Uphill Battle

[Brian]

The freed thralls comply quickly, organizing into squads of ten.  The subleader leads the rush towards the barracks, while the rest of the men follow Tom.

The house's front door is a double door, nice, dark wood.  Inside is a Victorian-looking entryway, nice carpet, some hooks for cloaks to hang (some cloaks are indeed still hanging), a low end-table with a nice vase.  Some recently cut roses are arranged carefully within.

Beyond that is a stairway leading up, and halls leading deeper into the house.  Windows let in a generous amount of light, and gas lamps are placed about the walls.

Certainly it's better than the shack that Tom started out in.  The men poke around, and find the place empty of people.  A lot of clothing and furniture are left lying around, though the house has little in the way of weaponry.

[Carthrat]

Tom grabs a cloak (who wouldn't?), and throwing it around his shoulders, he starts looking around for.. a study, or a library. "If you find any books or writings.. or any people, let me know," he instructs the men.

[Brian]

The library is obvious, though the men who are left to patrol the house also bring a collection of other books to Tom.  Before they return with them, the sub-leader reports that the barracks have been ransacked, and the men have guard uniforms, though everyone is too barrel-chested to fit into them.  They've also taken to arming themselves with a collection of sabers.  The muskets are weapons, so they're brought, too, though no one seems to want to use any of them.

"We found clothes," the sub-leader reports happily.  He's got a cloak, too.  "Also, powder.  The barrels are still in the guard house."  He looks suddenly curious at Tom's reading.  "You can make pages talk?"

The library is a good sized room, about twenty feet by fifteen, lined with shelves.  Books on all manner of topics fill the shelf-space.  Bird-watching, hunting, history....  Then the other freed men begin to bring their finds.  A few copies of a book that looks suspiciously bible-like, with a gate on the cover.  A handful of ... diaries?  They look like diaries, at any rate.  The men (most of which have cloaks, now), have piled their finds on a writing desk in the center of the room (facing the doorway).

[Carthrat]

"Read? Yeah... I'm not quite.. normal, I think," manages Tom, shrugging. Glancing at the diaries to start, he begins to flip through those collections of pages. "Were there any horses?"

[Brian]

"They took the horses," subleader says sadly.  "Even when they couldn't ride.  Tied to the back of the carriage."

The first diary is a girl's.  It appears to be for one Emily Vladimere.  Flipping through the first one, this girl has a very boring life.  The few tidbits she drops about her father -- Evan -- does help round out what this operation is about.

The thralls are apparently trained and raised here, relatively near the Windhurst gate.  Then Evan sells the thralls into service for people who need strong, tough workers.  Or disposable infantry.  She doesn't really seem to care, or see the thralls as human, at any rate.

[Carthrat]

Rifling through the diaries, Tom searches out this Evan's, but before that, he addresses the men-

"Alright. Did you find much in the way of food and water? Living supplies?"

[Brian]

"Well around back," one of the men says.  "Lots of water.  Kitchen has stuff, too.  Apples, porridge."

Evan's journal isn't in the stack, though the writing desk turns out to be his.  One of the drawers holds it.

The guy's got good handwriting.  Essentially, Evan seems to take criminals who've been 'regressed' into ideal servants, and then sell them.  The only thing is, reading between the lines, it seems there's hints that not all of the thralls were genuine criminals.  The most interesting segment refers to a traveler from 'Anabara', which Evan hints is some sort of forbidden city.

The traveler had three assistants, two of which are among the current crop of thralls.  Their names were Simmons and Alexander respectively.  The traveler himself -- a Dr. Nathan Shuker, interestingly enough -- was not captured, but Evan wasn't worried about that.  According to his journal, they were worth capturing and converting without any sort of trial, simply because they came from a forbidden 'sphere' (whatever that means).

[Carthrat]

There's a thought.

"Oh. Do we have, uh, names?" he asks, glancing back at the assembled thralls. "Like, anyone here named Simmons? Alexander?"

[Brian]

"Names are lost in the gate," sub-leader says, somewhat sadly.  The others in the room (most of them are trying to keep Tom in sight at all times, it seems), nod sadly.

[Carthrat]

"Then we shall have new ones," replies Tom, firmly. "We won't be staying here, I think."

He starts to set aside books he thinks will make for interesting reads- anything to do with these 'gates', history books- if there's an atlas, or a globe, or any similar kind of map, he makes sure to note that, too.

"Names are important," he adds, hoping to find a book of names, too- or at least a novel or two. "I want each of you to pick a name- something unique. No two of you should have the same name. I-" he pauses, for effect- "am Tom."

[Brian]

The men look among themselves.  "I am called Seven," the subleader says slowly.  The other men nod and give their own numbers, then set about trying to figure out names.

Among the library's books, the vast majority seem to be histories.  No fiction to speak of, just a few reference books.  Some of the history books have maps in them, but it's hard to guess where you are, and some of the maps are wildly divergent, with no evident common areas.  No globes, unfortunately.

[Carthrat]

"Do you know the lay of the land? Do you know where these gates are, or how to find them?" queries Tom, rifling through Evan's desk for.. scientific reports, an instruction manual, anything. He briefly skims through the bible-like book, while he's at it.

[Brian]

The bible-like book is hefty.  It's going to take some time, or speed-reading to get through it briefly.  What Tom is able to glean at a glance is that it seems to be centered around these gates.

"There are roads to the gates," Seven says slowly.  "I remember ... led along road to here.  Is...."  He hesitates, then points in a direction.  Which could really, mean anything.  "That way," he announces, nodding.

Evan's books specifically aren't scientific except for his interests, which outside of raising and selling thralls (that sounds suspiciously like slavery, to Tom), is limited to birding.  However the thralls are tweaked with the gates isn't clear -- he says he gives the thralls over to some group called the 'Templar Guild', and they handle the rest.

[Carthrat]

Rifling through the collected maps to see if there's one with these 'gates' appearing on them, the somewhat uncertain leader eventually closes all the books, keeping a pile of those that appear most useful- most certainly the bible and Evan's diary.

"I think I've learned all I've got time for from these," he announces. "Gather up as much food as we can carry- Seven, did the barracks have any backpacks or maps in it? If it did, we can make use of them.

"Once we've packed up, we're heading out!"

He pauses. "If we stayed off the roads, do you think we'd be able to find our way back to the gate anyway? I want to avoid meeting anyone for now. Also, how far was it?"

[Brian]

All of the maps have exactly two gates labeled on them, or none (though, there are only two of those that Tom has flipped to).

Seven concentrates.  "No maps," he says.  "Maybe get there okay off of roads, but two weeks to walk."

Another of the thralls runs in quickly, announcing, "Someone coming up the road."