When beautiful career burglar and recent Empire Club inductee Juliet DuPont, also known as "The Crimson Wraith," overheard secret agents in Paris talking about a priceless, ancient treasure being held at the Egyptian embassy in New York City, she could not resist the urge to "take in some culture." Sliding into the Egyptian Embassy in Paris while Egypt's King Fuad entertained renowned night club singer and psychic Micara Al-Moud, Juliet found that a trap had been laid for her by the King so that he could hire her to steal the mummified remains of the dreaded Pharaoh Orthos-Ra during the 1933/1934 New Year's celebration of The Empire Club, held at New York's Museum of Natural History. There, Ra's remains were to be displayed with a new Egyptology exhibit. Juliet, with the assistance of secret agent Alistair Smith-Smythe and his men, proceeded with the daring endeavor - but not before Juliet warned her American friend, professional daredevil extraordinaire Max Galahad, of her intentions.
Cara Al-Moud arrived at the New Year's celebration with her escort, renowned Great White Hunter Sir Heathcliffe Quentin Merryweather III, son of one of the Empire Club's founding members and great-grandson of the Eleventh Earl of Mar. Also in attendance was Galahad, disinherited munitions heir Benedict Grey, and such distinguished senior members of the Empire Club as Sherlock Holmes and Philo Vance. Juliet planned to steal the pharaoh's sarcophagus through a trap door and lower it down to a waiting team of agents at midnight, but when midnight came, she found the dead body of the exhibit's chief Egyptologist, and the trap door was wide open!
A chase ensued in the catacombs below the museum. Cara received mysterious psychic visions of the unearthing of the sarcophagus and of an unspeakable ritual conducted when Orthos-Ra was alive. Using his expert tracking skills, Lord Merryweather found mysterious spores and some of the mummy's wrappings, which led him to the animated mummy just as it was about to claim the life of another Egyptologist. The men engaged the creature, who tossed them around like rag dolls. When Max was knocked unconscious after discovering the unwrapped remains of Orthos Ra, the group began to wonder who was really behind this foul play . . .
Episode Two: Terror from the Tomb
The group continued its search for the mummified killer as live scorpions were released into the main ballroom. As the group dealt with the swarm of crawling death, an ambulance arrived to take the dead to the morgue and the museum was evacuated. During the confusion, however, the group discovered that the undead fiend had made off with the ambulance! Commandeering a taxi, Benedict and Juliet set off in pursuit, while Lord Merryweather chose a mode of transport more befitting his gentlemanly ways, a horse. A running battle ensued through Central Park between the heroes and a group of lackeys under Orthos-Ra's spell. During the course of the combat, it was discovered that the mummy was not Orthos-Ra but a servitor, and that it was in the thrall of King Fuad's son, Prince Farouk.
The chase terminated underground, where New York's A Train was being expanded. The heroes were horrified to learn that Orthos-Ra planned on being buried anew, his lackeys and the Egyptologists with him to act as his ghostly guards in the afterlife! The heroes saved the Egyptologist, but were too late to stop Farouk from dynamiting the tunnel. As Orthos-Ra sank back into the replica of his tomb, the heroes escaped the deadly explosion . . . except for Benedict Grey . . .
Episode Three: The Hands of Wo
As Benedict was about to be crushed under the rubble of the tunnel, two hands took hold of his head and pulled him to safety. Benedict awoke to find that his savior was none other than the Crimson Wraith herself, Juliet DuPont. The torpid Texan was instantly smitten.
Benedict, Juliet, and Lord Merryweather rejoined Max and Cara as the Prince slowly stirred, remembering little save being under Orthos-Ra's hypnotic influence. The Prince begged the group to protect him from "the devil himself" and insisted they bring him back home immediately. Suddenly, Cara began to feel another presence in the room. Reaching out with her psychic abilities, she discovered an aged Asian man in a suit utilizing his own psychic powers to spy on them. Before Cara could act, a third eye opened up on the old man's forehead and he muttered, "How interesting . . . a Salumbari."
Borrowing the stunt plane Bellerophon from Max's old buddy Sammy Palermo, the group prepared to take Prince Farouk back to Egypt. Suddenly, a cadre of policemen set upon them with deadly force! During the ensuing battle, the group discovered that as each policeman fell unconscious, he reverted back to his original form . . . that of an ancient Mongol warrior! Amidst the confusion, Cara encountered the old man, who revealed himself as Professor Wo-Feng, an impossibly long-lived psychic who had seen a vision of his beloved Asia destroyed by a "sun dragon." Feng beseeched Cara to help him stop this catastrophe, but she resisted, despite his promise that he would not harm her or Prince Farouk.
Once the Mongol warriors were defeated, the group took off in the Bellerophon for Egypt. In the air, a deadly, venomous viper, bearing markings on its hide that resembled a phoenix - the symbol of Wo-Feng - crawled out of Sammy's bag and bit him on the leg. Great confusion ensued and the Bellerophon was sent nose diving over the Atlantic Ocean . . .
Episode Four: The Isle of Death
The snake was quickly dispatched, and Max managed to level the plane out. However, the crew found to its dismay that the plane was crawling with serpents. Once Sammy got to his feet (the snake had bitten his wooden leg) he insisted on setting the plane down and pumping the snakes out. The heroes landed on a small island off the coast of Virginia which, according to their nautical maps, was known as Terminus Island.
As Sammy vacated the plane with his bilge pump to roust the snakes, and Max kept an eye on the Prince, the rest of the group explored the island. Benedict and Juliet, heading in one direction, discovered a Nazi destroyer, while Sir Heathcliffe and Cara, heading in the other direction, came upon a rotting slave ship. Evidence from both ships indicated that the crews had evidently been stricken with a strange madness-inducing malady. A log on the Nazi ship revealed that it had been stationed on Terminus Island to spy on the American shores near Washington D.C.
When the explorers returned to the plane, they found Max, Sammy and the Prince gone. Evidence of a struggle, and Sir Heathcliffe's expert tracking skills, led them to a strange outcropping. Cara experienced a stunning vision of horrible sacrificial rites being conducted, and, suddenly, out of the brush, leaping for Sir Heathcliffe with its spear raised, leapt a dark silhouette . . .
Episode Five: Escape from the Isle of Death
The lone assailant posed no match for the Empire Club. Once subdued, the man revealed himself to be Dr. Brauner, the medical officer of the deserted Nazi ship. The doctor recounted the horror of his stay on the island, begging the party to return him to the mainland. With Sammy, Max and the Prince still lost on the island, the group followed Sir Heathcliffe's lead toward the center of the island, where an eerie drumming was heard.
Zombified remains of the slave ship sailors emerged from the brush, attacking the party. The heroes defeated the creatures and pushed on through the trees from whence their attackers came, to find a large, gnarled tree - the arboreal throne of a horrendous arachnoid creature! Lying about the tree were three man-sized cocoons. As Cara destroyed the spider with a single, well placed shot from Sir Heathcliffe's "Frederick's Bull Rifle," the rest of the party broke the cocoons open to free Max, Sammy and the Prince from their mucous prisons.
The group managed to contact a Coast Guard cutter, which aided them in getting the Bellerophon airborne again. Benedict accepted a telegram, delivered by one of the Coast Guard officers, from his old poker pal, George Gershwin, inviting him to Vienna. The Bellerophon set its course due east . . .