Feeling some urgency now that they’ve been told to save the universe, Ilyana Valric teaches Ravenna how to modify a teleport spell to come and go from the Edge of the Serpent.
Casting her newly modified teleport spell, the troupe returns to the Salt House for hot baths and Masha’s incredible soup. AS news of their return spreads though the neighborhood, a runner appears for Magnus who is summoned to Lady Catriona. She tells him that she fears for her safety during the Gathering of Wagons tomorrow night. The Gathering of Wagons is the official start to the trading season and an annual festival is hosted by the Blue Chanty Inn.
MK decides to run for Senator and begins his campaign by planning a bear-baiting and spring carnival event on two weeks (April 15).
March 31 – 9:30pm folks gather at the Blue Chanty inn which is the starting line of the trade season. Mar’Khabazza, Magnus, Ravenna arrive first, followed by Drelna the Sage and Lady Catriona, (with House Tesper and House Terilaen in tow). The rest of the noble houses show up and last to arrive is Rin’ji and Bates. Rin’ji is indifferent to Mar’Khabazza’s presence and mingles with he crowd, but Bates is staring daggers the entire time.
As the evening progresses wagons start to trickle in for the start. Magnus spots a threatening assassin.
Rinji/Bates bring 36 wagons to the starting line.
At midnight, Drelna does the big reveal and 50 wagons of iron and steel materialize from garages across opal.
Bates senses a doublecross and grows uneasy. Catriona uses an outdoor outhouse and is stalked by the assassin. Magnus gets the drop on the would-be assassin, executing a martial throw that breaks hip and hand. Passers-by recognize Magnus as Rowan McNabb and leave the scene “We don’t want any of that trouble”. Catriona emerges from the outhouse and sees Magnus standing over the assassin. “I’m not sure who I am more afraid of, you or Rekha.” Seeing as how he is now alone, he breaks the assassin’s neck and dumps his body down the latrine.
The party continues until 6am, with a rumor floating around that the snow leopard has been spotted on its lookout perch in the scree field. “this bodes well for the season as the snow leopard is the sign of good luck!”
At dawn on April 1, the Overseer breaks the news of the need for iron and steel and pandemonium erupts from the Bates/Rinji camp. They disentangle themselves from the sea of wagons, trying to return to the warehouses to offload their cargo of precious stones and buy up any remaining steel. Until this point, Rin’ji and Bates had been operating under instructions to provide material wealth by the forged documents that Mar’Khabazza had provided in a campaign of misdirection. The Overseer’s news reveals Lady Catriona’s plan to ally Tesper, Terilaen, Indi and the Salt House into a consortium that will be poised to reap the rewards of having advanced notice of the actual imperial requirements for iron and steel for the war effort away south.
Ravena casts “cure prejudice” on Bates to calm him down and then gives him 4000 silver to go buy steel. Her effort is to split the Bates/Rinji bloc. Bates takes the money and appears grateful (but MK killed Bates’ sons and has sworn death and ruin).
Catriona von Indi invites the conspirators back to her house to celebrate the con: the Troupe, Catriona, the Tespers and the Terilaens. Drelna returns to the Crow Club. During one of the toasts, MK toasts to the continued safety of those present here and there is a collective pause as the implied threat sinks in.