The Royal Court of Skor:
At Hershay the crew contacts the Royal Court of Skor. The King is not yet ready to buyback the big blue diamond that the Captain of Nomen Luni has in his possession. To keep the crew of the Notorious happy and lower the risk of a scandal, the King offers to sell them 20 tons of chocolate cheaply (Cr 2,000/ton). He already has a buyer for the chocolate at Lebanon. The crew is also invited to watch the annual chocolate parade from the VIP grandstand. The parade is tomorrow.
The Chocolate Parade:
Princess Yaya rides in the first carriage. The carriage is made from chocolate. Four security guards follow the Princess’ wagon. After her is another 50 carriages, all made from chocolate.
The king waits at the terminal of the parade route in a secured area. It is guarded by the secret service of Skor.
The crew of the Notorious gets a call from the secret service of Skor. They say that the have checked the parade route and they are sure there are no weapons or snipers there. Now they must protect the Princess and King. But they need help with a problem along the parade route. Enemy sponsored republicans have invented a new way to embarrass the Monarchy: using mirrors to reflect sunlight to melt the chocolate in the Princess’ carriage.
The man from the Secret Service asks, “could you please use your weapons to break in and the threaten the republicans? Don’t hurt anyone seriously! Destroy the mirrors! If you help, you will be rewarded by the King.” The princess carriage has already started to melt in a few places.
There are at least 10 houses along the parade route that need to be entered. Usually, there are two or three persons with mirrors on the top floor. (Usually the third floor.) They don’t put up a fight when threatened by weapons. But in most cases, there is a door that has to be kicked in.
| 1D6 | Republicans | Mirrors |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 |
It should be easy to locate the windows from where mirrors are used. This is a race against the clock. Tell the players about new holes and other new problems with the princess carriage.
| 1D6 | Damage |
| 1 | Minor damage on surface. No hole in carriage. |
| 2 | Minor damage on surface. Small hole in carriage. |
| 3 | Surface damage. Large hole. Chocolate dripping. |
| 4 | Surface damage. Large hole. Trail of chocolate behind carriage. |
| 5 | Melted chocolate gets into the wheels. Carriage has problems. |
| 6 | Melted chocolate hits Princess Yaya’s blue dress. |
After the parade, after successfully destroying all the mirrors, the King gives them another 10 tons of chocolate. He gives them a few other names of buyers at Lebanon that may want to buy this. Just before the Notorious should leave Hershay, a carrier visits the ship with a gift of a 10 kg chocolate sculpture of the Notorious.
To Lebanon:
The PCs may remember that on a moon of the gas giant Annville is the Pennsylvaani Historic Library and Archive. They were told this at the banquet at Chambersburg (in S2E3).
First the chocolate at Lebanon is sold (for Cr 25,000/ton) and delivered.
When looking for cargoes, they find a 10 ton in-system cargo to the Pennsylvaani Historic Library and Archive. That cargo is a good reason to visit the library they heard about at the banquet. The PCs may also be curious about the clues about a second ship mentioned in the Holy Book.
At the Library:
At the library they meet Robert Warper that has sent for the 10 tons of supplies. Robert is the super-librarian of this facility. He tells the crew that it is placed at this remote location so that this unique archive will not be destroyed by war or natural disasters.
Robert helps the crew find information about Aloha Round and the space battle of Gettysburg. After reading old documents and drawing ship positions on a whiteboard, the crew is puzzled by how Pennsylvaani ships at two different locations could be hit by the graviton weapon at the same time. (Could there have been two ships with graviton guns?) The crew is also impressed by the damage the graviton weapon did at short-range.
Robert can also help them find a map of the spaceship graveyard at Gettysburg.
Reading the old battle documents tell two different stories about how the graviton ship was hit. If there were two ships, and only one was recovered, then maybe the other is still out there. What can it be worth?
Robert say that the crew may use a whiteboard in the library to discuss their ideas. (Do they remember to clean the whiteboard before they leave?)
The crew can let their ship’s computer try to calculate how asteroids have moved in the dense and chaotic asteroid field for the last 150 years. The estimated time for this is about a week. This will give the crew some possible locations for where the missing graviton ship is now.
Back at Lebanon:
The Notorious returns empty to Lebanon and gets a cargo of 50 tons of food to New Holland.
The crew may want to go to Gettysburg directly, but assure them that there is no hurry. If there really is another graviton armed ship, it can stay there for a few months more. It has already been there 150 years. There cannot be any survivors to rescue. They also need to make a plan and run the computer simulation of the asteroids first.