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Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:54 pm
by LexiLiegh
A week has passed, and twice have met Lady Dalphine. The first was to shop for some nice dresses to wear daily. Of course Lord Sters insisted on replacing the torturous outfit that had mercifully been destroyed that night. Lady Dalphine practically swooned when picking out the makings of a deep green. The design they came up with was a long flowing simple gown, a modest cleavage(as in shallow boat neck), and these gorgeous flowing bell sleeves. They had some cast off day dresses, ones that the ladies who ordered them decided they did not like them, that were easily altered for my "willowy" frame. I am uncertain that these ladies have ever seen a willow in their life. If I were any tree, I think I would be a birch.

A couple days later we happened to be hat shopping at the same store. It was a pleasant "surprise" to say the least. And of course that day as I get to the guild hall I had a caller. Not sure why they called Lord Bently a caller though. He's, well my traveling compatriot at the very least. We have also had luck on two incidents together. He apparently has kidnapped someone, but has no recollection of whom or where he might have stowed them. I am certain that the mages we saw at the gala, the ones who could appear to be wolves, were my first suspects. However it did not ring any bells for Lord Bently. So we separated, myself to fetch Doctor McFly, and him to fetch Smythe to meet back up at the guild hall.

Gathering together once more, one of my guild mates was able to discern information about the note that he received. Of course, hillariously he got slapped good. I just wrap my arms around her and try to keep her from hurting herself further. The information obviously points to Bluithe. So we track the slippery tongued scoundral down, to find nothing but an imposter.

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2020 8:20 pm
by LexiLiegh
I got to meet up with Alma to return the uniform she loaned me some days ago after the bodice ripping. She did warn me that people are talking that I am having a dalliance with Lord Bentley, I think. At least one of my new friends. I should inquire more on that later, but that is not the task at hand.

The task at hand is the person Lord Bentley is accused of kidnapping. Alma agrees to meet with him later this evening. Bentley has us for whist. Shortly after Alma arrives there is a crashing in the next room. Quick on my feet I investigate, Smythe barrelling behind me. In the study a fist sized rock sits on the ground in a pool of broken glass with a piece of paper tied to it. I look out the window to see who may have done it, as Smythe just smashes through. I spot a person moving and direct Smythe towards it.

Upon inspection of the note, it promises retaliation as they are certain Lord Bentley has done something to whoever he was supposed to have abducted.

Turns out my instincts were right. The mages that can assume the shape of wolves were behind the notes. We quickly subdued the agent, a Baron Casper something or other. A Peter Maxwell is the missing one though. Well, off to investigate!

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:34 am
by ChrisDDickey
Lord Bentley Bootle's journal continues.

Having learned that the person in Newgate prison going by the name of Milford Blult was in fact a hired imposter, and that he had been hired by Alma, Lady Bruce's Ladies Maid, we decided to make discreet inquiries. Erica Withakay used the excuse of returning the dress she had been loaned to invite her over to my parents town-house that evening for whist. In the meantime I looked up Bluit in Who's Who and Burke's Peerage just to make sure he was not listed in ether. He was not. 

Alma is a cool customer, and during the evening ended up learning far more of our business than we learned of hers or her mistress's. She readily admitted to hiring the Blult imposter (when we confronted her with the knowledge that she had), and she reassured us that he was in fine health, and fairly happy with his new station (whatever that was). However before we could pry into details, we heard a sharp noise from the study. Erica and Smyth (who were making up the 4some for whist) ran to the study with Alma trailing behind. I, thinking that the study would be well covered, went directly outside in the hopes of cutting the intruder off in his escape. 

In the Study, they found a window pane had been broken by a rock with a note tied to it. The note read "We assume you have done harm, expect vengeance". Smyth climbed out the window (breaking several more of the panes) and down to the ground where he quickly gave chase to a young man. The young man fell to the ground and transformed into a wolf hybrid. (which took enough time for me to catch up, having come around from the front of the town-house). Smyth grappled and subdued him, and Erika cast a spell that caused vines to entangle him. After a great deal of violent but fruitless struggle, the werewolf gave up the struggle and let us carry him inside, where he returned to a human form and we tied him up and I put a robe over him (the clothes he had been wearing when he threw the rock were tattered to shreds by his transformation). 

We interrogated him, and quickly found out that he was one of the wolves we had seen at the party the previous week. One of their number had gone missing 3 days after the ball, and they assumed I had hunted and killed him, since I am a big game hunter. Really their attitude made me quite upset. As if I would hunt for sport, something that was human most of the time! I soon set him straight and he seemed to believe me. 

Anyway, here is what we learned, The person that we caught was Casper Ingrams (Barcon Darcy de Knayth). The person who had disappeared was Peter Maxwell (Baron de Ros - House of Lords). He had gone to bed one night (before midnight), but was not in his room the next morning at 9am when his valet went in to check on him. It is unknown if he was abducted or if he for some reason left in the night, but him leaving without a word would have been out of character for him. Baron Dormer - William Dormer is the werewolf leader.  Nobody  has received any ransom note. The ball was on the night of a full moon.  Alma did not know these people were werewolves. 

Casper agreed to pay for the study window (though he never uttered an apology for breaking it), and provided a letter of introduction to Maxwell's servants, and we agreed to look into the matter of the disappearance. 

Additional Questions: What were Maxwell's holdings or interests? Aside from being a werewolf, did he have any personal or business enemies? Does the pack have any enemies? (other than random big game hunters of course) Lord George Fitsgerald? Who else might know about the pack and/or Maxwell?
100 ap last session (plus 50 and 100 journal). .    250 plus 100 this session. 

Re: 1879: The Expendables - McFly's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:22 pm
by Psitanium
The crew left me to my own devices while they investigated something about werewolves. Frankly, it didn’t interest me very much, because my attention had been laser-focused on laser focusing. Also, there were jars full of hornets. Honestly werewolves seemed pedestrian at this point. However, my peace and quiet was not to last and they swept me back up in their quest to clear the photo hunter’s good name.

We arrived at a very fancy estate. Apparently they had discovered the kidnapped werewolf was an aristocrat. What an opportunity to rummage through his things! I had brought my trusty Hornado along, only to discover the hornets had expired. Until I can learn the secrets of reanimating dead insects, I would have to rethink this plan.
Out to the garden we headed, looking for horse manure which the hunter was particularly interested in collecting. I would have raised an eye at this, but we fought dinosaurs and robo-scorpions together, so I can give him benefit of the doubt. In order to collect this, we “borrowed” some mason jars from the estate. Perhaps we took too many, because I found several of them lingering on my person afterwards. Good thing though, as a swarm of angry bees attacked us for reasons known only to impartial bystanders. Holding a pair of open jars in front of me, I made an impressive display of my bee mating dance ritual. It was taught to me by Queen Beatrice of Buzzy Bay, who learned how to make bees her loyal, unwavering servants with this dance. I hear she eventually died of a broken heart, resulting from hundreds of bee stings. Peculiar... However, my dancing seemed to please the bees and they swarmed to my jars. This time I will make sure to leave them air holes and feed them sugar once back inside. These are the kind of bees you need to feed every day.
Back inside, sugar was distributed evenly among my two bee jars. I also used an empty jar to squirrel away remnants of the charcuterie board laid before us. I pulled my attention away when I heard something about reanimating the dead. Apparently that was just talk of fiction, according to the spell lady, but I know better. Fiction is just a reality you have not worked out yet. Soon, my precious bees... soon you will become as gods! Undead honey gods!

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:43 pm
by ChrisDDickey
Lord Bentley's journal continues. 

Maxwell's family has minor interests in West Indies and Indies, exotic spices and dyes. No known business rivels,  Negotiations for a marriage were going well. Interested in sports, nothing that excites kidnaping. The pack knows of nobody that knows of them. 

Maxwell has a small country estate about 30 minutes from the edge of London (it took us 2 hours to get there by carriage from the center of London). It is an area of rural estates mixed with small farms. Maxwells estate is about 5 acres, about 1.5 acres the house and landscaping, but the rest is forested. The butler told us that Maxwell likes to run in the morning, usually around 6 or 7am. About 2/3 of the time he has his carriage driver John Fitzgerld drive him to a local park. The other days he runs on his own grounds. The day he went missing he did not call for his carriage but his bed had been slept in, and his exercise clothes were missing. He probably went for a run in his own woods.

After speaking with the butler and the valet, we looked in the woods. We found that he had a regular route in his small woods where he could run laps unobserved. We found his exercise clothes hidden in a disused beehive. We found a place where somebody had set a net trap (the type where a covered net is spread on the ground, and when it triggers it entraps whatever is upon it, leaving the target suspended above the ground). The trap had been triggered, and three people had subdued the werewolf, cut the net down, and carried him away with a pole strung through the net. The footprints showed three sets of workmans boots, two large, and one smaller set, a woman or a small man. The net trap had not been there for a prolonged time. The gardener, Christopher, had not noticed anybody hanging around. Horse sign indicated that about the day in question there had been a two horse wagon parked for between one and three hours on the carriageway in front of the property (in a spot obscured from view). We found a hank of rope cut from the trap. We inferred that it was probably an inside job, performed by somebody who knew a lot about Maxwell and his routine. 

We spoke with Baron Dormer (very rich), He suspects (aside from me) the carriage driver John Fitzgerald, an Upstart who keeps pushing his betters. Is pushing Maxwell to buy a steam coach, for no other reason than that he wants the prestige of being a steam coach driver.  Other suspects, people who he feels would be most dangerous for his pack to come to the attention of, is the crown, magicians, mad scientists and other monomaniacal researchers, and crazy cultists.

We take the hank of rope to Erika's friend who is a psychometric reader. She described a crazy monomaniacal woman. eager and gleeful to have captured a research subject. Greedy. Her immotion was greed to capture a werewolf. She plans to vivisection him. She thinks of herself as a doctor, but the psychometrist does not think she is a real doctor of any sort. As a wierd detail she said that the woman wanted to cut the rope herself, and had bought a new knife. The two men with her were snarks, hired just for this task. She is gleeful that her brother's gossip has brought her this prize. 

We now suspect that the woman might be the sister of the carriage driver, and a crazy monomaniacal researcher. 

No AP award, 100 AP journal.

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:05 am
by LexiLiegh
And so we go to this Lord Maxwell's estate. A large stretch of land, heavily forested quite lovely. I wonder if he's had it mapped out? Does it have medicinal herbs and good berries? Wait, that's not why we're here.

Lord Bentley spent time questioning staff, but that seemed of little use. I opted to start a search around the perimeter towards the center. Shortly after I began the rest of the motley crew joined up. We ended up finding a spot where a net snared something on the property, presumably the missing mage that can shift into a wolf.

We took a chunk of the rope with us to go talk to my colleague that can read objects. This one was rough on her. It made her physically sick the glee this "doctor" held for performing some sort of experiments on our hapless mage. So I decided to try healing her, to at least ease the shock she felt.I really must learn how to do that from her, to ease the burden of it.

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:06 pm
by LexiLiegh
And so we set a plan in motion to trail the treacherous brother in hopes of finding his "doctor" sister. In which being the lightest and most graceful, I would hitch a ride in the grooms place on the carriage whilst the rest followed up behind in Bentley's carriage with the lights doused.

It was a rough ride, but as he stopped in an alley I hopped off. He must have noticed me at that point as he came barreling at me with a club. He struck me solidly, and shortly after I dropped unconscious. I awoke with Bentley gently shaking my wrists and the man fleeing down a crowded street. Taking matters into my own hands, I decided to stun him once more causing him to collapse.

Then I see it, a man in a bubble of a shield rolling down the street. Obviously the good doctor was involved with this, but how? This is most assuredly why we are not allowed nice things.

Re: 1879: The Expendables - McFly's Journal

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:39 pm
by Psitanium
We returned to the butler, intent on finding out more information about his lord, who may or may not be named Richard Fingers. I was having trouble following the conversation. So were my new bee friends. What we could gather is that the lord had a certain vested interest in our kidnapped compatriot and planned on seeking him out in the night. Perhaps he dreamed of being some sort of masked vigilante or perhaps he was directly responsible. I shall keep my eyes open for cowls and utility belts moving forward. We departed with this information, bowing to the butler as we left. The bees attempted to bow as well, but it appeared as if they simply dipped down and back up in the jars. A noble attempt regardless. There was no time to waste, we had a carriage to catch.

The lord only known as “Fingers” was traveling the roads in his very fancy carriage pulled by very fancy horses. However, the hunter had a carriage as well, perhaps not as fancy, but it was trying very hard. As Fingers' cadre turned a corner, we took the initiative to accost them on foot. I left my bees in the carriage, as they were better used as moral support. I required it immediately, as I pulled a hamstring leaving the carriage. Proper stretching is important everyone. Without weapons or gear, I required quick thinking and innovation. I tried to channel the great Scottish folk legend MacAngus, known for repelling an invading army of sheep with a pile of twigs and a half-shredded kilt. Stopping these villains would prove equally heroic.
A tin can, some scattered nails and strips of cloth from what looked like a very nice shirt before I arrived. This would be my medium to create something revolutionary. Simply pop the nails and cloth in the can, seal it and feel the science flow through you. By shaking the can, popping the top and throwing it at your target, I thought of a unique way to implement my shield technology. On contact, a ball of energy surrounds the target, trapping it in a sphere. I feel this could be revolutionary. What if you could catch a dinosaur and then use it to fight other dinosaurs? What an improved experience I would have had in the jungle. In this scenario, all I had to do is poke a man in the back to achieve success. Poke-A-Man... No, it will never catch on.
Once I caught up to the others, they had subdued one of the targets and sent the other fleeing on foot. With all the skill of a lanky scientist, I chucked my ball at him. I am pleased to report that the device worked perfectly on that pedestrian. Although he was thoroughly confused as to why he was suddenly trapped in an energy ball, I assured him it was all in the pursuit of science as I pushed him in the general direction of our escapee. This was obviously my plan the entire time. If only any of my machinations had mattered as the others subdued him without my direct intervention. Of course, I credit my bees’ moral support as the true catalyst for success. They will be pleased. Perhaps I will make similar energy balls for them. I think they would appreciate the thought. Maybe they could fight the undead hornets once I work out how to conquer death. Should only take a week or two.

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:14 pm
by ChrisDDickey
Lord Bentley's Journal continues.

We returned to the country house and enquired of the Butler after John Fitzgerald's history and references. The man had none that the butler knew of, having been hired directly by the master without any of the normal safeguards. The butler did not really like Fitzgerald and suspected him of being a street urchin before being hired by the master. The butler does not recall him ever mentioning a sister, or family of any sort. Lately the carriage driver has been buying flashy new clothing, and insists that he has the masters permission to take the carriage out in the evenings. The butler thinks the man is shifty. He has stated an intention to take the carriage out that very evening to look for the master (a feeble excuse). 

We decided to follow the driver. We followed him in my carriage a goodly way behind. Just in case he lost us, Erika Withakay hopped onto the footmans step when he slowed to make his turn out the driveway. If we had lost him, she would have telegraphed the location. We followed him into London, but then the carriage turned down an alley. We hopped out of our carriage and followed on foot, to see Fitzgerald hitting Miss Withakay with a short club. We rushed in, and seeing three men approaching, he ran away. Miss Withakay attempted to cast a stun spell at him, but then fainted from all the exertions of the day. Fitzgerald almost got away, but a blow from Smyth, and another last gasp of a spell from Miss Withakay and he was rendered hors de combat. McFly created a distraction (a man trapped in a ball) while Smyth picked up Fitzgerld and we returned to his carriage. 

Questions: Did Fitzgerld notice he was being trailed and turned into the first convenient ally? or was this ally his destination and he only noticed Erika after he stopped? We ought to check these buildings carefully. 
(No AP awarded. 100 AP Journal)

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:16 pm
by ChrisDDickey
Lord Bentey's journal continues.

We bundled Fitzgerld into the back of his employer's carriage and tied him up. We shook him a bit and woke him up. Despite his situation he rallied very well and managed to strike a deal with us. He would trade the address of the "Crazy Bitch's" lair to us if we let him go, with possession of the carriage, and gave him a good 48 hour head start. He obviously planned to sell the carriage and horses and flee the city, and maybe the continent. He denied that he had any part in the kidnapping, but did not try to dispute that he had told his sister his employers secrets or that he was less than fully informed on what had happened. I hated to let the scoundrel go, and to let him profit so handsomely from his perfudity, I also hated to see the shear waste of a perfectly good carriage and 4 sold at the prices a fence would give him, but we needed the information he had, and we needed it immediately, so agreed to the deal. Fitzgerld told us the address of the lair, a warehouse in a very rough part of town. He also told us that the front, both back, and the side door were hooked up to bombs, and that she had hired a Magician to goop up the windows in some way. He also told us that the "Crazy Bitch" employed some thugs to protect her, and also that she would not keep her word if we worked out a deal with her. 

We tarried upon the way for a meal and to let Erica recover a bit. The area the lair was in, was very rough and I, or even my carriage would have stood out immensely. I had my couch driver park about a half mile away, and I approached a workman, a rail-yard worker of some sort who was sitting upon his stoop after dinner who looked about my size and bought his spare clothes right from his closet, I paid him more than the new value of the old clothes and changing into them immediately. Dressed much less conspicuously for the neighborhood, we approached the address and cased it from the outside. The area was teaming and we attracted a bit of attention from the residents, but fortunately nobody chose to interfere. I kept lookout while Miss Withakay selected a window and apparently removed the ward. As the window was opened, I saw a light go out in the building (the warehouse was very well lit). However we had not worked out a code signal for that, so I was unable to signal the event to the others. 

Once the team started entering the window I went around and started to enter as well, however as I was approaching the window, shots rang out. As I climbed in the outside window I could hear Smyth fighting with someone in the darkness of one of the front offices. McFly had apparently opened the blinds of an internal window allowing us to see into the well lit warehouse area, allowing me to see a large cage with an unconscious wolf inside it (this was of course the Baron de Ros). There were also the mad Dr Jane, and some more Thugs who were running to repel us. A female dwarf saw that the window blind had been raised and ran up and shot at McFly though the window. Another ran to attempt to double-team Smyth. 

I must say that initial impressions are that all the time and training I have been doing on the "Eagle Eye" technique of shooting seems to be effort wasted. My pistol shooting was abysmal, totally missing my first shot, and doing little damage with my 2nd. The dwarf shooting at me however hit solidly every time she shot. Her 2nd shot at me sent me falling to the floor holding my guts. Fortunately Miss Withakay cast some sort of miraculous healing upon me that healed my wound and all the damage I had taken. She even managed to pull me to my feet as she cast it! Wonderful spell, I wonder if the British Army knows it?  With me having been knocked down, the Dwarf switched to shooting Miss Withakay, almost killing her. I finally managed to land a solid shot upon my opponent that left her bleeding upon the ground. 

The sounds of combat died down suddenly, Apparently the Snark that was still up was dragging his fallen comrade away, and Smyth was content to see them go. Mcfly was shaking Miss Withakay, and she was waking up. I looked around and noticed that Dr. Jane was gone, and that one of the back doors was now open. I climbed out the window again and ran towards the rear of the warehouse, hoping to spot her, or at least that one of the spectators that were starting to gather would point out the direction she had run. 

No AP awarded. 100 AP journal