In the Company of Ladies: The Pearl Club

Our friend, Dr. Tesla Steampunk, has sent us this dispatch about an unusual club:

I am, of course, a confirmed bachelor. My little eccentricities and temperament are such that the quiet life of matrimonial bliss is not for me, nor would I be an unalloyed blessing for a lady.

Nonetheless, even a bachelor enjoys the company of gracious ladies, and I have found that the ladies of the Pearl Club are gracious indeed.

One always receives a warm welcome. The grounds are most charming, from the dance floor,...

...inside the glass and stone conservatory,...

...to the main house itself.

On warm spring and summer days, one may relax with a lady of culture in the garden gazebo, playing a few hands of whist, or perhaps merely enjoying scintillating conversation with a beautiful woman.

Other amenities are available, from the sitting room...

...to rooms where activities other than sitting predominate.

Of course, the Pearl is a gentleman's club, so guests are expected to be gentlemen at all times, whether one is in the company of a lady or merely sitting in quiet contemplation in the garden.

Now, I must get back to the laboratory.

[Note from the Editrix: My goodness! When Dr. Steampunk said he had a small addition to our catalogue of Victorian sites, I never imagined...that is to say, he's so old that...my goodness. Obviously words fail me. - KJ] [Addendum: While the Pearl Club is indeed a gentleman's club, with all that it entails, no eccentric scientists known to me actually enjoyed the company of ladies in the employ of the club. - KJ]

The Gathering of the Three

By nature, I tend to prefer solitude to crowds. I am often a solo adventurer. Recently, however, I discovered the power of friends willing to drop everything to help out one of their own.

The Octoberville quest had one particularly annoying spot, in which, to enter a room, one needed to unlock the large skull pictured below. I had keys aplenty, but it turned out that three separate people were needed to each use a key before the mechanism would be triggered. Pother.

I called sister Rhianon and our friend Dr. Tesla Steampunk. They took the time to acquire keys of their own, whereupon they met me in the skull room. Presto! The mechanism unlocked and opened.

Three cheers for good friends!

Mind you, not that this got me to the finish line. :(