{"id":3359,"date":"2026-07-01T15:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/?p=3359"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:32:06","slug":"knight-captures-the-rook-checkmate-in-4-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/edinburgh-1880\/knight-captures-the-rook-checkmate-in-4-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"Knight captures the rook. Checkmate in 4 moves!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A week has passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reassure visitors and defend the Empire\u2019s image, London law enforcement officers have arrived in Edinburgh. The possessions continue to increase, allowing nationalists and the church to point the finger at the depraved foreigners who have recently arrived. Adler<\/a> is about to begin her experiments on human guinea pigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meical asks Oxford for information about the Egyptian artefact, and learns that it was stolen and that the investigation has come to nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coterie decides to throw a spanner in the Marquess<\/a>‘s works.
To this end, they search for his pawns on the Edinburgh chessboard and investigate his recent activities.
They find two key figures: a high-ranking police officer<\/a> and a prominent politician<\/a>.
They also uncover one of his hideouts and meeting places where he attacks the Prince<\/a> for having allowed the Londoners to take control of the city\u2019s security. The Marquess blows hot and cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to undermine him, so two scandals to bring down his allies: a drugs scandal for the police officer and a sex scandal for the politician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police officer is the easiest target, and Cornie knows a police officer<\/a> who could use this to his advantage to climb the ranks. Admittedly, fabricating a crime from scratch isn\u2019t exactly honourable, but if Wheeler doesn\u2019t know about it, so much the better for him. A Marquess agent is bound to be corrupt anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Cornie produces some decent-quality opium, Meical fakes an account book, Balthazar supplies cash, and Pidge hides it all at Clark\u2019s place. Meical uses a contact at the Edinburgh Evening News<\/a> to cover the story and put Wheeler in the spotlight.
Then a group of trusted police officers discover the evidence and arrest Clark. The arrest doesn\u2019t go smoothly, and Finn<\/a> and his gang spread the news throughout various neighbourhoods of the city.
Clark is out and won\u2019t be granted bail, but the Marquess will certainly be on his guard now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to turn our attention to scientific research. Research that still doesn\u2019t make sense and is progressing slowly. The first test subjects aren\u2019t responding well and don\u2019t seem to be gaining anything.
Liquefying the aether requires an insane amount of energy, yet the results are disappointing. They\u2019re missing the artefact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One evening, Saira<\/a> visits the lab, and the coterie tells her that the scientists are Mages. She explains that Mages can reshape reality. If enough people believe in the Mages\u2019 wonders, then those wonders become the norm. And the World\u2019s Fair is a good opportunity to win over the crowds. She is in contact with a London alchemist, and unlike Langhans<\/a>, she believes that Mages are dangerous. Of course, if the coterie can make use of them, they\u2019ll have a valuable ace up their sleeve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace<\/a> tells Balthazar about a city-wide ritual designed to absorb the freed spirits and control their energy. She needs to make preparations, and she needs the Scarab, fetters, and helpers. They also need to find out which locations are most suitable for this ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coterie wants to continue fighting the Marquess. They are also hesitant to be frank with the Mages in order to persuade them to form a supernatural alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coterie learns more about the Mages and takes down a police officer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-edinburgh-1880"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3359\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msika.fr\/vampires\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}