The PCs gathered their wits and assayed the wreckage of HMS Glorioous Dawn, recovering enough food and water for three days. They found charts and from them determined their position. They were in what was marked on their charts as the Nepenthes-Thoth Steppe, about halfway between the city states of Thoth and Shastapsh, approximately 30 miles from a Grand Canal. Knowing that Shastapsh was in open revolt against the British occupation of Syrtis Major, and guessing that Thoth was independent, the group decided to make for the canal, then turn north toward Thoth.
Accordingly, the wreckage was scavenged and a raft incorporating some of the Glorious Dawn's liftwood was constructed, providing a cargo platform that would hover a few feet off the ground when laded with the three day's supply of food and water they had managed to find, plus the ladies and a few other sundries. All this took some hours to arrange, and so night fell before they were ready to set out.
Judging the journey over unfamilar terrain with unknown hazards to be far too dangerous to contemplate - each was on his or her first trip to Mars - a defensible camp was made inside the wreckage field. After a good meal, the party set watches and attempted to get as much sleep as possible in the terrible unknowable dark of a Martian night on the steppe.
In the early hours of the morning the watchman was alerted by furtive movements in the pile of stores. Arousing some others, that worthy led an ambush of the interloper, who turned out to be the lone surviving pirate, grubbing for rations. The thief realized he was cornered and offered a deal; he would trade three day's worh of water and food for himself for information about the route to the canal, including a valuable pass-phrase that would, in his words, guarantee the user safe passage with any of the roving tribes of Steppe Martians hereabouts. The party members agreed to this deal and the pirate was seen off the camp with his supplies.
The next day the party, half the men harnessed to the raft with ropes, began the tedious crossing of the steppe toward the grand canal. After a few hours, in the early afternoon, the party was surprised by a group of Steppe Martians. The pass phrase was used but only seemed to amuse the Martians, who attacked. The party gave a good account of themselves, killing their attackers to a man, but there were casualties - one severely wounded and another, a german nobleman, who died. His wife insisted on immediate burial and so precious daylight was used interring the unfortunate baron. There was nothing for it but to make what camp they could and tough out another night on the Martian steppes.
The second day brought another encounter, another parley, but again the Martians sneered when the passphrase was used and attacked without mercy. This resulted in two more wounded, another death of a brave Earthman, and worse, the escape of at least one Martian thug. There was nothing for it but to bury the dead, load the wounded that couldn't walk onto the raft, and press on as fast as possible. Yet there was no sight of the canal when darkness forced a halt, and those in harness collapsed exhausted to the cruel Martian soil for yet another night's broken sleep in the cold of an alien night, serenaded by unEarthly sounds.
At approximately noon the next day (no-one had a watch calibrated for the Martian day and they only had the haziest notion of their latitude by which to judge the position of the strangely shrunken Sun) their scout crested a small rise and excitedly reported that they had reached the canal. However there was a complication in that the bank of the canal was currently occupied with a battle between two forces of unknown Martians. One side seemed to be a party of cavalry, which was attacking the other, consisting of a caravan with what looked to the uncertain eyes of the Earthmen as ceremonial trappings and banners. The caravan was about to be taken. The Earthmen immediately positioned themselves for effect and let fly with their rifles against the cavalry.
The result was instant. The cavalry wheeled and made an assault in formation against the party of Earthmen, but were immobilized when Wilhelm fired his Glue Gun with the valves wide open foor maximun effect. He gave them a second shot that would ensure they stayed put for at least an hour or more, and the party went down to speak with the caravan, which proved to consist of a handful of royal guards of Thoth and Princess Aramaranda, together with her advisor and her aging advisor, one Kalamir, who acted as interlocutor between the Earthmen and the princess, through their shared facility with French.
Princess Aramaranda, through Kalamir, let it be known that she and her entourage were traveling to Thoth, and that she required the party of Earthmen to accompany her and act as bodyguards in lieu of the guards lost to the Shastapsh cavalry attack (for indeed, those bellicose Martians had been in the service of the rebellious city-state of Shastapsh). The caravan was to travel about ten miles or so, where it would rendezvous with the royal barge and the Princess, along with her closest guard and her new allies, would sail the remainder of the distance to Thoth. Once there, the Prioncess would intercede with her father the King, who would doubtless reward the Earthmen by arranging safe passage to Syrtis Major and would certainly wish to feast with the brave men who had saved his daughter's life.
The caravan got underway, but was ambushed about halfway to the barge's mooring by a larger party of mounted Shastapsh troops. The caravan was completely surrounded and at a complete disadvantage, and Kalamir went to parley with Commander Neesh, the leader of the cavalry, under flag of truce. He returned with a grave countenance, advising the Princess to order a surrender. Kalamir said that the cavalry would escort the Princess to Thoth. The guard would be held until the Princess was safely in Thoth then released. The Earthmen would be escorted to Syrtis Major by a deputation of Shastapsh diplomats.
The Princess was persuaded and she and Kalamir were taken under guard toward Thoth. The guards and the Earthmen were rounded up and marched back to the place where they had interrupted the original ambush. They were disarmed, but not chained or restrained in any way. Curiously, the Shastapsh soldiers didn't think to confiscate the floating raft tethered to a peg, and so did not find the wounded Earthmen nor the armed Earthwomen hiding behind the cargo.
Upon arriving at the ambush site the Earthmen and Martian Thothian guards were lined up in front of the canal, while their guards drew their black powder longarms.
Things looked bad for the Party.
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