Henri von Giffard (Earth)

Messages:

To the Prussian Earth Element: "Ladies and Gents of the Prussian Earth
Element As you may be aware I am both Earth Element of the European Cell
and newly naturalised Prussian. I have joined the PIST facility as Director
to ensure that Prussia has access to all the new technology bringing her
into the international arena with a new breed of both military and domestic
technology. We are actively recruiting to ensure the best minds are working
for mother Prussia and wish to ask all members of the Prussian Earth
Element to consider working for PIST. We offer the highest salaries on main
land Europe and you won't find a better employer anywhere. I look forward
to hearing from you. Henri Von Giffard, Earth Elemental of European Cell"

To House Scorpio of the European Cell, from 0001 [although this message has
your name on the outside, when you open it up and read it, it does not seem
to have been intended for you - Mo]: "We must act quickly and decisively,
if we are not to see our demonic friends extinguished utterly. This will
mean making common cause with the abominable Cancer, and any other who can
help us. The enemy is the Pisces and all who believe and support them: they
seek nothing less than the breaking of our power. 0001."

An open letter to House Gemini: "'The path of the righteous woman, is beset
on all sides, with the iniquities of the selfish, and the tyrannies of evil
men. Blessed is she who, in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the
weak through the valley of darkness. For she is truly her brother's keeper,
and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with
great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy
my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance
upon thee.' Ezekiel 25.17. Dame Elizabeth DuQuesne-Black. Voice of House
Pisces."

To Henri Giffard, from Col Maguire: "Henri, hopefully the Vizier will now
have had the chance to fill you in on my current situation. As you would
expect, the Martian surface is a wondrous place and I am learning much that
will aid House Taurus in the coming years. If you have need to contact me,
where we would usually communicate by steam mail, please pass sealed
messages to the Martian Ambassadors who will forward them to myself.
Regards, Col. Maguire."

To Thomas Edison, Mo12 for House Taurus: "Greeting Mr Edison, Esteemed
Member of Twelve for House Taurus. I come before you with several questions
that the members of your house would like answered before we set out on the
course of action you have suggested. I hope you understand our concerned
and appreciate our need for more information. Firstly, why do you support
the greens in their quest to repatriate to Earth? Secondly, what benefits
do you perceive from this union? Thirdly, do you think this will result in
a conflict in the club, between those who support and those who oppose the
greens? Fourth, do you as Mo12 have access to any information which would
indicate truth in the greens story that they were massacred and banished
from earth by Pisces, when this occurred, why this occurred etc.? Also, I
have embarked on a course to improve the power I hold within Europe and as
such I wish to know if there is anything that in this capacity to help
improve the power of the House Taurus? As always, my quest to increase the
power of our house continues on this current path, have you any ideas on
this? As always I am your servant, Henri Giffard, Member of House Taurus
and Earth Elemental"

To Mr Giffard, from Mr Edison: "My dear fellow, I certainly do understand
your wish to know more on these subjects. In simple, I support the Greens
because it appears to me that they have been done an injustice, and they
are friendly creatures who deserve the right to live back here on Earth
alongside us as before. We will benefit from their wonderful technology,
and from the cross-fertilization of their ideas and our own, and make the
world a happier and better place for both species. I hope that the conflict
will be only short-term, as the rights and wrongs of the situation seem to
me pretty easy to perceive: those who oppose the Greens will look
increasingly isolated and extreme, and will have to swing behind the
majority. I have no extra evidence supporting the Greens' story than you
do, but the fact that the Member of the Twelve for Pisces has admitted the
charges is surely proof enough. On your other topic, congratulations on
your Ministerial appointment, this can only be a good thing for the House.
If Europe is to be at peace, which we all hope, then a position of such
authority in its largest nation must be valuable for us and for all
Prussia's subjects. You should encourage your colleagues in the House to
emulate your example. Best wishes, Tom Edison."

To Green Ambassador: "Greetings Esteemed Green Ambassador. I come before
you with best wishes from my house and my Member of the Twelve. We have
been asked by several of the inferno club houses to ally ourselves with
yourselves to help you claim your place along side us on Earth. With that
there are several questions that our house wishes to ask of you. We
basically feel that we need more information before we commit ourselves to
the course of action and I hope you can appreciate that. Firstly when did
the conflict with Pisces occur and where can we find documentary evidence
of this conflict? Secondly, why, if as you say, you came in peace, did you
bring weapons, thus indicating your readiness in conflict? Thirdly, where
are you currently residing awaiting your return to earth? Would it be
possible for me to visit your current home? Forth, did you chosen the
houses of the Inferno Club to be allied to? Fifth, if we join you, my
Member of the Twelve informed me that we would have access to your
technology, what technology to you have and would we be allowed to use it
as we see fit? Sixth, what plans have you made to pave your way to
returning to Earth? And finally (If as I suspect, you were here in the time
of Atlantis) what can you tell us about Atlantis, the people who lived
their, why it sank to the bottom of the sea, and who, if anyone, currently
occupies this site? I apologise for the length of this but we feel that
without the above information it would be difficult for us to be sure that
we are doing the right thing. I hope you can understand our worries and
answer as fully as you can. Best Wishes and I look forward to your
response. Henri Giffard, Earthling"

To Mr Giffard, from Vxxthn, Green Ambassador to Earth: "Dear sir, thank you
for your kind letter. I will be happy to answer your questions, as follows:
Firstly, the conflict was around 12,000 of your Earth years ago, and there
is no documentary evidence because our civilization at that time was
completely destroyed: we were lucky that enough individuals survived to
perpetuate the species, never mind documents. It took us several millennia
to rediscover writing! There may be archaeological / palaeontological
evidence here on Earth, but you would probably know more about that than
we. Secondly, we brought weapons because we knew that Pisceans still held
sway here on Earth, and we imagined that they would be hostile to us - as
indeed has proved to be the case, with our first friend the Pope slain last
year by Piscean witchery. Thirdly, our main delegation is at Roswell, in
the USA, although we also have a base in England, in Cornwall. You are very
welcome to visit us at either locale, as are any of your colleagues.
Fourthly, we have gained our allies by a mixture of chance and choice. We
landed first in the USA, which is run by Gemini, and so that House which
first encountered us was first to support us. We have subsequently sought
the support of Leo and Taurus because they seemed to us reliable and
straight-dealing Houses who would appreciate our friendship. Fifthly, we
would indeed be happy to share our technology with you, and with all
humanity: it is largely biotechnology rather than engineering. I am a
diplomat rather than a scientist, of course, but if you visit our
specialists you will learn more. Sixthly, as you will have seen this year
our return to Earth has taken place and we hope that more of us will be
able to come here - and humans travel to Mars if they wish and are able to
- in the coming years. Finally, we have no written records of Atlantis, as
I said earlier, but traditions handed down suggest that it was inhabited by
the people you now call Pisceans. They it was who slew so many of us and
drove us off the planet. As to why it sank and what is there now, we have
no idea, that has all happened long since our departure. I hope that these
answers are agreeable to you and that we have the pleasure of meeting soon.
Yours, Vxxthn."

Copies to: All members of House Taurus, Voice of House Pisces: Dame
Elizabeth DuQuesne Black, Member of 12 for Pisces: "To the Member of 12 for
Pisces and my esteemed fellow Voice of the Inferno Club, It has become
apparent to me and my House, that divisions are beginning to appear within
the Inferno Club. The petty squabblings of politicians, and wranglings over
procedure are not issues of great concern to Taureans; and yet we have been
drawn into a situation (not of our choosing) which calls for us to make
decisions which may affect the world for years to come. It is with this in
mind that I come to you with a few questions which I hope you can answer as
fully and honestly as possible: 1. There appears to be a lot of tension
between the magical houses in the Inferno Club. Can you give me an insight
of what the cause of this is, and what we may do to reduce it? 2. After the
unfortunate proceedings of the last Inferno Club meeting, can you tell us
anything about the recent appearance of Martians on our planet? 3. As
suggested by one of your members, His Holiness the Pope seems remarkably
well acquainted with these outsiders. Is this accidental or is there
something more sinister going on here? 4. Do you see any need for
assistance from House Taurus now, or in the future, and what can/could we
do to help? Yours, William S Bang. [Voice of House Taurus]"

Notes:

Mr Stone sends you samples of the Stonar underwater sensing device,
Stoneaphone, Stone Wave audio and video transmission and reception devices,
Stone Aerial Mapper, and Stone Wave cinematography kit, all with his
compliments.

The space project is hit very hard this year, with every single one of your
supplier companies collapsing financially. Comte Bertrand says he has
enough material on site to complete a few minor missions of his own this
year, but there is nothing for next year apart from the materials his own
firms make. It will take at least a year to rebuild a supply network
sufficient to sustain manned space flight once more.

Mr Stone sends to the space site a system he has devised for transmitting
sound to and from the Moon, or at least to and from orbit: he has not been
able to test it properly yet. It uses the well-established 'sound hoover'
technology.

Become Prussian - all goes as planned, see News. You find learning the
language, manners and culture an easy matter (Craft +1), and the company of
your new wife, the former Helga von Blumenkraft, daughter of a prominent
member fo the Chamber of Deputies, a pleasing diversion.

Stone Waves - it becomes apparent to you almost immediately that there is a
demonic entity inside each Stone box, whether transmitter or receiver. In
fact, from your Scorpionic knowledge, it is clear that the seemingly-random
arrangement of crystals inside the box is having the effect of binding the
demon. Whether Stone did this deliberately or happened across it
accidentally and unwittingly you cannot say, but it is certainly rather
inefficient. When the Waves are being broadcast, what is really happening
is that the two entities are in telepathic communication. As far as you can
tell the device is safe in that it does not allow entities to enter the
physical world, but because they have not been properly bargained with and
instructed, it relies on their cooperation to transmit the messages
accurately - and as becomes clear this year (see News) they get bored with
this tedious duty after a little while. Given that there is no actual
secret to the Stone Waves apart from what is magical, you judge it best not
to publish a paper on them.

Scientific summoning - you devote your mind to systematizing and paring
down the wildly florid and superfluous, not to say superstitious, set of
rituals and routines that the Emperor told you Scorpio magi have to go
through. Not to your surprise at all, you find that the bulk of it is
merely decoration and has no real function, and the whole business is
rather more difficult and tiring than it need be. You do not think that
there is anything sinister about this, or that these delays and fiddly bits
have been introduced deliberately, it is more that the systems of ritual
have just grown up organically, individual magi adding things when they
discover them, no-one ever pruning anything away or attempting to reproduce
each other's results by other means, and no-one before you making any
attempt to analyse what exactly was having a functional effect and what was
just flummery. You will need to spend more time on this to really produce a
definitive set of replacement rituals built up from first principles and a
minimal set of elements, but you have done enough groundwork this year to
see that big savings in time and effort can certainly be made. You guess
that some of the rituals can be cut by more than half, and the penance time
by about a quarter too.

EXPLODE - you combine various fields of research to make a giant rocket,
and all goes to plan. See News. You are pleased to be joined at the
Institute by a number of Taureans and Virgoans from the Prussian Cell, in
response to your message. (No Capricorns, they tend to prefer to work
alone.)