B.T.V. -- Session 16 Epilogue: Battle of the Ghost Line

“This is most disturbing,” Lyra mentioned to Selador, Finndo and Asher as they stood in the rear carriage of The Running Bird locacobra, the conductor having returned to the first two “elite” carriages, leaving them in third class.

The Stig sergeant, making a brief farewell, says she is going forward to the elite carriages to investigate further, while the three Easterners must stay in third class. After Asher makes an observation, Finndo comments, “You reveal more of yourself. In a realm gone by I would become highly suspicious as to who you really are.”

“Fortunately, we are not in that realm,” Asher replies, earning a sour look from Finndo.

The door then opens, and a second conductor enters. “Are you all well in here?” he asks, surveying the heavily-armed trio.

“We are,” Selador answers.

The conductor, looking out the back door of the carriage, says, “It’s all clear. We’re trying to turn the ’cobra around.”

“Is the Empress on the locacobra?” Selador inquires.

“I wouldn’t have any way of knowing,” the conductor replies, an answer that Asher found odd. “You’d have to ask one of the Phoenix guards.”

“What Phoenix guards?” Asher thought to himself. As the conductor returns to the forward carriages, Asher notes a small bloodstain on the back of the official’s coat, and leaps to a conclusion. He relates his concern, that the first conductor has been replaced by a pretender who has taken his uniform, to his companions. They take a few moments to consider bringing in additional allies, such as the Tarar Staffy, or the Stig Major Anonarize Itterari.

Selador reaches out psychically, but not to either of these two suggestions. Instead, he attempts to contact Shadowjack, but his initial attempt fails, and he turns to his construct, the Ziggurat, which yields results, though with more effort. He sees in his mind a stepped pyramid cloaked in darkness and shadow, and a shadowy figure not far ahead. He understands the pyramid represents his Ziggurat as manifested in this place of Shadow. Approaching, he realizes this is a Verdosau, but one more shadowy than the one he had already encountered in Adhrilanka.

“A Verdosau,” Selador observes. “A human,” comes the reply. The Verdosau appears to have some sort of metallic familiar hanging over its shoulder, making a snapping noise from time to time, as if of jaws clicking shut.

“I have come from Adhrilanka,” Selador comments,

“I do not know this name,” the Verdosau answers. “Why are you here?”

“I am seeking the Jack of Shadows.”

“Ah. I know him. He is a pest.” Pointing to the front corner of the pyramid, he adds, “He’ll be trying to break in there.”

They walk toward the Ziggurat and reach the front corner, wreathed in shadows. Abruptly, the Verdosaw holds up an arm to bar the Law Lord’s further progress. Jack exudes from a Shadow.

“Ah. Selador of Law,” Jack says in way of greeting.

“Ah. Instructor Jack.” But then Selador notes a difference in this Jack’s voice.

“I’ve just been attempting to enter this structure.”

“A curiousity,” Selador allows. “You will find it is solid.”

He comprehends that this is Shadowjack as he would have appeared in the Second Realm, when he was more inclined to be a caster, not the one who came to him in Adhrilanka to offer him instruction in certain matters of Shadow.

“Forgive me for having my wand to hand,” Jack apologizes. “It is useful as a tool.”

“I had not calculated this circumstance, that I would find a Shadowjack of another time,” Selador admitted. He tells this Jack of the coming battle of the locacobras, and asks if he might wish to participate.

“You are familiar with Adhrilanka?” the Law Lord asks.

“Yes. The subtlety of my intonations might escape you. They sometimes escape those who are more literal-minded. I speak of the invisible stalker who came with you.” Selador realizes that the Verdosau who came with him is no longer visible. Jack seems to turn sideways into a shadow, and disappears, just before an eruption of metallic gunfire.

“I missed him,” the Verdosau, who returns to visibility, laments. “How did he know?”

From above, Jack’s voice stated, “I’m afraid, Verdosau, you’ve had your chance.”

“You seemed to somehow know I was there,” the Verdosau complained.

“I will be more aware, now,” Jack warns, then turns his attention back to Selador.

“If I could help you, it would be indirectly. But perhaps this one can return with you.”

“One would disagree,” the Law Lord replied. “This one is given to the hunt. It would be chaotic to simply drop him in it.”

“There is a value to chaos, but you must still learn it,” Jack observed wryly.

Selador’s mind returns to the carriage, and then he reached out to Major Itterari, who answers. “Who is there?”

“Selador of Law. I am the courter of…well, you know me.”

“I am aware of you,” the Major answered drily, and rather dismissively.

Selador relates the current situation, with he and his friends on The Running Bird and the Empress, potentially, on the Emperor’s Progress ’cobra nearby, and both in peril. He also tells her of a fear raised by Asher, that Lyra might by now have been taken prisoner by the false conductor and his accomplices aboard The Running Bird. He also mentions that he has hear the name “Uilverforce” being used in relation to the Emperor’s Progress, and the Major knows this name.

“Hush yourself, Selador,” the Major ordered, and the Law Lord realized that she was making a second psychic contact, and while he continues to hear her, he does not hear the words of the second contact, who she addresses as “Major General.”

The Major confirms that the Empress was indeed travelling on the Emperor’s Progress, in disguise with but a single lady in waiting, making her way to Karrion to settle some sort of trade dispute. The Major breaks contact with Selador and, moments later, after what had to be a teleport, she walks in the back door of the third class carriage. As Selador and Finndo continue to describe the situation to her, Asher breaks in to note that, in order, they had been approached by someone who was presumably the real conductor, then Lyra went forward, and then the false conductor made his visit, and that Asher noticed the blood stain on his back as he left the carriage.

“You wish made clear that you were the one who made these observations?” the Major says archly. Asher reminds himself that, no matter his new garb or weapons, he was still just an Easterner to the Major.

“I only wanted to make clear precisely how events progressed,” Asher replies, unable to keep a certain chill from his voice. The Major looks to Finndo, who nods in affirmation, seeming to satisfy her but leaving Asher wondering what discourse has previously occurred between the two.

The Running Bird then ponderously turns around, and they see the Emperor’s Progress now outside the back door of their carriage, several figures outlined atop its masterhead. Asher also notes a ghostlight, straight and true, above both locacobras, presumably providing the motive power to each.

“We need to determine Lyra’s condition,” the Major states. “I will see if I can reach her.”

Moments later, she makes psychic contact with the Sergeant, who is bound and gagged, along with The Running Bird’s conductor. They are in a first class carriage. Finndo, as they consider possible actions to take, notes he is a defensive specialist, and not at skilled at making frontal assaults. He laments the absence of his brother Bleys, who is more inclined to such. “If only we had the Splinters to make this a reality.”

The Major then reports Lyra and the conductor have been teleported to The Emperor’s Progress. There must be a sorcerer involved.”

“Then it is to the other locacobra,” Selador declared.

Before that, though, the Major speaks of Uilverforce, a Jhereg lord from Karrion who, has in the space of a year, accomplished an astonishing amount in that city, and then most recently had moved to Adhrilanka. The first priority, she states emphatically, must be ensuring the welfare of the Empress.

“I could attempt to bring the Empress to us,” Selador proposed. “It is not a common magic I use.”

The Major points out that the Empress has, from birth, many magical protections against abductions from her birth. Her connection to the orb would make matters difficult.

“We are in luck,” she adds. “The fools have put them together,” meaning Lyra, the conductor and the Empress.

“I can open a link to Lyra and we can all go,” Selador added.

Meanwhile, The Running Bird starts to slowly build up speed as it headed back to Adhrilanka, followed closely by the Emperor’s Progress. Selador has begun the process of opening a portal, and sees what appears to be a salon before him, with the Empress tied to a chair and Lyra and the conductor lying on the floor, their hands and feet bound. All were gagged. Selador crosses and, hurrying to Lyra, removes her gag, and she coughs out bits of lint from the cloth. “What are you doing here?” she demands finally. “What if they catch you?”

Selador, smitten, replies, “You are exquisite even under the direst of circumstances.”

The Running Bird, in the meantime, has come to a halt, and swung about 90 degrees to face away from the ghost line it had been running on. The Major said she knew of no alternative line in the area, though one is obviously there, though instead of the pure aqua of ghostlight, this one was black with shots of aqua running through it. Asher is intrigued. The regular ghost line was processed ghostlight, unsuitable for powering his Emitter, but this one might be different. He exited the back of the carriage and climbed a latter to the roof. Seeing two Jhereg sentries further along the train, also on the roof, he clambered up and over onto his stomach, and then made an effort to steal the line’s ghostlight to charge his cartridges.

The first crumpled under the strain, but Asher could see that at least the new ghostlight was running to the cartridge, and he tried twice more, filling two more cartridges. While had had more that were empty, he didn’t want to risk their destruction. And there was the small matter of a crossbow bolt somehow piercing his calf, causing a grievous wound despite his prone position, fired by one of the Jhereg ahead, and Asher had other matters to concern him.

He returns fire, his charge blasting through the lower leg of the crossbowman, who fell to the side of the carriage but not off. His second charge winged the second Jhereg, and then he fired again, striking this sentry in the neck, causing another substantial wound, but both the sentinels still live.

Selador, on the Emperor’s Progress, reaches out to Finndo and invites him to cross a portal to him, then returns to Lyra, as Finndo hurries to the Empress’s side. Finndo inquires as to removing a blindfold from the Empress’s eyes, but she demurs.

“My blindfold is my own,” she states. “Due to my connection to the Orb, I can see things in different ways. If you would free me, good sir?”

Finndo does so, and Selador then seeks out Asher. His comrade’s Ziggurat form appears odd to the Law Lord, wrapped in layers and dominated by the colour green, and not of Law. Asher, in turn, sees a grid form before him, which rises slowly up, like a portcullis, and Selador, seeing him wounded, extends two hands to draw him inside the portal to safety. Spotting Asher’s wound, Selador drapes his comrade across his shoulders and climbs downstairs to exit the portal. Along the way, Asher sees what appears to be an alternative exit wrapped in a serpentine swirl of black and white, before they emerge into the regal carriage. Selador lies Asher on a carpeted floor, then rushed back to Lyra.

The Empress, meanwhile, relates some details of the takeover of her locacobra to Finndo.  “I had a lady in waiting with me. She slapped several of the Jhereg, and I worry for her. The Jhereg, they seem without fear.”

The two conductors, freed, kneel before the Empress.

“They have two locacobras, then,” the Empress concludes after hearing more from them. “”They have not been in to question me.” The Major then informs Her Majesty as to the identify of Uilverforce, the presumed leader of the thefts of the locacobras. He is known to carry three swords.

“These strike me as Great Weapons, though they are not listed,” the Major noted. Previously, three or four such blades had been unknown to the Stigs. Now, new ones seemed to show up every day. The Empress, learning that Division 6 had been attempting to deal with Uilverforce, allows she might involve the Stigs more in the investigation now. Referring to Great Blades, she suggested she had passed one new one, Nul, on her Progress through Adhrilanka earlier in the day. “Even in the Carriage, I could feel its malevolence.”

Selador remarked that Nul, while often mistaken for being of Evil, as actually more Neutral in its attitude...

“It laughed at me, sir,” the Empress replied archly.

Selador suggested another new Great Weapon, Mournblade, was more likely the cause of the Empress’s consternation, and she inquires as to how he might know that. “These Easterners seem to attract the Dragons,” the Major observes.

“Not all of our liking,” Finndo added, speaking of his forced imprisonment at the hands of Calcitrant e’Drion shortly after he arrived in Adhrilanka. “Forgive me if I cannot take it as kindly.”

“The laws pertaining to Easterners are as they are,” the Empress replied, warning Finndo away from seeking redress.

“You would have to catch me first,” he retorted, and others in the room were worried at the direction the conversation was taking.

“We have come to a peaceful resolution on this issue,” Selador pointed out.

Finndo, somewhat reluctantly, agreed. “We are here to free you, Majesty.”

The Empress allows as to how she had past experiences with Easterners, and had found them to be more than what the Draegeran stories said about them. Lyra, who had overhead some conversation between her captors, observed, “Their intention is to bring us to somewhere known as the Black Siding.”

Selador said, “There is but one obvious conclusion to this matter. This is a Jhereg lord, and he has kidnapped the Empress. There is no going back from the plank you have walked. He means revolution.” He suggested more players were involved than just Uilverforce.

Major Iterrari said the Stig had heard some such rumours involving the House of Athyra, especially involving a pair of sisters, the vill’Paques. One was mother to Sadderome vill-Paque, recently revealed as an imposter who had weaseled his way to becoming a Stig captain. The sisters had taken up part-time residence in the Six Towers region of Adhrilanka, in the Tower of the Graces.

Asher noted that he had tracked one of two Draegerans who were first abducted by the Jenoine and then returned to Adhrilanka. One had attempted to murder the Empress and the other, Asher had tracked to Six Towers, but due to the danger of ghosts he had been unable to continue.

“It would have been good to know these things earlier,” the Major stated drily. Asher wisely kept any reply to himself.

Finndo, having watched out a door for any intruders, returns to Asher’s side and, having removed the crossbow bolt, provided him with a curative, which he downed, healing the worst of his injuries. He hands another to Asher to hold, and tosses one to Selador, who adroitly catches it.

The Major then deputized the two conductors into the Stig, and promises, should they perform capably, they would be considered for full-time posts, which seemed to gratify them.

The Empress reveals that the only carriage behind them is open to the air, and used for freight, a new idea of the locacobra company. Ahead lies an elite sleeping car, and berths for other passengers, and then a dining carriage. Several more carriages lie beyond that. Finndo, in that moment, opens the door from the salon into the corridor, and drags in an eavesdropper, who ends up tossed into a chair and quickly bound and gagged. Finndo, accompanied by the two conductors and trailed by Asher, head into the corridor, moving toward the front of the ’cobra. Finndo opens a door to his right and finds the Regal bedchamber, a spacious room with, remarkably, an en suite toilet. Finding no one, he rejoins the rest.

Asher and one of the conductors, who turns out to be a bold and capable fellow, arrive at the front of the carriage, their way barred by a door. Meanwhile, in the Salon, the Major, noting Selador has not moved from his spot by Lyra, orders him forward. Selador obeys, but first kisses Lyra’s hand.

Asher tells the bold conductor to open the carriage door a crack, and immediately a knife thwacks into the doorframe. Asher steps forward and finishes opening the door, seeing first a bridge of planks, some distance from each other, joining this carriage to the next, and then the knifeman on the far carriage’s rear platform, next to its entry door. Asher with a quick shot wings but does not badly wound the knifeman, who rolls away to the far edge of the platform, and Asher briefly admires his courage, for he could have easily rolled off.

“We are engaged,” Finndo declares after the report of the Emitter.

“No,” observes the newly arrived Selador, “But I hope so,” his thoughts still lingering on Lyra, to Finndo’s dismay.

Asher, having stepped out slightly and seeing a second Jhereg on the far edge of this’s carriage’s outer platform, across from the knifemen, spots a crossbow and changes targets, scoring a good hit. Selador rushes forward, bounding across the bridge and then heading for the knifeman, until he realizes the Jhereg on Asher’s side has a crossbow. Asher helps him out, though, again wounding the crossbowman.

Selador, with his Great Weapon Massartu, slashes the knifeman and then splits him from groin to chest with a mighty swing, and the latter expires immediately. He makes a precarious leap, not minding the gap, and barely lands on the far side, where he does the same to the crossbowman. The others then cross the bridge and Asher, alert to potential threats from above, turns his Emitter to cover the edge of the Regal carriage’s roof. He sees a Jhereg, his knife poised above him as he prepares to leap down on Selador, and takes action, inflicting a heavy wound that causes the villain to fall from the top of the moving carriage below, to where Selador knocks him out, hammering with a blow from the hilt of Massartu. He then nods to Asher in acknowledgment.

The group cautiously opens the door to the next carriage, and sees a long corridor, over 150 feet long, with carpets spaced out on the floor and three doors to either side. Finndo goes to the first door on the left and enters, as does Selador to the right. Finndo finds an empty but roomy bedroom, with another en suite, and so does Selador, with the exception that it had to occupants, a Jhereg who drew two swords and a bound, willowy Draegeran in a long, flowing undergarment who presumably was the Empress’s lady in waiting.

“Ah,” Selador announces. “Come, villain, and cross swords!”

“What do we have here?” the Jhereg calmly responds. “An Easterner?”

The Jhereg yells as he attacks, and a sword barely misses Selador’s abdomen. Selador responds, slicing into the attacker, discomfiting him, and then again, and he falls to the floor.

The lady in waiting expresses gratitude, and introduces herself as Malivahn. When Selador frees her from her bonds, she wraps herself in bedding and prepares to flee toward the Empress’s carriage, stating in passing, “I do not know where my clothes have gone.” Selador takes off his jacket and hands it to her, so she can cover herself decently. “I will take you back to the Empress,” he declares gallantly, but as they pass by in the corridor, Asher stares incredulously at the retreating Selador, then shakes his head slightly before spotting two Jhereg entering the door at the far end of the carriage. One, armed with a light crossbow, fires at and hits the bold conductor, who has eased up the side of the corridor while wisely staying out of the way of Asher’s Emitter. A slinger is preparing his shot, and Asher fires a single charge at him. The slinger wisely decides discretion is the better part of valour, and rolls into the far cabin door on the right side. The crossbowman has retreated to the platform outside as he reloads, only his left arm and shoulder still visible. Finndo urges Asher, “Fire at will!” Asher takes careful aim and fires, striking the Jhereg’s arm. Still, Asher was surprised to hear a scream and see the Jhereg disappear from view.

“I trust I was able to help,” Finndo commented, tipping his hat to Asher, who wasn’t sure what his friend had done, but was pleased enough with the result. The bold conductor, meanwhile, has entered the middle cabin on the right, and emerges, reporting the toilet inside is empty. Asher is first puzzled by mention of a toilet, but then grows concerned. This conductor seems a little too able, he decides.

Selador, who has returned, rolls into the middle cabin on the left side, but finds it empty and emerges.

Asher, meanwhile, crosses to the cabin checked by the conductor and, confirming no one is inside, puts aside his fear the train official might be a Jhereg plant. Selador now enters the cabin on the far left, while Finndo does so on the right. The conductor, unwisely, opens the carriage door before the others are ready, and is snared by an odd combination of a grappling hook and net, with a Jhereg trying to drag him out, though the conductor resists, bracing himself against the door frame. Selador has found the far left cabin empty, but sees the door to a toilet is closed, and advances to it, only to find it locked.

“It’s occupied,” a female voice calmly responds. Selador then hears an odd sound, as of water flushing down a pipe, followed by the brief sound of running water. A Jhereg woman emerges, a small one-hand crossbow aimed at Selador.

“This bolt is poisoned,” says the attractive woman. Asher, just outside, having heard this steps through the door as the occupants continue to converse and fires at the Jhereg, hitting her, but the crossbow goes off and strikes Selador.

A volatile poison courses through him in second, bringing with it attacks on his nervous system and a wave of what should be crippling pain. However, Selador, due to certain studies to ensure the purity of his body, was able to shake off the poison. He thrusts and dispatches the woman, who falls to the floor bleeding to death. “I know your practical experience in such things is limited,” Asher gently chides Selador. “But in this sort of situation, it’s usually less talking and more killing.” They advance to the next carriage, the platforms between them empty, and through a window see it is the dining room. Asher, in a brief mental conversation, determines that Bamboo is inside, and that his familiar can see three Jhereg. Asher unwisely doesn’t ask if the lyorn can see the entire cabin and, relating to his companions three opponents await within, they enter, only to find a dozen sitting at tables, enjoying a meal. Bamboo is nowhere in sight.

Asher fires a spray of five charges at a table of three but misses, and they are clever enough to seek cover, two of them upending the table for shelter. Selador charges forward, leaping onto the nearest table. The occupants had risen, and the Law Lord laid about him with Massartu, slaying them in short order. He then leaps from table to table, repeating this process, while Asher continues to snipe at targets further down the carriage with some but limited success.

Finndo, having slid under a preparation table to the right, started to lay into a Jhereg hiding there. Behind him, beside Asher on his right, was a closed compartment, presumably the kitchen.

A Jhereg runs down the corridor between tables, charging Asher, who plucks a throwing Claw from his belt and hurls it when the oncomer is 20 feet away. The Claw sinks into the victim’s throat, and he falls dead to the floor, where Asher retrieves his weapon.

Selador continues to strike down the Jheregs, slicing and slashing his way through them.

“It would be nice if we had some help,” a voice implored from somewhere, followed by maniacal laughter.

A Jhereg man and woman leap up from their table at the far end of the carriage and pelt along the corridor toward Asher, who prepared to answer them with Claws, but then he said they were frightened for their lives, and eager to be away from these games. Asher lets them past, assuming Lyra and the Major could deal with them if they reach the Regal salon, and shouts a warning of impending disaster to Selador and Finndo.

Then someone, not it’s something, appears at the far end of the carriage, and Asher at first considers it perhaps a gigantic moth of some kind. However, it quickly resolves itself into something that reeks of being Jenoine just by its appearance, and someone calls out it is a “xenomorph,” whatever that might mean. The Jenoine is formidable in its appearance, and Asher immediately decants, putting a wall of bamboo across the 70 foot width of the carriage, just in front of the monster. The wall slows the creature only a moment, which Asher expected, and peers from over the top of it, a two-foot width between the top of the fence and the ceiling of the carriage.

“Selador!” Finndo shouts. “Get out of there!”
  “It is a creature of Chaos,” the Law Lord coolly observes.

“We are aware of that,” Finndo replies, sardonically.

The Jenoine floats over the top of the bamboo, crushing a part of it, and attacks a nearby Jhereg, the villain’s skull disappearing inside the monster’s mouth. Selador shouts a Mesopotamian curse, just as Finndo, casting his precious hat aside, leaps toward the Jenoine. The creature whirls to confront the Law Lord, who begins to summon a portal, as he had earlier, to his shadow Ziggurat and the awaiting Verdosau. Selador stalks toward the monster, then flees inside the portal, followed close behind by the Jenoine. The Law Lord dodges aside, and the monster passes by. When Selador looks again, he sees the Jenoine lying dead on the ground, the Verdosau extracting the double twin from it as trophies, one of which he tossed to Selador, who caught it with a nod.

“To the victor goes the spoils,” the hunter declares.

“Honour to you, Verdosau,” Selador answers. “I will leave you to your hunt.”

He returns to the carriage and, dismissing the portal, drops the goo-covered jaw to the floor. Atop the table, he sees the two Jhereg on the far side of the bamboo wall, who had been ignored by the Jenoine, preparing to fire crossbows. Selador drops to the floor, telling Asher to dispel the wall, which he does instantly. The Law Lord deals almost immediately with one hostile, impaling him in the right eye to put special emphasis on his displeasure with them.

Asher, meanwhile, wraps the Jenoine jaw in two napkins and places it in his pack, thinking it might be made into a novel weapon against the Builders.

“Small wonder that you slew the Xenomorph,” Finndo compliments Selador, seeing his handiwork.

“Drop you weapons and you may leave,” Selador informs the surviving Jhereg. He puts his crossbow upon the table, and while his hands are at his sides, he turns them outward.

“What’s your name?” the Jhereg asked.

“Selador of Law.”

“I hope to live long enough to remember your name.”

Finndo, who has just broken a chair over the back of another Jhereg, joined Selador and Asher.

“Well, that’s half the train dealt with,” Finndo states, using an odd word for the locacobra.

A voice calls from behind the closed door of the kitchen, and the three turn their attention there.

“How did you defeat the creature?” someone, presumably who had summoned the Jenoine demanded.

Finndo, thinking quickly, replied, “We broke a window and it went outside.”

Murmurs come from inside the kitchen, followed by, “We have a hostage.”

“With you in there in the closet?” Finndo replied. The three hear a yip from Bamboo.

“We assume this creature is of value to you,” the voice called.

Bamboo, contacted by Asher, reports four Jhereg with him, two near the door and two further away. Asher turns to Selador. “Do a friend a favour and portal Bamboo to you, would you?”

Selador consents, and moments later Asher takes Bamboo from his friends arms, stroking his familiar’s head.

As sounds of discontent emerge from the kitchen, Finndo secures the door so it cannot be opened.

Transcribed by R.Perry

The events described will be continued in Session 17's Epilogue.