PRESENTING HOUSE SARUN
I thought it prudent to flesh out House Sarun more as they will probably feature prominantly in the next few sessions.
House Patriarch Anatoly Sarun (73)
Lady Eira Sarun (67), Anatoly’s wife
Lady Ilona Sarun (45), their daughter
Oskari Virtanen, (45), her husband
Pavel Sarun (now 23), their eldest son and Heir-Apparant
Lumi Sarun (16), their daughter
Aaro Sarun (11), their youngest son
Armas Sarun (41), Ilona’s brother
See below for a brief rundown on each NPC.
INTEL REPORT ON HOUSE SARUN
I created this handout as basic information on House Sarun to be given to Hermes on the next session. I expect that future sessions will flesh out more details as the players have more interactions.
House Sarun intel report.pdf (354.4 KB)
SESSION NINE SUMMARY
At the close of last session the characters had learned that the odd factory craft hidden in a secret facility on a moon of one of the minor plants in the system appeared to have been spice harvesters.
This begged the question whether House Sarun were:
Manufacturing and supplying them to House Harkonnen?
Manufacturiung and supplying them to a smuggler faction?
Engaged in illegal spice harvesting themselves?
Doing something else entirely?
After consultation with the Hoiuse Stewart spymaster, Ludwig, and their own House Patriarch, Nikolai, it was decided that more information needed to be discerned about the matter before going to the Atreides.
Ludwig informed them that since Hermes’ mission (where he just managed to get away after having been detected on his way out) there had been some discernable activity on that moon. Several large transport ships were detected leaving the area on a course towards Caladan - to coincide with a Guild Heighliner departing.
Additionally, another ship was detected arriving in the area from another heading (from further out in the local system). Shortly thereafter a large impact was detected on the surfact of the moon.
Hera and Hermes decide to go with Ludwig to investigate further, but in the meantime Eduard received a perfumed letter from Stasia Fluxspear informing him that she wiill be at the local marketplace the following noon, escorted by her Governess, Imogen Fluxspear, a distant cousin. She says that she could slip away and the two of them have an adventure together…
Letter From Stasia.pdf (102.4 KB)
Eduard responds as requested and he and his sister, Calista, attend the market the following day. Also present are the eyes and ears of Hera, in the form of her agent Zubrette, who is on the upper floor shopping at one of the stalls while keeping an eye on what is happening below. They see the young lady Stasia in the company of a severe older woman and Calista thinks that she should be able to create a small disturbance to distract Imogen allowing Stasia to get away and meet with Eduard.
Calista creates a scene and Stasia makes a successful bold move into Eduard’s Zone, pays 2 momentum to move another zone, and moves Eduard with her as per the successful bold move action.
However, just then I spend 3 threat and introduce a small gang (4) of some rough-looking types. Calista, with her Danger Sense understand focus determines that they are all armed (knives x3, the leader has a small pistol).
We engage in several rounds of skirmish combat (basically so Calista’s player gets a grip on how the system works). Eduard, standing in front of Stasia, is wounded twice but manages to knock down one of the ruffians and then escape with Stasia into the same zone as Calista, who is faced with two of the gang. The leader managed to get a shot into Eduard but also suffered a complication and the pistol jammed for the next round. Due to later complications rolled, he ended up dropping it and then when trying to retrieve it, kicked it under the stalls effectively losing the asset entirely.
Eduard was later able to make another bold move effectively leaving the combat and taking Stasia with him into safety.
Zubrette, who has only ever been a total failure when in play, and is not combat-oriented, managed to swoop in and protect Imogen, then help Calista (who had disabled another two ruffians) by scoring three 1s in another combat roll - which I rules as good enough to trounce the leader - who had already taken a couple of hits.
Calista and Zubrette truss up the leader and drag him, along with a hysterical Imogen, back to the House compound, where Eduard and Stasia were already waiting.
Meanwhile, Hera and Hermes discovered that the secret site on the second moon of Delphi was now a massive crater, some 60m deep. Looks like the impact site of an asteroid of some size.
They returned to Caladan to assist with the questioning of the ruffian leader where Hera finally uses her Voice talent but only buys one success (because they don’t want to give me any threat) and then promptly fails the communcate test. The thug splurts out “Ev…” at the question of who hired them before shutting up and glaring at them.
Between Hera and Hermes taking turns at questioning, they finally learn that this wasn’t, as far as they could tell, a plot by House Sarun after all but the thug finally gave up the name ‘Evander Nohr’ and that this was nothing more than a kidnap for extortion plot.
But who is Evander Nohr?
Well, turns out that Evander, and his mother Vanessa, are a notable mercantile-class family on Caladan, known for their casino and entertainment establishments.
Evander Nohr (30)
Vanessa Nohr (52)
So basically a crime family.
And while the players were contemplating this turn of events, some distressing news came to them. Viktor had suddenly left the compound as his illegitimate son, Dmitri, had fallen ill and was in a coma. Hera immediately voices her concern that his paramour, Tatjana Zubek, may have arranged this to get Viktor back into her life since he had recently reconciled with his wife, Marika. Particularly since the birth of his son, Giorgos… But would she be so callous and hurt her own child? I reminded the players that Dmitri had always been a sicky child. They talked about perhaps commissioning a Suk doctor.
And at that we ended the session.
