The Danger Gang Meets Fazel And Finds A Tomb
After a good night's rest, the Danger Gang has to decide what to about their invitation to the governor's mansion. Martialis asks the big tree, and the big tree says it will be alright, so they're off to the races. Barry Ceasefire leads them to the mansion in question and they're led inside. They sit in a green room for a little while, until a tabby cat walking on it's hind legs brings them a little note on a silver platter. The note reads, "Follow me."
The cat leads them to a room filled with pillows. There, lying between to fanning girls, is a bearded man with a voice remarkably like Patrick Warburton. He introduces himself as Fazel bin Sala, a general for the Fatamid Caliphate. He then introduces them to a nervous looking Roman Catholic monk named John. John gives them a note, which reads:
Danger Gang: You are cordially invited to a dinner engagement with Fr. Gerbertus of Aurillaca. When: vii Kal. August or thereabouts; middayish Where: The Papal Planetarium, Rome In which: Informal dress
Everyone is cautiously optimistic about this invite, as it is known that their age old enemy Barnacle Bashim's good buddy, the pope, operates out of Rome. Still, a chance to get into the Papal Planetarium, probably pretty neat stuff. Fazel dismisses John so he can get a word alone with the D.G. He says the Caliph sent him out to make sure everything is up and up in this part of the Caliphate. Seems a certain Mohamed Ben Yaya went out on a little trip and is now calling himself Malik (or king). The thing is, if he goes there, nobody is going to tell him nothing. But the Danger Gang, they've got a rep, a rep for being friendly and/or killing people. If they could do either one and send word back to him, it would be much appreciated. They admit that Ben Yaya is no friend to them,as he is a friend To Bashim. They tell him they have a lot on their plate, but if the opportunity arises, they'd be glad to look into it. Right now, they need to go investigate that graveyard.
And so they do. They find a brass plaque, which reads:
I, M. Tullius Cicero, wisely and reverently cleared these grounds very well and thoroughly, when no one else had the moral courage to do so.
They hear some buzzing, and this time, however, they can't escape the Giant Wasps. They're in for a fight. And these Wasps are giant; six feet long. They also breath fire somehow. Can and Ezio are able to catch quite a few of them Webs, Hypnotic Patterns, Color Sprays, and the like. They are tough, but are eventually dispatched. Marty starts investigating some of the hives and finds the spellbook of the wizadly Greater Ghoul. They'll peruse that later. They check out another hive and find a mausoleum with a cylinder and a sphere on it. This must be it. There's a wasp in this hive, but Marty confuses it with a Hallucinatory Forest.
They go in the mausoleum. Inside they find a Staircase, an iron wheel, and a coffin with an effigy. The iron wheel can be rotated to two settings, a little sun and a little moon. It is currently set to sun. They get a woe on adjusting the wheel, so with no weal, they say , "whoa!" and leave it alone. Instead, the head down the stairs. It leads to a hallway, and at the end of the hallway, the two walls have panels that veer of at 135 degree angles to meet at a 90 degree point in the middle of the hallway. These walls look like they can rotate on a center axis, and it appears that there's a very bright light coming from behind them. They hide behind the left panel and tie a rope to the right one. As they pull the panel, a blindingly brilliant light shines through, burning through the rope. They close the panel somehow (I'm not sure how, but they did) and head back upstairs. Once everyone is out of the hall, they try turning the wheel, figuring if it was set to moon, there would be less sunlight. Instead they see a blast of light shoot down the hall. After a debate as to the nature of light, heat, and the effects of a Dark Stone, they decide just to wait until after night fall to proceed.
Ezio looks over the spellbook that Martialis found and learns that is has Lightening Bolt. He excitedly learns it.
Soon night falls. The former harsh, burning beam of light now turns out to be merely gently warming, though a bit bright. There are long debates about what to do with the doors, they eventually settle on something and walk through. It seems the beams of light are being shot througha series of lenses. Karl, irked that they are made of mere glass, sets about smashing one so as to avoid being later burned by it's rays. Everyone gets very distressed and Kotrag tries to wrestle him to the ground. He's no match for the plucky gnomes strength, but Karl stops anyway. They keep exploring. They soon find another wheel that controls the pivoting doors. Next up, a room with a glass vat full of clear acid with a brass plate just above the surface of the liquid. There's also a bunch of chunks of iron on the floor and a broken old shovel. At the opposite end of the tomb, there's a downward sloping hallway with a brass track and a glass marble. Barry sees Karl eying the marble, so he grabs it. Another one pops up. Ezio grabs it. Another one; Karl takes that one, and the next two. Then the machine runs out of marbles. Ah, well. They follow the track down the slope to a room full of gears. Karl marvels at all them and begs to set it in motion, but Marty cautions him against it. They return to the vat room and start chucking in chunks of iron in an attempt to raise the volume to the level of the brass (Eureka!). Unfortunately, the vat is too vast and the iron dissolves too quickly. It also emits a toxic gas that overwhelms several of the men. They cough up blood and other nastiness and get all jacked up. They flee back to the mausoleum to rest.
After a few hours, while Ezio is on watch, huge cadre of Norman Pilgrims come storming in to the hive over the mausoleum. One of them introduces himself As Richard, Son of Odo. He and Ezio shoot the shit for a little while; Richard explains that they went to the Church of The Holy Sepulchre and someone broke a stone they had there. They also swung by Salerno and partied with Guymar, the scion. Ezio acts interested, and then gives them some money for wine and whores. They leave, thankful for the good company.
Once Marty has a chance to rest, he gets a Weal on activating the machinery in the gear room. As soon as he hears this, Karl runs off. Barry chases after him and the rest of the gang wanders in. Karl places his marble on the rail, and watches the machinery operated, delightedly. It sets in action an elevator that raises Kotrag and Ezio into a room with a Giant Iron Mecha. They are delighted.
Meanwhile, Marty has taken to using gusts of wind to splash acid up onto the brass plate. This ends up revealing Archimedes' Introduction to his Proof of Calculus, a message about The Riddle Of Stratoniche's Tomb. He is delighted too.
Kotrag finds a lever to lower the elevator and grabs everybody else. They are all pretty amped up to see this thing. They climb inside to try and get this bad boy running, and instead find a puzzle with seven sockets surrounding it and a note from Mr. Cicero that reads:
Evidently, the great Archimedes left a puzzle here to determine which "socket" is the true one in which to insert a power source. It would be an elementary exercise for one of my intellect to solve the puzzle, but, as I have no power source, I will not bother myself with trifles. I merely leave this note to warn anyone against inserting a power source without first solving the puzzle, as using the wrong "socket" would cause a CATASTROPHIC EXPLOSION. Do not attempt unless (fat chance) you are as touched by genius as the present writer, M.T.C.
The puzzle seems to be a slightly more complicated tangram. Since they, too, have no power source at the moment, they aren't going to sweat it too much. After to cheat the puzzle by inserting a tile of the same size, they pack up pieces and smash the other tile to fool any other claimants.
They pack up their junk and return to town for a good night's rest.
