The Miracle of the Golden Emperor

Heralds of the Golden Emperor

In mid-late 2018, a series of mysterious, limited-capacity portals that slowly gained strength began forming outside of The Hotel. In mid-summer, one such portal appeared emitting reddish-wavelength light, and the intrepid protagonists, deciding to explore, tossed a rope through it as a safety line, and then passed through the portal themselves to investigate. Meiji Doyle, Sumi Mattine, and Alldrogis Valkyvida found themselves in an arid, sun scorched area bereft of any signature of modern technology.

They found a humble settlement of brick and stone that stretched into the horizon of the desert, and which contained people wearing a mixture of Bedouin and Arabic clothing going about their humble business—except that some of them were obviously pretty excited, and some of them were running around. Alldrogis camouflaged himself while the two ladies crept forward where the people were gathered around a fountain and discussing the possessions and possible arrival of a visitor that they clearly found fantastic.

The group soon spotted the two of them and rushed forward in welcoming excitement, asking Meiji and Sumi if they were “Servants of the Emperor.” Whispering among themselves if the two travelers who claimed to be from far away were in fact the people they were hoping for, they greeted the two women with overwhelming enthusiasm, and begged them to tell of the exotic land they came from, and the amazing ruler that they surely served. Meiji did her best to describe the wonders of modern Tokyo to her admirers, and found that it was exactly what they were expecting. More and more people crowded around them, and eventually attracted the attention of heavily-armed Mamluk cavalrymen, who expressed great interest in the travelers as well.

Meiji and Sumi eventually decided to bluff that they did indeed work for this strange individual the locals described as incredibly benevolent and unbelievably wealthy; a great crowd gathered around them, and Sumi and Meiji found their modern clothing, odd–colored hair, and unusual appearances a great asset. People welcomed them and believed them without hesitation, and even the Moon-shaped sigil upon Sumi’s head was favorably interpreted as the crescent moon emblematic of Islam, and taken as proof that they did indeed represent a mighty ruler on a holy pilgrimage. People looked upon them and their exotic possessions with barely-controlled excitement, and were happy to provide them everything they asked for, in expectation of being repaid many-fold. Alldrogis continued to stealthily observe, while people offered the visible protagonist food, shade, water, and even gifted them elaborate silks to wear.

To maintain contact with their spotter and get some much-needed privacy from the benevolent but pressing mob, Meiji was met with burgeoning hospitality as countless people offered to shelter them in their own homes, and she eventually accepted the offer of one wealthy man named Abu. He invited them into his home, and allowed them the use of the rooms that were once used by his daughters. He next introduced them to his concubines Bulbul and Sul who cooked and entertained them skillfully and generously, though this did not silence Meiji’s gnawing discomfort in the face of such inequality.

They dined with Abu, who spoke more of his family and the prosperity of the land under the current sultan, the mighty Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun. Their host said that he too was excited about the incredible news of the coming of their people, and believed the claims Meiji put forward to answer his inquiries about the incredible kindness and power of her superior, and how she would mention him for reward by name. Abu was appreciative of the kindness of his guests, as well as the skill of his concubines. He happily praised the performances of Bulbul and the cooking of Sul, a foreign concubine whom Meiji quickly noticed was very sick.

As they slipped away to report their strange adventure, Meiji’s PSP recorded that Abu’s newly-purchased concubine Sul’s coughs and illness were quite real, and this made Meiji decide that Sul’s claims to Abu that she was merely newly-purchased and not used to the climate and food of these lands to be quite suspect. The girl had uncontrolled cell growth in her body, and that the increased blood flow and cellular activity in those areas was so strong that the PSP’s infrared scanners could pick it up. Frowning in consternation, and resolving to shed light on the mysteries they had uncovered, the three sojourners quietly slipped away under cover of darkness.

The Veiled Conspiracy

"An unknown adversary with probable future technology was spotted in Roman times with at minimum thermoptic camouflage and they were seeking out Nth metal. Identify, track and possibly apprehend the individual while minimizing damage to the timeline or civilians. "

—The Intern

A few weeks later, a similar portal appeared and beckoned The Hotel regulars to step forward and adventure, and they once again found themselves in Egypt 1324, seemingly one day after the prior visit. After careful consideration and preparation, the incredibly versatile and formidable team of Aratasujou, Bayonetta, Captain Jack Harkness, Thrash and his young granddaughter Kate, The Magistra, Onibandana (a powerful Youma ninja) and Sakura April Shinguuji were dispatched through time to investigate. Meanwhile, Daniel Kakaku and The Intern stayed behind as mission control.

Like those before them, the group found themselves in the blistering desert, which had varying effects on such a diverse group. After adapting to this environment, they crested the hill to view the outskirts of Cairo. The people, who had been waiting for news or sighting of an entity who defied belief, swarmed over to the protagonists who flattered them kindly during their investigations. They quickly claimed to be servants of the “Golden Emperor” who was said to possess wealth, servants, and power beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, and made vague promises about the riches that awaited the people who assisted the servants of their master. The people were of course overjoyed to be part of such a momentous and fortuitous event, and aided the group however they could.

While the main group led by Harkness skillfully sought the loyalty of the locals, Aratasujou camouflaged herself and began to seek out E-Particles indicative of forbidden time-travel behavior. Both of their groups succeeded, with Aratasujou quickly discovering traces of unusual isotopes and chemicals that should not exist in 14th Century Africa, and the publicly-visible group amazed the people with acts of generosity and promising much more to come their way in the near future, courtesy of the staggeringly powerful emperor whose allegiance and arrival they claimed.

The group went to great lengths to ingratiate themselves to the locals, offering kindness and compliments, and answering in the affirmative that his wealth was beyond all measure and his caravan longer than the horizon, that he built a Mosque every Friday, and acknowledging hopeful whispers and that he gave generously to the poor. The group backed up their claims by distributing gold coins, and Harkness went so far as to give his garments to one destitute-looking man; this earned the public’s trust and admiration and they offered them food, shelter, shade, and all the help they could provide.

Meanwhile, Aratasujou’s overwatch point was in fact the location of some of the suspect readings, and when a man looked out his window in surprise at the proceedings, Aratasujou recognized his hands were covered in E-Particles. Intern, recalling her adventure as Meiji Doyle, identified him as Abu—the host from the first visit, and managed to get this information to the team, as well. Aratasujou searched the wealthy man’s home in search of clues, and it turned that one person in the house ‘‘definitely’’ had lots of contact with the source of these particles, but that this being was now gone. The suspiciously sick concubine, Sul, who Intern detected as having an incredibly strange illness, had already been sold by Abu, who tearfully claimed to his remaining slave Bulbul that this was the best way he had to try to help her.

In was in hopes of locating Abu’s missing cook and concubine that Bayonetta searched for the much higher concentrations of the particles indicating otherworldly presence, and eventually found them at one of the town’s slave markets. The group’s significant discomfort at this aspect of human history was overshadowed by their duty to settle the mystery they had come to solve, so Thrash skillfully kept the crowd’s attention while the others slipped away to resolve this increasingly unusual and urgent situation. Incredibly high levels of historically impossible signals were detected in the vicinity, and Bayonetta discovered that almost all of the slaves in the suspicious building were conversing in a tongue known to none in this historical period. As the heroes headed to the slave market to investigate, however, history changed forever as trumpets blared, gold-clad heralds cried, and Mansa Musa of Mali’s caravan to Mecca came over the horizon with pilgrims numbering thousands strong.

The people of the city became overwhelmed with happiness that all of the rumors and claims were true as more and more gold-clad travelers approached their city offering greetings, gifts, and all the gold to the needful that The Hotel regulars had promised. Everything that the protagonists claimed proved true, and the only place not openly celebrating was, perhaps surprisingly, the slave market.

Gaining access to the high-security slave quarters proved to be difficult, and it quickly became apparent that a high-tech adversary was onto them—they were being jammed. Several clever attempts to gain access to the slave quarters were attempted, but eventually they proved unnecessary, for the owners of the slaves the sojourners were seeking drove them all out into the open and forced them to perform where the phenomenally rich African pilgrims could easily see them available for purchase.

This allowed for the discovery of the missing slave Sul, but it turned the situation even more critical when it was discovered that ‘‘every single slave’’ in that group had the same affliction she did—something was growing inside of them and they were all vectors for the condition! Compounding this was the problem that the “wife of the slave-market owner” could not be scanned in any way, and was wearing clothing made of a material so sophisticated as to be impregnable to all scans and identification the party had available, and even displayed the ability to negate Aratasujou’s cloaking ability and looked right at her on more than one occasion as she steadfastly observed and scanned the veiled woman, as well as the owner of the slave market.

The slaves were, meanwhile, ordered to sing and perform to attract the attention of the thousands of pilgrims, soldiers, slaves, and animals from Mali all bedecked in gold and wealth that continued to spill over the horizon and set up numerous camps to stay, Bayonetta, Harkness, Sakura April, took advantage of this unparalleled distraction to seize the afflicted slave woman Sul and the mysterious impenetrably-veiled woman, holding them in Purgatorio. The two women screamed in an alien language unknown in any 1337-A database as they were snatched up.

During this time, Thrash, Kate, Magistra, and soon Onibanana managed to smooth-talk their way into one of Mansa Musa’s outlying camps where they were greeted by African Guards and told to enjoy all the hospitality they wished, since the Emperor of Mali wanted to show his generosity. The camp was filled with splendid food, drinks, comforts, and music courtesy of the pilgrim emperor, and guarded gates that important people would go through to speak to the Malian diplomats. But while Thrash skillfully entertained the crowd, Oniwabanana discovered that some of the gifts left in gratitude to Mansa Musa, as well as some of the items in the camp were of tremendous interest.

The protagonists discovered mysterious black armor of unknown make and even found a working glitter-gun for disabling Cybermen, which the African’s described as having been “used by the king himself many times, to the delight of everyone.” Thrash kept the guards talking, and got them to reveal that the unusual black armor that emitted no light at all, as well as the gun, were the gifts of a talented architect that had so impressed Mansa Musa with his incredible skill that the king was considering inviting the architect and his wife to journey back with them to Timbuktu! With Oniwabandana’s joining the conversation to help, Thrash and Kate also learned that this amazingly talented architect seemed to be recently-arrived in Cairo, having moved there four years ago as part of a caravan, “four years ago with a caravan, about the same time the new Slave Market opened.”

At that slave market, Saki, increasingly concerned about the growing danger this situation presented to the timeline, pretended to be a slave herself to cover the missing girl’s disappearance while the veiled woman and the tumor-ridden Sul were questioned in Purgatorio. Quite inconveniently, both women proved to be fanatical in their resistance as they spoke in a a hushed tongue not known in this universe. They pulled the veil from the second woman to uncover an implacable human woman with scars on her face who was free of the cell growths the slave contained, but nothing else—a fact verified by scans of the women and the cellular structure of the growing mass that were so detailed that they allowed the commencement of Sakura April’s later Embryo Experiments.

Sakura April tried to examine this DNA for clues in the moment, only to discover the nasty surprise that the DNA code itself was a computer virus and that this situation could prove dangerous to even such a direly powerful being as herself. Realizing this danger, and the critical connection between a wealthy monarch with unending amounts of gold and the presence of a glitter-gun, heroes cautiously made ready for combat, and gold was used to try to reverse the aberrant growth inside of the slave-woman. There was no effect, but Sul clearly expected death, and the formerly veiled woman said that they could do to her whatever they were doing to Sul—and she was not afraid to die.

By use of hologram, Jack managed to discover something very important—these woman were terrified of Cybermen. Breaking their silence and speaking in Arabic, finally, the heroes did their best to convince the two women that they were ‘‘also’’ enemies of the Cybermen, that they wanted to cure them of their affliction, and that if they needed to hide from the Cybermen they wished to help them. Harkness said that it seemed to him like these people were dealing with Cybermen significantly more dangerous than those in 1337-A since this kind of technology was not normally needed to stay ahead of them. The women stolidly insisted that they were not afraid, and that they had faith their rescuer would come.

The interrogation never progressed beyond that point, because the women seemed to be right; in the year 2018, Chateaux’s systems came under heavy attack, and the ultimatum that “You have something of mine!” echoed throughout The Hotel halls. Also, the border isolating Purgatorio itself came under attack and buckled as woman wearing form-fitting armor, with red-hair streaming from behind a full-face helmet that was continually blinking and firmly attached to her head, broke into the dimension and levelled a gilded spear at the group. She asked if the girls were okay, told them to get behind her, and demanded that The Hotel protagonists get away from them, while Saki took this opportunity to cover all three of them in tiny tracing agents that would activate in response to time travel.

In 2018, as this happened, skillful and escalating attempts were made to force access into The Hotel itself; with Chateaux manipulating her barriers and countermeasures to keep them out. Chateaux was strong, but the interlopers were VERY good at disabling electronic systems and soon became visible: three identical spear-wielding women with red hair and black armor that were decked out with comparable technology to that which the protagonists had carried as they embarked through the portal. Thrash even realized that a veiled and armed woman had snuck up directly behind himself and his granddaughter in Mansa Musa’s camp, and smeared a drawn knife with an unidentified substance, and he tried to talk this person down as the other side’s move to retaliate had reached dangerous levels of escalation. Chateaux primed herself to capture the intruders in her body, but at the same moment the three interdimensional assailants seemed to hesitate, the Intern called a retreat herself.

Recognizing the danger of getting into a conflict with unknown dimensions, Intern ordered everybody back from 1324. The group’s prisoners escaped from Purgatorio, and their mysterious champion vanished from that place and time. The three assailants then retreated from Chateaux’s systems, and after some terse words with Thrash, the woman behind them holding the dagger vanished, the veil falling empty to the ground. And, forgotten in the easing standoff, a man claiming to be an architect claimed the mysterious armor and wore it back to the Slave quarters. He announced to them that the Golden Emperor would be purchasing many slaves in Cairo, and had selected him to join him on his journey. All of the slaves, their alleged owner, and his wife, cheered as one at this news, accompanied by yet one more woman—the last in the room to be wearing a veil. Harkness recorded evidence of their conspiracy, and conferred with Bayonetta on whether to intervene when Intern, who was checking if these events were taking place in an alternate timeline or not, suddenly appeared in the room.

Intern reacted to their drawing weapons with the assertion that attacking her amounted to war against Gallifrey, the guardian of this timeline, but after conversing in an unknown language, the veiled woman said that she had never heard of such a place, and while they “intended to be as discreet as possible” in the timeline and that they did not seek to provoke Gallifrey, that she was the most powerful warrior left in their universe and would defend her children to her last breath. Everyone else in the room fell silent as she spoke, and while Intern warned her against any further actions resembling murdering Lucius Vergilius, the veiled woman said that she was merely doing what was necessary to get home, and that although they had taken oaths not to reveal more than they should, all in this timeline should be very happy with the state of their Universe.

Having stated her superiors’ offer of aid and declaration of neutrality, delivered her warning against further incursions to the 1337-A timeline, and kindly granting their request to have their glitter-gun returned, Intern led all of The Hotel time travelers back to their home without bloodshed.

A very short time later, after the heroes had gone, emissaries of the richest man in known history bought every last one of the afflicted slave-girls on behalf of their mighty king; they then took them—and the architect as well, to join Mansa Musa‘s other servants. They then accompanied his historic procession to the Holy City of Mecca, and then on the journey home, where they could serve their master in the fabulously wealthy city of Timbuktu.

Even years after they left, the entire city marveled and the poor still celebrated the unimaginable generosity of the Golden Emperor and his incredible servants, for everything that the time-travelers claimed about him had come to pass.