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<blockquote data-quote="Echolocation" data-source="post: 8418924" data-attributes="member: 7011911"><p><strong>Session 71</strong></p><p><em>Courtesy of Ella's player</em></p><p></p><p>As you may - or may not - recall (depending on how hard you’ve been hitting the drinks at the railway enclave’s bar during downtime), we ended last session having successfully tracked Steelshaper to Trekhom! A place where he bought two train cars, had them refitted, and proceeded to have them shuttled all over the country at random. Whether Steelshaper himself is on these train cars… we have no idea. It sure would be nice if Grappa had dated his letter so we knew whether he sent it before or after Steelshaper started his train shenanigans...</p><p></p><p>In any case, that might be where we ended the session but it certainly wasn’t the start! No, that was back in Alais Primos: having just discovered that Steelshaper had been seen travelling in a cart marked with Quital Vineyards during his last known day in Alais Primos.</p><p></p><p>Following that lead, we hit the streets - or rather the paperwork - looking for more information on Leone’s family vineyard and whether they had any Drakrans on staff. The answer to that was no, but they did have a close association with a neighbouring business: Cejakreig Vineyard.</p><p></p><p>A second day of investigating and looking up various acquaintances revealed that while the Quital family might not have any Family with a capital F connections, John certainly had some family with a lower case f ones. Those being some rather influential people who’d be more than happy to call in a Clergy inquisition on Quital Vineyards should the esteemed Sir John of Flint, son of Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill, require it!</p><p></p><p>Angharad also flexed his Vekeshi contacts to find out that Steelshaper had been spotted in Nalaam on the 48th of Spring, but with the vineyard and the prospect of tormenting Steelshaper’s family so close by, we decided to delay the Nalaam lead for now.</p><p></p><p>The day of the potential inquisition dawned bright and lovely: an unfortunate juxtaposition for the storm about to descend on Quital Vineyards… John took the lead: striding into the establishment and bluntly demanding information from the Steelshaper-esque figure who greeted us. The man’s initial terrible lies turned to fear as soon as an inquisition and certain names were mentioned, and he turned out to be Steelshaper’s second cousin. It seemed the rest of Leone’s family didn’t know much about the so-called “Watch-wrestler”. He’d rarely contacted them and never spoke about his work, although apparently he’d once been an aspiring politician - a “charismatic” man whose description as such made Ella’s blood boil.</p><p></p><p>On an interesting tangent, Lisandra’s questions revealed that Steelshaper had always had his steel-shaping powers, even before he left Crisillyir 15 years ago. He’d returned to his family vineyard this spring on the 35th, and stayed for 12 days until the 47th, when a dark rider on an undead horse arrived. They spoke together, and the next morning Steelshaper was on a train to Nalaam.</p><p></p><p>Having confirmed our next lead, we thanked Leone’s cousin for his time and assured him that there’d almost certainly not be an inquisition - leaving before Ella could ask Angharad to burn the entire place down. Destroyed buildings were still on the agenda though! As we bedded down for the night in an abandoned house. Lisandra’s brief chat with it revealed that it really hated turtles, druids who could turn into turtles, and anyone who occupied it. The Urban Empath reassured it that it could “return to its regularly scheduled hollowness” come morning and fell asleep to the building’s disgruntled groaning.</p><p></p><p>The promised dawn proved to be the building’s last though, as Angharad and Simon the kobold disaster-chef indulged in some ill-planned pyromania. The kineticist rescued the kobold from the inferno - much to the other kobolds’ disappointment - and we continued on our way. Straight to the Avery Coast railway station! Where we confirmed that Steelshaper had indeed bought a ticket to Nalaam and bought some of our own. The dozen or so kobolds accompanying us didn't bother though, simply cramming into the luggage carriage like a backwards clown car.</p><p></p><p>Our arrival at the Nalaam station was met with snipers and assassins, who were quickly dispatched - and in one case decapitated - before the local police arrived. Angharad managed to use an unexpected Vekeshi connection to reduce our legal fine from “the price of a man’s life” to absolutely nothing. Because if there’s one thing the Vekeshi are good at, it’s getting away with murder…</p><p></p><p>We left our assailants to the authorities and continued our investigation: discovering that Leone had recruited a dozen Drakran guards and met with a number of foreigners and Obscurati members before leaving by train for Trekhom. Thus confident in our next lead, we bedded down for the night in a magically created shelter that had Ella muttering in Gnomish for at least half an hour. The arrival of a message in the wall only underscored her own inability to manipulate the structure at all.</p><p></p><p>The magical message was from Lord Kulp, master wizard and secret Vekeshi, assuring Angharad that the situation at the train station had been dealt with and wishing us well with our stay. A very short stay apparently, as the next morning we were already on a train to Trekhom. The Drakran city was much as we remembered... and thankfully free of assassin welcoming parties.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="Lord Kulp"]</p><p>I think it makes sense that Lord Kulp grows his political power over Nalaam throughout the course of the adventure. This justifies his appearance at the conference in Book 10. Kulp has been working his Vekesh connections well, with the city is cementing itself as a haven for the mystic cult. Kulp made it his personal goal to follow up with the assassins that ambushed the party. He disposed of the satyr that divined Team BAD's location, but not before warning the Ob the assassins failed. With both Roland and the satyr warning the Ob, Steelshaper will be expecting Team BAD at his doorstep. He has requested the Ob compile a document on every known combat ability of the PCs, and ordered unique bullets that will sabotage the party's ability to concentrate on their spellcasting.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>Splitting up, Ella and Lisandra found some rail workers who revealed that Steelshaper had bought two train cars and had them refitted, while Angharad and John philosophized with some bureaucrats to learn the exact specifications of said alterations. Apparently each of the carriages were reinforced to support more weight, and several windows on the left side were covered over with steel.</p><p></p><p>An interesting observation, since we knew from Grappa’s letter that Steelshaper was staying in a windowless room… and if the trains the carriages were attached to stopped moving at night and Grappa only “woke up” when Steelshaper went to sleep, then it’s possible the former construct might not realise he was on a train… Still, even if Steelshaper is hiding in his fancy carriages, it doesn’t help us if we have no idea where they are.</p><p></p><p>Careful questioning revealed that the carriages were spotted travelling through the Trekhom station every week or two, with rail workers under special orders to transfer the trains they were attached to between a particular set of tracks. It seemed the carriages were travelling all around Drakr, constantly changing the engines and other carriages they were attached to. With such a wide area to search over, the kobolds volunteered their services as lookouts: offering to keep watch at stations throughout Drakr and keep track of where the carriages were spotted. We gratefully accepted and, finding ourselves with surprisingly little to do, holed up in the local rail enclave hotel.</p><p></p><p>Lisandra and Angharad honed their swashbuckler skills by jumping all over the furniture, while Ella and John casually stepped through a pot plant back to Flint - as you do. There John took a relaxing breather from civilisation while Ella gladly embraced the chaotic madness of her family home. For three days nothing bad happened and no one died or brutally murdered anyone (looking at you, Angharad). On the evening of the third day though, duty called: in the form of a kobold snout emerging from the wood of the hotel table and speaking in the familiar voice of El Extraño.</p><p></p><p>What does the mysterious kobold master spy have to tell us? Did the other kobolds finally get rid of Simon? Find out this week: on Zeitgeist!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Echolocation, post: 8418924, member: 7011911"] [B]Session 71[/B] [I]Courtesy of Ella's player[/I] As you may - or may not - recall (depending on how hard you’ve been hitting the drinks at the railway enclave’s bar during downtime), we ended last session having successfully tracked Steelshaper to Trekhom! A place where he bought two train cars, had them refitted, and proceeded to have them shuttled all over the country at random. Whether Steelshaper himself is on these train cars… we have no idea. It sure would be nice if Grappa had dated his letter so we knew whether he sent it before or after Steelshaper started his train shenanigans... In any case, that might be where we ended the session but it certainly wasn’t the start! No, that was back in Alais Primos: having just discovered that Steelshaper had been seen travelling in a cart marked with Quital Vineyards during his last known day in Alais Primos. Following that lead, we hit the streets - or rather the paperwork - looking for more information on Leone’s family vineyard and whether they had any Drakrans on staff. The answer to that was no, but they did have a close association with a neighbouring business: Cejakreig Vineyard. A second day of investigating and looking up various acquaintances revealed that while the Quital family might not have any Family with a capital F connections, John certainly had some family with a lower case f ones. Those being some rather influential people who’d be more than happy to call in a Clergy inquisition on Quital Vineyards should the esteemed Sir John of Flint, son of Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill, require it! Angharad also flexed his Vekeshi contacts to find out that Steelshaper had been spotted in Nalaam on the 48th of Spring, but with the vineyard and the prospect of tormenting Steelshaper’s family so close by, we decided to delay the Nalaam lead for now. The day of the potential inquisition dawned bright and lovely: an unfortunate juxtaposition for the storm about to descend on Quital Vineyards… John took the lead: striding into the establishment and bluntly demanding information from the Steelshaper-esque figure who greeted us. The man’s initial terrible lies turned to fear as soon as an inquisition and certain names were mentioned, and he turned out to be Steelshaper’s second cousin. It seemed the rest of Leone’s family didn’t know much about the so-called “Watch-wrestler”. He’d rarely contacted them and never spoke about his work, although apparently he’d once been an aspiring politician - a “charismatic” man whose description as such made Ella’s blood boil. On an interesting tangent, Lisandra’s questions revealed that Steelshaper had always had his steel-shaping powers, even before he left Crisillyir 15 years ago. He’d returned to his family vineyard this spring on the 35th, and stayed for 12 days until the 47th, when a dark rider on an undead horse arrived. They spoke together, and the next morning Steelshaper was on a train to Nalaam. Having confirmed our next lead, we thanked Leone’s cousin for his time and assured him that there’d almost certainly not be an inquisition - leaving before Ella could ask Angharad to burn the entire place down. Destroyed buildings were still on the agenda though! As we bedded down for the night in an abandoned house. Lisandra’s brief chat with it revealed that it really hated turtles, druids who could turn into turtles, and anyone who occupied it. The Urban Empath reassured it that it could “return to its regularly scheduled hollowness” come morning and fell asleep to the building’s disgruntled groaning. The promised dawn proved to be the building’s last though, as Angharad and Simon the kobold disaster-chef indulged in some ill-planned pyromania. The kineticist rescued the kobold from the inferno - much to the other kobolds’ disappointment - and we continued on our way. Straight to the Avery Coast railway station! Where we confirmed that Steelshaper had indeed bought a ticket to Nalaam and bought some of our own. The dozen or so kobolds accompanying us didn't bother though, simply cramming into the luggage carriage like a backwards clown car. Our arrival at the Nalaam station was met with snipers and assassins, who were quickly dispatched - and in one case decapitated - before the local police arrived. Angharad managed to use an unexpected Vekeshi connection to reduce our legal fine from “the price of a man’s life” to absolutely nothing. Because if there’s one thing the Vekeshi are good at, it’s getting away with murder… We left our assailants to the authorities and continued our investigation: discovering that Leone had recruited a dozen Drakran guards and met with a number of foreigners and Obscurati members before leaving by train for Trekhom. Thus confident in our next lead, we bedded down for the night in a magically created shelter that had Ella muttering in Gnomish for at least half an hour. The arrival of a message in the wall only underscored her own inability to manipulate the structure at all. The magical message was from Lord Kulp, master wizard and secret Vekeshi, assuring Angharad that the situation at the train station had been dealt with and wishing us well with our stay. A very short stay apparently, as the next morning we were already on a train to Trekhom. The Drakran city was much as we remembered... and thankfully free of assassin welcoming parties. [SPOILER="Lord Kulp"] I think it makes sense that Lord Kulp grows his political power over Nalaam throughout the course of the adventure. This justifies his appearance at the conference in Book 10. Kulp has been working his Vekesh connections well, with the city is cementing itself as a haven for the mystic cult. Kulp made it his personal goal to follow up with the assassins that ambushed the party. He disposed of the satyr that divined Team BAD's location, but not before warning the Ob the assassins failed. With both Roland and the satyr warning the Ob, Steelshaper will be expecting Team BAD at his doorstep. He has requested the Ob compile a document on every known combat ability of the PCs, and ordered unique bullets that will sabotage the party's ability to concentrate on their spellcasting. [/SPOILER] Splitting up, Ella and Lisandra found some rail workers who revealed that Steelshaper had bought two train cars and had them refitted, while Angharad and John philosophized with some bureaucrats to learn the exact specifications of said alterations. Apparently each of the carriages were reinforced to support more weight, and several windows on the left side were covered over with steel. An interesting observation, since we knew from Grappa’s letter that Steelshaper was staying in a windowless room… and if the trains the carriages were attached to stopped moving at night and Grappa only “woke up” when Steelshaper went to sleep, then it’s possible the former construct might not realise he was on a train… Still, even if Steelshaper is hiding in his fancy carriages, it doesn’t help us if we have no idea where they are. Careful questioning revealed that the carriages were spotted travelling through the Trekhom station every week or two, with rail workers under special orders to transfer the trains they were attached to between a particular set of tracks. It seemed the carriages were travelling all around Drakr, constantly changing the engines and other carriages they were attached to. With such a wide area to search over, the kobolds volunteered their services as lookouts: offering to keep watch at stations throughout Drakr and keep track of where the carriages were spotted. We gratefully accepted and, finding ourselves with surprisingly little to do, holed up in the local rail enclave hotel. Lisandra and Angharad honed their swashbuckler skills by jumping all over the furniture, while Ella and John casually stepped through a pot plant back to Flint - as you do. There John took a relaxing breather from civilisation while Ella gladly embraced the chaotic madness of her family home. For three days nothing bad happened and no one died or brutally murdered anyone (looking at you, Angharad). On the evening of the third day though, duty called: in the form of a kobold snout emerging from the wood of the hotel table and speaking in the familiar voice of El Extraño. What does the mysterious kobold master spy have to tell us? Did the other kobolds finally get rid of Simon? Find out this week: on Zeitgeist! [/QUOTE]
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