March Harrier Session 6: Bureaucratic Infighting

Player Characters:

Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer

Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster

John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator

Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot

PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:

Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot

Dale Conan Wilder (Phil), Captain

Significant NPCs:

Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner

Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee

Chelsea Vilchis, Receptionist at the Department of Commerce

Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee

Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines

Dates: 

286-1105 to 325-1105

Worlds:

Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)

Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)

The March Harrier landed on Zila.  The crew spent a couple of days at the starport, doing their best to keep out of trouble after their arrest last time on Zila.  But they did not quickly find any passengers or cargo, and Gvoudzon got bored and went looking for something to do.  He found that Fireau et Fille, a renowned winery, had a free wine tasting at a location in the suburbs of Crescence, near the starport.  Free wine sounded good to the whole crew, so they renewed their Zila standby legal insurance and then took the train out to the winery.

The wine was excellent, though the small winery was a bit crowded.  A woman eventually approached the crew, saying she's overheard they had a starship, and wondering if they were interested in work.  She was Lisa Fireau, the "Fille" in FIreau et Fille, and she said that the winery's exclusive interstellar distribution agreement with Tukera Lines was about to expire, and that Tukera was buying up land on Zila and looked to be making a play to take over the wine market, so she and her father wanted to end the agreement with Tukera and go independent.  However, they were worried about Tukera's response, as Tukera had stockpiled a lot of Zilan wine and could possibly flood the market and put Fireau out of business.  Fireau had one advantage: a large and fine vintage of eiswein, a very rare wine that should sell for a large profit.  Lisa asked the March Harrier to get the eiswein to Aramanx without Tukera finding out, at which point she should be able to auction it for enough money to keep Fireau solvent.  She offered 10% of the sale price, and said it was important to leave within two weeks, to get the payment in time to make a tax collection deadline.

Unfortunately, after having Tukera handle all their exports for decades, nobody at Fireau knew the exact process to legally ship their own wine off-planet.  Furthermore, she didn't think it was safe to ship the wine from the main winery 2000 km away to the starport, as she feared Tukera intercepting the shipment.  So she was counting on the crew to handle all the legalities to let the March Harrier land at the winery, pick up the wine, and fly it to Aramanx.  She helped out by identifying five forms that she thought were required.  Form 117: Special Landing Permit, would allow landing the March Harrier to land at the winery.  Form 82a, Customs Declaration/Export Authorization, would allow shipping the wine offworld.  Form 29, Waiver for Pre-Launch Inspection, would allow taking off again after landing away from the starport.  Form 106, Local Landing Permit, was required to allow landing in Polykarp  Province, where the winery was located.  Finally, form 11/2, Application for Visa, was required to let Lisa Fireau and her employee Boris Dree leave Zila and return.

Lisa also knew of a few government and non-government organizations that might be able to help.  The Zila Trade Authority (ZTA) in Crescence dealt with imports and exports.  The Bureau of Offworld Affairs (BOA) in Crescence worked with offworld corporations and individuals.  The Department of Commerce (DoC) in Crescence was in charge of all commercial and economic affairs.  The Zila Port Authority (ZPA) at the starport was the Imperial Starport Authority (SPA) office on Zila, in charge of the starport.  The Polykarp Provincial Government Administrative Offices (PGAO) in Amali was in charge of local affairs in Polykarp.  The Imperial Consulate (IC) in North Crescence was the Imperial diplomatic center on Zila.  Finally, the Merchants' Guild (MG) at the starport was an association to help offworld merchants.

Given five forms to procure and a large number of possible offices to visit, the crew split up.  The Captain stayed at the starport and prepared the March Harrier for travel.  The others alternated between telephone calls and visits to the five offices they thought might handle the appropriate forms.  First they called the ZPA, and the receptionist there said their organization handled Form 29.  They also tried calling the PGAO, but didn't manage to talk to the clerk who knew about Form 106 before the office closed.

The next day Gani called the PGAO again, who said they had Form 106, but it required a local visit.  Sacha volunteered to take a plane trip to Amali in Polykarp Province to deal with that office.  Everett called his lawyer to see if he or any other lawyer at his firm could handle the forms, but they appeared to only do criminal work.  The crew visited the DoC in person and Gani met a very cute receptionist named Chelsea, who referred him to several officials who might be able to help, and also agreed to have dinner with him.  One clerk named Ditha was no help.  However, they also talked to a more helpful clerk named Randy, who extracted a small "cash only expediting fee" and produced a blank Form 17, but said it took 1-6 weeks to get approved through channels.  Told the crew needed it faster than that, he referred them to a supervisor named Lee.  Gani and Chelsea had dinner at a Vargr restaurant, which was not very authentic.

On the third day of the job, Gani called the BOA to get information about forms and scheduled an appointment with a supervisor named Joshua.  John met with the supervisor Lee at the DoC, who got him a meeting with Eneri, the Assistant to the Administrator, who could sign Form 17.  Sacha got on a jet airliner and flew to Amali in Polykarp Province, near the main winery.

On day four, Gani met with Joshua, who referred him to Zebulon, the Trade Relations Coordinator.  Meanwhile, in Polykarp Province, Sacha met with a receptionist named Lo, who got him a copy of Form 106 and a meeting with District Administrator Kynon, who could sign it.  That afternoon, Gani and John also managed to get Form 29 signed by Tamsin, a supervisor at the ZPA.

On the fifth day, the crew met with Zebulon "call me Mr. Askvig", who signed Form 82a, after they visited the receptionist Lizab to get the form.  Lisa Fireau called the crew to tell them she had been threatened by an anonymous person.  The Captain appointed Gvoudzon to take charge of ship's security in case of sabotage or hijacking attempts.

On the sixth day, Gani thought he was being followed by a couple of suspicious individuals.  He called his lawyer, who directed him to their nearby office.  While in the office, he took a photo of one of the followers, then went out the back door into a waiting taxi, which took him back to the starport's XT line.  Back on the March Harrier, Gani tried to find out who the tail was using the ship's databases, but didn't get a hit.  He and Gvoudzon used the ship's computer to make some wanted posters accusing the man of various crimes, and then printed out a bunch of copies, which they could later dump out the hatch before leaving the planet.

Sacha's appointment with Kynon happened on the seventh day, at which point he got Form 106 signed.  On the eighth day, the crew got another signature from General Supervisor Verrill at the DoC on Form 82a, and at that point they thought they were legal.  Lisa was getting nervous and asked to meet the crew in person on the ship.  She asked that they fly to the winery, load the cargo, and leave the planet as soon as possible, before the threats of violence escalated further.  The Captain agreed to leave the next day, and the crew called Sacha and asked him to meet them at the winery.

On the ninth day, Sacha took a taxi from his hotel to the winery and started working with the Fireau employees on a cargo loading plan.  Meanwhile the Captain got the ship fully fueled and then the March Harrier took off for the winery, taking a rather roundabout route required to avoid all commercial air corridors.  After landing, the crew and the Fireau employees loaded 150 dtons of wine onto the ship as quickly as possible.  Some police showed up outside the winery just as the loading finished, but Lisa had her local employees deal with them while the ship took off.  The March Harrier got off Zila without further problems.

Getting to Aramanx first required a double-jump to Carsten, which went smoothly.  Since they wanted to reach Aramanx quickly, the ship just refueled from the ocean on Carsten (because it was closer than the gas giant) and then took off again and jumped for Aramanx.

Arriving at Aramanx Highport, the crew found that all the long-term berths were full, so the ship would have to park in orbit near the port and take the launch back and forth to the port, except when actually unloading the cargo.  Still worried about security, the Captain asked Gvoudzon to keep an eye open for trouble.  Meanwhile, Lisa and Boris, with Sacha helping, started setting up a wine auction.  Lisa invited multiple merchants, but not Tukera, to bid at an auction for the wine in three days.

When the auction started, Lorn Denveldt of Tukera showed up, despite Fireau's attempts to exclude the company.  He was representing three merchants who did have invitations, and the auctioneer ruled that he could stay.  Bids started at Cr 150 per bottle (KCR 22.5 per dton) and rapidly rose to Cr 225 per bottle.  At Cr 250 per bottle, it appeared that Tukera might win, but then a new bidder appeared in the back of the room.  It was Marc Oberlindes, and he escalated the bidding all the way to Cr 310 per bottle.  At that point Denveldt asked for a hold on the auction while he got authorization to bid higher, but the auctioneer denied the request.  The total load went for a bit over MCr 8, leaving the March Harrier's 10% share over KCr 800.

The crew attempted to use the March Harrier's sensors to see if the Wolblutn could still be seen on the surface of Aramanx, at the mining camp in Renitza.  They failed to find it.

With the initial sale completed and enough money raised to keep the company afloat, Lisa stayed at Aramanx Highport setting up future wine deals.  Still concerned about security, she stayed on the March Harrier and took the launch to the starport.  However, one evening she failed to appear for the trip back to the ship.  Her employee, Boris Dree, indicated that it wasn't like her to not show up or answer calls, and asked the crew to help look for her.  Some investigation showed that Lisa had gotten on a shuttle to the nation of Klavisur, along with two men and a woman.  A few hours later, a message was sent to the March Harrier, saying "If you wish to see Fireau alive again, arrange payment of Cr 20,000,000.  You will be contacted."

We stopped at that point.

GM's Notes:

The Zilan bureaucracy paperwork challenge was one of the more annoying quests I've run in any RPG, but the players handled it well, using reaction rolls, Streetwise, bribery, and Sex Appeal.  After the profitable charter to Paya followed up by a profitable wine run, the ship is doing very well financially.