ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign

[Lylandra]

Clearing up the mess

Session 19

We take the still unconscious Tyler Starke and decide to bring him to his father instead of simply dropping him off in Bosum Strand (where his memory loss could be easily explained with a weird drug trip). After all, prosecutor Starke does know about our investigation in the attempted murder of Rock Rackus and he also know that his son is one of the prime suspects. Which is why the case needs a satisfying explanation.

Mr. Carlyle insists to stay as truthful as reasonably possible and starts to worry that the two of us might just get entangled in a web of lies. Auryn tries to calm her partner down and quickly analyzes the circumstances. She's sure that neither motive nor cause of events will really change if we just leave out the Vekeshi membership of Lord Byron and Tyler Starke:

Lord Byron still used both his relationship and the trust of his godson Tyler to stir his thirst for revenge so he could take his own revenge on those who took his second wife, Lady Saxby, from him. Therefore he wanted to frame Auryn with the murder of Rock Rackus, painting her as a crazy assassin without knowing that she was actually present at the festival as Calla Aurea. Once we found out about the plan with the simulacrum and had them cornered inside one of his mills, Lord Byron escaped via alchemy and decided to rather blow himself up than to go to jail. After all, no one besides us and the Vekeshi knows that the real Byron actually (hopefully) died at the hands of Old Stag.

When we arrive at Starke's home and try to explain a very surprised looking Mr. Starke that we found his son and assume that he and his deceased godfather conducted some dangerous alchemical experiments, Tyler suddenly awakes and cries for his “daddy”. As it seems, the boy lost almost all memories and returned as a mental newborn. This causes his father to collapse in shock and angers Carlyle visibly. “You better explain this to him” he demands and then turns silent.

Auryn wakes up the unconscious father and says that she doesn't really know what caused this full amnesia of Tyler, but she assumes that it might be related to the alchemical experiments of Tyler and Lord Byron who tried to enhance his godson's abilities. She says that hopefully his memories will come back in time, or otherwise Tyler might have to re-learn everything he once knew. As Starke starts to weep for his son's fate, Auryn explains that now he has at least the chance for a real relationship with his son and that it would surely not be fair to charge a man with no memories for attempted murder.

Once we leave the estate, Carlyle becomes irate at what he just witnessed. He is pretty angry about the fact that the person of Tyler Starke might just have been erased forever, all for the sake of keeping the Vekeshi society a secret. Auryn responds that Carlyle is right now just searching for an easy scapegoat, as Tyler's case is nowhere as straightforward as it might seem. Of course she's as shocked as him about Tyler's mental state, but neither she, nor the Vekeshi would know how many of his memories would be erased in the process. She then reminds her colleague of the alternatives: A mad, destructive Tyler would have been either tried and executed or imprisoned or sent to an Asylum to be detained forever. And while the end result might be the same for Tyler, at least his father has the chance to reconnect to his son and make things right this time. And that maybe even “stern Mr. Carlyle” would be wise to agree that the prosecutor and his son deserved a new beginning. (Plus, Tyler kind of had to suffer the consequences for his deeds in the end and his wifeless father didn't have the chance to raise another child)

It seems like Mr. Carlyle can make peace with Auryn's arguments. He remains skeptical about how to prevent other cases like Tyler and how to make sure that the Vekeshi won't breed any new fanatics within their own ranks in the future. Auryn tries to explain that the Vekeshi usually initiate only people who are equipped with reason, a sense of responsibility and a decent judge of character. Which is why you usually see no murderous Vekeshi running around in town. Compared to this, it is way easier for a thuggish, violent character to become a police officer and use your power to harass commoners...

(seems like Auryn... got the upper hand this time? Honestly, she was just as shocked as he was at the revelation of Tyler's mental state. But she's a really quick thinker and knows that nothing happens without reason, especially if her goddess is involved.)

As Auryn is still worried about her dear friend Morris' fate, she excuses herself and heads to the Dawkins estate. There, secretary Julien Moore tries to explain her that the rear Admiral's gardener found him a short while ago, lying unconsciously on the grass. He hurried to get a doctor who diagnosed Dawkins with a severe attack of Yerasol-Malaria. Julien then leads Auryn to Milena who's nervously doing chores. She says that while the Doc said that her husband will surely recover in time, she has never seen him in such a dire condition. She adds that he had been kind of feeble the day before (at least compared to his usual, robust composure) and should have known that something was amiss.

Auryn then takes a look at the patient himself who is plagued by a heavy fever. She whispers that she's grateful for all he has done for her, for Flint and also for Mr. Carlyle and hopes that she's maybe able to relieve him of the pain. She then touches his hands and channels all of her available fey magic to him. Fortunately, he breathes a bit easier after her treatment, even if his eyes remain closed.

Afterwards, she and Milena talk a bit about Governor Stanfield, who also happens to be Milena's boss. Milena says that she sometimes finds the Deva a bit strange as he seems to feel a strong need to become the best Governor ever and even told her that he keeps notes about his previous lives' failures. Auryn says that she can easily get why someone would feel the need to be perfect, but that following that path till the end may lead to madness. Which is why she decided to take it easier on herself.

(Better not tell her that she and Carlyle suspect Stanfield to be part of the Ob conspiracy. At one point, we were worried that Milena might also be an Ob in disguise, but fortunately we found no ring on her besides her wedding band and she acted pretty unconspiciously. But Milena being an Ob and therefore an enemy would be among Auryn's worst nightmares...)

Next, we meet up again at the RHC where we discuss our upcoming trip to Vendricce. We muse that Flying Spark might be a tad bit too prominent to be brought along the way by Rock Rackus. Because seriously, how many known Faerie Dragons are involved in the society of Flint right now? We then talk about the possibility of letting Rock buy Flying Spark along the way (they say one can buy anything in Nalaam), but decide that this might be way too risky for our new recruit. In the end, we all agree to let Flying Spark stay in Flint where he can join a team of rookies who are then tasked with observing the various spies lurking around our doorstep.

The next day, Carlyle and Auryn disguise themselves and use the teleportation circle to Reo Pedresco. We plan to take some time to get to know the city, its inhabitants and customs to be able to authentically portray our “lovebirds from Ber”. So we find ourselves a cozy inn, the “Mama Gumbo's” and say that we are tourists from Risur who wish to see the wonders of the city. The inn's owner, Mama Gumbo herself (who's also famous for her authentic “Mama Gumbo's” beverages) is happy to have Risuri as her customers and suggests us a variety of tourist attractions. For their room, Auryn suggests that they could share one as Carlyle will have to get used to her presence since they have to be convincingly “married” once they take their cover identities. The deva isn't really happy about this prospect, but understands her reasoning and finally agrees.
(You agreed to this plan, so deal with it! Not that Auryn would abuse their situation - she totally knows that Carlyle is used to live alone. Also, Carlyle has that ring of sustenance, so they don't even have to really share a bed. She's just a pretty restless sleeper.)

We use the next couple of days to learn more about beran culture, including the general way of life, anecdotes, local myths, current art and music styles. We also visit several museums about the Dragon Tyrant era and visit the remains of the Steel Dragon (even if we both don't get why he is called that way as there is no steel on his bones). Last but not least, we go on a big shopping spree to buy local clothes for every occasion which we deem appropriate for members of the upper middle class. As a small anecdote, we also learn that a pink feather boa is not an appropriate accessory for a proper lady.

Once we return to Flint, we are informed that Flying Spark's rookie team got some news about our presumed spies. The Faerie Dragon explains that they could link three of the “knitting women” to Kell's Scoundrel Theater. The fourth one, a man named Miggs Maloney who already got into contact with Mr. Carlyle, appears to be a police officer, while the fifth is a reporter who recently flirted with our receptionist.

Now we realize that we cannot really do much about the women, as knitting in front of the HQ isn't really a crime and while we could question (and possibly intimidate) them, this would only alert Kell that we found out about his spies. So we'd be better up to feed them with the info we'd want Kell to have. (Like, for example, the fact that agents Auryn and Carlyle go on a lengthy excavation trip in the Beran outback). The spies who are worrying us more are the police guy and the false reporter.

Once Carlyle hears about the story of the reporter and the receptionist, he gets really infuriated. He summons the receptionist to out her office and asks her what she told this guy and why by the love of the Titans she got the idea that doing so was okay. The young lady tells him the tale of this charming, handsome man who wanted to write an article about the “rising star agents” Auryn Galadin and Gabriel Carlyle and asked for hints about their current heroics. She only told him about a diplomatic archaeology mission for the Berans without naming more details.

This causes Carlyle to unleash a tirade of rebukes on the receptionist. He explains harshly that he expected RHC staff to follow the correct protocols of secrecy after they unmasked the Doro spy recently and that he's really disappointed by this new leak. After all, they lost one agent only a few months ago. This causes the girl to break down and apologize in tears before running off.
(Did I already mention Mr. scary, icy Carlyle? Because damn, that was really harsh. He can dial up his levels of scary even more though.)

Auryn looks a bit irritated at Carlyle who's looking back at his colleague in reutrn. “Don't offer her your comfort. Please. She doesn't deserve it.” he says calmly before Auryn can utter any word of protest.
“I... agree.” she finally replies “We already lost a comrade. And I really don't wish to attend to any more funerals”. We can agree though that the leak might play well into our cards as the receptionist could only have talked about our “planned excavation”.

We gather some information and find out that this reporter isn't working for the newspaper he claimed when he spoke to the receptionist. As we don't have the time to continue searching for him, we turn to Flying Spark and officially task him and his yet to be appointed team with finding out more about the reporter.

Then we investigate the matter of the curious police officer. We learn about his favorite pub in Bosun Strand and plan to simply wait for him there. As he's usually visiting the location at later hours, we decide to chat a bit with a nice older lady who is really interested in our stories as she read all about the two of us in the news.

The police officer, a man named Miggs Maloney, arrives after a while and it turns out that he is really happy to see us chatting with his wife. He's a bit embarrassed that we found out about his wife's fascination with the “famous agents” and explains the whole matter to us: He's no secret agent or spy at all, he was just doing his wife a favor by offering her news about us. So it seems like we just got our first fans!

(Even if the name Miggs Maloney made him look suspicious as his name bears resemblance of a certain crime lord named Mace Malone. But he turned out to be a nice old man. Also... fans! Exciting! I don't think one of my characters has ever had anyone being a fan of their profession.)

We tell the couple that while we feel honored by their attention, any kind of information that might be gathered by the “professional investigation” of a trained police officer is a potential threat to our super-secret operations. Especially if such information is then quickly spread through Flint's tea salon gatherings.

(Carlyle's player and I often make jokes about the dreaded “granny network” as old ladies are always those who are informed best. I don't know where they get the info from. They. Simply. Know.)

We then kindly ask Mr. Maloney to only look for unproblematic “insider information”, like Auryn's newest hairstyle or Carlyle's favorite barber shop to keep Mrs. Maloney entertained. Maloney understands our concerns and adds that it was really great to finally meet their idols in person.
After we say goodbye to the nice couple, Carlyle adds that Mr. Maloney might turn out to be a really valuable contact in time, as it is always fortunate to have a well-meaning pair of eyes within the police.

We also learn that Tyler Starke turned out to be quite the talented pianist after his “accident” as he has a scheduled concert in the Golden Sawfish the next evening. We attend to the concert and it turns out that his style of play resembles Auryn's own quite a bit. Before Carlyle gets overly skeptical about whether his mind might simply become an amalgamation of the various Vekeshi's skills and memories, Tyler goes on to perform pieces of music that are completely unknown to Auryn. On top of that, he's able to communicate properly again, even if he doesn't remember meeting any of us. So it seems like he really got a second chance.

We then go on to chat a bit about the various worlds that exist within a large city like Flint over a glass of wine. Carlyle explains that he spent centuries in the “world of nobles and their faithful servants” and its corresponding society. He admits that despite his work for the RHC, Auryn's tales of modern Elfaivar were pretty strange for him and he understands that she might have felt the same when she first came to Flint. Auryn agrees and adds that she chose to be part of worlds she felt comfortable with: The Dockers, who immensely broadened her view of what one could do and who one could be and who welcomed an oddball like her with open arms and the students of Pardwright, who valued knowledge, discovery and academia over all, even at the expense of personal relationships. We then both agree that the Vekeshi have their own sphere and their own rules as well.

Afterward, Carlyle tells Auryn a secret wish he had for quite a while now: to one day have an inn or a fancy hotel of his own. After all, he's used to lead service personnel and knows a lot about pleasing guests and fulfilling their wishes. Auryn seems glad to hear about her colleague's long-term plan as she still follows her idea of founding an Enclave of her own some day.

 

[Lylandra]

oops. seems like the forum had some hiccup yesterday

To prevent leaving a blank post here, I made a picture of Mr. Carlyle's recently finished mini:

 

[Lylandra]

Senor and Senorita Fernandez

The next day, we have our last official team meeting before heading to Ber. We say goodbye to Margit, who will go officially on a vacation in a couple of weeks and who will then assume her cover identity of Victoria Royceton, a doctor from Flint who's traveling to a medical congress in Vendricce.

As planned, Carlyle and Auryn will take on their alter Egos once they reach Reo Pedresco, home of Senor and Senorita Fernandez who got happily married two weeks ago.

Amira Fernandez (which is short for Amiranya and means “immortal Queen” in elvish) is an Eladrin who was found by the minotaur ranger Bosca at the Elfaivaran border when she was a toddler. Bosca, who was hunting big game for her initiation rites back then, took the child as her own as she thought her ancestral spirits sent her a sign. She was raised among the small tribe of minotaurs and trained to be an archer and dinosaur hunter. When her “mother” died of old age 12 yeas ago, Amira got restless and decided to travel the countryside, where she picked up various skills and found that she had a knack for playing piano. Also, the people she met were really enthralled by her singing voice. Once she came to Reo Pedresco, she found a job as a pianist in a fancy bar where she was able to make some decent money on her own. There, she met her future husband Hector, a frequent patron of the bar who came there for inspiration for his novels and who got intrigued by the mysterious foreigner. Being both rather intellectual, they quickly fell for each other over their long conversations about art, life and philosophy and finally got married. They plan to go on a long world trip as neither of them has ever left Ber (but they surely heard lots and lots of stories) and Hector promised Amira to maybe start looking for her Eladrin parents once they reach Vendricce.

As Auryn has a rather distinctive look, Amira has copper hair instead of silvery-gold (Auryn first proposed “red” as her favorite color, but Carlyle insisted that this would strike out even more. “Decrease the value of the metal and you'll be fine” he said and offered to mix her a hair dye.). She also lacks Auryn's signature scarves and hides her “scar” and her freckles with make-up. She's interested in Panoply philosophy and has a pretty fiery temper. Oh and she has quite a beran accent and wears a distinct perfume (unlike Auryn who uses small bags filled with dry herbs and petals which she wears in hidden pockets).

Hector Ignacio Fernandez is the sole heir of the “Flamingo Press”, a small but fancy publisher of romantic novels. His family, originally called di Fernando, immigrated to “wild and romantic” Ber from Crisillyir when they realized that their own nation had too many rules and restrictions for their taste. They settled in Reo Pedresco, where young Hector decided that he'd love to write novels himself. Sadly, he was never satisfied with the results and got invested in the family business after his parents died. He's still prone to starting novels, but lacks the time to finish them. When he met Amira, he simply thought he found a new muse, but he quickly realized that this woman meant more to him than just an inspiration for books. Hector loves traveling and the prospect of adventure and he's happy to be finally able to live some of his wildest dreams. As a true son of Ber, he learned the art of both dueling and self-defense.

Hector is a human, so Carlyle makes sure to cover his deva markings. His hair is pretty gray as he's in his early fifties and his style of dress and hair is far more daring than the that of conservative Mr. Carlyle. Still his clothes are immaculate and stylish as he follows the newest trends of Reo Pedresco. His publisher, the Flamingo Press, has a tiny pink flamingo for a logo, so he also has flamingo embroidery on his kerchiefs and scarves.
(Auryn has actually learned small handiwork as a child, so she did the embroidery herself)

We travel for a few days on our planned route to and through Ber and finally reach Reo Pedresco. There we meet our contact, Stella, who organizes a secret meeting with the officials. They hand us our new identity papers and traveling passes. Then we take some time in an RHC hideout to change into our Alter Egos Hector and Amira and then head to the harbor to take a ship to Beaumont.

At the pier we meet an orcish family named Giento. As we all seem to be waiting for the same ship, we make ourselves acquainted with the Grientos and are quite a bit surprised to learn that they will practically be taking the very same trip we take, all the way to Vendricce. Unlike us, none of the Grientos seem to be particular happy about their upcoming trip. Damata, husband of Ejeka seems eerily depressed about something while rebellious teenage daughter Pabo is on the brink of starting a revolution against this “vacation” she really doesn't want to be part of. Mischievous son Taro is as hyperactive as kids of his age can be, but at least he's in a good mood while listening to Hector's stories of high seas adventures.

As we continue listening to the Grientos' family troubles, it seems like Pabo is disappointed by her dad who'd rather become a businessman than a respected warchief. She says that he got no honor in his bones and demands to be wed to some mighty warrior so she can keep the family tradition alive. Damata on the other hand tries to explain to his daughter that money equals and even surpasses pure military prowess in this new world when it comes to power, even if he doesn't seem too sure about his fortunes.

Also, he seems a bit shocked when Hector tries to support Damata's arguments by telling stories about crime lords and their syndicates who might as well hold a power rivaled only by the Bruse. Which makes us think that this business dad might have some shady skeletons in his closet.

After a few days aboard our ship to Beaumont, we slowly befriend the Grientos. We are pretty sure that they are no Obscurati, but nevertheless keep our eyes and ears open on some of the dirty secrets Damata Griento might accidentally reveal. Especially young Taro is keen on listening to “Uncle Fernandez'” adventure tales and he's always on the lookout for pirates on the horizon.

While the Grientos use the stop in Shale to go shopping, we prefer to stay on board as we don't wish to risk running into people we know. (Amira is seasick as she's never been on a boat before and Hector doesn't want to leave her side)

Some days (and lots of Taro's assumed pirate sights) later, we reach the Yearsol archipelago. There, we see some conspicuous looking sails on the horizon. Looking through a spyglass, we can spot that they could indeed belong to a well-hidden pirate ship, so we carefully alert the captain to our finding. We also ask whether we are allowed to arm ourselves as we are citizens of Ber and would prefer to be in a position to fight invading pirates.

The captain gives his okay but also asks us to prevent causing a panic among the passengers. He adds that this area is pirate-ridden indeed and that they barely managed to escape the pirate ship Marjolie a few weeks ago. And from the looks of it, this might very well be the same vessel.

This prospect causes Auryn to be frozen in shock for a second. She then takes “her husband” by the hand and drags him to their cabin. Carlyle seems a bit confused and asks what's wrong with her, so she explains that it was the crew of the Marjolie who raided the Salty Spray, the ship she and Zahir took to travel west. She adds that while she's still keen on getting her revenge, she also understands that she is on an important mission and cannot risk blowing her cover. So she'd prefer to not clash with the pirates as a fight between them and her would surely end in a bloodbath.

Carlyle tries to calm Auryn down a bit as he points out that no one knows whether the Marjolie's crew is the same it was over seven years ago, so they might not be the same pirates who killed Zahir. Auryn thinks about his words for a while and finally says that this is even pretty likely the case as captain Mona, the pirate who sold her to Fordren, bragged about buying a new ship with the pile of money she'd win.

Carlyle then apologizes for all the pirate jokes he made while being on deck, as Auryn had no chance to fight back while being Amira. He had no idea that the pirates they could be encountering were actually her old enemies and he surely didn't mean to hurt her. She kind of shrugs it off and says that his jokes were not so much of a big deal. Still, she wishes to come back one day and kill all those who were involved in Zahir's death and her abduction. “My face will be the last thing they'll ever see and 'justice for Zahir' the last thing they'll ever hear in their miserable lives” she hisses.

(Yeah, she might have arranged herself with letting Fordren live for now, but those who killed Zahir are on a very different scale of “despicable”. There's not really much worse she can think of than killing a young Eladrin. Plus she has her very own, special relationship with death.

Also, remember the paragraph on means of address? Hector and Amira are totally intimate and informal, while Carlyle and Auryn are still formal. Makes it a bit easier to distinguish which persona is saying what.)

Thanks to our captain's navigating skills, we are able to outpace the pirate ship. After a while, we notice a small, strange wave that seems to be traveling at the same speed as our ship. We take a closer look through the spyglass we lent from the captain and see a strange metal tube that's sealed off with glass coming out of the water. We tell the captain of our finding and he's as astonished as we are as he knows of no creature of the sea who would have or use a metal tube.

We try to find an explanation for the strange phenomenon, and muse that it might be some kind of spyglass that you'd use from underwater (tube + lens = spyglass) and do some wild guesses like the Danorans training giant kraken who use spyglasses to control their borders. Still, the tube's movement is far too smooth to be really held by a living being. Carlyle remembers seeing sketches of an underwater snorkeling vehicle drawn by a Crisillyiri “genius” in a museum a few decades ago, but he cannot really point his finger on that being something similar.

As the captain thinks that this tube might belong to a sea monster, he decides to fire a warning shot in the direction of the tube which causes the device to sink below the ocean's surface. After that, Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez spin their very own tales about what might be happening thirty thousand leagues under the sea. The deep sea must be breathtaking, we assume...

(Ooc we totally knew that this was most likely a periscope and that the Danorans could have developed some kind of submarine to spy on foreign ships in the precious Yerasol archipelago. But there is no way our characters, who are okay-ish in terms of engineering, could have thought of something that far-fetched.)

 

[Lylandra]

Time for a holiday!

Next, we take a stop at one of the Yerasol isles to spend a romantic evening in a lush bay. We are positively surprised to see that the island's beach is really a romantic's paradise and decide to enjoy the evening breeze apart from the rest of the other passengers.
“This 'vacation' thing is really relaxing. Can't believe I'd say that, but I didn't know what I was missing all this time.” muses Mr. Carlyle/Fernandez as he sips from his drink while enjoying the sight of the rising moon.

(We had a small discussion about the necessity of “weekends” and “vacations” during the very first session where both Auryn and Mr. Carlyle agreed that no one would need either of these “modern inventions”. Seems like both are about to change their minds.
Also, Carlyle is such a hopeless romantic, even if he tries to deny it on every occasion. Seems like he really enjoys playing Hector Fernandez who Mr. Carlyle's player described as being very much like a salt-and-pepper George Clooney)

On a second thought we realize that this “romantic evening for the guests” is also an opportunity to restock some supplies, particularly wood, for the ship. Before we return to the ship, we suddenly spot the metal tube again and this time we are sure that something is following and watching us on purpose. We suppose that it would be the Danorans, as the other active party interested in Yerasol are the Risuri and we'd have surely known about the existence or such a device or beast. We also think that they'd be pretty paranoid to shoot with such giant cannonballs at sparrows like passenger ships from Ber.

Some days later, we finally get the harbor of Beaumont in sight. We feel a sudden change in clime, as the air turns colder. Both of us also got shivers down our spines as we feel the magic around us dying off. Unfortunately, the pirates we had hoped to outpace days ago suddenly return in our sight and seem to catch up. Luckily, we spot them in time and the captain makes haste to signal Beaumont that we are being pursued. In response, the Danorans send us the Dracon de Mer to fight them off. Seems like the privateers have found themselves a new employer. The Dracon shoots a few cannonballs in the direction of the buccaneer ship and they finally heave to. Taro gets really enthusiastic over the sight of the “good guys” shooting at the “bad pirates” while Pabo mutters that she'd be better off sailing away with the captain of the Dracon.
(Seems like we successfully managed to avoid all possible naval combat situations so far...)

At Beaumont harbor we are warmly greeted by a friendly lady who says she's sent to accompany the families Girento and Fernandez to their hotel. What's kind of irritating is the fact that she's wearing a black feather boa which makes all of us believe that this lady is actually a courtesan. Amira is finally brave enough to ask the nice lady about her “beautiful accessory” and she admits that she's happy she got that chance to buy one as they are the latest craze in Beaumont's high society. She's a bit upset that especially Berans seem to avoid her presence ever since and we clarify the “small” cultural difference between our two countries. The lady is a bit shocked first, but thanks us for this insight and we all share a good laugh. “So we'd better get some boa, right, Senorita Griento? Even if this might... excite our dear husbands” says Amira while winking at Ejeka Griento.

As our train is scheduled to depart in 10 days, we and the Grientos rent some cozy rooms in said hotel which turns out to be quite fancy and extravagant. We soon realize that life in Beaumont, at least for members of the upper class, is full of excess, especially in terms of alcohol. Life seems like a never ending party for the rich and famous and we try to play along. Carlyle is the first one to suffer a major culture shock when he attends the praised burlesque show while already being tipsy from the welcome champagne. Auryn/Amira is only a bit estranged as she's not used to this kind of dance, but she can at least appreciate the art.
(Carlyle explained a bit later that he had to drink even more to control himself. He's not really used to such... stimuli and Beaumont was full of them.)

The next morning, it is Auryn who's being surprised by the sudden temperature drop and the corresponding snowfall. Being a child of Elfaivar, she's never seen snow or frost before and so she gazes with wonder at the white city. She soon realizes however, that where there is snow, there is also really cold weather as well. As she didn't really think of bringing warm clothes with her, she decides to go on a spontaneous shopping tour with her dear husband.

As the pair is entering for a fur shop, they suddenly find out that this shop belongs to a certain Mr. Fordren which leads to one long, awkward moment when Hector/Carlyle teases Amira/Auryn with the prospect of feeling a certain someone's warm embrace whenever she's wearing her new fur coat. First, she's a bit dismayed as she thought they'd agreed on “no Fordren jokes”. Then she thinks about stomping on his foot with her hard heels for revenge. Finally, she grins at him gleefully and whispers “Wearing the skin of your enemy... and I always thought you were the civilized one.” before accepting the “generous gift of her dear Hector”.
(Sorry Delft, this trip is going to really hurt our expenses)

One evening, we dine in an underwater/reverse aquarium restaurant in Beaumont harbor which was recommended by our receptionist. We are pretty impressed by this architectural masterpiece and Hector immediately begins spinning tales of an underwater railway and the wonders one could see on such a trip. We also spot Rock Rackus who's having lobster and trying to tell his moon tales to the local Danorans. Seems like our star just escaped from his tour manager.

We also visit some local clubs, but find the atmosphere rather strange and too eccentric, even for someone who's used to Docker art. “I really hoped we could find ourselves a nice place to dance the night away, but I don't know what to do with this... erratic arrangement of notes and rhythm” Auryn mumbles with a long sigh.
(From Tiz' descriptions we thought that the hip populace of Beaumont was kind of into dubstep while Carlyle and Auryn both settled for something like Jazz and Soul as the most “modern” kind of music they'd appreciate. So... definitely just erratic noises in these clubs)

In our room we also find lots of technical gadgets, like an automated razor (Carlyle wouldn't let this device come too close to him though) and a scrubbing brush machine that works just fine.

Every now and then we meet the Grientos and Damata opens up a bit more over time. He seems to have a tense relationship with a certain Michael Carlyle who turns out to be no one else but “our” young Mr. Carlyle from Flint. We don't get too much information about the background of their relationship, but guess that it has to be related to business dealings and bad investment.

Regarding Carlyle, we find that there are quite a lot of people with the name Carlyle living in Beaumont and guess that they could be loosely related to Mr. Carlyle's brother Stillin who moved to Danor with his family some years after the Malice. One of these Carlyles turns out to be a locally known author of so called “railway novels” - tales of people who travel the Avery Coast railway. He's most famous for his readings that are accompanied by slide shows and we decide to visit one of his events. We are amazed by this artful combination of pictures and story, yet Hector utters the fear that this technique may just usher in the end of the classic – pictureless – novel. Amira tries to comfort her husband's fears and says that no picture, real or not, could ever trump the colorful world of one's own imagination.

After leaving the reading, we see that the carriage that should return us to our hotel has not arrived and so we muse that we might have been forgotten. No problem, we think, and quickly begin to search for an alternative cab. We find ourselves soon in a not-so fancy district where a shady man tries to sell nude photographs to Hector Fernandez. “You can't be serious!” he replies as if he had just been insulted “Do you honestly think you could show me anyone more exciting than my lovely wife?”. The man just shrugs in response, glances over at Amira, raises his eyebrows and then mumbles “Mh, maybe you're right...”

We continue walking through the streets where some goons try to guide us towards some shady alleyways. As we are not stupid (even if we are obviously tourists!), we rather continue on our own path. After a while, the carriage which should have picked us up after the reading catches up with us and the driver sincerely apologizes for his unexpected delay. As soon as we get into the carriage, the goons who tried to lure us earlier suddenly reappear and try to ambush us. Our driver panics and runs off in fear, leaving Amira and Hector Fernandez alone in the carriage. Fortunately, the vehicle is well armored and we are able to keep the windows shut. Amira and some of the bandits exchange rude gestures while Hector prepares his very own version of beran pepper spray. Our driver finally halts and tries to shoot at the bandits, wounding one in the process. Then Hector opens his window a tiny bit and releases his stunning bomb. This causes enough distraction to let our driver return to the carriage, call for the police and drive us to safety.

Back in our hotel, both the receptionist and the driver beg for forgiveness for not being able to prevent the attempted robbery.
“Are you kidding me? This was just so exciting!” Hector responds and immediately begins making notes for his novel. Beran tourists are surely crazy.

 

[Lylandra]

Chuu-chuu! And off we go

10 days later, our train is scheduled to depart in the morning. As a certain Mr. Rackus turned the whole planning upside down, one Avery Coast Railroad employee asked us for our preferred compartment and we take one close to the dining car (Number 18 I guess?).

On the day of departure, we are received by train conductor Zorina Marchand who introduces us to the rest of the train staff and shows us around. On this small tour, we meet Doris Gavagne, a pianist who's working in the dining car and who shares a friendly chat with “fellow pianist” Amiranya Fernandez. When Doris learns about Amira's beran heritage, she immediately plays a lovely folk melody for the Senorita which impresses Amira.

Then there are Kov Marik, the dwarven chef de cuisine and Malia Baccarin who's chief of security. When Hector Fernandez asks Chef Marik for a special romantic menu for himself and Amira, the proud Eschatologist promises that he'll do his very best to make sure the memorable meal will find a good and proper ending. Hector takes this less literally than intended, glances over at Amira, then nods enthusiastically at Marik and thanks him for his effort.

We then move to our compartment and find that this room was maybe designed for a family, or an adventuring group, but not so much for a couple. So we get some train staff to re-arrange the compartment to our needs.

(Yeah, a bit fourth-wall / meta teasing on our side. The first class compartments “just happen” to have four beds for the presumed team of four. And of course, the Fernandez wouldn't sleep in separate beds. Poor Mr. Carlyle. In some regards, Hector Ignacio Fernandez and Gabriel Carlyle seem like polar opposites and I was kind of surprised that Carlyle actually managed to convincingly play the role of a rather passionate husband without too many struggles)

We use our private compartment to closely observe the other passengers who enter the train afterwards. As expected, Rock Rackus arrives last minute and causes a small delay for the 2nd class passengers. We're happy to see Victoria Royceton among the crowd and also spot a group of danoran cadets, a dwarf carrying a trumpet case and a blonde woman who's wearing sleeveless clothes and who must be shivering due to the bitter cold. “Pirate” Burton is among the 3rd class passenger group and one of the last people to enter the train.

The train itself has some rather unusually strong acceleration and a pretty high maximum speed for such a massive object. This causes Amira to feel sick for a the first minutes, but she manages to get accustomed to the new environment after a while. Once she's fine again, the Fernandez head to the dining car to get breakfast.

We meet the Grientos again who seem to be just as hungry as we are. Along with us there are also Damien, a woman who was previously with the danoran recruits and the short sleeved woman who looks as if she was even more of a trained combatant than lieutenant Damien. Now that she's come closer, we see that her upper arm bears a big scar that catches Taro Griento's attention.

“Awesome!” the young orc says while pointing his finger at the woman's scar. Hector gently pushes Taro's arm down and explains the young boy that pointing fingers at someone isn't particularly nice or adequate. Then he laughs softly and muses that young children will always be curious.

The woman doesn't seem to mind though and instead asks us whether we've seen a Tiefling around here. As neither of us has seen one, the woman just shrugs and we promise her to keep our eyes open. She doesn't wish to give us the man's name or even a description which makes this seem a bit mysterious. Before she moves to the next wagon to look for her missing Tiefling, we get to know that she's a danoran veteran of Yerasol IV, but doesn't wish to fight in another war.

Damien, the lieutenant, on the other hand, seems much more excited on the prospect of combat. She tries to explain that the Danoran military is the best in all Lanjyr, which is why they kicked the Risuri's sorry asses in the last war. When she goes on to explain that Danor could just invade any country they wanted, we are kind of amused and tell her that the feeble danoran bullets wouldn't do much to a Tyrannosaur's or even Dragon Tyrant's massive hide. Damien goes on to claim that disciplined and structured Danor would surely crush the barbaric, chaotic tribes of Ber which is when we reveal that we two are Berans and neither of us is barbaric. Yet not everyone is able to grasp the difficult clan structures and hierarchies, or even understands what it means when “the hearts of all Berans beat as one” when it comes to foreign interference.

Hector uses this opportunity to muse about the fact that he read of an engagement of the King of “barbaric” Risur and a danoran “princess” in one of his newspapers. “From what I know, it is only the hero who marries the princess.” he jokes “So I guess this Aodhan guy still won in the end.”

(To shamelessly quote Mel Brooks: It's good to be the king. Hector vs. Damien was so much fun. He's a expert prick who loves throwing around classic tropes and basically sees everything through the lens of a narrator.

Also both of us fell for the “romanticized Ber” patriotism of the Fernandez. Carlyle and Auryn sympathize with our neighbor nation, but picking a beran's point of view and befriending the Grientos allowed for a much deeper understanding of their culture. The thing with this cover identity is that it basically became roleplaying a character who is roleplaying another character... )

Our train stops at two smaller stations where we pick up more passengers. Among them is a dwarf juggling dice, a Tiefling with an oversized hat and a crossbow, and an obese human woman with a smaller person who's completely hidden behind layers of veils.

As soon as the train starts moving again, the Tiefling enters the dining car and orders a drink. When his gaze falls upon Amira, he gasps theatrically and immediately tries to hit on her. He introduces himself as Olivert Boone and blatantly ignores that Amira is obviously married to the man who's sitting next to her. When both her rather polite-yet-sassy “Sorry darling, I'm on my honeymoon with my lovely husband over here.” and Hector's really displeased look fail, Senor Fernandez just grabs his wife and lets her sit on his lap while he puts on a disarming grin.
“Bah, you're ruining all the fun!” Boone complains, to which Hector replies “Yep, that's the plan.”. This leaves the Tiefling pissed, but we still manage to find out that he's not the guy “that blonde woman who could be interested in him” was looking for.

(Again, Auryn was baffled by Hector's reaction. She expected a professional cover, sure, but didn't think Carlyle would be able to pull off a stunt like this. Not after his constant “500 years of distance, can't touch this” demeanor)

Shortly after Boone leaves the car, Zorina Marchand comes to inform us that there has been a deadly accident near the snack counter in one of the 2nd class cars. Apparently, a dwarf choked after eating a peanut. We are both horrified and ask whether there is some kind of doctor who could care for the poor guy as he might be still alive. We add that we just saw a woman carrying a doctor's bag with her among the 2nd class passengers, so it could be wise to get her involved.

We claim to “look after our baggage” in the baggage cart (which is obviously just an excuse to look for the dead man – authors need their inspiration) and walk through the other wagons towards the mentioned place. On our way we hear a “Stop that!” from one of the other first class compartments, but don't know who this voice could belong to.

Once we reach the dwarf, Victoria is already examining the lifeless body. She confirms that this man is dead indeed, but he didn't choke on a peanut. It was a chestnut. Before she leaves the scene, Victoria quickly slips a glass dagger and a portrait of the dice juggling dwarf into one of Amira's pockets. We excuse ourselves as we have to take a moment to recover from the shock, return to our compartment and examine both objects. The dagger turns out to be filled with poison and the portrait is indeed a striking image of the juggler. We make a copy of the image, write down a description of the dagger and transfer both to the pirate Burton who's playing cards with said juggling dwarf in the 3rd class. Seems like someone just avoided an assassination.

(Regarding trains and chestnuts: Coincidentally, Mr. Carlyle's player just happened to bring along a box of - very delicious - Toffifee with a train printed on the box' exterior which looked like this: https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/...upon-Gutschein-Bahnticket-ICE-IC-Toffifee.jpg.

We were all having a long laugh and fortunately, no one choked on one of the sweets which are a combination of caramel, nougat, chocolate and, well, a chestnut.)

As we return to the dining car, we see the fat lady again, as well as her veiled companion. We cannot gain more information about this person besides the facts that it is most certainly a woman, has light brown skin and no tail. What's more intriguing and also disturbing is the sight of a golden chain that seems to connect both of them. Amira politely introduces herself to the fat lady and she returns the favor by telling us that she's Elanor Janette, a professional matchmaker. Her client, she explains, is afraid and wishes to travel incognito which is why she cannot tell them more about her.

As soon as Mrs. Janette realizes that Senorita Fernandez is in fact an Eladrin, she asks her about her age (60, she guesses, but she isn't really sure. All she knows is that it isn't too old for her people.) and whether she'd like to find a good spouse. A rare beauty like her would be able to choose among the finest (and wealthiest) gentlemen of all Lanjyr, she promises. Amira politely declines the offer as she's already in a really happy marriage with a more than just “fine” gentleman, but she'd totally take Mrs. Janette's card should her friends be interested. Elanor tries to bait her again by adding that she could find her client a rich danoran businessman who'd surely buy her anything she could wish for, but Amira is still not interested and quickly excuses herself.

Pulling herself together to put up Amira's usual smile, she returns to her dear husband, squeezes his hand tightly and says that they should maybe both return to their compartment as she's really, really tired and needs some rest.

(Oh my gosh. Auryn had a bad feeling about this strange duo from the beginning, but the golden chain and her interest in Amira totally revealed how Elanor's wind blows. At this point she was shaking, barely able to focus her thoughts and all she knew was that she had to find out more about Mrs. Janette's companion. No matter what. As she's not stupid, she knew that she had to discuss any further plans with her partner. But the real question was: Would Carlyle play along?)

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm digging your group's portrayal of Berans. I really loved designing the country, but you add an extra level of charm.

 

[Lylandra]

I really love the concept of Ber!
I tend to have a sweet spot for "monstrous races" and their culture - even if I rarely play a monstrous character - and Ber has such a rich and interesting history, so I can't wait to get there for a longer period.
Our characters both have quite a connection to the Berans as we accompanied Wolmi Heffanita during our first mission and Bronk, the minotaur bartender/tenor was the Docker who introduced Auryn to the movement. Plus they have their seemingly "easy" way to deal with oppression via the Executores. The Grientos and our growing friendship with them are just the icing on the cake. Ber has really earned a special place in our hearts.

 

[Lylandra]

Researching the veiled one

Session 20

(Mr. Carlyle's player and I discussed some possible connections between Nevard's “train” vision and our current mission somewhen between the last and this session. Especially considering the fact that we are taking a train – which usually has a corresponding train yard. Now I don't remember exactly how we got there, but Mr. Carlyle's player and I thought the three women to be connected to the three Srasama aspects and he thought that if Elanor Janette's companion was indeed an Eladrin, there could be a chance that she's Kasvarina, who “tore herself into three” and therefore had no clue when she was abducted by Leone. Because, how many different Eladrin women could be out there? And this would mean that there could be a chance that Leone was about to enter the train as well and the train could be doomed to derail. Turns out we were completely off-track (hehe!) there and we still have no clue what the train vision could possibly mean. Besides the fact that it is likely connected to Srasama.

Now I think I should maybe do a short write-up on our thoughts on the visions some time as many of them are still as cryptic as they were when Nevard shared them with Auryn... could be especially funny for those of you who know more about them.)

Once we get to our compartment, Auryn hastily explains everything she got about Elanor Janette and her veiled companion. Carlyle understands that she's nervous, but would like to think this through with a clear mind. Auryn insists that she needs to know whether this woman is an Eladrin as she can't stand the thought of a sister who might be suffering right before her eyes. This leads to raised eyebrows from Carlyle who is curious whether his partner would only feel the need to help a “distressed damsel” of her own kind and whether the fate of a human or elven woman would be of no concern for her.

She'd totally help and feel sympathy towards other people, Auryn replies, but as a future matriarch and faithful member of her enclave it would be her duty on top of that to help an eladrin in need. After all, women like her are raised to become guardians and role models for her people. She totally understands that they are on a mission and cannot risk to blow their cover, but there has to be something they can do. Carlyle thinks about the whole situation for a moment, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Then he says “I understand. And I wish to help as well. But we need more information.”

Then we go on to discuss various means of gathering more information. We think about asking Malia Baccarin whether a hooded, unidentified person would cause a security problem, but Elanor has surely documents for her companion and bringing along slaves is not forbidden in the train enclaves. Auryn also suggests that she could play hide-and-seek with Taro, let the info slip that the veiled one might be a pirate in disguise and let the boy take a peek under the cloth as she knows that orcs can see quite well in the dark. Still this would require a decent opportunity.

This all in mind, we return to the rest of the train and decide to take a closer look at the dead dwarf before he's carried away at the next stop. Carlyle wishes to soothe his spirit as well, so we head to Malia and say that we are deeply concerned with the safety on the train now that someone died under such tragic circumstances. Malia replies that she's sure this was only an accident, but we explain that we're concerned his lingering spirit might curse this train and also our whole honeymoon. And we really don't wish to start our marriage with bad omens. We say that there is only one way to make sure the malevolent spirit won't haunt any of the passengers: A traditional cleansing ritual at the place where the dwarf died. As Malia Baccarin is pretty superstitious herself, she agrees to let us perform the ritual.

We claim that we first need to perform our rites at the dwarf's body and then look for signs of malevolent intent of the corresponding spirit which Malia agrees to as well. So we actually get our private time with the dead dwarf and find out that he was in quite a good shape before his untimely demise. We go on to perform an actual beran funeral rite (Thanks to Wolmi Heffanita we know how this works) and then move to the snack counter where the guy died.

Once the train stops again, Malia Baccarin declares that this section of the train has to go through technical maintenance and she asks all other passengers to move to other compartments. Then Hector and Amira perform another sending rite which Carlyle totally uses to speak with the dwarf's spirit. The dwarf doesn't seem keen to tell us more about his mission, but Carlyle manages to find out that he was hired by a bookmaker in Nalaam to kill a fellow dwarf named Tantalovich. Seems like this Tantalovich had too much luck in the Casinos. The assassin is angered by his sudden death, but Carlyle convinces him that he's better off dying by accident than being killed by a better competitor. He also gets the impression that Tantalovich might be a luck mage, but he tells neither the spirit, nor his partner of his assumption.

After a while our ritual is finished and Malia Baccarin seems satisfied. We promise that the haunting presence will find peace now and return to our private compartment.

In the evening, we arrive in Cherage, the capital of Danor. We are pretty appalled by the ugly concrete blocks the Danorans call “houses” in this city, but are also fascinated by the blue glowing gas lanterns that are all over the place. Still we don't know whether or not the gas pipelines might pose a security risk. Damata Griento who knows pretty much about architecture and other structures shares our point of view. As we don't know where we'd like to sleep that night, we ask for passes for the rest of the city and pay the appropriate fee. For now, we decide to stick to the lobby of the enclave's “Maison Carlyle” where a lot of the other passengers seem to enjoy their drinks as well.

One by one, all people we'd like to observe take a room in the Maison, so we decide to do so as well. As the Fernandez are enjoying themselves by chatting with random guests, we see that Boone is in the mood for some flirting and even manages to find a nice young woman who accompanies him after sharing a few words and exchanging fiery looks. Hector tries to upset Boone's plans by loudly proclaiming that this cute girl isn't the first woman the Tiefling tried to pick up today, so he might be pretty desperate to get laid. His plan doesn't work as planned though as the woman seems very much interested in the handsome Tiefling and all he earns is Boone's enmity.

(And that's how Boone and Hector slowly but steadily turn into archenemies. As if they were made to hate each other... but seriously, both Hector and Carlyle just loathe pick up artists)

As soon as Boone leaves, we move to our room and take a look at this strange city. To us, it seems almost eerily cold out there. Then we see a familiar sight as the Grientos take a stroll through the neighboring park and it looks like Damata is about to teach his kinds a bit about the local architecture. Soon we realize that trouble might be at hand, as there is also a group of thuggish looking locals hanging around, so we decide to meet up with our friends out there and support them just in case.

Our gut instinct turns out to be correct once again as the Danorans turn out to be a bunch of racist idiots who love insulting people who don't look like them as “foreign barbarians”. Damata doesn't want to get into a fight, so he tries to signal that he doesn't want trouble and retreats without showing signs of actual fear. As we expected, Pabo sees this as another of her dad's obvious failings, gets enraged and charges at the surprised Danorans.

Amira who anticipated such a reaction from the teenage orc intercepts her, grabs her by the arms and says that only an idiot runs into a fight she cannot win. She tells Pabo that she'll surely be a great warrior some day, but for now she's still too weak to be able to fight off superior numbers. And unless she'd wish to risk her future, she should better not play chances with her health or, worse, her life.

(We both knew exactly what Pabo was going to do. And the image of a crazy orc teen running towards a group of thugs was priceless. I really love Pabo, even if she came off as a bit annoying and bratty. But that's how teenage girls are. Dad, you're embarrassing!)

Meanwhile, Hector turns towards the agitated and drunk danoran mob. He explains that there is no sense in trying to be overly defensive as both Grientos and Fernandez are just tourists from Ber who'd like to gaze at the cultural wonders of mighty Cherage. And that neither of them is keen on getting in a fistfight with the locals. So he appeals to the national pride of the certainly progressive and cultivated danoran gentlemen who'd surely rather see foreigners admire their culture than to destroy their image of a modern Danor.

Fortunately, both our actions are enough to convince the mob to retreat. The Grientos are grateful for our intervention and ask us to have dinner with them.

Amira takes the opportunity to address the fact that the name “Carlyle” is rather common in Danor while she's never heard of it in Ber. As she had hoped, Damata responds by sharing a bit of his grievance. He bought shares of the Avery Coast Railroad Company from a Tiefling named Michael Carlyle in Reo Pedresco and thought it'd be a good investment. But when he tried to sell some of them later, the traders didn't accept the deal.

As we know that the real Michael Carlyle is a human who's living in Flint, we offer Damata to take a closer look at his documents. Hector explains that he's quite used to analyze contracts and books as he's managing his publisher, so he'd be happy to help the fellow businessman. We express the fear that this shares could be fake at worst. Damata thanks us for the offer, but says that he'd wish to contact the local branch office of the ACR first.

After our dinner with the Grientos we return to the hotel to continue observation. Carlyle notes that Auryn is pretty good with kids like Pabo and Taro. A compliment she's glad to return. It turns out that both are quite experienced in dealing with children as Carlyle helped to raise generations of young Vantryses and Auryn is used to train and play with her enclave's younglings.

Once we are back at the hotel we witness how Elanor, her veiled companion and a person looking like a bodyguard enter a carriage and drive into the night. We take this opportunity to talk to the concierge who's standing nearby. We ask him about the women's whereabouts under the pretext of knowing “Senorita Janette” from our previous travel. It seems like we are hitting a nerve as soon as we mention the veiled woman as the concierge fears for “the poor girl's fate”. We offer him a few gold pieces for a somewhat extended service as we'd like to know a bit more about the “girl” in question which would require the man to go to the guest registry.

When he returns, we share a leaf of Nicodemus with him and he explains that the woman in question is a 30 years old eladrin named Isobel Traverse. Going by the direction of the carriage, he suspects that Ms. Janette is on her way to an exclusive residential area to maybe find a buyer for Isobel. We play surprised and shocked as slavery of all kind is strictly forbidden in Ber. The concierge goes on to explain that the Traverse are a wealthy danoran family who are offering their daughters as brides to noble families from time to time and receive quite enormous “gifts” in return. He adds that the Traverses are no eladrin, so it is unlikely that these girls are really their daughters.

We thank the man for his time and take a short stroll around the area. Once we are alone, Auryn is genuinely outraged. “She's only a child! How could they get their dirty hands on a child?!” she protests and explains that she wasn't allowed to even set one foot outside of her enclave without being accompanied by a troop of veterans when she was that age.

Carlyle sighs and then carefully states the thought that there might be a “fallen enclave” where daughters might be sold for money or power and that the Traverses might have gotten Isobel from such an arrangement. Auryn replies that this is impossible as only the mad kings would be crazy enough to actually do such depraved things and they all surely died in the aftermath of the Malice. He then suspects that the Traverses might be breeding eladrin children, but Auryn objects again as she explains that eladrin cannot breed with other humanoid species and that no sane eladrin would voluntarily participate in such a kind of breeding program.

(Seems like another archenemy appeared on the horizon. Come what may, but the Traverses have to be punished for what they did and still do and their eladrin victims need to be freed. The idea, even the possibility of an “enterprise” making money by breeding and selling members of her people disturbed Auryn to the core. Compared to this, even a depraved individual like Fordren was almost a saint.

Carlyle on the other hand understood the eladrin's desperate situation for the first time as he didn't know about their inability to found families with other races. Also, he tried to lighten up her mood a bit by joking that maybe a deva might be sufficient for having children with an eladrin. Now who's teasing who again?)

We return from our stroll to so a bit smalltalk with the nice concierge again. After a while, Hector asks the man to maybe take care of his wife for a few minutes as he left something important in our room and doesn't wish to get his dearest Amira bored by waiting all alone. He uses this pretense to sneak to the room of Elanor Janette (which is currently unoccupied as she left the hotel not so long ago), picks the lock of her door and enters the room. There he searches for more clues about Isobel and finds a purchase contract for the young eladrin, some drugs that smell much like Isobel had smelled when they met her in the dining car and a few hairs that do not belong to Elanor. He decides to take the hairs and leave the rest untouched.

 

[Lylandra]

A mysterious man called Maple

When Hector returns, we ask the concierge for a fancy bar and he suggests the “L'Wab du Foone” which is really popular with the other travelers. We thank him for the tip and prepare to throw ourselves into the nightlife of Cherage when we suddenly see Bree Kaldeckis who leaves the hotel and makes a beeline to the checkpoint or the enclave. Even more interesting is the fact that one of the guards seems to perform a short salute for the woman who simply nods in response. As this is mysterious enough for our taste, we decide to follow her for a while to see what she's up to.

We manage to avoid being seen by Bree or the patrols who frequent the inner city of Cherage and get the impression that the capital of Danor is quite the high security area. We also stealthily pass Boone who's busy making out with the girl from the hotel. Bree seems to ignore the tiefling, even if we get the impression that Boone is eyeing her closely while kissing. Ugh.

She then enters a carriage and drives to a majestic building in a fancy park where she changes from a steam-driven vehicle to a horse-draw carriage. After a while we realize that Bree is about to enter the seat of government which is also the residence of the sovereign. As we don't wish to get caught here, we decide to leave the place carefully. Seems like Bree has connections to the highest political circles of Danor. So we guess that she might be a danoran agent who might even be looking for the Obs herself. (she was looking for a Tiefling which just might have been Bergeron after all)

On our way back to the hotel, we decide to check up on Boone, but it seems like he and his girlfriend left the place where they were standing before. Thanks to Carlyle's fine sense of smell, we are able to trace the tracks of the pair to a shady alley. There we find what's left of the girl as she's lying dead on the ground and missing her hair, her blood and her inner organs. Needless to say that we are both horrified by this sight. From what we know about other murder cases in Flint, we guess that this could have been some kind of occult ritual and Calyle guesses from the fading smell of blood that the murderer – most likely Boone – might just have drunk the woman's blood. Seems like we just found Danor's very own kind of Ragman. Unfortunately, we have no idea on how to deal with him right now, especially without putting our covers at risk.

(First Elanor Janette turns out to be a slave trader and now Boone could very likely be a crazy serial killer. Day just got worse. Putting up a smile in front of two of the most despicable people we've ever met will be no easy task. We even discussed the possibility that the Obs knew that we'd be following them which is why they intentionally placed such vile creatures on the passenger list...)

We return to L'Wab du Foone feeling really uncomfortable about the whole murder case. There we find only Tantalovich who's playing dice and otherwise enjoying his evening. As we see that Burton is busy playing with the dwarf, we assume that there's little we can do to help him and decide to enter the nightlife of Cherage. We visit the “Pink Flamingo” (he, he) and the “Shy Maiden” clubs before returning to the enclave.

On our way back, we cross a bridge over the railway when suddenly a strange figure comes running right towards us. The person turns out to be a man who seems freshly shaven, is dripping wet, smelling like a perfume store accident and wearing nothing but an old coat. On top of that, he has white hair but looks still strangely young. Once he reaches us, he grins mischievously, wishes us a good evening and introduces himself as “Mr. Maple”. We are a bit perplexed but return the greeting before explaining that we are Senor and Senorita Fernandez and travelers from Ber. A mere second later we hear security personnel yelling “There he is! Get the guy!” which causes Mr. Maple to perform a gallant bow in front of us before jumping straight down the bridge, and then running down the rails into the dark.

When the security arrives, we claim that this all was way too confusing and happened too fast to react. Still we take the opportunity to ask who this strange guy might have been and what he did to cause such a ruckus. After all, he just seemed like a eccentric but polite (and rather good-looking!) young man. They explain that we'd better ask the hotel staff as they were just called to get the semi-naked, wet fugitive.

“Now that was... impressive” Auryn said, followed by a standard-Carlyle-eyeroll. “You realized that he didn't wear pants? Or... just anything besides this dirty old coat?” “Well, yes. That was strange indeed. Still quite the handsome guy. And he seemed to be well-mannered as well. Besides the not-wearing-pants part, of course.”

(To Auryn's defense, Tizbiz described Mr. Maple to be looking like one of these greek god statues, but with white hair and a well-groomed, short beard and wearing only a coat. Now why do we meet a guy like *that* when we are officially on our honeymoon? Life's not fair )

We return to Maison Carlyle and ask about the man who just crossed paths with us. The nervous and still agitated receptionist is eager to tell us what happened when we were away: A man, who called himself Mr. Maple and who was fully dressed back then came in here to ask for a reservation for the Mayor's suite. When she told him that there was no such reservation, he excused himself and left the building. Some time later, she saw the very same man running out of the hotel and this time he was wearing only his coat and was also dripping wet. It turned out that he must have entered the Mayor's suite somehow, took a bath, used up all the bath salts in the process and ran off afterward.

Meanwhile, Hector Fernandez takes out his notebook and starts writing down notes. He says this is really a fascinating and unique story and asks whether we may be allowed to take a peek at the Mayor's suite as he'd love to make this “Runaway” a character in his next novel. As we are esteemed guests of the hotel, the receptionist calls for a maid to show us the “crime scene”.

In the Mayor's suite we find Mr. Maple's missing clothes (pants and a shirt), a small flood on the floor and some drops of blood next to a freshly used razor. Also, the whole room is smelling like a perfume store as “someone” used up all available bath salts to make one strong potpourri. (And yep, Carlyle had to turn off his scent ability or he would have gone insane...). We stealthily take some of the blood for further examination and Hector takes his notes quite hastily. “Fascinating...” he says “it just seems like someone has taken a bath who doesn't know how to bathe or how to correctly use a razor. And he somehow left his pants on the floor. Poor soul.”

We chat a bit with both the maid and the receptionist afterward and tell them about our encounter with “Mr. Maple” as both are a bit afraid that this guy could be a sexual predator. We explain that while he surely looked eccentric – wet, almost nude and white-haired despite being young – we got the impression that he was actually quite a nice and polite fellow who surely wouldn't harm a fly.

Just as we are about to call it a day and return to our room, we see another person arriving at the Maison. From his looks, we assume that the man could be a Risuri who could be carrying valuable items (papers, jewelry, money, shares, weapons...) in the case he chained himself to. Then, one after another, Bree and the very drunk juggling dwarf, who's conveniently addressed as “Tantalovich” by his new (and also really drunk) pirate friend, return as well. When no one else is around, we take the opportunity to hand or blood sample of what we assume to be Mr. Maple's blood to Victoria for magical examination. (Yeah, she has a focus...)

The hour is getting late and so we try to get some sleep. Unfortunately, Auryn has a hard time getting sleep at all as she's haunted by chaotic nightmares of Pirates, a dead Zahir, Fordren and a murderous Boone who all seem to be chasing her. Carlyle is better off than his partner as he has the aforementioned Ring of Sustenance and uses his spare time to write down notes and think about possible connections of our fellow passengers.

The next morning, Auryn/Amira is looking pretty fatigued while Carlyle/Hector seems to be brim-full of energy. Fortunately, the other passengers see this discrepancy only as a sign of Senor Fernandez' superior virility.

While we take a short breakfast in the Maison restaurant, we see that Bree Kaldeckis and the mysterious Risuri exchange a few words, but we are not close enough to understand them. Before we depart, Victoria/Margit informs us that our mysterious Mr. Maple goes by the name of Andrei von Recklinghausen and, as we thought, he cut himself while trying to shave. What makes this guy even more mysterious is the fact that our fellow agent wasn't able to determine Mr. Maple's race.

“What is the deal with you and these Recklinghausens?” Carlyle asks, as Auryn seems to be attracted by them like a magnet. Anyway, after Margit's reveal we just had to know more about the guy.

We return to the train and all of a sudden the train's departure is being... delayed? We ask about the reason for the scheduled ten minute delay and are being old that there are two more passengers who'd like to board the train, so we'll have to wait for them. Looking through the 1st and 2nd class cars, we see that our usual suspect, Rock Rackus, is already on board, so we are quite curious to know who might be missing.

After a short while, we see a strange duo enter the train who are escorted there by a good amount of guards. We cannot point our fingers on who the young tiefling and his... elvish looking companion might be, but Elanor Janette comments on “the really astonishing match” between Luc Jierre, nephew of the Sovereign and Ottavia Sacredotte, an oracle of the Clergy. We remember Luc to be the brother of Lya Jierre, our king's betrothed, and it seems like this journey just got even more interesting.

(Tizbiz called Luc – which we think is pronounced like in Jean-Luc Picard – by the name of Luke for all of adventure 4. Which is why we instantly saw this as the Star Wars reference it is meant to be: Han, Lya/Leia and Luc/Luke. We only learned that he was meant to be a “Luc” when we saw the mission folio for adventure 5)

 

[RangerWickett]

In America, Luc and Luke sound the same.

And Mr. Mapple's illo is based on a guy who used to post on EN World. He'd probably laugh his head off to hear himself described as a Greek god.