ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign

Really? Okay, re-watching some TNG snippets made me realize that I really didn't pay attention to the english pronounciation of the character's names. I'm so much more used to french "Lyk"

And it's Mapple (like apple), not Maple (like staple)? Dammit!

Tizbiz gave us Mapple's picture (he got the NPC cards) and without knowing his "source material", I didn't find the combo too odd

Ah and regarding pictures... there is no official pic of Isobel, right? We somehow couldn't settle on her looks besides rather light skin (for an eladrin) due to her danoran heritage and blue eyes (if I remember correctly)

If I recall correctly, I forgot to get art for Isobel, so we just rewrote the adventure to have her veiled, and found some free art.

Safari gone bad Pt. 1

As the train finally departs, Amira and Hector enjoy the second champagne breakfast in the dining car. After a while, Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte take their breakfast as well. It turns out that the oracle is deaf which is why the two talk via sign language. We cannot understand them, but we see that Luc occasionally “translates” something Ottavia surely didn't say when she was talking to Luc. The tiefling himself seems to be rather shy and he's a stutterer on top of that which makes communicating with them even more difficult.

After a while, Amira tries out Mrs. Gavagne's piano and plays for a while. Trying to make a first move on the newcomers, she asks Luc and Ottavia for a song request, but Luc takes this as an insult as Ottavia is obviously deaf. In response, Amira shakes her head and apologizes that she didn't make her intentions clear enough: She'd like to let Ottavia feel the song as the piano transfers music via vibrations which a sensitive person like her might feel with her skin when touching the instrument. She asks Ottavia to come over to the piano, close her eyes and enjoy the musical journey and it seems like the woman is able to relax and enjoy the experience.

Meanwhile, Luc seems to be unsure on how to react. He tries to tell Hector that his companion seems to like the music and that he's happy to see her this way. “If I know one thing for sure then it is that all women love music, no matter the obstacles” Hector replies with a warm smile. “With all her passion, she has still preserved that gentle touch of hers. I guess your Dame and my beloved have something in common there.”.

Luc tries to slowly reply to Hector, but he seems utterly nervous and overwhelmed by the situation. As Carlyle has lots of experience with difficult people after centuries of service, he musters Luc, sees a small customized gadget and moves their conversation to matters of technology, a topic which seems to be much more in the tiefling's comfort zone. As soon as Amira ends her performance, Ottavia seems to be touched by “feeling” music for the first time. And then, taking the artist by surprise, she utters a silent, mental “thank you”.

The duo leaves the dining car after our encounter and we turn our attention to Bree Kaldeckis who just arrived. She talks a bit about the last Yerasol war and her fears that the Risuri might just be faking peace while trying to get the Archipelago back. She says that they recently attacked Axis Island without being provoked and that she's not sure the king is able to control the war-mongers in his own ranks. We return that we, who only get news about Risur and Danor through our few newspapers, cannot really say anything about this strange incident. We explain that we owe much to our neighboring country as their king helped to free the Berans of the Dragon Tyranny. Plus the relationship between Risur and Ber has been pretty good ever since. Still Danor helped the Bruse to organize his government and the industrialization might lead the country to a new era of prosperity. Even if Danor seems to have no problem with slavery, which we cannot approve at all.

We are about to travel through the Malice lands next and Malia Baccarin informs us that we could join their planned safari if we'd like to take a shot at the malice beasts. Being enthusiastic hunters ourselves, we say that we'd gladly join, especially if this helps to keep the tracks clean and safe. Before we get to the safari grounds, we stop in a small town where lots of gleefully singing workers depart the 3rd class wagons.
After a while, Mrs. Baccarin lends us some Fordren Industries rifles and asks us to accompany her to the dining car's roof. Amira excuses herself to go fetch her mother's heirloom bow she brought along as she says she's not really accustomed to the loud boomsticks which tend to alarm her prey.

(We bought the antique minotaur bow when we were in Reo Pedresco a few weeks ago. Coincidentally, Amira didn't have to lie when she said her mother taught her how to hunt as Auryn's mother Galadin is an expert archer who regularly hunts with her tiger companion)

We meet up on the roof with Boone (who brought his own pistol), Taro and Damata Griento, Rock Rackus (who, again, brought his own golden “fey enchanted” pistol), Bree Kaldeckis, the Risuri, Malia Baccarin and some security personnel. We realize that the train slowed down a lot, so we have the chance to properly aim and hit the malice beasts. We manage to hunt down some oversized rabbits when we are suddenly attacked by a rabid, teleporting rhinoceros. The hunting team shoots at the beast which causes it to enrage and tear away parts of the train's hull. Now it seems like this escalated very quickly as the situation became quite dire. Boone and Hector try to stay calm and still manage to turn this into a strange shooting contest and even if Amira has the best aim of them all, her small arrows do little damage. She urges the Grientos to put themselves together as they are both sons of Ber as well and asks them to chant the traditional “Warsong of the lone warrior” alongside her to fight in unity.
(Disguising inspire courage as ancestral guidance? Check!)

After a while, the beast is mortally wounded, but it rams the running train one last time before dying besides the track. The impact is hard enough to shake the train which causes the Grientos, Boone, and some of the security to fall down. Malia signals the train driver to stop and we “clumsily” jump of the decelerating train to help our friends. Hector rushes towards Damata who is unconscious, but only slightly injured. Meanwhile, Auryn finds Taro in a critical condition. She picks up the lifeless body and cradles him carefully, even if she doesn't know what to do as they are in the malice lands and she cannot risk healing Taro with her fey magic without risking a nasty mishap.

“Please... help him... he can't die like this” she whispers while looking desperately at Hector. Carlyle takes a deep breath and then drops down as if he hurt his leg to cover his eyes and markings which begin to glow with green light. Then a subtle, but strong wave of pure, divine energy rushes through the ground and heals the wounded. To everyone's relief, Taro Griento opens his eyes shortly after and seems to be fine besides having a nasty headache.

Amira returns Taro to his worried father before taking her dear husband aside to tell him that she's grateful for whatever he's just done there. She says that she felt something familiar rushing through her and is curious about its source. Carlyle, who's looking really tired, answers that something deep inside him just broke free when he felt the need to help the Grientos. He guesses that this might be very likely related to the divine spark of Srasama which is why he feels so strained right now.

(So this was just Carlyle's very first channel energy. As this is his “bloodline power”, he can only use it once per day, hence the fatigue. Oh and he's always glowing whenever he's using goddess-powered magic, just like an eladrin.)

Free Isobel

After our short talk, we are the last ones to return to the train. Just as we are about to re-enter through the wagon's door, we see a man who's looking just like Mr. Mapple, leaning out of one of the baggage cars. He waves with a crowbar and then complains that all this commotion just disturbed his afternoon nap. Seems like we got a stowaway aboard the train.

We arrive in Orithea during the late afternoon. Again, we try to focus on our ever increasing bunch of persons of interest and observe them cautiously while we leave the train. This time, we decide to follow Elanor Janette and Isobel Traverse. It turns out that she's headed for the night market where she's entering an alchemist shop to buy material components and potions. From what Mr. Carlyle can see these components can be used to enchant or drug a person, so we guess that she's using them on Isobel. We talk about the idea to maybe use this shady area to disguise ourselves and simply overwhelm Elanor with sheer force. However, things turn way more interesting when the fat lady returns from the shop.

Before we can decide on whether or not to go after Elanor, a fully dressed Mr. Mapple enters the scene, jumps towards Isobel and lifts her veils. He gallantly bows before the young eladrin, hands her a rose and asks her to come with him. When Elanor Janette tries to get her material components to maybe cast a spell, he grabs her by the wrist and holds her without effort. Only when Mrs. Janette starts screaming for the authorities, he gives heel and vanishes by climbing a house and jumping from roof to roof.

Now this sudden development just plays into our cards as we could now free Elanor and put the blame on Mr. Mapple, who had just shown his interest in the girl. As we feel quite sympathetic for the guy, we decide to get his okay on this plan first as he should know that he might face persecution afterward.

We return to the hotel to see if our other potential targets are still around, but it turns out that they already left for dinner elsewhere. We only manage to find Rock Rackus who's playing cards with Tantalovich and the pirate. As Burton is surely able to manage one drunken dwarf, we decide to check up on Mr. Mapple who we assume to be in one of the baggage cars. So we tell the train security that we forgot Senor Fernandez' favorite walking cane in one of our suitcases and head to the baggage area. We don't find him though, as his presumed sleeping place – a big chest filled with clothes – is uninhabited.

When we are about to return to the hotel, we see a familiar figure running away from security personnel and again, Mr. Carlyle smells the faint trace of bath salts nearby. So we go to the hotel and ask the staff what happened and whether we are being in danger. They explain that someone who matches the description of Mr. Mapple has broken into the room of a certain Mrs. Janette and stolen some valuables. We tell them that we've seen this man before and describe him as a pretty harmless lunatic who must be suffering from a severe case of amnesia or something like that.

So we sneak back to the train and find Mr. Mapple, all wet, resting in his chest. We cautiously wish him a good evening and tell him that we are not interested in calling the security. Instead, we tell him about our plan to rescue a mutual friend who goes by the name of Isobel. Mapple instantly agrees to team up with us as he cannot just let the fat turkey abuse the nice young maiden who clearly deserves to be free. He seems a bit naïve though as he doesn't know what to do with the money and checks he has stolen from Elanor. We explain that these “shinies” can be used to buy food and clothes. He thanks us for this insight and in return talks about his past in what we assume to be a lab. He says that his father Wolfgang had always been good to him, but then he left all of a sudden and had him sleep for a very long time. When he woke up again, there were some evil people who tried to harm him, so he fought them and escaped. All in all, we get that despite his naivety, he has a strong and very pure sense of justice.

This all leaves Auryn a bit conflicted, as she felt a certain attraction to Mr. Mapple (especially after he cared so much for Isobel), as well as for his “father”. “He's a child...” Carlyle mutters in a piqued voice. “Besides, that revelation should end the whole 'my idealistic hero' image of your beloved Dr. von Recklinghausen. Maybe he's more of a mad scientist after all.”

(Carlyle is giving Auryn eyerolls whenever she appears to be smitten by someone. Which doesn't happen that often considering the fact that she's a young woman who's basically going through her people's second adolescence with the Blooming. Evil tongues could muse that's because he's somehow jealous to lose her attention to someone else, but he's always trying to hold her at a certain distance, so yeah. That guy is a box full of riddles.

Besides... I'm now not so sure whether the Doc is a reference to Dr. Frankenstein (Frankenstein is the name of a nearby castle, just like Recklinghausen is a city in our neighbor state) or to the Dr. von Recklinghausen father-son-duo...)

Mr. Carlyle lends Mr. Mapple's crowbar and we return to our hotel room. As Elanor Janette made sure that there are security staff guarding her room, Carlyle turns invisible and climbs through our window, across the wall to Elanor's window. He casts a silence, then uses a dimensional attack with the crowbar on the relaxing woman's head and knocks her our without too much effort. Then he signals scared Isobel to calm down as he breaks her golden chains with the crowbar. He takes Elanor's handbag as “loot” and asks Isobel to step into his bag of holding and hold her breath. He then dimension doors to a nearby alley and smashes the window with a thrown stone which alarms the guards.

This is the signal for Auryn who's waiting invisibly on top of the hotel's roof. She uses a mirror to give Mr. Maple, who's standing in front of another alley, a short signal to start his performance. Maple laughs loudly, tosses an object looking like a veiled person on his shoulders and runs off into the night. As Maple is a damn fast runner, the guards who immediately start following him have no chance to catch up.

Carlyle lets Isobel out of his bag as soon as he's sure that no one is watching. He promises her to bring her to a safe space and asks her to come with him. He also explains that he's a friend of the white-haired gentleman called Mr. Mapple who risked much to help her. Then the two sneak to the harbor to meet up with one of our contacts who's responsible for the emergency evacuation plan. He asks the man to take good care of both our rescued “VIP” and the confiscated handbag (which contains money, her documents and all of Elanor's client files) and to get both to a place where they can't be scryed. Then he hands him a note with the same order just in case.

Before Carlyle returns to the hotel room, Auryn receives a sending from none other than Lauryn Cyneburg. She says that they successfully received “the package” and brought her to the RHC's antimagic cell where she will be kept safe as a guest until our group's return. Auryn thanks her in response and says that the woman, Isobel, shall be treated with utmost care as she might be traumatized. She then adds that the mission is going well so far and they will be able to continue without delay.

(When Carlyle asked to have Isobel be warded off from scrying, he honestly thought about something mundane like a lead-infused blanket. Tizbiz explained that the foreign affairs team heard the rumors about Auryn and Carlyle being some kind of super-special agents for the king from Lauryn, who got it from Price-Hill, who still doesn't know that this is only about the Vekeshi. Which is why they went to great lengths to care for Isobel's safety with all available means, including a personal teleportation to Flint. Thanks, Aodhan!)

When Carlyle returns through the window to our hotel room, he finds a very relieved looking Auryn who's smiling from cheek to cheek. She tells her partner of Lauryn's sending and says that she's overjoyed to hear that Isobel is finally safe from her slaver. Then she almost rushes towards him to give him a long hug and to thank him for his effort despite the risk. For once he doesn't seem to try to get rid of Auryn's affection and simply replies that he understands both her relief and her satisfaction as he, too, feels like he's done the right thing. Even if he doesn't understand why he would happen to care that much for Isobel's fate. Auryn then says that in her eyes, he acted just like a more than esteemed eladrin husband would have acted, even if they are not married.

“Oh, but right now, we are married people.” he responds, which earns him a heartfelt laugh in return. “Yeah right, we, Amiranya and Hector Ignacio Fernandez, are indeed married.”. She then goes on and says that over all that happened during the last few months, he has indeed earned a special place in her heart and grown to like him as both a person and friend. He returns the compliment and says that he kind of feels the same for her.

(So yeah, she kind of expected Mr. rules-are-rules Carlyle to at least protest against her initial request to rescue Isobel because it could totally endanger their mission and they were RHC agents first and foremost. She thought they'd have a struggle over the issue and in the end he wouldn't let her do it alone because that would be even more dangerous. But he was just like “okay, let's help her, I'm sure we can succeed if we work out a plan together” and then went on to take the majority of the risks upon himself. And that really impressed Auryn. After all that happened during the Vekshi episode, she kind of regained her full trust in him, even if she wasn't really sure if she could separate all of her own feelings from those of Amiranya.
Regarding the marriage... you really don't want to dig any deeper, Mr. Carlyle.)

We then move to peek through our window and see Bree Kaldeckis, the Risuri and finally Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte return to the hotel in three different carriages. We also hear that someone enters Elanor Janette's room, gets someone else for help and then carries the unconscious woman downstairs. So we decide to go downstairs again “to see what this ruckus is all about”. We meet the lordly pair on the stairs when they walk towards their presumed suite. Luc is carrying a large bag he's holding tightly while Ottavia seems to be supporting him on their ascend.

We arrive in the lobby and see Elanor Janette lying on a sofa while none else but Victoria Royceton is looking after her. She mutters that this women will be alright and just suffers from a concussive trauma to her cranium. As soon as she sees us she excuses herself as she needs to go to the bathroom to fetch some cold wrappings.

We meet up with her and explain what just happened to Mrs. Janette. Margit/Victoria explains that she tried to follow the “high-ranks” in a carriage, but was cut off when suddenly crates fell down right before her horses. We assume that someone might have spotted her and suggest that she might want to take it a little easier the next day unless she wants to cause any more suspicion. She adds that she noticed Luc's bag as well, especially as he's been acting pretty paranoid as soon as he left the hotel.

(Delft would have never forgiven us if his dearest Margit sacrificed herself for the mission. Even if she could have just provided a perfect cover for the Fernandez and Pirate Burton.)

Regarding Elanor Janette, we ask Margit to give the surely stressed, hurt and traumatized Lady some powerful tranquilizers so she can sleep more easily and forget the trauma of the burglary and the crowbar attack. So she takes her strongest drugs and sends Elanor to the realms of... well, not the Dreaming, but rather deep slumber.

Oh and Margit shows some distinct interest in Mr. Mapple/ Andrei von Recklinghausen, even if we get the impression that she'd really love to examine him and his strange “race”.

Congrats on a successful rescue.

Hehe, thanks. Even if we had to face some repercussions later, it was totally worth it.

Isobel agreed to become Auryn's housemate and student after the events of adventure 4 and "making her fit to survive in the outside world" turned out to be on our list of long-term projects.

Safari gone bad Pt. 2

Session 21

We take a good night's rest and Auryn is finally able to sleep a bit calmer, now that she knows that Isobel is safe. The next morning, we go get some breakfast and see that the mysterious Risuri, as well as Luc and Ottavia are having their first meal as well.

We take the opportunity to say that neither of us has seen the “heavy lady” yet and Luc takes the opportunity to muse whether she's fallen victim to the strange serial killer who's targeting women alongside the Avery Coast. He holds up a newspaper and points to an article about a murder case which looks much like what we've seen with Boone. Both of us play thoroughly horrified and say we hope that this evil murderer stays as far away from us as possible. Hector tries to calm us all down by saying that the article doesn't say anything about a second, veiled victim, so it is unlikely that Elanor is involved in the murder case.

Amira takes the opportunity to talk to the mysterious Risuri who introduces himself as “Mr. Cardiff”. Cardiff excuses his lack of attention towards the beautiful lady with his fear of the most certainly passionate, hot-blooded wrath of her beran husband. She gives him an honest laugh and explains that while her dear Hector can get very protective, he's only dangerous for men who try to make immoral advances on his wife. She adds that she's curious about the newcomer, as both she and her husband are always looking for inspiration for Hector's novels. And as they've seen that this Stefan Carlyle guy is doing quite well with his railway novels, her husband might just give something similar a try.

Cardiff seems a bit nervous at first, but he turns to be quite talkative after a while. He comes up with a very believable but nonetheless bogus story about being a salesman for ship supplies who wishes to sell new wares (the lists of specifications are in his case) to clients in Trekhom. He says he's also a son of a branch of the famous family Cardiff of Risur. As his story seems to be masterfully crafted, we assume that he might be a risuri agent (of the famed “Shield of the King” unit?). Hector realizes that he has a well-hidden pocket watch, so he asks him for the time and gets a glimpse at an engraved crest that actually belongs to the Campbell family from Slate who fell from grace due to treachery.

As the train is about to leave soon, we cease breakfast, take our cases and return to the station. We remind Margit that she shouldn't follow Luc and Ottavia today to not draw any more attention. We also ask Burton to take a closer look at Cardiff as we suspect he might be a risuri agent with shady business (as we'd have surely been told about another agent taking the same train as we would he be on an official mission). We also exchange our views about Bree Kaldeckis and come to the conclusion that, if she wasn't looking for Boone, she might truly have been searching for Caius Bergeron which makes her not only a possible danoran agent, but also maybe a member of the Obscurati.

Aboard the train, we spend some time with Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte. We both try to wrap our heads around her sign language, but cannot grasp more than basic expressions. Ottavia seems to be grateful for our honest try though. As we notice that they are both wearing silver rings, we ask the pair whether they are married. Ottavia grins broadly at the question, takes Luc's hand and holds it up so we may see their matched rings. Luc seems to be rather embarrassed and turns a darker shade of red before confirming that they are indeed newlyweds. However, we both realize that this was only a well-crafted lie, even if both seem to share mutual feelings.

We take the opportunity to tell the duo that we are on our honeymoon trip as well, so we might just travel to romantic locations along the road together or go to a nightclub for entertainment. We explain that the two of us are headed for Vendricce, the fabled “gate to Elfaivar” where we'd later try to search for Amiranya's blood relatives. Ottavia seems surprised when she hears that Amira is originally from Elfaivar and doesn't know her real parents, but we cannot place her reaction and guess that she might be an orphan as well (being an elf in Crisillyir must have been pretty hard...). We then go on to talk about love and traveling and our mutual love for traveling.

To our surprise, Malia Baccarin asks us whether we'd like to join a second safari to hunt down malice beasts. Now we know that twice is the charm, but after what happened yesterday, we are not sure whether doing a second safari at all would be the wisest decision. As Mrs. Baccarin doesn't want to cancel the event and a certain Rock Rackus and Olivert Boone insisted to shoot at stuff, we decide to join the hunting team as well. Better to have expert hunters among the jackasses. We just ask Damata to maybe keep Taro inside the train this time.

Fortunately, everything seems fine and we are able to cut down a lot of malice beasts left and right. Hector and Boone resume their hunting competition, even if it seems like there is no clear winner in the end. Then the train stops abruptly and Damata falls off – again.

We try to find out what the heck happened and see a group of beastriders approaching from the left (where a grand desert is stretching out to the horizon) while a giant hydra-beast emerges from the grand swamp to the right. We assume that the train either stopped on purpose or was stopped by something magical or technological as we didn't feel the impact of a crash. As the situation seems pretty dangerous, we guess that it would be wise to let the train drive backwards so that hydra and bandits may fight each other.

Amira jumps down the train to help Damata while Hector, Cardiff and some of the security personnel use the direct route towards the locomotive: over the train's roof. Rock, Boone and Bree make haste to get inside the train and hurry forward as well. As soon as Amira is sure that Damata is alright, she follows the other two who... suddenly stop in front of the compartment of Luc and Ottavia. As there are screams coming from the other wagons and we can see that the hydra is ramming its heads into the train, Amira gets into her own compartment to get her rapier and dagger as shooting with a bow amidst a panicking crowd is not really the best idea.

When she returns to move towards the locomotive, Bree Kaldeckis is talking to Ottavia who gestures that she's totally going to defend Luc Jierre should anyone enter her compartment. Tantalovich arrives there as well and mutters that this might just be the safest place in the whole train (he's right, but it still sounds fishy). Amira tries to rally the seasoned fighters Bree and Boone to join her as she totally needs to reach the train driver so that someone will drive the train backwards and get them all to safety. However, Bree wishes to protect her sovereign's nephew and Boone is only concerned about his own safety. So it seems like Amira is on her own.

She comes across Rock Rackus who's standing at a window and shooting at the hydra while being surrounded by a bunch of fans. He assures them that he'll totally protect them from the monster and Amira decides that trying to convince Rock, while surely possible, will take too much time. She reaches one of the wagons that is currently under hydra attack and sees that there are passengers who try to fend off... raptors?

“Dinosaurs!” she shouts with a mix of excitement and concern “That's just like home! Make way, I know how to fight them!”. Then she jumps at the raptors and cuts a few of them down. Fortunately, Recklinghausen's rapier seems to do them extra harm, so thanks for that.

Meanwhile, the roof-team see that the beastriders are actually bandits who try to mug the train. As they are too far away to really shoot at them and the giant hydra offers such a great target, Cardiff and the security decide to stop in shooting range and fire at the beast. Hector sees that the hydra heads which enter the train spawn strange raptors inside the train who attack their fellow passengers, so he decides to intervene. He uses one of the hydra-torn holes to get into the train and fights against the raptors. There he hears a familiar voice as Amira is in the next wagon where she's killing off the last of “her” raptors.

We inform each other about the situation inside and outside the train and decide to clear the train in opposite directions as the hydra is still doing her ramming/spawning thing and there are raptors on the run in the 2nd and 3rd class wagons. Also, we hope that Mr. “pure heart” Mapple might be aboard the train again and fighting them as well, so he could just turn out to be a valuable ally.

Amira readies to strike the hydra head before it can start its spawning and to be in perfect range to kill the nascent raptors afterward, while Hector fights his way towards the locomotive. He comes across lots of dead passengers on his way and is quite relieved that Amira takes the other way where she's hopefully able to save lives.

As Hector approaches the front of the train, he can hear that there is quite a shootout around the locomotive. When he's peeking through one of the windows, he can see that Mr. Mapple joins the fight against the bandits at some point and uses his super strength to throw away one of the malice beasts and its rider. However, he's struck down by a headshot before he can plough through more of the bandits.

Hector uses this distraction to rush towards the bandits and tear through the fabric of reality with a trans-dimensional force spell. He makes sure no one besides some of the bandits sees him warping reality though. The bandit's leader hurls magic missiles at him in return (now has everyone lost their respect for a freaking wild magic zone?! They all turned out lucky with their rolls for mishaps tough...).

As the leader saw what Hector just did, the latter uses his dimensional attack to get to the bandit and kill him. He really doesn't want to have a witness accuse him of being a magic-user. Then he runs toward the locomotive to save the train driver who's in a grapple with the last remaining bandit.

Meanwhile, Amira, Rock Rackus, Cardiff and the security team manage to drive off the giant hydra. As soon as she's sure that there are no dinosaurs left in the train, Amira runs to the locomotive to look for her dear husband. She's relieved to see that Hector is alive and well, besides some smaller scratches. Amira then gazes at a group of shredded bandits and Hector explains that the bandit's leader tried to cast some magic when suddenly everything ripped up in front of him. Then her eyes fall upon Mr. Mapple who's lying on the group with a gaping hole in his head.

“No! Not Mapple! That poor, innocent soul.” she cries, tears filling her eyes. Then Amira kneels down to close Mapple's still surprised looking eyes to give him the honorable treatment he deserves as he gave his life to defend a train full of people he didn't know. But as soon as she gets closer to Mapple, we see that his body is very much alive and even seems to be... regenerating. Now that's a more than just pleasant surprise.

(Okay, we just added a clawless Wolverine to our X-Men/Superhero team. Right now, we have Storm (Old Stag), Angel (Gale) and Magneto (Leone).

So I wonder what our superpowers might be... Carlyle could be manipulating time and space (and yeah, this was also the superpower of one of my first PCs who also happened to be wearing suits all the time) while Auryn... is good at... connecting and playing people, I guess? To shamelessly copy a certain someone: “Everyone with a heart likes Auryn”. She could also be related to the concept of change though)

How to get away with murder

It takes only a few minutes and Mapple opens his eyes, looking confusedly at us and asks us what happened as he cannot remember anything besides a loud bang. We take this opportunity to tell him that he's a hero who fought against the bandits with his bare hands and managed to crush quite a couple of them. Then the train driver comes to us and says that he saw Mapple throw heavy objects as if they were nothing, so maybe he could help getting the barricade off the track. When Mapple tries to interact with the wood however, the barricade turns out to be an illusion spell (again: Jackasses, all of them! But now we at least know why the train stopped so abruptly).

We still take Mapple to Malia Baccarin and tell her about the man's heroics. We argue that he'd deserve at least a third or second class ticket to wherever he'd want to travel, being a hero of this Avery Coast Train. Malia agrees and she also thanks us and Cardiff for our effort. We explain that we are berans which means that the strong protect the weak and their turf and don't hide in their compartment like cowards. Also, we are quite used to fighting raptors as they are part of the natural environment of our homeland. Cardiff just says that his father insisted to give him a proper military education.

We enter the train and Malia shows Mapple where he may find an empty seat. We make sure that everyone we come along hears the story of the kind “heroic stowaway” who protected them all from the bandits and the passengers seem thoroughly impressed.

(Putting Mapple on open display was a bit of a gambit. After all, it was 'officially' him who stole Isobel from Elanor. But Margit had made sure that the matchmaker would miss the train and be unable to talk reasonable words for the next day and Elanor's guards were part of the enclave hotel staff and wouldn't be traveling with us. On the other hand, sweet Mapple was - again - the perfect scapegoat for our heroics. After all, the train's driver saw his superhuman strength and also him getting shot in the head. So we just kind of made him the first official train superhero.)

Then we move back towards our compartment. On our way there, Boone just found himself another young woman and is shamelessly making out with her. He brags with his deeds and says that he just bravely protected all the nice ladies in here.

This is the final straw for Hector, who really risked his life to save the other passengers. He growls that he despises cowards like Boone who, despite their superior gunslinger skills, prefer to stay in the rather safe first class wagons among security and a veteran like Bree while the poor second- and third class passengers die like flies to monsters and bandits. Boone shrugs and replies that it surely isn't his job to protect the passengers as this is what the security officers are for. This causes Hector to call him an honorless scumbag and he spits out in front of Boone's feet while Boone spits out in return.

We turn to leave the Tiefling, but Hector tackles him when he passes Boone before hissing quietly “You only act tough when your shooting targets are little girls. I know exactly what kind of despicable person you are”.

We are only a few steps away from the Tiefling when Hector suddenly hears a faint warning by a familiar sounding female voice inside his head: “Take cover, child!”. He instantly ducks and barely escapes being shot in the head by Boone who's looking hatefully at his adversary. Hector whirls around, draws his weapons and cuts the Tiefling all over the chest. Amira draws her weapon as well and tries to jab at Boone, but is held back by bystanders. “Let me go! He tried to kill my husband!” she shouts and calls for both the security and the opportunity to pierce the “murderer's“ heart in retaliation.

Fortunately, Malia Baccarin and her staff see no reason to doubt our attempted murder story as we have enough witnesses and so Boone is put under arrest and chained to a bar in one of the baggage cars. Even if no one knows why the charming Tiefling would all of a sudden lash out that violently.

This time it is Hector who takes Amira's hand to lead her to our compartment as he seems a bit uneasy. We come across Bree Kaldeckis, who is almost awaiting another scolding akin to Boone. To her surprise, Hector says that he can totally understand why a danoran veteran would stay to protect her sovereign's nephew as this was her duty and she'd surely fight and die for her Jierre youngster. Bree laughs as she didn't expect that and states that she's somehow relieved to see the shady Tiefling arrested and would love to see him hung for his crime. She doesn't go into more detail though.

We leave Bree and return to our compartment while Malia Baccarin calls for “the doctor” Victoria Royceton to care for Mr. Boone's wounds somewhere in the background. Once inside, Carlyle takes a few seconds to get his mind straight and then apologizes for letting his encounter with Boone escalate that much. He's ashamed that he endangered their mission just because his emotions got the better of him. He explains that Boone now knows that he's well aware of the tiefling's nightly activities due to his mistake, which is why he needs to kill the guy before matters get even more out of hand. Auryn replies that she completely understands his feelings and isn't mad at his emotional outbreak. She says that he simply got a very fine sense of justice and that's why he cannot let a vile murderer like Boone run free. She admits thinking about possible methods to get permanently rid of the guy as well, but was unable to find a good opportunity yet. So if he got a plan, she'll totally support it.

“Thanks for your help, but this burden is mine to bear.” Carlyle says. “It was my mistake. And I even have an idea how to get to him, now that he's chained up in the baggage cars”
“What about a magical mishap? We're in the malice lands after all, and the bandit's magic 'mysteriously backfired' on them as well” Auryn suggests.
“That's a damn fine idea. Don't worry, I'll shred him to bits in an instant”

So Carlyle waits some time and then turns himself invisible, opens the window and climbs the train's roof. He then moves forward until he reaches the baggage cars and uses the various openings (thanks, hydra!) to get back in and sneak up to Boone. There he releases his astral rift power to make it look like Boone just tried to escape via magic, had a mishap and got turned into small Boone bits. He then returns to Auryn the same way he left, looking relieved, but also unusually grim.

(Now when the scene with Boone happened, I was kind of surprised by Carlyle's unusually direct show-off with Boone. We suspected the guy to be possessed by some malevolent, demonic force inside of his pistol, but couldn't find any means of cleansing or stopping him. At least not without risking to blow our cover.

Anyway, Carlyle is usually able to keep his posture no matter the circumstances. He only gets loud or intimidating when he really wants to. Not because he's enraged, but rather to make a statement. So I thought that either the identity of Hector had influenced his thoughts in some way or there had to be an aspect of Boone that really ticked him off. I now know what it was all about, but as this is linked to Carlyle's past and will be brought up later, I don't want to spoiler it at that point )

Despite our heavily damaged train we manage to easily pass the border to Drakr which is marked by a giant tower. We reach Trekhom a bit later where the weather is even more icy than in Beaumont. The snow here seems grey though as it catches the smoke emitted by the massive ironworks that are spread throughout the city. Parity Lake doesn't seem so bad right now...

Before we arrive at the train station we are visited by Malia Baccarin who tells us that she's sorry to inform us about the tragic deaths of 40 passengers who died during the attacks in the malice lands. A 41st dead person was found a bit earlier as it appears as if Olivert Boone exploded in a wild magic effect. Even if she's sure that we for one won't miss him after all that happened earlier. We play both surprised and also a bit relieved at this news.

Malia then tells us that the dead will be brought to a theater in the city where their families may say goodbye to them. She also mentions that there have been accusations against the Avery Coast Railroad company due to the security issues in the Malice Lands, but we say that we won't be charging them as long as Malia makes sure to abolish these dangerous safaris. As long as the train isn't filled with all-beran passengers that is. We also muse that the dead dwarf we performed our ritual on might have cursed the whole train despite our effort. Which is why we suggest further rites to calm the spirits of the other dead people.

At the station we are told that our dead people changed the schedule of Vlendham Heid, one of the most popular eschatologists in Drakr. He was supposed to hold a talk, but in light of this tragedy decided to debate about the nature of death and the proper ending of life and maybe all of the world. Amira doesn't seem so keen on eschatology, but she's a panoplist, so she won't miss this opportunity to learn about this aspect of drakran culture. Damata Griento who's looking pretty down as well despite knowing his family safe asks us whether we'd like to accompany him to the event, so we agree to join him.

We talk a bit with Damata and find out that he must have had a hefty fight with his wife, but don't inquire further. Once we reach the theater, the dwarven philosopher turns out to be quite easy-going and serene. He explains that he got paid to talk about his philosophy, but decided to take this opportunity to remember those who died in today's tragedy. He says that every life finds an end someday, which is the whole nature of life, so the only thing that truly matters is whether or not someone can lead a fulfilling life till its proper end. Then he offers all attendees the opportunity to ask him questions.

Now Auryn herself would surely wish to ask him a lot of questions as she herself and her Vekesh and seedist philosophies are quasi-detrimental to eschatology, but as Amira is a panoplist, she decides to turn the matter to the afterlife. She explains that in her clan's faith, people are judged by their ancestors after their death. If someone lived for family, clan or their Bruse, then they'll be welcome to live among the honored spirits and given the opportunity to guide those who come after them. Hector wishes to return the question to Heid as he asks him about his own opinion of the afterlife, especially as endings of all kind seem so important to him. Heid replies by laughing and saying that he really doesn't know. He then adds that what happens after the end isn't nearly as important as the path to reach that end.

Damata is the next one to talk to Heid. He says that all these senseless, sudden deaths today made him thoughtful and melancholic. And that they made him think about his life and the way he was leading said life until now.

(Damn this cover. Auryn would have totally seized the opportunity to talk about the tragedy of death and the impact of loss and all this survivor's guilt. Amira had no reason to fear death though.)

Damata goes on to say that he was tricked by a fraud ( the false Mr. Michael Carlyle) to invest a good fortune of money in what he thought to be the Avery Coast Railroad Company. His shares turned out to be fakes though and so he had to lend a lot of money (200,000 gold) from the Familia to cover his expenses and continue his business. But now the Familia wants their money back and he doesn't have a copper to spare. So he got all of his clan's family heirloom fetishes to turn them in instead. However, this would be a disgrace for a clan's chief and bring dishonor to his whole Clan Griento.

He now sees that his original plan was full of cowardice and believes that a true chief would take responsibility for his failures. Which is why he plans to fight the local branch of the Familia, like every good and honorable chieftain would. However, he knows that he cannot do this alone which is why he asks for volunteers to help him on this mission. And to no one's surprise, he turns to the “capable raptor hunters” and compatriots, the Fernandez.

We feel honored by Damata's request and say that his plan is honorable as well, but ask him to carefully go through his plan's details. We tell him that the Familia is no ordinary foe one could fight a clanswar with. Instead, they are masters of fighting in the shadow, using dirty methods like assassination, poison, bribery or blackmailing. Starting a war with the Familia will also ensure to endanger all of his family, including his kids. We agree to help him though if he promises to discuss the plan with Ejeka and gets her okay in return. We explain that we deem it the wrong approach to put his family in grave danger without their knowledge or agreement. Damata thanks us and promises to talk to his wife before getting into action as his meeting is scheduled to be in Nalaam.

(Now we know that Cippiano wouldn't drag kids into a Familia feud, but we neither know whether this Don is an exception nor would the Fernandez know much more about the Familia than what one could possibly know as an urban business owner)

After the talk, we go down to the hall of the dead as Carlyle wishes to calm the restless spirits and send them to the life beyond. He manages to guide the forty passengers, but he's also harassed by the still malevolent spirit of Boone who curses his adversary and swears that he'll get his revenge someday.

(Now I hope he's only taunting Carlyle... Boone was already crazy in life, and we don’t really wish to see him return as some sort of Poltergeist)

Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy

We return to the hotel after the spiritual sending and have a fine dinner in their restaurant. After a while we notice that one after another Bree Kaldeckis and then Luc and Ottavia excuse themselves and leave the hotel. We decide to follow them a few minutes later and find them entering a carriage and departing the enclave. So we take the next best carriage and follow them carefully. We see that they stop at a prison near a lighthouse and ask our driver to drive us past them while we are hiding in the carriage's shadows. We than stop at a “beautiful sight” at the nearby cliffs and ask our driver to wait for us while we take an evening stroll.

Once we are out of sight, we turn invisible and approach the prison. We climb the prison's wall and see that Bree, Ottavia and Luc are greeted by a dwarf named Zoltan who leads them through the prison yard towards the lighthouse. So we decide to follow them at a safe distance and use one of Carlyle's flight spells to get up the lighthouse's wall and find out where the quartet went on the inside of the lighthouse. We spot them in a room that appears to be filled with maps of the region. On a table in the room's center we see a huge map of Drakr with some miniature buildings placed on top.

(I joked that Xavious Foebane's game of Conquest might have found its way to Drakr somehow, so they may all just be there to play a good game with their friend...
Which leads me to the question what the most popular board games in Lanjyr are? I guess that the Crisillyiri could have some sort of tactical game like chess while the Risuri could have learned a game or two from the fey. And Drakrans might be all about dice, so some sort of Backgammon, while the Berans - obviously - are more into sports.)

Luc then places his bag on the table, opens it and retrieves a big lantern which he calls a “prototype”. We silently try to determine its basic magic properties at a distance and find it both magical and stained with planar traces. Unfortunately, Zoltan and Luc are using very nondescript terms to describe their plan and the prototype, so we cannot really find out what the lantern does and how it could or should be used. We memorize the map and the minis (mostly lighthouses) though.

We return to the carriage and drive back to our hotel before the trio leaves the prison. When we return to our room, we are surprised to see Burton sitting on our bed, grinning into our surprised looking faces. He tells us that he trailed Cardiff for a while and found out that he's about to leave the hotel and attend to some sort of meeting. As there should be more people involved, he decided to tell us before trying to get to him alone. We thank him for his tip and ask him to stay in deep cover as we'd take care for the assumed spy.

So we take another carriage and ask the driver to follow Cardiff's. This time, our suspect leads us to Trekhom harbor where he enters a forsaken looking warehouse. We turn invisible again and follow our risuri's trails. Mr. Carlyle shows off this time as he manages to pick the lock silently and we enter the warehouse unnoticed. Inside we see Cardiff and six dwarves discussing some sensitive documents. It turns out that Cardiff has gotten his hands on some highly confidential danoran military documents he would like to sell to the Drakran secret service. So we decide that it would be better to have these documents back in Risur.

We wait until the deal is done. Supremely nervous Cardiff collects 200,000 gold from the dwarves and, as he's about to leave, casually mentions that he booby-trapped page 8 with explosives, so they better make sure to disarm the trap before reading. The Drakrans thank him for the tip, but call him paranoid in return because they are all professionals, aren't they.

As soon as we deem Cardiff to be out of hearing range, we use the element of surprise to kill the dwarves (even if Auryn is hesitant to do so, but we both see no other way to put our plan into motion. And the Drakrans surely knew the risks of being in the spy business.). We then try to make it look as if Cardiff was the real culprit: We carefully disarm the trap on the documents, secure them, take the letter of invitation from the dwarves' leader and scorch it a bit. Then we wait a bit longer before we burn the whole building down, leaving nothing but charred dwarven remains and a slightly burnt letter concerning the meeting with Cardiff behind.

As we cannot let Cardiff get away with his treason, we decide to play a rather cruel trick on him. So we start looking for him in the harbor area and find him after a while when he's about to take a small boat. We use our hats of disguise to look like dwarves, beat Cardiff unconscious and get his money. Auryn then casts a memory-altering spell on him to make him clearly remember that it were his drakran business partners who robbed him. So now we planted our seeds to let both parties think the other side betrayed them. Maybe they're going to start a small spy vs spy war in the city...

(As a sidenote: I am so happy that this campaign finally offers creative uses for otherwise pretty niche spells like modify memory or claim identity or blood biography. Nothing against your good ol' fireball, but these kind of spells don't help you in a secret operation. Now I just need to find the time to learn apparent master...)

We return to our room pretty late that night. Again, we find something on our bed, but this time it is a rose accompanied by the familiar smell of bath salts. From the looks of it, Mr. Mapple used our bathroom and left the rose behind in return, but at least he remembered to tidy up before he vanished. Auryn muses that she still does find this man pretty charming. Carlyle agrees with her assessment, but adds that she should try to remember that Mapple is still mentally a child. Or a teenager. Auryn says that she very much knows this and would thus never dream of seducing him.

As Auryn needs more sleep than Carlyle, he informs her that he will deliver the danoran documents to our contact on his own as soon as we finish our quick reading of the confidential pages. Some time later, he disappears through the window, goes to the harbor and hands over the case to the “emergency escape” contact. So these multiple escape routes were a good idea after all, even if we don't have to flee ourselves.

On his way back, Carlyle sees that Luc is standing in front of the train that's currently being repaired. He talks to Mrs. Carlyle, the manager of this train enclave, and insists that the train has to be ready tomorrow morning, even if this means overtime work for the maintenance team. Seems like someone has a rather tight schedule...

The next morning, both Amira and Luc seem to be rather tired. The eladrin takes this as an opportunity to joke with Luc about the joys of being newlywed, but the tiefling turns all red and doesn't dare to answer.

We accompany Luc and Ottavia to the train and talk about our travel experiences for quite a while. It seems like Luc warms up to us after a while and he looks almost happy and carefree. But then Ottavia frowns all of a sudden as if she's concentrating on something and we guess that she might just have received another sending. She then uses her sign language to talk to Luc for a longer while and then both retreat to their compartment. Luc seems a bit disappointed to leave his new friends behind though.

After the two left, Bree Kaldeckis joins us in the dining car. She talks a bit about the wounds she suffered in Yerasol IV and reveals that she lost both and arm and a leg in the war. But she was lucky to meet a miracle doctor named von Recklinghausen who reattached both limbs. It turned out that she's now also able to remove both arm and leg and control them at a distance. We find this rather curious and gasp when she demonstrates a “running arm” on the table. We ask her whether she allows us to use her story in a novel, even if we'd change her name for privacy reasons and she agrees.

Bree then asks us whether we've seen an invasion force when we visited Shale and we say that while we couldn't visit the city due to Amira's sickness, we didn't see any sign of a planned invasion or any kind of increased military presence. Hector adds that he didn't find anything dangerous about Shale, unlike the pirates who chased our ship in the Yerasol Archipelago all the way to Beaumont.

While we are talking to Bree we hear that Rock Rackus is planning a small party in the dining car, so we signal the veteran that it might be time to leave before truly strange things happen. Just as we are about to retreat, Rock starts his small concert by singing the hymn of Risur backwards which is even more confusing for Bree than it is for us.

Family matters

After a few minutes in our compartment, we receive a collection of appetizers with courtesy of the train manager. The service boy is obviously trying to feed us a lie, which is why we take the route of caution and test all of the food and drink for both poison and magic. Since we can find neither, we decide to give the cold food a try. We eat a bit of everything, but finish both the beran pastry and the drakran liquor.

As Hector really likes chef Kov Marik, he decides to ask him what this is all about as he deems it pretty much of a coincidence that the train manager in Trekhom has such a particular knowledge about the train's supplies of cold appetizers. He then points to Rock and his fans who also received the same appetizers. The chef seems to be uncomfortable around this subject and wants to know whether something wasn't to our liking. Hector replies that everything was fine and he especially enjoyed the authentic pastry, even if he somehow missed a bottle of Mama Gumbo's ale (Hector knows that Kov has some of it stored and we shared more than one glass with him before. He was pretty disappointed by the chef's obvious way of not being totally honest with him though.).

This all seems more than just mysterious, but neither Carlyle, nor Auryn can make any sense of it. Maybe the chef simply missed to restock in Trekhom due to the repairs and now served what was left?

(Tizbiz explained the whole issue later when the whole adventure was finished: That this was meant to look for people who overly enjoy risuri food to score them on a secret “how risuri are you?” scale. We thought it to be simply another red herring, but decided to play it safe. However what kind of sane risuri spy would eat only stuff from his homeland anyway? So far, we'd more likely be considered special agents or "adventurers" from Ber than RHC constables...)

On his way back to the compartment, Hector comes across Tantalovich who seems satisfied that his calculations are close to an end. He doesn't go into more detail, but Hector can see that he's holding a map of Risur with some markings on it and he makes sure to memorize this map as well.

Some time later, Damata Griento comes to visit us in our compartment to ask us whether we'll join him on his mission to regain his honor in Nalaam. He says he already talked to his family about his mistake and his entanglement with the criminal organization and they are okay with getting their clan into a war. We tell him that we find his plan noble, but don't wish to endanger him or his lovely family. This is why we were busy getting some money from our own accounts in Trekhom and offer Damata to use it as compensation for the familia.
“You don't know how many people just love reading steamy romance novels” Hector explains with a grin.

Damata's eyes fill with tears at this revelation. He says that if we really help him out with this much money, he swears that his clan will help the Fernandez family whenever they might get into trouble. After all, he got 10,000 warriors to command which will surely heed the call of their chieftain and march to war for their allies. He also invites us to be his honor guard for the delivery of the payment. He adds that this is also a small request for his personal safety as he fears going into the Familia's lion's den all alone with so much money in his pockets. We agree to defend him should things go south, but we hope and even expect that the Familia lives up to their “honorable” name.

When we are about to enter Nalaam, we are warned of various tricksters and cut-purses who might be looking for easy prey at the city's train station. We heed Malia's warning and also try to keep an eye open on the Grientos. As soon as we arrive in Nalaam, we feel that the magic here seems to be even stronger than in Trekhom and the rest of Drakr. The city of mages is architecturally defined by its massive, magically built towers which look really impressive. (Which kind of reminded me of Halruaa's tower wars)

We also get the note that Kulp, master of the arena of Nalaam has a very special surprise scheduled for today's show, so we think about getting tickets should the opportunity arise. Even if it seems impossible to get to know more about said “surprise”. This Kulp guy surely knows how to keep a secret.

Again, all people of interest take their rooms in the same hotel. All, except Burton and Mr. Mapple. As we promised to accompany Damata Griento, we store our baggage in our room, fetch our weapons and meet him at the hotel's entrance.

Together with our orcish friend, we go to a shady brothel called “Holes” (how very... subtle) and search for another “establishment” next to the brothel. There we find a doorman who's looking very much like our dear friend Pietro from Flint. Hector dares to greet him with a traditional Familia gesture which makes the man ask him where and how he learned to make that sign.

“Don Cippiano” Hector explains and adds that he's astonished to see a man who's looking so much like one of the Don's many godchildren.

“So you know cousin Pietro?! How's he doing?” the bravura asks and we tell him that Pietro is not only doing well, but he also got engaged with a lovely baker called Venezia. The bravura is totally thrilled about the news and when we tell him why we are here with Senor Griento, he warns us that his boss, Capo de Cina Silvester de Macelli, acts very much like a Don even if he's ranked below one.

The Capo de Cina turns out to be a greasy man who's more than eager to get his hands on Damata's money. But when he says that the 200,000 are enough “for a start” and he needs another 100,000 for the full payment as interest, Mr. Carlyle turns dismayed. He says that this hasn't been a part of the original deal and it would certainly damage the good name of the Familia if someone just changed conditions on a whim.

De Macelli is pretty angry at Carlyle's accusations, but Carlyle quickly adds that Don Cippiano and the rest of the Familia would certainly not be amused to know that someone uses such shady business practices under their good name, lest this kind of untrustworthiness could quickly be associated with the Familia. As soon as he hears the name of a Don, de Macelli agrees to take the original sum without further interest. He also adds that he will contact Cippiano in time to ask him what this is all about.

Pietro's cousin joined our side in this fight of words and it seems like he would have totally sided with us in case of a “more intense” argument. Nevertheless he's happy that we managed to get through the affair without bloodshed. Before saying goodbye, he hands Auryn a beautiful ring and asks her to give it to Venezia and Pietro as a gift. We then turn to Damata and ask him to not tell anybody any more details about our secret meeting with the Familia. The orc nods calmly and it looks as if he's trying to wrap his head around our strange relationship with the Familia.

(Tizbiz wanted to check the Bravura's general attitude to his cousin and let Mr. Carlyle's player roll 3d6, the higher the better. He got a whopping 18. So this guy would have gone through hell for both Pietro and his friends. Which is why he instantly got our backs when de Macelli asked for more money.

Now for Damata... he probably thinks that either the Fernandez have been in a similar situation like him before and had more positive contact with this Don Cippiano guy, or that they just have some friends – Pietro and Venezia – who are members of the Familia... or maybe he even thinks that the Flamingo Press is only a means of laundering money for them. Anyway... mission accomplished!)