Play@YSDC

Slipping silently into the next room Johnny hits the jackpot, in the centre of the room is a table full of charts and log books.

Trying to keep a careful ear out for anyone coming, or changes in the tone of the conversation to the north, Johnny sifts quietly through the pile on the desk.

Grafster wrote:

OOC,OOC: If he can't figure out the documents quickly he'll take a few of the most important documents. [i]They'll notice, but they can't really change where they're going, can they?[/i]

Johnny spends a couple of heart pounding minutes sifting through the documents and charts. The Ivory Wind appears to be bound for Shanghai - along it's route it'll also be stopping at Marseilles, Malta, Port Said, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, and Saigon.

The voyage looks like it will take about eleven weeks.

The conversation outside the bridge sounds like it's ending.

OOC,Make a luck roll

Fantastic. The detective begins to return the last map to its spot when...

OOC,Make a luck roll Luck roll =30 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2415955/

The Chart Room – The Ivory Wind – Limehouse Docks, London

Johnny curses his luck as he hears one of the talkers enter the bridge itself, cutting off his escape. Even worse the man is walking towards the chart room!
Suddenly just as Johnny looks for a hiding place or an alternative means of escale, the situation changes dramatically.

Bang!
Bang, Bang!

A single gunshot, from a powerful handgun rings out – from somewhere on the docks, it is quickly followed by two more shots, from the same weapon.

Johnny hears the man on the bridge dash outside to see what’s happening, as he leaves the bridge the man lets out a blood curdling scream of abject terror.

Johnny winces at the screams; he for a minute he hears other, most distant screams, mixed in with the one.

Then he shakes his head resolutely. Not good; the whole ship is about to wake up.

The detective tries to slip off in the opposite direction of the man who just left the bridge. If that second one is still up here I'll have to try to dodge him, or something else....

If I can get to a lower deck... I may be able to slip away in the water, on the opposite side of the boat from the gunshots.

Johnny slips silently down the darker side of the ship - hidden from the docks. He doesn't encounter the second of the talkers.

He can hear quite a commotion on the docks, but no more gunshots. Looking over the side of the ship, it's about fifteen feet to the dark water of the Thames, there's lots of rope lying around though.

Meanwhile back in the car...

As Andrei and Elizabeth sit waiting anxiously for for Johnny to return from the Ivory Wind, Andrei feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He can't be sure why he looks up, perhaps it was his recent encounter with the chimera and the foul sorcerer who controlled it, perhaps his new-found knowledge gleaned from his studies, or perhaps the steps he has taken to protect himself from sorcery are actually working; but whatever the reason Andrei looks up at the exact moment that the creature lands on the skeletal frame of the nearby dockside crane.

Glimpsed through the patchy fog the beast is hard to discern, a dragon? a demon? A giant bat? Seemingly formed from either the black matter of deepest space or the putrid flesh of rotting corpses, the nightmare spawn meets Andrei's gaze with it malignant alien eyes for only the briefest of moments before unfurling it's tattered black wings and swooping down towards the Rolls Royce.

OOC,Imme & Coffee Demon: Sorry about this, though it could have been worse; at the time me and Grafster were last posting, both of you were leaving the game, so this would have been poor Ellie and Andrei's demise. As it is I need Andrei to fire his revolver three times over the course of the next few posts in order to synchronise with the events that Johnny heard. It's not my intention to invite you back and then waste your characters in the first post, so you should get out of this with your health and sanity reasonably intact. :) Don't make dice rolls at the moment. I've not had chance to have a look at the state of invisible castle for a while.

"It really is quite chilly," Elizabeth whispers and pulls her coat more tightly around her neck. She did hope that Johnny would return quickly, not just because of the cold, but also because making conversation with Andrei had gotten much more awkward than it used to be. Of course, we should stay quiet anyway, while we are in such a dangerous area. She glances over at Andrei, just in time to see him turn his head and his eyes widen.

Andrei looks pale, but strangely calm.

He looks the Demon straight in the eye, and slowly draws his pistol from his coat pocket.

Not this time, Dark Creature. I know what you are, and I've prepared myself this time.

When the Demon starts to move, Andrei reaches his arm across to Elizabeth, and instructs her with the authority of someone who knows exactly what to do. "Ellie - put your head down. Cover yourself, quickly!"

He waits for the creature to land on the car, and fires three shots from his officer's pistol through the windshield into its chest. Just like in Harlem.

oc,Just read the whole thread. It's good to be back!

The creature crashes into the car, cracking the windscreen and bashing a huge dent into the roof. Then Andrei's revolver fires once, then twice more, deafeningly loud in the confines of the vehicle.

Elizabeth never sees the thing that Andrei is firing at, but she hears it's hideous screeches - whatever it is, it seems that unlike the fog monster it is hurt by bullets. Andrei's first bullet shatters the already damaged windscreen, by the time he fires the second, the two of them are being showered by splinters of glass. At this range the creature - bigger than a man, even a large man like Andrei - is difficult to miss and all three of the bullets find their mark.

The creature screeches once more, the unearthly sound assaults the ringing ears of the investigators and a foul smell like putrified flesh drifts in through the destroyed windscreen. A flailing claw, black and razor-sharp narrowly misses Andrei's face and then the thing takes to the air again, flapping it's rotten wings it climbs up into the fog. Whether it is fleeing or merely circling it's prey, Andrei cannot be sure.

OOC,The car belongs to the Ritz Hotel. Elizabeth hired two cars from them, a Rolls Royce and a Bentley. The others have taken the Bentley to Soho.

Elizabeth is momentarily confused by Andrei's words, but as soon as the chaos begins she does exactly what he told her. She curls over, with her head against her knees and her hands desperately trying to protect her ears from the sounds of breaking glass, the firing revolver and the horrible screeching of ... she can't bear to imagine what could be the source of those unearthly sounds. She clutches her eyes closed and holds her breath, praying for the madness to end.

Andrei leans forward, breathing heavily, trying to get a look upwards into the fog through the shattered windshield.

"Ellie, take the gun."

He holds out the pistol to her.

"Take it, quick. It flew up. Can you fire it? Wait until it gets close before you shoot. This is how you cock it." He quickly goes through the motions of cocking and firing the pistol, watching Ellie intensely to see if it looks like she's absorbing any of the information. "Got it?"

Andrei seems so stable and calm that Elizabeth clings on to what he says. She's still shaken, but she sits up and takes the pistol from him. It is not quite the same as the hunting rifle she's used to, but it is nevertheless reassuring.

OOC,
@Grafster & Coffee Demon:

I'll need spot hidden rolls for both Johnny & Andrei.

Invisible Castle seems to be working fine again these days, so please make your rolls on there. I'll make them myself for you if necessary when I post tonight.

If you're reading this Grafster, then Johnny will be back in play after my next post.

I'll edit this later to be spoiler-tagged - I didn't want Grafster to avoid reading.