Both Nick (Brother Xavier) and Tim (Sir Brindal Karth) find that they have more important things to do and neglect to show up. Dan (Koa so k'Terr) proves that he is a full Honorary Slime-Monger by showing up rather late. In contrast, Chris (Peter Sangaree) and Paul (Sean Punch) show up on time, proving that they possess great virtue.
The characters emerge into the Gwynneth system aboard the Charioteer packet liner Silver Prosperity. Just after the ship emerges from the gate, Koa decides to try scanning the minds of the passengers and crew to see if they know anything about the missing Hawkwood ships. He finds out that they do not.
Within hours after the ship's emergence, it is approached by a mail tender, a vessel that appears to be little more than a shell with an engine attached. The characters watch with variously curious and incurious expressions as the two ships dock. To pass the time, they crack morbid jokes about how a fusion-pumped x-ray laser head missile could be passed off as a "mail tender" by sufficiently hollow individuals. In good order thereafter a rather worried-looking steward (who might have been in a position to heard the characters' earlier conversation) hands over a message addressed to Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat. The other characters explain that Sir Brindal Karth is inconvenienced, and accept it on his behalf.
The message is quite ornate, sealed with a sophisticated-looking seal, and printed on what is swiftly becoming a very familiar type of polymer sheet. As expected, it is from the Archpater Billao vu Naobat of the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern. After a suitably verbose paragraph of praise for Sir Brindal Karth and his economic impetuousness, the Archpater explains that he has learned that Sir Brindal Karth is outsystem, and is leaving this message with a mail tender near the jumpgate. He offers Sir Brindal Karth (and his entourage) an invitation to visit Yuwet Asteroid and tour the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern's facility. The Archpater emphasizes that he wishes to conclude negotiations with Sir Brindal Karth for the use of the New Berlin Spaceport facilities, and hopes to arrange them to coincide with this visit. The letter concludes with the suggestion that Sir Brindal Karth may transmit his acceptance by narrowcast to Yuwet Asteroid upon receipt, and the YHMC will dispatch a ship to rendezvous with hiss transportation as quickly as is possible.
It takes very little debate among the characters for everyone to agree to accept the Archpater's offer. A message is sent, and shortly thereafter the Silver Prosperity's steward brings news that the Yuwet ship Marsh-Jigger will intercept in less than 24 hours. Upon hearing this news, Peter returns to his cabin to steal every bit of complimentary soap and shampoo he can find.
When the characters first see the Marsh-Jigger they are not quite sure what to make of it. It is very much a utilitarian craft, built to haul massive quantities of raw ore in deep space. The prow consists of a single pod containing the bridge, lifesupport, and equipment maintenance. The aft is little more than a massive engine array. In between is a maze of heavy-duty scaffolding and folded gaff arrays.
The characters are rather appalled to find that they are to travel between ships in free fall, sealed inside semi-reflective environmental bubbles, dependant upon the skills of both crews to transfer them successfully and to not lose them in the endless frigid dark of the Gwynneth system. Peter Sangaree complains about how this is the stupidest way he has ever heard of to transfer people from ship to ship. Sean Punch prays loudly until the ship arrives.
The characters are launched from the Silver Prosperity at a range of about a kilometer. They quickly see that the Marsh-Jigger has deployed a vast capture web to grab them. After their bubbles decelerate to a (relative) halt in the repulsor-aided strands of the web, YHMC crew in vacc suits haul them into the forward pod. They are met by a vaguely asian-ethnic man in a grey shirt with blue cuffs who introduces himself as Captain Aoban vu Linbet, of the Marsh-Jigger. He welcomes them aboard, whereupon both Sir Brindal Karth and Brother Xavier are tremendously sick. The remaining characters overcome their own discomfort for long enough to realize that the Marsh-Jigger makes only minimal use of artificial gravity: unlike the Silver Prosperity, which maintained it's decks at One Holy Terra Gravity, the Marsh-Jigger appears to be maintained at no more than one-fourth G. The entire ship is terribly cramped: corridors are short and sharply curved, and cabins are multipurpose by necessity.
After everyone has become somewhat acclimated, Captain Linbet explains that they are due to accelerate for Yuwet Asteroid in an hour. He further explains that the entire journey will take about two days, with a two-hour 4G acceleration at the beginning and the end. The characters moan at the prospect, but are faced with little choice but to ride out the experience.
Oddly enough, Roger Padrea (the MachtArbeiterBank functionary who has become the group's enforced traveling companion) remains largely unaffected by these experiences. Though he has been fairly open with some of his past history, he hadn't mentioned any deep-space experience.
The characters don't get much of a view of Yuwet Asteroid while they are inbound, but they conclude that it must be a pretty large place based upon the volume of insystem chatter audible in the Marsh-Jigger bridge. After the ship docks, they are led out into a vast dock area swarming with people. The entire area is maintained at the same quarter-G that the Marsh-Jigger maintained, but the people look surprisingly robust for low-gravity dwellers. The characters speculate that the residents may be required to engage in regular heavy-gravity exercise, or use special drugs to maintain bone and muscle mass.
The characters quickly notice that everyone wears extremely similar grey shirts with short sleeves and black trousers, identical to the clothing they have already seen the Marsh-Jigger crew wearing. It is also instantly obvious to them that the internal culture of the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern is very rank-sensitive. Status is designated by colored bars on the cuffs and collars. The lowest rank is green, and the highest is white, with about four or five steps in between. The characters can tell who outranks who easily by watching people defer to each other.
The characters also determine that the population of the asteroid must be very large, as they see more than thirty people during their (escorted) trip to the Archpater's chambers. Along the way, they encounter several of the Archpater's underlings and discover another complication of dealing with the YHMC. The locals are touchy about status. When faced with a group of strangers, they desperately try to determine who in the group most closely approximates their own rank, and then deal directly only with that person (after making appropriate deference to the higher-ranked members). The fact that the characters do not wear any obvious insignia of comparative rank troubles the Yuwet folk terribly, and prompts a series of debates upon who should speak to who.
The characters finally meet the Archpater and spend an inordinate amount of time exchanging flowery greetings. Sean Punch doesn't do at all well at this, and for his trouble the Archpater never even acknowledges his presence for the rest of the conversation. Everyone else manages to be polite enough that the Archpater at least recognizes that they are in the room.
Koa so k'Terr takes the lead in the negotiations. His basic offer is the characters' earlier Hydrogen Cracker deal: in exchange for providing the New Berlin Spaceport with a medium-sized Hydrogen Cracking Plant, the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern is allowed thirty landings over the course of a year. The Archpater negotiates for a while, but is basically willing to accept this offer. The one significant condition he applies is that the characters must have a railroad working between the spaceport and their ocean port, so the YHMC will be able to move their ores out of Fennen Marsh and to their customers. The Archpater says that getting the cracking plant operational will take about six months, and suggests that the year of free landings should begin when the plant is operational. If the characters do not have a railroad running by then, they must pay a penalty to the YHMC.
The characters listen to this requirement, and find that they aren't sure if they'll be able to get the railroad on-line in time. Koa uses his psychic Bond to Brian the Goat to set up a quick conference with Seneschal Bob Lungflook, who estimates that the railway will also take about six months to get on-line. The characters are not happy with this, so they authorize Bob to spend an additional 1000 FB to speed the process up by a month. Most of the money goes towards additional workers and expedite fees (bribes) for materials.
Returning to the negotiation table, Koa sets out a schedule guaranteeing six months working time (or completion of the cracker, whichever comes last), and then a penalty of 5% of the cracker plant cost per month. As a bonus to the YHMC, he offers the Archpater one additional free landing for every month by which they beat the original projection for completion of the cracking plant.
The Archpater, after a suitable time to contemplate the characters' contract, signs it with a smile.
Having concluded their heavy business, the Archpater and the characters sit at his low tables and talk about other possible businesses. Peter presses the Archpater for the names of other organizations or individuals who must move large quantities of material through the Prince Cassius field, particularly anyone who often runs afoul of the Hawkwood military's heavy-handed imposition of landing blackouts. The Archpater suggests the Brigadier Samuel Tennyson, a Muster quartermaster officer responsible for the supply of several Legions operating on Stigmata. The characters immediately start thinking about getting the Brigadier to pay for their railroad in exchange for landing privileges.
The Archpater eventually concludes his conversation with the characters. One of his various functionaries shows them out of his chambers, and into another room where they are met by a round-faced man with red cuffs. He introduces himself as Frater Willum vu Yinget and says that he has been instructed by the Archpater to give them a tour of the Yuwet Asteroid. The characters eagerly accept.
Frater Yinget leads the characters into a vehicle he describes as a jitney that looks like nothing so much as an immature edition of the Marsh-Jigger. As a safety precaution, he lends each character an air necklace. These devices function much like personal shields (enough so that he instructs the characters to remove their own shields to avoid any harmful interactions), except that they also provide protection from the hazards of open space. In addition to surrounding the user with a breathable atmosphere, they provide pressure support and shielding against temperature and radiation. Unfortunately, they are not nearly as good at providing personal protection as standard shields: their DR is only 5/10, and they provide only PD 2 (6 against ranged attacks). They are able to absorb 20 hits, and burn out only on a roll of 15. Frater Yuwet very politely points out that the things must be returned after the tour ends.
Moments after he casts off from the lower docking ring, the characters are able to see just what the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern has done with their asteroid. The Yuwet Asteroid is a large piece of stone about two kilometers in diameter. A massive tower-like structure juts from one side. The end is topped by a huge docking ring able to accommodate a half-dozen ships the size of the Marsh-Jigger. The characters are able to see that three such ships are currently docked. The lower docking ring is set about halfway down the tower, and holds berths for dozens of the smaller jitneys and other specialized craft.
Just over the horizon from the main tower, the surface of the asteroid is gouged by a huge mining pit. The hungry form of a massive fusion blast furnace clutches the edge of the pit, it's glowing maw raised to meet the stream of ore that swarms of jitneys and armor-suited Yuwet personnel send towards it. The characters are able to see building-sized blocks of ore simply disintegrate into gas and liquid as they hit the furnace mouth. Most of them are too impressed to even speak. The notable exception is Koa so k'Terr, who starts talking about arranging tourist trips out to see the place. Frater Yinget gives him a blank look in response.
The final sight of the exterior the characters enjoy is the YHMC's massive sensor array, placed nightside on the asteroid (with respect to the main tower). Frater Yinget explains that they use it to identify and track potential new mineral sources.
After the characters' tour ends, Sean Punch asks Frater Yinget if he knows anything about a squadron of five Hawkwood ships that disappeared in the outer system some months ago. Frater Yinget knows nothing, but he does take the characters to talk to some of the sensor operators. The sensor operators are able to reconstruct the most probable course for the Hawkwood ships, based upon a few sensor sweeps that showed their location. It seems that they headed out from Gwynneth to the Jumpgate, then changed course and headed towards an object that the Yuwets refer to as "Planet X", a dark body orbiting out beyond the Jumpgate. The Yuwet technicians have known about it for about four years, ever since they bought some old Second Republic navigation logs that show it as a hazard. They know that it shows a number of unusual properties, including variable mass and variable angular velocity, that make predicting it's exact position difficult in the short term and impossible in the long term. They have also discovered that the Hawkwoods also know about it, and have forbidden anyone from traveling to it. From what Frater Yinget says, this suits the YHMC just fine.
When Sean Punch asks the sensor technicians to try and do some analysis on the Planet X data, they refuse to release it into their think machine nets, displaying an almost superstitious fear of the object. They are willing to dump their data into a memory crystal and give that to Sean Punch to work on with his own equipment.
The characters bid the Yuwet Heavenly Mining Concern goodbye and travel back to Gwynneth, borrowing a Yuwet ship and a Yuwet crew for the purpose. They shorten their journey on Gwynneth substantially by setting down at the New Berlin Spaceport.
Upon their arrival, they find that things have not all been wine and roses in New Berlin. Seneschal Lungflook confesses that he has been having some law enforcement problems, especially with the massive expansion the colony has seen. The worst problems were created by one of the Brute Squad members. The man, dressed as an Avestite monk, savagely beat a local tinsmith who refused to give over some of his stock. Bob had the Brute Squad man arrested, convicted him, and sentenced him to a half-dozen lashes and exile from New Berlin. Since then, the man has spent his time in the Avestite monastery, outside the city limits. To try and deal with the problems on a more permanent basis, Seneschal Lungflook reports that he has deputized several locals, but he really needs some more skilled people.
Peter tells Seneschal Lungflook that he's been doing well, especially given his resources, and transfers his man Grigori over to the city payroll as Constable. He reasons that so far, nobody has tried to blow up the Armory, so he probably doesn't need Grigori working there full-time. He gives both Seneschal Lungflook and Constable Grigori permission to deputize as many of Grigori's Armory guards as they need.
While Peter deals with the local legal situation, Sean Punch commandeers a think machine from the Brain Factory and processes the Planet X data. He picks out a machine able to perform the necessary calculations in a couple of days, staying clear of the MMSPA Big Thinker. By the time he is done, he has a model that can predict the location of Planet X over the next five years, but he still doesn't understand why the planet's mass and angular velocity change so much. He almost thinks that the gravitation constant isn't constant in the region immediately around Planet X, as it's apparent mass changes from between about 1 Gywnneth mass to about 0.1 Gwynneth masses. He also learns that when the Hawkwood ships traveled to it, it was as close to Gwynneth and the jumpgate as it ever gets; it is now substantially farther out.
Several of the characters are quite concerned about the incident Seneschal Lungflook described, and decide to head over to the still-incomplete Orthodox Temple to speak with Patera Fen. They hope that he will be able to give them a different viewpoint on the situation.
They find him at the temple, teaching reading and Orthodox theology to a motley collection of students. Delighted to find that some of the local priests are actually performing functions useful to society, the characters very politely wait until he has finished with the day's lessons before disturbing him.
The characters quickly discover that Patera Fen is fairly depressed about his lot in life. He is keenly aware of the fact that the Bishop Ephraim Yates-Manteban of Tuam regards him as politically unreliable, and that he only avoided being shipped back to Holy Terra for re-education through the eloquence of Brother Xavier's arguments. Even so, though he is currently the de facto head of the New Berlin Temple, he will be demoted as soon as his replacement arrives, along with the rest of the priests the Bishop promised to send.
The characters offer their best wishes, and assure him that they will do whatever they can to safeguard him and his work. They then get to the point of their visit, and ask him his opinion on the behaviour of the Brute Squad member who beat the tinsmith, and Seneschal Lungflook's response to it. Patera Fen proves to have stored up quite a bit of anger towards the local Avestite monks, especially those who had been members of Brother Xavier's personal bodyguard. He claims that they are flagrantly abusing their station, extorting outrageous tithes from the people and neglecting their proper duties as monks.
The characters listen to Patera Fen's story and resolve to visit the Avestite monastery. Brother Xavier is unfortunately too consumed by a stomach virus to be able to go along. Patera Fen tells them that the man they probably want to talk to is Priest Marcellus, who holds the office of Vice-Abbot. Patera Fen also notes that Marcellus was among those monks personally selected by Brother Xavier.
The characters board their Moremax Spirit staff car and drive out to the monastery. They feel a need to underscore their seriousness, so they bring along a substantial arsenal.
The monastery is a clean, quiet place. It is built along the lines of a Spanish mission, with several two-story buildings facing in towards a central courtyard. Low walls join the buildings. The exterior windows on the first floor are small enough that a man would have a hard time sneaking through, but not so small as to make it obvious that they are just firing positions. The gates are open as the characters drive up, but blocked by two miserable-looking monks in full regalia with Sangaree Specials slung as their sides.
The characters explain their business to the monk sentries, who respond with a tone sufficiently strident as to leave no doubt that they aren't going to let the characters inside. One sentry does agree to go inside and tell the Vice-Abbot Marcellus that the New Berlin City Councillors are here to speak to him. While he is gone, the characters have an opportunity to watch a half-dozen Avestite novitiates dressed in little more than loincloths trying to practice fencing with huge two-handed swords, all the while being mistreated by a monk carrying a whip. As they watch, one of the exhausted novitiates falls over and lies still, not moving even when the instructor whips him. They speculate that this kind of behaviour is probably what Avesitites consider to be "training." The sentry returns after a moment to inform them that the Vice-Abbot has no time to talk, and that they should come back later to make an appointment.
At this point, Peter Sangaree decides that he has had enough. He tells the sentry that the characters are there to arrest the Vice-Abbot, and that the sentries had best get out of the way. Things go from bad to worse, and in short order the characters find themselves facing not only the two sentries, but also the instructor from the courtyard and his five remaining students. After a short interval of chest-beating on both sides, Peter Sangaree pulls out a stunner and shoots down one of the sentries. All hell breaks loose after that. Sir Brindal Karth and Koa so k'Terr lay about themselves with stunners and psychic powers. Sean Punch rushes into the attack with his implant blades extended, tearing right through one of the hapless novitiates. It takes the characters less than fifteen seconds to quell all resistance in the courtyard.
With all of the visible monks either stunned, restrained, or felled by heat exhaustion, the characters start to move into the monastery proper, only to be stopped by a single gunshot from a second-story window. The characters look up to see three more members of the Brute Squad emplaced on the second floor, each armed with a Sangaree Special. Peter sputters, "How many of those things do these monk have?"
The characters prepare for a long and painful gunfight against skilled opponents in emplaced positions. They are just a touch surprised when the first Brute Squad member removes the clip from his gun and tosses it down into the courtyard. The remaining two Brute Squad members follow this lead: each fires a single bullet into the air, then throws his clip down into the courtyard. The first Brute Squad member yells down, "We have opposed your entry to the last bullet."
Peter suddenly understands what the Brute Squad members are trying to accomplish and responds, "You have done the duty that is required of you. Now get down here." The three Brute Squad members obey, and stand silently in one corner of the courtyard.
With these last vestiges of resistance brushed aside, the characters take functional possession of the courtyard. As they walk inside, they are able to smell that the monks are running some kind of brewery within the monastery.
Vice-Abbot Marcellus is found in one of the ancillary buildings, standing behind his desk. He is grizzled and scarred, and is wearing full Avestite regalia. An ornate gold jumpgate cross hangs around his neck. A variety of weapons, including two loaded Sangaree Specials, lie upon the desk. Though the Vice-Abbot spews a blistering stream of invective and ecclesiastic hatred at the characters, he offers little resistance when they inform him that they are arresting him and taking him back to New Berlin.
The characters eventually arrest those Avestite monks selected by Brother Xavier and all of the former Brute Squad members, chaining them together in a procession eighteen monks long. They quickly determine that most of the senior monks are among their detainees. They have a brief argument with one of Xavier's senior monks, the self-proclaimed lawyer Brother William, who appears to be something of a sot. They ignore his protests that he shouldn't be arrested because he will have to act as legal counsel for the remaining monks. They leave the monastery in the charge of Brother Rex, the most senior monk from among those selected by the Bishop of Tuam. The characters fear that Brother William is a bit too doctrinaire for their tastes, but they are convinced that he is honest.
The characters quickly find themselves in a bit of a legal pickle. They are unable to conceal the fact that they have arrested most of the Avestite monks in the area, as a procession of eighteen chained monks attracts attention even in the most jaded of communities. Even worse, shortly after they brought the monks in to the New Berlin gaol Constable Grigori called in every one of his deputies he could find to help keep them under guard, further increasing the publicity.
The true nature of the characters' problem became more apparent when they determined that they could really only try the monks before an ecclesiastic court, and that any such court would have to either be headed by or specifically sanctioned by the Bishop of Tuam. None of the characters want to have their dirty laundry aired in front of the Bishop, for fear of the actions he might take to "improve" the situation long-term. Strictly speaking, the characters did not even have the authority to enter the monastery and arrest the monks at all without the specific blessing of the Church.
The characters position is complicated further by the fact that while it is obvious that many of the monks have been engaging in outright criminal activity in and out of the monastery, none of the remaining monks will offer witness against them. Peter notes that the monks maintain the same sort of loyalty for each other that police do.
After a series of plans are proposed and then discarded, the characters finally decide that they will convene a very informal ecclesiastic court, headed by Patera Fen, and try the Vice-Abbot Marcellus as an Antinomist. The trial happens without too much trouble, and by the end of it the characters manage to convict the man, sentencing him to death by firing squad. The characters all sign the execution order, and have it carried out within days. They then arrange for Brother Rex to be appointed as Vice-Abbot.
The session ends with the characters back in Fennen Marsh, with their local power over the Church slightly more secure than it had previously been. It is anybody's guess how long this situation will persist. Each character gains four experience points.