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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cypherblade" data-source="post: 9875648" data-attributes="member: 7048389">session 32: Across the Malice Lands[spoiler]Staf takes a carriage to the address from Elanor’s notes. Once again it is a house in an upscale neighborhood, with several carriages waiting outside. Clearly wealthy people live there, but the coachman does not know who exactly. Staf pays him to find out and report back when he returns to pick him up in an hour. Many notable figures arrive, often with bodyguards. Elanor and Isobel arrive last and are allowed inside after showing a card.Staf approaches the other coachmen. He asks who lives here: a Mr. Berkhoff, a businessman in import and export. Confidently, Staf walks up to the entrance, but when he cannot produce an invitation he is denied entry. He then asks for the secretary, who informs him that tonight is a bad time. During the conversation, a loud cry of “Wow!” suddenly comes from inside the house. Staf eventually schedules an appointment for the 22nd.Sarïa continues to keep an eye on Bree. Several dockworkers clean up the overturned crates. After the carriage has passed, Brie returns to the enclave, and the druid follows her back to the hotel.Felix and the blind Ayleen speak in the hotel lobby. Felix wants to learn more about Luc Jierre. There are three brothers: Han (the sovereign of Danor, who has no children), Ian (the father of Luc and Lya), and Gan (the father of Nathan). At the front desk Felix asks whether there is anyone who can cure Ayleen’s blindness. He specifically asks about the woman who was with Mr. Jierre—the oracle—but she and her companion have already left the hotel.Suddenly water bursts out of all the sources of fire, like fountains. Half a minute later the flames return. Everyone is astonished; nothing like this has ever happened here before. Half an hour later Cardiff Hengehill enters the hotel. Judging by his accent, he comes from Risur. As he walks up the stairs, he passes the tall man who is just leaving, freshly washed.Later that evening Boon also returns, and half an hour after him first Elanor and then Luc Jierre and Octavia return as well. In the lobby Versubak, Brie, and Boon are still present, but the dwarf never once looks at the other two. Staf speaks with Elanor, who tries to lure him to her room, and he goes along with it. She says she can provide the ideal woman for him. Felix/Cassius, meanwhile, speaks with the oracle and asks her to help Ayleen/Barbara. She says it will be possible tomorrow, but not today.<h2>13 Winter 500 AOV</h2>Barbara’s blindness has disappeared on its own by morning. At breakfast we hear that a young woman was murdered two streets away. Felix/Cassius thanks Jierre’s companion for the effort, but her help with the blindness will no longer be necessary.The orc engineer Damata Griento does not look very happy this morning. Today the journey continues toward Trekhom in Drakr, but since we are still in the Malice Lands, monsters can once again be shot along the way. Brie strikes up a conversation with Staf, but he is rather curt with the Danoran. Unlike her, he cannot let go of “the enemy from the war.”At one point the train suddenly slams on the brakes. Cassius/Felix nearly flies off the roof of the train, but Barbara performs her role perfectly and manages to grab him before he tumbles down. In the swamp to the left of the train something bubbles in the water, but that cannot be the cause of the emergency stop. A hydra-like creature rises up and attacks the middle of the train. One of its five heads smashes through a third-class window. The screams are audible all the way to us. Soon after, gunshots ring out—coming from even farther ahead than the hydra, near the locomotive.The front section of the train is under attack by a group of men on horseback. They are the ones being shot at up front, and they themselves also carry rifles. A few of them jump into the cargo wagons: a bandit ambush!Ayleen, Felix, Sarïa, and Staf run forward. Every few meters the hydra thrusts its head through another window. Each time it loses a head, but they keep growing back. Kane sees through the first-class window that the large man is defending the train against the attackers. When Staf attacks the hydra and Ayleen and Felix shoot at it, the creature retreats back into the swamp. It is soon followed by head-like monsters that leap out of the train windows. Felix reaches the wagon where those creatures were, where complete panic reigns. Sarïa begins administering first aid. Several people have been killed and wounded.The bandits climb back onto their horses and ride alongside the train, firing as they go. Then they suddenly turn around when our heroes approach. Staf does notice that they have loaded some sacks onto their horses. Near one of the wagons lie two bodies: a bandit and the tall man. The latter has been riddled with gunshots. His body turns out to be covered with large scars indicating that various body parts have been stitched together, though he has far more than Brie. His bullet wounds slowly close up, and the lead pellets pop out of his flesh! It looks like he had set up an improvised sleeping place for himself in this cargo wagon.In total, three guards have fallen, eight passengers in third class, and one bandit.The emergency stop apparently happened because rocks were lying on the track, but they have since vanished into smoke—undoubtedly an illusion.The large man regains consciousness once his wounds have healed. When Staf experimentally tries to give him a small cut, he grabs the veteran by the throat. He has the same accent as Von Recklinghausen. His name is Mister Maple, and he says the doctor is his “father.” Ayleen persuades him to come along to our wagon. The theft took place in cargo wagon 3, while the fight with Mr. Maple happened in wagon 6. The stitched-together man confirms what we had already suspected: he is very interested in Isobel.The train staff refuse to say exactly what was stolen. Staf explains that he used to be an inspector and insists on examining the body of the dead bandit. He brings his servant Nick/Kane along, who questions the corpse using Speak with Dead.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What were you trying to steal? Gemstones.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">From whom? Don’t know.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Who was your boss? Reddin.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Where is your headquarters? In the Malice Lands.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Was the monster that attacked the train under your control? No, that was a lucky coincidence. </li> </ul>[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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