Steam – Ninth Night

The ninth performance of Steam was improvised on 2/3/12.

Episode Summary

EPISODE 9: THE MONKEY ARMY

The mighty airship Victoriana, fugitive from the law, hovers over the jungles of the Congo. Its identical sister ship, the Victor, launches a surprise attack, commanded by rogue crewmember Adelaide McKenna and her nefarious Black Cloaks.

Hamwich Leon is captaining the Victoriana, but is himself possessed by the Black Cloaks. When ship’s engineer Joshua Mew and Colonel Solomon Fitzgerald ask for help, Hamwich orders them down to the jungle floor to recruit a monkey army. Joshua and Solomon reluctantly do so.

On the Victor, Adelaide still wears Hamwich’s ring, which enhances her evil powers; the ring has begun to grow like a tumor and infect her entire arm. As her strength approaches invincibility, Adelaide projects an image of herself over to the Victoriana and taunts the crew. She has a captive: Kit, Wilhemina’s loyal friend, whom she has also made a Black Cloak.

Down in the jungle, Colonel Fitzgerald leads Joshua Mew and young Benjamin Cumberbatch to the monkey-queen’s temple. Like most other cities on earth, it’s built atop a “seat of power,” where Steam and strange energy flow from beneath the ground. The Colonel is quick to trade poor Benjamin to the monkey-queen in exchange for a few warriors to help defend the Victoriana, though Hamwich’s strategy is sketchy to say the least.

Joshua Mew has had enough of the madness. He agrees with Colonel Fitzgerald to leave Hamwich, the rightful captain, behind. But their planned mutiny proves needless: Hamwich has fled the Victoriana on his own. With the monkey army on the airship above, Hamwich sneaks into the jungle city and steals a precious jewel which is known to focus and extract dark energy. On a whim, he swallows the jewel whole, and just like the Victoriana itself, Hamwich divides into two. He defeats and murders his evil doppelgänger in single combat, restoring his true, good self.

Wilhemina Wyldeheart, meanwhile, has been driven to near-madness after being overtaken by the Black Cloaks, killed, and then restored to life. To Hamwich’s dismay, Wilhemina’s mind has reverted to that of a child, confusing imagination and reality. Hamwich knows he must find a way to bring his lover back.