Fighting for Respect, Fishing for Treasure
Game date: 14 Jan 2012
Present: Andy, Jim, Ken, Cindy, Kim, and Maer
A month passes after the close of our last adventure. During that time, various members of our party settle to their day-to-day lives in and around London.
Rebecca Spencer is with her Father in Brighton, attempting to raise funds to buy the rights to the Egyptian dig back. Her brother Jonathan had sold it to finance a first class trip home to England, much against Rebecca and her father's future plans for the dig.
Evie finds her reputation has grown tremendously in the wake of our defeat of Lord Cataver/Baron Pinchester. People of the lowerclasses in Whitechapel consider her their champion. She lets it be known that she will accept jobs in dealing with their troubles for 15% of their earnings. In fact, there are now shakedown artists demanding tribute in her name as Cataver's successor. It may be that Evie might find herself taking up Cataver's reins, if only to keep the abuses down. When she asks Beignet for advice, he suggests she enlist Billy the Butcher and Pop the Weasel as her Lieutenants and delegate work to them, upon their return from their travels. Meanwhile, people are coming to Evie to lay their cases before her and she realizes that there is considerable crossover with this trade and Josephine's. She decides to approach Josephine about it later.
Evie is also taking lessons in comportment from Beignet and together they hope to cultivate contacts amongst the upper crust, so as to allow Evie to case their homes for belongings to steal later. Beignet will be her go-between with a reputable fence and will see Evie receives 80% of the proceeds.
In addition to teaching Evie the social ins-and-outs, Beignet is also busy consolidating stock certificates for profit. He has a fast growing family. His Hobbit wife, Prissy, is pregnant with their seventh child and will need to be supported in a manner to which Beignet has dreams of becoming accustomed.
Josephine attempts to cultivate more street contacts but is mostly unsuccessful. She takes a philosophical view, knowing it takes time to gain people's trust. She alternates between cultivating street contacts with committing the metropolis to memory and maintaining her combat, acrobatic, and research skills.
Katherine is progressing nicely through her first quadmester and is just now starting to show. She has bought a Brownie camera and developing equipment and chemicals for her glass plates. She has many pictures she's taken while in Egypt and she hopes to help Rebecca Spenser's efforts to raise money to buy her father's dig back. However, there is some concern that the chemicals might harm her and her unborn twins, so the developing is done by a third party. Other strictures of her condition are a stomacher she must wear and Katherine dutifully accustoms herself to it.
Ezekiel prepares a paper--in Latin--of his experiences of ancient Egyptian gods. Two weeks into our month-long break, Bertie tells Ezekiel to prepare a speech before the House of Lords in Parliament. When Ezekiel asks why, Bertie asserts Ezekiel must be seen amongst certain Peers and this is an excellent opportunity to do so. When Ezekiel asks what he should talk about, Bertie blithely advises him to choose whatever he's good at but for God's sake, make it not-embarrassing. After all, Bertie will be his sponsor before the Parliament. Ezekiel chooses his topic, writes his speech and in due time stands before the House of Lords--with Bertie as his sponsor--to deliver it. Ezekiel's speech on archaeological endeavors abroad is well received and he garnishes more than simply polite applause.
Bertie and Flora are busy making their estate ready for the ball they will hold soon, plying the High Society circuit heavily by attending teas and social events. Flora spearheads most of the social appearances, secure in the public eye with her magical amulet casting the illusion of human appearance. Flora also continues keeping her skills in sword and knifeplay honed. Bertie pursues a few lucrative deals with his many contacts on the side, including coming up with a scheme to divest himself of financial obligation to Dionysius's family.
Thus a month goes by since our last adventure and we all gather at Burlington House for a Royal Society presentation of Mdm. Selene Dashwood's monograph. Ezekiel, Katherine, and Beignet go, as well as Evie and Josephine. Beignet asserts this is an excellent opportunity for Evie to gain a back door entrance into higher social circles. Flora arrives as a public show of support of her half-sister. Bertie attends as well, always basking in Flora's beauty and poise. He steps away for a few moments, however, to talk to someone he knows and comes back to take his seat in time for the presentation.
Mdm. Selene is understandably not pleased to see the usurpers of her inheritance attend but there is little she can do about it. The public notice of her presentation was blatantly insulting to her professional capacity as a scientist and herself personally as a cat person, so her temper is already sour. Royal Society gatherings are normally well attended, with upwards of 400 showing. Tonight there are maybe 150 in the seats. This is yet another public snub and Selene carries herself as best she can in the face of it.
The time arrives and Selene presents her paper before the Royal Society. It is about the use of thaumaturgy on cellular life strands. It is all rather scientific and confusing for the uninitiated. Beignet manages to understand that thaumaturgy is somehow used to maneuver incredibly tiny units of life matter. Bertie follows it but it gives him a headache. Evie has no trouble at all understanding it. Josephine nearly has it all in her grasp, missing a part here and there. Katherine, Ezekiel, and Flora are simply lost. The rest of the audience pretend scrupulous polite interest, which is actually a snub. To add insult to injury, ten minutes into the presentation, hecklers start to shout out from the audience, meowing and yowling racously. Selene persevers despite, until the hecklers--obviously lower class ruffians hired to harrass her--actually approach the podium. Her temper snaps, Selene snarls and slashes the face of the closest heckler with her retractable claws. The heckler falls screaming to the floor.
Katherine, Josephine, and Evie immediately jump from their seats to defend Selene as the remaining four hecklers descend on her. Evie takes off her magical amulet as she goes, dispelling her human appearance. Josephine is right at her heels. Katherine follows with Flora coming along behind. Ezekiel's response is more measured and he makes his way calmly to the stage. Aghast, Beignet casts a darkness spell over the podium to avert scandal attaching to Katherine. Evie and Selene can see in the dark and the spell doesn't hamper them. Josephine has honed her skills in blind fighting and is likewise avoids penalty. The sudden violence and darkness sends the assembled Royal Society members in a panic and everyone else tries rushing out the door. Bertie stays out of the business and watches as his friends run headfirst into the darkness.
Evie rushes to Selene to get her off the stage. Josephine backs her play. Evie, Katherine, and Josephine refrain from using blades--their goal is to hurt and discourage, not to kill, the hecklers. Selene takes down two of the hecklers with her claws, slashing them horribly, yowling her rage at the slights she's endured for too long. Josephine punches one ruffian and Selene screams as another heckler's knife finds her flesh.
Beignet casts a gaslight spell, banishing the darkness of moments before. By its light Ezekiel stabs another of the hecklers. Kaherine escapes being blinded by the sudden light but Flora is dazzled by it. Three hecklers are on the floor, moaning and bleeding from Selene's claws and Ezekiel's sword. The two remaining hecklers decide their hired gig isn't worth getting eighty-sixed for and run. Katherien and Flora heal Selene's wound and Beignet casts an illusion on Selene's clothing to hide the bloodstains made by her wound. Beignet instructs Josephine and Evie to look concerned and offer Selene comfort when the police make their appearance.
Which they do, ten minutes after everything is over. Bertie plays the class card and gets the party and Selene off scott free. However, Selene's detractors have achieved their goal: they have publically discredited Selene as a scientist and severely compromised her social standing. It is a cruel blow to the cat woman and she leaves in a very very foul mood.
The party makes ready to leave Burlington House when Evie spost several people from Whitechapel off to the side waving her over. She's got her amulet on and so goes over to talk to them in her human guise. A bunch of fishment have come out of the sewers and are attacking people, they tell her. Crawled right out of the sewers they did. Evie tells them to wait. She will look into it, she promises, and rejoins the party in the carriage for the ride home.
During the ride home we discuss what happened. There is some speculation amongst our party if perhaps the hecklers weren't hired to effect just such an outcome. Bertie shows us what he stepped aside at the presentation for: he has come into possession of an odd jeweled crown. It is gold and has an unfamiliar sinuous look to it. It is set with gems--aquamarines, olivines, garnets, emeralds, and extremely fine cut glass. It looks vaguely aquatic and in another fifty-sixty years it would be easily recognizable as being in the Art Nouveau style. Josephine and Ezekiel consult their knowledge of lore and they conclude it looks to go on a non-human head. Bertie tells them it was found along with several other pieces by a digger working the Embankment project. He acquired the crown from someone who knew the digger, who is himself interested in selling it and the other pieces. Bertie only paid about five pounds for it. Beignet can see that the asking prices is far far too low. One of the gems alone is worth a minimum of that amount. Bertie announces he intends to give the crown to the British museum. The crown was found near where the fishmen have been seen. Are they connected? Are the fishmen emerging from the sewers to take the crown back. It does look as if designed to fit on a fishlike head.
We resolve to go to the sewers to find the digger who found the crown. We hire a carriage for the trip to Whitechapel and the Embankment project there. The clock strikes ten when we leave in a dense pea souper. We alight from the vehicle at New Blackfriar's Bridge where the Embankment ends. Some street urchins recognize Evie immediately and ask her if she's here to take care of the fishmen. Beignet gives one of them two pounds to find him an ogre. The ogre is found and Beignet pays him ten pounds to carry him through the odious sewers. The ogre, Georgie by name, agrees and carries the little man easily. Meanwhile the other urchins run off to spread the word that Evie's come to take care of the fishmen.
So much for the element of surprise.
We look around for the sewer entrance. It's difficult going given the dense fog. While Katherine, flora and Bertie mistake a street paver for a capstone over the sewer, Evie and Josephine find the gated entrance to it. The sewer tunnel is 8 feet tall and square, made of brick, and it the iron barred gate is securely locked. Well, until Josephine picks it. The gate is heavy, however, and Beignet orders Georgie to haul it open. Josephine casts about for a weapon for Georgie, who balks at going inside without one. She finds him a stout iron bar in the Embankment debris and after we consult Bertie's map of the project, we all march into the tunnel.
Beignet casts a light spell to light our way and just as we'd done a month before, Evie goes on ahead of the party as advance scout. It's not long before she hears a dirty sea chanty being sung by a reedy drunken voice and soon after that, an old man appears in the tunnel ahead of her. He's got a long white beard, dirty greasy attire, and a shining gold chalice tucked into his belt. Evie catches the glint of more gold about his person and the bag he carries clinks promisingly of even more valuable jink. She slips into the shadows and then tails him, relieving him of the chalice and whatever else she can reach as the old man sloshes unawares into our party's path. The old man sees Georgie in the distance, outlined in Beignet's light spell and calls out: Rory, is tha' you? Get th' wheelbarrow.
Rory approaches our party and we can all smell the booze on him. He seems a little taken aback that we've found him but soon recovers. More hands means lighter work digging out the treasure and it's rich enough to share. To seal the deal, he hands Beignet a flask of liquor. Beignet orders Georgie to drink it. Georgie shrugs and does so, emptying it. The old man introduces himself as Clyde and he tells us to follow him to the treasure.
After 20 minutes of slow going--for Clyde is old and cannot walk fast--Georgie slumps against the wall, nearly knocking Beignet off his shoulders. The liquor is finally taking effect. Beignet demands Ezekiel's belt to use as a rein. Ezekiel warns Beignet that he is not in the habit of taking his belt off for anyone but his Katherine ... but hands the belt over. While the rein is getting devised, Evie's sharp cat's vision spies an intersecting tunnel ahead. It's smaller than the main tunnel we're in, about 6 feet tall and round. Noise is coming from it and she leaves the party to scout ahead in it. She can make out movement far down it but cannot quite see what it is. She hears murmuring like speech but cannot quite understand what is said. She goes further down the tunnel .... until she sees there are figures coming her way. They are larger than human. Theire eyes are larger than human. They have oddly shaped heads.
She has found the fishmen.
They have not seen her yet. Evie fades back to warn us of their approach. Josephine and Ezekiel immediately flank the tunnel entrance, their swords at the ready to attack whatever exits the tunnel. It's small enough an entrance that only one person at a time can come out--a natural bottleneck. Katherine stands off at a distance, her rifle at the ready. Ezekiel and Josephine both strike the first of the fishmen and since they have the element of surprise, they kill him easily with a blow.
This however ruins the element of surprise for the others inside the tunnel and the second in line shoots Josephine with his weapon. She is flung across the tunnel and slams against the opposite wall. She's covered in a heavy sticky glue-like mass and it has cemented her to the brick. She is lucky her face escaped the nasty stuff, else she would have suffocated in seconds. Her arms are trapped and she cannot move to get free.
Ezekiel brings his sword to bear on the second fishman and kills him instantly. Evie goes to Josephine and sticks a claw into the goo--it's sticky but it doesn't hold her fast. Josephine has a knife up her sleeve and Evie fishes it out to start cutting her partner free. Beignet sees this and orders Georgie to pull the woman off the wall. Georgie hands Beignet off to Flora for safekeeping and approaches Josephine. Fearing for her life and limb--for Georgie is strong enough to tear her arms from their sockets--Josephine begs him to wait and let Evie try cutting her free. Georgie agrees to wait.
A third fishman is in the tunnel and shoots at Ezekiel. He dodges and the shot splats harmlessly on the tunnel walls. A few drops splashes on Evie's fur and she growls she'll never get it off. She keeps hacking at the stuff pinning Josephine as the third fishman turns tail and runs back the way he came.
Ezekiel gives chase. Katherins follows on his heels. Ezekiel catches up with the fishman and slices him into fishsticks. A fourth fishman runs out of the tunnel and Ezekiel calls for pursuit. He and Katherine give chase. They run beyond the boundary of Beignet's light spell and Katherine stumbles and falls in the dark. Ezekiel halts pursuit and helps her to her feet. Katherine asks if perhaps they should wait for the others to catch up? Ezekiel readily agrees. Ezekiel spies one of the fishmen's guns. As he has no gun skill, he hands it to Katherine to use. Looking it over in the growing light, she sees it is like a Sharps rifle that is made to shoot pellets from a magazine instead of bullets.
Thus armed, Ezekiel and Katherine wait as the rest of the party makes their way toward them.
(to be continued ....)
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