Footman’s Logg, Mar. 7th, 188X,

 

I’ve been drifting on the sea for 

 

awhile, I’m not exactly sure how long. 

 

I’ve mostly lived off fish, as my 

 

dwindling supplies of serum…well 

 

dwindle.

 

I finally had good fortune, a fishing 

 

ship came across the pod, and while it 

 

took some explaining to convince the 

 

crew on board I was not some spirit of 

 

the drowned come to take them all to 

 

Davey Jones, we were soon off.

 

After a few days, the ship reached 

 

Steelhead, where seeing how it was semi 

 

familiar, and they had no plans to head 

 

towards New Babbage, I disembarked.

 

It was interesting, being far from home 

 

while having no access to my resources 

 

or funds.  But after a time, I was able 

 

to find an old woman in the Shanghai 

 

district, who sold and traded herbs and 

 

likewise from her own homeland.   After 

 

trading with the old woman, my cane, 

 

and the automoton that had been less 

 

than helpful during my crash and period 

 

of castaway status, (the negotiations 

 

were interesting to say the least, 

 

given the fact she only spoke broken 

 

cantonese, I may have alluded to the 

 

fact the automoton was a lost Tibetian 

 

god or something) for some needed 

 

ingredients (I had suspected she kept 

 

the rarer items in back, fortunatly I 

 

was correct), and retreiving the boiler 

 

from a boat I spotted at the bottom of 

 

Steelhead’s canal (the water was 

 

disturbingly clear), I holed up in one 

 

of the shacks on the outskirts, 

 

recompensating the elderly woman the 

 

room and board by enhancing her 

 

smuggled opium with a simple mixture of 

 

rattlesnake extract and strawberry 

 

jelly.  Where I was able to juryrig a 

 

brewer and mixed the ingredients from 

 

the Shanghai woman, with a leftover jar 

 

of Footman’s Balm, to make a somewhat 

 

watered down version of my serum, (that 

 

I am calling Formula 0, due to the fact 

 

it has 0 redeeming qualities, it burned 

 

like fire mixed with whiskey going 

 

down, of course then again it had never 

 

been intended for drinking).

 

After a time of more or less slumming 

 

it in Shanghai, I was soon able to 

 

locate the next ship to New Babbage, I 

 

did have to convince the captian I 

 

could improve the speed if he let me 

 

take a look at his engines, hopefully 

 

they will hold off exploding until we 

 

reach port.