Char Li's Angels: The Skull of Saint Diana - Part XVII

We reconvene with the Troupe in the Baronet’s passenger cell with the unconscious Chi-Fu Li Halan. They check him for weapons and Belvoir manages to slip some more Selchakah on the unconscious Baronet without anyone noticing.

A crew member rushes in to investigate the sound of Zillah’s weapon discharge and is appalled to see the baronet on the floor. Bass takes him away and tries to placate him.

Alexis goes to speak with Bishop Arcellius while the rest of the group try to find a suitable place to secure Chi-Fu. They decide that the Chief Engineer’s cell would be the best and Zillah commands him the vacate it (which he reluctantly does). They secure the Baronet and head to the bridge.

The Bishop cannot believe the scurrilous rumours and accusations that Alexis is levelling against a member of “The Most Illustrious Family of Supreme Merit” especially someone like Chi-Fu. He scorns the Canon and her “over zealous Avestite tendencies”.  Alexis soon has enough and summons the “Sting of Conscience” upon the Bishop, who is immediately struck with contrition and begs the Canon to assist him in making amends. 

On the bridge the troupe set Sir Ulrich to reviewing the Baronet's communication logs to try to learn who he was communicating with so frequently and why.

The Bishop and Alexis arrive and announce that Bishop Arcellius will be taking formal command of the mission. He tells the Troupe that he will be relying on their assistance.

Ulrich identifies that the Baronet received communications from all the vessels of the flotilla but that the content of his outgoing messages were largely verbose and highly detailed mission reports; logs, shift rotas, supply rosters and many frequent status reports. All of which was being sent back to Midian, routed via The Tiger of Tashrak. Ulrich is also able to confirm that with each message to home there is an accompanying encrypted packet, but cracking the code will take some time. 

The Torenson knight’s investigations also reveal that the mission coffers are much lower than he anticipated; approximately 3000 Firebirds, barely enough to refuel the entire flotilla, if it was required. This also goes to explain why the Blessed Saint Horace is the only mission vessel still docked at the planet; there’s no charge to orbit the planet.

The troupe contact the Tiger of Tashrak, hoping to speak with the Lord Admiral. Instead they hear from his second-in-command, Sir Hanzo, that Baron Chan is suffering from the wounds inflicted in the attack on Saint Symeon’s Basilica and has been confined to his quarters. The Troupe demand to speak with Brother Cadog, the ship’s physician, to confirm this.  They then share the news about the Baronet and Hanzo makes a clear definition between the command of the mission as a whole and the Naval chain of command. With the Lord Admiral currently indisposed Hanzo confirms that he is probably the senior fleet office, but he considers the mission to be subject to the Duke’s command, via his appointees, namely the Baronet and now the Bishop. 

Sir Hanzo is also able to explain that the "Jakovians" mentioned by Baronet Chi-Fu are House Decados’ notorious intelligence agency. Some would even say that they are as synonymous with the cunning and treacherous House as The Hazat’s military are with their own House. Zillah sends word to find out where Countess Chastity Decados and her entourage are while Alexis proposes the release of Lady Ahgera, due to her experience in fighting the Decados, but is rebuffed.

After closing the call with the flag ship, Kibri and Alexis interrogate the Baronet, with a combination of Kibri’s Simmering Anger and the theurgical “Sting of Conscience”. He confirms that the encrypted packets in this messages were intended for the Jakovians. He reveals that he seny information regarding their route, the ships and officers that were a part of the mission ands details of the progress of their investigation into the theft of the Skull of Saint Diana; all information that he believes is neither particularly secret or dangerous.

Zillah then receives word from the Charioteers Guild that Countess Chastity flew back to her family's estate near Celdor on Folari South, via her personal Explorer class starship, some three days ago...