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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7348986" data-attributes="member: 6816692">Free IsobelAfter our short talk, we are the last ones to return to the train. Just as we are about to re-enter through the wagon's door, we see a man who's looking just like Mr. Mapple, leaning out of one of the baggage cars. He waves with a crowbar and then complains that all this commotion just disturbed his afternoon nap. Seems like we got a stowaway aboard the train.We arrive in Orithea during the late afternoon. Again, we try to focus on our ever increasing bunch of persons of interest and observe them cautiously while we leave the train. This time, we decide to follow Elanor Janette and Isobel Traverse. It turns out that she's headed for the night market where she's entering an alchemist shop to buy material components and potions. From what Mr. Carlyle can see these components can be used to enchant or drug a person, so we guess that she's using them on Isobel. We talk about the idea to maybe use this shady area to disguise ourselves and simply overwhelm Elanor with sheer force. However, things turn way more interesting when the fat lady returns from the shop. Before we can decide on whether or not to go after Elanor, a fully dressed Mr. Mapple enters the scene, jumps towards Isobel and lifts her veils. He gallantly bows before the young eladrin, hands her a rose and asks her to come with him. When Elanor Janette tries to get her material components to maybe cast a spell, he grabs her by the wrist and holds her without effort. Only when Mrs. Janette  starts screaming for the authorities, he gives heel and vanishes by climbing a house and jumping from roof to roof. Now this sudden development just plays into our cards as we could now free Elanor and put the blame on Mr. Mapple, who had just shown his interest in the girl. As we feel quite sympathetic for the guy, we decide to get his okay on this plan first as he should know that he might face persecution afterward. We return to the hotel to see if our other potential targets are still around, but it turns out that they already left for dinner elsewhere. We only manage to find Rock Rackus who's playing cards with Tantalovich and the pirate. As Burton is surely able to manage one drunken dwarf, we decide to check up on Mr. Mapple who we assume to be in one of the baggage cars. So we tell the train security that we forgot Senor Fernandez' favorite walking cane in one of our suitcases and head to the baggage area. We don't find him though, as his presumed sleeping place – a big chest filled with clothes – is uninhabited. When we are about to return to the hotel, we see a familiar figure running away from security personnel and again, Mr. Carlyle smells the faint trace of bath salts nearby. So we go to the hotel and ask the staff what happened and whether we are being in danger. They explain that someone who matches the description of Mr. Mapple has broken into the room of a certain Mrs. Janette and stolen some valuables. We tell them that we've seen this man before and describe him as a pretty harmless lunatic who must be suffering from a severe case of amnesia or something like that. So we sneak back to the train and find Mr. Mapple, all wet, resting in his chest. We cautiously wish him a good evening and tell him that we are not interested in calling the security. Instead, we tell him about our plan to rescue a mutual friend who goes by the name of Isobel. Mapple instantly agrees to team up with us as he cannot just let the fat turkey abuse the nice young maiden who clearly deserves to be free. He seems a bit naïve though as he doesn't know what to do with the money and checks he has stolen from Elanor. We explain that these “shinies” can be used to buy food and clothes. He thanks us for this insight and in return talks about his past in what we assume to be a lab. He says that his father Wolfgang had always been good to him, but then he left all of a sudden and had him sleep for a very long time. When he woke up again, there were some evil people who tried to harm him, so he fought them and escaped. All in all, we get that despite his naivety, he has a strong and very pure sense of justice. This all leaves Auryn a bit conflicted, as she felt a certain attraction to Mr. Mapple (especially after he cared so much for Isobel), as well as for his “father”. “He's a child...” Carlyle mutters in a piqued voice. “Besides, that revelation should end the whole 'my idealistic hero' image of your beloved Dr. von Recklinghausen. Maybe he's more of a mad scientist after all.”(Carlyle is giving Auryn eyerolls whenever she appears to be smitten by someone. Which doesn't happen that often considering the fact that she's a young woman who's basically going through her people's second adolescence with the Blooming. Evil tongues could muse that's because he's somehow jealous to lose her attention to someone else, but he's always trying to hold her at a certain distance, so yeah. That guy is a box full of riddles. Besides... I'm now not so sure whether the Doc is a reference to Dr. Frankenstein (Frankenstein is the name of a nearby castle, just like Recklinghausen is a city in our neighbor state) or to the Dr. von Recklinghausen father-son-duo...)Mr. Carlyle lends Mr. Mapple's crowbar and we return to our hotel room. As Elanor Janette made sure that there are security staff guarding her room, Carlyle turns invisible and climbs through our window, across the wall to Elanor's window. He casts a silence, then uses a dimensional attack with the crowbar on the relaxing woman's head and knocks her our without too much effort. Then he signals scared Isobel to calm down as he breaks her golden chains with the crowbar. He takes Elanor's handbag as “loot” and asks Isobel to step into his bag of holding and hold her breath. He then dimension doors to a nearby alley and smashes the window with a thrown stone which alarms the guards. This is the signal for Auryn who's waiting invisibly on top of the hotel's roof. She uses a mirror to give Mr. Maple, who's standing in front of another alley, a short signal to start his performance. Maple laughs loudly, tosses an object looking like a veiled person on his shoulders and runs off into the night. As Maple is a damn fast runner, the guards who immediately start following him have no chance to catch up. Carlyle lets Isobel out of his bag as soon as he's sure that no one is watching. He promises her to bring her to a safe space and asks her to come with him. He also explains that he's a friend of the white-haired gentleman called Mr. Mapple who risked much to help her. Then the two sneak to the harbor to meet up with one of our contacts who's responsible for the emergency evacuation plan. He asks the man to take good care of both our rescued “VIP” and the confiscated handbag (which contains money, her documents and all of Elanor's client files) and to get both to a place where they can't be scryed. Then he hands him a note with the same order just in case. Before Carlyle returns to the hotel room, Auryn receives a sending from none other than Lauryn Cyneburg. She says that they successfully received “the package” and brought her to the RHC's antimagic cell where she will be kept safe as a guest until our group's return. Auryn thanks her in response and says that the woman, Isobel, shall be treated with utmost care as she might be traumatized. She then adds that the mission is going well so far and they will be able to continue without delay. (When Carlyle asked to have Isobel be warded off from scrying, he honestly thought about something mundane like a lead-infused blanket. Tizbiz explained that the foreign affairs team heard the rumors about Auryn and Carlyle being some kind of super-special agents for the king from Lauryn, who got it from Price-Hill, who still doesn't know that this is only about the Vekeshi. Which is why they went to great lengths to care for Isobel's safety with all available means, including a personal teleportation to Flint. Thanks, Aodhan!)  When Carlyle returns through the window to our hotel room, he finds a very relieved looking Auryn who's smiling from cheek to cheek. She tells her partner of Lauryn's sending and says that she's overjoyed to hear that Isobel is finally safe from her slaver. Then she almost rushes towards him to give him a long hug and to thank him for his effort despite the risk. For once he doesn't seem to try to get rid of Auryn's affection and simply replies that he understands both her relief and her satisfaction as he, too, feels like he's done the right thing. Even if he doesn't understand why he would happen to care that much for Isobel's fate. Auryn then says that in her eyes, he acted just like a more than esteemed eladrin husband would have acted, even if they are not married. “Oh, but right now, we are married people.” he responds, which earns him a heartfelt laugh in return. “Yeah right, we, Amiranya and Hector Ignacio Fernandez, are indeed married.”. She then goes on and says that over all that happened during the last few months, he has indeed earned a special place in her heart and grown to like him as both a person and friend. He returns the compliment and says that he kind of feels the same for her.(So yeah, she kind of expected Mr. rules-are-rules Carlyle to at least protest against her initial request to rescue Isobel because it could totally endanger their mission and they were RHC agents first and foremost. She thought they'd have a struggle over the issue and in the end he wouldn't let her do it alone because that would be even more dangerous. But he was just like “okay, let's help her, I'm sure we can succeed if we work out a plan together” and then went on to take the majority of the risks upon himself. And that really impressed Auryn. After all that happened during the Vekshi episode, she kind of regained her full trust in him, even if she wasn't really sure if she could separate all of her own feelings from those of Amiranya. Regarding the marriage... you really don't want to dig any deeper, Mr. Carlyle.)We then move to peek through our window and see Bree Kaldeckis, the Risuri and finally Luc Jierre and Ottavia Sacredotte return to the hotel in three different carriages. We also hear that someone enters Elanor Janette's room, gets someone else for help and then carries the unconscious woman downstairs. So we decide to go downstairs again “to see what this ruckus is all about”. We meet the lordly pair on the stairs when they walk towards their presumed suite. Luc is carrying a large bag he's holding tightly while Ottavia seems to be supporting him on their ascend. We arrive in the lobby and see Elanor Janette lying on a sofa while none else but Victoria Royceton is looking after her. She mutters that this women will be alright and just suffers from a concussive trauma to her cranium. As soon as she sees us she excuses herself as she needs to go to the bathroom to fetch some cold wrappings. We meet up with her and explain what just happened to Mrs. Janette. Margit/Victoria explains that she tried to follow the “high-ranks” in a carriage, but was cut off when suddenly crates fell down right before her horses. We assume that someone might have spotted her and suggest that she might want to take it a little easier the next day unless she wants to cause any more suspicion. She adds that she noticed Luc's bag as well, especially as he's been acting pretty paranoid as soon as he left the hotel. (Delft would have never forgiven us if his dearest Margit sacrificed herself for the mission. Even if she could have just provided a perfect cover for the Fernandez and Pirate Burton.)   Regarding Elanor Janette, we ask Margit to give the surely stressed, hurt and traumatized Lady some powerful tranquilizers so she can sleep more easily and forget the trauma of the burglary and the crowbar attack. So she takes her strongest drugs and sends Elanor to the realms of... well, not the Dreaming, but rather deep slumber. Oh and Margit shows some distinct interest in Mr. Mapple/ Andrei von Recklinghausen, even if we get the impression that she'd really love to examine him and his strange “race”.</blockquote>

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