Well, to contribute to there being any further updates I may as well bite.
Some obvious questions would be.
Where was she when you last saw her?
Do you have any enemies who might want to use her as leverage against you? He'll ask this.
Did she have any peculiar acquaintances? he wouldn't really know, since she's away most of the time.
If she is your granddaughter then where are her mother and father? This one as well.
Where did she go to school (boarding school most likely) will be asked.
Was she suicidally depressed? this and the ones below will be asked
Did you have a fight?
Did she have a falling out with anyone important to her?
Some more blunt questions that might concern the readership's ability to drive the story through the mystery portion that Investigator Boone might already know.
What is her name? Lilith Havershaw, as evident by his notes.
What does she look like? Photo's on the wall, but he hasn't examined it enough to make a drawing in his notepad
How old is she? 12-14
What does she sound like? (Does she have an uppercrust accent or a shipyard drawl?) no way to describe, but she would sound formal over informal
Is she famous? Partially she is the granddaughter to a lord, she's known to high society.
Is she infamous? No, not really
Where (specifically) in Clamery did she live before she disappeared? she lived with her grandfather in tghe Calmery capitol of Calton, when she wasn't at a boarding school in Ganston, a largish academic city.
So many details!
Also a number of important questions regarding the setting. Regarding the level of technology and fantastical elements
relative to the setting. I'll give the lord the benefit of the doubt and assume their photography tech is lower than ours because it's monochrome
(though why not just get a portrait painted if you're a lord? I'll assume for the juxtaposition of rapiers that guns does not refer to modern assault weaponry
but that still puts us anywhere from muskets to flintlock pistols to tommyguns. Apart from that there's not much context (I'm not sure when they invented wallpaper)
So here's a few overthinking questions that Jack would obviously be aware of.
Are there internal combustion (or equivalent) vehicles? There are trains, but they aren't run by combustion.
Is there heavier than air aircraft? Nothing that could carry a person, but they understand rotary lift, or whatever helicopter flight is called
Is there long distance communication (telegraph? Radio?) Telegraph yes, and a primitive form of fax, pretty much they type it out and it sends signals like a telegraph to another typewriter (probably next to the telegraph) so that they can send forms, such as criminal records, or anything else that would need to be rechecked. Phonographs also exist.
Is technology consistent globally? Through most of the "European" countries yes, though it's much more prevalent in Calmery. Parasala doesn't really make anything besides silks, and nice things, but they trade most of that to Calmery. Trains run throughout most of the world.
Is there clockwork crap in the china equivalent country? The "asian" countries are mostly shrouded in mystery.
Are there clock powered space freighters sailing the aether to mars firing black powder cannonballs at vicious space pirates with clockwork cybernetic parts? no.
If lightbulbs exist why isn't everything run on electricity instead of gears? They don't exist, every light source is gas powered, or a candle.
If the gears aren't turning by steam what is turning them? and if they are, how isn't this steampunk? Everythings wound, like a watch, or has those big weight things like a grandfather/cookoo clock. Here
I think that's more than two, hope you have fun maybe answering some of them.
HAHA you ninja'd my fifty billion questions!
And to add up to the above post:
Does she have any dangerous hobbies that she likes? And was she out on something pertaining to a hobby-related activity at the time of her disappearance? He wouldn't know, he sent someone to pick her up, and they returned saying she was missing
If somebody told the old guy that his granddaughter disappeared, instead of figuring it out himself, can he give a name of the person who gave the info? You can ask who the "driver" was.
Does her parents, or the old guy himself, have enemies that have some kind of vendetta against them/him? You'll see
And demand for a photo of her if possible. That should be top priority. There's one on the wall, but you'll just sketch it, if the girls dead and something happened to you, it'd be pretty shitty if the old guy didn't have a photo of the girl
I was gonna tell you guys this in narrative, but your guy would know this stuff anyway. Lord Havershaw, is a gunsmith, guns aren't "factory" made, but he does have quite a few smithies, Havershaw is equivalent to say Winchester.
Also there was a war between Calmery and the "russian" neighboring country of Ursale, which lasted about 7 years and ended 5 years ago, Boone was a sergeant and fought in the last 2 years of it, and is 26-30 years old.
Stuff about guns. Guns made in Calmery, by Havershaw since he owns most of the gun smithies, are revolvers, all types are, pistols and rifles, Havershaw doesn't produce shotguns, but they do exist, and are mostly double barreled (or single shot). Bullets however aren't like they are here, they aren't metal jacketed, Bullets usually come in
round cylindrical paper package, with blasting cap at one end, gunpowder in the center, and a round shot at the end, at least for revolver type weapons.
Stuff about countries.
Calmery is British/American/Irish. It's people are Caucasian with dark brunettes, but sometimes they get more lighter browns when you go toward the Ursale border. Culturally, they are the ones who invent most of the "clockpunk" stuff, and are Democratic Republic (senate/parliament). Sashs worn around the waist is pretty much equivalent to wearing a tie. Boone is wearing a jack of plate over a maroon long sleeve shirt, and a trilby with a light blue feather in it.
Ursale is Russia/Norway/Bavarian, they are pale with blond hair. Culturally, they are the least advanced of the 3 "european" countries, do to them being mostly "impoverished" by their royalty. They are very nationalist, and despite their short comings, believe that Ursale things are the best. They have a large quantity of precious gems and metals do to their location close to a large quantity of mountains, most of their land is covered with snow, though they don't trade them away as much as they should/could and instead keep them for themselves, usually in the form of big goddy belt buckles. They also utilize furs in their clothing quite a bit.
Parasala is French/Persia, they are dark haired and fairly dark skinned. Culturally, they are much more trade savvy, as they are the link between the European countries and the Asian ones.
I haven't drawn one or really put much thought into them, so that's pretty much all I can tell you about them right now. They're culture involves hiding your face in public, in both men and women, though it is mostly just they're lower face, and they leave there scalps exposed.
The unnamed Asian places. All I can tell you is that they are 1 big empire, and they have katanas instead of rapiers.
There are other places across the seas, but are irrelevant to the current mystery.
pretty much all this is subject to change.
Author
Topic: Clockwork Noire : An Illustrated Mystery [Updated: 1/15/12] (Read 5197 times)