Leedor on Aramis, Part 2

Where the adventurers help an old friend get back some lost property that may be far more important than anyone suspects.

This note is from the April 20, 2014 session and was mostly written by Kay. I did the museum exterior rendering using Sketchup and Kerkythea and the map is from Travellermap.com.

Continued from: Leedor on Aramis, Part 1

Location: In the City of Leedor on the planet Aramis in the Aramis Subsector.

Imperial Date: 122-1104

Evening.
Kipenzi, Leon, and FIG come back to the ship with a *very* injured Vargr. As Medicus works on the patient, Kipenzi relates her personal history. Short version, she and the Vargr, Gvoudzon, were crewmates together on a Hercules class freighter, the Tower Neuberg that had been attacked by a Vargr pirate band, the Kforuzeng. Between them, they a) fought them off and b) convinced them to leave. Kipenzi feels *extremely* indebted to Gvoudzon and will, as she says, “When I saw him being beaten up in an alley by thugs with pipes, Yeah, I will shoot to kill. And if there’s a playground full of children behind them, they’re on their own.”

After hearing this, Gvoudzon feels comfortable sharing his story.

Something to remember about the Vargr as a species: they have a word that loosely translates as “charisma”. It means ‘top dog’. They will follow a personal leader, and give their loyalty to the person, not the position. Unlike in the Imperium, Vargr space doesn’t have hereditary organizations, they are inherently unstable.

Gvoudzon

His story: Gvoudzon was born on Ughz, capital of the Commonality of Kedzudh. He joined the Kforuzeng pirates (yes - the same ones who attacked Kipenzi’s ship), a corsair band, a relatively small group of about 20 ships, who worked as mercenaries. If jobs were scarce they were pirates. Gvoudzon rose to the rank of force leader. He had been running these raids. When there was a group power shakeup, he left because he was on the wrong side of the power struggle and he moved into Imperial space.

So when the same band of pirates attacked the Tower Neuberg, he REALLY didn’t want to get captured and helped fight them off.

After the Aramis Towers went bankrupt, he joined the Aegzaeng, another Vargr band in the same business. This fleet was older and smaller, and he started off in courier work. He became a go-between for 2 pirate groups, coordinated joint operations, negotiating fees, etc.

The Kforuzeng band grew in size and power, absorbing smaller groups, often with bloody tactics and after absorbing a group, the Uekuez, they got a reputation for ruthlessness. Their operations were to raid Vargr worlds and then offer to protect those worlds from pirate raids (i.e. protection racket).

Gvoudzon negotiated for his group (Aegzaeng) with Tukera Lines to protect their routes (i.e. protection racket), and got money to add ships and range.

The Kforuzeng would eventually absorb the Aegzaeng group and it was a loss of face to Gvoudzon, so he quit.

Gvoudzon said that over the last decade, the Kforuzeng instituted a communications system in which messages were somehow secreted in jeweled brooches carried by their emissaries. The system was used for internal communication and for communication with their emissaries to other corsair bands. Gvoudzon and other emissaries became aware of this system as it became standard procedure for the Kforuzeng. Sometimes, Kforuzeng emissaries would ask Gvoudzon to carry a brooch back to their headquarters.

He had always been fascinated by the brooches which, in addition to their main function, were very beautiful. Unfortunately, the Kforuzeng kept track of each brooch and there was no way for Gvoudzon to get one. However, in Gvoudzon’s last days with the Aegzaeng, an opportunity arose. A Kforuz courier en route from the Imperium (Junidy was mentioned) delivered a brooch to the Kforuz emissary at Asgza headquarters for transfer to Kforuz headquarters. The emissary was busy at the time and asked Gvoudzon to carry the brooch. Gvoudzon agreed, packed his possessions, took passage offworld and was never seen again. "This would explain why Tukera is looking for brooches - duh" - Kipenzi

After Gvoudzon left he took odd jobs toward Imperial space away from Kforuzeng & Aegzaeng territory. He ended up on Aramis working as a shuttle pilot.

He pawned the brooch for money on hard times, but they sold it to the museum before he could get it back. G checked the secret compartment before he pawned it, and it was empty. People who beat him up wanted the brooch (apparently didn’t know he had pawned it)

123-1104
Gvoudzon needed to call his employer to tell him he’s not coming into work. Sam, Kipenzi and Medicus went to the pawn shop for information and they get a picture of the brooch and go into the museum, located directly across the street, to see if it’s on display. Medicus asks the director of the museum about the brooch and is told he doesn’t have anything like that. The curator and a security guard watch Medicus suspiciously (he looks Zhodani and was asking some suspicious questions).

Outside, Medicus attempts to break into the museum database. He was not able to get an inventory but finds a map of the museum showing the non-public areas of the museum including the staff lockers and a vault.

Sam’s went to a jewelry shop next to the pawn shop. Apparently someone was asking about Vargr brooches in the last couple of days. The brooches are wooden with real jewels, and all of them have secret compartments; they’re used exclusively by the pirates for carrying instructions.

Kipenzi sets up in the coffee shop across the street with a laptop control panel for our probe and sends one into the air conditioning ducts into the museum to spy.

Leon and Sam go into the museum with our portable x-ray scanner to look into the vault room, the director’s office and a storage room. No joy.

Sam sees the director leave the room and goes in, looks through his drawers, finds a photo of the brooch and a note attached. It’s an X-boat message:

XBOAT MESSAGE	2. Addressee MUSEUM OF ARAMIS
1. Date of Preparation 335-1103	3. Destination LEEDOR, ARAMIS/ARAMIS
4. Message Text MESSAGE ALERT: THE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION, TUKERA LINES, HAS AN URGENT NEED FOR SMALL DECORATIVE BROOCHES OF THE KIND PICTURED ON THE ACCOMPANYING FACSIMILE IN CONNECTION WITH AN ART RESEARCH PROJECT. ANY REASONABLE PRICE WILL BE PAID (TRADE CODE LEVEL GAMMA) FOR PRIME EXAMPLES OF THIS ARTIFACT, IN ADDITION TO A 40 PERCENT FINDER'S FEE. COMMUNICATE BY MOST DIRECT MEANS AVAILABLE WITH TUKERA LINES SUBSECTOR MAIN OFFICE, JUNIDY/ARAMIS. ATTENTION: ART PROJECT.

"Hmm. We need to ask Gvoudzon when he left with the brooch." - Kipenzi

We realize that the Wolblutn departed after the sale (may mean nothing).

Leon researched what ships have come into port in the last week and left just after the pawn shop sale. A couple of ships arrive and leave per day, and it’s common not to file a flight plan.

Sam researched Tukera Lines. There are 5 main commercial lines, but Tukera has almost a monopoly in this area. Tukera also runs the Aramis shipyard. Fig used to work for Oberlines transport, which competes with Akerut Lines and whose main office is on Paya.

Kipenzi starts looking for some of the old crew of the Tower Neuberg, to try to get news. Anis Kasavubu, engineer, is now manager of the Leeder life support office and on the planet now.

124-1104
Kipenzi calls Anis about info on Tukera Lines. Tukera and Oberlines have a major contract dispute on a maintenance facility on Nakoto.

"Hmm. Wonder if the crashed ship had been ‘maintenanced’ on Nakoto?"

Two ships left port during the right time, but not in the right direction - Leon checked.

Anis calls back and says there are three of the old crew on the same Tukera ship: Peggy Pember: first officer on the Gigantic, Hercules class, hasn’t been here but does the Aramis/Deneb route, and Gerald Dance, Peg’s husband is chief engineer. Also, Kujuwakwangu Nkrumak is astrogator.

On a *completely* separate note, Leon is approached by Eneri Giillaan and asked to meet at a small restaurant downtown for a business proposition.

Noon
Leon agrees to meet with him, and Medicus accompanies him with a button cam. This guy was at the Travellers Aid Society when Leon and Fig were dining on Capt Bannerji’s tab. He overheard that they were guests of Bannerji, he says he was a former partner and did business with Sternmetal Horizons. He wants to know our association with Capt Bannerji and offers Leon 100 credits for what he knows. Leon says “no”. Leon tells him we found something he had, gave us dinner, and Bannerji took off while Leon was here (TAS).

Giillaan is very interested in Bannerji. Leon’s invited to contact Eneri Giilaan at Junidy and is given a contact code, if the opportunity arises to give him more info. Leon thinks he’s ex-Navy or maybe not ex. Leon checks on Sternmetal Horizons.

Sternmetal Horizons, LIC: Sternmetal is primarily engaged in mining operations and manufacturing. It produces mostly power generation equipment of all types, including power plants for starships, air and ground vehicles, cities, and industrial installations. Additionally, Sternmetal is the largest manufacturer of food synthesis equipment in the Imperium.

Stock Ownership: Imperial family— 2%, Hortalez et Cie— 29%, Investment trusts- 32%, Noble families- 18%, Antares Holdings, LIC- 19%

Sam gets the jewelry store to make a copy of the brooch in 3 days. Gvoudzon goes with him. While Sam puts in the order at the jewelry store, Gvoudzon smells something at a furniture store on the way. They find a vase that smells exactly like his brooch, imported from Pysadi for 220 credits, made of howood. Sam buys the vase for the wood and gives it to the jewelry store to make the fake brooch out of.

Gvoudzon goes back to the museum w/ video cam and radio, starts getting the smell of the brooch at the back loading dock area.

125-1104, late afternoon
Kipenzi went back to the coffee shop with the x-ray scanner and probe control. Sam x-ray scanned the loading dock and Kipenzi brought the probe into the loading dock’s air vents. Medicus, watching the sensor feed from the ship, spots the brooch on a work bench next to a display being worked on. Sam waited until the worker left for a break, then goes in to grab it. He walks out and we all return to the Skylark.

When we got it back and examined it closely, discovered that although the secret compartment was empty, the wood itself is slightly magnetic and was being used like a magnetic strip (ie cassette recording). We haven't decrypted it yet.

Sam has the jewelry store make the copy with the empty compartment but with a second secret compartment to put in a communicator dot/radio receiver so we can listen in to anyone trying to decode the fake magnetic strip.

We decide that all roads are leading to Junidy (Tukera brooch and Eneri Giillaan). So Sam is getting cargo for route: Aramis, Lewis, Feneteman, Junidy. We can get there faster than anyone else. It’ll take us 3 jumps. BTW, Lewis is a red zone planet, interdicted as an Imperial preserve, so we’ll be fueling up on the gas giant; and no sales of cargo there.

Sam will take 3 days to get the cargo ready… We still want to find the men who beat up Gvoudzon and ask them some questions about the brooch.

Continued in Leedor on Aramis, Conclusion

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet.