Merry Christmas !

Linus adventures part 2 - A journey into the Lovecraftian town Innsmouth

The End of the World

(Photos credits go to Breezy Carver, except for the first three pics. Many thanks to her for the photos and transcript as I missed a lot of what happened at the skystation..)


The End of the World was planned for friday 12th of December. Or so Jason Moriarty told Rip Wirefly when he attacked Miss McMillan and him in their house.

So we knew the date.

And we suspected the place too, because Moriarty had attacked a lot of people that day. First Miss Jedburgh Dagger, next to the theatre, then Mr Holmes, outside the clinic he had carried Miss Jedburgh to so she could be taken care of by the Doctors Watson and Kaligawa, then Mr Wirefly and Miss McMillan, whom Moriarty almost blew up. And we also learnt later that he attempted an attack on the Dr O, which failed because the evil villain is used to handle big amounts of electricity. More importantly, during the attack on Mr Holmes, the detective shot Moriarty with his gun, and Moriarty transformed into a werewolf upon this shot, indicating his powers were weakening and that he would need to "recharge" them soon.

So he would need to go to the Tesla Machine.

We gathered at the entrance of the big Tesla Machine this evening of the 12th of december and decided of a plan :

Miss Janus had ordered a Faraday cage and received it in time. We thought that would prevent Moriarty from attacking with his electricity powers. Jimmy had lighten up huge fires on each side of the entrance and Mr Wirefly and Miss Janus set up the cage right in the middle. The cage had two doors, in front and in the back, and the plan was that Mr Wirefly would run through the cage to lure Moriarty inside, that Miss Janus would shut the first door down after Moriarty and that Mr Wirefly would shut down the second door behind him after having left the cage.

We didn't know if that would work but that was the only plan we had...

I had built some flutes, because one of the documents the Van Creed guy brought to the Iron Essence was relating means to fight a werewolf, and one of them was the use of high-pitched noises, supposed to irritate them and make them retreat. I distributed all my flutes around and everyone agreed on the fact their sound was annoying.

Mr Holmes and the Doctor Katri were perched on the terrace of the neighbour house, Mr Holmes ready to fire with his rifle and the Doctor Katri ready to heal anyone who would need it.

Another fire had been lighten up on the roof of the Tesla Machine, to prevent any attempt from Moriarty to get in by this entrance.

We were all waiting, nervous, trying to rethink our plan and get faith into it, and Mr Dagger even told a joke to entertain us, but then... he arrived.


We didn't really see him but we felt him. Mr Wirefly warned us about the shadows moving, and Jimmy drew our attention on the ground. We could see the tracks of his feet in the snow.
Miss Janus signed Rip and he ran through the cage. We could see the snow moving about, steps following Mr Wirefly inside. Miss Janus slapped the cage's door close and Rip did the same on his side.
We squinted trying to see inside the cage when suddenly, he appeared.
"LET ME OUT !!" he yelled, become visible again.
Miss Breezy exclaimed in surprise that he was just a little boy, a child, but we explained her he was evil, just trying to fool us.
Jason tried to launch one of his lightning attacks, but it failed because of the Faraday cage and he hit the bars out of rage.
At this moment, a dark flying silhouette, with immense bat shaped wings appeared against the full moon and landed amongst us. I recognized the Professor Nishi... or what she had become.
At the same time, Moriarty vanished from inside the cage. We stared in the cage, trying to spot him, asked aloud where he had gone, wondered if he could have gone inside, and suddenly, as the Professor Nishi had crossed the cage to get inside the Tesla Machine, a voice reached us from inside the building, the hysterical voice of Jason Moriarty screaming : "I AM A MONSTER ! ".
We heard the Professor calling his name and the Doctor Kaligawa calmly informed us he was behind the coil.
"He turned into a werewolf again!" added Mr Holmes.
Then we spotted him too and I claimed he was recharging his powers. The Professor confirmed and turned again towards Moriarty.
"Now...are you stronger?" she asked him.
"I am what i was" he replied. "but i lack what is needed to fullfill my Gods wishes." he added.
The Professor nodded and asked :
"Indeed. Now...how does this end? Do you live another day?"
At this moment, Miss Janus signed us to use our flutes and I reached for mine, as did Miss Chernov, Will and the others. We started to play as high-pitched and annoying sounds as we could. This just caused the werewolf to sneer in our direction and we stopped playing, seeing it was totally unefficient.
"We must decide." insisted the Professor.
"No, I am merely the instrument." answered Jason. "I shall show you."
"We are *all* merely instruments." the Professor replied.
"My dear Nareth, dear sweet Nareth, i so want to show you everything."
"Then show me."
At this moment, we all stepped back and stared in horror as something was happening inside. A seemingly huge wall of unnaturally orange flames had filled the building in. After a while, we could distinguish the winged silhouette of the Professor and heard her sigh, but no sight of Jason Moriarty, anywhere...
Then a voice behind us called the name of Mr Wirefly and we turned to see Jesper Renfold, that man from the Van Creed, standing right there, staring at the burning building.


"What has happened here?" he asked. "The Van Creed need your help." he added.
The Doctor Kaligawa spoke in from her perch to ask what was this thing, pointing to the huge airship landed on the railtracks between the church and the gate leading to the Tesla Machine.
"It's MY airship." answered Renfold. "My fellow agents are still up there."
"Nice landing..." commented Mr Holmes.
"Moriarty will gain the power of the Cloud Angel unless you do something NOW!" yelled Renfold.
We asked him what we could do, and he explained :
"We had two Cloud Destroyers and a sky station up there, we found the Cloud Angel, but so has Moriarty." He added : "The Professor must know."
The name shocked me and I couldn't help but ask : "Cloud Destroyers???"
"Yes" he answered. "Previous work of the late Captain."
"You are foolish to play with that power." frowned Mr Wirefly.
We then bombarded Jesper Renfold with questions like "Is Moriarty up there?", "Who has got the Cloud Angel now?" "How can we get there?" "Where is the ship?". And he continued :
"At this moment in time, I do not know. My ship is somewhat imobilised. We were about to extract the Angel from the air when a huge electrical surge eminated from the ground. My ship was hit, and I crashed here. The Cloud Angel is in the sky directly above Port Babbage."
And with that he ran away.

And the Cuckoos' robot appeared...

During all this exchange, the Professor Nishi was still inside the burning building, shouting at us :
"What are you all looking at! What are you all waiting for! Run... all of you! I cannot hold it."
I think something happened with the Professor, which also involved Miss Janus, but we were too busy with the Van Creed man to notice it and only a few know for sure what happened. Miss Breezy took care of Miss Janus, who somehow felt cold... I am not sure why or how.
I heard the Professor screaming "None of you are welcome in this world!"
But I don't know if she was talking to us or to someone else... Maybe Old Gods?
She added: "You will leave now, and you will return to that darkness from whence you have come." "I take you...into..me."

While Miss Breezy and Miss Chernov were attending the shivering Miss Janus, Jimmy, Will and I hopped in a hovercart and flew right to the Port and then up above the place around which the Captain Zessinthal's airship had crashed.

We finally reached a skystation, with a huge airship docked and a hexagonal plateform stamped with the golden interlinked V and C of the Van Creed.

Mr Wirefly was standing there, in a narrow alley picturing one side of the hexagon, while Jason Moriarty was in the middle, facing the Professor Nishi, who I had seen earlier flying in the sky with her big bat shaped wings. Between the two of them was a bubble of white light, like a cloud of sparkling stars, but something like a foetus could be distinguished inside. Exactly like on the picture seen in the room of the Captain Zessinthal, or in the book found at the library... A Cloud Angel, the last of the Cloud Angels.

I missed a lot of what happened next, because my hovercart was emitting weird noises and I had to fly back down, scared that it would die on me. But Jimmy was up there, and he told me some of what he saw.

Moriarty and the Professor were talking, I'm not sure of what they said, but I think Jason was intending to use the power of the Cloud Angel to bring his Old Gods in our world and apparently, replying to the Professor, he said that the Cloud Angel was the key, but that himself was the gate.

At this moment, the Cuckoos' robot appeared in the sky and landed at one corner of the hexagonal plateform, soon followed by the Cuckoos themselves. They just stayed there, staring at the scene.

Jason Moriarty made a step towards the Cloud Angel, smile on his face, and tried to use it, but he stepped back right after, seemingly shocked.
"I don't understand" he stuttered.
The Professor rised an eyebrow : "What do you fail to understand?"
Jason didn't answer and made a gesture, as if wanting to use his lightning powers, but his body trembled and his face wrinkled in surprise.
He retracted his lips on his teeth and jumped backwards, his hands forming claws, as if trying to change into his werewolf shape, but nothing happened and a wave of shock seemed to run under his skin.
"It's... It's taken everything!" he screamed.
"Yes." the Professor nodded shortly. "It is a gateway, and a key, Jason."
Moriarty looked incredulous. He turned towards the edge where the Cuckoos and their mechanical were standing and yelled at them :
"YOU!! YOU DID THIS!"
He walked on them, in the narrow alley leading from the central plateform to the apex of the hexagon where they were and repeated, right in front of the mechanical:
"YOU DID THIS!"
But he stumbled on the robot in the narrow alley and passed him, unable to stop behind him, and falled with a long cry in the sky through the hole in the fence protecting the sides of the hexagon. The plateform was way up in the sky... No human being would escape death after such a fall.

The Professor Nishi called for the twins, asking them to come in the middle of the plateform, still keeping her eyes on the light emanating from the Cloud Angel.

The Robot walked towards her, followed by the Cuckoos, and they stood around the Cloud Angel, staring at him.
"You have wanted to go home for so long now." stated the Professor.
"Yes" nodded one of the Cuckoos.
"This is your gateway." said the Professor. "Another will not soon come."
"It.Is." the other Cuckoo replied.

"You were done a terrible harm." continued the Professor. "Another key... is required. You have built it."
At this, the first Cuckoo nodded to his mechanical who produced a huge device, with its top part looking strangely familiar, and its bottom part being a network of coloured and sparkling filaments surrounded by shiny beams.
"Oh, if that bastard Eliot could have seen that." exclaimed the Professor. "Do you have the power you need?" she asked the Cuckoos.
"Yes.Enough power." one of them replied.
"We.do." added the other.

Loki arrived on his airship right at this moment and could witness what was to happen next :
" We.Will return these.Corporeal shells.To you. They are.Of no further use." declared one of the Cuckoos.
"Goodbye." said the second one.
"Thank you." added the first one.
"Go safely." answered the Professor, as the robot was moving the Cloud Angel into the bottom part of the improved Porta Terrarum device the Cuckoos had built.


A shining and sparkling white light had appeared, seeming to come from inside the heads of the twins, and suddenly they both fell on the ground like puppets abandonned by their puppeteer.


The Professor turned to the mechanical : "Robot... can you hear me?"
"I can hear." it answered.

The light coming from the device and the Cloud Angel was slowly fading away and the Professor looked stunned.
On the ground, the sparkle shining from inside the head of the Cuckoos was equally slowly vanishing while their bodies were starting to change...
"ARE THEY DEAD!!!?" enquired Loki.
On the ground, the bodies of the twins were now looking like those of two normal boys. Their white hair had turned blond, their white skin had turned pink.
Mr Wirefly answered : "I think, they were inside those bodies, not the body themselves, Loki."



The Professor was still talking to the mechanical :
"Robot... I will fall now... soon... Will you see... to the... children?"
"Yes." it answered simply.


The Professor stumbled, almost falling, while on the ground the two children were starting to stir, moving, and then slowly standing, opening their eyes once white and scary, now blue.


The twins looked puzzled, wondering where they were. They were talking one to the other, calling themselves "Nat" and "Zach".

"No one shall harm these children." warned the Professor.
Then she turned towards Rip : "Mr Wirefly... I must... find... Miss Janus... I must... go..."
Mr Wirefly nodded and the Professor suddenly turned away.

The mechanical only said a few words : "I must go. These are your children. Take them. Farewell."
Then he flied up at the speed of a lightning, surrounded with sparkles, and disappeared in the sky.


The big ball of unnatural orange flames reappeared, swallowing the Van Creed's skystation into its deadly light.


Mr Wirefly shouted to the twins and everyone to climb into Loki's Icarus airship, still docked at the plateform.


Miss Chernov had arrived too, in her own little airship and was hovering above, watching the scene. She proposed some seats in her ship to escape the horror growing around.
The twins climbed up into Loki's airship, as did Jimmy and Miss Breezy while the whole skystation was starting to fall apart.

The voice of the Professor Nishi could be heard through the chaos of the flames :
"Run... all of you... flee... "
"My Lady... Close the gate."
"End this."

Loki handled his airship, flying it above the ablaze skystation, as pieces of the docks where falling from there with a whistling sound.
They heard the Professor screaming.


Loki landed his ship in the Port and everyone got off, witnessing the rest of the skystation falling down into the depths of the sea, maybe with the Professor amongst it...


The twins were then questionned as to what they remembered, who they were, but they seemed to be very puzzled by what was happening, and couldn't remember anything of their previous state.
They said they remembered being at school and falling asleep. They couldn't believe when Jimmy told them they had been in New Babbage for one year. They didn't seem to know the place.


They wanted to go back home. Miss Breezy proposed them to sleep at the Ruby's for the night, and have a warm meal. The next morning they would try to find their home.
They remembered their parents names as being James and Mary Effingham, and the address of their school : Edison School for Boys, North Hampshire, Vermont.
Miss Breezy took them under her wing.


Lots of questions remain unanswered.

What happened to Jason Moriarty, is he still alive?
What happened to the Professor Nishi, is she still alive?
What about the Van Creed? Where are they, what will be their next step of action?
What happened to the Cloud Angel, has he been released?
I suppose the Cuckoos left the bodies they had borrowed and regained their home. And the human twins will most likely do the same. But what happened to their mechanical?
Has the gate been opened again..? I think it has. Has it really been closed down? Who is this Lady the Professor was talking about? She was already talking about her when Bob, Will and I overheard her discussion with Moriarty in the hideout, when she asked us to keep what we had heard for ourselves...

And... Is it really over, now..?

Lines Will Intersect Soon

Yesterday, I was with Will in the attic of the bakery, and while he was setting up his bed there for the night, I wandered on the roof and suddenly noticed a presence near the crisped body of Charles Norton. I squinted above the edge of the roof and deadened a cry : it was one of those cuckoo twins!

I called Will and we climbed down to go see him. He had put a blue ball on the head of the body, and one of their devices next to it. We tried to make him talk and here's what we got :

You: hey!

You: what are you doing with the body?

You: what's this blue ball?

dumnonniwill Clip: cuckoo, are you okay......

dumnonniwill Clip: what are you doing cuckoo

Zachariah Effingham: I.Am.

Zachariah Effingham: Retrieving.

You: you know the body.. er.. I mean..

You: you knew Charles Norton?

Zachariah Effingham: No.

You: what are you retrieving?

dumnonniwill Clip: data again?

Zachariah Effingham: You would.Not.Understand.

You: gah..

You: we're not that thick!

dumnonniwill Clip: understand what?

dumnonniwill Clip: cuckoo what is comeing soon, you said something was comeing soon

You: he did?

dumnonniwill Clip: yes

Zachariah Effingham: Lines will.Intersect.Soon.

You: lines...?

You: are you with Moriarty?

dumnonniwill Clip: do you know mortality?

You: he means Moriarty hehe

Zachariah Effingham: Lines.Of time and space.

You: hmm..

Zachariah Effingham: We.Are not.

dumnonniwill Clip: yes, i have a little speach impediment

You: you are against Moriarty?

Zachariah Effingham: He.interfered.

dumnonniwill Clip: mortaiarty

You: Moriarty interfered?

You: so you don't like him heh?

Zachariah Effingham: He.Interfered.

You: but will you help us to defeat him?

Zachariah Effingham: Like.Notlike.Irrelevent.

dumnonniwill Clip: where are you from

You: gah, what he means..

Zachariah Effingham: I cannot.Say.

dumnonniwill Clip: you apered after the worm hole thing last year did you not?

You: oh yes, the gate

dumnonniwill Clip: did you come throught the gate?

Zachariah Effingham: We were.Drawn through.

dumnonniwill Clip: ahhh

Zachariah Effingham: The.Aberration.

You: HA!

dumnonniwill Clip: and these lines, are they the gate?

You: that's what the Professor Nishi thought

dumnonniwill Clip: are the lines through time and space a worm hole?

You: he's not answering..

You: I bet that means yes

Zachariah Effingham: What you.Call a worm.Hole.Not the.Same.

You: oh

You: but something's coming soon, but not a gate?

dumnonniwill Clip: so the gate is close to re-opening?/

dumnonniwill Clip: soon

Zachariah Effingham: Lines.Will intersect.We must.Be present.

You: hmmm

You: when?

Zachariah Effingham: You will.Know.When.Moriarty acts.

dumnonniwill Clip: so the gate is going to open and you need to be there?

dumnonniwill Clip: what is moriarty going to do?

dumnonniwill Clip: or don't you know?

Zachariah Effingham: We know.What he.Has.To do.

You: but you won't tell us?

You: gah

dumnonniwill Clip: gahh

dumnonniwill Clip: he ran away

Deadly Enlightenment (or the story of the crispy body)

Yesterday in the evening, I was mostly minding my own business, walking on the roofways while pondering about all we had learnt from the documents found in the Captain Zessinthal's room and the "Secret History of New Babbage" book, found laying on the ground between two bookcases in the library. At a moment, something disturbed me from my thoughts, a kind of feeling, as if there was a presence, someone walking in the streets beneath the planks I was standing on... But I saw nobody.

I reached the roof of Loki's Absinthe cafe and met Will and Marcuz there. Marcuz didn't know yet the city and I thought I should bring him to the bakery to offer him a pie and some tea before going off for a tour of New Babbage. So we walked on the planks above Jefferson way to join the roof of the Imperial and from there, we jumped on the roof of the Opium den, but we stopped before reaching the planks leading to my bakery and held our breath, standing still on the edge of the roof, as we saw, down in the dead end of Perdido street, laying on the dirty snow, the body of a man. And above that man was standing Jason Moriarty...


He was gesturing with his hands above the dark body of the man, and a huge amount of lightnings were surrounded him while a crispy smell was rising to us. Moriarty shouted : "YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE RESISTED CHARLES", and Will whimpered quietly, but Moriarty must have heard him, with his new weird abilities and in only one jump he was up on the roof, launching lightning attacks at us as we were running away, jumping on the roof of the Imperial.

Jason was after us, shouting "SUFFER THE URCHINS OF NEW BABBAGE HAHAHAHA!" and sending more and more lightnings attacks.

Luckily, none of the attacks reached us, and Moriarty seemed to have better things to do and went back to the body he was busy with.

Will was scared and wanted to go back home, but Moriarty was still there and suddenly we heard him laughing madly and shouting "NOW ONE CAN STOP WHAT IS TO HAPPEN NOW!".
I told Will to go hide in the hideout in the attic of the Imperial, and Marcuz stayed on the roof, while I was going back on the roof of the Opium den. I wanted to see what he was doing, and also decided to shoot snowballs at him, maybe to rescue the man he was killing... if there was the slightest chance he was still alive at the time...

I ran on the roof and wanted to stop on the edge to shoot my snowballs but I slipped on the snow and fell off the roof into the street right in front of Moriarty...

He turned towards me and sent me another of his lightnings attacks, but this one reached its aim and I felt an awful tickling running under my skin in my whole body, shooting shockwaves in my head and my heart. I moved back in the alley, stumbling on the cobblestones, vaguely recognizing the silhouette of Mr Wirefly arriving at the corner of the street and hearing him shouting my name. I fell down on the icy ground in front of my bakery, hardly aware of what was happening around me...

The blue lightnings were still around me, the itchy feeling crawling under my skin, I saw Moriarty dashing away and people running to me and to the body in Perdido street. Will approached me, worried and started to cry, Mr Rip arrived too and then Ally Wunder, asking what was happening, and then a lots more, alerted by the shoutings, Miss Pinkfeather Heron, Miss Orchid McMillan, Mr Asrei Foden, Mr Holmes, the Dr Watson, and then Loki, and Mr TriloByte Zanzibar, and Jimmy, and lots of others arrived later too.

I could stand up and found out I wasn't feeling as bad as earlier. I remembered that Moriarty had already shot that kind of attack at us this other time in the Port, and that Mr Sopwith had described that same phenomenon following him after he had left the Tesla Machine where he had shadowed Moriarty to. Ally asked if I was going to die, but remembering that Mr Sopwith was still alive, I decided that I would be fine. And indeed, after a little time, the lightnings faded out, leaving me safe, except from my hair hovering around my face and an unpleasant crispy smell...


We gathered around the body of the man in Perdido street and found out the smell was coming from him. Mr Holmes kneeled upon him and discovered a letter in his jacket, tainted with blood and torn in a corner. He read it, looked mysterious and muttered, then he left quickly.

We took a glance at the letter too, and here's what it reads :

"Mr Holmes
Along with this letter, I leave you a device that can locate a power much sought after in New Babbage.
Captain Zessinthal was murdered for this great power, and now it has been released into the sky.
Only this device can find it again, but my days are numbered as I am hunted by those that crave the power of the Cloud Angel.
I have heard great things of you and Dr Watson and trust that you will know the best (blood and torn letter prevent from reading that word) of action to take."

The signature is also missing due to the letter being torn in the bottom right corner.

From this letter, it appeared that the man could have been Mr Charles Norton, the author of the letter found in the Captain Zessinthal's room and also of the book found in the library and talking about a new kind of power named "Cloud Angel".

After that, Loki asked if we were sure the man was dead and Jimmy tapped him in the head with his foot to check. At this moment, a new silhouette appeared at the end of the street and we saw the Cuckoos mechanical walking towards us... Or more, towards the body of Charles Norton.
We stepped back quickly, but someone joked that we could send him a snowball, and Will instinctively did so. Gawd he shouldn't have. The robot turned towards us and big rays of light coming from his eyes shooted an explosion on the cobblestones right in front of us.

The robot then disappeared but we turned away to see another silhouette at the top of the stairs down Perdido street, and recognized one of the Cuckoo children, observing us from far away.

Miss Pinkfeather also said she had found one of their devices right in front of the Steampunk Hotel, where the Captain Zessinthal had his room, and Mr Holmes and the Dr Watson reported sight of a device on a dock in the Port too...

So.. Why would the Cuckoos be interested in that murder? And did Mr Holmes get that device Charles Norton talks about in his letter? Or did Moriarty get it first....?

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Last week, Miss Mara Razor was kidnapped by a so-called Viking, who wanted a ransom in exchange before the end of the week, specifying his King would marry her otherwise. We couldn't come up with the ransom, but we found out that there were some muddy tracks at Miss Mara's treehouse, and coming from the open well in the basement of the Ruby's too. That plus some weird people looking like miners but short and round like a barrel were running around all week long, looking for a present for the wedding of their King and calling us "surface dwellers".


Mr Greg Merryman, while testing a new driller he had an order for, stumbled upon an underground network of ancient and recent galleries and tunnels. He also found a bow and arrow of celtic and feminin design, which were certainly belonging to Miss Mara, laying on the ground of one of those tunnels. No more doubt was allowed, she had been kidnapped, not by the Vikings, but by the MolePeople! Moreover, one of the Molemen seemed interested by Mr Merryman's driller, and when questionned about it, he declared it was looking good and pointed in the right direction. He added the surface was too bright, with all that snow reflecting light and all.


A crowd of citizen of New Babbage were on the docks last night, and Mr Merryman decided to lead our angry mob into the depths of the Earth with his driller, to explore the galleries and try to rescue Miss Mara...



We all hopped into the driller and Mr Merryman led us underground...


We all sat on the benches inside the driller, feeling the atmosphere around us becoming more and more warm while we were digging deeper into the Earth.



Suddenly, Mr Merryman told us we had reached an open space inside the earth, and he stopped the driller. We stood up, and climbed down the driller, cautiously, wondering what we would find outside.


We had arrived into a vast rocky cavern, and we could see some vague red lights deep at the end of the space.


The grown-ups approached, but Jimmy and I stayed hidden behind the peaky rocks, because Mr Merryman had told us we shouldn't approach the Molemen or fight. The red lights seen from closer appeared to be the eyes of evil rock creatures and down the alley was a throne next to a big cage, and silhouettes dancing around.


Running from peaky rock to peaky rock, Jimmy and I approached closer and closer, trying to hear and see what was happening. We discovered that we had landed inside the MoleKing den and they were holding Miss Mara prisoner in the big iron cage! Lots of Molepeople were around, asking about that intrusion in the middle of their wedding ceremony.


Miss Breezy started shooting snowballs at the MolePeople, who seemed not to appreciate that at all, feeling it was cold, and a "torture", but then the MoleKing ordered to his rock creatures to circle around the grown ups and they were trapped!

Mr Merryman and the others tried to negotiate to get Miss Mara back, but the MoleKing didn't want to release her, since she had to become his fourth wife or something like that and he said it was a political union, cause he wanted the powers of the Fae King, but I didn't understand all.


The MolePeople were running around, keeping an eye on all the grown-ups, but they thought Jimmy and I were surface molepeople because we were short like them.

Photo credit : Breezy Carver

The Molegirls were dancing around the cage and kept insulting Miss Mara, saying she was too tall and was ugly because she didn't have a big butt like them, but that she had to marry their King anyway. Poor Miss Mara couldn't use her elf special strenghts because the cage they had closed her in was all iron made, known to weaken elven abilities.

Photo credit : Breezy Carver

Jimmy and I managed to get very close to the cage where Miss Mara was, and we whispered to her that we would rescue her and she smiled when she saw us.
The MoleKing was starting the wedding ceremony and as the MolePeople weren't noticing us, I told Jimmy we could try to open Miss Mara's cage, so we snuck silently towards the cage while the MoleKing was still doing his ceremony, and we picked on the lock.


But the MoleKing was about to pronounce the wedding vows, so Jimmy remembered the MolePeople didn't like the light of the surface and we used the big flashlights we had found on the docks and lightened them up in the faces of the MoleKing and the MolePeople around.

Photo credit : Breezy Carver

They started to scream in pain and all the grown-ups lightened their flashlights up too and we managed to open Miss Mara's cage in the meantime.

Photo credit : Breezy Carver

Miss Mara rushed on the MoleKing and... removed his spine... He was bleeding on the ground, most certainly dead, and all his people screaming around, blinded and tortured by the light.

Photo credit : Breezy Carver

Miss Mara offered the spine to Jimmy and hugged us. We all climbed up into the driller and Mr Merryman led us back to the surface, where we went to the Ruby's and got rather drunk :op

See also Jimmy's pics here ! : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmybranagh/sets/72157610952886296/

Baby in a Box

So yesterday I went back to the Steampunk Hotel with Mr Rip, Will and Bob and we managed somehow to enter the room the Captain Zessinthal was renting there.

Mr Rip had already been there, as the Captain gave him a tour, but it seems new evidences had been added since then and we found a drawing of a kind of a foetus, on a board, with the two words "Cloud Angel" hand-written under it, and letters pinned on it, one being from a scientist friend addressed to the Captain and mentionning a book he has sent with the letter, and the other being an official letter from the Van Creed society to the Captain too.


On the table, next to the window, there was also another letter, apparently written by the Captain Zessinthal to his scientist friend, but I guess this friend never received it and will never, since the Captain is now dead...



We then climbed down the stairs and found the model of the Zenzephlin, very great airship, and also two posters on the walls. One was representing the airship and the other the inside of the engine, with a kind of bubble or something, a "baby in a box" to quote Bob.



Mr Rip told me he had found a book at the library, and that was certainly the one the scientist friend was talking about in his letter, but he had to leave, so I sent Bob and Will to go to the library to find it and I said I'd join them later, as I had something else to do.

Dreddpiratebob Streeter: oi! myrtil! you seen this down here?
You: yup
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: baby in a box
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: whassat about
You: it's not a baby
You: I think it's a cloud angel
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: a what?
You: and see that's how the airship looked like
You: before it exploded
You: but 100 times bigger..
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: whoa
You: well I'm not sure about it, I think they say it in their letters
You: cloud angel could be a new kind of power
You: and I think the Captain used it for his airship
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: ah yeah i read that up there
You: and it went bad somehow and exploded
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: as power?
You: or maybe that was a bomb, not sure..
You: yeah
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: did the baby survive?
You: I dunno...
You: maybe we should look down there in the water
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: aye!
dumnonniwill Clip: whats a cload baybe
You: I'm not sure Will
dumnonniwill Clip: hmmmm
You: but we should go see at the library if we find that book

Dreddpiratebob Streeter: more importantly is it alive and running about?
You: I dunno...
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: if it has a habit of exploding that could be bad
Dreddpiratebob Streeter: bad baby
You: just if we use it bad
Dreddpiratebob Streeter laughs.
You: I think
You: you two go to the library and find that book?
dumnonniwill Clip: maybe we could steal it for the orphans and sell it
dumnonniwill Clip: okay....
You: I'll join you a bit later

I then went back to the Port to explore more attentively the wreckage and saw that all was exactly like before. The body of the Captain was still laying on the ground of the basin, with the blackbox, and pieces of airship all over.

But the airship wasn't totally above the dock when it exploded and some pieces had certainly fallen further, in the depths of the sea instead of on the dock or in the basin around.

Bending above the end of the dock and peering through the surface of the water, some big metallic parts could be seen, and, in the middle of them, the indistinct shape of a human body...

So Miss Breezy was right when she said she thought she had seen two persons on the airship... And the recording confirmed it, two different voices could be heard. The second body must be the one of the Captain Zessinthal's crew mate.

Now... How did the ship explode? Was it criminal? A bomb and charges like it seems to be heard in the recording..? Or a too big power used in the engine of the airship? And if the explosion was criminal, who did it? Jason Moriarty? The Van Creed society? Someone else?