We resolve some betting question regarding Seamus’ cage match.

We review video of the cage match and our recording of Tigerlord and his entourage. Tigerlord looks mostly unmoved with the exception of a wry smile at the throat-ripping. The tigresses swish their tails repeatedly but otherwise don’t make any special moves.

As Seamus waits in the ring to be let out the cage handlers let him wait for a few minutes to ensure he’s cooled off, then let him out. They direct him to a waiting area to see to any wounds he received. They also reuite him with his clothes.

Time passes for the rest of us, who are hanging out in the bar. About 25 minutes pass; Tigerlord walks out of the bar with two Tigresses and one of his henchmen and heads towards the holding area that Seamus was taken to.

A short time later Seamus gets a knock at the door; he opens it to admit one of Tigerlord’s crew, stating that Tigerlord wants to speak with him. Apparently he doesn’t speak to all the winners but wants to talk with him. He pulls out a handheld scanner and checks over Seamus, proclaiming him safe enough when done.

Two seductive tigresses walk in and circle him once or twice, obviously inspecting him. Seamus quips, asking if they’re his victory presents. That earns one frown and one toothy grin and a purr from the other. They’re clearly armed with both a pistol as well as some kind of curved monosword. They ask Seamus to take a seat.

Tigerlord comes in shortly after. Seamus finally gets a good look at him. The man has quite a few tiger tattoos with some wild hair. Physical build is good but not remarkable. He’s wearing a nanoweave bodysuit, carries a heavy laser pistol and a katana. He takes a seat and introduces himself. The tigresses stand to either side of Tigerlord.

He states that the cage fight was impressive and asks if he enjoyed himself. Seamus remarks that it would be better with salt, eliciting a laugh. Tigerlord offers him a position in his crew, stating in so many words that he could use him as a hired thug to intimidate people. Seamus indicates that he’d be interested in accepting. Tigerlord states that if he’d like to accept the position to return to the bar and ask for the manager of the bar, Phil. Seamus indicates that he very may well accept. Tigerlord also states that he’ll be on-planet for the next three weeks. The two chicks and Tigerlord then leave.

A short time later Seamus’ remaining possessions are returned to him with a word that he could return to fight again any time he likes.

Seamus takes off separately from the rest of us; we agree to meet elsewhere to talk.

We discuss the plan a bit more, talking about how Seamus is going to conceal his actual job, how we might take advantage of this development, and such. We estimate that the amount of time it would take for a drivesat message to be sent and then received gives us about two weeks time before conceivably Tigerlord could find out what’s up.

Benton analyzes some of the remaining goo left over from the two melted aliens and indicated that it’s beyond him but the obvious product of some advanced biotechnology. Gargoyle indicates that he knows someone who might be able to fill in that gap. He lives on Bluefall, however. Gargoyle decides to send a shadow over to Bluefall to make the inquiry on his behalf, encrypting some of their sample data too.

Seamus purchases some fancy explosive ammo.

In thinking about it more we know that Tigerlord leaves to go to Pirate Island and returns with money and the drugs we’ve found. Given that there’s an obvious link between the drugs and the externals we fought (based on their desire to get their hands on the body we found) it would stand to reason that the externals may be on Pirate Island.

Considering that our objective is completing the bounty, not tracking down the source of the drugs, we consider ways to gather some more information about Tigerlord as well as try to plan out how we’d go about ambushing him or otherwise getting into a good situation to capture him alive. We discuss different methods of delivering drugs to incapacitate him.

Intense discussion regarding the viability of mini-nuke weapons and dial-a-kiloton functionality ensues. The plan of nuking the city and sending some ashes in an envelope to the bounty hunting board is seriously considered and then, after careful consideration, rejected.

After a couple of days Seamus goes to speak to Phil to get ahold of Tigerlord, who indicates that he’ll get in contact with him soon and will call Seamus.

In that time we return to the ship to retrieve our heavier armor, weapons and other gear.

At this point we have completely derailed ourselves and we stop for the night.