The Island - An Al Amarja Adventure

by Kasper Vesth

Based on a series of role playing sessions I had with a group of friends in the setting of Over The Edge, this story details my take on our journey through the incredible island of Al Amarja. Filled with intrigues, plotting, secret societies and humour, this story can be viewed as fan fiction, inspiration for your own adventures, entertainment or simply as an annoying waste of time

The Island

Preface

THIS STORY IS BASED ON REAL EVENTS

The above statement is very true in the sense that this novel is based on role playing a custom scenario, using the system Over The Edge, and this piece of writing is the resulting story from those sessions.

A couple of years ago, I got together with a bunch of friends for bi-weekly sessions of epic role playing. The ensuing journey seemed to have some good material for public consumption, and when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo, it just felt right to tell this story.

Anyone who has played a role playing scenario will know that it doesn't necessarily translate very well into a storytelling setting like a novel. This scenario was no exception and that is the reason for this preface.

To make the story fit better into a novel (especially one with the specific requirement of NaNoWriMo with a minimum of 50000 words) I have had to make some changes to our original setting, and I will try to explain some of them here.

At the time our story starts, the core group of players have already completed a bunch of undertakings on the island of Al Amarja, but as I wasn't a part of that, this novel will only focus on the parts where my character Moonbeam joined the group, and the ensuing tales of heroism, deceit and all around mayhem that is so common in Over The Edge. Because we are being thrust into the story at this relatively late stage of the scenario, some characters have been exchanged from the original role playing crew, as their main story had been told and they didn't fit that well into the next part from a narrative perspective. A lawyer player character can offer a lot of fun role playing, but if the part of the story being told doesn't entail anything remotely related to the field, the character is better left for other things. In the same sense, some integral parts of the Al Amarjan experience is left out because they don't add anything useful to this particular story. Good examples of this are the rampant drug use, and different alien races on the island. Both things that will not be explored in this novel. At least not in the level of detail it could have been.

Side quests and a lot of seemingly random fighting is also the norm in many role playing scenarios, but those will only be described if they add anything extra to the characters or aid in the progression of the main story.

This work can be seen as fan fiction, inspiration for your own adventures, entertainment or simply as an annoying waste of time, but I hope the reader will at least sense the enjoyment one can have from entering the chaotic world of Al Amarja, even though this story only scratches the surface of the strange, weird and dark happenings of the island. Readers who know of Over The Edge and Al Amarja might be discouraged seeing that their favourite established character or place on the island is missing from this story, but that is part of the beauty of role playing that each play through represents a separate journey, and the job of a good GM is to make sure the story fits the characters and the players present in this particular group.

As a final warning, I am not a native English speaker and this story is written in one month during NaNoWriMo, where writing without a lot of editing is encouraged to get the creative juices flowing more freely, and as such there will most likely be some places where editing would have helped immensely, and a bunch of weirdly placed commas, but I hope you will still find the underlying story interesting. I know I had fun playing it and writing about it.

The journey begins

"I have heard so many wonderful things about Al Amarja! I can't believe what an amazing place for free thinking and entrepreneurial fellowships D'Aubainne has managed to create. I can't wait to continue my own research without the stupid government interfering! 'Too dangerous' they said… Pah! That is what they said about the first vaccines as well. And how can it be ethically wrong to try to make mankind better? Just because there were a couple of accidents. You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs my mom always said." The man next to Moonbeam on the plane was in the midst of talking himself into a frenzy. "Just you wait and see. In a few years the name Lundy Wahrenstedt the Third will be on everyones lips!"

Moonbeam turned his focus away from the apparent scientist and looked out the window. Soon the island of Al Amarja would come into view and he could begin his mission in earnest.

I wonder what they specifically want me to investigate over there… He thought.

Moonbeam Corazon worked as an agent for a small organisation dedicated to rooting out some of the more obscure and evil conspiracies out there in the world. The Healing Roots was a seedling organisation for The Earthlings, used to find new Initiates to test before they got involved with the larger organisation. But Moonbeam didn't know anything about this. He was approached while working at his old job as a homoeopathic healer and mystic consultant. The agent who contacted him had followed him on a couple of different forums for conspiracy theories, and it was obvious that Moonbeam had an all consuming interest in unravelling these conspiracies. He seemed like a perfect candidate to investigate the things happening right now on Al Amarja.

Getting a visit from a man saying that he wanted Moonbeams help in investigating some mystical conspiracy on an island shrouded with misinformation seemed like a dream come true, and he jumped at the opportunity to be a part of it. As was custom in the organisation, they would not influence the chosen agent's view on the mission unnecessarily, so Moonbeam was given a ticket for a plane bound for Al Amarja, with only the information to get to Cesar's Hotel on the island and await further instructions there. He rushed home and packed his most important gear. His medical bag filled with the equipment he needed to perform his homoeopathic duties, his rapier and some clothes he might need. Ever since he was little he had enjoyed the precision work and hand-eye coordination that was needed to practice fencing, and the rapier had quickly become his weapon of choice. This was a lucky coincidence, if one believes in that sort of thing, because Al Amarja didn't allow any firearms on the island, so if one wanted to protect himself, he would need to find some alternative method.

Moonbeam had been born 25 years previously in a small earthbound community in the middle of the United States. He was never really sure who his real parents were, because the children were considered part of the flock and lived together in a large hut on the outskirts of the community's plantation. There they were weaned on a general mistrust for the government and modern medicine, and taught the ways of herbal and other alternative kinds of medicine. As a young adult he travelled around the country, aiming to further his studies on alternative medicine, and got introduced to different kinds of mystical practises, like shamanism and voodoo, before finally settling down in the northern part of Manhattan where hipsters and other like minded young people had started gathering.

After another half hour in the plane the Mediterranean horizon opened up and Al Amarja became visible. They approached the island from the northern side, so the first thing Moonbeam saw out of the window was the coastline and the Huevo mountain range looming up. After executing a large turn over the biggest city on the island, The Edge, the D'Aubainne International Airport became visible. As with every new visitor to Al Amarja coming by plane, Moonbeam let out a gasp as he saw the airport. The sheer amount of runways, and the seemingly haphazard way they had been placed, was an incredible sight in itself, but what really took the breath away was the main building towering above everything else in the immediate landscape. Looking mostly like a gleaming bone coloured funnel, the building was comprised of nine circular floors, getting larger for every level upwards. What really surprised Moonbeam was the complete lack of windows, and the apparent smoothness of the building, and he felt himself getting a bit queasy at the thought of having to go through there.

"Now that is a perfect example of the out-of-the-box thinking that is encouraged on this island!" the scientist next to Moonbeam exclaimed. "I heard that it was designed entirely by Jean-Christophe D'Aubainne. The son of Monique D'Aubainne, the liberator of Al Amarja."

"It's an abomination… How is this even possible" Moonbeam whispered. He turned away from the window and shook himself to find his composure again. As he let out a long, deep breath, there was a ding and the fasten your seatbelt sign got turned on. The descend to Al Amarja had begun.

Arriving at Al Amarja

For some reason the plane landed almost as far away from the Terminal as possible, even though the runways closer to the huge building were free. The passengers were ushered out onto the hot runway and guided towards the busses waiting to transport them to the Terminal. Moonbeam got a window seat around the middle of the bus and looked out the window while the rest of the passengers took their places. The funnel was even more crazy to look at when you got closer, and quite symbolically, the bus had to enter the huge shadow cast by the building to get to it.

On the way to the Terminal Moonbeam could hear the other passengers start talking nervously among each other about the upcoming meeting with Al Amarja Customs and Immigration. Apparently the process could be quite memorable. All people entering Al Amarja had to have a private talk with a C & I case worker, and it was not guaranteed to go smoothly, no matter who you were.

"I heard that one of the case workers just sits there and stares at you in absolute silence until you are willing to give up your own mother if only to hear something other than the clock in the room." One passenger said.

"That's nothing. Last time I was here I got assigned a small Filipino woman who was extremely incompetent. If my life hadn't depended on getting in, I would have given up then and there, and just returned straight home."

"My best friends grandmothers nieces first cousins dog sitters uncles driving instructor once heard that some people who are denied entrance choose to join a program and have elective surgery done on them. One person apparently got robotic arms that didn't always listen to him, but seemed to have a life of their own!"

"Oh how dreadful. Well if they try any of that stuff on me, I will remind them that my husband is a very important man in the line of bee keeping and training, and personally delivers all the honey and specially trained bees to the D'Aubainne household."

Why didn't I bring my headphones? This is like riding the bus with a whole class of children from the kindergarten. How can they not see they are only making themselves more nervous? Thought Moonbeam.

Finally the bus arrived at the Terminal and the passengers could get out. Once outside it was just possible to see the far side of the Terminal where a throng of people were milling about and trying to get into taxis, microbuses or private cars, all the while being shown where to go by the airport staff. On their own side of the Terminal there was no chaos though. Neatly cordoned pathways were being kept under strict guard by men in dark blue riot gear, holding sub-machine guns.

"I thought guns weren't allowed on the island…" one passenger commented in a low voice.

"That is how they make sure to keep the peace. Only the Peace Force is allowed to carry fire arms." Sounded the answer. "But all other weapons are allowed, and you don't even need a license. Unless they tell you that you need one, and then you better have it!"

After the passengers got inside the building, they were swiftly pushed towards the waiting elevators and taken to the fourth floor and assigned a C & I case worker. While waiting to get assigned his case worker, Moonbeam took the time to look around. There was only one thing you could say about the people waiting in line, and that was that no one looked alike. It was like someone had taken the entire skin colour palette and strewn it across the crowd. Whoever had done that had also been generous with the physical feature box. People of all heights, weights and disabilities were present. Moonbeam could even have sworn he saw a giant go around a corner at the corner of his eye. As noticed from the outside, there were no windows at all, and the design of the room was so all the walls had weird angles, and the ceiling seemed a bit too low for comfort. Jean-Christophe D'Aubainne must be certifiably insane to have thought this up… Or just have no sense of practicality, and never seen a normal building before. Thought Moonbeam. Luckily the air condition functioned without issues and the room had a nice chill feeling to it and the smell was, if not fresh, at least not as stuffy as could have been feared.

"Oh, it's you again, you fucking monkey faggot!" someone shouted from a room with an open door, and when everyone looked at it, the next thing they saw was a chair flying out. The sign besides the door read "Dwayne Naghibolhosseini - Case Worker".

"But… I've never been here befo…" a half crying voice said before the door was shut with a loud bang.

Hmm I guess there's something about what the other passengers were saying. It's as if the D'Aubainnes don't want people to visit when this is the first thing travellers are met with.

Finally it was Moonbeams turn, and he was shown over to a door with a sign that said "Kirjathbaal Blumenbaum - Case Worker", and Moonbeam feared the worst before entering. What met him surprised him more than he had expected. Instead of the bare office designed to make applicants nervous, the room was filled with posters from My Little Pony, and huge bean bag chairs with fur trimming were placed around the room. Some even had lava lamps next to them. In the middle of the room behind a regular desk, filled with small figurines sat a man of indeterminate origins. He looked like a bit of everything put together, but if Moonbeam had to guess, he would say the man was of Kazakhstani and Dutch descent.

"Hello there. I hope you didn't have to wait too long. Here have a seat." He said with a pleasant voice while indicating the chair opposite him. He waited for Moonbeam to sit down before continuing. "Could you please produce your passport so I can have a look?" he had what appeared to be a genuine smile on his face, but something seemed off about him. He seemed almost too innocent compared to the others. Moonbeam started rooting through his carry on belongings to find his passport while the case worker kept on talking. "So Mr…?"

"Corazon. Moonbeam Corazon is my name." Moonbeam said as the perspiration started to appear on his forehead. Where is my damn passport.

"Alright, Mr. Corazon. What an unusual name. Arh well, I guess we get all kinds of people here. Is this your first visit to Al Amarja? Say, you look a bit nervous. What is wrong?"

"I can't seem to find my passport" Moonbeam said with a nervous chuckle. "I hope someone hasn't stolen it."

"Oh. I see… And you are sure you are not just trying to take advantage of my good nature? That wouldn't be very nice of you." A dark look started to pass over his face. "I really hate it when people don't take me seriously.". It was like he grew in size while talking. Moonbeam started looking around for some escape should the case worker try something crazy.

"No, I swear! I would never do that, and I usually always have my papers in order. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. If you would just allow me to contact the American embassy, I'm sure we can get this all figured out." Moonbeam made sure he had a tight grip on his belongings. Luckily his rapier had counted as carry on as well as his medicine bag.

"You know damn well that no country has embassies on Al Amarja!" the case worker shouted with spittle flying out of his mouth. Moonbeam had heard people talking about crazy eyes, but never witnessed it before this. "Why are people ALWAYS trying to take advantage of me!?" Suddenly the case worker tried jumping over the table and tackle Moonbeam. But incredible fortune made sure that his belt buckle got stuck on the desk and his head swung down and rebounded off the hard mahogany. The case worker let out a roar, but Moonbeam was already up and running towards the door. He flung it open and hurried out while a whole stream of curses followed him from inside. Without looking back Moonbeam sprinted down a side corridor and past a half sleeping guard. After going around a corner he opened the first door on his right and hurried in, closing the door gently behind himself so no one heard it.

When did someone take my passport? Could this be a simple thievery, or is it a larger conspiracy? And why me? A lot of questions ran through Moonbeams mind while he looked around the room, hoping for somewhere to hide until he could think of a better plan. His gaze fell on a grate which apparently led to some sort of ventilation shaft. I guess this is as good a place as any. He thought and tried tugging at the mesh to get it open. Again luck was on his side and the screws on the bottom was loose, so the grate swung up and he pushed his bag ahead of him inside before following it himself. Well this seems like a horribly cliche idea, but I guess things are usually a cliche for a reason. Was the last thing he thought before the grate swung shut behind him and he started worming himself forward through the dusty tube.

Your replacement

I need to get to the bottom level so I can get out! I can't risk reclaiming my luggage, I will just have to buy some new clothes once I'm free from here. Now where do I go now. Something seemed really strange here. For some reason, the only way ahead went upward, but Moonbeam didn't have a choice. He would just have to find some other way down once he got out of the shaft. Apparently the maintenance staff ran a tight ship, because Moonbeam didn't encounter anything on his way. In the movies the guys crawling through the vent are often encountered by rodents or big ass spiders. I guess this isn't a total cliche after all. It also perplexed him that the inner surface seemed to have been polished often. Just like the outside of the Terminal. Whatever material they had made the building with, it must have been polished recently, or be a spectacular material indeed. He ran his hands over the smooth roof of his confining space, and marvelled at the fact that there was sufficient space for him to move somewhat comfortably forwards. Smaller grates on different sides supplied some form of light on his journey, but mostly it consisted of almost total darkness.

After what felt like hours of slowly inclining passages, he encountered a grate that seemed big enough for him to fit through. He had no clue how high up he was, but there had to be an elevator or some stairs that could take him down to the bottom floor. He approached the grate, looked through it, and when he didn't see anyone in the room outside, pushed on it, hoping for some more help from whatever guardian angel was watching over him. Someone must have heard his prayer, or maybe it was just a lapse in the fervour of the maintenance crew, but the grate fell away from the wall as soon as he touched it, and landed on something soft. Here goes nothing. He thought as he inched his way out and joined the grate on top of the biggest bean bag chair he had ever seen. What is it with this place and bean bags? Moonbeam had never been a huge fan of the things. In theory they seemed extremely comfortable, but in practice they never really gave you the right support, and whenever you had to get out of one it took way more effort than whatever comfort you had gotten from sitting in it. The hipster community of Manhattan seemed to embrace this type of reclining equipment fully, and in Moonbeams neighbourhood you couldn't go into a cafe without being forced to sit in one of the damn things. But I digress. Back to the story.

After getting down from the bean bag he hoisted his medicine bag and his rapier and looked around. It seemed to be some sort of mixture between storage and break room, with two doors leading out. On the walls hung posters from what appeared to be a car rental service called E-Z Rent. And as was usually the case in those kinds of offices, the wall was also adorned by a calendar with topless women. The theme in this particular calendar seemed to be Women of the Apocalypse, with women in dishevelled clothing standing among the rubble of a post-nuclear civilisation. Breathing in through the nose, Moonbeam recognised the smell of horrible office coffee and recognised the old school coffee maker standing on a table by the wall. No mocha chai lattes to be had here then.

Reorienting his attention to the matter of escaping the Terminal, Moonbeam went over and grabbed a hold of the doorknob, took a deep breath and opened the door. On the other side was the inside of a rental station of some kind. A single employee, clad in a uniform that was a bit too big for him, and seemed to have been made with the thought of 'One Size Fits All' mentality, stood at the counter with his back to Moonbeam and looked out at the milling people going towards the exit of the Terminal. How… I kept going upwards, but it seems like I have arrived at the bottom floor. This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder. But I better go back and try the other door before that guy notices me. Moonbeam started to turn around, but the employee had seen him and started going towards him.

"What are you doing back here? This is a place of business and you don't seem to have any reason to be here. If you don't get out or explain, I will call the guards." The employee said. Seeing him from the front, Moonbeam could see he was of African descent and seemed to be around 50 years old with grey streaks in his hair. His skin was sagging in places and huge worry lines writhed their way across his forehead. He seemed like a person who was very tired of his life. Having to come up with a reason for being there, Moonbeam grabbed hold of the first idea that entered his mind.

"I come from the main office. They just hired me to be your replacement." He tried to sound authoritatively.

"WHAT! But how come I haven't heard anything about this? I had my employee review last week and they said I was doing everything by the books. And I've never missed a day of work. They can't do this to me."

"As far as I could understand, they want to take the business in another direction. Try a more disruptive and direct approach, and that is why they hired me. I am very sorry to have to be the one to deliver these news. I was sure they would have told you already."

"But. But… I can't believe those bastards. I've been working here for 23 years, and this is the thanks I get?! Well I am gonna go straight down to the main office and give the boss man a piece of my mind. What is the world coming to where a man can be tossed out on his ass like this." The employee started to go past Moonbeam and headed for the other door in the break room. Seizing on another idea, Moonbeam tried to press his luck.

"Oh, before you go. They wanted me to make sure you left your uniform, entry badge and walkie-talkie before you went out."

The employee looked incredulous, then rolled his eyes and started undressing, all the while saying a lot of things in Swahili, and judging by his tone, it wasn't a part of the higher class of vocabulary that was coming out of his mouth. He threw everything on the floor in the middle of the room, and left by the other door. Well that went a lot better than expected.

After putting on the uniform, badge and walkie-talkie and waiting a couple of minutes to make sure the employee had left, Moonbeam exited the door to the Terminal. On the other side he found himself in a small corridor populated by doors that must have led into all the other small offices and kiosks lining the Terminal exit. He continued in the direction that seemed the most likely exit, rounded a corner and saw the bright exit looming just 200 meters away. He heard some shouting from the side and turned to see the employee in his underwear being dragged away by two big, burly guards with grizzled features.

"I'm telling you I used to be an employee here. Just go over to the E-Z Rent office and ask the new guy." The former employee tried his best to fight and convince the guards with words and limbs, but either they didn't understand him, or they just didn't care. A man in underwear has nothing to do in an airport terminal after all. Taking a better hold of his possessions, Moonbeam started going towards the exit from the Terminal. When he was about 50 meters away, his walkie-talkie started making a scratching noise and a voice could be heard.

"We have reports of the subject moving through the Terminal and getting closer to the exits. Please be on the lookout for him. He must not be allowed to leave the premises. Report in if you see anything". Moonbeam felt his skin crawl and it suddenly seemed as if everyone was looking straight at him. He increased his pace and kept glancing backwards to see if he was followed, but nothing seemed amiss.

"I've seen him! He's right here. Every agent hurry up and get to the exit hall." Came another voice from the walkie-talkie and the guards from the doorway looked into the hall and started going towards Moonbeam. Time seemed to slow down and every sound was muted. He realised he had nowhere left to run, so he let his head fall down and moved slowly towards the guards who got ever closer… And walked right past him. I can't believe this disguise fooled them like that. I guess that is what you get when you hire what looks like the local thugs to patrol for you. He kept moving, constantly expecting a hand to grab his shoulder and turn him around. But nothing of the sort happened, and he suddenly found himself outside, feeling the warm sun on his skin.

The anxiety that had closed his ears to the noise around him lifted, and the inferno of chatter and yells from the people around him assailed his senses and threatened to overwhelm him for a bit. He took a deep breath and let his senses adjust themselves to the new situation, just like he had been taught by his yoga instructor. With his nerves stabilised, and his eyes adjusted to the harsher light outside, Moonbeam located the long line of taxis, and with a quick glance back towards the Terminal he hurried over and and jumped into a car with a sign on the roof saying "Giovanni's Cabs".

Ride into town

"So where are we going today, Mac?" the cabbie asked as Moonbeam got settled in the back and started to take off the rental place uniform.

"Take me to Cesar's Hotel, please. If we get there fast there will be a good tip waiting for you."

"No thanks, Mac. A fair price for a fair ride is all we ask. It says so right there above you." He pointed to a sign above the door with the company's policies. No extra money was being accepted. Neither as tip, bribe or anything else. While Moonbeam read the sign, the cab pulled away from the curb and left the Terminal behind.

After getting out of the immediate press of cars, the cab turned onto a very large highway with five lanes of traffic moving in each direction. When the Terminal was no longer in sight behind them, Moonbeam breathed a sigh of relief and started noticing more about the cab and cabbie. The best way to describe both of them was dirty, a bit smelly, making strange noises and having seen better days. Trying to ignore his sense of smell he turned his attention towards the cabbie, who was chewing on the end of a nasty looking cigar. Just before Moonbeam started talking, the cabbie took out the cigar and expectorated a huge chunk of phlegm out the window and said.

"Hey, Mac. Did you see that fine looking piece of ass back at the Terminal? Those badonkadonks would make for a nice bit of motorboating for sure." He said with a lewd smile.

"Sorry, I didn't see any one really. My mind was occupied with getting to the hotel. I never really feel comfortable travelling until I am settled in my room. Could you tell me a bit about The Edge on the way to the hotel?" said Moonbeam, trying to steer the conversation over to more important matters and eliciting a crestfallen look from the driver.

"Alright, Mac. If that is how you want to do this. The central part of The Edge is comprised of 9 different plazas. I won't go into details about all the different plazas right now, but Cesar's Hotel is placed in the Sunken Plaza, which is the closest one to the airport. The reason it's called The Sunken Plaza is because the entire area is two meters below the surface of the water, so all roads turn to ramps as they lead closer to it. If you want to go and see street vendors or visit the safest part in town, this is your best bet. Not that I would call anywhere on this island safe, but I'm sure you'll figure that out for yourself. The Sunken Barrio is usually the place we take a burger like you.

"All Plazas are surrounded by a corresponding neighbourhood called a Barrio, so the Sunken Plaza lies in the Sunken Barrio, and the same with the others. If you need something specific, you can always ask at your hotel, or find a cabbie, and they can inform you which part of the city is most likely to have it. In fact, do you have any place in particular you want to visit while you are here?" His talking was interrupted from time to time by a diverse concert of bodily sounds, some of them followed by a squishing sound to signal that some fluid had joined the party as well. Moonbeam had heard about some of the weird slang of the island, and burger was obviously a word to describe someone like him. I wonder what part of me makes me a burger… Oh well, if I hear it enough times the meaning will most likely become clear to me.

"I don't have anything particular in mind, but thank you for asking. Right now I just need to get to the hotel, and then I will check out some of the opportunities that the island has to offer. One thing you can help me with though. The airport seemed to have misplaced my luggage, so I will need to buy some new clothes. Where is the best place to find that? Preferably something homespun or manufactured in a sustainable fashion."

"Well I don't know about sustainable, Mac. To be honest, nothing on this island seems particularly sustainable, but for regular clothing, I would recommend going to the Plaza of Flowers. They have a whole heap of stores of all kinds to fill most of your needs. But if you want something special made, you can also go to Neat Fit at the Plaza of Justice. I'm sure the clerks at the hotel can help you make arrangements if you need to buy more than you can carry. In general, people on Al Amarja are ready to go through lots of hoops if you throw enough cash at them. That reminds me of the time when…"

Moonbeam let the driver drone on about whatever seemed to go through his head at the time. At one point he seemed to be getting into a lengthy monologue about the difference between Mac 'n Cheese and his own version called Pasta 'n Cheese, which was apparently the far superior product. Moonbeam had always enjoyed pasta, but he had a feeling that this particular usage wouldn't really be to his liking. Fortunately the Sunken Plaza was not a far drive from the airport, and after passing through an area called The Burbs, the cab rolled down a ramp and a huge statue of a woman became visible.

"That is a statue of Monique D'Aubainne. I've never seen her myself, but I'm pretty sure the wings are just the artist putting his own touches on it. That is also one thing to know. The different plazas are very easy to recognise, because most of them have some large statue in the middle of a roundabout. Or well… They used to. Some of the statues have been torn down and replaced with other things. Like in the Plaza of Gold, where they removed the fountain and statue to make room for more parking space. So I guess what I am really saying is that this is one of the only statues still left." The cabbie tried to explain as they parked outside the hotel.

Cesar's

Moonbeam paid the cab driver $18 for the ride, and after exiting the car, found himself standing in front of a three-story building with a modern look to it. The hotel was located at the side of the Plaza, with a terrace overlooking the bustle of street merchants peddling their wares, and the tourists trying not to be ripped off. Letting his gaze roam over the many people in the Plaza, Moonbeam was sure he witnessed at least one person being pick pocketed, and some street hustlers trying to fool hapless visitors out of their cash. The whole area didn't really seem to be as safe as the cabbie had alluded to, at least not in the sense of keeping your belongings. There were however no evidence of any kinds of physical danger present.

Having always been fascinated with the workings of other people, Moonbeam could easily have spent the entire day just observing the multitudes going about their daily lives, but he wasn't kidding when he told the cabbie that he didn't really feel comfortable until he had checked in, so he picked up his bag from the sidewalk and entered the hotel.

The inside of the hotel was decorated in a modern and comfortable fashion, and it was clear that the owners cared about giving their customers a good experience. Moonbeam went up to the counter where a tall, thin clerk was standing with his back to the entrance, not really seeming to be occupied by anything.

"Ahem…" Moonbeam tried, but nothing happened. On the counter there was a clock with a sign saying 'Ring for service', so he tried using that. A loud clear tone sounded and the clerk turned around with a big smile on his gaunt face.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?" He said in a helpless try at a Frank Nelson impression. When he saw Moonbeam's incredulous expression, he laughed sheepishly.

"Sorry, just trying to keep a light mood on the place. Welcome to Cesar's Hotel, my name is Thurleigh Wadsworth. How may I be of service to you today?"

"Hi, my name is Moonbeam and I should have a reservation in your system. It might be under Corazon, my last name."

While Thurleigh checked the system for the reservation, Moonbeam took a look around the room. From a door to the side a small African woman in her late thirties entered the lobby. Her name tag read 'Juliana Bokundi - Manager' and she wore a small badge of a red dagger on her shirt. Moonbeam remembered seeing the same red dagger on a decal outside the building with an accompanying label saying 'This establishment is under the protection of Safe N Sound'. It must be some kind of private security firm. Quite clever to put recognisable symbols and decals up. She hadn't noticed Moonbeam yet, but it was clear she was an alert woman, because her eyes darted from place to place, and once she spotted a dirty footprint on the floor she hastened over and cleaned it away. When she got up and her eyes settles on Moonbeam, she broke into a big smile and hurried over.

"Ahhh hello Mister. I don't think I've seen you here before! Are you checking in for the first time? I hope Mr. Wadsworth is delivering his utmost service." The last part was said with a sly glance towards the clerk who straightened, took a room key and pushed it towards Moonbeam.

"I have found no fault with him so far ma'am. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Moonbeam Corazon, and I can see you are the manager here?" She shook his hands thoroughly.

"Yes, I own and run the place with my sister Donna. She is upstairs checking on the guests in the restaurant right now. Now be sure to let me or Donna know if there's anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable."

"I think the clerk here has everything in hand right now, but thank you for the consideration. I'm already liking the feel of the place I must say."

"Excellent! Well, I really must be off. Mr. Wadsworth will make sure you are led to the correct room so you can get settled in." And with a last pump of his hand, Donna hurried back out of the room, and Moonbeam heard her greet some guests in the adjoining room.

"The Bokundi sisters have a very hands on approach to management. And no one understands how they find the time and energy to do all the stuff they do, but I guess a lot of stranger things are happening on this island, and it makes for a cleaner and more secure workplace, so I can't complain. Although it does make you feel a bit inferior if you try to keep up with them." The clerk still stood with the room key in his hand and waited for Moonbeam to stop looking after Juliana and take it.

"Here is the key to your room. You have one of the suites on the second floor, so if you will just let me take your belongings, you can follow me, and I will show you where it is." Thurleigh started towards the stairs with Moonbeam's things, and after a last hesitant look towards the door where Mrs Bokundi had vanished, he followed the clerk up the stairs. When they got to the first floor, the clerks words truly registered with him.

"Excuse me, did you say a suite? Are you sure you've seen correctly?" asked Moonbeam suspiciously.

"Why yes, sir. One of our biggest suites, paid in full for a week. Isn't that what you ordered?"

Quickly composing himself, Moonbeam tried to adopt a somewhat haughty and self secure attitude.

"Well, my secretary always makes the reservations, but the company don't usually splurge for the big rooms, but please just take me there. I am longing for a hot bath."

Thurleigh gave a small questioning glance, that made Moonbeam nervous, but continued up to the second floor and stopped before a huge double door.

"I'm sure everything inside is to your liking. If you need anything, there is a phone in the room, and you are welcome to contact us at any time of the day. Have a good day, sir." He turned around and started down the stairs without asking or waiting for a tip. Hmm I guess tipping is not really something they do on this island.

"Oh, one last thing." The clerks head came back out of the stairwell. "Unfortunately you have caught us in a period where we've had to do some maintenance on the top floor, and that means that the swimming pool on the roof is closed. But no need to fret. The hotel has supplied our guests with a temporary above ground swimming pool on the terrace behind the building. You should be able to see it from your room. And once again, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." He disappeared down the stairs again.

Moonbeam opened the door and went inside. The room was a picture of opulence. If you had taken a catalogue from a warehouse with luxury furniture, this room could have been the feature example. Huge draperies hung down across the giant windows, and two glass doors led outside to a balcony overlooking the back of the compound. It also hit Moonbeam that this was the cleanest smelling room he had ever been in. The suite was comprised of a large living room, and a smaller, but still large, room with a bed big enough to hold at least 4 people. And of course it featured a humongous frame with a wispy thin canopy. Moonbeam shook his head at the richness of it all, and his eyes fell on an envelope lying on the bed. He went over and opened it. Out fell 5 surveillance photos of different people, and a letter that only held the words 'The Iron Maidens - Warehouse 52, Four Points Barrio. 1 Offal Lane'. I guess this is where I need to go next. I wonder if they want me to infiltrate the group, or just check them out from afar and stop them if they try something dangerous.

Having finally settled in, and with the thoughts provoked by the content of the envelope running rampant in his mind, Moonbeam decided to take a shower.

After showering in a bathroom as decadent as the rest of the suite, Moonbeam donned a luxurious bathrobe, complete with initials they apparently had made especially for him. It fit him perfectly, and he felt like a king while wearing it. He went over to the life size mirror in the bedroom and checked out his look. I could see myself wearing a crown and sceptre with this robe. Perhaps I could ask room service for it. He thought jokingly. His contemplation and enjoyment was shattered when a bell rang from somewhere inside the main room. He went in to investigate, and heard a knock at the door. Going towards the door he called.

"Who is it?"

"It's room service Mister." I didn't order any room service. Suddenly the hairs rose up on his arms and his senses came to a full alert. Someone has figured out where I am. Is it the guards from the airport? Agents from the government? The employee from the rental shop back for revenge? So many potential enemies and I've only been on the island a couple of hours.

"Just a minute! I just got out of the shower." He yelled while his eyes searched the room for an escape. The suite held no other doors than the French door to the bedroom, and the glass doors to the balcony. Alright, I guess we are going for another cliche. He hurried into the bedroom, grabbed his medicine bag, the envelope and rapier, leaving his clothes and still wearing the bathrobe, dashed towards the balcony doors and threw them open. Going over to the railing and looking down, a big smile spread across his lips. The temporary swimming pool was placed basically right beneath his balcony, albeit a handful of meters lower than his current altitude. The temporary swimming pool was a ten by five meter pool, and looked to be around one and a half meter deep. A thick smell of chlorine assailed Moonbeams nostrils, and he found himself being thankful he didn't have to stay in the room and be subjected to that aroma more than necessary. He climbed over the balustrade and sat on it, with his bag in one hand and the rapier and envelope in the other.

"Mister are you okay?" A loud voice came from the door with another hard knocking following right after. Moonbeam took a long breath to steady his nerves and jumped.

Finding Maidens (and clothes)

If I don't hit the pool correctly it might mean broken legs or worse. Well I've been fortunate so far, so why jinx it. A surprising amount of thoughts ran through Moonbeams head while he was plummeting towards the not-so-deep waters of the swimming pool. He had closed his eyes after jumping, keeping faith in his judgement about the distance required. With adrenaline raging in his body, the fall seemed to last several minutes, but suddenly his feet touched the water and an instant later his entire body was submerged in the surprisingly cold water. Damn, this hotel is crazy. How do they keep the temporary pool so cool in this warm weather? He thought, doing his best not to let the shock force the air from his lungs. It seemed a silly thing to focus on, but our minds do crazy things to avert our attention from an impending disaster. Moonbeam opened his eyes and tried to reorient himself. Find the sun and you will find the way up.

With burning lungs, Moonbeam breached the surface of the pool, and again he realised that his ears had blocked a lot of noise from the surrounding area when he had to make a quick decision. He doggy swam to the side of the pool and used the small ladder to climb out. He tugged his bathrobe around himself, wished he had put on some underwear, and ran around the building.

Outside the hotel he quickly located a line of taxis waiting for customers. Trying to look casual in his wet bathrobe with his semi long hair dripping from his shoulders, he walked towards the cabs and surprisingly no one seemed to pay him any attention. Neither was there a sound of alarm from the hotel, which perplexed Moonbeam most of all. Not one to dismiss his good fortune though, he nonchalantly entered the first cab in line, another smelly car from Giovanni's Cabs.

"Hey, Mac. You couldn't take the time to dry off after the shower? Where are we off to in such a rush?" the female cabbie asked. Moonbeam noticed with surprise that she had the same look and mannerisms as his previous chauffeur, but attributed it to the idea that it would take a certain type of person to drive one of the heaps that this company employed. But at least they didn't try to trick you, and they seemed genuinely friendly.

"What?… Oh yes, I seem to be a bit distracted lately. Well nothing to do about that, we will have to pick up some clothes on the way."

"Sure thing, Mac. We don't judge people at Giovanni's. But you didn't say where you wanted to go? If you need some new threads, I can take you to Flowers for one of the shops there, unless you have something else in mind."

"Where ever you recommend is fine by me. Just take me to the Plaza of Flowers and I'll handle things from there." Good thing I keep my cash in my medicine bag. This trip has already caused some unwanted expenses. I hope The Healing Roots can reimburse me for some of it, the homoeopathic healing isn't exactly a field to make you rich.

"Alright, Mac. You're the boss. Oh, and you should probably make sure to close your robe, or I might end up running us off the road trying to enjoy the view." Moonbeam could see the drivers lewd smile in the back mirror as the cab started moving, and he tightened the robe about himself with a bashful expression on his face.

On the way towards the Plaza of Flowers, the driver took Offal Road, so Moonbeam found himself looking to find the warehouse, but unfortunately it was at the other end of the road. So he got a first taste of the Four Points Barrio and the high amount of street people living there, as well as the pungent smell permeating the entire barrio. This place looks horrible. But I can imagine that it can function quite well as a hiding place. The warehouse they are staying in has probably been abandoned for a long time.

As the taxi entered the Plaza of Flowers they almost had to take a full turn in the roundabout before coming to a stop in front of a store called Hegermeier's which had a prominent display of clothing outside, and apparently a whole rack of nooses as well. On the way round Moonbeam saw the large centerpoint of the Plaza. An abstract sculpture of twisted, rusted metal placed in the center of a raised platform, and all around it a great variety of street performers was plying their various trades. He saw people doing stand up, singing, dancing, stripping, prophesying, improv theater and side show acts. In fact the entire barrio really lived up to its reputation as being the place to come for entertainment on Al Amarja. Inside Hegermeier's store Moonbeam was greeted by a well dressed employee who helped him pick out two sets of clothes, just in case he 'misplaced' the first one again. As so often before in his life, having the initials MC gave Moonbeam an edge in his dealing with other people. Not only was his rap name MC MC widely regarded as being delightfully droll, but it helped him sell the bathrobe to the owner of the clothing store, because of the huge resellability with the younger crowds whom the owner referred to as 'pubes'. According to Mr Hegermeier there was an increasing trend in the adolescent population in wanting to distance themselves from 'oppressive parents' and prove they could take care of themselves. This was so common that there was a law on Al Amarja stating that any citizen, at puberty, could declare him- or herself a legal adult, and 'divorced' from the family. However, life on the island was so hard for the inhabitants, that most of these pubes fell through the cracks in society and had to live as low-lifes or suffer other horrible existences. Maybe, when I'm done, I can try to help the lowly people on the island, but for now I need to push it out of my mind and focus on my mission!

After leaving the store, feeling fresh and dapper in his new garb, Moonbeam secured himself a new driver and gave the address of Offal Road 1, excited to start his mission in earnest.

The Iron Maidens

The taxi let Moonbeam out at the beginning of a long dirt road leading up to a large structure. The ground he had to cover between the main road and the warehouse was littered with all sorts of machinery, tires and other industrial surplus, and looked like it had been used as a dumping ground for all kinds of appliances like someone had intentionally tried to make it seem like a place that had been long abandoned. It was very convenient for Moonbeams purpose though, and he quickly got to the building without really risking being spotted by anyone. Warehouse 52 looked as Moonbeam had expected. A rundown, abandoned shell of a building that seemed like it could collapse any moment. But being no stranger to these kinds of constructions, he recognised the underlying integrity and risked climbing the structure to get a look through one of the many windows adorning the roof.

Scaling the building proved to be just as easy as expected, as the sheeting on the side made natural hand- and footholds for an agile person to take advantage of, and Moonbeam reached the top in short order. Settling himself on the stomach with good access to a window, he looked down at the large hall below. There he saw four of the people from the photos, and another man he hadn't seen before, who looked to have been tied to a chair. Apparently the Iron Maidens where in the middle of an interrogation of some sort. The unknown person didn't seem to be having a great time, in fact the way he was slouched on the chair made it look like he was about to faint at any moment. I'll need to reserve my judgement until I know for sure what they are doing. They might be interrogating a bad guy, so even though their methods appear rougher than I would like from the 'good' guys, there might be a good reason. Moonbeam was still looking down at the scene below him when a loud buzzing could be heard right next to his ear. He turned around, saw a huge wasp-like insect and tried to wave it away. This proved to be his undoing, because the sudden movement dislodged a plate under him, and he suddenly felt himself tumbling through the air with debris flying around him. Well the beams are still holding up, but I guess I had too much faith in the aluminium sheets covering the roofs.

Moonbeam felt sure that his time had come, he was around 15 meters up after all, but the hall was stacked with crates of different sizes, and while he did bounce hard off a couple of them on the way down, the piece of sheeting he had lain on when it was still attached to the roof, helped slide him some of the way and distribute the shock damage across a larger portion of his body. In the end he was lying on the floor between four faces looking down on him, including the person tied to the chair, and as far as he could sense nothing in his body was broken. He did suspect a couple of sprains, and his clothing had been ripped in places so some heavy bruising would probably be unavoidable, but all in all he considered himself lucky. Buying two sets of clothes seemed to be the right choice after all, but I didn't think I would have needed it so soon.

"What the devil is going on out there?" A voice from what looked like an office yelled and a man looked out. So this was where the last one of the group had been holed up.

"Ahem… This burger came crashing down through the roof." The only woman of the group said. Now someone else have called me a burger. Could they mean hippie? I've been called that on many occasions after all.

"How do you know he is not from around here?" A big burly man with a large moustache said. He carried a large piece of metal on his bag, and spoke with a German accent.

"Come on, it is obvious he is not a local Al Amarjan. First of all he is pale as a ghost, and you can just tell from the look on his face that he has not been here long." The woman answered. She was a somewhat small and thin woman in her early twenties. As most Al Amarjans she was dark skinned and looked like an African native. The rest of her appearance could not be considered particularly African though. She had a large multicoloured mohawk and several piercings around her face, and her clothing looked to be inspired by the punk/grunge wave.

"What are you guys doing?! A stranger falls down in the middle of an interrogation and no one moves a muscle to constrain him or check him for weapons or other dangerous things?" A man who was clearly part of some military, or had at least been so for many years, came out of the office holding a rope. "Someone grab him and a chair, and we will hear what he has to say." When he came a bit closer he suddenly stopped and stared at something on the ground. Moonbeam followed the direction his eyes had taken and locked on to the same item that held the military mans attention. In the fall, the envelope had apparently fallen out of Moonbeams medicine bag and pictures of the five Iron Maidens lay tossed on the floor. A wariness crept into the man with the ropes voice.

"Where did you get those? Who sent you?"

"The envelope was lying on my bed in my hotel room with a paper telling me this address. Please don't hurt me. I don't know exactly why I was supposed to find you, I only know that is has something to do with why I was sent to Al Amarja on a mission." Moonbeam pleaded. "I didn't peg you for being an evil group based on your pictures, but the name The Iron Maidens and the way you are interrogating that guy does make me question my initial assessment."

The entire group turned towards the man on the chair as if first noticing him now. They were obviously not put at ease, but the genuineness of Moonbeams answer seemed to have mollified them a bit at least.

"The group name was chosen by popular voting, and you should have heard some of the other suggestions." The way the military man had taken control of the situation made it seem like he was the leader of this motley crew, and the others did seem to defer to him and let him run the show.

"I still think The Combat Wombats is a good name" A small nerdy looking guy said softly.

"That is not the point right now! Well at least it seems like you are not an immediate threat to us, so I won't tie you up at the moment, but I am watching you. As for this guy here." He kicked the chair with the interrogee. "He belongs to a group who has been trying to mess with our crews operations for some time, and we were trying to figure out where they got the intel on us. But now with your arrival, and these pictures, it seems like we are being watched from multiple places. I suggest we relocate when Lena returns with news about the vase we recovered for Jimmy Millow. Until then, why don't you tell us all a bit about yourself? You seem to know who we are, so it would only be polite."

"I don't really know anything other than the name of the group and those pictures, so I would love to hear more about you if I may." Moonbeam settled down om the floor in the beginnings of a yoga flower pose. "My name is Moonbeam Corazon, and yes that is my real name. Back in the states I work as a homoeopathic healer and dabble in other sorts of the mending opportunities provided by Mother Earth. I see you've also noticed this." He pulled the rapier from the sheath on his back and stroked it gently. "I have always enjoyed fencing and it seemed like a prudent choice to bring this with me on my quest. Besides my work as healer I have been involved in some voluntary work through the organisation The Healing Roots, where we strive to root out corruption, conspiracies and other evils where ever we can find them. It is in that capacity that I am here today. I have a feeling I was connected with you guys so you can help me discover and dismantle the scheme my organisation wishes me to deal with." While he was talking there was some snickering from some of the people listening, especially when he mentioned his profession, but Moonbeam was used to disbelievers ridiculing him. At the end of his speech most of them had an incredulous look on their faces.

"Soooo… You're saying that your organisation sent you here without telling you anything about your mission? And that didn't strike you as being odd?" A big, musclebound guy with chiselled features asked.

"It is all part of the mantra of the Roots. We believe that evil takes many forms and agents should not be biased towards a specific interpretation of events when sent out."

"Well that seems completely insane to me, but if you don't make any trouble, and really know how to handle that toothpick you are carrying, we can always use some more help with our dealings." The leader said.

The Iron Maidens went on to introduce themselves.

The burly man with the German accent was Gunther Schmidt. Apparently Gunther was a former riot cop from Germany and the metal on his back was his riot shield, basically a big metal plate with a small window near eye height. There seemed to be something weird going on with one of his eyes, but he didn't want to talk about it, or the reason he came to Al Amarja, so Moonbeam figured he would find out when Gunther trusted him more. He was also in possession of a clump foot which hindered some of his movements. According to the group he got that after being hospitalised by a giant alligator they fought some time back during a retrieval operation. It seemed like an interesting tale, so Moonbeam decided he would ask more about it if they got some down time later.

The tall man with the chiselled features and big muscles, was called Chad Beefman. He didn't have any qualms about telling why he was on the island at the moment. It turned out that he was an up and coming B-movie star (currently he was around F-movies), and he was a big believer in doing his own stunts. He had come to Al Amarja on his own initiative with two objectives in mind. He wanted to find inspiration for his next movie where he wanted to play an agent trying to take down a dictator. And he also wished to get some training with fighting against different people. In that sense he was very method in his acting preparations. He saw The Iron Maidens as the perfect opportunity to help him achieve his goals.

Dalia Osei was the name of the Al Amarjan punker. Originally she had been hired to act as a guide for the group, because she knew the island as only a native could. Seeing as she was not an integrated part of the group she was not with them all the time, and no one in the group really knew why she still came with them from time to time, but when she was with them on missions she tried to do her best to make sure they didn't do anything permanently damaging. Either to themselves or any part of the city.

Alexej Ivanovski was almost a caricature of the consummate Russian scientist. If he had been cast in a movie as the token scientist the audience would have left the cinema calling the movie makers lazy and unnuanced, maybe even racist, in their writing and casting. Like the scientist Moonbeam had met on the plane, Alexej seemed to have come to Al Amarja to pursue his passion for science. Some critics might point out, that a scientist who was too crazy to be tolerated in Russia, probably shouldn't be allowed to do experiments, but luckily Al Amarja didn't believe in that kind of, perfectly sane, censorship. His role in the Iron Maidens, however, was more of a fix-it-all type of guy. Any problem that required a steady hand with a wrench or screwdriver, or cutting the correct wire, was all up his alley of expertise.

Rounding out the crew was John Stones who was the consummate American in all he said and did. Moonbeams first impression of him was that he was working for the FBI, CIA or some other government organisation and was probably doing some sort of undercover mission with the rest of the group as scapegoats if anything went wrong. But that hypothesis didn't seem to hold up when they told him how they had all gotten together. According to John, he had arrived on the island around two years ago on an ill conceived alternative vacation plan. The man who made his favourite falafel salad had recommended him to go to the island after his cousin had told him a lot of great things. He had seemed like a new man when he got back, so John figured it would be a nice change of pace. He needed to do something drastic to shake his life up after having worked as a banking officer for ten years. The trip had gone smoothly until he got to the Customs and Immigration part of the airport where his airport had been taken into custody by the government and he had been subjected to some horrible physical experiments, that had left him with some nasty scars on select places on his body.

After weeks of experiments he had been released without a passport and was stuck on the island until further notice. He started working odd jobs around the barrios, and got into contact with the rest of the group through different fliers posted on street lamps like an old school Craigslist, where the local population looked for people to do everything from emptying the kitty litter, to robbing banks. He suspected that the ads for bank robbers was the Peace Force trying to catch potential criminals, or just clean the streets of some of the most desperate people.

Having done a couple of jobs together, John, Alexej and Gunther hung out at a local cafe when they spotted an ad in the local newspaper from Chad, asking for people to help him prepare for his next role. They got together and formed an alliance to take some more… questionable jobs, and hired Dalia to help them find their way around. After a week of entrepreneurial work, someone had suggested they needed a catchy name to make sure their employers would remember them, and maybe even make sure to tell their friends about them, and after a vote they had decided on The Iron Maidens.

Lena, who the fuck is Lena?

With a timing that couldn't have been better if the encounter had been scripted, a woman entered the warehouse just as John Stones had finished describing how the group had started out together.

"I see the Iron Maidens have expanded their operations. Who is this gentleman then?" She said with a confident smirk. In fact her entire bearing spoke of a supreme confidence and you could just imagine how everyone would notice her no matter what room she entered. With a demeanour befitting a Nubian princess she strode into the middle of the storage facility and Moonbeam could feel himself being drawn to her. Her ebony skin looked uncommonly smooth, and her long, black and curly hair hung down in rivulets and framed her face perfectly.

"His name is Moonbeam, and he comes from America. He is gonna be a part of the gang for the time being." Chad said and made Moonbeam finally tear his gaze away from the young woman.

"I know the feeling, comrade." Alexej whispered beside him. "But I wouldn't even try to go there."

She flashed Moonbeam a great smile that made his knees a little weak.

"Welcome to the flock then. The more the merrier, and I have a feeling you will need all the guys you can get soon enough." She turned to have as many of them in view as possible. "Jimmy sent me to tell you to come to his house at your earliest convenience. He has news regarding the vase you… Acquired for him earlier. He didn't explicitly say to come straight away, but you know him. He likes his requests to be followed promptly."

She started leaving, but turned around at the door with a tantalising wave of her hair and pointed a slender finger towards the half-forgotten guy on the chair.

"Oh, and you should probably dispose of him in some manner before leaving. Jimmy hates loose ends." And with that she was gone.

"You can pick up your jaw now, bro." John said.

"That women gives me the willies. It feels like she knows all the things I'm thinking. And it doesn't help that she is carrying all sorts of different weapons on her." Gunther added and his one weird eye seemed to make a whirring sound and his pupil dilated and shrunk in quick succession.

"Who was that? And why is she acting like an errand girl and not living as a wealthy and popular woman?" Moonbeam asked.

"She works for Jimmy Millow, a local man who has hired us for a couple of jobs this past month. As to why she works for him, I can only guess, because Jimmy is not exactly high born, although he thinks highly of himself. The things he's had us procure for him has mostly been pretty junk which some collector would like to waste more money on than they are worth." John answered. "But it helps to keep us active and he pays well.

"The last job was to break into some dusty old collection and get a vase. The weird thing was that the collection had a lot of gems and other riches, and the vase didn't really look like much. Basically it looked like any old coppery vase you could find at an old persons home. But we don't question that sort of thing, and no one had even been in the house in a very long time, so it didn't seem like it would be missed."

"But I'm gonna miss the full use of my leg." Gunther muttered and let out a sigh.

"At least the doctors were able to save the foot, Gunther. It didn't look good when we finally got it out of the alligators mouth. I know it sucks, but it was very brave of you to try and kick it in the head when it went after me." Dalia said soothingly.

"You tried to kick a giant alligator? Couldn't you have used something else?" Moonbeam asked.

"Frank was not with me at the time." Was all he could get out of Gunther before he turned away and skulked off.

"He had dropped his shield earlier in the fight and he was the only one close enough to do anything. It's a good thing the local hospitals believe in trying new procedures, or his leg would have been gone for sure. A clump foot it still better than no foot. But I can understand why he is angry and don't trust the hospital employees after what happened at the airport." John supplied, and before Moonbeam could ask him about what happened at the airport, he continued. "Someone come and give me a hand with this jerk-off. We don't really have time to deal with him right now, so we'll lock him up in the office and figure out what to do with him when we get back. We also need to find another hideout afterwards."

Together John and Chad lifted the chair and carried the semi-conscious man into the office, went out and locked the door.

"Alright, let's get out of here. I propose we go get a Total Taxi and then pick up some food on the way to Jimmy's." With no one disagreeing they called for a Total Taxi while Moonbeam changed to the second set of clothes he had just bought. They all went to wait by the road, each person carrying the tools of his or her trade.

After waiting by the roadside in uncomfortable silence for ten minutes a large black Sedan with tinted windows stopped in front of the group. The only indication that this was not a typical FBI car from some Hollywood movie was the small sign on the roof saying 'Total Taxi'. Moonbeam had noticed these cabs driving between the more traditional looking taxis from Giovanni's, but hadn't had a chance to try one out yet. The driver stepped out of the car wearing a tuxedo, and held the door open for the group to enter. If the look of the car and the driver hadn't made it clear, a plaque inside the car showed that the prices were a lot higher for this company, and there was no sign saying that tips were not accepted. On the seat back behind the driver there was a pocket with a flier inside, detailing the different services that Total Taxi provided and the associated prices.

Dangerous Fares - $200 surcharge.

Chinese Fire Drill - $250.

High Speed Service - $350.

Emergency Medical Service - $1,000 per casualty.

There was also a small description with each, but Moonbeams eye was caught by something else in the pocket. A guide to help newcomers understand the local slang, and the first thing Moonbeam noticed was the definition of the word 'burger'.

'burger - Newcomers to Al Amarja; there is no plural, so one can say "Look at those three burger" or "There is a lot of burger in the Sunken Barrio".'

He pocketed the small guide and figured it might come in handy later. The driver got in the front seat and John told him where to go.

"We need to go to 21 Opulence Lane in Broken Wings, but first we need to stop by Flowers Plaza so we can pick up something to eat." The driver nodded and the Total Taxi started towards their destination.

Jimmy Millow - Thug extraordinaire

After picking up some sandwiches from an Italian street vendor in The Plaza of Flowers, the Total Taxi neared the final destination in Broken Wings. They entered a gated community through a security checkpoint where guards in uniforms with the name 'Dunkelburg's Security' made them show a pass which John provided, and they were waved through.

"Jimmy likes to think that he is a proper part of the islands elite, but according to Lena the richer people of the Barrio don't really socialise with him and considers him a thug who doesn't deserve to be there." Alexej told Moonbeam.

"Do all the rich people live in Broken Wings?" Asked Moonbeam.

"Most of the really rich people have mansions around the island, away from The Edge, but there will always be a certain prestige in having a place in the main city, so most of them keep a penthouse or small city house here. It also helps them when they've been out partying, so they have a place closer by to sleep it off." Dalia explained.

I guess rich people act the same no matter what part of the world they live. Always gathering in small communities to party without all the plebes working for them.

Finally they arrived at 21 Opulence Lane and John paid the cabbie $75 and got out with the rest of the group. They stood in front of a building that looked like someone was trying way too hard to seem effortless in his richness. Outside the door stood two brutes who looked like they might have enough brain cells between them to get through the first grade.

"The Iron Maidens are here." The smallest one of them said into a walkie-talkie.

"Alright, Rob. Be a good lad and open the door for them, please. And tell them to come to my study." Came the answer.

"You heard the boss. Get inside." He ordered the group and they entered the house through a large double door.

The inside of the house echoed the outside, in that it gave the impression that someone with no sense of interior decoration had taken a look at some brochures with rich people's homes and tried to copy as many of them as he could, without having a clear vision for how it all fit together. On the right side of the door a staircase led the group up to the second floor, where they found Jimmy Millow waiting in a big chair, clearly made to resemble a throne. Besides him, the room had three other occupants. Two more brutish figures and a smaller man with a large scar running across his face, giving him the look of a buzz saw accident in an elementary school.

"Ah, welcome!" Jimmy exclaimed and rose from the chair and went to pour himself a drink from a decanter in the corner of the room. "Do any of you want something to drink? Percival, go fetch our guests some bottled water." The last he directed at one of the brutes who snorted and went out the door.

"Lena said you wanted to see us. She isn't here?" John asked.

"No no no, Lena has other important business to see to. Come in and make yourselves comfortable." He motioned towards a large sofa and divan in the side of the room and the Maidens went over to take place on the rich leather furniture. "And who might this be?" He asked towards Moonbeam.

"My name is Moonbeam and I am a new accomplice of the Maidens, looking forward to help with whatever you need."

"My, my aren't we a suck up. I love it! Alright, you are probably wondering why I asked you to come here, and I will come right out and say it. I need you to perform another task for me and you will be as richly rewarded as usually for your fine service." He made a great flourish towards a nondescript vase standing on a pedestal besides the scarred man. "I can tell you now, that the vase you brought me is supposed to be a map to a larger treasure, that should help make me even richer when I find it and sell it. There is however a small snafu. The clues are not visible to the naked eye, but can only be viewed during a certain moon alignment. The exact same thing that is happening this week. So my science team had the opportunity to have a gander at them last night, and wouldn't you know, the text is written in code." There followed a great exasperated sigh and Jimmy made his shoulders sag dramatically. "And this is what I need you for. It is common knowledge that Sir Arthur Compton has the biggest library on the island, with many books about the metaphysical and the old races of this world with insights into their secrets. So I figure that if any place has the chance to contain what I need, it will be the library in his 'estate'. Now, to formalise your assignment; I want you to go to Sir Arthur Compton's place and locate a book containing descriptions of The Pharaohs' symbolic language. I realise this might take some time to pull off, and normally I consider myself a patient man, but I will have to insist that you go there tonight so we have a chance to decipher the instructions before the moon gets out of alignment and we have to wait until it happens again in who knows how long." He paused and looked at the group. Moonbeam had an excited look on his face. Ancient races, symbols, sacred texts, forgotten treasures! This mission has everything. And the way he said 'The Pharaohs' made it seem like he wasn't talking about the rulers of ancient Egypt, but rather some strange society. I smell a conspiracy brewing. This might be what The Healing Roots wanted me to get involved in. Hmm… Now I just need to figure out whether they want me to stop Jimmy's attempt to get the treasure, or they want me to expose these 'Pharaohs'.

After waiting to see if they had any injections, Jimmy Millow continued.

"Fortunately for us, getting into his place is not a problem at all. A big part of the house consists of a re-purposed old factory and every few months Sir Arthur throws an incredible, wild party where everyone can attend. And with everyone I obviously mean everyone who is anybody on the island. There are no invitations, but there is a minimal dress code present to keep the worst riff-raff out. So some of you will have to spiff up your wardrobe." His eyes roamed the group and seemed to linger on Moonbeam in particular and Jimmy gave a disdainful snort. I guess I have to go shopping again. Ah well, with my luck regarding my clothes I will probably need a couple of more sets of clothing before this adventure is done anyway.

"I'll have a car take you to my personal tailor. He can't make anything for you in time, but he should have something off the rack…" A small shudder ran through him. "That could fit you with minor adjustments. Also, The Glorious Lords are patrolling the premises, so you need to be careful not to do anything to piss them off. Now, get out of here and leave me to my business. I look forward to your return. Oh, and do try to be more careful with the book than the vase. It took some time to have my men put it back together correctly." And with that he turned his back on the group and apparently expected them to find their own way out. Filing out the door, the scarred henchman pulled Moonbeam aside and gave him a slip of paper.

"This is an example of the symbols used by the Pharaohs. I hope it will be helpful in your endeavour."

Outside the house a Total Taxi was parked, waiting to take the group to the tailor. Inside the cab the group started talking about the upcoming party, and Sir Arthur Compton.

"I've heard about the parties at Compton's estate, but I've never attended one." Dalia mentioned.

"This Sir Arthur… What kind of a person is he?" Moonbeam asked.

"He is somewhat of an oddity, even by Al Amarjan standards. He is famously cited for saying 'It's not a party until someone has spilled a drink on the wrong person, some guy has fondled the wrong woman, someone has said what should not be said, and someone has discovered what only the dead know.'. And this applies nicely to his festivities. There are rumours that there has never yet been a party where all the guests have returned. But it's true that everyone tries to be a part of the gatherings. Even Monique D'Aubainne has been said to visit the parties from time to time."

After a very short drive they arrived at a very small house mashed in between two larger buildings. There was no indication that this was a tailor's shop, but when they got inside they saw that the shop opened up to a somewhat large room, with sewing equipment, mirrors and screens on one side, and racks upon racks of clothing in states from almost begun, to long since finished, on the other side. A gaunt man motioned them inside and made sure that they received some proper clothing. One of the amazing things about this tailor was that he made sure that each persons personal weapons or defensive equipment fit the overall look of the garbs. You would think that a giant riot shield is hard to fit as an accessory, but somehow the tailor made it work. Moonbeams rapier was a lot easier, and he received a bandoleer that made it seem like he was part of some military parade as a ranking officer. Even the medicine bag got an overhaul to make it fit the evening wear look.

Feeling fresh and ready to mingle, The Iron Maidens went outside to the waiting Total Taxi and took it back to Warehouse 52.

Preparing for party

A half hour more saw the group standing outside the burned out husk of their former hideout.

"I wonder if it burned down with that guy still inside…" Alexej commented.

"Do you think it was some sort of faulty wiring gone wrong?" Gunther asked.

"The timing seems too incredible for that to be the case. More likely it is a message of some sort. Maybe it is these 'Pharaohs' of whom Jimmy was talking about not wanting us to help him find their treasure." Moonbeam ventured.

"I don't really believe in this whole 'Pharaohs vase with hidden clues' business, but if Jimmy wants to pay us for picking up some old book, and attend an awesome party while doing it, then I am not one to pose questions." Chad said and flexed his muscles.

"Whatever has happened here, it's too late to do something about it now, and seeing as we don't know any more about it, I suggest we go on with the plan and see where that leaves us. At least then we'll have some more money, and if something fishy is going on we can always deal with that when it happens. At least this makes the decision to swap hideouts even easier, so let's focus on that until we have to go to the party tonight. Dalia, can you think of any place that would suit us?" Said John, taking command of the situation. Dalia looked at the rest of the group as if they had suddenly turned into horrible creatures.

"How can you be so casual about this? Argh, you fucking burger are hopeless. I think I need to keep a closer eye on you than previously."

"You do you, but first, help us get out of here and find another place to lay low between jobs." John said, trying to calm her down.

"I guess it might help to keep the situation under control if I keep you away from the general public. Not too far away from here, there is an old trailer park where there should still be some mobile homes present for us to inhabit. It's a bit too far away from the centre of the barrio for the low-lifes and zeros to want to stay there. They prefer to gather closer to other people. If we can fetch a Total Taxi we can be there in like ten minutes."

"Isn't it dangerous to take a taxi there? Let's say someone is trying to kill us, won't they be able to find out where we've gone?" Moonbeam asked.

"No, that won't be a problem. A thing you obviously don't know about this island is that the taxi companies are totally trustworthy. That is why they can still stay in business in this place where everyone has their own agenda. No matter how persuasive you are towards any cab driver, no one knows anything, or at least they are not telling. This makes it safer for everyone." John explained.

I suppose that is necessary for a society like this to survive. In a place where no one trust each other, information is more important than ever. I wouldn't want to be a cab driver in a city where everyone was trying to bribe you or extort information from you by other means. This solution actually seems quite ingenious.

With incredible luck, they didn't have to wait more than twenty minutes for a Total Taxi to drive past on his way to the Plaza to wait for potential customers, so they got in and Dalia provided the location of the trailer park, where the group soon found themselves getting acquainted with the new surroundings. The trailer park only had two habitable mobile homes, and they had been put on bricks and the wheels removed, so they would have to stay where they were. Seeing as there were only two homes, the group would have to split up. The first group was John and Chad, while the second one consisted of Moonbeam, Gunther and Alexej. Dalia had expressed that she didn't want to stay in this place and would prefer to go back to her own home when she needed to. They had all lost everything they didn't have on them in the fire, but they didn't really sweat it that much. The only important thing on the island was currency anyway, and what they didn't have on them was locked in bank accounts or stored elsewhere. Having nothing to distribute or find places for in their new homes, they just tossed their old bundled clothing from the tailor inside and gathered outside to prepare for the heist in the evening. There was one big problem though; no one knew much about the layout of the estate or what they were likely to encounter when they got there. But they could talk about what teams they would explore the house in. They decided to go in together and then split up into three teams: Moonbeam and Gunther, John and Chad with Dalia and Alexej making up the last group. Because Dalia and Alexej had a different set of skills than the other groups, they would function as lookouts of sort and keep an eye on the crowds in general, while the alpha and bravo group searched through the rooms in the house for their coveted prize. So all there was left for them to do was relax and make sure they were primped and primed, their walkie-talkies equipped with fresh batteries, and ready to join the night of depravity and debauchery the entire island was looking forward to.

Party at Compton's

Like all the guests who didn't employ a private chauffeur or had other means of transportation at their disposal, The Iron Maidens arrived at Sir Arthur Compton's estate in a Total Taxi. Jimmy Millow hadn't been kidding when he said it was made from a former factory. The estate was hidden behind burned out hulls of other buildings in the Great Men barrio and had very clearly been a factory in its former incarnation. Surrounded by a wrought iron fence, the repurposed factory lay in the middle of a large area of grounds. Either Sir Arthur Compton didn't care at all about the looks of the place, or maybe it was on purpose, but 'junkyard' would not have been a bad way to describe the environs. Stunted trees, rusted out trucks, scattered ruins, hulks of nonoperational equipment and other grim features were scattered all over the place, and one might think that this would make breaking into the house a lot easier. But to dissuade eventual intruders, the Glorious Lords had several people patrolling the area, and some huge mastiffs could be seen trotting around between all the junk as well. Unbeknown to our 'heroes' there also circulated rumours about more insidious traps, some of them magical in nature, promising horrible ends to would-be thieves. None of these had ever been tested, or at least no one had ever returned alive to describe them, but the dark and gloomy humour of Sir Arthur was enough that people in general didn't dare try anything.

After leaving the cab, the group followed the stream of people going through the gates and getting frisked by the Glorious Lords. Now is probably as good a time as any to give an introduction to some of the more prominent gangs on Al Amarja. There exists three major gangs, besides the ones working directly for the government like the Peace Force: The Aries Gang, the Glorious Lords and the Dog-Faces. In truth the island was riddled with almost as many factions and gangs as there were people in general, but those three were the most prominent and most likely to interfere with the Iron Maidens plans.

The Aries Gang did their best to live up to their namesake god's reputation. They could most often be seen patrolling the streets of the Flowers barrio in motorcycle-mounted groups. It's a good thing for the rest of the island that this particular group consisted mostly of impulsive members with fiery tempers and no real direction, because with their around 150 compatriots they were the largest gang in the city. Their leader and founder was Hans Knudson who was an avid follower of astrology, and to gain a post of significance in the assembly, you had to have been born in the sign of Aries. He also used horoscopes to plan out all of the major actions of the group, although some people speculate that the horoscopes were really just Hans' intuition working its magic. All in all they are a force to reckoned with, mostly due to their wild and unpredictable behaviour, so if at all possible it was recommended to stay away from them, unless you wanted a fight.

The Dog-Faces had the most unusual quirk and tell. Run by Molly the Queen-Mother of Baboons, the gang was composed primarily of partly-domesticated baboons. In true mafia style the businesses in the Four Points barrio paid her protection money and she made sure that her patrols protected them. She bought a burned out building for her headquarters and elected to call it 'The Jungle', even though wild baboons don't live in jungles, which she of course was not aware of. It is here all the baboons not out on active patrol resided, and if their current handler was dispatched in some way, they would try to make their way back there on their own. Each patrol consisted of a single thug, leading three to six baboons and could also be summoned by a business owner in Four Points, if he had paid his protection money.

Rounding out the collection was the group currently in the way of the Iron Maidens. Many satanist groups inhabit Al Amarja, but the largest by far was the Glorious Lords. Led by Avan Bloodlord, this group had a reputation as dangerous, psychotic, bloodthirsty, evil and perverse, but they throw great parties. Calling the Great Men barrio their home and with their reputation, it was not that big of a surprise that they would hit it off with Sir Arthur Compton, and besides dominating the entire barrio, they also functioned as a personal guard for him whenever needed.

Because of a tentative truce between the gangs they all kept to their own barrios, but if any member found himself in another gangs turf, this person could be sure to find himself disposed of, and probably not in a pain free fashion.

But back to our current story. What the Glorious Lords were trying to find on the guests was anyones guess, because no one got turned away, unless their dress was not considered fine enough, and the Iron Maidens got in with all their weapons intact. Following the crowd in through a narrow entry hall, which also substituted as a cloakroom, the group found themselves in what used to be the warehouse part of the factory. The huge room had been redesigned as a big ballroom and was now party central. Two immense bars were located at each wall going the length of the room, and between them was the biggest dance floor any of the Maidens had ever seen. At first glance, the throng on the dance floor simply looked to be having the time of their lives, but if one looked closer, he would see that there was most likely a huge amount of drugs in effect throughout the crowd. A thing that seemed to only work because the participants of the party was heavily intoxicated, was located in the two corners farthest from the entrance. Where you would normally only have one DJ playing your party, Sir Arthur had apparently elected to have two separate DJs, each playing their own acid laced version of house music. This didn't seem to bother any of the guests on the dance floor, but it could probably drive a sober person insane in a relatively short time if the person in question was located between the two sets of speakers.

Having surveyed the immediate landscape of the party, Moonbeam located the two big, open doors in the back of the hall, between the two DJs, which seemed to lead further into the mansion.

"Alright guys. If Dalia and Alexej takes up places somewhere in this ballroom where they can keep an eye on everyone, and preferably still hear the walkie-talkie if needed, the rest of us will go through those doors and split up to find the library. It seems like the hall behind the doors have entries both left and right, so if Gunther and I take the ones on the left, Chad and John take the ones on the right." Moonbeam suggested. He could feel his adrenaline starting to pump, and the excitement of diving deeper into the mysteries in the library made itself known and caused him to try and take charge of the proceedings.

"It sounds like a plan. But remember that we don't want them to notice that we are not regular guests, so make sure to keep all walkie-talkie action to a minimum. I can only imagine the other patrons will suspect something if they overhear us talking about the library or other secretive things." John added.

They tried to move through the dancing crowd, but the erratic movements of the people of the floor caused the group to have to split up and find their own way to the back of the room. This meant that Moonbeam quickly lost sight of the others and this gave him more opportunity to try and take in his surroundings on the way. As any other bars, these ones also had signs detailing what you could buy from them, but unlike any bars Moonbeam had ever been in, these served a lot of things that he had never heard of. All the short drinks and regular beverages looked like any other place serving refreshments, but the section called 'cocktails' seemed to be mostly comprised of drinks with ingredients he had never heard of before. Things like Blue Shock, Communion, Nightmare, Relapse and Slo-Mo he could only guess what was, but judging by the abnormal colours of the drinks people came away with, and their behaviour immediately after drinking them, gave him a pretty good indication that these were some sort of drugs. He had heard rumours about the unique drugs of Al Amarja, but not really trusting any drugs other than his own herbal medicines, he hadn't paid them much attention. No wonder everyone are behaving like maniacs at this party. Wait, is Alexej buying one of those drinks? Well, this might be interesting later.

Moonbeam reached the doors as the last of the four people they wanted to send through and found Gunther waiting for him just inside.

"The others have already gone through the first door to the right. Let's try to get this over with as fast as possible. This place does not really agree with me." Gunther said, and they started on their way deeper into the inner workings of the madman's mansion.

The first door on their left led into a gallery containing a collection of 'art'. Owing to Sir Arthur Compton's decadent, and frankly disturbing taste, the paintings were mostly oils in surreal style with titles like 'Blistered Tongue', 'Impaled on the World' and 'Suzy's Eleventh Finger'. A quick glance inside also revealed macabre sculptures and an assortment of different implements from around the world, like the hooks embalmers from ancient Egypt would use to remove the brains of a person as part of the mummification process. Not seeing any promising doors leading out of the gallery, Moonbeam and Gunther followed the hall a couple of rooms further, until they finally opened a door into an impressive library.

Visiting the library

The first sensation to hit Moonbeam was an incredible feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the library. Sir Compton had apparently acquired all the available books for a large assortment of different fields and there didn't seem to be any method to the sorting. As many eccentric rich people, Sir Arthur employed a system of putting things where they simply felt right. Some shelves contained books with the only similarity being the colour of their binding, and other shelves were sorted alphabetically. Only occasionally had Sir Compton, or whomever was responsible for maintaining 'order' in the library tried to sort the books by subject, but this was another trick of the mind, because the subjects found interesting wasn't as orderly as 'Books about gardening' or 'Everything pertaining to the Pharaohs'. One section of the library contained books, where the only thing they apparently had in common was that they all contained some sort of information about cutting stuff. This included cook books, gardening books and a couple of books about ritual sacrifices in different parts of the world. To save the reader's mind and keep it pure, if it hasn't been ruined already, we won't go into more detail about the different subjects, but return to the search being perpetrated by Moonbeam and Gunther.

"This is gonna take forever! If only we had some way to narrow down the search, but only an insane mind could follow the 'system' employed here." Moonbeam exclaimed after half an hour of searching.

"Let me try something here." Gunther said and there was a weird sound emanating from his unusual eye. It seemed to light up for a second and then he started hitting himself on the side of the head. "Stupid fucking device, never actually doing what I want it to do!"

"What are you talking about? What is happening?"

"It's this god damn eye they installed in me after I lost my passport at the airport. It got tuned in the local news station, so now that is all I can see with my right eye."

"I am so confused right now. You said they implanted a fake eye in you?! And you also lost your passport? What is going on at that airport…" Moonbeam looked genuinely lost for thoughts for a minute while Gunther tried moving his head in different ways to dislodge or recenter whatever was giving him troubles. "Alright, let me try this again. Your eye… What is it supposed to be doing and how and/or why did you get it?"

"Just a second, this is really annoying, and makes it hard to focus. Right now it's showing me a rerun of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and although I really enjoyed that show, it is hard for me to deal with anything else while that is all I can see with one eye."

A bang sounded as the door closed behind two new arrivals and Moonbeam turned, ready to start making up an excuse for being in the library, while Gunther continued doing whatever he could think of to fix his eye.

"Why are you two just standing around? Shouldn't you be looking for the book we need?" John asked.

"We should, but there is something seriously wrong with Gunther and he hasn't told me what it is." Moonbeam answered.

"It's the fucking eye, John. I tried to get it to help me locate the book, but you know how erratic it is. It's tuned in to a local TV station now, and I can't turn it off." John and Chad started laughing.

"Can anyone please tell me what is going on?!" Moonbeam exclaimed.

"Of course, of course. But it will have to wait until we get back to our hideout. The short version is that Gunther can sometimes use his artificial eye to discern different things around him. Mostly we've used it to locate hidden weapons on the people we encounter, but he never really figured out if it could do more. Now he knows another thing it can do. Show him the local news. Quite handy I must say, if he can learn to control it." John said while smirking. "But now we really need to focus on the job at hand. We need to find the book about the symbols of the Pharaohs, and if we can, we should also locate a book called 'Shamanic Rituals of the Fifth Age of Matcha Zhao'."

"Where did you get that name?"

"I'm afraid that story will also have to wait until we are safely out of here. There is no saying how long this search will take us. And we don't exactly even have a name for our original find."

"Well I do have these symbols from the scarred man at Jimmy's house. In the excitement I forgot all about it. We can use them as guides to look for anything that seem to resemble them." Moonbeam showed the others the scrap of paper with the mystic symbols.

"I suppose this should make it somewhat easier. If we split the library up in four sections we should be able to cover it more quickly. Don't bother looking at books with readable titles unless they specifically say something like 'Secret symbols of the Pharaohs'. That should narrow the search down." John commanded and they started their search anew.

Encounter at the zoo

While John and Chad didn't have time to tell Moonbeam about their source of knowledge regarding the extra book, we are not bound by a similar pressure for time and focus. So whilst the group is looking through a bunch of dusty old books, let us take a look at what happened to Alpha Team before entering the library. This information would become available to Moonbeam and the rest of the Maidens at a later stage of their adventures on Al Amarja, but not in as great a detail as we are able to present here.

Having left Gunther to wait for Moonbeam at the doors to the hall in the back of the warehouse turned disco, John and Chad took the first hallway to the right and looked through the rooms there. Even though there was a huge amount of people in the ballroom, it quickly became clear that the rest of the mansion held an equally impressive amount of guests. Having located the designated women's powder room, with the appropriate amount of indignant screams from the ladies inside, and a couple of rooms of indiscernible purpose, Alpha Team found themselves in a part of the mansion which resembled some sort of macabre Museum of Natural History. Affectionately labelled 'The Zoo' by Sir Arthur Compton and his distinguished guests, the collection was comprised of a professional taxidermist's worst nightmare. Or if he was disturbed enough, his wettest dream. In cages and on pedestals, various creatures were displayed, with accompanying signs telling of their new 'scientific' name. Each abomination was a cacophony of mixed animal parts. These chimeras both encompassed creatures normally found in fantastic literature like the gryphon, but also otherworldly beings which did not have any right to exist in any shape or form. A bear with the head and feet of an owl could only be composed in a demented mind, but was none the less part of this particular collection.

Wandering through this menagerie of the macabre, John and Chad tried not to let themselves be too horrified by the displays, but they had to stop in front of a particularly horrible specimen. In front of them was a creature with parts from at least four recognisable animals. A badger, giraffe, flamingo and a tortoise composed the, for lack of a better word, thing and the distribution of the different parts will not be explained further here to prevent any more nightmares.

"How can these parts even fit together?!" Chad breathed.

"Isn't it magnificently unhinged? I can only imagine what went through the poor taxidermists mind when he concocted this." A man beside them said. John turned towards him, while Chad stayed transfixed by the sight in front of him. The man who had spoken was dressed in a traditional African garb and had the bearing of a statesman. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim, or Doctor Friday if you want to keep it more formal. You two gentlemen don't seem to have seen this place before. I can only imagine I had a similar look on my face the first time I saw this 'zoo'." He smiled.

"Hello Doctor Friday, my name is John Stones, and you are correct in your assumption. This is our first time visiting one of Sir Compton's parties… Excuse me for asking, but I haven't seen your garb before on any inhabitants of this island. Is it safe to assume that you are not a native here either?"

"Ah yes. You probably haven't heard about it but next week is the time for a big shamanic ritual to take place in the forests of Al Amarja. My prince has sent me as part of his delegation to take part of it on his behalf. I've been here a couple of times before though, and I never miss an opportunity to partake in the delights offered by Sir Compton. His personal library holds an astonishing amount of shamanic knowledge, and I also like to trudge around this menagerie and imagine a world where these beings could live. It makes for an excellent, albeit macabre, mind exercise. And I've even heard whispers about an existence of a more private 'zoo' where the creatures also feature human parts, but I haven't been blessed enough to see that yet."

Not believing his own luck in finding someone who had such an intimate knowledge of the library, and conveniently electing to ignore the comment about a humanised version of this celebration of depravity, John ventured to try and gather some additional information.

"I have heard about this library before! I have only recently started dabbling in mystical knowledge myself, so it would be a great opportunity for me to see the books located here. However I don't believe Sir Arthur would allow me to read them as I am not particularly considered a scholar yet, and I can only imagine he must guard the collection with some jealousy." He tried to look a bit crestfallen.

"Nonsense. Knowledge should not be limited, but rather shared as much as possible. With the possible exception of some particular parts of necromancy. Simply because they can be dangerous for the people trying to pursue them. But then again I suppose that could be considered some sort of natural selection. I would be only too delighted to show you the library and maybe look through some more of the books myself, but I am bit occupied right now. I am expecting another one of my entourage to join me at any moment, and then we are supposed to go wait for Miss D'Aubainne who is said to be making an appearance tonight."

"That is a shame, but if you could possible tell me the way to the library, we could go there ourselves. And maybe we can meet up some time in the future to compare notes. If you are taking part in rituals I can only imagine that you have a wealth of knowledge on the subject." Attempting to lay it on thick, John could feel his pulse pounding in his temples in anticipation of getting the needed information from this unlikely source.

"Oh, you don't need to flatter me, I will only be too happy to help. The library is no real secret after all, although there is a general rule at Sir Compton's parties, to not open any closed doors. Unless it's the bathroom obviously." He winked. "If you go back to the main hall and simply take the fourth door on the left, right before the stairs, you will find the library. But I must warn you that the organisation of the library leaves a lot to be desired. But I have faith you will find some valuable information. Ah, here is my companion, so I must bid you adieu as the fancy people say." He turned around to greet another man in a similar African attire and started away. After having taken a few steps he stopped almost as an afterthought and said. "I am not really sure why or how, but I felt a touch of destiny and it was like a voice just spoke to me. It told me to recommend you a book called 'Shamanic Rituals of the Fifth Age of Matcha Zhao', although I don't understand why. As far as I know it is just a treatise on different types of rituals with no mention to anything in particular, but I usually trust the spirits when they try to guide me. Consider the information delivered." The last he said to no one in particular, and started walking again as if nothing had happened. This left John standing with a disbelieving look on his face, but he quickly snapped out of it, grabbed Chad and slapped him to help him focus on reality again, and together they made their way back to the main hall and into the library where they bumped into Bravo Team and their peculiar predicament.

Inner Sanctum Shenanigans

"I think I found something!" Gunther said and the rest turned around expectantly. "Oh… Wait. It was just a program on TV about ancient cultures. I really hope my eye goes back to normal soon. It's really hard to distinguish what I see. Or at least it could swap over to some nature show, or maybe one of those fake fireplace videos!"

It hadn't taken the four people long to find 'Shamanic Rituals of the Fifth Age of Matcha Zhao'. In fact it had been lying on top of a stack of books in the middle of a desk and Moonbeam had placed it in his medicine bag and continued his search for some help deciphering the symbols on the vase. This search had, however, been fruitless for a full two hours now and the group was starting to get anxious they would never find it.

"This semi random search isn't really working. We need to try a different approach. What you said earlier gave me an idea John. What if we took a step back and simply tried looking for the oldest books we can find based purely on their bindings?" Moonbeam was the first to take his own suggestion to heart and took five steps away from the book cases closest to him and tried letting his minds eye and subconscious help in the search for a bit. His gaze roamed the shelves of six big book cases without seeing or feeling anything out of the ordinary and he was close to giving up. In the process of casting his eyes down, he felt a strange sort of elation. Focusing his eyes on the bottom shelf of the seventh bookcase he noticed a pretty small book, more of a booklet really, tugged in between some very large volumes that was part of some encyclopedia about bugs and arachnids of the Amazonas. The booklet was somewhat nondescript and he wouldn't have been able to explain why his eyes had been caught by it, but he went over and grabbed it none the less. The book had an illegible title on the front page and a lot of scribbles by its original author all along the margins of the handwritten pages, and the writings resembled Sanskrit but in an even more primitive style. Letting destiny guide his hand, Moonbeam opened the book to a random page and felt his heart beat faster when he saw the same symbols drawn in front of him, as was present on the scrap of paper he carried. He was about to tell the others they could stop searching when a voice arose outside the door, sounding like it came from somewhere up the stairs.

"What do you mean people have been spotted going into the library earlier? Everyone knows that a closed door means no entry at my mansion. I knew we should have gotten locks for these doors. If they have ruined anything I'll take it out on you. You are supposed to protect my property!"

The Iron Maidens hurried over to gather by Moonbeam.

"Well the good news is that I found the book we needed, but I am pretty sure we are stuck in here. If anyone has any idea how to get out without being spotted, now would be a good time to mention it." Moonbeam said. There was a large crash behind him, and a grinding noise as if some gears had been set in motion. He turned around and saw Gunther look disoriented next to a dent in the bookshelf. Apparently he had become desperate in his attempt to get rid of the TV and tried a harder hit than his hand. Gunther's situation proved to be a blessing in disguise for the four trapped adventurers, as his head butting had dislodged a book on one of the shelves which was the key to open a secret door. The case swung out and revealed a staircase going down.

"This seems ominous, but as we have nowhere else to go, and I wouldn't put it past an eccentric, rich man to have an escape tunnel build for his mansion of madness, I suggest we try this route." John said, and with no objections the group descended the stairs to the unknown below.

The bookcase swung shut behind them and they were surrounded by an oppressive darkness for a couple of heartbeats before a succession of lights turned on and showed them the way down. Their escape was well timed, and they heard the door to the room being opened with great strength and footsteps of at least three people came running into the room.

"Hmm there doesn't seem to be anyone here boss. It seems I was misled." A deep voice said.

"Number Three, you idiot. Take a look at the paper flying from that bookcase. Somehow the intruders have found the secret door. Hurry up and get it opened so we can find them and punish them." And if the Maidens didn't feel like they were in a hurry before, they sure as hell were now.

"It's stuck, sir." The deep voice shouted.

"I don't care how, just get it open!" a shrill voice countered followed by a loud crash and a gust of wind coming down the stairs towards them.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs the group was confronted with a seemingly long hallway. This was however hard to be sure of, as the walls where covered in a mirrored surface and it made it really hard to navigate. Having no other recourse, they tried to make their way forward only to find that the hallway was in fact a small maze made of mirrors. Hearing their pursuers coming down the stairs, the heroes felt their hopes disappear as they couldn't possibly find their way through this maze in time to get away. Either making an executive decision based on a mixture of fear and optimism, or simply because he couldn't see the mirrors properly because of his robotic eye, Gunther crashed through the first five layers of mirror and fell down covered in glass shards. Having sustained some injury and bleeding from many small cuts, Gunther lay dazed for a moment until Chad picked him up and helped him through the rest of the maze. This proved to be a quite easy task when the general integrity of the maze had been destroyed so thoroughly.

"Nooooooo, my perfectly aligned mirrors!" Came a shriek from behind, and they hurried along a narrow, winding tunnel. The further they got, the more intrusive a sense of someone watching them filled their consciousness, but they chalked it down to just being because they were being followed.

"I see some other kind of light ahead of us." Chad said, and truthfully enough there was a shift in the lighting. Ahead of them the tunnel opened up to a domed room bathed in an unnatural purple-tinged illumination. Entering the room they saw that they were trapped. The tunnel was the only entrance into the dome, which was filled with weird scribblings and symbols, along with the standard blood red pentagram used for summoning spirits and demons.

"I will have fun adding you to my collections." Entering the room at the heels of the words was a small Englishman around 60 years old and of average height. He was thin and looked malnourished, but he was impeccably well-dressed. Besides him stood a slightly smaller, but impressively well-muscled African man, clean-shaven with very short hair and several spiky silver earrings in his left ear. If his boss was well-dressed for socialising, this man was well-dressed for combat. Sporting an armoured jacket, leather pants, sturdy boots and an assortment of weapons he was clearly a bodyguard of some sort, and his boss could be none other than Sir Arthur Compton. Bringing up the rear was two bennies looking ready to follow their boss's order as well. Funny I already use the Al Amarjan slang in my thoughts. Why would I call them bennies instead of henchmen or something like that? Never mind that right now. Stay sharp Moonbeam.

"No no, you got it all wrong. We haven't done anything wrong, we were just running because we were afraid you wouldn't listen to us." Moonbeam tried to dissuade the situation.

"Hahahahaha. As if it matters. You might have had a very good reason for being in my library, or it might simply be a coincidence or mistake as you claim. But what you fail to understand is that I don't care. I never miss such a good opportunity to get fresh specimen for my experiments, and seeing as it wouldn't be the first time people don't get back from one of my parties, and the Peace Force doesn't patrol or investigate things in Great Men, no one will ever find out what happened to you. Just another unfortunate accident or mystical disappearance as is so common on Al Amarja. Now, Number 3 and you two other fellows. Make sure they don't try to leave before they've experienced our hospitality."

"Gunther! Try and use your eye on them and see if that clears anything up. We really need you at your best here." John shouted and readied himself. Seemingly from out of nowhere he pulled a nunchuck and started spinning it around. Moonbeam readied his rapier and Gunther tried to get his eye to focus. But while everyone else was pulling out weapons, Chad didn't waste any time and with a great roar charged at Number 3. Being an experienced bodyguard Number 3 braced himself for Chad who seemed to try to bull rush him down. But he didn't count on Chads training as a stuntman and wrestler. Instead of keeping his trajectory straight towards Number 3, Chad veered of a bit and went for a clothesline instead, catching the bodyguard off guard. Unfortunately this only stunned the bodyguard and the two unnamed bennies rushed to help their comrade, each with a sword and dagger in their hands.

"Guys I got it! The eye is showing me data about those fuckers who are attacking us. Apparently Sir Arthur Compton doesn't have any weapons on him, and the others don't have any more hidden weapons. My god it feels awesome to not have to watch those stupid reality shows! Let's get them Frank!" Like a guitar player slinging his guitar or an experienced bowman taking his bow off his back, Gunther took his huge riot shield and placed it in front of himself while running to help Chad.

John went for Sir Compton thinking that cutting off the head of the leadership hierarchy would end the fight quickly. He managed to get a glancing blow on him with his nunchuck but got surprised by the seemingly old mans agility and received a groin shot for his troubles and staggered back.

"Hahaha, all is fair in love and war my good man." Sir Compton cackled and readied himself for another cheap shot. Moonbeam had heard about this fighting style called The Black Hand. Seeing as most fighters have a tendency to fight somewhat honourably, the occult underground in Europe, being composed mostly of people who aren't perfect physical specimen, had developed this secret martial art where the combatant tried to keep his opponent off guard by doing all the things one usually didn't do in a fight. Things like groin shots, eye gouging and elbows to the neck were not uncommon to the fighting style.

"Don't let him get near you John, he does not fight fair, and I have a feeling he has some other tricks up his sleeves." Moonbeam said, feeling himself being somewhat torn between going for Sir Arthur or helping the others. In the end he started towards the greater tangle of fighting with plans of utilising Gunther's shield as protection while stabbing from the sides with his rapier. When he was almost there, he heard something strange from John.

"Hey, what are you do…" And then he fell silent. Moonbeam chanced a glance towards him and saw Sir Arthur Compton remove his hand from John's arm, leaving a small hand print that quickly dissipated. He looked at John and saw him standing with an empty look on his face and his mouth open, seemingly looking at nothing.

"Heee heee, you should not expect any help from this guy for the foreseeable future, his will is lost to my magic and only I can release him but of course I will do no such thing." Sir Arthur flashed a wicked grin at Moonbeam who turned towards him, rapier leading the way.

Back at the other part of the fight, Gunther was fending off the two bennies while Chad was trying to pummel Number 3 into the ground with his fists. He thought he held him down properly, but suddenly felt himself thrown over Number 3's head as the bodyguard made an impressive jerk with his lower body. This landed Chad right next to bennie number 1 who used the opportunity to stab after him, scoring a hit on his upper arm. Seeing one of his opponents distracted, Gunther pulled his shield back and slammed it into the face of the bennie stabbing after Chad, landing a solid hit and breaking his nose. With blood spraying everywhere and possibly a mild concussion bennie 1 was out of the fight, at least for now and Gunther and Chad focused their attention on the remaining two.

Having a longer ranged weapon really helped Moonbeam and he had Sir Compton bleeding from a couple of wounds, feeling his impending victory, when a sound from behind alerted him of something coming his way. He managed to turn slightly as one of Number 3's throwing knives grazed his cheek and embedded itself on the wall in front of him, having almost hit Sir Arthur as well.

"You idiot, you almost hit me. What are you toying with those others for? Must I really do everything myself?" Sir Arthur Compton was furious. I guess he is not one of the satanists who enjoys feeling pain himself. Lucky us.

While Number 3 had been busy throwing a knife at Moonbeam, Gunther helped Chad up from the floor, and using their understanding of each others fighting style they made a sudden move to swap opponents. For the unfortunate bennie number 2 it meant that his vision was suddenly free of obstacles when the riot shield was removed, only to be replaced immediately afterwards by a fist heading for his face. He managed to get his dagger up and cut a deep line in Chad's forearm, but that didn't stop the hit and he felt his vision blacken as he crumpled to the floor. Number 3 was already on the floor, having gotten up on his one elbow to throw the knife, but now he felt himself being pressed into the floor by a huge plate of metal with a bulky German guy on top of it. He tried to use his huge muscles to wrest the shield away from Gunther or throw him off, but this was not the Germans first rodeo and he knew how to redistribute his weight to keep the bodyguard on the ground. Having Number 3 pinned to the floor made it quite easy for Chad to deal with him and seeing as he was bleeding from his arms, he opted to kick the bodyguard in the face instead. Feeling his opponent stop struggling, Gunther got off him, but gave him a small smack with the shield for good measure before following Chad over to Moonbeam who held Sir Compton in check by the other end of the room.

"Your goons are not really in a fighting mood anymore, Arthur. Now, release our friend from your spell and we will be on our way." Moonbeam said as menacingly as he could manage.

"Ha, I am not afraid of you! And it's SIR Arthur Compton to you peasants. If you really harm me you will be hunted to the ends of the earth by my magic and people, and I still have need of your companion. So let me make you a deal. You let him stay here, and I won't try to stop you from leaving."

"This is getting us nowhere. Frank can handle this." Gunther said, walked over and with great force swung his shield into Sir Arthur Compton. There was a sickening crunch and when Gunther removed the shield, Sir Arthur was lying in a foetal position, unconscious but still breathing.

"Hmm I guess that solved that problem, but John is still just standing there. Let us hope the spell wears off, or Jimmy Millow can get us into contact with someone who can help. Let's get the hell out of here."

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here

Ascending the stairs to the library the Iron Maidens emerged into the room through the broken bookcase. Moonbeam was leading the way, followed by Chad who was bleeding profusely from both his arms and with John hanging on his shoulders. It seemed that John had simply lost all will to do anything other than follow orders rather sluggishly, so they had judged that carrying him was the only option if they wanted to get out fast.

Bringing up the rear was Gunther and he was in the worst state of them all. Blood flowed freely from the multiple glass cuts he sustained running through the mirrors, and Moonbeam was afraid he was going to exsanguinate before they reached their base.

"Gunther, stop. We have to do something about this bleeding or else we will never make it all the way out." He took his medicine bag and tried to figure out what to do about it all. He had just arrived at the conclusion that he needed to use some of his herbal wrappings, when Dalia came running through the open door, dragging along a crazed-looking Alexej.

"Guys, this idiot oppenheimer bought one of the cocktails laced with wings." And when they looked at her without comprehension she continued. "Acid, LSD, whatever you want to call it. I don't know what kind of dosage they use, but he is tripping hard right now, and this does not really help with our mission. Wait. What the hell happened to you?" She seemed to see them for the first time in their sorry state. Moonbeam was applying herbs to the worst of Gunther's wounds and Chad had ripped his fine clothing and used it as makeshift tourniquets for his arms. John was standing on the ground, staring out at nothing, after Chad had put him down.

"Well, the short story is. We got the book and there were some complications, but we left them down below. We don't know how long they will be out for though, so we need to get out of here as fast as we can." Moonbeam said, finishing up with the worst of the cuts. "There, that should hold you until we get back to the trailers." He packed the supplies again and got up on his feet, helping Gunther stand. He was starting to look really pale.

"Hmm okay, the good news is that most people in the ballroom are too far away on drugs and high on life to notice us much, and believe it or not, you are not the guys who are bleeding the most out here. I saw the beginnings of a mosh pit forming on the dance floor earlier, although I don't really see how you do that to house music. So if anyone asks, you got injured on the dance floor, and then we hope they don't ask any follow up questions." Dalia suggested.

Newly patched up and fearing reprisals if they waited too long, Chad hoisted John again while Dalia took point, leading the drugged out Alexej. They got some sideway glances from people going through the same hall, but for most of them, this was far from the weirdest thing they had seen at one of Sir Arthur Compton's parties and they quickly dismissed them.

They reached the ballroom and realised that the dance floor was packed even tighter than earlier so getting through it as a collected group seemed impossible.

"All right, we need to get to the exit and I don't see us doing that together. Let us take separate paths to get there and I don't think we should wait for the others inside. So when you get to the exit, head out of the gates and see if you can get hold of a Total Taxi, but stay in sight of the entrance so the rest of us can find you if we come out after you." Moonbeam took charge.

Once again they split up into the obvious groups of Dalia and Alexej, Chad and John with Moonbeam leading Gunther. Chad, with John on his back felt confident and barrelled straight through the crowd, while Dalia took a bit more of a winding approach, trying to find all the small openings that constantly opened and closed between the dancing populace, which made sense for the two smallest people in the group.

With Gunther in the state he was, and not really trusting them not to get separated, Moonbeam led the German along the bar on the left side of the floor, making sure to say 'sorry, excuse me', and all the other platitudes to the people waiting in line for their next intoxicant. In a constant state of alertness they all expected a shout to go up, with the classic scratch of records being stopped forcefully, and a big company of Glorious Lords trying to apprehend them, but their nervousness was not needed at all. Seeing as Sir Compton had a penchant for imbibing and disappearing for hours at the time, and him and his associates were still lying down in the Inner Sanctum with no one questioning the lack of their presence, no one seemed to notice the three small groups making their way to the exit.

They all made it out safely and found a long line of Total Taxi waiting for the guests who wanted to get home from the party. Moonbeam led the others towards the cab at the front of the queue, but as they were getting in they finally heard the awaited shout, albeit without the accompanying record scratch, and the Glorious Lords guarding the entrance started running towards them. Jumping into the front seat with the others in the back, Moonbeam shouted at the driver.

"Hurry, get us out of here. There has been a big misunderstanding, but they don't seem like they want to listen to our explanation. Which item on your driving menu do you recommend for us?"

"Hello sir, and welcome to Total Taxi. To answer your question, it depends on how they will be following us. No Total Taxi will follow another Total Taxi so that won't be a problem, but if they have their own cars getting away might require something extra. We can try to simply make a run for it. This will fall into the category of Dangerous Fares and will add a $200 surcharge. But the more safe option, that will all but guarantee we escape is a Chinese Fire Drill and this will set you back $250." The driver said while they started driving.

"CHINESE FIRE DRILL!" Dalia shouted from the backseat.

"A CFD it is then." He said and reached for his radio. "HQ, this is car 1872 requesting an immediate CFD. Awaiting your acknowledgement." There was a short pause while Moonbeam looked through the back window and saw the Glorious Lords getting into cars and start following them. Then a scratching sound came and a metallic voice came through the radio.

"Acknowledged car 1872. Go to garage 4 for CFD."

"Thank you, HQ."

"What is a Chinese Fire Drill?" Moonbeam asked.

"It's a diversion tactic involving the swapping of cars and running multiple cars out at the same time to be sure the pursuers will not be able to follow the trail. Just another one of Total Taxis amazing services available for an affordable price." The driver said. It was clear that he had been taught a standard way to reply to that particular question.

The Total Taxi continued on it's way for a couple of blocks, then took a sharp right followed by an immediate left into a big parking facility. The driver took them down to the bottom of the compound and the Iron Maidens exited the taxi and went into another one standing ready for them. Then their new car and three other cars left the garage by a different entrance, and they got back to their new hideout without any more problems.

Catering to Jimmy

"We should get the book to Jimmy as fast as possible, but I think it's best if you guys just stay here and rest. Although you really ought to go to the hospital." Moonbeam said.

"No. More. Hospitals!" Gunther said.

"I don't think my cuts are as bad as that, so if we have some needles and thread I'm sure we can deal with the wounds ourself. Besides, we have had a bad time dealing with the local hospitals. You never only get treated for what you came in with." Chad added.

"Okay, I guess… Will you two be able to keep an eye on Alexej and John, so I can bring Dalia with me? Jimmy don't know me so well so I think it would be best to have someone else with me."

"Sure. John is not really a problem, and Alexej is not really strong enough to cause a huge problem. I'm just gonna tie him to one of the cars so he can't run too far." Chad said and started away to get some rope or chain.

"My lady, will you accompany me to Mr. Millow to finish this part of our quest?" Moonbeam said with a bow and a flourish, trying to alleviate some of the tension in the group.

"Fucking burger. I guess I'll have to go with you to make sure you don't make an ass of yourself. But afterwards I am going home for a while." Dalia replied angrily and added under her breath. "I really don't know why I keep hanging out with these people. They clearly don't know what they are doing."

Having made sure that the rest of the group had what they needed to deal with their wounds, and that Dalia and he had the entrance pass to Broken Wings, Moonbeam summoned a taxi and gave it the address to Jimmy Millow. The journey there was done in an awkward silence, with Moonbeam being keenly aware that Dalia did not condone the actions of the group tonight or the way things had gone in the end. On the positive side he could console himself with the fact that the drive was completely uneventful and the security guards let them in without a fuss so they soon stood on the front step of Jimmy's house, being harassed by his bennies.

"Did the rest of your group get too drunk at the party to come here?" One of them snickered.

"Poor little burger can't handle their drink." The other one laughed.

"We've had a long night. Can you please just let us in to see Jimmy?" Moonbeam tried politely.

"A little testy are we? Oh well, we all know that burger don't have a real sense of humour." The bennie shook his head and pressed the intercom. "Mr. Millow, the Maidens are here."

"Excellent. Let them in! I am in the lounge." Came the answer.

"Just go straight in and take the second door on the right." The bennie said and opened the door for Moonbeam and Dalia.

They did in fact find Jimmy lounging in the lounge on a huge divan before a fireplace with the classic bear rug in between the two features. Only on closer inspection it was not a bear, but looked more like an enlarged badger. The divan was placed so it had its back to the door, and Jimmy used this to great dramatic effect when he got up, stretched, and turned towards the two guests.

"My, my… Only two of you? I trust the rest of your entourage is safe and accounted for? Did Sir Compton cause you any problems?"

"There arose some… complications, but they were dealt with in a satisfiable faction." Moonbeam answered with a glance to Dalia to make sure she wasn't going to say anything. He needn't have bothered though, because Dalia was just leaning on the door frame, looking decidedly uninterested in the proceedings. "The others are back at our hideout taking care of some other things."

"Alright, I suppose the amount of you being here is inconsequential anyway. As long as you have acquired what I need. You did get what I sent you for, right? And I don't have to hire someone to put it back together this time, I hope." A flash of anger went over his face before he composed himself and showed his great salesman smile.

"The Iron Maidens always delivers Mr. Millow. You should know that by now." Moonbeam reached into his medicine bag and fished out the booklet. "I know it doesn't seem like much, but it should contain all the information that you need. I do have some knowledge of mystical and ancient symbols, so if you need help I could probably…"

"No need my good man." Jimmy said and grasped the book with a jealous glint in his eyes. "I feel more than confident that my guys can ascertain everything we need from this and decipher the inscription with plenty of time to find the rest of the treasure. You two should just return to your band of merry men and I will send Lena to you when we are ready to continue this play."

"Before we go. For different reasons I won't go into now, our usual hideout had to be replaced, but we will try to make sure that we can be located at our new location."

"Just tell Lena to find me at home Mr. Millow. I'll make sure to lead her to the Maidens." Dalia interjected before Moonbeam divulged their new address.

"Fine fine, I trust Lena to find you when I need her to. She has her special way of doing things and I see no need for me to be involved. That might be a lesson to you. Surround yourself with people you can trust and it will take away most of your worries. PERCIVAL!" Jimmy shouted the last and the bennie they saw last time came into the room.

"You called, Mr. Millow?"

"Yes, take this to the 'lab' and tell the guys there that they don't get to go home before I have a complete translation of the clues on the vase." He handed Percival the booklet and shoved him out the door. "Well, what are you still standing there for? I have no more need of you right now. The guys at the door will get you a taxi and I'll see you when I need you again." Having finished the conversation, Jimmy swung his body over the back of the divan to resume his earlier position of relaxation. Moonbeam met Dalia's eyes and she shook her head and went out the door. With a last look towards Jimmy, Moonbeam followed and joined Dalia by the front porch where one of the bennies called a Total Taxi for them, and they soon found themselves back at the hideout.

The resting place

The scene they returned to did not resemble the one they had left earlier. Alexej was bound to one of the mobile homes with a long chain, but instead of raving or acting crazy the drugs had apparently worn off, and he was lying on the ground in an exhausted sleep. It was now around 5 in the morning and Moonbeam was weary to the bone and wanted nothing more than to throw himself into anything that approximated a bed, but before he could do that, he felt like he had to make sure there was some semblance of order in the group. Everyone had to be accounted for and know that they should try to stay close to the rest of the group until Jimmy summoned them again.

"I am gonna go home now, Moonbeam. I am sick and tired and I need some time to do some things I have put off for way too long to follow you guys around. I can't promise that I'll come with you when Lena tries to find you, but I'll make sure that she knows where you are." Dalia looked and sounded as tired as she proclaimed she was.

"Hmm… Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay. We don't know whether Sir Arthur Compton's men are looking for us, and we should be more safe together." Moonbeam tried reasoning with her.

"Take a look around Moonbeam. None of you are in any state to protect anyone. Besides, I feel confident that he doesn't know me or where I live, and even if he did, the Glorious Lords won't dare go into my barrio. No, I expect that I will be way more secure by myself, and it is getting late… Or early I guess, so I will take my leave now. Good luck getting the others in fighting shape again." She gave him a small pat on the shoulder and then she left by the road they had taken after exiting the cab. Moonbeam stood looking after her for a bit, wondering what things she had to take care of by herself and feeling the familiar tug of his urge to investigate all mysterious things. What do I really know about her? She might be a spy for some group on the island. Perhaps I should try finding out more about her.

"She lives in another part of Four Points in case you were wondering." John said as he stepped out of his claimed mobile home. "Like a lot of places in The Edge there are a lot of places with abandoned buildings where the standouts of the island have their home. If you try going there you will find that she lives together with a whole gang of other punk kids that have banded together. Most of them are what the locals call pubes and are just trying to prove themselves. In that sense they act a lot like any street gang from other places in the world. They do have a great sense of community though. I think she mentioned that the assumed leader of the group was called 'Pineapple' or 'Pinhead' or something along those lines. As far as I can gather, most of them are like Dalia, taking different kinds of jobs around the island as guides or whatever people want to hire them to do, but there are some rotten apples in the bunch as well. I suppose that is really unavoidable in a gathering of mostly adolescents trying to rebel against their parents."

"Wait, are you completely back to normal now?"

"Yeah, whatever spell he put on me lasted for around three hours. It was really weird. I could follow everything that was happening around me, but it felt like I just didn't care about any of it. I am not usually susceptible to charms, but he must have caught me in a weak moment, or his magic is stronger than what I've experienced before. It is kinda strange that D'Aubainne allows his practice, but I can only imagine that she doesn't actually know what he is doing."

"If I hung out with a person with tastes as weird as good old Arthur, I would probably try to ignore as many of his stranger sides as I possibly could." Gunther interjected wryly. He was sitting besides a small bonfire together with Chad. They were still wearing their wraps and bandages from earlier. "I sincerely hope that I never have to go into his house again. And not just because of the obvious threat to our lives if we did. In many ways I'd wish I had never actually come to Al Amarja. I should have left as soon as they 'offered' to let me have elective surgery when I had lost my passport."

"Now I got to ask. What happened at the airport?" Moonbeam asked hopefully.

"Not now, please. It's late and we all need to sleep. How about you tell us what Jimmy said, and Gunther or I will tell you all about it tomorrow." Chad added. Moonbeam felt another wave of disappointment wash over him. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get the story. But they are right, of course. There should be plenty of time for stories the next couple of days.

"He was excited that we got him the book, and seemed pleasantly surprised that it was in a good state. You'll need to tell me the story of how you got the vase for him as well, and how it got broken. But I agree that we should wait until we've had a good night's sleep. As far as I could gather from Jimmy, his men would need some time to decipher the vase and he would send Lena for us when he is ready. He obviously assumes that we will just do the rest of his task for him as well, but I guess we'll have to if we want to get paid. Anyway, Dalia told him that he should send Lena to her and she would lead her to us. And that is more or less everything."

"Alright, it seems like we have a few days to do other stuff then. I, for one, will be training some more with my nunchuks. I have a feeling I need to have them under control for the next part of the journey." John said.

"I'll try to see if I can get this eye working more reliably. Even if it forces me to watch some more of the crappy local TV before I can control it." Gunther added.

"Yeah, we all have different things we can work on. I guess you'll want to look closer at that ritual book, Moonbeam?" Chad said and looked like he was hiding something. Moonbeam decided it might just have been a trick of the light from the bonfire and let it go.

"Sure. I've always been interested in these sorts of things, and I do believe in destiny, so if the man you talked to meant that he had had some sort of vision, I am not one to doubt that."

"That settles it then. We'll all get a good night's sleep and start up again tomorrow." John said and went back towards his mobile home. "Can one of you please carry Alexej in to his bed? It wouldn't do for him to get sick right now. I have a feeling he'll feel horrible tomorrow anyway." And with that he was gone with Chad following right after. Gunther made sure to put out the bonfire before going over to Alexej and then he lifted him and carried him inside as if he was a small child who had fallen asleep in front of the TV. The sun had started to come over the horizon and Moonbeam stood for a moment, enjoying the beautiful colours of the sunrise. It's a good thing I brought my sleeping mask. It's horrible to sleep with the sun in your face. He took a last look around to make sure there was no one hiding any obvious places and then went in and lay on his bed. Next to him, Gunther hadn't bothered putting Alexej in his own bed, so he had basically fallen asleep with him in his arms, cradled like a doll. Both of them snored contently. Moonbeam put on his sleeping mask and his earplugs. I really hope I can fall asleep as fast as… And then he was gone. Outside the birds started chirping happily, but it would be many hours before any of them would emerge and hear it.

Patience is a virtue

Moonbeam woke up to the smell of roasting food and immediately felt his stomach rumble. Hmm, no wonder it rumbles. I haven't had anything to eat since we went to the party. I hope they made something for me too. Coming out of the mobile home, he realised that it was really late in the afternoon or early in the evening and the sun had started it's descent a long time ago. He looked at his watch and saw that is was around seven. I've slept for almost fourteen hours?! That is crazy. I haven't done that since I handed in my final paper in high school after having stayed up for two straight days.

"Good morning sleepyhead." John said with a smile from the newly made bonfire. On top of it had been placed a large stone where he was roasting different kinds of meat and some bread. He was the only one outside and Moonbeam stuck his head back inside the mobile home to see Gunther and Alexej still sleeping. But now Gunther had turned around and lay halfway on top of Alexej. Figuring that they could use all the sleep they could get on top of their injuries, Alexej's primarily being mental ones, he left them to sleep until they woke up by themselves, closed the door behind him and went to the fire to eat some of the proffered food from John.

"I guess having all will taken out of your body for three hours leaves you somewhat rested. I've been up for five hours, waiting for you guys to wake up. How are you feeling?" John said, while Moonbeam started on a large piece of bread.

"Ravenous mostly. I don't think my body can register anything else right now." He drank deep from a water bottle John gave him and realised he had to pee as well. "Oh, nature calls. Excuse me for a bit." He got out and went around one of the ruined mobile homes at the edge of their camp to relieve himself. This time he stood looking at the beginning sunset instead of the rise and lamented that most of the day had passed him by.

When he got back he saw that the rest of the sleepers had emerged from their dens and had descended hungrily on the small feast on the fire. Gunther and Chad still looked a bit drained, but that was normal with the amount of blood they had expunged. Alexej was clutching his head in his hands as if he had a massive hangover and he looked like he had a hard time keeping the food in. When Moonbeam sat down they continued a discussion that had apparently been going on while he was emptying his bladder.

"I was thirsty! How was I to know that they had laced all the drinks with drugs? I thought I was getting a lemonade." Alexej was defending himself.

"What about the place and the behaviour of the other party-goers made you think that they had regular lemonade on the menu? At least it was one of the hallucinogenic drugs and not one of the ones causing wild behaviour. I mean. You could have died. I know you are Russian, but even you guys only have such a high tolerance for intoxicants." John was obviously very upset with Alexej's behaviour the previous night.

"Well if you truly had gotten poisoned, I'd only need some of the poison and a large amount of water and we should be able to deal with it. Homoeopathic medicine is quite effective. It's really amazing how the minuscule amounts of poison left in the solution helps to negate the effect of the large dose. I wrote a thesis about it during my internship." Moonbeam thought back wistfully while the rest of the group looked at him like most people look at people claiming to have magic powers. None of them really felt like going into a big discussion about the values of holistic medicine at the moment though. Besides, they had seen some weird shit last night and might not feel so sure that it was all bogus after all. Moonbeam looked delighted that no one had started protesting or disputing what he was saying, and was about to start on a long explanation about the virtues of alternative medicine and following the body's chakra, but got interrupted by something mystifying going on at the edge of his vision. A small rodent digging through some refuse had suddenly gone up in flames. Everyone except Chad sprang up from their seats and looked at the spectacle before them.

"What the hell just happened?" Gunther asked while the rodent lay twitching in the last embrace of agony.

"I have heard of spontaneous combustions, but never actually seen one in action. Maybe there were some gasses over there and he scratched something and made a spark?" Alexej ventured while John went over to the corpse to investigate.

"There doesn't see to be any kind of accelerant, so that guess is as good as any I can come up with. We should probably spread out a bit, just to make sure that it's not someone trying to burn down our new homes like the old hideout." And they all searched the immediate area, but couldn't find any traces of anyone having been there recently.

"Hmm… I suppose it's not the weirdest thing any of us have seen since coming to Al Amarja. I propose that we let it go for now, but we all keep our eyes open in case anything else like this happens again. There are way too many weird people on this island to feel secure." John said as they ended their search and sat down by the fire again. This time with everyone looking warily out around them.

"I got my eye working as well, but it hasn't picked up anything." Gunther said. "It did an infrared scan of the surrounding countryside, but there was nothing there but the occasional wildlife."

"Alright, can I please hear what the deal with the eye is now? It seems like we could all just use to be relaxed this evening. And what better way to relax than to tell a story. I know you might be uncomfortable telling it, but it can also be really cathartic to talk about it, and it's definitely not a good idea to just go around with anything weighing you down." Moonbeam gave Gunther a disarming smile.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you what happened. It all started when I had to leave Germany for… a reason. The reason is not important right now, but I jumped on the first plane I could catch, and it landed in Al Amarja a couple of hours later. I had never actually heard about the island, but then again, I never really knew much about geography. Well, you've all been to the airport so you know how it is. We were all filed into the waiting room of Customs and Immigration. I got a horrible case worker, but the worst part was that my passport had gone missing and she seemed really suspicious about it. I tried to talk my way out of it, but she wouldn't hear any of my excuses or suggestions as to what we could do, so she made sure that I was put in a room alone for 'further processing' as they called it. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have told her that I couldn't go back to Germany, and now I have a deep seated suspicion that they do this kind of stuff regularly. Anyway. After waiting for a long time, some official looking guy came into the room. They told me that there were serious charges against me and that they were forced to send me back to Germany. Knowing that was not an option I started pleading with him and said I would do anything to stay. He looked at me thoughtfully for a time as if trying to determine whether I was worth the consideration. Finally he said 'Well there is one other option, but I will have to check with my superior.' and he went on to tell me that instead of being sent back, some fortunate people can gain access to Al Amarja by participating in different kinds of experiments at the D'Aubainne Hospital and Trauma Center. At this point I was getting somewhat desperate so I felt like I had to sign up for whatever they wanted me to do. I signed some documents, mostly liability stuff they told me, and got transported to the hospital." At this point he took a break in his storytelling and Moonbeam looked at him as if he had seen a ghost.

"So you trusted the government?! What if they put a tracker in your eye, or worse, are recording everything?"

"Please let me tell the story before you start asking questions. And believe me when I say that I have no trust for the government, but I didn't see another way out. Besides, I thought they were only gonna run some physical tests on me or perhaps I had to participate in a psychological experiment. But back to the story. I was taken to Dr. Nusbaum himself. I don't know if you've heard of him, but he basically runs the entire hospital complex and is also Monique D'Aubainne's personal physician. In fact he is said to be the physician for the entire D'Aubainne family. He spoke to me in German and asked me about our home country and made me feel really safe. I shouldn't have trusted him though, but he was the first friendly face I had seen since coming to Al Amarja and he made me long for the home neither of us could return to. He told me he would take care of me and I got placed under anaesthesia. When I woke up my eye was gone and had been replaced by this." He pointed to his eye with a grimace on his face. "Another bad thing had also happened. With the operation done, Dr. Nusbaum had apparently lost all interest in me. He didn't even stay long enough to see if the eye worked. I guess he is not really interested in the outcome, it's the journey that excites him. So I was left to find out for myself what it did, and believe me it has been a rough journey." He finished looking sad.

"But what about the potential bugging?" Moonbeam persisted, but this time it was Alexej who answered.

"I took care of that when we started hanging out together. Comrade Gunther was desperate to find out what the eye could do so I worked my magic on it to see if I could see any obvious uses. But I must say that Dr. Nusbaum is in truth a mad genius. I couldn't see anything that alluded to what the eye could do, but I did spot a sender device that could have been used to spy on Gunther and hence us. So I removed this part, told Gunther I was sorry I couldn't be any more help and he have had to figure the rest out himself."

"So far we've experienced it being able to do infrared scans of what Gunther sees, and sometimes it's like it knows things about what he is looking at that it couldn't possibly know. I don't know if you've seen the movie The Terminator, but Gunther describes it like that computer vision they use there. It can assess threat levels and spot hidden weapons, but how it does that or what it bases the threat levels on we don't know." John filled in and a silence followed while Moonbeam digested this information. Poor Gunther. There really is a lot of weird stuff going on here. It seems like a good thing that my organisation send me.

"Thank you for telling me this. I'm sorry for pushing you, but I felt like I had to know." Moonbeam said and the silence continued while each member of the Maidens were deep in thought.

After some time the sun was no longer visible in the horizon and the darkness of night had fallen fully on them. At this point, none of them really felt like doing much more talking or anything else for that matter, so they all decided to go to bed and start fresh and early the following day.

Are punkers evil?

It was early morning when the Iron Maidens woke up the following day. All of them felt rested and ready to train and research new skills all day long. John put up a training dummy made from tires and crates found around their camp area and pounded on it with his nunchucks for most of the day. Sweat drenched his naked torso and his laboured breathing could be heard by all the others as they went about their own tasks. Alexej had tasked himself with getting the mobile homes engines working again. They might not be able to drive anywhere without wheels and they most likely also needed other repairs to be ready for the road, but a functioning engine could give them a decent source of electricity and heat, and make sure they didn't need to relocate when the season changed. As Gunther had promised he was trying to get his eye under control. As far as the rest could see, this entailed sitting on his ass for hours at the time and manipulating the eye through facial movements and mental fortitude. From time to time he would grunt and look satisfied and it seemed like he was at least getting some results from his efforts. Chad was somewhat more secretive in his training. He proclaimed that he wanted to do some wilderness training, so he stayed on the outskirts of the camp and even went out of sight from time to time. Moonbeam couldn't really see the sense in having wilderness training in the middle of a bit city, but to each his own, and who knew what they would be exposed to before their ordeal was done. He did however think Chad was trying to hide something, and he could have sworn that he saw him looking into a small book, but figured that he might have had that all along, or found it at Sir Arthur's mansion. Whatever the case was, Moonbeam put it out of his mind and focused on his own research.

The book was called 'Shamanic Rituals of the Fifth Age of Matcha Zhao' and according to John an African shaman had recommended it, but so far Moonbeam couldn't really understand why. The book read more like a travel guide than a recipe book and never really did more than hint on the ways different rituals were performed. From a literary point of view the book was a good read, but there didn't seem to be more to it than simple entertainment and maybe helping you acquire some appetite for more reading. Or at least that was the case until he came about two thirds into it. Again he felt a rush of destiny hit him right before turning a page. When he looked at the next section he saw what looked like a section that had been added to the book after it had been bound. This part of the book was a handwritten account of a ritual which purpose was to summon a recently deceased spirit. The writer claimed that the ritual had come straight from the fabled book 'The Necronomicon' and if that were true, this was indeed an important find. But we don't know anyone who was recently deceased. Could this be a portent about our needs in the future?

Throughout the day Moonbeam felt himself experiencing a growing sense of unease. He just couldn't shake the feeling that Dalia might have a more sinister reason for following the Maidens around than the one she gave. She seemed to have a genuine dislike for the group and their methods, and an altruistic mission to limit their hurricane of destruction rang quite false in his ears. Usually he was all for altruism and people trying to avoid disasters and help the public in general, but her actions so far didn't really seem like they were designed to mitigate as much as observe. As the sun got lower on the horizon the unease suffused all his thoughts and he couldn't focus on the rituals in the book anymore. He needed to do some recognisance for himself to ease his suspicions, so he called a Total Taxi and asked John where he could find Dalia on the pretext that he needed to talk to her about something Jimmy had said.

The Total Taxi pulled up next to a section of the Four Points barrio that would have seemed like a prime subject for a demolition squad, but was never the less occupied by a large amount of people, most of them wearing some sort of attire in the likes of the one Dalia wore. I don't think I can get any information from just checking out Dalia. Perhaps I should see if I can find the leader of the group, 'Pinhead' or whatever his name was. John said that he should be easy enough to spot. And with those thoughts in his mind, Moonbeam took a roundabout way from the parking spot to the back of the largest building in the complex.

Moonbeam quickly realised that he probably should have changed his clothes before coming here. At the moment he was wearing the second set of clothing he had bought at Hegermeier's clothing emporium and they didn't exactly fit in with the crowd around him. He had been somewhat fast in choosing the outfit at the shop and had come away with a pair of slim-fitting khaki jeans and a white t-shirt with the text 'Vamos a la Marja', and although he did enjoy the pun, the colours stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the mostly black clad punk teens. His blond manbun didn't exactly help either, so he let it down in a ponytail instead. At least some of the women had hair like that here. The rest would be hard to cover, but he did find an abandoned black jacket smelling of something he didn't want to think too much about before putting it on. Trying to make himself appear inconspicuous, he crept along on the outside of the building to find a back door. He found a promising one and after going up a flight of stairs he found himself overlooking a commons room where the assumed leader of the society was sitting, talking to his team of 'executives'. He caught the last of their conversation on the topic they were on.

"And then he said: 'I'm not paying that much for halibut!'. Can you believe that? Halibut!" And they all roared with laughter. The leader was still chuckling with tears in his eyes when he continued the conversation.

"Okay, that is enough fun for now. On to some more serious business. How are our dealings with the fair maidens going? Any progress?"

"But Pinkeye, you know what the deal is with them. We got told to stay clear of them or face the consequences." A minion said. Arh, Pinkeye. Well I liked the name Pinhead better, but I suppose they go for the gross names here. It does seem I got here just in time though.

"I still want to know what can be done about them! But now I am going for a leak. You guys can try to think up something better for when I get back." And he got up and left the room by a door beneath Moonbeam. The building was old and there was not a lot of other sounds, so Moonbeam could easily hear Pinkeye go upstairs. He hadn't seen a bathroom or even a small room for a toilet when he got up here and he doubted that a building this rundown would even have one. Moonbeam now had a choice to make. Stay and listen to the lieutenants and try to find out some more information, or follow the leader and try to squeeze him for some more information. A more cautious person might have chosen the former option, but when Moonbeam had gotten the scent of a mystery or additional information to back up his conspiracy theories, he was not one to play it slow and safe. He turned away from the guys below him who were telling each other jokes of a horrible nature. With their raucous laughter behind him he went in search of Pinkeye.

Moonbeams initial assumption about the toilet situation in the building turned out to hold true. He found Pinkeye in an adjacent room peeing in a corner. This was apparently the appointed toilet room judging by the smell and it was all Moonbeam could do to hold back the puke that was threatening to reveal him. The room was the size of a large living room with four columns standing in a formation that would fit really well into the golden rule for images. Seeing an opportunity to surprise the leader, Moonbeam snuck up behind the column nearest Pinkeye and waited with bated, or more accurately held to try and ignore the smell, breath for Pinkeye to finish his business and come back around. There was a sigh and the sound of a zipper getting closed and then a couple of steps towards him, but then a sound came from the door that made Moonbeam look away, and the first thing he saw when he turned his head back, was Pinkeye's forehead closing in on his own with frightening speed. The next thing he saw was a splattering of stars as his vision exploded with the impact and he heard his nose break. He staggered back and tried to clear the stars from his vision while Pinkeye was steadily advancing and putting on brass knuckles.

Moonbeam managed to clear his head and pull out his rapier. Using his longer reach, Moonbeam quickly gained the upper hand again.

"Who are you, and why are you attacking me here in my own home?" Pinkeye growled as he circled behind one of the columns.

"You know who I am! I overheard you talking about the Maidens earlier! Was it you who burned down our hideout?"

Pinkeye looked perplexed for a moment.

"What are you talking about? What hideout? And you mentioned the maidens. Are you working for the casino?" And now it was Moonbeam's turn to look bewildered.

"What casino? Weren't you talking about the Iron Maidens?"

"No. Antoinette's House of Fortune is trying to start a brothel branch and I was talking about making sure that we get some of the action. Either in naturals or cold hard cash."

"Ah, that is my bad then. My group has been threatened and I got a lead that you were trying to ruin our plans. I will just take my leave then and leave you to your business." Moonbeam said, inching backwards and letting his rapier fall towards the ground.

"That is one option, sure." Pinkeye smiled diabolically. "But I'd like it better if you stayed for a while." And he gave a small nod and looked behind Moonbeam. Moonbeam turned around and for the second time in a very short period, he felt his vision go dark after a big explosion of stars.

Moonbeam woke up and realised that he wasn't tied up as he had expected. He was lying on a cold, hard floor with an arm over his eyes so he couldn't see anything and what he picked up with his other senses made him quite fearful. There was a lot of people talking close to him, and that triggered a wave of pain in his battered head. He could almost feel the pressure of a large amount of people standing close together. This last part might just be the almost overwhelming odour of many people who didn't let matters like lack of personal hygiene ruin a good time. Removing his arm he had to let his eyes adjust to the light of the roaring fire in the middle of the room and he slowly began to make out the outlines of what looked like a party going on in the same room. The blobs in the room turned into people and he realised that this would have to be almost the entire population of punkers in the complex gathered together in the same room.

"Well now! Our honoured guest has finally awoken. I'm sorry that we started the party without you." Pinkeye said and made sure he had everyones attention. Apparently the young leader was also a bit of a showman. "This man attacked me in MY home, and you know what we do. We need to send a message to make sure that other groups don't think they can just mess with us and get away with it. Pinkeye will not be taken down!" And there was a roar of approval from the group. Getting to his feet, Moonbeam noticed a familiar face standing at the back of the group. Dalia was looking at him with pity, and he sensed he might have an ally he could use to get out of this situation.

"Dalia! Come and help them understand that this is just a huge misunderstanding." He shouted at her. Pinkeye's head snapped to the side to look at Dalia, who seemed like she would like nothing better than to be anywhere else.

"Well well well. Isn't this a surprise. Young Dalia, the rose in our midst. Are you acquainted with this person?" Pinkeye asked.

"He is a new member of a group of people I've helped as a guide. They are mostly harmless, but I wouldn't say I know him. So I don't really care what you do with him." Moonbeam looked incredulous. I guess it made sense that I couldn't count on her. Even though it feels like we've been through a lot together, we haven't really talked all that much.

"I like that I can do whatever I want! Well I do like the pun on your t-shirt. That should count for something, but I also like your long, blond hair, so maybe I should just keep you as a pet." This statement got another round of laughter from the people surrounding them.

"Yeah, teach him what happens when you look like a girl." One of the subordinates shouted to another bout of laughter. Moonbeam felt a shove in his back and he stumbled further into the group.

"I know what we can do to him." Another of the minions said and got closer with a cup of some yellowish liquid. It smelled like urine, but had purple streaks running through it, so whoever discharged it was not particularly healthy.

"He does smell pretty bad, so maybe a shower would do him good." The approaching guy said. The crowd laughed even harder and seemed about to go into a huge laughing fit. This state was not improved as he poured the 'fresh' pee over the head of Moonbeam who just stood there trembling with rage. This elicited a frenzy of joy from the group and many of them fell down clutching their stomach. Moonbeam started walking slowly forward towards the exit. No one stopped him, but a couple of the punkers hit him on the shoulder and continued laughing. It would seem they had forgotten that they didn't want him to get out, and they all just enjoyed the ridicule of the moment. Never one to question his luck, Moonbeam kept going until he was out the door. He did catch Dalia's eye on the way out, and it seemed like she knew that it would be best for her to leave the congregation as well before anyone started questioning her connection to the escapee. Having gotten out and free, Moonbeam hurried far away from the complex, and expecting that no taxi would pick him up in his condition, he started on the walk back home to their hideout and hoped there was still some water left for him to take a much needed shower.

Jimmy's turn to cater

Moonbeam trudged into camp with a broken nose and an odour to suggest he had been sleeping in a pissoir. Blood was still splattered over his face and shirt and he would most likely need to buy yet another set of clothes if he wanted to fit in anywhere. His long blond hair had come loose from the pony tail and was caked to his head with muck and grime. The sun had set a long time ago and he hoped the others had gone to bed so he could get cleaned up without having to listen to their questions. Unfortunately his usual luck didn't hold out this time.

"Oh, there you are Moonbeam. You would not believe the crazy things that have been happening here…" John's voice trailed off as he took a closer look at the man coming towards him. "Jebus. What the devil happened to you? Is Dalia okay?"

"Yes, there is no need to worry for her. This is just the result of a misunderstanding between me and Pinkeye. Apparently we are not the only 'maidens' on the island that people are talking about. But now I really need to take a bath. Do we have any more water available?"

"I'm sorry Moonbeam, but we had to use all the water. I don't know what happened, but we've been plagued by small fires all evening, and seeing as it haven't rained in ages, we needed to make sure we put them out before they engulfed the entire camp. So there is no more water right now. But we did send out for a new shipment to fill the tanks and they should be here tomorrow. You could try going to the small lake, but it didn't seem particularly clean when I was there earlier. But are you sure you shouldn't go to the hospital? It seems you've bled a lot."

Moonbeam touched his nose and sighed.

"I don't really want to go there after what you told about them. Do any of you have any experience setting broken noses?"

"I do. When you are in the stunt business, you need to learn to mend a few sprains and breaks. This wouldn't be my first nose." Chad said and went over to Moonbeam. He gave his nose a quick examination, and before Moonbeam could brace himself he made a small twist with his hand and set it. Alexej then came over with some electrical tape and made a small brace with some twigs from the ground. It was not much, and it looked horrible, but it would have to do.

"Ahem, what are the chances that you could be persuaded to sleep outside tonight?" Alexej said sheepishly. "We wouldn't really want the trailer to smell like you if we can help it. There is an old blanket you could use though."

"Fine… Could we please just go to sleep then? This day has already been going for way too long."

Alexej went to the trailer and got an old, patched blanket for Moonbeam. The blanket had clearly been used as a bed for some long gone pet with fur, and Moonbeam could only hope that any fleas would have been dead for a long time. Bundling up his medicine bag as a makeshift pillow, he lay down next to the embers of their fireplace and fell asleep.

Moonbeam woke up to a big commotion at the camp. Standing a few feet away from him, looking down with an amused smile, stood Lena in all her wonderful glory.

"Good morning sunshine. I knew you had some hippie in you, but this goes far beyond what I had imagined. You need to get up. Jimmy sent me to gather you guys and bring you to him. And I am afraid there is no time for a shower, but I'm sure Jimmy would let you borrow one at his place. He really doesn't like filth after all."

While she was talking, Moonbeam realised that all the others stood dressed and ready to go, and so he simply stood up, brushed off the worst of the dust from sleeping on the ground, squared his shoulders, and followed Lena and the others into a waiting van.

Moonbeam had thought earlier that if he never heard anyone laugh at him again it would be too soon, but today just didn't seem to be his day. As soon as they stepped out of the car and the bennies by the door spotted him, he got another dose of mirth on his account. In fact one of them had to excuse himself after laughing so hard that he soiled his pants a little. The other bennie didn't call Jimmy on the intercom, but led them straight through to yet another room in the big house. This time Jimmy was standing behind a counter with a chef's hat and apron, currently chopping up some mushrooms while mini sausages were roasting on the pan. He scrunched up his nose at the smell of Moonbeam.

"Percival! What are you thinking letting him in my kitchen? Please take him to the bathroom in the basement and make sure he doesn't leave until he is clean. And burn his clothes!"

"But. What am I gonna wear?" Moonbeam said.

"And get Eisa to lay out my active wear for him. The old ones. The breakfast will be ready in ten minutes and I want him to be here before then. MY SAUSAGES!" And he turned back to the food in front of him and got the sausages off the heat just before they burned.

Percival let Moonbeam down the stairs to the basement and towards the bathroom at the end of a hall. On the way there they passed a home cinema and a card room, and Moonbeam started to admire the entrepreneurial thug. The shower was made in the style of a wildlife shower with a big head drizzling water over you as if you were under a natural waterfall. It was clearly meant as a shower for visitors and Jimmy had stockpiled travel size soaps of different kinds in a pile at the corner of the room. Not minding his broken nose and the temporary fixture, Moonbeam scrubbed himself all over and washed his hair with four different shampoos to make sure he got all of the urine out. When he was done he found a small bunch of unisex active wear clothes lying on the toilet seat and he dried himself off before putting them on.

As Moonbeam entered the kitchen again he could finally smell the scent of what the thug was cooking. Their host had made a full English breakfast and Moonbeam could almost taste it just by the permeating smell in the room. The rest of the Maidens were situated around a large dinner table, digging into the the meal while Jimmy was nipping at his yogurt with muesli. Moonbeam sat down and decided to let his hunger run the show for a while as he filled his plate multiple times and devoured the delicious servings. After around twenty minutes a couple of bennies came in and took the plates away, not interested in whether they were done eating or not. Apparently it was time for a presentation, because Jimmy led them downstairs to the home cinema.

"You probably don't know this about me, but I am somewhat of a cinematographer and dabble a bit in the old movie magic. That is also why it's so exciting for me to work with you, Chad, our up and coming star. But for this presentation, it will be one of my own creations you are about to watch." He turned on the movie projector and the screen lit up. On it, Jimmy dressed as a man leading a safari walked into the frame in front of a backdrop resembling a rainforest, made a sharp turn to face the camera and clinked his heels together.

"Attention on deck! You men are about to embark on an expedition to the deepest part of the Al Amarjan… jungle… Ah, who am I kidding. The map is a set of clues leading towards the small forest on the mountain range next to the volcano. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will have you follow my guide while he searches through these clues and hopefully uncovers the treasure of the Pharaohs and makes us all rich in the progress. You are there to protect him, and to help him carry the treasure, should it prove to be larger than we had hoped. Now, what say you?" As the figure on the screen finished speaking, Jimmy stepped in front of the projector and literally overtook the spotlight.

"God damn… Percival, turn the confounded thing off, you are ruining the effect."

"Sorry boss." The voice came from behind them. There was a small click, the light went off and safari-Jimmy disappeared. The now unblinded Jimmy quickly regained his composure, tucked down his jacket and addressed the crowd.

"Well, what say you?"

The Maidens all looked around at each other before nodding to Jimmy.

"Excellent! Now, to make this fair for everyone I will have my man, your guide, hold the map with the clues. It's not that I don't trust you, but men have been corrupted by less. And if you should find yourself being tempted, you can forget it. The map only holds part of the clue and the rest is only in the mind of my jungle man. I want you to leave straight away, and my men have gathered some supplies for you to take along so you don't have to worry about that at all." He looked expectantly at the Maidens who didn't really know what they were supposed to do now.

"Well don't just sit there, let's get this show on the road. Go go go go." Jimmy waved them out of the movie room with the excitement of a small child on Christmas morning. When they got up to the main floor, they saw two duffel bags with supplies on the floor and a bennie in safari clothes standing by the door. He had a walkie-talkie hanging on his belt.

"This is your mission leader Azibo Martin. He has led many expeditions through jungles in Africa and South America and knows this island like the back of his hand. He will lead you on a swift and safe journey." Jimmy said. "And now I bid you adieu." He made his normal dramatic turn and went back towards the kitchen. Chad and Gunther hefted the two bags and they were soon out the door and inside a waiting jeep. It was nice not being in a closed car for once.

"Do you think Dalia will be joining us at some point?" Alexej asked.

"I'm pretty sure she won't do that, no. Dalia is a big city girl and knows how to deal with everything she encounters in that environment, but in the nature I would expect that she wouldn't feel particularly comfortable. So I expect that we won't really be seeing much of her before we get back to the big city." John said.

"Hmm that really is too bad, I liked having her around. But to be honest I'd rather have Lena with us. She always disappears when we get to Jimmy's. I wonder where she goes." Alexej had a dreamy look on his face.

"You are insane man. She would chew you up and spit you out before you even knew what hit you." The driver of the jeep said.

"Yeah, I would not touch that with a nine foot pole. Or a six inch one if you know what I mean." The guide said lewdly.

"Well at least I would have experienced her being close to me. I need that. The women here don't respond nearly as well to me as the ones back home in Mother Russia and I miss the female attention. Living with these guys doesn't really scratch that itch if you know what I'm saying." Alexej suddenly looked embarrassed when he realised what he was saying. The others laughed at his red cheeks and he didn't say any more for the rest of the drive. Normally the others would have poked a bit more fun at him, but something told them that they wouldn't be laughing for long and they kept their quiet.

Death of a guidesman

On a normal road the drive would probably have taken less than half an hour, but where they were going, there were no roads. The jeep was meant to be a terrain-going vehicle but it had never really been tested in a harsh environment, and it turned out that it was just meant to look like a regular jungle car and not act like one. As it was, they made it around fifty meters off the main road before the axle broke off and the car ground to a quick halt. This was even more catastrophic because the airbags didn't work properly either. What ended up happening was them getting stopped and then after a few seconds, the airbag of the driver was deployed, snapping his neck because he was looking to the side to see if everyone was okay.

"I guess he was the most dispensable now that we don't have a car anymore. Well, there is no way except forward, so I suggest we get going. We have a long way to go before it gets dark." The guide said. "Good thing I still have the map. So if you guys will pick up our gear and follow me, I'll get us where we need to go in no time."

Gunther, Chad and John picked up the various gear from the car and the small troupe started making their way through the 'harsh' countryside. Moonbeam looked back at the dead driver in the jeep and couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the start of their bad luck.

They followed a river in between the two mountain ranges on the island and after about a kilometre they turned to the right and went straight towards the inactive volcano. Moonbeam was surprised to find that there was basically no animals at all, nor any sign of any living things crossing the path they were on. The group followed Azibo as he made a direct line through the sparse forest. This was in fact an incredibly weird forest with seven different breeds of trees, and coconut bearing palm trees were one of them. This should prove to be significant about ten minutes later when the group passed under a copse of the aforementioned palm trees. The Maidens were involved in a discussion of the merits of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies when disaster struck. Chad had just launched into a monologue about why Red Sonja was the pinnacle of entertainment when he got interrupted by a spray of red liquid coming from the front of the team. Everyone turned their attention towards the source and saw Azibo standing with a coconut where his head should have been. There was nothing to be seen in the trees or anywhere near them, so it would seem that the guide had just been extremely unlucky.

"But… This makes no sense. A falling coconut should not be able to move nearly fast enough to cause such a reaction!" Moonbeam cried, clearly in a panicked state.

"I don't see any evidence of foul play though, so either this is a really hard coconut or something fishy is going on. I don't really want to touch it though." John said.

"We need to at least get the map from him and we should probably see if he has anything else on him that we could use." Gunther said and moved towards Azibo's corpse.

"What do you mean?! You want us to continue? When our two guides have just died in extremely unlucky circumstances?" Alexej seemed on the verge of a panic attack.

"Do you really believe that Jimmy will trust that we are telling the truth when we tell him how his bennies met their end? He didn't even want us to get a peek at the map, so I doubt that he would want to trust us with a new group or to continue by ourselves? In fact, I'm pretty sure he will have us killed. Besides, I am getting curious about what the deal is with this treasure." John tried to reason with him.

"Should we call Jimmy and tell him what has happened?" Chad asked.

"I don't think that we should. If he calls us on the walkie we have to decide whether to answer, but our best bet to get out of this alive is to find the treasure and bring it to Jimmy." John kept his cool. At this time, Gunther had rooted through the pockets and bag of Azibo and gathered up anything they might need. Moonbeam had gotten himself together and went over to see what the guide had on him. Besides the obvious things like water, food and clothing if they needed to stay out overnight, and some wilderness gear, Azibo didn't really carry much of value to them. The prime thing in his possession was of course the map with a detailed description of the translation from the vase.

"What does it say?" Alexej tried getting closer to the map to see for himself, but the rest of the group was crowding it, leaving little room for the small Russian.

The map was a regular map of the island with a mark located on it, next to a set of GPS coordinates. Taped to the top of the map was a translation of the original cipher on the vase.

This leads to the treasure of the masters - you who read this who may not, you are but [shit] from an [ass].

On the island of gold is a river [running water]. To the eagle it resembles a fed snake. Its mouth is between two peaks, each ten [palenk] tall.

...on the peak closest to the sun, when it sits red...

Roll a rock the size of one [handspan] from the large cliff. Let it tumble ten times. Walk this distance towards the sun. Turn around. Where the staff casts its shadow is the point.

"How the devil did they go from this text to a set of coordinates on the island?" Chad asked.

"Maybe they guessed?…" Gunther suggested.

"I believe they might have left something out in this text. I wouldn't really put it past whomever made the vase to write a cipher to disorient whoever tried to find their treasure. In fact, I've never really understood why they would make a map on a vase to begin with. It seems like a huge waste of time, when they could just as well have invented some sort of secret code to tell their members where it was. These Pharaohs really don't seem particularly clever to me." John argued.

Now, this might be a good time to tell a bit more about these Pharaohs. Created many thousand years ago from an ancient race of pre-humans by the Eight Evil Sages to serve under them in their bid to rule the world, the true members of the Pharaohs are immortal beings. Being immortal and hence having no need to rush to complete their schemes, the Pharaohs took a backseat to the world at large and decided to manipulate it through regular human servants. An important note here is that the Pharaohs are only immortal to the passage of time, but are in fact very mortal to physical dangers and as such, they are even more wary of interfering directly with the world.

Their early history is not really important for the plot of our story, but it is important to know that the Pharaohs have been the guiding force behind the three major civilisations: the Chinese, the European and the African for different reasons. For instance, the Chinese society was designed as an ideal civilisation best suited for the healthy development of individuals and community.

They didn't however count on the ingenuity of man or the sudden rapid rise of technology in the modern age. As most old people they are scared of new technology and have a really hard time learning how to use it, and therefore they don't spend any time on it, preferring to continue their old ways and pushing the world along particular paths by placing their servants high places in society.

The Pharaohs and the Eight Evil Sages believe that their plot to rule the world is coming to a close and that their ultimate victory is close at hand, and unknown to Moonbeam, the parent organisation to The Healing Roots that he was working for, considered foiling the Pharaohs' plans to be of the utmost importance. It is however not clear if this was the reason they sent Moonbeam to Al Amarja.

All this was of course unknown to the Maidens and it wasn't really clear how Jimmy's team had taken the text on the vase and translated it to a set of GPS coordinates even if they had the deep knowledge of the Paharohs, but the Iron Maidens had no other choice than to try and go there to see for themselves. They all took their gear, left the guide still standing with a coconut as head, not really wanting to wonder how he was still standing, and went towards the mark on the map to see if X really marks the spot.

Treasure hunt

By an incredible case of serendipity, the Iron Maidens arrived at the appointed spot at the same time as 'the staff casts its shadow' and could clearly see what spot had been meant for them to find. In the figurative shadow of one of the large peaks in the mountain range, they saw a large 'human' made structure cast its literal shadow on the ground right in front of them. There was nothing to see on the ground except for the shadow, so Gunther dug through the bag and found a travel sized shovel he could use to dig up whatever, hopefully, lay beneath the surface. The task didn't come naturally for him and he had to swap places with Chad after becoming bathed in sweat by the exertion.

Dusk had begun to fall when Chad exclaimed and the rest got up from their respective resting places and gathered around the hole. It really was amazing how far down Chad had gotten and they found him one and a half meter down where he was struggling to get some roots to release a small shrine. It was clear that it had been lying there for many years and they were all really excited to see what it held.

"We found it! But… This doesn't really seem like a container for a large amount of treasure. But this has to be the right spot, right? I mean, what are the odds that we go looking for a buried treasure and end up discovering a completely different buried chest?" Alexej said.

With a loud snap, the shrine came loose and Chad climbed out of the hole. He gave the shrine to Alexej to break the lock, but Gunther took it and smashed the lock with a rock, making short work of it.

"Ain't nobody got time for this! I want to be out of this place as soon as possible. The total lack of animals gives me the creeps, and the deaths of our companions doesn't really seem like a trifling matter either." He opened the box and looked inside. "There's nothing here?" He turned the small chest upside down and shook it. Not even a mote of dust was to be found inside.

"This can't be true? Maybe someone already found it, but why go to the trouble of burying it again?" John said.

"May I see it?" Moonbeam asked and received the shrine from Gunther. To the casual observer it looked like any old wooden box with some religious symbols on it. Nothing on the inside looked special, but it did have some weird scratches on the bottom. On closer inspection, the marks seemed to give some clue as to their origin. Moonbeam turned the chest around to get a better look.

"This looks like some form of Sanskrit." He pointed to different symbols that looked like any old scratch marks to the others. "If this is an e, then this would be… Yes, I think this is readable." He took a piece of paper and a pen from his medicine bag and started scribbling on it. "But these are just seemingly random words. I don't get it."

"What does it say?" Alexej asked anxiously.

"If I have read this correctly, and I believe that I have, it says 'Red, Rock, Tall, Water'. I don't know, it might be some sort of ritualistic meaning? After all, most ancient languages have many different translations. It's a wonder how any old texts have been translated and that the translation is trusted so much. Just look at the old bible translated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to German to English. And since it started out talking in symbols and similes, many of which didn't really translate well to other cultures or languages, the translators have had a huge hand in the way they are interpreted today. But I digress. This is the translation I think is most likely. Red could mean condor egg, but that would make no sense in the Mediterranean area. And the word for rock can be translated to mean anything resembling ground or the things beneath it. So taking the context into account I believe this is the best bet, but whether it has a deeper meaning, I have no idea." Moonbeam was not entirely correct about his assessment of the different translations of the words on the chest, but fortunately he had arrived on the correct translation pertaining to their particular situation. This was quite lucky in regards to the final length of this story.

"Tall, red stone next to some water maybe? Red water? I mean, how can water be tall when it's a liquid? Maybe some ice formation, but how would that happen in this temperate climate. Was there ice here a long time ago?" John asked.

"Well there have been ice on most of the world at some point of other, but the last time have been a reaaaaally long time ago so it seems unlikely." Moonbeam answered.

"I saw a waterfall some time ago in the distance. Seen from below, that could be considered tall water." Gunther said.

"Hmm maybe if they were primitive enough. They could have been when they talked about the river being seen as a snake on the vase. At least it gives us something to look for, and we can always think of other possibilities on the way. I think that is our best way forward right now. Where did you say the waterfall was?" Moonbeam latched on to Gunther's suggestion and after receiving the location, the Iron Maidens continued on their quest for the Pharaoh's treasure.

On the way to the designated waterfall, they saw a bunch of smaller water springs that could have been considered a 'fall' if one was so inclined, but instead of testing all of them, they decided to head straight for 'Gunther's Fall' as they had started calling it. The waterfall in question did in fact have a native name, but as hinted on earlier, the name couldn't really be translated into modern English without losing a lot of its potency. One possible translation could be 'Great Grandmother of the Northern Mountain Bears', but either the words meant something different for the ancient local populace, or bears played a larger part in the folklore of the Mediterranean than any of our group of heroes for hire had ever realised. It could of course also be the case that this is just an example of an ancient joke, kind of like the public poll giving the name 'Boaty McBoatface' to a science vessel. Just imagine how fun it would look in a scientific document saying 'The expedition launched on the good ship Boaty McBoatface.', and you can suddenly see some ancient tribesmen making fun at people going to the waterfall. This is however just speculation, and while we have been speculating, the Iron Maidens arrived at Gunther's Fall.

"It looked like it would be bigger when we saw it from afar." Chad commented. In fact the natural erosion done by the constant rushing water had worn down the bedrock and what had undoubtedly been an impressive waterfall earlier was now a mere six meters high, and the current press of water was not any more exciting. This did make it a lot easier to see the small cave hidden behind the water though, and the small heap of rocks of different colours lying there as well.

"There, fourth rock from the right of that big yellow rock!" Alexej exclaimed. And true enough. Out of all the different rocks only one of them had a red colour. It was a faded red, but none of the other colours came close to the one they searched for. Moonbeam ran to the rock and lifted it. It was around the size of ball you would use in a swimming pool, and was surprisingly light. But what was really puzzling, was that the writing on it was in modern English. It was however still only a couple of words.

"It says 'Turn Around Rock'. Moonbeam said and turned around to look for something on the outside of the waterfall. "Can you guys see any particularly interesting stones out there?" But there was nothing to be seen. "I guess the rock in question could have been carried away by a particularly big blast of water from the waterfall… But then how are we ever to find it?" Again Moonbeam looked crestfallen and seemed to have lost faith that they would ever finish their assignment.

"The riddles so far have been quite literal and obvious… Have you tried looking at the other side of the red rock?" Gunther asked. Moonbeam had nearly forgotten the big, light ball he was still carrying around. Not daring to hope, he took it and turned it around slowly.

"Well this is just silly!" He cried. "Why even make this two clues?!"

"What does it say?" John asked fervently.

"Large Cliff, Resembles, Arse." Moonbeam sighed.

"A large cliff that looks like a butt? Or a donkey? I guess it would be the former, considering the rest of the clues. I sincerely hope that this is not a hundred-part treasure hunt. Alright. Have anyone seen a cliff that looks like an arse?" John asked the rest of the group.

None of them had seen such a cliff, so they decided to climb higher to get a better view of the surrounding area.

"Now this would have been an excellent time to have some sort of guide who knew the mountains and rest of the countryside. It kind of feels like some god is conspiring against us. You still think that we should refrain from calling Jimmy? He might be able to look the clues up somewhere?" Alexej asked as they trudged up the nearest mountain.

"What would we tell him? Azibo is just out peeing and he asked us to call you? I'm pretty sure he would get suspicious. No, I'd rather try to find the clue for ourselves and get this thing over with." John was adamant in his refusal to talk to Jimmy, and so they continued on unaided.

After a while they got to the top of a cliff and stood on it to savour the view and hopefully see something that could help them further their search. Alexej sat himself down in a groove in the cliff and looked upwards towards the peak of the mountain. He scooted himself a bit because he felt something sharp stab him in the buttocks. He reached back to see if he could remove it, grabbed on to something, and pulled forth the marker they were looking for from a hole in the middle of the groove. The marker was a cylinder of approximately twenty centimetres in length and a couple of centimetres in girth, and it was stoppered by a cap in one end.

"Guys, I think I found something." He said while holding forth the cylinder. Moonbeam dashed over to him and snatched the cylinder, removing the cap and pulled out a piece of parchment. Or well, it wasn't parchment. It was in fact a laminated map of the mountainous valley, with a large X on top of a building called 'The Tip of the Iceberg Resort, Spa, Casino, Hotel'. The map even had what appeared to be the logo of the hotel in the top right corner. An anchor embedded in the tip of an iceberg, and two playing cards on each side of it. One showed the ace of spades and the other the king of hearts.

"You have got to be kidding me. All this crap for a map showing some resort on the island? This is the weirdest form of advertisement I have ever witnessed." Chad said and grabbed the cylinder from Moonbeam's hand and tossed it far over the side of the cliff. Luckily Moonbeam was still holding the map in his other hand and he quickly took it away from Chad who was building himself into a frenzy.

"Calm down, Chad! I don't think that this is only an advertisement. I say we go there and see what we find. This might just be to deter any would be treasure hunters. I'm betting that there isn't even a resort when we get there. I for one have never heard of this 'Tip of the Iceberg Resort, Spa, Casino, Hotel' before." John said.

"And even if there is actually a resort, I could really go for a day at the spa after all this trekking through the countryside." Moonbeam tried to be cheery.

"Alright, alright. We've come so far after all. I know we've all said this before, but let's see if we can get this over with." John said and started down the cliffside, so they could continue towards the other side of the valley, to where the map was pointing.

Enter the Iceberg

After walking for a couple of hours the Iron Maidens turned around a bend in the mountains and was met with a sight that rocked them to their core.

"What the hell is a big highway doing in the middle of the mountains?! And why have we been walking through this gods forsaken discount jungle for most of the day instead of taking the road?!" Chad was even more furious than he had been on top of the cliff, and it was somewhat understandable. In front of the group was a highway leading up into another part of the mountains that weren't visible from where they had been earlier. At the end of the road was a huge building, complete with spotlights and a big ass sign proclaiming it to be the Tip of the Iceberg Resort, Spa, Casino, Hotel.

"Okay, so the resort is actually real, but who's to say that is isn't just a front for some underground organisation? In any case, it's getting dark and I personally don't really feel like spending a night in a tent when we can go into the spa and get treated to some relaxation. So let's go there and get some rooms, take a shower and meet up in the lobby and figure out what to do next." None of them wanted to stay outside and they all felt the allure of the lights coming from the hotel. With heads hanging low from exhaustion they walked slowly up the highway towards the entrance and reached it about half an hour later, as the sun was dipping below the mountain tops.

"I've actually never been at a spa before. Are there any things I should know about it?" Gunther asked.

"I have a feeling this will not resemble any other spa or resort in the world, so I don't really think you have anything to worry about. Just try not to spend too much at the casino, they are rigged to make sure you lose in the end." Chad told him.

"So take it as it comes, I can do that." Gunther squared his jaw and got ready for whatever the hotel was gonna throw at them.

Entering the lobby of the resort, expecting all sorts of weird or dangerous things, what they found looked basically like any other place boasting of having both a spa, casino and hotel. A richly furnished lobby with doors leading to other parts of the hotel. On one side, a whole bunch of slot machines were visible through the door, and in the back of the room there was a sign saying 'Theatre'. Looking at an information flier located at one of the tables by the entrance, they could see that the hotel was located on the third floor and upwards, the spa was at the second floor, and there were pools both behind the hotel and on the roof with a restaurant besides it. On the left side of the lobby there were a lot of poker tables as a large poker tournament was apparently about to begin later that day.

The Iron Maidens went over towards the reception which was located right next to the registration tables for the poker tournament. While Moonbeam and John booked them rooms with a spa treatment plan, Chad, Gunther and Alexej took off their bags and other equipment and sat in some of the poker chairs, pretending to be a part of the tournament. They were all extremely tired, so no one argued when the hotel staff offered to carry their things to their rooms, and Gunther even left his riot shield behind on one of the poker chairs, trusting that it would find the way upstairs with the rest of the gear. Only Moonbeam carried his own things upstairs, not trusting anyone else, especially not after all the strange occurrences on their way to the resort.

After they all had found their rooms and taken a shower among other things, the Iron Maidens met up in Moonbeam's room, number 519. Moonbeam had changed out of Jimmy's active wear that he had worn all day, after having gone down to the gift shop at the resort and bought yet another set of clothes. Fortunately the shop had more than just regular touristy clothes, so Moonbeam got himself into a pair of nice jeans and a crew-cut t-shirt topped with a blazer. He even got some loafers as a bit of luxury for his feet.

"This place is amazing! I can't wait to try the spa."Gunther said. "And I also want to try the casino before we leave!"

"I still think there is something going on here. Why is there a big resort out in the middle of nowhere that none of us have heard about? Some of you have been on Al Amarja for a long time, and Chad, as a semi celebrity should have gotten the information about it. I think we should trust the map and see if we can find something sinister going on around here. Or the promised treasure." Moonbeam said.

"But… But. The spa! And casino!" Gunther tried.

"No one is forcing you to come with me of course. You should feel free to explore the resort as you see fit, but we still can't come back to Jimmy empty handed, so we should at least give it a try. But it is late and we have paid for the rooms, so I think we should take the rest of the night off, get some rest or whatever you want, and then meet up again in the morning. The breakfast buffet closes at 10, so I propose we meet each other there 9:30 at the latest. I'll most likely be there from 9 and onward."

"That is the best plan I have ever heard. My body is aching all over. I am a scientist and was not built for this sort of thing. I am dreading how my body will feel tomorrow after all the climbing we have done." Alexej stated with a big yawn. "I think I'll take a bath in the tub in my bathroom and try not to fall asleep and drown while doing it. If you don't see me tomorrow, you know what have happened." He said and left the room to go to his own down the hall.

"I'll try out the casino for a bit before bed then. I have a feeling we will need to leave in a hurry if we find the treasure." Gunther said, and he should only have known how right he would prove to have been. He left the room with a glint in his eyes, and Moonbeam doubted that Gunther would get any sleep that night.

"I'm off for my own room as well. I'll try to think about what we can do tomorrow to find anything. Good night." John said and left.

"I think I'll hit the gym for some upper body work. Shake the muscles loose and get rid of some of this anger and nervous energy I have." Chad said and flexed his bicep. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Moonbeam was left alone in his room with a head filled with conspiratorial thoughts. Could this whole resort just be some Pharaoh front? Who are the Pharaohs anyway? And why would they place clues to such an obvious spot? Are they using it to vet their new members to see if they are worthy? Where would they hide the treasure if there is one? Managers office seems a bit too obvious, but then again they don't really seem like they want to stay hidden. Maybe there is a basement somewhere, or some hidden room on one of the floors. I'll have to check the plans for the hotel to see if anything seems out of the ordinary. I really wished I had some way to contact The Healing Roots to hear what they think of this whole situation, and get some clue as to whether this is the reason they sent me here.

To try and quell all the thoughts, he turned on the TV in the room and set it to the local pirate channel Al Amarja Television. Yet another excellent byproduct of having no foreign influence on the island. The channel steals broadcasting from other big providers around the world and shows it as their own content. At the moment they were showing a particularly funny episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil was doing his best to make sure that the hotel staff didn't 'mention the war' to some German tourists. For half an hour, including commercials, he forgot about his troubles and enjoyed the crazy British humour and antics of John Cleese, and with these happier thoughts in his mind, he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face even though it was only ten in the evening.

Treasure galore

Moonbeam had long ago conditioned his body to wake him up at around seven in the morning, and besides the obvious exception of the day after the party at Sir Arthur Compton's mansion, this had held true for all of his adult life, and tonight was no exception. Having slept for nine hours, his head felt rested, but his body quickly reminded him of the treks of yesterday. Checking the clock to make sure of the time, he took his time in the shower, getting a close shave and washing his hair through before drying it and putting it up in his customary manbun. He put on his newly acquired clothes and with another hour to spare before going to breakfast, went out to have a look around the hotel. Knowing that the breakfast buffet was in the restaurant at the top of the 14 story hotel, he went down to the lobby to take a look around the bottom floor. When he got down there, he saw that the poker tournament was about to start, and the first players was taking their appointed seats. He noticed that Gunther's riot shield still sat in one of the seats, but figured that Gunther knew about it and put it from his head. After all, Gunther always seemed to pay special attention to the shield, almost like it was an old friend instead of an item. He went towards the casino which was apparently open all hours of the day, and found Gunther sleeping with his face against a one armed bandit apparently succumbing to his exhaustion while trying out the multitudes of games that the casino had to offer. Good thing it was the slot machines and not a craps table or he would have gotten thrown out a long time ago. In fact, why haven't anyone made sure to move him? And then Moonbeam saw that the machine was still running. Apparently Gunther had stocked it with tokens and put it on autoplay, and everyone knows that you never leave a machine running on auto for fear that someone else will jack your winnings. Moonbeam went over and gently woke Gunther.

"Gunther… You need to wake up, breakfast is in half an hour."

"Huh…" Gunther drooled a bit on the slot machine. "Wha…? Where am I?" And he was suddenly more alert. "Oh, I must have fallen asleep while playing on these wonderful machines. I don't know why I've never tried one of them before, but they are just delightful. What are you doing here? Isn't it the middle of the night?"

"It's around 8:30 in the morning. We are supposed to meet up for breakfast in an hour at the latest. Perhaps you should hurry up to your room and take a shower to try and freshen up a bit."

"But. My tokens. I have been winning. I also lost some of course, but I am positive I can win it all back, this machine is running lucky."

"You really should go to your room. I'll make sure that they leave your winnings at the reception so we can pick it up when we leave. Now hurry along so you won't be late for breakfast."

"Alright. I could use some cold water in my face for sure. I'll see you later." And he left the casino with a tired look on his entire body. I sure hope his riot training will kick in if we need it. Moonbeam thought and continued his investigations of the casino. At this point there weren't many people there as most of them would probably have gone to get something to eat before continuing their playing later.

At 8:45 he started towards the breakfast buffet, making sure to grab a floor plan from the reception on his way through, and met John in the elevator. They greeted each other and went to the restaurant, where they found a table large enough for all of them, for when the rest got there, and started eating. This particular buffet was a strange variation of the kind of buffet one could find at any hotel on the world. There were the usual cereals and yogurts, different kinds of bread and fresh fruit, and an omelet stand where some young staff member stood ready to prepare the guests eggs however they wanted them. There was also an assortment of breakfast sausages available. What made it strange was the kinds of fruits and sausages available. None of them looked like anything Moonbeam had ever seen before in his life, and he stuck to the things that resembled things he had eaten on other vacations. While Moonbeam and John sat and loaded themselves with carbs for the coming day's trials, the rest of the Maidens came dripping in one after another. Alexej looked like a prune and it seemed he had actually fallen asleep in the bathtub, without drowning though. Chad looked freshly shaved and didn't seem at all as if he was burdened by the strenuous exercise of the previous day. But he was ravenous and hurried over to fill his plate with all sorts of delicacies. Not surprising, Gunther was the last of the group to arrive. The shower had done him good, but he had large black spots beneath his eyes and looked like he could have slept for an entire day if only someone had let him. He started his breakfast with three cups of black coffee before he began looking more like himself.

"Great, now we are all gathered again. I hope you are somewhat well rested and ready for whatever happens today." Moonbeam said with a smile. He pulled forth the floor plan and placed in on the table in front of him. "I've thought about it, and it seems that our best bets of finding anything would be either in the managers office, the executive suits or the cellar or where ever they are keeping all their supplies. Personally I think that we should look for a cellar first, but I am open to suggestions."

"I have been surprised from the beginning at how stupid these Pharaohs seem to be. But I agree that it seems unlikely that a treasure, and especially an ancient treasure as we thought this would be, would be located in some penthouse or a managers office. Jimmy made it seem like it was a large treasure with many valuable things, so you'd probably need a large room to hide it in. I vote for the basement as well." John said, and none of the others disagreed.

They let everyone finish their breakfast and take a quick bathroom break before they headed towards the bottom floor again. The elevators didn't have a button for a cellar, but this would usually only be available for a service elevator anyway, so that didn't really deter them. They decided to hang out in the lobby and the adjoining lounge for some time to see where the staff went to and from and try to deduce a likely place for a service elevator from that. It had not been shown on the simple map of the hotel.

On the bottom floor Moonbeam noticed a floor plan in case of fire hanging on the wall near the elevators. It showed the obvious exits in the front exit and the patio door from the entertainment room, but it did also show a couple of hallways which hadn't been readily shown on the floor plan from the reception. The Iron Maidens headed down the likeliest of these hallways, prepared with all manner of bad excuses if any staff member asked them what they were doing there, but they weren't stopped at all. They found a really old looking door with a sign that said 'Management only' and a really simple lock, which Alexej hurriedly got open while the rest kept a lookout for potential disturbances.

Behind the door they found a long winding staircase leading down into the dark, and beside the door frame there was a string which, when pulled, turned on a bunch of lamps which resembles the ones you would install in a mine shaft from a long time ago. It was clear that this was an old staircase as there were still holders designed for torches and braziers along the way down.

"At least they upgraded their lighting along the way. But it seems like they stopped seventy years ago. I wonder if anyone still comes down here." Alexej said.

"Judging by the lack of cobwebs and dust in general I would say it is used from time to time, and the air smells really clean, so I would assume they at least have some excellent ventilation down here." John said as they continued their descent. The staircase was just a long vertical tunnel made of brick and afforded them no view of what they were heading towards, but after around a hundred steps, they finally made it to the bottom. They found themselves in a small empty room. The only thing leading away from the room was a small hole in one of the walls, only big enough for a single person to squeeze through at the time.

Moonbeam was the first through the hole and he searched around the room on the other side for some way to turn on the light, but couldn't find one. The others joined him, and Gunther who was bringing up the rear, pulled out a flashlight and turned it on to see what was in the room. They seemed to be standing in a very large room with no particular things in it. Gunther let his flashlight roam over the walls until suddenly he shone the light on a reflective surface. This set in motion a chain of other reflective surfaces and a small hole all the way up in the roof opened up to let in a tiny ray of light. This ray was magnified and multiplied from reflective surfaces all over the walls, so in the end the room was bathed in a nice and warm light, and the Iron Maidens could suddenly see the entire room.

The only thing besides the walls and the floor in the room was a pyramid about one meter in height.

"Well a pyramid seems very appropriate considering they are called the Pharaohs, but this particular pyramid doesn't really seem like it can hold a lot of treasure. But, it's the only thing in here, so we might as well go over there and have a look." John said, and they moved over to the small pyramid together.

"Maybe there is some mechanism to get it open? Or a secret password?" Alexej asked. None of them had seen or heard of anything that could have been a password, so they all tried to press on every part of the small pyramid, to see if there was a secret catch hidden somewhere. None of what they did made any difference though.

"Maybe we have overlooked something in one of the clues?" Gunther suggested, and they looked the clues over once again.

Moonbeam took out the bunch of papers they had gathered during their hunt so far. At the top of the stack was the map with the logo of the resort, and Moonbeam realised that he had missed something. What he had first taken as symbols representing waves around the iceberg on the logo did in fact look like more of the scribbles he had witnessed on the other clues they had gathered. As soon as he figured it out, he tried to say the word aloud and looked expectantly at the pyramid. But nothing happened.

"Damn these guys. As soon as you think you have figured out how they work they do something different. Why are things never just what they seem? But I guess this really is just the tip of the iceberg." Moonbeam said, and as soon as he said the last word a rumbling noise sounded. He stood staring at the pyramid, not really knowing what he expected to happen, but suddenly he felt a movement by his side and Alexej disappeared. Moonbeam jumped back, fearing some sort of trap, but saw that what had happened was that some stairs had emerged as the floor slid away and Alexej had fallen down. The rest of the group could hear him groan somewhere below.

"Are you alright, Alexej?!" John yelled down.

"I think I might have bruised my coccyx, but besides that I am fine. You will not believe what is down here though. So hurry down, but watch your step." The answer came back.

The rest of the Maidens looked at each other and started down the stairs, finally feeling like they were at the end of their treasure hunt. It was clear that the inside of the pyramid was designed to resemble the ones found in Egypt, albeit without any hidden dangers. At least the group didn't spring any traps on their way down. They entered a room at the end of the stairs with a large double door at the end. One of the doors was slightly open and they could hear Alexej's excited yells from inside.

Upon entering the final room, they saw what all the fuzz was about. The scene in front of them brought their minds back to the scene from Aladdin where he enters the forbidden cave for the first time. But instead of gold, all the coins were silver. In the middle of the room was a large sarcophagus which Alexej was currently standing in front of. The sarcophagus didn't have a lid on it, so the inside was only too visible for any visitors. Normally a sarcophagus in a pyramid would also entail a mummy or some other sort of corpse, but that was not the case with this one. Inside it were books and other items of seeming value, but what should they take?

"I don't think we can carry all of this. Obviously we can't carry all the silver, but I'm pretty sure we also need to be selective with what we take from this coffin." John said. "But how do we decide? Jimmy didn't tell us anything about it, and I'm pretty sure the walkie-talkie doesn't work down here."

"Perhaps this will help?" Gunther said and handed John an inventory list of the items in the treasury he had found on a table by the doors.

"Oh… I guess it will. Well, this suddenly became a lot easier." John said and started reading the inventory.

In the end the Maidens decided to take the following things. The descriptions were also a part of the inventory, but who knows how reliable that information really was.

The Hand of Glory - opens doors, both physical and virtual

Helm of X

Bottle of Y

Lance of the Dude Next To Longinus

Cloak of Many Colours

A large portion of Cursed Silver, which visits destruction when bartered and returns to its possessor. Currently largely inactive due to never having been taken fully into possession.

Six books of wisdom and power:

"The Necronomicon": A very accurate translation. The dead are drawn to its potential to revive them. The Pharaohs used to bring back dead quislings in an era where they were rarer to find and manipulate.

"The Silver Key": Astral travel 101

Three history books from Pharaoh or quisling viewpoints, lot of info on glugs and shit, but written in Pharaoh cipher.

Nameless spellbook from killed mage, real hard to decipher

They divided the loot amongst themselves, and Moonbeam took some of the books in his medicine bag. Chad insisted on carrying the spellbook, although he had no idea how to read it. But none of the others could read it either, so no one objected to him taking it. The rest of the treasure not mentioned above, was mostly trinkets whose only value lay in the metal they were made from, but they looked like things you could find in any rich guy's collection, so they left it behind and started on their way out of the treasure chamber.

Shake baby shake

The Iron Maidens had just started on their way out and had come to the room that held the tip of the pyramid, when a huge quake shook the entire room. This resulted in a couple of the reflective surfaces on the wall falling down and the group was covered in darkness once again.

"Are anyone hurt? What was that?" Moonbeam asked into the black room. They all answered that they were alright and didn't know what had happened. "I can't imagine that this is an indicator of anything good for us. We'd better hurry up and get out of here."

And together they made their way by memory towards the hole in the wall. This time Moonbeam was the last one through, and just as he was about to stick his medicine bag through, another quake ravaged the resort. This resulted in many more things falling down from the ceiling and walls and the rest of the Maidens heard a dull thump from Moonbeams side of the room and then nothing else. Moonbeam had been hit over the head by a piece of debris and was lying unconscious in the pyramid room. Gunther wanted to go back, but the small hole had been plugged by the roof caving in and there was no way back to him. Moonbeam was not dead though, and he would become reconnected with his compatriots later, but the following telling of their exploits is taken from what they told him as they met up again later in our story. The way the rest of the group told the story involved a lot of epic fighting and classic one-liners delivered to various enemies before they were dispatched, but these things are left out of our telling and the reader is encouraged to use their fantasy to imagine all the possibilities for b-movie heroics. This is also done to spare the reader a lot of 'And then I said this, and then I said that' conversation.

The original members of the Iron Maidens Adventuring Troupe For Hire, Trademark pending, hurried up the winding staircase to find the Tip of the Iceberg Resort and so on, in a state of total disarray. This was of course to their benefit as it made it a lot easier for them to slip out unnoticed. They followed the hallway to the reception where people were streaming towards the exits. The Maidens joined the people heading towards the doors, got separated and rejoined outside. Besides the treasure and their other things, Gunther had reacquired his riot shield and was also carrying a bag of money besides it. When asked, he said he got it because Frank had won the poker tournament when everyone else had forfeited as the quake had hit. The rest of the group decided not to press the issue and refocused their effort on their escape.

If the inside of the resort had been chaos, the outside was outright pandemonium. It seemed like the shakes had not been natural in origin, but rather some sort of attack by one of the groups on the island. Some were shouting that the Neutralizers were behind the attack, while others said everything from it being an act of god, punishing the gamblers, to moles undermining the entire structure. How moles should have been able to dig through the mountainside, no one was willing to discuss at the moment.

Realising that some sort of vehicle was their best bet of an escape, the Maidens ran towards the first one they could find, were they could all be transported comfortably along with their treasures. Their choice fell on a semi-truck in the process of delivering refrigerators and other appliances to the hotel. The crew had apparently not finished their job, because the back still held a couple of freezers and this should prove to be a bit help later. Chad and Gunther got in the back of the truck with their gear, while John and Alexej entered the driver's seat and copilot seat respectively. Another reason they had chosen this particular vehicle was the fact that the keys were in the ignition so the workers could listen to the radio while working. None of the workers were remaining now though, so there was no one to contest their commandeering of the truck.

They pulled out of the parking lot and sped past the other cars trying to get away from the hotel, utilising their larger size to push everyone else away. But just as they thought there had gotten away safely, Gunther and Chad noticed that a couple of cars were gaining on them and some of the people were brandishing an assortment of different weapons. Some of them even had guns, even though the laws of the island prohibited them. They alerted John and he tried to make sure the other cars couldn't get in front of them, while the passengers in the back of the truck used the appliances left behind as artillery ammunition to try and hit the pursuers.

Though a refrigerator not connected to power had never been known to spontaneously combust, this is none the less what happened to the second one they threw out. On the way towards the lead car, the fridge suddenly became a ball of fire, and this scared the driver of the car so much that he veered off the road and collided with a solid tree trunk by the side of the highway. The other pursuers saw this happening and didn't seem to want to share the same fate as the crashed car, so they turned around and drove back towards the resort.

The rest of the drive was handled without issues, but the Maidens didn't stop before they reached their hideout. Here they decided to lay low for a time before heading over to Jimmy to deliver the loot. Maybe they would even try to figure out more about the things in their possessions, but this was all they told Moonbeam.

There's no way out! Or is there?

Where am I? Why is it so dark? Why does my head hurt? When Moonbeam woke up again his head was filled with questions as well as pain. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious and he got up shakily and tried to orient himself in the dark room. The only light source was a very small beam of light coming from somewhere above him. He picked up his stuff from the floor and headed towards the light. Luckily the fallen debris made it somewhat manageable to crawl up, and it seemed like it had made an impromptu ramp for him to use.

With dusty clothes and a few scrapes here and there, Moonbeam emerged in a hallway he hadn't seen before. At this point the general chaos had died down and the resort was eerily quiet. He started down the hallway in the direction he considered most likely to get him out. He only managed to take a couple of steps before he had to duck into a supply closet at the sound of voices coming from around the corner. The two people talking stopped in front of the hole Moonbeam had come out of and he listened in on their conversation.

"Do we know what happened to the hotel?" Said voice number one.

"We believe that it was the Neutralizers trying to get into the vault below. They must have created the shakes as some sort of diversion so a small group of operatives could penetrate our defences. How they knew the passphrase to get into the pyramid I can only guess." A second voice said. It was clear that the first voice was some sort of leader from the command in the words.

"The Pharaohs will not be happy about this. We really must do everything we can to get the treasures back. Did they take everything?"

"It's a bit hard to say for sure, as we haven't delved through all the rubble yet, but they made off with some of the silver at least, and initial reports say they took most of the artifacts in the sarcophagus as well."

"Not the Lance of the Dude Next To Longinus?! Do we know where they might have taken it? It is of the utmost importance that we retrieve it before they learn the use of it."

"I've made enquiries from our operatives, but none of the quislings have reported anything back yet. I have total faith that we will figure it out though. They left a trail for us to follow in their escape after they stole a truck."

"Excellent. I leave it in your hands then. Make sure the vault is cleared and report back to me as soon as you know anything." And they started walking again.

Moonbeam waited until they had left before he dared emerge from his hiding place. When he got to the reception area he saw they there had been a large amount of damage done to the resort. Maybe they just wanted to damage the resort because it belonged to the Pharaohs? Are the Neutralizers a rival group of people? Maybe the others know something. They must have gotten out safe since the hotel guys think they need to get their stuff back. I'll just have to make my way back to the hideout and see of they are holed up, and then I can take it from there.

The large amount of destruction made it a lot easier for Moonbeam to get out. Not all of the people visiting the hotel had fled further than the parking lot, so he blended in well with the rest of the crowd going about and looking at the damage done.

"Did you hear that someone had just placed his shield at his spot in the poker tournament, and because of everyone else fleeing, he won by being the only one left? Man, I should have left my bag or something. I could have used that cash price." Some random guy said while looking at the demolished poker tables.

"They could at least have waited until people got back in to announce the winner, but he had apparently already left by then." Another one answered.

At least Gunther got his shield back. That makes their escape more likely if they got captured.

When Moonbeam got outside he could see that the facade of the Tip of the Iceberg was basically non-existent. It looked like someone had hammered on it with a giant sledgehammer before driving a tank through it, and the sign with their logo had been toppled over as well.

"Over here… Moonbeam…" A voice sounded weakly from around the corner of the building. Fearing the worst, he turned and looked, but no one could be seen. He sidled over there and looked around the corner and was met by the ghostly visage of Lena's spirit.

"Lena! Is that really you?" He exclaimed in surprise. He had of course heard about astral projections, but although he had never actually seen one, he had a feeling that this was not one of those 'normal' things.

"Deeeeeead… Neeeeeeed to teeeeell…. Thiiiiing… Jimmy… Caaaaaaaall… Baaaaaaack…. Spirit…. Ritual iiiiiiiiin…. Booooook." She said while she slowly dissipated. Lena is dead? Wait… Didn't the note about the Necronomicon say something about spirits being drawn to it? It seems she had something important to tell me about Jimmy! But I'll have to get back to the others first. I better get a move on.

Clearly shaken by what he had just seen, Moonbeam walked back around the corner. He looked for a way from the resort, because he didn't really relish having to walk all the way back. Yet again he was in luck, because the destruction had attracted a lot of people and many of them had taken taxis to get there. He checked his medicine bag to reassure himself that he still had some money left, went over to a Total Taxi and gave the driver the address of their hideout. When the taxi took off he took a last look back at the Tip of the Iceberg and couldn't help thinking that Dalia might be right that they bring destruction where ever they went.

The Boys Are Back... At their hideout

Moonbeam sat in the back of the Total Taxi on the drive back to the hideout, thinking about what Lena had said, when the driver, who had been silent up till then started talking.

"It seems like it was a wild party up at the old resort. It even made a dent all the way out here. I wondered about it on the way from the city. How do you even get a refrigerator to catch fire? And is that the reason that the car has rammed into that tree over there?"

Moonbeam looked out the window in the direction the driver indicated and saw a car with the front end curled around a leafless tree beside the road. He also saw the fridge which had been moved to the side of the road as well. Why do things keep on catching fire around us? This seems really weird, but at least there is no indication that the others got caught yet.

"Yeah, it was a crazy party. Unfortunately I slept through most of it on some heavy drinking, so I can't really tell you what happened, but something crazy must have been going on, because my clothes are all dusty and my head is bloody."

The driver seemed saddened by the fact that he wouldn't get some more information about what had happened, and he kept his silence for the rest of the trip, only ending it to tell Moonbeam how much he needed to pay for the fare.

Moonbeam got out of the cab and walked down the dirt road to their mobile homes. When he got there, he saw the rest of the Maidens sitting around a fire and talked about what they should do.

"The prodigal son returns. We thought we had lost you." John greeted him and flashed him a big smile. "What happened after we had to leave you behind?"

"I got hit over the head and lost consciousness for a while, but fortunately whatever shook the hotel created a ramp of debris for me to get out. I'm glad you guys got out safe, and I take it is was your handywork with the wrecked car on the road back?"

This is where the others told the story of how they escaped, and we will not repeat it again here. Cut to Moonbeam's reaction.

"Damn, it seems it could have gone seriously wrong. Well I also have something crazy to tell you. When I got out of the hotel I got visited by what apparently was Lena's spirit. She wants us to do the ritual described in 'Shamanic Rituals of the Fifth Age of Matcha Zhao' combined with something from the 'Necronomicon', to summon her back so she can tell us something about Jimmy."

Everyone else looked at him as if they had been the one to see a ghost instead of him.

"So you think that Lena is dead?!" Alexej seemed like he was on the verge of a breakdown. "It couldn't just have been a trick or something else? And why would she only show herself to you?"

"I think the most likely scenario is that she is in fact dead, and that the 'Necronomicon' drew her spirit to me, so that would explain why I was the one to see her. I am pretty sure that we can do the ritual to bring her to us though, but we'll need to get some supplies and find a place to do it. Summoning spirits are always dangerous, so I would prefer to do it in a confined space with an even floor, to make sure I can get all the symbols right, and we have a way to battle the spirit if it's some sort of trick." Moonbeam tried to stay solution-oriented, and he couldn't really deny that the opportunity to do this sort of ritual was really tempting for him. After reading about them for so long it was finally his time to see one in action. "But first I need to study the book for a bit to figure out what components we need to complete it, and we also need to find out where to buy them. I'm guessing I will need a day or so to flip through the books, so if one of you guys could try and research where to find tools for the occult, that would bring our time down somewhat."

"We could always go the The Golden Bough in Flowers Plaza. They have a lot of stuff for rituals and other occult dealings." John said, and they all turned to look at him as if he had suddenly sprouted tentacles.

"Why do you know anything about a place like that?" Chad asked him.

"When I first got here, I got in touch with a local cutie who was apparently into that sort of stuff. I never really took it seriously, but she did take me to the shop a couple of times. The biggest problem is that they mostly sell their items in bulk, but maybe we can make a deal if we give her some of the silver we found. Or maybe we can trade her 'The Silver Key' book."

"That seems like as good a plan as any. What do we do if Jimmy calls on the walkie-talkie? And we also have to hope that he doesn't know where we stay." Gunther said.

"It didn't seem to me like he cared at all for where we stayed. He let Lena handle finding us for him. But I do think that we should destroy the walkie-talkie just in case." Moonbeam said, and just as he did that a person came walking down the road towards them.

"Dalia, what are you doing here?" Alexej said, still almost about to cry from the earlier news.

"I tried to get in touch with Lena, but she is not responding the usual places, so I figured you guys were the likeliest to know anything about her, except Jimmy, and I don't really want to go to him alone. Why are you all being so somber?"

"Lena is dead!" Alexej yelled and couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Dalia looked shocked, but before she could ask anything else Moonbeam broke in.

"We are making plans to summon her spirit. Apparently she had a message for us about Jimmy."

"Well if that bastard had anything to do with her death I want to be there when you deal with him! Just tell me what I need to do."

"Right now we need Moonbeam to figure out what components we need for the ritual to summon her, and then we need to buy the things. Do you know The Golden Bough?" John told her.

"Yeah, I haven't been there personally, but I know the owner. I've talked to her when I got coffee from the Breakneck Café a few doors down from her shop. I can go and talk to her about getting the stuff we need."

"Alright, and do you know of any place where we could possibly do the ritual? Preferably some room somewhere with no immediate neighbours." John continued.

"I can think of a place or two yes. Just leave that part to me." Dalia said confidently and started to go back down the road again to do her own research.

"Excellent. Now we have a plan. I'll start checking the books straight away." Moonbeam said and delved into the two books while the rest of them tried to find other ways to spend their time and not be in the way.

"There, that is all the stuff we need!" Moonbeam exclaimed, holding a piece of paper with scribbling on it. It had been approximately 24 hours since he had started his research and he was bone weary. His mind, though exhausted, teemed with the lessons he had uncovered and the potentials found, especially in the Necronomicon. Dalia had returned from her recognisance after about an hour and had spent the rest of the time walking restlessly back and forth, before succumbing to her body's need for rest. Nothing had been heard or seen of Jimmy Millow or any of his bennies.

"Excellent! Give it to me and I'll make sure to make the proper preparations." Dalia said as she hurried over to collect the grocery list. "And I think you should try and get some sleep so you don't fall asleep in the middle of the ritual. You look like you could fall over at any second."

Moonbeam looked at his reflection in the window of one of the mobile homes and had to agree with Dalia.

"I guess you are right. Try and get the stuff, and I have to stress that it is very important that we get the measurements right, or we can cause all sorts of accidents. I'll get some sleep, just wake me up when you think we are ready and we'll go to the site you have planned out for us together."

He didn't wait for a reply, but went inside and threw himself down on his bed, not even bothering to undress. He was almost asleep before his head hit the pillow and his dreams were filled with all sorts of spirits trying to tell him their secret messages. He didn't even see that John and Dalia went together to gather their supplies, while Chad, Gunther and Alexej readied their gear and made sure they were ready in case they got discovered.

The Ritual

Moonbeam awoke a couple of hours later feeling more refreshed than he would ever have believed possible. It would seem that something was revitalising him and being a big believer in the power of rituals he embraced it and didn't worry about it. When he got outside he saw the rest of the Iron Maidens sitting around eating and waiting for him. He felt his stomach rumbling and realised he hadn't eaten for over a day.

"Could you spare some food for a hungry researcher?" He said with a smile as he took a seat next to the ongoing fire, receiving some bread and assorted meat from John. Moonbeam looked over to the side and saw a couple of boxes with supplies like candles and special chalk used for rituals. "It seems you've been busy while I was sleeping. Was there any problems getting what we need?"

"The proprietor of The Golden Bough took some convincing before she agreed to sell us stuff without it having to be in bulk. I wonder how many people actually need ten thousand ritual candles. I can understand a temple, but even the most devout worshipper of some demonic deity would have their work cut out for them if they wanted to use them all in a lifetime. Anyway. I've also made sure that we have a place for the ritual. An abandoned bookstore nearby. Most of the books have been looted for fire, but the bookshelves are sturdy and nailed to the wall, so they are still in there." Dalia said.

"Excellent. I'll just eat this, and then I am ready to get going." Moonbeam said with his mouth full of bread. He made sure to grab as much food as he could eat, because he had a feeling the upcoming ritual would take all the strength he could spare.

When he had finished eating, the entire group packed up their things and loaded the gear in a waiting Total Taxi, and together they drove to the abandoned bookstore.

After an uneventful drive, they arrived at the ritual site and unloaded the equipment. Moonbeam had drawn up some of the ritual circles and symbols they needed to make, but none of the others felt secure enough in their ability to replicate them, and he had to do it all by himself. The room they were in had served as a book repository. It was 5 meters by 8 meters with book shelves lining the walls. Whatever had been standing in the middle of the room was long gone, leaving only small indentations and scuff marks to indicate that they had ever been there. Moonbeam told the others what he was doing while he was performing it, both to help them understand, but also to make sure that he remembered all that he needed to do.

He started out by making a large circle of a heavy binding powder.

"This outer circle is our final stand if any evil spirits come through and for some reason breaks through the inner bonds. If that happens, we will have to do everything we can to banish them again, but if everything goes wrong, we can get out of the room and figure something else out. As long as we don't remove part of the circle it should be able to hold whatever could come through. The problem with using this is that is makes a shell around the spectres and doesn't allow sound from them to escape either, so it won't do for the inner binding circle."

He placed candles at regular intervals on the circle which he had made as large as he could while still maintaining a near perfect circular shape. The rest of the ritual space was prepared with an inner ring with a diameter of around one and a half meter complete with candles as well, and between the two circles he drew a varied selection of symbols from the Necronomicon. The rest of the group thought it looked really professional, but he was in fact just winging it and hoping for the best.

When the summoning area was complete the candles were lit and the Iron Maidens took up places inside the outer circle. Normally the ritual required something that had belonged to the deceased you wished to get in touch with, but Moonbeam hoped that the name and the fact that she had sought him out would be sufficient. Hopefully she had stuck close by him even though he wasn't able to see her. In any case, he had always heard that in these sorts of rituals what you did and said was not nearly as important as your intent if you could focus on it properly.

"Oh Lena's spirit we summon you. This is a safe space and you are welcome to come out. Show yourself to us and deliver your message." These short sentences he repeated until the rest of the Maidens started to shift around uncomfortably.

"I don't think this is working bro." Chad said after a while.

"Perhaps I just don't know her enough. Which one of you would you say were closest to her?" Moonbeam asked.

"I wish it was me." Alexej murmured.

"Well I have had some dealings with her, but it was Dalia who introduced us to each other and it seems like you guys were well acquainted." John said as he turned towards Dalia who looked sheepish.

"Yes, I am probably the one who will be most attuned to her, but I don't know how comfortable I am with this. It seems really personal." Dalia looked almost embarrassed.

"What's personal about it? There's nothing wrong with a close friendship if that is it." Gunther tried to comfort.

"It's a bit more than that, but alright. I'll give it a try. What do I need to do, Moonbeam?"

"All you really need to do is stand in front of the circle with a clear image of her in your mind and say things that would attract her to us. Oh yeah, and it probably won't hurt to hold the 'Necronomicon'. But it's important that you don't hesitate in your wishes. If that happens, the best case is that she won't come, and the worst… Well let's just say that it's not really something we want to happen, so let's hope it won't" Moonbeam said and smiled weakly in the end. He handed Dalia the book and they swapped places. She adopted a stance that would have fit any high priestess in a Hollywood production and glanced shortly at the others before beginning her chants.

"Lena, my love, I miss you. I am baring myself for you and asking for you to come and show yourself to me one last time. Give me your message so I can avenge you and give you peace." The sentences were said in such a heartfelt way the others started to feel ashamed about witnessing it. Each time she repeated them her cadence grew a bit and tears started to stream down her cheeks. After about four repetitions, Moonbeam was about to stop her suffering, when he saw a swirl of what looked like purple smoke. The others looked to him, but he could only shrug and hope that this was the intended effect of the ritual.

"Daaaaaalia…." A voice came from the swirl in the summoning circle and gradually Lena became more visible. She didn't solidify though, and it was clear that she was struggling with whatever bound her to the other side. She kept repeating Dalia's name as if it was an anchor that could help her stay at this side, and her voice kept getting more easy to hear and understand. All this only took a couple of heartbeats, but it felt like many hours to the excited onlookers. At one point when Lena was distinctly visible in the cloud, Moonbeam had to grab hold of Dalia's arm to make sure she didn't cross the summoning circle in her eagerness to get closer to the visage.

"Lena! What happened to you, my love?!" She screamed at the spectre while she was being held back. She was further incensed by the pained look on Lena's features, but they seemed to thaw out when she realised that Dalia could see her, and she got her old seductive look back in her eyes. The look that had spellbound many men, and women. It was such a look that if she had lived back in ancient Greece, the story would not have been about Helen, but about Lena. And it would have been two thousand ships. Ahh, a man can dream… But back to the story.

"Dalia, my dear. It's so good to see you again. When I met my destiny my last thoughts were of how I would never get to say goodbye to you, but now I have the chance. That makes me so happy." She smiled wistfully before turning her attention to all the men in the room who stood with their mouths agape. "And you brought the rest of the gang as well. Great, as this message concerns you all, and I don't have much time to deliver it. Already I can feel myself being pulled back into the twisting realms beyond." Her voice began to diminish until she made a visible show of effort to get back into focus. "First of all, did you manage to get the things that Jimmy sent you after?"

"We managed to retrieve a bunch of things from a vault in the mountains, yes. We are not sure as to whether we got the right things, but there seemed to be some important things among them." John told her.

"The things Jimmy wanted the most was the spear and the glove. I don't know why, or how he knows of them, but I overheard him say that he needed them to take over the island."

"But he only said he wanted to sell the items. I guess we should have known he was playing us all along." Moonbeam interjected.

"Right now he is summoning all the bennies and other forces he can muster to make sure he gets rid of you. You need to get to him and finish him before they find you. He is at the new headquarters in the middle of the island. You know the tall building that stands half finished? He made sure they finished the top floor first and put in an elevator, so that is where he is ordering his troops around. Wait…" She seemed to turn around and look at something behind her that they couldn't see. "Oh no, they are coming. You have to hurry. I need to go. Dalia, I love you and hope to see you in the next life. But please don't hurry to get here for my sake." She started to look really anxious and her voice started fading. "Close the ritual behind me. Quick."

Moonbeam realised that he didn't actually know how to end the ritual and started to panic. Where Lena had disappeared there suddenly started to be two more swirling clouds. Somehow these looked a lot more menacing than the one before, but the Iron Maidens could only look on as they solidified into nightmarish creatures from beyond.

It was hard to describe their shape as they seemed to shift in and out of focus and grow and lose limbs from everywhere on what appeared to be their body.

"Don't worry, they shouldn't be able to break through the summoning circle!" Moonbeam managed to shout just as the first of the things thrust towards them, just be thrown back in a rain of sparks. The rest of the Maidens seemed to relax a bit, but the cloudy creatures just kept up their assault on the circle. As the sparks flew, the circle started to crack and the dust Moonbeam had used to make it began flying away in small clouds.

"The circle is not gonna hold. Get ready to defend yourselves! There must be something we can do to stop them." Moonbeam shouted and they all readied whatever weapons they had, but none of them really thought it make a dent in their adversaries. "You know what. Let's just hurry the fuck out of here. The outer barrier is exponentially harder to breach. Everyone out, but make sure you don't scuff the ring!"

They all hurried towards the door and started going out. Moonbeam was the last one, and just as the inner circle finally broke with a sound like glass being destroyed with a sledgehammer he made a jump for it, and made it out the door a hair's breadth before the first spectre managed to hit him.

Evil's lair

Moonbeam landed hard on his side and slid along the rough floor. He felt his last set of clothes tear in multiple places. This is getting ridiculous. Fuck it, this will just have to do until we are done. I am not buying any more clothes before I see this through.

With a grunt he got up and dusted himself off. In the doorway he could see the spectres opening their mouths at them, but because the outer circle also stopped all their sounds, it basically felt like he was looking at fish in an aquarium. No sparks were coming off the circle this time and it was clear that it was a lot more sturdy than the inner one.

"Alright, let's get this thing over and done with. You heard Lena. We need to go to the centre of town and face Jimmy. It would seem we know who the end boss is in this stupid adventure." Moonbeam was steaming, and he started away without waiting for the others to follow. The rest of them looked back at the ghostly figures behind the door, looked at each other, shrugged and followed behind him.

Right outside the abandoned book store they hailed a Total Taxi and told him to take them to 'that new half finished skyscraper in the middle of town', and being the consummate professional that he was, he of course knew of the building they were talking about. One thing I'll say about Al Amarja. It has the best taxi service I have ever witnessed. On the way there they gave the driver a CD with their 'Get Psyched Mix' and started getting fired up and ready for the fight. Shouts of 'For Lena' and 'That fucking bastard is gonna pay' was heard again and again, but if the driver thought it was weird he gave no sign about it. He calmly kept on driving them until they reached the front of the building.

When they got out of the taxi they stood for a second and looked up at the building. By far the tallest building on the island, it boasted almost 80 stories and would no doubt be a big nuisance to the planes trying to get a good descent towards the airport. As it stood now, only some of the floors had been finished, and most of them didn't even have outer walls yet, so the overall effect looked like the wet dream of a Hollywood action film director. Plenty of free space for aerial shots and people getting tossed off the building, and of course their enemy had given himself the top floor, and there was probably a lot of adversaries on their way up. But the music from the cab had done its job and they all felt ready for revenge.

Surprisingly there was no guards at the entrance to the building. Apparently Jimmy had sent all his bennies to look for them and didn't think they would dare attack him. So they calmly walked in through the unfinished lobby and made their way to the service elevators.

Apparently you needed a key card to get to the top floors of the building, so they took the elevator to floor 69 where they got out and walked around, trying to locate some stairs to take them further up. They still hadn't encountered anyone, but it was clear that they were getting closer to people as they could hear people walking around upstairs, and voices drifted down towards them. They encountered a lot of locked doors, and in the end Alexej got so frustrated that he started bashing the doors open with whatever he could find. This mostly meant his body which was apparently surprisingly strong when he was angry. The rest of the group tried to stop him and explain that they should probably try to pick the locks instead so they didn't draw too much unwanted attention, but he just kept on going. This should prove fatal for him, but not in the way he could probably have expected.

They finally found some stairs by the edge of the floor and ascended to the seventieth floor. The first thing Alexej did when they got to the end of the stairs was kick the door open, not even bothering to check whether it was locked or not. This made something snap in Dalia and she bull rushed him towards a window besides the door. Before anyone could stop her, she had pushed him out of the window, and the last they heard of him was a scream as he plummeted towards his certain doom. The rest of the group stood frozen but Dalia fixed them with a stare of such intense anger that they didn't say anything and just followed her as she led the way onward. Hmm, maybe she was annoyed that Alexej talked so much about Lena? Or was it because she was tired of us destroying everything? Maybe Lena's death have made her go insane. Well whatever it is, there is not much to do about it now. I just need to make sure not to get even more on her bad side.

They made their way around and out a couple of stairs more and eventually found themselves at the top floor. None of them knew how they had avoided the workers or whomever it was they heard walk around, but some of them speculated that it might have been a trap they were being led toward. This did not deter them in any way, shape or form, because they were all ready to finish this. The hall they were walking along led them to a door that seemed to lead into a huge room, or maybe a set of rooms, and they all felt like they were nearing their goal. The door was closed and they could hear a low buzzing sound from behind it. Trying not to get Dalia to flip out again, John tried his hand at picking the lock, and fortunately he succeeded, even though it took a couple of tries and he had sweat beading down his brow and back when he was done. Readying themselves, the Iron Maidens pushed the door open and filed inside.

What met them seemed to be some sort of server room. The room was somewhat large at around 10 by 15 meters and held two large server racks standing in the middle of the room, so they sort of made three corridors to the other end. They started walking down the middle of the corridors and all they could hear was the buzzing made by the many small machines being held in the racks. Suddenly John stopped in front of them, and they almost collided with him before they saw why he had stopped.

In front of them stood the biggest man any of them had ever seen. He was decked with some sort of cloth all over, so they couldn't see any identifying features on him, but in each hand he held a large rod that ended in some sort of cable that sparked whenever it touched a surface. He had what looked like a large reactor strapped to his back, and it was clear that this supplied his rods with electricity. He swept the two rods in front of him as he walked towards them, and they backed away, trying to get to the door so they could split up into the other corridors and maybe get around him. Or at least that is what most of them did.

Gunther led out a loud battle cry in German and rushed the enemy with his shield in front of him. On the way there, he took two swipes of the electric whips which left long scorch marks across his back, but it wasn't enough to stop him. Just before he collided with the large man, the adversary stepped to the side, neatly avoiding the shield, and when Gunther passed him he gave him a good whack on the head that made him crumble to the ground on top of his shield.

Seeing their buddy go down like that made Chad go into a frenzy and run screaming towards the waiting enemy. Clearly he had either participated in, or at least watched a lot of wrestling, because he tried to execute a move where he half ran up the rack to his right and made a cart wheel to avoid the snaking whips trying to fry him. He almost made it, but his foot slipped on the rack when he attempted to land and launch himself towards the 'Fryer' as we'll call him from now on. This resulted in Chad smashing into the opposite rack and as he stood there dazed he got hit by the Fryer in the back of the head as well. This seemed like an effective way to down his enemies.

While Chad had rushed the enemy, John had crawled on top of one of the racks and tried sliding himself along to fall down on top of the Fryer. Dalia and Moonbeam had each taken one of the other corridors and wanted to make their attempt like that. Moonbeam was almost at the other end of the rack when he heard John give out a cry of pain before going quiet. Another one down. How are we gonna defeat this monster? But he never learnt the answer to his question. When he tried to take a peek around the rack to see where his enemy was, he was met by a blinding light as the reactor on the back of the Fryer crackled and exploded, launching everyone towards the nearest wall. Moonbeam hit his head again in the same spot as down by the pyramid and his vision darkened before the sweet embrace of unconsciousness took him down with it.

The Final Battle

Huh, I am still alive? Or is this just how death feels? Moonbeam could feel his body waking up to a wave of pain. When he finally opened his eyes he realised that he was no longer in the server room. He felt something lie on top of him and realised that it was Dalia, and next to her lay the rest of the Maidens, minus Alexej. He tried to sit up and his body struggled with the remaining vestiges of sluggishness one can expect from getting several blows to the head. I probably have a bad concussion. Now where am I?

When he got his head lifted and was able to look forwards he saw that he was inside a large office with large windows at the back end. In front of the windows was a large desk on top of a thick carpet that filled out most of the floor of the room. The walls looked like any you would find in a typical CEO's office. Some bookshelves and a small bar adorned one side, and a reception/reading area in the other side with a large screen on the wall. He felt around and noticed that he still had his rapier strapped to his back, but his medicine bag was nowhere to be found. As he looked around, trying to get his bearings, the others started moving and shaking their heads to release their brains from the cloud left by their deroute into unconsciousness.

"Ah, our conquering heroes awake!" Jimmy Millow had his customary smile on his face as he entered the room. He carried the Lance of the Dude Next To Longinus in his one hand and the Hand of Glory on the other. He also wore the Cloak of Many Colours, but besides that he was impeccably dressed in a fine bespoke suit. He was the only one who entered the room and seemed extremely confident. "It was so nice of you to bring me the artifacts I need to get my plans rolling. Although I am a bit disappointed that it seemed like you were gonna betray me! It's a good thing I don't carry a grudge. No no, you don't need to get up just yet. This is the part where I tell you my master plan." He went all the way over to his desk and straddled it like he was a singer on a grand piano. And as he talked he pointed at them with the lance and they felt their urge to get up and strangle him weaken. A small voice in their heads started telling them that everything was as it should be.

"You see, my plan is quite ingenious, and all I needed was some patsy burger to get me these things. Why did I pick you? You don't need to ask, I can see it on you that you are thinking that. And have no fear, I will tell you. Because you are expendable and it would be easy for me to deny your connection to me on this quest, because of your involvement in all sorts of other things." He gave a big laugh. "And if you got caught or couldn't finish the job it would be easy to find another group of burger to use. The island is teeming with them! In fact it's a wonder you haven't clashed with one of them already… But I am getting away from myself. You see this ingenious thing?" He lifted the Hand of Glory he had on his left hand. "I have no idea why they make it to fit a lefty, but no matter. You could actually have used this to open all the doors on your way here instead of giving me the extra expense, but no matter. It does something else except open doors though. It can also open any computerised system in the world, so all bank accounts are open to the one wearing it. Don't ask me how it does it, I am not interested in that part, but I can see a lot of ways to utilise it."

At this point all the Maidens had gotten up and sat staring at Jimmy while he monologued. In most stories, the monologuing is what ends up defeating the evil overlord's plan, but this is not that kind of story, so we will get to hear his plan in its entirety without any annoying good guys interrupting.

"And the silver you brought me is an epic touch as well. Having such a weapon on hand is truly powerful. Imagine having something in your possession which visits destruction on everyone you trade it to, and when they are gone, the weapon returns to you? You've brought me a whole heap of that!" He waved his hand towards a small mound of things behind them that Moonbeam hadn't noticed before. There was the rest of the treasure, as well as what gear they weren't carrying tied to them. "But the pièce de résistance is this lovely thing."

He shook the lance, and for a moment they felt the voices in their minds lessen, but then he pointed it back at them and they started being told what good things would come to them in the future if they only followed.

"With this I'll make sure to get all the gangs to follow me. You are feeling its effect now, and the best thing is that you won't be able to resist it even if you know it. Unfortunately it only works with a couple of people at the time, but I can still think of a lot of uses for it. Too bad I don't know the name of the guy who owned it. His name is lost in the legends, but apparently he was a friend with a Longinus whom no one knows anything about longer. But that is history for you. Wait enough time and no one will remember anything." He put on a sullen look for a moment before a sinister smile spread on his face. "But enough about that. I do enjoy monologuing, but I guess it is time to get down to business, and by now you should be enough under the spell of the lance, god I love this thing already. I'll tell you what though. I'll give you the honour of being the first ones to join me in my new world order. So now, crawl to me and pledge your allegiance."

As he said those words, ending his monologue, he waved the lance and beckoned them forwards with it. Moonbeam could only guess at what the others were hearing, and at the moment he didn't really care. All he could focus on was the sweet voice whispering in his mind. 'If you join up you will have the chance to spread your views to everyone. And they will be forced to listen. Finally people will realise how great the powers of Mother Earth are and how valuable homoeopathy is.' The voices continued their onslaught as Moonbeam crawled along with the others toward the waiting Jimmy. The others were clearly entranced as their deepest wishes were unfolded before them, but somehow Moonbeam was not as affected of the others. A lifetime of doubting everything people of authority had tried to tell him and a natural distrust that anything was ever as good as it seems, along with his deep dive into the world of conspiracies, had prepared his mind perfectly for this moment. As he drew closer to Jimmy he felt his mental stubbornness break through the illusion and convince him that the things he heard was too good to be true. What was left in him was a deep desire to end the person responsible for the horribly tempting claims, so when he got close enough, he swiftly drew his rapier and stabbed at Jimmy.

This took Jimmy completely by surprise as he was sure they had no way of resisting the lure of the lance. But his surprise was not as uncomfortable as the rapier stabbing him through the heart, and before he realised what had happened he had died. As Jimmy fell to the ground the spell was partly lifted from the Iron Maidens, but the lance was not done playing tricks on them. When the connection to Jimmy was broken, the lance wanted to make sure it got a new master, so it used the remaining power it had over the heroes to instill in them a powerful urge to possess it at all means necessary. Even Moonbeam was caught up in this and they all struggled to get the prize.

The first one to the lance was Dalia, but she didn't get to hold it for long. Gunther barrelled into her and threw her into the desk at an angle that broke her neck. This allowed Gunther to bend down to retrieve the lance. This gave Moonbeam the opportunity to literally stab him in the back as he got back up, and Gunther joined Jimmy on the floor, just as dead as the former leader. Moonbeam could feel something coming behind him and quickly turned around, rapier leading, to take John through the throat as he came towards him to hit him with his nunchucks. The only one left was Chad, but because Moonbeam wasn't holding the lance, it urged him to pick it up and his attention was turned toward it for just the amount of time it took for Chad to close the distance and avoid the rapier.

Chad wrapped Moonbeam in a bear hug and bore him to the ground. There he started pummelling him on the head. Chad was a lot stronger than Moonbeam who had lost his rapier in the fall, and he struggled in vain to avoid the blows that the movie 'star' rained down on him. This turned out to be the end of our protagonist as Chad pounded on his head until there was no recognisable face left and he didn't stop until the lance assured him that Moonbeam was dead.

This is where our story ends, but the faithful reader will not be cheated out of some resolution and description of the aftermath. After Chad had crawled off the corpse of Moonbeam he picked up the prize they were all fighting for and lifted it high in the air while he gave an epic howl. The lance made sure that the deaths of his compatriots didn't bother him as it manipulated him towards doing its bidding. And this leads us to The Last Chapter.

The last chapter

The only purpose the lance was designed for was to try and cause some sort of domination of the world. At the time of its creation though, the only world known to the creator was Al Amarja, so world domination really only meant island domination. And since it didn't really care how it happened, it made sure to help the owner rebuild the island in his own image.

For Chad this meant that after a campaign that lasted a couple of years the island was turned into every b-movie action star's wildest dream. By law, everyone was expected to do at least one stunt every day and all pieces of glass were exchanged for a more breakable kind. This also meant that all walls and tables had to be replaced so people could get thrown through them. I'm sure you can all think of all the other stupid shit going on after Chad became the leader of the island after finally defeating Monique D'Aubainne.

But, alas. As all 'good' things, it was not destined to last. The only thing that really kept the island going was the iron rule of D'Aubainne and with her gone everything soon became even more chaotic than the vision of Chad. His reign only lasted a couple of years more, before the world righted itself, a new version of Monique D'Aubainne got the power and Chad's rule became a small footnote in the history of Al Amarja.

This concludes our adventure on Al Amarja, but there are still many more to be had. If the reader is disappointed with the ending I can say that this was exactly what happened in our play through, and yes the ending could have been rewritten to be more rosy, but that would not really be in the spirit of Over the Edge. The chaotic island of Al Amarja had claimed yet another group of victims and readied itself for the arrival of the next troupe. As for the players of this particular campaign, we went on to other, and maybe better?… adventures in the wonderful world of Call of Cthulhu. The beauty of our adventure in Al Amarja was however that it didn't really follow the lines of an already established adventure, with some small exceptions, so as to being retold in book form, it is far more usable. And with that, I have reached far above the 50000 words required to finish the challenge, and the only thing left to say is:

So long and thanks for reading (and all the fish)

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