LogYuriRT1-2010/10/29-Jason-1

Game log for the 2010/10/29 session of Rogue Trader: After the Gold Rush, as taken by Jason

The people who were sitting inside the office roll initiative. Lucius goes first and begins probing Mr Malachai Jord. As Lucius works, Jahazer's teeth suddenly become needle-sharp, due to a sudden warp mutation. No, that's not disturbing at all. Don't worry about it. Malachai hits his panic button and floods the room with gas. Whups! The panic button also triggers the servitors in the outer office. Jotham responds by setting both on fire. That has fairly little effect, so Bors uses his heavy bolter to destroy everything. Servitors, walls... the works. He ladles out so much damage that the people inside the office take some shrapnel, although their armor soaks most of it.

Lucius probes deeply enough to detect Malachai's immediate fears. Said fears do not surprise. Jahazer goes to grab the broker, thinking to drag him out of the office, but a quick burst of digi-flamer fire forces him to jump aside. Lucius continues to rummage around in Malachai's brain, but has not yet penetrated deeply enough to get what we want. The broker, focusing on the immediate threat, fires a digi-melta at Jahazer, but misses. Lucius discovers that Malachai was himself hired by a broker, meaning we're only a little closer to the truth. We leave before the Arbiters get there.

Within the hour of our return to the ship, a great many Navy Armsmen turn up on our mooring slip. Marneus gets Bors, Jotham, Jahazer, Victrus, and Livienne Corvus, and prepares to greet the Navy. He sends Livienne out to meet with them first, and she invites Commander Jantheen aboard to discuss the situation. Livienne tries to assure her that she doesn't need an escort, but gets nowhere. The Commander wants answers, so Livienne introduces her to the Lord Captain, Jahazer, and Victrus.

On the bridge, Anastasia notices a couple Navy ships loitering about, keeping an eye on us, and so advises the Lord Captain.

As the Lord Captain enters, the Command stands and explains the difficulties entailed by assaulting a citizen in his office. Marneus parries by making an official complaint about the attack on the ship while in dry dock. Livienne then explains that in the course of our business visit, Malachai's men attacked, and our actions were defensive. Possibly the report made about the incident was not quite factual - and perhaps we were only being friendly in visiting the broker informally instead of working through the legal system. As a ship, we feel terrible about the entire affair and the affront thus dealt to the rule of law on the station. Victrus raises the point that we have a name for people who try to steal starships - we call them pirates. Victrus really hates pirates. He hates them a lot. The Commander takes her leave and assures us that she'll be in contact with us.

We also discover that due to temporary financial irregularities, repair work will be put on hold until transfers from Machariel HQ come through.

Thankfully the ongoing investigation does not impair our ability to attend the Yefremova's dinner party. It's quite nice. Since our issues with Malachai Jord have become public knowledge, Livienne makes sure our version of the story gets out. Unfortunately Property "Npcref" (as page type) with input value "YuriRT1/Lidiah</br>Yefremova" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Lidiah Yefremova sees right through her, so her admiration stems more from respect for our ability to stick to our story than any actual sympathy. Livienne also appeals to Rogue Trader solidarity, suggesting that all Traders need to make sure they have lots of security when in this port. Lidiah introduces Marneus and Livienne around the party, leaving the rest of Drakban's officers to their own devices. Lucius looks around the party to see if whoever hired those mercs might be here, but has no luck. He does see the officer that Malachai dined with recently, which he mentions to Livienne and Marneus. They make a note of the identity of this Commander Stark but don't take any action right away. By reputation, Stark drives his frigate's (the Suntreader) crew hard, and utterly devoted to the emperor. Jahazer hangs out with Imperial military, especially the Navigator.

Some secret stuff happens with Anastasia and one of the party guests.

Jahazer draws Jotham aside and introduces him to Commander Stark. Oh ho! We trade platitudes and such, and then Jahazer gets him to admit that the Navy has a Crusade in the works, into the Malfian sub-sector. Stark says the Crusade should be leaving within the week, and once the squadron leaves, his recruiting contacts might be of use to us. W00t.

Marneus' mingling gives him the impression that the Yefremovas are not doing so well.

Anastasia tries to discern people's attitudes toward House Machariel. People seem a little wary - they don't quite know what to expect from us. She also finds out that the Yefremovas don't have a Seneschal on Litvyak.

Jotham makes an ass of himself trying to show off how much he learned at priest school. A roll of 99 on charm yields very boorish behavior indeed.

Yuriy comes over to Bors to talk big violent guy shop. The conversation goes a little awkwardly, since neither has any real social skills, but they're willing to fake it together.

Jahazer finds out that Litvyak is the Yefremova's only warp-capable ship.

Victrus discovers that neither the Arbiters nor Navy really like brokers all that much.

Returning to the ship, we discover a significantly elevated Armsman and Arbiter presence on the slip. Victrus and Anastasia send them coffee and sandwiches to thank them for protecting our ship. Anastasia gets a slightly chilly reception from the officers, who presumably fear a banana in the tailpipe, but eventually they warm up to us.

The next day, Jotham begins a habit of preaching on the mooring slip every day. It eventually becomes a thing - people stop by to get coffee and donuts while he preaches, and the lay deacons try to recruit.

We then go about recruiting our crew, using the recruiting agents we got from Stark. With their help, we do eventually bring in a proper crew again.

Bors goes under the knife and is out of commission for eight days. On the plus side, he now has a good-quality cybernetic hearing system & implanted microbead. Opiter gets upgraded to a good-quality mind impulse unit (to replace his old, lower-quality one) and spends three days in the body shop.

Bosun Jasper Horrellian shows up in Victrus' office with a crewman. The sailor and his buddies got jumped, which is not necessarily uncommon during leave. The attackers had shock mauls and large numbers, which is less normal. They also gave us a message: stay out of certain areas on the station, and keep our press agents out of those areas, or things will get worse. The kicker: Victrus recognizes the name of the attackers. They call themselves legitimate businessmen, but it's a front for pirates. The Lord Captain responds the only way he knows how: he orders us to immediately send a larger group to that area, ready for a fight. Obviously the rest of the crewman are told to keep out of those areas and move only in large groups.

Our difficulty with Malachai has revealed divisions on the station, as the authorities have both asked additional questions, and apologized for doing so. The leader of the Arbiters has complained that the Navy can't decide whether to go after us or not, and they're sick of the Navy's indecision. Meanwhile, Malachai has decided to sue House Machariel. Obviously that requires us to send our captives to Machariel HQ so that they can testify whenever the hearings occur. Sucks to be them!

Marneus also buys supplies to help us get the station going again.

Livienne reports that someone matching the description of the person who hired the broker has been found... spaced.

Xanatov takes the ship back to space. She's a little rusty, and the ship handles a little different with all the repairs made, so her piloting doesn't set a new standard or anything. Who cares? We're back in space. Jahazer then plots our warp route to Footfall, crafting a course that gets us there in only half a day. Perhaps due to the recent overhaul of the ship, our exit from warp lands us in a familiar approach lane, with no immediate hazards or concerns whatsoever. Commander Xanatov can barely believe her good fortune.

At Footfall, Opiter receives a message from the Mechanicus cruiser Foresight. The rest of us also get mail, but it lacks plot significance. Lord Captain Machariel asks Opiter to send a message to the Mechanicus asking if they want to send an observer with us to the space station. Marneus also gets a message encrypted with an old Machariel cipher. It claims that the sender has information that he needs. He orders us to stop at Footfall and head to the location specified by the sender.