A Device Infernal I

 A Device Infernal
Chapter I: The Cacaton Faire

"The Cacaton Midsummer Faire was the biggest thing there was in the Yando."

"Folks from all over the Delta would come, to cook, and eat, and drink, and sing, and dance." 

Music and the smell of all that good cooking was everywhere.

"There was even friendly, for the most part, intellectual debate."

"Some of them big new steamboats came, bearing well-to-do Dry Foots, that's what we called them that weren't from the Yando."

"Even some Grandees, the rich nobles, would come, in their big yachts to see how us poor folk lived."

"At this year's Faire, there was something no one ever seen before.  A big ironclad war ram come all the way from Mivior.  They said its was supposed to be a friendly visit. But Mivior was a slave-trading nation and with the Emperor fixin' to fight the Western Grandees to free the serfs, Mivior looked like they were about to jump in to the coming fight."

"A whole bunch of marines from the Mivior boat came ashore, to parade they said, but it was mostly strutting."

More unwelcome guests, the Lord Albastre, a Grandee whose family owns most of this part of the Yando.  He brought along Shad Le Duc, a trappeuse who turned to serf-hunting.  Shad owned a pack chrono-hounds, time-jumping dogs, that get to where you're running to before you do. Lord Alabastre had a couple of spell-casters and a trio of pistol-fighters.  They were all looking for trouble.

Coralie won the gardening prize for her roses but no one seems to notice.

The time came for judging the cooking competition, the highpoint of the Faire.

A fishing boat approached the piers.

Sabeen returned to see Vangeline.

Another boat approached the piers, this one bearing Servan and his dwarf companion.  Servan had deserted the army just to come see Vangeline.

Servan met his friend Michel, a trappeuse in the militia.  He welcomed Servan home but says that Constable Renard, the lawman for Cacaton, is worried about the foreign ship and all the Grandees flaunting about.

The blue ribbon went to Placeed for his ogreberry pie. 

Vangeline looked at the half-halfin' with a new appreciation. The little chef trepidatiously asked if Vangeline would dance with him that night.  To his great joy she agreed.

Suddenly, Fiddlesticks appeared in the square  He leapt up on a canopy and glorious music sprang from his fiddle.  A great hush of shock fell over the square. "Ya'll don't see a dead man take up a fiddle every day."

Placeed, seeing that Vangeline was drawn by Fiddlesticks' music, tried to distract the musician with an offer of his pie.  Skeeter gobbled some down while Fiddlestick levitated over the short chef's head.

But Sabeen had arrived and cast a burst of wind at the musician.

The levitating fiddler was hurled against a nearby wall, breaking the spell of his music.

The disturbance attracted the unwanted attention of Lord Alabastre

Vangeline was shocked to see her four suitors all arrive at once.  Joy, love, sorrow, doubt, and confusion all crossed her face.

Suddenly, Lord Alabastre thrusts himself into the situation.  He mades a most indecent proposition, reminding them that he was their owner. Tempers began to flare.

Placeed reached for a pie to hurl at the hated Grandee but his courage failed him.

Skeeter, the most likeable man in the Yando, tried to calm the situation.  Lord Alabastre was bemused but Shad harshly shushed the wet stomper down.  Everyone began to put their hands on their weapons.

Brother Maksen jumped upon onto a table.  He showed the copy of an Imperial decree and began to read it.  The Emperor had declared that all the serfs were free and now full and equal citizens of the Empire.  The news caused almost as great stir as the reappearance of the dead Fiddlesticks.  Lord Alabastre growled, "You'll die for this, you meddling priest!"  His men moved to restrain Brother Maksen. As the priest began to run, the pistoleers fire, one bullet striking Maksen in the back.

Servan retreated to the cover of a nearby fish stall and aimed his long rifle at the Grandee.  His shot went wide.

As the square erupted in turmoil, Jbili kept on drinking.

Placeed grabbed Vangeline by the hand and ran for the Ville Palais, the town hall, the stoutest building nearby.

Fiddlesticks ran to catch up with them.

One of the chrono hounds suddenly appeared in front of them.

Fiddlesticks slashed at the creature with his knife.  Skeeter flung a large iron pot at the beast, bashing in it's head.

Coralie conjured a thick hedge to block the Grandee's men.

Constable Renard, a kitsune, heard the disturbance and called for the militia to gather to him.

Lord Alabastre's Drow Elementalist destroyed the hedge with a fiery bolt.

Dewy summoned a swarm of bees to distract Shad.

The serf-hunter screamed in rage and pain as the biting bees swarmed around his head.

Approaching from behind, Jbili strode up to the three pistoleers.

As they aimed their pistols at him, the Dwarf cut two of the gunmen down with a quick slash and backswing.

Lord Alabastre ran to the Mivioran marines, seeking their aid.

Sabeen, seeing the marines preparing to march against her friends, ran to Constable Renard, asking if he had anything with which she could attack the gunboat.  He offered her a keg of black powder and a lit cigar.

Fiddlesticks, Placeed, Maksen, and Vangeline made it to the safety of the town hall.  Oh yes, Coralie was with them too.  As Fiddlesticks  pushed open the door, however, a chronohound appeared before him and pounced, the beast teeth tearing into his arm.

A large iron pot came hurtling through the door, striking the hound and knocking it off of Fiddlesticks.

From the square, they heard Skeeter call out, "Got that critter!"

Placeed fell upon the beast with his cleaver and killed it.

Jbili killed the last of the pistoleers.

Two of Shad's hunters tried to follow into the town hall but Coralie caused a host of weeds to tangle their feet.  She and Brother Maksen then began to fire their pistols at the trapped pursuers.

Meanwhile, the Mivior marines formed up and began to slow march into the town square.  This provided a good distraction who was rolling the keg of powder towards the gunboat.

Seeing the advancing marines, Servan directed the militia to raise a hasty barricade.

The marines seemed reluctant at first to provoke a fight with the militias.  However, when Servan invited them to talk rather than fight, they took it as a taunt and fired a volley at the militiamen.  The ramshackle barricade was surprisingly effective and no one was hurt.

As the marines began to march closer, Servan shot at their officer, wounding him.

Sabeen managed to role the keg off the pier, where it bounced into an open hatch of the steam ram.

Having seen their officer shot, the marines charged the barricade.  However, the fight was more a shoving match.

A great explosion suddenly burst out and the ironclad was blown apart.  It began sinking.  The survivors leaping into the river.

Back in the town hall, Fiddlesticks muttered an invocation and a horrific creature suddenly appeared to protect them. It was in the shape of fiddle-like creature with limbs and face made of taunt fiddle strings and bows. 

 

The creature cut through the throat of the surviving trapped hunter.

Two other hunters who had been rushing to help their fellows fled in terror. Fiddlestick and the rest retreated out of the rear of the town hall.

Skeeter calmly enter the hall and asked the creature where Fiddlesticks was.  The thing pointed its bloody bow arm at the rear door. "Much obliged!" said Skeeter tipping his hat and walking out the back door.

As the smoke from the explosion settled, Sabeen went to wounded Mivior officer.  Pointing her pepperbox revolver at the man's head, she convinced him to surrender.

The fact that Constable Renard had a group of deputies aiming at his men from cover convinced the officer to comply with Sabeen's orders

Lord Alabastre had already departed to his yacht.  Shad, the spell casters, and the marines followed him there.  Soon the ship raised its blood red sails and departed.

With the departure of Alabastre's ship, things quieted down.  Constable Renard suggested that the Com'dor and his family, Vangeline's suitors and the rest should get out of town, return to their home in Salteon as soon as possible.  They all agreed but, being Yando, and seeing that most of the food from the feat remained, they decide that dinner and some drinks and maybe a little bit of dancing first was in order.  So they cleared away the bodies and tended to the wounded. Soon music filled the air again

And Vangeline danced with each of her suitors but she said little to any of them, for her heart was torn and troubled.

To be continued...