In recent weeks the Ministry of the Steady Hand seem to have been recruiting heavily. Inquires seem to imply this is in order to meet the challenges presented to Rastaban by changed circumstances. Those interested in aiding the city are asked to present themselves at the townhouse of Nonnus Ingerinus.

Pericles Kommodore - Joe

Renée Teiwaz - Chaos

James - Dan

Iseneth - Geraint

The party turn up at the townhouse which seems to be bustling with activity and are swiftly hustled in to talk to a rather busy looking Nonnus. Here the party are asked to do two things. The first is to investigate what happened to a survey team sent into the imperial district who have not returned at the appointed time and the secondly to retrieve s a casket from a vault in the imperial district where it was no longer secure and return with it. The party are also given ponchos which they are assured will mostly keep of the light drizzle if they head in at the correct time.

After waiting for a slightly less rainy period the party head in following the expected trail of the survey team. After fighting of an attack by some cultists they come across a much more organised group attempting to break into what looks like a large metal coffin. After ascertaining that the coffin seems to contain both the master commisoner and the master shaper sent with the survey team. The party defeat the people trying to get in and free them. Upon examination it seems that the group are from the false empire and had orders to try and delay the work of the survey team and kidnap the leads if possible. They also seemed to have access to weirdly accurate maps of the route the survey team was taking.

After helping the survey team complete their work the party head towards the vault to which they have been given a key. When they arrive however they find that some sort of defense system has been activated which turns anyone approaching the vault into statues. With some clever distractions however they get past this and deactivate the system.

Heading into the vault they find that someone seems to have broken in ahead of them and cracked open the box. The contents however, some kind of black jewel, seems to have turned the would be thieves into some kind of composite mutated monster. After defeating this the party debate how to get the obviously dangerous gem into the box. First James tries a connection ritual to give it to his familiar but this backfires when they start painfully mutating on the plane of connection. With Iseneth's help James does a quick emergency ritual succesfully dragging his familiar into the material plane where Isineth chops off it's mutated hand and dumps it into the box.

As the party head out they are confronted by a group of commissioners who demand that they hand over the contents of the box they are holding. The party however decided that the orders of the bureaucracy supersede those of the commission and after tricking the commissioners re-activate the defense grid turning them all into statues.

The party head swiftly back to Nonnus's house where they hand over the box and report on their progress putting particular emphasis that they were interrupted by third parties on both occasions. Nonnus seems unsurprised by this and admits that they have told several subordinates who they suspect of being untrustworthy different pieces of information in the hopes of smoking out who is spying for whome. There are four subordinates they suspect of spying but they are not sure quite who is spying for who. The people they could be spying for are the false empire, a traditionalist faction within the bureaucracy, the Mystikos and the old emperor. They give the players one more task to deliver the text if the latest imperial truth play to the silent regent for approval before ushering them into a room to have lunch with the suspects and leak to whomever seems most likely to get them the most information. The play goes along the following lines.

• The city was heroically switched by Suprema and Jasine
• Now is therefore the perfect time to seize Rastaban’s manifest destiny
• There are foul beings beyond the edges of the world who wish to be worshipped. They are to be spurned, the muses show the true path
• The clock is a false muse and must be crushed
• The emperor has evil schemes to bring about the end of the world

The party are a bit squeamish about some of these but reassure themselves that perhaps its all a trick and not the actual script.

Over lunch the party tell one suspect that they are delivering military information to Telemere, agree to deposit the script in a safe location for a switch-out for another tell a third that they are delivering script which says some negative things about the emperor.

After they leave lunch the party take the scenic route to the villa where the silent regent is supposedly staying. After hearing from some of Pereclesis contacts that people are watching the Telemere district the party divert past there and are promptly ambushed. After fighting them off Renee is able to examine some of their equipment and work out they come from the false empire.

Heading off towards the villa the party come across a wagon stuck in the road. Pericles's goes to help and after lifting the cart up is promptly attacked by the wagoner and several friends who leap out from nearby. It looks slightly dodgy at times but the party eventually survive this ambush too. After examining some of their items Renee finds that several of them are from the philosophy of Seluga which she points out is where she thinks the emperor is from.

The party then carry on and eventually find there way to an idilyic villa. After presenting their credentials the party are shown inside by an overly curious handmaiden. After several minutes of slightly awkward conversation the silent regent emerges to sign the script before the arrival of a second slightly cross looking handmaiden brings the audience to an abrupt close.

The party then head back to Nonnus who has organised a dinner with the suspected traitors and asks the party to work out who is spying for whome. After several some deductions and denouncements it turns out that they are all traitors for various different people and are all arrested.

The consequences are not great but subtle as gradually a purge trickles it's way through the functioning of the steady hand and the city beyond. The Steady Hand begins work on a series of reservoirs and aqueducts to the control the flow of Ichor falling in the imperial district and in general things start to run slightly more efficiently than they did.

A new Imperial truth play is produced in which one of the primary antagonists seems to be the emperor which makes the following points,

• The city was heroically switched by Suprema and Jasine
• Now is therefore the perfect time to seize Rastaban’s manifest destiny
• There are foul beings beyond the edges of the world who wish to be worshipped. They are to be spurned, the muses show the true path
• The clock is a false muse and must be crushed
• The emperor has evil schemes to bring about the end of the world

This produces some disturbance in the city and rumbles of discontent are heard. Someone seems to have made a move but the effects of this are uncertain for now.

• Three favor, may buy affiliation with the steady hand if they wish.

• Transfers the effects of a dreamers skull to him and his partner through a connection ritual.

• Gains one extra favor for providing Nonnus with a detailed debriefing.