August 07, 2003

Of Lamas and Nazis: The SS in Tibet--1938-39

[CP-List] Of Lamas and Nazis: The SS in Tibet--1938-39
Jeffrey St. Clair sitka@home.com
Mon, 19 Mar 2001 08:08:37 -0800

Hitler and the Himalayas
The SS Mission to Tibet 1938-39
ALEX McKAY

Of all the exotic images that the West has ever projected
onto Tibet, that of the Nazi expedition, and its search for
the pure remnants of the Aryan race, remains the most
bizarre.

On the nineteenth of January, 1939, five members of the
Waffen-SS, Heinrich Himmler's feared Nazi shock troops,
passed through the ancient, arched gateway that led into the
sacred city of Lhasa. Like many Europeans, they carried with
them idealized and unrealistic views of Tibet, projecting,
as Orville Schell remarks in his book Virtual Tibet, "a
fabulous skein of fantasy around this distant, unknown
land." The projections of the Nazi expedition, however, did
not include the now familiar search for Shangri-La, the
hidden land in which a uniquely perfect and peaceful social
system held a blueprint to counter the transgressions that
plague the rest of humankind. Rather, the perfection sought
by the Nazis was an idea of racial perfection that would
justify their views on world history and German supremacy.

Campaign Background | Posted by colin at 08:38 AM | Comments (5)

July 25, 2003

Wherein we get off lightly

2003/07/24 (June 23, 1940 -- January 9, 1941)

Franklin is arrested & thrown in British military stockade. Claims to be French Intelligence; they buy it, for a while. Zenas is visited in his dreams & asked to transport 48 bottles of divine spoo back to New York -- no problem. Group reports in to ONI -- all get ripped new ones; Franklin is busted to 2nd Lt; we get assigned to Subbasement 3, Storeroom B27, Operation Aquarium. No one is willing to say what Operation Aquarium does.

Klaus leaves; we meet new characters: Capt Josephine McArthur (Lauren), Benny Tudalo (Pete), Daniel Ashley (Andromeda).

Six months pass.

We receive manila envelope -- report of serial rapist caught in Boston, fingerprints match person Aquarium is looking for -- we work out that he was an escapee from the raid on Innsmouth, & hence an evil fishperson. Calls himself Laban, from Genesis. All troop off to visit Boston P.D., who are willing to cooperate since we promise we aren't planning on taking the suspect out of their jurisdiction. Suspect's effects include two bottles of semen, a turkey baster, and nineteen socks.

Good cop, bad cop, psychic cop turns out to be an effective interrogation technique.

He brags "they will rise in nine months."

  • "It is of course completely plausible that a French intelligence agent was found cowering under a car." -- Colin
  • "I remember the great battle of '38, the goons vs. the US Navy." -- Klaus
  • "We have done so much for your country . . . we don't even know what exactly we have done!" -- Klaus
  • "Where'd you grow up?"
    "South Carolina."
    "Why?" -- Benny & Franklin
  • "It's traditional in the Navy to wait to play darts until the Captain leaves the room." -- Zenas.
  • "Remember that time I set the trashcan on fire, and then we left for the day, and we came back and it was still burning? This is one of those situations." -- Benny, getting Zen
Logs | Posted by colin at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2003

Wherein we learn a lot we don't understand

Some massive catching up. Some nights I did a better job of tracking quotes than others, clearly.

2003/03/27 (June 19, 1940)

Breakfast with Liz & Pyotr at Pisces; Zenas gets all Indiana Jones with the Wizard Thieves; Kaufman decodes Theosophical Society book. Second half of session eaten by retcon.

  • "It is not the Americans' problem. It is not happening in their basement." -- Klaus
  • "You witness the rhetorical equivalent of a slap fight." -- Jon
  • "Nazi secrets? No thanks, I want PIE!" -- Pete

2003/04/10 (June 19-20, 1940)

Kaufman wires Freedman, then decodes more shit; Norton talks trash to paparazzi; Zenas discovers link between Order of Golden Dawn, Whitehead Institute, and Wizard Thieves. Klaus gets stood up at LeFrouFrou's, cleans out Marcus' closet. Kaufman reads Theosophical society spell; much drinking and arson follows. Zenas goes home with hooker, discovers Reverb.

  • "Trust me -- the horribly counterproductive act I'm about to do is really character-driven." -- Brad, as Norton
  • "I sneak up on one of the parked cars."
    "Is that hard to do?"
    "It is if you're trying to look really cool."
    "That's fair." -- Jascha & Brad
  • "Yes, if I may say, there was a problem typing up my passport. It seems to have the wrong country, and the name is wrong, too." -- Klaus
  • "How sturdy is the door? Oh, they're English doors -- they must be weak." -- Klaus
  • "Go in his closet and throw them out the window!"
    "All of them?" -- Pete & Jon
  • "Apparently, Klaus gets really gay when he's drunk." -- Pete
  • "Yah, yah, we all say it. We burn the curtains. How many Reichmarks to replace your crappy English curtains?" -- Klaus
  • "We're like a rock band!"
    "RRAAAAUGH! S - P - Y - Z !" -- Pete & Brad

2003/04/24 (June 20, 1940)

Zenas' trip goes horribly wrong; wakes up with dead woman; arrested as Soho vampire. Norton dreams of Ancient Egypt. Klaus has anonymous sex with some English fairy, then beats him up.

2003/05/01 (more June 20, 1940)

Charlie interviewed by Father O'Malley at Pisces. Zenas interviewed by cop in prison. Franklin has tea with Margaret Alice Murray. Zenas makes deal with supernatural power.

2003/05/03 (June 21, 1940)

Meet White Fedora Man at reverb restaurant; fight in speeding car. Crash, broken ribs. Zenas buys a gun. Priest and little girl show up; little girl beats up Kaufman; cop kills White Fedora Man; Klaus runs away. Marcus ransom message; Klaus kidnapped too. Supernatural fight; Marcus dies; Klaus runs away again.

  • "I'd hit the priest with the little girl." -- Klaus
  • "Hey! Help. Help? There's more killing . . . in the . . . bed. Help?" -- Kaufman
  • "You know how many goons I have had to deal with today in your England? In Germany, it is better organized -- we have a goon union, the Nazi Party." -- Klaus
  • "Define 'positive'! I got flung high speed into a truck!"
    "Yes, but actively." Brad & David, jealous
  • "It's okay -- I have a macro. 'Hastur - Hastur - Hastur - Hastur - Hastur - '" -- David, as Stephen Hawking

2003/05/08 (June 22, 1940)

Zenas & Kaufman check out White Fedora Man's addresses -- drug houses. Zenas spies on Warehouse of the Snake People. Klaus steals morphine for Kaufman. Klaus and Kaufman walk into trap at Pisces.

  • "It's too bad this time there's no one for Klaus to leave behind to die -- um, except me. I must get out of here!" -- Charlie

2003/05/22 (June 22-23, 1940)

Norton & Zenas go back to the Warehouse of the Snake People; listen to strategy session. Klaus, Zenas, and Norton have dreams about the Yellow Sign. Klaus cools heels in Pisces' basement.

2003/05/27 (June 23, 1940)

Ineffectual planning session; keystone kops write a warning letter; squabble over paying the helpful cabbie. Jacobs & Charlie interrogate Klaus. Zenas raids Warehouse of Snake People, steals books. Massive gun battle at hospital. Klaus delivers semi-demon baby. Charlie gets shot; sees evil priest turn to lizard-man form.

  • "I couldn't take the tommy-gun, dude! I just ducked and rolled! . . . with my gin." -- Jascha
Logs | Quotes | Posted by colin at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2003

Wherein we are hopelessly outclassed by the competition

Those who wussed out on last night might read the last half dozen of this batch, and realize what an odd evening they missed.

  • "Do not keep your dice in the bag of devouring." -- David
  • "One Track Mind! . . . No, not what you're thinking." -- Brad
  • "I'm a paying friend of Charlie's."
    "Do take Reichmarks? You don't take that yet? You will soon!" -- Jascha & Brad
  • "The next morning bangs around your skull like a frying pan wielded by an angry dwarf." -- Jon

  • "I came over for your English humour."
    "Ve haff to import it into Germany, und now zee embargo ees getting so bad." -- Pete & Brad
  • "As it turns out, there are lots of ways to be sure." -- Colin

  • "It seems to me Franklin just got jealous of my competition for Worst Spy Ever, and decided to establish it once and for all." -- Colin.
  • "I think it was a perfectly reasonable reaction to the somewhat-evil waiting room of the snake people." -- Jascha
  • "Norton couldn't possibly have psychic abilities. How could he be such a doofus if he has psychic abilities?" -- Jascha
  • "I roll to disbelieve that he's human. They're wily, these snake people." -- Jascha
  • "You spent eleven gift points trying to get away from and kill your allies!"
    "Well, yeah, dude."
    "The last three were trying to punch out the guy who was trying to explain everything to us!" -- Pete & Jascha
Quotes | Posted by colin at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

Wherein we arrive in London, and begin drinking heavily

From game on 5 March, 2003:

Jascha dances the spy dance

"Are you carousing?"
"No, I'm just drunk." - Jon, Jascha

"Hey, I broke my arm!"
"Yes, yes, you were very brave." -Brad, David

"Is anyone actually doing anything this afternoon?"
"Hey, I'm learning about clothing from a gay Swiss banker." -Jon, Jascha

"Make an 'I suck' roll - I succeed! I made a critical success at sucking!" - Brad

"That was the most fun I've had since weasel-legging." - Jon

Quotes | Posted by jascha at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2003

Egypt in 1940

The following is paraphrased, edited and abridged from Bartleby's.

Egypt is a nominally-independent former British colony, still dominated by British interests. Independence was unilaterally granted by Great Britain on Feb 28, 1922, with certain important exceptions, including control over Egyptian foreign affairs and defense, the Suez Canal, and the Sudan. The British also insisted on the maintenance of the Capitulations, the system of special laws and courts that applied to foreigners. Into the late 1930s, these four reservations proved a constant source of irritation to Anglo-Egyptian relations. Because the declaration was a unilateral act and because it did not really provide Egypt with full independence, the Egyptian leadership never really accepted it.

Campaign Background | Posted by colin at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2003

Chapter One

Our first campaign map, complete with traditional red line. Indiana Jones, watch out.
Logs | Posted by colin at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)