For a change, most of us manage to show up in relatively reasonable time: Paul (Sean Punch), Chris (Peter Sangaree), Tim (Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat), and Chuck (Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat). Dan (Koa so k'Terr) takes his sweet time, but none of us begrudge him the extra time considering the distance he must travel to get to the game.
The characters spend some rather tense time wondering how much money they have left, and how much time they've got until the MachtArbeiterBank will come by expecting them to pay off their 50,000 FB debt. They quickly determine that the actual amount they possess in their accounts and the actual amount they owe aren't well known, and Koa so k'Terr promises to figure out the exact figures later on. Peter Sangaree simplifies the matter by noticing that the group probably has around 25,000 FB on hand, meaning that they need to raise an additional 25,000 FB in the next five months.
The group proposes a series of money-raising plans. Among these, Koa favors an archaeological dig, either to the Red Weeper gargoyle or to a Second Republic site somewhere deeper in Sulesslund. He drops his plan to explore the Red Weeper when he learns that the Red Weeper is a single huge statue out in the middle of nowhere, with no associated ruins. His alternate plan remains viable, particularly since the characters know of several Second Republic ruin sites within VERTOL range.
At this point, Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat reminds everyone that he hired Bango and Leestra Abbas, two network and electronics specialists from Leagueheim, (at tremendous expense) to investigate the Lachann Fiberlink Hub. Though the two of them have provided regular status reports and are the recipients of regular supply runs, they haven't reported anything of particular interest. The other characters listen to this and decide that they want to know exactly what these specialists are up to, and whether or not either of them has succumbed to terrible antinomic infestation. The expedition to visit them takes shape quite rapidly.
The group heads out to the Lachann Fiberlink Hub on board the Carrier VERTOL with Sean Punch at the controls. Peter Sangaree expresses some concern at this arrangement, as he doesn't believe that Sean Punch's pacifism will let him fire on other people if the characters end up in a dogfight. Sean Punch tries to reassure him by making comments about the great agility and evasive properties of the carrier VERTOL. Peter isn't convinced.
For his part Koa spends a lot of time worrying about mosquito netting and complaining about the risk of suffering insect bites. The other characters get the idea that he is concerned that he will succumb to some terrible disease. He takes to wearing a little netting-covered hat all the time.
The last time any of the characters visited the Lachann Fiberlink Hub site it was fairly rudimentary, lacking even the most basic of civilized improvements. As the VERTOL makes it's initial approach pass, the characters are able to see that it has become substantially more developed. The camp consists of several simple wooden buildings, some tents and a beaten earth VERTOL pad, surrounded by a wooden palisade (that also encompasses the fiberlink hub proper). A pair of klieg lights on tall stands brightly lights the interior of the palisade.
Upon landing, the characters are met by Leestra Abbas. She is quite happy to show the characters around the site. One significant high point is the fusion generator that powers both the klieg lights and the electronic equipment. Koa is relieved to learn that the camp is well supplied with both insect netting and an ultrasonic insect-repelling machine.
Leestra ends the camp tour at the workshop, visibly the best-quality wooden building on the site. She leads the characters inside, and proceeds to demonstrate her greatest accomplishment thus far: she is able to get a continuous voice line to Tuam's original area code. She knows that the voice network on the other end is no longer functional, as any number she dials is met with a "number not in service" message, but she is optimistic that the characters will be able to get a working voice line to Tuam if they are able to find the other end of the link.
At this point, the characters notice that Bango Abbas doesn't appear to be in the camp. Leestra explains that he is out searching for a network break between here and a substation linking the Lachann hub to the Byrrem fiberlink hub. He expects that the break is located less than ten days' travel away, and Leestra anticipates his return fairly soon. The characters, concerned that Bango may have become a qlippolithic monstrosity, ask if he is out in the jungle on his own. Leestra explains that they hired ten of the local tribesmen as bearers. This doesn't do all that much to reassure them, but it is better than nothing.
One of the more threatening things Leestra Abbas mentions is the discovery that there is another group looking at the Sulesslund internal network. Both she and Bango have tried to communicate with them, without success. However, they can see that someone is active on some of the same substations based upon the modification dates of some of the log files.
Peter Sangaree and Sean Punch caution her about demons in the network. Leestra (an obvious product of the Leagueheim educational system) is unwilling to accept the idea that there might be incorporeal entities inhabiting the network. She is willing to accept the idea of arbitrarily powerful malignant psychics and agrees to be careful on that basis.
The characters speculate upon the possible identity of the second presence on the Sulesslund network. They come up with several thoughts, including demons, the Chibren, and the local Utags, but they don't really pursue any of them.
Sir Brindal Karth asks Leestra if she needs any additional people to man the camp. She eagerly offers up a shopping list, including a cook, a carpenter, an electronics specialist, and some people to provide security. Sir Brindal Karth immediately agrees to the first two, as they can be hired from the population of New Berlin. He suggests that the electronics specialist could be provided by either the Chibren (though he doesn't mention this to Leestra) or from among the people in the Brain Factory. He speculates that goons for security could be provided from either among the Chibren Rangers (who would also be able to ensure that Bango's expeditions into the bush don't stumble across anything they shouldn't) or from Grigori's men. After a minimal quantity of discussion, Brindal Karth takes the VERTOL up to get into laser range of New Berlin. He sends a message to Seneschal Lungflook to hire a couple of Rangers from the Chibren to escort expeditions into the wilderness and a couple of Brain Factory technicians to help with the equipment. He presumes that finding a cook and a carpenter will be fairly easily.
Leestra thanks him for his help.
At this point, Koa suggests that hiring a second team to look at the Tuam side of the link (and to buy the land) would be a good idea. Everyone likes this idea, though Brindal Karth submits that Leestra and Bango should hire the technical people needed for the project. They would need to travel to Tuam for the purpose, which would slow down progress at the existing hub site. The matter remains unresolved by the end of the discussion.
From Leestra's estimate, the characters have a week and a half to wait before Bango returns. Koa spends his time doing archaeology, given that he is surrounded by the remains of the Second Republic city of Giulen, which once had a population of about 500,000.
Koa's efforts eventually lead the group to an old Civil Defense store located underneath a sports arena. A quick inventory of the place reveals a veritable gold mine of old disaster-relief supplies, including:
The characters determine that the shelter also held a number of electrical generators, none of which survived in even repairable form. The survival booklets contain a subway map of old Giulen, but don't show the location of the municipal power plants.
Sir Brindal Karth, remembering the location of the old Giulen Public Library from the characters' last trip out to the area, scavenges through the stacks looking for anything good. He quickly determines that practically all of the paper books have long sine been destroyed by exposure to the elements. However, he does manage to find a neatly-racked collection of memory crystals containing the electronic collection of the library. He determines that he is looking at somewhere on the order of 10,000 to 30,000 distinct works, drawn from what you would normally expect to find in a public library during the Second Republic. A lot of it contains dangerously egalitarian attitudes, and would now be considered contraband. The characters immediately decide to claim it, though they aren't sure what to do with it exactly. Elated by his discovery, Sir Brindal Karth spends a lot of additional time in the library, picking over crystals and thinking of ways to extract value from them.
Koa leads everyone else to the local subway, which (at least in parts) looks flooded. He had hoped to locate maintenance shops and other valuable loot underground, but quickly determines that anything useful is either corroded to nothing or under water. Despairing of any useful way to drain the tunnels, the group returns to the surface and locates the old subway maintenance shop the old-fashioned way, by flying around in a VERTOL. They find that the place is full of wrecked subway cars. Most of them were left exposed to the elements and have been transformed into corroded masses of sludge. Two cars were housed in maintenance sheds, and were somewhat better protected. Unfortunately, one of the sheds collapsed, wrecking the car. The remaining car is intact, though still obviously nonfunctional. Peter Sangaree pulls some useful tools out of the shop, but not so many as to raise great hopes.
The characters decide to talk to Brigadier Samuel Tennyson of the Muster in the hopes that he might want to purchase some of their newly-acquired civil defense supplies. Peter does his best to estimate the value of the civil defense stuff, per the table below:
|
Item |
Units |
Value/unit |
Total Value |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOOD | 10,000 meals | 1 FB per 10 meals | 1000 FB | |
| Camp beds | 1000 | 5 FB | 5000 FB | Value is to the military |
| Carbon-fiber chairs | 1000 | 2 FB | 2000 FB | |
| Colorful jumpsuits | 5000 | 3 FB | 15,000 FB | DR 1 each, can't be dyed |
| First aid kits | 500 | ½ FB | 250 FB | Low value due to age |
| Chemical toilets | 500 | 10 FB | 5000 FB |
The characters decide to keep the disposable flashlights and reclamation tools for their own uses. They also save out 100 yellow jumpsuits for use as prison garments. Their simple attempts to dye the remainder don't work out well: the garments are extremely stain-resistant, a resistance that translates into a total resistance to dye adhesion.
The total value of the stash is about 28,000 FB. Koa builds up a list of goods and ships it out to several candidates with prices, set 10% below Peter's estimates. He then sets to work sorting and packaging the library for transport.
Bango Abbas finally returns from his (apparently-uneventful) journey into the bush just as the characters are finishing loading the contents of the old Giulen Public Library into the Carrier VERTOL. Considering the large quantity of speculation that had been floating on whether or not Bango had succumbed to terrible Qlippolithic influences, everyone was quite glad to see him walk into the compound surrounded by all of his native bearers.
The characters, who had been interested in locating the power plants that once served Giulen, ask Bango if he knows where they are. He explains that the city was powered by hydrothermal power stations located out in the ocean to the north. He has already located the trunk cables leading in from the main distribution station, and knows that they are dead, but he doesn't know why. He suggests that the best way to find out if there are still workable power plants out there would be to go and look at them with a submersible. The characters demur.
Convinced that Bango is safe, the characters put their scavenging efforts into high gear. They make plans to send out teams of workers from New Berlin to search out derelict cars in the ruins of Giulen and strip them for parts. Peter estimates that there are at least 1500 to 2000 vehicles available, and that a suitably-skilled team of mechanics could obtain all manner of valuable items from them. To explore this idea, each of the characters finds three cars and pops the hood to check on the engine. Only Koa is able to find a fixable motor, but even a 1-in-10 success rate is good enough to convince them of the plan's value. Peter suggests dedicating a team of 100 men to the project, along with his assistants Harper and Richard to check out cars and strip offices, with 80 dedicated to the offices and 20 to the vehicles. His assistants will be responsible for actually disassembling the vehicles. Peter makes sure to give Harper and Richard some safety instructions. The characters plan to expand the existing compound to house the additional workers.
On a lark, the characters wander into the remains of the Giulen Public Bank to see what it might contain. They come across a total of some 40 million Gwynneth Marks, still in near-mint condition (the bills were made from a plastic substance that was intended to last for the ages). Some of the characters suggest simply making shirts out of them, while others speculate upon using them as New Berlin local currency. This latter plan dies rapidly, when Bango Abbas comments that Gwynneth Marks are incredibly common Second Republic items, and that basing an economy on them wouldn't be the safest thing to do. He offers no complaint to the idea of making shirts out of them.
Unsatisfied, the characters then use wireblades to cut open every safety-deposit box in the place. This process takes a total of three days, and nets a total of 30 nice-looking items, 200 less-nice items, and a huge pile of otherwise useless documents and currency.
The characters decide to send their dump truck to pick up all of the salvaged stuff and to bring supplies for the expanded camp. They reason that the thing's 120 ton cargo capacity should be more than enough to bring everything back.
With their wilderness expedition behind them, the characters gather up five of their nicer salvaged items and some spending money and travel out to St. Maria in the Byrrem Isles to visit the Lady Iphegenia Soult-Arlor de Marlwen. She receives them quite graciously, and proves to be rather willing to discuss with them possible solutions to the problem of finding suitable wives for Sir Brindal Karth and Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat. This is a problem made stickier by the fact that the characters are primarily interested in finding a way to get the Grand Duke to grant either of their nobles (or their intended wives) title to some of the lands adjacent to Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat's current fief. Lady Iphegenia claims to be intrigued by the problem, and promises to do what she can, in exchange for the characters' "gratitude". On an immediate basis, she promises to send a list of good Dancing Masters and Etiquette Instructors along to Fennen Marsh. Upon hearing this (and fearing the tremendous sums such individuals probably command), Sir Brindal Karth suggests that he could simply purchase skill software for dancing and etiquette, whereupon the Lady Iphegenia corrects him. She points out that his odds of finding a suitable wife are increased if he is known to have studied with someone of influence, a benefit that would be hard to obtain from some software. Sir Brindal Karth accepts the rebuke with good graces.
The session ends with the characters preparing to depart from St. Maria in the Byrrem Isles. They have a message from the Charioteer trader Cheevo in their hands, and have learned from it that he wants to discuss providing them with transportation to the edge of the system. He says that he will meet with them in Llanfyrth.
Each character gains three experience points.