When we last ventured to the Great Basin:
It was the 32nd of Fireharvest. The members of the Task Force had gotten tickets to the Niven Lantern Festival through a at times tense conversation between Marchi Elenek. Having prepared the day before with the other members of the Task Force, Zorro decided to take a three step approach.
- Ask nicely.
- Positive reward, reveal that the Task Force knows of a threat related to the event.
- Negative reward, leak that the Niven Imperium had created and subsequently lost control over Cylex.
As expected, asking nicely wasn’t enough to overcome the hesitancy of Ikoma. When Zorro moved to step 2, he was likewise meant with some resistance. Ikoma thanked him for the tip and stated that the Niven security forces would be able to handle any threats. She also mentioned that she thought that the leadership within the Imperium was far too relaxed on the Keburipemi Syndicate. However, she still seems hesitant to invite the Task Force. Zorro made an abrupt comment about the source of the explosive which seemed to catch Ikoma off guard before a helpful telepathic suggestion from Oisin in the next room reminded Zorro that the Task Force has the authority to go places and talk to people that it deems are related to the investigation. Reluctantly, Ikoma agreed to invite the Task Force on the condition that an escort be posted for them.
After the lunch, the Task Force quickly pivoted operational fronts to the trade between the Keburipemi Syndicate and group of Eichornchen whose motives have yet to be identified in the town of Duquin. What followed was a hard day’s ride to get out to the Vamberg Peninsula, arriving on the night of the 31st. The first step was to talk to the town Sheriff, who basically just asked the Task Force to take care of the problem. Oisin then talked down the boardwalk to the dock and found a curious man named Mario in a sandwich shack. Mario, it turned out, was not the owner of the sandwich shack, that was his brother Micheal, but he did have some eccentric beliefs which caused Oisin to call for the rest of the Task Force. Among these beliefs were the following:
- Kerkard flies via the souls of children harvested when it passes overhead.
- The Andorr to seize control of a powerful artifact that the elves were going to use destroy the basin.
- Arendelle is controlled by a shadow government which hates humans and is seeking to push all of the humans out of the country.
- The Koncord staged the explosion last month to hide the fact that they removed the Sword of Divinity to build a gigantic battle-mech which, when completed will be used to subjugate the whole basin.
- Roksduens is controlled by a group of furries intent on having orgies all the time.
Mario mentioned that a group of Eichen where in town to inspect something and that his brother Micheal was complaining about them. When you asked to see Micheal, Mario ducked under the counter of the sandwich shack and re-appeared with glasses and no hat, introducing himself as Micheal. Micheal than said that the Eichen were hear, he believed, to inspect some of the ships which the Medical Guild had bought from them. They were poor sandwich consumers, though, wanting Eichen specialty ingredients including something with horses. Micheal suggested horse meat but Zorro though horseradish. A night time investigation of the Reculse, the largest seaweed harvesting ship in the fleet, revealed no hidden explosives, but that one of the dingies on the ship had the same name as the one which Niwa reported was going to be used in original exchange in Taerwyn.
The next morning, the Task Force talked to Douglas Norris, the foreman at one of the seaweed warehouses who confirmed the Eichen inspection team and said they came every few years as some weird customer service thing that he didn’t understand. Interestingly, this year they ordered a dingy into the shops for repairs and replaced it with one that they had brought with them. Doug seemed to think that they were trying to up-sell him on new dingies, and wasn’t impressed. Talking to Beca in the boat repair shop supported what the foreman said. Later, when talking to some boat workers, you learned about a group of migrate workers from the Niven Imperium looking for work. After tracking down there wagon, Redfern gulped down a bottle of Dwarven Fire Ale and tried to attack their horse, which I think was a plan to get close to them. Oisin tried to lift the tarp in the wagon, but one of the workers quickly spotted it and lashed the tarp down but not before the shape of a barrel was clearly visible. The task force decided that they had enough information on the parties involved and staked out the Niven group from their windows in the Slithering Seaweed. At was quiet until about 11:30p when the Niven wagon rolled out and Anon told Oisin that the Eichens climbed aboard the Recluse.