We start off egregiously late this week, primarily because I show up incredibly late. On the other hand, two new players join the collection: Dan (Montgomery Burns) and Sean (Nicodemus Haldemarr). Of the old familiar cast, almost everyone manages to put in an appearance: Tim (Sir Brindal Karth), Nick (Brother Xavier), and Chris (Peter Sangaree). April (Sister Joann) takes the week off.
Montgomery Burns is a man who knows everyone. He is a Scraver, and owns Moremax Liquors, a distillery in the Tuam Low City. His primary products are bourbon and brandy, which he sells to public houses and bars all up and down Lachann. To aid his distribution efforts, he also maintains minor ownership interests in a series of drinking halls across the continent. Of course, his liquor business is in many was merely a front for his operation selling "other goods" on the side.
Burns is a fairly close associate of Linus Link, and has made frequent use of his air transport services over the past several years. He also possesses a six-legged Changed cat named Vovo that serves as the distillery mascot. For reasons that escape most folk, Vovo has been declawed, except for its right front paw.
Nicodemus Haldemarr is a Householder of the Hazat, originally from Aragon. He is a man of average height, with medium-length brown hair and aggressively mundane features. He has been trained as an assassin, and served the Hazat well up until his last job, an assignment to terminate a leader in the Scravers' Haustein Syndicate. That job went rather poorly, and forced Haldemarr to flee for his life.
Rendered unable to rely upon his normal support network, he has searched out Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat, a Hazat noble who has also offended the Haustein Syndicate, in hopes of obtaining sanctuary.
The long-standing lack of useful small-denomination coins has given rise to the discovery that the Tuam Electors' Council mints its own local scrip, the Tuam Shilling. 100 Tuam Shillings (TS) are worth a single Firebird, at least within the South Coast Duchy (1 FB = 2 Crests = 4 Wings = 10 Claws = 100 Tuam Shillings). The coins are also made to be broken into eight pieces, making smaller denominations possible with little trouble.
From the last session, the characters start out in Tuam Free City, completely unaware that they will soon be joined by two new characters.
Brother Xavier, looking for bulk discounts on bourbon, wanders into Moremax Liquors, Montgomery Burns' distillery. Though his initial goal was no more lofty than obtaining a keg of bourbon for a bargain rate, he is staggered to discover that the proprietor knows Linus Link well, claims to be skilled as a pilot, seems to be able to sell things in the black market, and is willing to deal with Brother Xavier on all these things.
Brother Xavier reacts to this incredible boon in a very predictable manner: he takes outrageous advantage of it. After a fierce negotiating session, he manages to obtain a keg of bourbon in exchange for a promise to introduce Montgomery to "a noble interested in selling things."
Peter Sangaree is eager to locate parts for his next project: a gun able to fire the 2-inch shells he liberated from the wreck of the Red Syrmfish. In particular, he needs a trigger, a sight, a stand, and some kind of barrel. He starts his search in the Tuam Low City, and swiftly discovers that the sort of debris he is looking for simply isn't available within the constraints of Renaissance-era technology. He then turns to the High City and the various parts rooms he can locate there. After a day of searching, he manages to acquire a junked polycarbon tube to serve as a barrel, and some spray epoxy to fatten up the shells so they'll fit the tube properly. This windfall costs him a mere 5 FB.
The characters all assemble for dinner at the Glutted Rooster, a public house in the Tuam Low City. They are joined by Montgomery Burns, at Brother Xavier's invitation. The proprietor's choicest offering is near-swine stew, a dish that most of the characters are much more willing to consume when accompanied by some of the bourbon Montgomery brought along as a gift. All through dinner, Sir Brindal Karth remains quiet, as the near-swine does not sit easy in his still-troubled stomach.
After dinner, the characters sit at their table and play cards. Sir Brindal Karth continues his tradition of losing badly. Brother Xavier and Montgomery Burns take advantage of this phenomenon by winning.
Later in the evening, the characters' game is interrupted by the arrival of Nicodemus Haldemarr. He strides into the common room, orders cockatiel pie and "clean" water from the innkeep for 5 Tuam Shillings, then approaches the characters' table. He announces his presence by commenting to Sir Brindal Karth that, "You're still the worst card player I've ever seen." Brindal Karth, evidently unsurprised by this comment, invites him to sit and introduces the other characters to him. Nicodemus desperately looks for a chair backed up against a wall, but notes that all the other characters have already taken all those places. He compromises by sitting against a support beam.
The new characters are introduced to the situation in a very direct manner. Peter tells Montgomery Burns about the Chibren trade goods, and asks him what he can get for them. Montgomery is very excited about the technological gizmos, and makes a substantial effort to gush over all the various bits and pieces. He agrees to try and find buyers for the pieces.
With the money conversation out of the way, everyone turns to discussing how best to kill off Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen. Peter Sangaree has some ideas on ways to make shields go away (including using a flamethrower). Nicodemus makes most of the other characters a touch nervous by talking about killing anyone mentioned in the discussion who isn't immediately useful.
Montgomery Burns rises early the next morning to see what kind of deals he can arrange for the characters' trade goods. After some searching, he is able to come up with a guy in the Tuam Port who will pay 320 FB for the networking gear. He also checks up on who the characters' previous Hawkwood contact had been dealing with. He finds that the Hawkwood had been planning on dealing with the Duke South Coast's quartermaster, and was unlikely to get a price better than 150 FB.
Montgomery is unable to find an immediate buyer for the Chibren dye, but he does find a guy who has a cousin in Pernley Bay. The fellow's claim is that there is a big textile mill there and can always use dye. He promises that he'll send word to his cousin, and have a response and a price within a week.
Everyone meets for an early lunch. Sir Brindal Karth finally explains to Montgomery that he's trying to set up a colony out on Fennen Marsh. Montgomery suggests that it is an incipient public peril to allow the commoners to accumulate money without giving them a fair chance to spend it on drink. Brindal Karth points out that the colony has a population of only about 12, plus 25 convicts who have no money and shouldn't be able to get money.
Montgomery relays the information he has gathered on the trade goods, telling them that he can sell the networking gear for 275 FB. He also expresses confidence that his price will be better than the Hawkwood's price, a confidence that is borne out by the perfumed letter the Hawkwood sent Sir Brindal Karth offering a price of only 150 FB. Given this good news, the characters finally admit that they can get large supplies of both dye and fiberoptic comm gear. Montgomery points out that he might be able to get a long-term deal for dye, but isn't sure about the fiberoptic gear.
Montgomery then asks if the characters need anything other than money. Peter starts listing stuff: a Second Republic-era CNC Lathe, weapons in 100-piece lots, hand grenades, body armor in large lots and large-caliber shells (2-inch or "spud gun"). Xavier adds the rather catch-all category of, "Anything that would help a fledgling colony."
Later that day, Montgomery completes the deal for the networking gear, selling it for 320 FB. He passes 275 FB to Brindal Karth.
The characters decide to head to Llanfyrth and deal with Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen, now that they have managed to get a slightly better perspective on their financial future. It costs a total of 120 FB in fuel and landing fees to get the Morgen Luftking there.
The characters start out by talking to Linus Link about Thomas. Linus knows about Thomas, and thinks of him as a bit of a popinjay. He further notes that Thomas has a really nice household, a townhouse in a neighborhood near the Custom House, and holds regular parties (Linus has been to one of them). Linus thinks that Thomas has about a dozen servants, and a couple of beefy looking guards. Other guests at the party Linus attended included Hawkwoods and Orthodox priests.
The characters immediately think of committing arson against Thomas' townhouse. Linus offers to sell them 50 gallons of fuel, plus a hand pump. Brindal Karth asks him for a few flares, and puts down 30 FB. He buys a dozen flares, plus the other stuff. The characters thank Linus, and then head off to think about how to set Thomas' place on fire carefully. They eventually conclude that they'd probably get savaged by the local constabulary, and essentially abandon the arson plan.
Nicodemus spends some time looking at the house. Thomas lives in the middle of a series of three-story row houses. He has a courtyard in front and an alleyway on one side. The back of the house has a small walled yard that backs onto another row of similar buildings. There are visible sensor arrays on the walls, but a couple of trees have overgrown them, providing a means of access. Nicodemus identifies a total of four servants who do errands, and two more (probably guards) who stay in the house. He does not see any vehicles associated with the household.
Meanwhile, Montgomery looks into finding information sources who can tell him something about Thomas' household. He finds Linnet, a footman in a neighboring household, who has been to parties at Thomas' home with his master. Linnet is an unhappy person who proves to be willing to provide information for money. Montgomery passes the fellow's name along to Sir Brindal Karth, who actually makes contact with him.
Brindal Karth and Brother Xavier go to talk to Linnet. Linnet proves to be a thickly-built guy, very heavyset and exactly what you'd want as a footman if he weren't selling people out. Brindal Karth throws him 20 FB and says, "Ossy ab Gehallen. Tell us everything." Linnet starts with the servants: all of them are tough guys, and none of them trained by the Hawkwoods. He explains that most of the bodyguards and footmen in the area are ex-Hawkwood military, and that most of the neighborhood householders are Hawkwood officers, with money but not much compared to ab Gehallen.
Thomas throws parties about every two weeks, but brings in lots of outside help for them: Linnet notes that the house servants aren't that articulate, and mostly sit in the background, breaking dishes. The characters instantly conclude that the other servants are probably Scravers in "disguise", and may be just as much trouble as the more obvious bodyguards.
Linnet notes that Thomas normally sends an invitation to Linnet's master, and offers to divert the next one and send it to the characters for 30 FB, if the characters pay on the spot. The characters manage to negotiate him down to 20 FB, and instruct him to send the invitation to Linus Link.
After the characters have spent a couple of days watching Thomas' house, talking to local servants, and generally developing a very unhappy picture of the quality of the local security (quite good), they finally think to ask the question, "How does Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen get around?" They decide to talk to Linus Link.
It turns out that Thomas is one of Linus' better customers. Linus tells the characters that he has arranged for a flight out to Paintersville in three days, and then another trip from Paintersville to the Byrrem Isles five days after that. The characters let Linus know that they're going to ambush Thomas on the Paintersville road. Linus offers only predictable objections. Particularly, he asks them to make sure that his plane is far away when they make their attack. The characters agree, then immediately fly for Paintersville.
The session ends with the characters in the air, heading for Paintersville, ready to do violence to Thomas Ossy ab Gehallen. Each character gains three experience points.