"Open," said don Jack Dockrat to his chiming t-mail bubble.

"Jack, hi," said don Milo Longshore. "How's things?"

"Things are fine here, Milo. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"My chief spy has brought me a little quid pro quo he got from a spy he knows in Tonad, from one of the independent gangs there. Says there was a big fight the other night between the Bigs. No idea what it was all about, except it had to do, apparently, with a group of adventurers who were in town. His friend called him about it because from all accounts, those adventurers are heading your way. Though they're not expected to stick around long. Anyway, I just wondered if we should maybe get involved, try to figure things out, maybe grab a piece of the action for BiShip."

"I doubt that would be wise, my friend. Still, is there any more information?"

"Adventurers consist of the Band-"

"Oh, I do so enjoy their music," Dockrat interjected.

"Yeah. Anyway, them and that Lonewander kid, and old Tom. Plus some crazy street rat was hangin' out with them. I think that's it."

"Hmmm... sure would be interesting to learn what's got Tom out of retirement. Still, we don't want to get involved in this, I think. Messing with the biggest gangs on the Land might be bad for the health of our organization. We're on the verge of expanding beyond our two villages; maybe someday we'll be big enough to take on those two, but not yet. Not by a long-shot. ...I guess we could both have our spies call all their outside contacts, have them keep us informed if they hear anything. Just out of curiosity."

"Yeah, that was my feeling. Thought maybe it should be a joint decision, though. Well! I guess my biggest question goes back to being what to call ourselves if we do finally get a few more villages. You know I always liked 'BiShip' for sounding so much like 'bishop...'"

"Ah, well. Time enough to ponder that one, Milo..."

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