Tim (Christophe Joseph Pépin) decides that he'd really better work on his CoSci project, so he disses us. The rest of us turn out to be Paul (Smith), Chris (Dmitri Baranov), Chuck (Quent Lawrence), Ernest (Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez) and Bruce.
Carlos Juan Victor Sanchez reminds everyone that two sessions ago he got shot and took a lot of damage. Fortunately, he has been absent for almost seven days of game time, which is enough for his own native healing capabilities and Christophe Joseph Pépin's physician skills to bring him back to full health.
Smith is also rather badly damaged. Unfortunately, he doesn't heal normally. He reminds the others, "I have whirring machinery!" And he only took his damage a few minutes ago. He spends two hours fixing himself.
Dmitri Baranov is inexplicably happy to see that Smith has reconstructed himself. He chirps out, "Señor Robot! You are okay!"
Everyone is confused by Baranov's sudden Spanish accent, except for Sanchez, who muses, "Pienso que su acento es un poquito Catalan..."
The characters have made an agreement with the Xea-Shvet holy man Pangonkrulman to deal with a gang of European smugglers out in the Legion Hills. The characters pull out a map and star planning. The smuggler camp is about 50 kilometers away, maybe a day or two of journey on daukha-apak.
Sanchez tells the others, "First priority! Make sure the Spaniard doesn't get killed! Second priority, make sure Quent doesn't get killed!"
Quent asks, "Is it okay if the Spaniard is horribly maimed?"
Baranov snaps, "Smith! So far this plan sucks! I say every man for himself!"
The characters eventually come up with a plan that all of them can be proud of. They tell the Egyptian that they're off to shoot some smugglers out in the Legion Hills, and that they'll be back in a week. Baranov assures him if the natives give him trouble, he should break out the smallpox-ridden blankets.
As the characters head out over the plains, Baranov asks Quent, "So, wilderness man, how dangerous are luki-ektoks?"
Quent tells him, "Not very. But we need to get the Spaniard to stop singing, because tuau-gekgeks do hunt by sound, and they're a lot more scary."
Sanchez protests, "But a life without song is not worth living!" Everyone ignores him, but everyone except Smith pulls their daukha-apak away from Sanchez's in line.
By midday of the second day, the characters are able to see the Legion Hills and the Long Tail River up ahead. They head in towards the Legion Hills, looking around with the Sot's spyglass. Quent notes that a spyglass costs as much as three rifles.
Quent is the one who spots the watchtower first. It is a simple structure made from local wood, placed up on the top of a hill. The characters decide to proceed on past the hills as if they didn't see the tower at all. They hope to gull the sentries into thinking that the characters aren't interested in the Long Tail River valley at all, just explorers going innocently on their way.
The "ride subtly" plan hits only one snag, when Sanchez's daukha-apak gets a thorn in its foot and lets out a howl like a fog horn on speed. Baranov rises to the occasion and removes the thorn, with not inconsiderable risk to his own life, limb and personal happiness. Then the others administer a generous dose of opium-laced apples to the creature to keep it quiet.
Quent suggests, "Let's give it some of the doctor's 'medicine'!"
Baranov counters, "No! We don't want the beast to fall asleep!"
The characters move in towards the hillside far enough north of the watchtower that they should be out of direct line of sight. They establish an impromptu camp under the ridgeline. Their native bearer Bat is put in charge of the daukha-apak as the characters work north under the ridgeline. Sanchez takes the lead.
The watchtower is a curiously crude structure. The natural curvature of the native Martian wood gives the entire thing an oddly bowed effect. The characters quickly nominate Sanchez as the most stealthy, and send him off to scale the watchtower.
While Sanchez moves in, Baranov takes a long, careful look at the sentry's silhouette. With a quick intake of breath, he realizes that the sentry is an elite urgu-subur Death Commando. He utters a quick Orthodox prayer for Sanchez's soul, convinced that the cocky Spaniard is sneaking to his death. Nobody else can see more than a slightly formless silhouette.
Against Baranov's expectations, Sanchez reaches the base of the watchtower without any trouble at all. He starts to climb. This goes less well: he steps upon a poorly fastened support halfway up. A terrible creaking noise destroys the quiet of the night. Sanchez freezes. Baranov aims his axe. He thinks, "Sanchez is surely dead, but maybe I can make his sacrifice worthwhile."
The guard walks over to the near side of the tower. Sanchez shrinks against the tower. Baranov throws his axe, right over the guard's head. The guard looks around, apparently confused by the whistling noise, then sits down on the other side of the tower.
Quent speculates, "I bet he thought it was a luki-ektok."
Sanchez goes up the rest of the way like a ghost. The guard is well equipped with revolver, blade, and a rifle-musket on the floor nearby, but he is also drinking from a big, strong-smelling jug. Sanchez notices that there is a huge phlogiston-based flare gun hanging on a nail.
Baranov speculates, "What happens if Sanchez gets hit with a flare gun?"
Quent comments, "If the flare's fuse had already sparked, he'd light up like daylight, at least until he burned out. I've seen it happen. They look like used-up candles afterwards, all melty and runny and dead."
Baranov refrains from asking Quent what sort of social circles he frequented, where people were often immolated with phlogiston flares. He imagines, however, that Joseph Christophe Pépin might be familiar with the same circles.
Sanchez clocks the guard on the head with his basket hilt. The guard goes out like a light. Baranov and Quent join Sanchez at the top off the tower. Baranov asks, "You left him alive?" He ties him up securely. Sanchez takes the flare gun and the revolver.
Sanchez suggests, "I say we give Bat the flare gun and have him set it off after we've set up an ambush."
Quent offers, "Yeah, but we haven't seen the rest of the camp. If the sentry is getting drunk what do you think the rest of them are doing right now? Maybe we can just slaughter them all in their cups." Everyone agrees that this sounds like a nice idea; the group heads downslope to look for the camp. On the way, Baranov makes a point to load both of his muskets. Quent follows Baranov's lead.
The characters see the camp fairly easily. It consists of a cluster of wooden buildings. All but one of them look rather questionable. The one exception stands in the center of the cluster, and seems to have thicker walls.
The characters can see that the river opposite their position is fairly fast flowing, and perhaps two meters deep at the most. Quent points out that it will be easier to cross upstream at the opal flats, where the current will be weaker and the water not so deep. The characters agree that this is useful anti-drowning wisdom and head upstream about a kilometer or so to ford the river while it is shallow.
Baranov comments, "If we're going to attack the camp tonight, let's try to avoid as much property damage as possible if we want to sucker in the ship later on."
The characters first sneak upslope of the camp, and then creep in as close as they dare to take a look at the layout. They see a single guard making the rounds. He seems to be paying most of his attention to the darkened, thick-walled building in the center of the compound.
Baranov whispers to Quent, "Let the Spaniard hit him, and if he's still up you throw a knife into him."
Quent replies, "The Spaniard or the guard?"
Baranov points out, "Just the fact that you have to ask that questions means you're not on board with the plan. The Spaniard is quieter than you, so let him lead the attack."
Sanchez sneaks up to the barn, ready to attack the guard. Quent follows, but blows his Stealth roll badly. Fortunately, the guard is totally oblivious. Sanchez leaps out in front of the guard and stabs him through the guts. The guard remains up, but is very, very stunned. Quent follows up and misses. He curses in a manner that would draw a sailor's scorn, "Fiddlesticks!"
Sanchez expresses satisfaction, "Good! I'm not supposed to gang up on opponents anyway!" Sanchez takes the guard down with a slash so elegant it is poetry in violence. He reminds Quent, "No Bogarting my foes, British-boy!"
Quent drags the body out of sight, appropriating his cutlass and revolver in the process. Baranov watches the body-dragging and sighs nostalgically, "This reminds me of my brothers and the tax-man!"
Sanchez surveys the compound, looking for the locals. He examines five buildings:
Sanchez returns to the others to tell them what he has found. The others swiftly prepare their ambush. Quent explains that he recognizes Samoan Jack: he is One-Eyed John's Second Mate, a vicious man whose job is to maintain discipline among the privateer's crew.
Quent and Smith take up positions near the door to Building #5, ready to rush in and take down the ringleaders. Baranov slips over to Building #1, as he feels massacres of drunken gamblers are more his speed this evening. And Sanchez takes a place outside Building #5, ready to suppress the six sleeping smugglers.
Things advance a bit faster than the characters had hoped when Samoan Jack hears something and comes outside to investigate. Quent reacts by shooting him. He backs into the building, yelling "Wilkinson!" Wilkinson staggers up and demonstrates that he is an aetheric mystic: he places his hands upon Samoan Jack's wound and heals part of it.
Smith steps into the doorway, his rifle ready. His shot thunders in the small room, but misses Samoan Jack. Klaus Heigen rises from his chair, smallsword in a guard stance, and slashes Smith's torso. He inflicts no damage at all. Smith chortles, "He should have used a big sword! I love being indestructible!"
Sanchez bursts in on a half-dozen sleeping men. He yells, "Manos abajo!" They do not resist. He threatens them with one pistol as he moves through the room and opens the connecting door to see the battle going on in the other half of the house. Wilkinson sees him and charges with manic fervor. Sanchez evades Wilkinson's wild swings, then cuts him down with a single sword strike.
Baranov bursts in upon the four gamblers. He swiftly chops one guy down, leaps up on to the table, and attacks two more. They desperately dodge out of the way. One of them pulls out a revolver and gets off a good shot, hitting Baranov in the back. He responds by going absolutely batshit berserk. He chops two more gamblers down with his hatchets. The fourth tries to escape by leaping out of a window, but is too slow to escape the frenzied Russian: Baranov chops him in half.
While Smith exchanges blows with Samoan Jack, Heigen decides that his smallsword is not going to work against the mechanical man and draws his pistol. He and Quent trade shots through the window of the shack. Quent manages to shoot Heigen several times, but does not get shot in return.
Samoan Jack, noting that his supply of allies is diminishing, makes a mighty strike at Smith's sword arm, hoping to cripple him. The attack makes a mark, but it is hardly enough to cause serious damage. Smith responds by raising his cavalry saber and smashing Samoan Jack. He puts two huge holes in Samoan Jack's heart. Samoan Jack explodes and bleeds.
Smith marches on Heigen. Heigen staggers back, pleading, "I surrender! I surrender! You want opals? Have some opals!" In the distance, Baranov roars.
Smith explains, "It is illegal to kill a captive, so you may live." Quent comes in on the scene carrying his backup weapon to take control of the situation.
Baranov rushes in to the barracks, kills one of Sanchez' prisoners, then passes out of his rage. Apparently, he feels that killing five men is enough to calm him down.
Quent knocks on the barn door and calls out, "Hello!" in ssaug. There is no response.
Baranov stands beside him, an eternal lantern in one hand and a tomahawk in the other. He groans, "I got shot in the back. I thought this was supposed to be a knife fight!"
Behind the two of them, Smith drinks an eternal lantern. He examines his arm and announces, "This will take a while to repair!"
Quent eventually manages to persuade the ssaug to let him open the door. It turns out there are fifty ssaug in the barn. They are dehydrated, underfed, and diseased. Quent asks, "Which one of you is in charge?"
Smith looks them over and explains, "None of these people are in charge!"
Hoping to improve the characters' standing, Baranov severs Samoan Jack's head and shows it to the natives. This doesn't help. Quent tells him, "Go get some water."
Baranov whines, "Go get some water... I have a bullet in my back and I get sent for water..." He brings water. This seems to impress the ssaug more than severed heads.
Baranov and Smith go looking for food. They find sacks of rice and grain, and canned and salt meat. Plus a cauldron used to make gruel. Baranov is actually a good cook, so he sets to making a stew. He adds a lot of meat, because he's hungry too. He makes enough to feed the characters plus all fifty ssaug, using up about a quarter of the salt pork in the stores in the process. He speculates that the smugglers probably considered the meat to be for Europeans only. He notes that there is enough grain and rice in the storeroom to last even the ssaug for quite a while.
While Baranov cooks dinner, the other characters search the compound for interesting items. They come up with:
Baranov and Smith work on themselves while Quent works on developing rapport with the ssaug. Baranov does first aid on Heigen to stabilize him. He has been shot four times, after all. The characters lock their prisoners up in the stable, which is next-most-secure building.
Smith talks to the ssaug and learns that the big boat was last here six hands of days ago. They have been gathering opals for twenty hands of days.
Baranov takes a hit off Heigen's flask, then gives a nip to Bat. The two of them and Quent head off to the second tower, riding their daukha-apak. . They take daukha-apak. They see nobody in the tower.
Quent comments, "We better track him down. He'll just cause trouble if he gets away." He looks around the base of the tower for tracks, but finds nothing.
Baranov asks the others, "Anyone speak German? No? Shit."
They try yelling to get him to surrender, calling out in French, Russian, Xea-Osk and Ssaug. Nobody responds. Baranov finally climbs up to the top of the tower to check out the situation there. He notes that the sentry left the phlogiston flare behind, so he takes it. The sentry did take the emergency food, the cider, and the rifle-musket.
Baranov tries shooting off the flare to help Quent, but he still isn't able to see any tracks. Baranov offers his best Russian take on the situation: "Looks like he got away, but it's okay. We're alive. We have guns and alcohol."
By this time, it has become quite late. The characters reassemble at the smugglers' camp and prepare to rest for a while. They set watches. Baranov takes first watch, but falls asleep. He wakes up around eleven, to find Quent very unhappy. Baranov protests, "I was tired! And I still have a bullet in my back! I sense you are angry!"
The characters go outside to see the encampment turned into the Dawn of the Ssaug. One is wearing Wilkinson's glasses. Quent mourns, "I wish cameras had been invented." There are several ssaug down at the river, shivering in the water.
Baranov makes another pot of stew. One ssaug helps, in a way that makes Baranov wish that the fellow wasn't helping: he keeps on adding extra grain to the stew, as if he were afraid that Baranov wasn't going to add enough.
Quent manages to start up a conversation with the ssaug after lunch. He learns that the ssaug were originally brought from Venus to Earth to work farms along the North African coast, but when they arrived in Amsterdam they were traded among several masters, eventually ending up in the hands of One-Eyed John.
Quent also learns about the sort of discipline that was maintained in the camp, from a ssaug named Fang-of-Big-Swimmer. He says that Wilkinson killed another ssaug, Climbs-Tree-Swiftly, after attacking a guard. To hear Fang-of-Big-Swimmer tell it, Wilkinson reached right through Climbs-Tree-Swiftly's chest and tore his lungs out. Quent comments, "Sanchez doesn't realize how lucky he was. I wonder if I should tell him."
The characters eventually get around to wondering where Heigen and his men might have been keeping the lizard-eye opals. They search fruitlessly. Only Smith can find them, hidden under the floorboards in Heigen's shack. They come up with a half-dozen kegs, each containing 10 kg of opals. Most of the opals are small and misshapen, but still probably worth something.
Baranov tells the others, "All these opals have to be worth something. We can use the money to set something up for these poor ssaug."
Quent cautions, "But if we send them back to Venus, they're just going to die."
Baranov replies, "Unless we get missionaries to go with them."
The characters pack the smugglers' wagon up with food, black powder, firearms and the opals. The ssaug carry whatever they can.
Smith asks, "Why do you care what happens to the Venusians?"
Baranov tells him, "In my country, many people get the short end of the stick, and then they get kicked when they fall down. It sounds like nothing good has happened to these people."
Smith asks, "Why not give them weapons? We have money, we have opals. We can buy them swords. And then put them on a ship." Nobody responds to his query.
None of the ssaug are in very good shape: thirty of them are at -2 ST, with 1 to 5 HP damage. Seventeen more are at -4 ST, with 6-8 HP damage. The last five are at -8 ST and cannot walk. The characters have no idea if any of the ssaug have healing skills: they aren't willing to say.
Quent points out, "We're player characters, and we just killed twelve people in their sleep."
Baranov protests, "But we're lovable, like Marky Mark in The Big Hit."
The characters finally decide to just leave out a first aid kit all night, and see if it vanishes. It does.
Each character gains three experience points. Smith buys Fast-Draw and Climbing, plus four points more into Broadsword. Baranov puts more points into Axe Throwing.