How our heroes find each other

After leaving Haji and Urasim (forgive spelling?) in Har’Akir, Dennis, Rusty and the Captain sailed the ship to a dig site where we were told we could find Frenden Brasier. The Captain and Rusty stayed aboard to protect the ship, while Dennis went into the dig to find Frenden.

Inside the dig, Dennis found a human with a prosthetic limb, a small humanoid frog, and a really big frog that tried to eat him (Dennis does look a bit like a large insect). The big frog missed. The small frog turned around a raised a morning star to brain Dennis, to which he replied “You hit me with that pointy stick and I’ll shove it up your frogs butt”. The human turned around - surprise! It was Esmerelda all along! She introduced her assistant, Louie, and his steed, Raymond.

Then she told a story about a train that had thundered through Mordentshire, crushing several peasants. She and Louie jumped aboard, and it took them out of the domain of Mordent and into the Mists. The train turned out to be a traveling domain called “Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail”. The story, as best Dennis can recall, went like this:

Cyre 1313

The disaster known as the Mourning numbers among the greatest tragedies to befall the world of Ebberon - a mysterious calamity that killed nearly everyone in the land of Cyre. In the nation’s capital of Metrol, some citizens foresaw the coming devastation and sought to escape upon the lightning rails, elemental-powered engines capable of pulling trains of passenger carriages. As scared innocents packed Metrol’s last lightning rail, known as Cyre 1313, the evacuation was delayed at the demand of a late-arriving VIP. Hundreds were forced from passenger carriages to admit and maintain the secrecy of this last passenger and their retinue. When the lightning rail did finally depart, it was too late. The disaster of the Mourning overtook the train and its hundreds of escapees. But even as it did, the Mists claimed Cyre 1313 and all aboard it. Now, the last lightning rail from Metrol hurtles through the Mists as a traveling domain. Those on board fear the disaster pursuing them, the mysterious passenger seated in the train’s foremost carriage, and the necrotic energy now infusing the engine’s elemental spirit. Yet none of the passengers realize their endless escape is pointless, as Cyre 131 carries only the dead.

Esmerelda’s adventures

Trying to stop the train thundering through Mordentshire, Esmerelda and Louie found themselves aboard Cyre 1313, and were taken into the Mists. They travelled aboard until one of the passengers attempted to steal Esmerelda’s prosthetic leg. In the ensuing scuffle, one of their assailants fell and struck their head, dying. Apparently undead escapees from massive war crimes frown upon accidental manslaughter, and Esmerelda and Louie were thrown from the train into the Mists. They found themselves in Har’Akir, much to Louie’s disgust. The sands are so dry, they’re scratchy and get everywhere. Esmerelda’s research indicated that there existed a magic item called a Mytholabe that could call Cyre 1313, and that led them to the archaeological dig site where we met them. They had a large boulder encrusted around some sort of device that they believed was a Mytholabe.

The Mytholabe

We hauled the rock back to the ship, and Rusty slowly dissolved the it from around a metal device. Once uncovered, Rusty, Louie and Esmerelda were in the cabin inspecting it when it activated and attempted to kill us all! The ensuing fight was legendary! Well, Esmerelda got the tar kicked out of her, but Louie and Rusty got through it largely unscathed. Once its defenses were overcome, it did in fact work as expected.

Catching a train

Everyone remained on the ship except Dennis, the fastest among us. The ship was put back into its bottle. When Cyre 1313 arrived, Dennis flew aboard, and found himself between 2 carriages, as it faded back into the Mists. The forward carriage’s door was locked and looked to be unlockable with some sort of card. We reasoned that we needed a ticket to open it. The doors to the aft carriage were open a crack, and Dennis got inside to find a cabin filled with fungus, spores and ooze. In the far corner was a bright blue ooze. Hiding behind some crates, he used Thieves Cant to sign to the people aboard the ship that Louie should come out. Nobody aboard the ship understands Thieves Cant, so they just stared blankly at him until Louie got bored and said he was going out there.

Ethan’s Lament

Emerging into a carriage filled with poisonous fungal spores, Ethan was horrified to discover that the party members exposed were:

  1. Dennis, who does not breathe, and
  2. Louie, who is immune to poison.

Exploring the Train

As we explored, we found a plethora of dead bodies hidden in the overhead compartments of the carriage. Their presence was revealed by blood dripping from the ceiling. How they got there is a mystery, as the roof of the carriage is 30’ up, but Dennis was able to see that they had all been stripped of belongings. Below them was a chest, above which, scrawled in blood, were the words “Beware the Mimic”. Nobody was fooled that the chest was a mimic, but we reasoned there might be a mimic somewhere else in the carriage. When we got the chest open, it was empty, but throwing a coin in (we suspected the mimic might be pretending to be the inside of the chest) we heard a hollow thud. Levering up the false bottom, we found:

  • 8 Superior Healing Potions
  • 2000 Dragons
  • Scroll of Dispel Magic
  • 2 Watches (1 Gold, 1 Platinum)
  • Jewelry

There may be other stuff as Ethan decides in the future.

Ethan’s Second Lament

Ethan could not remember the currency of Eberron, and so asked Scott. Scott vaguely remembered Dragons, so that is what the coins became. I looked it up - in Eberron, Copper Pieces are “Crowns”, Silver Pieces are “Sovereigns”, Gold Pieces are “Galifar”, and Platinum Pieces are “Dragons”. Heh heh.

Death on the Express

Now we set to investigate the blue ooze, which we had avoided until now. Louie picked up a can from one of the crates and prepared to throw it, to see what happened. As he did, more blood dripped from the ceiling directly onto his hand, and he found his hand glued to the can. We looked up and saw a huge blood ooze on the ceiling above us. Battle began!

Dennis flew up there and struck the ooze, stunning it - but another ooze came out of the first one. So Dennis hit and stunned that one. A third ooze came out of that one. Dennis returned to the first ooze and hit it, and nothing came out. Louie tore the can from his hand, and cast Moonbeam to strike the two stunned oozes. The blue ooze retreated inside a crate and sparked the spores alight, which sent coldfire roaring through the entire cabin. The oozes were immune, but Louie wasn’t. Dennis dodged. Ethan was pissed. He really hates Evasion.

The third ooze hit Louie, took damage from his poisoned shield, and spawned another ooze. That ooze hit Louie, took damage from his shield, and spawned another ooze. That ooze struck Louie, took damage from his shield, and died.

We learned to focus fire on the oozes that had already spawned before moving on, but the field was flooded with oozes - the blue ooze kept firing Lesser Restoration to take the conditions off the stunned and paralyzed oozes (Dennis has a paralysis poison). Eventually we moved the Moonbeam onto the blue ooze, and it spawned a Coldfire Ooze. They do ridiculous damage. At some point we released Raymond from the ship bottle to help. He did awesome! But died. Dennis had to drink one of the Superior healing potions. Louie had to drink two! Eventually we killed the last ooze, and retrieved a ticket from the blue ooze’s corpse.

Then we realized we were being watched. Standing at the door was someone holding a bunch of treasure, who retreated into the forward carriage, closing the door behind them. We’re pretty sure it was the killer who had stashed all those bodies, returning to put his stuff in the chest.

End scene