants provide refreshments. If the characters are strangers, this around the kingdom, London is a jumping off point for a host of
is a fine time for introductions. personalities. Many have descended on the Criterion Theatre for
After all have arrived, the butler announces the Viscount Bury. an evening of entertainment.
William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle and founder of the The Criterion is situated in Piccadilly Circus in London’s fash-
Institute, is a stately man in his fifties. His graying hair and mut- ionable West End. The West End is home to shops, art galleries,
ton chops are keenly coiffed and he is groomed impeccably. He entertainments, and affluent residences.
has the air of a member of the peerage, a paragon of his station. The Criterion boasts modern electric lighting. The main floor
Lord Bury welcomes the characters and engages them in dis- has a large restaurant, dining rooms, a smoking lounge, a sa-
cussion of their backgrounds, accomplishments, and interests. He loon, and a telegraph station. Upstairs are a grand hall, a picture
has tea brought, then a meal and drinks as they talk. gallery, and a private dining area. The theatre proper sits some
Lord Bury is an unabashed monarchist and drips of British thirty feet below the street, with a seating capacity of 588 spread
nationalism. His political dealings have made him cunning, which over three levels.
he presents as deliberately stereotypical English reserve, but he The night’s production, currently the talk of the town, is Thomas
is forthright and voluble by instinct and inclination. William Robertson’s David Garrick, a comic play about a famous
He often comments on his military service in India, with hints 18th century actor who accidentally makes enemies of the French
of regret that it was cut short due to illness. He laments that duties troupe that hired him.
to the Crown and the Institute preclude him from venturing into A number of events occur before the play and during the
the field once more. He has published several works on the native intermission.
cultures of the Empire. Indeed, his scientific and social views can be
downright progressive at times; but they must be weighed against
his adherence to the British class system and belief in what will
come to be known as the “White Man’s burden.”
Mr. Edison
Eventually, Lord Bury makes a proposal on behalf of the Insti- In the ballroom, both before and after the play, the characters may
tute. Since the Berlin Conference of 1884 that partitioned Africa, encounter famous American inventor Thomas Edison, age 41. He
the Germans have made minor efforts to expand their holdings is never without his bodyguard, a former U.S. deputy marshal
there. They have made overtures north from German East Africa apparently of some repute.
into the territory assigned to the newly-created Imperial British Edison is eager to make conversation with anyone who will
East Africa Company. Lord Bury intends to sponsor an expedition listen. He promotes the electric bulbs of Edison & Swan United
to Nubia to look into it, and there are more immediate issues to Electric Light Company. The company, nicknamed Ediswan, is
investigate here at home. a partnership with famous English physicist and chemist Joseph
Swan. Its bulbs are in this very theatre, brighter and cleaner and
cooler than any gas lamp!
That Prussian Fellow Edison also hopes to raise capital for Port Progress, his “City
of the Future” on Long Island and speaks of it fulsomely.
The first item is to get a look at a particular servant of the Kaiser Edison is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the estate of
who recently came to town. A Prussian officer named Hans Vogel English inventor William Sawyer, who died in 1883, over Edison’s
has attracted attention as an outspoken proponent of German improvements to incandescent light bulbs which were based on
expansionism at the expense of other European powers. Sawyer’s work. He defends his claim at length if given the chance.
Bury says German diplomats of his acquaintance don’t much And of course he leaves in the morning for the International
like Vogel. Vogel favors an ever-greater role for the upper-class Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in Glasgow.
officer corps of the German military in governing imperial affairs. Edison should be seen nosing around at various points in the
He holds diplomats, mercantile interests, and the lower classes in evening. He is known for “gleaning” ideas from other inventors.
contempt. The Germans assure Bury that Vogel has retired from Scientific characters may find him an eager questioner.

6
 Mr. Tesla If the characters push too hard, Vogel moves to another part
of the theatre and his companions form a passively aggressive
barrier to block further access.
In some corner of the theatre, a man in his thirties with an Eastern Characters attempting to engage Vogel’s guards in conversation
European accent regales a fascinated crowd with tales of the fu- find them particularly cold and unwilling to socialize. But Vogel
ture. He describes a world where “…liftwood and other airships has more men waiting outside who may be more forthcoming.
are conveyed by electric motor, and the power for such devices See Servants Outside on page 8.
is transmitted through the air from stations on the ground. These
invisible waves might eventually span continents, making travel Archetype: Adventurer Motivation: Power
by air as common as by carriage.” This is Nikola Tesla. Style: 2 Health: 7
Tesla happily discusses engineering and electrical principles Primary Attributes
for hours at a time. He is in London looking for investors, and he Body: 3 Charisma: 4
has no qualms as to inquiring into a character’s financial situation. Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Tesla is under pressure from American industrialist George Strength: 3 Willpower: 4
Westinghouse. Westinghouse is trying to negotiate a licensing deal Secondary Attributes
for Tesla’s polyphase induction motor and generator designs, as Size: 0 Initiative: 5
well as to retain him as a consultant for a year. Westinghouse has Move: 5 Defense: 5
offered to fund Tesla’s “pet projects” in exchange for access to Perception: 7 Stun: 3
further patents. (This may move the date of the Wardenclyffe Tower Skills Base Levels Rating Average
experiments ahead in history.) Tesla thinks Westinghouse is a pushy Athletics 3 3 6 (3)
entrepreneur looking to exploit him as a source of remuneration. Brawl 3 2 5 (2+)
Tesla comes off as a bit eccentric. He uses an abundance of Con 4 4 7 (3+)
technical terms and drifts into theoretical subjects as if he’s having Demolitions 2 2 4 (2)
the conversation with himself, briefly ignoring his interlocutors Firearms 2 2 4 (2)
altogether. A technically minded or skilled character might develop Gunnery 3 2 5 (2+)
a rapport with Tesla; if in doubt, this may call for a Science roll. Intimidation 4 3 7 (3+)
Tesla says he plans to attend the International Exhibition in Larceny 3 2 5 (2+)
Glasgow. In particular he’ll attend the opening of the Scottish Linguistics 3 2 5 (2+)
Archaeological Collection in two days, where several papers of Melee 3 3 6 (3)
interest will be presented. If the characters befriend him, Tesla Science (Engineering) 3 3 6 (3)
offers to secure them invitations to the event. Science (Physics) 3 3 6 (3)
Survival 3 1 4 (2)
Talents
Hauptmann Hans Vogel Danger Sense
Resources
In the picture gallery, the smoking room, or perhaps seated nearby Rank 4
in the restaurant, the characters encounter Hauptmann Hans Vogel Weapons Rating Size Attack Average
and an entourage of soldiers, about as many as there are player Punch 0N 0 5N (2+) N
characters. Vogel is quite fit, a little over six feet tall and with the Dagger 1L 0 7L (3+) L
physiognomy of a classic Prussian soldier of high birth. His long Sabre 3L 0 9L (4+) L
moustache is perfectly waxed and his uniform heavily starched. Revolver 2L 0 6L (3) L
Vogel and his constituents are adorned in full military regalia.
That’s not uncommon during the Season for soldiers of foreign
governments, but close inspection of these men finds that their
uniforms are not quite right. They look like the German military
Vogel's Soldiers, the Blutsbrüder
but are not part of it. Vogel was a lieutenant colonel in the army. Archetype: Soldier Motivation: Faith
His men call him hauptmann, meaning “captain” in the more Style: 0 Health: 4
general sense of a respected leader. Primary Attributes
Any character with a military background recognizes it is Body: 2 Charisma: 2
uncommon for a soldier even of Vogel’s rank to be accompanied Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 1
by what appear to be bodyguards when on leave or conducting Strength: 3 Willpower: 2
“personal business”, let alone one who is retired. Characters who Secondary Attributes
pay close attention (or who make Perception or Empathy rolls) Size: 0 Initiative: 3
discover Vogel and his men stray from military protocols. Vogel Move: 5 Defense: 4
often uses the first names of his men, and their demeanor toward Perception: 3 Stun: 2
him seems strangely familiar and personally dedicated. Skills Base Levels Rating Average
Vogel describes himself as a soldier and a scientist. He says he Athletics 2 2 4 (2)
came to London to enjoy the Season for a few days. Tomorrow Brawl 3 1 4 (2)
he will attend the International Exhibition in Glasgow to see the Demolitions 1 3 4 (2)
wonders of modern technology. Firearms 2 2 4 (2)
If the characters press him further, Vogel becomes aloof and Gunnery 1 3 4 (2)
quick to change the subject. He cites his poor English as an im- Intimidation 2 2 4 (2)
pediment, although his language skills seem excellent when the Melee 3 1 4 (2)
subject suits him. Survival 1 1 2 (1)

7
 Resources Socialites: Characters may encounter a group of ladies gossip-
Fame −1, Mentor (Vogel), Wealth −1 ing about the rich American and the handsome German. Some wit
Weapons Rating Size Attack Average and charm (or a skill such as Con or Diplomacy, if necessary) can
Punch 0N 0 4N (2) L encourage the ladies to recall the salient points of the conversa-
Dagger 1L 0 5L (2+) L tion. They are fixated on the intrigue of the encounter more than
Rifle butt or big club 2 N 0 6N (3) N what was actually said; technical and scientific terms are glossed
Rifle 3L 0 7L (3+) L over and mispronounced.
Revolver 2L 0 6L (3) L Bach: Mrs. Bach, interested in Edison’s plans, may have
Sawed-off shotgun 4L 0 8L (4) L overheard snippets of the conversation.
Tesla: Nikola Tesla has been eavesdropping around the theatre
all night. Characters who befriended him may hear details of
Mrs. Johanna Bach Edison’s chat with Vogel. Tesla seems particularly interested
in Whitman, but pressing him on it makes him suspicious. He
Characters looking and listening particularly for Germans may may demand to know more about the characters and what they
meet Johanna Bach in the ballroom or a lounge. Bach is the hearty, are really after.
middle-aged wife of a prosperous industrialist and investor—and, If they treat him well, he apologizes for his rudeness. His dealings
she’ll happily tell anyone (and her husband would agree), the genius with leaders of industry has made him wary. He says Whitman is
behind his success. She has capitalized on a lifelong knack for interested in theories that the Great Pyramid was some form of
engineering with constant education and indefatigable work, and power transmitter. If he’s learned something important, that may
can talk shop with any inventor or entrepreneur in the Empire. But offer insights into Tesla’s research.
tonight she’s socializing among wealthy and upper-class mothers Tesla is largely altruistic and could aid the characters later if
and daughters. She regards most of them as silly creatures, but it means finding Whitman and his discovery for the prosperity
she’ll soon need a profitable match for her son. of science. This might be of particular value if characters lack
Bach knows about Hans Vogel, a retired officer dabbling in scientific skills.
science and politics. She says he is a noisy proponent of putting
the upper-class officers of the military in charge of everything.
He advances the logic that they, by dint of gifts of God and their
own strong nature, know best how to protect the nation and
advance all its interests. Vogel often makes veiled allusions to Whitman's Reputation
showing the power of the army when common folk forget their
place. She detests him. In Vogel’s world there’s little room for Scholarly characters (and Tesla, if the characters
ambitious, middle-class women to improve themselves and their ask him) know Alastair Whitman vaguely by
country, and certainly no need for ordinary workers to thrive. reputation. He is an archaeologist, not a physical
She has much more sympathy for the social democrats and trade scientist. He is a gifted academic, but his interests
unions. At least they are honest in justifying their grasping for tend toward the outlandish—even the supernatural
influence by the need to support their families. Bach keenly and the occult—and he has never been kept in any
prefers a system that rewards work over class. position for very long.
She has no idea what Vogel wants in Britain. He fancies himself
a scientist, so perhaps he is going to the International Exhibition.
That’s where she’s headed tomorrow morning.

Servants Outside
Intermission Three of Vogel’s men accompanied him into the Criterion, but
Edison and Vogel have words during the intermission. They are more linger on the street and in the alley among the drivers and
engaged in some type of negotiation regarding a potential col- valets awaiting wealthier ladies and gentlemen. Outside of Vogel’s
laboration on the findings of an English scientist. His name is Dr. presence, the Prussian soldiers are more approachable. These are
Alastair Whitman, and he has been conducting research through low-born men with rowdy manners and thick German accents.
a grant from the British Archaeological Association. There are about as many of them as there are player characters
Vogel seems to think that Whitman’s work could somehow approaching them.
change the balance of power in Europe. Edison proposes a col- Directly asking about Vogel and his plans makes the soldiers
laboration to obtain the details of Whitman’s findings and those suspicious and hostile. A burly corporal named Klaus—bald but
of whatever other British scientists may be working with him. hairy, with intimidating mustaches—looms forward and warns the
Vogel assures Edison that he will obtain Whitman’s work this biggest and toughest of the characters to go away or take a beating.
very week. If there’s a fight and it stays in the alley, there’s no trouble with
Neither Edison nor Vogel will reveal anything about their ar- the law. Constables interfere only if the brawl becomes excessively
rangement or what they want from Whitman. noisy or spills out into the street where decent folk might see.
If the characters aren’t keeping careful tabs on Vogel or Edi- A character who beats Klaus in a fair fist-fight, or who loses
son, there are still ways they may be privy to the contents of this but puts up a spirited battle, finds Klaus willing to be friends.
discussion. The characters can also befriend the German soldiers by bringing
The two critical points are: them drinks and seeming genuinely friendly. This may need Con
●● The name Dr. Alastair Whitman. or Streetwise; a character without those skills can use the lower
●● Vogel’s desire to get something from him. of his or her Charisma and Body to be charming without getting

8
too drunk. After a few drinks, the soldiers reveal information with Skills Base Levels Rating Average
each successful roll of a skill or attribute: Brawl 3 2 5 (2+)
●● The soldiers may say they work for Hauptmann Vogel. If the Empathy 2 2 4 (2)
characters skillfully inveigle them, the soldiers may inadvertently Firearms 2 1 3 (1+)
confirm that they’re former soldiers who now work for Vogel Intimidation 2 2 4 (2)
personally. They speak of Vogel with the reverence of cultists Investigation 2 2 4 (2)
for a charismatic master. Melee 3 2 5 (2+)
●● The soldiers may reveal they are going to the International Streetwise 2 2 4 (2)
Exhibition. They may even encourage their newfound friends Talents
to go, too. Iron Will
Weapons Rating Size Attack Average
The soldiers know nothing about Vogel’s plans. Punch 0N 0 5N (2+) N
Following the Germans after the play leads to Vogel’s private Night stick 1N 0 6N (3) N
airship, moored on the banks of the Thames south of Whitecha-
pel and east of the Tower of London. They have no contraband
on board and Vogel is rigorously careful to keep his schemes
to himself. The day after the play, the Germans fly to Glasgow.
Abducting Vogel
Sergeant Klaus Stiermann, a Blutsbruder Especially aggressive characters may simply seize
Archetype: Soldier Motivation: Faith Hauptmann Vogel and demand answers. That
Style: 0 Health: 5 maneuver comes with a great many complications
Primary Attributes beyond the risk of getting killed by his guards.
Body: 3 Charisma: 2 Vogel has committed no crime as yet; mistreating
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 1 him will cause a dire diplomatic incident that is
Strength: 4 Willpower: 2 sure to bring censure and embarrassment on the
Secondary Attributes heads of the characters and their patron, Lord Bury.
Size: 0 Initiative: 4 If worse comes to worst and the characters insist
Move: 7 Defense: 6 on putting Vogel to questioning, then it’s time for
Perception: 3 Stun: 4 slippery measures. Their abductee, it turns out, is
Skills Base Levels Rating Average not really Hans Vogel. He is a soldier in Vogel’s
Athletics 3 5 8 (4) service, posing as his master on Vogel’s orders
Brawl 4 4 8 (4) for reasons the impostor does not know. In fact,
Demolitions 1 3 4 (2) if this occurs, it’s a ruse to allow Hans Vogel to
Firearms 2 2 4 (2) claim he was in London before the Exhibition.
Gunnery 1 3 4 (2) It’s a safeguard in case he is arrested and accused
Intimidation 2 3 5 (2+) of an evil scheme.
Melee 4 1 5 (2+)
Survival 1 1 2 (1)
Talents
Iron Jaw
Resources
Fame −1, Mentor (Vogel), Wealth −1
Lord Bury's Request
Weapons Rating Size Attack Average
Punch 0N 0 8N (4) N Lord Bury expects a report from the characters the next day, the
Dagger 1L 0 6L (3) L 23rd of May. He is a friendly but keen questioner, teasing details
Rifle butt or big club 2 N 0 7N (3+) N from the evening out and helping the characters make sense of it
Rifle 3L 0 7L (3+) L all. Details about Vogel and particularly his connection to Edison
Revolver 2L 0 6L (3) L surprise Lord Bury.
Lord Bury can reveal a little more about Dr. Alastair Whitman.
Typical London Constable Whitman has yet to distinguish himself as an academic, and
indeed may be on his way to becoming a mere crank, but he is
Archetype: Soldier Motivation: Duty affable and well-liked, and he is undeniably a gifted researcher
Style: 0 Health: 5 and a hard worker. He is never at a loss for a low-prestige post,
Primary Attributes often helping less accomplished scholars with papers for which he
Body: 2 Charisma: 2 gets little credit. Most recently he has been conducting research
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2 in unexplored regions of Nubia. Whitman is supposed to present
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 a paper entitled The Paths of the Gods: The Ancient Sites of
Secondary Attributes Earth Decoded; it sounds rather too high-spirited for real science.
Size: 0 Initiative: 4 Lord Bury raises a number of questions about the evening at
Move: 5 Defense: 4 the Criterion:
Perception: 5 Stun: 2 ●● Why is Vogel in England?
●● Is he connected with Edison? How?
●● Is there a threat to the Crown?

9
 ●● What is the connection between the arrival of the Prussians to investigate further. The Royal Academy is in attendance there
and the International Exhibition in Glasgow? and may know more of Whitman’s research.
●● How are Whitman and his research involved? If the characters failed to secure invitations to the Exhibition
As a side note, Lord Bury is keenly interested in Tesla. Bury from Tesla or Edison, Lord Bury comments ruefully on their
himself has a great interest in electrical power and is Chairman lack of resourcefulness. He says it was a shame to let that much
of the General Electric Power and Traction Company. In small wattage in one place go to waste. He says he will send a footman
talk he may say he is formulating a verb to suggest progression with invitations for the characters later today.
by electric motor: “To Motor.” Nevertheless, Tesla, who is cur- The Scottish Archaeological Exhibit opens in only two days, on
rently backed by Westinghouse, should be considered as much the 25th of May, and the journey by rail typically takes 14 hours.
an agent of the American government as his rival Edison. Neither The characters must make preparations immediately and depart
should be trusted if this strange affair involves important secrets. early tomorrow morning.
If the characters agree to remain in his service, Lord Bury asks
that they make haste to the International Exhibition in Glasgow

Chapter 2: The Exhibition

In which the heroes behold the wonders of science and a villain is revealed.

Either through Lord Bury or by befriending Nikola Tesla or Thomas 23rd to gather supplies and the 24th to make the journey and secure
Edison, the characters have secured an invitation to attend the lodgings (the latter should be moderately difficult as the Exhibi-
opening of the Scottish Archaeological and Historical Collection tion has been drawing in a lot of visitors). This will give them
at the Glasgow International Exhibition on Friday, the 25th of the morning of the 25th to look around Glasgow and the rest of
May. This is where the British Association for the Advancement the Exhibition before the Scottish Archaeological and Historical
of Science will present Dr. Whitman’s findings. Collection opens at 2 p.m. at the Bishop’s Castle.
The train is on the North-Eastern line, which is not known for
its punctuality but has been upgraded with elegant Pullman car-
The Journey riages. First-class passengers enjoy leather cushions, rugs, brass
furnishings, sleeper cars, and a buffet car.
Second-class passengers experience simple wood-paneled cars
The characters must make their way to Glasgow. Travel time with bench seating and little privacy. Refreshment and privy matters
from loading to unloading is about 14 hours by train. Depending must be addressed during station stops and the ride is somewhat
on how early the characters meet with Lord Bury, they have the more jarring than in first class.

Glasgow International Exhibition, 1888.

Scottish Archaeological and Historical Section.

The Executive Council request the honour of your company at the Ceremony of
Opening the Scottish Archaeological and Historical Collection, in
The Bishop's Castle
by His Grace The Duke of Montrose, K.T., on Friday, the 25 May th

The Castle will be open to Guests from 2.0 o'clock till 3.30. The Guests will then accompany
His Grace to the Grand Hall of the Exhibition, where the proceedings will commence at 3.45 p.m.

William M. Cunningham,
27, St. Vincent Place, Secretary
Glasgow, May, 1888.

10
 Third-class passengers, in addition to the starkness of their
accommodations, are advised to hold close their wallets during Women's Industries
tunnel crossings and ladies are advised to hold pins in their mouths
to prevent male passengers from attempting to steal kisses. They At the east entrance of the main building, opposite the Picture
spend at least part of the journey standing as third-class carriages Galleries, traditional “feminine” crafts such as lace-making,
lack sufficient seating. A character who chooses third-class must needlework, and perfumery are on display.
make a Body roll with a Difficulty of 1 during the journey; if Robin & Houston’s: Soaps and candles.
failed, the fatigued character suffers 1 nonlethal damage. Madame Birds: Outdoor and sporting outfitter for the discern-
ing lady.
Pettigrew and Stephens: Fine ladies’ undergarments.
Background Maggie E. Frier Arts in Clay: Ceramics.
The Sculptress Guild: Wood carvings (mostly Canadian native
totems) for the home.
The International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry is the
first international exhibition to be held in Glasgow, Scotland. It will
run at Kelvingrove Park from May to November 1888. The aim
of the exhibition is to draw international attention to Glasgow’s
Picture Galleries
achievements in applied sciences, industry and the arts. Glasgow At the east entrance, opposite Women’s Industries, the Picture
is one of the largest ship builders in the empire with an expanding Galleries showcase many famous art collections.
focus on airships and ether technology. The Exhibition also hopes Eastman Kodak—The Kodak at Large: Photographs of daily
to raise funds for the arts in the city, and many of its patrons are in life around the Earth, Mars and Venus. Also on display is the
attendance. It is a grand exhibition, the largest ever in Scotland. Kodak camera, a cheap method for amateur photographers and
As of the 25th of May, the exhibition has been open more than average consumers to create what Eastman calls “snapshot”
two weeks. The opening ceremony was conducted by the Prince of photography. Their slogan is, “You push the button, we do the
Wales, the honorary president of the exhibition, on the 8th of May. rest.” Their portable camera was launched this year and there is
Friday, the 25th of May is a dreary day. Heavy fog dissipates by great interest in their demonstrations.
the early afternoon but there are intermittent showers throughout Horatio Tinker—Primocoggler: Interpretive sculptures built
the day. from industrial materials.
If you want to give your players a chance to explore the exhi- St. John's Wood Arts Club Presents Selected Works of John
bition on their own, check out the historical map at http://www. William Waterhouse: A collection of the painter’s work, including
theglasgowstory.com/images/TGSA00341.jpg his latest accomplishments: “The Lady of Shalott” and “Dionysus
Bestows Wine on the Oenotrians.”

Main Avenue
Security Over a quarter-mile long and covered in a high, arching ceiling,
the Main Avenue houses every manner of exhibition on both
About two dozen uniformed policemen circulate sides and right down the middle. A managing office and a bank
around the grounds at any given time. They provide stand at the intersection of Main Avenue and Transverse Avenue.
crowd control as well as a visible deterrent to petty Huntley and Palmers: Biscuit makers serving their wares with
theft, public drunkenness, and brawling. They a fine Ceylon tea.
are armed with nightsticks. Especially valuable Cadbury: Fine confectionary sweets, featuring particularly ag-
exhibits have their own security in the form of a gressive advertising proclaiming its superiority over Dutch and
few large, stern-faced blokes. The most impressive English (Rowntree’s, Fry) imitations.
exhibits have professional security, plainclothes Bodega Bar: Featuring beer and fine spirits from across the empire.
agents with revolvers in their pockets. Van Houten’s Cocoa: Only the purest. They have a stand on the
walkway north of the main building.
C’est Wahlise: Viennese bric-a-brac.
Anson’s Delicacies Ltd.: Importer of Martian foodstuffs including
its namesake, the Anson Cabbage, and Pushti fruitcakes (advertised
as having an extended shelf life).
The Indian Bazaar: Spices, textiles, and fineries from the Jewel
The Main Building of the Empire.
Philip’s Dunblane Hydropathic: Superior Turkish, Russian,
and bain-douche baths.
The exhibition’s main building has a high dome built on an iron
framework covered in galvanized sheet iron. Most exhibits are
housed in wooden buildings in an oriental style. Exhibitors from
all over the empire take up the lion’s share of the main avenue.
Machinery Section
The largest showings of foreign powers are represented by Italy, The vast Machinery Section is for many the heart of the Inter-
Germany, and the United States. Here are examples, listed by national Exhibition. Huge examples of heavy machinery work
section. ceaselessly, providing noise and smells that overpower some
attendees but stir the blood of industrialists.

11
James Stewart’s Clyde
Tube Works: Piping ma-
terials for steam-powered
machinery
Lang’s Patented Steel
Wire.
Mirlees Watson & Co.:
Steam machinery.
Fairfield Co. Ltd.: Display-
ing models of the triple-
expansion engine for use
in sea vessels.
Nobel’s Explosives: The
inventor of dynamite.
Walter Macfarlane’s
Saracen Foundry: Fine
wrought-iron fencing.
Schlesische Analysemas-
chinen-Produktion: Ana-
lytical engines (Artifact 1,
Space: 1889 Core Rules,
page 235).

Edison is usually beset by inventors hoping for investment or

Attractions and Encounters patent-holders looking to sell; most of them are small fry and soon
sent packing by Edison’s bodyguard. He knows nothing about any
The grounds hold several attractions for attendees. There is a trouble with Whitman’s presentation nor about Vogel’s activities.
shooting gallery, a rifle range, regular musical performances, and He hasn’t spoken with Vogel since the Criterion, when Vogel had
sporting events in the recreational area, including the Highland nothing to offer but notions.
games. At every event peddlers offer the latest tonics and other Tesla seeks potential sponsors—but not Edison!—and hopes the
health supplements to onlookers. characters understand that he has little time to spend with them.
A precursor to the roller coaster, the switchback railway, pro-
vides excitement for thrill seekers. It overlooks the river north
of the main hall.
The portion of the Kelvin River that runs through the exhibi-
Rumors of Whitman
tion has been dredged and its banks beautified. Visitors can ride There is already quite a buzz regarding what discoveries the
in electric and steam-powered boats or take leisurely excursions obscure Dr. Whitman shall reveal. As characters circulate around
on Venetian gondolas. the exhibits they overhear that there has been a robust three-
In the center of the exhibition, a huge terra cotta fountain depicts way battle in the past few weeks on who in fact would present
scenes of empire. At 46 feet high and with a diameter of over 70 Whitman’s paper: the British Archaeological Association, the
feet, it is the largest of its kind in the world. Royal Geographical Society, or the British Association for the
Advancement of Science. Whitman was already a member of the
British Archaeological Association and was granted membership
Making Connections in the other two quite suddenly.
If the characters ask around as to the background of Dr. Whit-
Make clear to the players that the Exhibition is a font of potential man, they can track down members of those academic societies.
Resources just waiting to be snatched up! Characters have time to Each contact may provide some or all of the following background.
mingle around the exhibits and converse with exhibitors. The GM ●● An academic outcast: Dr. Whitman has always been consid-
should add new exhibits if necessary to cater to the experience ered a bit of an outcast in academic circles. Until now he never
or the characters’ interests. Players who show good role-playing presented anything noteworthy. He has bounced from position to
or creativity—such as studying inventions to gain inspiration for position, or volunteered himself as the academic workhorse for
their own, climbing the social ladder by engaging the interest those younger and less accomplished than he, only to take second
of influential ladies and gentlemen, or participating in sporting billing in minor scholarly publications.
events—could be rewarded with Experience Points. ●● Unseemly interests: He is a gifted academic but his research
interests have always bordered on the improbable. In fact, they
have on occasion dipped into the supernatural or occult, which
Tesla and Edison only tarnished his reputation further.
●● Well liked, for all that: He is a dreamer with boundless
Tesla and Edison are most likely to be seen in the Machinery optimism. His affability has kept him from becoming a pariah
Section, though the arts may catch Tesla’s attention in the Picture among his peers. He is always greeted with good will at social
Galleries, too. functions by his colleagues, who generally must feign interest in
his latest research.

12
 ●● A dodgy opportunity: A few years ago, Whitman took an
assignment to map and explore the region of Nubia for a British Vogel and His Followers
trading company. It was widely understood that the offer was
merely a front for someone to infiltrate the region and watch the Hans Vogel and his men maintain a low profile before the Scot-
movements of the Madhist forces who had driven the British out, tish Archaeological and Historical Collection opens. They spend
rather than an expedition aimed at real scientific discovery. Only time in the main building, quietly enjoying the exhibits; they dine
a truly desperate or foolhardy researcher would accept such an quietly in the Bishop’s Castle café; they enter the Bishop’s Castle
assignment, but Whitman yearned for the opportunity to escape at 2:00 p.m. to view the collection and await the presentations.
public life for a while; and his latest far-flung theories involved But they are not Vogel’s only men here.
ancient Kushite sites in the region. Since there was no other inter-
est from the academic community, Whitman’s credentials landed
him the assignment. No one had heard from him since, until now.
●● Newfound glory: Nobody knows exactly what is in Whit-
That Damnable Prussian
man’s new paper, but rumors say it may turn the scientific world
on its head and vindicate Whitman’s entire career. That alarms Vogel and his men have been formulating a plot to attack the
and excites everyone with an opinion on the subject. Exhibition and steal Whitman’s research for months, ever since
●● His daughter: Whitman himself is not in Glasgow, but ap- vague rumors began to swirl about the extraordinary nature of his
parently he sent his daughter Alice, a budding scientist in her own findings. This morning they stole Whitman’s research and snuck
right, to read the paper for him. Having a young woman present a it off the grounds. Now they mean to abduct Whitman’s daughter
scientific paper has irritated conservative scholars, but these are as a guarantee of his cooperation.
unconventional times. Worse than that, they prepared a catastrophe. The resulting
confusion will cover the abduction; if they had not managed to
steal the papers earlier, the catastrophe would also have provided
Alice Whitman a distraction to finish that task. When the explosions begin, they
won’t be the only ones fleeing the Exhibition.
The characters are unlikely to meet Dr. Whitman’s daughter Alice Vogel has four men working at the Exhibition. They came to
before the presentations. She is inside the Bishop’s Castle, which Glasgow weeks ago and found jobs building and maintaining the
will not open to the public until 2:00 p.m. But characters who talk facilities. They were generous with drinks at pubs, so the other
their way into the Bishop’s Castle—perhaps by leaning a little too workmen’s initial suspicion and resentment soon faded.
heavily on their patronage by Viscount Bury and backing it up Even now these undercover saboteurs are handling repairs,
with a Con or Diplomacy roll—can find her in one of the offices, cheerfully helping exhibitors who have machinery trouble, and
speaking angrily to officials of the Scottish Archaeological and planting bombs all over the main building.
Historical Collection.
Miss Whitman learned this morning that her father’s notes and
papers, which she left in a Bishop’s Castle office for safekeeping,
have gone missing. She has only her copy of the paper she is to
The Kludge Bombs
read in the afternoon. Officials have searched and have begun Vogel’s infiltrators have kludged together various gubbins from
interviewing workers and volunteers, to no avail so far. It’s an around town and from within the Exhibition itself, together with
academic environment and theft has never been an issue before, so dynamite they bought from a disgruntled coal miner. Each bomb
there was little attention to security. Miss Whitman is distraught. contains a rudimentary timer. Disarming one is a Tough challenge
She has no time to discuss her father’s research with the char- for Demolitions, requiring three successes. Each is equivalent
acters. She impatiently advises them to attend the presentation. to one stick of dynamite (Space: 1889 Core Rules, page 225).
Officials likewise have no time to entertain the characters, Six bombs are lashed to the wood beams of the ceiling of the
even those who offer their services as detectives. The officials Main Avenue, high above the crowd and easily concealed.
are sure the Whitman papers were simply misplaced and will On the day of the presentations, the saboteurs have planted
turn up very soon. three other bombs in the main building. This is the most likely
opportunity for the players to discover the devices and attempt
to intervene.
Vogel's Doubles The bombs are timed to begin detonating at 8:45 p.m. By Vo-
gel’s calculations, the Whitman presentation will then be deep
Hans Vogel has enlisted three unwitting members of the local into discussion and debate. They detonate one at a time, from
theatre guild to act as doubles for him in the Exhibition beginning one to three minutes apart. They are not especially destructive
at 8:00 p.m. He persuaded the actors that he has entered into an (not enough to bring the roof down) but the concussive force and
unscrupulous love triangle and fears detectives from Germany smoke send the crowds fleeing in terror and confusion.
mean to ruin his reputation. He has paid the actors a handsome
wage to play along as diversions.
Characters outside Bishop’s Castle after 8:00 p.m. likely spot
one of these doubles. Each looks, dresses, and walks much like
Finding the Bombs
Vogel from a distance. It’s conceivable that a character will deliberately watch the move-
If one of Vogel’s doubles is interrogated, he freely tells all he ments of laborers and single out Germans. That requires the whole
knows of Vogel and his supposed affair, and says two others are day leading up to the Whitman presentation and an Investigation
on the same funny job. The doubles know nothing of Vogel’s roll. Rolling three successes catches two of the German laborers
actual actions or motivations. speaking furtively together. Four or five successes notices one of

13
them talking with one of Vogel’s guards instead. Six successes Artifacts are displayed on three levels. In the great hall are
spots one of them placing a kludged-together bomb in some relics of medieval Scottish notables, Mary Queen of Scots, and
unobserved corner of the Machinery Section or Main Avenue the Jacobites. On the ground floor and in the basement are arti-
while one of Vogel’s guards stands lookout. Vogel, of course, is facts from across Scottish history and prehistory, from arms and
nowhere around. armor to furniture, tools, medals, jewelry, banners and more. The
It is highly unlikely that the party will discover the explosives Bishop’s Castle is crowded with members of the press, academia,
in the rafters before they begin to detonate. The hall is simply and industry. Tesla, Edison, and Bach are there. Vogel arrives with
too large. Even specifically looking for them there requires an six bored-looking men led by burly Klaus Stiermann (page 9).
Investigation roll with six or more successes. At 3:45, the guests are summoned to the Grand Exhibition
The party may discover bombs planted the day of the presenta- Hall. His Grace the Duke of Montrose, K. T. (36-year-old Doug-
tion, perhaps even before the first bomb goes off. The characters las Beresford Malise Ronald Graham, a former soldier), and his
can either disarm the bombs they find or try to herd the panicking wife the Lady Violet, who has orchestrated all this pomp, are to
crowd away. Here are a few possible incidents. commence the proceedings.
●● In the Picture Galleries: A character spots a worker by him- Presenters deliver papers on a myriad of subjects, such as:
self in a display that’s closed and off-limits. He’s sweeping in and ●● The Physiology of High Martian Flight by Joseph Lister,
around one of the Kodak booths. A crowd close by is watching a Bt, OM, PC, FRS.
cage where a Pushti monkey scurries around an artificial Martian ●● Christianity and Creationism: A Resolution on Life in the
tree in befuddlement. The monkey screeches, the crowd laughs, Solar System by William Thompson, OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE.
and the worker quietly opens one of Eastman’s portable cameras ●● The Health of Our Cities: Engineering a Lasting Solution—A
and places a bomb inside. Proposal for the Chemical Treatment of Human Wastes by Sir
●● In the Machinery Section: A large pile of pipes is suspended Joseph William Bazalgette, CB.
from a chain at the Clyde Tube Works display. Several school
children along with their comely teacher stand underneath. The
teacher seems to be explaining something about the pipes. Or if
the explosions have already begun, then the teacher and children
have taken refuge under a table without realizing the pipes are
overhead. A character who successfully rolls the lower of either
Academic Arguments
Perception or Craft notices an unexpected device attached high
on the chain connecting it to the support beam. It turns out to For all the opening pomp and circumstance, the
be a bomb. presentations are boisterous. Each is followed
●● In the Main Avenue: A terrier barks at a grate in the floor as by lively debate. Academic characters may wish
a boy tries to drag the dog away. Or if the explosions have already to join the fray.
begun, then the child has lost his parents and the dog has worked Make up two or three bullet points summarizing
his way under the grate and is barking at something there. Closer a presenter’s arguments, then two or three sum-
investigation reveals a faint ticking sound. The grate is welded marizing his detractors’ challenges. The discussion
shut, but the weld was hurried and it could be pulled open with can be very general. It shouldn’t warrant heavy
a tough Strength test (three successes). The child will not leave research. Encourage the players to help.
without the dog and the steady stream of exhibit goers are in There are generally three types of questions:
danger of being hurt by the blast. ●● The genuine request for knowledge: This is
the easiest to address as the presenter has only to
expound upon what he or she already presented.
Catching the Bombers ●● The self-serving question: The questioner
merely wishes to garner attention for his or her
The bombers are similar to Vogel’s guards described on page 7, wit and cogency. The presenter is best served
but each has Craft 2, Linguistics 1 (speaking English), Stealth 2, by a politely complimentary reply.
and an Intelligence of 3. ●● The malicious question: This threatens a long
The bombers have devised another layer of deception should one and acrimonious exchange, often with shouting
of them be captured. The disguised workers have made extensive and the odd thrown item.
notes on the comings and goings of the tellers and exhibition
management at the bank and offices on Transverse Avenue, with A player’s formulation of a good argument is
detailed time tables as to security shifts and the times when cash worth a (temporary) level 1 Resource in either
is moved to be deposited in town. Each disguised conspirator Fame (academia) or Contacts (academia), or a
carries these notes at all times. If they are uncovered, they claim Style Point for good roleplaying.
it’s part of a plot to rob the Exhibition. They claim, unconvinc- In addition, a character who is active in Joseph
ingly, not to know Vogel. Lister’s presentation on the physiology of High
Martians may have an advantage in encounter-
ing the High Martians later. Allow the character
The Collection Opens a Medicine or Science roll to garner one Style
Point for every two successes (round up), which
may be spent when dealing with High Martians.
The Scottish Archaeological and Historical Collection is housed
at the Bishop’s Castle, a small medieval ruin recently renovated.
The gates open at 2 o’clock. Refreshments are served at 3:30.

14
 “Crikey! Can this be true? This Whitman chap just might be a
Miss Whitman genius after all.”
—Sir Fredrick Bramwell, president, British As-
After the other papers are presented and discussed, an orderly sociation for the Advancement of Science
for the British Association for the Advancement of Science an-
nounces a paper to be presented by Miss Alice Whitman on behalf
of Dr. Alastair Whitman: The Paths of the Gods: Ancient Sites
of Earth Decoded.
Questions
Usually a paper submitted in absentia would simply have its There is an eruption of questions. With Whitman’s daughter only
abstract placed in the official program. The Association has made a able to give cursory answers, the crowd soon breaks into wild
rare exception. The reader is Dr. Whitman’s 22-year-old daughter. speculation.
There’s already grumbling before she begins to speak; some These main points should come across:
scholars dislike a woman presenting to them, particularly a girl ●● Tesla has theorized that the Great Pyramid is a kind of wire-
who is not even a university student. But Alice Whitman is no less transmitter of energies, which generated much skepticism
helpless waif. She has worked and studied at her father’s side for among his colleagues. Whitman’s discovery may vindicate him.
ten years, ever since her mother died of scarlet fever, and she is ●● Edison inquires as to the patents that apply to Whitman’s
knowledgeable and confident. mechanism and its use, as well as to discoveries at Whitman’s
Alastair Whitman’s paper begins with several acknowledgments, proposed dig sites.
such as one to W. M. Flinders Petrie, who published “The Pyramids ●● Vogel asks about military applications of Whitman’s findings,
and Temples of Gizeh” in 1883 and was the first to provide exact and emphasizes that other nations won’t allow the British to keep
measurements of the Great Pyramid. these things to themselves.
Whitman gives an overview of the history of archaeological ●● Everyone demands immediate investigation of Whitman’s
discoveries across the globe and on Mars as pertaining to the claims. Scientists who think there’s a chance that Whitman has
building of great structures by ancient peoples. He mentions the uncovered something important want the fame of first discovery.
Temple of Seti I and its Abydos carvings of what appear to be ●● Officials of the Association refuse to speculate on Whitman’s
futuristic aircraft. findings. They must wait until they meet the doctor to validate
The crowd grows listless. Someone in back cries out, “We his claims—or to deal with him accordingly should this all turn
already know this, by Jove. Get on with it!” out to be a ruse.
Miss Whitman’s voice cracks for a moment, but she visibly
steels herself and continues to the true controversies.
Sabotage
The Discovery At 8:45 p.m., when the arguments over Whitman’s paper are at
their most rancorous, the crowd is hushed by the sound of a distant
Dr. Whitman’s paper proposes that ancient structures found on blast. It seemed to come from the main building of the Exhibition.
Earth bear architectural and mathematical similarities to Martian There’s a faint sound of screaming.
structures. He links these structures with certain star patterns us- Scholars crowd the windows to see. After another minute they
ing a complex formula he has named “The Whitman Theorem” see smoke rise from the main building. Then another blast echoes
in conjunction with an old map he found in Africa. The Whitman across the grounds.
Theorem involves geography, astronomy, and measurements of Amid a sudden confusion of shouting and movement, two
magnetic energy taken by the mechanism itself. Whitman assumes of Vogel’s men in workers’ clothes unobtrusively grasp Alice
there is a so far unknown “Martian” energy—without knowing Whitman. Even as she begins to object, they hurry her through
or being able to prove that he is indeed right. a door and out of sight.
Whitman says that he has discerned several proposed dig sites
based on constellations with which they are mathematically paired.
He does not say where the sites are; that is for a later paper. Miss
Whitman herself does not know. But he says, and Miss Whitman
A Deadly Pursuit
confirms, that he used his theorem to dig up a previously undis-
covered temple at the famous Jebel Barkal ruins in the Sudan. He While two saboteurs grab Miss Whitman, two others are in the
somewhat whimsically calls it the “Seven Sisters” site because it Exhibit’s main building, pretending to look for sabotage but
corresponds to the Pleiades. really ensuring the bombs go off. After an hour they slip out.
That was enough for Whitman to want to present these findings Three more of Vogel’s guards wait with a carriage near the gates
and get more support. on Dunbarton Road.
Miss Whitman takes a deep breath before she reads the after-
word. Whitman concludes that while man still scrabbled in caves,
ancient ethernauts must have visited the Earth, seeding it with
temples that contained wonders. Perhaps these Ancients even
The Abduction
manipulated the development of man himself. A character explicitly keeping an eye on Whitman during the
At this, the hall explodes in discussion. If Whitman is correct, chaos sees the workmen grab her. Others must roll Perception
his revelation will overturn whole careers. His rivals proceed with at least four successes or else be distracted by the blasts.
to fight like dogs to prove him wrong. Disappointed naysayers The abductors rush around a corner, knock Whitman uncon-
denounce Whitman as a charlatan and a hopeless crank. Others scious with a sap, tie and gag her, stuff her in an unmarked sea
find his calculations compelling. chest, lock it, and pocket the key. They haul the chest out toward
the gate to Dunbarton Road. There they mean to load the chest

15
onto the waiting carriage and flee into the streets. If the characters shotgun. After the first round of combat, Vogel shouts at them
rescue Whitman, they have friends for life in her and her father. to target the pursuers’ horses. If they hit a horse, the pursuing
carriage crashes, each character in the crash takes 2 nonlethal
wounds, and Vogel escapes.
Vogel's Escape
Vogel himself and six guards are in the crowd in the Bishop’s
Castle. They join the exodus as attendees begin to rush outside
Windmillcroft Docks
to get a better look at the disaster. An unusually fast zeppelin waits at the Windmillcroft docks,
If the characters have been watching Vogel during the presen- manned by eight more of Vogel’s soldiers. They intend to wait
tations, they may try to follow him. If each pursuer succeeds at two hours for Vogel’s scattered men to catch up. But if Vogel is
Stealth, they avoid catching their quarry’s attention; otherwise pursued, the airship lifts off at once. It soon vanishes into thick
he flees more actively and each subsequent test requires two or rain and low-hanging clouds.
more successes. Vogel’s airship crew are similar to his guards, but each has
The pursuers must roll Perception (four successes) to keep from Craft (Mechanics) 3. The pilot and co-pilot have Intelligence 2
losing him in the crowd, and Investigation (three successes) to and Pilot (Airship) 2. They have a rack of loaded rifles aboard
keep track of him along the way. to dissuade pursuers.
A character who succeeds at Perception but fails Investigation
loses Vogel for a moment—and then spots him again, loitering
alone in the confusion. But it’s one of his hired doubles. (See
Vogel’s Doubles, page 13.) If accosted, the impostor accuses
Capturing the Spies
the characters of being German detectives and seems proud of Captured, Vogel’s guards claim to have no knowledge of his plans.
his ability to deceive them. Once the truth emerges, the chagrined They were briefed only on this portion of the operation. They
actor is happy to tell the little he knows. profess undying devotion to his vision of a German Empire of
If the characters succeed at the Perception and Investigation true nobility, where everyone has a place in its glory and, more
rolls and the plotters realize they’re being pursued, Vogel’s guards importantly, everyone knows what place he should have.
turn to attack their pursuers. They mean to rely on their fists but
will produce Webley Mk. I revolvers if the characters fire upon
them. Any characters who stop to fight lose track of Vogel.
Characters still on Vogel’s trail can catch up to him with a hard
Catching Vogel
Athletics roll (four successes). If that fails, they see him get in a The rest of the adventure assumes that the characters pursue Vogel
carriage at the intersection of streets west of the rifle range. Two far from British shores. What if they capture or kill him here? In
men in plain clothes sit up top. If his guards are still with him, that case (and only in that case), the characters learn from him
two get in the carriage and the rest scatter in pairs. or from one of his guards that Vogel was only a field commander
and the real mastermind is called Professor Leuthar Falk. The
stolen notes are already en route to him by a courier who fled
Through the Streets separately from the rest. Soon, they swear, Professor Falk will
find Alastair Whitman and turn his research to the glory of a
There are other carriages about. If the characters seize one with an renewed German empire.
Intimidation roll or a brandished weapon, they can chase Vogel
east down Dunbarton Road to Argyle Street, northeast to Jamaica
Street, south across the Glasgow Bridge, and west on Clyde Street
to the Windmillcroft Docks.
The Aftermath
The pursuers must overcome three obstacles. Customize the
details and required skills to the characters’ actions. Chaos reigns at the Exhibition. Policemen and detectives have
●● Drive: They must succeed at a Drive roll (four successes) or arrived by the carriage-full and are taking statements from count-
have a tangled run-in with another carriage. A follow-up Drive less witnesses. Firemen douse the fires started by the bombs. The
success extricates the pursuers despite the other party’s indignant injured are being carried to the nearby hospital.
shouts to stop. Otherwise they are stuck and Vogel escapes. The break-in at the Society offices and attempted (or completed!)
●● Perception: They must roll Perception (three successes) to abduction of Alice Whitman are the scandal of the Society. The
spot a knot of pedestrians in time. If the roll fails they must either personal bodyguards of the Duke of Montrose are investigating
stop or roll Drive to avoid running down an elderly woman while the castle along with Glasgow detectives. The characters soon
onlookers shout in fury. If they stop, Vogel escapes. find themselves beset by Society members, Glasgow detectives,
●● Drive: They must make another Drive roll (four successes) and the Duke’s men, all asking what they saw and did.
to keep steady on the rain-slicked streets. If that fails, they have If the characters seem to have a sense of what’s happened and
the chance to slow down safely. If they refuse, they must make why, they soon find themselves in a meeting with Society lead-
another Drive (three successes) roll to avoid overturning their ers and the Duke himself. These luminaries mean to enlist them
carriage. Each character takes 2 nonlethal wounds from the crash. to find Dr. Whitman. Whitman is a subject of the Crown and his
If they slow down or overturn, Vogel escapes. discoveries must not be lost to some foreign outlaw. And Vogel
must be brought to heel for the attack. Justice demands that he
If the pursuers overcome all obstacles, they get close enough to face prosecution for these crimes; and if possible, it must be
Vogel’s carriage to begin combat. The spies are armed with Webley established whether he was acting in his own interests or under
Mk. I revolvers. The one sitting next to the driver has a sawed-off orders from the Kaiser.

16
 Whitman's Clues Talents
Direction Sense, Lucky
Weapons Rating Size Attack Average
If Alice Whitman was abducted, all that remains of Whitman’s Punch 0N 0 0N (0) N
research is the paper that she presented. It includes few details. Revolver 2L 0 5L (2+) L
The most useful clue is a map of Jebel Barkal. On the back of
the map are drawings of stars. A character well-versed in Science
(Physics)—or an expert if the characters seek one—recognizes
the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus.
Tesla and Edison
Characters who compare the placement of the stars with the If the characters befriended Nikolai Tesla, he remains with them
placement of the pyramids may notice correspondences. They and encourages them to pursue Whitman and his discoveries. Tesla
may also notice that one site indicated by the star map is missing is mainly concerned with the advancement of science and assists
from the pyramid map: an apparently undiscovered ruin northeast the characters any way he can while they are here in Glasgow. But
of the pyramids. he cannot go with them to Africa and has nothing in the way of
If the characters rescued Alice Whitman, she dramatically reveals money; he himself is cash-strapped and unwillingly at the mercy
the location of the “Seven Sisters” site, an undiscovered temple at of his patron George Westinghouse.
Jebel Barkal, by lining up the Pleiades with known Jebel Barkal Edison seeks out the characters. He proclaims them Men of Ac-
landmarks. That indicates the site that Whitman discovered, the tion (and women, he adds as an afterthought for female characters)
last place Alice saw her father. She begs the characters to help for their violent pursuit of the Prussian renegades. He attempts
her pursue Vogel and save her father. If they agree, she joins their to recruit the characters to bring Whitman’s discoveries to him
party as an NPC (or as a player character if you wish); if they instead of turning them over to the Crown or the Society. He of-
refuse, she means to set out without them. It’s up to you whether fers a handsome retainer of £1,000 and a promise of much more
she finds them in Egypt and the Sudan. She may be able to step according to the value of their findings. Further, he can place at
in and offer help or hints if the players need them. their disposal an aerial steamship, as well as any equipment they
might need.
Alice Whitman Any aid from Edison will not go unnoticed by Lord Bury, who
has expressly warned of these foreign interlopers. If the characters
Archetype: Academic Motivation: Truth make an agreement with Edison, any goodwill and aid that they
Style: 2 Health: 7 may have won from Bury, the Duke, or the Society vanishes.
Primary Attributes
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 4
Willpower: 3
A Wire from Lord Bury
Secondary Attributes If the characters telegram Lord Bury with their findings, he soon
Size: 0 Initiative: 6 sends a reply. “Pursuit critical! Pray return at once. Institute
Move: 3 Defense: 4 tomorrow night, however late. I shall prepare all.”
Perception: 7 Stun: 2 The Duke, if present, offers to arrange a private airship to con-
Skills Base Levels Ratings Average vey the characters to London first thing in the morning. “You’ll
Academics (History) 4 3 7 (3+) soon be racing along the Nile and facing the savage Dervishes,”
Animal Handling 3 1 4 (2) he says. “I rather envy you!”
Bureaucracy 4 1 5 (2+)
Diplomacy 3 1 4 (2)
Empathy 4 1 5 (2+)
Firearms 2 1 3 (1+)
Investigation 4 2 6 (3)
Linguistics 4 3 7 (3+)
Science (Physics) 4 1 5 (2+)
Survival 4 1 5 (2+)

Chapter 3: To Africa
Wherein the heroes decipher the cryptic manuscriptions of Dr. Whitman and seek his trail in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

Late the very next night—Saturday, the 26th of May—the characters they took the Duke’s private airship, they reached London early
probably find themselves back in London and back in the Royal in the afternoon and have had a few hours to collect themselves.
Colonial Institute meeting-room with Lord Bury. If they took an Lord Bury has not squandered his time. He has corresponded
early-morning train from Glasgow, they came directly from the by telegram with Sir Evelyn Baring, Her Majesty’s supremely
station to the Institute and are certainly harried and disheveled. If influential consul in Cairo. Lord Bury informed Baring of the

17
controversy over Whitman’s researches in the Sudan. Baring ernor of the Sudan, Major-General Charles Gordon (celebrated as
replied that one of his protégés, a young Cairo officer named “Chinese Gordon” for his leadership in colonial China), struggled
Wingate who is an expert on the Sudan, is in London now on for ten years to suppress corruption and slavery until he resigned
leave preparing for his wedding and would make an indispensible in exhaustion in 1880.
source of advice. On June 29, 1881, a Sudanese Islamic cleric, Muhammad
Bury has Institute staff arranging and packing supplies for the Ahmad, proclaimed himself the Mahdi or “the guided one,” and
expedition. He leaves it to the characters to arrange their transporta- claimed he was tasked with restoring the glory of Islam to the
tion. Steamship passage from London to Port Said via Marseilles Earth. The Mahdi immediately transformed Sudanese resent-
will take 12 or 13 days and cost £20; a zeppelin crossing Europe ment of Egyptian-Ottoman-British rule into a jihad, a holy war
and then the Mediterranean for Port Said will take 11 or 12 days to conquer first the Sudan and then the world.
and cost £24, including fine meals and entertainment. It’s a few Over the next four years the Mahdi’s followers, the Ansar—the
days until the next steamship departs and a few days until the British call them Dervishes, though not all shared the Mahdi’s
next zeppelin departs. mysticism—conquered much of the Sudan. Anglo-Egyptian
From Port Said the characters will take a train to Cairo, where forces briefly attempted reconquest in 1883, but withdrew rather
they can meet with Sir Evelyn Baring and gain the latest intel- than become prematurely locked into a difficult war. In 1884 the
ligence. Then they face a long journey south to Jebel Barkal in British government sent Charles Gordon back to the Sudan to
the lands of the Dervishes. From there, who knows where Whit- oversee the withdrawal; but Gordon fixed himself in Khartoum
man’s trail shall lead? and published lengthy letters to the Pall Mall Gazette pressing
the Gladstone government to return to the Sudan in force. The
Ansar soon besieged Khartoum. An Anglo-Egyptian expedition
If They Took Edison's Flyer fought its way south to rescue Gordon, but with their forces two
days out the Ansar overran Khartoum. Governor Gordon was
rescued at the last minute by Frederick Gustavus Burnaby’s air
If the characters took Thomas Edison as a patron, they may take ship Penelope, and the British withdrew from the Sudan.
his zeppelin from Glasgow direct to Cairo. The flight takes only In June 1885 the self-proclaimed Mahdi died of typhus. For the
seven days. See page 22 for details of their arrival. next few years his movement dissolved into infighting amongst
the three Khalifas, his chief followers. By 1888 one of them has
emerged as “the Khalifa,” Abdalla Ibn el Sayid Hamadalla el
Egypt and Beyond Taaishi. Abdalla was the Mahdi’s highest lieutenant and has spent
three years fighting to bring his rivals into line. Now he rules
from Omdurman, a new capital across the Nile from Khartoum.
The characters likely know much of Egypt as common knowledge. The Egyptians still claim the Sudan and the British still honor
They can fill in many gaps talking to Lord Bury and his friends their claim, although they do not have the resources or political
at the Institute and reading Baedeker’s excellent travel books. will to bring the region back under control.
Most Britons felt humiliated at the Anglo-Egyptian abandonment
of the Sudan. Many admired Gordon’s brave stand in Khartoum
Baring in Egypt and his passionate appeals to Gladstone’s government for aid, and
felt the shame even deeper when Gordon and the British forces
Sir Evelyn Baring is famous as the de facto governor of Egypt. fled again. That feeling is still fresh in 1888.
Technically he is an advisor to the khedive, Egypt’s ruler on behalf
of the Ottoman Empire, but Baring oversees a shadow bureaucracy
of British administrators that make all decisions for the official
Egyptian government. This unusual state of affairs came about
Peoples of the Sudan
due to Egypt’s staggering debts owed to Britain, and to Baring Travel books and historians describe three broad ethnic groups
personally, incurred with investments in the Suez Canal and a in the northern Sudan, all Islamic.
costly war with Ethiopia. When Egyptian nationalists pressured ●● Nubians: Nubians have inhabited the region since dynastic
the previous khedive Ismail not to pay, Britain orchestrated a Egypt. They formed the Kingdom of Kush, famous for its archery
coup, put his more tractable son Tewfik in power, and assumed and horsemanship. Today they are mostly pastoral nomads. They
control of the government and army. travel far and wide and trade in exotic goods from other parts of
Africa, such as ivory and animal skins. They speak the ancient
Bedawi language. Both men and women wear white robes and
The Situation in the Sudan adorn themselves with facial piercings and large, dramatic pieces
of jewelry. Jebel Barkal (p. 27) is one of many sites of ancient
The general situation in the Sudan is common knowledge among Nubian pyramids.
British subjects interested in politics. Some characters may know ●● Jalayin: The Jalayin are a distinctive group of Arabs, some
all this already; others can learn it by asking around. The Sudan living as farmers in the thin farmlands along the Nile and some
was for decades a protectorate of Egypt, but benefited little from as nomadic herders.
Egypt’s rulership either before or after the British took Egypt’s ●● Juhaynah: The Juhaynah are nomadic Arabs, a branch of the
reins. The Egyptian Army extracted taxes and bribes from the Arab Bedouins of the Middle East. They travel in small tribes and are
tribes, many of which turned to illegal slavery to earn enough classified by caste according to the animals they herd. Highest are
money to keep the Egyptians at bay. An influential British gov- the camel herders, then the shepherds, and finally the goat herders.

18
19
 Climate of the Sudan Airships are very few in Egypt, and the Royal Navy allows
none near the Mahdia for fear of their being captured.
Beyond Aswan (p. 22) the country is subject to frequent raids,
Travel books and past visitors say the northern Sudan is dry, en- so no tourist vessels go farther south. A mail steamboat departs
ervatingly hot by day and chilly by night. Worse, summer is the from Aswan to the garrison-town of Wadi Halfa three times a
season of the haboob, the huge, blasting dust storms for which week, taking two days. Wadi Halfa marks the border between
the Sudan is infamous. When the haboob approaches, one must the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the Mahdia.
tie down animals and retreat into whatever shelter can be made Beyond Wadi Halfa (p. 22), the characters are in Dervish
or found. Worse still, the haboob is followed by a deluge of rain, country. Trains ran south before the uprising, but the Mahdi’s
and the sudden shift often means cold and fever. forces destroyed the rails. The characters must hire boatmen to
carry them through the cataracts or buy donkeys and hire guides
to travel by land. Either way, raiders will be a deadly threat.
Clothing and Equipment Sailing along the river from Wadi Halfa to Merawi (p. 27) is
about 400 miles. That would take about two weeks under optimum
“Clothes such as are worn in autumn at home are the best for the conditions, but the cataracts may slow them.
Nile. Boots must be stout and watertight. Slippers, bathing-shoes If instead they buy donkeys and hire guides at Wadi Halfa, they
for the clayey Nile baths, both thick and thin stockings, flannel can follow the caravan trail along the Nile. The ride from Wadi
shirts, a broad-brimmed hat, a warm overcoat, and a substantial Halfa to Dongola is about 230 miles; if all goes well, that will
rug should not be forgotten. A sun-umbrella and kufiyeh, a silk take about 12 days. At Dongola they must trade their donkeys for
handkerchief or muffler, blue or grey spectacles, and a leathern hardier camels. A caravan trail cuts across the desert to Merawi
cushion stuffed with horse-hair will also be found useful. Saddles, and Jebel Barkal, 100 miles with no wells to be found, taking
which may be hired in Cairo, should be taken, especially if ladies about six hard days.
are of the party, for the donkeys hired at the various points do
not always have saddles. — Explorers should provide themselves
with a long and strong ladder; as well as a magnesium lamp or
magnesium-wire (to be obtained in Cairo). —Photographic ap-
The Intelligence Officer
paratus should be brought from home, for chemicals are either not
obtainable or very dear in Egypt, and good dry plates are scarcely Lord Bury has sent an invitation to beg an evening’s assistance
to be obtained. The plate should not be more than 8 to 10 inches from Lt. Reginald Wingate, who is on leave and embroiled in
at the largest. The traveler should superintend the custom-house preparations for his June 18 wedding. It takes a few days for
examination in person.” him to find time to meet the characters as Lord Bury’s guests at
—Baedeker’s Egypt, 1892 the Institute.
Wingate is 27 years old, tanned from years in the tropics and
wearing a mustache waxed to proud points. He apologizes pro-
Ailments fusely for the delay and greets the characters and especially Lord
Bury with cordial enthusiasm. He is naturally friendly, hungry
Travel books warn against the many illnesses that can beset a to make contacts that might yield advantages later, and eager to
visitor to Egypt and the Sudan, from heat stroke to smallpox. convince people of the importance of re-asserting British influ-
Frequent rest, sturdy shelter, and clean water are crucial. ence in the Sudan.
●● In Egypt, one must take stern precautions against ophthalmia A Royal Artillery officer, Wingate served in India before Egypt.
(inflammation of the eye): avoid sharing field-glasses, avoid rub- He is assistant adjutant-general to Sir Francis Grenfell, the sirdar
bing the eyes, and wash hands and face frequently with a 3 percent (overall commander) of the British-led Egyptian Army. Wingate
lotion of boracic acid. Ophthalmia is not as frequent in the Sudan. oversees the Egyptian Army’s civilian personnel. Over the last
●● Smallpox is endemic in the Sudan, and travel books urge few years he has become fluent in Arabic. He interviews not only
travelers to obtain vaccinations before they set out. job-seekers but also refugees from the Mahdia and merchants
●● Water and milk must be boiled to avoid typhus. going into and coming out of Khartoum. And he keeps detailed
●● A cold that sets in after the deluge of the haboob, or from too records. That has made him de facto head of an unofficial office
much exposure to damp night air on the Nile, is often followed of military intelligence. It’s fair to say Wingate knows more than
by fever or by diarrhea, which in turn often leads to dysentery. any other Englishman about the ways of the Sudan.
●● Grey-tinted spectacles can protect the eyes from the bright desert.
●● Loose clothing coupled with a broad-brimmed hat or pith
helmet, a sunshade, or a cloth covering the head and neck can
protect against heat stroke.
Ranks and Titles
●● Mosquito-nets and quinine can guard against malaria. Wingate can clarify the profusion of ranks and titles which British
officers hold while serving with the Egyptian Army. First, each
has his British Army rank. Some are granted temporary brevet
The Journey Ahead ranks for meritorious service, which grant prestige and unofficial
precedence among the officers and allow for greater responsibili-
According to travel books and veteran explorers, the characters ties but carry no official authority or increase in pay. Lieutenant
face a hard journey to Merawi. Wingate is presently a brevet captain.
From Port Said they can reach Cairo by train in a day. Another A British officer also has an Egyptian Army rank in the
train can take them from Cairo to Aswan, just south of the First Ottoman style: mulazim tani for second lieutenant, mulazim
Cataract, in four or five days. awal for lieutenant, yuzbashi for captain, saghkolaghasi for

20
adjutant-major, bimbashi for major, kaimakam for lieutenant
colonel, miralai for colonel, lewa for major-general, farik for Trouble in the Sudan
lieutenant general, and sirdar for commander-in-chief. Brit-
ish Army officers are placed two ranks higher in the Egyptian Wingate warns the characters that they face grave risks entering
Army than in their own. Lieutenant Wingate is thus considered the Mahdia. The Dervishes admit merchants who journey south
a bimbashi, equivalent to major, in the Eyptian Army. British to Omdurman to trade—several Greeks have longstanding con-
soldiers in Egyptian service wear Turkish-style fez hats and nections there—but they regard most Europeans and especially
uniforms rather than British uniforms. Britons with deep suspicion. The frontier is the scene of active
Finally each officer in the Egyptian Army is given an honorific fighting. Raiders frequently attack border villages. More than once
title: effendi (lord or master) for mulazim tani (second lieutenant) they have imprisoned merchants and missionaries in the Khalifa’s
to bimbashi (major); bey (chieftain) for kaimakam (lieutenant fortress at Omdurman with no hope of reprieve. Wingate thinks
colonel), miralai (colonel), and lewa (major-general); and pasha Whitman’s expedition to Jebel Barkal was pure folly, whatever
(great lord) for farik (lieutenant-general) and sirdar (commander- he hoped to discover. He expects it will end with Whitman slain
in-chief). The title is given in the Turkish style following the or imprisoned, and so will the characters if they proceed.
officer’s name, and is generally used in place of rank. In Egypt Wingate says the characters may have some success with the
and the Sudan, Lieutenant Wingate, holding the Egyptian rank plain truth: they come not as soldiers but as civilians seeking a
of bimbashi, is called Wingate Effendi. countryman in trouble. Or they may prefer to buy trade goods
in Cairo and make themselves merchants heading south, only to
veer east at the road to Jebel Barkal. The Dervishes pay well for
Travel Advice dhurra (grain sorghum), sugar, coffee, tea, cutlery, crockery, soap,
hardware, and agricultural implements. But the Khalifa requires
Wingate can offer expert advice on the journey to come. all foreign merchants to come to his fortress at Omdurman and
The railways between Cairo and Aswan were built in stages over sell to him, rather than trading with villages and tribes along the
the past 15 years, some parts with different rail gauges, requiring way, so merchants away from the ordinary roads risk coming
transfer from one train to another. Some of the locomotives are in under suspicion. And of course there’s the chance of bandits
better repair than others. The trip should take only four days, but the along the way.
characters should not be shocked if delays add two or three days. Whatever their explanation, the characters must bring plenty
The mail steamer will likely take a day or two to arrive at Aswan, of coin for baksheesh, the old tradition that’s sometimes chari-
and then take two days to bring them to Wadi Halfa. table gift, sometimes a reward for good work, and sometimes
From Wadi Halfa, Wingate recommends against going by naked bribery.
river into the Mahdia. The characters could find boatmen who Baksheesh will be especially important to hire soldiers at the
could carry them, but finding one who is both skillful and hon- border or at Dongola. The Khalifa forbids firearms and ammuni-
est, and who has a large enough vessel in good enough repair, is tion to all in the Mahdia except his favored troops. Soldiers at
too much to hope for. If the characters do stick to the Nile, for the frontier carry rifles, but even they are allowed ammunition
over 120 miles between Wadi Halfa and Kerma it is exceedingly only when there’s trouble. Except for the Khalifa’s own Taaishi
difficult to navigate in the summer. It would require frequent tribe, ordinary tribesmen throughout the Mahdia are allowed
disembarkation; that would likely take 11 or 12 days, perhaps only bows, spears, and swords. The soldiers will confiscate the
longer if a vessel suffers damage or a boatman proves false. Bet- characters’ guns and ammunition. Taaishi tribesmen, allowed to
ter to allow 15 days given the risk of trouble. Beyond Kerma, bear arms, might be recruited to come along as guards to keep
the river is smooth for 300 or so miles as it rolls past Dongola bandits at bay. The characters could claim that they brought their
to Merawi; likely another 10 days. Better to ride alongside the rifles and ammunition as gifts for Taaishi tribesmen for that very
river than struggle upon it. purpose. Away from the soldiers, further gifts might even induce
So: A day or two for the next vessel to depart London. Twelve the guards to give the weapons back.
or thirteen days to Port Said by steamship. A day from Port Said to But Wingate warns the characters to never press their luck. The
Cairo by rail. Nine days from Cairo to Wadi Halfa by rail. Eighteen Mahdia is a jihad state, with courts enforcing Sharia law along
days from Halfa to Merawi by land or 25 by river. Depending on with the precepts of the Mahdi and the Khalifa. The characters
their choices, the characters can expect to be in Merawi between risk death or imprisonment merely going there.
37 and 50 days from now.
As for Vogel, Wingate says his ways to Jebel Barkal are also
fraught. The Royal Navy will doggedly pursue his airship if they
spot it in Egypt or over the Suez Canal. He must approach the Sudan
About the Sudanese
from the desert and wastes of the west, or from the mountains and Wingate can offer important details about the peoples of the
forests of Abyssinia in the southeast. Wingate thinks Abyssinia Sudan. He says Nubians are generally neutral towards the Brit-
more likely, even though the Mahdia and Abyssinia are often fight- ish and may be easiest to approach. The Jalayin are likely to be
ing. That means a meandering flight of about 5,000 miles from desperate and dangerous; years of bad harvests have impoverished
Glasgow to Merawi. That should take a zeppelin about 20 days, many of them. The Juhayna tribes are likely to be aggressive and
allowing for poor weather and the need for supply and repairs. If hostile. The Khalifa is Juhayna, from the Baggara tribal group,
he is forced to ground at the border and then goes overland, that specifically the Taaishi. The Taaishi are the only tribe allowed
may add two or three weeks to his journey. But Wingate warns rifles who are not soldiers of the Khalifa’s army. They are the
against trusting that much to luck. raiders encountered on the frontier.
Wingate also describes the Jihadiya. They are not a single ethnic
group but a cadre of former Egyptian soldiers, mostly Nubians
or from the often-enslaved southern tribes, who now serve the

21
Mahdia. Well-trained by British officers in the 1880s and before southward, nor allow a private vessel to venture farther south than
that by Americans in the 1870s, they are disciplined riflemen and Aswan. Any who make the attempt will be seized by the Navy’s
form the core of the Mahdia’s garrisons and armies. two Nile flying gunboats. No one knows anything of Vogel or
any zeppelin attempting to enter the Mahdia, and they all deem
it highly unlikely.
Yet Another Ailment
Wingate warns of a grotesque trouble that the travel books don’t
mention: the Guinea worm. He says it infects the foot of an un-
Aswan
lucky bather in the Nile. The foot swells painfully as the worm
grows up to a full yard in length. It must be coaxed out by soaking The characters can take the train from Cairo to Aswan, changing
in warm water, then wrapped around a stick and drawn out very trains at Assiut and Luxor due to changes in rail gauges. The
slowly, over many days; pulling too hard breaks the worm, and the journey takes six days. Other than the inconvenience of occasional
broken worm heals. There’s no other cure, so prevention is key: mechanical trouble, that trek is uneventful. The great monuments
stay out of the Nile and always wear sturdy boots. (Biologists of of ancient Egypt fly by unvisited, much to the heartbreak of
1888 have not yet learned that the Guinea worm is in fact spread antiquarians in the party.
by ingestion and emerges a year after infection.) At Aswan the characters must wait two days for the next mail-
steamer bound for Wadi Halfa. The characters can lodge in a hotel
which seems shabby by comparison to Shepheard’s in Cairo.
The Red Plague Aswan has a thriving market in exotic goods brought from the
Sudan and farther south: ostrich feathers and ostrich-feather fans,
This is not a disease in human but in plants. British merchants silver rings and armlets, ivory, rubber, senna, tamarinds, wax,
beginning in 1880 sold to farmers along the Nile the seeds of skins, horns, dried dates, weapons from Central Africa, small
a Martian food crop that was supposed to be more robust than monkeys, amulets, baskets, leather-fringed aprons, and Nubian
wheat. Unfortunately, the alien monoculture secreted an acid into clothing and costumes. Children follow the characters and press
the soil, destroying swaths of fertile farmland, and has proven ceaselessly for baksheesh.
extraordinarily difficult to eradicate. The Red Plague has led to Historically-minded characters can explore the ruined temple
famines in the Sudan and contributed to the unrest that allowed built by Ptolemy III, sprawling Arab cemeteries, and the ancient
the Mahdi to arise. granite quarry, and take an excursion of a few miles to the island
of Philae with its famous temple of Isis. Baedeker’s 1892 guide
to Upper Egypt, available online, has detailed descriptions begin-
Cairo ning on page 273.
The mail-steamer to Wadi Halfa—either the Kaibar, the Dal,
or the Akasha—takes the characters aboard willingly for a fee of
The two-week journey from London to Cairo goes without incident. £2 each. The accommodations are threadbare in shared rooms,
It may be fun to trace the characters’ progress on their calendar and they are responsible for their own meals and entertainment.
and an old map, highlighting airship stops in Paris, Geneva, Rome, Its captain earnestly repeats the warnings they may have heard
and Athens, or the steamship’s stop in Marseilles, and then the many times before: the frontier is troubled by Arab raiders. They
short train hop from Port Said to Cairo. would be safer to turn back.
Fresh foodstuffs and other supplies that they did not bring from
London can be gotten in Cairo. The characters can room at the
prestigious Shepheard’s Hotel, popular with rich European tour-
ists—and with British debutantes looking for military husbands.
Wadi Halfa
(Cairo officers call them the “Imperial Fishing Fleet.”)
Lord Bury telegrammed Sir Evelyn Baring’s office, but that On the river between Aswan and Wadi Halfa the mail-steamer
gets the characters only a brief and fruitless meeting with Baring’s occasionally meets the Egyptian Army gunboats Tamai, El Teb,
assistant. He sends them to a brief meeting with the sirdar, Gen. Metemma, and Abu Klea, and narrow native boats called gyassas
Grenfell, who presses them on to his adjutant, Col. Parr, Wing- with broad, tall sails. The gyassas sell the sorts of goods found in
ate’s immediate superior. Those brief meetings take three days. the Aswan market. The gunboats report Mahdist raids on villages
Parr’s first response is to regret the absence of Wingate. If the north of Wadi Halfa.
characters interviewed Wingate in London, Parr is relieved. He Protected by a ditch and a mud wall, Wadi Halfa runs along
can’t improve on his intelligence officer’s advice, but he sends the east bank of the Nile for nearly three miles, never more than
a wire to Col. Wodehouse, commanding the Egyptian forces at 400 yards across. It surrounds a bay where steamers dock. A
Wadi Halfa, to tell him to expect the player characters. Parr says railhead outside the walls runs south to Sarras, but the Dervishes
Wodehouse will no doubt recommend a suitable guide who might destroyed the rails at Sarras a few months ago so no train goes
ease their way among the Mahdi’s raiders. there. Heavy artillery pieces sit where the wall meets the river. Five
If the characters did not speak to Wingate in London, Parr small detached forts strengthen the walls. Along the riverbank,
describes the dangers and urges the characters to abandon any a series of shadoofs—ancient contrivances of rope, pulleys and
plan to enter the Mahdia. Failing to dissuade them, he offers the buckets—draw water from the river below.
advice given under Travel Advice (page 21) and Trouble in The northern quarter, “Halfa town” proper, boasts a railway
the Sudan (page 21). station, a cluster of clean, well-built, two-story white houses
Even with the recommendation of Baring’s assistant, the char- surrounded by palm trees, a pretty mosque with a tall, slender
acters have no luck meeting a person in authority that commands minaret, a native bazaar, and a hospital. The hospital is locally
British airships. The Navy will certainly not convey the characters famous for its glass windows; the houses rely on wooden shutters

22
and deep verandas for shade. The population is mostly Nubian Siddig laughs. But he thinks it over and then says, “Abri Bey al
Sudanese and Egyptians with a handful of British officers and Kheir.” Rycroft clouds over, looking scandalized. He says that
administrators and a large sprinkling of Greek merchants. Abri is no better than a pirate. He rode with Osman Digna, one of
The rest of Wadi Halfa, called “the Camp,” includes a post and the Khalifa’s most notorious lieutenants, many years ago. He lost
telegraph office, an officers’ mess called “the Club”, barracks for an arm in battle and became a merchant, then one of the Sudan’s
thousands of Egyptian soldiers, stables, depots, a prison, extensive most notorious slave traders. He gave up slaving just in time to
railway workshops, and a rest-house. avoid being strung up by order of Gordon Pasha. He loves neither
Native villages and bazaars lie north and south of the walls. the Khalifa, the Egyptians, nor the British; he loves only gold.
Camels may be hired at the rest-house for £1 per day, including Siddig says, “Yes, and who has more gold than the English?”
provisions for beast and driver, or purchased outright for £60 each. Rundle introduces whichever guide the characters choose, even
If those prices shock the characters (and they should!), the natives if he can’t imagine trusting Abri Bey with his life.
reassure them that God looks kindly on generosity.

Anania the Greek

The Officers Pamphilos Anania is a burly Greek merchant preparing to take a
Soon after they arrive at Wadi Halfa, the characters are invited to camel caravan south into the Mahdia to sell grain, sugar, coffee,
meet Wodehouse Pasha, its commander. High-born Col. Josceline and tea to the Khalifa. He appraises the characters cannily. He
Heneage Wodehouse, GCB, CMG, age 36, is called Wodehouse knows the forts and tribes on the road to Omdurman; he does not
Pasha for his Egyptian Army rank. Like many British officers in know the characters, and more importantly the Khalifa’s soldiers
the Egyptian Army he is a decorated veteran of the Anglo-Zulu do not know them. And doubtless they wish to bring guns, forbid-
war of 1879 and of the Second Anglo-Afghan war of 1880. As den by the Khalifa! It’s not a question of whether the characters
of this year he is governor of the newly-formed Soudan Frontier will draw trouble upon his head, but of how much. And even if he
Province extending from Halfa to Aswan. He is preoccupied with talks his way out of trouble, can his conscience live with letting
Dervish raiders and with allied Arabs who may be giving the these guileless strangers risk the Khalifa’s dungeons?
Dervishes free rein. Even if Parr wired him to aid the characters, Anania volubly talks himself out of taking the characters along,
he has little time or resources to offer. drawing it out, giving them plenty of time to think to offer to pay
If asked about Vogel’s zeppelin, Wodehouse recalls a telegram and then to increase the offer. Anania agrees to take them, with
some days ago of an unknown zeppelin heading west from Ab- a heartrending show of reluctance, for £6 per character per day.
yssinia. He counts back the days; it was just after the characters He says perhaps he can convince the soldiers that the characters
departed Cairo. A border-fort near Suakin spotted it and signaled are tea experts. They can talk him down to £4 with a Diplomacy
a Royal Navy zeppelin by semaphore, but the Navy lost the roll (three or more successes). Offering to leave their guns behind
intruder in a dust storm over Berber. Meanwhile Wodehouse reduces his daily fee to £4, or £3 with Diplomacy.
gives the characters tea and advises them of the suicidal futility If the characters strike a deal with Anania, he departs in three
of venturing into the Mahdia. If they persist he passes them on days.
to Maj. Rundle, instructing Rundle to find them a reliable guide. Anania is a lively and friendly traveling companion. He knows
Maj. Leslie Rundle, age 32, a serious-minded combat veteran, the tribes and customs of the Mahdia well and is a fine guide as
is happy if he hears the characters met Lt. Reginald Wingate in long as he remains on the caravan track. But if the characters
London. As of June 18, Rundle’s sister Kitty is Wingate’s new venture off the road, or if they risk serious trouble, he turns out
wife. Rundle is an artillery officer like Wodehouse and Wingate, to be no good. He is swift to surrender to any threat from the
but where Wingate now collects information in Cairo, Rundle Dervishes, knowing that they will eventually free him to continue
commands cavalry in Wadi Halfa. He served with Wingate, bringing goods in from abroad. He will take no risks on behalf
Wodehouse, Grenfell and many others in the 1884–1885 Nile of the characters.
Expedition to rescue doomed Gordon and leads Egyptian soldiers
against Dervish raiders now.
Rundle introduces the characters to Hilmi Effendi, a major
in the Egyptian cavalry, and to Capt. William Henry Rycroft,
Abri Bey
a 28-year-old baronet’s son and earl’s son-in-law, who leads a Abri Bey al Kheir camps just south of Wadi Halfa, within easy
band of 60 Nubian irregulars of the sprawling Shaigiya tribe. reach of water, with a dozen men of his clan in a cluster of tents.
Rycroft’s Shaigiya served Gordon and hate the Mahdia, and have Abri Bey is a tall and rangy old man, tough, with eyes that find a
proven tremendously useful to Wadi Halfa as cavalry raiders. The hard sort of humor in everything. His right arm is missing above
Dervishes have sworn to slay them on sight. The trail-stained and the elbow, but he has learned to get along well enough left-handed.
hardened Arabs make a startling contrast with the young English He was deadly in his prime, but now he relies on the nephews and
aristocrat who leads them. cousins who surround him. Abri’s estranged sons live comfortably
Hilmi recommends Pamphilos Anania, a Greek merchant who in Khartoum as merchants favored by the Khalifa. Abri’s follow-
plans to set out for Dongola and Khartoum any day now. Rundle ers are second and third sons, orphans of the wars, and outcasts,
agrees. Anania has long ties to the Taaishi, the Khalifa’s tribe; but who all love their ruthless uncle and would as happily turn vicious
he also has close ties to the British and will treat the characters well. bandit for him as guard his trade goods. Abri Bey plans to live
If the characters ask to get the opinion of local natives, Rycroft, comfortably at Wadi Halfa through the hottest summer months,
somewhat surprised, summons a leader of his irregulars. Siddig then buy goods with what money he has left and take them to
Effendi el Mek is a leathery old man, mostly bald, with glint- Khartoum to trade in the fall.
ing, dangerous-looking eyes. His cheeks are marked with three Approached by Rundle or the characters themselves, Abri Bey
horizontal scars, given in childhood with a heated knife in an old is offensively skeptical. If there are women in the group, he tells
Shaigiya tradition. Rycroft explains the situation in Arabic and the men they could win rich rewards in Khartoum by turning the

23
women over to the Khalifa as concubines. He chides European that. Their Egyptian quartermasters dislike working with Abri for
whites for their paleness and warns them the desert will be his arrogance and because he drives hard bargains, but he never
unforgiving and the Khalifa’s soldiers will be worse. He warns cheats them. The Shaigiya irregulars say Abri rarely offers to give
non-whites that the Khalifa’s soldiers will seize them as slaves his word, because he never breaks it.)
after killing their white “masters” as spies. An easy Empathy roll A very hard Diplomacy roll and a convincing argument by a
can tell that Abri Bey is needling the characters in order to gauge player can talk Abri down to £200. He doesn’t change his fee if
their guile and courage. the characters wish to bring guns; he only warns them that he may
If the characters stand up for themselves well without instantly have to turn them over to the Khalifa’s soldiers if theyfind them.
picking a fight, Abri decides they may be worth the trouble. His He waves off any worries that it may bring trouble.
demeanor becomes friendlier and more businesslike. He offers If the characters strike a deal with Abri Bey, he departs three
to set out on his next trading foray early to travel with the char- days after shopping around Wadi Halfa for tools and hardware
acters for £300, acting as guide for up to 30 days, keeping them to load up on his camels for trade.
away from the most obvious dangers, and killing any bandits that Abri Bey is mercurial and temperamental, but once his loyalty
try to rob them or any wayward soldiers that accost them away has been bought it stays bought. He is happy to kill Dervishes
from the forts. Abri is happily mercenary. He disdains calling his who harass the characters, and he has a keen sense of when to
demands baksheesh or pretending it’s charity. He has a valuable avoid conflict and how to defuse it if the characters offend Der-
commodity to sell: the characters’ survival in the Mahdia. And he vish leaders. If the characters pay him well, or make themselves
boasts that once he strikes a deal, the deal remains struck. (If the interesting, Abri Bey and his men ride with them into the desert
characters ask around, the British and Egyptian officers vouch for to Jebel Barkal and beyond.

Chapter 4: The Chamber of Night

Wherein our heroes risk life and freedom in the war-torn Mahdia

By land or on the water, the journey to Merawi follows the Nile broken, stony country of Batn-El-Hajar. The characters can travel
for hundreds of kilometers and many days. The river is wide, by foot for a day from Wadi Halfa and hire boats at the villages
deep, and smooth for many miles, but it is broken by long, haz- just beyond the Second Cataract, or hire them at Wadi Halfa and
ardous cataracts. brave the cataract’s waters.
Ancient caravan roads follow the river, only deviating when The Third Cataract, three miles of rapids and little islands,
the stony landscape forces them to go through ravines or around begins just north of Dongola. Beyond the Third Cataract lie 200
rises. The shores of the Nile are green even as the barren desert miles of smooth water to Merawi and the ruins of Jebel Barkal.
closes in all around. Reeds and tall grasses grow from the shallows. Or the characters might disembark before the Third Cataract and
Tangling, white-spined thornbushes sprawl everywhere, often cut take the 120-mile desert trail overland from Dongola to Merawi
and used to fence off camps. Poisonous and prickly plants threaten and Jebel Barkal.
the unwary. Occasional palm trees with thick date clusters are The characters sail 10 to 20 miles per day upriver, depending
prized by all. By water or by land, the characters pass villages on the wind. If they take the characters through a cataract, each
every few miles where families struggle to stay fed despite an pilot must make an average Pilot (Sailing Ships) roll or damage
increasing famine and the depredations of raiders. his boat’s hull, requiring three to five days for repairs. A roll
with no successes at all means the boat is too badly damaged to
continue. The characters must scramble to get their belongings
The Journey by Water ashore and find a new way forward.

Between the long cataracts, the characters can attempt to hire

native boatmen in flat-bottom sailing barges. The smaller, more
Encounters on the Water
common craft called a nuggur has a single sail. But a party of Pick one of these encounters for the journey between the Second
several characters plus servants or guides will need a longer gyassa, and Third cataracts, and another for the journey between the Third
built with sturdy ribs and two sails in a raking lateen rigging. A Cataract and Merawi.
gyassa has a capacity of three tonnes. ●● Hostile Village: The gyassa stops to buy fresh food from a
The cataracts complicate travel. At each cataract the characters Nubian clan farming a small plot on the west side of the river. The
must disembark, carry their belongings or hire porters to carry villagers live in broad, round huts with straw roofs. But they have
them upstream for miles until the cataract ends, and then hire been robbed repeatedly by Dervishes and suspect the characters
another boat for the next stretch. are the hated British. They refuse to let the strangers near what’s
The nine-mile-long Second Cataract begins at Akasha, an left of their crops or cattle, refuse to trade, curse them as enemies
abandoned mud fort a few miles south of Wadi Halfa. In the of the one true faith, and warn that soldiers of the Mahdi will soon
summer flood, the Second Cataract runs shallow, rough and put them right. Without careful diplomacy and a tough Diplomacy
quick through narrow gorges of black granite. Rocks just under roll, the gyassa must quickly set sail again without taking on fresh
the surface require careful steering in June and are too danger- food. Each character must make an average Body roll once every
ous to negotiate when the waters recede in autumn. Beyond the three days or take a point of nonlethal damage from deprivation,
Second Cataract, the river is smooth for 240 miles through the until they can trade for food or a character succeeds at a tough

24
Survival roll, catching enough fish or bringing down a gazelle. Flintlock Pistol 3L 0 6L (3) L
The characters get one try at Survival as a group each day. Bow 2L 0 6L (3) L
●● Tsetse Flies: The gyassa is overwhelmed by a thick swarm of
large biting flies. An average Science (Biology) roll recognizes
them as Glossina palpalis palpalis, carriers of the deadly African
trypanosomiasis, the sleeping sickness. That character may warn
The Journey by L and
the others to cover up quickly with neutral-colored clothing. Each
character must make a tough Dexterity roll (with a +2 bonus if An ancient caravan road winds through a wild and rocky landscape
they covered up) to ward off the flies. Each who fails is infected for about 240 miles from Wadi Halfa to the shore opposite Dongola
by the sleeping sickness. Symptoms: A painful chancre appears (p. 26). The roads veer away from the river from time to time
within three days, followed by a high fever, a severe headache, to take shortcuts across bends in the river or to avoid treacherous
and muscle aches. Confusion and poor coordination incur penal- terrain. The ground near the water is often cracked and fissured,
ties of −2 to Perception and −1 to Dexterity. Infection: 2. The uneven as a result of eons of erosion. Dangerous holes are hard to
character suffers 1 nonlethal damage per day; unless the victim spot in the long grass. A camel caravan or a party on foot moves
recovers, the damage will convert to lethal and the victim will about 10 miles per day; a small party of riders moves about 20
succumb. Recovery: 2. (Seven successes are required to recover miles per day.
from the disease). Each Body roll represents one day of illness,
beginning when the symptoms first appear. There is no treatment.
●● Dervish Raiders: A dozen or so rifle-bearing Arabs on horses
appear on the eastern shore. They shout at the gyassa to come to
Fort Sarras
them and point their rifles menacingly. A Diplomacy roll by an Thirty miles south of Wadi Halfa, Sarras is a Dervish-held fort
Arabic-speaking character might talk them down while the gyassa on a crag of black rock overlooking a bend in the river. Stone
sails out of range. Otherwise a few of them open fire while the walls and barbed wire run down to the water. Within the walls
others laugh and encourage them. Random targets on the gyassa stand a few stout buildings and a yard crowded with the tents and
suffer four rifle attacks at long range. If the characters return fire, animals (200 horses and 100 camels) of more than two thousand
however, the alarmed raiders follow along the river. Four of them of the Khalifa’s soldiers.
fire on the characters each round until at least one raider falls. The southern terminus of the Egyptian military railway lies a
Then they retreat. short distance inland, but the trains no longer run this far. Last
year a small Dervish force seized Sarras and was later wiped out
Dervish Raiders by a surprise attack from Wadi Halfa that arrived in the dark of
night by rail. The Dervishes returned to Sarras with a much greater
Archetype: Soldier Motivation: Faith force a few months later and demolished the tracks.
Style: 0 Health: 4 If the characters attempt to pass Sarras without stopping, thirty
Primary Attributes rifle-armed Arab horsemen, led by a suspicious and imperious
Body: 2 Charisma: 2 emir named Makin en Nur (one of a dozen emirs commanding
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2 the fort’s soldiers), ride out to intercept and question them. If
Strength: 2 Willpower: 2 they ride up to the gates, the emir comes out with a dozen guards.
Secondary Attributes Makin en Nur orders his men to search the characters’ belong-
Size: 0 Initiative: 4 ings thoroughly. A character who concealed a firearm can attempt
Move: 4 Defense: 4 a Stealth test to keep it from discovery. All others are found and
Perception: 4 Stun: 2 confiscated. If it’s clear the guns were for self-defense rather than
Skills Bas Levels Rating Average selling, the emir does not seem upset. He understands the travel-
Animal Handling 2 2 4 (2) ers’ reluctance to go unarmed. But in the Mahdia, none may bear
Archery 2 2 4 (2) firearms without the Khalifa’s express permission.
Athletics 2 2 4 (2) If the characters offer a gift worth £10 or more to the emir in a
Brawl 2 2 4 (2) way that’s not offensive, he offers to send five soldiers with them
Firearms 2 1 3 (1+) as guides and guards. This may require diplomacy—offering
Intimidation 2 2 4 (2) baksheesh to thank him for helping them understand the Khalifa’s
Melee 2 2 4 (2) wise laws would work brilliantly—but only requires a Diplomacy
Ride 2 2 4 (2) roll if the characters embarrass him in front of his men.
Stealth 2 2 4 (2) The emir does not allow the characters into Sarras or attempt to
Survival 2 2 4 (2) imprison them unless there’s violence or the characters make him
Resources think they are spies sent by the Anglo-Egyptian army. Characters
Status −1, Wealth −2 near the gates can plainly see why he wants no new complications:
Weapons Rating Size Attack Average the fort is riddled with smallpox. Any characters who are behind
Punch 0N 0 4N (2) L on their vaccinations would be wise to stay away.
Dagger 1L 0 5L (2) L
Spear 3L 0 7L (3+) L
Scimitar
Wooden Shield
3L 0
+1 Defense 0
7L (3+) L Encounters by L and
Martini-Henry Rifle 3L 0 6L (3) L Pick one encounter for the journey between Sarras and Dongola
(uncommon) and another between Dongola and Merawi.
Flintlock rifle 3L 0 6L (3) L ●● Scavengers: A pack of a dozen hyenas or wild dogs, made
Rifle butt 2N 0 6N (2) N desperate by the spreading famine, sneaks into the party’s camp.

25
They savage food stores and attack when the characters interfere. wide Nile, but the eastern road passes through a village fortified
The pack flees the round after two or more of them are killed or if with the Khalifa’s soldiers opposite the town. On both sides of the
two or more gunshots are fired. Use the Wolf stats from the Space: river, square buildings and lemon trees line dusty streets. Wheat
1889 Core Rules, page 28. For each round it takes to drive the and barley farms and cattle ranches spread out along the river on
scavengers away, the party loses one day’s worth of provisions. either side of the city.
●● Nubian Tribesmen: The characters meet a band of five tribes- If the characters are not accompanied by either Pamphilos
men hunting, scavenging and trading away from their farms. The Anania or Abri Bey, they are approached by a canny merchant
tribesmen have no great love of the Khalifa’s Arab raiders, who named Abdullah Shuhdi. Shuhdi doesn’t waste his time if those
continually seize their food, and are neutral to the characters un- other known traders are around. Shuhdi firsts strikes up conver-
less provoked. They will buy up to £6 worth of provisions from sation acknowledging ruefully that the Khalifa requires foreign
the characters at double the usual price. merchants to go to Omdurman to trade at whatever terms he sets;
●● Brigands: The characters might have this encounter only if then he says he has heard that careful and discreet merchants can
they follow the 100-mile waterless desert track overland between trade in Dongola instead of waiting until they reach Omdurman;
Dongola and Merawi. A band of Dervishes follows them from and if the characters seem interested and discreet, he gets around
Dongola, three raiders for every two members of the characters’ to making offers. His offers are insultingly cheap. He wishes
party. They are not of the Khalifa’s favorite Baggara tribe, so they to buy tools, tea, coffee, or sugar for ten percent of its usual
have no rifles, only bows, spears, and swords. They close in on purchase price, which is a third or even a quarter of what most
the second day out of Dongola, intent on capturing as slaves any merchants would offer. He presses his case by boasting that he
that will come without trouble (especially women) and killing is friends with many of the emirs who command in Dongola.
the rest. If a third of them fall, the rest flee. If the characters refuse him, he angrily wonders if they are in
fact spies sent by Egypt, and implies he’ll slander them to the
army. He backs down only if the characters sell him £100 worth
Dongola of goods for £10, or if they succeed at a hard Diplomacy test to
make him like them.
If Abdullah Shuhdi goes away unhappy, the characters have
Dongola is the capital of the northern province of the Mahdia, a only a few hours to get miles away from Dongola before two
populous trade center and a barracks for thousands of soldiers. The dozen riders come to confront them. If the characters ride into
main part of Dongola sprawls on the west side of the half-mile- the harsh desert overland toward Merawi, the riders soon aban-
don the chase. If the characters remain on
the river, the riders find them and threaten
to open fire if they don’t return. Unless the
characters allow themselves to be taken and
questioned, they and their boat face eight rifle
attacks per round for four rounds before the
riders give up.
Characters taken for questioning lose at
least a few days with Abderrahman Wad
en Nejumi, commander of Dongola. Each
character has a 50% chance each day of
being brought in to answer Nejumi’s ques-
tions. A convincing argument and a hard
Diplomacy roll convinces Nejumi of that
character’s harmlessness. Offering gifts to
honor Nejumi reduces the difficulty by 1 per
£10; but implying that this is bribery makes
it a very hard test instead. Freed characters
must wait for their remaining companions
to be released.
From Dongola the characters can hire boat-
men to take them from the head of the Third
Cataract along the smooth waters 300 miles
to Merawi. Or they can ride those 300 miles
along the trails beside the river. The riverbanks
south of Dongola are flat and low, with thin
strips of cultivated land and palm trees on
the east bank.
To save time, the characters can cut across
the desert to Merawi, a barren track 100 miles
long. They must bring plenty of water and
provisions as there are no wells nor villages
along the way. About 40 miles southeast of
Dongola the trail passes a cluster of half
a dozen small, crumbling pyramids in the
ancient Meroitic style, narrow and close.

26
 Desert Travel
Dozens of small, crumbling pyramids, the tombs of ancient
Kushite kings with distinctive steep sides and pillared entryways,
stand to the crag’s west.
Away from the Nile, the roads wind over vast stretches of bleak, Dr. Whitman’s notes call the pyramids the “Seven Sisters.”
desolate desert. Endless, flat plains of fine, pinkish sand are broken Characters who examined his maps of the pyramids and the
here and there by stark, shapeless peaks of black rock. The wind stars, or who consulted with Alice Whitman, likely already know
often raises the sand up into dust-devils that coat everything and where to look for Whitman’s discovery. The Merawi villagers
irritate the skin, eyes, and lungs. can point them toward Whitman’s work, too, even though now
Temperatures average 104 degrees Fahrenheit by day and 70 it’s buried in sand.
by night. The summer sun blazes unrelentingly in a steel-blue Merawi is the largest of a string of villages (Karima, Merawi,
sky. At dusk, the sun sets in a spreading red glow that merges Merowe, Napata, Nuri), some depopulated thanks to rising fam-
with the sand, making the horizon vanish until darkness falls. ine, that mark the end of the smooth river where the treacherous
Characters who have been to Mars find something familiar in the Fourth Cataract ends. The Fourth Cataract is virtually impassible
Nubian sands. Less travelled characters may express surprise at for 50 miles: few vessels try it and fewer still manage it. Beyond
the swiftness of the sunset (and sunrise) compared to England. the cataract in the east, commerce runs from Abu Hamed south
Except at a well, there is no water to be found in the desert. along the river to Berber and beyond. In the west, it runs from
Characters must bring bulky, heavy waterskins for themselves Dongola to Al-Dabbah and then over desert roads to Khartoum
and their animals. Each character needs to drink one gallon and Omdurman. There is little commerce in Merawi.
of water per day, which weighs eight pounds; washing uses All of which made recent events remarkable.
another half-gallon. A horse in the desert needs 15 to 20 gal- First, the strange Englishman Dr. Whitman came months ago
lons per day, and will die from dehydration after a few days. A with his daughter, set up camp at the foot of Jebel Barkal, and
camel can go more than two weeks without water in the desert hired locals to help him dig around in the sands until he uncovered
heat—but it will lose up to a third of its weight and must drink a new set of ruins north of the mountain. His daughter returned
copiously to recover. north to Egypt, and a week later Whitman departed for Korti
If the characters bring too little water, or if an accident befalls without saying where he would go beyond that.
their waterskins, the consequences can be deadly. Each day of Then, a few weeks ago, another party of Europeans came in
dehydration causes one point of lethal damage to a character, two an airship. Germans led by a man named Vogel, they spent a few
points to a horse. A camel takes one point of lethal damage for days at the remains of Whitman’s camp, then as a dust storm
every two days of dehydration. approached they attempted to fly away. But they were too slow:
The characters can travel 10 miles a day in the desert by foot or the storm wrecked their airship and covered Whitman’s camp and
with a caravan, or 15 miles by horse or camel without a caravan. discoveries up as if they had never been found. The Europeans
At the end of each day’s march through the desert, each character spent a few days gathering supplies and hiring Arab guides, and
must make an average Body roll or suffer one point of nonlethal then set off for the south. They said they would go to Omdurman.
damage. (See the Space: 1889 Core Rules, page 211 for details.) The villagers don’t say that the Germans left behind a gift and
The following modifiers apply: deadly instructions.
●● Traveled even in the hottest part of day (double distance):
+2 difficulty
●● Carrying a heavy load: +2 difficulty
●● Carrying a medium load: +1 difficulty
Vogel's Timetable
●● Wearing European clothes (thick and confining): +1 difficulty Exactly how long ago did Vogel depart? It took him 24 days to get
●● Riding a camel: +4 bonus from Glasgow to Merawi. He spent two days in Merawi, then a day
●● Riding a horse or donkey: +2 bonus digging out from the storm, then two days gathering guides and
●● Character is native to this part of the world: +4 bonus supplies. That’s 29 days after he departed Glasgow. Compare that
●● Character is not native but has experience living in the desert: to the characters’ progress on their calendar. If the characters took,
+2 bonus say, 40 days to reach Merawi, then Vogel departed 11 days ago.
This all presumes the characters have had a long journey from
Cairo. If the characters managed to substantially shorten their jour-
Merawi ney, give Vogel his zeppelin back and see that he made good time!
It’s important that he stay ahead of them until they reach Meroë.

The characters can see Jebel Barkal (“Mount Barkal”) long before
they arrive at Merawi. It is a 100-yard-high sandstone butte that
rises dramatically from the sands a mile from the river, the only
The Trap
formation of its kind as far as the eye can see. Vogel paid the men of Merawi generously to work for him and
Ruins of temples and palaces sprawl east of Jebel Barkal, his soldiers. He spoke at length against the British and their cor-
overlooked by a freestanding pinnacle. A character well-versed ruption of Egypt, and the rightness of the Mahdi’s jihad to drive
in Academics (History) or a local hired guide can inform the the Christian British and the infidel Egyptian out. Vogel admitted
characters that the Ancients regarded the pinnacle as a rearing he was not a Muslim, but said anyone could see what was right.
serpent. Because the rearing serpent was worn on the Egyptian Vogel said Dr. Whitman was a spy for the British, and that he
pharaoh’s crown (where it was deified as Wadjet), Jebel Barkal meant to apprehend him and present him to the Khalifa as a gift
symbolized Egyptian rule of the Sudan. When the Egyptians to open the way for an alliance.
withdrew, a line of Kushite Nubian kings adopted their myths to At the same time, Vogel saw that the Khalifa had disarmed
sanctify their own rule; they even ruled over Egypt itself for a the Merawi clans just as he did everyone except his own Taiishi
century (the Egyptian twenty-fifth dynasty). tribesmen and soldiers on the troubled frontiers. Vogel presented

27
the Merawi leaders with a gift: a strange, heavy weapon of his own
invention, an experimental gun, which Vogel would not be able Experimental Grenade Gun (Artifact 3)
to transport overland across the desert anyway. He asked them to
hand it to the Khalifa when they saw fit—and in the meantime, to The gun is a bulky cannon made of metal. It uses the Gunnery
use it on any Europeans who might come to aid the spy Whitman. skill and launches grenades. As an area attack (see the Space:
Vogel and his men installed the gun atop Jebel Barkal looking 1889 Core Rules, page 210), it ignores active defense as well as
down at Whitman’s temple, beneath well-secured canvas sheets. modifiers for creature size and wound penalties.
He instructed Merawi’s leaders to welcome the spies, if any After the gun fires, it must be reloaded. Usually it takes four
came, and allow them to camp where Whitman had camped—but rounds.
to secretly send two gunners up to the gun to wait. At nightfall,
the Merawi warriors should form a silent perimeter around the Artifact Dmg Str Rng Cap Rate Spd Price Wt
spies’ camp. An hour after nightfall, the gunners should fire on the Experimental Grenade gun
spies’ camp, using the light of the spies’ campfires and lanterns 4L * 1,300 ft. 1 1/4 S £1,800 800 lbs
as a guide. As the spies scatter in confusion, the warriors should (area of effect: 20 ft.)
capture them for the Khalifa and kill any who resisted capture. * The gun can be used only when mounted firmly on the open ground.

Day and Night The Deadly Temple

The Merawi welcome the characters, answer their questions about
Whitman, show the wreckage of Vogel’s airship, and offer to help Digging for Whitman’s find slowly reveals the disintegrating
dig out Whitman’s discovery. rubble of an ancient mastaba, a forerunner of pyramids, about
Local superstition says the mountain is a source of mystical 40 feet wide and 160 feet long. This is an exciting archaeological
earth energy, blessed by Allah. To Alice Whitman or a sharp- find, since all other known mastabas were built far to the north
memoried character, that may suggest the “Martian energies” of before the pharaohs came to Kush. Its long axis points north-south,
Whitman’s theorem. toward Jebel Barkal.
For only £1, the characters can hire locals to dig the sand away The rubble reveals patterns like a house, with rooms separated
from Whitman’s ruins. It will take many hours, and can only be by thick walls. In the north end, stairs lead far down to the south,
half done by night. toward the mountain. That surprises a character who is well-versed
In the meantime the characters or their guides might realize in Academics (Archaeology) or is an expert in Academics (His-
something is amiss. A character who makes an average Empathy tory), because mastabas were built not with stairs but with simple
roll (it is easy for a Sudan native, or hard for a character who openings like chimneys leading to the burial chamber below. The
speaks none of the local languages) realizes some of the villagers chimney would allow the soul to rise and animate a statue, usually
seem furtive and on edge. The characters have until nightfall to hidden within the walls, and so return to life. There was no need
winkle the truth out of them. for stairs. This mastaba must have served some function other
The villagers at first say they know nothing about Vogel, but than or in addition to burial.
if the characters seem open and honest, and describe Vogel’s The stairs lead deep beneath the earth, through bedrock. Less
crimes, they can attempt a single tough Diplomacy roll. (It’s sand coats the floors the farther one goes. They finally end in a
only an average roll if Alice Whitman is with them and speaks large, high chamber held up by columns. The columns and chamber
indignantly about the attempted abduction.) If it succeeds, the are carved in a very early Egyptian style quite distinct from the
villagers confer and then tell everything. If it fails, the villagers other Jebel Barkal pyramids.
leave the characters to their own devices and return to the vil-
lage—until they attack after dark.
All attacks that night are at −2 in the dim moonlight.
Vogel showed two canny-looking (Intelligence 3) Merawi men
The Body
how to use the experimental gun. Each has the equivalent of one Past the first chamber, a short corridor leads toward another,
point of Gunnery skill that applies only to this gun, for a total narrower chamber. But in the corridor is a grisly find: the body
rating of 4. Only one of them is needed to fire it; the other holds of one of Vogel’s soldiers, an engineer sent down to explore. He
a small lamp to illuminate the complex switches and wheels. The is well preserved after weeks in the darkness. A character who
gun is 2,000 feet from the area around Whitman’s dig site, so the makes an average Medicine roll can tell he died from unusually
gunner aims two rounds before each shot to offset the −2 penalty swift asphyxiation.
for medium range and the penalty for visibility. Searching near the body, a character who makes a hard Percep-
A character on the ground who looks up at Jebel Barkal for foes tion roll finds a stone in the floor that gives a little under pressure.
can spot the gun and its crew’s little lamp with a hard Perception roll. The walls on either side of that stone are carved with ancient
The village has two dozen tribesmen strong enough to fight. symbols representing the breath of life. One of them is slightly
They have the same stats as Dervish raiders (see page 25) but recessed, revealing a crack in the bedrock.
wield only spears, scimitars, daggers, and bows. As they sneak Taking samples and examining them with an average Science
up on the characters’ camp, any character on watch can attempt (Chemistry) roll finds traces of an unrecognized mineral powder
an average Perception roll to hear them in the distance. that must have been sealed behind the wall and released by the
The Merawi have no stomach for a protracted fight. If two or trap to disperse in the air. It is swiftly lethal when inhaled but the
more of them fall, or if the characters dig in with firearms and characters are safe as long as they do not snort it from the ground.
can’t be dislodged by the gun, all the Merawi villagers flee and Its unearthly origin and further scientific properties we leave to
leave their town abandoned until the characters depart. the reader’s invention.

28
 greater glory still. He followed the trail of stars from the house
The Ruined Chamber of the forbidden king to the chamber of night in the house of
Amun-Ra.” Whitman circled “house of Amun-Ra” twice.
The second, narrower chamber is carved with star motifs and The notebook also has fragments of a story by the ancient
contains the broken sarcophagi of Egyptians dead five thousand Greek historian Strabo that say the great pharaoh once visited the
years. Hieroglyphics which might have identified them by name Pillars of Hercules without ever departing from Kush. Nearby,
were carefully and thoroughly destroyed millennia ago. Whitman wrote “Node??”
A character who knows a little about Academics (History)
recognizes Amun-Ra as a prominent sun god of ancient Egypt,
The Corridor of Stars especially revered by the Kushite pharaohs. The “house of Amun-
Ra” is almost certainly a temple. There are countless temples
A tremendously long corridor leads out of the second chamber. It to Amun-Ra. If the characters consult a map of the region and
stretches away into blackness, far beyond the reach of any source trace a line south from Jebel Barkal, the line comes near only
of light. Lantern or torch light catches in bright blue crystals set one: the ruined temple of Amun-Ra at Meroë. In fact, a character
into the corridor walls like stars. On the walls beside the corridor’s with advanced knowledge of Science (Physics) could spend a
entrance are strange carvings. They depict a lone priest walking day or two plotting the position of the long corridor of stars
into the corridor among the stars. beneath Jebel Barkal more precisely. A line following it leads
If a character enters the corridor, the nearest blue crystals south-by-southeast and intersects with the Amun-Ra temple at
softly glow, somehow drawing energy from the earth beneath Meroë precisely.
Jebel Barkal. The subterranean stars give faint illumination as the The notebook bears another page of great interest, mostly
character walks. A character who enters the corridor alone eventu- scorched. Whitman sketched parts of the map to show the align-
ally emerges into the final chamber, safe and sound. The corridor ment of certain symbols, amid sketches of constellations and
is precisely 1,000 Sacred Egyptian cubits long, about 1,720 feet. notes in Egyptian hieroglyphics that indicate seasons. A symbol
If two or more characters are ever in the corridor at the same for Mars is circled vigorously. Alice Whitman, or a character who
time, the nearest crystals grow brighter and brighter until they is a recognized expert in Science (Physics), can decipher more.
are painful to see. After about one minute (ten rounds), there is Whitman was using the map to make correspondences with the
a burst of blue-white light. It is an attack roll of 8 N against each positions of stars to point to locations. One location he labeled
character in the corridor. Another attack follows each round as “J.B.” Another he labeled “M.—Amun-Ra?” Another is not on
long as two or more characters remain in the corridor. The light Earth at all—it is the symbol for Mars.
does not target characters’ bodies. Dropping prone is an effective Whatever that means, the characters should soon discern Whit-
way to avoid them, but not perfect unless the character holds man’s trail. They might find him and the villain Vogel both among
absolutely still. A character who crawls while prone suffers a the pyramids of Meroë.
4 N attack each round rather than 8 N, but gets no benefit from
active defense.
Sadly for the scientists among them, the characters have no way
to learn who created this deadly trap, or how, or why.
By Desert to Meroë
The characters have few good options for their pursuit of Whitman
The Sanctuary and Vogel to Meroë. The Nile winds far to the east before bending
south and west again. Following the roads along it would take
The long corridor ends in a small chamber of polished, smooth weeks. The river itself is broken by both the Fourth Cataract and
black stone in an ovoid (egg-like) shape. In the wall opposite the Fifth Cataract before it nears Meroë. And it passes fortifica-
the corridor stand the remains of a ceremonial oval arch of some tions at Abu Hamed and Atbara where the Khalifa’s emirs may
strange black metal. The rest of the chamber was long ago smashed ask troublesome questions.
to useless rubble; the metal of the arch is unharmed and shows Vogel, and Whitman before him, instead crossed the Nile at
no sign of corrosion or tarnish. The characters can only guess Merawi and took the ancient caravan trail into the Bayuda des-
the function of what may have been indentations and sockets ert. It runs for about 160 miles to Metammeh on the Nile. Boats
in the walls. Within some pieces of black rubble the characters can carry travelers across to Shendi. From Shendi it’s 25 miles
can see veins of greenish crystal, likewise of unknown origin. If northeast to the pyramids of Meroë.
taken for study, it baffles any geologist no matter how complete Guides who know the Bayuda measure legs of travel by the
the laboratory. well: Across the river at Merawi to Abu Dom, there to hire camels
The sanctuary is littered with the remains of Dr. Whitman’s and laborers, one day. Thirty miles from Abu Dom to the wells at
camp, a sign that he came this far safely, which is a relief to Kaumk, three days. Twenty-five miles from Kaumk to the wells
Alice: pencil nubs, empty food tins, the black remains of a tiny at Merawi (a different Merawi), three days. Eight miles further
campfire where Whitman braved the smoke in order to make tea. to the wells at El Kalas, one day. A long trek of forty miles to the
A charred notebook sits in the ashes and coal of the makeshift wells at Abu Halfa, four days. Fifteen miles from Abu Halfa to the
firepit. Vogel took the papers he needed and had his men burn wells at Gakdul, two days. Forty miles from Gakdul to the wells
the rest, but they did an imperfect job. The fire burned out while at Abu Klea, four days. Fifteen miles from Abu Klea to the wells
leaving some pages intact. at Shebacat, two days. Ten miles from Shebacat to Metammeh,
The notebook is filled with hieroglyphics and Meroitic script, one day. Three weeks all told. Guides recommend against rushing
attempted translations scratched through and rewritten, sketches the journey, but the characters’ urgency may prevail.
and notes. Last come a few translated lines: “Before he looked See Desert Travel on page 27 for important rules for the
north with holy eyes, the great pharaoh turned his eyes south to journey.

29
 ●● The Warlord: The characters meet a Jalayin warlord, Emir
Encounters in the Bayuda Abu Sirawi el Bedawi, riding with a band of about 10 Dervishes
armed with spears, shields, and scimitars.
The caravan road runs over wide, glaring, parched expanses of Sirawi attempts to bully the characters into going under his guard
rolling sand and between dark, stony buttes. It passes a number directly to Omdurman, whatever they tell him of their destination.
of squalid villages built around wells, homes and resting-places He means to bring them in like a prize and humiliate his rivals
for nomadic Arabs. These are generally neutral to the characters on the frontier who let them pass so easily. Sirawi is quick to
and willing to provide aid. They have learned to accommodate anger and quicker to shout and threaten. But all depends on the
thirsty and exhausted travelers, but they expect small gifts and characters’ demeanor. If they are stern and stubborn without being
signs of respect for that courtesy. insulting—he cannot stand to be shamed in front of his men—or
Pick one of the following encounters for every few days on the if they offer £20 worth of baksheesh for his “consideration” and
journey between Merawi and Meroë. thoughtfulness, he agrees to back down. But only after they swear
●● Desperate Village: The characters arrive at a well and find to go to Omdurman to report to the Khalifa after they finish their
the village has been overturned by raiding brigands who deserted oh-so-important errand.
the Khalifa’s armies. The villagers hide when the characters If the characters travel with Abri Bey, he sees Sirawi coming
approach, and only come out if the players make every effort and warns the characters that the emir is notoriously rapacious
to seem friendly. The village’s fighting men are away by the and vicious; they must let Abri do the talking and gird themselves
Khalifa’s commands, leaving old men, young boys, and women. for the worst. In fact Abri and Sirawi are old rivals—not enemies,
The raiders killed the village elder. An old woman, Asima bint precisely, but just this side of it.
Abdallah el Bedawi, seems to be the voice of authority, but by Abri Bey’s presence could make things better or worse. The
long habit she is extremely reluctant to speak to male strangers. two Arabs are suspicious and loud, and seem to be working them-
A male character needs a tough Diplomacy roll to draw her out; selves up to an argument that will turn deadly. If a player has a
a female character has no trouble. Otherwise only a village boy wise-sounding interjection, one of the characters can attempt a
named Muhammad, who hid from the raiders but whose mother Diplomacy roll. Success defuses the tension, causes the Arabs to
Ghaniya was taken, speaks to the characters until his grandmother laugh off their hot tempers, and causes Sirawi to let them go with
(Asima) scolds him and he flees. only their promise to report to Omdurman. Failure embarrasses
The raiders departed only the day before. They rode in by night, Abri Bey, and since he can’t take that out on the characters who
nine of them carrying spears and swords. They slew the old men, are paying him, he takes it out on Sirawi. A last, deadly insult
and the boys and women who put up a fight, gathered up the young leads to swords drawn and rifles shouldered.
women and remaining boys as captives, and departed at the next If Anania the Greek guides the characters, he encourages the
sundown. They rode toward a rocky promontory 10 miles north, characters to offer gifts and plies Sirawi with flattery. Sirawi
where desperate travelers sometimes go for its muddy, alkaline pool. knows the merchant well and disregards him, suspiciously asking
The villagers have nothing whatsoever to offer the characters the characters why they are so far from the road to Omdurman.
but their friendship, and so Asima does not ask for help. But if Awkward answers may require Diplomacy; if they do, and it fails,
the characters set out to rescue the captives and avenge the dead, Sirawi begins to grow angry and intractable. At that point Anania
she weeps, thanks them, and begs to know their names so that abandons the characters altogether: he tells the emir every detail
she can tell everyone of their bravery and kindness. he knows about the characters’ actions and plans. Only bloodshed
The brigands have camped in the lee of a low rock formation will keep the characters from being taken prisoner. Sirawi then
that stands over a brackish, muddy pool. They have little disci- sends Anania on his way in peace.
pline. They set only one man on watch atop the rock at a time, If the characters or their guides tell Sirawi that they rescued
and as the characters approach the guard is distracted tormenting captives from the brigands on page 26, his demeanor changes
a captive young woman he has brought with him. Use the stats swiftly. Asima bint Abdallah el Bedawi is Sirawi’s cousin. Unless
for Dervish Raiders from page 25. The characters can kill all the characters give him reason to conclude they are lying, he of-
the brigands, or turn them over to the next band of Dervishes they fers his hand in the European way and tells them that they have
meet for summary execution. Either way they will earn valuable his thanks. If they have trouble with any Dervish in the Bayuda
goodwill among the Bayuda clans. as far as Shendi, they should say that Emir Abu Sirawi el Bedawi
●● Haboob: A tremendous dust storm rolls across the characters. has given them his friendship and protection.
Their guides recognize it in the distance and hurry to make camp ●● Lions: This encounter takes place only near the end of the
and secure everything. Every character loses a minor belonging or journey, within a few miles of the Nile, where the pink desert
two, and each must make an average Survival roll. Each character sand gives way to scrub grass. A pride of lions has been driven
who fails loses something critical to the storm: a necessary belong- to desperation by the famine. Four females stalk the characters
ing, a riding animal, or a non-player character servant or friend, from a mile or two off by day, and then close in at the dark of
whichever is most appropriate. A brief but severe rainstorm follows night. They try to kill and drag away a camel or horse, if one is
the haboob, turning all the dust to mud that dries within an hour. available, or a character or non-player character who ventures
●● Fever: This encounter strikes only after the haboob. A few away from camp. They can be driven off with a sustained series
days after the storm, each character must make a Body roll. Each of gunshots, or if one lion is slain or two or more are injured. Use
character who fails comes down with a debilitating fever. A fever- the stats for Large Cats in the Space: 1889 Core Rules, page 27.
ish character takes one point of nonlethal damage per day and
suffers a −1 penalty on every action. The character may attempt a
Body roll once per day to recover; after four successes, the fever
lifts. In a modern hospital this would barely be interesting; in the
Metammeh and Shendi
wilds it could be deadly. The caravan road ends at Metammeh, a sprawling Nile trading
town that is home to many Jalayin Arabs, including the tribe’s chief

30
emir. Khartoum and Omdurman lie only 100 miles southwest; the Two miles east of the ruins stand the pyramids of Meroë on two
characters have come to the heart of the Mahdia. lines of hills separated by a valley, rising sharply from a sprawling
Across the Nile from Metammeh stands Shendi, a cluster of half tumble of basalt in the sands.
a dozen substantial forts built of dried Nile mud set a thousand Guides from Kabushiya say another large party of Europeans
feet back from the river. German-built Krupp cannons in the came not long ago. Probably a week or two; how much of a lead
forts face north along the Nile. Shendi has many houses, huts, did Vogel still have on the characters? Many weeks before that,
and workshops, and stables for cavalry; there is excellent grazing another European came, alone but for a pair of young servants from
along the banks of the Nile nearby. Characters with advanced Merawi. The lone European explored the ruins and the pyramids.
knowledge of Academics (History) or who read their Sudan When the other Europeans came, they joined their camp with his
travel guides carefully know that some say Shendi was home to at the ruins of the Temple of the Sun. They helped Whitman dig
the biblical Queen of Sheba. in the ruins and then among the pyramids. Then one night they
If the characters are accompanied by Anania or Abri Bey, departed, leaving nothing behind. None of the locals know where
their guides can simplify things by helping the characters pose they went or even in which direction. If the characters ask care-
as merchants or harmless academics. The more the characters act fully, they find none of the locals actually saw the Prussians or
like soldiers, the more suspicion they will arouse. Whitman leave. They only noticed that their camp in the pyramids
If the characters claim to have the protection of Emir Abu Sirawi had been unexpectedly taken down.
el Bedawi, and they seem honest about it, that earns them a great
deal of trust. An emir who knows Sirawi will escort them and see
that they cross the Nile and depart Shendi in peace. The Temple of the Sun
At the edge of the ruins of the ancient city lies an extensive ruin
Captured! that some historians think was a palace while others claim it was
a temple of the sun god Amun-Ra mentioned by Herodotus. It
If things go very poorly, the characters could soon find themselves rises in terraces to what may have been a sanctuary, where lie the
captured and brought before the Sheikh of the Jalayin tribe, Feki remains of an obelisk. Looking closely, characters can find flecks
Klahaf Allah. This stern, white-bearded man is clearly revered by of ancient yellow and blue among the crumbling tiles.
his tribesmen. A character well versed in Academics (History) or The characters have little trouble finding the remains of the
who is fluent in Arabic recognizes that “feki”, related to “fakir”, German camp. They took their tents and supplies when they left,
indicates a wise or holy man. Khalaf listens first to his people; but they left refuse pits that they dug not far from the Temple of
if a Dervish emir says the characters are spies, Khalaf agrees the Sun.
they are spies and says they must be sent to the Khalifa at once. Whitman’s clues pointed to a temple of Amun-Ra in Meroë,
Only if the characters give him a convincing argument—such and he spent a great deal of energy exploring the Temple of the
as by telling him of mystical powers they expect to find at the Sun and then another, even larger Temple of Amun that was built
end of Whitman’s trail in Meroë—does Khalaf change his mind. a few hundred years later. The rubble at both temples has been
In that case he is likely to send a band of his trusted Dervishes excavated and sorted with care, thanks to the diligence of Vogel’s
to accompany the characters to Meroë—and then take them to men. The remains say nothing to the characters, beyond the in-
Omdurman to present their discoveries to the Khalifa.
If worse comes to worst, the characters could find themselves
captured for delivery to Omdurman and the judgment of the Khalifa.
We leave the details to the imagination of the game master. The
Khalifa lives in splendor in his new fortress despite the poverty of
his country. He hates the British for their long years of imposing
corrupt Egyptian rule on the Sudan. He firmly believes that his
mission, inherited from the Mahdi, is to conquer the world in the
name of Islam, starting with Abyssinia in the east and Egypt to the
north, but he is cunning and worldly. He responds well to offers
that may increase his power. But he would be just as happy to put
the characters in a dungeon for many years to come.

The Ruins of Meroë

The characters can follow maps and clues from Whitman’s notes
to the vicinity of his last dig site, and then hire Nubian guides
from the village of Kabushiya to bring them to the site itself.
Meroë was for hundreds of years the capital of the Kingdom
of Kush. Jewish legend says it was home to the Queen of Sheba.
It flourished for a thousand years before it was abandoned. Its
largely unexcavated ruins are scattered over an area nearly a mile
across, often indistinguishable from rough stones. They lie a little
more than half a mile east of the Nile, where rough grasses and
barely farmable soil give way to hardy trees and then nothing
but sand and rock.

31
nate fascination they may hold for historians. The only clue may The dials and wheels have been set at symbols whose meanings
be too oblique to decipher: the pieces of the obelisk in the old cannot even be guessed at. Each could be turned to other symbols
temple and the altar in the later temple have been carefully cleaned or to a blank spot with no symbol.
so Whitman could take careful rubbings with pencil and paper. The chamber smells faintly of blood, and dried blood stains
One large fragment of the obelisk is set carefully with its relief the floor. A character who searches the bloodstains carefully and
facing upward. It shows a figure that seems to be a king lying on succeeds at a Survival roll finds enough traces of fur and footprints
a funeral bench beneath a field of stars. A character well-versed to conclude that camels were slain here and dragged toward the
in Academics (History) notices that there are no hieroglyphics arch. But other things may be more pressing.
to identify the figure, only a symbol that seems to indicate that Alastair Whitman—a fifty-year-old academic scorched by the
the figure has no name. A nameless king, perhaps? desert sun, wearing ragged and travel-stained Arab robes—stands
like a statue near a cluster of those levers and wheels. Dust stirred
by the characters’ arrival traces soft motes of light against the
The Pyramids of Meroë motionless scientist. He seems to be surrounded by a field of
strange energy. His unblinking face bears a look of determination,
The pyramids of Meroë stand in three distinct necropolises, built perhaps even desperation.
out of the rock thousands of years ago when Egypt was ruled by
the pharaohs of Kush. The wind whistles uneasily through their
shattered remains.
The Meroë pyramids, like many at Jebel Barkal, are small by the
Whitman's Confession
standards of Giza and uniquely narrow. The largest is just under Whitman is trapped in a kind of stasis. It can be undone by resetting
100 feet tall with sides rising at nearly 70 degrees. A rectangular all the dials to their blank positions, which deactivates the strange
entryway stands next to each pyramid, facing east in the direction machinery. When this happens, Whitman lets out a ragged gasp
of the rising sun. Inside is a shrine where offerings were left for and then falls to the ground, clutching his chest. Blood begins to
the dead, buried in an inaccessible chamber far below. seep out of his ragged, travel-stained shirt and coat and onto the
The pyramids were built for kings, queens, and their sons and black floor from a bullet wound near his heart.
daughters. Most were excavated, badly damaged, or demolished in He looks around in shock. The characters have precious little
1834 by treasure-hunters led by Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini. time to question him.
The south cemetery contains nine pyramids and nearly two If Alice Whitman is present, naturally she rushes to her father
hundred smaller tombs, long-since desecrated by grave robbers. in alarm. He is grateful to see her one last time, and they have a
The north cemetery contains 41 pyramids and three smaller tombs. deeply emotional reunion. But he is the first to say that he does
The west cemetery contains about 113 small tombs, mostly ruins. not have enough time. He must tell what he has done—and what
The Prussians established a camp near the south cemetery. Vogel hopes to do.
Several pyramids have been partially unearthed, the rubble re- Whitman’s story depends on whether Vogel successfully ab-
moved from their entryways to allow access to the shrines within. ducted Alice in Glasgow.
One pyramid, very notably, has an extensive excavation in If Vogel had Alice as his prisoner when he finally found Dr.
front of it. A long trench has been dug to lead steeply downward Whitman, the Prussian used that fact to coerce Whitman’s coop-
into the ground beneath the pyramid. That pyramid’s shrine is eration. Vogel told Alice to tell her father that his presentation
interesting to a character well-versed in Academics (History). It received only mockery in Glasgow. She did, but said there was
bears no signs or marks whatsoever to indicate the royal person- no way to know what sponsorship it may have received, because
age supposedly buried underneath. The shrine is decorated only the bombings interrupted everything. Vogel brushed that aside.
with the faintest remains of painted stars. He said he was there, and he offered immediate assistance and
the promise of funding and state-of-the-art scientific equipment.
Whitman acquiesced, because he had little choice, but he resented
The Chamber of Night the coercion.
If Vogel did not have Alice with him, he told Whitman that
Beneath the pyramid, the trench does not open into the expected the British made a mockery of his daughter’s presentation. He
burial chamber for a king or queen. Instead they find a wide, said Alice remained in Glasgow to speak on her father’s behalf,
ovoid or egg-shaped chamber of curving black granite, polished though it was clearly futile. But Vogel saw the great value in
to a sheen. The chamber is empty. An oval arch of uncertain Whitman’s work that the British would not. He came to sponsor
design—even an expert in Academics (History) cannot identify him on behalf of the German Empire. Whitman acquiesced, but
it—stands decoratively against the far corner. The arch is built was unhappy to be working under foreign sponsorship and at first
of some unknown black metal exactly like that found at Jebel hoped to rectify that.
Barkal. Within the black metal of the arch black crystal dodeca- Whether Whitman’s partnership with Vogel was willing or not,
hedrons are set. he soon learned that Vogel had dire plans for his work.
Set into the wall to either side of the arch are ancient levers and
dials and wheels. Between and beneath them are greenish crys-
tals, and the black rock is veined by thin lines of the same color.
It looks very much like the sanctuary beneath Jebel Barkal, but
Whitman's Discovery
intact. If they douse their lights, after a short while the characters With shining eyes, Whitman says that he discovered nothing less
will notice the crystals and veins are glowing faintly. than a gateway built by the Ancients using unfathomable science.
The walls near the arch are marked with symbols like those on A man could step through a gateway on Earth and emerge from a
the ancient map, symbols that look like hieroglyphics but are not. gateway on Mars, as easily as stepping from one room to another.

32
Whitman called it the Crystal Bridge, for the crystals that seem of his crime. Claiming he intended to test the bridge, he set the
to be at the heart of the ancient science. dials in a way that he thought would not transport their bodies but
The first breakthrough came at Jebel Barkal. He found a few only fix them in place, holding them in stasis. Just as he activated
ancient metal plates engraved with dots, lines, and alien symbols. the final key, Vogel saw Whitman’s intent and shot him. The stasis
They did not seem to originate in Egypt, although he soon identi- activated—but Whitman understood the machinery too poorly,
fied some of the dots and lines as a location map of the pyramids and it extended only far enough to envelop him.
of Meroë and of Jebel Barkal. Coincidentally, he also discovered Presumably Vogel used the bridge as it was intended. If so,
that they matched some Martian structures. then he is no longer in the Sudan.
Only at the Meroë site did he fully comprehend the genius of the Whitman can tell the characters how to set the bridge for the
Ancients. The maps did not merely give the locations of faraway journey that Vogel took. He had determined it using the ancient
sites, they indicated the keys to use with the Crystal Bridge to maps and a magnetometer, corresponding astronomical, magnetic
reach those locations. The maps and the Crystal Bridge opened data with a site not in the Sudan, not even on Earth—but on Mars!
pathways he once thought impossible. This discovery would If none of the player characters can save him, Whitman soon
revolutionize the sciences. perishes from blood loss (Health -3 and dying), having held on
Vogel saw a different kind of revolution: “The Crystal Bridge with tremendous fortitude to tell the characters his last secrets
would overturn national orders more completely than space and allow them to put a halt to Vogel’s dream.
travel ever could. Control of the Crystal Bridge would ensure If the characters do not awaken and interview Whitman, they
Germany’s dominance of the world, and Prussia’s dominance might learn these facts from journal entries that they can find in
of Germany, and the military upper classes’ dominance of Prus- the ruins, perhaps in a spot where he covered them with a stone
sia.” No longer would common laborers have recourse to demand bearing the symbol of Amun-Ra.
favors and money from their betters—not when their labor is not
required to move between worlds! When Vogel thought of the
Crystal Bridge, he saw German regiments marching triumphantly
across the solar system and then the universe. He became, Whit-
The Bridge
man hardly needs to add, quite insane. If Whitman is right, Vogel and his men are now on Mars, perhaps
Whitman realized all this too late. He had been working closely at a site of even greater power than this one. Thanks to Whitman,
with Vogel to decipher the symbols and the workings of the bridge, the characters have everything they need to follow the villainous
lost in his passion for discovery. Only at the end, when they real- Prussian. Do they dare take the Crystal Bridge?
ized they had all that they needed, did Whitman see the enormity

Chapter 5: The Crystal Bridge

Wherein our heroes confront ancient secrets and a long-sought nemesis

If the characters follow Whitman’s instructions in setting the di- mostly away by the passage of incalculably long years. Within
als and wheels of the Crystal Bridge, there’s a low, urgent hum the surfaces, greenish crystals and crystalline lines glow faintly.
of power and the arch suddenly fills with pale, blue-gray light. It Flanking the corridor stand two surprised-looking guards in
gives off a smell of ozone and a tingle of energy that makes hair the ragged remains of Prussian uniforms—Vogel’s men. They
stand on end. Every instinct says to back away from it. Camels gape for a moment and call out foolish questions (“Who are you?
and other beasts retreat from it, noisily complaining. Reaching out What are you doing here?”) before one thinks to aim his rifle and
to touch the energy in the arch, there’s an unshakeable aversion instruct the intruder to surrender. The other guard runs away down
like you’re reaching for something deadly. the corridor to warn others.
A character who touches the light instantly feels an overwhelm- The guard should prove easy to overpower. He is below the
ing surge not unlike electricity—and vanishes. The character characters, so they can get out of his line of fire by simply dropping
stumbles blinking onto a new world. to the floor and crawling. The greatest danger will be to newcomers,
who stand blinking helplessly in the arch for one combat round
after arrival. If the guard lives long enough to see his precarious
A New World position, he too retreats down the corridor for reinforcements.

The first character through sees a large chamber of black stone with
a ceiling that curves overhead. The character stands on a raised
Memories of Light
floor of the same black stone. An oval arch behind the character
is filled with the same light and frightful energy; touching it leads The corridor opens after a short distance into a wider, open
back to the Pyramids of Meroë. Black crystal dodecahedrons chamber, three hundred feet across. Along the walls at intervals
gleam in the metal of the arch. of a few feet are set large green crystals, one line near the floor,
Steps lead down to a lower floor beneath. A curving wall stands a another near the ceiling, and another in between. At the far side
short distance away, with an opening that reveals a corridor. Every of the chamber another corridor leads away. Faint daylight can
curving surface is carved with unrecognizable hieroglyphs, worn be seen there. From that far corridor the characters can hear faint

33
shouts—they sound German but no words can be made out—and The wall-crystals nearest each guardian-form glow more brightly
occasional, desultory rifle shots. than the rest. A character can attempt to shoot a wall-crystal by
As they approach the wide chamber, shapes of greenish light making a Firearms attack. A crystal has a Size of −8, a Defense
suddenly swirl with a smell of ozone and a hiss of energy. The of 10 and a Structure rating of 2. Destroying one leads Vogel to
characters hear the voice of Hans Vogel booming from the walls. scream in fury and shout orders in German for his men to enter
“Please wait, my friends,” Vogel calls, as the shapes of light the chamber of light and destroy the intruders. The guardian-forms
congeal into vaguely human forms. all vanish as he shuts them off.
“It required the deaths of a few brave soldiers, but now I am
the master of this facility and its wonders,” Vogel says. The shapes
seem to take a flickering step toward the characters. “Surely you
would like to learn its secrets without risking it harm?”
The Perimeter
A tough Empathy roll senses a hint of uncertainty in Vogel’s
voice. How much of this place has he truly mastered? The corridor from the Chamber of Light leads to a chamber where
If the characters pause to speak to Vogel—he can hear them daylight spills in from outside. This was the entry-chamber of the
through the crystals, which also convey his voice and the shapes temple. A black metal door blocked the corridor for untold years;
of light—, he is delighted. The projected light takes new shapes. it has opened since Vogel activated the Crystal Bridge.
They are hard to recognize, as the crystals have had many long Low walls and high pillars stand between the entry-chamber
millennia to come out of focus, but they seem to depict a lush and the red desert beyond. A bridge of black stone extends over
landscape with long canals in the distance. Human or human-shaped a fissure, a walkway for those who need one. From the outside,
supplicants kneel. Other, taller shapes place hands on the first of the entry-chamber with its bridge looks like a small black gap in
their supplicants. More of the tall shapes stand near a glowing a larger mesa of the Astusapes Highlands. The cliff rises overhead
gate that stands among them. They beckon to their cousins and a quarter of a mile.
step inside, vanishing. Vogel’s guards made their camp here. Vogel will not risk letting
Vogel says, “Do you see our history? Doctor Whitman was them camp in the Chamber of Light or by the Crystal Bridge itself.
quite correct. The builders of this place were mighty! They were At the low walls, about a third of them are keeping watch at any
as gods to the primitive creatures that we now call the peoples given time. Another third sleep. The rest stand guard inside the
of Mars. They were as gods to the cavemen of Earth. But now facility, clean the camp, mend clothing, repair equipment, and
they are gone. And now their miracles are mine to command. cook the next meal. Butchered and salted camel haunches hang
Surrender yourselves to my service and share in their power!” from ropes between pillars.
The vague light show fades and then begins again. In the dis- A shallow slope curves into one wall and away to an upper
tance more gunshots fire. If the characters give him the chance, chamber. Only Vogel and his guards go there.
Vogel says, “Have you not guessed that you no longer stand on With the characters intruding from inside, the guards who
Earth? The Crystal Bridge has brought you to Mars! Outside were asleep are up and standing ready. Those who were doing
are savages who worship this place without understanding it. My camp-work have taken up arms to confront the characters in the
men hold them at bay. Soon I will turn the power of this facility corridor that leads to the Chamber of Light.
outward. Then they shall know who commands their worship. The characters can see the reason for the guards if they manage
Surrender yourselves to my service and share in my power!” to wait and watch. Once or twice an hour, a large winged shape
If the characters venture into the chamber, Vogel utters a flits by outside: a High Martian warrior braving the guards and
surprised curse in German. After a combat round, the light show daring them to waste their ammunition. The sergeant command-
vanishes and the crystals and crystalline latticework grow dim. ing Vogel’s men tries to keep them from firing so wastefully, but
After another combat round indistinct forms of light and power half the time they can’t resist. They bring down a flyer about once
seem to step out of the walls and rush at the characters. every other day at the cost of a hundred rounds of ammunition.
Vogel screams, “Did I not say that these miracles are mine
to command?” He resumes as much of his monologue as he can
while the characters struggle.
The guardian-forms have roughly human size and shape. One
The Martians
rushes at each character. They have no trouble keeping pace with
the characters and attack every round, whether they move or not. A minor tribe of the Winged Horde kept a perpetual camp on a
The guardian-forms are semi-solid and can be dispersed with mountainside within sight of the temple-mountain, regarding it
damage. Each guardian-form has 10 Health, no active defense, and as a deadly place sacred to the Worm God. When Vogel’s men
5 passive defense. It takes half damage from bullets and stabbing suddenly appeared inside, the outraged Martians immediately at-
weapons and double damage from explosions. At the beginning tacked. Half of them were quickly cut down and the rest retreated.
of each round, a damaged guardian-form “heals” 3 Health as the Some of those flew off to warn their people while the rest kept
crystal projectors reconstitute it. their distance and watched.
Each round, a guardian-form attacks with a dice pool equal to The Prussians sent a few patrols but they did little good. The
its Health, lashing out with scorching plasma for Lethal damage. Martians know every inch of the region and can hide or launch
An attack that does 4 or more damage dazzles the target, who ambushes with impunity.
then suffers a penalty as if in dim light for a round. A dazzled Martian reinforcements came after two days, a hundred warriors
character who is dazzled again becomes blind for a round, then from the campers’ tribe with three small war kites. They now have
remains dazzled for a round. camps above the temple, safe from rifle fire unless the soldiers
Within 50 feet of the far corridor, a guardian-form grows less make a difficult climb. Word spread to the Winged Horde that
distinct. Its maximum Health drops to 9 at 45 feet from the cor- the hated British—many High Martians have a hard time telling
ridor, and by another point for every five feet nearer. A character one Earthling from another—had staged another surprise attack.
who enters the corridor is safe from the guardian-forms. Some more High Martians are already on the way.

34
 The Control Room
urge to flee in their very nerves. Noses begin to bleed. After five
minutes, each person in the temple takes a point of nonlethal dam-
age. After another five minutes, each person in the temple takes a
A sweeping slope from the entryway leads up to a chamber that point of lethal damage. They feel the agony in their very brains.
was closed off by a black metal door until Vogel’s arrival. The door If the characters look outside, they see the Martians have fled.
opened easily in the hours after the Crystal Bridge’s activation; Not a single Martian is in sight. The characters can cross the
if enough time passes perhaps it will lock again. bridge and flee across the nearest mesa, if they wish; a path leads
The ceiling curves low overhead. Every shining, black stone down to caves in its side where High Martians recently camped.
wall is riddled with green and black crystals and crystalline paths, About twenty minutes after Vogel made his mistake, the temple
dials and wheels and levers, magnetic stones that can be arranged implodes. There is a sound like a crack of thunder and a flash of
like stars in constellations, and countless hieroglyphs recognizable brilliant light that seems to penetrate even the rock of the mesa; then
only where some might have been seen in the control panel among the long, terrible rumbling and roar as the mesa where the temple
the Pyramids of Meroë. That control panel was a faint echo of was built collapses into the egg-shaped cavity it leaves behind.
this one. Its complexity implies staggering potential. If the characters ever make their way back to the gateway that
Hans Vogel has made this room his home. He loses hours stood beneath the Pyramids of Meroë, they find it nothing but
at a time, comparing the copies of the ancient maps Whitman dumb stone. Its power depended on the Crystal Bridge of Mars.
discovered and readings on Whitman’s magnetometer with the
bewildering controls. Guards in shifts of three keep watch, bring
food, clean up, and run errands.
Some of Vogel’s experiments have had utterly no effect. Some
Preventing Catastrophe
have caused alarming surges of power and sound that he scrambled What if against all odds the characters stop Vogel from destroying
to undo. Some have yielded useful tricks, like the ability to activate the Crystal Bridge? When the army of High Martians arrives they
the recording and the guardian-forms in the Chamber of Light. will attack the temple and either slay or enslave everyone inside.
If the characters seem likely to overcome his soldiers in the Before that happens, perhaps the characters can join forces with
perimeter room, Vogel’s guards set up a desperate last defense Vogel’s men and fight their way past the smaller force or even
on the slope while he attempts a last trick. Having seen Whit- seize a war kite. Or perhaps the characters leave Vogel to his own
man create a stasis field on Earth, Vogel believes he can activate devices and retreat back across the Crystal Bridge to the Sudan.
one of far greater scale around this facility. He means to freeze If they leave the Crystal Bridge in Vogel’s hands, eventually he
everyone not in the control room itself, perhaps even the Martians makes a mistake that destroys it. If they leave it in the hands of
camped atop the mesa overhead. He has not made the attempt the High Martians, they make a mistake that destroys it even more
before because he was still testing the machinery. Some part of quickly. If the characters are somehow quick and clever enough
his mind knows the enormous risk. But desperation lends him a to save the Crystal Bridge, it may allow them to reshape the bal-
deadly sense of certainty. ance of power in the Solar System. We leave those remarkable
The quicker the characters rush toward the control room, the developments to you.
more shortcuts he takes. As they come up the slope and his guards
fall, he pulls the final lever to activate the full power of the Crystal
Bridge. There is no going back.
Vogel looks around, gloating, expecting the intruders to freeze
Into the Badlands
in place on his doorstep. Instead he and they and the Martians a
mile away feel only a spine-tingling surge of power that seems Assuming the characters flee the Crystal Bridge and it destroys
to come from all around. An alarming hum of building energies itself behind them, what next? Will they make alliance with any
resonates in the black walls. surviving Prussians? The soldiers see reason more easily with
Vogel soon realizes his mistake. He throws his hands up and Vogel dead and proven so disastrously mad, and could prove
begs the characters to wait. He says an alliance with him and helpful in escaping. The High Martians fled, but after a day or so
his surviving men is the only way to escape the temple and the they return to see what happened and to search for survivors. Do
Martians. If the characters refuse, he falls on his knees and begs, the characters find ways to hide among the mesas that the High
throwing away every bit of the pride that has driven him. But it Martians know so well? Do they make a fighting retreat from
takes only an easy Empathy roll to see the betrayal and murder the poorly-armed but numerous High Martians? There is vicious
that he has in mind as soon as he sees a chance. infighting among the High Martian tribes. Perhaps the characters
can make a treacherous alliance with one chief so he can use their
pursuit to trap or humiliate a rival.
Catastrophe The Crystal Bridge lay in the Astusapes Higlands, north of
the city of Parhoon. What do the characters eventually report to
Lord Bury, or to their friend Tesla, or to Thomas Edison if they
Green crystals in the black walls glow brighter and brighter and took him as a patron?
then shatter. Black dodecahedron crystals slowly start to glow red We leave these questions to you. The characters’ adventure on
and then white. The walls shudder. The characters’ feel a physical Mars has just begun!

35
Everything Jules Verne could have written.
Everything H. G. Wells should have written.
Everything Arthur Conan Doyle thought of
but never published - because it was too fantastic.

On the Trail of the Gods

Since the inventors Edison and Armstrong set out on their first journey
to Mars in 1870, there has been speculation about visitors from other
worlds to Earth as early as the prehistoric times of mankind. Archaeologist
Alastair Whitman believes he has found proof. The characters are invited
to join the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888 where they can learn
about the latest technological inventions and even meet celebrities like
Nicola Tesla. When the exhibition receives threats, they realize that
Whitman’s discovery might be an explosive issue: Not just scientists
are interested in it, and the characters have to take care that this
knowledge does not fall into the wrong hands.

This adventure is set on Earth, especially in Glasgow (Scotland),

Egypt, and the Sudan. The characters will journey through the
Sudan where they will have to beware many dangers, such
as the followers of the Mahdi, who are fighting about his
succession. A long journey up the Nile will take them into
currently unstable territories where the characters will be
on their own. Will they choose the right company? Will
they achieve the rescue of Whitman and escape his
persecutors? The characters will learn the answer
On the Trail of the Gods.
The adventurers can be of any nationality, even
if the starting point of this journey is set in
­Scotland. The events in this adventure challenge
various archetypes, especially Academics, Dis-
coverers, Reporters, Scientists, and Soldiers,
but other adventurous characters will be just
as useful.

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