(1867-10-01) Musings of the Morenos
Musings of the Morenos
Summary: The Moreno family meets and plans how to act upon current events and rumors.
Date: 10-01-1867
Related: None.
Players:
Raul  Saffran  Adem  

Moreno Manse - Sunsreach - Rivana
Room description
10-01-1867

It is a quiet day of the First of October, 167. In one of the middle floors of the Moreno Manse, one of the meeting rooms has been quietly taken over by some of the members of the family to go over recent news, events, and rumors. Raul Moreno has taken it to place himself upon a chair with a series of scribbled notes of recent inquiries, deals, and income that have been done in the recent season. While many of the recent dealings have been quite, quite profitable for the upjumped house, the setbacks of so many of their Soldattos in Pacitta being sick with fever has come to his attention.
So, it is during a break in his review that Raul sits back and goes to take a sip of some of his long since warmed wine that he has been sipping on throughout the review, even as the day otherwise is bright outside.

Also at the table is Adem Moreno, heir to house Moreno and the head of the family's Syndicate business, and Raul's older brother… as well as Saffran, Adem and Raul's sister, a former courtesan of some renown.

Saffran casually eats from a bowl of vegetable stew, turnips, carrots, maize, snapbeans, and potatoes and small green peas imported from Couviere all cooked together with salt, ground black peppercorns from Alhazred, and other spices from near and far. Being a trade house had its perks, of course. A mostly full bowl of the same had been doled out to the other Moreno sublings as well, for now, Adem has yet to touch his.

"Still problems with traveling through some of the Black Gates," Adem grouses. "Makes getting some of our trade goods from the north down to here a bit more difficult."

Saffran takes another bite, seeming to savor it for a moment. "Mm. By trade goods, you mean replacement alchemicals from the t'Andalucci since the Silva aren't trading right now?"

Sitting down, Raul Moreno is otherwise listening back and forth intently while adding a bit more pepper to his own soup, glancing over at Saffran as he listens to her and then as he listens to Adem, nodding. "Aye, something has been up with the Gates.." By the rumors, at least. Going ever so more slowly. Not just the Black Gates that the families were known to use. "I take it that the Marchettes have had nothing to say in the matter?" A nod and a frown is given to Adem.

As he listens to the back and forth then and Saffran makes her comments on the alchemical being traded back and forth. "Might that possibly have anything to do..?" LIkely to the number of sick Soldattos in Pacitta, given the transition for now of using them as opposed to the Silva. Another sip of his warm wine that he had been slowly going through and then a quick skim back along his notes, going to scan along some of his scribbles on trade goods.

"More of our men keep falling ill in Pacitta." Adem looks frustrated. "I would go myself to go check on business there, but Father has forbidden it."

Saffran shrugs languidly. "Send me, then," she drawls. "I can make the excuse of visiting the Courtesan's Academy there." She glances to her younger brother. "Other than the gates having… hiccups… no. The Marchettes are tight-lipped as always, though we could press the issue for a higher payment and at our own risk. With our people in Pacitta mostly out of the ability to do much…" she sighs. "No, we'll not push. For now."

Adem grunts. "Hard to get medicines to our people when the gates are acting up. Especially under the table medications. Your sources tell you anything about this illness at all, Saff?"

The former courtesan narrows her eyes, placing her bowl down and taking a swallow of her mug of ale before she answers. "Fever is the only thing that stays the same through all the tellings. And we've had several of our men die of it. Of course, the Council in Pacitta is trying to keep word of the illness quiet for now, lest people worry it spreads."

"Will it spread?" Adem asks.

"I'm not a fucking healer, Adem," Saffran scowls. "I'm a whore. Or at least I used to be. And a spy. I can tell you having the Silva out of pocket while they move their household across the mountains right now makes me nervous, but at the same time…" She smirks. "At the same time, I understand there's about to be a mass arrest of the Abara."

"A little bird told you?" Adem shakes his head.

"You could say that."

Listening in on things, Raul Moreno lets out a quiet grunt. "And a damned fine time to be short in Pacitta." And not be in a position to directly investigate or otherwise look into things. Glancing at Saffran, and then noting, "But we have to do something, particularly if what is going around there is going to get worse. We could possibly ask some Healers if we.." Otherwise falling silent.

Then nodding over at Adem. "Do weknow then if things are spreading beyond just our people or it's hitting segments ofthe city?" Then as Saffran continues, he swallows. "A possible epidemic?" Even worse.

His eyebrows shoot up over on the words of the mass arrest of the Abara. "Wonderful. Are they going to have anyone left after the sweep or any other in the area that might pick up the reins when they go down?" If the Abara were thinned, there could be a vacuum in the area.. Which had the potential for chaos and for profit. Now he is definitely paying attention, looking to Adem and some of the others at the table in more direct interest.

Saffran shrugs. "The crown intends to get them all… who knows how successful they'll be. I told Father about this earlier this afternoon so he can capitalize on their disappearance, one way or the other, with the business."

Adem glares at her. "You should have told me. That business is in my hands now, Saff. Father handles the nobility."

"Whoops…" she titters. "As for epidemics? Well, I suspect that the bickering fools in Pacitta are at least working together to prevent this sickness from leaving their port. I suspect like most illnesses it will flare up like it is now and die down in a week or so. We may have to recruit to rebuild our numbers but we won't be the only ones having to do so."

Adem nods slightly. "It's not just us being hit, Raul," he explains. "I just don't give a fuck about the other people falling ill to this. They aren't my problem."

There's a quick nod from Raul at Saffran, "Good then.." Right as Adem lightly cuts her off then and Raul quickly nods at his brother's statement to cover himself. He thoughtfully looks up and over. "We can keep track of how it's going from anyone coming through the Gates for a bit if we have to. Whenever the stories have seemed to di down it should be contained. And any travelers spreading heavy tales of it would let us keep at least a discrete track of it if we can't rely on our own people to do so."

Saffran's talk of the bickering foolsin Pacitta gets a quiet, barking laugh from Raul then and a nod over at her assessment of the possible need to recruit later. And then Adem's words he nods, "Of course." Standing lightly corrected and giving a nod. "Just if the city is going to be bad enough that something severe could go through it is something we should at least want to keep ourselves ready.." Ah well. Not their care other than their people.

"Of course," Saffran says, pushing her bowl away and standing. "I have… things to do, brothers. So if there's no more need of me?"

Adem waves her off. "Whatever, little sister. You'll do what you want anyway." There's a mixture of exasperation and amusement in his tone. He glances to Raul. "We'll figure things out, we always do. For now, I think our focus should be taking over as much of the Abara's trade routes on our legitimate business as possible. I know the Giraldi will be doing the same, so we want to beat them to it."

Raul gives a quick nod over at Saffran, "Thank you for the information. It's appreciated." He gave a quick switch of his attention back over to Adem. THen grinning. "A pleasure." Thinking quickly and musing. "We'll probably want to try and scout out the situation there ahead of time. The costs, the market.. The players. Then work at getting in." Looking at Adem then for his approval to elaborate before continuing.

Adem nods. "Time to get to work."

And after some time, they had their plan.

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