Victorian Undead 2 - Part 1 and 2
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scans_daily The story begins in 1900 in Whitby, North Yorkshire, and the setting doesn't care about the cliche, as it's a dark and stormy night. A ship just manages to race the storm into the harbour before the weather gets too bad, but another ship isn't so lucky. The Yorkshiremen look on aghast as the ship comes full speed out of the dark, and only manages to avoid crashing into the harbour wall due to a well-timed swell of the ocean carrying up, over and onto the beach beyond. No one is aboard, only the captain, dead, lashed to the wheel with a crucifix in his hand...
Several days later, Holmes and Watson are sweltering in the summer heat, having been called forth by a potential client about a possible case. They're caught in a traffic jam, as following the wholesale destruction of London at the end of the last series to contain a zombie uprising, the city is still being reconstructed. Only the huge deathtoll means that unlike the previous attempt to redesign the city back during the Great Fire of London (the architects wanted to do away with the ancient street layout and go with a more organised grid design... only for the locals to immediate come back as soon as the ashes cooled to stake out the boundaries of their property, meaning that even today trying to get around in the city is kind of a pain), space has been cleared for all the exciting new projects that in our reality were left on the drawing board.
They arrive at their destination, Lloyd's of London, where they meet their client, one of the insurers. He has called the duo over due to the matter of the Demeter, the seemingly abandoned ship that washed up in Whitby. The ship was commissioned in Varna, on the Black Sea, to sail to Whitby with only a ballast of silver sand and a cargo primarily consisting of boxes filled with "scientific earth".
The crew comprised of the captain, two mates, five hands and a cook, all of whom disappeared en route save for the captain, who was the aforementioned man found bound to the ship's wheel. Sealed in a bottle in the captain's pocket, they found an addition to the ship's log, wherein he described how over the course of the journey, the crew appeared to disappear one by one. Finally, when only the captain and one of the mates were left, they found a tall, pale man standing on the prow of the ship, not a passenger but... something else. The captain attacked it with his knife, which only past through the pale man like mist.
This prompted the mate to go insane with fear and jump overboard, leaving the captain alone the ship with the stowaway. The journal entries imply that being alone on the pale man drove the captain himself crazy with dread, leading to him tying himself to the wheel while grasping his crucifix. The insurer says that he cannot fathom that a seemingly supernatural force was at work, and that the crew must have fallen victim to some kind of criminal plot, like someone smuggling something in the cargo, or offing the crew to get salvage rights to the vessel.
In any case, the boxes of earth were claimed by a solicitor in Whitby, the man who was going to receive the cargo anyway, while the ship itself was swiftly grabbed by the Russian consol. Whatever the cause though, the fact remains that nine people died on that ship, and their families have commissioned Lloyds to get some answers. They in turn are hiring Holmes, as this is the kind of mystery that he's famed for solving. Holmes eagerly accepts, but before they depart, the insurer imparts one final piece of information. It appears that as soon as the Demeter was seen running aground on the beach, a huge black dog was spotted leaping from the vessel and running inland towards Carfax Abbey. The mention of the causes Watson to ask whether that means that there might be a connection to the Hound of Baskerville Hall, but Holmes says that it's probably just a coincidence.
Elsewhere in Britain, some concerned Roma people are asking their wise woman what she sees as she attempts to see the future in the entrails of a chicken. She warns them that they are too late, that HE, the pale horseman has come, and that pestilence rides behind him. They must be ready, she says, they must be watchful, as they only have one chance, and if they fail then all will be lost...
A little while later, Holmes and Watson arrive in Whitby, and head straight to the house of the solicitor who claimed the boxes of earth from the Demeter. They are surprised, however, when getting to his house that there isn't anyone answering the door, as even if a well off person like the lawyer DIDN'T have servants, then surely in the middle of the day a member of his family should answer the door, right? Holmes picks the lock, and they head inside...
On the solicitor's desk they find an envelope addressed to his home, filled with what looks like dirt. Or, as Holmes suggests, maybe even "scientific earth"? The letter was postmarked for that very day, which suggests that some mailed to the solicitor to kill him and everyone else in the building as a means of tying up loose ends, a deduction that proves to be true when a bunch of Eastern European gentlemen wander into the room while pouring gasoline everywhere.
One of them attempts to shoot Watson, only for Holmes to knock him out of the way, the bullet grazing his head in the process. While Watson attempts to see if his friend is alright, the men set the house of fire with them inside. And while people run around panicking outside, the Roma wise woman from earlier watches as the house burns...
Back in London, Queen Victoria is visited within the newly reconstructed Buckingham Palace by a Lord Godalming. Godalming claims to have found a man with the means to not only stop the spread of haemophilia amongst Victoria's family, but possibly even cure it entirely! A man with vast expertise in matters relating to blood: Count Vlad Dracul' of Transylvania!
Next issue, Holmes and Watson awaken to find themselves not burnt alive, having been rescued by the Wise Woman and her people the day before.
They go to talk to the Wise Woman, who takes one look at Holmes and deduces that he's fought the dead before. He says that this is a matter of public record, but she clarifies that there is dead and there is undead. Some feast on flesh, some steal your blood, your tears, your soul. There are as many kinds as there are races and creeds of men, and they are fast, so he must move faster. Holmes, clearly still annoyed at the other dudes attempting to shoot him in the face the other day, curtly asks her to just say who the Szgany are working for.
She says that their master is the Eagle of Walachia, and he has scented the British Empire's blood in the water since the zombie uprising. He's a warrior prince of old, so he's going to use the Empire's weakened state to try and claim it for himself. Holmes asks for a name, and she tells him that he is Vlad Tepes... Vlad Dracul, he son of the dragon. He is an ancient evil, he is strigoi. Holmes recognises the term and looks concerned, and explains to Watson that Dracula, the Szgany's master, is... a vampire!
Elsewhere, in his sinister lair, Dracula is explaining his scheme to his henchman Godalming and to his second-in-command Lucy Westernra. Admittedly they should know this already, but it's mainly for the audience. Basically, he's had his men abducting random poor people off of the street, and infected them with a cocktail of his own blood and the plague virus contained in the boxes of earth he brought from his homeland. His blood keeps the victims enslaved to his will, and keeps them juuuuuust alive enough to make them effective carriers of the disease as they spread it secretly around the country. Leaving only himself, and those who have been the immunity present in his blood touched but under his control (ie he wants to infect Victoria and her family under the guise of a cure of their blood condition, but it would infact put them under his mindcontrol, and considering the number of European royal families Victoria's kids married into... this effectively would mean Dracula would rule the world by proxy).
Godalming points out the obvious flaw in his "kill all the pleds with plague" plan, in that if all the common folk are dead, who exactly would there be for Dracula and his kin to rule? The Count explains that the strain is one he discovered back when he was mortal, and it's a savage for short lived disease that he used to clear out enemy cities by catapulting infected corpses over their walls, waiting a few days and then just walking inside. The Englishman also brings up that their plan seems to have hit a snag, in that although Victoria is definitely interested in a potential cure... they aren't actually allowed to just start injecting her heirs with a concoction without it getting approval of the court doctors and the like. This means that they have to be subtle in trying to convince her, otherwise their entire plan will fall apart before it even begins.
Dracula doesn't take this well, telling Godalming to hurry up and convince her to take his "treatment", or he'll just realise his plague anyway and take the crown by force! As Godalming scurries off, Dracula calls to Lucy, and tells her that he has an important job for her to do...
Later, at Carfax Abbey, Holmes and Watson are sneaking towards the place in the dark. According to the manifests at the solicitor's office that Holmes was able to read before the fire, this was where the majority of the boxes of earth were sent from the Demeter. If they can get there and destroy them, then that'll be several few to worry about, and if not, Holmes has already sent all the details of their investigation thus far to his brother Mycroft, so that an official investigation can get underway if they somehow end up dying.
To the heroes alarm, it appears that there are already some men at the Abbey, who are smashing the boxes and setting them on fire. Holmes and Watson rush up, telling them to stop, only for one of them to aim a rifle at them. The men turn out to be lead by a Dutchman, a Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and they are destroying the boxes under the belief that by doing so they are preventing Dracula from using them to rest in. Holmes and Watson introduce themselves and explain what's going on, which Van Helsing brushes off as being absurd but luckily Jonathan Harker is there to confirm that at least some of Holmes' details ring true, as the solicitor was one his own firm engaged to move goods for the Count.
Despite their conflicting views of what exactly is going on, Van Helsing and Holmes do at least agree that the boxes should be destroyed. So Holmes blows them up with the fire-bombs he'd previously used against Zombie Moriarty in the previous series.
Close behind Lucy are the people infected with just enough of Dracula's blood to put them under his control, they ignore the assembled heroes and begin rubbing the plague-ridden dirt from the surviving boxes all over themselves before stumbling off in all directions. The vampire hunters realise that they are meant to serve as plague carriers, and promptly begin shooting them to prevent them from getting away. The wanton murder of disease victims naturally upsets Dr Jack Seward, Van Helsing's protege, who asks why they're just murdering them without even attempting to help them first. His protests are ignored by the rest, even Abraham, and the plague carriers are quickly dispatched.
Lucy... considerably less so.
As the burning Lucy escapes into the distance, Holmes climbs down and says that he and the vampires hunters should compare notes to work out what exactly is going on...
Next: The Tale of the Vampire Hunters, and Dracula's Master Plan!
Several days later, Holmes and Watson are sweltering in the summer heat, having been called forth by a potential client about a possible case. They're caught in a traffic jam, as following the wholesale destruction of London at the end of the last series to contain a zombie uprising, the city is still being reconstructed. Only the huge deathtoll means that unlike the previous attempt to redesign the city back during the Great Fire of London (the architects wanted to do away with the ancient street layout and go with a more organised grid design... only for the locals to immediate come back as soon as the ashes cooled to stake out the boundaries of their property, meaning that even today trying to get around in the city is kind of a pain), space has been cleared for all the exciting new projects that in our reality were left on the drawing board.
They arrive at their destination, Lloyd's of London, where they meet their client, one of the insurers. He has called the duo over due to the matter of the Demeter, the seemingly abandoned ship that washed up in Whitby. The ship was commissioned in Varna, on the Black Sea, to sail to Whitby with only a ballast of silver sand and a cargo primarily consisting of boxes filled with "scientific earth".
The crew comprised of the captain, two mates, five hands and a cook, all of whom disappeared en route save for the captain, who was the aforementioned man found bound to the ship's wheel. Sealed in a bottle in the captain's pocket, they found an addition to the ship's log, wherein he described how over the course of the journey, the crew appeared to disappear one by one. Finally, when only the captain and one of the mates were left, they found a tall, pale man standing on the prow of the ship, not a passenger but... something else. The captain attacked it with his knife, which only past through the pale man like mist.
This prompted the mate to go insane with fear and jump overboard, leaving the captain alone the ship with the stowaway. The journal entries imply that being alone on the pale man drove the captain himself crazy with dread, leading to him tying himself to the wheel while grasping his crucifix. The insurer says that he cannot fathom that a seemingly supernatural force was at work, and that the crew must have fallen victim to some kind of criminal plot, like someone smuggling something in the cargo, or offing the crew to get salvage rights to the vessel.
In any case, the boxes of earth were claimed by a solicitor in Whitby, the man who was going to receive the cargo anyway, while the ship itself was swiftly grabbed by the Russian consol. Whatever the cause though, the fact remains that nine people died on that ship, and their families have commissioned Lloyds to get some answers. They in turn are hiring Holmes, as this is the kind of mystery that he's famed for solving. Holmes eagerly accepts, but before they depart, the insurer imparts one final piece of information. It appears that as soon as the Demeter was seen running aground on the beach, a huge black dog was spotted leaping from the vessel and running inland towards Carfax Abbey. The mention of the causes Watson to ask whether that means that there might be a connection to the Hound of Baskerville Hall, but Holmes says that it's probably just a coincidence.
Elsewhere in Britain, some concerned Roma people are asking their wise woman what she sees as she attempts to see the future in the entrails of a chicken. She warns them that they are too late, that HE, the pale horseman has come, and that pestilence rides behind him. They must be ready, she says, they must be watchful, as they only have one chance, and if they fail then all will be lost...
A little while later, Holmes and Watson arrive in Whitby, and head straight to the house of the solicitor who claimed the boxes of earth from the Demeter. They are surprised, however, when getting to his house that there isn't anyone answering the door, as even if a well off person like the lawyer DIDN'T have servants, then surely in the middle of the day a member of his family should answer the door, right? Holmes picks the lock, and they head inside...
On the solicitor's desk they find an envelope addressed to his home, filled with what looks like dirt. Or, as Holmes suggests, maybe even "scientific earth"? The letter was postmarked for that very day, which suggests that some mailed to the solicitor to kill him and everyone else in the building as a means of tying up loose ends, a deduction that proves to be true when a bunch of Eastern European gentlemen wander into the room while pouring gasoline everywhere.
One of them attempts to shoot Watson, only for Holmes to knock him out of the way, the bullet grazing his head in the process. While Watson attempts to see if his friend is alright, the men set the house of fire with them inside. And while people run around panicking outside, the Roma wise woman from earlier watches as the house burns...
Back in London, Queen Victoria is visited within the newly reconstructed Buckingham Palace by a Lord Godalming. Godalming claims to have found a man with the means to not only stop the spread of haemophilia amongst Victoria's family, but possibly even cure it entirely! A man with vast expertise in matters relating to blood: Count Vlad Dracul' of Transylvania!
Next issue, Holmes and Watson awaken to find themselves not burnt alive, having been rescued by the Wise Woman and her people the day before.
They go to talk to the Wise Woman, who takes one look at Holmes and deduces that he's fought the dead before. He says that this is a matter of public record, but she clarifies that there is dead and there is undead. Some feast on flesh, some steal your blood, your tears, your soul. There are as many kinds as there are races and creeds of men, and they are fast, so he must move faster. Holmes, clearly still annoyed at the other dudes attempting to shoot him in the face the other day, curtly asks her to just say who the Szgany are working for.
She says that their master is the Eagle of Walachia, and he has scented the British Empire's blood in the water since the zombie uprising. He's a warrior prince of old, so he's going to use the Empire's weakened state to try and claim it for himself. Holmes asks for a name, and she tells him that he is Vlad Tepes... Vlad Dracul, he son of the dragon. He is an ancient evil, he is strigoi. Holmes recognises the term and looks concerned, and explains to Watson that Dracula, the Szgany's master, is... a vampire!
Elsewhere, in his sinister lair, Dracula is explaining his scheme to his henchman Godalming and to his second-in-command Lucy Westernra. Admittedly they should know this already, but it's mainly for the audience. Basically, he's had his men abducting random poor people off of the street, and infected them with a cocktail of his own blood and the plague virus contained in the boxes of earth he brought from his homeland. His blood keeps the victims enslaved to his will, and keeps them juuuuuust alive enough to make them effective carriers of the disease as they spread it secretly around the country. Leaving only himself, and those who have been the immunity present in his blood touched but under his control (ie he wants to infect Victoria and her family under the guise of a cure of their blood condition, but it would infact put them under his mindcontrol, and considering the number of European royal families Victoria's kids married into... this effectively would mean Dracula would rule the world by proxy).
Godalming points out the obvious flaw in his "kill all the pleds with plague" plan, in that if all the common folk are dead, who exactly would there be for Dracula and his kin to rule? The Count explains that the strain is one he discovered back when he was mortal, and it's a savage for short lived disease that he used to clear out enemy cities by catapulting infected corpses over their walls, waiting a few days and then just walking inside. The Englishman also brings up that their plan seems to have hit a snag, in that although Victoria is definitely interested in a potential cure... they aren't actually allowed to just start injecting her heirs with a concoction without it getting approval of the court doctors and the like. This means that they have to be subtle in trying to convince her, otherwise their entire plan will fall apart before it even begins.
Dracula doesn't take this well, telling Godalming to hurry up and convince her to take his "treatment", or he'll just realise his plague anyway and take the crown by force! As Godalming scurries off, Dracula calls to Lucy, and tells her that he has an important job for her to do...
Later, at Carfax Abbey, Holmes and Watson are sneaking towards the place in the dark. According to the manifests at the solicitor's office that Holmes was able to read before the fire, this was where the majority of the boxes of earth were sent from the Demeter. If they can get there and destroy them, then that'll be several few to worry about, and if not, Holmes has already sent all the details of their investigation thus far to his brother Mycroft, so that an official investigation can get underway if they somehow end up dying.
To the heroes alarm, it appears that there are already some men at the Abbey, who are smashing the boxes and setting them on fire. Holmes and Watson rush up, telling them to stop, only for one of them to aim a rifle at them. The men turn out to be lead by a Dutchman, a Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and they are destroying the boxes under the belief that by doing so they are preventing Dracula from using them to rest in. Holmes and Watson introduce themselves and explain what's going on, which Van Helsing brushes off as being absurd but luckily Jonathan Harker is there to confirm that at least some of Holmes' details ring true, as the solicitor was one his own firm engaged to move goods for the Count.
Despite their conflicting views of what exactly is going on, Van Helsing and Holmes do at least agree that the boxes should be destroyed. So Holmes blows them up with the fire-bombs he'd previously used against Zombie Moriarty in the previous series.
Close behind Lucy are the people infected with just enough of Dracula's blood to put them under his control, they ignore the assembled heroes and begin rubbing the plague-ridden dirt from the surviving boxes all over themselves before stumbling off in all directions. The vampire hunters realise that they are meant to serve as plague carriers, and promptly begin shooting them to prevent them from getting away. The wanton murder of disease victims naturally upsets Dr Jack Seward, Van Helsing's protege, who asks why they're just murdering them without even attempting to help them first. His protests are ignored by the rest, even Abraham, and the plague carriers are quickly dispatched.
Lucy... considerably less so.
As the burning Lucy escapes into the distance, Holmes climbs down and says that he and the vampires hunters should compare notes to work out what exactly is going on...
Next: The Tale of the Vampire Hunters, and Dracula's Master Plan!
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Date: 2014-06-06 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-06-06 09:06 pm (UTC)