20.March.1888, in the 51st year of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. London, Anglia.
A large man in an impressive cloak rides in a cab towards 221-B Baker Street. But we are not following that cab on this damp, cold, overcast "spring" evening. Instead we turn north, towards the British Museum and the University College of London. Well, to be exact, to the lower lecture hall in the great brickstone building that houses the Society of Geographical and Foreign Studies
At almost the final moment, the Society of Geographical and Foreign Studies had lowered the price of admission to this night's lecture due to the last minute substitution of Explorer Dirk Blowhard for the world-renown Professor Challenger. Seeing the sign announcing the change, a relatively young man in poor quality thread-bare clothing paused, then uttering an unintelligible command to the two slant-eyed retainers following him, bought a ticket and left them out with the cabbies and other street people. Inside, the removal of his hat to his cane hand showed a badly scarred left cheek and the close-cut sandy hair of a military man of recent extraction. Jonathan Blake took a seat near the back of the auditorium.
Meanwhile, as the servants waited outside, the elder, Lok, became involved in a dice game. The younger, Po, watched until, suddenly, he felt a touch. A Buddhist monk smiled and handed him a small piece of stone. "You will be needing this." Bemused the young Chinaman watched the monk head into an alley. Then he got up to follow - but there was no monk.
Inside, as a young, brightly-dressed, gypsy woman found her seat towards the middle of the audience, other, more soberly dressed folk pulled a bit away. But the benches were pretty well packed. Professor Challenger had been rather a "draw". Voronika Costorari smiled to herself and settled her umbrella next to her knee.
To the side, an elegantly dressed Irish lady with striking red hair settled into her place. Isabel Courtney's father had had an appointment elsewhere so his teenaged daughter had chosen to hear what others had to say about her native Africa.
Likewise, tall Madeline Davis slipped gracefully into a seat near the front, quietly settling what looked suspiciously like a doctor's bag behind her skirt of half-mourning.
Dark-haired, heavily-mustachioed and wearing a broad-brimmed bush hat quite alien to the London fogs, Arvey Penrington found a seat near the left aisle. Almost immediately a small nervous man with a tiny dark moustache sat down at his side, blocking that exit. The little man held a largish box balanced on one knee. They - the man and box - jiggled constantly. As the chairman announced the change in speakers to the gathering audience, the little man jerked in astonishment. "W-what!? N-no p-p-Professor Ch-challenger? But I c-came to see p-p-Professor Ch-challenger!" Penrington shrugged. "What is it you have in the box, friend?" "M-my p-p-Perpetual Motion m-Machine. I was g-going to show it t-to the profe-fessor. I c-can tell you how it f-functions." As the little man began to get technical, Penrington was shushed by the surrounding audience now trying to listen to Mr. Blowhard. So Penrington shushed the jiggling little man. But the nervous movement continued distractingly.
The second speaker for the evening was Professor Samuel Birch of the British Museum. He, too, had a doctor's bag from which he removed a few items that he laid on the podium. He began to speak in a thin voice that betrayed his nervousness before such a large audience. Suddenly he was interrupted as the Speaker's Door splintered and a great 6-foot-tall Mechanical Man burst through with an inarticulate roar. Almost at the same moment came a crashing of glass from above as the windows near the ceiling burst at the entrance of a swarm of winged monkeys. The amazing creatures were attired in little leather vests and a few even had pill-box hats. They dived towards the central podium and the bewildered speaker.
As the first attackers drew blood, several other monkeys scrabbled for the items on the podium while still others began to pelt the audience with monkey feces.
Isabel slipped under her bench.
Blake stayed seated, and unbeknownst to others unshielded a bit of radium, slowly causing monkeys and people to become sleepy.
Penrington pushed past the man with the box and raced down the steps, ending up by the professor. Behind him, the small man was screaming "My machine! My machine!" as the box crashed into the aisle and little bits of machines and a lot of ball bearings started rolling down the steps.
Voronika dodged the bit of feces that one of the monkeys threw near her. Others in the crowd weren't so lucky.
The Mechanical Man reached into his mouth and pulled something out.
Madeline reached out one hand towards the podium in a mesmeristic gesture, clutching her locket with the other.
Penrington swung at one of the monkey's pummeling the professor and nearly felled it.
The Mechanical Man threw the other monkey off the professor and into the blackboard whence it slipped to the floor, unconscious.
Voronika opened her umbrella for protection from monkey attacks. Others of our incipient Heroes maintained their attacks or positions.
Most of the monkeys took wing, one carrying the professor's bag. One attempted to fly but seemed stuck to the podium. It started screaming.
As the audience struggled out to the aisles to flee, suddenly those now between Penrington and his seat began to slip and fall. The floor was covered with rolling ball bearings. "My machine!" the little man wailed, as he was covered in a pile of people trying to get out. The people outside noticed the first of the people running and screaming from the lecture hall.
Voronika closed her umbrella and took aim at the monkey with the bag. The umbrella caught on its wing.
Penrington leapt up onto the first row desks and then after the monkey with the bag. He slipped on something on the desk (probably monkey poo) and missed, landing on top of a wide-eyed matron and her tiny poodle in the third row.
Having peeked, Isabel tried a similar leap from above, nimbly spinning over the desks, but also missing and landing on top of Penrington, the lady, and the dog.
The Mechanical Man swatted the injured monkey off the professor and it began to roll around the floor in agony.
Madeline's hand squeezed and the monkey stuck to the podium cried out in pain.
The monkeys continued their escape flight. The one with the bag dislodged Veronica's umbrella. The umbrella fell, striking Isabel in the back. That monkey, however, didn't manage to escape, having been slowed by the action.
Isabel stood. Penrington stood. The woman stood and began beating Penrington with her umbrella. The dog yapped hysterically.
Isabel tried to launch the umbrella back at the monkey but failed to hit.
The Mechanical Man pointed at the monkey with the bag and something exploded from his arm. The monkey exploded too. A steel cord extended from the mechanical arm through the window where the monkey had been. Monkey bits decorated the upper section of the hall. The people outside saw whatever-it-was go through the windows and eventually land on the other side of the street, the metal cable trailing behind.
A small boy stared wide-eyed through the door broken by the Mechanical Man, then ducked away.
The Chinamen looked into the hall where, spotted by Blake, they were put to work finding the remains of the professor's bag.
Voronika, grabbing an abandoned cashmere coat, trotted past Madeline and said, "Nice trick."
Madeline, non-plussed, remained in place while Isabel acrobatically leaped onto the floor (distracting both Penrington and Blake with a glimpse of neatly turned ankle). The younger woman then clobbered the monkey the young doctor had been "holding" by mesmeric grip. Isabel scooped up the plaque the monkey had been holding.
Voronika used the coat to secure the one intact but unconscious monkey, paramedicking its wounds so that it would not die. Then the teenaged gypsy acquired a fine cloak and new umbrella for herself from the debris abandoned in the lecture hall. A little later she acquired a nice silver cigarette case, some handkerchiefs, and a pen.
Those left in the hall gathered around the professor. Madeline proceeded to check his wounds and then cast a healing spell over the damage to his head.
Voronika seemed momentarily alarmed at something she seemed to think was directed at Po. Having ascertained via Blake that there was nothing to be seen, she engaged the young Chinaman in a conversation, that quickly became sotte voce, about large martial types in fur hats. (And big nasty swords. Don't forget the big nasty meat-cleaving swords.)
Blake having found a card in the professor's bag that identified something as a piece of "Aries' stele" persuaded Isabel to return the plaque to the befuddled speaker. As the professor began to explain about the stele, and the people around introduced themselves, various of those assembled surprisingly added other bits of broken plaque to the one the professor had brought. Almost all had had pieces of the stele with them. All pieces were examined by those assembled with great curiousity, albeit some might noticed that Voronika hesitated before touching each. Blake began to make a rubbing of the assembled pieces. The professor took an instant dislike to Blake as soon as he introduced himself.
The heavily engraved one presented by Madeline made Prof. Birch's jaw drop. Birch demanded, "You said that your fiancé sent this? And who is your fiancé?"
Madeline replied, "My fiancé was Dr. Warring."
The professor's attitude suddenly became conciliatory. "Warring? Oh, you're that Dr. Davis. You're Maddy! Oh, I am so sorry, my dear, so very sorry."
The professor engaged himself to take the various pieces to determine their authenticity. Blake advised him to seek better security after this attack by supernatural creatures. A new voice from the door behind the podium (where the cleaning boy had been) - Griswold, the majordomo for the Society - assured them authoritatively that the professor would be well cared for. The assembly could call for him at the Museum the following afternoon.
And the police showed up. Apparently winged monkeys had also attacked the Excelsior Hotel. Isabel paled and it was quickly determined that the room so invaded had been in the suite occupied by herself and her father, a well-known big-game hunter.
Exiting the Society building, all noticed that further down the street there was a great crowd watching firemen try to put out a burning building. "That's where I woke up," stated the Mechanical Man in some perturbation.
The group hastened to the hotel and -- while the police again questioned Miss Courtney -- did their best to determine what had happened. Item: a partially filled bath, soap-scummed water cold by now. Item: a monkey, on the wall next to the bathtub, impaled by a single blow of a hunting knife, Mr. Courtney's favourite knife. Item: one man's wet footprint - and only one -- could be seen on the floor. Item: a spot of blood was near the window. Item: all the furnishings - down to the lady's dainties -- had been tossed and befouled.
The hotel manager demanded reparation from Isabel. The group protested. The police would allow no removal of personal effects (but the inspector did give Isabel his card). Madeline offered Isabel lodging in her own flat while things got worked out. The hotel manager continued to be obnoxious. The group decided to reconvene in Blake's parlor (relatively nearby). Penrington, thinking, "I'm not about to share the treasure this map will clearly lead us to with anyone who can't contribute their part," noted that Isabel had been the only person of the group not to have contributed a piece of stele. Madeline reminded Isabel that her father might have left something of import in the hotel safe and, yes, another piece of the stele was found therein. This piece of stele has not been given to Birch yet, and contains the symbol of Aries.
At Blake's lodging house, he was greeted by the teenage proprietress Polly Oliver who was astounded that Mr. Blake would bring such a horde - including a monkey and a Mechanical man - into the parlor at such an hour. Blake attempted to terrify the poor girl with the monkey; she grabbed a nearby pewter pitcher to hit it and he moved the monkey out of the way. The group proceeded to determine how each had come by their piece of stele. The Mechanical Man narrowly avoided sitting on a fragile chair.
As Professor Birch had seemed to think the scarred young man knew all about the stele, Jonathan Blake reluctantly began, stating that if the uncomfortable story were to be told, he preferred that it all be told. His father had, back in '84-86, been a recorder on an African dig sponsored by Lord Cardiff. Amongst the finds recorded was the broken (8 pieces) but intact "Stele of Aries" so named for one of its markings. This, amongst other finds, was placed within the safe of one of the returning airships, the Wings of Cardiff. However, the unfortunate ship went down in the desert and only a few hands survived. The safe survived as well but, when it was chiseled open, both the Record book inside and the pieces of the stele therewith bore no resemblance to the originals, one piece of which was still in Lord Cardiff's hands. The senior Blake protested his innocence but the evidence indicated that he had doctored the books and spirited away the real stele for sale on the Continent. Spending all he had to try to disprove this, Blake Sr. died in disgrace. What seems to be a piece of the true stele came to Jonathan Blake as part of his (pauce) inheritance. [I didn't actually hear how JB came by his piece....]
The Mechanical Man had introduced himself as Benjamin Steele (having found the name on the inside of his top hat which, like his jacket, ill fitted him). His shirt, pants, shoes and undergarments, however, seemed an excellent fit over his barrel chest and peculiar limbs. He told a story of having been an engineer in the military in '83, on a voyage to Africa. [Well, that is as much of his life as he has been able to remember.] The vessel was the Wings of Cardiff. This is the same ship that crashed in '86 carrying the safe with the stele. He recalled putting the stele piece in the mouth of the mechanical man. He recalled hearing the phrase "Courtney and then Birch" just as he woke up this evening. He'd grabbed his coat and hat and rushed to save the professor. He is utterly bemused to find himself made of steel and bellows with chest gages indicating his status and a need for burning fuel in his belly.
Voronika Costorari claimed to have gotten her piece from a woman whose Royal navy airman husband had died.
Arvey Penrington stated that his piece had recently arrived by courier from an old associate of his from his South African sojourn ten years ago. Included in the package was the sign that he and "Benji" had agreed on for "danger".
A discussion started on letting the monkey go and trying to follow it back to its 'master' with the hopes of helping the missing Mr. Courtney. No means of actually keeping tabs on the released monkey was hit upon, however.
Then the local policeman Paddy (summoned by Polly via the maid Jenny) showed up and the group went their ways, agreeing to meet the next day at the museum for the scheduled interview with Prof. Birch.
Penrington spent the night near the house where Ben Steele had claimed he'd awakened, but no information was to be gathered from watching officials watching the smoking remains.
DEX 20. Of average height, red-haired, approximately 18 years old. No accent but her Anglish is too good to be native. Daughter of a famous big game hunter.
DEX 20. Small and slight, with dark hair and a perpetual five o'clock shadow. He wears sturdy traveling clothes and a broad brim hat. He has an East End accent. He joined the army 10 years ago; so that would make him about 28.
DEX 18. About 5 ft tall and in her late teens. Olive complexion, black hair and eyes; obviously Romany. No accent but her Anglish is too good to be native. She wears bright colours but no red, and a head scarf. At times she seems distracted and talks to herself.
DEX 18. 6' tall ugly man of steel who thinks he is - or was - a human. Barrel-shaped chest. Too heavy for normal furniture. He seems startled and confused, perhaps, though it's hard to separate it out from his reaction to being unable to remember most of the past few years' events. It was clear that he did not realise what had happened to him until someone pointed it out.
DEX 14. Medical practitioner at University College Hospital, London. Tall at 5'3" for a woman. In Typical English fresh-complected blond, dressed in greyish purple half-mourning of plain material and good cut. In her early 20s. (Practically "on the shelf"/an old maid.)
DEX 14. Clean-shaven with close-cropped hair. A large burn on the left side of his face severely reduces his comeliness. His clothing is poor and oft-mended. In his mid to late 20s albeit his age is not as apparent due to the scarring of his face.
DEX unknown. Slim 4' 6" Chinaman with 3-ft long queue. Son to Lok. The others have difficulty assessing his age.
DEX unknown. Scrawny and even shorter Chinaman from Hong Kong. Servant to Jonathan Blake.
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