Last Week on Spirit of the Century...

Adventure Log:
Professor Maxwell Lord Lionheart (AKA: Lord Armitage "Shanks"Lionheart-Phelps) The Black Hound (AKA: Freitag Leopold Maximillian von Loringhoffe) The Scarlet Pen (AKA: Elizabeth Tominson)

Following the Heroic Battles over South America, the grand dirigible Brunhilde, had been damaged and was put in for repair in Munich where teams of engineers worked tirelessly to refit and replace elements of the heavy steel superstructure and restock the bar.

They have spent some time touring Europe and enjoying a relaxing moment among friends and family before returning to Munich aboard the Orient Express in First Class.

When suddenly a vast shadow looms over the carriage. A dirigible bearing the markings of the Fiendish Doctor Volt and his notorious Sky Men.

They pull the emergency stop chain and the train slows to a halt.

The Sky Men leap down onto the carriage and throw a container that breaks to release thick debilitating fumes.

Professor Maxwell recognizes it as an alkaline based compound, easily neutralized by the application of Vinegar over some napkins.

However with vision impaired they move through the carriage unseen.

They play at being unconscious, and the sky men move through the carriage searching for somebody, they dismiss everybody they find. Then they leap into action!

The Black Hound holds off a couple of attackers with a magnum of champagne whilst his faithful companion Rotfang retrieves his masters sword.

Lord Lionheart trips one of them and delivers a sterling blow that throws them through a window.

Professor Maxwell opens the windows whilst Ms Tominson documents everything and gets some very clear shots of the dirigible.

The fight lasts scant seconds as several of the Sky men are handily dispatched. However The Scarlet Pen spots them ascending toward their dirigible with Lord Lionhearts Brother Lionel! (A noted banker and modest philanthropist famed for his good looks, golden hair and sky blue eyes)

Lionheart attempts to slow their escape and with a crack shot disables the ships rudder. However the vessel instead begins to ascend upward. The Sky men activate some strange contraption on their belts and they too begin to rise into the sky.

They chase after them and try to capture a couple of the gravity belts, but one of them activates a cunning electrical defence on their otherwise black rubberized uniforms, throwing Lionheart to the ground.

With a prisoner and a couple of gravity belts they set about discovering the meaning of this mystery.

Their prisoner knows little, only that he was hired by his Master Dr Volt to look for Lionel Lionheart and retrieve him so that he could be taken back to their home port of New Berlin (The magnificent Flying City of Dr Manfred Von Zorbo).

However among Lionels possessions they found a ticket stub for the mysterious Circus of the Orient (A travelling carnival originating in Egypt) and a photograph of his fiance (Theresa Celeste, an American Movie Star)

Docking with the Eifel Tower for a spot of breakfast. They unloaded the Volkswagen car and drove out of the city to where the circus was performing its early morning routine. Professor Maxwell noted a particular motif of the Sun Disk held aloft by two birds of prey that was comon around the circus.

They met the Ring Mistress who invited them in to show them around, but she led them into an enclosed circle of cages to feed the lions. Before disappearing in a cloud of smoke and revealing the very much uncaged and ferociously hungry beasts.

Professor Maxwell a genius tamer of beasts however knew what to do. He caught the eye of the leader of the pack, slowing their advance and instructed the Black Hound to grab the leader by the scruff of the neck and dominate them.

Managing to escape this trap with ease they went back into the big-top to discover that the Ring Mistress had summoned the rest of her troupe



There was a brief scuffle until Lionheart shot out the fire-breathers bottle of spirits and The Scarlet Pen noticed that the performers were more scared of them.

They revealed that they knew Lionel Lionheart to be the reincarnated soul of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Akenaten and they wished to complete the ritual that would make him a living God and incarnation of the Sun Disk..

They confirmed that he would have travelled to New Berlin where the master of their cult was preparing to guide Lionel to the long lost Golden Pyramid, and complete the ritual.

They drove back with haste to the EIffel Tower and set off to The Pacific Ocean where they found a radio beacon from Professor Zorbo calling people to ascend from the dross Earth and claim their future among the skies!

The City of New Berlin welcomed such famed aviation and progressive celebrities. The whole structure was held aloft by great balloons and crystals similar to the ones found in the belts of the Sky Pirates. Travel was done by moving cables that rapidly conveyed people about the place.



They travelled up to meet Dr Zorbo who greeted them with open arms and offered to take them to Lionel.

However as they entered the great dining hall, they caught just a glimpse of a shadowy figure all in black dragging Lionel away through the far door.

Ninja!

Then...
As Lionheart and The Black Hound charged into the room in pursuit of the Ninja kidnappers (The Hound sliding down the bannister and sliding on the silk tablecloth, whilst Lionheart simply bounded down the steps), Professor Maxwell confronted Dr Zorbo, suspecting him of engineering this. He tied the heavy chandaleir to his leg and caused him to be suspended upside down.

The ninja then set off explosives, that caused the floor to collapse, leaving them above a long drop. The Black Hound fashioned a parachute out of the tablecloth, whilst Lionheart activated the emergency retrieval function of his plane the Swordfish and The Scarlet Pen threw him one of the wire-riding hooks and he caught onto one of the wires as he fell.

A ninja lept upon The Hound's improvised parachute and tried to cut it open, only for the ninja to be turned into an improvised landing device as he swung up and landed on the ninja's back.

Once The Hound had landed he stretched open an awning with the help of some local Sky Men and The Scarlet pen lept down to street level.

Meanwhile Lionheart's plane the Swordfish had arrived and he fell into the open cockpit to continue his pursuit of the Ninja who abducted his brother. Unfortunately he was also joined by another pair of ninja who lept onto the wings.

From the safety of the streets the Scarlet Pen tried to shoot one of the ninja on the plane wings, but accidentally jammed an ailieron causing the plane to flip and spin.Professor Maxwell's attempts to follow the ninja on the wire system did not work as well and he found himself falling, neatly caught in the Swordfish.