After a gap of a couple of sessions due to badly timed illness we met back up again. This time for a slight diversion I’d wanted to run, though it still tied in to the main plot.
Lethe used her Failed Navigator talent to try and identify where the forces that they had identified being supplied from Alnor Bay were based. A hat pin to a map landed on a flat plateau not far from the base, but the party felt that the meeting with the Spacing Guild Envoy was more important so put off investigating this until later.
Lady Aria met with the Guild Envoy Samana at the palace and was given a request from the Guild to meet with the new ruler of House Sors and escort him and his people to a Guild Heighliner. A War of Assassins between House Sors and House McDaniel had gone badly for them and he was looking to trade the House Atomics for sanctuary on Tupile.
While the Guild was open to this they did not want to tip their hand before the Count and the Atomics were safe. As a trusted 3rd party the Lady Aria could enter the situation and be gone before anyone realised what was happening.
A bit of digging by the party revealed that the war between Houses Sors and McDaniel had turned increasingly bitter in recent years. Resulting in the deaths of most of the noble children of House McDaniel in a fuel lighter ‘accident’ and the House McDaniel subsequently throwing almost all the resources into the fight and invading the homeworld of House Sors, Sahabi.
As time was tight the party ‘borrowed’ a couple of space lighters from the Sindri transport department (“It is better to ask forgiveness than permission”) and departed to Sahabi at once.
When they arrived the spaceport control told them they were early and directed them to a specified docking bay. A bay which held a large consignment of weapons all apparently paid for by House Sindri.
The foreman misidentified Lethe as her mother (Amusingly the player had said she was wearing her mothers coat and symbols as part of a different plan she had been considering) and had her sign receipt of the cargo so it could be loaded.
While some of the party remained to supervise the weapons being loaded Lady Aria, Carolyn and Bastion left for their rendevouz with the Count.
Bastion did some investigations along the way and found out there were several groups searching the port and being generous with their bribes and threats. Naturally this led to the player adding a few rumours to the mix and getting paid for them.
Count Marcus Sors was holed up in another bay with what was left of his intelligence force which he had been in command of before his sudden elevation to the Countship when the other contenders were killed in the war.
He expressed a fair amount of distain about the former House leadership, accusing them of being idiots in their decisions. But he carried out the orders, even if some of them ended up causing this whole mess.
A large case of shigawire reels containing the locations and details of the House Atomics was handed over to Lady Aria. The Count described it as literally everything in the House vault, he wasn’t even sure exactly how many were in it, he just cleared the place out. The decryption codes would be handed over once he and his people were safe about the Heighliner.
It was at this point that matters began to accelerate as the searching groups got closer to the party and their new companions.
A fight erupted as they made their way through the port to where their lighters were. Lethe piloting the first one out of it’s bay as House McDaniel commandos blew through into it.
The second one laid down covering fire as Lady Aria, Carolyn and the Count raced for it closely followed a fully shielded woman hurling curses and threats of vengeance at the Count.
Whilst they were able to take off without most of their pursuers at least one made it aboard and immediately threw herself at the Count in a fury.
After a short brutal battle she was eventually taken down by Kaeo using a tranquiliser coated hair pin supplied by Carolyn.
The Count advised disposing of her via an airlock, someone carrying that much thirst for revenge wasn’t likely to give up simply because he will be out of her reach. The players weren’t quite willing to kill her in cold blood and so decided to keep her drugged, drop her off at a safe location and be somewhere else when she woke up.
As agreed the Count handed over the decryption codes for the shigawire reels before he left to Guild security.
The players were now left holding the locations and access codes for a Major House’s Atomic stockpiles. Along with the knowledge that no-one was certain exactly how many were in there.
A spirited discussion erupted as to whether they should hand them all over to the Guild or if some should happen to ‘go missing’.
Despite Kaeo being very tempted to acquire at least one Atomic the call came down that they would hand them all over to the Guild. Lady Aria did not want hidden Atomics as a Minor House nor did she wish to betray the Guild.
Phew, we packed a lot more into this episode. Possibly to make up for the unexpected gap in games.
After an eventful side trip the players are now owed a favour by the Guild and also have a sizeable stockpile of weapons. They also have a lot more questions over who ordered them and where they were heading.
Oh, and a member of House Major who may not know who they are yet, but does know that Count Sors escaped her vengeance with their assistance…
) with some investigating the crash site and others going to where the debris and body had been taken.
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