Of the normal population, almost everyone shows up: Nick (Brother Xavier), Chris (Peter Sangaree), Dan (Koa so k'Terr) and Paul (Korzhun). Tim decides that he'd much rather watch his skimpily-clad (female) co-workers on a boat trip, so he opts out. Nobody is very much surprised by his choice.
The characters have four months of free time during the chaos of the Gwynneth Winter Matrix Game. They spend much of this time developing either the colony, or themselves.
Brother Xavier heads off to a small monastery on Lachann near Tuam to improve his theurgic powers. He is able to learn two additional levels of Theurgy Power (10 points), plus the rites for Laying on of Hands (2 points), Sting of Evil (2 points), and Scent of Conscience (2 points). His time among the monks also serves to teach him additional Mental Strength (4 points). Altogether, he spends 20 points upon his newfound powers.
He expresses a desire to make contact with churchmen of other sects to learn their theurgic rites, and is displeased to learn that the ongoing Hawkwood and Orthodox campaigns against corruption have had two substantial effects. First, even innocent members of other sects are slightly unwilling to speak to unfamiliar Avestites. Second, he finds that it is difficult to intimidate or overawe corrupt churchmen by mentioning his Avestite status and Inquisitorial connections if he does not wish to risk being drawn into working for the Church's anti-corruption investigation committees. In the end, Brother Xavier opts to take the subtle path and avoid notice.
Koa so k'Terr follows Brother Xavier's general lead, and returns to County Phallebreight to study with the members of his Coven. He is placed in a somewhat interesting position, as he is the Coven member possessed of the most raw power (Psi Power, that is), by a long shot. This makes his efforts to learn advanced Psychic skills rather questionable, as nobody else among the Coven is skilled enough to teach him such secrets. Even so, he manages to round out his skills fairly substantially.
Upon his return to the Fennen Marsh colony, Koa makes an offer to the other characters: if they allow themselves to be psychically Bonded to him, he will be able to use his powers upon them from great range, allowing (for example) communications even when technological solutions are unavailable or impossible. His arguments persuade Peter Sangaree, Korzhun and Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat, all of whom go through the ceremony. He makes the same offer to several of the characters' various employees, and gets a somewhat less generous reception. Bob Lungflook absolutely refuses to be Bonded, but Brian the Goat proves more than willing. Brian manages to send some shivers down Koa's back when he explains that he was Bonded to several Manifest Light psychics during an offensive back on Stigmata, so they could call for aerial support and pickup during the fighting. He notes that the symbiots seemed to be drawn to them, and that the Bonding served mostly to allow him and his fellow pilots to hear the psychic's death screams. Koa listens to this, then rather tentatively offers, "The symbiots are drawn to psychics, you say?", then backs away when Brian nods agreement.
As a side project during his time at Phallebreight, Koa gets access to some of the Church archives and researches previous appearances of the demon Vinjogoguladjz, whom the characters had discovered residing in the minds of a couple of their more questionable convicts. He discovers that Vinjogoguladjz is an entity of the Fifth Qlippoth who is able to transform those he possesses. His possessed become tough, strong and distant, more like machines than men. Eventually, they actually become machines: he finds several holographs and drawings of autopsied possession victims with twisted metallic shapes within their bodies, replacing internal organs. One account also claims that Vinjogoguladjz has been known to occupy cellular phone networks. Koa is unsure whether or not to believe this last report, though he relays it along to the other characters due to the potential impact it could have if it proves to be true. The other characters are suitably concerned., particularly considering that they have been fooling around with the access point to a huge undersea fibreoptic network. They also agree that most of his report makes sense, considering Red Billy's ability to find and control the Insurgent Golems in the ruins of the city of Giulen around the Lachann Fibrelink.
Korzhun starts his time by inviting the other characters to participate in a ceremony to welcome them into his angorak, or family group. The major benefit of this act is to create a sense of responsibility for the other characters in Korzhun's mind. It technically places the same obligations upon them as it does on him, though not being vorox they might not feel as strongly about this as he does. Because Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat is the obvious leader of the group, he becomes the Alpha of the angorak.
Korzhun then decides to try and finish building his treehouse, but comes to the rather troubling discovery that he does not have sufficient lumber to realize his dreams. Fortunately, his needs jibe very well with other colony activities, and he finds himself in charge of a logging expedition upriver, consisting of about half of the convicts and half of the free laborers. They spend two months cutting down trees, dragging them to the river with mules, and letting them drift downstream to the colony, where the carpenter and his team pull them out to be sawn into planking. By the time they return, they have accumulated sufficient lumber to construct substantial number of buildings.
Korzhun takes special care to try and develop a good working relationship with all of his subordinates, particularly attempting to avoid being seen as a dangerous savage. These efforts, aided by his ability to work as hard as any two normal men, are fairly successful.
Once back from logging, Korzhun spends a month finishing his treehouse. He ends up with a much nicer structure than he had originally imagined, with a planed wooden floor and a solid enough roof to resist the occasional monsoon.
His major projects out of the way, Korzhun finds himself with a month's worth of free time, which he spends traveling up and down the Anquelline River, getting to know the Fennen Marsh area and the things that live in it. He spends enough time in the hinterlands that he can learn the Area Knowledge (Fennen Marsh) skill, should he want to.
Peter Sangaree has a laundry list of projects to work on, more than any one man can possibly manage to finish. He starts out by organizing an expedition back to the Giulen city ruins to salvage the fusion-powered dump truck the characters had stumbled upon. This quickly turns into a colony-wide effort, involving ten of the convict workers, Linus Cossett, Peter's two assistants Harper and Richard, the VERTOL Assault Carrier, and about 3000 FB used to buy parts in Tuam. He starts by spending a month searching through all of the maintenance sites in the Giulen ruins, looking for tools and intact spare parts. Though he doesn't find everything he needs (hence the additional money for parts), he and his convict workers do manage to find two extra functional fusion engines, thanks primarily to a phenomenal Scavenging roll (made by 8). The second month is spent actually refitting the truck and making it drivable, then taking it overland along the route blazed by Seadan Quinn (as noted below).
Peter's next project is defensive: he uses the truck to help his convict workers raise up an earthen wall around the colony. To his dismay, he finds that nobody else in the colony has the Driving skill (a High-Tech skill), so he spends part of the time teaching Harper (who does have the High-Tech advantage thanks to his long association with Peter and his various projects) and Bob Lungflook how to drive.
By the time the wall is complete, two months have elapsed and the colony has been blessed with a huge pile of unfinished lumber, thanks to Korzhun's expedition. Peter, Harper and Bob Lungflook go on a shopping trip to Tuam to purchase an Industrial Table Saw (500 FB) and three Gas-powered Chainsaws (100 FB each). They also buy him an Assault Rifle (500 FB) and 300 rounds of ammunition (75 FB) as a favor to Korzhun, who has been saving his money for a long time. Total cost of the trip ends up being 800 FB to the colony, and 575 FB to Korzhun.
With his shopping list complete, Peter goes to the Engineers' Guildhall in Tuam to petition to have Richard and Harper inducted into the Engineers as his apprentices. The Guildmaster in Tuam, who reasons that Peter and his apprentices are far enough away that they won't pose much threat to the Engineers in Tuam, gives his leave. Harper (who has High-Tech) is easily able to pass the entry examinations, but Richard (who does not) cannot. Peter is warned that Richard's appointment is only provisional, and that he must come back and retake the examinations in a year. Peter agrees to this condition, confident that Richard will have learned the necessary skills by then.
As one final errand, Peter picks up Grigori, the Muster Trooper he bought his original Sangaree Special prototype from, and whom he had agreed to hire. The characters have already agreed to pay Grigori a wage of 5 FB per month.
With his errands behind him, Peter retires into his workshop to manufacture prototype submachineguns. While he works on his design, Harper trains a half-dozen of the most promising convicts to manufacture bullets. Peter notices that for the first month, the convicts' products are a touch uneven, enough that they probably shouldn't be used in haste. After that learning period, their consistency improves markedly.
Over six weeks, Peter perfects the Sangaree Special, producing seven working prototypes along the way. With his final design ready, he spends 800 FB (200 per stamping die) getting indestructible super-alloy dies made in Tuam. Desiring good eating utensils, he also gets a die for a fork, knife and spoon made. He finishes his time by running a 12-gun production run, leaving him with seven prototypes and twelve finished goods. The final stats for the Sangaree Special are:
|
Weapon |
Malf |
DMG |
SS |
ACC |
RoF |
Shots |
ST |
RCL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sangaree Special | 17+ | 3d+1 | 12 | 4 | 1/4/8 | 32/40 | 10 | -1 |
Sir Brindal Karth gathers up a staggering quantity of money (much of it from the strongbox from the MachtArbeiterBank) and heads off to Leagueheim and his cybersurgeon to get an Internal Think Machine installed. He is gone for substantially more than four months, to the point that the other characters may soon become concerned for his fate.
Early in his efforts to restore the old Second Republic dump truck in the ruins of Giulen, Peter Sangaree recognizes that it will be necessary to bring the thing back to Fennen Marsh overland, as it is far too large to fit into either the Assault Carrier or the Luftking. He assigns Seaden Quinn the job of trekking overland between the Lachann Fibrelink site and the Fennen Marsh colony, marking out a trail for the truck to follow. Quinn requests an escort of two armed colonists, which Peter grants him.
Quinn's trailblazing efforts require a total of two weeks, during which time he and his two companions are supported and resupplied by frequent Assault Carrier trips. Between the demands of the surveying expedition and the supply needs of Peter's dump truck restoration project, the Assault Carrier is essentially completely occupied for about a month.
When Quinn returns from the bush, the characters promptly set him to surveying the area around the Gieresport Airport, marking out good locations for farmsteads and a future town. He spends the next three months building up maps of the future Fennen Marsh colony site.
In addition to his normal duties as colony administrator, Bob Lungflook is assigned several special projects. During the first month of the characters' downtime, he is sent to Tuam to buy 100 young pigs. The pigs themselves cost 400 FB, and the two Luftking trips needed to bring them all back to the colony cost another 100 FB in fuel and landing fees. Once he has them all back, he releases them into the wild. The characters hope that they will be fruitful and multiply, and eventually provide a population of wild boar to hunt. Half of them are released on a long, marshy island along the western shore of the Anquelline River, where they should have plenty of fodder but shouldn't be able to spread out too far. The remaining animals are released into the marshes willy-nilly.
Bob's next three months are spent organizing rice paddies and sugar cane fields. The rice paddies require fairly extensive irrigation ditches and embankments, a task made substantially easier by the presence of the dump truck and it's plow.
Along the way, Bob takes another side trip to Lachann, this time to Llanfyrth to recruit three additional colonists, and collect yet another coffle of 25 convicts. On the way back he stops in Tuam to hire a recruiting agent. The rules for the recruiting agent are provided below. The recruiter is also given instructions to find the families of those convicts who have shown good behavior, and of those freemen who claim to want to stay.
The characters' agent in Tuam will find 2d possible colonists per month. Of these, 1d-4 (minimum zero) will be skilled workers. The remainder will be unskilled laborers or farm workers. For each unskilled worker the characters agree to take on, the agent collects a 5 FB bonus. For each skilled worker, the agent collects a 50 FB bonus. Unskilled workers must be paid at least 1.5 FB per month, while skilled workers must be paid at least 5 FB per month.
At the end of the characters' four-month down time, the colony has expended money on the following items:
On the plus side, the Sutter Kane makes three trips to Tuam and Pernley Bay, bringing in 4620 FB per trip, for a total income of 13,860 FB. The colony treasury contains some 6320 FB at the end of four months.
The Fennen Marsh colony has gone through a number of substantial changes through the Winter. These include:
The characters are somewhat taken aback when Patera Fen, the colony's priest, approaches them with a petition. He argues that now that the colony is blessed with a variety of sturdy wooden buildings, two durable concrete buildings (and more under construction), and a secure wall, it needs a church. He paints the characters a picture of a formidable concrete structure with stained-glass windows and a huge jumpgate cross on a tower.
Peter Sangaree listens to Patera Fen's words, and surmises that his ideal will cost 4000 to 5000 FB if the characters use Chibren concrete, or double that if the characters use imported stone. The other characters, with varying expressions upon their faces, reach the same conclusion.
Unwilling to spend such a tremendous quantity of money upon something as trivial as religion, the characters speak to Patera Fen in glowing terms about the worthiness of his ideas then quickly talk him down to a simpler wooden structure with a concrete foundation, costing a mere 1000 FB. Brother Xavier spends the money promptly, out of the colony fund (reducing it to 5320 FB).
Now that Peter Sangaree has his Sangaree Special perfected, he delivers upon his promise to hold an Ugly Animal contest to celebrate. The entire colony listens as he explains the rules. Everyone, both freeman and convict, has two weeks to find an ugly animal. Anything will do, but it must be alive on the day of the contest, and must be at least the size of a clenched fist. Peter will collect the contestant creatures on the day of the deadline. There will be a great feast upon the judging day, and everyone will have the next day as a holiday. The first prize will be 10 FB and one of the Sangaree Special prototypes; second prize will be 5 FB and another Sangaree Special prototype; third prize will be just a Sangaree Special prototype. Peter cautions that convicts will only collect the money if they win: he isn't about to give them submachine guns.
With everyone in the colony bustling around looking for the most wretched local creatures they can find, Brother Xavier decides to take advantage of one of his new theurgic rites, Scent of Evil. He sniffs out everything in sight, seeking out any further evidence of demonic presences. Much to his dismay, he finds nothing any more evil-smelling than a large pile of mule dung behind the stables.
The big day finally arrives! The characters pull out all the stops, hosting a luau featuring no less than four roast pigs (which proves to be just barely enough to feed the entire colony), several types of fish from the Anquelline River, and more yam beer than anyone wants to drink. The characters are careful to hold the feast before the Ugly Animal candidates are brought out, in an effort to avoid spoiling anyone's appetite.
There are a total of ten entrants, submitted by a wide variety of colony residents. The characters (and most of their companions) watch in disgust as each creature is brought out for display:
Peter decides that he isn't going to follow through on his original plan of naming his gun after the winning creature. He reflects that you really want to name firearms after threatening or noble creatures, not disgusting ones. This doesn't stop him from awarding prizes, which he does after a few minutes' consultation with the other characters.
First prize goes to the convict Paul for his Crustoquid, which the characters hope might be tasty despite it's appearance. Paul collects an award of 10 FB for his find. Second prize of 5 FB and a Sangaree Special goes to Korzhun for the Uejmagoyr. Third prize of a Sangaree Special goes to Harper for his bottom-feeder.
A couple of days after the celebration, Bob Lungflook tells the characters that he has been getting a number of requests from the freemen to be allowed to build their own houses. Altogether, about half of the freemen have expressed a desire to bring their families over to the colony.
This comment brings up a discussion among the characters on how to grant land to both current residents and to yeoman farmers. They decide that it would be best to consider this issue from a general point of view, and to spend at least a little effort thinking about the best way to lay out the future colony. After a certain amount of debate, they decide that land grants will start off as two distinct types: farming grants, typically of 5 hectares area per family member, and housing grants, which should be no larger than a quarter acre. In both cases, the land would be inheritable, but would come with a number of limitations and requirements. These requirements would be different for farming and housing grants.
Brother Xavier argues very vehemently that strict labor requirements need to be levied upon every land grant, both farming and housing. He claims that his goal is to ensure that the colony is not burdened by huge families of squatters that produce nothing but demand food and shelter from the characters. Some of the other characters privately imagine that Brother Xavier would be happier if the concepts of "family" and "children" didn't exist, so everyone could be a value-producing laborer all the time. They diplomatically do not voice these thoughts, preferring instead to point out that the same results can be obtained with much less draconian restrictions.
The characters finally decide that some rules must apply to all land grants. Everyone must accept the sovereignty and rule of the Karth branch of the Hazat, as embodied by Sir Brindal Karth. Everyone must agree to respect the lands of the native tribes in the Delta, and to refrain from abusing or tormenting the tribals themselves. Everyone must respect the integrity of the land, and refrain from actions that will adversely affect the environment. Everyone will have to agree to eminent domain provisions allowing Sir Brindal Karth to take back land grants (with suitable compensation given to the displaced landholder) when the colony's needs require it.
The major difference between agricultural grants and housing grants will be in the tax rate assessed upon them. Yeoman farmers will be required to hand over 30% of their produce (with some minimum yet to be determined) to Sir Brindal Karth every year, while householders need only pay a tax of 4 FB per acre. All able-bodied men between the ages of 12 and 40 will be required to donate two months of labor to the colony per year, one month in winter and one month in summer. In addition, farmers who are unable to make their minimum crop requirement will owe an additional service debt of three months.
The characters decide that the first farms will be located adjacent to Runway Charlie, while the residential plots will be located inside the AGD triangle formed by the runways. Thinking that they will eventually need one, they decide upon a site for a market as well. They then set Seaden Quinn to the task of surveying the entire area and marking off lot boundaries and the paths of future roads.
Having worked out the rough outlines of their offer, they describe their terms to the free colonists. Half of them, including Samwise Oak the carpenter and Merrill Howe the cook, request housing plots and permission to bring their families over once they have houses constructed. The characters grant their requests, though they acknowledge that nobody has really planned out how houses will be built yet.
Patera Fen, given the chance of having children around, offers to set up a Church school, using the church the characters have built for him as a schoolroom. The characters agree that to age 12, the children will be required to attend his school. Peter Sangaree agrees to purchase appropriate supplies (principally readers and textbooks) for Patera Fen when the time comes to actually open the school for business.
The Luftking returns from a regular supply run with a surprising bit of news. Young Fergus Genne ab Marlwen comes running out of the plane yelling that everyone needs to gather around. He is carrying a letter, sealed and written upon thick, scented parchment. It is addressed to Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat, and proves to be from the Baronet Robert Arlor de Marlwen, a Noble of a minor House from the Lachann highlands.
The Baronet takes the better part of a page to introduce himself and compliment Sir Brindal Karth. Only after exhausting his supply of compliments, he finally gets to the point. He wishes to establish an estate of perhaps 10 to 15 square miles within Sir Brindal Karth's fief, and wishes to meet with Brindal Karth to discuss the matter.
The characters, absent Sir Brindal Karth, decide to act in his absence and send a response agreeing to meet with him in Tuam. They fly out along with the response.
Within minutes of arriving at the Tuam airfield and gaining entry into the High City, Peter Sangaree spends 5 FB getting a bath, a shave, and jerri-curl. He offers to do the same for Korzhun, and is rebuffed. Korzhun settles for combing the burrs out of his hair. The characters decide to stay with Morgan Hawkwood, who still has a townhouse in Tuam. As a gift of thanks, Brother Xavier gives him a cask of yam beer.
During their stay with Morgan Hawkwood, the characters ask him what he knows of the Baronet Robert Arlor de Marlwen. They also enquire as to the normal terms of fiefdom agreements. Morgan proves to have developed quite a network of social contacts, and can provide a surprising amount of information on the Baronet and his relatives. He knows rather less about feudal contracts, but is able to get access to printed copies of about a dozen different agreements for a wide variety of fiefs.
The House Marlwen is a Minor House with reasonable (albeit scattered) holdings in the heartlands of Lachann. Theoretically, the family is headed by the Duke Marlwen. In practice, the last Duke and all of his known direct descents died some twenty years ago in a plague outbreak. Since then, the various Barons and Counts of the house have been largely independent, with over a dozen factions offering their own candidates for the next Duke. None of them has a particularly strong claim, so they have largely been playing a waiting game, hoping for some external event to solidify the power of a few of the factions and offering a couple of stronger candidates.
The Baron Arlor de Marlwen, Baronet Robert's father, was a landless Baron for most of his life. He spent most of his life fighting in the Emperor Wars, serving a variety of masters. Towards the end of the conflict, he allied himself strongly with the Hawkwoods and engaged in a number of extremely lucrative actions against the al-Malik, leaving him with sufficient wealth to obtain title to the lands of an elderly Marlwen Noble with no living heirs.
The Baronet Robert has followed a life not too dissimilar to that of his father. He is the second son of the family, and served as an Imperial officer, rising to the rank of Colonel (and gaining his title as Baronet, albeit without an associated fief) before the Emperor Wars drew to a close. Though he managed to become moderately wealthy through his service, he found himself decommissioned in the peace. Since then, he has maintained a fairly low profile, living in his father's estate and keeping a small household. Morgan speculates that the Baronet has decided to try and find his own fief, as he will not inherit anything of his father's current holdings.
Koa so k'Terr takes the dozen feudal contracts Morgan Hawkwood is able to provide him and heads off to the library to look through them. They vary in length from a few pages and multiple thick, leather-bound tomes, and in age from a few years to over three centuries. The fiefs involved range from simple farmland to complicated percentages of varying industrial and financial interests.
Koa immediately discards everything that looks totally inapplicable to the characters' situation, then draws his attention towards the rest. He determines that vassals are required to turn over between 10% and 40% of the output of the fief to their liege, in addition to certain other considerations. The vassal who was able to obtain a 10% tax rate to his liege was also required to provide an armored battalion and other military services, while the vassal who suffered under a 40% tax rate seems to have been desperate. One constant in all the contracts is the Church, which gets a 10% tithe.
Based upon his research, the characters conclude that they should start off by demanding a 30% tax rate of the Baronet, in addition to the Church's tithe. Most of them agree that their demands may vary pretty substantially depending upon what the Baronet is able too bring to the table.
The characters arrange to meet with the Baronet Robert Arlor de Marlwen at Morgan Hawkwood's town house. He arrives on foot, accompanied by a single footman. Both of them are dressed extremely well, in a style that verges upon the extravagant. Both of them are also armed, the Baronet with a slim blade that looks more decorative than functional, and his footman with a worn-looking weapon that looks to be of Imperial issue. The characters quickly recognize both men are wearing shields.
After some pleasantries, the characters get down to business. The Baronet explains that he is interested in a fief large enough to support a personal estate, plus eight villages. He also requires permission to construct a landing field for his contragrav lift yacht. Finally, he is quite fond of hunting, and wants a good hunting preserve.
The people of the eight villages are primarily farmers, but they also raise some neosheep and need some amount of pasturage. They currently reside in his father's lands, in an area that has been stricken by drought. His father understands that he will not be able to grant Robert an inheritance, but will offer him the contracts of these villagers if the Baronet can find them a new place to live. As an added inducement, the Baron has a metalworking artisan family in his fief. Some of the family's younger apprentices are interested in relocating, and have agreed to go with the Baronet.
The characters listen to the Baronet's requests, then say that they will relay his message to Sir Brindal Karth for consideration. They thank him for his time, and he thanks them for theirs.
Having temporarily concluded their business with the Baronet Arlor de Marlwen, the characters head to the High City marketplace to do some shopping. Keenly aware of their need to communicate across large sections of Sulesslund, they buy five long-range radios. They intend to install one in the Luftking (to replace the one they threw out as a decoy so long ago), place on in the fusion truck, one in the Sutter Kane, one at the colony, and keep one for other purposes.
Peter spends some time walking around Tuam, looking for a buyer for his Sangaree Specials. He is initially very disappointed: the Engineers are uninterested in his products, the Electors' Council confess that while they were pleased with his earlier products they cannot afford to offend their existing suppliers again, and the local representative of the Duke South Coast scoffs at the fact that his guns are stamped from sheet metal.
Near despair, Peter wanders off to a Low City bar with the other characters to complain about his troubles and drown them in drink. After a few mugs of ale, his voice becomes loud enough that some of the other patrons overhear him. One of them approaches. He is a tall man, dressed in a long blue cloak marked with a bladed Jumpgate Cross.
It turns out that the man is the Quartermaster for the Sacred Knife Battalion, a Brother Battle unit that has recently returned to Gwynneth after seeing glorious action upon Stigmata. Full strength for the battalion is 2000 men, and he will need to purchase weapons for all of them. He asks to see one of Peter's guns. He is impressed enough that he persuades Peter to go with him and two other Brother Battle officers down to the port to test the weapon out. They fire at debris floating in the harbor until a mob of Clavigers shows up to get them to disperse.
The characters part company with the Brother Battle officers having agreed to meet with them in the future to discuss terms.
The session ends with the characters in Tuam, engaged in negotiations with both the Baronet Robert Arlor de Marlwen and the Quartermaster of the Sacred Knife battalion. The colony fund is currently at 5320 FB. Each character gains 4 experience points.