Steam and Sand 2: Anthracite Days - Game Thread

[MWBailey]

The smell of antiseptics and solvents were a boon to Percy's nose in a place like the infirmary; unfortunately, it did not completely mask the smells of blood and gore, especially that of belly wounds and wounds gone bad. Hospitals, whether fancy healer stations like this one, or the mobile military triage-and-surgery stations that he was more accustomed to, never seemed to realize the power of the reek of ether or camphor or methylate; if they'd just use more of it, they could mask the worst of the bad odors. Unfortunately, no place that he had ever seen had followed this policy, and thus the smell of both cleansing and corruption tended to blend and surround the surgeries and triages with a miasma that never quite infected nor ever quite cleansed completely, at least as far as he could make himself see it.

It was that blended reek that had pushed Percy away from the door and over to the waiting-room tables. The smell of gun oil soon filled the space, and served to mask the rest of the reek, or at least it did for Percy, who was bent right over the source of the solvent smell.

[Nigel Wetherby]

A large man with fiery red hair and a wild, scraggly beard drank his frosty ale and smashed the table surface with his hands which were like shovel blades.  From his waist  hung a shrivelled, mummified hand, connected by a metal hook like a ghoulish charm.
Pitivo entered the tavern and immediately concentrated on the red man, a sneer crossing his lips as he slipped on his gauntlets. He approached the mountain of a man and tapped his shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir." He said with forced curtesy, "But shouldnt you be picking at the garbage outside with the other wild dogs?" A predatory grin stretched across Pitivo's lips.

The red man turned and stood up, standing easily a head above Pitivo. The large man slapped his back and laughed like a hyena, mocking the young brawler. "Heheheh, you were that boy from Cornwall!" The red man grabbed the dessicated arm and waved it in Pitivo's face. "Looking to reclaim this, eh?" He slapped Pitivo with the dried hand, leaving light scratches from the rigid nails of the extension.

Pitivo turned to slowly face him. "One more chance." Pitivo raised his finger. "Give me his arm, now."
The large man's face straightened as he put away the arm. "You think you can hurt me, little flea?" He taunted.

"I think I can do more than that." Pitivo replied, letting his metal-plated fist serve as the conversation's period as it made vicious contact with the red man's stomach, forcing him to double over. His fist came down on the back of the red man's head sending him to the floor face-first. The red man nursed a bleeding nose as Pitivo snatched back the arm and attached it to his own belt.

"This is not yours." He spoke with all the stony strictness of a school teacher before leaving the bar, a smile on his face.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

There were glares after Pitivo as he left, though no overt action. People in this particular bar seemed wary. Outside, however, a figure stepped into the shine of a streetlamp.

"Well, what have we here?" asked Sir Beldan, still in civilian clothing. "Causing trouble?" He walked closer to Pitivo, then stared.

"Wait - I know you. You came in with Van Scagg and Miri, didn't you? I saw you in the rig yard." he said with a sigh.

"Look, boy." he said, frowning. "I know what you are and you picked about the worst night to start punching people out in bars. It's late too. Your friends are at the House of Healing."

Beldan pointed to a white house a bit in the distance.

"I'd not pull anything like that again. Try to get lodgings and rest. Not to be hostile, but don't overstay your welcome either. I can smell its been a bloody night. Don't continue it."

-----

The medic looked at Miri's armband and sighed in relief. She signaled to an eldery nurse. "Take a break, Mrs. Wesley." she said. "Else you'll end up in here."

"Well." she continued. "As you can see there's been a bit of a battle outside the Atrium. These folk are all Travelers as far as we can tell. We've stabilized the worst of it but the night's not over yet. Most of them are asleep or still unconcious. Start down at that end and change bandages. Don't be afraid to pump in the antibiotics if you feel its needed. I want no infected wounds. If anything looks to be getting worse, get on it, fast."

The medic himself yawned, before going to a sink basin to wash his hands and splash some cold water on his face.

"Good luck." he said, heading to the opposite end of the room to resume the battle.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Too right, sir. Just reclaiming some stolen property." He held out the necrotic arm before proudly returning it to his side.
"But thanks for the suggestion." He grinned like a madman and waved courteously before walking off towards the house of healing, whistling an old Roma tune and kicking his feet high into the air, Blood still dripping from his knuckles.

"Good to have you back, Captain." Pitivo said as he looked back to the dried arm fondly, raising his hand in a salute to the gnarled member.
"I shall have to keep you consealed for the time being, At ease, sir." He pulled some parchment paper from his bag and folded the arm at the elbow, wrapping it up like a side of beef in butcher's paper before sliding it carefully into his bag.

Some time later he entered the healing house and searched for his crewmates.

The red man awoke some minutes later, spitting out teeth painted crimson in blood, and his prize long gone.

[Stella Gaslight]

Light hands and careful fingers tended to the wounded as Miri hummed her way along the row  of beds.  She neatened stitches with knots that very few that were not sailors knew, cleaned and rebound several sets of bandages and helped set an arm bone in a pale looking young man who cried out in his pain calling her mama.  Soon he was soothed and asleep with help from the tiny bottle of potent sedatives she always kept hidden in her boot. The patent next to him looked a little better off.  He was peppered with powder burns, a large bump on his head and what looked like a knife wound in the leg but with some rest he would be right as rain in a few days.  As she gently pulled the blanket over his fresh bandage and turned to go something tugged at her clothes.  Miri turned around to her patient looking at her almost fearfully through half lidded eyes.  "Ah you are awake."

[MWBailey]

Percy was just finishing up with the trigger mechanism when he heard the foyer door open and a familiar voice ask about a healer and an older man. Percy smiled when he heard Pitivo's voice, and cleared away the mechanism and was just rolling up the tools when Pitivo joined him in the waiting room. He had not seen Pitivo enter, but he heard him, and he smelled blood -- drying blood.

"Miri told me you were, shall we say, looking up an old friend, Pitivo; it smells to me as though you found him. I trust you incapacitated him sufficiently to keep him from interfering with our, um, project?" He pushed a chair out with his foot. "Have a seat, Miri's inside helping out. Seems the Roma who were attacked on the plain came here for treatment. She might be in there for a bit. Don't get too comfortable; when they hear there're others out here who're uninjured, they may dragoon us into being orderlies or such."

[Nigel Wetherby]

"There was no real interference. They just stole something that didn't belong to them." He patted the side of his bag gently before plopping down hard onto the chair. The force causing its legs to creak slightly as he put his feet up, kicking sand off on the floor.

"I trust Miri's got everything under controll? The girl seems capable enough to handle this." He slid off his gauntlets, placing them on a hook at his belt as dried blood flaked off the knuckles and fell to the floor.

"Dragooning, hardly." He snickered. "Its called bein' a good samaratin, something I wholeheartedly agree with."

[MWBailey]

"As do I, my young friend, as do I, I assure you; it's just that...well, I've seen more than a few triages and hospitals full of wounded personnel. Nothing I'm afraid of, just...memories, I guess you could say." Percy said, pulling out another partly-assembled bunch of parts wrapped up in an oilcloth pouch and proceeding to put them together, adjusting and fine-tuning each moving bit as it was added to the whole; it eventually took the shape of an upmarket revolver of small caliber, the sort with the trigger housed in a projection below the frame of the cylinder.

"Pardon my tinkering," Percy said, "Its my original trade, gunsmithing is. If I can put a few of these together and sell them here locally, we might have a bit more cash to effect the purchase of our prize when we finally get to where it supposedly is." he spun the cylinder experimentally, and began to time it before attaching the barrel. "Too, it helps to have some pocket money on hand for contingencies." Van Scagg asked conversationally, "What's your profession, by the way? I notice you're quite accomplished with your fists. Any other proclivities on the side?"

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

The patient in the bed was a slim, good looking Traveler, only a young man, not long out of childhood. He started to mouth some words and coughed. He looked around, a little disoriented, then back at her.

"Where... am I?" he murmured, looking at the other wounded. "Doctor?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"You can call me healer Miri." She said taking his pulse noticing it's speed. Something was upsetting her patient but she was good at setting people at ease.  "You are in at Sherwood in the healer's house all snug and safe.  You got a bit banged up but luck was with you I think. What sort of trouble did you find out there I wonder?  Ah well it cannot reach inside these walls."

[ScytheKnight]

Harris felt a drop of cold sweat run down his back, this he could see was going to be one of those nights. "The House of Healing you say? Not easy, not easy at all if I want to leave again soon which I happen to be needing to. And I do not take kindly to threats... but... perhaps we can still do business... give me the details and I'll see about eliminating your problem before the end of the night."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Harris walked back towards the center of town, it had taken a lot of fast talking to get out of the den even agreeing to the job. Although it seemed he had only agreed to random murder his gut told him that it was somehow connected to everything else going on 'That poor SOB in the healing house knows something important... now I just have to find him and find some way of smuggling him out.'. Up ahead Harris could see the house of healing and starts heading towards it, his head humming with plans.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

"I am Raby. Just... Raby." said the man cautiously. "I... in Sherwood?" The man looked even more frightened.

"No, no, it is not safe here. I am not in a fort with the beasts outside, I am in a cage with them." he moaned. "We were packing up our auto-caravans outside when the townsfolk - the men we dealt with - tried to beat and rob us. Many died. But now I am back in Sherwood - they will surely come to finish me. I was the one who saw them before."

The man struggled, trying to lift himself out of bed with little result. "Please - you must get me out. You - you look - are you of my kind? You know that these town people cannot be trusted. We must escape!"

[MWBailey]

Percy, who had come in at the doctor's request, heard th ecommotion over where Miri sat trying to console one of the wounded; it appeared the fellow wasn't having any. He knew Pitivo might be asked in at any second, and that the Gypsy boxer would be better able to reassure teh fellow,  but he decided to pitch in anyway and try to keep the young man from hurting himself.

"I'll just help out here, shall I, Miri? There now, young fellow, don't fret so. Miri's a dab hand with either healing or fighting, let me tell you, and I'm no slouch either, if I may say so meself," he said, laying hand to khukri and tanker's cutlass. and two other of our crew should be along in a bit, well, one any way, he's a master pugilist, an' he's right out there in the waiting area. Don't worry, now--Wait a minute!" Percy suddenly realized what the fellow was saying when he, Percy, had walked up to the bedside. You say those people out there on the plain robbed you? He turned to Miri.

"Miss Miri, it might not be a bad idea to alert the rest of the healers to this; there might be trouble. Might not, as well, but I've seen things like this before, townie thugs attackin' a caravan figurin' on easy pickings and a ready-made, perfectly plausible excuse for it.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I will tell them and we may need our friend the knight as well.  If they are cruel enough to attack a house of healing there is no telling where things may end."   Miri settled Raby back and pulled up his discarded covers.  "Hush now. You are in my care I will not allow anyone to hurt you.  I am from Home but I do travel like you and I know how that can be but I am with a crew now, a very good one that might be able to help get you back.  This is the professor He is a good man with a very large gun there should be no problems getting you home.  But you must be calm and let your body heal now while I get the wheels of destiny moving." 

Miri turned and walked across to the healer on the other side of the room. "We may have a rather bumpy night a head of us.  The attackers may try coming back." She said far more seriously and resolute than Percy had ever heard her speak. 

[ScytheKnight]

Harris walks into the house of healing, his quick eyes spotting Pitivo with the look of a brawler who's just left someone they know comatose "Good to see someone enjoying themselves." Harris then walks into the main hall stopping a step inside, his instincts instantly picking up on the tension in the room. He spots Percy and walks over to him, chuckling softly "Here I was thinking I was going to have to convince you of trouble and you're already expecting it. Still I'll tell you that there's thugs out in the dens hiring people to kill a traveler by the name of Raby."

Seeing the patient stir and start to get up Harris gently, but firmly, shoves him back into his bead "So you must be him eh? Can't say that I envy you but then we've got a bloody fisted brawler out in the entrance miss Miri over there has some talents and as for the Professor and myself?" He pauses to chuckle again "Well lets just say we're exceptional cases. It's going to take a lot more then some Den thugs to get past us so just lay down and relax, we'll talk in the morning. Oh and don't try being noble and slipping out to save everyone the trouble, we'll just have miss Miri over there tie you in a knot and have Pitivo sit on you all night.. do I make myself clear? Good."

Harris turns to face Percy "We'd best get Pitivo in here, I may now know how many and when. But they're coming, tonight, and if they think I've double-crossed them they'll bring help."

[MWBailey]

"Hmmm..." Percy murmured. "Just 'ad dinner and a talk with a Mercian knight Miri charmed when she took our Gene over and turned 'im in. Fellow name of Beldan. Said some interesting things about respect for one's 'original contract' and all that. Since our original was with Mr. Redcoat back in Bromwicham, I take it you and the rest of our merry band're relatively safe in doing what we can for this poor feller." He patted Raby's bedside and smiled and winked.

"It'd be a good idea to get word to Beldan somehow about whats about to hit the fan, but deuced if I can figure out how -- unless... I say!" he gestured the man who was apparently in charge of the Healing Station, Do you folk have someone about who'd be good for sneakin' over to the Knights Lodge and tellin' Sir Beldan and whoever else they can about the Station being probably about to come under attack? It'd be a good Idea to mention the robbery plot as well."

When the man had presumably gone ahead about that business, Percy drew out the khukri and tested its edge with his thumb. "Been awhile since we've had ourselves a good scrap, hasn't it, old thing?"  He turned back to Harris. "better proceed as if help might not arrive, in case there's some local loophole we don't know about, Van Scagg said. Mercian law applies all over Mercia, but sometimes local customs get more help than the strict law in some cases."

He went back to the waiting room and told Pitivo what was up. "Seems several o' your kind's in here, and one has a thug leader's price on his head. Fellow name of 'Raby'; he says the ones out on the plain were his, and the townese ambushed them and tried to rob them. Now Harris has come and says they hired him to kill Raby--don't worry," he said reassuringly and placatingly, "no! He's not up for it, Harris's a stout and righteous fellow if ever I met one. That's why he's here, to warn us instead of helping those thugs." HE breathed a breath in and out. "Just stand ready, there's no knowing when they'll hit us, but its nearly the wee hours, so it won't be much longer, I'm thinking..."

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

The man running the House of Healing look frightened, but was smart enough to realize the best course of action for the situation, slipping out and making a stealthy visit to the local authorities. While he was out, some shady looking characters walked to and fro outside - some might just be vagrants, or people keeping an eye on the house - and Harris.

After awhile the owner returned - with a pair of Mercian Knights, though Beldan did not appear to be present. The two took up a position in front of the door, making themselves visible. The shady figures looked shocked. There was some muttered words and they slunk back off into the dark.

The night wore on, with seemingly little incidence. Suddenly there was a bang at the back door and a man's plaintive voice.

"Help! Open up! I found a man back here, badly bleeding! Oh, gawd... please, please let 'im in!"

[Nigel Wetherby]

Pitivo, who was asleep and leaning on a chair was awoken by the din and wiped the sleep from his eyes before sliding his gauntlets it.
He knew the trick and stretched his neck before letting out a sharp, shrill whistle to summon his fellow guardians.

"I dont know about you lads, but Ive seen this trick before." He hopped in place for a moment before stealthily approaching a window which might give him a clear view of he doorway to see if these nightime guests were in legitimate need for help.

[ScytheKnight]

Harris nods to Pitivo and walks to the center of the main hall drawing his two revolvers the hammers making loud clicking sounds that echoed in the large space as he drew them back. Once in position he drops into a fighter's crouch, knees lose, back straight, arms hanging by his sides, ready to move in any direction at a thought or impulse of instinct.

Now ready Harris simply holds his position, seeming almost statue like except for his constantly roving eyes.

[Stella Gaslight]

The House of Healing was close to quiet.  Raby had finally been coaxed in to sleep and Miri herself was dozing next to him when Pitivo's whistle suddenly made her sit bolt upright.  Quietly as to not disturb the other sleepers she went over to the door.  It didn't take her long to realize what was going on.  "Ahh the lady or the tiger, let me open the door.  If they try and grab me then they are rather silly and if it is a real then we are in luck that I am here yes?" Before they could answer she want for the door handle.  "Healer Miri here. how can I help?"

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

As she answered the door a man dragged in another figure, wrapped in a very thick coat.

"Thank the lord." he murmured, helping his friend to a bed. "We appreciate those that do their job." He said, giving a wink at Harris.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and the sounds of gunfire and some clanging. Someone opened fire on the knights outside with small arms - their armour protected them but they started to chase after the perpetrators.

With this distraction, the man on the bed suddenly sat up, opening his coat to reveal that he was very heavily armed. Tossing a shotgun to his partner they kept cover on the room from their corner.

"Now, best get those unconcerned out of here." said the first man with a nod to Miri. "We only want Raby - and the Rat here." he said, pointing to Harris.

"Don't try anything funny." he said, directed to the Professor and Pitivo. "You'll just hurt people here and even if you do kill us - well, then its going to be bad days for this house. What days will be left."

[MWBailey]

"While I'd prefer that others not get hurt, I'm an old man, and I don't particularly care about myself beyond a certain arrangement," Percy said.  He had found that an apparently incautious word often set up otherwise coldly-sane people to make silly mistakes, when they would otherwise have stayed --wisely-- immobile when suddenly distracted. All we need now is a mistake or distraction from anyone, no matter who or why, he thought.

So when a cat, of all things, outside in the alley started yowling, Percy took advantage of the split-second's distraction and clutched his chest as if in severe cardiac distress. Sure enough, the fellow with the shotgun lowered his gun's muzzle  to roll his eyes and swear, as the apparent leader turned and grabbed at one of the orderlies, roughly and brusquely ordering him to "ignor e the old git." A moment later, however, and the shotgunner was swearing somewhere in hell, as his earthly body lay in the corner with a tanker's cutlass right through it's chest while his fellow suddenly had Percy's Bergmann at his temple and his gun somehow on the floor still held by his now-lifeless and dismembered hand, while Percy absently twirled his Khukri in his left hand.

"Miri? Tie this fellow up if you please." He was already smiling, but his grin became wider when he said,  "perhaps a bit of attention to his former gun arm wouldn't go amiss as well," Percy said, his calm and his smile actually a bit frighteningly steady at the moment.

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

The man looked shocked at the sudden turnabout, but started to laugh, partly in shock from his severed limb.

"Oh, you think you just played the hero, didn't you?" he chortled as he was bound, waving his stump around, spraying blood. "Saved all the innocent in the House of Healing? This could have been a clean deal, but now... now the whole underbelly of this city will be against you and this place. Maybe not today, not tomorrow... I have friends, I tell you. And my friends have friends."

The old man running the house of healing paced anxiously, looking out the front. The two knights had not yet caught the ruffians outside, or will still in the process of returning.

"Lord... mebbe we need to get more knights..." he murmured, being obviously not up to the task of jogging out into the night to go search for more law enforcement. He looked back at Percy and the others.

"Look, this is your problem, not ours." he said with a worried expression. "Sooner or later you must leave - and take that Gypsy with you. I took him in out of kindness and he brings this sort of trouble to this neutral ground."

From out back there was a sudden, low whistle, followed by silence. Perhaps it had been a signal, but it had gone unanswered.

The bound man gave a small coughing laugh. "I didn't respond so they know things went south. Well, that's the end of us all."

Before anyone could respond, there was a crashing noise from the rear window, followed by the sound of scurrying boots. A bottle with what appeared to be a lit rag flew through the window, landing on the bed the fake wounded had been laying on a few moments before. Flames shot everywhere and started to spread across the floor. Nurses and orderlies started to panic instantly. In the tight confines of an Atrium, where buildings were pressed right against each other, a fire was one of the worst disasters imaginable.

"Quick! Get the patients out!" gasped the old manager, beating the flames futilely with an old coat. "We don't have much time! We need to keep the fire away from the storeroom - there may be flammable material in there."

[Stella Gaslight]

Raby screamed seeing the flames and Miri made a sour face.  Nothing good would come from this.  "Hush Raby. I told you I had taken you under my wing.  We will get you out of here just fine."  She stripped to her inner clothes and tossed her outer garments to Pitivo.  Dress Raby in these he should be able to pass as me then you take him out and get him to the rig,  I will stay here in his place and fight the flames."  She tied a crude breathing mask on and darted to the flames.  "Professor you and Harris should see to the evacuations send people out every door we have and dress the patents and healers as alike as you can.  They probibly have snipers.  I have a trick to stop the fire."  It was a nasty blend of chemicals and herb extracts they used to stop mining fires but it did the job most of the time.  It would be hell on her lungs at this close but she should be able to get out the window before it got truly bad.   The last thing Percy heard before she vanished in the smoke was her shouting at the others to get away fast and cover their mouths.

[MWBailey]

"Hero? No. Sorry, I just don't take threats well...from anybody.And you won't back me down, either, leewit," Percy said, as he shot the mouthy fool through the forehead. "Goddamned backwater masterminds; they always get a God Complex, and then lose their temper when somebody calls their bluff," he muttered. "Funny thing about that, they never seem to be really immortal like a true God should be..."

"Our problem? Well, now, that's just fine," Percy retorted. "Here I thought people who try to complete their contract against all odds would be appreciated, as well as people who try to keep the weak and wounded from getting killed. You want to set yourself up as magistrate and barrister? Have it your way, Only I hope the 'courthouse' doesn't burn you to cinders before you decide I'm a bloodthirsty criminal who committed the horrible sin of trying to save a wounded and innocent man. All right, Miri. Harris? Pitivo? we can help these people get these patients outside," Vann Scagg said as he walked over to the Surgery's water storage cistern, a large metal tank on wooden legs, retrieving the cutlass on the way and grabbing three blankets. He threw them into the cistern, then hauled them out and threw them to his companions. He wet several more and threw them to the other healers. "Wrap 'em around you, and then let's get to work." Most of the healers just stood around looking accusatorily at Van Scagg and his companions. "You don't want to follow orders from me or us? Fine! Fry for your stupidity."

He began to throw and shove smoldering furniture still smoking from Miri's extinguishing or the fire out of the way,  and haul gurneys and beds a few feet at a time toward the exit indicated by the lead healer's order. Shove, kick, push, "OUCH!" Gain a few feet. Shove, kick, push, "OUCH!" another five or six. The burns on his hands, torso and legs were minor, but they hurt excruciatingly -- but no worse than when his tank caught fire at Westminster.

The healers and others moved then, reluctantly, and then gave up trying to be roadblocks. They finally got all of the patients out of the building in record time, notswithstanding the thugs who tried to kill them off as they worked, whom Percy and the other two men traded fire with, killing a few, but trying not to do any more structural damage if they could help it, which meant letting the majority go, especially since more people kept needing to be carried out.