Aslan Route 15: Mistaken Identity

"I've never been disbarred, committed or convicted of moral turpitude, and the only time I was arrested, it was a case of mistaken identity... I didn't know the guy I hit was a cop." – Paul Levine

Cordan (A895347-9), 1105 Week 50

Mr Prasad

Mazun meets Mr Prasad and briefs him on the crew's encounters with the Fury, various aslan clans, and the Monastery on Sink, but carefully avoids mentioning the abandoned pirate base and the Android Liberation Front.

Prasad says that a pair of Imperial Navy gunboats that headed off towards Torpol in week 39 to investigate why the Florian Route has shut down; the earliest they could return would be week 51, but Mazun’s report suggests they’re not coming back. He will pass the full report up the line.

Mazun asks for further instructions. After a little deliberation, Prasad says the Navy has a lot of people who could investigate Torpol and Drinax, but it’s quite hard to get someone embedded in an aslan clan. He would like Mazun to focus the crew's attention on cementing their position in the clan, and in helping that clan advance in power and status, so that it becomes more useful to the Imperium. It goes without saying that the clan shouldn’t become aware of why they’re helping.

Mr Laarbak

Mazun returns to the Macavity to find Rex is back from the pub, being detoxed by Dr Matauranga, and Vila is riding herd on the assorted Port Authority engineers carrying out the overhaul. Two more people arrive with toolkits, and Mazun immediately recognises them by their tattoos as lowlifes masquerading as engineers; he leads them to Engineering by a circuitous route while alerting the rest of the crew.

As the iris valve at the end of the corridor opens to reveal an apparently unaware Vila, one of the thugs clobbers Mazun with a length of pipe, seriously injuring him, and the second runs past to engage Vila. Vila pulls a stun baton from his toolkit and uses it to incapacitate him, while Rex leaps out of the medbay and carves up the second with his ayloi. This gives the gravely wounded Mazun time to finish him off.

Dr Matauranga heals the wounded and the intruders are intimidated by Rex (supported by Mazun saying he wants to be nice, but he has a vargr and is not afraid to use it, and Dr Matauranga begging to be allowed to experiment on them). The captives reveal that Mr Laarbak’s boss wants Vila dead or alive so Laarbak sent them to bring back either Vila, or convincing proof of his death.

The thugs are released to inform Laarbak that Vila is not actually the person they’re looking for, and please don’t send any more thugs as the next group will not be treated so kindly. Laarbak asks for a meeting on neutral ground, and the crew accepts. Dr Matauranga disguises Vila as best he can in the time available, and attempts to predict and counter ways Laarbak might try to get DNA samples.

At the meeting, Laarbak explains that Vila Restal broke the code of the Shugaka Family and this is a matter of face; his superior, Gisuki Numgu, can’t let it go or he will be seen as weak and incompetent. Vila explains that the 'real' Vila sold him a fake ID to help him escape a jealous husband, he has never offended the crime family, and this is all a case of mistaken identity. Laarbak falls for this and offers the crew a sizeable reward for the ‘real’ Vila, should they come across him and bring him in. He advises them others are already looking.

Prasad Again

Prasad has another job for the crew. Baron Ferro, a member of the local ruling council, has guards who look as if they are Zhodani-trained, and has occasional connections with a ship called the Red Adder, whose crew look like Zhodani. Prasad would like the crew to break into the Baron’s mansion and find out what is going on, making it look like a robbery. The easiest way to do this is if it actually is a robbery…

Prasad has some intelligence on the mansion, which he shares, and the crew also manage to hack into the relevant construction company and get a copy of the mansion plans.

Meanwhile, Off-Camera...

In hindsight, trying to introduce the Fury (from the Bulldogs! campaign Heart of the Fury) was a bad move, but since I did, it needs to trundle away in the background as what Dungeon World calls a Front. Assimilating Torpol and everything that docks there means the Fury has made a big hole in the second biggest trade route in the Reach, and anyone who is interested and has the requisite power projection should react to that. I think the Imperium, the Hierate, and GeDeCo would send recon missions to Torpol, suspecting activity by the Oghmans (raiders), the Tyrant of Tyr (expansionists), the Glorious Empire (slavers), or the Florians (just plain weird). Nobody has connected Drinax to events just yet. So, the timeline so far:

• 1105 Week 09: Fall of Torpol.
• 1105 Week 23: News reaches Tobia and Tyokh (it has to go the long way round to Tyokh).
• 1105 Week 27: News reaches Vorito.
• 1105 Week 35: Everybody decides Torpol has been quiet too long and needs to be investigated. (Yes, all at the same time, because I'm lazy.)
• 1105 Week 43: Ahroay'if recon mission from Tyokh reaches Torpol and is annihilated. (I figure the first one would just barge right in. They're aslan.)
• 1105 Week 45: IN recon mission from Tobia reaches Torpol and is assimilated.
• 1105 Week 49: GeDeCo recon mission from Vorito reaches Torpol and is assimilated.

Prasad knows about the IN mission passing through, and Hteleitoirl knows about the Ahroay'if one. Nobody yet knows of their fate.

GM Notes

This week's adventure is brought to you by Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, and in particular by Chapter 2, the Lazy DM's Checklist.

PC Hindrances are a good way to entangle them in situations. In this case, it was about time the Shugaka crime syndicate made another attempt to kill or capture Vila.