We examine the portal. Ducard determines that “Shang Di” means “God Above” or something similar. Belief in this type of god was succeeded by Taoism and then Buddhism. Goodwin sees that there are writings on the spines that surround the portal. Ducard remembers that the believers of Shang Di had evildoers struck down and then had all their crimes written on their spines. We find references to Gao Fang here as well, which means that he was alive in 1000 BC.

Goodwin notices that the ring with the spines on it moves slightly when leaning against it. Gabriel and Maiura push to try and get it open. As they are doing this, the others notice huge, slimy tentacles coming out of the water to try and grab us. Maiura narrowly escapes one of the tentacles and Slate jumps through the portal. After a few moments they are able to crank the portal open entirely and the others slip away. Slate disables another of its tentacles with a shot from his pistol and the others slip through the portal.

The group walks down a set of green stone stairs and comes to a small chamber. Here there is a metal “guard” holding a sword and a gigantic gemstone on a pedestal and a stairwell behind it. Goodwin quickly creates a smoke cloud around the sentinel to try and blind it. Gabriel grapples with it to try and keep it from attacking. Slate and Maiura run to grab the ruby and escape down the back stairs. Gabriel strikes the sentinel with his lead pipe and destroys it.

Goodwin helps Gabriel extricate the sentinel’s huge sword from his metal hand. The others look around the area and see tapestries depicting a man in a specific cloak conferring with emperors and demons. The demon seems to be bowing his head to him.  The inscription underneath the tapestries reads “Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid. Copper for craftsman, cunning at his trade. Good, said the sorcerer, sitting in his hall, but iron, cold iron, is the master of them all.”  We find nothing further, but Goodwin and Ducard take some of the tapestries.

We escape through the back stairs to the next floor and find a locked door. Finding no key, we go up one more flight. There is a locked wooden door here, which Gabriel kicks open. There are people milling about here who stare at us. We rush through and get out into a garage area. We see a truck in here and also guys in black jumpsuits. They start firing on us with automatic weapons and we fight back. After a few moments they are down but we have taken a good amount of damage.

The group decides to load up the truck with the weapons we have gotten and hotwire it to make a getaway. We drive back to the Dragon of the Black Pool. Egg Foo Chow is cleaning up the kitchen. The sun is just starting to rise so we spent the entire night in the sewer.  He greets us and asks if we recovered the Eye. We show him.

We decide that we should leave rather than stay in Chinatown. He shows us a telegram from Professor Bai Li. He asks us to find the second Ruby Eye. It is in the possession of Lao Che in Shanghai.

The fight goes quickly in our favor and the last enemy standing drops his knives and gives up. Slate demands that he take us to the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant. He agrees with little persuasion.

The Chinaman takes us down several alleyways and finally comes to the restaurant. He asks if he can be let go now, and Slate says that he must lead us into the restaurant on pain of lead poisoning. We go in and there are only a few tables. As we walk in, a short old Chinese man runs out of the kitchen and yells to everyone to get down. We take cover and Slate pulls his pistol. There is a loud explosion from the kitchen that blows the windows out of the kitchen.

The man, who introduces himself as Egg Foo Chow, asks us if we want some tea. We agree and tell him that we were sent by Dr. Li and are looking for the Ruby Eye. The man reveals that the ruby eye is probably in Gao Fang’s personal vault at Golden Triangle Exports. Gao Fang employs petty enforcers around here, including the man we brought in with us. (He is unconscious as he didn’t duck when the explosion happened.)

He warns against going in the front door, as they have very high security. He is aware of tunnels under the city that could possibly get us into the building undetected. He says that we should wait until evening, and before then he will get us food. We agree and thank him for his assistance and hospitality.

After dinner we head out and he leads us through the streets to a nearby alley. He lifts a grate and motions for us to descend. He gives a small totem made of wood to Goodwin and tells him that it will protect him. As Goodwin takes a look at the totem, the wall behind us erupts in automatic gunfire. Egg brings out a flask from his jacket and tells us to get into the tunnels, and he will fend them off.

We look around and see that these are roughly hewn tunnels with some water running through them. It smells badly. The rocks we are walking on are very slimy and slippery. We try to find our way but Maiura can’t seem to get her bearings down here. Soon we hear a hissing sound, like a snake. Soon we hear laughing as well.

Humanoid figures jump out of the water; they are nearly naked and very skinny and gaunt. Their limbs are stiff and they have they have sharp claws and teeth. Ducard recognizes these as the “Hopping Vampires,” or Xixiegui. He also realizes that they do not like the totem that Goodwin carries, which must have attracted them. A battle begins. During the fray, Maiura falls into the water. Luckily she is an excellent swimmer. The vampires are soon defeated and Maiura is able to climb out.

After Goodwin heals Maiura, she tries to orient us which takes about an hour. The river breaks off into a tributary and goes 1/4 of a mile. We see two flames in the distance. The water stops at a large pool. Above this is a huge circular portal made out of green stone with Mandarin writings on it. We wipe the scum off of it and read the inscription: “Shang Di to life, life to death, death to Shang Di. Heaven holds the beginning and the end for the faithful. Pass as the wicked into the vault of ghosts.” Around the portal we see strung burnt human spine bones.

We return to Germany and find that the zeppelin is ready for us. We are able to get the zeppelin. The zeppelin has six staterooms and a hook for Tailspin to attach his plane to. It has five laboratories of luxury quality on board. Also a searchlight. The labs are an engineering lab, a med bay, a research library, forensics lab, and a machine shop. We decide to use one of the staterooms for an armory, leaving five. We plan to make this a hidden door with a booby trap.

Westmore contacts us via telegram and lets us know that we must meet with an associate of his in New York City, who has discovered something of interest. He is very vague about what he has found. We must meet him one week from now at midnight on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

With the zeppelin able to travel at 40 miles per hour, it will take us about 4 days to make the 3500 mile trip back to New York. On the way we stop in Great Britain to pick up Tailspin’s plane. During the trip Goodwin modifies Slate’s pistol to give it some extra kick.

Westmore’s associate, Dr. Bai Li, contacts us and lets us that know that we will need to dock the airship at a field since we will be coming into town a few days early. We dock at an airfield and head into the city.

While here, Goodwin attempts to stock the med-bay with medication and other drugs. He spends about $500, making the med-bay fully stocked. For the armory we put in the two MG-42s and the MP-40s.

Westmore has us staying in a brownstone on the upper-east side of Manhattan, with a car for transportation. It is winter, so we don’t spend much time outside.

One of the evenings, Westmore explains to us (since he feels he can trust us) that he was appointed to his position by the President of the United States. The endeavor that we are a part of is actually a government-sponsored initiative. He himself was appointed by Coolidge, but there was a leader of the group before him, appointed by Teddy Roosevelt. The order has actually existed for many many years; it can be traced back to the middle-ages. They call themselves the Illuminati and Teddy Roosevelt officially funded the organization as a measure against other forces. There are pockets of the organization all over the globe. Other governments, including Great Britain, also give funds to the organization. Doctor Bai Li is the head of the New York front for the organization.

On the day of our meeting we go to the Hoffmann Institute for the Enhancement of Man. This is a research arm of Westmore’s company. We go to the observation deck and meet Dr. Li. It is very dark here, and a couple of us notice that a figure is slumped over about 20 feet from the elevator. Goodwin rushes to him and sees that he is unconscious. Slate pulls his pistol and looks around.

We see above us a jet black zeppelin that is running very quietly, apparently outfitted for “stealth.” Two grenades clatter on the ground towards us. Tailspin manages to grab the first one and toss it off the building; Maiura grabs the second one and tosses it off. Slate and Tailspin notice black-clad figures crashing through the windows nearby and moving to attack us. Slate shoots at the one near him and takes him out.

The grenades explode and appear to have been smoke bombs. We manage to take out two more, but the third one throws a flash-bang of some sort and escapes by jumping off of the building. Attempts to chase after him are deterred by automatic fire from the zeppelin. It escapes even though a couple of us take shots at it.

We search the “ninjas” and find three smoke bombs and nine shuriken among them. They all have the same symbol as the zeppelin, a golden upside down triangle, on their outfits. As we are doing this Dr. Li wakes up, rubbing his head. We take him inside the building as not to expose ourselves further.

He tells us that he has learned of the whereabouts of two items that the company is interested in locating. They are called the Ruby Eyes of the Loman Tiger, two rubies the size of a man’s fist each. They have power over time, allowing to see in the past and the future, but only when they are brought together. Currently one is in Shanghai, and the other is in San Francisco and is in the posession of a man named Gao Fang, a Chinese man who is some kind of sorcerer and an ally to Hitler. It would be very dangerous for him to have both of the eyes. Li is not sure where the man is in San Francisco, however. We will go to the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant and meet a man named Egg Foo Chow, whom Li has not met. There is a train leaving at 9am that will take us there, although the group would like to take the zeppelin it seems. It will take us 72 hours by zeppelin.

At the airport in San Francisco, we drop off the zeppelin and take a trolley to our destination, which is Chinatown. Since we don’t know where the restaurant is, we just get dropped off nearby since the streets are too narrow. We notice that the cab drive may be lying. He says that the Tongs are getting ornery and now most “decent” people don’t venture into Chinatown. There are lots of fights breaking out in the streets.

We get out and start walking towards Chinatown. People ignore us as we are walking down the street, except a young boy who offers to help us find our destination. We give him a few dollars and he takes us through an alley where he disappears through a hole. We realize this is a dead end and we hear the sounds of knives and chains behind us.

We have given the Germans over to the Bedouins, and now must decide how to intercept Mousellini’s double on his way from Ethiopia to Alexandria in Egypt. The train itself is a rolling tank, with huge guns on either end and is otherwise heavily defended. We decide that we must attack the train before it reaches its destination, perhaps intercepting it and destroying the tracks or setting charges on one of the bridges that span the Nile River to destroy the train.

In speaking to the Bedouins, they will be able to supply us with some explosives. We visit them and secure the explosives as well as the detonating materials and some additional ammo and other gear.

We take off in the German plane we stole and find the train. Heading further north we find a suitable bridge that is made out of wood, so it will be destroyed much easier than a metal one. Maiura attempts to climb down and plant the explosives but takes a nasty fall. She is apparently unhurt, however, and is able to set the explosives. Clayton is successful in setting the other explosives as well.

We hide and wait for the train. Maiura moves a distance away and takes Ducard’s pocket mirror to signal us when the train is in sight. Finally after a few hours she signals us. The bridge is blown out just as the train is about to reach it, and we immediately hear the squeal of the brakes. The train plunges through the bridge and the front few cars go into the water, destroying the rest of the bridge supports as it does. The first third of the bridge collapses completely.

The train’s boiler explodes and we hear the ammo stores go up. The second-to-last car opens up and men start piling out. We begin firing on them. After a few moments we dispatch all of them.

We move up to the open train car’s door and knock, Clayton speaking in Italian asking to be let in. The ruse doesn’t work, however, and more men come out, guns blazing. We take them out as well and attempt to move inside, but Maiura is immediately shot at.

Clayton has an idea — he gets Ducard to bring the mounted gun to the train so he can shoot into the door. The plan turns sour when a grenade is tossed out towards us and Gabriel decides to jump on top of it. Luckily he is not badly hurt and is able to get up.

Ducard has a bead on the men inside the train through the door, and briefly sees Mousellini’s double. He takes the shot but the bullets don’t seem to reach him. This must be part of the ability he has with the “Spear of Destiny” he carries. Slate comes up behind him and gets a bead on the double with his revolver. After a couple of shots it is clear that he can’t be hurt very readily.

The group finally is able to rush the train car and takes out the double. In one of the bedrooms we find out two scientists, and they give up. We take them into custody.

In an hour’s time, Westmore and his assistants show up. In that time we have searched the train and have found the staff that the double reportedly had. We inform Westmore that this is not the real Mousellini, but a double, and we show him the staff. He gives it to his assistant, a man named Joseph Kennedy.

Over the next couple of weeks we don’t hear any news about the incident, but we do hear that he has taken ill. In a month or so we start hearing his name in the news again and surmise that they have created another double.

The Bedouins come over the hill and their snipers start taking out the Nazis manning the machine guns. As soon as the Nazis start dropping, the Bedouins on foot let out a yell and start running in on foot with their swords, and combat begins.

Tailspin runs in with guns blazing toward the half-tracks, and with one perfectly placed shot he takes out the gunman on top of one of the half-tracks. The Nazis start retaliating, by shooting at Tom on the ground. The second gunner swings the machine gun around and targets the group, and opens fire. Gunfire is heard all throughout the camp as well as Bedouins shouting and Germans yelling.

Clayton runs in tries to punch the German, the German blocks with the gun and Clayton busts his hand on the German’s rifle. Frédéric runs in and with the one shot from his musket he takes out the second gunner. Tailspin then uses his shotgun to blast through the window and take out the driver of the first half-track. Other party members take out select Germans around the vehicle while Tailspin jumps in and starts the half-track.

Gabriel is on foot just slicing through Germans as he moves from tent to tent. The Bedouins are also mixed into the fray. Frédéric jumps on top of the half-track and mans the machine gun. Tailspin starts driving with the half-track, smashing a few Germans in his path. Clayton mans the gun on the other half-track, while a German commander sneaks up on him.

Frédéric starts taking people out with his machine gun. Gabriel fumbles and cuts through one of the tents, hears a yelp as there is now blood running down the side of the tent.

Clayton swings the machine gun around to try and knock the commander off his feet, commander manages to stay up. People are dying and fighting and moving out of the way of the half-track. Tailspin smashes over a few more Germans and stops the half-track in front of Gabriel, and the tent where the archeologist should be. Maiura is attacking random Germans.

Gabriel rips open the tent, and sees an unarmed man in sand clothes bleeding out his side, staggering back.
The party and the Bedouins have taken out most of the Germans. The Bedouins are rounding up the remaining Germans. Clayton and the commander are at a stand-still on top of the half-track, neither one having an advantage over the other. Gabriel picks up the archeologist and tosses him in the back of the half-track. He passes out. Tailspin backs up immediately and Gabriel jumps in. Tailspin whips it around and heads toward the other half track to meet Clayton and the commander in combat. Gabriel jumps onto the other half-track.

Frédéric fires the gun over the commander’s head and shouts “Stop what you are doing right now or take a few bullets to your face.” The Commander throws up his hands and says “You win this round.” The remaining Germans throw down their weapons and surrender. We bind up the commander “Walter Rolf” and take him prisoner.

Bedouin chief Abdula comes over and says “You seem to have fared well!”

Clayton asks “What are you doing out here, Walter?”

Rolf: “Nothing you’d understand…what are YOU doing here?”

Clayton: “I’m on vacation.”

Rolf: “I see you brought your friends with you.”

Clayton: “Nice setup you got out here…tents, planes, and Italian scientists? What’s going on out here?”

Rolf: “We take care of our own.”

Clayton: “Your own?”

Rolf: “Our own people.”

Clayton: “Look Rolf, I’m not in the mood for your stupid games, or i’ll feed you to him…or HIM…he doesnt like your kind.”

Rolf: “My kind? What do you mean?”

Clayton: “He’s not too fond of the Germans.”

Rolf: “We are just helping the archaelogists.”

Clayton: “What are you guys looking for out here?”

Rolf: “Ruins…artifacts.”

Clayton: “What do you need them for?”

Rolf: “Knowledge…museums…I don’t get you.”

Clayton: “I’m just wondering what possible interest you can have in this.”

Rolf looks like he has no idea what Clayton is talking about

Clayton: “Who gave you the order to come out here?”

Rolf: “It came through the ranks. We protect many of our archaeologists and those of our allies.”

Frédéric: “Did you find anything?”

Rolf: “Nothing of interest. The artifacts are on the tables. This was some old Roman outpost so we were digging here looking for the ruins.”

Frédéric mentions to Clayton it was the romans who had the relic we are looking for. Clayton and select group members decide to start searching through all the tent, and tables. Clayton and Frédéric look through the artifacts on the tables, the rest of the group searches through the tents. A few Bedouins are keeping the commander in check. Frédéric notices that it is most likely Roman artifacts. Nothing of interest so far.

Frédéric and Clayton hear a sound in the tent, draw their weapons and go to check it out. The rest of the group finds the commanders tent and find booze, etc.

Slate says “Ah, this looks interesting,” and reads: “We have been successful! The double is in place, and we have the rock. I will send a courier to you when we reach Rome. You may tie up all loose ends as we discussed and return to Germany”

Frédéric and Clayton open the tent, and see 2 bunks and equipment and some stacked crates.

Frédéric says: “Anyone there? Come out, we won’t harm you!” and moves to check behind some crates. There we find a trembling man almost pissing himself in the corner. We tell him we aren’t here to hurt him and that we came to find him.

Pierto: “You speak German? You are not German. Who sent you?”

Clayton: “Dr. Thomas Westmore sent us.”

Pierto: “Of the Chicago museum…yes, I recognize the name.”

Clayton: “We work for him.”

Pierto: “Strange, but okay, I am glad nonetheless.”

Clayton: “Apparently you were looking for something here…not willingly?”

Pierto: “they showed up a few weeks ago at the dig, I was here with my own people. The Italian soldiers were gone, and I was left here with these people.”

Clayton: “Did you have other people with you?”

Pierto: “My assistant.”

Clayton: “I think he may have been injured do you need food, drink, have you been treated okay?”

Pierto: “No, I am fine. So why are you here? Why would someone from another museum send you here?”

Clayton: “You have been looking for a tablet or a stone of some kind? Crystal?”

Pierto gives us a startled look.

Clayton: “Yeah, we don’t want these guys to have it. As you can probably tell, they aren’t the greatest people around. We’d rather them not have it.”

Pierto: “No…well…basically the way this came to be is my mentor Ronaldo Bartochini a well known archalogist. He spent most of his life searching for these…messiah stones. He began to dig on the island of St. Helena. He determined that Napoleon had owned the stone last. A year ago while he was looking around St. Helena he was investigating, and I don’t know how he did it but he found it. Shortly afterwards we were called to Rome just like that. Within weeks of returning to Rome, I was sent out here to these ruins. This is nothing. I think they wanted to keep me out of the way. I recieved a couple of crates of equipment from Rome. In one box there was a letter from Ronaldo, that Eldoche took possession of the stone and demanded to know how it worked. Ronaldo refused at first, and he was tortured and feared for his life. He mentioned that Eldoche had his stone cut and fit for a grand mlitary baton. He said I should burn the letter and never speak of the stone or risk losing my life. I’ve been asked about the stone many times and feigned my ignorance. I said I was just an assistant. What would i know? Truthfully I don’t know more than I just told you. That’s pretty much it. It supposedly has powers, and from what Ronaldo alluded to, it must be some big power that Eldoche wants.

Clayton: “Did he say what kind of power or effects?”

Pierto: “We would talk at night and it seems throughout history, that the people he guessed that had it seemed to hold sway over people.”

Clayton: “Napolean, sure, and others.”

Pierto: “The first Emperor of China, Xerxes, Indian kings. The interesting thing is that it was thought Jesus went to India and when he retuend his cult started in a huge way. It is as though the Indian kings lost their stones. So it seems to have gone from the Indian kings to Jesus, to Gall, back to the east to Atilla the Hun, further heast to Ghengis Kahn, and a few others…eventually to Napolean.”

Clayton: “And now Mousellini has it.”

Pierto: “So it seems. WAIT!” (He digs through his things and finds a newspaper dated within the last week and shows a picture of Mousellini. He is holding a baton with a big crystal on the end of it.)

Clayton: “Hmm….well that’s not good, looks like we have to go to Italy. Can I offer you a ride?”

Pierto: “I’m not sure i want to go back to Italy.”

Clayton: “We dont have to take you there.”

Pierto: “Damascus would be fine, I have French allies there.”

Clayton: “Very well, we can do that.”

Pierto: “Can I pack a trunk?”

Clayton: “We have a plane… pack whatever you’d like.”

The rest of the party busts through and presents the note to Frédéric and Clayton.

Pierto: “You know, Mousellini is in Ethiopia right now.”

Clayton: “So Eldoche’s rock is a fake, and the real one is on its way to Germany.”

Clayton takes the note to the commander and says, “You sure you dont want to tell me anything else about what you are doing out here?”

Rolf: “Ummm…no.”

Clayton: “Well, we’ll let the Bedouins have you.”

Rolf: “If you take me with you I will talk.”

Clayton: “Okay so now you want to talk.”

Rolf: “Yes. Do I have your word as a gentleman?”

Clayton: “Why were you out here?”

Rolf: “To keep an eye on the Italians until we secured procurement of the rock.”

Clayton: “Tying up loose ends, you mean?”

Rolf: “Throwing the bodies in trenches and burying them.”

Clayton: “I see. Well, you’re coming back to Damascus with us.”

Gabriel tries to intimidate Rolf and falls on his face.

Clayton: “It’s my understanding that you have the real crystal and Mousellini’s is fake?”

Rolf: “Not currently.”

Clayton: “Where is it? On its way to Germany?”

Rolf: “Yes! Eldoche.”

Clayton: “He’s taking it to Germany?”

Rolf: “Probably eventually.”

Clayton: “Maybe you just need to talk to my friend.”

Gabriel comes over to Rolf with a lead pipe, cracking his knuckles and smiling, blood dripping down his face.

Rolf: “I thought I had your word as a gentleman!”

Clayton: “You do, but I cant tell him what to do!”

Gabriel grunts.

Clayton: “And I left that gentlemanly bullshit behind in England.”

Rolf: “Eldoche’s dead.”

Clayton: “Excuse me? uh…was he eliminated by you people?”

Rolf: “Yes. We did it months ago.”

Clayton: “I see. Was he not cooperating?”

Rolf: “He had something we wanted.”

Clayton: “So the double was Eldoche and not the stone. So, why Ethiopia?”

Rolf: “Test ground.”

Clayton: “Yeah, that’s a valliant test of your war machines’ ability to take over people armed with spears.”

Rolf: “That wasn’t the test.”

Frédéric: “They were probably there to test the stone’s power.”

The party decides to return the scientist to Damascus and get supplies before going on to Ethiopia. Time is of the essence. Through their network of resources the party finds out Mousellini is currently on a train toward Alexandria from Ethiopia.