Tim once again demonstrates that, unlike the rest of us, he did not simply crawl out from the slime between the rocks on the shore. He chooses to spend the day with his various family and relatives, spurning the company of his layabout friends. The rest of us continue to ignore any rumors that we have relatives, and appear as usual: Bruce (in charge), Paul (initially Sean Punch, but then Tolenn), Chuck (Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat) and Chris (Peter Sangaree).
Tolenn is of the Ur-Obun. He is a priest of the Voavenlohjun sect of the Universal Church, and a respectable theurge besides. He has spent the last several years working in the Custom House under the Minister of Faith, the Count Racellus Arius-Hawkwood.
The ecclesiastic trials of the various members of Apothecary Albert Regis' Antinomist band take three months to finish. During that time, the characters are called to Llanfyrth and Pernley Bay several times to testify against various of the defendants. By the end of it, the Inquisitorial agents and courts have tracked down, tried, and convicted some 63 Antinomists, 28 of whom have actual powers granted by the Qlippothic lords. News of the proceedings gains wide circulation, much to the benefit of both the characters' and the Inquisition's reputations. The onetime Acting Magistrate of Pernley Bay, Wilson Chen, is burned at the stake for consorting with the powers of the Qlippoth.
By the end of the trials, formal letters of thanks from the Electors of Tuam, the Count Oswald Dagmar-Ilwich-Hawkwood of Pernley Bay, and the Bishop of Llanfyrth have all arrived for Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat in Fennen Marsh. As a final honor, the characters are invited to travel to Llanfyrth and a reception in their honor at the Orchid Palace, home of the Grand Duke Philip Hawkwood, that they may witness Sir Brindal Karth receive a banneret signifying his status as Shield of the Faithful, and the right to include that banneret with his war flag.
In the days leading up to the reception, Sean Punch is called upon to perform some work upon the Brain Factory's Big Thinker machine. Though he thinks that the Big Thinker is probably contaminated by Qlippothic influences, he resolves to take precautions. Several time he feels a strange twinge in his mind, but always he casts it away before it can get a grip upon him. He is more alarmed by the knife that creeps up along his neck from behind. He is even more upset when the voice of Amanda Harkness, the Senior Processor-Wright who vanished some months ago, rasps out and orders him to "look at the screen! Look at the screen!" Sean Punch does his best to not obey, all the while struggling to bring his claws or his arm-mounted laser around to bear. He finally manages to free his claw and strikes at her several times, discovering to his horror that some NPC's really do get to wear personal shields. She abandons her initial attempts to force him to look at the screen, settling instead for trying to throttle him. Just as Sean Punch feels his breath start to constrict, he gets his laser free and fires two bursts. The first overloads her shield, crashing it. The second cuts right through her, felling her in an instant.
The immediate threat dispatched, Sean Punch draws back and heads to warn the other characters. He is moving towards the door of the chamber when he sees a terrible bundle and a clock that shows only three short seconds.
Three seconds later, all of New Berlin knows that something terrible has happened to the Big Thinker.
Peter Sangaree gets word of Sean Punch's death from Master Processor-Wright Thorne. The Brain Factory's master sounds like he is in shock, so Peter Sangaree does the only thing he can: he sends swarms of men with guns to search the area. They find only death and destruction.
The characters spend what time they have back in Fennen Marsh working on various public security projects. Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat has taken responsibility for organizing and training a mounted Ranger company. He decides that these men, in their role as elite troops, should bear a signature weapon. He arranges to purchase a dozen fine sabers for the first group of them. Each saber costs him 20 FB. The whole lot of them costs some 320 FB.
With the sabers on the way, Sir Caine and Peter Sangaree talk to Constable Grigori to determine how many men he has chosen as candidates. Grigori claims to have eight good candidates, chosen from among his fifty deputies. He allows as how there aren't more of them because he has had trouble finding appropriately seasoned men that he can trust. The local men that he knows are reliable are generally not experienced, and the men he hires from Lachann aren't known to be trustworthy. Even with these limitations, he has picked out four locals from among the first group of deputies, and four other men. One of the others is a Pakorgo tribesman who brought his notice when he not only refused a bribe, but also arrested the men who tried to bribe him. Another is a former sheriff's deputy from Fort Sabwran who came to Fennen Marsh to get his family away from the zombie plague. The remaining two are former Clavigers from Tuam who lost their appointments for reasons that give Grigori no pause for concern. Sir Caine and Peter listen to Grigori's comments, urge him to redouble his recruiting efforts, and tell him about the sabers.
Peter Sangaree spends the bulk of his time addressing another project. He wants to design a cheap, single-shot breechloading rifle to distribute to the commoners. He quickly learns that purchasing similar rifles from other artisans will cost about 5 FB each in lots of 1000, or 10 FB each in lots of 100. Unsatisfied with these prices, he spends a month designing an extremely cheap rifle with predominantly plastic parts that can be manufactured for only 1 FB each (similar weapons with metal parts would have a malfunction roll one higher, and would cost 2 FB each to manufacture). He spends a second month arranging to purchase the necessary manufacturing equipment at a cost of 2000 FB. Peter is deeply happy to see the new machines arrive, as he can also make little animal figurines whenever he wants.
The new guns are named Punch Guns in honor of the fallen Sean Punch.
|
Weapon |
Malf |
DMG |
SS |
ACC |
RoF |
Shots |
ST |
RCL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punch Gun | 14 | 2d+2 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 10 | -2 |
| Sangaree Special | 17+ | 3d+1 | 12 | 4 | 1/4/8 | 32/40 | 10 | -1 |
In his final moments of free time, Peter Sangaree arranges to have Bob Lungflook assign one of the accountants from the New Berlin city staff to work with the Apothecary Livermore to determine what equipment, buildings and money will be needed to open up a respectable hospital in New Berlin. The characters hear later that Livermore is quite enthusiastic about this task, given that it indicates that someone is willing to trust him with responsibility again.
Sir Caine interviews several of Constable Grigori's men until he finds one who is strong and willing to do stupid, dangerous things. He finds George Lemuel (ST 13, DX 11, IQ 9, HT 10). Sir Caine offers him a job as Shield-bearer. The benefits of the post include double his present salary and a nicer uniform. His duties will largely be to carry around a golf bag loaded down with the characters' arsenal. George accepts the offer.
The characters go to the Orchid Palace reception dressed to the nines and committed to being on their best behavior. They aren't quite able to make a clean break from their normal thought patterns, as they bring along their new Shield-bearer (albeit with a substantially-reduced load). He spends most of his time lurking about with the servants of the other guests, comparing notes. Most of the other servants are a touch intimidated by his calmly-delivered descriptions of the people he works for.
All in all, the entire reception is long and dull, punctuated most notably by a five-minute visit by the Grand Duke Philip Hawkwood, who offers up some brief thanks to the characters (specifically, to Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat and Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat) for their service to House Hawkwood and the people of Gwynneth. His notes barely even have a chance to hit the podium before he departs again ("I gotta go open a shopping mall.") The characters are suitably honored by his presence, and are proud of the fact that they manage to avoid embarrassing themselves. As a side benefit, they manage to meet several young Hawkwood noblewomen, some of whom (they hope) might make good marriage prospects for either Sir Brindal Karth or Sir Caine.
It is in the fading moments of the reception that the tall Ur-Obun Tolenn shows up and asks the other characters to step into a side room for a conversation with his master, Count Racellus Arius-Hawkwood, the Minister of Faith. Tolenn explains that he is a priest of the Voavenlohjun sect of the Church, and that he is currently attached to the Custom House Ministry of Faith to learn the ways of human churchmen and build better bonds between House Hawkwood and the Church.
The other characters decide that Tolenn is unlikely to represent an immediate physical threat to them, and agree to accompany him. He leads them to a side audience chamber occupied by two men on the far side of mature. One of them is Count Racellus, a man whose girth has more than caught up with him in his fading years. The other Tolenn introduces as the High Inquisitor Gelmo Parcer. High Inquisitor Parcer is old and dried-out, with the touch of the desert on his skin.
The two old men describe the problem they fact. They explain that the Antinomists the characters discovered were all members of the Serpens Ignis Lodge, and that the Apothecary Albert Regis was actually the Black Tongue of the Lodge, second in command. The master of the Lodge was called the High Dragon, a secretive enough figure that none of the other cultists were able to identify him. Though the bulk of the Lodge has been neutralized, neither the Black Tongue nor the High Dragon were captured.
Fortunately, the situation is not nearly as bleak as it might be. Two Lodge members who passed away under questioning were Charioteers who had previously been responsible for bringing the plague gloves onto Gwynneth, and who may have been indirectly responsible for arranging the two missing leaders' escape route. Based upon their testimony, both the Black Tongue and the High Dragon are likely to have fled to the Decados world of Cadiz aboard the Charioteer Bulk Hauler Sky Titan.
Count Racellus offers the characters an honorarium of 5000 FB, reasonable expenses and permission from the Church to manufacture trucks and sell them anywhere on Sulesslund. He points out that he needs someone like the characters to send because the relations between House Hawkwood and House Decados are none too good. The characters ask if they can think about it until the reception ends, a request that Count Racellus agrees is quite reasonable. As the group returns to the party, Sir Caine asks Count Racellus if he has any marriageable daughters. He says that he does, his daughter Docenia Arius-Hawkwood, back on the his fief in the Byrrem Isles (the Count notes that he's not there because his wife is).
The characters chuckle a bit, then spend their remaining time at the reception interviewing every Hawkwood noblewoman they can find, hoping to learn something about Docenia Arius-Hawkwood. They find two noblewomen from the Byrrem Isles who know the girl. The first sniffs and exclaims that she's too strong-headed and independent to ever find a good husband, particularly with the terrible, unladylike things she spends her time on. The second is a bit more reasoned, describing Docenia as something of a tomboy who is fond of hunting, archery and (of all things) needlepoint. The characters decide that she might make a good match for Sir Caine, and that she would have made an ideal match for Sir Brindal Karth's vassal, the Baronet Robert Arlor de Marlwen, if he weren't already married.
The characters finally strike a deal with Count Racellus. They agree to hunt down the High Dragon and the Black Tongue and to bring them back to Gwynneth (ideally alive, so they can be tried). In exchange, the Count agrees to provide reasonable expenses, arrange the truck manufacturing license, and to give Sir Caine his daughter's hand in marriage.
The characters try to identify which passengers aboard the Sky Titan might have been the two Antinomists. Unfortunately, it takes them little effort to determine that there were some 300 first-class and 4000 steerage passengers aboard the ship, and that the two they care about were concealed well enough as to be invisible among the crowd. On the other hand, they do manage to determine that the medical-supply house responsible for the plague gloves had a cargo shipment outbound on the Sky Titan. Deducing that it might belong to the High Dragon, they learn all they can about it.
Tolenn heads down to Prince Cassius field to interview every Charioteer cargo-master and loader he can find. He manages to learn that the cargo shipment consisted of one dozen long cryogenic cylinders, labeled as containing, "Native Lifeform, Frozen, Non-Contagious, Fragile." From the description, each container could hold a couple of mid-sized dogs or a shocking number of smallish tentacular monstrosities. They were intended to be shipped to Margenburg, an urban center in equatorial Cadiz.
The characters consider this to be enough of a lead to follow, and arrange to retain Cheevo and his ship Jayjay to provide transportation for them out to Cadiz. Count Racellus agrees to pay the cost of the charter. The Count also puts 5000 FB in a Brother Battle account (costing 250 FB) that Tolenn can access at any Brother Battle operation on Cadiz.
Peter Sangaree makes a point of inspecting Cheevo's ship to verify that the slimy Charioteer has purchased new think machines for navigation and ship control. Cheevo shows off his new hardware, and complains bitterly about the cost. Cheevo's crewman Box says "Hi!" to Peter when he walks by; to all appearances, the former Hawkwood (and former al-Malik, and former Decados) crewman is doing quite well in his new life as an almost-pirate.
Cheevo says that he can leave in two to three weeks, once he finds contract pilots with the right jumpkeys. Peter agrees to this schedule, and heads back to inform the other characters.
As part of their preparations for departure, the characters do their best to learn everything they can about Cadiz and the people who run it. They find that Cadiz is a very urbanized world, but deeply poverty-stricken. It is slightly colder than Earth, with an Arctic Circle that extends down to approximately the latitude of Boston. It boasts fifteen huge urban zones, each ruled by a Duke. Twelve of these are very close to the equator and feature subtropical temperatures in addition to desperate poverty. Each of the fifteen Duchies has at least one site able to land spacecraft. The Dukes of Cadiz are fractious, and each maintains separate legions and a separate navy.
Garusharm Station orbits the world. It was once a standard Second Republic diplomatic station with a wheel-and-spindle design. It has since grown into a massive orbital platform, kilometers wide, ruled over by the sixteenth Duke of Cadiz. The current Duke of Garusharm is without doubt the weakest among his brethren, a situation that is allowed to persist primarily because none of the planetside Dukes can bear the thought of any of his fellows gaining control of such a valuable territory. For his part, the Duke of Garusharm is happy to wallow in his own decadent, secure behind his extensive security apparat and his disciplined warships. He is almost completely uninvolved in the actual operations of the Station: the Engineers hold the contract to administrate and maintain the place. They are reputed to reap staggering profits in the process, even after the massive payments they make to the Duke for the privilege.
Though each of the Dukes maintains their own space navy, none of them are particularly impressive. The Duke of Garusharm possesses two men-o-war, and two other Dukes each possess a single man-o-war, but beyond them the most impressive vessel any of the Dukes can field is of the frigate class. This may seem surprising, considering that one of the assets of Garusharm Station is a shipyard capable of constructing men-o-war. However, it is very deliberate: the Decados Prince taxes each of the Dukes of Cadiz heavily enough to ensure that they cannot afford to build up a fleet powerful enough to challenge the Prince's fleet. The local shipyard produces men-o-war, but they all go out-system to serve under other masters.
Unsatisfied with the dry, textbook description of Cadiz that they can get from more conventional sources, the characters ask Cheevo about the place. Cheevo is full of opinions, and drops ever more articles from his speech as he gives vent to them. He is quite emphatic in noting that the Decados love laws, and have written them down in books. They have huge numbers of these books, containing a wide and dizzying variety of different laws. However, they ignore every single one of them. Cheevo's rule is simple: "Decados like you, you do good. Decados mad at you, they feed you to things." The characters quickly become tired of hearing of all the things that the Decados might do if they feel like it. They also become tired of the thought that, should some Decados noble take a dislike to them, they might get "fed to things." Some of them start thinking secret thoughts about having Cheevo "fed to things."
The next problem the characters face is a cover story. They need some way to explain their presence on Cadiz, and their need to ask a lot of questions, without coming out and admitting that they are Hawkwood agents. Peter Sangaree sits back and asks the important question, "How does anyone prove that they're an Engineer? Or a Hawkwood? Or a Charioteer?"
The answer turns out to be primarily "secret knowledge." Most Guildsmen have a particular way of talking and special knowledge restricted only to their Guild that makes it very hard for an impostor to remain undetected among a group of Guildsmen. On a more mundane level, most Guildsmen carry Guild seals (which can be counterfeited) and letters of recommendation from their home Guildhalls, and any other Guildhalls they have visited or worked through (which can also be counterfeited).
The characters' final cover story is that they are representatives of Grandfather Baboon Shipping on Aragon (a real shipping company). They suspect that the company may have shipped some biological samples contaminated with trembling fever to Cadiz. The package was loaded onto the Sky Titan at Criticorum. They need to locate the package and return it to avoid the risk of starting a trembling fever outbreak on Cadiz. This gives them a good reason to be poking around the Sky Titan's cargo records, and an equally good reason for any personnel they bribe to keep their mouths shut.
Peter decides that the characters will need several pieces of forged documentation, including letters of introduction on company stationary (with the company name "blacked out"), a faked-up shipping manifest and paper trail showing that a package went to Margenburg, and references describing Sir Caine and Peter as "troubleshooters", with the implication that they are actually accountants. They decide to advertise Tolenn as a healer to lend an air of legitimacy, even though he couldn't prevent an outbreak of disease if his life depended on it (though he could reattach a severed limb. Maybe. After he gains several more levels of Theurgic Power).
At this point Sir Caine brings up the question of non-lethal containment devices. Sir Brindal Karth and Tolenn both have stunners. Sir Caine proposes bringing along net guns, manacles, cable ties, and a host of other hardware. The group finally settles on iron masks (with no eyeholes, but with feeding tubes to allow extended wear), manacles, gags, metal hand braces (10 pairs of them!) to prevent hand gestures, and so on. They bring enough to restrain five people. They also purchase two dart guns and tranq darts strong enough to put a burly man down like a poleaxed steer.
Sir Caine then approaches the Apothecary Livermore and asks if he can provide tranquilizers and nutrient solutions to keep a man unconscious but alive for three months. Livermore stares at him in unbridled shock and gasps, "You're inhuman! I can't have any part of this! However, here's the address of a supply house in Llanfyrth who can." Sir Caine takes the address and purchases enough tranquilizer and glucose solution to keep two men down for three months. He also buys the IV's and other hardware necessary to use the stuff.
Cheevo watches all of this hardware coming aboard and comments "Ooh! Exciting time you plan! No part of it I want!"
The characters finally board the Jayjay and head out. They renew their acquaintances with several of Cheevo's crew, including his trusty Ur-Ukar First Officer Vukjuk. Vukjuk and Tolenn don't exactly get along, even though the characters assure Tolenn that Vukjuk is an upstanding guy, down to eating only one baby a month - he keeps it alive, draws it out.
The transition through Criticorum is uneventful, even though it takes two weeks of waiting. At least a hundred ships are standing in queue at the jumpgate when Jayjay emerges. Twenty of them are bound for Cadavus, including a pair of Decados frigates and three huge Charioteer bulk haulers. The characters spend some time watching the bulk haulers, which resemble nothing so much as massive metal skeletons with irregular objects lumped around them. The characters hear rumors that there is at least one pirate ship is in the queue, but Cheevo doesn't say anything. Among the ships bound to Cadavus are two Decados frigates.
Once through the Criticorum jumpgate and into Cadavus, the characters learn more about the way the Decados run their space. They are forced to wait another two weeks for a customs inspection because the big Charioteer ships can afford to pay the inspectors more. When their patience gives out, Cheevo suggests that a bribe of 500 FB will move them ahead in the line. The characters quickly bring out the money, plus another 50 FB "rental fee" to hide their more questionable equipment within Cheevo's private stash. They notice that the Decados customs inspectors resemble Neanderthals with acute paranoia. They are not so paranoid, however, as to refuse Cheevo's bribe.
Cheevo makes a side comment that the locals are rather on-edge because a renegade ship came through the jumpgate at high-c two weeks ago, and hasn't been caught. He gestures to the faint images of two Decados men-o-war watching over the jumpgate.
The session ends with the Jayjay at Cadavus, heading insystem to collect fresh supplies. Each character gains three experience points.