ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

Scarred tiefling liver, eh?

Glad to hear the campaign's still going strong.

RangerWickett said:

Scarred tiefling liver, eh?

Click to expand...

Good with fava beans and a nice chianti.

Nice to see you back. Even with your breaks and buffer adventures, you guys have run way ahead of us.

The roster of unit members has changed yet again. Heading into the Dreaming, the group included a 10-foot tall golem named Conquo, who departed in pursuit of his creator Lavanya - an eladrin maiden who rescued Leon from his wounds back on Axis Island. Leon had always assumed that Lavanya had been called or captured by the Danorans but the Briar Queen revealed that she had met Lavanya: that she had come to the Dreaming in order to buy memories.

Conquo was never, strictly speaking a unit member, as he did not belong to the RHC, but his disappearance was a blow, as he had proved to be a formidable ally.

On their return to Flint, it was revealed that Sly Marbo - the hare hengeyokai they had met during their travels - was in fact an RHC spy in the unseen court, his cover now blown through his assistance to the unit.

Sly is a spymaster - built for bluff, stealth, perception and insight (the perfect combo for an espionage mission). So Stover Delft suggested that he accompany the unit to Flint. It was up to Sly to decide if he wanted to return to Danor, where he had languished as a POW for many years. Not only was he up for it, he set off ahead of the others to use his contacts along the coast to prepare the way for the unit, and hopefully get a job aboard the train.

Certain other cast members have also undergone substantial changes: Rumdoom returned from his near-death experience free from his deathwish. He now sees himself as a kind of Herald of Good Endings and is working to establish his own religious cult. The group are glad to have him back but slightly disturbed by the evangelical gleam in his eye.

Leon has made a tranformation too, though more gradual. As an obvious focus of suspicion (as a Danoran tiefling warlock, wannabe Vekeshi and incognito war criminal). I presented the player with numerous opportunities to play up to this, and engage in double-dealing and hide things from his team. But Leon has followed the opposite path and has become a reliable and honest second-in-command to Korrigan. The only secret he still keeps is his true identity! (And an even deeper secret that even he doesn't know about - a memory he had removed by Lavanya...)

Matunaaga, having fashioned his clothing, fighting style and weaponry on those of the woodsmen of the eastern Cloudwood, has undergone a radical alteration too. Gone is his long hair, obsidian weaponry and rough hide armor. His head is now cleanly shaven and he wears a camouflage uniform (newly designed by the Battalion). In an attempt to marry ancient and modern fighting styles he now wields mankind's latest (the long rifle) and its oldest (fist and feet). The changes to his mechanics and powers will be gradual (with the catalyst for his full transformation to hybrid Ranger/Monk being the unit's encounter with the corrupted godhand, Gene).

So these characters have had their keywords* changed to reflect their character development. The unit roster now reads as follows:

Chief Inspector Baldrey Korrigan. Genasi Tactical Warlord. Moral Yerasol Veteran.
Sergeant Leon Veilleux. Tiefling Fey Pact Warlock. Reliable Martial Scientist (and member of the Vekeshi Mystics).
Uru Scathaig Ciotog. Deep faen Executioner Assassin. Sinister Technologist.
'Rumdoom' Kagan. Dwarven Battlerager. Evangelical Eschatologist.
Matunaaga. Maustin Caji Ranger/Monk. Dedicated Martial Scientist.
Malthusius. Deva Invoker. Philosophical Spirit Medium and Skyseer.
Sly Marbo. Hare hengeyokai thief. Hardbitten Docker.

*Keywords are a houserule feature. Each player can earn bennies or hero points by embodying their keyword during play.

Session 58 **MAJOR CAMPAIGN SPOILERS**

Having sent the Roscommon on to Beaumont to await their arrival, the group departed Flint by road, logging a false mission to explain their departure. They then doubled back on themselves, in disguise, and boarded the Khaldundurrin at Saltmarsh, many miles down the coast.

Once the journey was underway, they handed fresh orders to the captain which took him through the Yerasol Archipelago to Beaumont.

On the morning of the fourth day, while anchored at a station of passage near the island of Rivenstone, two privateer ships were spotted in the distance. They signalled for the Khalundurrin to prepare to be boarded. In response, the captain suggested they make for Colmarr's folly, where the narrow bottle-neck would enable them to deal with one ship at a time.

Unfortunately, the Khalundurrin could no longer be steered - the rudder had been disabled. Rumdoom (no longer afraid of water, it transpired) dived into the sea and also discovered a strange metallic device clamped to the underside of the ship.

The unit had no choice but to prepare to repel an assault, but they did so surreptitiously, while signalling their intention to allow the privateers to approach.

The first, the Canis est Carnes drew up alongside, while the second, the Amicus Selachii, maneuvered into a position where a sudden broadside could severely damage the steam ship.

Korrigan gave the signal to attack, and the unit took the fight to the enemy ships, using teleporting and flight powers to best position themselves. Devastating area attacks quickly reduced the enemies numeric advantage.

Meanwhile, Rumdoom had simply yanked off the unidentified device, causing it to detonate. While this rendered the dwarf unconscious, it did save the Khalundurrin from a sizable hole in her hull.

Suddenly, a huge sheet of ice engulfed the prow of the Khalundurrin, allowing the occupants of small submersibles to clamber out on to the RHC ship, firing carbines as they did so. Their attack was supported by magical spells, courtesy of an elderly ice mage, who could be seen some distance away in the conning tower of a larger submarine vehicle.

This caused the battle to swing in favor of the enemy, who in desperation now began to fire at the Khalundurrin with their cannons, no longer confident of capturing the ship.

Things might have gone badly for the unit, were it not for the timely arrival of a group of merfolk who leapt out of the sea on to the decks of each privateer and also attempted to assault the submersible (but were repelled by aelectricity) causing the latter to strategically withdraw.

Soon, they had turned the tide and helped the unit to capture the privateer ships.

Their leader, Loshaldool, explained that the local merfolk would always support a Risuri ship against a Danoran one, but that it had taken some time for them to distinguish the combatants. He explained that they served the local archfey Beshela and requested that the unit take a message to their king:

The 'Aqueous Alliance' (formed with the tritons, locathah and lizardfolk) was concerned about the provocation of the Deep Ones and Sea Devils which the planned mercenary incursion into the Cold Claw Sea would cause. They wanted the Risuri government to prevent Black Star Mining and Pemberton Industries from launching their fleet (which was planned for early in the Spring). The unit promised they would do all they could - which in any case coincided with Rumdoom's desire to thwart the machinations of Khaled Valchek.

Only Captain Auria of the Amicus was left alive. She explained that both ships were part of a mercenary fleet paid to guard Axis Island. Given that the island had not long ago been subject to an (albeit unsanctioned and rebellious) invasion by Risur, this was not entirely surprising, but the privateers had not been given instructions to attack any and all Risuri ships, as the two nations were at peace.

Auria confessed that this was no mere act of opportunism on their part: They had been contacted by the commander of the submersible (who she referred to as Glaz du Sang Magie) and given authorisation to attack this specific target. Whether the submersible was part of the regular Danoran navy was unknown to her. (It was clear that spurious authorisation of any kind would have been more than enough for her, the detail was of no interest.)

Auria and her fellow privateer had countermanded Glaz' order to simply sink the Khalundurrin, however. They had wanted to capture the ship intact - hence the somewhat uncoordinated nature of their assault (which had obviously saved the unit from a much worse fate and given the merfolk time to intervene).

All of which begged serious questions about how the Obscurati (for surely it was they) knew who was on board. And left the unit with the secondary issue of what to do with their captives and their ships...

Session notes:

Despite the very clever plans that the unit made, and the fact that they aced their secrecy checks, they were nonetheless set upon by the Obscurati. Unbeknownst to the majority of the unit, Malthusius is in secret contact with none other than Governor Roland Stanfield, and has freely admitted that the unit are still investigating the Ob.

This came about because, when he generated his character, Malthusius' player asked if Stanfield could be one of his contacts. Figuring it might be interesting, I said yes - at the very least I would only have to play this game out throughout heroic tier, with Stanfield being revealed in adventure #5. Well, the AP has developed, as all readers of Cauldron Born will now know, and Stanfield is no longer exposed as leader of the Bronze Cell - not until late paragon in fact.

Obviously, if Malthusius had fed complete information to Stanfield, the entire plot of Always on Time would be ruined. But at the last minute he decided not to tell the Governor the whole plan, or that they knew of Caius' intended rendezvous. But the Ob would be watching the party set out anyway, and see to it that they did not get far. Now I'm thinking that they will second-guess the unit's destination as Axis Island (especially since Beshela's merfolk have got involved).

Later they will perform divinations and establish the truth.

Watch this space to see how all of this added complexity plays out.

One final note:

I threw the entire Colmarr's Folly encounter at my PC, and substantially beefed up the opposition. The players still won. (The merfolk got involved anyway because I wanted to link up my subplots, and because it sometimes makes sense for third parties to intervene when the party isn't desperate.) I really do think that the encounters in Zeitgeist err on the easy side, even when they are intended to be tough.

But my players loved the sea battle, and the opportunity for swashbuckling heroics.

Session 59a - A self-imposed hurdle

In our first game following a month-long hiatus, we picked up right where we left off, with the unit in negotiations with a group of merfolk who had helped them fight off Obscurati ships and debating how to deal with the captive privateers and their vessels.

This turned into a round-the-houses debate which took the group well over an hour to resolve!

They couldn't agree that the attack was certainly Obscurati in origin, although the fact that it was clearly directed at them, and aimed to destroy (rather than capture) their vessel suggested that it might be.

They were concerned that arriving in Beaumont on any of the ships now in their possession would arouse suspicions and enable the Ob to work out what they were up to.

There was some talk of setting sail for Slate and commissioning a fourth vessel, but that was dismissed. If the Ob had been able to track them before (despite their caution), they might be able to do so again.

The merfolk offered to help man the privateer ships, or at least stand guard while the original crews did so. But the party couldn't decide which ship to take.

They talked of scuppering one of the vessels off the coast of Danor and claiming to have been washed ashore. This idea was wholeheartedly embraced for at least ten minutes before being dismissed as much too high-profile.

Watching as the eyes of at least one player glazed over, I tried to speed things up and offered the advice of the captain of the Khalundurrin (who was not involved in any sensitive discussions but was aware of the secret nature of the mission and could guess that it had been compromised). He was confident that he could lose any pursuit by heading in to a treacherous area of the archipelago, far from any major shipping lanes. The party could then row ashore if need be.

All they would need to board the train were travel documents that showed they had arrived in Danor legitimately - with an official customs stamp. So they decided to follow the Captain's suggestion, but to use phantom steed to gallop ashore at night from some considerable distance. (Quite a cool solution to this by now very tedious issue.)

Then the party would hole up somewhere on the outskirts of Beaumont, while Leon, their Danoran tiefling warlock - whose streetwise and bluff skills are very impressive - obtained the necessary embellishments to their documentation. Et voila! (As they say in Danor...) The journey could proceed as planned.

Leon aced his streetwise to find out where to obtain the customs stamp, but screwed up his bluff. So he got Uru to steal the stamp. (At level 8, Uru's stealth skill is a staggering 22, giving him a passive score of 32 - enough to get past even the active checks of almost every NPC. This is without any item bonuses too!)

And thus we were back on track, just an hour-and-a-half into the session...

Session 59b - Cover identities

Once the group had their paperwork sorted out, they simply showed up at a plush hotel as planned and set about looking the part of the wealthy Risuri landowner and his entourage.

The unit's cover stories were embellished by the players, but provided by me, to speed things up. The main issue for a lot of the characters was disguise:

Korrigan, the unit leader, was physically altered by a schism (becoming, effectively, an earthshock genasi). But he has been working with Malthusius' friend Isaac dan der Grimnebulin (master of arcane esotery and newly appointed mayor of the Nettles) since level 2 to master this condition. For this adventure, he invested a substantial amount of his stipend to finalise his training and can now appear 'normal', unless he loses consciousness. He is the wealthy landowner, and is feigning ill health.

Uru is a deep faen (a halfling-sized gremlin with batlike ears). But he has always been able to appear in the guise of a human child - a little flourish we added during character generation. As an executioner assassin, he can now take on other disguises too, but his primary disguise for this mission is that of Korrigan's ten-year-old son.

Rumdoom is Korrigan's bodyguard. To vary his appearance, hearing that certain dwarves in Drakr had taken to shaving their beards, Rumdoom has shaved his off too, leaving only a moustache.

Leon has long pursued a personal goal to heal his terrible scars. He timed the final stages of healing to coincide with the last few days of mission prep, and subsequently remained out of public view. So anyone on the lookout for a disfigured tiefling will be taken by surprise... He plays the role of a Danoran guide.

Malthusius is Korrigan's war buddy and personal physician. He remains a deva, but has shaved his beard and altered his dress entirely.

Matunaaga has switched from pure ranger to ranger/monk hybrid and in the process ceased to affect the backwoodsman appearance of his adopted people (who live in the eastern Cloudwood). He has donned a suit of the latest camouflage armour developed by the Battalion, and shaved his head. Like Leon, he stayed out of sight until the group departed. He is Korrigan's foreign manservant.

Finally, Sly Marbo once spent two years in a Danoran POW camp and escaped by learning the local dialect and masquerading as a native. (Turning into a hare helped him to get out of the camp...) So he is very much the expert when it comes to espionage of this kind, if a little bit uncomfortable to be back behind enemy lines. He has already been in Danor for forty days, and has been working on the railroad as a train guard for the last three weeks. Bit of a coup for the unit there. Sly knows the train layout intimately, although he hasn't worked on this specific train until this journey. Streetwise check got him reassigned; bluff check sees him working as ticket inspector in second class! Double coup.

A quick note about portraits and prep.

Before detailing events on board the train, I thought I would mention an additional step I took when prepping for this adventure.

One neat innovation of the Zeitgeist AP is the use of clear, readily identifiable portraits for key NPCs. Having ran a plot-rich NPC-heavy urban campaign for three years, I know all too well the frustration of blank looks when reintroducing a key character, particularly if one was expecting gasps of shock and surprise.

The dramatis personae handouts help greatly, as do the individual portraits themselves (and the rich descriptions associated with them). I have made a point of rehearsing my characterisation of each NPC before their first appearance, and often try to link them up with a famous person or just a familiar archetype. (Margaret Thatcher as Lady Saxby was perhaps the most amusing/egregious depending on your point of view.)

But bad impersonations aside, the portraits are the best reference point. Human beings remember faces. Unfortunately, as has already been pointed out on these boards, using them in Always on Time could be a dead give-away. And seeing as keeping track of NPCs is arguably the whole point of the adventure, I decided to take the following drastic step:

I drew my own pencil portraits for every single one of the NPCs, including the train personnel and the incidental 'filler' NPCs.

I can draw fairly well, particularly faces, and for some characters all I had to do was roughly copy the ones in the published adventure. I altered even those, to look more like how the characters appeared in my head. For the rest, I just sketched some readily identifiable faces that matched the descriptions in the text.

So far the effort has been very well received by my players, and has served the purpose of obfuscating which NPCs are key to the adventure.

Knowing also that my players would not bother to interact with passengers at random, I came up with a list of reasons that the filler NPCs would draw their attention and serve as red herrings. For example:

Alexi Morbacher - complaining loudly about not being able to travel first class as he had planned.
Ford Zugoksy - quickly pockets a document (his fundraiser invite) on noticing that he is being watched.
Bethany Cousineau - doing her best to remain unnoticed.
Charon Chevrolet - slips a bribe to a train guard (to allow him to sit in second class).

Some of these required a check (insight or perception) and made them seem even more important.

I also planned out what each of these NPCs would do at each stop, in case the players decide to tail them. (Remember, I have seven players in my group, so stretching them more thinly will be fine.)

I'm amused by the fact that Bree is the first NPC they encounter (other than Xorin), as I'm sure that will have led them to dismiss her as a suspect. They also quite like her.

This is much more additonal prep than I usually do for a published adventure, but I am confident it was worth it.

Session 59c - Beaumont to Keskay

Following protracted - and I mean protracted - negotiations with the aquatic fey, the unit agreed that the merfolk would return the captured privateer vessels to Slate, while the Khalundurrin pressed on at speed through a treacherous section of the Yerasol Archipelago in an attempt to shake off any pursuers.

Some miles off the coast of Danor, they cast cast phantom steed and galloped ashore in darkness. Then they found a place to hole up on the outskirts of Beaumont while Leon went out into the city and sourced the requisite immigration stamp, which Uru then purloined.

(Leon's player is enjoying the relative ease with which he can move through Danoran society: Almost all of his social interactions in Risur are set to hard because of his race and nationality. Here, I have set them to easy. Tieflings make up the upper echelons of Danoran society and with Leon's exceptional charisma, charming the pants of the locals is a comparatively straightforward matter.)

Once their documentation was in order, they simply strolled into their high-end hotel and spent the next few days enjoying the sights.

After a few days, Sly Marbo's train rolled in to Beaumount. He secured a few days off and made sure he was working on the 11th Winter outbound train, then brought the unit up to speed on the layout and organisation of the Avery Coast locomotives. They realised that mobility would be an issue: they needed an excuse to circulate round the train.

Korrigan decided he would focus his efforts in first class, playing up to his role as wealthy tourist and capitalizing on his reasonable diplomacy skills.

As his son, Uru would be free to run about the train. At stops he would jump off, and jump back on in disguise, sit in a carriage or second class compartment for a while and then leave and return to first class in the form of Korrigan's son. (He is an executioner assassin, but we have decided, as a deep fey that his disguise abilities are innately magical, although they function in the same way as normal.)

Malthusius would be in first class, too, lending his quite incredible perception and insight to any interactions the party managed.

Rumdoom didn't think he would be of much use, so stuck to his role as bodyguard to Korrigan.

Leon, with his fantastic bluff and streetwise skills, could pretty much do what he liked, in the way of moving about the place without arousing suspicion. His job was to keep a look out for likely suspects (although his perception and insight aren't great...)

Matunaaga, as Korrigan's manservant, can move back and forth between first class and the luggage compartment, attending to his master's whims. (The idea is Korrigan has a whole crate full of his favourite food/drink, not wanting to trust Danoran 'cuisine'.) His perception skills are good and one of his theme abilities allows him to use dungeoneering in place of a chosen skill each day. (This is a homebrew theme, in case anyone is wondering.)

Meanwhile, Sly was perfectly placed to interact with all 2nd class customers.

On 11th Winter they boarded the Avery Coast Train.

Greeted by boistrous conductor Xorin Marchand, they were shown to their first-class suite and given a brief tour. They met with the first-class chef (Kov) and lounge piano player (Doris) and were also introduced to engineer Steeg Larson.

In the first-class lounge they encountered Brianna 'Bree' Kaldeckis a laid-back veteran of the last Yerasol war who had had her limbs torn off by a Risuri druid's jaguar companion, and stitched back on by none other than Doctor Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Malthusius established all of this in casual conversation.

They watched as first-class guard liaison, the striking Malia Baccharin helped latecomers, the Griento family board the train at the last minute. This family of wealthy Beran half-orcs were on a grand tour of the Avery Coast, in similar fashion to the unit. Korrigan befriended the father, Damata and learned that he was a landowner with an abiding passion for engineering. They and their sons ('Kai' and Tarro) paid a visit to the locomotive carriage.

Elsewhere on the train, Sly Marbo's position as second-class ticket inspector enabled him to mingle with the passengers quite freely. Between him and other members of the unit, they picked out several passengers of note:

• A thin-faced man who quickly pocketed a document on noticing he was being watched. (Ford)
• An elderly rustic type who surreptitiously bribed a train guard. (Charon)
• A plain female tiefling doing her best to go unnoticed. (Bethany)
• A military man searching up and down the train cars for a missing companion. (Emile)
• A loudly complaining magic item salesman named Alexi Morbacher.

Later that morning, the train arrived at the agricultural hub of Keskay. The group spotted the following passengers of note:

• An obese woman named Elanor Yanette and her heavily robed and veiled companion.
• A handsome and flashy tiefling. (Olivert)
• A fat and nervously sweating seagoing type. (Jaques Labelle)

A strange incident occured as the train resumed its journey: a man choked to death in the common dining car. A physician was called for to confirm the cause...

We wound up the session as the train pulled out of Keskay. The unit now have five/six in-game hours to work out which of their potential suspects is worth investigating further.

Session 60 - Keskay to Cherage

(Please forgive any misspelling of NPC names. Going from memory here...)

Between Keskay and Cherage, the unit continued to try to work out which of the suspicious passengers were worthy of their attention.

Malthusius established that the man who died in the common dining car choked on a nut. He carried a poisoned dagger and a picture resembling a middle-aged dwarf who had already arrived in the 1st class dining car. Rumdoom engaged this dwarf, the tousled but very friendly dwarf Verzubak Tantavolich,in conversation. He turned out to be a professional gambler whose 'system' had led him to fall foul of hoodlums in Keskay. He continued to studiously avoid the gazes of both Bree and the tiefling gunslinger.
Nondescript tiefling woman, Bethany Cousineauwas not keen to discuss her 'personal, private' family errand.

Olivert Boone, the gunslinger, was not particularly interested in talking to anyone but pretty girls. He casually admitted to being a gun-for-hire but didn't think much to Korrigan's offer of employment.

Sly Marbo attempted to steal the document hidden by Ford Zugovsky. Uru got hold of it in the end. It was an invitation to a fundraiser.

The military man searching up and down the train was approached by Uru in the guise of an inquisitive young boy. He was Emile Davignon, a lieutenant from the military academy in Cherage, and was searching the train for a missing recruit.

Korrigan tried to ingratiate himself with Elanor Yanette, but his effort was wrecked when his 'son' 'accidentally' 'spilled' a drink over Elanor's veiled companion in an attempt to get her to blurt out her name, address and debit card PIN. But the veiled person barely reacted. The pair retreated to their private compartment for a change of clothes.

Leon picked up where Korrigan left off. He placed himself nearby, engaging Brianne Kaldeckis in the process. They swapped stories about Doctor Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, and Bree was surprised to learn that Leon had also had a limb stitched on by the good doctor.

When Bree made her excuses and left, Leon turned his attention to the nearby Elanor. She was attached to her veiled companion, Isobel Travers, with a gold chain. Although Elanor ate alot of luxurious food prepared by Kov the first-class chef, she fed Isobel special morsels brought from their private chamber. Isobel occasionally hummed to herself, but was admonished by Elanor when she did so. Leon ingratiated himself by complementing Elanor's taste and wealth, and having been thus flattered, Elanor was all too keen to brag about her activities as a high-class madam. She hoped to fetch a good price for Isobel in Nalaam.

A strange event occurred in the first class dining car, not long before the train reached its destination for the day. The carriage was suddenly plunged into darkness. There was no accounting for this mysterious event and it left a lot of passengers feeling very nervous. Malia Baccharin suggested it could be an effect of the Malice Lands, but that seemed unlikely as they were many miles away. This was, in fact, the Dead Magic Zone. (Malthusius had a theory that the darkness had emanated from Uru, but Uru knew that he was not responsible.)


As the train pulled into Cherage, the group compared notes and decided who would be worth tailing when they arrived in the capital. They decided to divide their resources as follows:

• Malthusius would attend Ford's fundraiser with an invitation forged by Sly.
• Korrigan would stay at the hotel, and meet with the Grientos for dinner.
• Rumdoom would keep an eye on Verzubak.
• Uru would shadow Olivert Boone.
• Leon wanted to keep tabs on Elanor and Isobel.
• Matunaaga was assigned to follow Bree.
• Sly would tail Bethany Cousineau.

Note:
The 'darkness' episode relates to the abject failure of the group to maintain mission secrecy as a result of Malthusius' communication with Roland Stanfield. The way this is playing out is as follows:

As soon as Malthusius told Stanfield that the unit were leaving Flint to conduct further investigations into the Ob, Stanfield used all the resources at his disposal to tail one or more unit members to their ship. This doesn't need much explanation. He would not have had Malthusius followed as he knows Malthusius of old, and is well aware of how perceptive he is, but some of the other unit members would be an easy tail.

Forced to second-guess their destination, Stanfield simply puts the word out to the Obscurati top-brass (with word filtering through to the naval forces around Axis Island). As the unit destroyed those forces, but left the Cachalot to escape, the Ob know they're at large. To begin with, they tighten security around Axis Island.

When the Khalundurrin fails to reappear, they take the expensive decision to attempt scrying rituals to detect the unit.

However, during the previous buffer adventure, Uru took the title of Lord of Creeping Fey from an ettercap. This confers low-ranking membership of the Unseen Court upon him. Meaning that all but the highest levels of divination will be obfuscated.

This needed to manifest as something fun. So here's what's going to happen:

1. The first attempt to scry is blocked by the aforementioned darkness.
2. The second, a mind-reading, will cause the unit to faint en masse. (Heh heh heh.)
3. The third will succeed, revealing the unit's presence on the train at the appropriate moment...