We've started a war with the Giovanni!

In Manhattan, Charlotte and Val turn out to be in the apartment. Val isn't thrilled about his fancy car being busted up, and puts on some bravado about fitting in with the Toreador. Charlotte takes Frankie aside to ask some questions, which he does his best to answer as vaguely as he's able.

The group end up playing some cards while Charlotte asks around about who might be behind the attack. Turns out to be some ghoul family owned by the Giovanni. Their gang is known to be cruel, but they don't often make moves, so them trying to attack a Brujah Primogen candidate and the new guy sounds strange. Perhaps they ought to go over to Little Italy and be a little menacing as a response?

In Staten Island, AltLottie and Julius discuss options of what to do with Jeanine. Julius decides to lead the Nos on a wild goose chase while AltLottie takes a meandering sort of route to get to the rendezvous point with Jeanine - which turns out to be a lonely cottage on the harbour with a little old lady inside. Jeanine and Tommy the Fool are stashed in her cellar for later. Little old lady turns out to not only be an Autarkis Malkavian, she's Julius's Grandchilde! She tells a surprised AltLottie, “He’s 800 years old, you think he never sired someone before?”

The two Brujah call on some respective goons and gear up to go hit some Giovanni-related speakeasies in Little Italy to make a point that you don’t fuck with the Brujah. Fun times were had.

Julius shows up at the cottage, having shaken off the Nos finally, and it's time to interrogate Jeanine, and oh boy does she have things to say! She doesn't know who did it, but she was alone at home earlier this evening when she felt like someone was pulling at her veins, and she fled to Staten Island - to feed, to make contact with the Anarchs, or possibly to Diablerise someone to get her Generation back up.

Jeanine thought she could somehow become a bridge between the Camarilla, the Sabbat and the Independents. She has been talking to the Chombra Corporation, a subsidiary of Pentex for those keeping score, for the past couple of months. There's a lot to unpack here, but suffice to say it's a can of worms. The Sabbat are planning a hit on Brooklyn. There's a link between Chombra and the Giovanni. She had no idea Charlotte even knew about her little ghoul project - she had been so careful?

Is Archie short for Arch Enemy?

In the aftermath of taking down big-ass flying battlestation we came across an android calling itself A-51, proclaiming to work for some guy called Archie, who seems shifty - but then apparently he has a whole book about him or something. A-51 said something in a foreign language, Gorbash translated by the cunning use of magic, and she bolted.

Found out later she was still following us, and may or may not have liked to hear Gorbash speaking Splugorth? We don't know. And she basically exploded in our faces.

We went back home, getting armours fixed, having the remnants of the robot examined, talking to Ixchal, trying to get Jayson a pay rise without telling him (because being all noble and "I couldn't possibly, won't someone think of the starving children in Tolkeen" or something), and oh, apparently now Splugorth wants Booker's head. Again. But for a more serious 40 million credits this time.

From Splugorth with love

We got inside the flying fortress, somehow, and tried working the computer terminals to figure out where in this massive construction we were supposed to be headed in order to place the bombs ... and then we struggled a little to actually open the doors to where we were going.

We did decide that we were basically season four of Babylon 5, the plan being to have a big finale of the series, trying to cram everything in ... and then we find out last minute we got renewed after all and so then have to make up season five. Well, that's provided we actually survive this thing, because let's face it, the odds are not in our favour here.

Oh well. What's a Royal Ball?

Doc seems to have taken the lead (he can namedrop Luke Skywalker et al and have the selfies to proove it) wanted some scouting to be done in the capital of Gerrenthum. The obvious (?) choice for this were Konvoru and Nole, who got on so famously last session. One was to gather intel, the other keep an eye out for security.

Stopping at a local market, an NPC suggested that he had some intel to part with ... for 100k worth of credits. Our current party funds are in the region of 160. (That's 160.00 not 160k.) Nole, probably because he's spent a lot of money in such establishments, suggested they might raise some cash if Kon took her top off. This did not go down well with her. At all.

The charming NPC offered the group a job as alternative means of payment (transport some goods to a Hutt) and offered to take Konvoru to dinner later that night. This later happened, although she decided to pick Rhan as a bodyguard instead of Nole for reasons unfathomable to the latter and unknown to the former. Probably a good thing that she did, because on the way back, they were being shot at, but Rhan managed to kill six people in one round of firing.

Meanwhile back at base Doc continued to plot the upcoming assassination of the governor, when not busy making people pancakes for breakfast and recounting when he met Luke Skywalker. NG wasn't impressed by this, seeing as he had served as a medical droid previously and helped patch him up. Did you know Luke's hand is only a version 2?

Do orcs need toes?

We nearly died in an attack - two players down, yay - but managed to get back up and win the day. We found the Wyvern Tor and a cave full of orcs and an ogre, and finally managed to take a hostage. Unfortunately, the spitting little git didn't know anything, so the "Lawful Good" Tan cut off his thumb, which Hematite dutifully bandaged. Then the party decided to dangle the orc over the side of a cliff and let him drop ... only to cast Feather Fall.

Long story short, he's now pining for the fjords.

On the way back to the Yellow Brick Trail, we encountered a group of goblins. Since goblins were the ones who actually had something to do with the Rockseeker brothers, we managed to take another prisoner who DID know stuff. He was hogtied in a very ... umm ... imaginative way. Let's just say it would appear Karak-Dag has some very exotic interests ...