The Black Campbell

The group picked up with the characters traveling to Parras Das — the City of Gardens — aboard a Martian skyship they had rescued from pirates. The team, with their marine escort, had been taken aboard by the crew after their rescue of Priya, a dheva Princess of the House Arvasala. (Using the art from Revelations of Mars as an example…)

During the four day trip across the desert wasteland of Mars, the characters learned about the people and their world the best they could, as only Zelansky could speak their language, a version of Atlantean. The human-like “red men” were decedents of the Atlaneans and called zhul-ya, and the dheva the decedents of “the ancients.” The Earthmen they are calling vril-ya, and Earth is “vril” to them. Mars has been dying for millennia, and the Arvasala family is instrumental to the survival of many communities in the north of the world. They are ice and water dealers. Their grand ships move ice to the smaller towns, and they are responsible for the upkeep of the canals bring life-preserving water from the ice caps through Parras Das and south to other cities.

They learn the ships are held aloft by some kind of magnetic levitation system that is powered by “oridium” — a material that is also used as ammunition. It appears to be highly energetic and possibly radioactive. During the trip, Cointreau successfully seduced the princess, and gets to try some of his tantric “sex magic”. He finds her a very willing student and subject.

On arrival in the city, they are confronted by an Atlantean design — grand circular canals that take water from the northeastern canal, pump it through the city, and out on the northwestern and southwestern canals. The outer ring of the city is commercial, a massive bazaar, the second ring a residential and garden area, and the innermost ring is filled with beautiful and fanciful towers that could never stand in Earth’s gravity. The central one is the Lighthouse, also the city council chambers for the “Nine Families” that run the city (and much of norther Mars.) They have sussed out the dheva are a higher caste than the zhul-ya; they rule Parras Das, and possibly much more.

A tour of the city leads them to Arvsala House, where Priya’s family oversees the water trade. Their patriarch, Arvan, is interested in the aliens, but is also obviously disturbed by her interest in Cointreau; her brother, Vadra, even more so. Later that night, Cointreau slips out to investigate the many floors and rooms of the tower, only to witness an argument between the old man and his son, and Priya. Why, he does not know, but she appears much more headstrong and combative when there isn’t an audience.

The next day, they go out to see the sights and are attacked by 15 zhul-ya who turn out to be members of the pirate gang whose ship they destroyed when they rescued Priya. A firefight ensued in the Gardens of Pleasure, a beautiful botanical garden scene. The bad guys don’t stand much of a change, getting taken down by Post using Veitch’s coilgun. A stray round let to them fighting a six-legged elephant-like creature with mutliple trunks and a bad attitude. Eventually, they were able to win out, but were arrested by the guards of the House Davira, who are oridium traders and bankers who run security for the gardens. Davira is similar shocked by their arrival, and in the midst of talking to their scion, Zelansky was able to pull off a series of excellent diplomacy tests. He gains their trust, tells them of their desire to hell heal Mars by locating and fixing the “Great Machine”  on the Mountain of the Gods that keeps the Martian atmosphere alive, and to open trade between the United States and Parras Das, and to do this, that they need to find a gate home like the one they used to get here. There’s one in Motus Das —  the City of Dead —  according to their Arvasala hosts. that they want to go there impresses the Davira, who offer to fund the expedition.

Zelansky uses this to parlay a treaty between the USA and Houses Arvasala and Davira, in exchange for the Arvasala merchantman Warm Winds, and representatives and crew from both families. Over the next few weeks, Zelansky works to improve the relations between the families, while Post, Erha, and Veitch work to modify and improve the merchantman. They add trapeze hooks for the Dogfish mini-fighters to take off from  and be retrieved. They add powered flight to supplement the sails. Veitch figures out how to modify the oridium ammunition cartridges to fire through Earth weapons…their Colt automatics are now blasters! Cointreau conspired with O’Bannon to get Veitch together with the half-vril-ya inventor, Erha. They have so much in common and obviously like each other, and their plans culminate with a surprise balcony date between the two.

With everything finally ready, the characters and marines, together with a small crew of Martians led by Priya Arvasala and Sheri Davria, sets sail for Mortus Das, a city “fron which no one returns.”

For our Mars, I’m blending elements of the Barsoom-like Revelations of Mars for the Hollow Earth Expedition setting, and from Space:1889, including having more communities and live canals. I’ve replaced the high/canal/hill Martians of 1889 with the dheva, the zhul-ya, and more primitive versions of the latter. Also, we kept the telepathic Elosi, whose goals and actions remain a mystery. We’re getting more into the pulp super-science aspect of the Veitch character, and starting to build on how the worlds will collide once there is a way to get back and forth from the Red Planet.