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November 27, 1934

Deep below Rubondo Island, Our Heroes find evidence that various others -- human and ape, barefoot and booted -- have made the long walk down into the caverns. We come to the shore of a great underground lake, and find a wooden raft; we camp for the 'night'.

Baby Face Nelson dies in Niles Center, Illinois, after a shootout with Federal agents.

November 28, 1934

About when dawn is occurring on the surface, there is an earthquake, followed by a wave of water! Our Heroes are no slouches, and jump onto the raft. The wave recedes, after some aquatic drama; but at least 300' of stairs up a cliff-face have been destroyed by the earthquake and wave. We have no choice but to press onwards, underground.

As we wander along the line of calcified ape monuments, it's clear that many of them have been, hmm, buried with valuable or strange items - including some sort of antediluvian arquebus. Lotta ends up with a golden torc, mounting a very large black pearl (probably worth at least $1000); some gold jewelry; and various pieces of rhodochrosite. We eventually settle down to sleep in an ancient mining site.

Dutch Schultz surrenders to the Federal government to face income tax evasion charges.

November 29, 1934

Early in the morning, a party of 8 large, white apes and a very tall, robed woman appear, travelling along the tunnel in the opposite direction. Nora and DeLacy are able to crudely communicate with them (Gorhkali, while being an Indo-Aryan language nearly intelligible by Hindi speakers, has some structure and vocabulary in common with the woman's language), and after a bit of complicated negotiations, they allow us to continue. The woman and apes are a maintenance team, heading towards where the earthquake occurred -- they call the line of calcified apes "The Hall of Ancestors". The woman has a sort of bat-winged iguana pet, which (it turns out) is also a message-carrying servant. She tells us that the "Hall of Revered Ancestors" (humans rather than apes) is about "two sleeps" further along the caverns; and an exit to the surface world is several sleeps further along past that.

Our Heroes hustle along, a bit concerned that the maintenance party will be angered about the destruction and looting of some calcified apes. At a narrow spot in the cavern, Fury uses some nitrostarch and dynamite to block the cavern.

November 30, 1934

We come to a small village -- 2 of the very tall women (carrying strange two-barreled revolvers), 20 or so apes, and about 100 rather Neanderthal-ish men. The men use primitive mining tools and large knives; they are supervised and disciplined by the apes, who in turn defer to the women. We manage to make peaceful contact, and spend the night at the village; we're able to trade for some gold lumps, food and carbide lamps.

Nora, DeLacy and the more educated members of the party have quite a conversation with the tall women, and learn many interesting facts (or at least tantalizing legends):

Their cavern-country is named Ophir. The women are the Bolgani; the Neanderthal-ish types are called the "Frightful Men", and are slaves to the women and apes. Every few decades, the Frightful Men grow too numerous, and inconveniently surly and disobedient, and the Bolgani kill a lot of them. Most of the Bolgani men have been killed in a great war, which is still underway; their enemies are the tall black demon-types Our Heroes encountered in the Sudan (and which attacked Lotta's ship in Alexandria) and their masters, the lizard-men. The "front" for the war is to the northeast, towards the Sudan (though it's not clear exactly how far).

The Bolgani claim to be descended from the Atlanteans, which they say was destroyed 12,000 to 18,000 years ago (roughly calculated as more than 50 generations of 300 years each). Their legends say that Atlantis was northwest of Africa, west of the Straits of Gibraltar. There is lots of discussion of Lemuria, Morlocks, the reasons for the fall of Atlantis, etc.. The Bolgani blame the Lemurian use of machines that "broke time" for the millenia long war with the black demons and lizard men.

The "proto-Hyborean" language which Our Heroes have encountered in their previous adventures (and carved on the tomb-plinths of the Ancestors) descends from the original language of Atlantis. DeLacy is particularly excited by this, since the reason Professor Lem was kidnapped was due to his researches into the proto-Hyborean language.

30 November - 1 December, 1934

The battle at the Xiang River is but the first of many, as the Chinese Communists begin the Long March.

1 December, 1934

Our Heroes continue on towards (very roughly) the west. We pass more work camps, and see crucified Frightful Men along the way.

2 December, 1934

Continuing onwards; we shoot a passing messenger-iguana-bat, on the grounds it may be carrying news of our wanton looting back in the Hall of the Ancestors. We come to the Hall of the Revered Ancestors -- bodies of kingly Bolgani/Atlantean leaders, 170 of them, men and women, entombed upright in nigh impervious crystal sarcophagii. They are all very tall and strong, and carry some strange artifacts. The bodies of the more recently-entombed males seem a bit degenerated, at least intellectually -- they have a more brutish, less philosophical look to them.

3 December 1934

We come to another town, of about a hundred white Apes, and a few hundred Frightful Men slaves. The town is a center for ranching some sort of shaggy, pale tan bovines (aurochs?) and for travel across another large underground lake. After a bit of mischief and bad advice from the rather uncooperative white Apes, we manage to hire a cow-barge to cross the lake.

4 December, 1934

We sleep on the rather musty barge, and come to the far end of the lake. The town at this end has fewer white Apes, and more Frightful Men; they seem hostile. We decide to push on, without spending any time in the town; good choice, as flares are fired, and some sort of mortar attempts to shell us. Hustle, hustle!

5 December, 1934

The "Wal Wal Incident" occurs in Ethiopia. The Italians had established a fort far within Ethiopian territory; when the Ethiopian army arrived, there was eventually a short battle on this day. Both sides demanded apologies and reparations; the Emperor of Ethiopia appeals to the League of Nations, which does nothing (due to much behind-the-scenes diplomatic scheming).

7 December, 1934

Our Heroes spend 3 days dodging patrols of white Apes and even some Bolgani/Atlantean Men, passing a few farms and military camps. On this day we reach a stair winding up through the rock to the surface world; we camp on the stair itself.

8 December , 1934

We emerge blinking and sweating into the hot, humid tropical sun. We're on a small closed canyon on an island in Lake Kivu, on the border of Ruanda and the Congo.

On to The Mystery of Astove Island