With just a touch of delay, we get everybody to show up: Chris (Peter Sangaree, but lately Bob Lungflook), Tim (Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat), Nick (Brother Xavier) and April (Sister Joann). As I type, everyone is slumped around the room complaining of allergies and making inappropriate jokes about adult websites.
The characters debate tactics for attacking the local Utag base and (by extension) the parent base with the Chibren Senate Defense Committee. Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat quickly hits upon the idea of using mustard gas or napalm to destroy the parent base. Senator Pythas confirms that while the Chibren do not have any of either substance, they could make a supply of them. The Senators, however, look a touch horrified by the idea of using such weapons even against the Vuldrok. Their tone turns a touch colder when they are forced to also note that they don't know how to manufacture atomics.
One substantial complication is the fact that all of the characters' most realistic plans revolve around capturing a Vuldrok VERTOL when it comes in for service. Unfortunately, the Chibren Cooperative does not have any pilots at all, meaning that the characters need to get Peter back from Tuam or find another pilot somewhere.
When asked about available troops, Senator Peppin says that the Cooperative has about 500 Rangers, and would be willing to commit half of them to an attack against the Vuldrok.
The characters then start in on questions about the outpost proper. The Senators are more than happy to provide those answers they know. In particular:
Sister Joann, who developed a good familiarity with microwave communications equipment during her time in logistics at her monastery on De Moley, listens carefully to the Senators' description of the Vuldrok base, particularly the structures near the command bunker. She concludes that the Vuldrok do not appear to have any microwave transmission towers, making it most likely that they were using relayed laser communications.
The Cooperative still can't detect transmissions from the base. The characters speculate that they may be using a tight-beam satellite uplink. Sister Joann, who worked with microwave communication gear when she was in charge of logistics long ago, concludes that the Vuldrok don't seem to have any microwave transmission towers. They have the ability to manufacture good fiber-optic lines and communications. They could lay a fiber-optic line to the characters' outpost with no problem. They've heard stories about similar lines on the sea floors, but don't know where any of the communications nexi are. Sister Joann pipes up that the characters should pursue this, possibly by asking Brother Caldmon in the Surreveil Valley Monastery to look for them.
The discussion veers off when the Chibren mention fiber-optic communications. It develops that they possess extremely good communications of this type, and are able to produce fairly large quantities of fiber-optic line without great difficulty. At this point, their network is entirely internal, though they have records indicating that at one time in the Second Republic huge fiber lines were laid down across the sea floors. Senator Pythas speculates that the lines are probably still there, but nobody knows where the transmission points on the shore are anymore.
The characters express some desire to have a fiber-optic link between Chibren and the characters' outpost. The Chibren agree that they could construct something like that, and can also provide an internal communications network within the characters' settlement. Because laying the lines for this project involves potential contact with the outside world, Senator Pythas points out that the Contact Committee will need to review the final plan, and the whole Senate will need to approve it. However, he sees no particular problem provided reasonable security precautions are taken (laying the lines along the riverbed, and periodically mining them with explosives controlled from the Cooperative) and the characters offer some kind of compensation. The Senator notes that foodstuffs, particularly meats, would be extremely useful to the Chibren, especially if the characters could provide a couple of shiploads of them. The characters, who are still somewhat taken with the notion of fast, reliable communications, reply that they will think about it.
From simple fiber-optic communications lines, the discussion turns to the more general problem of trading with the Chibren. From the Chibren point of view, trade is very dangerous due to the very real risk that the Hawkwoods will learn of their existence. From the characters' point of view, the situation is hardly better: a Hawkwood army of conquest bound upriver for the Chibren Cooperative would almost certainly pound their little settlement flat just in passing. The existence of the Cooperative must be kept secret, even from the traders who deliver them goods.
Bob Lungflook's suggests that the Chibren should pass themselves off as feces-hurling savages when dealing with outsiders. That would allow the characters to send shiploads of goods upriver without having to brainwash entire crews. Unfortunately, the origins of any trade goods coming from the Cooperative must also be concealed, which puts a bit of a damper upon this plan (though Bob's enthusiasm for his "Ook! Ook!" savages is truly admirable).
The characters eventually decide to pass the Cooperative off as a secret Hawkwood military base to their own people. They'll explain that they can trade with the base, but if the colonists tell anybody the Hawkwoods will execute them. To support this charade, the characters tell the Senators that their people will need to dress as Hawkwoods. The Senators seem to like this plan much more than the previous idea of rubbing dung into their hair.
The characters end up spending two days describing Hawkwood uniforms to their hosts. They draw heavily upon their experiences back in Lenbow, when they had to deal with more Hawkwood soldiery than they had cared to recall. By the time the characters are finished, the Cooperative tailors have come up with an array of typical Hawkwood uniforms for a variety of ranks and services.
When the characters prepare to head back to the pinnace, they remember the two Sutter Kane crewmen who had accompanied them. Groupleader Ribben lets the group know that their crewmen are staying in a hostelry in Chibren. The characters speculate amongst themselves on how to deal with the knowledge the crewmen must have acquired in their stay. Bob is especially keen on the idea of doing them in and making it look like an animal attack. In the end, they decide to let Sir Brindal Karth talk to them.
Sir Brindal Karth enters the hostelry convinced that the crewmen won't be allowed to leave Chibren. He goes up to their room to discover that one of them is unconscious from drink. He talks to the other one, and learns that the fellow is named Sam, a serf hired out from the Duke South Coast. He asks Sam if he'd like to stay in Chibren, to which Sam responds, "Arright, sorr. What abart my missus, an' my four little ones, an' my Gran?"
Horrified by the discovery that their crewmen might have family back in Tuam, the characters retreat and regroup. Bob Lungflook finally comes up with a simplistic solution: he gives them a speech about how they're staying at a secret Hawkwood military base, and better never tell anybody. The unconscious crewman, a freeman named Paul ("I think he's got hisself a sweetie in Tuam, an' a cherub or two bessides…") is simply left to conclude that anything he may have seen was nothing more than a confused drunken fantasy.
Before starting back, Sister Joann reviews some of the Chibren Rangers and discovers that while they're pretty competent individually, they don't work much the way she thinks soldiers should act. They are no good at moving in formation, can't march to save their lives, and follow the chain of command only when they think the commands are worthwhile. Most of their skills are best suited to extended patrols in the wilderness, either alone or in small groups. She tries to give them some pointers to bring them closer to snuff.
The Cooperative agrees to disguise a detachment of Rangers and a technician to help camouflage the airfield and set up the characters' end of the communications link. Groupleader Ribben will command the group, and will be tarted up like a Hawkwood Captain. The Defense Committee Senators promise that he and his men will depart just behind the characters.
The journey downriver is almost disappointingly dull. Five days after their departure, the characters return to their outpost near the Gieresport Airport. They return to find the Red Syrmfish floating happily at anchor, much to their delight. They also find their 100 tons of teak sitting on the riverbank.
Captain Halfiron reports that Fr. Quinn (the surveyor) has found two good settlement locations in the uplands, one near the airfield and one some distance away near a natural spring. The site near the airfield is close to a couple of the original airport access roads. He also notes that as the characters can see, both the Red Syrmfish and the Sutter Kane are ready to sail. However, he has not yet sent men inland to clear the Gieresport landing field (a task that Sister Joann had previously estimated would take about twenty days if the entire Sutter Kane crew helped).
Moments after arriving, Sir Brindal Karth takes Captain Halfiron aside to tell him that they found a secret Hawkwood military base upriver. He emphasizes to him that the base must remain secret, though it can't stay secret from the colony. He emphasizes many times that if anyone talks about it, they'll have to be executed. He also warns Captain Halfiron that there will be men from the base arriving soon to help conceal the airfield from the Vuldrok. Sir Brindal Karth assumes that Captain Halfiron will take the responsibility of informing his crew, and goes on to tell the characters' other hirelings.
The characters arrange for the Sutter Kane crew and the Red Syrmfish crew to head into the uplands to clear the airfield. Sister Joann oversees this project, and anticipates that a sufficient area will be cleared within three weeks. A couple days later, Groupleader Ribben appears with a half-dozen Rangers in ersatz Hawkwood uniform to set up camouflage netting over the airfield.
With both the Sutter Kane and the Red Syrmfish ready to sail, the characters hold a meeting to decide upon the equipment they will need in the near future. Sir Brindal Karth drafts a letter for Peter Sangaree, and includes the list of equipment and instructions to purchase it. In toto, they request:
The characters send the Sutter Kane and the Red Syrmfish back after the airfield has been cleared and camouflaged. After their departure, the characters' carpenter starts to construct a settlement at the site near the spring, about an hour's walk from the airport. He is given over the entire group of laborers for this purpose. Sir Brindal Karth instructs him to build one large barracks for the laborers, and additional quarters for the characters and the skilled laborers. All the exterior doorways are built with light-tight entry halls, to allow people to enter and leave without showing light outside. The carpenter provides the following schedule for completion:
The carpenter points out that he will need almost all of the teak left by the Red Syrmfish, and that the structures he can make will be fairly crude. They will have thatched roofs and lack real foundations. He estimates that they will probably leak during heavy rainstorms. They won't stand for more than a couple of years. The characters agree that this is okay, and decide that once the Vuldrok are gone they'll work to set up some sturdier buildings (with stone foundations, real roofs, etc.)
To pass the time, Sister Joann and Brindal Karth take the surveyor out to measure the extent of the airfield and look for underground structures left over from the original airport.
Peter has been doing business in Tuam for a couple of months by the time the Sutter Kane docks at the port. The profits from his initial contract to produce guns thus far have amounted to some 12,000 FB in revenues (about 2/3 of the promised total), less 5120 FB for various expenses, totaling to some 6880 FB in actual profit. With the promise of this much money to his name, Peter finds himself drawing the attention of Marcus Gulfinch, the Electors' Council tax collector.
Marcus arrives upon his door early one morning to reel off a dizzying variety of taxes owed to the Electors' Council, the Duke South Coast, the Church of the Prophet's Vision, and the Six Martyrs Monastery, totaling to several thousand FB (summarized below). Peter quickly decides that Gulfinch is a bitter, evil man and is blatantly unsatisfied by Peter's assertion that he doesn't have the money on him. In fact, as he speaks Peter has about 5000 FB sitting around. Finally, Peter gives Gulfinch 200 FB ("for the Orphan's Fund") and sends him packing. He then instructs his apprentices to let absolutely nobody in. Gulfinch leaves with the threat that he will return in five days, and demands to see Peter's accounts books then.
|
Tax |
Paid To |
Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Residency Tax | Electors' Council | 20 FB per household |
| Business License Fee | Electors' Council | 100 FB per business venture |
| Charter Tax | Duke South Coast | 10 FB per building floor |
| General City Tax | Electors' Council | 10% of business profits |
| Duke's Levy | Duke South Coast | 20% of business profits |
| Tithe | Church of Prophet's Vision | 10% of business profits |
| Special Defense Levy | Six Martyrs Monastery | 8% of business profits |
| Orphans' Fund | Church of Prophet's Vision | 200 FB per business venture |
With Gulfinch's scaly back well out of view, Peter puts 100 FB into his pocket and heads to the local Engineers' watering-hole to learn something about the local taxation system. His initial efforts at "casual conversation" are fairly successful until he makes a crass remark about "what a weaselly little lizard that Gulfinch is," in the presence of another Reeve. The two Engineers he had been talking to suddenly clam up. One heads off to the restroom, while the other one remembers an important previous engagement.
Not to be deterred, Peter tries again and gets into a conversation with an Engineer in the city Communications Office. He learns that the taxes Gulfinch quoted at him are about right, and that a large reason they are so high is the fact that Tuam maintains it's Free City status largely by buying off the Duke South Coast every year. The Engineer claims that 70% of the Duke's budget comes from Tuam, a figure that Peter gawks at. The one thing that does trouble the Engineer is the fact that Gulfinch was bothering Peter around midyear. Normally, the tax collector doesn't start to call until close to the end of the year, to increase his odds of being able to assess penalties. The Engineer asks Peter who he insulted. When Peter shrugs and suggests ignorance, the Engineer notes that there are a couple of artisan families that make guns upcoast. With Peter's large contract from the Electors' Council to supply firearms, they may have decided to throw some heat at the competition.
Peter thanks the Engineer and departs. He decides to not spend a lot of effort worrying about who is foisting Gulfinch on him. Instead, he vows to take every measure at his disposal to minimize his profits and avoid taxation entirely.
He heads down to the port to talk to his suppliers. He takes one of his factors out to lunch, and tells him he needs to buy an additional 3000 FB of materials, mostly kegs of gunpowder. The factor understands instantly that Peter wants to inflate his production costs to reduce his effective tax rate and agrees to have the material to him in about two weeks. During the meal, the factor asks if Peter knows a guy named Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen. The factor claims that Gehallen had been passing himself off as an old friend of Peter's, and was asking questions about the sorts of things Peter was buying for his manufactory. When asked, the factor acknowledges that he did provide Gehallen with a brief summary of the things Peter has purchased through him. Peter, horrified, tells the factor that he should tell Gehallen that Peter no longer buys anything from him the next time he asks. If he follows instructions, Peter promises to use him as his sole source. The factor eagerly agrees to those terms.
Peter returns to the manufactory and spends three days desperately trying to cook his books. He is too upset over the reappearance of Gehallen to truly concentrate, and is forced to start over several times before he scrawls out a halfway-passable set of imaginary figures. To make his work look better, he spills coffee over each page.
Peter's anger finally gets the better of him. He heads down to the waterfront in search of Scravers willing to perform violence upon Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen. After a couple of false starts, he finds himself in the Neptune's Revenge, a wretched waterfront bar, talking to a scrofulous character named Weed. Peter starts out, "Are you a Scraver?" Weed drawls, "Might be." Peter doggedly continues on, "Can you find someone named Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen for me?" Weed stares at him for a moment, then responds, "100 Firebirds right now, and I'll find him for you." Peter allows as how he doesn't have that much money on him, but suggests that he can go and get it. Weed refuses this offer, countering that if Peter returns in two hours with 150 FB, Weed will tell him where Gehallen is, guaranteed. Peter negotiates Weed down to 125 FB, explaining that he's got tax problems and doesn't have a lot of money to spare. Weed grimaces knowingly.
When Peter returns in two hours' time, Weed accepts his money and tells him to follow. He trails Weed up from the port to the Lower City, where Weed knocks at the door of a nondescript rooming-house. After a couple of words with the landlady, Weed leads Peter into a room where Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen waits in languid ease.
Peter swiftly understands that something is wrong when Gehallen tells Weed, "You can go now." He understands that even more is wrong when he recognizes that the half-dozen rough fellows in the shadows are all armed, and are all staring at him. He swiftly puts the pieces together and concludes that Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen is a Scraver.
This conclusion is cemented when Gehallen speaks. He asks Peter if he has ever been on Aragon, and if he happens to be travelling with a Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat. Peter decides that this is not the time to lie, and admits that he is and he does, and that he was party to Brindal Karth's anti-Scraver pogrom back on Aragon. Gehallen seems fairly equitable about this connection, pointing out in the politest terms possible that Brindal Karth's activities cost the Haustein Syndicate over 100,000 FB, not counting the cost of replacing the personnel killed or imprisoned by the Hazat. He suggests that some of this loss might be expiated by, say, Peter's left foot, or possibly Brindal Karth's… family jewels. Peter does his best to appear noncommittal.
Gehallen notices that his guest is uncomfortable, and changes the subject. He asks Peter if his manufactory is located at 12 Commerce Ave. in the High City. Peter confirms that it is. Gehallen then leads him out of the rooming-house and points out a column of smoke rising from the High City. He tells Peter that he's terribly sorry about the fire, then vanishes back into the rooming-house.
Peter rushes back to the High City to discover that his manufactory and practically everything inside it has burned to ash. Peter talks to the High City fire brigade personnel on the scene, and learns that the fire was obviously set, and that the arsonists killed one of his workmen in the process. The other one ran to summon help, and is okay. Determined to do something, Peter continues on to the Eahlen Forest Fusiliers' barracks, where he convinces Captain Farragut to send a squad down into the Low City to look for Gehallen and Weed. Several hours later, Peter is unsurprised to learn that though the Fusiliers caused a fair amount of disruption, their quarry was long gone.
Peter finds that the tax collector no longer torments him. He cancels his order for 3000 FB of parts, paying a 10% cancellation fee in the process. He also speaks to the Electors' Council, who cancel the remainder of his armaments contract and offer their sympathy for his loss. Peter also gathers the money from the ruins of the manufactory, learning in the process that Firebirds are extremely heat-resistant. He collects some 6135 FB from his business, plus an additional 1000 FB that Brindal Karth left him prior to his departure.
Each character gains 7 experience points.