back to Hamilcar's Refuge

Friday, 29 September 1933

     Just as a small German tank clanked its way into the Portal chamber, Lillian found a secret door! The party quickly scuttled into the safety of the dark passages beyond, and quickly found an ancient Carthaginian secret spy-hole area that looked out into the Portal chamber. From here, the League watched with interest as the Germans opened the Portal and sent their undead troops through -- this triggered some mummies and 6 animated statues of pre-Carthaginian heroes to attack. A battle royale ensued, as the Germans fired all their guns, and the mummies and statues came through the portal to tear the Germans apart! Only a few Germans escaped up the ramp towards the surface, pursued by the remaining mummies.

     Our Heroes came out of hiding to poke around the Portal chamber; the orrery was shut down remotely (the power feed from the Mowe was deactivated). McCracken and DeLacy went through the Portal to investigate what we later called an elevator chamber; some traps and treasures were located. The orrery control panel began flicking its own switches, and a field telephone rang, all to our dismay.

     After some discussion, the party all entered the elevator, which began a several minute descent to ... another Portal chamber! Once there, outside the chamber the party could see the portal cap rolled aside, a few unarmed Germans, and no signs of a recent battle! One of the Germans, Dr. Johan Adelbert, claimed to be part of a peaceful Ahnenerbe archaeological expedition to Hamilcar's Refuge! They were wearing different uniforms and allegedly traveled to the Refuge on a German freighter (the Alexia) from Kiel. Other comments by Dr. Adelbert gave us the strange sensation that maybe we weren't in the world we knew! We waved some guns at them and proceeded to the harbor area of the Refuge, where indeed a steamship with a German civil flag was docked, along with a gigantic submarine (the Kestrel, later determined to be a sister-ship to the Surcouf -- as the Surcouf was built for the French Ministry of Defense in a Boulle Industries shipyard) flying an odd flag -- which may be that of Boulle's organization! Nora recognized one of the sub's officers as being from the very submarine that she had been held captive aboard. Three very strange aircraft were also present.

     The Germans and Boulle-ites here did not seem to be expecting people to be trying to leave the site, so our Heroes scuttled up the scaffolding at the harbor entrance, to the surface, where we stole a German truck and drove to Sfax.

Saturday, 30 September 1933

     We ditched the truck and some of the guns outside of town after midnight, walked into town (which seemed mostly as we remembered it, although the Bertilak was absent), checked into the best hotel, and mostly fell directly asleep.

     At about dawn, the roar of a strange BOAC flying boat taking off from the harbor reminded us all that this was not the world we remembered; the locally-available newspapers (including one in Mandarin Chinese!) and radio broadcasts told the tale of a strange world, a world of space travel and strange Martian menaces! Louis Cunningham, an agent of the League of Nations, approached us at breakfast, and informed us that our sensitives (Nora, Lillian, and Qua Lin) were in danger of being detected, apprehended and taken off to some very unpleasant circumstances if they remained at large in cities of any size. He urged our group to accept the League's protection, and (after much discussion) Our Heroes agreed.

Sunday, 1 October 1933

     An all-day drive over a hundred miles of rocky, unpaved roads to Tunis. Some purchases of wardrobe and other travelling supplies were made there.

Monday, 2 October 1933 - Thursday, 5 October 1933

     Traveling aboard a 6 knot fishing vessel, to a small port between Marseilles and the Spanish border. The newspapers and magazines bought in Tunis were read thoroughly.

Friday, 6 October 1933 - Sunday, 8 October 1933

     Our Heroes traveled by train under fake Nansen passports, not stopping in any cities, to Brussels; automobiles quickly took us from the last railway station to Chateau Hougoumont, some sort of League of Nations compound guarded by American troops!

Monday, 9 October 1933 - Monday, 30 October 1933

      The League of Nations and Our Heroes asked and answered many questions! The psychics received some training. Offers were made to provide transplant organs (ew, no thanks) and Agent White (a Martian-produced substance that it's claimed will have all sorts of miraculous effects, and which is disturbingly widely-used on the Earth of Rocketship Empires).  Major DeLacy made a shopping trip to London (hope he didn't run into himself!) and bought an encyclopedia; he also gave tours of the Waterloo battlefields to anyone who would listen.

Tuesday, 31 October 1933

      The League of Nations provided an aircraft which flew us to Tunis.

Tuesday, 1 November 1933

      Our Heroes drove (by well-sprung automobile this time) to Sfax.

Thursday, 3 November 1933

     After waiting for reports from the League of Nations that the harbor at Hamilcar's Refuge contained no shipping, Our Heroes approached in a motorboat, disarmed the dozen or so German guards, and investigated the area. The Germans seemed to have walled up the spiral ramp down to the Portal chamber we'd used before, but a symmetrically-located Portal chamber allowed access to "elevator" for our return to our own world. Once there, it was an easy task to slip past the German guards ...

Onward to New Faces