The Morning of August 3rd: Brunel Hall
…Mornington listened intently to the urchin….
“…and you are sure they said ‘alliance’ kid?”
“AYE Mista Goatlegs! Dat’s wat dey said….’alliance’.”
Mornington tipped the urchin a slice of pecan pie and a silver coin and sent him on his way. An alliance between two of the busiest bars which was both adequatley staffed posed a problem. Brunel Hall although much larger, grander and expensive had one thing missing…staff. There was no bar men, no bouncers, no waitresses, the restaurant was self service and the bar was usually staffed by Mornington alone.
“I’ll be damned if i’m going into an alliance with that old washed up sailor…or old bonehead…think Mornington…think…”
He leaned against a restaurant table and glanced up at the strange cabinet in the corner…and grinned. He walked up to the cabinet, opened the door, walked inside and the cabinet vanished.
Late Morning of August 3rd: McAndrews Estate – Ravilla – “The Vampire Quarter”.
Thomas heard the strange grinding noise and went and put the kettle on. As Mornington stepped out he was immediatley hit with the smell of burning.
“What’s burning Thomas?”
“ohhhh is that it? No ‘Hello cousin! How are you?!”
Mornionton stared at Thomas…
“Don’t worry, the civil war between the Church and us lot in the quarter has ended. Each side made rules, although a lot of the churchfolks did get injured or killed, a lot of good folks on this side was killed as well.”
Mornington sat for half an hour chatting with Thomas, it was so rare that he caught up with any of his family thesedays. The Melniks have apparently been black carded in Ravilla, and any and all ships incoming from New Babbage now have to go through a rigorous search. It seemed that Charlies accounts of what went down when the Melniks visited Ravilla wasn’t exxagerated at all.
“Well Thomas, thats why I’m here, i need to talk to the old poncy git in the theatre, is he around?”
Thomas shook his head… “Nope Vic…the Elder is off on one of his jaunts around Caledon again, he wont be back for another month. He left Big Bill in charge”.
With that…mornington said his farewells to Thomas and went off to visit Billy.
Early Afternoon of August 3rd: Ravilla – “The Vampire Quarter”.
“Jeeeeesus…Vic McAndrews as I live and breathe, what the hell happened to your legs?!”
“Heh…long story Billy, long story”
“So Vic…what do you need?”
Mornington spent about 10 minutes explaining the Bar War’s which had started to grip New Babbage, when he got to the part about The Melniks Billy went into an absolute rage.
“Those two…her with that dang sword, and that airhead of a husband of her’s…do you realise the damage those two have caused?”
Vic nodded while sipping a large helping of Chivas.
“So McAndrews, I take it you want them taken out…killed? It would be our pleasure….”
“NOOOOO…god no…you know fine well Billy Ravillian affairs cant be dragged into New Babbage, it would cause an uproar. No…what i want from you is something more…simple”
Mornington produced from his jacket pocket a black card, with the Ravillian coat of arms on it, he then produced a peice of paper with the seal of the Elder…and held the card and paper, plus a quill pen to Billy…Billy nodded and wrote a quick note.
Mid Afternoon of August 3rd: Cuffs
After arriving back at Brunel Hall, Mornington strolled over to Cuffs and placed a plain brown envelope into the mail box for the Melniks to read. Inside the envelope was the black card, and a letter with the seal of the elder on it.
The letter read…
“To Mr and Mrs Melnik
As you can see from the seal on the card, and at the top of this letter, it is from your old friends here in Ravila.
We have reason to beleive that the recent ‘Bar Wars’ which has been ongoing in The City State of New Babbage has caused you loss of earnings due to tainting of your stock. Please find enclosed a casheirs check payable to the Quartermaster of Port Babbage. We hope that this will cover the expenses of the unfortunate mishap one of our operatives done. The tainting was supposed to be aimed at The Gangplank.
We also have reason to beleive that you are currently in some sort of ‘Alliance’ with The Gangplank. This concerns us…greatly.
The man known as Mr Emerson Lighthouse has had dealings with us before.
He is NOT to be trusted.
I hope this letter finds you both in good health.”
Mornington smiled to himself as he walked back to Brunel Hall. The letter was worded by Mornington in such a way as to make it look like one of the bars in New Babbage…more especially a bar which had staff, had contacts with the Ravilla Vampires. Also that the ‘contact’ was activley taking part in the wars.
The whoel thing was one big lie, Emerson had never had any dealings with the vampire quarter…well, at least as much as Mornington knew, and there wasn’t any operatives from ravilla…well none that Mornington recognised.
Yes…the letter is bound to throw the proverbial cat in with the pigeons. All Mornington has to do now, is sit backl, and wait for the fallout.
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