Mission 13: A Pearl Necklace

Prelude

Following Opal's multiple nervous breakdowns during the events of Mission 12 and an enlightening conversation with Ash, she decided, for the first time in her adult life, to take her leave of the Grass-Spiders. She swears she'll come back, having requested a one-year hiatus from Gyoki (which he granted) - she is, in fact, obligated to return after a year, under penalty of death. The first stop of her sabbatical is Blue Haven, where she intends to find work as a smuggler. Mesa decided to take a shorter vacation, agreeing to spend a month in Blue Haven with Opal. This effectively made public the knowledge of their relationship to the (few) members of the Order who weren't aware of it. During his time off, Mesa intends to begin what he considers his most important action as member of the Order - He plans to write the story of the Grass-Spiders and preserve the memory of its many personalities in song. Rizuka was moved enough by the gesture that she used her clout to pressure Gyoki into allowing Mesa's (shorter) vacation. The group now travels to Abalone for a mission unrelated to the Veil War, but at the same time utterly related - With the Order at war and the Circle with No Name losing two members (temporarily), the need for fresh blood has never been clearer. In the small town of Diver's Joy, the Grass-Spiders plan to recruit their next member.

The Job

Client: Gyoki, the Morning Lion
Targets: Unknown (see below)
Type: Recruitment/"Assassination"
Target Background:

In the small town of Diver's Joy, a pearl farming town in Abalone, a sea monster has been ravaging the oyster beds, taking pearls and divers alike. The mayor, Shamshung ((I wish I was kidding, but it's in the book)), is too proud to accept the Guild's offer of bringing in professional hunters and guards, but he grows desperate as the new town's fragile economy is increasingly devastated by the assault on its only serious industry - pearl farming. Shamshung, now an old, one-armed man, has seen many adventures, and in an old, different life, he learned the proper channels for having a problem taken care of discreetly. Working through several factors, he managed to contract the Grass-Spiders. Shamshung believes the pearl beds are not being ravaged by siaka, as most villagers believe. Instead, he believes the attacks are part of a greater scheme and threat to his power - an upstart hoping to destabilize the city and claim it for his or her own in the ensuing chaos. The Grass-Spiders have reason to believe Shamshung is correct in his assessment, and furthermore believe that the mastermind is a young, Water-aspected Dragon-Blood. As an indirect penal measure in retaliation for two of their members requesting time off, Gyoki has dispatched what remains of the Circle With No Name (Fay, Zealot, and Ash) to carry out Shamshung's contract. The village elder is surprisingly wealthy for a the mayor of small town (prior to the ravaging of the town's pearl beds an explosion of wealth had entered the city) and has offered a large sum of money for the Order in the hopes that they will do the job discreetly - it is important that the Elder's pride is preserved (publicly, he refuses outside help); this is one of his conditions for payment. During the Veil War, the Order, although wealthy, still needs every piece of jade scrip it can muster.

The Grass-Spiders have another take on the matter - the young Dragon-Blood, whatever his or her identity may be, has been clever in framing the nearby sea monsters for his crimes and ruthless in eliminating those who risk discovering the truth. That is exactly the attitude the Order looks for. The team's goals are thus threefold:

1) Discover the identity of the Dragon-Blood behind the sea-bed thefts.
2) Recruit him or her.
3) Convince Shamshung that the thief has, in fact, been killed, and collect the payment.

Team: Ash, Zealot, Fay, Ash's crew

Mission Status

Job: Complete
Dates: Descending Earth 8 - 11, R.Y. 778
Summary: Using a local Grass-Spiders book-keeper as a translator, Fay managed to track down two Riverspeak-speaking pearl smugglers and learns that many people steal pearls and sell them illegally to avoid paying taxes to the Guild. While further exploring the town, she obtains the location of two oyster beds that were recently stripped bare and investigates them. While underwater, she catches two rocky protrusions seemingly switching places before her eyes. She marks them for later tracking.

Zealot, while at the bar, uses his status as a Western local to strike up a conversation with bartender. There, he learns that an old man who sells fishing equipment near the docks claims to see a group of children go to the pearl beds every morning, but never sees them take out a boat. Most people think him crazy for being suspicious of the children, but that's exactly the sort of lead Zealot was looking for. With that information in hand, he headed to Ash's location.

Meanwhile, Ash paid a visit to a Guild-affiliated vendor who seemed to be largely unaffected by the oncoming pearl shortage. He learned from her that the Guild was considering going over Shamshung's head and bringing in its own hunters. As Ash was leaving the shop, he noticed a prior customer, a fearsome-looking man dressed in blue robes, waiting for him to leave. Ash decided to tail him. When he stopped to rendezvous with Zealot, it became clear that the man knew he was being tailed, and ducked into an alley. Ash and Zealot split up, with Zealot eventually tailing the stranger directly and Ash keeping pace from afar. Once the trio reached a secluded area, the stranger revealed himself as Sesus "Arkin" (later found to be an assumed name) and agreed to exchange information with Zealot in an effort to uncover the missing pearls. They then parted ways.

Later the same night, the three Grass-Spiders commandeered a pearl fishing boat to check out the rocks Fay had marked earlier. They found one of them had moved completely.

The next morning, Zealot surveys the kids the fishing equipment salesman was talking about. Fay waited underwater to see if they eventually would submerge themselves. One of them did - an older boy of about 12. Fay tailed him into a mysterious crack between two rocks, which in turn led to a cave entrance. Fay witnessed the boy enter the cave, exchange words with a man named Riji Hirata, and emerge with a sack of pearls. Fay hid in darkness and let the boy leave.

After the boy's departure, Fay decided to approach the man in the cave, figuring him to be the potential recruit. Although their introduction seemed to be going well, Riji got a bit too anxious and made a run for it. Though Fay was infinitely faster, particularly with her martial arts Charms active, Riji's home was a Manse, with its tunnels and walls shifting to ensure his escape. Frustrated but ultimately undaunted, Fay hunted until she found Riji's water supply and waited for his return.

Upon Riji's return, a combination of sensible arguments, impossible charm, and stunning beauty allowed Fay to talk Riji into joining the Order, although she did have to make one concession: That they take his brother with them. Riji also had one other request: That he be allowed to make one final sale - the rest of his stash, so that he could leave the city's other orphans with some money to take care of themselves with after Riji and his brother were gone.

That night, the Grass-Spiders, along with their newest associate Riji, decided that it'd be safest to move Riji's brother to a secure location. Although they managed to retrieve him, on the way back to the Geronimo, docked on the east side of the city, Fay decided to scout ahead and found Sesus Tan, the man who'd been following them around, hiding underwater. Upon being discovered, he burst out of the sea and initiated combat, trying furiously to kill or buy Riji's head. Neither was successful. Although Sesus Tan was a feared Guild headhunter in the local area, he was no match for the experienced Grass-Spiders, who dispatched him and his two Demon-blooded companions with ease. Their abilities awed Riji, who had long known that Tan was not a force to be trifled with. The group searched Tan's ship and found evidence that Tan was working with the Guild and the Lintha to take Diver's Joy from Shamshung and use the pearls for their own profits. Despite Riji's belief that Shamshung was a friend of the Lintha, it seemed the Guild had won the pirates over to their side.

To wrap up their mission, the group stages an attack framing Tan and the Lintha which ends with Tan's ship being burned and the group departing on the Geronimo. With Riji recruited and Shamshung a happy man, the Grass-Spiders have their new assassin and their rich payment - a successful mission through and through.

Quote of the night: "Last day as an orphan! How does that feel?" - Zealot
Exp. Awarded: Base - 5 EXP