Having successfully completed the first step in their efforts towards Establishing a Grain Route, the Explorers found themselves with a little bit of free time in Footfall. Contacted by Vladyam Tocara, assistant to the Liege of Footfall, they found themselves invited to dinner that evening at Lieges Court. Not wanting to appear rude, the Lord-Captain Jequin Hos accepted the invitation, leaving his crew a few hours to spend at their leisure on Footfall.

Navigator Maturinus Pazzano and Arch-Militant Zacharya Caine both attempted to gain access to the Chapel of the Third Congregation to pay their respects to the Imperial Cult. Although Arch-Militant Caine was quite successful in applying a combination of shoving and threats to reach the central shrine to display his piety, Navigator Pazzano was not as successful. Nonetheless they all left feeling accomplished.

Navigator Pazzano left for Saul Shipping Services to fetch himself a rather fine quality new desk for his offices aboard the Cruiser, while Arch-Militant Caine continued his exploration of Footfall. Explorator Artifex Felicis first attempted to track down information on his long-time rival J0-N11 at the local Asteroid Skimming Track, but was informed he had made it big in the Scintillan leagues and had no plans to come out at this time. He then visited the Obsidian Emporium, successfully playing himself up as a large mover and shaker in the Adeptus Mechanicus and receiving an invite to the covetted auctions held there.

Arch-Militant Caine was no slouch himself in this department, gaining exploring Warpsbane Alley to listen to the word of the mad ramblers and try to divine some sense of the lay of the Koronus Expanse, and acquired several pieces of gossip. He then moved to Grant’s Bounty Office, where he learned of the current outstanding Imperial bounties that were present in the Expanse. Finding that most of them had to do with destroying the Chaos Reavers that had been threatening the area, he scrolled for information on the ship they had destroyed during the action at the Battleground. Shockingly, he found the bounty for the ship the Adventurers had destroyed had already been claimed by one Krawkin Feckward.

Outraged over this injustice, he stormed around the Bounty Office demanding answers, but was told the bounty claim was legitimate. Feckward had delivered the central cogitator of the destroyed Chaos vessel, which is proof of its destruction and therefore he is entitled to the bounty. Outraged, he swore to track down all information on Feckward so that this slight against his crew could be avenged.

These difficulties caused him to miss the dinner at the Liege’s Court. In attendence were Rogue Trader Hos, Explorator Felicis, Astropath Eckhart and Navigator Primarus Dionisio Pazzano. Navigator Maturinius was ordered to stay behind by the rotund senior Navigator, under claims that he could not properly represent the dignity of the situation. Dinner was held with Liege Tanthus Moross, The Provisio of the Tutors, Preacher Ywane and several local rogue traders: Lord Admiral Bastille VII, Abel Gerrit, Lady Sun Lee… and Krawkin Feckward himself.

Ignoring the man who cheated him of his bounty, Rogue Trader Hos attempted to strike up a conversation with the most likely ally among this group – Lord Admiral Bastille. Knowing a lot of his past naval victories, the Lord Captain was polite and complimentary towards his fellow Rogue Trader only to be rebuffed and scorned as a dilettante and pretender to the glorious history of the Imperial Navy. Bastille’s tone was so perfunctory and discourteous that a stir went up around the table, including a loud bark of laughter from Krawkin Feckward, who seemed to take delight in this flaunting of social norms.

Quickly pegging the man as a small-time bully and lacking any true wit or integrity, Astropath Eckhart seized control of the attention of the table by ingesting a Deep Warp Eel, a disgusting and heretical device known to provoke mutation and destruction in others. He proceeded to swallow it with an easy smile. With the rapt attention of the room, he commented on the “piquancy” of the dish, and basked in the appreciative applause at this feat. Explorator Felicis then asked, not so politely, if Rogue Trader Feckward had the same temerity to try this dish. Seeing no other way out, and failing to deflect attention to any other party, he was forced to save face by attempting to duplicate the Astropath’s accomplishment.

He was much less successful.

The eel forced itself up out of his throat, along with the contents of everything eaten so far, and possibly up to several days back. Rushed from the room by his attendants, he was ill the entire way out. Playing off of Feckward’s Failure, Rogue Trader Hos parlayed this into more favourable interactions with Lady Sun Lee and Abel Gerrit, potentially forging a strong alliance between the two powers. For their role in embarrassing Feckward, Eckhart and Felicis both were the new hot topic of Footfall, and garnered quite a few pieces of interesting gossip.

Zacharaya Caine meanwhile, unaware of the events at dinner, headed to the Renowned Blessing to track down more information on Krawkin Feckward. Entering this high-class gentleman’s club he immediately set about intimidating the bartender and demanding information. Upon realising through the judicious application of large bouncers threatening to have him thrown out that this might not be the best idea, he hit upon the much more effective idea of using his Rogue Trader’s money to buy everyone in the bar some booze. A lot of booze.

Once tongues were loosened and people stopped actively trying to get him to leave, he sought about for any of Feckward’s crew who might be in this bar. He did manage to locate some, and learned that quite a few of his crew were dissatisfied with his performance as Lord-Captain, but he failed to get any more information out of the crew. Unable to squeeze any more information out of this bar, and aware that he was on his last legs in terms of what they would put up with, he returned to the Lumen.