Session 11: An Unlikely Negotiation
The Quandry Chronicles Book One: The Lost Scarab of the Aethernauts! is an illustrated pulp adventure inspired by the tabletop gaming system Space: 1889 and shot in Second Life. Narrated in sessions like a tabletop campaign, QC will post weekly on Fridays.
Mainwaring thought himself a bold man: he’d been encouraged to retire in no small part due to his criticism of the British Army’s tactical timidity. First unto the breach, and all that. But when Miss Tatsu first proposed her response to Lady Croft’s abduction by the Luftwaffe, he exploded in red-faced shock (admittedly, being held at gunpoint *twice* before morning tea had done little for his disposition)
“You want to *recall the pirates* who just raided us?! The ones who almost kidnapped Professor Quandry?! And *hire* them to fight the GERMAN AETHER FORCE?!”
Tatsu barely smirked, her reply almost a whisper swept away on the aether currents. “Do you English not have a proverb, set a thief to catch a thief?”
Mainwaring spluttered. “That was a Leipzig-class aether cruiser! The HMAS Prince Of Wales would have a fight on its hands against that beast – why would a bucket of bolts under a freebooter-moll ever go up againt a thing like that?!”
Tatsu’s neck popped as she looked up at the man nearly twice her height. “Pride. That pirate – Lady Grace – I am well aware of her reputation as she’s plundered more than one cargo of – legitmately obtained antiques – had to back down in front of witneseses. In my culture- and I believe in hers – that shame may only be washed away in one of two ways. Death or glory.”
Mainwaring considered. “Well, there’s no shame in retreating in the face of overwhelming force, but I do take your point. We *do* have a line of credit from the Rothschilds, and if I read the Baron right – “
“Stealing the Earl of Abbingdon’s daughter back, and thwarting his plan to overthrow the monarchy – I believe he would consider it a gift, rather than an expense.”
“Hmph, indeed.”
Which is how they ended up on the Liberator – cheeky name for a pirate ship, that! “Lady Grace’s” response to Tatsu’s proposal was peals of laughter – then hard haggling over price and terms. Apparently she thought her swift, if fragile, vessel could intercept the cruiser, generate enough chaos to distract, re-kidnap Bertie, and be gone before the guns could be manned.
A price was set, cash on delivery in Cairo, and so the thief was set to catch a thief. Mainwaring and Tatsu agreed that it was best not inform the others that their unwillingness to offer up a night of passion with the Professor was going to cost Baron Rothschild another fifty thousand pounds sterling…
Session 11: An Unlikely Negotiation
The Quandry Chronicles Book One: The Lost Scarab of the Aethernauts! is an illustrated pulp adventure inspired by the tabletop gaming system Space: 1889 and shot in Second Life. Narrated in sessions like a tabletop campaign, QC will post weekly on Fridays.
Mainwaring thought himself a bold man: he’d been encouraged to retire in no small part due to his criticism of the British Army’s tactical timidity. First unto the breach, and all that. But when Miss Tatsu first proposed her response to Lady Croft’s abduction by the Luftwaffe, he exploded in red-faced shock (admittedly, being held at gunpoint *twice* before morning tea had done little for his disposition)
“You want to *recall the pirates* who just raided us?! The ones who almost kidnapped Professor Quandry?! And *hire* them to fight the GERMAN AETHER FORCE?!”
Tatsu barely smirked, her reply almost a whisper swept away on the aether currents. “Do you English not have a proverb, set a thief to catch a thief?”
Mainwaring spluttered. “That was a Leipzig-class aether cruiser! The HMAS Prince Of Wales would have a fight on its hands against that beast – why would a bucket of bolts under a freebooter-moll ever go up againt a thing like that?!”
Tatsu’s neck popped as she looked up at the man nearly twice her height. “Pride. That pirate – Lady Grace – I am well aware of her reputation as she’s plundered more than one cargo of – legitmately obtained antiques – had to back down in front of witneseses. In my culture- and I believe in hers – that shame may only be washed away in one of two ways. Death or glory.”
Mainwaring considered. “Well, there’s no shame in retreating in the face of overwhelming force, but I do take your point. We *do* have a line of credit from the Rothschilds, and if I read the Baron right – “
“Stealing the Earl of Abbingdon’s daughter back, and thwarting his plan to overthrow the monarchy – I believe he would consider it a gift, rather than an expense.”
“Hmph, indeed.”
Which is how they ended up on the Liberator – cheeky name for a pirate ship, that! “Lady Grace’s” response to Tatsu’s proposal was peals of laughter – then hard haggling over price and terms. Apparently she thought her swift, if fragile, vessel could intercept the cruiser, generate enough chaos to distract, re-kidnap Bertie, and be gone before the guns could be manned.
A price was set, cash on delivery in Cairo, and so the thief was set to catch a thief. Mainwaring and Tatsu agreed that it was best not inform the others that their unwillingness to offer up a night of passion with the Professor was going to cost Baron Rothschild another fifty thousand pounds sterling…