Timestamp: 6.843.997.M41

Location: Acreage, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Looking for clues in Orlankan

Body: Compared to the stately march of days during warp transit things happen very quickly once you're on the ground. Within the span of only six days Terran standard (five local) you have entered orbit, put a team down on Emperor's Island, successfully passed through the blockade around the city of Orlankan, made contact with a variety of locals (including the First Minister of Orlankan and Bishop Atellus of the Ministorum), tried to hawk some of the guns Jax got hold of on Iochantos, tried to learn something about Aristarchus, and generally snooped around a but.

The gun sale seemed promising early on, but the First Minister never got back to you. Bishop Atellus was somewhat more of a success - he confided that Aristarchus had indeed spent some time here at court in Ascandia, serving as a seer to the late High King (the father of the pretender Queens). Some years ago he was banished from the city for 'reasons unknown', although Atellus suspects that it had to do with his divinations suddenly turning both inaccurate and sour. He stayed for a while in Orlankan, where his divinations seemed quite clear and benign, before eventually taking a ship to Emperor's Island. Atellus doesn't know what happened after that. So you're no closer to determining that nature of the tampered Tarot card - except that you might imagine that something may have happened in Ascandia and/or Orlankan.

Completely unrelated to you mission(s); Orlankan is feeling the effects of the siege of late. Mostly because of the actions of the treasonous Baroness Falathris and her fleet elements. Where once Orlankan had more or less free access to the oceans it is now besieged from both land AND sea. So there is a shortage of food (but not yet all that acute) and the threat of pestilence is there. Yet there is also something else striking fear in the hearts of the city's inhabitants - some force or entity that stalks in the night and breaks into houses, slaughtering all within...and leaving no traces behind.

Those that take away the dead and prepare them for burial are kept very busy...Maxi even has a chat with two of them, one Mr. Smeed and his assistant Moot. They explain that the situation is even worse than that - for the traditional burial sites are out beyond the city's walls, among the great sky-mills covering the north-eastern part of the Island. The two doesn't strike Maxi as very brave, but yet the venture out beyond the walls with the dead every day...lest they become a threat to the health of the city.

Haxtes also investigates a bit. On the second night he hits paydirt - a trio of great cats, clearly xenos beast not from this world - acting in concert and displaying quite a bit of intellect. Abominations. Haxtes kills one and injures a second. The third one flees. Haxtes tracks the injured over the walls and towards the sky-mills - only to be ambushed by the uninjured cat that had previously 'fled'. They are clearly 'intelligent' and can communicate. They are also quite deadly. Haxtes barely manages to kill the beast, and is seriously injured in the process.

What IS going on here?