We all manage to show up for the historic Last Fading Suns game, though Tim (Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat) makes the day memorable when his car stalls out on the open highway. The rest of us take a quick field trip to rescue him. The balance of the group consists of: Chris (Peter Sangaree), Chuck (Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat) and Paul (Tolenn).
The characters watch the city of Margenburg grow from a bright point to a huge urban maze. The shuttle port is located in the middle of the city. On the way down, Sir Caine Engelheim de Hazat notes that the Margenburg nobility have prepared well for an attack: the area is covered by tower- and casement-mounted guns, predominantly blaster cannon. He also notes that the defenses are placed to overlook the shuttle port. He concludes that the Duke of Margenburg bears little trust for the Charioteers who maintain the shuttle port.
Sir Brindal Karth de Hazat, having already driven the shuttle pilot near to distraction by storming on board carrying a dismembered demon and reeking of blood and cheap alcohol, makes special note of the shuttle's ID number. He hopes to specifically request that ship for the characters' return journey. Sir Caine is substantially more practical: he resolves to have a shuttle waiting on the pad for the characters, engines warmed and ready to go.
The characters are bussed from the shuttle pad to the port Terminal, where an agent of the Duchess' Customs Agency interviews them. The Agent looks over the characters and after a couple of perfunctory questions assesses Customs duties of 100 FB upon Sir Brindal Karth, 140 FB upon Peter Sangaree, 80 FB on Sir Caine, and a whomping 1000 FB upon Tolenn.
The characters are none too pleased to hear this, so Peter suggests that he could simply give the Agent 300 FB and then they could call it even. The Agent allows as how this isn't a good idea, because his supervisor is watching over a nearby camera. Peter is not dissuaded, and suggests that things might work out even better if he were to give the Agent 200 FB, and his supervisor 300 FB more. The Agent brightens up upon hearing this idea, brings his visa stamp out to mark the characters' papers, and tells them, "Welcome to Margenburg!"
The characters leave the Terminal building to be assailed by the Margenburg cityscape. Most of the place is decaying, with a large number of faceless buildings reminiscent of all the worst of Stalinist architecture. The streets are scattered with derelict vehicles and derelict citizens.
The characters are assailed by a number of colorful local characters, most insistent among them a fellow who claims to possess the dramatic name of Bertrand Theosophius II. He attempts to sell the characters watches and finds himself instead hired as a local guide. He rises to the occasion with the sort of swiftness that suggests he has done this before, rushing off to arrange a hired car for them. He returns a changed man, dressed in what looks to be House livery with all the insignia removed. He rides with the characters to the Mantis Sunrise hotel.
From the outside, the Mantis Sunrise is a blocky place with little to distinguish it from the outside except the mark of a Decados mantis outlined in a rising sun. From the inside, the place is substantially more luxurious, up to and including huge picture windows that appear to show visions of verdant countryside. A suite of five rooms costs the characters 25 FB per night. The characters' suite is decorated in the style of a 17th century French chateau.
Once the group is settled into their rooms, Sir Brindal Karth decides to ensure the loyalty of their hireling. He does a shockingly effective job of intimidating Bertrand Theosophius by mentioning that he is able to read lips and that he carries four handguns at all times for a reason. The characters' local guide leaves the room convinced that the characters have enemies to bad that they would not hesitate to execute the likes of a local hireling without even thinking about it.
Peter spends his time looking for surveillance devices within the characters' rooms. He is hampered by the fact that he lacks appropriate equipment. He isn't able to find anything, though he remains convinced that listening devices and cameras must be hidden somewhere.
After Sir Brindal Karth washes the remains of the demon from Garusharm Station off, the characters take a short walk across the street to discuss what to do when they get to the warehouse where Mountain Shipping dropped the eleven remaining canisters. They find a coffee shop that looks like a fortress from the outside and an English pub from the inside and park themselves there.
Once they feel good and ready to deal with him, they give their local hireling a call. He had previously promised to find them someone who could provide information on Mountain Shipping. When he gets their call, he seems a bit worried, but claims that he has found a local individual who can tell the characters what they want to know. The characters suggest that he should meet them at the coffee shop. He eventually agrees, after some negotiation.
It takes only a few minutes for four thick-necked "customers" to enter the coffee house. They are obviously armed, but put on a very poor act to conceal it. They settle down at a table near the door and wait.
A moment later a heavyset man in shades and a green, shimmering coat steps in and heads towards the characters. He introduces himself as Sammy the Lizahd, and is evidently a local mobster of some stripe.
After a few moments' conversation, it becomes clear to Sammy that the characters are not particularly interested in either buying or selling contraband on the sort of scale that he is used to, and that he has actually very little to discuss with them. As a favor, he does offer them some information. He tells them that Mountain Shipping is owned by a series of front companies that lead back to the Count Hiram Lelgen Decados.
The characters bid Sammy the Lizahd farewell.
With Sammy the Lizahd departed, the characters debate the question of where they can find an honest priest. Their eventual conclusion is that looking in the phone book is unlikely to work. This conclusion is only vindicated by their discovery that the Telephonn Direktory for Greater Margenburg (a city of at least 80 million) is a thin volume no thicker than a large magazine.
They finally head to a neighborhood temple. There they manage to find a rather helpless-seeming priest who tells them more about the Count Hirem. The priest describes how the Count owns the Lelgen Volatiles chemical plant, a place notorious for both high output and a miserable safety record. The priest gives them directions to the plant, and tells them that they can find a Brother Battle temple near the Cathedral, in the Security Zone.
The characters attempt to give the priest money in thanks, but he refuses it. He claims that he has personally taken a vow of poverty, and that any money given to the temple will be diverted to ends other than those of the people.
The characters make their way to the Security Zone, which is open only to registered guildmembers, the nobility, and ranked churchmen. They enter without trouble, then find that it costs some 150 FB a day to hire a car, mostly because the drivers are all low-ranked guildsmen. The characters gain a greater appreciation for the depth to which the Decados economy can sink as they view the spectacle of thousands of newly-trained Engineers reduced to driving groundcars for lack of any other means of support.
The way to the Brother Battle temple takes the characters past the Margenburg Cathedral, a remarkable edifice spiraling up some 300 meters from it's surrounding gardens. A weather barrier creates a shimmering blue sky around the whole structure, shielding it from the pollutants of the city.
The characters are somewhat upset to find that the Brother Battle temple looks more like a bank or an office building than a fortress. They meet with one of the brothers, a well-dressed fellow who sympathizes with their problems and their desire to bring back two Antinomists, but who explains that the realities of life upon Cadiz prevent him or his brothers from taking much of a direct part in the action. He does offer to learn whatever he can about the Count Hiram Lelgen Decados and Lelgen Volatiles, and to tell the characters what he learns in three days' time.
Three days later, the characters return to the Security Zone and the Brother Battle temple. Over the interim, they have done some shopping, buying Sir Brindal Karth a laser rifle.
The brother battle priest tells them that he has learned that the Count Hiram's son, Marius Charlberg Lelgen Decados, returned after a long absence on board the Charioteer bulk hauler Sky Titan. The Count had two other sons, one of whom died of disease very early in life. The other is an officer in the Decados fleet, and is known to be on station far away.
The characters thank the priest for his help and leave the Security Zone.
The characters decide that the Count Hiram is very likely to be an Antinomist himself, and that his son Marius is almost certainly the High Dragon of the Serpens Ignis Lodge. They decide to hit them during one of the Count's regular journey to visit the plant.
The Brother Battle monk is able to tell the characters that the Count Hiram normally visits the plant on Tuesdays, the day when the workers are paid and when the plant accounts are settled. He normally arrives in a lift carrier late in the morning, and remains until early in the evening.
The characters arrange to infiltrate the plant before dawn on the day of the Count's visit, dressed in the uniforms of the Count's guards. They remain hidden in a pump house until he arrives. They watch as two lift carriers fly into view and then land upon a circular pad near one of the administration buildings. The characters are easily able to move across the grounds and into the administration building, their assault unopposed until they reach the stairwell up to the top floors. Upon the stairwell they encounter four shielded swordsmen, fighting their way past them with laser and blade. The characters quickly relearn that blades make much better weapons against shielded opponents than lasers, though Sir Brindal Karth does manage to fell one fighter by peppering him with laser fire until his shield finally collapses. Tolenn makes the incredible discovery that shields are practically useless against his judo arts, and exploits this knowledge to no end.
Peter Sangaree breaks through the melee to reach the corridor at the top, where he finds himself under fire from three men with blaster rifles. He ducks back under cover until Sir Brindal Karth and Sir Caine join him. Bolstered by numbers, he rushes straight into the gunners' barrels, trusting in his shield to keep him safe, and in Sir Brindal Karth's marksmanship to pick off his enemies one by one.
At the end of the corridor, Peter Sangaree finds a single door. He hurls a pipe bomb through it. All of the characters rush in through the door in the wake of the explosion to find the Count Hiram (a feeble old man), his son the High Dragon, and the onetime Apothecary Albert Regis. All of them are somewhat stunned by the blast, and the characters are able to make short work of them, even with the horrible discovery that the Count Hiram is able to spit out bursts of ice-cold flames.
The session ends with the characters returning to Fennen Marsh victorious against the Serpens Ignis Antinomists and eager to get on with the business of being wealthy country nobility.