Voyage of the Empress — Legacy Forums

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#41

"Well then, I would say the opening game to be 5 card poker, red deuces wild, gentlemen, ladies." he said nodding to Vivica. The cards whispered out across the table as he quickly shuffled them and passed them out to the players. He was a regular player, but nothing to suggest a card shark. Ilsa found herself a comfortable seat at the bar where she could see not only Zimmerman's, but Vivica and Tolly as well. Baumgartner, the snaggletoothed banker held his cards close, looking at them once before dropping them face down on the table.

"I fold."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#42

"Bloody Deuces eh? quite so, quite so. Ahhh...we have ourselves a folder, and so soon. And what say ye Brandford, my good man?

Henri glanced from face to face. So many giveaways! He felt like he was attending the "Easy Tells Convention". This was going to be easier than he first thought, he mused. After all, back in Four Points New York, he was known as the "fish-eater" for his guppy swallowing ways. Confidence notwithstanding, he still managed to give Lady Ilsa a look for some "inspiration".

"As for myself, I'll take one card please"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#43

(OOC: A warning. I personally am completely hopeless at poker.)

Sitting quietly behind the others, Ellie watched the game start. When Lamorak glanced at her, she very discreetly gave him the appropriate signals. An ace in one hand, a jack and a queen in another. She hoped she was doing it properly; she didn't know very much about cards, herself. She had nothing against the game, but her reputation and what she liked people to think she could do virtually forbade her to play. But that didn't mean she wouldn't help Lamorak.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#44

Being silent for a moment, considering the possible impact on his meager financial resources, the banker finally agreed to a little friendly game. He noticed the glances exchanged between Miss Ilsa and Henry. Are you trying to start a little romance, Henry? Good luck with that. he thought with a little smile.

Recieving cards, he thought for a while, then allowed himself a tiny smile.
"I think this will do. No cards please."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#45

Vivica visibly paled, her hands started trembling. With a scream she flung her cards across the table and bolted like a startled rabbit. The chair toppled over behind her as she made her attempted escape, only to be brought to a halt by a savage twisting of her ankle, which had been looped through the strap of her handbag.

She fell hard, knocking the wind from her lungs. It was a strange noise she made, trying to sob while trying to catch her breath.

*****
Deep in the bowels of the ship the buzzer sounded, calling the auxilliaries to the coal bunkers. The call had come from the bridge for full speed. Ed has roused from his position, the gang boss tossing him a coal shovel.

"Bridge called for full fire, lets go lad." the burly man said. Shovel after shovel was fed into the blazing maw of the boiler, and Ed could feel the head growing thicker and thicker. the acceleration of the machinery was smooth as the Dragon Empress poured on the steam.

"We've changed course..." One of the men said, glancing at the compass he wore around his neck. "We are bearing south by southwest now..."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#46

Startled by Vivica Cameron's actions, Henri for once, could not think of anything to say. He briefly considered uttering, "yer hand cannot be that bad madame", but eschewed his usual quips. Instead he stared dumbly at gin-lovin' Vivi, sprawled there on the floor, like a goose shot down in mid-flight. *what just happened here?* Henri thought for the second time that day. His lower back hairs, the ones that always bristled when danger was near, (or so Henri had convinced himself over the years) stood on end. He glanced quickly at Lady Ilsa in confusion, as if expecting the fetching conwoman to have an explanation for him. Receiving none, he finally got hold of his wits and rushed dramatically to Vivica's rescue. *Perhaps she just had too much gin* was Henri's last thought as he nearly flung himself, to be the first "gentlemen" to reach her.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#47

Ellie jumped up, and rushed over to Vivica. "Madame!" Strange, I would have thought she'd be the last one to have an attack of nerves. She was slightly hampered by her skirt, and reached her slightly after Lamorak. She had smelling salts in her bag, but this didn't look like a fainting fit. More like hysterical panic, which was something Ellie recognized, having experienced much the same thing herself. "Madame, what is wrong?"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#48

Still in thoughts about his good cards, Frederic has not understood at first what happened. She... just run away?

Finally gathering himself after a few long seconds, he slowly rised and then was free to act again. Running around the table, he joined the couple close at her, surely the beginning of a small crowd.

"Now, now. Leave her some free air." said he carefully getting ahold of her hand. "Madam?" He studied her for a while, remembering his father's words. Women are fragile beings, easily yielding to emotional fits, and not handling physical hardship well. Therefore it is our duty to protect them.

We might need a doctor.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#49

After several moments, Vivica was able to get herself together, and it was general concensus that her ankle was not just strained, but that is was actually broken. A certain swelling of the tissue of the anbkle combined with an inability for the joint to bear weight seemed to support this. Unbeknownst to the others, Henri slipped his hand deftly into her purse as he helped with the inspection of her person. He felt the familiar and comforting heft of money as he slid his hand into his own pocket.

Ilsa, caught the movement from the corner of his eye. 50/50 he had said...

*****
"Hey, Ed!" One of the boiler team leaders shoutedf out the bump and scrape of the shovels, "Get cleaned up, one of the passengers is wailing for a doctor, and you're the best we got that isnt sh*tfaced drunk!" He took his hat off and swatted the sailor with it.

"That old bastard Kloony is drunk out of his mind again on the ether, that or the cooking sherry."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#50

Ed stopped working and wiped his brow of sweat. "Again?" he shouted before asking where the incident had occurred and, after receiving directions he began jogging towards the upper deck. A minute later he was in the crew cabin again, quickly washing his hands and face with a bar of soap. At university he had studied both law and medicine, but he had never fully finished his education though he was the valedictorian of his class. Had his father not lost the family business he would have had excellent opportunities as a lawyer or a doctor or both, as was the case with some men.

Only stopping by Kloony's cabin to get his medical equipment, Ed rushed to the salon where he found the throng of passengers. "What happened here?" he demanded.

Diseases, drunken doctors, the ship following the coastline instead of going further out into the Atlantic and now this. This cruise is proving to different than most

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#51

Ellie stood up as the crewman approached. "She became hysterical and tried to run away from the table. Her foot tangled in her purse strap, and she fell. Her ankle seems to be broken, monsieur." After an attack like that, someone should probably stay with Vivica, but Ellie couldn't do it. The episode had already made her nervous enough, and the last thing she needed was to be confined in a small space with an already hysterical woman. Best to let someone else handle it.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#52

"Lady Ilsa is right of course! Where are my manners! I will stay close to Lady Cameron, I insist! It is the least a gentleman can do, dont you think? Well...if there are no objections, I shall escort you to your room now madame...now, now..I wont hear any of it. It is the least I can do!"

"My good man, or monsieur whichever you prefer", Henri turned to the newly-arrived authority in the room. "Dont just stand there, help me lift her, and lets get going! Which room number is it now madame?"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#53

"They were crying, the faces in the cards were crying..." Vivica stammered. "Room 14A...first class..."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#54

Ellie frowned. Normally, she didn't really believe in that sort of thing, despite what she did for a living. But something had scared Vivica, badly. She supposed it just could have been a hallucination, but those didn't happen without cause. As she trailed along behind the others, she reached into her purse, feeling for a tissue. Her hand found a crumpled piece of paper, and she pulled it out. It was from the small tablet she habitually carried around. She smoothed it out and looked. There was a short message scrawled across it with the pencil she also carried. The trouble was, she didn't remember picking the note up, and she had no idea how it had gotten in there. She frowned as she read it, then crumpled it back up and shoved it into her bag. She suddenly had a feeling this wasn't going to be a good voyage.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#55

Ed rubbed his right hand fingers through his beard, deep in thought. Obviously the woman had nerve problems of some sort, but it was a matter better solved discreetly. These men and women played at being rich folk, but everyone knew that was but an illusion. There were no men of power and stature that would sail with the Dragon Empress. Most likely they were upper middle class. The bourgeois as those germans Marx and Engels called them.

Well, I have little use for revolutionary authors and even less use for these troubling thoughts of mine. There is a very disturbed woman here and she could use my help

"Please, let us help her to her cabin. Could you two gentlemen please help the lady, and you seem to be friendly enough... could you help her too!" it was more of a demand than any actual question. He had pointed at the Frederic and Henri, then at Ellie. Ed then helped the group find the quickest route to cabin 14 A on first class.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#56

Well, Henry seemed to be helpful to all ladies tonight anyway. And this son of a decent family could not just stand by.

"Of course. Please, my Lady, we will be right there."

Well, well, a simple sailor that has the manners of a true doctor. Who would believe that. thought Frederic, and didn't even bothered to look at the cards. Of course they were fine. Pictures don't cry, even if panicked women tell otherwise. A drop of sherry and words of comfort have helped in worse cases.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#57

"But of course, Monsieur." Ellie picked up Vivica's things, and followed along. She was deep in thought. By now, the act was second nature to her, and needed little in the way of concentration to maintain, but she was still shaken. Crying cards? Foolishness, of course. Wasn't it?

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#58

"Alas, alas for the living..." Vivica said as she was helped into her bed in her cabin. "I really dont know what came over me, I think I must have taken a strange air..." Vivi said as Ed was again examining her broken ankle.

"Mr. Lamorak, you seem to be bleeding..." Vivi said, noticing the spreading crimson stain on the front of his thigh.

*****
Ed stomach grumbled menacingly, and it felt like there was something uncomfortably heavy in his stomach, or to be more precise somewhere along in his intestines...then a flitting thought occured to him...Knuckles' ring...

*****
Ilsa felt a cold sensation grip her by the base of the spine, sending waves of gooseflesh across her arms and chills up her back. A distant sound rose, it was a wailing noise, a cumbersome and dissonant sound that pressed her away from the window of Vivi's cabin. "Alas, alas for the living..." she said in a voice that was not quite her own...

*****
As he bent to pick up one of Vivi's shoes from an untidy spot on the floor, a $20 gold eagle fell out of Brandford's pocket, the coin making a sweet ringing tone as it bounced twice on the floor before glancing off of Vivi's bedpost and picking up a frantic spin. Heads tails heads tails, the coin spun, blurring the light from the porthole into a streak. Heads for luck, tails for disaster, heads for fortune, tails for morning after... the coin spun in an increasingly erratic loop as it slowed... the old rhyme of his father echoing in his head, Brandford saw the coin come to a halt...tails it was.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#59

"Alas for the Living?" Henri whispered to himself and blanched. Something beyond his comprehension was happening here. He felt the sharp pain of the Ibex horn, wriggling and burrowing itself into his leg, and tried to ignore it. "It...it is nothing madame", he managed to mumble, without sounding believable. Henri was scared now, and out of his element. He ignored Brandford's spinning coin, and stared at everyone in turn. Vivica's well-being was now forgotten, as well as his plans to rob her. He noticed Lady Ilsa in a seeming trance. The ship crewman, that pushy fellow, looked as though someone had just told him he had swallowed live worms, and Frederick Brandford was staring at his gold eagle, hypnotised.

"I shall absconce, if you would all excuse me, and tend to this wound". Henri glanced at Ilsa, sending her a silent message.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#60

Ed cursed silently. He was about to have a rather unexpected date with the toilet and all around him people were losing their mind. Looking at Henri he smiled and nodded. "Sir, I must ask that you wash your leg with this and then press this against the wound" he said as he handed Henri a piece of cotton soaked with alcohol and a strip of bandage. "Now, if you excuse me, there is an urgent matter that requires my attention in the crew quarters". Ed exited the cabin and half ran down to the crew cabin, where he planted his bottocks solidly on a bucket beside the toilet seat.

I need to get back there and quick. Who knows what those people have eaten that makes them all weird like that

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#61

Perched expectantly on a bucket beside the faux-porcelain toilet, Ed felt no relief coming, no amount of straining seemed to move the weight in his bowels. It seemed that the harder he strained, the more firmly lodged it became...much to his dismay.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#62

Feeling rather unwell, Ed returned to the weird gathering in cabin 14 A. He was sweating heavily and shaking slightly as he entered the room.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#63

Ellie blinked. She suddenly felt light-headed. She had the feeling she'd said something odd, but she wasn't quite sure what it had been. Lamorak was giving her a significant glance. She should probably leave before she went funny again, but she was suddenly afraid of being by herself. "I am afraid I am not feeling well, myself. I believe I shall go to my own cabin. The sea air... doesn't agree with me." She excused herself, feeling progressively more rattled. She trailed along with Lamorak as he left, lacking direction to his cabin. He at least, was someone she could likely speak honestly with.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#64

Henri and Ilsa came face to snout with a massive black dog, its eyes all but hidden within its dark coat. An attendant Peter Zimmerman trailed behind the beast, his armed pulled straight by the bulk of the dog straining against its leash. It's nose jammed into Henri's leg, snuffling around the spar of ibex horn, and the smell of blood.

"I say, is Vivi alright?" Peter asked. "We are over in 13 A, and have gotten to know her rather well in the last few hours. Parodon my boy here, he's just the curious sort, doesnt mean any harm."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#65

Ellie nodded. "An attack of the nerves, and her ankle is almost assuredly broken, but I believe she shall be fine." She eyed the massive dog. He shouldn't have such a large creature in the small passages of the ship, but it would do little good to tell him.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#66

Henri was confused, somewhat scared, in pain, and bleeding profusely. And if that wasnt bad enough, just as he had worked up the nerve to confess to Lady Ilsa as to the bizarre wound's nature, hoping she could shed some light on this mystery, Cerberus himself, that guardian of hell he once read about, was sniffing his bloody thigh! Agitated, Henri almost spat at the beast, but quickly thought better of it. "Get away from there!", he meekly chastised the dog.

Henri ignored Zimmerman, hoping that Lady Ilsa would deal with the man, until Peter mentioned his room number. *13A? well you are right next to the lady then arent you? that is useful to know...for later* he thought, despite his current state of distress.

"Well then, where's your other dog then, Mr. Zimmerman?" he attempted small talk, hoping Zimmerman wouldnt bother asking him about his leg. As he waited for a reply, looking past Ilsa and Peter farther down the corridor, he spied Abelard, that fearsome looking man who had spooked Henri earlier merely by glancing at him.

"We should go", he turned to Ilsa and blanched.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#67

Ellie looked at him critically. He looked like he was in bad shape. "Indeed. Good day, Monsieur Zimmerman." She hurried Lamorak past the dog and down the corridor. Once they were out of earshot, she muttered to her new friend in a low voice. "Blasted great behemoth! You could hitch a plow up to that thing!" She glared inconspicously at the big dog and his master. "What the devil is wrong with your leg, anyway? I thought you'd gone to patch that up already."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#68

"I wish that I knew Madame!", Henri lamented in a louder voice than he wanted to. "This is not the first time this has happened!..I..uh..would like to show you something back in my cabin." Henri looked at Ilsa, "No, no I dont mean it that way", he quickly continued, seeing the ladies reproaching glare. "I mean, there is something I would like your opinion on. I think you might have more experience in the..er..um..supernatural than I do."

Henri awaited a responce. As he did, he glanced around looking for either Abelard or Zimmerman's dog. He saw neither one. He was not about to show Lady Ilsa what he was going to show her, AND tell her that a man had spooked him and that for a second back there, Zimmerman's rottweiler, looked to Henri, as if he was crawling with worms. No, that would be a bit much for a corridor conversation. Henri grimaced, as the horn dug in. He was going to have to pull it out again, but this time it pierced him deeper.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#69

She thought of the note crumpled up in her handbag. "I suppose you might say that," she said, carefully. "I don't mean to say I'm an expert, or that I even really believe it, despite my profession. But... I am no stranger to odd things." They were far enough away that she had dropped her accent again. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that I said something kind of strange back there, but blast if I know what." She glanced around, suddenly feeling a little claustrophobic. "How far away is your cabin, again?"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#70

"I must say you spooked me needlessly, whatever it was you said..wait, I remember! I believe you uttered 'Alas for the Living', that is what it was."

"Ah. My cabin. I didnt have time to fenaigle myself first class quarters, so this will have to do."

Henri fumbled the key with his bloody hands, both of which, he had previously kept clamped on his thigh. Finally opening the door, he stepped in, waited for Ilsa to enter, took one last paranoid glance left and right along the corridor, slammed the door shut, turned to Ilsa and dropped his pants.

"Help me get this out! You'll need tweezers."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#71

If this had been any other situation, she'd have laughed until she fell over. But she was out of sorts tonight, so she just dug into her handbag until she came up with a pair. She didn't even remember why they were in there to begin with, but they would serve. She examined the wound for a moment, then used the tweezers to dig the problem out. It was unexpectedly difficult. Every time she got hold of it, something would shift, and she'd lose her grip on it. But finally she managed to hold onto it long enough to pull it out. She looked at the bloody bit of horn. "Is that little thing what caused all the fuss?" She didn't touch it, and was, in fact, tempted to pitch it out of the porthole.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#72

Henri looked down to make sure she had gotten it out. Satisfied that the evil thing was no longer in his flesh, he just started talking.

"You must have done a thousand seances, cured palsy and gout, and exorcised countless demons throughout your career. Tell me then, is it all mularkey? Or is what Golden Dawn preaches true? Tell me, why I have been stabbed by a trinket, apparently acting of its own accord, twice today. And why did that dog seem...I dunno...different? And then there is Vivica, your eerie chanting, and the very SCENT of this ship! Am I losing it madame, tell me true!"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#73

Ellie held up her hand. "Calm down. I don't do seances, and never have. Nor faith cures nor excorcisms. I just tell people what they want to hear, with so-called automatic writing, because it's different enough that people think that I'm the real thing when they get cynical about the rest of the field. I never really believed in it, despite what my grandmother says." She frowned. "But things have been... different, recently." She shuddered. "I don't like this ship. I believe you're right, there's something... I don't know, wrong about it."

She pulled the note out of her handbag and smoothed it out, then handed it to him. "I don't remember writing that, but I suppose I must have, because it wasn't in there earlier, and it hasn't been out of my sight long enough for someone to have put it in there." It was written on a piece torn from a cheap tablet, with a bizzarre message scrawled across it in pencil, in the unsteady, large printing of a child. "bAd mAn bAd mAn tAkE boAt to bAd pLAcE I cAnt swim" "Something is definitely going on around here."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#74

This all must have a logical explanation... thought Frederic bewildered, the lucky coin of his father safe in his pocket again.

The bad sign of the coin was easiest to dismiss. It was more of a memory, than a luck token, and money falls as it wills, it will surely fall in his direction again... provided this voyage ever ends. The good mood did not last long. Luckily, with the power of reason is the human mind able to solve all the mysteries of life.

So again:
- apparently, everything started with Miss Vivica and her accident at the game table. Panicking, and breaking her ankle, all could be explained with hysteria that seems to get hold of the fragile women folk now and then.
- but then, everyone who followed into this room started to behave strange - Miss Ilsa, Henry, and even the doctor were all out of their mind... if only for a moment
- And I too feel strange., he tried to shake off the headache, but it didn't work.

An explanation... of course.

"Doctor? Would you mind a little talk, please?" Gathering himself, he felt better and clearer.
"I will be outside. Madam." nodding to the lady, he opened the door, and deeply inhaled the fresh marine air. Better. Much better.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#75

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Abelard nodded in agreement, and the crewman headed back the direction he had come. 'It would not be long now...' Abelard thought to himself, a slight smile crossing his usually blank features.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#76

Ed followed the banker outside, lighting a cigarette in the process. Somehow that soothed him and he relaxed somewhat as he leant against the railing of the ship. He offered the pack of cigarettes with his right hand, motioning with his head that the banker should grab a cigarette.

"So, you wanted to say something, sir?"

He did not act according to the rules of conduct, but with all the recent happenings the rules were the last things on his mind.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#77

Fredreric accepted the cigarette, and only then realised he wasn't smoking that type. Keeping it in his hand that he waved around, he started to think loudly.

"I must admit we all have behaved a bit strange. But, there is a logical explanation for everything. At first I have been thinking, it is something in the food, and... well, there still may be. But notice the pattern: first, it is Miss Vivica that has halucinations, and then all of us that followed into her cabin were seeing something unusual. So I would interprete it in the only possible way: there is something wrong in the air, literally. I would think there is a leak somewhere from the ship's engines. Officially, of course... " *leaning towards the doctor* "...but I do think that some passenger around has passion for opium or other mind-altering natural product. That is the most logical explanation."
Finally he could return to his professional banker's smile. "Unless of course we would believe in some supernatural hocus-pocus."
"So that is it - someone indulges in his appetites close to the cabin of our poor Miss Vivica. She gets some of that dose, but the full effect manifests only later, after some gin, and men smoking their cigars. Meanwhile, the foul air has been gathering in her cabin, until we have arrived."

Frederic sighed. "Not to advise you, but that option should be investigated. An opium-smoker should be easy to find and taken care of for the few days this voyage will last. A little fresh air is enough to drive the smoke away. There is still the possibility that we have all eaten something spoiled... not a high possibility, but much more serious if true. Perhaps we should speak with the captain?"

"Oh, speaking of fresh air. We have left Miss Vivica on her own! Let us get back."

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#78

Ed looked at Frederic while he spoke, nodding sagely all the way through the monologue. In the end, just as Frederic turned to leave, he grabbed the banker by his arm and spoke "While opium might certainly be what affected us in there, it does not answer some other puzzling experiences that this voyage has had in store for us. First of all we are heading in nearly the opposite direction. We are heading down alongside the coast and not into the Atlantic at all. Second I have seen passengers and crew members alike acting all weird today, so if there is something messing with our minds I think it is bigger than some rich boy smoking opium..." Ed stopped briefly, his eyes scanning the deck of the Empress. "What say you banker?"

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#79

Bells rang across the ocean swell, distant and faint against the constant roar of the water being cut by the reinforced steel hull of the Dragon Empress. The sound was lost inside the ship, deafened by the hull plating and the lusty roar of the boilers as they turned the twin screws of the liner at full speed. Water spewed into the screw room, the vibration of the screw shaft reducing the effectiveness of the seal. Seaman Tolmeran pushed the bilge pumps up to the next setting, the ship venting the waste water out behind it a few feet above the waterline.

A shout rose from the watch tower, warning! Another ship was cutting across the path of the Empress, a 120 foot trawler, the type that put out into the deep water looking for whatever they fished for that day.

"Shall we change course?" The helmsman asked.

"No, they are the more agile, let them move." Abelard said. "If they do not move, let them ponder the error of sailing in a wooden vessel." He sneered.

The trawler almost cleared the path of the Empress, pulling ahead and cutting hard to starboard, hoping to run along the side of the liner as it passed. The impact aboard the trawler was staggering, throwing men from the ship and smashing the starboard aft portion of the ship. From the railing, Brandford and Ed didnt feel any impact vibrate through the Empress as she trampled the fishing boat.

Re: Voyage of the Empress

#80

"If this is some con, madame, I shall not look kindly up--" Henri trailed off. It was obvious by Ilsa's reaction that this was no con. Henri shuddered. He had conquered fear as a young man in the streets of the Four Points, or so he thought, at the heels of the street-famous 'Not-Here' McGlinty and his gang. Henri was used to the baser emotions of the streets, and nefarious behavior as his mammy called it, murder included, was nothing new him. But this, this was different. It was his fancy for cheap horror monthlies, which he once read voraciously, which now gave him terrible thoughts. To Ilsa he said,

"No..I stand corrected. This is no con." Henri stared at the mismatched letters on the unfolded paper, and his face belied his horror.

"Did you hear that madame! Just now, it sounded like...like a moaning of some metallic horror!"

"I am unwell", Henri bowed his suddenly leaden head. "Tell me what we do now" he managed, sounding defeated.