II-VII. Ashore at Campeche, Yucatán. Sunday, February 25, 1725 Anno Domini

• With Sir Randel visibly fighting the impulse to draw his pistol and shoot Ned Long once more, Miss Inara takes initiative and intercepts the Mercurio’s captain, claiming to be a relative of the Lieutenant Captain-General sent to check for any mail. Using a pretty smile, fluttering eyelashes and innate charm, she obtains the damning letter and returns to Sir Randel.
• Meanwhile, Sir Randel intercepts Mister Long and warns him not to cause more trouble, though the man feigns ignorance and pretends to not know him. Mister Long does react oddly at the sight of another unfamiliar woman who is watching the whole encounter.
• The crew split to accomplish individual tasks. Leftenant Rogers is intercepted by a servant who is seeking out Sir Randel to deliver an invitation to dinner from Master Gordon Reade. Mister Palange attends Mass at the Catholic church, noting first the presence of a visiting red-garbed priest named Juan Fernando de Prado and then Mister Moggridge who discreetly asks that he not mention his presence here to any of the crew as it would go poorly for the sailor to be revealed as a Papist. Later, Mister Davino will link up with Doctor Spenser to examine and determine which two of the four pound guns they will be making the attempt to sell.
• Leftenant Rogers returns to the ship just in time for Mister Hooper to announce to Captain Hayden that the ‘big, ugly guy’ he saw watching the ship at Harbour Island is back. The captain decides to take Leftenant Rogers, Doctor Spenser, Mister Palange and Mister Hooper to intercept this stranger in order to determine why the man appears to be following them. They find him with a strange woman (who will later be identified as the one that caused Ned Long to react oddly), but upon their approach, the ugly man simply looks at them … and sends Leftenant Rogers, Doctor Spenser and Mister Hooper fleeing in unexpected terror. Mister Palange draws his weapon and nearly shoots at the man, but does not at the captain’s order. The crew withdraw in baffled confusion, with Doctor Spenser insisting that they were just assaulted by magic.
• Sir Randel meets a collector named Imran Wasil Ferrón who is very interested in the sword … and Geoffrey de Saloman’s activities. He pays a substantial amount of money for both, and then makes a subtle inquiry about The Gun that Mister Palange possesses, though Sir Randel pretends to be ignorant.
• Sir Randel and Miss Inara return to the ship in the aftermath of the strange encounter with the two strangers on the beach, and the former extends the offer for the partners to join him at the dinner. He looks for Mister Lucroy who has mysteriously disappeared. The partners separate to prepare for dinner.
• In his room at the hotel, Doctor Spenser is cleaning up his clothes as much as possible when a young mulatto woman knocks on his door. She strikes up a conversation and the doctor quickly realizes that this is Madam Cassandra … somehow in a different body. They converse, with him mentioning Damian Rush as he shows her the ring which she recoils from upon touching; now he – Rush – knows where she is! She claims to represent an order of reason attempting to help humanity determine its own destiny and not be slaves to supernatural forces, but as before, she generally answers his questions with riddles though she does warn him against trusting Damien Rush. As she exits, she tells him that he’ll need to rescue his friend and indeed, he finds Miss Dora staring confusedly at a young man kneeling before her and pledging his undying love and appreciation. Doctor Spenser sends the youngster along.
• The partners gather, along with Miss Inara and Miss Dora but not Mister Lucroy who has managed to stay hidden, and head to the hacidenda for this dinner. Inside, they are escorted to a large dining room. At the table is sitting a smirking Maurice Boissonade and Mister Reade stands. He would honored if they would join him.

Player Notes:

• Full house for a change. And amusingly, no game next week as Ronnke, the guy who handles the streaming, is out due to work and the slacker GM pounced on that as a chance to have a bye week so he ould “catch up.”
• As mentioned previously, I’ve skipped over a lot of stuff in an attempt to keep the outline short … and even still, its too long.
• Payne’s player mentioned trying to turn Lucroy into a sort of batman or aide, but (s)he has quirk-level Shyness and was thus elsewhere when the time came to go to the party. We’ve also consistently joked that Claudia would eventually be revealed to be Payne’s daughter, but the GM keeps resisting this.
• As a player, I’m guessing the dude on the beach had the Terror advantage, but that whole encounter didn’t play out like any of us expected. Will be interested to see what’s going on with those individuals.
• As Spenser’s player, I’m curious about my general decision to trust Cassandra but not Rush. Realistically, he shouldn’t trust either of them because they speak in riddles and are clearly trying to use him for their own means. I’m going to try & keep that in mind the next time Spenser meets with either of them.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.