Our entire normal crew shows up: Chris (Peter Sangaree), Chuck (Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat), Paul (Sean Punch), and Tim (Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat). We spend some time sniping at Paul because he managed to forget his character sheet. He insists that we should simply assume that all skills he has are at 17. We propose instead that we assume he has Dancing (Ballerina)-17 and Needlepoint (Single-Stitch)-17, with all other skills at 5.
The session starts out with the characters hanging around Fennen Marsh, drinking yam beer and making the sort of complaints that break the hearts of local brewers. They raise the thought that they (or somebody) should be making sake, considering that there are some nice rice paddies in the colony these days.
Complaints or not, everyone consumes enough yam beer to become quite garrulous. In particular, Peter Sangaree becomes downright expostulatory and formulates (in the grand tradition of Martin Luther) his Four Theses:
This last thesis draws the most commentary from the others by a long margin. Peter asks Sean Punch to suggest a course of action, given his extensive knowledge of demons. In particular, he wants to know if the characters should do something about the situation, or simply ignore it (considering that the Brain Factory and the Big Thinker are big sources of income). Sean Punch suggests, "Well, we've ignored it for months now so far and it hasn't obviously taken over the community. But if we are going to try and deal with it, I think we need a priest."
This statement creates even more debate, as Peter notes that the most prominent priest in the community is Patera Fen, a man who lives in full expectation of being replaced by someone more ideologically-appealing to the Bishop of Tuam. Beyond the Patera, there are the Avestites out in the monastery, who also face a loss of leadership (Brother Xavier was shipped back to Pyre for "re-Neddification") and who don't seem to be particularly well-suited for dealing with demonic entities in any manner more subtle than explosives.
It is at this point that the debate is interrupted by the news that the Luftking is inbound, bearing two passengers: the Reeve Roger Padrea and a Hawkwood Lieutenant. The characters decide to receive them in a meeting room in the hotel. They decide to talk to the Lieutenant first, and to offer Padrea "All the yam beer he can stomach" in the meantime.
In the last session, the characters obtained an amnesty from the Hawkwood intelligence officer General Count Abelard Rouen-Hawkwood to sell goods to the Vuldrok, provided they get all of the items they send to the Vuldroks approved by a Hawkwood liaison officer. The General also wants to know which communities on Sulesslund are actually Vuldrok sympathizers.
To expedite this, the characters find themselves joined in Fennen Marsh by Lieutenant Albert Bailey. The Lieutenant is a stout oldster with more experience as a clerk than as an officer. The characters note that he bears the patches of an intelligence officer assigned to the Custom House, but doesn't have a lot of ribbons showing combat experience. Some of the characters also speculate that hiss badges might be substantially more intelligent than he is.
He doesn't do well with the characters. Peter Sangaree suggests that he shouldn't have shown up in uniform, and that any Vuldroks who have infiltrated the New Berlin population will now know him, making him useless. Peter attempts to rescue Lieutenant Bailey's self-esteem (out of a sense of responsibility to the man) by suggesting that Bailey is going to soon be joined by someone else, a more subtle assistant.
Bailey fails to rise to the offer, preferring instead to simply sputter and stammer. He talks of honor, mentions his twelve years in the Quartermaster Corps, and lets drop that he has been an intelligence officer for two months.
Peter makes a a halfhearted attempt to improve the situation by offering him either alcohol or women, offers that Lieutenant Bailey declines. Sean Punch completely ignores Peter's efforts at bridge-building by suggesting that the General Rouen-Hawkwood decided to send Lieutenant Bailey off into the middle of nowhere precisely because he's not competent enough to trust with anything more delicate.
The characters dismiss the Lieutenant for a few minutes, and in his absence suggest several hollow things they could do to him. They think about sending him off to the seaport as a customs officer, though they question their own wisdom in allowing a Hawkwood officer to inspect anything at their port. Sir Brindal Karth suggests that this won't hurt Cheevo much, as his guys can probably work around customs at the seaport more easily than at the spaceport.
Upon his return to the conference room, Lieutenant Bailey explains that he is intended to review the shipments to the Vuldrok and approve them, and that he was selected thanks to his extensive Quartermaster experience. Sir Brindal Karth listens to this, and suggests setting him up as an "Ambassador."
Peter Sangaree doesn't much like this idea, offering the thought that Lieutenant Bailey really doesn't need to be present all the time if he's just to approve lists of goods to be traded to the Vuldroks. In fact, he might even be able to simply stay in Tuam, assuming that he then dispatched a suitably-scruffy liaison to Fennen Marsh to act in his stead. Lieutenant Bailey takes this suggestion rather hard, emphasizing his belief that it is important that he be "on the ground, close to the action."
The characters are not impressed with Bailey's resolve. Peter points up the problem by saying, "There are already Vuldrok hanging around here, doing a much better job of being innocuous than you are. You've already been marked. You are useless to us."
The characters finally agree that Lieutenant Bailey can stay in New Berlin, ostensibly as a Hawkwood military attaché. They arrange to have Chibren contractors build a consulate for him, promising that they will run a fiberlink phone line to it and intending that the whole place will be hardwired with listening devices. Lieutenant Bailey slinks out of the conference room and away from the hotel.
With Lieutenant Bailey gone, the Reeve Roger Padrea saunters into the room with a mug of yam beer in one hand and a local girl named Trixie in the other. He gives a typically boisterous welcome to everyone. Peter is immediately suspicious, and responds to Padrea's greeting with the comment, "You did pay for her on your own, right?"
The pleasantries out of the way, Padrea explains that he wants to set up business in New Berlin. In particular, he wants to set up a one-size-fits-all combo of pawnshop and bank for the locals. He already has a building picked out - a failing tavern in the town run by a man who's known as a crook (he watered his yam beer). Peter finds this story hard to believe, given that yam beer is cheaper than water and could hardly be degraded by it's addition.
The one big complication to Padrea's plan is the fact that his contract is still owned by the MachtArbeiterBank, meaning that he would only be able to offer loans in their name. Once the loans were made, his intention is to purchase them from the MachtArbeiterBank, but unless he is able to raise the 80,000 FB to buy out the contract he will not be able to offer loans in his own name.
On hearing this, the characters become worried that Director Yie could abuse this arrangement to strike at them. The express some desperation at the idea that they aren't allowed to open up their own bank. Sir Caine is interested in coming up with the 80,000 FB, buying the contract, and getting someone to find a justification for them to back loans that he writes (a project that would involve paying Reeves and churchmen to do legal research for appropriate precedent).
Peter Sangaree, as usual, takes a much more pragmatic tone: "Why the hell are we thinking of doing this for him? Why do we want this guy to do anything for us?" Brindal Karth rather weakly offers that "He's a bad man, but he's our bad man. We buy his contract, and we own him." Brindal Karth goes into a long argument in favor of a business contract that allows the characters first dibs on things that get repossessed. Popular opinion on this suggestion is less than enthusiastic.
Brindal Karth then mentions another complication: he has already agreed that he will only borrow money through the MachtArbeiterBank, which pretty much means that he can't borrow money from anyone any more.
Sir Caine asks who the MachtArbeiterBank's main local competition is. Padrea tells him that the IndustrieCommerzBank is based in Llanfyrth, and is dominant on Gwynneth (at least on Lachann). Several of the characters are able to back up this assertion.
The characters get a written proposal from Padrea, then (per Caine's idea) talk to the IndustrieCommerzBank about having them send a Reeve over, to see if they can offer a better deal. Peter has the characters' local staff verify that the IndustrieCommerzBank is not affiliated with the MachtArbeiterBank. He then sets the more legal-minded among them to putting together a proposal for anybody willing to open a bank provided they are not associated with the MachtArbeiterBank. The staff says they can get their proposal out to several candidates in two weeks. Important issues associated with the proposal include:
Peter reviews their documents, then mentions (as casually as possible) "We'd better get a good deal - these guys cost us 5000 FB a year. If they can't get a good deal, I'm going to become a cannibal and eat 5000 FB of useless staff."
In the midst of all this debate, Sir Brindal Karth asks why the characters don't talk to the Brother Battle order, who do a fair amount of banking in their own rights. Peter stares at him for a moment, then asks if he would prefer to deal with bankers (motivated by greed, which is easy to understand), or with fanatic (corrupt?) religious officials (who are both impossible to understand and extremely well-armed).
Having already pretty much decided to cast him out into the cold, the characters bring Padrea back into the room and tell him that they're considering his offer, and will have an offer in three or four weeks.
Roger notes that he doesn't have any actual position right now: he's unemployed. Brindal Karth comments (out of his hearing) that Roger is probably not in favor with the MachtArbeiterBank at the moment, considering how the characters' relationship with the bank has gone. The characters interrogate Brindal Karth on what he might have actually told to Padrea, back when Padrea managed to drink Brindal Karth and Sean Punch under the table in the Shiro Urban Zone on Delphi.
The characters (who are worried that they might have serious Qlippolithic possession issues going on at the Brain Factory) talk to Patera Fen about getting some professional help. He admits that he doesn't know anything about practical exorcisms on technology artifacts (which surprises nobody), and that he does continue to get letters from the Bishop of Tuam promising that his replacement will be arriving "soon." Patera Fen does say that there is a large and isolated Eskatonic monastery on the southern tip of the Nampen Peninsula (next door to Loughrea Prison). The place is called Yagoren, and is located on a small, rocky island just offshore, within 20 kilometers of the Reaching Man and Humble Walker gargoyles, two gargoyles that face each other across a river chasm. The local monks spend most of their time contemplating the gargoyles, and are noted as experts in the mysteries of the invisible world.
Peter sends both Brian the Goat and Fergus Genne ab Marlwen to fly the Luftking out to deliver the message to the monastery. He assumes that these two will neatly balance out each others' weaknesses and personality problems. The message is very straightforward: "We think we have a demon problem, and we'd like an expert to come out and look at it for us." The letter includes a promise to contribute 1000 FB to the monastery for this, plus more as needed if work must be done. It goes without saying that the characters promise to provide room and board for the "expert" and his staff.
The characters then ask the next question: do the Chibren have demon problems too? Peter asks to have a conversation with an expert upon their fiberlink system. Their expert is Scientist Magda Battat, who shows up in the company of the characters' old and crusty friend Senator Hareb. Both of them are wearing the bland "Mao-style" clothing that continues to be popular among the Chibren, decorated only with either a small "Senator Pin" or an equally small "Scientist Pin." They stand out pretty badly among the gaudily-dressed citizens of New Berlin. Peter quickly determines that they don't know what pimps are, so asking them to dress like one is useless. He falls back on asking the hotel maitre'd to select clothes from among Brindal Karth's 9 closets of clothes and have them tailored to fit, for the nominal cost of 20 FB.
Everyone gathers around a table in Sir Brindal Karth's townhouse once the wardrobe issue has been dealt with. Peter starts off with the direct approach: "It has been brought to our attention that there may be… a virus in the fiberlink under the ocean, and maybe another one in the Brain Factory. One that will do evil, evil things. We are concerned that you might have similar problems with your think machines."
Scientist Battat answers equally directly: "We have no think machines. We have only network controllers, very simple think machines with limited functionality, and we have developed a procedure to cleanse them of foreign influences. Though our history since the Fall, the Chibren Cooperative has suffered several outbreaks of demonism, and though them have lost all more complicated think machines." It turns out that their cleansing strategy involves comparing results from a questionable machine to a standard template, and purging it if the results don't match. This cannot be effectively done with more complicated think machines. The Chibren know of several demons, including Vinjogoguladjz (who is able to make physical changes in circuits) and Zaubaaterivadj (who doesn't, and is a lot more subtle - they have had only one known outbreak).
The characters then turn to the question of how to get rid of a demon. Peter offers the idea that Naauthivirc might be the source of all these things, and that they would all fade away if it were to be crushed. Sean Punch thinks that the Gateway on Naauthivirc might be why the Gwynneth system has so many demon problems in the first place. Caine offers the slightly different plan of becoming personally lethal and then killing the demons in single combat, though he is unable to propose a way to bring basically nonphysical entities to grips. Brindal Karth baffles everyone by suggesting that the characters just wait till they kill enough orcs to get 20th level, ensuring that they then will have plenty of hit points to deal with the qlippolithic monstrosities.
Scientist Battat notes that the Chibren generally have very few demon problems, and started having more when the Utag showed up. The first time they had a major problem was when they took in a bunch of Hawkwood refugees - that was when they lost the last of their think machines.
Based upon this intelligence, the characters speculate upon whether or not the Universal Church is responsible for creating (empowering) the demons. They note that the Pakorgo worship nature spirits, and don't have demons. Sean Punch brings the debate closer to reality by noting that "Those guys could worship woodchucks and we'd never know."
The characters debate several strategies for dealing with Naauthivirc. Big rockets, asteroids, and suicidal pilots figure heavily in most of them. They finally decide, upon Peter's suggestion, to travel to Tuam and tell the Brother Battle monks at the Six Martyrs monastery about the place. Sean Punch ("Pinocchio") prepares for the trip by downloading yet another copy of the Mystery Death Planet Report from his mind into a memory crystal.
The characters pile into their VERTOL and head off to Tuam with Sean Punch sits at the controls. Minutes after their arrival at the airfield they hire a car for 2 FB and drive out to the Six Martyrs monastery.
The monastery is an impressive pile of stone on a low mountain, protected by a glacis slope (useless against modern weapons), two emplaced artillery pieces and the ever-threatening shape of the AATTD (Aegis Auto-Targeting Theater Defense). The place is home to a total of sixty monks equipped as heavy infantry with plate armor and laser weapons.
The characters have some trouble convincing the armored, silent monk at the gate that they are important enough to see Abbot Victor Carel. They are eventually successful, and are led into his office.
The Abbot surprises all the characters by being totally unsurprised by their news about a terribly Qlippolithic world on the outskirts of the Gwynneth system. He tells them that the Church has known about the place for many decades, and has forbidden visiting it. He goes on to say that several attempts to destroy the place have been made through the years, including clusters of Nova bombs and huge rocks with rockets strapped to them. To date, nothing has worked. At this point, the characters decide that mentioning their own ambitious plans involving huge rocks with rockets would not be prudent.
Abbot Carel is extremely disturbed by the characters' news that the Hawkwoods sent "yet another doomed expedition" to visit the place, and promises to take action seeking out the nobles responsible for giving the orders. The characters get the idea that this information (combined with some fairly believable protestations about not having actually landed on the surface of Naauthivirc) is all that is convincing the Abbot to not immediately arrest them.
The Abbot does mention that the Church's current plans for destroying the place involve placing a huge monastery in orbit, loaded with hundreds of monks and priests praying for the destruction of the World of Evil. He agrees with Peter's comment that such a plan is fraught with risk, not least that it puts hundreds of devout churchmen in dire risk of being throttled or dissolved by terrible Qlippolithic Grabbers and Droolers. Peter actually manages to make the characters look a bit better by rapidly offering to give 300 Sangaree Specials to the expedition if it ever gets off the ground. He also suggests that bringing the station right next to Naauthivirc might not be necessary, that it might be better to simply stand off and broadcast prayers at it by radio. The Abbot looks uncertain about this last idea, but says nothing.
The characters leave the Six Martyrs monastery glad that they managed to cut their losses as much as they did.
The session ends with the characters in Tuam. Each character gains four experience points.