Welp, here we are again.
While I don't have any news-news, this week's Monday Meeting Blog over at Onyx Path's website has a couple of art previews for Under Alien Skies, an Æon book that I worked on. And I could be wrong, but I think one of the art pieces is from a section I worked on. I don't think I have any way of finding out before the book is out, so I'm not going to dwell. Just mentioning it here.
And now, let's do the thing.
So where we left off, the krewe returned from their outing at the Ghost Market, and Eddy getting a message from his mobster buddy Kevin Moreno about a time-sensitive job. Eddy, who's conveniently regained his voice (as the effect silencing him wore off at the end of the last session), calls him back. Moreno has a job for him -- namely, he's got some merchandise he needs unloaded. Rossi's merchandise.
Rossi's got a shipment of some sort coming in, but because he's having some renovation work done on the basement the alley where he'd bring in the truck has been blocked off. The truck is stashed somewhere for the next few hours, and Moreno wants it gone. And if Eddy can sell what's in it and pass along a decent finder's fee, then bonus. Eddy agrees and gets the address for a vacant lot where the Campbell Shipping[0] truck can be found.
Eddy grabs his coat and hat and rushes back out, leaving Kenneth and Richard behind to just stare at each other quizzically.[1] Eddy finds the vacant lot easily enough, and there's the truck. There's only one person out and about, smoking a cigarette next to a pay phone across the street. He can't be sure the guy is watching the truck but it's a fair guess.
So he parks a short distance away and uses the Caul to turn himself into a swarm of mosquitoes. The swarm flies over to the box truck and wriggles into the back, which is full of unmarked crates. He climbs into the cab and starts the truck and pulls out of there as the guy by the phone notices something is up. As Eddy drives away the chases him down the street, gun in hand, but Eddy's in a moving vehicle and the other guy is not.
Eddy parks the truck back at the hotel around the back so the markings on the truck aren't clearly visible from the street, straightens himself up, and goes back inside. The others, noticing that now he's coming back in through the back, are wondering what's up, particularly when Eddy says he needs some bolt cutters to get into the back of the truck.
Richard asks, naturally, "What truck?"
Eddy explains that he's stolen a truck that was shipping something to Rossi. Richard turns to Kenneth and says that he might not be the biggest fuckup in the group any more. Eddy then explains that Rossi had this stashed in a vacant lot because the basement is being expanded, and there might be something they can use against him there. They go out to have a look at it, and Kenneth says he's going to be pissed if Eddy did something illegal to risk his investigation over a shipment of napkins and coffee stirrers.
Eddy, a little concerned, opens up the crate to find it full of cases labeled Scott Entertainment Supply (which supplies things like napkins and coffee stirrers to hotels and casinos). His heart falls and he opens the box... to find it full of bottles of olive oil. He's confused, taking the bottle out, surprised that he'd be shipping olive oil and such. But Kenneth lights up -- depending on the job they did, it's not olive oil.
It's counterfeit olive oil.[2]
Kenneth notes that the truck came from Texas -- meaning interstate crime, which is where the FBI officially has jurisdiction -- and he says he's officially seizing the truck for the investigation. But Eddy wants his score, so Kenneth explains the situation -- an anonymous tip led him to a shipment of contraband (which he's certain will be born out by testing) that he has confiscated for the investigation, but not before the tipster got away with a crate of the product. Eddy agrees to that deal, as counterfeit olive oil is worth enough to still make it worth the effort, even after giving Moreno his cut. Kenneth starts making calls while Eddy asks Richard to give him a lift to pick up his car, and that he can consider that favor his rent for the month.
So they head out to where Eddy stole the truck to find the streets swarming with mob goons poking at stuff. Eddy's car is visible enough to be seen, but it looks like they haven't gotten to it to mess with it yet. Richard drops him off off to the side and then tears around the streets in his truck to draw the mobsters' attention enough that Eddy can get to his car and they can both get away safely.
They head back while Kenneth is waking up everyone he can to get the ball rolling on getting this evidence processed. Meanwhile, Eddy gets on the phone to try and find a buyer for the olive oil, and manages to do pretty well for himself.
Elsewhere, Richard has opened the box that he got from the market. It's full of gears and mechanical parts with no obvious clue as to what they're for, so he begins assembling. It becomes clear soon enough that what he's assembling is a pocketwatch. The individual parts are worn and tarnished at first, but as more and more of them come together they all slowly become newer and shinier. And there reaches a point where some of the mechanisms begin to function of their own accord. Assembling the watch impresses upon him principles of the passage of time, and of entropy, which is part of the basic principles of the Tomb Haunt. And as he reaches for more pieces, he finds more and more components just blindly rummaging around in the box that weren't there before. And as the last components snap into place, the remaining pieces in the box disappear when he isn't looking. (The box itself is perfectly mundane, at least at this point.) But now he can learn the Tomb.
And so, with all three of them making progress towards various goals, we left off there.
[0]-- Which, by the way, is a company that comes up in the group's detailed workup of Rossi's financials a while back as someone he pays money to on the regular.
[1]-- In case it has to be said, Eddy took off without saying anything for fear that Kenneth would try to stop him and that Richard would somehow screw things up. These are fair and valid concerns.
[2]-- This is absolutely a thing. Look it up.
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