Dan (Koa so k'Terr) decides that he would much rather hang with his old lady than with his layabout friends, and disses us. Tim (Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat) makes the opposite decision, concluding that his layabout friends are far more important than his education, career and future. We all applaud Tim for his decision. Chris (Peter Sangaree) and Paul (Sean Punch) are just honest: they are the layabout friends. Bruce, of course, doesn't even have that excuse, being the most inveterate slacker in the group.
As something of an afterthought from last week, the characters arrange a ball at the end of the Running of the Hiipos, with the basic goal of giving the Baroness Karen Sirreya-Hazat an opportunity to talk with the various eligible Hawkwood nobility in attendance. The characters' hope is that she will pursue one of them as a potential husband and a route towards getting a fief on Gwynneth. Peter Sangaree prevents Koa so k'Terr from using his exotic mind powers to force things to work out, presuming that it's the Baroness' business to pursue the matter.
With the more publicly presentable guests from the festival long gone, the characters prepare for the arrival of their Vuldrok (or, specifically, Utag) guests.
The Vuldroks arrive in relatively small number, but in great force: a flight of three Carrier VERTOLs escorted by two Hunter VERTOLs. The group aboard the carriers consists of five principals (listed below), plus about twenty bodyguards and aides. All of them are well-armed and don't look much like people expecting to go to a celebration. The notable Utag guests include:
As the characters walk out onto the landing curtain, they examine the tail markings on the five VERTOLs. They determine that the two Hunters and one of the Carriers are from the Purple Wing Squadron. The second Carrier looks like it is based in Erlwood. They are not sure where the final Carrier comes from. They do notice that the Utag leave a guard of eight men around their aircraft, and that the Hunter pilots don't even bother getting out of the cockpits.
Noting the apparent lack of trust visible among the Utag, Peter has Constable Grigori station men around the hotel (unarmed) and the port (armed). Grigori says that he has 8 men he can trust, giving a rotation of two men at a time at each site. Peter promises the men a bonus when this is over. Grigori asks if there is any body armor available for his men, to which Peter answers, "D'oh!" and makes a mark on his shopping list. The two of them agree that Grigori's men are completely outgunned at the airfield, and that the best strategy in case of trouble is for the guards to run for a phone and call for help. Peter makes sure that they are near a working phone extension.
With random greetings and security precautions out of the way, the characters and their visitors take the Moremax Spirit staff car back to the Hillside Hotel with their five most important visitors.
Throughout the conversation, Jarl Feggen is rather standoffish, preferring to let others talk for him. In dramatic contrast, Pieter Taussen is quite voluble and apparently very eager to deal. Among many other things, he asks how many Custom House personnel are stationed at the New Berlin Spaceport. When Peter answers "None" both of the military officers look interested.
Captain Rolfsdottir, once she is fairly certain that no Hawkwood agents are waiting in the wings with evil intent, asks Peter about his efforts to manufacture small arms. Sensing a possible sale, Peter sends a man out to the Armory to fetch a Sangaree Special, which he gives to her as a gift. She is visibly impressed with the construction, and asks a series of additional questions that leads Peter (and the other characters) to believe that she wants to have them manufacture small arms and support weapons (mortars, rocket launchers, etc.) on Utag designs, for sale to the local Utag forces. Peter agrees to look over the designs, but very carefully avoids making any specific promises.
The evening following the Utag arrival, the characters host a welcoming banquet for their guests. Things go comparatively well, given the guest list. The Jarl Feggen behaves appropriately paternal, and is clearly looked up to by all of the other Utag except for the Jarl Svensson.
Pieter Taussen keeps up a steady stream of conversation, and is obviously interested in anything that looks like it will make money. He states that he can provide linen goods and high-capacity storage batteries for sale in Fennen Marsh or beyond. His claim is that the batteries are suitable for use as clips for energy weapons, or as a power source for a vehicle, depending upon the size of the battery array. The characters offer polite interest, but don't actually agree to any trade deals.
The Banneret Durgut Thunsson expresses interest in the characters' landing field, and mentions that the loss of both the Chibren landing field and the Vulfzee Base have made it difficult for the Utag to continue operating in this area. He wants permission to use New Berlin as a refueling point for his VERTOLs. Remembering the Vuldrok behaviour towards the Chibren, the characters offer nothing in return.
Jarl Svensson remains silent through most of the meal, but indicates that he wants to talk to the characters privately, afterwards.
Later that night, the characters are met by one of the Jarl Svensson's aides, who introduces himself as Hauscarl Jurgen Mahalsson. Like all of the Jarl's people, he is dressed in synthetic fabrics. He also features a series of odd geometric tattoos along one side of his face. He and the characters head out into the gardens behind the Hillside Hotel to talk.
The Hauscarl gets right to the subject that concerns him. He wants to construct a yard to refit spacecraft at the New Berlin port, and staff it with Utag technicians. He clearly needs a facility able to repair a significant-sized ship, probably up to frigate size. The Utag would bear the entire cost of constructing and operating the facility, and would allow the characters to contract out spare capacity for their own uses. The characters listen to his offer, intensely aware that they would acquire a Vuldrok garrison along with the repair facilities, and concerned that it would make them a prime target for Hawkwood assault. However, they are willing to make some counterproposals.
The conversation is suddenly interrupted when Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat notices a shadowy figure lurking just off the trail. Things rapidly go downhill from there, as the shadowy figure lashes out with a wireblade, desperately wounding the Hauscarl Mahalsson. While Sir Brindal Karth and Sean Punch draw weapons and attack the assassin, Peter Sangaree pulls out an elixir injector and jams it into the Hauscarl's breastbone.
For a brief time, the assassin is able to give as good as he gets, delivering vicious cuts to both of his attackers, before they bring him down with a peppering spray of laser and stunner hits. He is eventually overwhelmed, captured, and dragged off to the kitchen. Peter Sangaree warns one of the rather panicked sentries, and has him fetch Grigori.
While Sean Punch heads up to the guest rooms to fetch down their guests and alert them to the situation, Brindal Karth interrogates the captive. He quickly discovers that while the man looks like an Utag, he talks with the accent of Aragon gutter trash. From that point, it isn't hard to determine that the fellow is actually a Haustein plant, inserted into Jarl Gunter Feggen's entourage. In addition to the wireblade and a shield (both of which Sir Brindal Karth appropriates), the man is also carrying the electronic key for an Utag-design VERTOL. Brindal Karth also learns that there is a second Haustein agent among the Utag, and heads up to warn Sean Punch about him.
Sean Punch, Brindal Karth and a group of Utag guards commanded by Captain Rolfsdottir storm the second agent's room, finding that he is long gone. Brindal Karth turns around, and notices that the agent left what looks like a large bomb attached to the door. Wasting no time, he yells out, "Bomb!" and jumps from the second-story window, confident that his shield will protect him. Sean Punch follows suit, while the Utag troops take the much more practical route of simply running down the stairs. Peter Sangaree, who by this time is waiting outside, is slightly stunned to see his two compatriots flinging themselves out of windows.
With the bomb detected, disarming it is comparatively straightforward. Peter Sangaree, Grigori, and one volunteer from among Grigori's men very carefully dismount the door from it's frame and carry it out to a fish pond uphill from the hotel. They invert the door and send it and the bomb floating out into the middle of the pond. Grigori watches the door float out into the pond and announces that he's going to go fetch a net (he expects to do a bit of dynamite fishing).
By the time Peter has finished disposing of the bomb, Sir Brindal Karth and Sean Punch have managed to track the movements of the second agent. They determine that he was waiting in ambush in a different part of the hotel grounds, and headed off towards the New Berlin Spaceport some time ago, probably either after the first assassin spotted the group or after the first assassin was captured. The spaceport is several kilometers away from the Hillside Hotel. Brindal Karth estimates that the trip would take the assassin about an hour, on foot. Because the first agent was carrying a VERTOL key, Brindal Karth immediately recognizes what the second man expects to do when he gets to the airfield. He becomes even more concerned when the Banneret Thunsson contacts him and states that the VERTOL key taken from the first agent was a master key, able to work on any of the VERTOLs on the field.
The characters drive out to the New Berlin spaceport as quickly as they can, issuing orders to get the VERTOL pilots to their aircraft and as many of Constable Grigori's men onto the field as possible. They are tormented by the vision of the second assassin lifting off in one of the Hunters and using it's guns to lay waste to a wide swatch of territory.
The characters get to the airfield to find the Vuldrok locked down, and Brian the Goat, Linus Cossett, and Fergus Genne ab Marlwen in the three Fennen Marsh VERTOLs. They find no immediate sign of the assassin, but Sir Brindal Karth is able to determine that the man was in the area, and that he took a Sangaree Special from the arms locker in the characters' Carrier VERTOL.
Everyone is spreading out to search the field when Brian the Goat calls out over his comlink, asking who is warming up their engines. Everyone answers in the negative, but the characters note something strange about Linus Cossett's voice. It quickly becomes obvious that his VERTOL is prepping for takeoff, and will achieve full ignition within a couple of minutes. Sir Brindal Karth rushes over to the aircraft, clambering up on the hull to look down into the cockpit. He finds a rather miserable-looking Linus Cossett going through the startup sequence while being held at gunpoint by the second assassin.
Sir Brindal Karth orders Brian the Goat to start up his engines, and then order the assassin to desist. The Haustein agent, obviously confident that the VERTOL canopy is completely bulletproof (DR 100), refuses. Faced with the prospect of what the Haustein agent could do if the VERTOL actually takes off, Brindal Karth deliberately unlocks and opens the aircraft canopy. The agent, seeing his card played, shoots the unfortunate Linus Cossett eight times before Brindal Karth is able to stun him. Linus Cossett dies in the cockpit.
Many of the Fennen Marsh residents in the area take Linus' death rather hard, as he was well-liked among both the pilots and the rest of the population. Brian the Goat, who has more dead than living friends, looks grim and grunts out, "It's a shame he had to check out like that." Fergus Genne, who hasn't had the same experience, is pretty much shattered. Brindal Karth, who is more hardened than he would like to pretend, does his best to weep and comfort Fergus.
The session ends with the characters standing upon the field of New Berlin Spaceport. Both of the Haustein infiltrators in the Jarl Gunter Feggen's entourage have been captured, but at the cost of Linus Cossett's life. Each character gains four experience points.