Homecoming Session 4/03/09, part 2
The Audience With the Archduke
(Homecoming Spoilers Continue)
The Travellers that were in the conflict at Lirguu had an audience with Archduke Marcus Aaron Erechs. Isadora and Ayza were invited along to stay at the estate, but weren't present at the audience.
Prior to the audience, Diogenes sheds a little more light on Niikiru's handler, saying that by tracing some contacts between them, he's highly likely to be a ZAK agent, the Sharushid's covert action arm (ZAK stands for
Zulii Aana Korameshh, keeper of Dark Secrets), but he knows little more than that.
The audience was held in a minor conference chamber rather than the grand audience hall. The Archduke himself is a physically unimpressive man in his 50s, and he attends the audience in attire that resemble formal business attire rather than formal regalia.
There, he asked the travellers for their side of the story, which also served to catch up the other players. He querried them on several points of evidence, like how they could know Lirguu was the Wanderer homeworld and how they substantiate the incredible claim that the Vilani bureau Sharurshid acted to wipe out the Wanderers and then erased all knowledge of this event.
The Archduke also asked about the agents that harassed the Travellers and how they knew or suspected that they were Shurushid agents. At this point, the Travellers bring to light that they had found Niikiru and turned him over to the authorities. The Archduke immediately calls the watch captain in to have Niikiru transferred to the custody of his agents so he can be debriefed for his investigation (and so he doesn't conveniently disappear at the hands of ZAK agents).
Interlude: The Meeting with Lifters
After that, the Travellers are dismissed. While discussing aspects of the audience, one of the steward announces a visitor who wants to speak with the travellers. The group assents to the request.
The visitor turns out to be a vargr (for non-traveller players in the audience out there: a genetically uplifted wolf who have expanded to become a major race in their own right.) Some travellers recognize him as being "Lifters" Loursegh, three times Ley Sector Prix Imperial champion, and now banned from all racing events after a dramatic incident in which he assaulted another pilot for causing a fatal crash. However, lifters appears dressed more as a businessman than a racer now.
Lifters says he now works for the Archduke (and not as a chauffeur), and presents a proposition to the travellers:
I’m here because you seem like people who’ll try to do what’s right, and I’m making this contact in person because I’m never wrong about who’s the good guys and who’s… not.
There’s stuff going on, Gentles. Bad stuff. 3D action-vid bad. And not just this lovely can of snakes or eels or whatever it is you’ve opened with Sharushid and the Wanderers. And so I’ll ask you a question in a minute. If you say no, the Archduke will be very nice to you. You’ll get a mention on the Domain Roll of Honor. Maybe get put forward for a knighthood. You’ll probably get another ship to make more trouble in. Plus a stipend for the next few years. Good things. Worth having.
And if you say yes, you’ll get nothing.
His Grace will damn you with faint praise and send you on your way. Anyone who hears about it will--quite rightly--say you don’t deserve a thing anyway since all you did was cause a whole lot of trouble and sleeping hogs should be left lying about, or whatever it is they say. I mean it – if you say yes, you’ll get nothing. Not a thing. And here we are, the big question. Don’t answer straight away:
When the time comes, will you be the only one?
I’ll explain that. When the Domain is threatened , will you respond as if you were the only one who could save it? When the news must be carried, will you leave it to others, or will you make the journey as if you were the only one? When the odds are impossible, when you ARE the only one, will you fight on alone to save what is precious? When His Grace asks of you the impossible, when you are the only one he can trust, will you be faithful?
The players briefly debate the meaning of this, and interestingly enough, the rogue was the first one I heard pipe in with yes. But after a few theories as to Lifters' hidden meaning, everyone says "yes". (Which sort of surprised me--I figured in a group this large, someone would be all in it for new ships, etc.)
At this, Lifters' tone becomes more formal, and he spells out the implications of what they've assented to:
Bad times are coming. We can’t know what the future holds. We can only hope that as each crisis looms there will be someone to bring warning; someone to stand in the breach until help arrives. In quiet places where no-one will hear of you, you will guard the Domain as I do. And you will not be alone.
You will be given a set of emergency codes. These will identify you as members of an organization answering to the Archduke. They will not enable you to commandeer navy ships or such, because they are known only to a small number of individuals. But if you send an authentic code and another agent receives it, then he or she will help as best they can. You are, of course, expected to answer the call if you receive it.
There is no chain of command. Each of us answers to the Archduke alone. There is no support structure and no salary. Upon your retirement you will be well looked after, but until then you must rely on your own resources. This asks a lot and gives little, but we are not hiring mercenaries, we are creating a secret siblinghood composed only of the best people; those who will do right when the time comes as if they were the only one.
And you already know exactly how many members this organization has, don’t you?
The answer Isodora offers up is to count the number of people in the room. Lifters grins and offers up the answer he was looking for. "No. There is always,
only one." With that, and with no ceremony, Lifters' wishes the players luck and departs.
The Archduke's Proclamation
Later, the players are summoned to the grand throne hall to attend the Archduke's proclamation with respect to the situation. The travellers are announced as they enter; the wanderer and Lirguu human delegations have already entered and been announced.
Now the Archduke is dressed in his formal regalia. After all in attendance are seated, the Archduke stands to pronounce his judgement.
In summary the archduke states that both the Wanderers and the human population of Lirguu have legitimate claims to Lirguu, but the Imperial charter protecting world governments does not apply, as the Imperium has no jurisdiction.
However, the Archduke presents a legally palatable compromise. The Imperium has a lease to wilderness land which they had leased from Lirguu for the purpose of creation of a forward scout base (but had never exercised for that purpose). The Archduke proposes that this region be given now and in perpetuity to the Wanderers as a site for settlement and colonization, on the condition that the Wanderers confine their activities to this region (barring further negotiation with the human government of Lirguu), the Imperium recognizes the Wanderer presence as legitimate, an Imperial diplomatic mission be established to act as an intermediary, and the human government permit the presence of a specified number of wanderers.
Both the human and Wanderer delegations agree to the compromise and the Wanderers offer their own statement. They state that they are no longer the same people that inhabited the world called Lirguu. They are now the wandering people, their how is the space between the stars where their world-ships dwell. Lirguu is an important spiritual site for them, but they have no intention to re-colonize the world.
The wanderers also reveal the real reason that they believe the Vilani feared the Wanderers. At the time, the Vilani had monopolized Jump-2 technology, while most of the minor states had Jump-1 at best. But when the Vilani encountered the Wanderers, they had access to jump 3 (and above) technology. Indeed, they could produce ships as high as jump-6 (which at the time period this adventure was set in, was not even common technology in the Imperium.)
The Adventure Ends, with others in store
The players depart the gateway spire, are quietly given their codes, and offered transit back to Lirguu. When they get there, they find Lifters already there, helping a crew of workers prep the Heart of Gold for transit to a wanderer ship that will take the ship back to a shipyard where the hull and structure can be repaired and the power plant replaced.
. Trying to spread the Good Word (Traveller) is not always easy, lol.
