skotothalamos
formerly roadtoad
A Train Full of Dangerous Ladies
The voyage from Flint to Danor went within sight of Axis Island, where new construction could be seen. Alienor leveraged her celebrity veteran status to dock in the star fort where her son and the other constables had defended the lighthouse against the Duchess Ethelyn’s rebel troops nine months prior. James took the opportunity to poke around a bit and Alienor asked the right questions of the right people. They came away with the conclusion that Danoran engineers were undergoing a major excavation, and possibly draining a lake, either for coolant or for better access to the bottom of the lake. Unable to get more information without drawing suspicion on themselves, the constables departed.
Some time after leaving Axis Island, Cazara spied what appeared to be a small steam pipe following behind their ship. James told the others that he was familiar with the theory of a self-propelled submersible – or “sub-marine” – vessel but he was not aware of anyone successfully testing that theory. Cazara lost sight of the pipe she had seen, and the constables became suspicious that the vessel might be preparing to attack their ship. Ironpeak dove into the water to see if they were being followed by one of these sub-marine ships. She surfaced a few minutes later and said she saw no sign of anything. James said that submarines were incapable of keeping up with surface vessels for very long, so Alienor ordered full steam and there were no more incidents during the journey.
The ship dropped off James, IronPeak and Coney in Beaumont, at the western terminus of the Avery Coast rail line. The city was far more industrialized than Flint, and the cold Danoran winter was blowing in. The city was mostly black soot and gray snow. James and IronPeak were to board the train on the 11th of Winter; IronPeak would be guarding a crate of cargo containing some of the group’s supplies. Coney boarded the train a few days early and headed a few stops down the line to the agricultural town of Keskay, where she would lie low until the 11th, to throw off any Obscurati spies who might be watching for a large group of non-Danorans boarding at once.
On the 11th, James and IronPeak boarded separately, with forged identification documents for Timothy Smith and Kordovés Titanfist Maderesk. “Timothy” boarded in second class, and “Titanfist” boarded in the first coach car, where she would have easy access to cargo.
Before tickets were taken, the constables had free run of the train, and did some snooping around in various cars. IronPeak met a Danoran war veteran named Bree Kaldeckis, and the two of them hit it off immediately. They went for a drink in the first-class lounge before the conductor could shoo them back to coach. IronPeak talked about how she was working security for the train journey, and Bree asked if she knew anyone who was hiring. IronPeak did not.
James also ended up in the lounge, as the guest of a first-class passenger named Damato Griento. Griento was an Orc from Ber who was also a railroad entrepreneur. He was traveling with his wife and two children, while also doing research on the successful Avery Coast Railroad. Damato’s son became fascinated by Bree, who had a large scar around her right bicep. When he asked her about it, she told him that “when” his sister loses one of her limbs, he should hang onto it so that it can be re-attached. This precipitated a panic attack in the young orc girl, and the Grientos quickly exited back to their first-class cabin.
Train guard Malia Baccarin eventually came around and booted all the rabble from the first-class lounge, leaving it for Rock Rackus to enjoy by himself.
The train stopped about every hour in some small town or another. Some of the stops were nothing more than an open shelter with only a roof and a bench. Others were small towns with little more than fuel and water for the steam engine. The second stop, however, was the agricultural center Keskay, where Coniglietta boarded the train, with false papers indicating she was a religious missionary.
Other interesting passengers to board in Keskay included an unpleasant woman named Elanor Yanette who had a veiled companion, tethered to her wrist by a gold chain. They boarded first class, where Elanor got herself a few alcoholic beverages in the lounge, but only water for her companion, before they both disappeared into their cabin.
A cocky tiefling gunslinger who kept introducing himself as Olivert Boone made a spectacle of himself in the dining car, flirting with every woman who would tolerate his presence. Another passenger, a dwarf, caused a commotion as he was boarding. As he passed from coach through the dining car to his second-class cabin, he bumped a man who was snacking at the bar. The man choked to death on a salted nut and died before anyone could help him.
Coney, sensing that something out of the ordinary was happening, rushed up, introduced herself as a member of the Clergy, and demanded the right to give the unfortunate man last rites, in private somewhere. The train guards pointed her to a nearby restroom (“you know the one,” said one guard to the other) and – seemingly completely disinterested in the death of one of their passengers – allowed the strange girl to just take the body away to the bathroom to do whatever she wanted.
In the bathroom, still a bit shocked at her luck at getting the guards to do what she wanted, Coney talked to the spirit of the dead man. He told her that he had been cheated out of gambling winnings by the dwarf, Verzubak Tantalovich, and he had come to kill him. By some stroke of awful luck, just as he had been preparing to make his move, stab the dwarf, and disappear in the crowd of boarding passengers, someone had bumped into him from behind and he had lost track of what happened after that. Coney informed the man that he had died and would be moving on soon the to the afterlife. She offered to carry a message to his loved ones, but the man would only reply with angry shouts, so she let him go, and then left his body in the bathroom without even searching his pockets.
Finally, the train made its way out of Keskay, and the rest of the day’s journey into the Danoran capitol of Cherage was uneventful. The train pulled into a Railroad Enclave, nearly identical to the Enclave in Beaumont.
Each major city along the route had one of these walled neighborhoods at the nightly train station. The train stopped for the night, and the passengers would sleep in one of the hotels, according to their station. Restaurants, bars, shops, and other entertainments were available inside the walls of the enclaves, which – even outside of Danor – were considered Danoran soil and subject to Danoran law. The city of Cherage was under a nightly curfew, so no rail passengers would be allowed to exit the enclave, though Cherage citizens with the appropriate papers could travel after sundown and could enter and exit the enclave.
That night, the constables decided to lay low. Coney shared her opinion with the other two that she thought the dwarf Verzubak might be an assassin. Perhaps he was connected with the Obscurati in some way.
James went to the railroad museum in the enclave, doing an excellent job of appearing to just be a train enthusiast and not a police investigator, then went to a bar where he befriended Verzubak by chatting with him while the dwarf gambled. At 9 o’clock, Verzubak used a chunk of his gambling money to buy a round for the bar, toasting everyone: “To those we trust in, and to those who earn our trust. May alcohol forever help bring us together!”
IronPeak went to the Rock Rackus concert which was held within the enclave to allow passengers to attend. On her way back to the hotel later that night, IronPeak was nearly run into by a large shabby-looking blond man wearing nothing but a long coat covered in patches and holes. The man sprinted past her, smelling of fragrant bath oils, and being closely pursued by four enclave guards. IronPeak got the distinct impression that the man was not running as fast as he could, possibly to make it an interesting chase. He reached a bridge over the railroad tracks, leaped down onto the train, and disappeared from view.
Intrigued, IronPeak asked the guards what had happened. They referred her to the first-class hotel where the concierge informed her that the man had come in, looking a mess (but wearing pants, at the time), and said he had a reservation for the penthouse suite under the name “Mr. Mapple.” When the concierge said they didn’t have a reservation under that name, Mapple suggested that they had gotten the name wrong for his penthouse suite reservation. When the concierge informed Mapple that no one had reserved the penthouse suite, Mapple had thanked her and left without another word. Becoming suspicious after a while, she called security after about half an hour and sent them up to the penthouse suite, where they discovered the naked Mister Mapple in the suite’s bathtub, along with many of the complimentary bath oils. Mapple grabbed his coat and jumped out the fourth-floor window, leaving his shirt and pants behind. IronPeak was intrigued and was immediately convinced that the man was stowing away on the train. She would check out the freight cars in the morning.
The next morning, several more interesting passengers boarded the train. Alienor Contessa Soliogn-Stark was boarding. The famous lone survivor of Risur’s shelling of a Cherage orphanage 43 years prior was a face many Danorans would have recognized on sight were she still a child. That image of that one bloody orphaned child sold had more War Bonds than any campaign before or since, and the Danoran government was not shy about reprinting her face and her story whenever they wanted to stir a patriotic fervor. Madame Soliogn-Stark was accompanied by her handmaidens “Ilaria de los Campos,” and “Winter,” or so the paperwork for Cazara and Summer read.
Additionally, a junior member of the ruling family of Danor was boarding. Luc Jierre was the son of Han Jierre, the Danoran Sovereing. He made few public appearances; rumor was that he was a brilliant arcanoscientist who rarely left his laboratory. The public would grumble that the Jierres could import magic for themselves, while insisting that the poorer Danorans embrace the technological future. Accompanying Luc was a half elven woman with the tattoos of a Clergy oracle on her face and hands. She and Luc communicated via sign language.
Lastly, a well-dressed man with a strong Risuri accent was loudly arranging plans with Malia the train guard, making sure that everything was in order for his meeting. This man was notable for his finely-tailored attire and the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.
As the passengers boarded the train that morning, the constables heard various people talking about an awful murder that had happened the night before in the railroad enclave. A woman had been found, eviscerated and ritually posed, with her viscera making a circle around her, liver in her right hand, heart in her left. When Coney rushed to the police station to try to talk to the spirit of the murdered woman, she was told that, owing to the clearly demonic overtones of her murder, the body had been burned, according to Danoran practice.
Coney got back to the train just before it left, and so the constables had their work cut out for them. Many interesting characters were riding the Avery Coast Railroad, but which of them had intended on meeting Caius Bergeron, and which were other Obscurati agents independently traveling to the same meeting? More investigation would be required over the next four days and nights.
The voyage from Flint to Danor went within sight of Axis Island, where new construction could be seen. Alienor leveraged her celebrity veteran status to dock in the star fort where her son and the other constables had defended the lighthouse against the Duchess Ethelyn’s rebel troops nine months prior. James took the opportunity to poke around a bit and Alienor asked the right questions of the right people. They came away with the conclusion that Danoran engineers were undergoing a major excavation, and possibly draining a lake, either for coolant or for better access to the bottom of the lake. Unable to get more information without drawing suspicion on themselves, the constables departed.
Some time after leaving Axis Island, Cazara spied what appeared to be a small steam pipe following behind their ship. James told the others that he was familiar with the theory of a self-propelled submersible – or “sub-marine” – vessel but he was not aware of anyone successfully testing that theory. Cazara lost sight of the pipe she had seen, and the constables became suspicious that the vessel might be preparing to attack their ship. Ironpeak dove into the water to see if they were being followed by one of these sub-marine ships. She surfaced a few minutes later and said she saw no sign of anything. James said that submarines were incapable of keeping up with surface vessels for very long, so Alienor ordered full steam and there were no more incidents during the journey.
The ship dropped off James, IronPeak and Coney in Beaumont, at the western terminus of the Avery Coast rail line. The city was far more industrialized than Flint, and the cold Danoran winter was blowing in. The city was mostly black soot and gray snow. James and IronPeak were to board the train on the 11th of Winter; IronPeak would be guarding a crate of cargo containing some of the group’s supplies. Coney boarded the train a few days early and headed a few stops down the line to the agricultural town of Keskay, where she would lie low until the 11th, to throw off any Obscurati spies who might be watching for a large group of non-Danorans boarding at once.
On the 11th, James and IronPeak boarded separately, with forged identification documents for Timothy Smith and Kordovés Titanfist Maderesk. “Timothy” boarded in second class, and “Titanfist” boarded in the first coach car, where she would have easy access to cargo.
Before tickets were taken, the constables had free run of the train, and did some snooping around in various cars. IronPeak met a Danoran war veteran named Bree Kaldeckis, and the two of them hit it off immediately. They went for a drink in the first-class lounge before the conductor could shoo them back to coach. IronPeak talked about how she was working security for the train journey, and Bree asked if she knew anyone who was hiring. IronPeak did not.
James also ended up in the lounge, as the guest of a first-class passenger named Damato Griento. Griento was an Orc from Ber who was also a railroad entrepreneur. He was traveling with his wife and two children, while also doing research on the successful Avery Coast Railroad. Damato’s son became fascinated by Bree, who had a large scar around her right bicep. When he asked her about it, she told him that “when” his sister loses one of her limbs, he should hang onto it so that it can be re-attached. This precipitated a panic attack in the young orc girl, and the Grientos quickly exited back to their first-class cabin.
Train guard Malia Baccarin eventually came around and booted all the rabble from the first-class lounge, leaving it for Rock Rackus to enjoy by himself.
The train stopped about every hour in some small town or another. Some of the stops were nothing more than an open shelter with only a roof and a bench. Others were small towns with little more than fuel and water for the steam engine. The second stop, however, was the agricultural center Keskay, where Coniglietta boarded the train, with false papers indicating she was a religious missionary.
Other interesting passengers to board in Keskay included an unpleasant woman named Elanor Yanette who had a veiled companion, tethered to her wrist by a gold chain. They boarded first class, where Elanor got herself a few alcoholic beverages in the lounge, but only water for her companion, before they both disappeared into their cabin.
A cocky tiefling gunslinger who kept introducing himself as Olivert Boone made a spectacle of himself in the dining car, flirting with every woman who would tolerate his presence. Another passenger, a dwarf, caused a commotion as he was boarding. As he passed from coach through the dining car to his second-class cabin, he bumped a man who was snacking at the bar. The man choked to death on a salted nut and died before anyone could help him.
Coney, sensing that something out of the ordinary was happening, rushed up, introduced herself as a member of the Clergy, and demanded the right to give the unfortunate man last rites, in private somewhere. The train guards pointed her to a nearby restroom (“you know the one,” said one guard to the other) and – seemingly completely disinterested in the death of one of their passengers – allowed the strange girl to just take the body away to the bathroom to do whatever she wanted.
In the bathroom, still a bit shocked at her luck at getting the guards to do what she wanted, Coney talked to the spirit of the dead man. He told her that he had been cheated out of gambling winnings by the dwarf, Verzubak Tantalovich, and he had come to kill him. By some stroke of awful luck, just as he had been preparing to make his move, stab the dwarf, and disappear in the crowd of boarding passengers, someone had bumped into him from behind and he had lost track of what happened after that. Coney informed the man that he had died and would be moving on soon the to the afterlife. She offered to carry a message to his loved ones, but the man would only reply with angry shouts, so she let him go, and then left his body in the bathroom without even searching his pockets.
Finally, the train made its way out of Keskay, and the rest of the day’s journey into the Danoran capitol of Cherage was uneventful. The train pulled into a Railroad Enclave, nearly identical to the Enclave in Beaumont.
Each major city along the route had one of these walled neighborhoods at the nightly train station. The train stopped for the night, and the passengers would sleep in one of the hotels, according to their station. Restaurants, bars, shops, and other entertainments were available inside the walls of the enclaves, which – even outside of Danor – were considered Danoran soil and subject to Danoran law. The city of Cherage was under a nightly curfew, so no rail passengers would be allowed to exit the enclave, though Cherage citizens with the appropriate papers could travel after sundown and could enter and exit the enclave.
That night, the constables decided to lay low. Coney shared her opinion with the other two that she thought the dwarf Verzubak might be an assassin. Perhaps he was connected with the Obscurati in some way.
James went to the railroad museum in the enclave, doing an excellent job of appearing to just be a train enthusiast and not a police investigator, then went to a bar where he befriended Verzubak by chatting with him while the dwarf gambled. At 9 o’clock, Verzubak used a chunk of his gambling money to buy a round for the bar, toasting everyone: “To those we trust in, and to those who earn our trust. May alcohol forever help bring us together!”
IronPeak went to the Rock Rackus concert which was held within the enclave to allow passengers to attend. On her way back to the hotel later that night, IronPeak was nearly run into by a large shabby-looking blond man wearing nothing but a long coat covered in patches and holes. The man sprinted past her, smelling of fragrant bath oils, and being closely pursued by four enclave guards. IronPeak got the distinct impression that the man was not running as fast as he could, possibly to make it an interesting chase. He reached a bridge over the railroad tracks, leaped down onto the train, and disappeared from view.
Intrigued, IronPeak asked the guards what had happened. They referred her to the first-class hotel where the concierge informed her that the man had come in, looking a mess (but wearing pants, at the time), and said he had a reservation for the penthouse suite under the name “Mr. Mapple.” When the concierge said they didn’t have a reservation under that name, Mapple suggested that they had gotten the name wrong for his penthouse suite reservation. When the concierge informed Mapple that no one had reserved the penthouse suite, Mapple had thanked her and left without another word. Becoming suspicious after a while, she called security after about half an hour and sent them up to the penthouse suite, where they discovered the naked Mister Mapple in the suite’s bathtub, along with many of the complimentary bath oils. Mapple grabbed his coat and jumped out the fourth-floor window, leaving his shirt and pants behind. IronPeak was intrigued and was immediately convinced that the man was stowing away on the train. She would check out the freight cars in the morning.
The next morning, several more interesting passengers boarded the train. Alienor Contessa Soliogn-Stark was boarding. The famous lone survivor of Risur’s shelling of a Cherage orphanage 43 years prior was a face many Danorans would have recognized on sight were she still a child. That image of that one bloody orphaned child sold had more War Bonds than any campaign before or since, and the Danoran government was not shy about reprinting her face and her story whenever they wanted to stir a patriotic fervor. Madame Soliogn-Stark was accompanied by her handmaidens “Ilaria de los Campos,” and “Winter,” or so the paperwork for Cazara and Summer read.
Additionally, a junior member of the ruling family of Danor was boarding. Luc Jierre was the son of Han Jierre, the Danoran Sovereing. He made few public appearances; rumor was that he was a brilliant arcanoscientist who rarely left his laboratory. The public would grumble that the Jierres could import magic for themselves, while insisting that the poorer Danorans embrace the technological future. Accompanying Luc was a half elven woman with the tattoos of a Clergy oracle on her face and hands. She and Luc communicated via sign language.
Lastly, a well-dressed man with a strong Risuri accent was loudly arranging plans with Malia the train guard, making sure that everything was in order for his meeting. This man was notable for his finely-tailored attire and the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.
As the passengers boarded the train that morning, the constables heard various people talking about an awful murder that had happened the night before in the railroad enclave. A woman had been found, eviscerated and ritually posed, with her viscera making a circle around her, liver in her right hand, heart in her left. When Coney rushed to the police station to try to talk to the spirit of the murdered woman, she was told that, owing to the clearly demonic overtones of her murder, the body had been burned, according to Danoran practice.
Coney got back to the train just before it left, and so the constables had their work cut out for them. Many interesting characters were riding the Avery Coast Railroad, but which of them had intended on meeting Caius Bergeron, and which were other Obscurati agents independently traveling to the same meeting? More investigation would be required over the next four days and nights.