Session thirteen; "..then I took an Arrowhead missile to the knee..."

We began by narrating the journey for Deepcore 104 to 101.  The cadre had secured travel on a Guild convoy heading north and were travelling under assumed names:

* Hasimir was "Dibbler" and the front man for the group
* Hemlock was using his old alias of "Keats"
* Lawrence was "Oblee-ous Ploy"
* Arcadia called herself "Façade"

Travel was largely uneventful but allowed the group to get "into character" in the cover identities before arriving in the Muster controlled city and meeting up with their contact, Mort.

Mort is a member of the Supreme Order of Engineers (and a new player character, replacing Beorn) and known to Keats after his time with the Charioteers in space. The cadre had sent ahead a sample genelock for Mort to verify and give the SOE seal of approval to, before sale, and Mort has also been working to find local merchants who might be interested in the goods.

I wanted to impress on everyone the differences between the city they were leaving and teh one the were coming to. Deepcore 101 is run by the Guilds. The Merchant League hold sway here, not the Noble Houses and thus trade is the order of the day.  The Muster own the majority share in the city and control it's ruling council but that's not to say that their rule is complete.

There are no "peasants" in the city.  Guilders cannot rule over serfs...however while there are many freemen employed in the mines and teh various businesses in the city the majority of workers are "bound by contract" or "indentured workers" - effectively Muster slaves.

Technology is more widespread (and better maintained) within 101 than it's sister Deepcore (104) but is still retained under the control of the Guilds and their associated Freemen.  Plus like 104 power has not been returned to all areas and much of the mine workings that form the basis of the city's economy and run 24/7 are still lit by oil lamps and run on steam, water or beast power. As the mines run constantly so the shift workers need to be catered for continually so there is no real "night cycle" within the city. Markets, traders and services run without cease; it is a city that never sleeps and all in the quest of profit.

The Guild Council are wary about deeper expansion of the city, having learned a lesson from the Musters exploits on the Austrum islands and the city currently entertains comparatively large delegations of the Synecullum, ever watchful for Guild breaches of Church mandate.  The only party in 101 more wary of the Synecullum than the Guilds are the Eskatonic Sect Geomancers who have set up a "research collective" in the city to analyse and assess the state of the terraforming engines and the secrets of the planet's deepest regions. 

When the group arrives Mort advises them that he's found a local Charioteer named Louie who is interested in buying the entire stock and they set up a meet.

They meet Louie in a mine workers bar. He is a rough looking trader from Al-Malik space with obvious cybernetic arms and leg but he seems pretty amenable and eager to deal.  He agrees to pay just over 180,000 firebirds for the goods and can take receipt and pay them by Bank draft the following day. They agree to the deal and spend the rest of the evening drinking in his company.  They learn that he was a travelling merchant with a ship of his own until he "took an Arrowhead missile to the knee" and crashed his ship on Ravenna.  He's been here ever since and while content he seems to miss his previous life.

 

After a morning of doing odd jobs (shopping, scoping out the meeting site etc) the cadre go to the rendezvous in a hired van loaded with the genelocks, Keats going on ahead on foot to check for ambush. The meeting is due to take place in the vehicle parking lot attached to a monorail station that serves this sector of the city. Louie turns up on time with an assistant in a beaten up old road car. Things start well but Keats hears the noise of foot steps rushing down the train tunnel and alerts the group. They are soon surrounded by a gang of thugs in Louie's employ.  He says he doesn't have the money for them and he'd just like the goods handed over. A tense standoff ensues, eventually broken by Façade shooting one of the thugs.

 

Combat breaks out, Dibbler carves through a couple of thugs but takes a nasty gunshot wound, Ploy ends up blowing both ears off a guy, Mort stuns one of the thugs with a stunner he has built into his cyberarm, Façade guns down a couple of the gun men and Keats shows off his knife fighting skills, to the detriment of some of their opponents.

Faced with the end of Façade's gun, while Dibbler shouts that they need him alive, and with none of his men capable of putting up a fight, Louie throws himself on their mercy.  He says he still wants the goods and can pay, but he never had the 180,000fb.  He can pay them 100,000fb ("Please don't kill me!") and offers a way to make up the difference; his old ship, an Al-Malik Rahimat class Galliot is stored in a village a few miles away.  It needs work but it's easily worth more than the difference owed. The group agree. They treat Dibbler's wound, get the Bank Draft from Louie for the 100,000fb, exchange the goods and set off to reclaim the ship...