Zeitgeist -- The Return of the Ob

[Andrew Moreton]

So skipping over my slackness they got through books 2 and 3 with no disasters and steady investigation. Xambria has ended up in the head of Oxorin the Eladrin battle maniac.
Their preperations for the train journey were very thorough and they completely avoided the Ob naval ambush, either its too easy to avoid or I am too nice. They arranged for back up in all the none Danoran cities, they have a letter of introduction from Cipriano which cost them nothing although they know they will have to pay for any actual help and contacts except in Naalem and Trekholm, they feel they may have mortgaged their souls to Cipriano. In Naalem they arranged for backup via their Vekeshi contacts , and in Trekholm they were stuck until they remembered they had run into a dwarf at the arms faire and looked him up , (I forget his name) they handed over some cash and got some contacts in the Trekholm underworld. They absolutely avoided risking any compromise by getting help from the RHC and no one knows what they are up to except Drelft. Even the ship captain thought they were going on a voyage to investigate potential Ziggurat locations until they were out of sight of Land.
Ka'Vert the Tiefling Sorceror and Danoran is pretending to be Finona using excellent disguise and a touch of magic
Oxorin the Eladrin is pretending to be Xambria , although Xambria as a half elf and much bigger muscles , this is helped by having Xambria for advice
Rinakth the Deva Alchemist/Gunman is a big game hunter hired by Finona for help in her next wilderness expedition
El Jefe is the wilderness survival expert for that expedition
Terry is disguised as a lightly different Tyrannosaur..... He is glad there are no ladders or Stairs on the train
Raven remains a Thrush disguised as a Raven and self identifying as a Raven

They are looking for the Ob who should be meeting Mr Bergeron and hoping they will identify and talk to Finona.

Getting on the train was uneventful , they were careful to look at everyone getting on. Meeting with Bree and the Diamanto half orc family went well with only a few screams about missing arms. They did note a few other suspicous passangers a squad of soldiers later revealed to be travelling to the Army Academy in the capital and a nervous Oboe player going for a tryout with the Opera. Also a suspicous man who they can't pin anything on yet....

Things got more complicated when more people got on the train along the way , the Lucky dwarf made them really suspicous as Rinakth was there when someone died from chocking an anaphaptic shock after eating a rare Elfaivaran nut. He provided first aid and found a poison dagger and picture of the dwarf which made them even more curious and they decided it was some sort of luck power. El Jefe followed this up turning invisible and sneaking to the cargo section were he used speak with dead on the assassin and determined it was local organised crime, he also searched the rest of the cargo but found nothing.

Oxorin had a long conversation with Boone and decided he was a misogynistic naughty word and she wanted to break his face. This remains an ambition, when they find out what he is up to he is a dead man.

Rinakth spoke with the lucky dwarf whose name is escaping me , they spoke about magic and it became apparent to Rinakth that he is a competent scholar of luck magic and mediocre Gambler

Finally they investigated Elanor and the person dressed in a tent, El Jefe's keen nose revealed that she was a femal eladrin being fed drugged food and they immediatly decided it was sex trafficking. El Jeffe searched their train cabin and confirmed this and confirmed that Elanor the the Eladrin were going to Naalam and only Elanor was coming back.
Oxorin proposed immediate murder. This was eventually talked down and they are planning to wait for a good opportunity probably in Naalem were their Vekeshi freinds warned by a sending spell will be happy to help get the Eladrin somewhere safe and dispose of the body. They have also made sure that Asraby has the home address of this women and her group who trade in Eladrin slaves, they expect that this will go badly for those involved.

Elanor and Boone have slightly distracted them from the Ob.

When the train reached cherage El Jefe and Rinakth staked out the hotel the mystery man was in but he did nothing. Oxorin followed Bree and ran into Boone, who delayed her pursuit and nearly got his face broken but she decided that while satisfying the risk of being arrested in Cherage was too high, Raven followed Bree until her carraige got close to the sovereigns building and then turned back

On her way back to the Hotel Oxorin saw Mr Mapple jogging away from the hotel chased by guards and was amused.


We finished there and continue tommorrow

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Oxorin recently had this dream of her past
You tower over a burning battlefield. Arrows bounce of you and spells fail to bite , your sword sweeps aside your opponents , cheers ring from your allies. Then a pain something stabs into your breast, your sword falls from your hands , screams ring out and you fade into a burning darkness. A word in the darkness burns into your mind but something blocks you from remembering . You dream of fire







Rinakth has this dream of their 1st life
You and your squad are hidden , steel spanned arbalests at the ready. The battle rages before you but you must wait until your target is there. Your officer moves along the line handing out rune enchanted bolts, carved into them is a name Darla. A Giant takes the field and you and your squad take the shot. Bolts sink deep into the target. A scream cuts through you all and you collapse abandoned by your gods

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The team watching the hotel have one last event. They notice the Diamanto Orc family being heckled and abused by drunken militia as they between them they have no social skills they can think of nothing to do except violence which would get them arrested until El Jefe has an idea. Mad Monkeys. One spell from hiding later the militia are set upon by a pack of biting, clawing and poo flinging monkeys. The Diamato's flee and our heroes sneak into the shadows suppressing their laughter.

After a few hours sleep, they reboard the train hearing of the discovery of a ritualistically mutilated womans body they think based on what they heard it was not a local serial killer so probably someone on the train, they blame Boone.
Overnight Ka'vert meditated on the stars and confirmed Eleanor would be selling her victim in Naalem, so .they put dealing with her on oneside until Naalem.
The new people getting on the train attract their attention Luc Jierre is obviosly of interest and Octavia an Eladrin serving the Clergy attracts their confused interest and some degree of wrath from Oxorin for being a traitor. Mr Hengecliff also attracts their notice.
During the morning Oxorin confronts the mystery man who did nothing overnight while Ka'vert reads his thoughts, they determine that he murdered his wife in a fit of rage and is on the run. While clearly not part of their mission they hate to let a criminal escape. After much discussion at the border fort they charm him to wonder away and miss the train departure in hope the authorities will catch up with him.
Rinakth and Oxorin shoot from the train and observe the others, they are glad to confirm the Diamanto's as none combatants and pick out Bree , Hengehill and Boone as competent shots, presumably the others notice them but Rinakth is a big game hunter.
Mr Mapple is woken by the shooting and then hides, Oxorin cheers him on.
On arrival in the malice lands town they start their surveillance effort. Their top shadower Raven follows Hengecliff around and is pretty certain he is a trained intelligence agent based on his counter surveillance effort but he does nothing suspicous. They lose track of Octavia and Luc but two of them track Bree, she spots one of them and arranges for a fall of barrels to block them of as Luc and Octavia's carriage passes. After that they perform some scouting of the enclave to see if anyone returns and El Jeffe stumbles across Boone as he prepares to murder his victim. Unwilling to commit to full combat as they think he is with Luc and if they are identified Luc could have them thrown off the train He sends just one earth elemental which most casters could summon to punch Boone. Boone then flees back to the train , El Jeffe heals the woman and then also returns.

Boone and Eleanor are now both on the list

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Nothing much else happens except for all the fires in the city turning to water and the Sea catching fire for about 30 seconds, it is determined that this is nothing to do with their mission........

The train continues heading towards Trekholm. El Jeffe is turned invisible by Ka'vert and heads off to search the baggage cars looking for interesting stuff in Lux and Ottavia's luggage. Luckily he uses detect magic and spots that several glyphs and symbols protect their luggage including some which would cause him massive blood loss and others which would make him glow. Also his blood trail would glow.
He decides that opening those luggage containers would be unwise, he continues on looking for the Super Hobo as they think he would be interesting to talk too.
Meanwhile Terry sits and guards their room, with orders not to leave or eat anyone. Ka'vert lazes around.
Oxorin and Rinakth shoot at random monsters from the roof.

Then everything goes wrong.
A barrier on the track brings the train to a stop, while a huge monster looms over the train. Rinakth joins the guards and Cardiff Hengehill moving along the train roof and shooting at the beast, he aims to get to Nock gun range.
Oxoring and Ka'vert seeing the Malice beast is sending smaller beasts into the trian move forward through the trai quickly as Ka'vert uses haste. The small monster kill around 4 passangers before facing the two. Magic missiles and a sword stick cuththrough them with ease even without her greatsword and armour Oxorin is more than a match for an spawn and Ka'vert kills one with every magic missile strike.
El Jeffe seeing bandits attacking the front of the train moves closer and invisbly summons Dinosaurs and Mad Monkeys to attack the bandits. He observes Mr Mapple in action and sees him regenerate, hisintervention is enough to turn the tide against the bandits and they retreat rather than take heavy losses. One train guard is killed.
The Malice beast is finally driven off when explosive shot from the Nock gun hits it along with a general hail of fire.
The group are thanked by the gaurds and have their tickets paid for by the rail company as it is clear without them many more passangers would have been killed. El Jeffe despite being known to be a sneaky druid denies any involvement in the affair, despite there being no other credible source of magically summoned dinosaurs, Terry guarded the cabin for the entire affair.
In the Trekholm enclave all Ravem, El Jeffe and Rinakth all follow Boone, the discover that Bree is also following him , Bree and El Jeffe lose Boone although El Jefe manages to watch Bree.
Rinakth catches Boone about to commit a murder and fires a shot in the air hoping to spook him or summon the Trekholm police. The police do not arrive but Bree does, Boone shoots her and wounds her quite badly she triggers a token which results in a Trekholm Magical response team teleporting in and incacitaing boon with a Dominate spell. They all sneak away as Boone is taken away for an illegal incareration in a Drakr prison mine. Unless I forget an Undead vengeful Boone will return in book 11 alongside the cultists probably possessed by his demon gun.

Oxorin and Ka'vert end up following the Griento's and will be attending Vledheim Heid's talk next week
And Cardiff has succesfully sold his military secrets and will vanish without any real inspection by the group.