A new Day Dawns.

As the professor turned towards the city, the market was beginning to come to life.

All seemed normal.

Clara and Darcy were walking the city streets, hoping for news of her father....

But others too were searching....

Diana Jones and her sister were trying to find the professors friend Abdullah, whilst members of the 19 Crows Tong had been alerted to his escape. Their instructions had been clear, recapture the professor without alerting the authorities, things were at a crucial stage. Interference could be disastrous.

The Tong members tried to remain inconspicuous, but the alert observer would spot them.**

Converging on the area of the old city souk....

From the South...

 East and West....

Professor Loft entered through the Northern gate, unaware of those behind him.

The gods looked down as the situation developed.

As the Tong members moved towards the centre of the old town, the professor, distracted perhaps, or maybe just cautious, wandering into the back alleys.

They seek him here, they seek him there, often obstructed by the moving population, frequently back tracking to recheck something.

But soon all approaches to the souk were covered by observers as other groups searched the ginnels...

From the remains of the temple walls near the Sphinx, two men, obviously English Gentlemen by their appearance and manner, approached the old city gates.

Meanwhile by the fountain of the Lions, Clara thought she had spotted her father amongst the crowds.

Moving closer, she could see she was correct, calling out, she rushed over, Darcy following.

As the three stood greeting one another, they failed to notice the approach of Colonel Wang.

He and his colleague, roughly pushed Clara and Darcy to the ground and proceeded to seize the Professor.

To be continued.....

---oXo---

Notes on mechanisms for those interested in such things.

Initiative was decided by the use of playing cards.

• Spades meant all agents of the Tong could move, or a new group appear at random locations.            
• Clubs: one unit of the tong could move plus other figures up to the face value of the card. This led to the professor wandering backwards and forwards in an apparently aimless manner.
• Hearts; All "Goodie" units could move, or again appear. 
• Diamonds: The professors faction could move one unit, plus  others to the value of the card.  This was used to divert and block the searchers, civilians got in the way, or searchers turned around. 
• Jokers: An event, such as the arrival of the Lewis Brothers. plus reshuffle pack.             

Whilst the grass green bases did help to identify tong members, it was due to the master plan of overpainting bases to suit the game, failing.       

Somewhere else in Cairo

Continuing the story......

    It was still early and Professor Loft decided to take a closer look at The great Sphinx before making his way to meet Abdullah.He walked the almost deserted streets until he reached the old city gates,    then on into the desert proper.

 Time passed as he stood and studied the site with a fresh eye, pacing out distances and looking at the layout of the site. 

   There seemed to be a slight depression midway between the Sphinx and a ruined building.

He wandered closer to the set of ruins as the sun rose higher, and sounds of the wakening city came to his ears.

Time to find Abdullah. He turned and made his way back into the city wondering what this new day would bring.

To be continued......

Somewhere in Cairo....

Kit Campion, Ruffles and Captain Pollock  had arrive in Cairo and were going to meet an old friend who could give them some information; as they passed through a market Kit glanced into an adjacent square....

as the man in the turban raised his sword the chap in the hat shot him and then ran out through the far corner ... 

there was always something happening on somewhere in Cairo....

aerial borne adventurers.....

 Recently completed some aerial borne adventurers... a couple of ladies ...

and some gents ...

Up River to Lakamazoo - Miniature Wargames (issue 458)

I  reworked my 'Rescue Mission to Kalamazoo' game report (original game report here ) with some parts of the preamble posts into an article - which was accepted by Miniature Wargames last year.  The article has just been published and is in June 2021 issue (MW458) - title 'Up River to Lakamazoo';  initial two pages shown below, with two more on the game scenario...

Jungle patrol ....

a jungle interlude... (a solo game played trying out my Simple Combat rules..)

In the Sultanate of Nambuzo, at the fort near the trading post of Polinpopo; the officers await anxiously as a patrol is overdue...

The patrol on the way back to the fort....

they cross the small stream ....

suddenly - ambushed ! they fight for their lives ....

the seargent and one of the soldiers manage to get somewhat away from the melee...

With time to fire, the seargent shoots the leader of the attacking warriors ...

The seargent and the soldier fall back further, their firing deters the warriors from attacking them

the rest of the patrol fight on but they will eventually be surrounded and killed ...

The seargent and the soldier finally get back to the fort .....

 

Escape from El Khatrass

        Professor Loft looked at his watch, it would be a long twelve hours before he could make his escape.

         Quickly he checked the door, Yes, his Jailers had been careless again, and left the key in the lock, The old newspaper and teaspoon trick would get him out of the room. Then creep quietly down the stairs and out of the front door, down the street, then a quick walk to Shepherds Hotel, where he knew his daughter would be staying.

        From beneath his mattress he pulled copies he had made of entries in the Scroll of Sven that he had been required to translate for his captors.

       The page they wanted showed an illustration of a buried chamber between two Sphinx statues. Each looked identical to the well known one by the great pyramid, but he knew of no location where two such statues had ever stood.

      Within the chamber was shown a Rams horn trumpet and what seemed to be a parabolic bronze mirror.

     It had taken a great deal of effort to decipher the text,  although written in Greek, it made no sense. Only when he realised that the language was Aramaic did he begin to unravel the mystery.

     The tale told of 'The Voice of Ra' and seemed to describe something of great power, The power to move mountains or to destroy them.

     There were further references to 'The Tongue of the Winged Serpent' and to 'The Giver of Light'    but directions and distances were given in 'Ells'.

  Other pages showed what appeared to be The Golden Fleece, An unknown Archipelago, and a strange goblet covered in swirls and triskelions of script.

    He would need to gather a team of experts to help decipher it all:

    Professor Compani  would have been his first choice but had disappeared  in Africa some ten years previously.

    Hamilton and Mumford would be good choices, or Gruber and Pechlivan, Young Denyer perhaps. There were others too.

  As soon as he was free he would gather a team together to decipher the mysteries.

   Many hours later, when all was quiet, The last ladies of negotiable virtue had gone home and the early morning workers had yet to rise. He made his move.

   The door to his room gave no trouble, and with his few belongings and the precious document, he crept down the stairs.

   No sound disturbed the silence as he reached the front door, Soon he would be able to breathe the fresh air of freedom.

   Locked and bolted, no sign of the key. He turned and made his way to the back.

As he passed a closed door he could hear snoring, stopping to listen he could make out at least two people within.

  Taking even more care, he made his way to the back. Again locked, with no sign of a key.

   This had always been a possibility, and Plans C,D, and E had already been made.

   Quietly back up the stairs, he entered his room, gathered the knotted sheets and made his way to the roof hatch.

    His heart in his mouth, he unbolted the hatch, wincing as it squeaked open.

    He paused for a while, but no sounds came from below.

    Out, onto the roof, quickly to the parapet, he looked down judging the distance to the ground and looking for somewhere to anchor his homemade rope.

  The only possible anchor was someway from the edge of the roof, looking down he would have to drop the last six feet or so. He would have to risk it.

  Struggling slightly, he had spent too much time lately in dusty archives and not enough out in the field, he managed to clamber down. With a last look round he dropped, hoping against hope he would land safely.

  Standing and dusting himself off, he was relieved to be unharmed. Quickly and quietly he made his way towards the river. He would wait by the Cafe Citron, until his old friend Abdullah arrived for his morning coffee, then make contact with Clara and plan their next actions.

    As the sun began to rise, Cairo looked cleaner than he remembered it.

The game was played out with pencil and paper, using mechanisms borrowed from Black Ops and simple decision making formulae. ie left 123, right 456. With only two exceptions the professor defied the odds, but a recitation of he threw a 6 when needed, followed by a 2 when needed hardly makes for a riveting tale. He will henceforth be known as "Lucky Loft"

And will need all of that luck in the next episodes.