CHARACTERS
Tucker Harris (SteveR) - Provost
Megan "Mouse" Owens (Tammy) - Antiques Hunter
Mist 13th, 997
Constable Marcusio returns with the rake and hoe, and confirms to Sergeant Collins and the others that there is human blood on it. Collins learns that Julia Laycock's body is not available for a blood comparison, and neither Allen Cleery or Megan ("Mouse") Owens know where the body is. The Provosts find this suspicious, and tell Cleery and Megan not to leave Folly Hills. The Provosts leave, much to Cleery's relief.
Megan and Cleery discuss how many actual killers there are, and why a rake and a hoe were used to kill Julia Laycock instead of the llive that was found at the scene. Before they can discuss matters further, there is a sharp rap at the door, and Megan goes to answer it. She meets Thomas Hartigan, and lets him in at Cleery's okay signal. She goes off to make some tea, and when she returns with it, Cleery and Hartigan get down to business. Hartigan tells Cleery that the machine part he was given is around 160 years old. When Cleery asks if he's certain, Hartigan confirms this. Furthermore, when Cleery asks if he can tell where it was made, Hartigan says that it likely came from one of the northern industrial areas, perhaps the Bone Factories, as there was residue of human tissue on the part. Cleery's face goes pale, and he says this changes everything. The three discuss the possibility of travelling up to the Bone Factories, but Cleery says no, as they would need a whole team of ghostfighters. The last time Cleery went up there, he says, he nearly didn't make it out alive. He says that Julia found the part up in those areas, and she was extremely competent and not easily taken down. Hartigan is shaken to hear of the lostfinder's death, and tells Cleery and Megan that he wants no more part of this, and leaves.
Megan asks Cleery for the truth of what's going on, and Cleery takes her to the study on the second floor. He opens the wall safe behind a painting of a cityscape (Megan does not know the combination), and shows her three machine parts inside. He adds the two he has on him [the one from Thomas Hartigan, and the one from Julia Laycock], and Megan realises that this does not include the one that was stolen. Cleery says there aren't enough parts to put the dingin together, and besides there's no power source or data cards. Each of the dingin parts has a unique ident marker, from what he's learned it's the Water Trade Federation. Cleery explains a bit of what he knows of the Water Trade Federation, and says that only some of the historians and scholars of Calculus Tor, or perhaps Longshore University, would know the full story of the Federation/Fulgurators conflict. They discuss how the dingin parts were dispersed all over - including the Rookery and the Bone Factories - and that there are too many interested parties. Megan learns that Hartigan is an engineering expert with an interest in historical verification. Cleery says he needed independent verifications about the machine parts, separate from the Painscott route. None of the Provosts [factions] are aware that the mugging and the murder are connected - by the machine parts. Cleery and Megan decide not to look into the matter of the machine parts any longer, as the cost in lives has been too high and the business seems more complicated than is necessary at the moment. He intends to keep the machine parts in the safe, but for the moment, they will find out who killed Julia Laycock. They spend the remaining hours of the day searching the roof and grounds for clues one more time, but find nothing as the rain the last couple of days has wiped out most of the evidence. Megan does pull up the Huyzel vine, ties it off, and leaves it at the edge of the roof.
The morning of Mist 14th... Constable Tucker Harris wakes to find himself in Ergan Hollowsmith's street clinic, and learns that he's been surgically healed. Ergan tells him not to undertake too much strenuous activity for the next couple of days. He learns from Egan and the young woman helping him, Louise, that he was left on the doorstep, he's had no visitors, and they removed a fragmenting grenade from his gaping chest wound. His clothes are shredded, but his Provost badge is intact, though he's lost all his equipment, there's no sign of his sparklock or ammo, and he's lost his TCMA identification papers. While his liquor flask is gone, his billyclub is still present. Tucker thanks both Ergan and Louise for their timely aid, and promises to get them some healing herbs, about 1/2 a kilo, as payment within the next two weeks. As he heads out of the clinic, Ergan tells him to please return the clothes he's borrowed.
Heading back to Provost Bunker 112, Tucker suffers some bad-natured ribbing from the provosts on duty before being allowed into the bunker proper. Two Provosts, Hollings and "Frankie" settle their 20 quid bet on his almost dying from the attack, and draw in another couple of bettors who morbidly take odds on the next time. He asks them about fragmentation rounds, but they've never heard of them; perhaps they're a new macrocorps ammo of some sort? The post-surgery addled, alcohol-deprived Tucker goes down to the locker area and unable to get into his locker without a key, antagonises one Ruiz by smashing open his locker with a fire axe instead of his own. Ruiz takes matters into his own hands and smashes open Tucker's locker with the same axe. Ruiz is absolutely disgusted when Tucker grabs for the flask of booze in the locker, and drains it down. Ruiz torments Tucker somewhat about his failure to save his partner, Lucas Redfield's, daughter, adding salt into Tucker's already pretty bad wounds. Tucker goes to maintenance, and requisitions from Carlos Marcusio new locks and doors for both his and Ruiz's lockers. Carlos agrees to do so, and fixes a price of 30 quid, per locker, on it, and Tucker can do little but agree to the cost.
Tucker takes his remaining belongings from the locker, in a rucksack he has there for just such an eventuality, out of the (non-)locker. He goes to see Sergeant Borwett. Borwett asks where he's been, and when Tucker tells him the basics, hands him the report forms to fill out, in triplicate. He tells Harris to fill them out elsewhere. Tucker asks Borwett if he's heard from Lucas Redfield, but the desk sergeant tells him that his partner is "on assignment". Tucker learns that he can't get a replacement uniform, as he needs his TCMA identity papers. Two Provosts attempt to haul him out of the Bunker for being a vagrant, but he's recognised by Hollings at the Bunker entrance. Tucker decides to leave, and go seek out a set of replacement TCMA papers.
Sunday's game session of the a|state campaign was a pretty good one, and I had a good time running it, though it was a bit unusual. The session consisted of something of an interlude in the action, necessitated by
In any event, I'm rather looking forward to the next session of the Sunday afternoon game of a|state. Hopefully the players are as well.