Steam – First Night
The first performance of Steam was improvised on 1/6/12.
Episode Summary
Adelaide McKenna, the ingenue and textiles heiress, determined that she would break free of the moneyed life she’d always known. She plotted with the Duchess, Lady Electra Spencer, older and wiser but equally soured on a life of privilege. Together they resolved to pool their considerable wealth and head out in search of adventure.
Elsewhere, far to the north, the strong and bold Yvette Cloud set off on her own adventure, in search of justice for her family.
Meanwhile on the great airship Victoriana, Captain Hamwich Leon had gotten himself into yet another spot of trouble. During a routine mission to Paraguay with the grizzled veteran, Colonel Solomon Fitzgerald, Hamwich had found himself on the wrong side of the Paraguayan population.
The ship’s frazzled but competent engineer, Joshua Mew, was first concerned with getting the Victoriana off the ground, but also knew more than he let on about why the Colonel had wanted passage to Paraguay… Adelaide and Lady Spencer soon found themselves at a rough-and-tumble pub, where the gregarious Wilhemina Wildheart was more than happy to escort the privileged ladies on their next adventure. Two more bar patrons joined the party: Benjamin Cumberbatch, a young and over-eager lad, and a drunk stranger who introduced himself as Randy.
The fivesome set out on a high-speed train towards Paraguay, where they’d been told Captain Leon and the Victoriana could be found. Aboard the Stargazer, Yvette found herself at odds with some of the crew, whose elderly captain was just preparing to turn over his command to his daughter Patricia. In a stunning turn of events, she discovered her family back in Canada had all been murdered, and she hardly had time to react before the lecherous Michael was upon her… In Paraguay, things had gone from bad to worse; the prime minister had been assassinated! Hamwich and the Colonel professed innocence of the crime, but Joshua knew it was more than coincidence that the Victoriana was there. His suspicions were confirmed when the Colonel revealed his secret passenger: the pixie, Leto, a human-machine hybrid whom he’d smuggled with him to South America for just that purpose.
The catastrophes continued as the high-speed train bearing Adelaide McKenna, Wilhemina Wildheart, Lady Electra Spencer, Benjamin Cumberbatch, and Randy derailed in the jungles of Paraguay. The groups separated, as Wilhemina and Electra had to fight off a band of mechanical wildcats.
Back aboard the Victoriana, Joshua bought his crew some time to repair the ship and then confronted the stowaway Leto. She cheerfully admitted to assassinating the prime minister, and then the Colonel arrived to reveal why: the prime minister was a member of the Black Cloaks, the same nefarious cabal who’d killed Yvette’s family in the north and who threatened steam production around the world. Like it or not, the Victoriana itself was now on the wrong side of the Black Cloaks. On the Stargazer Yvette killed Michael in self-defense, even as Patricia murdered her own father to gain control of the airship. Yvette then befriended Patricia, only to discover that she too was a member of the Black Cloaks! Concealing her rage, Yvette struck a seductive tone, seemingly interested in gaining Patricia’s trust… but to what end?
In the jungle, Adelaide and her odd colleagues, Benjamin and Randy, quelled a group of Paraguayan natives (who just might have only been trying to help)…
Wilhemina and Lady Spencer decided to use Wilhemina’s flare gun, a gift to her from Captain Hamwich, to summon aid. She fired it off, creating a crimson “V” in the sky. Adelaide saw it, and so did Joshua, aboard the Victoriana. As the lights faded, the three groups at last began to move towards each other.
Who are the mysterious Black Cloaks? What are Yvette’s plans for the Stargazer? How dangerous is Leto to the crew of the Victoriana? And what connection does Adelaide McKenna have to the plot?
