Gremlin reaches the maintenance station beneath Recycling Lot #13 carrying the preserved airship chamber record. Alexei’s officers remain behind, maintaining custody of the sealed evidence and detained guards.
In the fabrication bay, work lights brighten over the baton, forearm cutter, cloak modules, and tagged tools. Gremlin begins tuning each gadget while the lair’s systems organize the arrest planning files.
The tunnel door opens with a familiar access tone. Alexei arrives in her charcoal hard-suit, carrying a freshly forwarded civic notice on a secured display.
Alexei
The notice is authenticated and not yet a warrant. Orda has summoned key allies to a private reception aboard her airship.
Alexei places the schedule beside the preserved ledger. Its security window, guest list, and originating civic channel align with Orda’s known command structure.
Alexei
This is our first actionable chance to put her within lawful reach. We need the warrant before the reception, and we need a plan that survives scrutiny.
The fabrication bay settles into a precise mechanical rhythm as the notice highlights the reception’s opening window. Alexei waits beside the workbench, leaving the next move to Gremlin.
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain an arrest warrant for Lady Orda
“I call Sanguine to help us plot an infiltration”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Gremlin routes the secured display through a masked civic channel and places a call to Sanguine, keeping the reception schedule visible beside Alexei’s warrant notes.
Sanguine
Darling, calling me before a dangerous party? I assume you want more than an invitation and my impeccable taste.
Gremlin
Help us plot an infiltration of Orda’s reception. We need lawful access, a clean route, and evidence she cannot dismiss.
Sanguine’s voice turns focused. He asks for the guest list and security window, then identifies the airship’s service promenade as a discreet entry route used during formal arrivals.
Sanguine
I can get you inside as my technical adviser. Orda will welcome the spectacle, and her guards will watch the guests instead of the maintenance lift.
Alexei adds the route to the warrant plan while Sanguine supplies guest habits, guard blind spots, and a reception protocol that preserves civilian safety and evidence custody.
Sanguine
You owe me a favor for this access, Gremlin. No evasion, no heroic bookkeeping. When I call it in, you answer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Sanguine’s continued cooperation for the Orda reception
“I accept your favour's terms on the condition Alexei stays in the loop”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Gremlin
I accept your favor's terms, on the condition that Alexei stays in the loop.
The masked channel carries Gremlin's condition to Sanguine. Alexei remains beside the warrant display, her expression stern but attentive as the offer settles into the plan.
Sanguine
Naturally. I prefer favors witnessed, documented, and impossible to misinterpret later. Alexei may stay in the loop.
Alexei
Then the arrangement is acknowledged by all three parties. I will track the access, the operation, and whatever favor Sanguine eventually calls in.
Sanguine transmits a revised access packet: guest credentials, the service promenade route, and a reception protocol tagged for Alexei's custody channel.
Sanguine
You have your invitation and your clean route. When I call in my favor, Chief Alexei will hear the request before you answer.
Alexei
Accepted. The condition protects accountability without compromising the infiltration. I am adding Sanguine's access terms to the warrant notes now.
Quest Complete
Secure Sanguine’s continued cooperation for the Orda reception
“I brief Alexei and enter Orda’s reception”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +3)
Gremlin
Sanguine’s credentials provide the service-promenade entry. I will enter as your technical adviser, preserve the warrant boundaries, and report every relevant observation.
Alexei receives the briefing through the secured display. She transfers Sanguine’s guest credentials from the access packet to a tamper-evident civic token, recording the handoff and its custody hash.
Alexei
Briefing received. I will monitor the route, maintain the warrant record, and keep an extraction team outside the reception perimeter.
Gremlin activates his cloaking package, clips the verified token beneath his lab coat, and follows Sanguine’s service promenade route through the airship’s maintenance lift. Cameras register an authorized technical adviser, not an intrusion.
Sanguine
Welcome to Orda’s little theater. Keep your eyes moving. The guests are performing for her, and the staff are performing for everyone.
The lift opens behind the reception hall. Music, champagne, and polished conversation spill across the promenade as Gremlin enters without challenge. A senior attendant, a middle-aged woman with warm brown skin, short silver hair, and a neat black service uniform, recognizes the token and quietly directs him toward the private guest gallery.
Alexei
You are inside, and the route is clean. The gallery access is an advantage we did not have in the original plan. Keep the channel open.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get Lady Orda to make an incriminating statement
+ New Item Acquired
Civic access token
“I’ll enter the private gallery and steer Orda toward the counterfeit convoy order.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Gremlin follows the attendant into the private gallery, where mirrored walls frame Mosaic’s harbor lights. Lady Orda, a middle-aged woman in an immaculate ivory suit, an average-built human with a composed, severe face and a small gold brooch at her collar stands beneath a gold civic seal, her severe dark bob and jeweled cane commanding the room.
He presents the civic token as a technical credential and adopts the gallery’s measured rhythm, guiding attention toward the reception’s security displays without disturbing them.
Lady Orda
You are Sanguine’s adviser, then. How reassuring that someone practical has noticed the convoy’s vulnerabilities.
Gremlin’s calibrated questions draw Orda toward the counterfeit convoy order, its copied phrase, and the checkpoint route that supposedly awaits her approval. Her confidence fills the gaps.
Lady Orda
The phrase is already circulating. Once the convoy reaches the checkpoint, my people can redirect it quietly, before Alexei understands what happened.
The gallery’s discreet recording system captures Orda’s admission alongside the reception schedule. Her guests continue smiling, unaware that her explanation has become evidence.
Lady Orda
You understand the advantage, adviser. A clean seizure, a confused police report, and the city’s records become mine to reorganize.
Quest Complete
Get Lady Orda to make an incriminating statement
“I discreetly transmit Orda’s admission to Alexei”
SUCCESS (Legendary Technology, rolled +0)
Gremlin’s fingers rest lightly against the concealed broadcast relay. Beneath the gallery’s music, it isolates Orda’s admission from the reception network and encrypts a narrow custody packet.
The packet carries Orda’s recorded words, the gallery timestamp, the reception schedule, and the visible security display. Its hash matches the original recording before transmission.
The relay sends the evidence through Alexei’s secured civic channel, disguising the transfer as routine credential verification while leaving the gallery system untouched.
Alexei
Received and hash-matched. I have Orda’s admission, the schedule, and the convoy details under independent custody.
Alexei’s confirmation appears as a brief service-status flicker beneath the gallery display. No guest notices it, and Orda continues addressing Gremlin with satisfied certainty.
Alexei
Keep her talking if it remains safe. The recording is already actionable, and the extraction team is moving to the warrant position.
The relay closes its transmission window and preserves the outgoing log. Gremlin remains beside the security displays, while Alexei now holds a verified copy of Orda’s confession.
“I keep Orda talking until Alexei arrives”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Gremlin keeps Orda focused on the convoy plan, redirecting her boasts toward procedures, authority, and the people expected to obey her command. The relay continues recording.
Lady Orda
Procedure is merely presentation, adviser. The right officials need only believe the order is proper, and everyone else will politely fall in line.
He sustains the conversation with measured technical prompts, drawing out her assumptions about Alexei, the checkpoint, and the evidence convoy without touching the gallery systems.
Lady Orda
Alexei will arrive after the seizure, burdened by confusion and paperwork. By then, the records will support my version of events.
A discreet service door opens behind the gallery. Alexei enters in her charcoal hard-suit with two officers, two adult human women in dark tactical uniforms, one broad-shouldered with cropped black hair and one slim with a blond braid, both with medium-brown skin and visible faces, warrant displayed and extraction authority authenticated.
Alexei
Lady Orda, your version will have to compete with your recorded admission, the counterfeit transmission, and a warrant I am now serving.
Orda’s confident posture stiffens as the gallery screens lock into evidence-preservation mode. Alexei’s team secures the room, while Gremlin’s custody packet remains intact.
Quest Complete
Obtain an arrest warrant for Lady Orda
Skill Upgrade: Intimidation Fair→Good