Session Ten of "The Horrors Beyond the Crypt!"
General Summary
Our session begins at 1PM on May 29th, 3168 Era of Blood, where we find our party having boarded the train, the Duskburrow Railway. While preparing for a possible catastrophe, Bianca finds time to go to the kitchen car, obtaining a meal, and drinks for the party. The drink, known as Dragon's Breath, is not quite like the Hornet's Breath that Kimball and Bianca tried previously. This one is a spiced ale, of sorts, and gives off a firebreath burp after you finish it. Both Bianca and Aether drank the drink around others and managed to singe the eyebrows off of two VIP car patrons. Fortunately, they don't get into any trouble because of this. Aether then takes his turn to go get some food, with Bianca following him. Bianca forgot to get food for Eve, hence why she was going back. The man running the kitchen was very friendly and wished them safe travels. Little did he know, everyone's life was about to change...
With the prophecy he saw looming in his mind, Aether decided to speak to the Conductor, finding out that there is going to be some maitenance at the Galvinus Station for the train. He relays this to the party and they wait to arrive at that station. When they do, Aether decides to leave the train and check on what could possibly need fixing. There, he sees several dozen men, all in uniform, fixing up the train. However, he does see on man taking these glass canisters from a crate with Thieve's Cant on it. Being unable to read it, he scrawls the text on a piece of parchment and rushes inside, showing the text to William and Bianca. William relays that the message on the crate was something called "BACME," and he recognizes it as the acronym for Hartford Crowley's business front, Bastards Among Men Everywhere... Crowley, being a notorious criminal, is well known and his use of Wraith Fire in the past to destroy the city of Kholinar is recalled. William wonders if he plans on rigging the train with this Wraith Fire. Before being able to leave and potentially stop this catastrophe, the Conductor gets swapped and the train starts moving again. Heading towards the West Coast Tracks just outside of Daggerveil. In order to get there, however, the train needs to cross tracks over the Maxia Ocean.
When wondering what to do, Bianca mentions the Dapper Dabber, the magic man, and they all notice someone's ears perk up when mentioning that name. The man who seemingly responded to the name is covered in makeup to look normal, but starts sweating when the party approaches him, sweating off the makeup and revealing blue skin, much like the Dabulon, the race of the Dapper Dabber. The party goes up to him and starts talking to him, as if this was DD, but it turns out it's another Dabulon known as Swug. He appears to not like DD and is upset at the mere mention of him. He tells the party to leave him alone, as the Dapper Dabber is following them, and will most likely find him. They learn, after pressing Swug for more details, that he is a Dabulon that has recinded his powers, not liking them, even though it's his birthright as a Dabulon. He claims he just wants to make it back home to Daggerveil, and that the party should leave him alone. They do, for the moment, and decide to check on some of the other patrons in the other cars. They look around, seeing commoners and such, when they finally notice a man in a black suit coat and jacket. He appears out of place from everyone else. When questioning him, they see a flash of a badge under his jacket. Unsure of what it means, they leave back to the VIP car, as the man appears hostile when talking to him. The party manages to kill some more time when suddenly commotion is heard and a gunshot rings out in one of the passenger cars. They rush to find that bandits in common clothes have started to raid the train, presumably after being on their for a while undercover. The man in the suit coat gets up and claims that they are making a mistake, but one of the bandits, named Killian, claims that everyone on the train made the mistake of getting on.
This man claims he has a dead man's switch on him, stating that if he dies, something will explode under the train. The party and the suit coat man, named Neferith, try to take out the bandits and Killian, but are concerned for the train's safety. When Neferith gets a shot on Killian, he takes it, hitting his shoulder. That's when Killian claims that the switch isn't actually going to work and that they can kill him, but they'll all be doomed anyway, as the explosives are rigged to explode at the end of a timer. Kimball rushes to the conductor's window and informs him that the train is being taken over, and to avoid maximum damage, the conductor stops the train over the tracks on the Maxia Ocean. He does this to minimize potential casualties, especially in the case where the train is going to explode. Unsure of the type of explosives used, Neferith risks his life to help people, informing the party, who was suspicious of him at first, that he is a Train Marshall... A cop placed on trains in the surrounding area to protect the people on them. Hearing all of this, the party decides to help him, persuading the other bandits on the train to lay down their arms and help. They are successful in doing this, as they don't want to die, they just signed up for this robbery job to make some cash. Instead, Killian's goal is to set an example and to spread fear of Hartford Crowley. In his words, people will live in fear of him if the train's explosives go off, creating a bigger image for himself. Doing so will kill everyone on the train, but Killian is nuts and doesn't matter if he or anyone else on the train dies, as he is only doing what he can to help Crowley.
After many moments talking and trying to figure out what to do, Kimball and Bianca manage to persuade Swug into helping. He claims that if he uses his powers, especially around the party, then the Dapper Dabber will be aware of him again. Bianca claims they'll help him as much as they can, and he accepts. Just before the timer expires, he dabs and teleports William, Kimball, himself, Bianca, Eve, Aether, and Neferith off the train. Landing them in the water mere feet away from the Duskburrow Railway. They await the timer to go off and question how they can help the rest of the people aboard it. Swug says that they need to cut their losses and there's nothing left for them to do except make it to Daggerveil. Not liking this, they protest, especially Neferith, but eventually are forced to leave. Before the canisters explode, Aether manages to use Mage Hand and dislodges it from the underside of the train. He wants to do this for the rest, but there is barely any time left, and there are several dozen of them remaining. They cut their losses, as Swug said, and wait for the timer to go off. They look at the faces of those pressing against the windows, begging for help, when suddenly, the canisters go off, releasing a blue flame known as Wraith Fire all over the train and the surrounding track. It doesn't spread further than where it reaches, but burns hotter than the sun. It immediately melts the train and track underneath it, as well as turning those aboard to ash. The train falls into the Maxia Ocean, leaving a gap in the track. The fire, said to burn forever, still is burning beneath the waves, boiling the water where the train is sinking. As it hits the bottom of the ocean, it continues to burn, leaving a massive chunk where the train was. The tracks are no longer connected, and the train is no longer there. Fortunately, it didn't spread onto the rest of the track, as this magical fire is unable to travel, like a traditional flame.
When the party climbs onto the remaining track, looking into the boiling water and hoping those who died are at rest, they are suddenly warped to the West Coast Tracks, all of them questioning if Swug was responsible. He claims he wasn't for that act, and they notice a stench of dank in the air, presumably from the Dapper Dabber. This is where the session ends, at around 6PM on May 29th, 3168 Era of Blood...
Rewards Granted
-Level Up Portal
-Wraith Fire Canister
Character(s) interacted with
-Killian, the Bandit of Unknown Location
-Neferith of Devil's Bargain
-Kimball Cho of Sapphiria
-Bianca Farless of Daggerveil
-William Buyin' of Oceania
-Aether Luminol of Iunea Lumen
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