Post by Adminenkainen on Feb 14, 2019 6:05:56 GMT
["Session 23" was something I wrote during a lengthy downtime in the campaign after the Battle for Mount Prospect.]
April 1, 1942
What to do with the prisoners was an issue of deep contention, and the debate spread to every home as word got out. There was an angry faction, gathering in the streets, that was calling for the criminals to be put to death. Food was already scarce, they argued -- why waste what they had on feeding them? Luckily, cooler heads surrounded the Outsiders. If the Fog Wall dropped tomorrow, what would society think of them?
While deciding if to keep the prisoners alive, they still had to decide how. The collective towns had 50 prisoners now (more had fled the battlefield) and there was not nearly enough jail space for everyone. What the Emergency Council decided was to store the lion’s share of them in the barn on the Fisher Farm and just keep it under constant guard from deputized volunteers. The only prisoners who would stay in the jails were the ones deemed to have valuable intelligence (and hence needed to be more accessible). None were considered more valuable than one of the last prisoners captured -- the man with horns, the self-styled Dr. Clever.
Clever was more than willing to talk. He bragged about how he had matched wits with the speedster Johnny Quick in the past. He was one of a triumvirate of mad scientists who had found themselves on level 3 of the Hideout and had taken leadership roles down throughout the structure. They were not responsible for the Fog Wall and were victims of this predicament as much as everyone else. The triumvirate was surely broken now, with Clever captured, and The Light (Starman’s foe) had been in that large autogyro the White Knight blew out of the sky and surely perished in the ensuing explosion.
Who was in charge down there now? “By process of elimination…it must be Dr. Weerd,” Clever said, referring to the Star-Spangled Kid’s arch-nemesis.
April 2, 1942
The food issue became the Outsiders’ top priority when fresh intelligence came from some of the captured mobsters -- there were storerooms of food and water on the south end of the first floor of the Hideout. Everything else was put on hold. They raced back to the House at the end of the Southland and found, surprisingly, it had reverted to a 1910s’ look inside. But that was a mystery for another day -- they charged south to unexplored sections of the Hideout and found warehouse-like rooms with rations enough to feed all of Mount Prospect for a week -- or everyone in all the towns for about two days.
While in the Hideout, they ran into Mr. Gould, their closest ally among the mobsters. He reported sheer chaos in the Hideout, with the mobsters fragmenting even further and already starting to turn on each other. He said there was more food down below on other levels, but in case they were cut off from him and his men, he asked that one room of food and water be left behind for him.
They also found eight of the nomes still hiding in the Hideout. Some of their cousins (they all seem to be cousins to each other) had become separated during all their dodging mobsters and they insisted on staying and searching for them.
Regardless of how long the recovered food will last, the recovered bounty did wonders for civic morale and the angry mobs began to disperse. The White Knight saw this as the perfect time to announce his candidacy for mayor of Mount Prospect. His charisma wowed the crowds in the street and gave him his first wave of followers.
At this point the Outsiders became fractured in purpose. Blaze felt their top priority should be reaching the bottom of the Hideout, where he was certain the answers lay to their biggest questions, and try to end this thing. The White Knight felt their top priority should be restoring law and order, and making the best of their situation as if it would never change. Batman was distracted, still believing that his brother was trying to reach him through the Fog Wall. Dark Lash and Gracie were torn.
April 3, 1942
Batman wanted to leave on a tour of the Fog Wall perimeter, taking Sir Robin with him. They crossed into the last-revealed territory and explored the woods north of Des Plaines, finding an abandoned barracks, where they spent the night.
The White Knight worked on official paperwork to run for office and talked to various civic leaders, accompanied by Gracie.
Darklash was helping with guarding the farmhouse jail and checking on The Ferret Master. FM was in a state, worried that the mobsters in the barn wanted him and his ferrets to do bad things. Darklash went to talk to the police about keeping FM in a cell, as a preventative measure from him turning bad, but the only space they had would be putting him in with Dr. Clever.
Blaze, meanwhile, was in Des Plaines, following up on a lead that the Spook was last seen here. Blaze knew he needed allies the others respected if he was going to win them over to a prolonged hideout raid, and everyone seemed to respect The Spook. Distracted by a stray dog, he was led towards a swampy area along the Des Plaines River where some mobsters were hiding. The Fog Walls had been down long enough that now the mobsters, too, were finding it easy to move around -- and the civil war in the Hideout was driving them out, like this small splinter group of seven. During a tussle with them, Blaze was surprised by a crocodile! The mobsters were surprised as well, but the distraction allowed half of them to get away as Blaze defeated the crocodile. It was either another refugee from the Hideout, the Blazing Tower, or new weird things were popping up in Des Plaines.
April 4, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin continued on, following the west side of the Des Plaines River up north to the abandoned Pal-Waukee Airport. En route, they ran into an old man who muttered to himself “Old Willie will see it through.” When they approached him, he cast a Poof! spell and disappeared. They left the airport and headed east along the northernmost stretch of the Fog Wall. Just over 2 miles in, they found their way blocked by an enormous chasm. They explored around it and found the chasm was 1 mile long, up to 500’ wide, and between 100-300’ deep. The chasm seemed widest right at the Fog Wall, as if half of it was on the other side. It looked like there were cave mouths down in the chasm. They could not decide on whether to explore the chasm, bypass the chasm, or go back and tell the others about it (Sir Robin favored the latter), so by day’s end they gave up and went back to the airport to camp in.
The White Knight pressed civic leaders and journalists (after church, which WK started attending to garner favor) to push for an early special election, and got them to agree on just over 2 weeks, on April 20. Gracie stayed by his side for support and they talked about putting on a public show of their abilities -- for morale, of course.
Gracie found someone at church had dropped an envelope. Curious, she looked inside and found a newspaper clipping. What was more unusual was that there were pin pricks under certain words (the holes could be seen when held up to the light), and the words made sentences that said: “Would you be interested in buying supply? If you can come up with money leave this behind.”
Blaze checked at the Blazing Tower and found out from the current occupants, Percy and Irene, that the Spook was there! The Spook was going through the basement level and making sure it was cleared out. Blaze found him, talked about the missing connection between the two halves, and the Spook promised to look for it, so they could access the tower safely from the river entrance.
Then, before it got to be too late, Blaze went to talk to the scientists, particularly Howard Edwin, the young chemist he had spent the most time getting to know among them. He confided in Howard his own android nature and asked Howard to look into faster healing for his android body.
April 5, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin returned to the chasm and chose to simply go around it; as their priority was still circumnavigating the entire Fog Wall. And they stumbled across…the Mission Hills Country Club. The club was deserted, but past that was part of Northbrook -- about 300 people from the corner of Northbrook -- cut off from home by the Fog Wall. So isolated, they expected the residents to be as terrified as the people of Orchard Place, but no, these people felt safe because they were under the protection of “The Wizard.” Clearly, over three months surrounded by a magical fog wall made people ready to accept the reality of magic.
They gained an audience with the Wizard (back at the country club, which wasn’t entirely abandoned after all) and met a mustached man in his late 30s, in a white domino mask and white suit. He gave his name as Blane Whitney; “The Wizard” was his code name when working for the government. He was a scientist-adventurer (what he called it). Like everyone else, he had no idea how he had got here, and had been out in the Pacific Theater spying on the Japanese when he appeared here, on February 1.
The inhabitants of Northbrook had gone through a rough month, terrified of their new surroundings, but Blane had convinced them it was a Japanese trick and the government was working to free him (none of which he was sure was true). He had set up defenses around the townsfolk, which was important because what appeared to be Arabian horsemen would raid a desert-like region that had appeared south of here. His scientific experiments had told him that the Fog Wall defied all Earthly science to explain, leaving him to assume the supernatural was real.
Even more peculiar…Blane felt a sudden compulsion to hand them something, something from a drawer nearby he had never looked in before. He opened it up and produced an item of jewelry and gave it to them. “If I didn’t know better,” he said, “I would think it was a talisman.”
Meanwhile, the White Knight learned that there might be opposition in his bid to become mayor after all. Chief Wittenberg told him that some of the residents were concerned about trusting an outsider still and were lobbying the old mayor, Herman Meyn, to run again. WK, wanting to keep things above board, decided not to meet with Herman directly, but asked Wittenberg to send the new deputy, Arno, to talk to Herman for him. Herman sent back a list of assurances (or demands) he wanted before he would decide not to run. Basically, he wanted the White Knight’s real name and details of his background, with some corroboration, and he wanted WK to make all this public knowledge.
WK discussed it with his new aides, which included the local newspaper man, Maurice Pendleton. Maurice opposed the idea, saying that the WK was a symbol of hope for the trapped residents, and symbols needed to stay detail-less, in order to represent everyone.
But there was more going on for him, since his supporters had planned a concert tonight in his honor. It was to be held in front of where the airplane crashed -- seen by many as the symbol of both the disaster that had befallen them, but also a reminder that the costumed heroes had first appeared to save the passengers.
Darklash was dealing with Ferret Master again, because no action had been taken yesterday to lock him up, and in the night he had let his large trained ferrets loose. Some were still on the Fischer Farm and easily rounded up, but others were hunting chickens on neighboring farms to the north and south and had to be chased down and caught. Luckily, Gracie was available and helped with cornering the loose ferrets.
That evening, Darklash and Gracie were back in town for the concert for White Knight. At the concert, they were approached by Meta Bittner, president of the Mount Prospect Women’s Club, who wanted to know if either or both of them would come speak to her group soon.
Also meanwhile, Blaze was being examined by the scientific community he had freed from the Southlands Hideout. Of the scientists, Howard, Ralph, Roger, and Albert were the ones who had the success with the healing pill formula (they were also two days away from creating another healing pill), but today they ran a battery of tests on Blaze to try and figure out what he’s made of and how he works. They began formulating theories for how they could modify the healing formula into a solution they could give him through an IV feed that would allow him to heal at a normal human rate.
April 6, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin had spent the night as guests of the Wizard. Sir Robin really wanted to show the talisman to the other Outsiders, but Batman wasn’t having it; he was still determined to search the Fog Wall for a way out, or at least a way to reach his brother on the outside. Batman stayed at the country club, asking the Wizard if there was a way to guide him through the Fog Wall. The Wizard, Blane, did not think there was, but this mysterious talisman was an unknown factor and he was willing to test it. They attached chains to Batman and had a motorized winch handy they could pull him out with quickly if something went wrong. Batman went in, holding the talisman --
Darklash still had a farmhouse full of ferrets to take care of. No doubt they were tearing up the Fischers’ former residence already, Ferret Master was in no mental shape to tend to them, and Darklash didn’t want to be the one having to feed them all the time. Salvation came in the form of a closed dog kennel in Des Plaines that she found that day. She used some of her fabulous wealth to hire on some help at the kennel to feed and care for the ferrets.
There was another farm that needed Darklash’s attention; there were reports of two wild dogs terrorizing the Helder Farm, which was the one bordering the Southlands. She figured she could handle two dogs easily herself, but it was close to the dangerous Southlands, so she wanted the White Knight for back-up. WK was too busy with meetings, though, so she tackled them alone. The dogs, a doberman and a mastiff, were mean from hunger, but easily calmed down. They might have belonged to someone in town, as they still had on their collars, but they did not belong to Mr. Helder.
Gracie spent her first day in a long time running alone and free through the wilderness that ran between farms along the outskirts of their prison world. She was still unsure if she should tell the others that she was a spy from Paradise Island, sent to pave the way for Wonder Woman’s arrival, or even if it now mattered. But her ruminations were interrupted by the surprise arrival of the golden pegasus that had been freed from the Temple, along with poor Olaf Otisberg. The pegasus landed a good 20 yards in front of her and she resolved to catch it and tame it. It gave her a merry chase throughout the day, but always eluded her.
Batman emerged from the Fog Wall, without the chains binding him any longer. He was not sure how long he had been in the Fog while he was in there, but he could see it was afternoon now. There was no sign of the Wizard or Sir Robin, only a town he didn’t immediately recognize. Investigation revealed it to be Park Ridge, the west side of Park Ridge that was inside the Fog Wall. Sir Robin was about 16 miles north of him. Batman took off running at once.
White Knight’s meetings were with the village clerk and some trustees, who filled him in on what his official duties would be if he were elected.
Blaze, in his third day with the scientists, had come to the conclusion that normal healing sounded great, but not at the expense of healing pills his companions could use. Luckily, they could get more information now that they had secured the use of an X-ray machine from a well-to-do Park Ridge doctor. For the first time, they could view the android man’s inner workings, the mechanical parts beneath the synthetic tissue. He was about half mechanical, they figured from what they could see. Howard took lots of pictures and vowed to study them until, the next time Blaze was seriously injured, they could repair any damaged parts if a surgeon could get them down to them.
That afternoon, Batman reached the New Lands north of Park Ridge, and found what appeared to be the displaced Medinah Temple of Chicago, but both “was and was not” the Prison of Rei-Po, according to the talking gryphon statue Batman had destroyed. Ignoring it, he pushed north, but found the grassland gave way abruptly to a desert-like region that stretched for miles ahead of him. It was getting late and sleeping in the desert sounded no more appealing than trying to spend the night in the spooky Temple, so he returned to Park Ridge and bedded down in an abandoned house.
April 7, 1942
Batman set out from Park Ridge and returned to the desert region; it was more dry and arid desert than sandy desert. He was on the lookout for the raiders the Wizard had mentioned, which was why he was so caught off-guard when he encountered a grizzly bear instead. Batman was half tempted to murder it with bullets, but since it appeared to be a normal animal he just drove it off instead (and wished he had memorized his charm animal spell!).
The bear had chased something up a scraggly tree -- and it was a nome! Or at least it looked just like a nome; it said it was a goblin named Kelli, and that it was looking for the Southlands. It turned out, Sir Robin had discovered Kelli hiding in Northbrook yesterday and told him about the nomes (distant cousins, Kelli explained) in the Southlands. Kelli took off running to find them before thinking to ask where the Southlands were, so he just went south, until he ran into the bear.
Batman gave Kelli better directions, and made his way to Northbrook, where Sir Robin was waiting. Sir Robin thought they had a lot of information to tell the others now and convinced Batman to return to their Mount Prospect house.
Darklash and Gracie teamed up again to go check on the Tavern in the Southlands, to see if it was being used by anyone now. Instead of hoodlums or their children -- it was now full of monkeys! They counted 10 monkeys just hanging around the tavern, with no explanation where they came from. Since they did not seem dangerous, the Outsiders agreed to just bring them some food rather than try to transport them to the kennels.
With that done, Gracie talked Darklash into searching for the pegasus, but it was nowhere to be found today. However, all that walking and talking was good bonding time for the ladies, and they opened up to each other about their secret origins (Paradise Island, and being half-android).
Blaze checked in on the Spook and found out that, sure enough, the Spook had succeeded in finding the secret doors everyone had missed that connected up the two halves of the underground lair (there were two secret doors, and a connecting hallway between them). With that mystery solved, Blaze decided to take the Spook into his confidence about another mystery -- the second clue to Stanley Pierce’s buried treasures. The letter saying to go east to “where the trains go” had stumped everyone, but the Spook promised to work on it.
While in the vicinity of the Burning Tower, Blaze checked in on its new resident magic-users. Percy Saunders had been exhaustively reading the notes of Carl Alsher and could confirm that Carl knew no more of how they all wound up here than Carl had let on. To find answers, Percy would have to search other centers of magic within the Fog Walls and wanted some guides.
White Knight was learning so much about how municipal government worked under normal circumstances, and how much was being done behind the scenes during this four-month emergency, that he began listening more to his campaign advisers and support staff. He made sure they understood that he was open to ideas and suggestions from them, and from anyone in the community. His principles were changing more to law and order. But this was not reflected in the fiery speech he made downtown to a crowd of 200, in which he was promising to restore order in town, to find new resources for food and first aid, and to find a way to reach the outside world.
After the speech, he learned that Herman Meyn was going to run against him after all in the special election.
That evening, everyone met up at their house headquarters for the first time in a week and compared notes on what they now knew. The most shocking news of all was that the White Knight wanted to retire from “adventuring” with them, in order to concentrate on his new role in politics.
April 8, 1942
Darklash wanted to check in on things at the Burning Tower. She crossed over the Des Plaines River and soon found herself at the strange edifice. Rather than wait for an invitation, she jumped through an upstairs window, only singing her clothes (again). She surprised Irene Rettig, Percy Saunders’ young apprentice. Irene was a bit cool to Darklash and said everything was fine in the tower. But for answers to Darklash’s questions, they had to see Percy in the study.
Did Carl Alsher’s ogre abduct people with or without Carl’s knowing? What was Alsher’s “silent stalker” doing in the Southland?
Percy thought he did have the answers to those questions, after exhaustively reading Carl’s notes. Yes, it was very likely that Carl ordered his ogre to abduct people, probably with the intention of killing them. Carl Alsher’s studies were all about necromancy, and body parts would be especially useful to him. Carl’s first silent stalker was sent to spy on the Southland, as Carl recognized this area was important to unlocking the secrets to their confinement. “I need to inspect it myself,” Percy added, “as soon as some reliable guides volunteer themselves to me.”
Promising to get back to Percy about that, Darklash wanted to see the Spook. The Spook had taken over the underground portion, leaving the tower for Percy and Irene. Darklash had to re-search half the dungeon to find him, but she did. The Spook had furnished some of the less disgusting rooms closer to the riverside entrance with “borrowed” furniture and slept there during the day, patrolling Des Plaines and keeping it safe at night. “I’ve encountered some stray hoodlums, as well as locals taking to looting. They think the cover of night protects them, but there is no protection from The Spook.”
Blaze went to Chief Wittenberg about the people who had disappeared so far. It was kept out of the papers most of the time, but disappearances were actually not that uncommon. In the first two weeks there were 10 disappearances and of them 8 were people witnessed going into the Fog Wall and never coming back out again. Since then, 8 more people had gone missing, but 4 of them have since returned from other areas where the Fog Wall has come down and reconnected them.
And that was just in Mount Prospect. Des Plaines had almost identical numbers, while Park Ridge had more initial disappearances and fewer disappearances since. No one had done a thorough review with the Wheeling or Orchard Place people yet, provided they had even kept track of numbers.
Blaze wanted to talk to the people who had gone missing and come back later. One was Wilma Wade, a 19-year old girl who, cut off from her fiancee in Arlington Heights, braved the Fog Wall. Wilma was staying with her parents now, but had been transported to a small portion of Glenview that was trapped inside a separate section of Fog (Blaze recalled being told about the Glenview people from the Wheeling people he helped rescue). She had spent six hours in the Fog Wall. The people of Glenview took Wilma in and kept her safe. The Glenview residents had been “very kind…but also a little creepy obsessed with this temple just west of their homes,” Wilma explained in the interview Blaze was permitted to have in front of her parents. “They took me to the Temple, but while they thought it was a calm and peaceful place, it gave me the creeps. When the Fog disappeared to the south and I could make my way to Park Ridge, and then back home to Mount Prospect, I did as fast as I could.”
Eugene Hanson had a similar story. He had tried to leave into the Fog on day 2 because his wife was visiting with her sister in Berwyn. “After 10 hours, I found my way out of the Fog, but I was near Orchard Place. It was a nightmare there--” and he describes the oppressive rule of the Baron and his cruel mercenaries, taking all their resources from them and then portioning back out food and drink as little as possible. “We were told to hunt, but the woods and hills were dangerous too far from Orchard Place. I understand rationing was tough here, but at least no one was killed for having too much food.”
Blaze and Darklash were curious about the Chicago Medinah Temple and wanted another look at it, but had other plans, so they talked Batman and Sir Robin into going. Batman even brought Oscar the Bat-Dog with this time. This time, they spent more time around the environs of the Temple. East of the Temple, but about a quarter-mile, was part of Glenview. There were about 30 homes here, cut off from the rest of their community, but the residents seemed bizarrely calm about it.
“Oh, it’s taken some getting used to, but at least we’ve been safe,” a resident said when they talked to her. “No, better than safe. Thank God for the Temple. It’s given us more than peace of mind. It’s provided for us.” When pressed on what that meant, she said, “Food and drink…when we’ve needed it, we’ve only had to go to the Temple and it was there.”
The woman, who’s name was Lavonne, was just a simple housewife, and when they asked her to show them where in the Temple all this was, she deferred to her husband, Jimmy. Jimmy had been an accountant, he explained, but now he was a woodcutter and was loving it. “God provides,” he said, and he explained how he believed God had cut them off from the outside world (a not unknown belief in Mount Prospect) so they could lead better lives. Although Lavonne was fine with Jimmy taking them to see the Temple, Jimmy became defensive to the point of paranoid. “Why do you need to see the Temple so bad? Who are you people? You come here, dressed in bizarre get-ups, and want us to show you the Temple? Go on! Get!”
Sir Robin kept Batman from killing him. Instead, they went straight back to the Temple. The Temple was enormous, as tall as the box elder and red maple trees around it. Some of the sidewalk was still lying in rubble around it, as if it had been scooped up with the building when it was brought here. The front doors were still unlocked, and all seemed quiet inside.
They checked out the giant auditorium room, three levels and 80’ high, that could seat over 4,000 people. And, sitting on the center of the stage, was still the large, rectangular block 40’ tall that looked like it was solid black marble. Again, they searched it, but could not figure out its purpose. But Batman was suddenly hit with the urge to kneel and pray. It freaked him out a little and he resisted. After discussing it with Sir Robin, they figured it was some magical defense on the block they had somehow failed to activate last time, and they chose to run away.
The White Knight spent the better part of the day on a campaign speech. He had changed his mind about Herman Meyn; he needed to see his opponent after all. He had his people reach out to Herman’s people and he agreed to it. It was a private meeting, but both Chief Wittenberg and Maurice Pendleton, the newspaper man, were there to keep it above board.
“You are a smooth-spoken man, Mr. Knight,” Meyn said after pleasantries, “but I am surprised George and Maurice are even entertaining this. You’re not one of us. You’re an outsider, and a vigilante outsider at that. Mount Prospect people have always taken care of their own. We kept our bank open through the whole Depression, when so many others were closing down, by taking care of our own. So I’m honestly confused what a mystery man with a helmet and shield can do for us, sitting behind a desk…”
During a break in the long meeting, WK met Gracie. While he was still talking about retiring, he wanted someone to go check on Faith at the Baron’s manor, so he convinced Gracie to go. She could now get there without using the secret route through the Southland Hideout, since the Fog Wall came down between Orchard Place and Des Plaines, so it was easy to reach the Baron’s Manor. Faith was still there, and still had at least some mercenaries loyal to her. Faith was cordial, invited Gracie in for tea, and suggested they should become friends. Faith wanted to hear all about the other communities and the transplanted people of Orchard Place, painting herself as a friend to the community and unaware of anything bad the Baron had done. Faith resisted any suggestions about relocating from the manor, but had no convincing explanations for this. Gracie spent half the day with her and promised to come back soon.
April 9, 1942
Batman filled in Darklash on what he had discovered about the Temple and they agreed this needed more looking into, and she told him about how nighttime patrols should perhaps be reinstated. That was when Batman asked Darklash a good question about the Spook -- if the Spook was finding and stopping new hoodlums in Des Plaines, what was he doing with them?
Batman was fine with them being killed, but Darklash needed to know now. She returned to the Des Plaines River and the Burning Tower and confronted the Spook in his underground lair. The Spook showed her -- he was keeping five prisoners so far in the ogre’s cell. “I can convert more of the dungeons into prison, if we need it. Perhaps after the next big raid on the Southlands Hideout…”
Then, Darklash asked him about Stanley H. Pierce’s second riddle, which she recalled Blaze mentioning he had shared with the Spook to see if he could puzzle it out. “Under where the trains go…” he recited. “I was wondering if it might be a trick answer, perhaps playing on another definition for train. Dresses can have trains, you know. But I haven’t thought about it past that.”
Armed with this information, Darklash went looking for Blaze to tell him, but had trouble tracking him down all day.
Batman decided to patrol the entrance to the Southland for the rest of the day, and something else to do. Farmer Helder, the man whose property was closest to the Southland, said that ever since the Battle for Mount Prospect, volunteers to patrol the border had been scarce and he knew people were sneaking back and forth at night again.
Blaze looked into Dan Steely’s fate, the man who was trapped in the Fog Wall while the Heroes were messing with switching it on and off. He made careful inquiries in every town nearby, including with the refugees from Orchard Place, but Dan had never come back, that anyone seemed to know about. It was a time-consuming investigation that yielded no clear results or meanings. And yet…
While doing all that walking from town to town, Blaze’s thoughts landed back on the books that had been spread out around him in the library when he first appeared. He had always hoped there was some message in their titles, but…maybe there was something else there, something else overlooked.
Late in the afternoon, he returned to the Mount Prospect Public Library and found every book that he had memorized being there that day. There was indeed something about the authors. Half of them had the initials S.P., and all the rest either had a first name that started with S or a last name that started with P.
The White Knight returned to the onion shed where he first appeared in Mount Prospect. He wished there was something more symbolic about where he had first appeared that would work in his campaign speeches; how much better it would have been had he appeared at one of the churches, like Batman or Gracie! Still, perhaps he could use the onion shed as a symbol for humble origins, or help him relate to the farmer voters.
He thought back on yesterday’s interview with Herman Meyn. The former mayor had seemed impressed. “Under other circumstances, I might vote for you myself,” Herman confessed, wowed by WK’s charisma. “But, I feel it is important that the people of Mount Prospect have a choice in this matter, and it seems that I must be that other option for them. And I will run as such to the best of my ability.”
Gracie, meanwhile, was distracted with the Mount Prospect Women’s Club, having accepted their offer to come speak to them. Gracie told some harrowing tales of just some of her adventures and terrified the women so much that some of them thought they might faint. Nevertheless, she was a huge hit and soon had multiple invitations to house parties and other club events.
April 10, 1942
The White Knight hung out in the shed again, but gained no new insights. He did learn from Gracie about her connections with the Women’s Club and he immediately latched onto that for his own ambitions. He convinced Gracie, who could never say no to this man, to introduce him to the club leaders. It seemed odd to them to have their votes considered so important, but they agreed to host a meeting for him to attend tomorrow.
Darklash checked in again on Ferret Master, who was still loose on his own. FM had learned of his ferrets incarceration at the kennel and was found sleeping in one of their cages with them. FM was despondent because one was still missing. It was an issue, but not a big one, and Darklash left that to the local law to handle while she returned once more to the Spook’s dungeon. She wanted to double check with him on if there could be any unexplored areas of the dungeon, but -- unless another secret door turned up -- there was nothing new found so far. DL decided to revisit the paintings that depicted the silver sword and shield being held by two Alsher ancestors, refreshing her memory of what they would look like. So far, this was their only clue.
On the way out, there was no sign of the Spook. She even looked around for him for awhile, but he had left without leaving a note for her.
Blaze wanted to see phone books for the entrapped communities, but that was easy to do -- it was only two phone books and the Mount Prospect Library had both of them in the reference section. There was a surprising dearth of people who’s initials were S.P. -- Stuart Palmer, Sherman Pate, Stanley Pepper, and Sydney Piepenbrink. There was also the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, located in Northbrook. The initials were reversed, but it was listed under P in the phone book with the surnames.
Blaze spent the day investigating the alternate S.P.’s. He already knew about Stuart Palmer -- Stuart was one of the people who had gone into the Fog Wall (on January 2) and never came back.
Sherman Pate was a baker. He was 60 years old and had closed up his Mount Prospect bakery back in February, when the food rationing made running it too difficult. Sherman was sitting on his front porch when Blaze came to visit, and fatalistically told Blaze he was just waiting for them all to die.
Stanley Pepper was not from Mount Prospect, but the portion of Wheeling that had been enclosed by the airport (though now staying in Mt. Prospect with relatives). He was 48 and a business executive in Chicago. He was anxious to get back to his research firm and fearful that he had been replaced by now. His wife, Martha, said this was the best thing that had ever happened to them, as the crisis had brought them closer together.
Sydney Piepenbrink was a 20-year old farm hand from Orchard Place, moved here from Indiana last year. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany when he was 10 and he had been a wanderer since turning 17. The horrors Orchard Place had suffered before being liberated made Sydney miss his parents very much.
Blaze decided to wait until tomorrow to decide if he wanted to go to Northbrook and see if the Public Service Company made it over to this side of the Fog Wall.
Batman was itching to get back to the Southland Hideout so he could kill some things. He convinced Sir Robin they needed to go observe the Nome House and see if anything was going on there. Just when they got in sight of the House, they encountered two hoodlums serving as lookouts, and the encounter was so easy that Batman didn’t even need to kill them. At Sir Robin’s suggestion, they took the two back to the Tavern and waited to question them (they also met the monkeys hanging out in the Tavern still). The hoodlums were some of Mr. Gould’s boys, and they were watching for these “ape men” that had been sighted in the Southland recently (“watchin’ for target practice” joked one of them). So far, four ape men had been spotted. Intrigued, Batman left the hoodlums tied up in the Tavern, went home and got Oscar, and took him ape man hunting in the Southland (but didn’t meet any).
April 11, 1942
Batman tried to talk the others into going into the Southland to look for the ape-men, but everyone was busy. Blaze wanted a guide to Northbrook. Darklash suggested he look into the talisman the Wizard had given him and see if Percy Saunders could identify it. Batman opted for the later, but let Sir Robin go with Blaze for the former. Batman went to the Burning Tower to talk to Percy (and Darklash showed him the safe way through the dungeon to the tower first). Percy could not immediately identify the talisman, but wanted to borrow it for testing. Batman wasn’t sure that was a good idea, and left to go ask the others if he should.
Blaze and Sir Robin crossed from Des Plaines into the Northeast Region and followed the roads to Northbrook. There he found out that the Public Service Company was Northbrook’s electric and natural gas utility company, but it was on the wrong side of the Fog Wall. The people of Northbrook seemed the least bothered trapped community Blaze had encountered so far.
It had seemed a dead end lead, but it did give him the excuse to meet the Wizard. The Wizard, already friendly with Sir Robin, welcomed Blaze to the country club the Wizard had appropriated for himself. The two of them talked about how the Wizard had dealt with scarcity.
“Luckily, it is not a large population trapped in our area. Water was easy to come by from the snow, and the woods around the Des Plaines River provided plenty of food to hunt -- though I did have to come with a few times to help deal with strange things, like giant spiders.
“We did try to bring in the people trapped from Wheeling and Glenview. Some of the Wheeling people did come over and join us. The Glenview people have been more reticent. I …fear that Temple somehow has some hold over them.”
Gracie reminded Darklash of the invitation from the woman’s club. They were both invited to a bridge party the Busse family was hosting. It was a chance to meet the powerful, well-connected family that the White Knight had been so suspicious of. They had spared no expense, and possibly violated the rationing restrictions given the abundance of snacks there were. At first, the Busse family seemed quite charming; they had done a lot to help out in town, sharing what they had as the community needed it (Albert Busse, for example, was said to have been the first person to turn over gasoline to the city for emergency purposes, draining every car he had for sale in his dealership). And yet, their charity seemed to have its limits, as they had no sympathy with the people in need who had not come to them. The Busse’s seemed to assume Darklash and Gracie felt the same, and had staged this event to impress these rising celebrities with superpowers.
Late in the party, the White Knight also showed up, giving a campaign speech to the assembled Busse’s. If he was still suspicious of them, he did not show it as he sucked up to them for support.
Darklash, while in the company of the wealthier patrons, began to drop "gossip" about the supplies being sold secretly in town to see if anyone had more information. ((dice rolled)) No one seemed to know what she was talking about, and no one acted suspicious that she noticed.
But Gracie had. After the party, while walking home, Gracie mentioned how Ruth Larson had stepped away to use the phone right after Darklash started talking about that gossip.
And, after the party, people were lining up to shake the White Knight’s hand. His impeccable charisma made him hugely popular and the Busse family promised to support him. “Wealth doesn’t mean much these days, but social standing still matters,” Albert Busse said to him.
Late in his afternoon chat with the Wizard, Blaze announced that it was time they figured out what’s up with that Temple. He invited the Wizard and Sir Robin to go with him. The Wizard wasn’t sure about that. “The people of Northbrook depend on me being here…” he said. “Still… ((dice rolled)) I will think on it overnight. Feel free to stay here and we can discuss it in the morning.”
Sir Robin thought differently. “Gee, I’d better head home and tell Batman!”
April 12, 1943
By the next morning, the Wizard was more aligned with Blaze’s thoughts. “Well, I suppose being away for just a few hours wouldn’t hurt. I was in danger of becoming a shut-in here, anyway.”
Blaze and the Wizard went in the only unlocked doors, the main front doors. It was quiet inside. The interior was richly decorated, with a foot path of 2’ x 2’ squares of what looked like obsidian inlaid into the floor and heading through the wide foyer in each direction. There were side passages that led to stairs and small private rooms, but most doors on all levels led into a giant auditorium room, three levels and 80’ high, that could seat over 4,000 people.
Blaze had been in the auditorium before, with its strange black cube on the stage, and the back room behind the stage with its throne and magic mirror. Instead, he focused on the side rooms on the ground floor, and was most interested in seeing what the prison gallery looked like now, since Batman and Sir Robin emerged victorious from it.
The western north-south hallway had a bank of windows on the left (the side rooms are on the right, adjacent to the auditorium) and was lined with dead or dying potted plants. The floor here was simply gray tile.
The gryphon statue was now just rubble on the floor in the gallery foyer. The gold sphere that had been taken from the throne and became part of the gryphon statue when they touched was lying loose on the floor now.
The white curtain was still there, and the doorway to the gallery behind it. The 25’ square room was ornately paneled in mahogany, with a white marble floor. There were still four tall paintings with ornate frames hanging on the walls, but all four paintings were now blank canvas. There was evidence of LOTS of bullet holes around the room. Nothing else could be found there.
Other side rooms were more mundane. There was one with rows of chairs facing a much smaller stage, but nothing on the stage behind a black curtain. Another room was empty. At the far north end were stairs going down, while at the south end, where this hallway met the entry hall, there was a grand spiral staircase going up.
Skipping the east side of the ground floor, they went down the stairs. There was a landing halfway down with a men’s room off to the right. There was a dark basement room below, but Blaze and the Wizard had both brought flashlights (the Wizard’s light was the most compact model Blaze had ever seen).
The room was mostly empty, except for an ebony statue of a nude man, standing on a dais. The word “KADAB” was spelled out in large letters on the dais before the statue. There was an alcove in the northwest corner with a door in it.
Meanwhile, everyone else knew where Blaze was because Sir Robin had returned last night to tell them. But something else happened that day that brought the rest together -- word of something new emerging from the Fog Wall, in the air over Des Plaines -- a hot air balloon!
Batman, Sir Robin, Darklash, and Gracie greeted the balloon, as it came down in a field, and its lone occupant, a man in a trench coat and black mask.
April 1, 1942
What to do with the prisoners was an issue of deep contention, and the debate spread to every home as word got out. There was an angry faction, gathering in the streets, that was calling for the criminals to be put to death. Food was already scarce, they argued -- why waste what they had on feeding them? Luckily, cooler heads surrounded the Outsiders. If the Fog Wall dropped tomorrow, what would society think of them?
While deciding if to keep the prisoners alive, they still had to decide how. The collective towns had 50 prisoners now (more had fled the battlefield) and there was not nearly enough jail space for everyone. What the Emergency Council decided was to store the lion’s share of them in the barn on the Fisher Farm and just keep it under constant guard from deputized volunteers. The only prisoners who would stay in the jails were the ones deemed to have valuable intelligence (and hence needed to be more accessible). None were considered more valuable than one of the last prisoners captured -- the man with horns, the self-styled Dr. Clever.
Clever was more than willing to talk. He bragged about how he had matched wits with the speedster Johnny Quick in the past. He was one of a triumvirate of mad scientists who had found themselves on level 3 of the Hideout and had taken leadership roles down throughout the structure. They were not responsible for the Fog Wall and were victims of this predicament as much as everyone else. The triumvirate was surely broken now, with Clever captured, and The Light (Starman’s foe) had been in that large autogyro the White Knight blew out of the sky and surely perished in the ensuing explosion.
Who was in charge down there now? “By process of elimination…it must be Dr. Weerd,” Clever said, referring to the Star-Spangled Kid’s arch-nemesis.
April 2, 1942
The food issue became the Outsiders’ top priority when fresh intelligence came from some of the captured mobsters -- there were storerooms of food and water on the south end of the first floor of the Hideout. Everything else was put on hold. They raced back to the House at the end of the Southland and found, surprisingly, it had reverted to a 1910s’ look inside. But that was a mystery for another day -- they charged south to unexplored sections of the Hideout and found warehouse-like rooms with rations enough to feed all of Mount Prospect for a week -- or everyone in all the towns for about two days.
While in the Hideout, they ran into Mr. Gould, their closest ally among the mobsters. He reported sheer chaos in the Hideout, with the mobsters fragmenting even further and already starting to turn on each other. He said there was more food down below on other levels, but in case they were cut off from him and his men, he asked that one room of food and water be left behind for him.
They also found eight of the nomes still hiding in the Hideout. Some of their cousins (they all seem to be cousins to each other) had become separated during all their dodging mobsters and they insisted on staying and searching for them.
Regardless of how long the recovered food will last, the recovered bounty did wonders for civic morale and the angry mobs began to disperse. The White Knight saw this as the perfect time to announce his candidacy for mayor of Mount Prospect. His charisma wowed the crowds in the street and gave him his first wave of followers.
At this point the Outsiders became fractured in purpose. Blaze felt their top priority should be reaching the bottom of the Hideout, where he was certain the answers lay to their biggest questions, and try to end this thing. The White Knight felt their top priority should be restoring law and order, and making the best of their situation as if it would never change. Batman was distracted, still believing that his brother was trying to reach him through the Fog Wall. Dark Lash and Gracie were torn.
April 3, 1942
Batman wanted to leave on a tour of the Fog Wall perimeter, taking Sir Robin with him. They crossed into the last-revealed territory and explored the woods north of Des Plaines, finding an abandoned barracks, where they spent the night.
The White Knight worked on official paperwork to run for office and talked to various civic leaders, accompanied by Gracie.
Darklash was helping with guarding the farmhouse jail and checking on The Ferret Master. FM was in a state, worried that the mobsters in the barn wanted him and his ferrets to do bad things. Darklash went to talk to the police about keeping FM in a cell, as a preventative measure from him turning bad, but the only space they had would be putting him in with Dr. Clever.
Blaze, meanwhile, was in Des Plaines, following up on a lead that the Spook was last seen here. Blaze knew he needed allies the others respected if he was going to win them over to a prolonged hideout raid, and everyone seemed to respect The Spook. Distracted by a stray dog, he was led towards a swampy area along the Des Plaines River where some mobsters were hiding. The Fog Walls had been down long enough that now the mobsters, too, were finding it easy to move around -- and the civil war in the Hideout was driving them out, like this small splinter group of seven. During a tussle with them, Blaze was surprised by a crocodile! The mobsters were surprised as well, but the distraction allowed half of them to get away as Blaze defeated the crocodile. It was either another refugee from the Hideout, the Blazing Tower, or new weird things were popping up in Des Plaines.
April 4, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin continued on, following the west side of the Des Plaines River up north to the abandoned Pal-Waukee Airport. En route, they ran into an old man who muttered to himself “Old Willie will see it through.” When they approached him, he cast a Poof! spell and disappeared. They left the airport and headed east along the northernmost stretch of the Fog Wall. Just over 2 miles in, they found their way blocked by an enormous chasm. They explored around it and found the chasm was 1 mile long, up to 500’ wide, and between 100-300’ deep. The chasm seemed widest right at the Fog Wall, as if half of it was on the other side. It looked like there were cave mouths down in the chasm. They could not decide on whether to explore the chasm, bypass the chasm, or go back and tell the others about it (Sir Robin favored the latter), so by day’s end they gave up and went back to the airport to camp in.
The White Knight pressed civic leaders and journalists (after church, which WK started attending to garner favor) to push for an early special election, and got them to agree on just over 2 weeks, on April 20. Gracie stayed by his side for support and they talked about putting on a public show of their abilities -- for morale, of course.
Gracie found someone at church had dropped an envelope. Curious, she looked inside and found a newspaper clipping. What was more unusual was that there were pin pricks under certain words (the holes could be seen when held up to the light), and the words made sentences that said: “Would you be interested in buying supply? If you can come up with money leave this behind.”
Blaze checked at the Blazing Tower and found out from the current occupants, Percy and Irene, that the Spook was there! The Spook was going through the basement level and making sure it was cleared out. Blaze found him, talked about the missing connection between the two halves, and the Spook promised to look for it, so they could access the tower safely from the river entrance.
Then, before it got to be too late, Blaze went to talk to the scientists, particularly Howard Edwin, the young chemist he had spent the most time getting to know among them. He confided in Howard his own android nature and asked Howard to look into faster healing for his android body.
April 5, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin returned to the chasm and chose to simply go around it; as their priority was still circumnavigating the entire Fog Wall. And they stumbled across…the Mission Hills Country Club. The club was deserted, but past that was part of Northbrook -- about 300 people from the corner of Northbrook -- cut off from home by the Fog Wall. So isolated, they expected the residents to be as terrified as the people of Orchard Place, but no, these people felt safe because they were under the protection of “The Wizard.” Clearly, over three months surrounded by a magical fog wall made people ready to accept the reality of magic.
They gained an audience with the Wizard (back at the country club, which wasn’t entirely abandoned after all) and met a mustached man in his late 30s, in a white domino mask and white suit. He gave his name as Blane Whitney; “The Wizard” was his code name when working for the government. He was a scientist-adventurer (what he called it). Like everyone else, he had no idea how he had got here, and had been out in the Pacific Theater spying on the Japanese when he appeared here, on February 1.
The inhabitants of Northbrook had gone through a rough month, terrified of their new surroundings, but Blane had convinced them it was a Japanese trick and the government was working to free him (none of which he was sure was true). He had set up defenses around the townsfolk, which was important because what appeared to be Arabian horsemen would raid a desert-like region that had appeared south of here. His scientific experiments had told him that the Fog Wall defied all Earthly science to explain, leaving him to assume the supernatural was real.
Even more peculiar…Blane felt a sudden compulsion to hand them something, something from a drawer nearby he had never looked in before. He opened it up and produced an item of jewelry and gave it to them. “If I didn’t know better,” he said, “I would think it was a talisman.”
Meanwhile, the White Knight learned that there might be opposition in his bid to become mayor after all. Chief Wittenberg told him that some of the residents were concerned about trusting an outsider still and were lobbying the old mayor, Herman Meyn, to run again. WK, wanting to keep things above board, decided not to meet with Herman directly, but asked Wittenberg to send the new deputy, Arno, to talk to Herman for him. Herman sent back a list of assurances (or demands) he wanted before he would decide not to run. Basically, he wanted the White Knight’s real name and details of his background, with some corroboration, and he wanted WK to make all this public knowledge.
WK discussed it with his new aides, which included the local newspaper man, Maurice Pendleton. Maurice opposed the idea, saying that the WK was a symbol of hope for the trapped residents, and symbols needed to stay detail-less, in order to represent everyone.
But there was more going on for him, since his supporters had planned a concert tonight in his honor. It was to be held in front of where the airplane crashed -- seen by many as the symbol of both the disaster that had befallen them, but also a reminder that the costumed heroes had first appeared to save the passengers.
Darklash was dealing with Ferret Master again, because no action had been taken yesterday to lock him up, and in the night he had let his large trained ferrets loose. Some were still on the Fischer Farm and easily rounded up, but others were hunting chickens on neighboring farms to the north and south and had to be chased down and caught. Luckily, Gracie was available and helped with cornering the loose ferrets.
That evening, Darklash and Gracie were back in town for the concert for White Knight. At the concert, they were approached by Meta Bittner, president of the Mount Prospect Women’s Club, who wanted to know if either or both of them would come speak to her group soon.
Also meanwhile, Blaze was being examined by the scientific community he had freed from the Southlands Hideout. Of the scientists, Howard, Ralph, Roger, and Albert were the ones who had the success with the healing pill formula (they were also two days away from creating another healing pill), but today they ran a battery of tests on Blaze to try and figure out what he’s made of and how he works. They began formulating theories for how they could modify the healing formula into a solution they could give him through an IV feed that would allow him to heal at a normal human rate.
April 6, 1942
Batman and Sir Robin had spent the night as guests of the Wizard. Sir Robin really wanted to show the talisman to the other Outsiders, but Batman wasn’t having it; he was still determined to search the Fog Wall for a way out, or at least a way to reach his brother on the outside. Batman stayed at the country club, asking the Wizard if there was a way to guide him through the Fog Wall. The Wizard, Blane, did not think there was, but this mysterious talisman was an unknown factor and he was willing to test it. They attached chains to Batman and had a motorized winch handy they could pull him out with quickly if something went wrong. Batman went in, holding the talisman --
Darklash still had a farmhouse full of ferrets to take care of. No doubt they were tearing up the Fischers’ former residence already, Ferret Master was in no mental shape to tend to them, and Darklash didn’t want to be the one having to feed them all the time. Salvation came in the form of a closed dog kennel in Des Plaines that she found that day. She used some of her fabulous wealth to hire on some help at the kennel to feed and care for the ferrets.
There was another farm that needed Darklash’s attention; there were reports of two wild dogs terrorizing the Helder Farm, which was the one bordering the Southlands. She figured she could handle two dogs easily herself, but it was close to the dangerous Southlands, so she wanted the White Knight for back-up. WK was too busy with meetings, though, so she tackled them alone. The dogs, a doberman and a mastiff, were mean from hunger, but easily calmed down. They might have belonged to someone in town, as they still had on their collars, but they did not belong to Mr. Helder.
Gracie spent her first day in a long time running alone and free through the wilderness that ran between farms along the outskirts of their prison world. She was still unsure if she should tell the others that she was a spy from Paradise Island, sent to pave the way for Wonder Woman’s arrival, or even if it now mattered. But her ruminations were interrupted by the surprise arrival of the golden pegasus that had been freed from the Temple, along with poor Olaf Otisberg. The pegasus landed a good 20 yards in front of her and she resolved to catch it and tame it. It gave her a merry chase throughout the day, but always eluded her.
Batman emerged from the Fog Wall, without the chains binding him any longer. He was not sure how long he had been in the Fog while he was in there, but he could see it was afternoon now. There was no sign of the Wizard or Sir Robin, only a town he didn’t immediately recognize. Investigation revealed it to be Park Ridge, the west side of Park Ridge that was inside the Fog Wall. Sir Robin was about 16 miles north of him. Batman took off running at once.
White Knight’s meetings were with the village clerk and some trustees, who filled him in on what his official duties would be if he were elected.
Blaze, in his third day with the scientists, had come to the conclusion that normal healing sounded great, but not at the expense of healing pills his companions could use. Luckily, they could get more information now that they had secured the use of an X-ray machine from a well-to-do Park Ridge doctor. For the first time, they could view the android man’s inner workings, the mechanical parts beneath the synthetic tissue. He was about half mechanical, they figured from what they could see. Howard took lots of pictures and vowed to study them until, the next time Blaze was seriously injured, they could repair any damaged parts if a surgeon could get them down to them.
That afternoon, Batman reached the New Lands north of Park Ridge, and found what appeared to be the displaced Medinah Temple of Chicago, but both “was and was not” the Prison of Rei-Po, according to the talking gryphon statue Batman had destroyed. Ignoring it, he pushed north, but found the grassland gave way abruptly to a desert-like region that stretched for miles ahead of him. It was getting late and sleeping in the desert sounded no more appealing than trying to spend the night in the spooky Temple, so he returned to Park Ridge and bedded down in an abandoned house.
April 7, 1942
Batman set out from Park Ridge and returned to the desert region; it was more dry and arid desert than sandy desert. He was on the lookout for the raiders the Wizard had mentioned, which was why he was so caught off-guard when he encountered a grizzly bear instead. Batman was half tempted to murder it with bullets, but since it appeared to be a normal animal he just drove it off instead (and wished he had memorized his charm animal spell!).
The bear had chased something up a scraggly tree -- and it was a nome! Or at least it looked just like a nome; it said it was a goblin named Kelli, and that it was looking for the Southlands. It turned out, Sir Robin had discovered Kelli hiding in Northbrook yesterday and told him about the nomes (distant cousins, Kelli explained) in the Southlands. Kelli took off running to find them before thinking to ask where the Southlands were, so he just went south, until he ran into the bear.
Batman gave Kelli better directions, and made his way to Northbrook, where Sir Robin was waiting. Sir Robin thought they had a lot of information to tell the others now and convinced Batman to return to their Mount Prospect house.
Darklash and Gracie teamed up again to go check on the Tavern in the Southlands, to see if it was being used by anyone now. Instead of hoodlums or their children -- it was now full of monkeys! They counted 10 monkeys just hanging around the tavern, with no explanation where they came from. Since they did not seem dangerous, the Outsiders agreed to just bring them some food rather than try to transport them to the kennels.
With that done, Gracie talked Darklash into searching for the pegasus, but it was nowhere to be found today. However, all that walking and talking was good bonding time for the ladies, and they opened up to each other about their secret origins (Paradise Island, and being half-android).
Blaze checked in on the Spook and found out that, sure enough, the Spook had succeeded in finding the secret doors everyone had missed that connected up the two halves of the underground lair (there were two secret doors, and a connecting hallway between them). With that mystery solved, Blaze decided to take the Spook into his confidence about another mystery -- the second clue to Stanley Pierce’s buried treasures. The letter saying to go east to “where the trains go” had stumped everyone, but the Spook promised to work on it.
While in the vicinity of the Burning Tower, Blaze checked in on its new resident magic-users. Percy Saunders had been exhaustively reading the notes of Carl Alsher and could confirm that Carl knew no more of how they all wound up here than Carl had let on. To find answers, Percy would have to search other centers of magic within the Fog Walls and wanted some guides.
White Knight was learning so much about how municipal government worked under normal circumstances, and how much was being done behind the scenes during this four-month emergency, that he began listening more to his campaign advisers and support staff. He made sure they understood that he was open to ideas and suggestions from them, and from anyone in the community. His principles were changing more to law and order. But this was not reflected in the fiery speech he made downtown to a crowd of 200, in which he was promising to restore order in town, to find new resources for food and first aid, and to find a way to reach the outside world.
After the speech, he learned that Herman Meyn was going to run against him after all in the special election.
That evening, everyone met up at their house headquarters for the first time in a week and compared notes on what they now knew. The most shocking news of all was that the White Knight wanted to retire from “adventuring” with them, in order to concentrate on his new role in politics.
April 8, 1942
Darklash wanted to check in on things at the Burning Tower. She crossed over the Des Plaines River and soon found herself at the strange edifice. Rather than wait for an invitation, she jumped through an upstairs window, only singing her clothes (again). She surprised Irene Rettig, Percy Saunders’ young apprentice. Irene was a bit cool to Darklash and said everything was fine in the tower. But for answers to Darklash’s questions, they had to see Percy in the study.
Did Carl Alsher’s ogre abduct people with or without Carl’s knowing? What was Alsher’s “silent stalker” doing in the Southland?
Percy thought he did have the answers to those questions, after exhaustively reading Carl’s notes. Yes, it was very likely that Carl ordered his ogre to abduct people, probably with the intention of killing them. Carl Alsher’s studies were all about necromancy, and body parts would be especially useful to him. Carl’s first silent stalker was sent to spy on the Southland, as Carl recognized this area was important to unlocking the secrets to their confinement. “I need to inspect it myself,” Percy added, “as soon as some reliable guides volunteer themselves to me.”
Promising to get back to Percy about that, Darklash wanted to see the Spook. The Spook had taken over the underground portion, leaving the tower for Percy and Irene. Darklash had to re-search half the dungeon to find him, but she did. The Spook had furnished some of the less disgusting rooms closer to the riverside entrance with “borrowed” furniture and slept there during the day, patrolling Des Plaines and keeping it safe at night. “I’ve encountered some stray hoodlums, as well as locals taking to looting. They think the cover of night protects them, but there is no protection from The Spook.”
Blaze went to Chief Wittenberg about the people who had disappeared so far. It was kept out of the papers most of the time, but disappearances were actually not that uncommon. In the first two weeks there were 10 disappearances and of them 8 were people witnessed going into the Fog Wall and never coming back out again. Since then, 8 more people had gone missing, but 4 of them have since returned from other areas where the Fog Wall has come down and reconnected them.
And that was just in Mount Prospect. Des Plaines had almost identical numbers, while Park Ridge had more initial disappearances and fewer disappearances since. No one had done a thorough review with the Wheeling or Orchard Place people yet, provided they had even kept track of numbers.
Blaze wanted to talk to the people who had gone missing and come back later. One was Wilma Wade, a 19-year old girl who, cut off from her fiancee in Arlington Heights, braved the Fog Wall. Wilma was staying with her parents now, but had been transported to a small portion of Glenview that was trapped inside a separate section of Fog (Blaze recalled being told about the Glenview people from the Wheeling people he helped rescue). She had spent six hours in the Fog Wall. The people of Glenview took Wilma in and kept her safe. The Glenview residents had been “very kind…but also a little creepy obsessed with this temple just west of their homes,” Wilma explained in the interview Blaze was permitted to have in front of her parents. “They took me to the Temple, but while they thought it was a calm and peaceful place, it gave me the creeps. When the Fog disappeared to the south and I could make my way to Park Ridge, and then back home to Mount Prospect, I did as fast as I could.”
Eugene Hanson had a similar story. He had tried to leave into the Fog on day 2 because his wife was visiting with her sister in Berwyn. “After 10 hours, I found my way out of the Fog, but I was near Orchard Place. It was a nightmare there--” and he describes the oppressive rule of the Baron and his cruel mercenaries, taking all their resources from them and then portioning back out food and drink as little as possible. “We were told to hunt, but the woods and hills were dangerous too far from Orchard Place. I understand rationing was tough here, but at least no one was killed for having too much food.”
Blaze and Darklash were curious about the Chicago Medinah Temple and wanted another look at it, but had other plans, so they talked Batman and Sir Robin into going. Batman even brought Oscar the Bat-Dog with this time. This time, they spent more time around the environs of the Temple. East of the Temple, but about a quarter-mile, was part of Glenview. There were about 30 homes here, cut off from the rest of their community, but the residents seemed bizarrely calm about it.
“Oh, it’s taken some getting used to, but at least we’ve been safe,” a resident said when they talked to her. “No, better than safe. Thank God for the Temple. It’s given us more than peace of mind. It’s provided for us.” When pressed on what that meant, she said, “Food and drink…when we’ve needed it, we’ve only had to go to the Temple and it was there.”
The woman, who’s name was Lavonne, was just a simple housewife, and when they asked her to show them where in the Temple all this was, she deferred to her husband, Jimmy. Jimmy had been an accountant, he explained, but now he was a woodcutter and was loving it. “God provides,” he said, and he explained how he believed God had cut them off from the outside world (a not unknown belief in Mount Prospect) so they could lead better lives. Although Lavonne was fine with Jimmy taking them to see the Temple, Jimmy became defensive to the point of paranoid. “Why do you need to see the Temple so bad? Who are you people? You come here, dressed in bizarre get-ups, and want us to show you the Temple? Go on! Get!”
Sir Robin kept Batman from killing him. Instead, they went straight back to the Temple. The Temple was enormous, as tall as the box elder and red maple trees around it. Some of the sidewalk was still lying in rubble around it, as if it had been scooped up with the building when it was brought here. The front doors were still unlocked, and all seemed quiet inside.
They checked out the giant auditorium room, three levels and 80’ high, that could seat over 4,000 people. And, sitting on the center of the stage, was still the large, rectangular block 40’ tall that looked like it was solid black marble. Again, they searched it, but could not figure out its purpose. But Batman was suddenly hit with the urge to kneel and pray. It freaked him out a little and he resisted. After discussing it with Sir Robin, they figured it was some magical defense on the block they had somehow failed to activate last time, and they chose to run away.
The White Knight spent the better part of the day on a campaign speech. He had changed his mind about Herman Meyn; he needed to see his opponent after all. He had his people reach out to Herman’s people and he agreed to it. It was a private meeting, but both Chief Wittenberg and Maurice Pendleton, the newspaper man, were there to keep it above board.
“You are a smooth-spoken man, Mr. Knight,” Meyn said after pleasantries, “but I am surprised George and Maurice are even entertaining this. You’re not one of us. You’re an outsider, and a vigilante outsider at that. Mount Prospect people have always taken care of their own. We kept our bank open through the whole Depression, when so many others were closing down, by taking care of our own. So I’m honestly confused what a mystery man with a helmet and shield can do for us, sitting behind a desk…”
During a break in the long meeting, WK met Gracie. While he was still talking about retiring, he wanted someone to go check on Faith at the Baron’s manor, so he convinced Gracie to go. She could now get there without using the secret route through the Southland Hideout, since the Fog Wall came down between Orchard Place and Des Plaines, so it was easy to reach the Baron’s Manor. Faith was still there, and still had at least some mercenaries loyal to her. Faith was cordial, invited Gracie in for tea, and suggested they should become friends. Faith wanted to hear all about the other communities and the transplanted people of Orchard Place, painting herself as a friend to the community and unaware of anything bad the Baron had done. Faith resisted any suggestions about relocating from the manor, but had no convincing explanations for this. Gracie spent half the day with her and promised to come back soon.
April 9, 1942
Batman filled in Darklash on what he had discovered about the Temple and they agreed this needed more looking into, and she told him about how nighttime patrols should perhaps be reinstated. That was when Batman asked Darklash a good question about the Spook -- if the Spook was finding and stopping new hoodlums in Des Plaines, what was he doing with them?
Batman was fine with them being killed, but Darklash needed to know now. She returned to the Des Plaines River and the Burning Tower and confronted the Spook in his underground lair. The Spook showed her -- he was keeping five prisoners so far in the ogre’s cell. “I can convert more of the dungeons into prison, if we need it. Perhaps after the next big raid on the Southlands Hideout…”
Then, Darklash asked him about Stanley H. Pierce’s second riddle, which she recalled Blaze mentioning he had shared with the Spook to see if he could puzzle it out. “Under where the trains go…” he recited. “I was wondering if it might be a trick answer, perhaps playing on another definition for train. Dresses can have trains, you know. But I haven’t thought about it past that.”
Armed with this information, Darklash went looking for Blaze to tell him, but had trouble tracking him down all day.
Batman decided to patrol the entrance to the Southland for the rest of the day, and something else to do. Farmer Helder, the man whose property was closest to the Southland, said that ever since the Battle for Mount Prospect, volunteers to patrol the border had been scarce and he knew people were sneaking back and forth at night again.
Blaze looked into Dan Steely’s fate, the man who was trapped in the Fog Wall while the Heroes were messing with switching it on and off. He made careful inquiries in every town nearby, including with the refugees from Orchard Place, but Dan had never come back, that anyone seemed to know about. It was a time-consuming investigation that yielded no clear results or meanings. And yet…
While doing all that walking from town to town, Blaze’s thoughts landed back on the books that had been spread out around him in the library when he first appeared. He had always hoped there was some message in their titles, but…maybe there was something else there, something else overlooked.
Late in the afternoon, he returned to the Mount Prospect Public Library and found every book that he had memorized being there that day. There was indeed something about the authors. Half of them had the initials S.P., and all the rest either had a first name that started with S or a last name that started with P.
The White Knight returned to the onion shed where he first appeared in Mount Prospect. He wished there was something more symbolic about where he had first appeared that would work in his campaign speeches; how much better it would have been had he appeared at one of the churches, like Batman or Gracie! Still, perhaps he could use the onion shed as a symbol for humble origins, or help him relate to the farmer voters.
He thought back on yesterday’s interview with Herman Meyn. The former mayor had seemed impressed. “Under other circumstances, I might vote for you myself,” Herman confessed, wowed by WK’s charisma. “But, I feel it is important that the people of Mount Prospect have a choice in this matter, and it seems that I must be that other option for them. And I will run as such to the best of my ability.”
Gracie, meanwhile, was distracted with the Mount Prospect Women’s Club, having accepted their offer to come speak to them. Gracie told some harrowing tales of just some of her adventures and terrified the women so much that some of them thought they might faint. Nevertheless, she was a huge hit and soon had multiple invitations to house parties and other club events.
April 10, 1942
The White Knight hung out in the shed again, but gained no new insights. He did learn from Gracie about her connections with the Women’s Club and he immediately latched onto that for his own ambitions. He convinced Gracie, who could never say no to this man, to introduce him to the club leaders. It seemed odd to them to have their votes considered so important, but they agreed to host a meeting for him to attend tomorrow.
Darklash checked in again on Ferret Master, who was still loose on his own. FM had learned of his ferrets incarceration at the kennel and was found sleeping in one of their cages with them. FM was despondent because one was still missing. It was an issue, but not a big one, and Darklash left that to the local law to handle while she returned once more to the Spook’s dungeon. She wanted to double check with him on if there could be any unexplored areas of the dungeon, but -- unless another secret door turned up -- there was nothing new found so far. DL decided to revisit the paintings that depicted the silver sword and shield being held by two Alsher ancestors, refreshing her memory of what they would look like. So far, this was their only clue.
On the way out, there was no sign of the Spook. She even looked around for him for awhile, but he had left without leaving a note for her.
Blaze wanted to see phone books for the entrapped communities, but that was easy to do -- it was only two phone books and the Mount Prospect Library had both of them in the reference section. There was a surprising dearth of people who’s initials were S.P. -- Stuart Palmer, Sherman Pate, Stanley Pepper, and Sydney Piepenbrink. There was also the Public Service Company of Northern Illinois, located in Northbrook. The initials were reversed, but it was listed under P in the phone book with the surnames.
Blaze spent the day investigating the alternate S.P.’s. He already knew about Stuart Palmer -- Stuart was one of the people who had gone into the Fog Wall (on January 2) and never came back.
Sherman Pate was a baker. He was 60 years old and had closed up his Mount Prospect bakery back in February, when the food rationing made running it too difficult. Sherman was sitting on his front porch when Blaze came to visit, and fatalistically told Blaze he was just waiting for them all to die.
Stanley Pepper was not from Mount Prospect, but the portion of Wheeling that had been enclosed by the airport (though now staying in Mt. Prospect with relatives). He was 48 and a business executive in Chicago. He was anxious to get back to his research firm and fearful that he had been replaced by now. His wife, Martha, said this was the best thing that had ever happened to them, as the crisis had brought them closer together.
Sydney Piepenbrink was a 20-year old farm hand from Orchard Place, moved here from Indiana last year. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany when he was 10 and he had been a wanderer since turning 17. The horrors Orchard Place had suffered before being liberated made Sydney miss his parents very much.
Blaze decided to wait until tomorrow to decide if he wanted to go to Northbrook and see if the Public Service Company made it over to this side of the Fog Wall.
Batman was itching to get back to the Southland Hideout so he could kill some things. He convinced Sir Robin they needed to go observe the Nome House and see if anything was going on there. Just when they got in sight of the House, they encountered two hoodlums serving as lookouts, and the encounter was so easy that Batman didn’t even need to kill them. At Sir Robin’s suggestion, they took the two back to the Tavern and waited to question them (they also met the monkeys hanging out in the Tavern still). The hoodlums were some of Mr. Gould’s boys, and they were watching for these “ape men” that had been sighted in the Southland recently (“watchin’ for target practice” joked one of them). So far, four ape men had been spotted. Intrigued, Batman left the hoodlums tied up in the Tavern, went home and got Oscar, and took him ape man hunting in the Southland (but didn’t meet any).
April 11, 1942
Batman tried to talk the others into going into the Southland to look for the ape-men, but everyone was busy. Blaze wanted a guide to Northbrook. Darklash suggested he look into the talisman the Wizard had given him and see if Percy Saunders could identify it. Batman opted for the later, but let Sir Robin go with Blaze for the former. Batman went to the Burning Tower to talk to Percy (and Darklash showed him the safe way through the dungeon to the tower first). Percy could not immediately identify the talisman, but wanted to borrow it for testing. Batman wasn’t sure that was a good idea, and left to go ask the others if he should.
Blaze and Sir Robin crossed from Des Plaines into the Northeast Region and followed the roads to Northbrook. There he found out that the Public Service Company was Northbrook’s electric and natural gas utility company, but it was on the wrong side of the Fog Wall. The people of Northbrook seemed the least bothered trapped community Blaze had encountered so far.
It had seemed a dead end lead, but it did give him the excuse to meet the Wizard. The Wizard, already friendly with Sir Robin, welcomed Blaze to the country club the Wizard had appropriated for himself. The two of them talked about how the Wizard had dealt with scarcity.
“Luckily, it is not a large population trapped in our area. Water was easy to come by from the snow, and the woods around the Des Plaines River provided plenty of food to hunt -- though I did have to come with a few times to help deal with strange things, like giant spiders.
“We did try to bring in the people trapped from Wheeling and Glenview. Some of the Wheeling people did come over and join us. The Glenview people have been more reticent. I …fear that Temple somehow has some hold over them.”
Gracie reminded Darklash of the invitation from the woman’s club. They were both invited to a bridge party the Busse family was hosting. It was a chance to meet the powerful, well-connected family that the White Knight had been so suspicious of. They had spared no expense, and possibly violated the rationing restrictions given the abundance of snacks there were. At first, the Busse family seemed quite charming; they had done a lot to help out in town, sharing what they had as the community needed it (Albert Busse, for example, was said to have been the first person to turn over gasoline to the city for emergency purposes, draining every car he had for sale in his dealership). And yet, their charity seemed to have its limits, as they had no sympathy with the people in need who had not come to them. The Busse’s seemed to assume Darklash and Gracie felt the same, and had staged this event to impress these rising celebrities with superpowers.
Late in the party, the White Knight also showed up, giving a campaign speech to the assembled Busse’s. If he was still suspicious of them, he did not show it as he sucked up to them for support.
Darklash, while in the company of the wealthier patrons, began to drop "gossip" about the supplies being sold secretly in town to see if anyone had more information. ((dice rolled)) No one seemed to know what she was talking about, and no one acted suspicious that she noticed.
But Gracie had. After the party, while walking home, Gracie mentioned how Ruth Larson had stepped away to use the phone right after Darklash started talking about that gossip.
And, after the party, people were lining up to shake the White Knight’s hand. His impeccable charisma made him hugely popular and the Busse family promised to support him. “Wealth doesn’t mean much these days, but social standing still matters,” Albert Busse said to him.
Late in his afternoon chat with the Wizard, Blaze announced that it was time they figured out what’s up with that Temple. He invited the Wizard and Sir Robin to go with him. The Wizard wasn’t sure about that. “The people of Northbrook depend on me being here…” he said. “Still… ((dice rolled)) I will think on it overnight. Feel free to stay here and we can discuss it in the morning.”
Sir Robin thought differently. “Gee, I’d better head home and tell Batman!”
April 12, 1943
By the next morning, the Wizard was more aligned with Blaze’s thoughts. “Well, I suppose being away for just a few hours wouldn’t hurt. I was in danger of becoming a shut-in here, anyway.”
Blaze and the Wizard went in the only unlocked doors, the main front doors. It was quiet inside. The interior was richly decorated, with a foot path of 2’ x 2’ squares of what looked like obsidian inlaid into the floor and heading through the wide foyer in each direction. There were side passages that led to stairs and small private rooms, but most doors on all levels led into a giant auditorium room, three levels and 80’ high, that could seat over 4,000 people.
Blaze had been in the auditorium before, with its strange black cube on the stage, and the back room behind the stage with its throne and magic mirror. Instead, he focused on the side rooms on the ground floor, and was most interested in seeing what the prison gallery looked like now, since Batman and Sir Robin emerged victorious from it.
The western north-south hallway had a bank of windows on the left (the side rooms are on the right, adjacent to the auditorium) and was lined with dead or dying potted plants. The floor here was simply gray tile.
The gryphon statue was now just rubble on the floor in the gallery foyer. The gold sphere that had been taken from the throne and became part of the gryphon statue when they touched was lying loose on the floor now.
The white curtain was still there, and the doorway to the gallery behind it. The 25’ square room was ornately paneled in mahogany, with a white marble floor. There were still four tall paintings with ornate frames hanging on the walls, but all four paintings were now blank canvas. There was evidence of LOTS of bullet holes around the room. Nothing else could be found there.
Other side rooms were more mundane. There was one with rows of chairs facing a much smaller stage, but nothing on the stage behind a black curtain. Another room was empty. At the far north end were stairs going down, while at the south end, where this hallway met the entry hall, there was a grand spiral staircase going up.
Skipping the east side of the ground floor, they went down the stairs. There was a landing halfway down with a men’s room off to the right. There was a dark basement room below, but Blaze and the Wizard had both brought flashlights (the Wizard’s light was the most compact model Blaze had ever seen).
The room was mostly empty, except for an ebony statue of a nude man, standing on a dais. The word “KADAB” was spelled out in large letters on the dais before the statue. There was an alcove in the northwest corner with a door in it.
Meanwhile, everyone else knew where Blaze was because Sir Robin had returned last night to tell them. But something else happened that day that brought the rest together -- word of something new emerging from the Fog Wall, in the air over Des Plaines -- a hot air balloon!
Batman, Sir Robin, Darklash, and Gracie greeted the balloon, as it came down in a field, and its lone occupant, a man in a trench coat and black mask.