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...