As before, Tim (Christophe Joseph Pépin) is off reliving the Renaissance from a peasant's-eye view and does not show up. Ernest (Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez) examines the Statesman's comic page and proclaims that as usual, it is all dreck. Chuck (Quent Lawrence) points out, "I know German, and I know what that means!" Chris (Dmitri Baranov) offers, "Yeah, but most of the people who might read this on the web won't." Paul (Smith) mentions, "I'm an IT professional, and I know that anyone who doesn't could look up the word on Babelfish." Bruce mourns, "And now that you've mentioned that, everyone else knows to do it as well."
The characters get a letter from Christophe Joseph Pépin. He is off in Vienna in the middle of his lecture tour. He reports that he really enjoyed the train trip from Paris to Vienna, except when they hit bat country near the Austrian border. He relates that he didn't bother to inform the conductor; he figured the fellow would find out for himself soon enough.
Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez tells the others, "While we're in Amsterdam, keep an eye out for Englishmen. There's a ship in port called the Varangian, and if we run into it there might be some... Imperial entanglements."
Quent Lawrence very hopefully asks, "Could there be a bounty involved?"
Sanchez adopts a pained expression and suggests, "I don't know."
Dmitri Baranov cautions, "Is there any chance that someone might recognize you in that feathered hat and those hip-high boots?"
Quent quickly gets into the spirit of thing. He tells the big Russian, "We could shave him."
Baranov shushes Quent for a moment, motioning for him to put away the straight razor and the shaving cream, then asks Sanchez, "So what'd you do to get these Englishmen so upset at you? Did you cheat them out of some money? Or perhaps steal their cabin boy?"
Sanchez finds himself suddenly uncomfortable with the way his sordid past is being ruthlessly exposed. He tries to buy off Baranov by claiming, "It was all a... misunderstanding."
Baranov notices that Sanchez is also offering vodka money, so he decides to let the issue lie.
The characters return to Amsterdam to check on their ship, the redubbed Musaraigne d'egrappage, and to talk to Hans Dortchtmann the jewelry dealer about his progress in selling their lizard-eye opals. Along the way, Sanchez mentions that Captain Wendell Chough is the master of the Varangian and reaffirms that the characters should keep an eye out for him and his men.
Hans Dortchtmann is quite happy to see the characters, even when Baranov tells him that Pépin, with whom he had previously dealt, is in Vienna. Dortchtmann enquires as to whether all is well with him. Baranov explains, "Yes. He is studying their bat problems."
Dortchtmann tells the characters that he has managed to find a buyer, a French Count from Provence. His name is Charles Caron du Metelac. He is currently visiting Amsterdam and is staying at an estate outside the city. Dortchtmann explains that the Count has already inspected the characters' opals, and that he has already made arrangements for the Count to meet the characters tomorrow at dinnertime at his townhouse. The characters agree that this is quite acceptable, then head out into the city to kill time and make their own preparations.
Baranov tells the others, "Let's go crazy, Amsterdam-style!" He arranges lodging for everyone, and company for himself.
Smith gets himself buffed and polished by a strapping fellow with big hands.
Sanchez stops by an array of salons and coffeehouses to ask about the Count du Metelac. He learns that du Metelac is fairly well known. His family is from Provence. They control several factories that use opals for industrial purposes. He is always in the market for opals, and often visits Amsterdam three or four times a year to enjoy the city and make purchases.
His desires for information satisfied, Sanchez heads straight for the fleshpots for satisfaction and other kinds of information. Most of the people he talks to just demand money. Fortunately, several of them give him alcohol in exchange. Along the way, he hears a rumor that the gangster Basile Giroux is planning a hit on du Metelac. The ruffian he learns this from urges him not to accept bodyguard work from du Metelac or his servants, as it'll be his life!
Sanchez also encounters several rumors about the Varangian's recent stay in port. Not only did Captain Chough forbid liberty for the crew, he also kept traders and bumboats away from the vessel. Only officers came to shore, but they acted strange: they didn't drink nearly as much as proper British officers should. They were also quite a rough-looking bunch. Several of them were wearing tribal items, including a necklace of carved skulls and a Martian sash.
Sanchez' inquiries lead him to the Martian Rose, an upscale tavern on the waterfront normally frequented by officers and tradesmen. The Varangian officers were seen there. Everyone else shows up to back up Sanchez. Baranov mentions, "I gotta recharge my yarbles."
Most of the tavern patrons are Dutch merchant officers or tradesmen, except for one group of Dutch Royal Navy officers in the corner. Baranov points out that they're all from the same ship. They don't appear interested in talking to anyone else.
Sanchez is shocked to find out that the barkeep speaks Spanish. Quent is doubly shocked to find that the attractive barmaid speaks Xea-Osk. They hit it off right away. She tells him, "Take me away from this place and I will be yours forever!"
Sanchez comments, "Quent, you've gone native haven't you? Once you've gone green, you begin to scream."
While Quent is flirting with the barmaid in odd Martian dialect, Sanchez is busy talking to the barkeep. He learns that Lieutenant Edward Ivey led the Varangian officers. The barkeep describes Ivey as a young fellow with missing teeth and a scar. He was carrying a bloodstained starter. He hired a young lad named Jacques as a translator during his time in Amsterdam. The characters quickly hunt down the boy and giver him a couple of stuivers to tell them everything he knows about Lieutenant Ivey and his business.
Jacques is able to tell Quent that Ivey and his men asked a lot of questions about opals and the Count du Metelac. They also used his services to get in contact with the north end criminal boss Basile Giroux, though he doesn't know what Lieutenant Ivey wanted with such questionable folk.
By this time, Quent has learned that the barmaid's name is Inga Vändejälder. Her husband was an Ensign in the Dutch Army posted to Mars, but he contracted the red dropsy and died there. Now she has nobody, and makes ends meet by waiting tables. She tells Quent, "If you'd like to buy me as an Ally, I could be available for a surprisingly reasonable point budget." Sadly, she doesn't seem that impressed with him. He decides that next time, he shouldn't try to impress her with the story about how he didn't bathe for two weeks to irritate some French aristocrats. Sanchez helps out by telling her funny stories about Quent.
Sanchez mentions to the other characters, "Lower-class love is so cute! You don't even have to write letters!"
The characters' search for Basile Giroux leads them to the Rotten Bucket, a bar in the north end that could charitably be described as "working class." A rough one-legged character with the very appropriate name of Stump owns the place. He isn't too much help, but the characters do notice that one of the chairs at their table was made from a Varangian gunpowder keg. The carpentry looks recent, no more than a week old.
Sanchez examines the keg and tells the others, "Looks like we're going to be bombed, boys. The Varangian gave these guys gunpowder kegs, and they've been emptied out. But that means that Giroux and his guys have a lot of gunpowder, which is a problem for our meeting."
The characters try searching for some of Giroux's boys, whom they had been assured were all over the north end. They are none too surprised to find that the local hoodlums all seem to be off doing something else. They suspect that it might involve a lot of gunpowder.
The characters come up with several ways that Giroux and his boys could be planning on using the Varangian's gunpowder to grab the opals. They conclude that someone needs to venture down into the sewer tunnels around Dortchtmann's townhouse to see if anyone is planning on blasting their way into the fortified cellar from below. Quent gets sent into the sewers, but all he finds is sewage, plague and rats. Mostly dead rats. He concludes that just getting a gunpowder bomb to work in the sewer damp would require a professional, the sort of person you wouldn't even expect to find on a warship crew, much less among a group of criminals.
The characters eventually decide that Giroux's most likely plan is to either hijack the Count du Metelac's carriage on the way to the townhouse, or to try a frontal assault on the townhouse during the meeting. They can't do much about the assault beyond bringing weapons, but they can hire a boy to stop du Metelac's carriage on the way over so Baranov can peek inside to see if du Metelac is on board. The other characters purchase a heavy chain for 100 Lv and set it up as a trap to stop the carriage in the event that it is full of bravos.
Surprisingly, the meet goes off without any actual violence. The characters discover that the Count du Metelac is something of a weasel, in that he attempts to get the opals from them for 10% less than the agreed price. He doesn't even bother to negotiate: he simply threatens them outright. They don't respond that well, but eventually respond in kind and get him to agree to pay only 5% less than agreed.
Then they mention that they'd heard of a possible heist attempt by Basile Giroux. The Count du Metelac agrees that he had been concerned for his safety, and offers the characters the remaining 5% if they would agree to escort his carriage back to the estate outside of town. The characters agree to this deal.
The Count du Metelac's carriage is just approaching a stone bridge over a small stream when the journey takes a turn for the worse. A big gunpowder bomb dug into the stone wall along one side of the road explodes, killing one horse and panicking the other. The driver is hurt, and one of the Count's footmen goes down.
The driver attempts to control the panicking horse, but fails. He screams out, "Oh no! I missed the roll by one!" The carriage shudders wildly to the side and surges forward.
Inside the carriage, Sanchez explains to the Count, "Please to be getting on the floor now!" Then he gets impatient and simply shoves the Count to the floor. Out in front of the carriage, Smith realizes that he is about to be run down. He hurls himself over the wall to safety. He finds himself surrounded by armed bravoes. He congratulates himself by eviscerating one of them with his cold metal hands.
Then the second bomb goes off, killing the second horse. The carriage rolls over. Characters fling themselves out to avoid being crushed, all except for poor Quent. He gets trapped by the debris and crushed. He moans, "Oooh... My dodge roll... I just missed it by one..."
Baranov storms out of the carriage wreck straight into Basile Giroux. He finds that the crimeboss is a heavily-built fellow armed with a stout iron-bound club. Baranov does not let that stop him: he slugs Giroux with a mace. Giroux grunts, "Oof! That's nothing!" then swings his club back at Baranov. Whoosh! The heavy end just barely misses Baranov's head.
Baranov congratulates himself, "It's better to be lucky than good!"
Baranov cripples Giroux's weapon arm. Giroux decides that in the absence of his iron-bound staff, the lit phlogiston flare in his other hand makes a dandy weapon. He stabs Baranov in the chest with it. Baranov roars and goes berserk in response.
Sanchez leaps from the crippled carriage and runs at two of Giroux's bravoes. He stabs one down, then shoots another for a single point of damage. Smith pauses his efforts to pulverize another gangster to remind Sanchez, "Remember to put powder in your pistol! Now watch how that's supposed to be done!" Smith promptly inflicts thirty-four points of damage upon a shocked gangster, ending him completely.
Sanchez ignores Smith's cruel comments as he stabs another bravo, sending the man to the ground with a sucking chest wound. Baranov, even through the blind rage of his berserk frenzy, still manages to comment, "I've noticed that your pistol really doesn't do anything useful except make a loud noise. Perhaps you should simply give up on carrying it and use your blades instead. Those actually seem to cause significant injury." Sanchez ignores Baranov too, though it's tougher.
Smith notices that he's running out of targets, so he leaps over the wall and dices another bravo. Baranov howls, "I could do that too, but I'm fighting someone tough. He set me on fire!"
Quent replies, "I've broken every bone in my body and I'm still standing!"
Baranov explains to him, "You're English, you're used to being mistreated. I'm Russian, so I'm just used to being cold and hungry."
One of the bravoes manages to stand up to Smith and slash him with a cutlass, inflicting superficial damage. Smith tells the others, "All I've taken is superficial damage, but I've taken a lot of it."
Quent notices that he is standing right next to the bravo currently fighting Smith. He fast-draws a knife and slashes at the man, delivering a nasty scratch. Then the bravo turns and kills Quent with a cutlass slash. Quent mourns, "I missed my survival roll by one!" He falls and does not move again.
Smith rather belatedly slaughters the bravo who killed Quent while Baranov pounds Giroux into hamburger. Halfway through the process, Giroux attempts to run away. Or, more accurately, to crawl away. Sanchez sees the gangster go by, thinks about shooting him in the back, then realizes that stealing kills from the Russian is a bad idea. Then Baranov finishes the job.
The characters help pull the Count du Metelac from the ruins of the carriage. He sniffs a bit, then rather ungraciously offers to pay for a peasant's funeral for Quent. Baranov simply cuts him down with an axe. And then kills the footman to eliminate witnesses.
Sanchez lies to Smith about Baranov being deputized by the Amsterdam Metropolitan Police, so it was okay for him to cut down du Metelac. Smith buys the story.
Sanchez recognizes that the police will be expecting to find five kegs of opals in the wreckage, so the characters can't walk off with that. He does take the velvet bag of good-quality opals and slips it into his jacket when Smith isn't looking. Then the characters go find some police and arrange an appropriately lavish funeral for Quent.
The session ends with the characters in Amsterdam, preparing a funeral for their fallen friend Quent Lawrence. Each surviving character gains four experience points.