IC: Johnny Stakes Out the Penhew Foundation

[Raiko]

Limehouse, London - Inside the Seedy Warehouse

Johnny dashes from the door to conceal himself amongst the piles of wooden crates.

Now, crouching with his back to the nearest crates, Johnny strains to hear any indication that the men are alerted to his presence - he made too much noise entering the building and he knew it.

At first the only sound that he can hear is that of his own heartbeat, but finally he hears a quiet cough from the smoking man, it sounded like it came from his original position. Peering cautiously around the crates Johnny sees the man still stood casually smoking, seemingly oblivious to Johnny’s presence. The other two men are still talking in the office, but they’re too far away for Johnny to hear what they’re saying.

Looking at the crates nearby Johnny doesn’t recognise any of them as the ones from the Penhew Foundation, but that’s not surprising, they are probably closer to the far door at the opposite end of the warehouse.

Some of the crates and boxes nearby look like they would be easy to take a look inside, but most are firmly nailed shut.

OOC:

Spoiler:

The smoking man probably failed his listen roll or possibly didn’t care (unlikely).

Does Johnny intend to take a peek inside other crates (worse than art and all that) or just try to find the Penhew Foundation boxes?

Moving close enough to the office to over the conversation would be extremely dangerous while the smoker is stood where he is.

It should be fairly safe to move stealthily amongst the crates though.

BTW: You’re right, you can’t nest any other tags (including URL tags) inside the spoiler tags. Posting the result is fine, I can always search invisible castle for the roll anyway.

[Grafster]

Johnny tries to ignore the sweat tricking down his sides as he takes deep breaths.

The crates in front of him are tantilizingly close, but Penhew crates first, don't know how long they'll be here. Unless one of these crates isn't sealed...

Johnny tests a few, just using his hands, to see if anything around him is loose or open. If not he heads slowly toward where it looks like the Penhew Crates were dropped off.

[Raiko]

Inside the Seedy Warehouse - Limehouse, London
7:40pm - Wednesday 28th January, 1925

Testing the lids of a few nearby crates Johnny finds one that isn't secure. Lifting it quietly he takes a look inside.

Initially there appears to be nothing untoward, the crate is packed with straw to prevent any damage to the fine vases that it contains. However as Johnny checks deeper inside the crate he finds other objects concealed under the straw - two Lewis guns.



Lewis Gun

[Grafster]

A genuine criminal organization. Johnny is oddly relieved. Good thing Timour's not here, he'd probably insist on trying take them with us.

Actually that's not a terrible...

Johnny considers his leg, the size of the gun, and the armed men in the building for a moment. Then he carefully and quietly repacks the straw and vases on top of the guns and closes the box.

Now to find out what they were bringing from the Penhew Foundation and get out of here.

[Raiko]

A seedy warehouse - Limehouse, London
7:45pm - Wednesday 28th January, 1925

Johnny locates the three boxes from the Penhew Foundation, they are right at the end of the front row of crates about ten feet away from the front doors. Nobody seems to be around this part of warehouse at the moment.

Looking closely at the boxes Johnny sees that most of the crates are well secured, but the lid of the biggest crate looks loose. It should be safe to look inside, providing nobody wanders to this end of the warehouse.

All of the Penhew Foundation crates are marked up with the following, in both English and Vernacular Chinese:

Ho Fong Imports
15 Kaoyang Road
Shanghai
China

OOC:

Spoiler:

Whatever you decide to post next, please make a luck roll as well.

[Grafster]

First Hong Kong, now Shanghai?
Shouldn't be guns, who'd bother to ship them from England to China via the Penhew Foundation. If so then what...

Johnny carefully eases up the lid of the largest crate to take a look inside.

Maybe his luck will hold.

Spoiler:

The roll was a 51 vs. Johnny!s luck of 65% (link in line above).

[Raiko]

The inside of the crate is full of carefully packed mechanical and electrical components, the likes of which Johnny (in his limited experience) has never seen before.

He guesses that they are intended for some sort of wireless or possibly a high tech engine. Even the alloys that the devices are constructed from are different than anything that Johnny has ever seen before.

They certainly aren’t art objects, but this is definitely one of the crates from the Penhew Foundation.

[Grafster]

Johnny spends a long moment peering inside the darkened crate.
Gears spin, each one unconnected to each other.

Fumbling around in the dark.

The detective settles for irony and escape. He picks up a piece of electronics, and a piece of the weird alloy and he returns the crate to the way that it was before he arrived.

His pockets heavy with pilfered who-knows-what he slips back to the recesses of the warehouse to work out his escape path.

Questions bubble up in his mind, some more relivent than others.
Is the smoker still outside the office?
What about the two guards doing the rounds?
Is it going to be easier to slip out unnoticed now, or when another shipment arrives?
Why couldn't they be smuggling drugs like normal criminals?

[Raiko]

A seedy warehouse - Limehouse, London
7:50pm - Wednesday 28th January, 1925

Having pocketed the items, Johnny refits the lid on the crate and is about to leave when he overhears voices outside the front of the warehouse. The front door starts to open. Could this be the men coming for the Penhew Foundation crates?

If he moves quickly, he should be able to take cover close by.

[Grafster]

Johnny tries to get to cover nearby.

[Raiko]

Inside Punji’s Seedy Warehouse - Limehouse, London
7:50pm - Wednesday 28th January, 1925

No sooner has Johnny ducked into the shadows behind some crates, than the warehouse doors creak open and a large group of people walk in.

One of them is the man who was smoking down the alleyway, he’s accompanied by eight others - a surly looking lot, made up of a mixture of whites and Chinese - Johnny guesses that these are the sailors from the Ivory Wind.

The Indian man Punji emerges from his office and directs the men to the Penhew Foundation crates. They begin lifting the wooden boxes between them, only yards away from where Johnny is hidden.

Johnny didn’t hear a truck, so their ship is probably close by.

OOC:

Spoiler:

Sorry for the hold-up, you’re still in synch with the others though. So don’t worry that Johnny’s solo activities are holding things up.

[Grafster]

Johnny stays very very still and looks closely at the men.

Dropped off and out in less than an hour. Johnny feels the pieces in his pocket. Stroke of luck, they don't look like their checking the boxes. Hopefully they won't notice they're missing anything for a while.

If they're just here for these boxes then they should be valuable to this syndicate.... If they're storing guns here then maybe this stuff is for some kind of fancy guns?

Johnny eyes the pick-up process, seeing if it gives him any chance to slip away. With these valuable goods gone maybe Punji will send some of his security force away.

[Raiko]

The sailors leave the warehouse carrying all of the crates from the Penhew Foundation, and nothing else.

The front door is left open for the time being when they go, all of Punji’s men head into his small office with him.

[Grafster]

I've pushed my luck enough tonight.

Johnny tries to slip out the front door and blend into the streets of the Limehouse.

[Grafster]

OOC

Spoiler:

School work rears its head and I!m too behind.
I!m going to be offline until Monday morning.

Sorry!

[Raiko]

OOC:

Spoiler:

Thanks for letting me know.

[Grafster]

OOC

Spoiler:

Back now. I failed my tests with grace and style.

[Raiko]

Johnny slips silently out of the warehouse, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around at the moment to notice him. The foggy street outside is virtually deserted. It slopes gently downhill towards the docks, and uphill towards the more built up ‘centre’ of Limehouse that Johnny passed though in the taxi earlier.

OOC:

Spoiler:

Sorry about your tests. I hope you can re-sit them.

Now that he is outside, I’m afraid that Johnny will have to walk a little way if he wants to find transport out of Limehouse. From a more built up part of the district he can probably catch an omnibus back towards the centre of the city, a taxi might be hard to find around here. I’m not sure whether the Tube runs through this part of town, but I’ll check before my next post if necessary. Johnny certainly doesn’t know without asking a passer-by.

Alternatively if Johnny would rather see out the night in Limehouse, then all night establishments over almost any pleasure, legal or illegal, from waterfront sailors bars, to the seediest of brothels and opium dens, to dark hidden temples that could only exist in this game. Lol

[Grafster]

Johnny mops his brow with a handkercheif.
Reflexively he slips down a side alley, lurking in the shadows to see if anyones following him.
The boat, the detective thinks to himself. It's nearby....
No. I'm not crawling on anything that floats this late at night. with no backup.

Having confirmed to himself that he's not being followed the Chinese man takes a zig zagging route through back alleys and side streets trusting on his instincts, honed in his days walking the beat in San Fransisco, and unassuming appearance to stay out of trouble.

The familiar (or at least similar) sights and sounds help him focus. Push the puzzle pieces around in his mind. Nothing sticks.

He heads for the main area; but his nose diverts him a block.

He fumbles with strangely shaped and colored money as he pays for a bag of hot rolls filled with sweetened pork. Stuffing the money back in his pocket his hand brushes one of the mechanical dinguses he purloined from the foundation.

Johnny scowls blackly. You make perfectly good money running drugs and women. No need to add anything fancy to it... He feels a vague sense of offense at the Penhew Foundation's involvement in it all; much as he would expect Penhew himself would feel. Provided the fellow was actually dead and not faking it and bound up in the whole unsavory affair.

A few minutes later he breaks out of the tight alleys into the main area. A large bus rolls by. Not a trolley car, but good enough.

Johnny heads back to th hotel.

[Raiko]

OOC:

Spoiler:

There will be a short intermission at this point, while we resolve a dangerous encounter in the main thread.

Any survivors will meet Johnny back at the hotel shortly.

Once again Johnny headed off into danger alone, and had considerably less problems than the main group. I’d make a very bad horror director – Johnny should be killed off every time.