Session 03

The Meeting

The AC meet in their private hideout common room to perform what amounts to a "company meeting" where individuals share relevant updates and news with one another and plan for the days to come.

Usul reports about his meeting with the JIRA representatives and officially asks his companions for support. In so doing he expresses his passion for whatever could further the jerboa cause, but also his fears and doubts regarding this organisation's methods. All in agreement, the meeting with Nour and Shams is set in two days time.

Sanmeria then brings to the table the problems that the recent Patrician's edict is causing to the orphans of Maple Tunnel. Thanks to her (secret) noble-society background she is able to find [Recall Lore] a loophole in the law's text, and a plan is hatched: beggars are illegal but hawkers and peddlers are perfectly fine... so we'll round up the orphans, house them somewhere safe, and turn them into an organised network of little vagrant merchants (and discreet ears on the streets).
Problem is, this requires intervention from the Guild both in terms of resources, logistics and permission. We thus decide to present our plan to the Guild as a business opportunity rather than a way to save the orphans.

Finally Cedric and Dayne report on their worries and fears about the situation brewing in the south, but the lack of concrete info ties our hand. So we decide to bring the issue to the Guild to try and find what's what.

The Other Meeting

The AC request and obtain a meeting with the Guild's triumvirate, the three people that have been calling the shots in the organisation for quite some time now:

• Quill

• Little Mike

• Ben LeBrie

Sanmeria lays out the "business" proposal with eloquence [Sway].

In the meantime Usul attentively observes the triumvirates reactions [Read Someone]. Sanmeria notices that and tries to address each triumvir in a direct way, hoping to make their reactions a bit more evident [Intervene]. Thanks to this, Usul puts an idea into motion, silently sending his pet spider, Wilson, to roam in the room in a very visible and (apparently) aimless way.

The presentation is good and convincing, but Little Mike voices doubts and reservations on the effectiveness of using children as spies, and the ability of the AC to properly handle such a "tool".
[so the Sway now calls for a roll]

Usul interjects [Intervene] by calling everyone's attention to Wilson. Everyone saw him roaming the room, but ignored him because "it's just Wilson". This was the intended point. But Wilson is a [savage] little thing and independently decided [World Reaction] to also grab a reserved Guild document from the table and bring it to Usul. Faking nonchalance Usul returns it without peeking at its content, as if it was all part of the show.

The end result is positive, so all is well, and the AC obtain the Guild support and blessing, although they are now responsible for this new operation and will be scrutinised and judged for it.

Through all of this, Ben has been mostly absent minded.
He animates when Dayne asks about the Guild's plans for the south, and reveals the "gossip" he heard about a bloodthirsty group of raiders scouring those lands. The meeting is soon led to an end, with the official position being "mind your own business and don't poke in Guild affairs". But something feels off.

On her way out Sanmeria notices [Look Around] that the papers in front of Ben's seat all seem to be letters with sigils from outside of CheddarWood, most of which she recognises as coming from southern counties. One is open and quite visible, and she manages to see a few words mentioning "trouble" and "problems".

Once everyone is out, Ben asks Dayne to stay. Alone in front of the triumvirate Dayne is pressed for more details about the southern riders, but to avoid divulging Cedric's personal affairs he chooses to declare that he knows nothing more than he has already said. In so doing he kind of insults Ben for not being a good spymaster, which is made worse buy the (poorly concealed) snarky reaction Quill had. This prompted Dayne to figure out what he knew about her [Recall Lore]: from past history together he gathered that she is always direct in her expressions, so such a display now might mean problems and tensions between Quill and Ben behind the scenes.

Ben decides to end the meeting without an immediate retort.

The Other OTHER Meeting

A couple of days pass. The AC are getting ready for the upcoming meeting with the JIRA. And the plan to convert the Maple Tunnel orphans into spying peddlers is set into motion.

One day after meeting the triumvirate, Quill visits the AC in their private den. After some oblique exchanges it becomes clear that she is worried about Ben's involvement with the southern riders. Pressed for more details by Usul [Sway] she mentioned how Ben's involvement with the riders seems much deeper than how he tries to make it look, and that she worries it could be part of a manoeuvre to somehow increase his personal standing in the Guild ... which, as Dayne also points out, could be particularly problematic as these raiders seem like unusually dangerous and unpredictable allies.

The AC agree to keep an unofficial and very discreet eye on the matter. Cedric offers to reveal his personal interests (the money shipments to DorsetShire) in order to use them to prod Little Mike's position and involvement in the raiders affair.