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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3961383" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Hulk Must Die!The food on the Shadow Train, while bland, is plentiful. The villagers that our heroes are attempting to take to their own time- in the future of this terrible age of madness- eat hungrily; it has been quite some time since they were able to eat their fill, with no fear of famine hiding just around the next corner. The party digs in, too; for them, trail rations and the occasional goodberry have sustained them for a long time. The only thing missing is alcohol. Lord Cedric frowns a thunderhead. He is barely inebriated at all, and at this rate, by the end of dinner he will be- horror of horrors- sober.Sir Kyle- he still can’t get used to the title- gives Adelle’s horse-faced sister, Danelle, a plate of food with a smile. Startled, she accepts, and smiles shyly back at him. She may not be an elf, or a sexy dragon (both of which Kyle finds irresistible, in theory, anyhow), but she is female, and Kyle- like the rest of our heroes- is lonely. Very lonely. Lonely enough that even a girl with a face like a horse is starting to look good- especially since Dahlia has yet to give in to his charms. Kyle- no, Sir Kyle, dammit- sighs heavily as he glances her way. Will she ever? He glances out the window of the dining car. Everything is grey- a dark grey background, with blotches of different shades of grey passing by as the train moves at breakneck speed. If things don’t go our way, there won’t be time for her to surrender to me, he thinks forlornly.The Hulk has finally calmed down as the food arrives. There seems to be enough of everything even for his behemoth appetite. Slowly, he grows calmer and calmer, until a strange transformation occurs. Slowly, the Hulk begins to shrink; his thick muscles turn scrawny and weak, and their hue changes from jade to olive to tannish-brown. Soon he is once again Banner. Thank the gods! Kyle suddenly becomes aware of just how tense he has been since the Hulk grabbed him. One blow of those mighty fists would kill him, no doubt. And he has no weapon capable of bringing down that beast. But now, Banner is back! If only we can keep him here, and keep the Hulk away!Banner seems very tired. He droops in his seat, his tattered purple pants barely clinging to his legs. He lays his head on the table before him and closes his eyes with a sigh. “So tired,” he whispers to himself. Soon he is breathing regularly, evenly, in a deep slumber. The party draws close and begins a murmured discussion. “Banner seems like a great guy, but that Hulk thing has got to go,” Kyle says seriously. “He almost killed me just grabbing me by the arm! But the loss of Banner- ahh, it’s... lamentable.”Otis answers, “We cannot dispose of him yet. First of all, if we wake his alter ego on the Shadow Train, who knows what will happen? I doubt whether our journey will continue afterward; I suspect that a rampaging Hulk would tear this whole thing apart. “Secondly, we may need his help against Harth and the beholder. Not just because they themselves are quite powerful- but because of the weapons that they may have acquired. We know that they have the Soul Gem, from the Ghost Tower of Inverness; but they may have gathered up many other powerful items for all we know. I doubt whether Harth will be satisfied with just one.”“Then again, he might just want to get home himself,” Sheriff Jorgen muses.“We’re putting an awful lot of faith in the idea that he has a way home,” Dahlia remarks. “We don’t really know that.”“Pah!” scoffs Lord Cedric. “Thurely he would not have embarked on thith mad thcheme if he did not have a plant to return to our time.”“Besides,” Otis adds, “what better chance of returning home do we have?”“Hey, I think we’re stopping!” Sir Colder exclaims suddenly. “Are we there already? The Isle of the Elves?”“I don’t think so,” Adelle says shortly. The party looks out the window. Vague, shadowy figures about the size and shape of a man are barely visible in the gloom, near the head of the train. Nervously, our heroes put on armor and weapons. Kyle, Otis and Adelle all cast mage armor. “I can hear voices up there,” Kyle whispers. “Sounds like talking, not fighting- at least so far.” Everyone stays hushed, and they can hear them too, distorted by a light fog and the shadows themselves. Conversation, somewhat passionate, and voices that are raised a little- but not too much. The door from first class opens, and the Knights of Shadows, Sir Ferthickla and Sir Travest, enter the dining car. They look at Sir Kyle, who speaks the local language, and gesture at Lord Cedric. “Translate for us,” Sir Travest requests. Sir Kyle nods.Through Sir Kyle, the two Shadow Knights explain what is happening to Lord Cedric. Apparently, some shadow folk obstructed the track somehow and forced the Shadow Train to stop in order to extort more money than usual from them for their passage. Probably, Otis thinks, because this is the last train from the ruined human nation.Now, according to Sir Travest, the train is nearly ready to get underway again. Then his eyes slide to the sleeping Banner. Once again, the two Knights of Shadow depart to first class.“Wouldn’t it be awesome,” Goer murmurs, “if we could get the Hulk to fight Harth’s beholder?”Everyone pretty much agrees, and they relax as it becomes plain that no fight is about to break out. The topic of the Hulk vs. the beholder is intriguing enough that they discuss it for several minutes before Cedric becomes grumpy from lack of drink.“Bah!” he snorts. “Thurely they have alcohol in firtht clath!” With that, he pushes through the door to the first class car (ahead of the dining car). Kyle quickly casts invisibility on him as he moves forward. Quickly, Cedric moves through the first class car, which has multiple cabins in it. It is nothing like the crowded array of benches that second class is! “Truly,” mutters Cedric to himself, “we need to upgrade our ticketth.”Boldly, he pushes into one of the cabins. Whoops- there are the two Knights of Shadow. They stop their conversation as their door swings open. Tiptoeing, Lord Cedric backs away. They don’t see him, but might they hear him? He isn’t sure. Thirsty, cranky and annoyed, Cedric withdraws back to second class. He becomes visible again a moment later. “Nothing,” he says mournfully. “Nobody hath a thingle bottle remaining? Oh, woe.”The door from first class opens and the two Knights of Shadow emerge. They glance at the sleeping Banner. Sir Travest turns to Kyle- one of the few members of the party able to speak the local tongue- and, without preamble, he whispers, “We must kill him now, while he is vulnerable,” His eyes bore into Sir Kyle. “Surely you can all see that he must die. He is too dangerous! If he were to become the Hulk while on the Shadow Train, the results would be... devastating, at least for you. At least we would be on our own plane, if not in our own citadel.”Kyle snorts. “Good luck,” he says sarcastically. He eyes Banner’s unconscious form. “I have a feeling you’ll regret the attempt, though.”Nobody else speaks up. Kyle has not yet translated, and of those that understand, Dahlia is too stricken by how much the Shadow Knights’ words mirror her own thoughts and Otis is more convinced that they are right than not. Sir Travest walks over to Banner, draws his dagger and slits the sleeping man’s throat.* Immediately blood begins to pour out. Banner’s eyes fly open for just an instant, and then the light goes out of them a split-second later. The Hulk doesn’t have time to come out. Banner dies. Lord Cedric’s jaw drops. He had no idea that the Shadow Knights planned to do this! Immediately, he rips his sword free of its scabbard and points it at the Shadow Knight. “YOU THERE!” he roars. “I AM PLATHING YOU UNDER ARRETHT!”This, Kyle translates. The dwarves scramble out the door and flee back deeper into second class with exclamations of dismay. Sir Travest sneers. “You have no authority here,” he declares, “and we do. We are Knights of Shadow; you are out of your demesnes here, and in ours. You have no authority to arrest anyone.” The two Knights draw their blades menacingly as well. Our heroes collectively draw their weapons. Kyle cries, “No, everyone! The last thing we need is a fight on the Shadow Train!”“Banner wath innothent of wrongdoing,” Lord Cedric states. “What crime had he been convicted of?” Quickly, Kyle translates. Sir Ferthickla’s mouth twists in a grimace. “None,” he admits. “Then I demand weregild!” Cedric shouts. “A payment of, of- a thouthand gold!”“And a free upgrade to first class,” Sir Fwaigo puts in quickly. “Yeth!” cries Lord Cedric. “At leatht for thothe of uth that are are not peathantth.”Sir Ferthickla exchanges a look with Sir Travest. They seem to pass some kind of unspoken communication back and forth. After a moment, they look back at Lord Cedric. “A fair price,” Travest admits. “Very well.”The tension drains from the scene, though most of our heroes are angry at the shadow knights. They are unapologetic, and Lord Cedric finds them insufferable and infuriating. They retreat to their cabin soon enough, and the rest of first class is given over to the party. The majority kicks Bates back to second class, to keep Cedric out of trouble as much as anything else. And, most important of all (to Cedric), the alcohol flows- and even if it is weak and bland, it is alcohol, by Clymorian!The darkness goes by outside. The party sees strange, unlit cities, weird empty landscapes that are all shades of grey, occasional dark clumps of vegetation- all flicker by outside the window as the Shadow Train moves along steadily, much more quickly than a horse’s gallop.At one point a drift of about half a dozen swift-flying ray-like creatures hovers outside the train for a short while, but the Shadow Train moves with such speed that it is almost impossible for creatures to keep up with it. They drift away behind the train, their intentions never to be known. For about a week our heroes rest and recuperate. Their occasional brushes with the Knights of Shadow are unfriendly but not hostile- at least, until a belligerent Cedric challenges Sir Travest to a duel.“You want to duel me?” smirks Travest. “Yeth! It need not be to the death- jutht until one of uth yieldth!”Travest considers for a few seconds. Then he replies, “Very well... on the roof of the train.”“The roof! Indeed!” Lord Cedric blusters. They ascend the exterior of one of the swift-moving cars via a ladder set into the side of it. Once atop the train, the two combatants take a moment to find their balance. The cold wind whips past Lord Cedric’s ruddy face as he studies his opponent- whom he can barely see! Immediately, he casts light upon the blade of his bastard sword. This helps him but little: the Shadow Knight seems to have some kind of aura of dimness surrounding him. “Fool!” cries Sir Travest. And he unleashes his smite light-bearer power.** He swings his bastard sword and deals a mighty blow to Lord Cedric’s right thigh, breaking it! Cedric cries out and drops to the roof of the car, unable to stand. “I yield, I yield!” he cries, and then, “Liquor!!” ***A few more days, and they approach the Isle of the Elves- the city called Amaruseltiliath. Or something like that; our heroes tend to mangle elven words pretty badly, with the exception of Kyle and Dahlia. As the voice of the Conductor announces their imminent arrival, the party makes sure that they have all their gear and peasants, and Cedric tries to take what booze he can. “All right,” Kyle urges everyone, “all the humans in the back, the rest of us- especially those with elven blood- up front, and try to look presentable, everyone! We don’t know what kind of reception we’ll get from the elves, but we have to do our best to impress them so that they will help us find Harth!”“Isn’t it likely that they have already met him?” Sir Colder says suddenly.Alert eyes turn to him. “I mean,” he continues, “didn’t he already come through here? Along with his beholder? How would the elves react?”The Shadow Train is slowing noticeably as it nears its destination. Our heroes ponder Colder’s words uneasily. “Well, let’s hope it helps convince them to help us,” Sheriff Jorgen says uncertainly.The Shadow Train is slowing, slowing... outside the windows, grey blobs flashing by change to the silhouettes of buildings, and then the train enters a large building with light and color. “Let’s just hope,” Otis says, shaking out his fingers to nimble them up in case he needs to cast a spell, “that Harth’s arrival did not convince them to immediately attack us when we arrive.”The Shadow Train glides to a halt. The doors open.Outside, a veritable army of grim, angry elves awaits our heroes, weapons at the ready, poised to strike.Next Time: Our heroes “interact” with the elves! *Coup de grace. Ouch.**This was awesome. I had figured that the Knights of Shadow were the most likely combat encounter on the train, so I had bothered to stat them up. I tried to give them cool, flavorful powers- this smite ability was one of them, but I didn’t know how utterly perfect the chance to use it would turn out to be. And, for the record, he got a critical hit and dealt 40 points of damage in a single blow to Cedric! Daaaamn!!Here’s the write up of the ability, just for the record:Smite Light-Bearer (Su): 2/day a knight of shadow can smite a creature bearing a functioning light source or emitting light. He gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls and deals an extra 10 points of damage. Moreover, unless the victim makes a Ref save, DC 17, the light is extinguished. (Permanent magical light sources flicker back on after 1 hour.)</blockquote>

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