Move the Item Score

The Budgie Smugglers had a dedicated bedroom in their new secret lair for marmalade. It had an iron grill as a false floor. And thus, here they could place those who were marmalading into the recovery position on the grill. So, it was easy to collect the marmalade as it drooled from their slack-jawed mouths. That proved fortunate because there were four this time: Rita [Ian], Burrito [Darryl], El Cid [Shane] and Moonlight [Chris].

Sorrow's new eyes

Sorrow [Jeff] went out to test his new Dark-sight, the boon from the IMAG foundling. He found he could see extra well during darkness. Not only did he have his normal half-elven infra-vision, but he could now see better in star-light. There was a problem, however; his eyes were now entirely black.

Ronny's [Deacon] boon was Irresistibility to women, and already a few ladies had started to hang around whenever he ventured out.

"Zat might prove a problem for our secret lair," quipped Huilam [Jamie] wryly.

Attlee's [Kevin] boon, Superb Gambling, had not yet had time to manifest.

Sonny Bowens (of the Bronze Studs), contacted the group saying that Priestess Clara of the IMAGs had some more work for them.

"Make hay while your priestess sleeps," he mused.

The job was pretty simple. In four night's time there was going to be a conjunction of the sun and the star Gobulin [ REAL and IMAG, in their eternal fight, "roll" across the sky, so are at a different position in the sky each day. In four night's time, this star would be occulted. ] The IMAG temple had a magical "item" which had recently become to "get active" as time neared the conjunction.

 "By the way, this has nothing to do with the foundling," promised Clara.

She said it was too dangerous to hold this item in the IMAG temple. So, it must be kept on the move around Scabport for the three days. It must not stop more than one hour. Also, it must not stray further than two thousand paces from the IMAG temple, nor closer than fifty.

Attlee's block-and-tackle

Priestess Clara wasn't very clear about what "too dangerous" meant, but she hinted that "unscrupulous agents" would be interested in the item. And that they could well be using magical locating spells.

"The REALs, I bet," someone said.

The group picked up the IMAG item an hour after light. It was housed in a trunk (in fact, the same sized trunk as the earlier IMAG score). It was very heavy and required six men to lift it. But Attlee had a block-and-tackle, so that made loading easier. It had a nasty feel when you touched the surface of the trunk; it was made of iron but felt like velvet, and it tingled, and it was cold enough for water to condense.

The Day plan was to buy a huge load of cabbages and transport them in the party shallop (now named "Smoking Loon"). They would hide the IMAG trunk under the cabbages. Then Sorrow would pilot the fickle boat up and down the Scab river all day (as far upstream as the stone bridge and no further downstream than the 2000 pace line). Huilam would run a cabbage stall, next to the stone bridge, and he planned to sell the cabbages for twice the going rate. So by not selling any, the boat-load would not be depleted.

For the Night plan, they befriended a night-cart man Bertram Formalin, and offered him and his soil-boy a three-night holiday. So, they would place the IMAG trunk in the night-cart and cover it with a water-proof tarpaulin, and then Attlee and Ronny would do Bert's night-soil collection route for the whole night; Attlee would drive the cart and Ronny would do the soil-boy work emptying the pots from out-houses and general sewer work. Bertram showed them his route and the relevant place (into the Scab river) to dump the sewerage from the cart in the morning.

During the first day, the Knives boat patrol stopped the cabbage boat and examined the forged papers. Then waved them through. Sorrow spent the entire day sailing up and down the Scab river with the cabbages, and restocking Huilam's stall.

Soil-boy Ronny

During the first night, both a Knives patrol and a TGP patrol stopped the night cart asking where Bertram was. They didn't really want to get to close to the cart and its infernal stench. This was especially relevant for the gnome quarter. It was always known for its more "fragrant" out-houses. Worse, for soil-boy Ronny, the garage-sized pools behind the restaurants and eateries had to be waded in and cleared out using a shovel. The vindaloos, madrasses and masalas were still unmistakable after they had travelled down GI tracts.

The second day was rather uneventful as well. While Sorrow was beginning his shift on the shallop, and Huilam was manning his cabbage stall, Attlee and Ronny were at home. They had to store the night cart in the one-cart garage of the new secret lair, but this meant that there was no room for the (ex Insular Rogue) wagon. So, Attlee parked it on the street next to their old secret lair, now a new IMAG shrine. That was the last they ever saw of it.

The second night, the patrols just waved the night cart past.

The third day came and went. All clear.

And the third night too. No-one saw any of these tracking agents, nor suspicious groups.

In the morning, they returned Bert's night cart, then took the item to the IMAG temple, got paid out [ 8 COIN ], and went home smugly. Job well done.

Downtime

Attlee over-indulged in his gambling vice, so much so that he pissed off his vice peddler Roger Zinter. He got a new peddler called Michael Darkfriend. He had black eyes like Sorrow.

The reduced crew also got themselves a new cart and named it "Carte Blanche". [ A cart is a cohort and costs four downtime activities. This one was Sturdy and Finicky - linked to Attlee ].