This week's session was dominated by Edward's demonstration of his invention: The Grimm Ghostcharge Generator. It was pretty entertaining to watch him pull out the stops for the whole showmanship schtick.
The show began with our scientist of questionable sanity (what? They're all a bit mad!) making his introduction to the gathered audience. Because it's the old west, we had a few clucking housewives that didn't approve of Jane. Clearly they were jealous that the Native American woman filled out her clothing better than they did theirs.
Jane ignored them as only someone used to clucking housewives could. Or someone used to getting dirty looks for her appearance. Same difference, really.
Edward continued his demonstration by giving the crowd an idea of what his invention could do. The general idea being that his invention would be able to make regular metal as durable and effective as Ghost Steel, be it in the form of armour, munitions or even everyday tools.
Promising stuff if it works! Of course, mad science isn't known for its stability.
However, after having Jane show off one of the demonstration guns so the crowd knew that it hadn't been rigged we moved on to the actual demonstration and not just talk. Jane even spun the cylinder so the crowd knew that the bullets hadn't been tampered with either. Just a normal, every day Colt Single Action Army. Good revolver, but it's not a gold ol' abomination unto Smith & Wesson.
Jane put a bit of sexy flair into her shots as she turned the gun onto one of the metal target plates that had been set up ahead of time. Her first two shots, understandably, pinged against the thick plate with one bouncing off into the unknown while the second one punched into it enough to get stuck.
The sound drew more of a crowd, because who doesn't hear gunshots and want to head toward them? Weird people, that's who!
With the gun fired without the benefit of Edward's invention he proceeded to show off as he applied the Ghostcharge to the gun, explaining in easy-to-understand ways for the masses, that the invention will charge the barrel of the gun to allow the bullet to be propelled further. Though the power of "Electro-Stasis". I plan on having Sister Eldritch go into scientific discussions at some point, although her knowledge is more medical based. Doesn't mean she's not interested in the inner workings. Plus if it works as advertised it'd be quite useful once mass-produceable.
Once the gun was Charged by the power of Electro-Stasis Jane took to the targets again. This time she added a bit more flair and showmanship in with a toss in the air, wave of her hat and two shots fired without really looking at the target. Both bullets punched through the metal to the impressed murmurs of the crowd.
The offensive capabilities of the Ghostcharge thus shown off, it was time for the defensive demonstration. Another gun was shown off to the crowd and Edward used his invention on one of the steel target plates. The plate hummed and glowed with the Charge. Jane took up the second gun, added a bit more sexy flair and showmanship of her own with some cleavage and booty for the purposes of sex appeal and fired off two more shots.
They bounced off the empowered steel plate, much to the approval of the crowd, including three people in particular importance:
Artist is unknown
The first was Diana Berghauer, a wealthy old woman who had talked to Edward earlier in the day (previous session).
Artist is ????
The second was Samuel Smith, grandson to Smith of Smith & Roberts.
Source is Avatar: the Last Airbender
The third, and most important, was a random dude in the crowd that was extremely excited during the demonstration. Cheering and clapping and probably doing other things to show his appreciation. The man was very happy and not at all ashamed to show it off. To the point Sister Eldritch regretted not bringing her medical kit. She could have given him some laudanum.
With the main performance of the demonstration completed Edward moved on to the audience participation portion and allowed people to come up and try their own firearms against the Ghostcharge-empowered steel plate. Samuel, Wade, and Shing Li all lined up. Eldritch considered it as well, but upon seeing that Sheriff Shanker had been drawn by the gunfire, opted to go talk to him instead. Besides, with two of the three security detail distracted she needed to be the responsible one and keep tabs on everything else.
Being that they were friends – and he was aware of it anyway – Eldritch dropped her fake accent and allowed herself a chance to relax. I fully admit this is because I was tired of not using contractions and trying to keep her speech carefully maintained. Shanker was understandably on edge with guns being fired off during the expo. Eldritch tried to reassure him and it was going well until...
Samuel's turn at the shooting display had gone well. He and Edward bonded a little bit over the latter recognizing the impressive, customized nature of the former's gun. Wade's turn, however went... Too well. Wade's shot with his buffalo gun punched through the uncharged plate, through the haybale and wall behind it and kept going until there was a loud pang and and shrill cursing from several stalls over. Shanker fled to check the damage, approving the Sister's offer to smack Wade upside the head.
Which she did! When Wade came to join her after finishing his second shot (which did not do nearly as much damage as the first) the nun had removed her veil and rolled it up like a towel in a locker room. Wade thus punished, the two settled in to conversation while Shing Li stepped up for her go at the steel plates. This included Wade suggesting again that Eldritch should give his rifle a try later when he got the chance to see it perform while Ghostcharged. Sister E agreed so long as Wade would help support her lest she break something. Again. It may have also been an excuse for the two to be... close.
Shing Li's first strike against the uncharged plate rendered the plate completely useless for anything short of scrap metal. Her second strike, the one against the Ghostcharged plate also ruined the plate with a fist-shaped dent and several cracks splitting through it. Though there was no word on how the overly excited man reacted to the second punch, he had gone completely mad with excitement and happiness. We can only assume that he began frothing at the mouth until he passed out and was carried off by his friends. Hopefully to an actual medical tent and not one of the attending inventor's stalls...
The session ended with Shing Li making a mistake: she quietly moved up behind Sister Eldritch and joined the conversation without announcing herself. Thus spooked, Eldritch twisted around, drew her knife and had it against the Asian girl's throat in a flash. The blade was held for several seconds before Eldritch removed and resheathed her weapon with an apology.
Shing Li apologized as she came to the realization that the situation could have ended much, much worse.
Next session will have a short timeskip to where our ragtag fivesome get a chance to just relax and talk to one another at day's end, and probably move into the second day of the expo.
Session Quotes
Edward: Edward Grimm coughs into his hand and speaks really fast and really soft. "Admission of culpability nullifies me of all legal fault." He then speaks a bit louder. "Alright then, let's see how my Ghostcharge holds up to that!"
Wade: He'd crack his neck just a little, rubbing the back of it just a bit sheepishly as he made his way over to Sister Eldritch, the fingers of his right hand tapping agitatedly against the grip of his revolver "So....uh....guess I should've said something about the ammunition?"
GM: after a moment of stunned silence Mr Over-excited -flies off the handle-, bouncing and screaming and dancing and being entirely too excited! He's having the day of his life with all this noise and destruction and even his friend can't get him to calm down.
Edward: "Well there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Even the wonderous martial arts of the orient can be protected against with the use of Ghostcharge! I'm afraid that I'm going to need to rebuild my stall for the next demonstration."
Shing Li: Shing Li bows to Edward again, then she bows to the assembled crowd. "Am very hopeful all having good time, please continue do so, but must warn that am helping sheriff keep order. Please be on best behavior, am ordered to go after wrongdoers." With another bow and a smile she makes her way through the crowd and off to find where her friends went.
Context: This is right after Shing Li's punch tore through one metal plate that had protected against non-Charged bullets, and then seriously damaged the Charged plate. Be on your best behaviour indeed.
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