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Session 0008 - Awoken in the Night...

Roster

Absent

Session Log

The party spends the next 10 days after their brief adventure based out of the Golden Hilt tavern. Here, they enjoy the spoils of their work, having sold off valuables they did not want and divvying up the treasure. Most of the party do some shopping during this time, buying some mundane and minor magical items.
On the following day, Aryth 12th, 1022, the group are awoken in the middle of the night and pulled out of their Liminal Doorway accommodations by a bleary-eyed patron of the inn. A worn leather backpack is tossed on the floor at the feet of the party and they are told "I have been given strict instructions to give this to you. There is no time to explain, but you need to gather your things, take this backpack and head to the lightning station as soon and as discretely as possible (that means getting there on foot). Tickets are in the left-hand pocket along with a letter that explains everything - you can read it at the station. Quickly now! You must act swiftly!"
They look inside the pocket and see over a dozen train tickets, which they stuff back in the bag. Heeding the instructions, the group grab all their belongings and head to the station. The tavern is in Lower Menthis ward and they need to make their way to the Terminus Station in Lower Tavicks ward. It takes the party roughly 30 minutes to get to the station, arriving at roughly 3 AM.
It is largely deserted this early in the morning, with a small crew of maintenance workers on site. The party find a quiet corner with a good view of the station, but where they are sheltered and more or less out of sight. Here, they begin to examine the worn backpack they were given, starting with the entire contents of the outer pouch.
Inside are 12 train tickets good for any one journey within the borders of Breland - presumably a round-trip ticket for each of them. They also find half a dozen sleeper accommodation tickets, in standard rooms that bunk two people together. There is a booth at the station where they need to redeem the tickets and get proper boarding passes, but it does not open for several hours.
The pouch also contains an envelope that has been closed with a wax seal of Morgrave University. They open the envelop and pull out a letter inside that reads:

"My friends,

The object you recovered for me from the ruins beneath Sharn is a schema, a piece of a pattern used to create items both mundane and magical. I have learned that another schema connected to this pattern was being studied in a secret Cannith workshop in Cyre, called Redhearth. I wonder if this research is tied to the Day of Mourning?

Parts of my own house seek this pattern for evil purposes, and I do not know whom to trust. So I turn to you. I need you to travel to Cyre, find the workshop, and recover the second schema.

The location of the workshop was a closely guarded secret lost when the patriarch of House Cannith died in the destruction of Cyre. You must travel to the House Cannith outpost in the town of Whitehorn Quarry, in Darguun, to recover a record of all of Cannith’s hidden workshops.

In Salvation Outpost, find a man named Failin in the Gray Beyond Tavern. He can provide you with transport to Whitehorn Quarry. From there, travel into the Mournland to find Redhearth and the second schema. It is an adamantine plate in the shape of a diamond, about the size of a human’s palm. Once you have retrieved it, return to Salvation Outpost, where I will meet you. Succeed, and I will see to it that you are well rewarded for your courage.

Professor GD."

They put the letter way and examine the rest of the backpack.
The main compartment contains only a cloth bag decorated with richly colored embroidered silk. Ferdinand pulls this out, opens it and looks inside. It is oddly dark and hazy inside, despite holding it up to the lights in the station. When he reaches inside the bag his arm goes in much farther than the dimensions of the bag should allow.
Rocinante and Saferous recognize this as a magical spacious pouch. It is designed to hold a lot more than it should in an extradimensional space. If it ever gets overloaded, broken, ruptured, or otherwise ruined all the items inside would be lost forever. They also know that such items come in different capacities, and without properly examining the bag it may not be possible to know how much it can carry.
Ferdinand then starts pulling out items while the others watch and make sure nobody in the station can observe what they are doing. A significant pile of items are drawn forth from the bag, including:

The potions and vials are all nicely labelled to show what they are. The tiny rod has a tag on it that only says "key".
Impressed by the stash, the party take the tickets and the letter and stuff all the rest back into the spacious pouch.
All they can do now is wait for the ticket booth to open and to board their train. According to the signs, their train is not due to depart until 1 PM so they have a long wait. They take this time to try and catch up on a bit of sleep and to keep watch.
They are the first at the ticket booth when it opens, securing their sleeping rooms and boarding passes. At this point the station begins to get busier, as people start filling the station. Theirs is not the only train to leave, so there is some small activity coming and going.
Mid-morning at roughly 10 AM, Eriana, Rocinante and Sarroxtíoð all notice a group of a dozen individuals walking together in the long station some distance away. They do not appear to be carrying any luggage, and are clearly looking for something or someone. Eriana and Rocinante move closer trying to be discrete.
Unfortunately, Eriana finds herself out in the open and clearly visible to the group. They notice her and point in her direction and eagerly chat with each other. At this point the group begin to hurry towards Eriana, who calls out to them asking what they want. Nobody in the group responds. Instead they pick up their pace towards her. She begins to back away and as she retreats they move faster in her direction, pushing people out of the way.
At some point Eriana begins to jog and then run back towards the group. Her pursuers also start running, creating a commotion and knocking over two staff members at the station in their pursuit. Rocinante did a good job of hiding in the crowd so they run right past her.
The yelling appears to catch the attention of about half a dozen Sharn Watch nearby. They yell out and start running towards the commotion. As a fleet-footed elf, Eriana is faster than her pursuers. She turns to run towards the Sharn Watch and complain that she is being pursued by men that wish her harm. She is aided by a ring of discretion that she bought earlier that week (it masks her armor and weaponry to make it appear as though she is unarmed and unarmored).
Eriana does a convincing job talking to the Watch. They check her boarding pass and confirm she is where she belongs and call for the watch to find her pursuers. The twelve men seem to have backed off and melded with the crowd. Rocinante saw them stealthily move away.
After this encounter, the group hunker down in their quiet spot in the station and keep their eyes peeled for any more trouble. The Sharn Watch patrol the station looking for troublemakers, but the group do not appear again.
Just after noon they get the call to board the train, and the party gather their things and get onboard. They settle into their rooms and have no further incidents before the train finally leaves the station around 1 PM.
For the next 10 hours they travel to the city of Wroat, the capitol of Breland. Here they have a two hour layover before the train departs again at 1 AM on Aryth 13th. The next leg of the journey to the village of Nowhere takes about 16 hours, getting them into the station right around the diner hour. This is a hub, and a very busy time of day at the station.
They wait for another two hours before leaving Nowhere for the town of Starilaskur. That journey takes 6 hours, getting them into town at about 2 AM. Once again they stay in the town for 2 hours before leaving before dawn on the 14th of Aryth.
This next leg of their journey to Vathirond is scheduled to take about 12 hours. They awake and have a decent breakfast in the morning and relax in the seating car to enjoy the ride. At some point mid-morning the train slows down and comes to a complete stop, somewhere in the middle of their journey roughly 6 hours out of Starilaskur.
Train staff announce to the customers that everything is fine, and that there is nothing to be alarmed about. The train will be on the move again after a short pause. While they wait, Ferdinand, Sarroxtíoð and Eriana all hear what sounds like a yell or scream come from ahead of the train. It lasts briefly and then it gets quiet again.
They also notice the staff who show up seem more nervous, but are doing a good job keeping up the pretense that everything is fine. The party decide to get up and see for themselves what is going on. Ferdinand heads for the doors to go outside. Train staff call out and ask for them to stay in their seats, but the party ignore them - clearly grabbing their weapons and they head outside. The staff do not seem to want to press the matter...
Ferdinand is first to the front of the train to see what the commotion is all about. He sees about a dozen platform stones appear to have been dislodged from the track about a hundred yards up ahead. There is a cart near the closest one that appears to have several stones in it, with one stuffed in a hole and partially covered up. He sees three people lying down around the hole and thinks he can see the glint of dark liquid - blood, perhaps?
As he takes this all in, motion up to his left catches his eye and he looks up to spot what appears to be an airship. It is far away and receding. He points this out to the rest of the party as they catch up with him. At the same time, he also catches a glimpse of something moving in the vegetation up ahead just on the north side of the track.
He calls this out to the group and they all grab for weapons and begin to head in that direction.