50 Fathoms - Session 29

9th May 2020

Saturday lunchtime and I'm sitting in the living room, in front of my laptop and logged into 'Zoom'.
The normal Sunday 50 Fathoms game is on Saturday this week.

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Location: Outside Baltimus.

We entered Baltimus' port. Despite being early in the morning, it is already loud, busy and crowded with people.

We noticed that black flags are hanging out of various windows. We asked around about who was being mourned here? It turned out that 'Byron Baltimus' was still being mourned by some people in the city.
People are less enthusiastic about his son 'Bruno', who seen as hedonistic and uninterested in ruling the city.

After speaking with the harbour master, we were discussing our next step when some sort of commotion broke out.

A man was complaining loudly about the 'Baltimus family', accusing them of being treacherous and betrayers of King Amemnus?. Mostly the crowd boos and heckles him - although this seems mostly out of respect for the deceased Byron and not Bruno.

It appears that this man is well known for this behaviour as at least one person in the crowd knew his identity and told him to 'go home'. The man's name was 'Manny Morkan'.

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We were in Baltimus was to find out about 'The Sword Of Amemnus' and we needed to speak with Bruno or read his father's journals, to hopefully find out more.

There were two possible approaches that we were considering.

The first was to get an audience with Bruno and explain that unless we rectify the situation, the world would slowly drown and that we needed his help. If this approach worked, we would have secured the maximum level of assistance from Bruno, but only if we convinced him. If he did not believe us for any reason, whether he saw us as con-men or just didn't believe us, then it make getting the journals even harder.

Since we knew how much Bruno liked to party, the second approach would require us to somehow get invited to or gatecrash one of his well known parties. Then we could 'attempt to ingratiate ourselves with him and proceed from there.

It may have seemed strange to say, but next we decided to go shopping for clothes! Either we needed to look respectable and serious, or we needed to look wealthy and decadent. In either case, we needed the clothes to match the roll.
I sold my used 'blue bear suit' and with the funds bought some sets of expensive clothes. The others more or less did the same thing.
Since the clothes were all fitted, it would take a couple of days for all them to be prepared.

By this time it was afternoon. I decided that I would investigate Manny Morkan, his talk of 'the betrayal of Amemnus, had piqued my curiosity.

I asked around and apparently, Morkan was well known for being something of a rabble-rouser and constantly going on about how 'Baltimus stabbed Amemnus in the back'.
I also learnt where he liked to go for a drink, an establishment called 'The Crow's Nest'.

We also learnt that there was a British actor who 'toured' around the area and would put on productions of 'Shakespearean plays' for the people of Ograpog.

Shia did some investigating of her own and discovered that this actor was a bit of hedonist himself and for being greedy and having what could only be described as 'shady' contacts.
Shia also managed to acquire a copy if the 'Macbeth' play and began reading it.

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​Baxter meanwhile, went exploring.
Shia had, a little while ago relieved Baxter of all his money, or so she thought. Baxter had slyly kept some funds in a 'hidden stash'.

Eventually, Baxter found himself in the audience for a 'Secret Play'!
The play was a rather bawdy affair that gently mocked and satirised the 'authorities', however towards the end became more serious. All in all, it lasted about two hours.

When the play finished, Baxter went drinking! During this time, he was approached by what could be described as 'three unsavoury individuals'.
They asked if he could transport some 'merchandise' for them?
Baxter said it was possible, but this depended on details such as price, location, etc.
The three individuals then asked Baxter if he was OK transporting slaves? Baxter said he 'would have to think about'. 

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As the day came to its conclusion, I went looking for Manny Morkan in The Crow's Next.

Luck is with me and I found him.
I managed to introduce myself to Morkan.
When I spoke to him, I explained that I found what he said about 'Balitmus betraying Amemnus'. Since I was not in Ograpog at the time.
But Morkan would only talk about Bruno, he seemed obsessed about it. He told me how Bruno treated people like objects and just used them.
I couldn't get anymore out of Morkan before he departed. After he had left, I noticed that a note had been left where he was sitting.
It said one word. 'Versalis'.
I did not know what this meant. It was getting late, so I went to meet up with my companions.

Ensuring that I wasn't being followed, I returned to the others.

It was at this time that Manny Morkan appeared.
He approached us and said he was looking for. 'People of vengeance, people not afraid to get their hands bloody and were prepared to stab someone in the back'.

We noticed in the background behind Markan, there was a young woman trying to look discrete.

We asked Morkan to explain was Versalis meant and he told us it was a 'mystical' sword.
He then went on to tell us that he had invitations to Bruno's next gala. He wanted us to go to the gala and wait until Bruno went to a private event at the gala and to murder Bruno!

By now, he had practically become rabid.