Session forty-eight

The cadre arrive on Criticorum, landing at Ost spaceport. There they are met by representatives of the Merchants League who proceed to board and inspect the cargo. Mal is concerned that his outlaw status may be recognised so he hides aboard the ship. 

The cargo inspection reveals that the plants that they are carrying are Severan poppies, the source of the drug Selchakah. As the crew had broken the seal of one of the containers the Customs Officer rules that they cannot say that they did not know what was within and has his guards place them under arrest. Max suggests fighting their way out but De Havilland dissuades him.

Anton, Hemlock, Max and Ylanath are taken under arrest to a facility some distance from the spaceport while Mal remains hidden aboard the Innocent Pursuit.

After being separated into male and female cells the cadre are left to stew about their "crimes". They discuss how they may have been set up, available options and what they can do next, meanwhile, after the guilders have left the ship Mal sneaks off the vessel and makes to leave the spaceport via the perimeter fence. 

That evening the prison receives an unexpected visitor. A lithe and stealthy figure dressed all in black breaks in to the cells and releases De Havilland, Max and Hemlock. They are about to leave but the cadre insists that Ylanath is also rescued.

The mysterious stranger takes them to the warehouse district near the spaceport and to a hideout within one of the warehouse units. They then reveal their identity: the Lady Chastity Decados.

Sharing their respective information they learn that Lady Chastity has come to Criticorum to locate the same Van Gelder knight that the cadre has, Sir Mercucio Van Gelder. He, like Chastity has been accused of antimony and has gone into hiding. Chastity informs the group that he is an agent of her father and that it was Count Innocence, through the intermediaries of Mercucio and Ms San Tander, who had been bankrolling Corteaz' expedition. He was doing it by way of thanks to Hemlock. Chastity also advises Hemlock that, in his absence, his father Baron Tochiro Matsumoto Justinian, accepted Count Innocence's offer of his daughter as a suitor for Hemlock. They are currently betrothed to be wed. 

The cadre manage to raise Mal (who is evading guild security patrols) via squwarker and arrange meet up with him.

From Chastity's information it appears that she and Mercucio have been set up using materials from the collection of an Al Malik knight, Sir Ali Em Sabu Al Malik. This plays into suspicions she, and Anton, have that the party behind all this is Hemlock's mother, Baroness Esmeralda Al Malik Justinian. It is Chastity's belief that Hemlock's mother blames Count Innocence in some way for her "losing" her son due to the events of the Dame Arcadia controversy and is manipulating things to get revenge. 

The group take stock and plan what to do next...