IC-Ep 1-Caught in the Act(Everyone)

[Philulhu]

Gui didn’t bother to acknowledge Jacques but once outside, he touched his hand to his wound and pulled it away again, inspecting it for blood. “Did you see what he did?! That ruffian stabbed me!” he protested indignantly.

“I shall make a formal complaint to the Duc in the morning, but in the meantime, can you fetch someone to look at my wound - preferably a physician rather than a servant! I’m sure the Duc would be displeased if one of his guests was not taken care of in the appropriate manner!”

[Mr. Handy]

"Bring him back here!" called Leonardo, hearing Gui's shout from the hall. "I know more about medicine than anyone else in the palace, and perhaps more than anyone else in France!" The guards dutifully turned Gui around and marched him back to the workshop, where Leonardo took out a needle and thread and sewed Gui's shoulder wound shut. "Once it heals, I'll need to remove the thread." While the bleeding had stopped, even Leonardo was unable to repair the damage.

Leonardo da Vinci's Medicine roll (90% skill) treating Gui's wound:
d%
Jacques, please roll Spot Hidden.

Elizabeth and Brook knew that England and France had historically been enemies, but whether or not there was a war on at the moment depended upon what year it was. They also knew that Scotland, from which Elizabeth hailed, was a long-time friend of France.

[Snapper]

Jacques:

1d%pHdd75%

[Mr. Handy]

Jacques made a thorough search of the thief's body while Leonardo held his candle near.

Jacques found a roll of lockpicks wrapped around the dead man's calf underneath his clothing, clear tools of the thief's trade. He also found a folded letter tucked under his tunic, on his chest. Thankfully it had been low enough that the halberd blow had not damaged it. The writing was in a flowing script, but unfortunately it was in Italian.

Spoiler:

You may make an Own Language: French roll at half skill to understand the gist of it, as the two languages are fairly similar. You may also roll Insight, whether or not the other roll succeeds.

[Snapper]

Jacques:

1d%HLFL48%

1d%H75%

[Mr. Handy]

Jacques could tell by the writing that it was most likely by the hand of a woman, one who was determined and intelligent. It was addressed to a man named Giuseppe, and from Jacques's intimate knowledge of French, he was able to tell that she was promising him the sum of a thousand florins in exchange for a crystal owned by Leonardo da Vinci.

[SunlessNick]

Crisis? I may have missed a post.

A death in the family, and some fallout.

Leonardo's eyebrows rose at the sight of Story's appearance. "Be my guest, mademoiselle," he said to Story. "Just be careful. Our fellow guest is right, it does not make sense why he should reach around behind the automaton while standing in front of it. Perhaps someone else operated it."

"Merci," Story says to Leonardo. She doesn't attempt to make it do anything, just examine it and try to glean what principles govern how it would work (and what might cause it to malfunction, since Leonardo mentioned it should be glowing more than it is).

When Gui is ushered back into the room, she looks up and says briskly, "Well, now that we're all back in one place, perhaps we should share why we're here, one at a time, and no one contradicting anyone else until we're all done. Does that sound rational? My friends and I are simple travellers - our presence here is inadvertent, but sometimes we do find ourselves in places of crisis. By the way, does anyone mind if I turn the lamps up?"

[Philulhu]

Gui shrugged, ignoring the twinge in his shoulder from Da Vinci’s needlework. It didn’t really matter to him if the strangely-attired women decided to light the lamps. He would have preferred to have hidden his identity in the shadows but saying no might seem strange so he’d have to grin and bear it.

Assuming the lamps are lit…

As the room brightened, Gui stepped forward, pulling his jerkin straight and brushing his hair back from his face. He bowed deeply. “Enchanté, Mademoiselle,” he said. “My name is Gui l’Argot, a gentleman of leisure and a guest of the Duc, who shall be hearing of this indignity in the morning!”

He glared at Jacques and continued. “And as I said previously, intrigued by the famous intellect of Monsieur Da Vinci” - he turned and bowed to the inventor - “I sought to marvel even if briefly at his magnificent works. I accept that it was wrong of me to do so, but when I entered, I saw that this poor fellow had been struck so I rushed to his aid. It was at that moment, that the pompous peacock over there - who, for all we know, could have already been hiding in this very room and at least had a hand in this man’s murder - assaulted me most grievously.”

[Snapper]

Fair enough and sorry to hear that.

[Snapper]

Jacques:

Jacques, kneeling and concentrating while trying to decipher Italian, looks up at Gui and rolls his eyes. "Pirate's blood, he's still here. Guards, the young man is all sewn back together and must be escorted to his room now. Please God."

Returning to the letter, Jacques hands it to Da Vinci.

"Determined, intelligent, female handwriting, I believe. As best I can make out, she has offered one "Giuseppe" a thousand florins for a crystal in your possession."

"I presume Giuseppe is our man with the lock picks here." Jacques pats the corpse. "I presume the crystal is your gem that you say has stopped glowing."

Spoiler:

How much does Jacques know about Da Vinci? I sort of assumed Da Vinci was already quite well known as a painter (hope that was OK). Great artists were the rock stars of the day.

Would Jacques know that DV was hired at various times to design military technology, was an amazing inventor, polymath etc. We know a lot about DV but the PCs may not have.

[Philulhu]

Sorry to hear your news, Nick. I hope everything gets sorted ok.

[jp1885]

The same goes for me Nick.

[SunlessNick]

Thankyou everyone.

"Then the first question that comes to mind is where this crystal came from. Did the box came with it, or is of your own design, Master Leonardo?"

[Mr. Handy]

Leonardo nodded his assent, and Story lit the lamps to examine the automaton more closely. It was advanced for its time, but still primitive by her standards. While she did, he examined the letter. "It is just as you say," he confirmed to Jacques. "I have been reading Italian since I was a very small child. So a very wealthy woman, whoever she may be, has hired this miscreant Giuseppe to steal my crystal. The box is indeed of my own design, which I used to secure the crystal. Few are smart enough to be able to open it, but he managed. Whoever he was, he will no doubt be missed by someone - someone with a thousand florins to spend. The crystal is said to be from lost Atlantis. I do not know whether this is true or not, as I have no way to verify this, but it had an unnatural pale green glow to it before. I purchased it a few years ago back when I lived in Italy, from a traveling merchant."

"Come with us, monsieur," one of the guards said to Gui.

Story, please roll Mechanical Repair to try to determine how the automaton works.

It's the crystal that used to glow, not the automaton. Leonardo was looking at it when he mentioned that it doesn't glow any more.

All of you have heard of Leonardo da Vinci. To find out exactly how much you know, Jacques and Gui may make Know rolls. For the others, how much you know is based on the History rolls you've already made. Story failed and only knows the basics. Elizabeth and Brook know more details, especially Brook, who rolled a better success.

[Snapper]

Jacques:

1d%95%

Jacques contemplates the famous Master as they consider the evening's events.

Spoiler:

Jacques knows things. And on occasion, he drinks.

[SunlessNick]

Mechanical Repair Roll 34 - success.

"It's a remarkable creation," Story says as she examines the automaton. Realising they're taking Gui away, she asks, "I can certainly understand your curiosity, but was it general, or was there a particular reason why it overcame you tonight?"

[Mr. Handy]

Unfortunately, the automaton was just too primitive for Story to understand its construction. Give her an experimental high-tech robot and she'd have a chance, but this? The only ways she'd learn how to use it were either trial and error or if someone else demonstrated.

Spoiler:

I'm sorry, but I think you were looking at Elizabeth's character sheet. She has 35% in Mechanical Repair and is the only PC who could have succeeded with a 34. You have the base skill of 20%, which makes the 34 a failure.

You know everything you can research about Leonardo da Vinci, including about his inventions and the military designs he's developed. If there's anything relevant to the plot that you could know about him, I'll fill you in about it as it occurs.

[Philulhu]

1d100 Gui’s done his homework…

Gui turned back into the room once again and favoured Story with a winning smile. “Mademoiselle, this is the great Leonardo Da Vinci. The word genius is lightly used these days but for this man, it is very much deserved. There has never been a man who knew more about painting, sculpture and the human form, not to mention architecture and many other mathematical disciplines. I wished only to marvel at his creations but thought that a lowly creature such as myself would never be favoured with an audience. I freely admit that I came here uninvited, but only to marvel in his greatness, nothing more.”

[jp1885]

While everyone else was busy, Brook allows herself a moment of reflection.

They’d arrived in renaissance France, with none other than Leonardo da Vinci! How cool is that?

Of course, turning up unannounced in such a time period, dressed in modern clothes, does have it’s challenges…

“Um, where are we gonna sleep?” she asks to no one in particular.

[Philulhu]

“If you wish, Mademoiselle, you may sleep in my bed,” replied Gui smoothly, with a deep bow.