There is nothing for the party to do other than to wait and hope that Overbluff’s Lieutenant makes contact and so they return to their places at the hotel bar – where they seem to have spent much of the past few days, and try and pass the time.

Fortunately they only have to wait for a few hours until, while they are taking lunch in the hotel restaurant, they get a message to say that the greengrocer’s urchin has returned. The urchin confirms that the Overbluff’s Lieutenant has come back and is asking to see them.

The party members quickly pack overnight bags and then they all head back to the greengrocer’s. Sure enough,the Lieutenant is waiting for them.

“As I thought, the Overbluff was not interested in coming to Soumester,” the Lieutenant says. “But he is interested in meeting with you and so has invited you to join him on his island. If you wish, we can go immediately. Otherwise, just let me know when it would be convenient.”

Knowing that they are already way behind schedule in the mission, the party members tell the Lieutenant that they are ready to head to the island immediately. They then head off with the Lieutenant, while Max pays the greengrocer the rest of his introducer’s fee.

They follow the Lieutenant and his two bodyguards around a couple of corners to where a medium-sized helicopter is waiting for them in a small patch of parkland. Once all are onboard, the chopper takes to the air and then heads southeast.

For the next couple of hours, the chopper flies low over the island of Blavyn, following the contours of the land until it reaches it reaches the sea and the final hour of the journey is spent skimming over the choppy seas on the final leg of the journey to the Overbluff’s island.

As the island comes into sight, all of the party members peer through the windows to get an overview of the island. It is not large – round with a diameter of maybe 1500m. There are several buildings scattered across the island, but it seems only sparsely populated.

The chopper lands on a landing pad and they see that there is also an executive jet there through the open doors of the hangar. Everyone piles out of the chopper and into a van which the chopper pilot drives to the Overbluff’s villa, a medium sized two-storey building, located at the edge of a plateau. The Lieutenant bids everyone to enter the building along with him.

On the way, Taeva checks out security. She sees that there is a guardpost in front of the villa and spots another couple of guards keeping watch on the roof.

The Lieutenant leads them into the villa and tells them to wait in the entrance hall while he summons the Overbluff. The entry hall is filled with expensive artworks, many of which show portraits of someone – presumably the Overbluff himself. Stian asks Miranda if any of the artworks belonged to the Church, but she says that she doesn’t recognize any of the pieces.

The party members hang around for half an hour until the Lieutenant returns and tells them that the Overbluff is ready to receive them. He then leads them into the kitchen.

The Overbluff shakes everyone by the hand. For a master criminal, he seems to be quite ordinary and jovial – perhaps a little too ordinary and jovial. Several of the party members notice that he looks slightly different from the pictures of him that are hanging in the lobby.

The Overbluff is only of secondary interest to them, however. They came here to find The Connoisseur. Miranda says that it is best if she gives lessons directly to the Overbluff’s chef. The Overbluff agrees without hesitation and calls him through. To the party member’s disappointment, however, it is not The Connoisseur who comes from the kitchens, but rather a young and quite inexperienced chef.

Miranda masks her disappointment and gets down to the demonstration of some of the best recipes in her collection. She can tell that the chef must have been trained by The Connoisseur at some point, however.

The Overbluff and the party members watch on for the first thirty minutes, but then it starts to get a little dull. The Overbluff stifles a yawn and asks to be excused. He does invite the party members to stay overnight, however, and to join him for dinner in the evening so that they can sample the results of the cooking. With that he heads off.

The Lieutenant, who has obviously been told to mind everyone, is looking equally bored. The party members ask if it might be possible to get a tour of the island while Miranda is making the demonstration and the Lieutenant is glad to oblige, obviously finding this to be a more interesting way of spending a couple of hours.

The party members are then escorted on a tour of the island, noting exactly where everything is located. Although they are not invited into any of the buildings, there are no signs of anything untoward happening at the island – it all seems relatively normal.

It is dusk by the time that the tour is finished. The Lieutenant shows everyone to the guest rooms on the ground floor of the west wing of the building and leaves them to freshen up a little. As soon as they are left alone, Taeva sweeps the rooms for bugs or cameras, but does not find anything. The party members discuss what to do next. They decide to leave any further investigations until everyone should be asleep.

An hour later and the party members are informed that they should come to the dining room as dinner is served. The dining room turns out to be the most ornate room that they have seen to date. The west wall is filled with a fabulously detailed mural showing airships drifting across a green landscape. Will studies the landscape carefully and quickly comes to the realization that the planet must be Tarkine.

The Overbluff arrives and takes his place at the head of the table, still escorted by his two bodyguards. Butlers serve dinner while the Overbluff chats with the party members – it would appear that he is very grateful for the company as he was getting bored being on the island for such a long time. Miranda did a great job with the catering, and the Overbluff is very happy with the results, agreeing to her fee of Cr. 20,000.

Once the dinner is finished, the brandies arrive. The Overbluff asks if any of the party members prefer to imbibe nasally rather than orally. Max’s eyes light up with the offer and, before any of the other party members can stop him, says that he definitely would prefer it.

The Overbluff’s eyes light up as a butler is summoned and brings with him a tray of various different powders, which the Overbluff and Max proceed to hoover up rapidly. The other party members, realizing that they need to keep their wits about them in order to make their investigations during the night, decline. So Max has their shares as well so as not to cause any offense.

An hour later and both the Overbluff and Max are both as high as kites. The Lieutenant has a quiet word in the Overbluff’s ear and he reluctantly agrees that it is probably best if he called it a night. He is escorted up by his bodyguards. The party members also tell the Lieutenant that it is time they turned in as well. They thank the Lieutenant for his hospitality and head for their rooms, dragging Max along with them.

It is a little after 23.00 now. The party members decide to leave it a while before they start making their explorations of the building.

The party members spent the following day just hanging around at the hotel, not being able to leave in case they get word from the grocer. But no word comes. They resign themselves to the fact that they could be waiting her quite a while.

However, they don’t have to wait as long as they feared they may. Early in the afternoon of the following day, a butler arrives to where the party members have based themselves in the hotel bar delivering a message. The message says that there is an ‘urchin’ waiting outside for them.

The party members head outside and the street urchin tells them that he has been sent by the greengrocer and they should come to his shop as quickly as possible. The party member summon Miranda and then they all head to the greengrocer.

They see a slim, middle-aged man dressed in black who is accompanied by two well armed and armored bodyguards. The man looks at the party members suspiciously as the greengrocer introduces them, then folds his arms, waiting to see what offer they have to make.

As usual, Max does the talking, taking on the role of Miranda’s Business Manager. He tries to offer the Overbluff some special recipes for Cr. 50,000. The Overbluff’s Lieutenant just scoffs at the amount. Max tries again at Cr. 20,000 – this seems like a more reasonable price. Max tells the Lieutenant that the Overbluff will need to come Soumester in order to learn the recipe. The Lieutenant says that he is not sure that the Overbluff will be willing to spend the whole day travelling, but says that he will ask at least.

The party members look at one another, but they know that they are not in a great bargaining position. Max shrugs and says that, if this is the only chance of making a deal with the Overbluff, then so be it.

The Lieutenant shakes each party member by the hand and says that, if the Overbluff is interested, he will be back in touch via the greengrocer. If they don’t hear from him again, it means that the Overbluff was not interested.

It’s not an ideal solution, but the party members know that it will be a lot easier than having to try and get on the island themselves and so agree to the terms. They thank the greengrocer for his assistance in setting up the meeting, Max bungs him a few hundred, as agreed and then the party members set off back to the hotel.

Taeva continually looks over her shoulder on the way, remembering all too well that the Overbluff’s team has followed them back to their hotels before. She doesn’t spot anyone but stays paranoid throughout the rest of the evening and night, organizing a watch rota. The night is without incident, however.

After breakfast, they had back to meet with the grocer to put a proposal to him.

They tell him that they are actually in the service of one of the top cooks in District 268 who has some very exclusive recipes that they are willing to sell to a man of great taste and refinement such as the Overbluff. If the grocer can arrange a meeting with the Overbluff, then they will pay him some excellent commission for the introduction.

The grocer thinks about it for a while then, realizing that it could be a very easy way for him to make some additional cash, agrees to speaking to the Overbluff’s representative about it. He says that it has been several weeks since he last came and so it should hopefully not be long before he comes again. He says that he cannot make any promises, but he will do his best to sell the Overbluff’s representative on the idea.

This is good enough for the party members and so they give the grocer an advance and tell him where they are staying. They shake hands and then they are off.

They then head back to the shuttle port where Max writes another message, asking Miranda to come down to help with the ruse and to bring her cooking equipment and some ingredients with her. They also ask her to bring some of their spare gear down with her to replace that which was lost in the AGC crash.

They spend several hours in the tavern waiting for Miranda to arrive. Late in the afternoon, they are relieved to see Miranda’s jovial form entering the tavern, looking very pleased to see them once again. Outside is a porter carrying her luggage and the other equipment that the party members ordered.

Not wanting to give too much information away in the tavern in case Miranda picked up a tail, they hail some hansom cabs to take them back to the Radisson. Once they are safely back in the hotel, they tell Miranda what they have learned from the grocer and the plan which they have devised. Miranda is happy to go along with it, now getting impatient as to the amount of time it is taking to rescue The Connoisseur.

With the plan now having been agreed up, there is nothing more that they can do apart from to wait until the Overbluff’s representative shows up at the grocer’s.

The party members assemble for breakfast – glad to be eating something other than fish and seaweed for a change, and then embark upon their mission for the day.

They spend the rest of the day going around all of the high class food sellers – the butchers, the bakers, the greengrocers – trying to find anyone who might supply the Overbluff with his supplies.

In a city of over three million inhabitants, the exercise is a little like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, they target only the suppliers of the highest quality foodstuffs on the hunch that, if The Connoisseur really is captive on the Overbluff’s Island, then he would require the very best produce that it is possible to buy in Soumester.

It takes a lot of questioning and bribes from Max,together with a lot of trial and error, before they finally find what they are looking for – a greengrocer who says that he does supply members of the Nittichippin Mercenary Company with much of their supplies.

Max palms the proprietor a wad of creds in return for the dirt on the Nittichippin. The grocer pockets the cash and informs the party members that they started ordering some of the best foodstuffs from him around a couple of months ago – prior to this time, their orders were very ordinary, but since then, they have been ordering the best that he can get – caviar, quails’ eggs, lobster, etc.

He tells the party members that they come around once per month to take in new supplies which they load into a helicopter before presumably heading back to the island.

This sets the party members thinking, but they need a while longer to decide what to do with the information. Max gives the grocer another wad of credits to keep him sweet and then return to the hotel. They spend the evening devising a plan and then call it a night.

The gunboat slowly steamed across the ocean day and night across the calm blue seas of the seemingly endless ocean. There is little for the party members to see or do during the period, the calm waters seeming to go on forever.

The party members help out in the boiler room during the trip, shoveling dried seaweed into the boiler in order to keep a full head of steam on the ship knowing that the more power to the steam paddles, the faster they will get to their destination.

It is shortly after breakfast on the third day out at sea that one of the Callios crewing the gunboat shouts out ‘Land ahoy!’

It stills takes the rest of the morning to steam towards the island nation of Blavyn. By lunchtime they can see that the capital city of Soumester is ahead of them – once again the Callios have demonstrated their navigation skills, despite having nothing but sextants and the stars to plot their course by.

The small gunboat steams into the bustling port and a berth is found for the vessel, dwarfed by the larger boats which surround it.

The party members tell the gunboat crew to stay in port until they give them further instructions and the crew is happy to oblige, excited to be in the new environment, but at the same time a little nervous.

Cautiously the party members advance into the city, paranoid in case they might be watched by agents of the Overbluff. They are dressed in gear donated by the Callios. While not attracting the same kind of interest that they would have been sure to receive by wearing their regular offworld clothes, they still stand out and so the first trip they make is to buy some local clothes so that they blend into their surroundings a little better. Once properly dressed, they decide that their first priority should be to check in with the Princess to check upon their safety and to reassure Autumn and Miranda that they are still alive.

Max asks around to see if there are any shuttles to the highport and quite quickly finds that there is. They head towards the shuttle port, and find it on the edge of the city. Still nervous that the shuttle port may be being watched, they don’t risk taking a trip up there. Instead Max asks around at the nearby taverns and soon finds some of the shuttle crew between shifts, easily noticeable from their modern uniforms. Max has words with one of the stewards and, for the sum of Cr. 50, asks them to deliver a message to the Princess telling Autumn that they are safe and checking on whether she and Miranda are OK.

The party members hang around at the tavern for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for the steward to return. It’s early evening when he does, bringing a message back with him. The party members are all anxious for word from the ship and are relieved to hear that Autumn and Miranda are both fine and now very much relieved at hearing that the party members are all fine, having grown increasingly concerned during the long period that they were out of contact.

Reassured now, the party members leave the tavern, asking on the way out for directions to the best hotel in Soumester and are given the way to the Radisson. It’s back close to the port and so they hail a couple of hansom cabs to take them there.

They check in, relieved that there are some rooms free, albeit that they are not cheap. It’s a small price to pay though to sleep in proper beds for the night rather than the hammocks of the Callios’ floating island. It also gives the party a chance to recharge their energy weapons from the hotel’s fusion generator.

The party members spend the rest of the evening in the hotel restaurant, deciding upon their strategy for finding out information on the Overbluff here. Once they have decided upon their plans for the next day, they head to the comfort of their rooms to get a good night’s sleep.

At breakfast, the party members can tell that something is going on as the usual sleepy routine of the nomads is changed and the floating town is a hive of activity.

Jie asks around to find what is going on and learns that a school of daghadsi has been spotted and the nomads are preparing to take to sea.

Shortly after breakfast, several of the nomads arrive, bringing with them the party’s weapons – a joyous reunion for many. They are then led to one of the gunboats. A flotilla of a dozen gunboats then heads out ahead of the raft-town.

The Captain of the ship explains the party members’ role in the hunt. They are to keep the chimerocs which accompany the school of daghadsi off while the boat’s guns take down one of the daghadsi. He warns them to be careful not to fall into the sea, or they will surely be eaten by daghsharks.

The party members notice that there are significantly more crew on each of the other boats. It appears that the other boats have three dozen nomads on deck – a dozen with sharpshooter rifles, a dozen with shotguns, and a dozen with long pikes. They also notice that they are in the lead gunboat.

The flotilla spends the morning steaming across the seemingly endless expanse of ocean until they spot what appears, at first glance, to be an atoll of small islands in the distance. Upon closer investigation, however, they realize that this is the school of daghadsi.

The gunboats get into formation and the party members are told to get into position.

Once the gunboats are within 500m of the last of the daghadsi in the school, the guns of the gunboats erupt as they start to blast away at the huge beasts. As the first of the shells connect with their target, a mass of seething winged beasts launch from the living islands. And quite a large proportion of them start heading towards the lead gunboat where the party members are located.

As the winged creatures get closer, the party members can see that the chimerocs are enormous, and they look incredibly pissed off.

Once the first wave gets within range, the party members let rip with everything they have the lasers of Jie and Stian beam out towards the oncoming creatures like searchlights while the gauss needles coming from Taeva, Will and Max provides the flack. Most impressive of all, however, are the barrages sent up from Grim’s Mathilda which blasts a beast out of the sky with every (expensive) volley of grenades that he sends after them.

All of the party members together contribute towards downing the first wave of the chimerocs before they can get close to the boat. The chimerocs just keep on coming, however, with more of them appearing than the party members can knock out of the sky. Eventually one of the beasts manages to make it through the barrage and targets in on Jie, scratching her. Dropping Black Betty, she takes her pneumatic hammer, which smacks into the skull of the injured creature and sending it tumbling. Just as she is congratulating herself for a job well done, however, and enormous daghshark leaps from the ocean and it is only Jie’s reactions which stop her from getting well and truly munched upon.

Jie is pissed now. Dropping the pneumatic hammer, he retrieves Black Betty and takes on the leaping shark as they go one on one against one another. The other party members continue blasting away at the chimerocs, managing to keep them at bay.

Jie and the shark continue to slug it out. The daghshark is enormous, however, and its jaws are sharp. Even Jie’s armor is not sufficient to stop her getting well and truly gnawed upon. Stian heads over to give her a hand as he sees that she is going to be fishfood if he doesn’t. Together, the pair’s lasers manage to finish off the daghshark.

However, the lack of their lasers in the constant battle to keep the chimerocs at bay lets one through, who falls upon Stian, dropping him with an almighty bite. The others quickly blast the stricken beast before turning their attention back to the oncoming wave.

The chimerocs appear to be making one last ditch attempt to finish off the party members as the air seems to be filled with them. Grim is getting low on grenades now and has to ration out his remaining rounds while those with gauss pistols are tossing clips as their smoking guns continue their constant rain of death.

But now each of the five party members left standing has an angry chimeroc to contend with, and they all end up getting scratched or bitten although, fortunately for them, their armor soaks up most of the damage that the chimerocs dish out.

The party members help one another out to finish off the last of the beasts remaining. The party members stand panting for a while, covered in chimeroc gore as their smoking weapons are finally still. A mighty cheer goes up from below decks as they see that the last of the chimerocs has been defeated. Will immediately heads over to see to Stian as the boat continues to rock with the recoil of the three port-side guns that have been constantly bombarding the daghadsi while the party members were concentrating on the chimerocs.

Eventually the guns fall silent – presumably the daghadsi has been slain.

The crew members come up from below decks and heartily congratulate the party members on a job well done. Their reward for having taken down the majority of the daghadsi’s colony of chimerocs is that the gunboat doesn’t have to wait around for the messy business of starting to carve up the huge hulking form of the creature, so the gunboat is able to return straight to the nomad’s floating colony, which is slowly making its way towards the kill.

It is dusk by the time that the gunboat returns. The Captain leads the party members off, excitedly telling all of the nomads as to the party members heroic activities, leading to much back slapping and shaking of hands as the Captain leads them through to the Elders’ residence.

They wait for a short while in the antechamber before being led in to meet with Elders. Their reaction is very different from the first time that they entered the chamber as the Elders greet them all warmly and invite them to sit at the table to dine with them. They now refer to the party members as ‘brothers’.

The general backslapping and hearty congratulations continue for well over an hour, during which time everyone starts to dine on a fish feast of epic proportions.

During the course of the conversation though, the Elders’ delight at having made a successful daghadsi hunt with no loss of life this time becomes more and more muted as talk turns to the problems that they are having with Seaharvester.

Jie translates their concerns. As the ecological pressure groups believe, Seaharvester are ignoring the quota that they officially agreed to and are still killing far more daghadsi than it is possible to sustain. The Elders fear that, if the situation continues for much longer, there won’t be enough daghadsi remaining for the sea nomads to continue with their way of life and they will all be doomed.

According to the quota agreement, each of the Seaharvester whaling ships should only take one daghadsi per month. However, they have seen that at least one of their ships is taking a great deal more than its quota. This ship is in the vicinity and has been harvesting the school that the sea nomads have already been following.

The Elders remind the party members that Max’s original story was that they were here to help the sea nomads to solve this problem. The sea nomads have tried to take on Seaharvester whalers in the past, but the 5" guns of their gunboats are no match for the laser turrets of the Seaharvester vessels and the sea nomads lost a lot of ships and men before they called off the attack. They are willing to try again though with the party members’ help.

If the party members don’t want to help, then the Elders understand and there will be no hard feelings. They are willing to take the party members to land in one of their gunboats. However, as they are 2000km from land and the gunboats don’t travel terribly fast, the voyage will be a long one. The Elders inform the party members that the Seaharvester whaler has several ‘flying metal ships’ onboard which would make the journey in a matter of hours however, were the party members to ‘acquire’ one while helping out the sea nomads.

“What could really hurt Seaharvester is proof from their own records from on board one of their own vessels that they are willingly disregarding rules laid onto them by their parent company SuSAG” Jie says. “SuSAG wouldn’t care of course, heck, may even give them a medal. But if those Glisten Environmentalists see Seaharvester totally ignoring SuSAG, they may start up another, bolder campaign to do justice on Pagaton. SuSAG meanwhile will look like an ineffectual punk. That’s bad for stocks. The trillions lost by no confidence investors would more than out way the loss from Pagaton.”

Jie says the above while eating the spiced cornia of the eye of her shark kill and wearing the native garb of dried woven seaweed. She punctuates her grand scheme with a stone knife that she jabs in the air.

Max looks highly impressed as Jie makes her speech:

“Bloody ‘ell, girl. I’m impressed. Your knowledge of the impact upon events influencing the stock prices of major companies certainly ‘as come on a long way since that time you decided it was the right time to invest in iridium just after we got some insider knowledge that extensive new sources were soon to be comin’ onto the market. Well done!”

Stian is listening carefully to the Elders, weighing up the pros and cons, observing their traditions as best he can. He can see Jie has no intention of not helping them, her loyalty is clear and admirable.

“We’re carrying limited ammo and I lost my advanced boarding vacc suit on the AGC,” he says. “Facing up to gauss rifle equipped combat armour goons wouldn’t be wise but the Seaharvester crews will be equipped how?”

“But we need one the grav vehicles Seaharvester has on their ship else we have a week or two on the open sea.”

“Is that really a problem?”

“We’re how many weeks behind the curve in pursuit of the Connoisseur? If he’s been taken to be a cook there’s a minimum standard he’ll be being held captive at, there’s a chance his captures are abusing him but it’s his incarceration that we need to undo.”

“A sealed grav vehicle will get us back to the Princess where we can re-equip or regroup or it will get us quickly to the Overbluff’s base.”

“The Callios have been out gunned by Seaharvester’s lasers so going toe to toe won’t happen. How can we get onto a ship under cover?”

Stian asks an Elder:

“Have you been on board one of the Seaharvester ships? How did you do it? If not, how close have you been? What can you tell us about them, what they wear, what they carry, do they have weapons like ours?”

With Jie translating, the Elders tell the party members everything they know about the ships. They did manage to get someone on board one of their vessels – several months ago when Seaharvester was looking for new employees. Their employee was shuttled from Seaharvester’s main port at Furingort by air/truck (which was not sealed for flight outside the atmosphere) onboard one of the whaling ships and their spy stayed onboard for six weeks. Upon his return to Furingort for his six weeks off, he returned to the Callios to tell them all that he discovered.

The Elders explain in detail what their spy told them regarding the Seaharvester vessels. The guards carry gauss pistols as side arms and wear cloth. There is an armory onboard, however, where the Elders believe there is some more serious hardware available.

Once the party members have learned all they realize that they are likely to learn about the Seaharvester ship, they discuss the possibilities among themselves. They soon realize that, even with the help of the Callios, a direct assault upon the vessel would be suicidal due to the superior weaponry of the whaling ship. They understand that the only chance they have is to take the stealthy approach – to find a way of getting onboard, check the vessel’s computers in order to get evidence of their misdeeds and then make their getaway in a stolen grav/truck.

The only question remaining is how they should get onboard in the first place.

As the conversation continues, Stian looks quietly stumped but does his best to mask his thoughts: out gunned, out done on mobility, it really doesn’t look like this is a mission the party should pursue. However, looking over at Jie, whose eyes have glazed over and may just be drooling, he can’t quite see from here, it seems there’s no hope for common sense prevailing.

“However, who said we had to take care of this now?” he thinks to himself. “Isn’t the Connoisseur more important? Can we come back to the Sea Harvesters when we’re more suitably equipped?”

Keeping those thoughts to himself till alone with the group Stian asks:

“Do the Callios have either submersible vehicles or have they mastered riding on the backs of a suitable (either flying or swimming) local beast?”

Jie translates for Stian and then translates the Elders’ answers back to him:

“No, they have not developed zeppelin technology and the only flying creatures out in the middle of the oceans are the chimerocs. They have no reason to go underwater for long periods of time. There are too many harmful creatures down there that only the dolphins are able to live with.”

“How about using our (and the Nomads’) tried and true method: getting ourselves employed?” Will suggests. “Perhaps we could ambush an appropriately sized group on shore leave, turn them over to the nomads for safe-keeping, and apply for the suddenly available jobs. Not fast, but perhaps the safest method of getting on board.”

“Although I applaud the Captain’s idea of using a method that will keep me here longer, I agree that Stian is right,” Jie says. “The reason we’re even here is the Connoisseur. I want to solve this SeaHarvester problem Now by gaining the Nomads help with the real job…but how?”

“Dolphins,” Stian ponders. “What can the Callios tell us about the Dolphins here? Are they in contact? What kind of relationship do they have?”

Jie nods and translates. Stian can tell by the sneers that come over the faces of the Elders that they are no great friends of the Dolphins.

Jie translates:

“They says that the dolphins are very arrogant – they keep going on about how much bigger their brains are than humans. To which the Callios respond that large brains don’t mean shit when you have opposable thumbs and a harpoon gun.”

“They don’t have a great deal to do with one another. The dolphins here, although were artificially introduced to Pagaton, have lost access to all of the tech that they brought with them and have ‘gone native’. They hate SeaHarvester as much as the Callios do and so the Callios think that they may work with us if we could do something about them.”

Jie shrugs:

“I am not sure how much use that they could be without weapons though. They tend to form pods of a couple of dozen usually.”

There is a long pregnant pause – it appears as if no one can find an easy solution to the problem of getting onboard the SeaHarvester vessel.

Jie feels the rocking sway of the nomad’s make-shift island as it gets tossed about in the rough seas of her home planet. Somewhere in the bowels of the labyrinthine floating village, she has stowed away her Gel-Cloth ships uniform and locked up ‘Black Betty’. She has gone native. On her oriental face, she has applied the grease paint in the manner of a Calios Warrior, one who fought and survived the attacks of the multitude of horrendous sea creatures that Pagaton has to offer. Her hand is tightly clenching a harpoon made of fire-hardened driftwood topped by a blade of Yavru teeth bound together by dried seaweed. She is almost indistinguishable from the others of this place, her olive skin now barely covered by a chain-mail bikini and Skreeker feathers. Her eyes glisten with the fervor of defeating the SeaHarvester menace just as the Elders…her Elders, need her to do.

It would seem she is wholly set upon a path of suicidal destruction.

Grim had noticed the changes in Jie. Never one to wear excessive clothing, her current attire made her look like a wiry Dryad. The warpaint added to the fantastic effect.

Finishing the last of the fish he’d been given for lunch, he turned to Jie and asks:

“What do you want to do, Marine?”

“Sit around here and fish? If we’re going to rescue The Connoisseur, we need to get on it.”

He then ducks the anticipated slap from Jie.

Stian, still conscious of his status of company noob and being in a conundrum as to where this adventure will lead him and/or help him, keeps schtumm in front of the others. But he’s developing a soft spot for the marine and is perplexed by her change of garb and stance, though at the same time, appreciative of a warrior woman in a bikini.

When Stian finds himself alone with Jie, he asks in an offhand, oblique kind of way:

“Marine, have you forgotten your primary mission?”.

Jie is silent for a moment as the realization comes over her that what Stian is saying is true – she agreed to the mission to rescue The Connoisseur and so this must be the primary objective.

She nods:

“OK, getting back to rescuing The Connoisseur it is then.”

The pair of them join back up with the others, where Jie tells them that she has no more objections to focusing on the original mission.

“Well then if there’s no way to get kinked up with the ‘fins then we should get back to hunting for The Connoisseur,” agrees Grim. “But will they take us round to the island with the merc camp we were originally going too before the AGC was downed? What will we do when we get there: low on ammo and without quick way off the island after we’re done?”

“Let me go and see what The Elders have to say,” says Jie, before heading back into the room.

She returns some 15 minutes later.

“Although the Elders were disappointed that we can’t be of immediate help against SeaHarvester they understand our situation,” she says. “They say that they are still very much in our debt for the help on the hunt earlier.”

“As a result, they have agreed to put a gunboat at our disposal to take us to the island and to take us back again afterwards.”

With the decision to concentrate on finding The Connoisseur for now having been made, the party members turn their attention to the subject as to where they should go. They quickly discount the idea of taking the gunboat directly to the island, figuring that the ship would easily be spotted upon its final approach. Instead they decide to take the boat firstly to Soumester and to ask some questions here before deciding on how to make the final approach to the island.

Once all of the party members are in agreement, Jie suggests that they ask if they can leave immediately as it will take more than two days to go to Soumester and they are already way behind on their mission. Jie goes back to ask the Elders if it is possible that they can leave immediately and the Elders agree. One of the gunboat captains is chosen to take the party member on their journey.

The Elders shake hands with everyone, thanking them once more for all their help and then the party members go to collect their belongings before following the gunboat captain to his ship.

By the time that the gunboat is ready for departure, it is already late at night. The party members retire to the hammocks set up for them below decks and most are already asleep by the time that the gunboat sets off from the artificial island that has been their home for the past few days.

Although they are not allowed access to their weapons, the party members are free to do as they wish aboard the raft-town. Everywhere they go, the reactions of the nomads is not terribly friendly and they are viewed with suspicion.

In order to try and ingratiate themselves with the sea nomads, the party members embark on a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign by helping the nomads. Will sets up a little doctor’s surgery and soon has a stream of visitors to the shack that is serving as their base. It certainly seems to be having the desired effect as the attitudes of the nomads are changing, although the contents of his medikit are taking quite a battering in the process.

Grim helps out in the engine-room, helping grease the prop-shaft with his favorite oily rag. The others help out too in any way they can.

Apart from Max.

Max just tries to get off with all of the dusky-skinned maidens he can find until Jie gives him a smack and tells him to lay off in case he tries it on with someone’s daughter/girlfriend/wife/mother and he ends up undoing all of the others’ good work.

While still not assimilated into nomad life, the party members start to earn some respect among the nomads.

There is no light in the hold, but they can tell from their watches that it is a little after dawn when they hear the sound of activity coming from above. They can hear more voices now and signs of other activity. It sounds as if the gunboat has entered some kind of port.

A short while later and the doors opens. Again they are greeted by shotguns as they are urged to follow them. The party members emerge from the dark hold, blinking against the bright sunlight as they see that the gunboat has docked with a vast floating raft town, which must cover around a square kilometre. The town is floating on a large mass of greenmat – matted seaweed – which is covered by a platform of wood, upon which shanties are built. There are around half a dozen gunboats similar to the one that they arrived on moored to the side of the floating town. The town itself is moving, propelled by tens of sails and several steam paddles.

The party members are escorted off the vessel at gunpoint and led through the narrow streets of the floating town. They seem to have attained celebrity status already as there are crowds at every street corner all staring at them.

They are led towards the largest building on the raft – right in the centre. Unlike the other shanties that they have passed, this building is constructed well, its timbers featuring ornate carvings. Jie tells the others that this is the Elder’s Building.

They are forced into the building and left in an antechamber for well over an hour, still guarded by the shotgun bearers. Eventually the doors open to the main chamber and they are urged inside.

Sat along one side of a long desk are the Elders, dressed in blue robes. The party members are forced to stand in the centre of the room, the guards standing behind them.

Jie starts to address the Elders. They look disdainfully at her but don’t interrupt while she speaks. Although the others don’t understand a word of what she is saying but, from the body language of the Elders, it is obvious that it’s not going down too well.

Realizing that she is just making things worse the more she speaks, Jie falls silent. The Elders gabble among themselves. The other party members can make out the word Seaharvester coming up a lot.

“What’s goin’ on?” Max asks. “What they yatterin’ on about?”

“They think that we are spies from Seaharvester,” Jie says nervously. “They are just deciding what our fate should be.”

Max sighs deeply.

“Bleedin’ ’ell, girl,” Max says. “Remind me to give you some bullshittin’ lessons one of these days.”

“Let me ’ave a go now. You just translate.”

Max launches himself into a wonderful tale about how they are from an international aid organization who were despatched in order to send gifts to the nomads and to interview them about the activities of Seaharvester as Will is a top lawyer who is planning on prosecuting the organization for exceeding their quotas. He tells them that the desalination rig that they brought with them is a gift from the organization to thank them for their help.

Jie diligently translates and then everyone waits to hear their reaction. The reaction is definitely better, but still the Elders are not completely convinced by Max’s story. They debate the pros and cons among themselves for the best part of an hour, but cannot all agree one way or another. The Elders are totally split, with three believing Max’s tale and the other three still thinking that they are spies.

Eventually the most senior of the Elders makes his casting vote. Jie tells the others that they intend to test the party members’ mettle to see if they are worthy of standing at the side of the Callios. They will take part in the next daghadsi hunt, whenever they next spot a herd.

Jie thanks the Elders profusely and then they leave.

The guards usher the party members out. They are relieved to see that they aren’t pointing the shotguns at them any more.

The girl who originally discovered them is waiting outside for them. She leads them to her shack and offers them some space inside it and some food. It’s not much, but definitely better than the night that they spent in the open dinghy at least.

The long night passes uneventfully and the party members resume their watch of the horizon once it gets light again.

Stian, asks why with a small army at his disposal and no law enforcement to speak of to worry about, would the Overbluff chap have us bombed discreetly? I guess it’s a cheap option and takes fewer people to do but given his audacity at snatching the Connoisseur, it would appear he or his minions have a few more options at their beck and call. Who tipped him off then? Which of ours snooping got back to him? Are his minions still watching us from orbit or afar to be sure we’re “dealt with”?

“Unless of course, you guys have other enemies that maybe now would be a good time to tell me about?” Stian finishes.

Jie listens to Stian’s question about other enemies while operating the starboard oar:

“We at Intersol tm have many enemies Mr. Lokkeburg. We keep quite a detailed list of them in a note book in the…” She looks back in the general direction of the crash. “..AGC.”

Max shrugs:

“All I can think of is someone found out that we were asking a bunch of questions about the Overbluff and were put under observation. The problem with the AGC … Horkalie bless it’s little metallic soul … is that it wasn’t exactly subtle. It does stick out like a sore thumb.”

He shrugs.

“Maybe they were trackin’ it to see what we were up to and, when they were pretty sure that our plan was to head for the Overbluff’s island, they took us down in a place where we’d be sure to end up in a watery grave.”

The remainder of the day passes with nothing but the seemingly endless tract of blue sea spreading in all directions. But then, in the early afternoon, they see a tiny sail on the horizon.

Everyone starts shouting as loud as they can and waving whatever they have at hand in order to attract the attention of the vessel. With great relief, they see that the vessel is coming towards them.

As it comes closer, they see that it is a tiny boat – no more than 5m long with a simple trail. The boat has just one occupant, a cinnamon-skinned girl who bears quite a strong resemblance to Jie. As the girl sees the party members, the girl looks afraid and hesitates, starting to turn the boat around. Jie has to do some fast talking, jabbering away with the girl in order to reassure her that they are friendlies.

They spend five minutes talking until the boat heads back in the direction that it came from.

“She said that she is going to get help,” Jie explains.

There is nothing that the party members can do apart from to wait and hope that the girl was telling the truth.

Much to their relief, just as dusk is falling, the see smoke on the horizon. As the light is fading, they can just see the form of a steamboat heading towards them. They flash torches in order to guide the steamboat towards them.

As the ship pulls up, they see that there are a dozen crew-members onboard, all of whom are pointing either shotguns or sharpshooter rifles at them. None of them looks too happy.

Once again, Jie does the talking, holding her hands in the air.

“Nobody make any sudden moves,” she says to the other party members. “Keep your hands away from your weapons.”

The other party members do as she says.

After a few minutes of negotiation, the crew of the boat somewhat reluctantly drop a rope ladder down to them, allowing the party members to climb up one by one. They are allowed to bring their belongings with them, but they are separated from their weapons as they get onboard.

Still at gunpoint, the party members are led down to the dark hold below at gunpoint. Without saying anything, they are locked in. A few hours later, the girl from the boat who originally found them brings them down some food and fresh water. She says nothing and leaves as soon as she has dropped off the meal.

Once again, there is nothing that the party members can do other than to wait and see where they are being taken and what their fate will be once they get there.

The party members are up early to catch breakfast as soon as it is served at 0600. Once fed and watered, they all check out of The Savoy and pile their luggage into the AGC before Max puts the AGC on maximum thrust and it shoots up vertically. He then puts his foot hard down and the vehicle accelerates hard, thrusting everyone into their seats.

Soon Furingort is just a blur in the rear view vidscreen as the AGC shoots over the rugged terrain of Quanchiovt. After a couple of hours, the mountain range forming the spine of the island passes beneath the high flying vehicle and Max starts to descend. Three more hours later and the bright blue waters of the ocean are ahead.

Once the AGC is over the sea, Max brings the AGC down, skimming over the azure waters just a few metres over the gentle waves. After a couple of hours, the beauty of the sea starts to wear off a little and, with no land in sight, it starts to get a little repetitive.

Having Max driving also means that Max is in control of the stereo and, after several hours of non-stop dubstep, it’s starting to grate on people’s nerves.

During conversation, the others learn that Stian is also very experienced with grav vehicles and so it is suggested that Max takes a break from driving. He is getting a little bored himself and so doesn’t object at moving over to give Stian a go at the controls.

The rest of the afternoon passes uneventfully. In this part of the ocean, they pass over many of the ‘greenmats’ that the oceans of Pagaton are famous for, impenetrable masses of seaweed that only the sturdiest of ironclads are able to penetrate.

Stian stifles a yawn as the journey continues. It is late afternoon now and they are around 4500km of the way through the 7000km journey.

All of a sudden there is an almighty explosion from beneath the AGC which sends the party members flying from their seats in a hail of shrapnel. Stian wrestles with the controls as the AGC tumbles from the sky.

Stian wrestles with the joystick, trying to pull the stricken vehicle out from its dive as there is no power coming from any of the grav modules. He manages to pull the craft up and levels it out just as it hits the water. The craft hits the surface of the waves with an almighty jolt which launches it a few metres off the surface again, sending it skimming like a stone. It bounces again, then again as it loses velocity before finally coming to a rest.

The passengers are all battered and bruised from the experience, but no one is badly injured. Which is lucky.

Water is starting to seep inside the craft now as the explosion from beneath shattered the integrity of the vehicle.

It is obvious to all that the ship is beyond repair. She’s going down and, unless they get out within the next few minutes, all aboard will be going down along with her.

Jie gets tumbled around the inside of the flyer. Immediately she disengages the floatation device cunningly wedged under her seat then helps the others escape the sinking ship if need be. All happy, warm giddiness about being back on her home paradise world…gone.

Will’s first thought (after “ouch” as Grim’s knee drives the lumbar support pad on Will’s seat deep into his kidney, is “who let the woman drive?”

Realizing it was Stian at the helm, Will elects not to voice this. He then realizes that the ship is sinking and he can’t swim, resulting in a state of panics. He thrashes his way pitifully towards the exit, using every ounce of his meagre strength, and stepping on Grim’s sore knee. He does remember the medkit though.

Thinking himself a lucky bugger as well as how sensible a precaution it was to fasten his seatbelt Stian and has a moments thought about how his gear is stowed and what kind of flotation/rescue gear is on board and where the fuck is it?

As Stian unfastens the belt, he tries to radio up to Autumn on the Princess. All he can get from it is a few seconds of static though before water gets into the circuit and the radio expires completely.

Max, who is sat next to him was not wearing his seat belt and was smacked against the windscreen by the impact.

“Fack,” he cries holding his bloody nose. “That’s the last time I’m lettin’ you drive.”

As the water starts to pool around his feet, he then realizes that this is the last time anyone is going to be driving the vehicle.

“Fack!” he cries again. “I can’t fackin’ swim. I fackin’ ‘ate water. I won’t even drink the shit.”

Seeing how helpless Max is, Jie paddles through the water, and drags him out while thrusting a floatation device into his hand.

“Damn! Now we’ll have to spring for a new AGC and I’ll never get that pre-owned General Shipyards Axsailorater2 Manuever unit for the Princess!’ is Grim’s first thought after the rough landing.

Rubbing his sore knee as he spots the water seeping into the AGC, Grim grabs his Rifle and slings it over his back. Then he apes Jie by grabbing one of the standard issue HelpMeWe’reSinking™ flotation seat cushions, and, elbowing a few less important people out of the way, prepares to exit the vehicle calmly…

Stian, suited up in his vacc suit and breathing air so he won’t drown and using an uninflated HelpMeWe’reSinking™ vest strapped on so I won’t be sinking, gets out of his seat, taking a last glance at the caution lights on the instrument MFD to see if there’s any hint as to what happened. Although the display is lit up like a Christmas tree with warning lights now which are starting to fizzle out as sea water starts destroying the electronics, he is pretty sure that the explosion was not caused by any vehicle malfunction, or as a result of his driving.

He then calmly heads to the gear racks where he starts by strapping gear to him and continues by passing a dinghy to Taeva through the hatch in the rear of the vehicle.

Max and Will are of little use to the salvage operation and so, once they have their floatation devices employed, they just get out of the sinking vehicle and stay out of the way of the others.

Jie, Taeva and Grim manage to get the two dinghies employed and also a couple of the floatation devices.

By the time that they have managed to do this, the AGC is dangerously full of water already and it is now going to be a matter of seconds before the weight of the sea water inside takes the AGC to the sea bottom – taking whoever is still trapped in there along with them.

They manage to throw the lighter and most useful of the items inside the dinghies before they see that the AGC is now keeling on its side and rapidly starting to descend. Jie is the last one out as she holds her breath and escapes from the sinking vehicle, joining the others on the surface.

Grim and Jie both haul themselves into one of the dinghies and then start to pull the others inside it too.

As the last of the party members reaches the safety of the dinghies, they see the front end of the AGC finally descending down to the depths in a mass of bubbles.

“Fackin’ piece of crap AGC,” jabbers an obviously panicked Max. “Fackin’ thing was still under warranty too. I’m gonna give the fackin’ dealer a piece of my mind when we get back to Glisten.”

“That was no mechanical failure,” replies Grim, grimly. “That was a bomb.”

Jie looks around, but there appears to be no sign of any land or any vessels within sight. They are stranded at sea, and the light is already starting to fade.

All are very much aware of the fact that they are well over 1000km from any land here and so there is little point in trying to paddle in any particular direction. All they can do is to wait and hope and pray that there is someone around that might find them floating around out here.

They settle down for what most fear will be a long wait out in the ocean. At least the sea is calm and it is possible for one person to curl up in the bottom of each dinghy and sleep for a while.