We had a player out for the night, so we focused on Gustav Hassenfeldt and David Gould, and had Hunter off-screen for the night. Now the Sky Marshal of the alliance, he was busy politicking with Amon’s aid, pulling together the various factions, getting their crew put together, and seeing to the preparation of Shiva for their raid on Ultima Thule.
Gus and Gould, meanwhile, went with the scientific teams from the two surface world airships aboard Los Angeles. For the Americans, it’s a flag waving tour and trying to collect more data to take back with them; for the characters, it was to invite people to join the alliance. They brought with tem a representative from the hawkmen, the merfolk, the cargo cultists from Sanctuary, and members of the German science team.
First, they made contact with the panthermen that live in the mountains to the south of where Sanctuary had been. Here their way was eased by one of the cat people that had been a prisoner of the hawkmen, now released on Gould’s request. The pride, at least the females with young cubs, and the elderly, live in a massive matrix of treehouses, connected by walkways and the classic rope bridges. This is to protect them from the predatory dinosaurs of the island. The are high on the mountain slopes because the massive herbivores live in the valleys and plains. Most of their people are solitary, except when mating or when older; a great number of their people live out in the jungle, hunting, and only return here to trade or when injured or sick. The pride leader of the panthermen was unwilling to support them, but gave some of his braves permission to join the fight. A dozen did so.
They were also introduced to Haika — a greenman or “dryad” according to Lord Trevor, their philologist. Haika’s people will not involve themselve in the conflict, but will provide medical aid to those they find, and are willing to provide communications. She, like the merfolk can through the sea, can communicate across vast distances through the flora. She points them toward the So Nai Valley, where one of her sisters took an Outlander they once discovered. They are a warlike race and may help…but be cautious.
This led them to a valley with several towns and a small city centered on an old “Saracenic” rock-carverd temple or palace…the people below stream out on horseback and riding dinosaurs, armed to the teeth and wearing armor. And not one of them is male.
They make contact with the ground through Lord Ansom in ancient Greek, only to be answered in English by one of the women — none other than Lady Maragaret “Zara” Ansom-Bose, their companion they’d thought dead for several months. For her, however, it has been over a year, being nursed back to health by the Amazons of Thermadon.
They are eventually led to the presence of Queen Penthesilea V and her advisor, Hero the Centaur, and there they pitched the alliance and the chance at glory toppling the emperor. The queen throws her support behind them, and allows those warriors that wish to seek fame and glory to join them. They immediately have more volunteers than they can take.
Byrd, however, has received word from their German counterparts on Deutschland that a storm is headed their way — short-lived by violent. Los Angeles has to pick up and circle around the storm, leaving the scientists and the characters for the next two days.
After a feast and bit of debauchery that evening, the characters catch up with Zara. She was rescued by the dryads, who — she thinks — brought her back from the dead and gave her to the Amazons for safe keeping. She has obviously settled in well, and even her uncle’s entreaties to return home with him are met with skepticism — the surface world, she’s always going to have to fight for respect and freedom; here, they take her as is. She is someone, part of something.
But she’s damned sure not missing the party at Ultima Thule and is joining the Amazons going.
Later, there was a bit of hunting a pair of spinosaurus that wandered into the city. The Amazons were having trouble with the giants, until the party brought their guns to bear. Even still, they had to chase out into the jungle to kill one of the creatures.
Finally, Los Angeles arrived with Deutschland and Shiva in tow. With a battalion’s worth of hawkmen and Amazons, dozens of panthermen and legged merfolk, and 50 cargo cultists, Waffen-SS soldiers, and an assortment of Atlantean vril who changed sides, they headed for Ultima Thule to restore Amon to his throne.
On the way there, Los Angeles turned north for Valhalla to give Woden the report on how things are going and to refuel. If the assault on Ultima Thule goes badly, they can fall back and meet up; if it goes well, they can take messages back to the surface, but unless Byrd gets instructions from FDR, he cannot commit his people.
We ended with Shiva and the German airship closing on Ultima Thule.
The Black Campbell 