Under the Guard

Episode 4: Under the Guard
Date: May 26, 1937

(click the date above for the front page of the New York Times on that date)

Location: Marseille, France

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Clues Obtained
The funicular ambushers bear the same pitchfork tattoo on their necks that previous adversaries had also sported.

When interrogated, the captive ambusher keeps repeating "Long live the Mad Monk!" The only "mad monk" that anyone has heard of is Grigori Rasputin, but he was Russian and died over 20 years ago.

In the four corners of one of the cupolas in Notre Dame de la Garde are four mosaics, each of a different scene from the Old Testament:


 * The dove bringing the olive leaf to Noah's ark signifying that the flood had ended


 * The rainbow that God created after the flood waters dried up, as a sign of his covenant with the earth


 * Jacob's Ladder, a stairway to heaven

Beneath the crypt of Notre Dame de la Garde they find four alcoves, each with an inscription corresponding to a verse in the Bible as follows:
 * The burning bush. This mosaic very closely matches the sketch in Livingston's journal.
 * Genesis 8:11 : When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
 * Genesis 9:13 : I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
 * Genesis 28:12 : He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
 * Exodus 3:2 : And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
 * ​These correspond to the four mosaics in the cupola of the main nave.  Livingston had therefore left a clue in his journal that a secret passage was behind the alcove with the inscription referring to the burning bush.

Among the belongings of a legionnaire of the Roman fort beneath Notre Dame de la Garde, the missing work of Pytheus ("Description of the Ocean") is found.

Episode Summary
We pick up where we left off last time, with our heroes having just survived an ambush on a sabotaged funicular that's now dead in the water. Their top three orders of business are to interrogate the captive, heal the wounded, and get the funicular moving again.

Zhang, having relieved the attacker of his rifle with a flying stunt, presses his psychological advantage over the captive and demands to know what their purpose was in attacking them. The response he gets is in German, so he shouts for someone to come translate and Ellie obliges. Ellie translates the response as "Long live the Mad Monk!" He keeps repeating this as his response to every question. They ask Pierre Laroche if he knows who that is, and he responds that the only "mad monk" he's heard of was Russian and died over 20 years ago. Trying a different tact, Adway forces the man to inhale some hallucinogenic spores. Once he starts to hallucinate, Ellie impersonates the assistant of his master and asks for a status report. With the drug taking effect in his mind, he believes the charade and responds that "The mission is not going well" but eventually he recovers his senses and refuses to answer anything more. Zhang then proceeds to put him to sleep with a sleeper hold.

Meanwhile, Dick Victory searches the body of the one other attacker that wasn't dumped down the mountain and finds that he too bears the same tattoo that their previous adversaries had sported on the neck. Otherwise the man is carrying only a pistol and some bullets.

Having finished with the fallen and captured, they turn their attention to getting the funicular moving. Meanwhile, Adway and Nick go to work applying first aid on Gary. They revive him, but he is barely conscious and cannot take any strenuous action without passing out (0 HP). This means they need to find a way to get the funicular moving, or else they'll have to carry Gary to the top.

Ellie suggests moving the roughly two dozen innocent bystanders into one of the carriages, causing it to go downhill while the rest ride the other carriage up to the top. There is some debate about which carriage to raise to the top, the one with the sabotaged water tank (which will then not be moveable until repaired, effectively removing the funicular as a pathway for pursuers) or the one with the functioning water tank (which could still make another trip, effectively providing themselves with an escape route later). Ultimately they decide to raise the sabotaged carriage back to the top and move all of the bodies and passengers into the functioning carriage. There is a slight shift in balance as they do this, but something like an emergency brake is still preventing the carriages from moving.



Milo -- still bloody from his bullet wound -- and Zhang exit the carriage and climb up the side of the slope, using the widely-spaced rungs of a service ladder to do so. At the top, they find the brake operator. When Zhang tells him to release the brake, the operator instead puts his hand on it defensively and holds it in place. Zhang is about to physically remove the operator from his station when Milo arrives, blood on his shirt, and convinces the brake operator to release the carriages so that they can get medical assistance. Once the brake lever is thrown, the carriages slowly start to move again, bringing the protagonists to the top and lowering the carriage full of crime evidence and frightened passengers to the bottom.

Fearing pursuers both hostile and legal, the group makes haste to the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde via a short bridge (see photo; interesting historical note: this walkway was designed by Gustave Eiffel). The view of the Mediterranean from this vantage point is quite nice and the sea breeze is gusty and strong. Adway doesn't like heights so he walks straight down the center of the bridge, far from either railing.

Dick Victory shows the sketch in Livingston's journal to Laroche. Laroche recognizes it as one of the mosaics in the main nave of the basilica, and so immediately takes them into the cathedral. The most striking aspect of the interior décor is the widespread use of mosaics on the walls and ceilings, lending a sense of orientalism to the atmosphere. Overhead there are several large cupolas (see photo). In the four corners of one of the cupolas are four mosaics, each of a different scene from the Old Testament: the dove bringing the olive leaf to Noah's ark, the rainbow that God created after the flood waters dried up, Jacob's Ladder, and the burning bush. The burning bush mosaic very closely matches the sketch in Livingston's journal! Livingston must've figured out that the burning bush must have somehow refer to  the location of the resting place of the Roman Legionnaire.

While Gary sketches a scale map of the cathedral, the others investigate the floor directly beneath the burning bush mosaic but find nothing unusual. Since they are looking for Roman ruins, they know that they must go deeper, and ask Laroche to take them to the crypt beneath the cathedral. Laroche leads them back outside, around to a side door, and down into the crypt.

The crypt has roughly the same dimensions as the nave above, and at the far end is an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary beyond it. Utilizing his scale map, Gary finds the location in the crypt that is directly beneath the mosaic. Dick is convinced (critical failure) that there's a hollow area under the flagstone in that spot, and so Nick goes to work using a throwing knife to scrape out the mortar holding the flagstone in place. This takes some time, so they use this opportunity to do some more first aid on their wounded (Milo and Gary). Also during this time Ellie is closely inspecting the coffins and decides she wants to know what's inside one of them (and possibly keep a little treasure for herself). But as soon as she applies pressure to one of the stone coffin lids, Laroche talks her out of desecrating graves. Once Nick has finished chipping the mortar away, they lift the flagstone and learn that there's nothing but earth underneath this spot.

Searching the rest of the crypt, Dick notices that there are scratches in the floor next to the altar that would be consistent with the altar sliding out of place. Dick tries to move it by himself but it's too heavy. Zhang and Dick work together (critical success) and slide the altar out of the way, revealing a stone staircase underneath that descends into darkness. Everyone checks their light source (grabbing a torch from a wall sconce as necessary) and heads down the stairs.

The level beneath the crypt has a low ceiling that's just barely high enough to stand up straight. The stone room is long and narrow, ending at a dead end. There's a thick layer of dust on the floor and no footprints, suggesting they are the first to visit this place in a very long time. On each side of the long passage are two alcoves (four total) that are also dead ends. Carefully searching the alcoves, Dick discovers a barely-readable inscription in the keystone at the top of the archway leading into one of the alcoves. He brushes the dust and grim away and sees a Latin inscription "G-VIII-XI". Checking the other three alcoves they find each one has a different inscription in the keystone. The four inscriptions are:
 * G-VII-XI
 * G-IX-XIII
 * G-XXVIII-XII
 * E-III-II

In debating what the inscriptions could mean, they consider dates and locations. Laroche points out that this still isn't deep enough to be the level of Roman-era ruins, therefore they consider Christian interpretations of the clues and decide to look at Bible verses. However, no one has a Bible on them!

Milo, Zhang, Beverly, and Ellie return to the main room of the cathedral to look for a Bible. A mass is just beginning as they arrive, and a procession carrying the Bible walks down the aisle, followed by the priest. Milo decides he's going to confidently walk up to the altar in the middle of mass and ask to borrow the Bible, but Zhang restrains him from doing so because he prefers a certain level of discretion.

Ellie, Beverly, and Zhang then go in search of the clergy offices, which they access by an exterior staircase that goes to an upper level. They find a hallway of four locked doors and things are quiet since mass is taking place downstairs. Beverly uses her spycraft to pick the lock on one of the doors. Ellie is hoping to find some clergy robes in the office that she can use as a disguise, but Zhang finds a clergyman's personal Bible in the desk drawer.

The Bible is in Latin, so Ellie translates. Looking in the Old Testament, they find that the inscriptions each correspond to a Bible verse as follows: ​They now realize the importance of Livingston's journal sketch: he was leaving a clue that a secret passage is behind the alcove with the inscription referring to the burning bush.
 * Genesis 8:11 : When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
 * Genesis 9:13 : I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
 * Genesis 28:12 : He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
 * Exodus 3:2 : And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Returning to the crypt, they find that Dick Victory has already located a hollow spot, about waist high, behind one of the stones of the "burning bush alcove". Zhang applies several carefully measured blows to the stone and cracks it sufficiently that they can tear it away from the wall. Behind they find a tunnel carved in the earth, about two feet across -- large enough to crawl on their bellies.

Everyone goes through but Ellie and Beverly decide they don't want to get their clothes dirty. Laroche offers to stay behind. Dick also decides to hang back with the ladies while the others forge ahead.

Crawling through the crawl space, the group emerges in a subterranean cavern beneath the foundation of Notre Dame de la Garde. The footprints of ruined buildings are all that remain, and Aliester the archaeologist recognizes the layout and design to be that of a Roman fort. They've found the spot, so now where is the legionnaire with the book? Aliester decides to look in the ruins of the soldier's barracks and, with a stroke of genius (critical success), he finds the book in a pile of Roman armor and swords. They've found "Description of the Ocean", the lost work of Pytheus!

Since Aliester is already carrying Livingston's journal, Nick takes the book of Pytheus so as not to put all their eggs in one basket (Laroche takes note). Their next order of business is to get out of here as quickly as possible. Before exiting the crypt, they send out Zhang and Milo to scout ahead. There is still some commotion around the funicular as it appears to be under repair, and there is certainly a crowd gathered at the lower station. Deciding to avoid this, the group heads the other way in search of the horse path that's used to bring water and supplies up to the church.

The horse path is clear and quiet. No horses are here at the moment, so the group starts descending the rocky trail. It's wide enough for single file. At roughly halfway down (though they're not sure exactly how far they've gone), the party hears the sound of hooves beating their way up the trail from around a bend. They scatter off the trail, taking cover amongst the rocks just before the curve in the path.

Around the curve, two men on horseback are immediately visible. They're wearing brown trench coats and look like they might be associates of the ambushers on the funicular. To provide a distraction, Zhang stands up in plain sight and charges right at them. As soon as they see Zhang, the horsemen each draw a rifle from a saddle holster and take aim with one hand.

As Zhang leaps from the ridge toward the horsemen, Nick Danger feels the muzzle of a gun being pressed into his back. Laroche -- laying next to him -- leans over and whispers so that only Nick can hear: "Hand over the book.  Now."

To find out the exciting conclusion, tune in next time... same pulp time, same pulp channel!

Memorable Quotes

 * Group: "Do you have any angry members of your clergy?"  (while inquiring at the cathedral as a possible location for the "mad monk")


 * Dick Victory making a habit of getting people's names wrong, for example:


 * Pierre Laroche was "Peter Larouge"
 * Zhang Wei was "Shang Wa"

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