Bellgrove also raises his pistol taking careful aim at the man's right shoulder.

"Or don't. You have a count of three: One..."

In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 271):

Dash responds to the lady spaniard, "For myself, this experiment of yours holds only a mild interest, and even less to Lord Kentigern. As I said, I am here only in....pursuit....of other business interests of His Lordship."

"However, as Lord Kentigern and Nikola Tesla are correspondents, upon learning of the trip out here, Mr. Tesla asked that I escort Miss Kincaid, here, on an errand of investigation for him into your experiments -- but I'll leave those technical details to her."

Dash affects an uninterested shrug of his shoulders, "I'm just here to meet a scientist who's working on a project for Lord Kentigern." Dash watches the three carefully for reactions, as he continues.

"Perhaps you've heard of the Gentleman -- he's supposed to have arrived in Graustark some time ago -- a Professor Cavor?"

"Two..." Connor put in calmly as he pulled off his gloves, the razor-sharp claws in the tips of his handpaws' fingers coming out, his ears laying back as he bared his fangs and growled for good measure. If bullets didn't frighten the man and convince him to step away, a pissed-off tiger-man might...

Grimsby calmly finished the count with "Three." and waited briefly to see if he needed to do more.

In the Basement...

The man operating the device makes a quick glance at the intruders and then seems to double his efforts on the machine. He pays no heed to any commands or threats.


On the Roof...

Although all three of the experimenters seem doubtful of Mercy's ability to understand what they are doing let alone assist in some way, the woman seems to understand being a woman in a man's field of endeavor.

"Well, I've come to appreciate the axiom that too many cooks spoil the broth," Karma replies, casting quick glances at her two cohorts, "but perhaps you'll have an insight, Miss Kincaid, that we've not been able to see."

"So far, all we've managed to do is spin a little weather vane via static electricity. It's certainly not going to light up an entire city, or provide power to a locomotive."

"Pray tell, how did Mr. Tesla solve the problem of voltage drop?"


At Dash's name-dropping, the three inventors give no sign of recognition. And while the Spaniard shakes her head in the negative, he's pretty sure the contraction of her pupils indicates at least recognition if not actual concern.

"Mr. Tesla has never written any books," Mercy counters Professor Zornig's statement. "He's a very private person and seldom writes down anything, but I suppose it's possible that one of his assistants over the years might have published something in his name. I would be very interested in viewing these books, Professor."

"As for voltage drop, he came up with a phased electrical discharge system. It was only three-phase but seemed to be on the right track. He plans on venturing into the realm of five-phase once he returns to the United States and rebuilds his laboratory at Wardenclyffe."

Hearing Grimsby's count and since the man does not cease Bellgrove breaths in gently and pulls the trigger.

Since Wander has fired, Grimsby waits to see the effect of that shot before firing himself. He wants the man wounded and intimidated, susceptible for questioning, not dead, if possible.

This is a free-form diceless game, so there is no dice rolling. If it comes down to it, I compare the appropriate attribute for your character against an appropriate attribute of the target. Whoever has the better attribute succeeds. If it's a tie, I'll go with what makes the story more entertaining.


He hits the man in the shoulder, and the force of the hit partly spins the man around. Now that he sees the three of you, he grabs his gun that was on the desk, raises it and shoots back. His first shot slams into the door frame.

"That is what one gets for not aiming at the head!", Bellgrove says as he goes to a knee and returns fire hoping.

Seeing that the man has the audacity to take on two armed opponents, Grimsby decides there is no point in trying to save him for questioning and joins Wander in returning the fellow's fire.

Dash gives a casual wave of his hand and shrugs non-commitally.

"Ah, well, no matter." Dash says, "I missed our last meeting, but my people have just located where he is, now, and I will be seeing him after this visit."

The man was in the opposite corner, facing the wall, sitting in front of a desk. The apparatus on the desk he was operating with his right hand, which was also the hand that he used to pick up the gun that was laying on the desk. He had to turn in his chair slightly to see and aim at Bellgrove and Grimsby.

Between Bellgrove's shot, which does hit him in the right shoulder, and Grimsby's follow up shot, the man is driven backwards and knocked out of the chair to the floor.

OOC: Does that mean that Grimsby's shot missed, or that Grimsby fired into him on the floor?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:35, Mon 23 Feb 2015.

It was probably Bellgrove's shot that put him off balance, and Grimsby's that knocked him to the floor.

When the man falls Bellgrove moves forward carefully, "I would love to interview this fellow, Mr. Baskerville, but am happy for you to ask the first questions if he is still alive."

Grimsby leans over the man, looking to see where his own bullet hit him, and at the same time asking sharply, "Are you with the Vril?"

Although the man isn't dead yet, his injuries are fatal and he will soon be.

Grimsby isn't even sure if the man can hear him, but he doesn't reply.

In reply to GM StarMaster (msg # 290):

Grimsby shrugs and looks at the man's wrist, to see if he shared a logo with the Vril.

Bellgrove moves forward to take a look at the device the man had been trying to manipulate, "Well, that did not go as planned for any of us, did it?", he says dourly.

Yes, the man has the Vril tattoo on the back of his hand.


As Bellgrove looks at the apparatus, he has some resemblance to a telegraphic emitter, but it has no wire leading from it. It doesn't take much to guess the device is using Hertzian waves to transmit (and presumably receive) wireless messages.

"Some sort of wireless transmitter...", Bellgrove mutters as he looks more closely attempting to figure out whether or not it is possible to get some sort of replay of whatever message the man was attempting to send. Indeed, if he managed to complete a message...

Grimsby is coolly searching the dying man for anything informative, but at Bellgrove's words he looks around, "So that is what it is? I had thought it might be a sort of weapon. In a way, I wish it had been. Now his comrades most likely know we are here, while we, unfortunately, do not know the whereabouts of his comrades, aside from the folk on the roof, who may be innocent."   

Up On The Roof...

"Perhaps, Miss Kincaid, you'd be kind enough to explain this phase current?" Karma responds.

"I can probably do an adequate job of explaining 3-phase transmission through wire," Mercy answers, "but I fear I know nothing about 5-phase or how phased current can be propogated through the air. I know he was comparing it to lightning, but aren't we all?"

"I have no idea why my associate ran off like that," Iburra speaks up then, "or why your comrades chased after him, but perhaps I should go look after him. They don't intend him any harm, do they?"

She waits a moment for a reply before starting to move off in the same direction.


Down In The Dungeon...

On the apparatus, there is a coherer that punches Morse code dots into a continuous strip of paper tape. It is unclear if it can be used to record outgoing messages, but it can be used for incoming messages. There appear to be remnants of such burnt to ash in a ceramic dish off to the side.

Searching through the man's clothes, you find his papers that aver that he is who he said he was. You find a billfold with 6,000 banknotes (Graustark gavvo) in it. You also find a small folding pocket knife with several blades, as well as a small electro-mechanical device. It's about the size of a matchbox.

You also find a rolled up strip of paper tape.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:23, Sat 28 Feb 2015.

Grimsby pockets the knife and sets aside the wallet for further examination. He holds out the device and the paper to the others, saying, "Can either of you make anything of this machine? Or the tape?  I suspect it may record a message from the device he was trying to operate."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:01, Mon 02 Mar 2015.