Rod falls from Grace

The whole evening, Rod has been flirting with a curvaceous railer girl working at the Terminus Diner. That’s what other people would call it – he would say that he just wants to get to know her, as part of his first trip into the wider world. She says her name is Lola, and she seems to like his bashful advances and his freckles, too. After the group separates for the night, she drags him down into the underground of the Terminus, into the Black Pearl Bar, where she seems to be rather well known. This is a wild place, dark and with loud, thumping music. In the red light, Rod makes out lots of railers, but also a distinct group of other travelers. These men have covered their faces with white paint, to serve as a canvas for all sorts of symbols – a red hand on the forehead, two blue stripes running across the eyes, a black lightning on the left cheek. Their armor is covered with garish, suggestive and violent paintings. The men seem to celebrate a raucous get-together, with bottles and fat cigarettes making the round. They carry enough guns to comfortably arm a group triple the size. Rod avoids eye contact, and notices that the other patrons also give this group a wide berth. By then, the railer working the bar has placed of bottle of tequila on the top and whispers to Rod while leering at Lola “Listen, boy: Old tradition with the clans – you bite the worm, and she is yours. She is a very good girl, yes.” Indeed, in the murky liquid, a small dark shape can be discerned, and with some pacing and a bit of help from the friendly bartender, Rod is indeed the one to swallow the worm. Lola takes his hand and pulls him out of the Black Pearl Bar and up to the top of the Terminus Diner, into her small bolt hole…

GM: Damn your wiles, you seduce her.

Player: But I didn’t want to seduce her.

GM: Guh?

Player: I just wanted to talk to her and have a bed for the night. That’s all. I am a catholic.

GM: (Didn’t see that coming…) Nubile young woman, young man away for the first time, all alone in the big city…Will roll please.

Dice: Fail.

All the demons in hell: Hahahahaha!

GM: As you sink into her arms…

A grey morning greets the shame of Rod the benefactor. Where is the sanctity of marriage now? How can he ever look a future wife in the eyes? If he is not able to withstand such a temptation, then it is questionable, questionable indeed, if he is the right one for such a trying mission. He casts a look full of disgust at the languid form sprawled on the bed of sin. Without waking the temptress, he gathers his belongings and hurries away from the Terminus Diner, towards the big station clock. The relic from the Long Ago shows a quarter past eight, and already the traffic on the platforms is brisk. Hawkers shout out their wares and the food stands’ business is good. Mal Porter, Dan Hawking and Zed have been waiting for him in the shadow of the clock, and they look well-rested and eager to start the search for the false benefactor. Rod feels their eyes upon him, an unspoken accusation, but they don’t bring up the topic of the serving girl which was so easy on the eyes, and the benefactor is grateful for it. Mal takes them to the Conquistador: “Let’s find this new healer in Demeter. If we are lucky, our hunt might be over before lunch.”