In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 245):

Grimsby replies , "I thank you for your information.  With your permission, I will go to the roof and attempt to discreetly ascertain if these persons might belong to the organization --not to say gang --that we have been pursuing.  I will not interfere with the experiment unless it becomes necessary to protect innocent lives" OOC: Unless the sergeant objects, Grimsby will depart as indicated.

"They are attempting wireless power transmission. That can't be done with so called direct current," Mercy explains to Dash. "Nikola theorized that at least three-phase current would be needed, but he was trying to invent five-phase. It's about more power in than it outputs, by a factor of a thousand with DC, if even possible. Three-phase may take a factor of a hundred."

"Not very practical."


As Connor and Bellgrove join Mercy and Dash, one of the men involved with the experiment notices them. A look of panic seems to come over him, and he quickly runs over to another door.

As the sergeant did not object, Grimsby will go out and head up the stairs. He is not running, but he is moving quite briskly. His right hand is on the familiar butt of the pistol in his pocket.

In reply to Grimsby Baskerville (msg # 250):

"Well, now, that seems peculiar." Dash says, nodding towards the quickly running man, "We are just standing here, not discernibly different than any other tourist group that might be wandering the castle, and yet upon sighting us, that fellow reacts like someone who's just seen a Papist at a Southern Baptist Revival."

Dash turns, slightly, to glance sideways at Connor, "I say, Mister Holmes, would it be your opinion that that gentleman, running there, is simply performing his amusing impersonation of a Quail being flushed from hiding, or is that the flight of someone who thinks he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar?"

"I'd say the second option is the more likely, Mr. Hawkesbury," Connor replied as he began to go after the fleeing man, "This quail knows something methinks, and being a sporting fellow, I'm going after him, feel free to lend a hand or ask those other chappies what's going on, be back in a flash."

With that the felinoid picked up the pace with a bit of a glint in his eyes, for it was always interesting to go after a live quarry, although he was still of a cautious bearing despite his apparent enthusiasm for the hunt..

In reply to Connor Holmes (msg # 252):

"Mr. Wander, perhaps you should also join the hunt." Dash said with a smirk, "I shall stay with Miss mercy, here, and unleash her upon those fellows still with the Sphere -- ah! Grimsby, old chap! Welcome!" Dash said with a wave, as he noticed the Brit coming up from below.

"We have a quail on the run..." Dash pointed off to where Connor and Bellgrove (?) were headed, "...who fled at our appearance, here. And Miss Mercy and myself were just about go out and beard the participants of the Dynasphere Experiment in their den, so to speak."

"What's your pleasure, my friend?"

Grimsby replied. "You seem to have things well in hand up here, Mr. Hawksbury, so I think I shall join the chase." HIs pistol had now appeared in his hand, and he took off after the others in pursuit of the running man.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Wed 28 Jan 2015.

In reply to Grimsby Baskerville (msg # 254):

Dash looks down at Mercy, "Well, Miss Mercy, what say we step outside and get a closer look at this Dynasphere." Dash looks around for a door among all these windows, "You say that they are attempting something like the broadcast power idea of Mister Tesla?"

Having been prepared to be at an utter loss amongst the technical and scientific talk that he had been preparing himself for Bellgrove felt a rather significant bit of relief when the fellow suddenly ups and runs.

"Quite so, fellows, let us see if we can not chat with He-Whom-Exits!", he replies. As he and Conner had approached the scene moments prior he had begun taking his notepad out of his coat in secretarial fashion, but as they move to pursue he pushes that back in and pulls out his Colt.

"Tally Ho, lads!"

There were French doors as part of the windows, which is what you'd used to step out onto the balcony cum rooftop. It wraps around the central courtyard. The door was at one corner, the inventors at the corner to your right, and the fleeing 'inventor' then ran to the opposite corner from you and dashed through the French doors there.

As Dash and Mercy move over to the remaining inventors, Connor, Grimsby and Bellgrove pursue down the left-hand balcony, across the back, and through the door.

Once through the door, there is a hallway to the right, which has windows all along it, and you didn't see the fleeing inventor go down that way, so he must have gone to the left, which becomes a cross hallway. Again, to the left runs along the back section of balcony, which you all ran past, so most likely you would have spotted him if he went that way. That leaves only the cross hallway right.

Clearly, he is more familiar with the layout of the castle than you are. You are heading deeper into the main part of the castle. After dashing down the hall a ways, you hear rapdid footsteps probably running down stairs. Just up ahead, what you thought was doorway turns out to be the entrance to a flight of stairs going down.


"The fleeing man and the brunette inventor over there are the two people that made contact with the black ship," Mercy tells Dash, as she strides over to the others.

"Hello!" she calls out. "Marvelous invention you have there! My friend here is afraid he'll be... what is the term they are using now? Oh, yes... electrocuted! I tried to reassure him that it isn't possible, but he still needs convinced. My name is Mercedez Kincaid. This is my friend Dash."

"However do you get the power sent over such a large distance? Are you using the von Guericke principle or the Hertz method?"

Grimsby plunges down the stairs, hoping to regain sight of the fleeing man.

Bellgrove is also down the stairs after the man.

Clearly Connor is a bit quicker than the others, however it's all he can do to keep up with the fleeing person who is much more familiar with the layout.

Once down on what you thought was the 'ground floor' turns out to be a more literal ground floor, since it's below the 1st floor, yet isn't quite underground--there are windows at the back that send light into the level.

However, the target doesn't stop there, but heads further down into the dungeon level.

Connor has nearly caught up with him when he darts around a corner and Connor hears a door slam just as he reaches the corner. Peering around the corner, he sees that it's a short 10-foot hallway that ends in a door. He hears bolts slammed into place before he can get to the door.

"Grrrrawl! Dash it all!!" Connor snarled in a very tigerlike fashion as he skidded to a sudden stop in front of the bolted oaken door, only a pace or two away from having put his shoulder to the thing and bashing it clean off its hinges before the bolts could be rammed home, but now it was too late, even more galling to the felinoid was that his prey had been able to outrun him..

In between heavy pants as he caught his breath, for like his wild cousins he was built for the sprint and then a quick powerful kill, not an endurance run, he hissed, "Bugger must be enhanced...no ordinary human can run as fast as I can at full tilt.. Always a first though...."

Even as he built up towards a second wind, his mind was still going a mile-a-minute, looking for an alternative way or a shortcut and maybe resuming the pursuit..

Dash works hard not to frown as Mercy makes him out to be the bumpkin in their effort to gain knowledge, but decides he won't play the fool, but simply the uninformed dilettante.

So, in his best Bostonian accent -- the one he only uses when brought to the carpet before his Great Uncle, the Family Patriarch, Dash adds, "And just how do you keep such a magnificent thing aloft? Is it filled with that...oh, what is it you science chappies call it? Oh, yes! Hydrogen! Is it a balloon filled with that hydrogen stuff?"

In reply to Connor Holmes (msg # 261):

Bellgrove, not being an enhanced human, arrives at the barred door shortly after Conner and no less out of breath and frustrated. As he catches his breath he too scans the door, "One would expect a castle dungeon door to be a strong one..."

Glancing wryly at Conner, "Shall we attempt to put our shoulders to it? It seems as if we have little other option unless your mechanical aptitude might be able to somehow get the hinges off the thing."

Grimsby comes up behind Bellgrove, having joined the chase a little later. He is winded enough to be without his usual dignity, but clearly shares the frustration of the others. He says briefly, "I'm willing to add my shoulder to the door, if that's the best we can do." He sounds more angry than hopeful.

"All we'd be doing is making a few scratches and injuring our shoulders," Connor said with a shake of his head, "That's three foot thick solid oak with reinforced iron hinges, which are on the wrong side so I can't cheat and pop the pins. If I had some explosive, I'd bust through this quick enough, but alas, left my dynamite in my other trousers..."

Up on the roof...


One of the women steps forward and responds to Mercy's and Dash's comments.

"Greetings. I am Karma van Lyskra," she begins. "This is Professor Zornig from Axphain and Dr. Rood from Dawsbergen. And this is our guest, Miss Iburra from Spain."

"Any spark would set off hydrogen explosively, Mr. Hawkesbury, so we cannot use it. The sphere is held aloft by electromagnetic force."

"Now, how did you get in here? This is a restricted area."



Down in the dungeon...


As Connor, Grimsby, and Bellgrove stand there contemplating what to do about the door, they hear a faint scraping sound. It is Connor, with his sharper hearing and mechanical experience, that first realizes that the sound is the bolts on the inside of the door moving.

He quickly realizes that the dynasphere's magnetic energy is pulling the bolts open.

Grimsby hears the sound but does not recognize it.  He says "What's that noise?" sharply.

Connor smiled as he heard the bolts slowly retreat under the influence of the dynasphere's powerful magnetic fields, the same fields that were making the tools on his toolbelts clink and occasionally shudder, and was playing havoc with his well-loved pocket watch.

"That, lads, would the door unlocking, thank you very much Mr. Tesla," the felinoid said to Grimsby and Bellgrove before raising his leg and giving the door a sharp, powerful kick, sending it flying open with a great slam, meant to surprise anybody who might've been on the other side and maybe bowling them over...

In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 266):

Dash thought quickly. The Spanish woman, Iburra, was standing too close to the controls of the Dynasphere to take any chances. Quickly, Dash decided upon a program of half-truths.

Continuing in his snooty Bostonian accent, "We are in this quaint castle of yours because our bona fides were accepted at the gate; how else? As for why we are here, it is at the behest of our patrons..." Dash points up at the floating metal sphere, "...and that!"

"I work for Lord Kentigern, the Scottish Industrialist. I'm here to look into certain...interests...he has in Graustark, at the moment." Dash watches Iburra for any reaction, "And Miss Kincaid, here, has been sent by her Mentor -- you might have heard of the chap? -- Mister Nikola Tesla, after he'd heard rumors of your work."

In reply to Connor Holmes (msg # 268):

Grimsby gripped his pistol firmly to keep it from being moved by the electrical force, and began heading toward the doorway as soon as Connor opened it, saying "Thank you, Mr. Holmes" as he went.

Pfui. This one got away from me... again. I 'wrote' a response in my head... and forgot to post it.


Down in the Dungeon

As Grimsby, Bellgrove and Connor enter the room beyond the door, you can see the man you were chasing sitting at a desk in the opposite corner of the room. He's rapidly operating some sort of device.


Up on the Roof

"I attended one of Mr. Tesla's lectures in New York two years ago," Karma replies.

"Ja, I have several of his books," Professor Zornig adds.

"So why would our humble little experiment interest either of you, or Lord Kentigern or Nikola Tesla?" Iburra asks.

Not trusting whatever the device was the man was using, Grimsby pointed his pistol squarely at the man's chest and snapped, "Put your hands flat on the desk, and don't move."