skotothalamos
formerly roadtoad
To the Vineyard! (and beyond)
Putting aside the trepidation they felt after the complications at the Crypt, the constables continued to the Quital Vineyard. There they asked the building, the objects therein, and the help for information on Leone Quital’s movements. They learned that he had been there, but not for very long. Cazara had a quiet talk with the road, which complained that Leone had elected to take the “stupid new road,” and that it could not understand why one would choose such a conveyance over the freedom and quiet of humble passageways like itself.
And so, of course, the constables headed out to Drakr to search the rail lines.
They stopped first in Trekhom, where Summer felt a pull from the Arc. She led the constables to a tavern, where a group of Eladrin men were drinking and talking.
The memory began, and as the group in the tavern were drawn into it Kasvarina stalked up to one of them, a man heavier and shaggier than the Eladrin norm. The man in the memory was asleep in a corner, and Kasvarina doused him with water before dragging him outside. She asked about his mission, and the man (who the constables, through the magic of the Arc, knew to be Bhalu Varal, one of Kasvarina’s less-important husbands,) complained that she had sent him to kill too many people; that he didn’t think the relationship was worth the missions anymore. He thought maybe it was time for the Eladrin to die, anyway. With some boast, he said that he had vowed to devote his life to his mind, and to punish his body with the greatest beer the dwarves had crafted.
Kasvarina told him she would clean him up, that he was too valuable, but he was unconvinced. When the memory faded, Bhalu, having just witnessed his ex walking into his favorite bar AGAIN only to relive the end of their relationship in front of all his friends, seemed stunned. Summer awkwardly apologized for what she must have put him through, and Bhalu did not have much to say.
The constables moved on. They questioned the terse locals, and the rails themselves, and learned that Quital had been riding the rails in a private train all over Drakr. His pattern seemed random, but the constables remembered the unimpressive kobolds and requested their help. They learned through that information and a bit of elimination that Quital was probably in Mirsk.
The constables reached Quital’s private train just as it was pulling out of the station. Cazara jumped to the top of the train and started running to the engine, pulling far ahead of the group with her superior speed. The rest of the constables managed to board before too long, and followed at their own paces, employing magical help when the cars started to decouple to keep from being left behind. Guards appeared on top of the front cars and Alienor shot at them with gusto.
Cazara came to a car that seemed different, and she descended into it to see what it held. She ignored the inert iron golems she found there and continued forward, quaffing a potion of invisibility and phasing silently into the front car. There she came upon Leone Quital, eyes closed, concentrating. There was a rending behind her as Oksana attempted to block the mechanism that allowed the golems to ascend, but Quital, with his steel shaping, effortlessly repaired his defense and deployed it.
Alienor was shooting the guards, Ironpeak and Oksana found themselves amid a couple of very violent mechanical men, and Summer clung invisibly to the ladder between two cars. Another guard attempted to leave one of those cars and climb up top, but reconsidered after encountering an unseeable derrière halfway up the ladder he was reaching for.
Cazara, still invisible, still moving through walls, advanced upon the oblivious steel shaper and with a practiced motion slapped a pair of mage cuffs on him. The cuffs immediately started whistling shrilly and smoking slightly as Quital opened the top of his car like a tin of sardines and rose into the air. Oksana grabbed her chance and managed to get a thought into the man’s head that kept him, for a time, from doing much more damage to the party. He simply hovered, in step with the train, as he fought off the invading cogitation. Oksana, too, was stationary, and quite in the way of Ironpeak’s work with the iron golems.
It was in this way that, when Ironpeak felled one of the constructs, causing it to explode, Oksana was caught in the blast and thrown helpless from the train. Summer, shaking off her unintentional molestation, remembered her divinity and managed to bring the young dwarf back from the brink of death even as the train raced away from her.
Quital, still floating, battered by bullets and magic and anti-magic cuffs, recalled that he was in pain and shook off the lingering effects of Oksana’s unique magic. He flew from the train in a rage, lifted the entire contraption from the tracks and spun it, sending the constables flying.
By some grace none were under the train when he dropped it, and Alienor mounted its smoking remains with a Pemberton-manufactured grenade launcher over her shoulder. The blast from the Dragon’s bomb did for Quital, with a little extra drubbing from Cazara.
The Crisillyiri subdued, the constables encouraged Grappa’s consciousness to surface. He told them about a certain Frost Giant Lich with whom he had been in contact - a creature the Obscurati had considered for an ally some time ago - who was trapped in a glacier somewhere to the north. He bid the Constables take him there, where the Lich had agreed to give him control over Quital’s body, and to give him the rituals necessary to do such soul-work himself. It was in this way, Grappa said, that the constables could slip unnoticed into the very midst of the conspiracy and so work to break it from the inside. The constables thanked Grappa for this information and folded him in Quital’s body into the Absurdist Web.
Putting aside the trepidation they felt after the complications at the Crypt, the constables continued to the Quital Vineyard. There they asked the building, the objects therein, and the help for information on Leone Quital’s movements. They learned that he had been there, but not for very long. Cazara had a quiet talk with the road, which complained that Leone had elected to take the “stupid new road,” and that it could not understand why one would choose such a conveyance over the freedom and quiet of humble passageways like itself.
And so, of course, the constables headed out to Drakr to search the rail lines.
They stopped first in Trekhom, where Summer felt a pull from the Arc. She led the constables to a tavern, where a group of Eladrin men were drinking and talking.
The memory began, and as the group in the tavern were drawn into it Kasvarina stalked up to one of them, a man heavier and shaggier than the Eladrin norm. The man in the memory was asleep in a corner, and Kasvarina doused him with water before dragging him outside. She asked about his mission, and the man (who the constables, through the magic of the Arc, knew to be Bhalu Varal, one of Kasvarina’s less-important husbands,) complained that she had sent him to kill too many people; that he didn’t think the relationship was worth the missions anymore. He thought maybe it was time for the Eladrin to die, anyway. With some boast, he said that he had vowed to devote his life to his mind, and to punish his body with the greatest beer the dwarves had crafted.
Kasvarina told him she would clean him up, that he was too valuable, but he was unconvinced. When the memory faded, Bhalu, having just witnessed his ex walking into his favorite bar AGAIN only to relive the end of their relationship in front of all his friends, seemed stunned. Summer awkwardly apologized for what she must have put him through, and Bhalu did not have much to say.
The constables moved on. They questioned the terse locals, and the rails themselves, and learned that Quital had been riding the rails in a private train all over Drakr. His pattern seemed random, but the constables remembered the unimpressive kobolds and requested their help. They learned through that information and a bit of elimination that Quital was probably in Mirsk.
The constables reached Quital’s private train just as it was pulling out of the station. Cazara jumped to the top of the train and started running to the engine, pulling far ahead of the group with her superior speed. The rest of the constables managed to board before too long, and followed at their own paces, employing magical help when the cars started to decouple to keep from being left behind. Guards appeared on top of the front cars and Alienor shot at them with gusto.
Cazara came to a car that seemed different, and she descended into it to see what it held. She ignored the inert iron golems she found there and continued forward, quaffing a potion of invisibility and phasing silently into the front car. There she came upon Leone Quital, eyes closed, concentrating. There was a rending behind her as Oksana attempted to block the mechanism that allowed the golems to ascend, but Quital, with his steel shaping, effortlessly repaired his defense and deployed it.
Alienor was shooting the guards, Ironpeak and Oksana found themselves amid a couple of very violent mechanical men, and Summer clung invisibly to the ladder between two cars. Another guard attempted to leave one of those cars and climb up top, but reconsidered after encountering an unseeable derrière halfway up the ladder he was reaching for.
Cazara, still invisible, still moving through walls, advanced upon the oblivious steel shaper and with a practiced motion slapped a pair of mage cuffs on him. The cuffs immediately started whistling shrilly and smoking slightly as Quital opened the top of his car like a tin of sardines and rose into the air. Oksana grabbed her chance and managed to get a thought into the man’s head that kept him, for a time, from doing much more damage to the party. He simply hovered, in step with the train, as he fought off the invading cogitation. Oksana, too, was stationary, and quite in the way of Ironpeak’s work with the iron golems.
It was in this way that, when Ironpeak felled one of the constructs, causing it to explode, Oksana was caught in the blast and thrown helpless from the train. Summer, shaking off her unintentional molestation, remembered her divinity and managed to bring the young dwarf back from the brink of death even as the train raced away from her.
Quital, still floating, battered by bullets and magic and anti-magic cuffs, recalled that he was in pain and shook off the lingering effects of Oksana’s unique magic. He flew from the train in a rage, lifted the entire contraption from the tracks and spun it, sending the constables flying.
By some grace none were under the train when he dropped it, and Alienor mounted its smoking remains with a Pemberton-manufactured grenade launcher over her shoulder. The blast from the Dragon’s bomb did for Quital, with a little extra drubbing from Cazara.
The Crisillyiri subdued, the constables encouraged Grappa’s consciousness to surface. He told them about a certain Frost Giant Lich with whom he had been in contact - a creature the Obscurati had considered for an ally some time ago - who was trapped in a glacier somewhere to the north. He bid the Constables take him there, where the Lich had agreed to give him control over Quital’s body, and to give him the rituals necessary to do such soul-work himself. It was in this way, Grappa said, that the constables could slip unnoticed into the very midst of the conspiracy and so work to break it from the inside. The constables thanked Grappa for this information and folded him in Quital’s body into the Absurdist Web.
