We were in the office of Maxfield Coldwell in the British quarter of Syrtis Mayor on Mars enjoying afternoon tea when a client arrived to speak to him. He had a military bearing and introduced himself as Col Randolf Stingin-Smythe. He said he wanted to engage Mr Coldwell as Mr Holmes was too busy to travel to Mars. He offered us all £12 each to help in the case. He wanted to recover something which had been stolen from the Royal Martian Antiquities Museum and apprehend the thieves. The stolen object was called the Dodecahedron, an ancient Martian artefact . He suggested speaking to Cornelius Weston, an expert in Martian antiquities and curator at the museum. As I was between contracts I happily accepted the opportunity to earn £12 and my companions were likewise minded.
We spoke to Cornelius. The artefact was from the 32rd dynasty of Seldon of Mars. It had been stolen from a large glass display case and a circular hole had been cut in the glass. Books had also been stolen from his office on the topic of ancient Martian languages. The Dodecahedron had symbols in written in Songalia and there were rumours that it was a key from an ancient Martian kingdom and used to unlock a vast treasure guarded by demons. The Dodecahedron had to be placed in a bowl with 'lifeblood of Mars' and the sides oriented in order 'of the Martian gods'. Cornelius recalled that a week ago several French accented visitors had been asking questions about the Dodecahedron.
The back door lock to the museum had been picked and the glass display case had been cut with a diamond cutter. Outside the museum we found a scrunched up cigarette packet branded Belga which is a Belgian brand. Cornelius thought 'blood of mars' might refer to water which is precious here on Mars, and the gods to the two Martian moons, Phobos and Demos. Maxfield observed a glass cutter would be a black market item, only obtainable in the old harbour district.
We went to the old harbour district to try to find someone selling glass cutters. While we were there some thugs tried to accost us. Tarquin killed two, while Maxfield & Jean-Luc killed one each. Tarquin and Jean-Luc, being military men know how to handle themselves in a fight, and Maxfield has to be prepared to deal with ruffians in his line of work. The last thug surrendered and Tarquin escorted him to the police while the rest of us continued to the market where caught us up.
We found an inn called Le Est De’mine and asked the barman if he knew anyone who might sell a glass cutter. The barman pointed us to a Joel who sold black market goods from a room above the bar. We visited him and he said he had sold his last glass cutter last week. Maxfield paid him for the name of the people to whom he sold the glass cutter. They were Belgians from AIP (Association International Planets), a special Belgian military unit representing Leopold II, king of Belgium and were from an Airship called Leopold. There was an Englishman with them called Evans who had been giving orders.
We went to the spaceport and found the Leopold had left yesterday. Tarquin bribed one of the spaceport workers to find out The Leopold was captained by Xavier DeZuttger and was heading to the Astusapes mountains. The Leopold was a small steam powered aerial warship with a crew of 23. A trip to the Astusapes mountains would be a 3 day journey.
Col Randolf introduced us to Cpt Scott Nealy who could take us to the Astusapes mountains in a steam launch. We travelled for several days and had nearly reached our destination when we encountered another vessel manned by high martians. They attacked and we turned and fled. Jean-Luc started sniping at them. He hit their captain then the helmsman. The Martians hit our launch with a grapple. Tarquin climbed overboard to cut it free. As he did so, Jean-Luc shot the helmsman again, killing him, giving us time to escape.
We finally arrived at the Astusapes mountains. The Leopold was docked at a man made structure near the top of one of the mountain peaks. It looked to have taken some damage and we could see there were some humans at what looked like a dig site nearby. Some Belgian military came out when we docked next to the Leopold. We told them we had stopped for repairs having been attacked by the high Martians. They said they were geologists investigating an ancient Martian site which seemed odd as I would have expected them to be archaeologists if their interest was ancient Martian ruins.
The leader of the dig was Evans. Maxfield recognised him as an acquaintance from Earth with whom he had fallen out. We could see him walking round the dig site carrying the dodecahedron. We learned he was trying to gain entrance into an ancient Martian tomb, believed to have been for a canal Martian who was buried over 5000 years ago. Maxfield told Captain DeZuttger I was an expert so the Captain then told Evans to let me try with the Dodecahedron as he was having no success. Evans gave me the dodecahedron and some books reluctantly. The books were on Martian languages so I presumed they were the ones stolen from the museum with the Dodecahedron.
A klaxon sounded and everyone rushed off to defend against an attack by a high Martian airship. I stayed with Rev. Jones to try to gain access to the tomb. I put water in a depression in the centre of the site with the dodecahedron and aligned the dodecahedron with the phases of the moons. A grinding noise could be heard as three stone cylinders rose from the sand. There were doors in the pillars, and when we entered one the door shut, then the pillar started descending.
Eventually we stopped descending and the door opened revealing an ancient Martian corridor beyond. At the far end of the corridor was a figure that started towards us. As it approached we could see it was some form of mechanical man. It started talking, and I used the Martian books to form a reply in Martian saying we were friends. It seemed satisfied and stood aside. At the end of the corridor was a wall of ice. It was about 3 inches deep and I smashed through it to find a stone wall beyond.
The air started getting difficult to breathe so we went back to the door and ascended. We found the Martians had been defeated and had fled. I descended in another of the pillars with Maxfield and Jean-Luc while Tarquin went in the third with two Belgian officers. Maxfield was keen to point out that Evans had cowered in the Belgian camp during the fight.
There was a broken mechanical man lying in the corridor we descended to. There was another wall of ice at the end of the corridor so we took the mechanical man back up with us for further study. Tarquin reported they had to fight a third mechanical man as it did not accept the words I had told him to speak.
The Belgians used dynamite to blast a hole in one of the pillars to let in more fresh air then ropes were lowered down. We all climbed down with some of the Belgian soldiers and lit a fire against the ice wall. The ice slowly melted revealing a seam in the wall and a depression shaped like a Martians hand.
The hand from one of the Martians killed in the fight was pressed into the depression and the wall moved aside to reveal a chamber beyond covered in sheets of ice. I looked through the books for more information. The word Noshoshu was repeated on the dodecahedron but the meaning was unclear in the books. Some ice was cleared to reveal a machine. It seemed to be storing heat, causing the room to cool. I switched it to heat and everyone quickly left the room.
The ice melted quickly revealing three horrific creatures in the centre of the room. The creatures came to life and moved towards us. I shouted friend at it in Martian and they stopped. One picked me up with a tentacle and said something about being associates of Seldon fourth. I tried to answer it but had learned little of their language from the books. It started looking aggressive so the Belgians opened fire. The creature bit me before it was killed by gunfire. The other two were killed quickly after.
The Belgians allowed us to take an item each from the tomb in exchange for the help we had given. Jean-Luc took what looked like a strange rifle which fired a beam of energy. I took a box which I discovered after some experimentation was capable of recording and playing moving images. There were some ancient Martian images already stored. Rev. Jones took a crystal which we discovered was capable of storing then emitting heat. Tarquin took a strange little object whose purpose I was unable to divine. Maxfield took a pair of objects which he promptly donated to the museum. I suspect they were some sort of communication device.