Space: 1889

 

Part One

 

Characters:
Craig Slee is Jack Camden, lower-class scum, explorer of Mars and hunter with the backing and friendship of one of Her Majesty's Red Captains - think elizabethan privateers in steampunk aircraft. He is the group's tracker.
Kate is Lady Alisa de Winterson, wealthy upper-class socialite and adventuress. She's trying to avoid marrying the dull Frederick, her travelling companion. Her father owns much of Somerset. She'll be doing the forgery.
Victor portrays Captain Charles Edward McGraw, captain of the cloudship Morning Glory and leader of the expediton.
Ginger Richard (sorry, man, don't know your surname) is Herbert Verne, detective extraordinaire, who heads the investigative thrust of the group.
Sam West has the honour of introducing you to another of his particularly adventurous family the Pelhams: Sir Robert Pelham, Doctor of chemistry, inventor of the Pelham Bomb that so terrorised the Irish during the 1886 riots. He will be responsible for the study of exotic weaponry.
Also to star, though not yet active, are:
Richard Cowen as Elisabeth Murray, adventuress. This lady is accompanied by one Bertie, who funds her dashing exploits. The fool.
Mish is Qulina Thoth, Canal Martian cloudsailor and potentially fulfilling the stereotype of native guide. Bizarrely, she sports the most powerful firearm in the party.
Jez and Shell are also to play, but I don't yet have their character names. Jez will, however, be portraying a retired military man.

The first session saw Alisa, Herbert, Sir Robert, and Charles summoned to Martian GHQ; a mission had been assembled, and they were required. One other had been summoned, but evidently the messenger had been bewildered and lost in the Martian woodlands.
The Brigadier-General in charge explained their mission to them; somewhere beyond Moeris Lacus, meteors had impacted across a mountain range reported by Camden to be inhabited sporadically by the nomadic High Martians. Since then, Lacus and a couple of other Martian cities had been besieged by waves of unnaturally agressive High Martians wielding exotic weaponry.
Captain McGraw would be captaining the expedition, led by the Morning Glory and followed by the Brittania Victoriana (or Britvic), Alisa's craft. Their objective? Penetrate this territory, uncover and foil the vile and doubtless either French or German plot, before the Parhoon Rifles yield under the relentless assault.
En route, the group collected Camden from his campsite in the wilds - at which point Sir Robert put the finishing touches to his custard powder-fuelled flamethrower - and continued onward toward the meteor strikes.
While still a couple of hours travel away, the group spotted a black steam train behind them, outpacing them (they were proceeding at 300 miles per day), heading for a semi-settlement area of the High Martians. Mention was also made of a Spanish mission in the area. The train was not quite directed toward the meteor strike area, but McGraw considered it worth investigating. The Morning Glory upped it's speed and overtook the train, and then observed it flicker and seemingly vanish from reality, leaving behind only caterpillar track imprints - and even those trailed off at a certain distance.
They approached the one building of the clearing in which the semi-settlement point rested - a giant domed tower of stone and metal - and landed, instructing the NPCs to lift the ships again immediately. As they continued toward the building, Camden discovered the train's caterpillar tracks - but by the time others came to investigate, they had vanished.
They continued toward the tower and suddenly found themselves able to see teepees pitched all around them - even behind. Sir Robert investigated this phenomenon with great persistence.
Camden continued to the building, stepping beneath it's arch - and found himself in a city resembling the Martian city of Syrtis Major, as it might have looked before Martian civilisation started to fail. Stepping back out, he forgot what had happened - and out of curiosity, returned.
At this point, Sir Robert followed suit - and could not see Camden. He re-emerged, forgot, and imitated Camden's return. This time he noted what he could see around him, and emerged. He was thus able to report his findings to the rest of the group.
There was a ripping sound from above, and then the two cloudships returned to sight, hovering twenty feet from the ground.
Cue much panic from the high martians.
Camden went to what looked like a town hall, requesting an interview with the city's matriarch.
She told him that the monolith had been used before - those who had passed through had returned, homicidal, and rose again when shot, a generation or so before, in the time of Seldon IV. Eventually weapons had been crafted that killed them, and the monolith - as they called the arch Camden had entered - was forbidden to all. They believed the other side to be another, uninhabited planet.
Camden discovered himself, at this point, to appear Martian. Securing a pamphlet explaining why the monolith was forbidden, he returned to the square in which it stood, to be met with Sir Robert setting up his camera, and the rest of the group emerging from the monolith behind him.

 

Part Two

 

Added to the group:
An adventuress and criminal, recent widow of Jonathan (an inventor who failed to adequately duplicate the Pelham bomb, or perhaps was stabbed up by wifey), Tara Manverison, played by Shell.

---
One of Lord Marlborough's contacts clued him in to a supply of exotic weapons that seemed to centre on the Jesuit mission to the High Martians known as Santa Elizaveta de la Buena Rosa. He went to investigate. Already there, in 'mourning' and on honeymoon, were Tara Manverison and the delightful couple of Archibald 'Bertie' and Elizabeth Murray.

At the same time, the Martian-looking Camden approached the party, jabbering in what he believed to be English (but was in fact Parhooni). After a lot of discussion, the party deciphered what was going on and, on observing themselves to appear Martian (to themselves and to the newly-arrived Qulina Thoth, but not to each other or to Camden) Lady Aliza fainted.
They returned to the outside world with written accounts but no memory of what had happened, though the unconscious Lady Aliza had a faint memory of what had happened. Qulina, perhaps because of a biological difference between the races, was unaffected.
Finally returning to the Morning Glory, they went in search of the meteors.

Over at the mission, Lord Marlborough had gleaned word of the meteor strikes and was on his way to investigate, taking with him the other English folk present. The military expedition already en route encountered Lord Marlborough and his retinue taking tea and cucumber sandwiches at the crater rim, having planted the Union Flag.
A discussion ensued, after which Sir Pelham and Camden descended to examine the meteor. To extinguish the blaze around it, they sent four of the RSMs (Red Shirt Muppets, rather than Regimental Sergeant Majors) to shovel sand onto it until the blaze was extinguished.
Not quite paying attention, Sir Pelham asked Qulina to try and shoot a chunk off the meteor for analysis. The shots miscarried, killing two of the RSMs - another, on fire, was stabilized only by the medical attentions of Dr Murray, Medicine Woman. Eventually, Camden got the fire under control and chipped some samples for Sir Pelham - shortly after which, he noted strange runic letters, neither human nor Martian, on the side of the meteor.
At this point, Lord Marlborough was informed of an incoming aerial vessel. However, the party decided to despatch an expeditionary force consisting of Jack Camden, Tara Manverison and Dr Murray to the mission, in case their library had any books that might shed some light on the runes. As they travelled there, they found themselves watched by High Martians wielding green metal rods, one of which glowed faintly at the tip.
Sir Pelham's experimentation on the meteor-substance turned up granite, copper and an unknown green-hued metal.
Future chroniclers will also record this as the moment that the esteemed Sir Pelham's thoughts turned to his next great invention, the custard-fuelled jetpack.
As Lord Marlborough negotiated employment for Qulina, the expeditionary force to the mission found no useful information. Exploring it's streets, Dr Murray was nearly killed by a beam from a green energy weapon. The next shot did kill her husband, burning a hole clean through his stomach.
Assuming the priests to be in league with the rogue Martians, the party fled, trusting to Mrs Manverison's stealth skills to keep them safe.
It was now that Sir Pelham, bartering some of the green metal for liftwood, began construction of the Mk1 Pelham Personal Flier. Also at this point, the approaching aircraft, being revealed as a black Zeppelin, arrived on the scene.
Matters reached an impasse as the party around the fliers returned to the air, anxious to avoid a disadvantage.
The expeditionary force, at the same time, came upon a group of three Martians clustered around a long green stick on a tripod, aimed - Tara found out upon close examination - at one of the party's ships. A firefight erupted, trapping Dr Murray beneath a tree and leaving her unconscious. Jack Camden accounted for each of the Martians with his heavy multibarrelled pistols. Tara promptly stole the large stick.
Retrieving and reviving Dr Murray, the party regrouped. A firefight between Lord Marlborough's craft the Boudicca and the Zeppelin finally (after the Zeppelin twice demonstrated startling survivability, once producing another hydrogen gasbag and once surviving a six-pounder artillery shell to the gondola) went in Lord Marlborough's favour. However, from the air no wreckage could be seen, though much was to be found on the ground.
Also on the ground were tracks - High Martian tracks - that Camden followed to a hole which had once been a geyser while Qulina tested the Mk1 Personal Flier. After some consultation with a trimsman it actually worked, too.
Pelham then built a MkII craft, which worked better - but then his skills were called upon in a different direction.
It seemed that the High Martian was still secreted in the hole. Captain McGraw requested that Pelham produce a Pelham Grenade from the Pelham Bomb carried in the Morning Glory's hold. Succeeding in doing so - though the bomb was activated, killing another two RSMs but survived by the PCs in the blast radius - he conveyed it to the Captain, who attempted to bomb the Martian out. He succeeded only in losing his footing, catching a rope they'd previously lowered into the hole in time to break his fall - and staring into a side corridor. He flung himself into this corridor as a flamewave washed past him.
We left it with the Captain, Tara and Qulina investigating the corridor as dusk fell, while the others had dinner...

 

Part Three

So, as much of the crew tucks in to a rich three-course dinner, Qulina turns the Pelham flamethrower on the mysterious door.
It burns for all of twenty seconds, but burns successfully nonetheless. Sadly, the door is merely coated in soot - apart from two points, which are apparently unmarked and display, in Martian numerals, the number 46.
They retreat to the ships and explain this, at which point Lord Marlborough, seeking assurance from the other PCs then present (all but Captain McGraw, who has ceased to be a PC, and Dr Murray) that they are made of stern stuff, unveils his plan.
The Bouddica, as a kite, will stealth across the night skies to the mission post. At this point, it will deploy five 40-pounder shells into the monastic buildings and ten 6-pounders into the High Martian tents. The two steam launches (Alisa's Britvic and Lord Marlborough's Queen Bess) will deploy what Lord Marlborough calls an 'away team' strike party to, ah, gather evidence and, uh...
Well.
Loot.
This team will consist of four of Lord Marlborough's marines and all of the party except Sir Pelham and Lord Marlborough.
They arranged a number of signal flares, to whit:
Red: The situation is critical
Green: Situation OK.
Blue: Pause a few moments to allow me to get clear, then bombard this position.
Yellow: We don't know what the hell's going on here.
Purple: Fire a starburst shell to illuminate the area.
Orange: Mission accomplished, returning.

Or, as Jez categorised them:
Red - dead
Green - clean
Blue - boom
Yellow - not a clue
Purple - pretty
Orange - marvellous

The Morning Glory, with Captain McGraw, would remain over the meteor site to keep watch.

At this point Sir Pelham designed and built the MkIII Custardless Uppy-Downy Device. (sigh...)
This plan succeeded admirably, up to a point.
The looting worked. The bombardment worked.

Qulina and Tara apprehended a monk who'd been following them (now known as Pablo the comedy Spaniard) and tied him up.

Alisa, Herbert and Jack discovered the abbot's office. It turned out to be a room made entirely out of the mysterious green metal under a wood facade and, once they'd picked the lock to gain access, contained a bizarre iron lung contraption that emitted a blue glow.
Herbert detected the sound of a machine starting up beneath them and he and Lady Alisa managed to achive egress before the door shut and the room lifted up.
Lord Marlborough was at this point nervously examining the two black airships that flanked him. Sir Pelham took the Mk III on a test drive expedition to puncture one's airbag, succeeding only after some time had elapsed.
Trapped in the chamber, Camden managed to activate a touchscreen display above the iron lung type contraption (which contained the abbot) and teleported himself free - largely by accident.
Lady Alisa fired a red flare and a yellow flare.
Lord Marlborough opened up on the airship Pelham wasn't next to, taking out it's airbag. It virtually levelled the church's roof before inflating it's backup helium bag.
Sir Pelham punctured the other airbag, but was blasted across the forest canopy by a hydrogen jet. He finally managed to stabilise his position after an argument with a tree-branch.
The flying room merged with one of the airships, and they 'stealthed' into invisibility.
Herbert Verne sent up a blue flare, and as Qulina and Tara returned to the Queen Bess, Alisa, Herbert and Jack exited the monastery, which was further devastated by shelling.
They returned to the meteor impact site to sleep.
Those of them who'd been in the past-Syrtis Major had disturbing dreams...
In the morning, they questioned the monk, who seemed unfazed by having a pistol pointed at his head, and it all went chaotic...
Herbert, Jack, Qulina and Tara went to investigate the door again. Herbert knocked on it, was yanked through and knocked out by the green-glowing tech. He woke up on the church's altar, with no one in sight.
The others retreated, confused.
Jack went out into the forest, looking for other entrances. He realised he was being shadowed and turned the tables on his attacker, trailing him.
Said attacker turned out to be the black-goop RSM from the previous session, who easily outpaced Camden, but led him four or five miles from the impact.
At which point he found a tent - a tent belonging to Pinkerton Agents Reyes and Kunin. Kunin examined the back of his neck for an X; finding none, these two essentially joined the party as suspicious buggers.
Herbert discovered, in a priest-hole of the monastery, a tunnel of the green metal, leading into a chamber that can be best described as the main room of the 1996 Dr Who tv-movie incarnation of the TARDIS.
Pressing a red button (with German writing on it) he was transported to sixty feet above the ground near the meteor crash sight, and saved by Sir Pelham's intervention on the Mk III.
The party split; Alisa, Tara and Sir Pelham went to the matriarch in the hidden city, while the others went to revisit the monastery and see what was concealed in the TARDIS room.
Sir Pelham discovered that Tara's green stick was the key to killing the 'changed' Martians, and Tara discovered how to operate it. That portion of the party (and I'll probably rule Dr Murray and Captain McGraw) travelled to Syrtis Major and British HQ to explain this and get the weapon to the boffins for duplication.
The TARDIS chamber, Mr Camden discovered by experimentation, moves when you press the green button.
Don't press the green button.
A series of semicomic interludes ended with the party being joined by a formerly-captive High Martian who claims both to be the son of a fishmonger (er, no) and to have gone to Eton (er, no). It is patently obvious to anyone schooled in body language that he believes everything he's saying.
At this point, Camden pressed the blue button.
Don't press the blue button.
The room flipped 90 degrees. Three more presses righted them, but they needed the High Martian's flight to accomplish this.

 

Parts Four & Five

Events conspired to reunite the bold travellers. Adventuring in the TARDIS capsule brought some of them into an underground complex, the corridors of steel and numbered in Koline (Martian trade language). Qulina and Herbert investigated, shooting and injuring a German midget.
He told them a few things about the tattooist (a man who had previously been the German in charge of activating the green rods, or 'boom-sticks', and had run off) but refused to divulge the identity of the German in charge of the operation (a man known as 'The Baron', who is clearly trying to stockpile exotic weaponry).
Subsequent investigation of the underground compound yielded a chemistry lab and an encounter with four Martians armed with the green boomsticks. These killed Herbert Verne (previously injured by Qulina) and Dr Murray, while injuring Qulina and Lady Alisa.
Enter James Smith, engineer, and Captain Douglas Smythe-Holmes (I think), army Captain, mapper, and cannibal. (Richard and Richard Cowen).
Well, not precisely *enter*...
As the group beat a hasty retreat from the now-alarmed German compound, they found a black Zeppelin waiting for them. With a crew with Canadian accents.
They were ushered in, and headed into the unclaimed mountains. On the way they engaged in a firefight with skrill riders bearing boomsticks, using the Black Zeppelin's underslung boomstick artillery. Lord Marlborough brought the Boudicca and the Queen bess, but tragically the Morning Glory, stocked with two Pelham Bombs, was left behind. It was subsequently discovered to have been captured.
Their destination turned out to be a base secreted in Mount Dew (as Camden referred to it) within the Cavern of the Philatelists.
This base was run by Mounties and military men, including Captain Smythe-Holmes (Smiffy to Camden). It's a secret British strike force keeping Mars safe for Her Majesty.
The plan became simpler; the base, using their captured Zeppelin, would try to staunch the flow of new Black Zeppelins; meanwhile, the party would attempt to cut off the supply of boomsticks at source.
That was session four.
Session five dealt in large part with the monolith, explaining how Qulina (from the past) knew English and recognised humanity, and providing the clue that it's memory-retardation might be beaten by a particular type of snuff, incorporating chemicals very nearly like liftwood.
Broadly speaking, some Brits stumbled across the monolith twenty years ago. Being canny chaps, they saw a way to get around the hgih prices of bhutan and liftwood; go and get it from the past, using the black train from session one (run by a German Baron). Qulina had been working for one of them.
Pelham is working on synthesising the snuff.
They've also heard about a new weapon, with a curious *blue* glow, used by the Martians of the past to fend off the supersoldier Martians who came through the monolith...

 

Part Six

The group decided to arm up and explore the underground complex run by the Baron once more; in doing so, they ran into very few immediately-apparent problems.
They found a spiral staircase, leading down, and followed it down into a cathedral-like structure of the green metal (all but Mr Smith, who had gone upstairs and was knocked unconscious.) Within this room were about fifty of the strange iron-lung like contraptions of the type witnessed by Lady Alisa and Camden in the abbot's room, before said room took off.
One of the lungs turned out to contain an unconscious Mr Smith. In exploring the controls, Sir Pelham managed to drop the lung beneath the room, whence it was replaced with a second lung, this one - like most of those in the room - containing a Martian. Much experimenting with the controls later led to a Martian being catapulted out of one of the lungs into Sir Pelham's stomach. It was some time before said Martian awoke, during which time much of the party had left, leaving only Camden and Lord Marlborough (with two marines who operated Smythe-Holmes' Maxim).
When it awoke, Camden followed the Martian, ending up locked in a cupboard falling through the bowels of the planet.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group discovered a corridor full of German doctors slitting the chests of Martians open and decanting black fluids into them, and a trio of uncommunicative Martian guards with green-metal swords - ones which could absorb the energy of the boomstick blasts.
And when Smythe-Holmes shot one through the face, the face grew back.
Continuing to explore the cathedral room, Lord Marlborough ejected and thawed a Frenchman, a German, and Mr Smith (the latter in a different lung position to the one he had originally been in).
Camden found Frederich's room, emptied out now. He rejoined the main group and they discovered a clear dome with views of the outside (including, nearby, a grounded Zeppelin fleet) and a series of boomstick-related artillery pieces.
Lord Marlborough and Mr Smith were rejoined by a vacillating Camden, who discovered how to open the door at the other end of the cathedral. Beyond this door were racks of green-metal helmets. Donning one, Camden found himself coated in a black, rubbery, almost liquid fabric. Going on tenuous logic, he encouraged Lord Marlborough to shoot him in the shoulder.
It hurt. A lot. But the fabric mended itself almost instantly, and prevented the blood from leaving Camden at too fast a rate. The group - Smith, Camden, Marlborough, Hercule, and Heinrich - went to tbe Boudicca for lunch and a tactical discussion concerning this strange operation.
At this point the remainder of the group revisited the cathedral, finding the door at the end open. Sir Pelham informed Smythe-Holmes that if he should don one of the helmets he would have an indestructible head. Smythe-Holmes dissented and tried to move the discussion - and the group - on, but Sir Pelham decided to test the helments. And decided that Smythe-Holmes was a fitting test subject.
He managed to shove the helmet on before S-H could resist.
The good captain did not like this state of affairs; he shot at Pelham, and injured him. Tara knocked him unconscious. Alisa attempted to remove the helmet - it came off, leaving Smythe-Holmes' head completely coated in the black fabric. And injuring him. He woke up. The group left the caverns and met up with Lord Marlborough and company, whereupon further experimentation with Smythe-Holmes and the liquid jumpsuit was undertaken. (Camden had by this point managed to *voluntarily* remove the helmet and the jumpsuit with it.) This experimentation proved almost lethal - and then, suddenly, the black 'fabric' was absorbed into Smythe-Holmes' body. Returning to the Boudicca, the rest of the group fired the forty-pounder and the six-pounders into him.
He regenerated; observing this, they opened up with the Boudicca's new boomstick-cannon mount.
Smythe-Holmes was annihilated.
Richard created a new character - Smythe-Holmes' foreign-office diplomat (and non-sadist) younger brother Colin.
He started play in the past, in the monolith, knowing much of what the group had established, it being suspected that more than a session would be taken to bring a new PC up to speed.
Sir Pelham being convinced that an active time portal is a danger to history, the Boudicca then decided to shell the monolith. The first barrage was converted into white light, a great beam of which shot vertically up from the building (Camden being at this point on the surface trying to explain things to the Martians, and latterly, running for the portal entrance) and shattered Phobos, one of Mars' moons.
Camden found the Matriarch inside, and this time she remembered showing him how to activate a boomstick (as opposed to his last visit, when she hadn't seen the boomstick before, or claimed not to). He went to the British quarter to warn them of the danger of the collapsing monolith; they seemed relatively unconcerned. He went to a bar to get plastered, where he met Colin. The two hit it off more than somewhat.
They met the Baron responsible for running the train, and he seemed surprised too. But now they had a packet of the memory-protecting snuff...

 

Part Seven

Session Seven: Just how dangerous can one mad Victorian Scientist be?
It being apparent to only half the party from the previous session's destruction of Phobos that the monolith's structure was probably impregnable, Sir Pelham decided to take things seriously. Using his chemical wizardry, he assembled a large quantity of Ultraboom, the explosion-enhancing chemical that had made his name. Adding this to a Semtex-equivalent, also homemade by the good doctor, he sought, by the careful placing of explosive charges around the monolith structure, to level the structure. The resultant energy discharge, however, instead shattered Venus. No longer will the Evening Star shine on Earth.
Sir Pelham's analytical mind rapidly turned to other, more important matters; namely, the possibility that a charge from *inside* the monolith could remove Syrtis Major of the past, and thusly stop the monolith from being a problem - striking at a time when the massive superstructure did not surround, and therefore could not protect, the archway.
With this in mind, he constructed a mass of Ultraboom bricks and travelled to the past to build a wall of such, ready to detonate it. Foiled by his lack of basic masonry skills, he was knocked unconscious, but the valiant efforts of engineer Mr Smith ensured that the wall was indeed constructed, the inventor moved to safety, and the wall ignited. Sadly, however, without a true explosive base for the Ultraboom to work off, all it managed to destroy was the archway - the physical extension of the monolith into the past. The time-vortex remained. As did Syrtis Major - and when Sir Pelham regained consciousness, he was met with the sight of the Matriarch storming out of the portal in a rage and demanding some manner of compensation. Thankfully, Mr Smith's later negotiating tactics turned this event from a total loss into a matter of a little gain - as he acquired one ofg Syrtis Major's blue-metal defense artillery boomsticks, which was subsequently mounted on Lord Marlborough's ship the Boudicca.

After a deal more discussion, the group went after the Black Zeppelin airbase spotted a couple of sessions previously. Using the advantage of surprise and the multicoloured boomsticks now available to the group, they were able to destroy much of the fleet before it got off the ground, aided by the sabotage efforts of Lady Alisa, Tara and Mr Smith and a commando raid by the Mounties from the Cavern of the Philatelists.
By the end of this affair Sir Pelham was sulking in his laboratory, having been refused permission to continue his attempts to blow up the monolith at gunpoint. He instead arranged for the Royal Engineers to concrete the entrance up.

 

Part Eight

Sir Pelham renewed his interest in the green metal, continuing to analyse it on a theoretical level until he felt he had sufficient understanding of the alien 'boom stick' technology to build the first Imperial-based boomstick.
He also suggested that, as the monolith was impregnable, why not bomb the train station? And so it was done, levelling part of the route the train had to get out by. An investigative party including Mr Smith, Camden, Lady Alisa and Tara descended into the railway to wait for the train to stop.
When it did, Mr Smith reported to Lord Marlborough, Tara and Lady Alisa kept the German driver talking, and Camden proceeded down the tunnel in the direction from which the train had come. Events were to start happening thick and fast once more:
Lord Marlborough sent in a raiding party headed by Smythe-Holmes and Qulina. Qulina shot and killed the driver without hesitation; Lady Alisa and Tara slipped away down the tunnel, unknowingly following Camden.
Meanwhile, Mr Smith and the rest of the party investigated the train, unearthing the expected bhutan and liftwood from the British warehouses but also...
Green Metal plate. In the station the train had departed from, Camden found more bhutan and blocks of green metal ore. These supplies were rushed to Sir Pelham, who was cvoming up with new variations of the traditional green metal artefacts as fast as he could get supplies.
In order to secure further Green metal, Camden and Smythe-Holmes went to investigate the mines Camden had found beneath the underground complex.
Returning, afterward, to Friedrich's room, they found something they hadn't found before - the room itself was a cunningly disguised elevator. Descending, they met a German and a strage, black humanoid entity. Due to the incredible bluffing skills of Smythe-Holmes (fear the mighty double-six) they managed to pass themselves off briefly as Germans before returning to the surface to gaqther the rest of the group.
During the ensuing firefight, almost the entire German stock of green metal was destroyed, ensuring an end to the supply of new technology carried by the High Martians attacking British lands on Mars. But they also found that this black liquid humanoid was virtually impervious to common or even boomstick assault.
They then fled, before requesting Sir Pelham construct some manner of trap for the creature, which he duly did. The creature was imprisoned, but not before Mr Smith was knocked unconscious and the creature demonstrated a limited shapeshifting ability.
It was then that they learned the identity of this creature; Friedrich, somehow transformed and working for Baron von Gruber, the architect of the party's misfortunes.
The Baron is coming to Mars, but Friedrich appears, at least, to be on their side...

 

Part Nine

During the two weeks run-up to the Count's arrival on Mars, little of great import happened. Lady Alisa bought herself a fashionable residence in Syrtis Major of the present and invited Tara as a more or less permanent houseguest; Qulina had a religious experience and decided to become a better person, or possibly a better killer; Camden acquired some green metal rounds for his twin Lancaster multibarrel pistols from Sir Pelham, who also began investigating the blue metal artillery piece Mr Smith had previously acquired, succeeding in extrapolating it's design principles.
All this despite Tara's repeated seduction attempts (it seems she's going for two deaths in the scientific community).
When the Baron was due in, Lady Alisa sent him an invitation to a party, which was curtly declined.
Camden and Smith, however, tracked him to his townhouse. Smith returned to the party while Camden kept an eye on things.
Tara decided to infiltrate. Dressing up as... sigh... a prostitute, she went to the Baron's address and hung out on the street corner.
No response. Eventually, as the rest of the party (saving Sir Pelham and Lord Marlborough) filtered up to the location, Tara decided to sneak up to the front door and pick the lock, followed by Smythe-Holmes and Lady Alisa.
My memory is not perfect on this, but I think it was Smythe-Holmes whose ineptness at stealthy movement (also a notable feature of his not-quite-late brother) gave the party away. As Tara fiddled with the lock, the door swung open to reveal a tall Teuton pointing a pistol at her head.
Quick as a flash, Camden rose from the bushes and put a round through his head. A firefight began, which Tara and Camden sought to put an end to by stealth.
Sneaking around the back of the building, they forced entry to the rear, sneaked into the entrance hall, and killed those preventing the rest of the group from getting in - just in time to take out the boomstick-artillery piece being set up at the top of the stairs.
Ascending the stairs, where Qulina halted to man the artillery piece (facing down the house's central corridor) the group went to remonstrate with the Baron.
Upon opening the door to his study, Tara was faced with him standing just in front of his desk pointing a revolver at the door (ooh, recurring motif... spooky).
A not unsurprising reaction; she levelled her boomstick and shot him. His cheek burned off, but he was still intact.
Further exchange of fire blew away his uniform and much of the flesh around his chest... revealing a green metal skeleton. Lady Alisa dragged Tara away to try and patch her up. Camden attempted to talk with the Baron, but upon the revelation of Camden's knowledge of the underground complex, the Baron decided he knew too much and tried to kill him. Only Camden's sudden dive saved his life... that, and the green metal bullets.
The chain reaction of the two pieces of green metal caused the Baron to seize up and begin glowing, at which point the party fled the house.
The Baron's detonation took out the entire first floor.
At this point the party returned their attention to the Monolith, one of them having raised an interesting point; could one, if he could find the Syrtis Major entry-point, travel five thousand years into the future? And could one not then steal the miraculous technology of the future to make great profit in 1889?
Camden, however, had other ideas; he intended to repeatedly leap into Mars' past.
10,000 years ago, he emerged into a celebratory parade for one of the Seldons (Mars' imperial dynasty, once upon a time), and left hurriedly.
15,000 years ago, he reached the limits of transport, and instructed a couple of the local High Martians thusly: 'Don't go into the Monolith'. He also found that the black goop could be killed by application of the blue metal, stocks of which had been obtained from...
Mount Dew, where the Cavern of the Philatelists was being hollowed out.
Back in 1889, he nearly got killed by Qulina who, in her re-acquaintance with Martian scripture, had realised who the prophet figure sometimes called Camden and sometimes Jack Seldon actually was. But, thankfully, he talked his way out of it.
They couldn't immediately gain entry to the future, even after Lord Marlborough had the statue which covered the monolith entrance moved. But when they drilled a hole in the nothingness on the other side (the concrete Pelham had arranged to have it covered with), they found they could send Friedrich through.
He wriggled through and returned to reveal that the first thing he had seen was the Union Jack.
They demolished the wall on the other side and stepped through into a bright new future...

FIN.