Play@YSDC

Duc's Palace, Armory - Vyones, Auvergne, France
5:45 PM - Monday, April 20, 1517

Gui opened the door leading back to the hall from the armory. He saw no trace of the servant, but he did see Elizabeth, Jacques, and Diego approaching from the left. The guard at the end of the hall in that direction remained at his post. Story was in the forge room behind the vestibule in which Gui stood, and Brook and Jean Luc remained in the armor room.

Gui gave a low whistle to attract the attention of the others and said, ”We have found the automaton.”

He looked up and down the corridor again, stepping out of the doorway for a better look. “Did any of you see a servant go by? He was in here with the automaton and was supposed to be fetching some chains but something about him seemed odd.”

Jacques enters the armoury, left hand holding his scabbard, right the grip of his sheathed sword. He glares equally at L'Argot and the automaton. "We saw the servant rush past on a mission to get chains. He seemed about as normal as events allowed."

"Was that servant in here when you arrived? And, more pressing, has this device shown signs of attacking anyone?"

”Non, Chevalier. It has not moved,” replied Gui. ”But if anything can inspire an inanimate object into fits of homicidal rage, then I am sure you are the man to do it!”

He looked up and down the corridor once again. “We shall see if he returns,” he said.

Jacques snorts at L'Argot's riposte but his attention is primarily on the automaton. "I trust you have stolen nothing," he asks L'Argot casually as he warily approaches closer to the device.

Is the automaton beastie armed with a halberd or anything else?

”Only the hearts of every eligible young woman in France,” replied Gui smoothly.

Jacques headed through the vestibule, which was stocked with various weapons of high quality in racks. He couldn't help but notice that Gui was holding one of them himself, a slender rapier. Beyond the door on the other side of the room was a large forge, where a muscular, shirtless blacksmith was hammering away at a sword on an anvil. There were doors to the left and right, and the right door was open. Through that door he could see another large room with a few suits of armor standing. One of them lay on its back on a large table. It was the automaton, and it did not have a weapon. Brook and Jean Luc were in the room, watching it, but it was motionless.

“Gui, should I run after the servant? Is he up to no good?” Elizabeth exclaims, thinking back to the minutes before with the guard. “Diego and I could try to find him, maybe.”

”I think that may be wise, mademoiselle. There was something about the fellow… I may be wrong, but it would do no harm,” Gui replied thoughtfully.

Jacques immediately moves to put himself between the automaton and Brook.

"How did it end up on the table here?"

Gui carefully approached the automaton and push its shoulder, testing the weight of the construct. Could two men have lifted it onto the table, as the servant had implied? Alternatively, was there some mechanism about the table that would allow the table top to rotate, so that a suit of armour or similar might be moved from the horizontal to the vertical without overly straining the muscles?

“Diego, let’s see if we can find this strange servant of the chains!” Elizabeth considers asking the blacksmith but time is of the essence so she turns and sweeps out of the armoury to where they last saw the servant.

"Apparently the servants saw the automaton standing in one of the alcoves and assumed that it was a standard suit of armor," said Jean Luc. "They decided that it could use some polishing, so they brought it into the armory for just that purpose." He indicated a bottle of polish and a rag on the table.

The table was ordinary, and it contained no mechanisms. The automaton was about the same weight as a regular suit of armor, and two men could easily carry it. Even one could manage it, if he were strong enough.

Elizabeth and Diego hurried back out of the armory and to the stairwell. As they arrived, the servant arrived from below with four sets of shackles across his shoulders.

"Is there a servant who can find Master Da Vinci and ask him to attend?"

Jacques still watches the automaton very warily. Without taking his eyes from it, he leans out towards where the smith is working. "Master Armourer, do you know how this device was brought into the armoury?"

From her position in the Forge, Story glances first towards the gentlemen catching up and further examining The Automaton...
Calling to Gui, Jean Luc, and Jacques, she says: "Boys, maybe don't poke and prod the thing until we get it tied down..."

...and then back looking back towards Elizabeth and Diego who appeared and promptly about-faced and dashed away again.
Then catching sight of the returning servant with the manacles...

"Which seems like we can do very soon."

Then calling and beckoning to the servant "Thank you. Good lad. Now, over here..."
*gestures and moves back towards the room with The Automaton*

"Boys, a hand, if you please."

Elizabeth raises her eyebrows at Story and suppresses a smile at the men being ordered about so.
She approaches the servant once he has released the chains. She smiles,
“That was quick. What made you rush off to get chains for a suit of armour?”
Elizabeth watches him carefully to check he’s telling the truth and to see what’s strange about him.

Psychology 47 roll: 15

StarSpawn wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 5:21 pm "Boys, a hand, if you please."

Jacques raises an eyebrow at Story but then goes back to glaring at the automaton and not otherwise moving to assist. "Madam, I am older than you and a chevalier of France. What I definitely am not is a 'boy'."

”There’s no time to stand on ceremony, Chevalier,” Gui said mockingly. ”Let us do as the Mademoiselle asks of us.” And he moved to offer assistance.

"A couple of the servants carried it in, like they would any suit of armor," the blacksmith told Jacques as he continued hammering. "I wasn't paying attention to them, as I have my work, so I did not notice anything different about it."

"Well, the man who insisted I get them seemed agitated," said the servant to Elizabeth, "and he has developed something of a reputation here. I figured that either he was somehow correct, or that he was mad and that I would need the chains for him and those with them. Either way, I did not want to waste time." He deposited the manacles in the room with the armor. "I shall go bring Master Leonardo." With that, he left the room.

Jean Luc picked up one of the chains and approached the table where the automaton lay.

"Please," it said in a tinny voice. "Don't."

Elizabeth sensed that the servant was being sincere, and he also seemed a little bit frightened by everything that was happening.

Everyone, please roll Sanity. Sanity loss is 0/1D2.

1d%50

1d4

OOC:   2 points SAN lost.

Jacques pales and looks shocked. "St John preserve us!" He makes the Sign of the Cross then draws steel. "Stay where you lie, creature, this sword had been blessed by His Holiness himself!"