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The group quickly collects Kal and informs the Sheriff of their findings. He has doffed his armor and winces as one of the priests of the Cathedral pokes and prods his side, where a dark and mottled bruise shows where he took the blow from the ogre. Another, armored with a breastplate and wearing a mace and shield has taken position guarding the ruined front of the mausoleum. The scattered and broken brickwork from the ogre zombie's emergence has been neatly stacked on the side, and while it is too late in the day today, it looks like repairs will be started the following morning.

"If you can find those bastards and recover Father Tobyn's remains, we would all be grateful. I think, given the evidence, that the attack on the cathedral square was a diversion for this theft, but for the life of me, I could not guess why. I do ask you to keep this... desecration... to yourselves. Father Tobyn was well respected and beloved in Sandpoint, and it would be very distressing to many to hear that goblins had made off with his remains for some foul purpose.

Also, be careful beyond the walls. Sandpoint is still very much a frontier settlement, and the woods and moors beyond our walls are not always the safest in the night. You know already of the goblins stirring, but even the local boars can be vicious enough if startled, and there are rumors that the Sandpoint Devil is rooming the moors with these new troubles. Please come back safe and tell myself or the mayor what you find. Return through one of the gates - They'll be closed, but guards are being posted for a night watch and they'll be warned to watch for you. Once you're over the wall, we'll remove the ladder - no need to leave it so easy to sneak in."

((For Etoile: The Sandpoint Devil is a near-mythical creature that is rumored to lurk in the region. Supposedly it is a monsterous amalgamation of different animal features - a horse, but walking upright and with the wings of a bat, the teeth of a wolf, a reptillian tail and broken, stag-like antlers. It's hunting scream drives all that hear it into unthinking panic.))

((For the purposes of this, to make any progress Zeratuu has to beat the DC 13 by 5. Rolling between 13 and 17 means she hasn't lost the trail completely, but she isn't making any progress following it. Rolling under the DC means she loses the trail.))

*roll* Zeratuu - Survival 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 13 Partial Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 18 Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 22 Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 22 Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 23 Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 14 Partial Success
*roll* 1d20 + 3 vs DC 13 : 21 Success))

With the group together and watching her with varying levels of truth, Zeratuu gulps nervously and closes her eyes, digging up all of her oldest memories of her life before the menagerie. Her first attempts to follow the trail are halting, and her tail lashes with frustration as she keeps losing their tracks. But then her eyes catch the footprints, and the signs of passage in bushes with broken branches and disturbed leaves. With the others behind her, Zeratuu begins the hunt.

Hours pass, and night falls over the group. But for Zeratuu, it is only all the more comfortable as the daylight no longer stings her eyes. She stays low to the ground, the goblins staying in the woods parallel to the road as it travels northeast along the coast, before woods give way to hills. The lessons of her youth are burning bright in her mind, and the little kobold doggedly follows the trail as the trail leaves the hills as the road turns east and plunges into the coastal forest of Shank's Wood.

Passing through the quiet woods, broken only by the hooting of hunting owls and the nearly imperceptible flutter of bat wings and nighttime insects, they cross an ancient graveyard swiftly, which Etoile identifies as a traditional Varisian nomad graveyard. Now known as the Pauper's Graves, many laborers who died in the construction of Sandpoint have been buried there. The graveyard is eerily and oppressively silent, leaving the group ill at ease with the sense of watching malice.

It is almost a relief to enter the tangled and irritating snarls of thorny underbrush that mark the Nettlewood, but as they travel further away from the graveyard, the normal sounds of a forest at night begin to surround them again.

((*roll* Perception for everyone - 2 Successes))

Caught up in the hunt and every sense engaged, Zeratuu hisses and gestures for everyone to stop moving and making sounds and being so loud. Steven has already crouched low, having seen the same things the kobold has. At the edge of a clearing, they see a low-burning fire giving off dim light, and a few dark shapes gathered around the fire, cackling and carrying on. Steven feels a pulse of adrenaline as he recognizes their language - Goblin. Moving carefully, he puts away his unlit cigarette.

((The party is currently undetected, and can see 3 goblins around the fire. How many more are in the area is another question.

Also, I'm putting a rank in Survival for Zeratuu next level to reflect this. The little lizard did good. Also as an aside, Sirius mentioned taking prisoners - if you want to, let me know at some point during combat. Most enemies (at least that Aloisturm hasn't hit) are generally hit into dying levels of HP and are allowed to bleed out. If you intend to take prisoners, then I'll track that and give you the chance to stabilize enemies.))

((I'll be honest here, if you're all gun-ho to try, Zeratuu will try tracking, but with untrained Survival, she's basically guaranteed to lose the trail. You'll also be leaving Kal and a confused Sheriff behind,  Etoile has run out of spells, and it's almost sundown, so some of you will be less effective.))

WELCOME TO ENDLESS STREAM OF HATE, KHORNE'S COFFEE SHOP OF CHOICE FOUR MILLENIUMS RUNNING!!! MAY I TAKE YOUR ORDER!?!? *Chainsword Noises*

I'm taking it Kharn is the chain's main supplier of blood for the beverages? What a swell guy, that Kharn.

((Or we can assume that you asked Steve to help you over and now the group is mostly together. ))

((This is probably a long shot, but I want to get some idea of who made the ladder and when. That might be a Craft check but I reckon it could be almost anything.))

((*roll* 1d20 + 6 vs Craft DC 15 : 16 Succeed))

Aloisturm takes some time to analyze the ladder carefully. It is simply constructed, two long straight pieces of wood connected with wooden pegs inserted down the length of the wood at reasonable intervals for a human-sized creature. The joining points have been glued together, and then reinforced by rope wrapped around each point. The wood was roughly sanded to smooth out splinters. Analyzing the texture, the signs of weathering in the wood itself and the smoother polish of the center of the rungs indicate that this ladder is not new, and has seen considerable use in its existence.

Based on the information gleaned, Aloisturm comes to the following conclusions.

• The ladder was made for human-sized users
• There is little chance it was crafted by goblins
• It has been kept in good condition, something unlikely if it had been in possession of goblins for any length of time.
• There are no obvious maker's marks.

Research Labs:

We should have 20 labs, as far as I know, which are split 15 and 5 on the current projects.

Ground Forces:

My thinking here is to build up ground units now in case we need them later. I'd prefer training Mobile Infantry over Garrison forces if we ever need to use them for offensive operations. This would give us forces we could safely draw on, for tasks ranging from occupying installations or (in the future), providing guards for excavation sites.

Sensor Installations:

The thing with having the carriers run their sensor is that there comes the possibility that all carriers are otherwise occupied - in transit or on missions. I agree that the early warning radius isn't the best - I'd prefer a size 50 radar installation, but researching that would be a 8000 RP project. That said, the installation is tiny enough that building it is a very small project, and any early warning allows the possibility of a diplomatic compromise (even if pointing out the probability of mutually assured destruction) to be reached with the Federation before they're in orbit and bombarding the population of the targeted planet.

I've been going back through the information. The Federation trying to claim Dione would indicate a need for Vendarite or Corundium on their part. Vendarite sounds unlikely, as according to the wiki it's mostly used for fighters, hangers and fighter factories. Corundium, however, is needed for energy weapons, and a serious lack of it will make it troublesome for them to expand their fleet.

Of the 11 known TN minerals, we currently make use of 9 of them. These are:

• Duranium, used everywhere
• Sorium, our fuel source
• Neutronium, used in our railguns
• Boronide, used in power systems and capacitors
• Uridium, used in sensors and fire control systems
• Corundium, used in building energy weapons such as our meson cannons.
• Mercassium, used in building research facilities and life support systems
• Vendarite, used in building fighters, factories and fighter bases.
• Gallicite, used in all sorts of engine construction

The two currently unused minerals are:

• Corbomite, with theoretical applications in some form of energy shielding, stealth applications, and electronic warfare
• Tritanium, only useful in preparing nuclear warheads. A forbidden technological line, this mineral is effectively worthless and need not be pursued.

Including our four claims of 52 Europa, Psyche, Wolf-Harrington and Macholz, our minable stockpiles of minerals are roughly:

• Duranium - 964,134 tons
• Neutronium - 173,730 tons
• Corbomite - 106,650 tons
• Tritanium - 315,575 tons
• Boronide - 186,712 tons
• Mercassium - 170,884 tons
• Vendarite - 437,271 tons
• Sorium - 428,775 tons
• Uridium - 192,950 tons
• Corundium - 906,630 tons
• Gallicite - 143,943 tons

To address a few points:

- I think we should allow the minerals from the civilian mining complex to go into the economy. We have no shortage of the minerals they produce, and the extra income earned from taxes and greater civilian spending would help more.

- I agree that we should claim Pallas next, and suggest Kalypso as our following claim. Doing so gives us an asteroid claim in roughly each cardinal direction. Our next claim should be the comet Neujmin, mostly to deny its Corundium reserves to the Federation.

This leads to my next proposal:

Pallas, Kalypso, 52 Europa and Psyche should be developed as stopover stations for our FAC. This doesn't have to be anything fancy to begin with, merely establishing a fuel dump on each of these asteroids would allow our FAC flotillas to transit from the Jovian colonies to the Saturn colony without needing carrier support by stopping off at a refueling station midway to replenish their fuel supplies. Since these asteroids are roughly in the galactic north, east, south and west, it should ensure that the two subsystems are never truly out of range of each other.

- I agree we should place a second DSTS on Wolf-Harrington. We can pack up an already established DSTS to expedite this before the comet crosses into Federation space and replace the DSTS.

- I suggest building the following design on all inhabited colonies:

Sky Watcher class Sensor Outpost    355 tons     15 Crew     99.8 BP      TCS 7.1  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-4     Sensors 1/80     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 2   

Thales Orbital Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 3200     Range 55.7m km    Resolution 40


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 1 sections
It's basic, it's simple, and its purpose is to run its active sensor at all times, ensuring that no Federation ship can approach within 55 million kilometers of a civilian colony without providing warning, allowing our fleet to come to action stations.

- Finally, I think we should begin building up our ground forces. Each inhabited colony should have a defensive brigade on hand for security purposes.

Hah! I agree. Offer mining rights for Dione in exchange for Republic mining rights to Deimos or Phobos (and free trade between our nations). We would each have a civilian enclave in the other's space to facilitate polite interaction.

((I just want to see their faces when faced with the idea of a Republican colony that close to home, given how caught up they are with exclusion zones and their efforts to keep us out of the inner system.

I also agree with a suggestion from earlier - we really want to get some DSTS on our comet claim as it swings through the inner system. We can always pull them back off again afterwards.))