Surprise Round
[sblock=State of the rail] Actually, the reason the cabin is so empty is because Gurdis bought all of the remaining seats for your trip. She knew that you guys were a rough and tumble kind of group and did not want to hurt her reputation by surrounding you by Sharns' Elit(e/ist) without knowing how to act "properly" around them. The two merchants in the cabin with you bought their tickets before Gurdis got the rail station, so there was nothing she could do about that. Gurdis attempted to buy their tickets from them, but the merchant refused to sit in the "middle class" cabin... he is quickly reconsidering!
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Masumi is the only one to hear the steadily accelerating hush sound and is slightly surprised to see two elemental carts slide into view from the north. It's not so much the cart that Masumi is surprised about, but rather the elemental cannons that are strapped to the front of the carts.
These two carts glide along the left side of the rail and now everyone can see them. Three more of these carts pull up along the right side of the rail. Four of the riders are dirty humans, but something is off about them. Random parts of their bodies seem to be covered in metal...no wait... those body parts ARE metal. One of the riders, you are not shocked to see, is a warforged. Only one thing is odd about the warforged... he seems to be dressed in the hides and furs of animals, most notably that of jungle cats.
You cannot hear what he is shouting at the train, but you can see his laughter as the cannons visibly power on, a dark red orb of power condensing within the barrel. The warforged raises a large greatsword and all of the cannons, on both sides of the rail, fire at the center of your cabin. The energy flows through, splintering wood and singing the floor. Oddly, the energies pass directly through Alexia's body and she is not harmed in the slightest, though she can now feel the moving air from outside as the train speeds along its route. The silencing spell of the cabin has been broken, and now all of the sounds of the rumbling engines can be heard.
"Stupid mortals!" the warforged shouts from his cart.
"You will NOT reach Daskaran. Tracker will see to this! Men, take out the train's engine and see if we can't slow these "adventurers" down! We only need to keep them away from the island for another four days! After that it won't matter!"
The cannon's begin to recharge themselves with an audible hum and again the red orb begins to condense within the barrel of the cannons.
The passengers (including Gurdis) scream and run away from the blasted area into the rear cabin.
[sblock=Initiative]
Initiative rolls
Badguys - 24
Grryth - 21
Alexia - 20
Masumi - 13
Gurdan - 13 (lower dex than Masumi)
Garrick - 10
Lo-Kag - 7 (sorry, bad roll, not that it'll really matter unless you post late).
MASUMI: Because you were the only one to succeed on the perception check, you will get to act in the surprise round. After that, I will post the badguys' actions for round 1 and the rest of you (Masumi included) can post in whatever order you happen to do so after the badguys go.
NOTE: The walls of the train at rows P and Q are blasted away, so movement through the "walls" of these squares is possible on both sides of the rail.
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[sblock=New Rule] Because I want to move this shin-dig along and get to actually rewarding you guys experience, I am adopting a new rule that I have seen other DMs use.
If you do not post within 48 hours of my badguys, I will take control of your character and use one of your At-Will powers (unless you give leave to use encounter and/or daily powers). Please do not let this happen more than once per battle if you can help it. [/sblock]