Oasis at Kem-Shia

Life Giving Water in the Burning Sands

A small spring oasis has been found in the midst of the red parched sands of Mars.

Photostats from our intrepid reporter will be forwarded by the next caravan arriving from Hiling. HMAS Osprey, the aerial gunboat aboard which my nephew acts as a government/press liason, has recently arrived in that area, showing the Union Jack and cowing the natives with her iron-bound might. Taken at the scene of the oasis, the photostats clearly show some of the tall ochre grasses that typically spring forth in the relative humidity of the spring.

Naturally, good readers, I could not keep the good news back while waiting on illustrations to arrive. Be assured I shall publish such photostats at the earliest opportunity.

[Editor's Note: I promised mention of the re-worked terrain piece a week or so back. I am re-doing the spring I made a year or so back to make it seem more like the rest of my Martian work since then. I'll put up photos soon-ish, though I think I might have already put one or two up on the terrain blog.]

Properties of Unobtainite

Excerpts from Volume XIV of the Journal of the Royal Geological and Mineralogical Society (1872)

A rare mineral found in remote areas, unobtainite is a blue faceted crystal. Its unusual properties were discovered by a Fellow of our Society, Doctor Edward Isling...

While searching the mountainous regions of one of Her Brittanic Majesty's central African colonies, Doctor Isling was caught in a sudden thunderstorm. Lightning struck the ground near his camp, where he and the rest of his expedition were sheltering from the fury of Mother Nature. Doctor Isling happened to be outside of his tent, and saw several blue crystals emerge from the ground at the point where the lightning had struck.

What Isling had discovered was the levitative property of unobtainite when exposed to galvanic influence. Other scientists would go on to find that one could control the level of repulsive lift generated by the unobtainite by increasing or decreasing the flow of galvanic energies through the mineral.

Of course, since that time, our British engineers have created means to manipulate the flow of galvanism through unobtainite and acquired a supply suitable for the production of a small fleet of aerial craft. Steam engines (sometimes heated by handwavium reaction) are connected to generators, which then feed the rheostatic devices which control the repulsor lift generated by the unobtainite.

...additional deposits are rumored to exist in the fabled 'floating island' of Laputa, being the probable cause of that mythical land's gravity-mocking flight...

...Martian princes are no strangers to unobtainite. Martian science discovered the mineral - which is in far greater abundance on the Red Planet than on our sphere - millennia ago. They reached a plateau in the development of flying craft some 2,000 years past, and have since not added to their store of...

...no source of unobtainite has as yet been located on Venus, though many strange lifeforms abound there...

[Editor's Notes: I have been considering the source for our essentially implausible flying craft. I have talked about unobtainite before, but thought that the storyline needed re-working. I hope you enjoyed it. For gaming purposes, unobtainite is available in small amounts on Earth, and in far greater mounts on Mars. Earthly steam engines power generators to feed the unobtainite; Martians use slave labor to crank a generator. I am also re-thinking the mineral handwavium, and expect to give more information about that in the near-ish future. There are also a couple of deep secret projects in the work, of a potentially commercial nature. We'll see.]

200th Post!

Okay, this is just a quick woo-hoo posting, acknowledging a milestone.

I'll post some content in a few minutes, but I wanted to pat myself on the back for a minute.

Not that there's been much to crow about as far as any good quality posting on a reliable basis lately. I'll try to do better in the next few weeks, alright?

Anyway, break out the good whiskey! Tonight, we celebrate!

An Astonishing Publication!

Gentlemen! You must obtain a copy of this for your Young Men and Heirs! Immediately!


http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=juv&m=hdRI&i=108500


Anything less would be an appalling failure of your Duty to God, Queen, Country and Family.


More later this weekend.

Patrolling the Line

HER MAJESTY'S TROOPS PROTECT VITAL COMMUNICATIONS

As you can see from the attached photostat, now that it has finally arrived, the line of telegraph poles stretches off into the distance. Alongside the line, a platoon of infantry, stout British lads all, trudges along through the red dust of our arid planet.

Alongside the column is one of the ASAs, technological wonders of our modern steam era. The photostat was taken from the deck of the aerial gunboat, HMAS Osprey, itself yet another marvel of British technical prowess.

[Editor's Notes: Finally, some more shots, and even included some miniatures 'in action' for a change. As previously mentioned, I think, you can see how to do the ultra-easy telegraph poles on my terrain blog. And two posts in two days! Excellent, Smithers! Look for another post in the near future about a terrain piece I have been re-working. More info on the terrain blog right now, but a proper posting will appear here soon. Must go. A sudden hailstorm has risen up and I have to protect a few things outside.]