Present – Mesmer (Shane via Jitsi), Bernard (Jamie), Gazala (Richard), Jean (Jeff), Cooper (Ian) Felix (Kevin), Wonton (Darryl), Jacob (Chris).
Marmalading – Fleur (Steven).
By Gazala
From Bernard's perspective
The skeletons formed around the throne, bowing in respect and worshiping King Bernard and his Queen Nephrim.
Bernard was smugly confident that he could not only rebuild and rule Carthage, but that his power could extend to Tunis and beyond.
The crown upon his head gave him energy and he felt invigorated with no desire, or indeed need, to sleep. His army was forming and Carthage was being rebuilt. The great library would again be the sought out by the scholars of the world.
He now had the relic torch Tariq so badly wanted. It glowed the green flame of mythos.
Should he return to his "friends" outside the confines of Carthage? – the answer formed easily in Bernard's mind – no – here he had power and he could extend his influence.
Of course, there was an issue. The Baal baby was the one thing stronger than he, and its release would see his power diminish. Tariq and his "friends" wanted to release that power and so they must be destroyed.
"Your majesty, there are intruders above in Carthage – shall we deal with them?" asked one of King Bernard's followers.
Bernard cast his eye above ground (a new-found skill he had that he could see very long distances as if he were there) and whilst the sunlight caused discomfort, he could see Mesmer, Wonton, Felix et al above following something in the dust (tracks).
"Not at this point" Bernard responded.
Shortly thereafter his acolyte brought a rock to him with a note tied to it. "We found this at the bottom of the eastern shaft, your majesty".
Bernard read the note, written in French.
"We won to have descant wif you" signed Wonton
Bernard scribes a return note. " Faites venir Tariq à Carthage avec ses hommes et nous pourrons alors discuter de notre chemin à suivre" (Have Tariq come to Carthage with his men and we can then discuss our path forward)
"Deliver this" he commands
Moments later, a rock, with note tied to it, hits Bernard in the side of his head [ the stupid skeleton fumbled his throw roll to get the note above ground ]. It was the last thing that skeleton would do.
"You" Bernard points to a cowering skeleton, "deliver this note."
"yes, your majesty" it quivers as it scuttles off.
Moments later, Cooper is stuck by a rock in the side of the head "ouch" he stammers.
"Ah, a nuver mesaaage" smiles Wonton "wot it say?"
More messages flow back and forth with a final request for Bernard to meet at the edge of Carthage at midnight.
Bernard smiles, his red eyes flickering – of course. With 1000 of my followers amassing daily and with their fearsome armour and weaponry, we will be invincible.
Disturbingly and creating some unacknowledged doubt, Bernard discovers that not only do his followers not like the sun but it destroys them. In addition, they are unable to cross the city boundary without shattering. "I will solve that problem" muses Bernard. "I am invincible. - I will be invincible. – I hope I am invincible. Am I invincible?"
Midnight draws near and the never-sleeping Bernard amasses his followers, dressed in all their finery and weaponry, and head toward the meeting point. As he walks through the rebuild of Carthage he smiles at the speed and quality of the workmanship.
He arrives at the meeting point to see his old party waiting. Wonton, the annoying Chinaman, is there fidgeting with his chop sticks, Jean the sailor man is fingering his sub machine gun, and Gazala is standing still staring with intent.
"Her knife is dangerous", Bernard thinks, "I need to deal with that"
Wonton approaches "I wan ta tork" – "you need to giv us the torch and come back to us"
Bernard responds, "Why would I leave his magnificent city and my Queen – Bring Tariq to me and I will give you the torch"
"No, you come ear and gim me torch now to prove yourself"
The banter continues for some time and at one point a frustrated Bernard orders arrows to be shot above Wonton's head. Upon that Wonton et al retreat leaving Bernard in the solitude of his own imagined grandeur.
From the Party's Perspective
Wonton spits the marmalade from his mouth. "Wot we do now?" he stutters.
We have reported to Heroux the "issues" at Carthage and he has issued orders for Gendarmes to guard the ruin's boundaries, and we are now back at the Calomnie de Tunis newspaper accommodation for a night's rest.
Jacob collapsed, eyes rolling into the back of his head and marmalade spouting from every orifice.
"We need to return to Carthage and rescue Bernard" says Cooper.
"Leave him to rot, it's dangerous" warns Gazala. "Anyway a few days ago Carthage and this torch were irrelevant to us – and of course Bernard has been for some time" she muses to herself.
"Nah we have to try" Jean says in supporting Cooper.
"Fuck me" mutters Gazala rolling over to sleep.
"Yes, please murmurs" Mesmer a little too loudly drawing a cold stare from Gazala.
The night passes peacefully, no shadow and no strange dreams - this being unusual in itself.
The next morning, we have a hearty breakfast eaten in silence. Clearly there is dissention in the party however the ayes have it and we return to Carthage brimming with anticipation.
Mademoiselle Pelletier will not come with us however Atwa el-Cid, her side-kick, seems keen and agrees to come. How can she resist Gazala's charm?!
We meet the Gendarmes who confirm they have seen nothing unusual. Sceptical, we enter Carthage and find bones near the boundary and 100s of skeletal footsteps around a further shaft down, some 100m from where we went underground.
Cooper's soapstone eskimo is vibrating constantly.
"We white note to Bernard" says Wonton and immediately starts scribbling. "Ear throw this down hole" he says to Felix who does so.
"I ask to have descant wif him"
"A what?" says Felix.
"You know – a discussion."
"Why didn’t you say that?" asks Cooper.
"I Chineese – that why" answers Wonton rolling his eyes
We wait for a while and after 20 or so minutes Cooper is stuck by a rock in the side of his head. "ouch" he stammers.
"Ah, a nuver mesaaage" smiles Wonton "wot it say?"
A note is attached which says " Faites venir Tariq à Carthage avec ses hommes et nous pourrons alors discuter de notre chemin à suivre" (Have Tariq come to Carthage with his men and we can then discuss our path forward). Signed Bernard.
More messages flow back and forth with a final request for Bernard to meet at the edge of Carthage at midnight.
'Why are we doing this?" questions Gazala.
"He show goodwill" says Wonton. "He communicate"
"Ok let's meet him" confirms Jean "but what are we trying to achieve?"
"We try rescue him and also get torch" answers Wonton
A sigh is heard from Gazala.
The rest of the day we gather supplies, ponder Bernard's stupidity and debate meaningless trivia. We eat dinner and head to Carthage.
Just after midnight we see a skeletal army carrying sticks shuffling toward us with Bernard wearing a crown near the middle. At his side is a skeletal figure and they look to be arm in arm.
A figure behind them carries a torch with a green flame.
"Myfos" mutters Wonton.
"Agreed" says Mesmer.
"I'm going to knife him if I get a chance" thinks Gazala.
Wonton approaches "I wan ta tork – you need to giv us the torch and come back to us"
Bernard responds, "Why would I leave this magnificent city and my Queen? – Bring Tariq to me and I will give you the torch"
"No, you come ear and gim me torch now to prove yourself"
The banter continues for some time. Tensions build and we hear Bernard order arrows to be fired over Wonton's head. We can see no arrows however do hear the sound of wind whistling past and upon that we all retreat leaving Bernard in the solitude of his own imagined grandeur.
"Let him rot" says Gazala "He has gone mad"
"I agree" say both Mesmer and Jean at the same time.
"Ahhh I think I do too; we leave now" confirms Wonton.
We have decided to leave Bernard at this point. His skeletal army is too powerful for us at night and underground however outside the confines of Carthage and during the day – he seems harmless.
"Wot now"
"I think we report to Tariq" says Jean.
"I agree" Gazala says "maybe he can do something"
"In the morning" complains Felix "I'm tired"
We head back to the newspaper and sleep the rest of the night. Without Bernard's snoring we all rest peacefully.
We head to Tariq's compound however quickly discover he is not there with one of his men confirming he has gone into the desert. Putting 1 + 1 together, we decide to head off to the south to where we know he will be – searching for the Baal baby.
We arrive at the exit into the desert about two hours later and sure enough a camp is set up just off the road
An Arab guard approaches. "move away" he commands.
"We ear to see Tariq" Wonton states.
"He's not here"
"We work for him to fin torch – we have information. That man over dare know us" argues Wonton
After a quick conversation and some pointing and nodding the Arab guard returns. "He's gone into the desert. You can follow his tracks", he says pointing west.
We take off on what is a well-worn path by us and after an hour or so come to the entrance of the canyon where the Baal baby is buried. Tariq and a large group of guards are there. Scattered about are numerous bones. There has clearly been some "activity here"
Tariq strides forward.
"What are you doing here?" he demands
"We ask you the same ting – why you breach your word?" accuses Wonton.
An argument ensures – heated by not violent. "you not tell us truff" claims Wonton.
"You can't handle the truth" barks Tariq
"How can we twust you then?" replies Wonton.
Over time more information is shared and tempers reduce.
Wonton wanders over to the rest of us who are nervously watching the exchange. "I twust him now – we tell him everyfing" declares Wonton.
"10 minutes ago, you didn’t trust him" proclaims Gazala – "make up your mind"
"I Chinaman, I astute judge of character" Wonton answers as he wanders off with Cooper back to Tariq.
Further conversations ensue, none heated and all quite civil. We learn that there was rumoured to be a cursed throne in Carthage (clearly not a rumour!).
Tariq knows little of the torch's power but is a collector of items. He was also very keen for us to get the Gendarmes to stop snooping around, which were able to achieve with a brief radio discussion with Inspector Heroux.
"Ok we work wif him" says Wonton. "We make mistake wif baby – we put hieroglyphics in wong order"
"That’s Mesmer's fault" chimes in Cooper. We all glare at Mesmer.
"Not just me" splutters Mesmer – "Wonton too."
"Can't trust these intellectuals" accuses Gazala - "all they’ve done is cause trouble and give us the wrong information"
"What you know – you just woman?!" responds a slightly agitated Wonton before realising what he's just said.
Gazala smiles at him with cold eyes before wandering back to the truck to clean her rifle and sharpen her knife. We will be needing these she correctly guesses.
We slowly move up the canyon. Tariq is very cautious with HMGs ready. Just as well, as another large skeletal creature comes hurtling down the canyon before us, but is cut to pieces before it can reach us.
What will come next? Can Tariq be trusted? What is to become of Bernard? Will Gazala kill Wonton for his comment? Soon we will know…….
"You can't handle the truth" hahahaha, nice :)
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