Operation Thunder Mountain (and hitches)

So, yesterday night was a VERY busy one...

All started with Bob, excited as always, telling me about a meeting the urchins should have soon to stop the Doctor Obolensky and his evil plans to destroy the city etc.

We had that meeting in the hideout at the Imperial Theatre and quite a few showed up (photo by Poopdeck).

We talked about lots of matters, from the vampires (Lil Max and Ravan are some but they won't bite us without asking first) to the return of Jason Moriarty and the wanderings of the Mummy. Loki explained us that there were a lot of Secret Societies in New Babbage :

"

* The Thirteen Club is supposed to be not a club of 13 people, but a group of scientists in Babbage who strive to prove silly beliefs in magic as being the result of science. They apparently hold parties on friday the 13th where they break mirrors, open umbrellas in doors and open packets of crisps from the bottom. And they use science to prove supernatural stuffs as having a scientific explanation.

* The Van Creed : they are very secret and very deadly, i think they had sumfin to do with those murders last year.

* The Freemasons : they want to better man kind through order out of choas or summit, i dont really know much.

* The League of Peculiar Gentlemen : a group formed last year to fight against Moriarty. Many members are missing now though. The Susenkos, Luscious Sin, The Professor...

* The Iron Essence : very new group led by Sanus Kanarik, who is a lycan of some sort. The Iron Essence is now recruiting all levels of members to stand in the face of Moriarty.

(Iron Eyes: These are the watchmen of the city, the eyes of the Clan ; Iron Fist: These are the fighters, those who would stand in times of need to strike down those who endanger the city and its citizens ; Iron Fang: The non Human members of the Clan ; Iron Mind: The scholars who help us learn how to defeat our foes)

* Mr Sherlock Holmes and his associates : they investigate detective-like on the robberys and murders. They also have a group of urchins called the Perdido Street Irregulars who inform them.

"

We also talked about the evil Doctor Obolensky and the expedition we should plan to go to his island in Clockspire Cove to look for the ruby and to destroy his huge cannon pointed to the city. We think Mr Merricks works for him and that he stole the ruby that was on the sarcophagus of the mummy displayed on the first floor of the library, and that disappeared as well as the mummy. The day of the opening ceremony, Mr Merricks told me how much impressed he was by the size of the ruby and he also adviced me to run up there to see it before it was too late. Later, during the speech, he also looked annoyed that I was standing in the stairs leading to the first floor and asked me to move away.

So an expedition was planned for the tuesday night. We all met at Poopdeck's place, on the docks. With Deimos, Jimmy, Poopdeck, Walker, Rick, Jesper, Fergotten, Lil Max, Billy and I, we were quite a group.

We gathered and climbed on two rafts and sailed on the Vernian Sea, towards the bleak island of the evil Dr O...

Leaving the port, we bravely started our long trip on the sea, trying not to think about the sharks and other creatures or evil traps there could be under us, while Deimos, who had transformed into his demon side, was flying next to us.

Jimmy and Lil skilfully steering, the rafts slid silently whereas we were approaching the big clock tower of the spooky island.

After a long way, shivering at the sight of the peak approaching, the skull like carved rocks and wrecked ships, we finally arrived to the docks of Clockspire Cove island.



Leaving the rafts hidden, we jumped on the docks and started to look around, half impressed and half scared.



A wooden path was climbing up the cliff on our left, and a big metallic lift was waiting in a shack on our right. Some of us started to explore, walking up the wooden path and jumping on the rocks, behind the huge wrecked ship.


At this moment, the evil Dr Obolensky himself appeared on the dock, springing up from the darkness (or from the entrance of the wrecked ship, who knows). The few of us who were still on the docks froze at his sight and tried not to shiver as he was examining us with his piercing eyes : "Well well, if that is not a bunch of ragga-muffins we have here..." he started.

We politely answered by saluting him and I apologized for our invasion, explaining we were coming to deliver him fresh scones. He looked a bit surprised and asked doubtfully if I had forgotten the scones in our hast of coming there, but I handed him a bag of scones I had prepared (with sleeping powder). He looked even more surprised, but the darn bugger refused to taste the scone, arguing his taster wasn't home.


At this point, we thought the best to do was to climb up on the rafts and go back home, but Deimos, who was hidden under the docks, managed to freeze the Doctor, and as he stood stuck up there, we all rushed into the lift up to the first plateform.


We found nothing up there but an airship we couldn't use. The second lift was blocked and we couldn't climb any further, even with the ropes we had brought with us, since the cliff was very smooth and slippery. Disappointed, we swore that we would come back with airships and dynamite the next time and we bunched together again in the lift to go back down.

When we arrived, we noticed that Deimos wasn't only holding the Doctor Obolensky but also Mr Merricks, who had arrived in the meantime and was holding a weapon. Bob on his buzzing hoverkart also arrived at the same moment, and Poopdeck ran to Mr Merricks and hit him, making him fall on his knees, allowing us to quickly climb on our rafts and leave as fast as we could.

We had find no ruby, no cannon, but we were safe at least.

A little after we arrived on the docks of Port Babbage, we saw Loki, arriving on his Goony airship, and we met Miss Breezy, Miss Janus and a few others.

We had no time to breath as suddenly Jason Moriarty appeared amongst us. His skin was extremely pale, almost white, and his hair had turned grey. He was dressed in a gentleman suit with a tophat, but I could recognize him. He smiled unpleasantly and said : "How lucky to see you all gathered in the same place" and he started shooting blue lightnings at us all, freezing us as he was laughing like crazy. He pushed the poor Walker in the water, letting him almost dying and stared at us. He suddenly vanished, but we could still hear him. Poopdeck ran to where Moriarty was one minute ago and started to hit him with his fists. Jimmy heroically emptied his pistol at him, Bob also shot him and Miss Roanoke and some others tried to fight him too. Deimos appeared in his angel shape and set the bugger on fire. Jason Moriarty yelled "you weakened my powers!!!" and became visible again. He grimaced and started to laugh again, assuring us that he would come back with stronger powers, no more lightnings but worse stuff, that the Old Ones were giving him knowledge and that we were all doomed. And he vanished.

We were all shocked and trying to recover, especially Miss Beq Janus, who was severely stunned from the attack, but she recovered quickly as new people were coming towards us, wondering what had happened. The Captain Zessinthal asked us what was going on, and we explained him. He then taught us that he had seen Mr Spider Sopwith going with Moriarty in the Tesla Machine, behind the church.

Then, the big cuckoos' robot appeared at the beginning of the dock and we ran towards him. He apparently said that the cuckoos would be back soon, that we had to wait, and he didn't seem to like Moriarty very much.

After that, the Doctor Obolensky and Mr Merricks arrived from the bell tower and claimed the urchins had come to invade their island and robbed the Dr O's watch and some other stuff, and that we tried to poisoned them with scones. We said we were innocent, and the good citizen were on our side, but the Doctor and his sidekick went on with their whining, trying to convince Mr Holmes.

Sick of that bunch of lies, we left and walked to the hideout to gather our thoughts. We met Addie there and spotted Mr Sopwith in the theatre. We questionned him about where he went with Moriarty, but he said he was drunk and wouldn't remember where it was. We therefore brought him behind the church and finally found a huge Tesla machine and he remembered it was the place he shadowed Moriarty to. He taught us he heard Moriarty saying "Old Ones, give me the power!" or something like that, and that a big blinding blue light occured after that, which followed Spider until after he ran away.

Miss Janus, Mr Dagger, Miss Dagger and some others stopped too by the Tesla Machine and we started to discuss about the events of the night, wondering if the cuckoos could be the solution to fight the Moriarty danger, and sipping tea...

Family and Bakery

I'm no longer alone.

Not really that I was, since the street urchins of Babbage are a real family for me, but now I can even help them more.

My family tree isn't that complicated, but some of its branches have stayed in the shadow until recently. My father's last name is Igaly. He was French, and he married an English lady (my mother). They had together two children : my big brother, and I.

My father had a sister, who married an Irish man, whose last name is Keenan. Together, they had a son, named Arthur, who is about 5 years older than me.

I was only 5 when my parents and brother died in that airship accident, and I wouldn't remember of any other family, but even the neighbours didn't know of any family I could have other than my parents. My mother had no brother or sister, and her parents were both dead. My father never talked about his parents, as if they were dead too.

I later learnt that my father had a big fight with his father, and that he ran away from his home. He flew to New Babbage, where he met my mother and never ever talked about his parents.

Recently, my grand-father Igaly, who was a french baker, stumbled across a newspaper article relating the airship accident my parents had 8 years ago, and he learnt about my existence. He sent my cousin Arthur to New Babbage to find me.

After a few weeks patiently going to every orphanage, asking old neighbours and finally street urchins, Arthur found me.

Sadly, just a few days after he found me, he received a letter announcing the death of my grand-father...

In the letter was also a note concerning his last wills. My grand-father was giving Arthur and I half his money, and he wanted us to open a bakery together in New Babbage, as a souvenir of his youth.

We spent the last weeks building and furnishing the new bakery, with Arthur, and it finally could open. We called it "La Noisette", which is a french name meaning "The Hazelnut".

It is located right in front of Mr Holmes and the Doctor Watson's building, by the railway and the church, and behind the opium den, behind the Old Imperial Theatre, in Babbage Square.



We are planning an official opening on Saturday the 25th of October. Until then, Miss Gordon Soleil is on trial to work at the bakery.

Street urchins are welcome and can sleep in the attic and get free bread and croissants.

The return of the Wolf

For those of you who weren't in Babbage last year, that name might not evoke anything.


But for the other citizens, those who lived the events, those who saw those tentacled horrors crawling into the sky of their city, those who witnessed the murders of several men and those who could take a look on the walls of this sick hidden chamber in the Mayifu Arcade... For those, the name of Jason Moriarty is synonym of cold shivers, plain fear, total terror.





A reminder of the events that happened last year can be found by reading the journal of the Professor Nishi, here :

http://narethenishi.blogspot.com/


And the journal of the photographer Natacha Chernov, here :

http://www.natachachernov.blogspot.com/


Those two journals can be completed with some pics taken during the day when the gate was opened by Moriarty, and you can have a glimpse of the "Old Ones", who darkened the sky of New Babbage just above the Old Imperial Theatre, here :

http://pics.livejournal.com/artemisia_paine/gallery/00002k3a


We thought that all was finished when the Professor Nishi managed to fight the Old Ones back into their world and that some electrical shortage destroyed the Professor Eliot's Porta terrarum device, closing the gate in the same time.

Some thought that Jason Moriarty died in the process, but the Bow street Police never found his body.

I personally thought that he was somehow sucked up into the Old Ones' world when the gate was closed.

The point is that now, he is back...

A few months ago, a rose was left in front of the Professor Nishi's museum, addressed to her and signed "Jason Moriarty". Nothing else happened since then... until a few days earlier.

I was in my bakery (I'll talk about that in another post) and suddenly I saw Him, walking in the street just in front of the door. I froze. He turned into Perdido street, at the corner of Mr Holmes and Dr Watson's office building. It took me a few minutes to recover before walking out to follow him. I arrived into Perdido street, but he had already turned left at the next corner, and again left at the third and fourth corners... And suddenly he was behind me.

"YOU!!!!!" he yelled as he recognized me.

I couldn't answer anything else than "uho", but I was already stepping back as fast as my shaky legs could allow.

"If I get my hands on you!!!!!" he added, still shouting.

At that, I didn't wait to ask him what he would do. I just turned and ran away, ran as far as I could, faster than ever. I just heard him shouting again, far away :

"That's it, run, little girl, run!!!"

I waited all day long before going back to my bakery and running to Mr Holmes' office, to tell the Dr Watson and him the whole story.

After that day, two other urchins reported views of Moriarty. Another little girl, named Addie, said she saw him on the docks and then by the gate leading to the circus. She said she saw him jumping unnaturally high, and that he was wearing a top hat and tails, like a proper gentleman.

Then Ravan, the little vampire, said he saw him next to the urchin hideout, in the Old Imperial Theatre. He said he heard him talking about a "Master", and about a mission he had to do in the city. Ravan also said that he met two vampires who associated with Moriarty. But on that I'm sceptical...

The Professor Nishi has left New Babbage about a month ago and neither Miss Paine nor the Professor's daughter, Elenore, have been seen recently. The Professor's museum is now taken care of by Miss Bergamasco. And she reported that a donation has been made recently by a certain Jason Moriarty...


Maybe the roofs are the safest way for now. Even if I know nothing is really safe in the city now that HE is back...