Nations participating:
The Pha Phathers of Red Kagran
The Commonwealth of Khablan
The Nomadic Peoples of Wheresoever
and The Fiefdom of OHV Righteousness
representing The Holy and Gryphonnic Land of New Thyatira
OOC: the properties of Kagranite have been determined but not yet posted. Evidently, chewing Kagranite improves ones hearing
OOC: Immortals can swim, sleep, and are poke-able. Immortals cannot be bribed
Admiral Basiliscus Culverin, Commanding Officer of the New Thyatiran fleet in Taijituan waters, escorting Lady Khab of The Pha Phathers of Red Khablan, did not relish this particular part of his assignment. Granted, the companionship was pleasant. The Lady Khab was attractive, dressed in a blouse and skirt that flattered her form. However, beyond her appearance and pleasant disposition, Adm. Culverin found the mission not to his liking – diplomacy. It was also inconvenient. He hoped to get this affair resolved before the Soly Festival began.
Dplomacy, inconvenient or not, was not the sort of work Culverin liked to do. The flagship –
his ship – the OHV
Righteousness was commissioned as a warship and, therefore, intended for war. This wasn’t a war.
Righteousness had been dispatched to Taijitu to support supply vessels that would mine Kagranite without tipping off the indigenous peoples. Intel, however, had been wrong. The locals were not uncultured savages who would neither know what Kagranite was nor object to its being taken. Culverin had had to abandon plans to set up offshore rigs to drill the material out from under the naïve.
As the admiral and the lovely woman made their way about on Kagranian soil, Culverin marveled at the scenery, taking photographs (for later analysis) with the camera hidden in his hat. The idea that the mission could be handled covertly still, with operatives imbedded in-country, still appealed to Culverin. The plan to establish a zoo on Kagranian soil occurred to him. That the Kagranians agreed so readily to have the zoo established and maintained for them surprised Culverin. But he didn’t get to be an admiral without taking advantages that provided targets of opportunity.
Culverin and this Khablan woman had come ashore to meet the man who would represent the interests of Red Kagran. This diplomat informed the visiting dignitaries that, on the home soil of the natives of The Pha Phathers of Red Kagran, treaties are drawn up out in the open, with a minimum of attendees. Contracts are written on camel skin, with tea and fruit and Cuban pipe tobacco served.
That, at least, was better than some other diplomatic errands Culverin had had the misfortune to participate in. behind closed doors. Smoke-filled rooms. Grim countenances. Long, drawn-out affairs. Stale sandwiches and cold coffee. But the Kagranian man proved to be just the sort Culverin had come to expect. Mistrustful – almost to the point of being paranoid, or at least isolationist. Sometimes threatening. Arrogant. Occasionally insulting. A typical foreign suit-and-tie civilian.
Then, before negotiations could truly begin, the Kagranian man made some very forward advances toward the Khablanese woman and invited her to take a walk by the lake with him – leaving Admiral Culverin to draw up the document as he saw fit. Knowing that the Lady Khab was armed with her own bag of tricks, Culverin did not protest.
The document therefore read as a very plainly written military order, not a flowery affair intended to impress anyone or hide anything. Certainly it favored New Thyatira mainly, and Khablan and Wheresoever secondarily. New Thyatira would establish the zoo, provide the animals and workers. Khablan would supply the food – including Madagascar eggs (green with yellow spots) – for the exhibited creatures and zoo personnel. The Wheresoeverians would airlift any large shipments that the Kagranians could not handle, and also take care of the advertisements with large painted signs on the sides of their blimps.
The Kagranians would offload smaller parcels with cranes and carriers from Thyatiran vessels and also load on the Kagranite. This would be done in Silver Gulf, apparently Kagran’s only serviceable seaport – the rest of the nation having a very rugged coast with sharp rocks instead of sandy beach. Admiral Culverin had surveyed the shoreline from the OHV
Righteousness before entering Kagranian waters. That this Silver Gulf was the only place to put into port was true. But Culverin didn’t believe for a minute the Kagranian man’s claim that shipping in this part of the world was handled by trained sea turtles.
