Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
Session 5.14 Index Session 5.16
With everything ready, Noesis absorbs walkie-talkie radio, drugged darts and gun, ether and cotton wool into himself. Void opens a small gate in the Cromwell's bedroom, and Noesis slips through and under the bed. The gate turns small and retreats to a corner of the room. The rest of us watch through it.
With no sign that he has been noticed, Noesis grows two long tentacles with hands and an eye on the end of each. Each tentacle takes up an ether-soaked pad, and extends out from under the bed and over the Cromwell's faces. Mr and Mrs Cromwell are gently ethered into a deeper sleep, then unconsciousness.
When Noesis is satisfied that they are entirely out, he signals to the gate.
Void opens it up, and the rest of us stealthily enter the Cromwell's bedroom. Rings, jewellery and so on are taken from the unconscious bodies, which are passed through to the sealed train wagon we prepared earlier. A suitably-shapeshifted and microwave-warmed corpse is placed in the bed in Mrs Cromwell's place, and jewellery and so on put on it while Blitz, shapeshifted to look like Cromwell, makes ready for his role as Cromwell and takes his accoutrements.
With that done, all of us other than Blitz retreat to the Cromwell's en suite bathroom to continue the plan.
Blitz, not wanting to get in bed with a corpse regardless of the plan, puts on one of Cromwell's dress uniforms instead.
From the bathroom, Noesis sneaks off to where the Witch-Hunter and John Smith are to repeat the pattern. Void has his gate follow.
They are sharing a room some way from the Cromwell's, a room which, compared to the separate rooms where they were staying before indicates something of a demotion for them both.
Again, Noesis slides under a bed and grows eye and hand-tipped tentacles with which he prepares to ether them into unconsciousness. These he extends out towards the two sleeping figures.
John Smith seems to notice nothing as ether soaks into him. However, Witch-Hunter opens his eyes as the tentacle approaches. "INTRU..." he begins to shout.
Noesis reacts and jumps onto the Witch-Hunters face to try and prevent him getting his warning out, stifling him in mid-shout. "Mmmph!" protests the Witch-Hunter. However, Noesis' many tentacles are too much for him, and he is comprehensively wrapped up by Noesis, who simultaneously sends out a tendril to seal the doors.
With Blitz, who is forbidden from leaving Cromwell's room, remaining behind, the rest of us enter to try and contain the situation.
As we do this Noesis, who has sealed the door, hears footsteps approaching from outside the room.
The Witch-Hunter is finally subdued and passed, with John Smith, through Void's gate to the railway goods wagon.
There is a knock on the door. "What's going on in there?" demands a voice from outside.
Thinking quickly, Noesis changes into the Witch-Hunter and, unsealing the door again, opens it and sees a guard beyond.
He tells the guard that he had a dream.
The guard nods understandingly. "I suppose anyone might after the kind of day you've had," he says. "Good night Brother."
He turns and begins to walk away. Noesis closes the door.
Corpse duplicates of John Smith and the Witch-Hunter are procured, and we leave for Cromwell's bathroom again.
In Cromwell's bathroom, we plan out our next move.
We consider the situation. In the corridor outside the door of the Cromwell's room are ten guards, two on each side of the door, two opposite it, and four patrolling quietly back and forth. All of the rooms around the Cromwell's - left, right, above and below - have awake and alert guards in them, roughly ten to a room, with coffee at hand to keep them awake and alert. There are also guards in the grounds outside the Cromwell's suite. In total there are around two hundred people around Cromwell, half of them close by and awake, half of them further away and asleep in servants and guest quarters. You would think they were on a high state of alert or something...
We formulate a modified plan, using Noesis' ability to generate 'mock mustard' gas to have the Residence evacuated because of a gas attack, with a few small explosions dotted about to add spice to the mix.
With that decided, Blitz, in Cromwell form, walks sleepily from 'his' room into the living room beyond.
The guards there salute him quietly. "Hail Cromwell!"
'Cromwell' responds to their salutes and goes into his office on the other side of the living room to 'do some work'.
After spending a few minutes going through the papers there, he is joined by Noesis.
Noesis shapeshifts Blitz to appear to be suffering the effects of gas, filling his mouth with 'blood' and turning his eyes red and running with tears.
He then lays a cloud of mock mustard gas in the office before retreating into the wall.
As vapours seep out of the office under the door, Blitz knocks a lamp off the desk and falls to the floor, crying out.
The guards outside charge in and size up the situation. "Gas! Gas! Gas!" they shout as they pull gas masks out of satchels on their belts and put them on. One guard moves to a bell-pull with a red rope in the corner of the room and pulls it. Alarm bells begin to sound throughout the Residence.
With their own gas masks secured, the guards move towards 'Cromwell' and put a gas mask on him, too, before half-carrying him out of his office.
As they do this, Truth triggers a small explosion upstairs in the building, using some of the explosives we planted previously. This is shortly followed by one in Cromwell's bedroom.
Elsewhere in the building Noesis exits the walls and changes himself to look like a guard suffering badly from being gassed. He runs around in distress, which does not help to calm the situation.
"Evacuate the building!" shouts 'Cromwell'.
The troops and so on there start to do so. The alarm bells seem to have already triggered people to begin to react.
'Cromwell' tries to get to his wife over the shattered remains of 'his' bedroom.
However, the guards will not let him enter. "There's no way she could have survived, Master," they tell him grimly.
In Cromwell's office, Void Hoovers as many papers as he can from Cromwell's desk.
Elsewhere in the building, Noesis runs around dramatically, blood pouring from his eyes.
'Cromwell' is hauled from the building by his guards.
Truth starts the timers on the mass of explosives scattered about the Residence.
Via Void's gate we bail out of Cromwell's bathroom back to truck where the new modular reversed Telluric Energy Projector (TEP) machine is.
Servo begins to take it apart ready for transport. Because he built this version to be modular this is quite a fast process.
Void passes all of the modules through his gate to the woods where we first arrived in North America. When the TEP is fully disassembled we all go through and join it.
When we arrive in the woods, Servo suggests an attack by him might be a useful distraction too.
Void agrees and opens a portal in the sky above the residence.
Servo flies through above the building and shoots radar blasts down close to 'Cromwell'.
The hundred assembled guards open fire on him.
Quite a lot of bullets hit Servo, and although none of them penetrate his force field the impact is enough to stun him. He staggers in the air, and ascends higher, presenting a more difficult target.
From high in the sky, Servo, who has been keeping track of the time that has passed since the timers on the explosives were set off, fires a powerful blast down at the Residence.
His timing is spot on, and it hits just as the Residence blows up in a massive blast.
A fireball rises into the sky as Servo flits back through Void's gate and is lost to sight.
A few guards are hit by flying masonry, but none comes near 'Cromwell'.
'Cromwell' barks at the guards to be taken to a new headquarters.
The guards nod, and hustle him towards the entrance of the Residence's grounds. An armoured car rumbles up and 'Cromwell' and the guards pile onboard, along with a medic. The armoured car begins to speed off, with a large motorcycle escort clearing the scant late-night traffic out of the way.
With the job done, and no need to account for any more missing people, we don't need the many, many corpses we borrowed from Potters Field. That being so, Void uses his gate to put all the bodies left over back in the graveyard.
As the armoured car speeds through the streets of Boston, the medic gives Blitz treatment for his 'gassing'.
The armoured car, accompanied by a motorcycle escort with sirens wailing, arrives at the Boston waterfront. Blitz is transferred to a waiting launch, and speeded out onto the water. They quickly approach a battleship moored in the harbour, and Blitz is hustled aboard.
A new headquarters begins to be set up on board the ship. The ship's captain is evicted from his cabin in favour of the 'Lord Protector'.
'Cromwell' shouts out more orders. He demands that all of his military chiefs are brought to him.
While 'his' minions deal with this he leaves 'his' cabin and goes and stands on the ship's bow staring off into the distance at the lights of Boston. Soldiers discreetly keep an eye on him.
In the woods, we consider the best way forward. Given the small number of prisoners that we have, we decide that a plane is the best way to get us and them back to France.
That being so, Void gates us back to the railway goods truck and the five prisoners (Cromwell, his wife, John Smith, the Witch-Hunter and Quincy) are retrieved. We make sure they are all securely tied up (though they were secured anyway).
Then we think about the plan a little more, and realise that using a plane is both very inconvenient and very slow. We decide that having Void gate the prisoners back to France is a much better idea.
With that in mind, the five prisoners are loaded into our rowing boat, which is still lying here in the woods.
Void opens a gate from here back out into the Atlantic, and Truth heaves the boat, Void and the five prisoners through it onto the open sea before going through herself.
In a series of steps, Void gates the boat across the Atlantic and back to France in about fifteen minutes. The sea is very calm tonight, which helps. Truth rows.
Considering that the cave where we first found the Baron Charles de Bourges and the other representatives of the Octuple Alliance may have been compromised, they instead head for the nearby chateau that was being used as a prison for all the people we kept sending to the French.
They appear out of gate onto the gravel driveway of the chateau, with a rowing boat, in a small wave of seawater. It seems to be a pre-dawn sort of time in France.
Guards look surprised, then move to a defensive posture. Many guns are pointed at Truth and Void. They try to explain themselves, but they don't speak French, and none of the guards speak English. Damn.
Void puts his hands up. Truth, less concerned about gunfire, pauses for a while, then after a bit of persuasion from Void reluctantly, and half-heartedly, puts her hands up too. A bit.
After a few minutes a guard captain that we recognise as one we spoke to before, who speaks English, turns up.
Truth and Void explain about the prisoners.
The captain's mouth drops open in shock, and he continues to gape somewhat as they explain the situation further. [Well, it is as if a random captain in WWII of the real world suddenly had Hitler and the rest of the Nazi high command dropped in his lap unexpectedly!] Then he seems to pull himself together, and begins snapping rapid orders in French. From what little Void and Truth get of this, he also seems to be demanding a telephone, and urgently. Can't think why!
Soldiers pick up the prisoners and carry them into the chateau.
Truth and Void ask for some supplies to keep them going.
The captain nods, and issues more orders.
After a few minutes two soldiers come trotting up bearing a large hamper between them. Void and Truth take this, thank them, and load everything back into the rowing boat.
As Void opens his gate and Truth again passes the boat through onto the open sea they see the captain running back into the chateau.
In a reverse of their outward trip, Void gates the rowing boat back across the Atlantic in a series of steps taking some fifteen minutes.
Less than a hour after they left they appear back in the woods with a small wave of seawater and the picnic hamper.
They tell the others what happened, and we have a picnic in the woods. The hamper contains more than enough bread, meat, cheese, wine and so on for us all.
Then Void and Truth rest. Void, in particular, is very tired from so much use of his gate.
On the battleship in Boston Harbour, time passes.
After an hour or so, Blitz goes to the ship's Captain and asks where his generals are.
The Captain tells him that he doesn't know.
'Cromwell' tells them to find out when they are due. He goes back to his cabin.
More time passes.
After another hour or so, 'Cromwell' returns to the Captain and tells them to clear the Cathedral of Christ and to set up a guard perimeter two hundred yards from it.
The Captain tells him that his senior military men are investigating the blowing up of the Residence.
He orders the Captain to tell them to leave one general there and for the others to meet him here.
In the woods, Void is refreshed by his rest, and is now ready to return to France.
That being so, the various modules of the reversed TEP machine are loaded into the rowing boat, and everyone apart from Truth climbs in. Void opens a gate, and Truth shoves the boat through onto the calm ocean before following herself.
Again, over fifteen minutes and via a sequence of gates, we travel from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other. However, this time we do not arrive at the chateau, but instead gate into one of the various French barns we have used as temporary bases in the past. We don't want the Octuple Alliance bothering us for the moment...
After we arrive, Noesis suggests searching for a suitable spot to set up an underground lab for the TEP and the other machines created by Quincy. He thinks somewhere near Lille in northern France, where in our world there is coal and power stations would be a good idea, as hopefully the same conditions will apply in this world too. This seems like a reasonable idea.
However, first, we decide to go to the chateau to check that our prisoners are all right, and to eat and rest.
Void opens a gate to the chateau and we all step through. As before we are met by the armed guards, who, once the English-speaking captain arrives and the situation is explained, let us in.
At our request we are taken to the prisoners. All of them have been dressed in rough prison uniforms, and are strapped to interrogation chairs not unlike that we saw being used to restrain General Nelson, who we captured at Belfast Castle. However, they are not being questioned at present. "We are letting them sweat for now," explains the captain.
That being done, Servo asks the captain for a map of France.
The captain looks slightly surprised for a moment, then shrugs a Gallic shrug, and gives an order. A map is quickly provided and given to Servo.
He flies off towards the north-west looking for a suitable spot near Lille for a laboratory.
While he is gone, Noesis and Truth eat and rest. The soldiers at the chateau are quite happy to assist us, it seems. Void, very tired after so much gating, also eats and then sleeps.
After a while, Noesis suggests to the guards that they check on Quincy in case he has anything hidden about him that he could use to escape. They go to do this, and nothing more is heard.
Noesis, also tired from his efforts, then sleeps too.
Truth, having not exerted herself very much, is not tired and instead wanders around the chateau making a nuisance of herself.
Servo flies at low level roughly north-west from the chateau for a couple of hours until he reaches what he thinks is the area of Lille. Smoking factory chimneys begin to loom over the horizon. There are also what are unmistakably power stations, with cables carried by pylons spreading out from them in all directions. They also have chimneys belching smoke. The land below becomes more and more polluted, with rivers blackened with coal dust and foaming with noxious chemicals. Servo marks all of this on the map and scouts around until he finds somewhere close to a set of power lines that appears to be a suitable location for a new laboratory.
With that done, he turns back towards the chateau.
After another couple of hours flight he returns to the chateau, very tired. He then eats and sleeps.
Back in Boston, on the battleship in Boston harbour, time passes. Blitz waits.
After a while a ships doctor turns up and asks to examine him, to ensure that he is a fully over the effects of his 'gassing'.
'Cromwell' refuses, saying that he is fine.
The doctor does not press the issue, and leaves.
After another while, Blitz summons a sailor and has him pass on some more orders to the ship's captain. He orders all the New Commonwealth Blessed back to Boston and all of the other New Commonwealth forces involved in the war to stop advancing and form defensive positions where they are.
This message is sent off.
He then demands to speak to a representative of the Ministry of Security.
After a while, a priest turns up at his cabin. He proves to be not unlike the political officer-priests he saw in the army camp when we first arrived here.
'Cromwell' tells him to make known to the people that he is fine and will be attending the Cathedral of Christ at dawn to seek God's explanation of what is happening. He orders all the priests and other officials to attend at the Cathedral then. All of this is done in a ranting tone.
The priest argues a little, bit but not too much, apparently wanting to live.
'Cromwell' orders that the message is sent to the Ministry of Security at once, by radio.
The priest leaves, assuring 'Cromwell' that it will be done.
More time passes.
Eventually it becomes clear to Blitz that no-one is coming, and the ship is getting rather quiet. He goes to summon another sailor, but no-one arrives.. Leaving his cabin, he quickly realises that the ship is deserted. Looking out through a porthole he sees the ship's crew in the lifeboats, rowing away towards the land. Oops.
He quickly runs up on deck and dives over the side, using his friction powers to enhance the surface tension of the water to allow him to move about on it. He runs away from the ship across the waters of Boston Harbour away from the land (and the lifeboats). A little experimentation shows that as long as he does not stand in one place for too long (when he starts to sink) he can do this.
Meanwhile, in France, Servo has just woken up when he feels Bethany slide into his head.
He asks her where she has been.
She tells him she has been co-ordinating with various resistance groups.
He asks her to check on Blitz.
She agrees to do so, and fades away again.
Running over the waters of Boston Harbour, Blitz hears Bethany speaking to him. She asks how things are going, then sees where he is and quickly realises that all is not well.
Blitz asks Bethany to go back to the others and advise them of what is happening here.
Bethany does so.
Back in France, Servo feels Bethany slide back into his mind.
He greets her, and she tells him what is happening.
Servo wakes up Void and Noesis.
Void goes to check that we have the real Cromwell. Noesis also comes along to examine Cromwell.
Servo goes to check the Blessed Detector to see who is around in Boston.
Truth returns from her wanderings and is told what is going on. She goes to join Void and Noesis in examining Cromwell.
After a few minutes the Blessed Detector has warmed up. Servo sets it for Boston.
On the screen two dots are visible. There is largely stationary, and one is moving very fast, almost too fast for the Detector to be able to cope with it.
Servo asks Bethany, who is still in his head, to go and tell Blitz what is going on, and that he has a visitor approaching.
Bethany agrees to do this, and fades away again.
In Boston, Blitz is greeted, in his head, by Bethany.
She tells him about the approaching Blessed.
Looking around, Blitz soon spots him approaching. It appears to be a fast-moving man, running over the water and heading for the ship, just visible at the head of a plume of water he is raising in his wake.
When the running figure gets close enough, Blitz uses his powers and removes all of the friction around the man, hoping that he will then career into the ship and do himself a lot of damage.
As Blitz watches, the man apparently realises that he cannot stop. The plume of water decreases rapidly, but he seems to lose control, hits the surface of the water and flies through the air before hitting the ship with a nasty crunching noise.
Blitz runs across the water back to the ship and leaps on board.
He finds that the man is lying unconscious on the deck, with several obvious broken and twisted limbs. It is the red-headed man with large guns that we first met at Southampton, who Cromwell referred to as Kay. He is healing fast, even as Blitz watches, his bones and other wounds pulling themselves together.
Before he wakes up, Blitz grabs the man, takes him into the ship, disarms him, and ties him up.
Before long the man comes round, but Blitz soon puts a stop to that by knocking him out.
He locks him in the captain's cabin.
Blitz tells Bethany to return to France and tell the rest of us what is going on. She leaves to do so...
Back in France, Void, Truth and Noesis examine Cromwell to see if he is Cromwell.
Noesis strips him down and examines him while the other watch.
Examining the man internally, looking for signs of disguise or cosmetic surgery, Noesis soon spots that he is not the real Cromwell, but is in fact a body double apparently made into a duplicate of Cromwell by someone with powers like his. Presumably Dr Raymond James, when he inhabited this body. Damn.
Examining the others, Cromwell's wife also proves to be a double. Damn again.
At this point, Void feels Bethany slide into him.
News is exchanged.
We decide that the reversed TEP machine should be used to remove the powers from the speedster Blitz has captured. Bethany is despatched to tell Blitz that the machine will be used when we have got ourselves set up here, and that he should not be in the area when it is. She fades away...
That being so, we need to get going.
We tell the guards what we have discovered, then return to Servo.
He shows us the map, and his assessment of the situation there.
Void opens a portal to the area and scans it around. Finding a power station, he opens the portal wide and we all go through to there.
Noesis then uses his powers to carve a laboratory for Servo out of the ground. This takes some time. It includes a tap of the nearby electrical cables to run Servo's machinery, and a large earth rod some way from the lab to dissipate the power the reversed TEP machine will put out when it is used.
Once we have power (which is one of the first things Noesis does) Servo keeps track of the Blessed on the Blessed Detector.
In Boston, Bethany slides into Blitz's head and tells him what is going to happen.
Blitz leaves the ship and heads north across the friction-strengthened surface of the water. Gives the mobile nature of the sea, his progress is quite slow.
After a while he is past Boston Harbour and heads for the shore.
He goes ashore and continues to head north.
After some hours, and greatly helped by Servo's redesign for modularity, the reversed TEP machine is set up in the new underground laboratory.
The machine warms up, and the target is set for the Blessed on the ship.
And the reversed TEP machine is powered up and ready for operation.
Servo activates it. Power crackles down into the earth under it.
In Boston, Blitz has a good view back over Boston Harbour when, in the distance behind him, he sees lightning strike down from the ship into the sea.
Then the ship explodes, and a huge pillar of fire and the shattered remains of the ship rises into the sky. Whoops.
In Servo's new laboratory, the new reversed TEP machine has not performed well. The thick cable to the earth rod has burnt out, and the machine itself has suffered a few small explosions. Parts of it are burning. Smoke is filling the laboratory and sparks are flying everywhere.
Void uses his gate to pump fresh air into the room as the rest of us deal with the fires and sparks.
When things are under control, Servo checks the Blessed Detector. There is no longer a dot where the dot was before. Instead, it now shows a diffuse glow where the ship was. This is not something we have seen before. Hmm...
In Boston, Blitz continues to observe as the remains of the battleship fall out of the sky and the fireball dies away. As he watches, he sees the water rippling out from the ship, then rippling back, building up into a mound where the ship was.
Blitz sees the water mound higher and higher until, as if in the reverse of a droplet falling into water (where the droplet falls then briefly re-emerges intact before falling again), a giant sphere of water some two hundred metres in diameter surges up from the water and hovers in mid-air, glowing slightly blue.
The sphere of water begins to float through the air across Boston harbour towards the city, rippling slightly. Oh dear.
Blitz quickly despatches Bethany to tell the rest of us what is happening here.
In France, Void feels Bethany slide back into his head.
She quickly explains the situation to him, and he passes it on to the rest of us.
Rather reluctantly, we decide that we really should go back to Boston to stop this thing we have unleashed on the city. However, Servo decides to remain behind and work on the reversed TEP machine.
Before the rest of us go, Noesis rebuilds the cable to the earth rod so the machine, once fixed, can be used again.
Servo begins repairing the TEP machine as quickly as he can. It may be a slow job...
And bringing the rowing boat with us again, Void begins quickly transporting Truth, Noesis and himself back to Boston.