Erix stared aghast at Baran, but reluctantly nodded.
He dropped the packs and goods, stretched his barely-recovered muscles and headed to Phin.
A few moments later he found himself near the man. Despite the threat he found himself somehow sympathetic. It certainly sounded like Alua had started to talk him down, but...
Unable to see Phin, Erix hesitated, but committed. If Phin acted without him it was death for all. The hand was lousy, but the first card was already on the table. All he could do was wait for the signal - and look to see if he could somehow stuff the man out the window.
Lupi was slightly worried to see Baran and Phin leave the railway car, but she was happy to see Baran come back. She was happy to see no attacking action against the frenzied engineer. For sure he had all the aces on his hand.
Alua had had some success in calming the man down, so Lupi hoped she could aid Alua a bit. She was afraid to go any closer and chose to discuss with the man trying to help him achieve his goals. She felt a certain sense of sympathy for the man and a dislike against his oppressors.
She started pointing the other railway car "The pirates are gone now... went away through the windows...", hoping the news would calm down the man more. She added with a grin "Me and Alua have our own oppressors in Sharn, maybe you could visit them too... anyway, Sharn is still more than two days away... do you have to keep on pressing those things all the way there? I guess you need to sleep too... Is it possible to just for a while to ... disarm the bomb?" Lupi was hoping the obvious facts would get the man with the big bomb to think about more distant future possibilities.
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Baran took three sharp breaths and hung his hulusi from his neck. He looked at Phin and said, "Exeunt!" sharply, then shoved her shoulder. Her body pushed back slightly, she 'fell out of frame' and disappeared. He turned his head to Erix and nodded. He spoke the word again, "Exeu.." slapping the man but then rock of a human-being didn't move. "You have to sway a bit." Baran intoned desperately,"Exeunt!" and Erix allowed it to sway him ... and he to disappeared. Baran quickly reached for the door and opened it. He raised his free hand up showing everyone in the section he had no weapon ... giving time for the two to sneak in, then he entered the room slowly. He waited the space of twelve quick breaths and started to play his flute.
The young man didn't seem as frenzied anymore when an invisible Phin returned to the train car but Baran had been right, once they returned to the car then there was no turning back. For this to work, they all had to do their part and secure the device.
As soon as the rogue reached the count in her head and heard Baran begin to play, she acted. The only thing that the hostage-taker had managed to change was Phin's decision about whether to use lethal or non-lethal force. His present attitude caused her to decide to do non-lethal damage which made her wish she had gotten her hands on a sap. Unfortunately, she had to make due by using the pommel of her thornblade to hit the man's head to hopefully knock him unconscious.
The moment Baran restarted his performance things happened in a hurry. First Erix blinked into visibility right in front of the distraught man and closed one meaty fist over the presumed triggering device. And an eyeblink later, Phin appeared on the other side of the man, at the moment her blade’s pommed made contact with the poor man’s head with a sharp crack. His eyes rolled over and he promptly slumped into Erix’s embrace, definitely out of the fight for the time being.
Baran stopped playing - it was the shortest composition ever. He got as close to the device as possible without touching anything. "Erix, can you lay him down and hand me the release switch? You should be the one to tie him up."
Baran looked at the vests and stood bolt upright, "Um, just in case Erix, we should really free up your hands." He poised himself for a hand over of the device ready to put his flutist's hands over Erix meaty hand.
Just as Lupi got hopeful on a possible negotiation solution, Phin and Erix appeared out of nowhere and knocked the frenzied engineer unconscious. "What... oh... Good work!", was Lupi's response.
The danger was still far from over as the alchemical bomb needed to be disarmed somehow. Lupi moved closer to see the golden dragonshard and the wires and liquids on the vests. She worked with Baran trying to get some understanding on the device.
Baran had figured out the device rather well, Lupi was only able to help with some details. The role of the golden dragonshard and the rod remained mysterious to Lupi.
Phin watches the man's eyes roll back in his head with a small measure of satisfaction before storing her weapon and digging out her tools. She looked from Baran to Lupi and back again. "You guys seem to know about these things but my hands are the steadiest out of all of us. You both tell me what to do and I'll make the necessary cuts. Our focus should be on severing the link between the two dragonshards. Hopefully we can disable this thing but barring that, at least get the device off this guy so we just have to toss the device off the train and not him in it. "
The rogue takes a deep, steading breath before looking at Baran and Lupi expectantly. Getting her first instructions, Phin goes to work.
It all happened very quickly. One second she was making good progress with the man (she was almost ready to ask his name), and the second, the world exploded into action. Yelping, she leapt from her seat as a blur of colour and violence swept past her.
A moment later, and she was standing on the seat, staring down as Phin sheathed her weapon, Erix handed the trigger to Baran, and the man lay unconscious but breathing on the floor.
"Ring of Siberys! What in the Twelve Moons were you three thinking! You nearly got us blown to this side of Dolurrh! And not just us! An entire train of civilians!"
Jumping down from her perch, she checked to make sure her new friend was still breathing. "Devourer's Teeth. There are so many ways this could have gone wrong. Do you have so little faith in me?"
She slumped back, jittery from adrenaline, and tried not to imagine the tangled heap of metal and meat that the explosion would have caused.
You nearly got us blown to this side of Dolurrh! And not just us! An entire train of civilians!
The elf grinned at Baran and Erix, "But we didn't."
Do you have so little faith in me?
Phin looked up at Alua in surprise, "Sovereigns above! Is that what you think? I have tremendous faith in you. I'd have never left Sharn if I didn't." She motioned at the unconscious man, "It's the rest of the world I don't trust. He was unstable."
The rogue turned her attention back to the man's device, "We can still talk to him and get his side, we just can do it without worrying about him freaking out and blowing us all up."
Baran did a double take, But ... you gave me a look ... you looked at me ... I thought ... do you mean that wasn't the 'this guy's hand is getting shaky go do something heroic' look?! ... I ... I ... I'm so sorry boss!" He looked Phin, "She gave me a 'look'! It's not my fault!" Baran's rash side had obviously gotten the better of him and he sat down in one of the seats near the vest. Looking at his shoes he talked to himself, suddenly in a light state of shock. "My sovereign host! We really coulda' blown everything up ... and for nothing ... I thought I got a look."
With Baran and Lupi looking over Phin’s shoulder, the dancer got to work with her picks and probes, gently teasing apart the clasps fastening the vial-filed belts to the detonator. It was a tense five minute’s work, but finally the vest came apart, still in one piece but separated from the person who had been wearing it. Now, the question remained what to do with it? The bomb would, after all, still explode the moment Erix’s finger slipped from the trigger…
Right… you have the bomb in hand…
The vest was removed from the unconscious engineer and was lying on the floor. Things were better, but not quite over yet. Lupi was getting slightly nervous as everyone else, except Erix, started worrying about the situation. "Please, calm down everybody! Let's concentrate on defusing the bomb! Take a deep breath and help Phin!" Lupi had nothing except some engineering tips to help Phin, but hoped the others would figure out something more.
As the vest came off Baran released a long breath. But what to do next?
Baran looked at the man and felt for him. His complaints seemed real, not enough to destroy and certainly not to kill, but it seemed the man felt ruined and powerless with no other recourse.
Baran spoke low to the others, "I say we detonate it. This man is troubled but I don't want to help hang him. We detonate the pack and the lightning rail has one less piece of evidence. I'm sure they'll have all of the eye witnesses they want but let's not give them more. It's also perhaps a little less risky ... though not without risk."
"My sovereign host! We really coulda' blown everything up ... and for nothing ... I thought I got a look."
Alua's anger evaporated in light of Baran's remorse. Taking a deep breath, she patted his shoulder and said, "It's okay. You guys did good. You just scared the everloving khyber out of me."
She watched tensely as Phin started to remove the bomb. Then she motioned for Erix to take up position at the door to the carriage, and she took the other side. The last thing the bomb squad needed was somebody rushing into the carriage.
However, it seemed nobody was interested in investigating the disturbance.
Baran spoke low to the others, "I say we detonate it. This man is troubled but I don't want to help hang him. We detonate the pack and the lightning rail has one less piece of evidence. I'm sure they'll have all of the eye witnesses they want but let's not give them more. It's also perhaps a little less risky ... though not without risk."
"I agree," Alua said. "Erix can probably throw that thing far enough that the explosion won't hurt the train. Then we don't have to worry about it any more. What do you say, Erix? Up for some life-or-death shot-put?"
Erix, still carefully holding the dead man switch out in front of him and next to the engineer coughed "I appreciate your faith in me. If I'm going to shot put it, it'd be good to have two hands free, and I'm a leeetle concerned about handing over this thing." he shook the hand holding the deadman switch and then thought better of it.
"But I'll give it a go. Someone's going to have to stick their head out a window and make sure we're not going over some town... or about to hit a tunnel."
"Maybe, if someone has some sort of... sticky bandage? We could wrap the switch closed, stick it to the vest, and throw them both - just in case there's some sort of proximity thing?"
Finally he looked to the unconscious man "So... are we hiring him?"
Phin looked up from where she was working on the vest with shock, "Twelve moons! You all want to toss a live explosive from the rail? We have no idea how powerful the boom will be. What if it derails the cars? I say I disarm it first and then you can toss it from the rail."
The rogue continued to work on disarming the device now that it was off the man. She used the engineering advice from both Baran and Lupi to diffuse the device.
Finally he looked to the unconscious man "So... are we hiring him?"
Alua shook her head firmly. "I'm sympathetic, but he's clearly not stable. He needs help, not a job."
Again, she watched nervously chewing her lip as Phin continued with her work. When it was defused, she sighed in relief. "Do we need to toss it now? If it's fully safe, then maybe we can put some of the parts to a better use." There was no way she was going to hand them back to their unconscious friend.
When Phin got the bomb defused, Lupi finally dared to breathe normally. She felt dizzy and sat down on the floor. She just sat there for a while, until she heard discussion on hiring the man "Ummm... he does have skills...", she had to add with a mischievous smile. "But maybe... ummm... it is better to hand him over to authorities." Lupi wasn't sure who, but probably someone needs to keep order in the Lightning Rail.
Lupi looked at the unconscious man. He seemed smaller and much less dangerous, but she came to think maybe he still has a hidden weapon. He was an engineer and might have a back-up plan. She crawled to the man and searched for any weapons. When the others noticed her she said "Ummm... it's the old goblin saying... ummm... don't lick it before it drops..."
"OK, it's disarmed but if we report him to the authorities they'll want to know where the device is. Either we try to hide the incident, which is probably impossible now, or we hand over the device ... and he gets hanged as a calculated bomber who wanted to attack a major industry, and a Family House."
Erix sweat heavily as Phin disarmed the bomb. 'Don't screw this up, Phin...'
As she worked he pondered aloud to distract himself. "Could give him a fake vest. Who saw this and really understood what this thing was. Still creates headlines, especially if Baran writes the copy, but no-one dies. If we keep this thing though... I worry its not..." he winced as Phin cracked something - that judging by the lack of explosion was supposed to be cracked "...stable."
Phin looked around the car and shrugged, "No one is here to witness what happened to the vest. There's nothing to say we have to turn over any evidence or even turn the guy in. The threat is past and people probably just want to get on with their rail ride. If you're really worried about someone looking for the vest then toss it out one of the broken windows. If you do it over water or a remote area then it'll never be found. But aren't dragonshards valuable?"
But aren't dragonshards valuable?
Lupi heard Phin's question and examined the dragonshards more closely.
After her examination she was rather sure of their value.
Phin was just about to finish her work on defusing the bomb, preparing to cut the final silver wires that would carry the magical energy from the detonator to the vials to cause them to explode when the door to the third economy-class car, the one Alua had decided to guard, was kicked over and a group of anxious House Orien guards were about to charge in, responding to the somewhat vague and panicked reports from the fleeing passengers they had encountered. Alua’s frantic motions for quiet managed to stay their hands long enough for Phin to finish her work, however, and you had a chance to brief the guards of what had befallen.
Lupi heard Phin's question and examined the dragonshards more closely.
A few minutes later, the guards left the car, two carrying the unconscious bombmaker between them, one gingerly holding the defused bomb. Moments later, once it became clear the car was safe, every other passenger and most of the Rail’s staff found their way to you, to find out what had happened and soon after, to heartily thank you for saving their lives. For the rest of the journey, there were no strangers left to you in the Rail, no end of offers of free drinks and meals, and no lack of opportunities to tell and retell the your side of the tale unto exhaustion.
As the House Orien guards approached Lupi gave them the belt knife and the golden dragonshard voluntarily. She saw now reason to argue with the guards. Instead she chose to slip into the other car and examine the leader of the Pilfered Wand and underling in the other railroad car. On her way she whispered to Alua "How on earth did they know we had an artifact?" She was hoping to find something that would not have been found with Baran's earlier quick check, maybe a note indicating their mission to get the artifact. Obviously a wise leader would have burned or eaten such a note, but maybe this guy was too certain of his success. And the years on the streets of Sharn had learned Lupi to appreciate dead bodies as a resource, a thing to appreciate, not to avoid.
Baran rushed to step infront of Alua as she prepared to barter with, or was that confront, the guards who were taking away the remnants of their good work. He made like introducing Alua was something he often did, in the hopes of elevating her professional status, "Ahem! The ir'Brock Inquisitive Agency, perhaps you have heard of us, gives their compliments to House Orien. Our leader would like a word. She is the one responsible for leading us in staving off a group of Sky Pirates, bringing down two Pilfered Wand operatives, and subduing, disrobing, and disarming this sick unfortunate." He made no mention of the man's complaints, nor anything that might suggest a stain on the business practices of House Orien. "I formally introduce to you, Alua Riversong, leader of the ir'Brock Inquisitives." He bowed slighly and quickly then moved behind Alua.
Alua's instinct was to demand payment for their prisoner upfront. However, she reminded herself that they hadn't been hired to catch this guy, and the guards were unlikely to hand over their pocket money for him. Also, she was pretty sure that House Orien had jurisdiction on the train, no matter where it was. Bloody houses, and these 'Marked ponies.
Taking a breath, she said, "You have come to take custody of our prisoner. Excellent. No need for rough handling, he has been neutralized." She watched as they took the bomb, then said, "I'm very surprised that this rather obvious explosive rig made it through your security. It will be going into my report. Also, it took quite a long time for you to arrive - how many more bandits managed to break into the train? Our car alone saw four bandits, which we were in the process of defeating when the second group of miscreants entered, these in possession of a living spell! That's not something you can smuggle onto the rail in your pocket. It's clear your security has been badly compromised."
Shaking her head, she said, "You are incredibly lucky that we were here. The loss of possessions from the bandits, of a major artifact from the Pilfered Wand, and loss of life from this suicide bomber - it seems somewhat of a miracle that any of your trains make it anywhere at all!"
Taking out her notepad, she said, "I'll need your names, for my report. And when we arrive in Wroat we'll need to be taking to the House Orien headquarters at once to speak with whoever is in charge of this operation."
Erix - the very definition of a suspicious looking character - lurked over to their supplies and started arming and armouring up. "Guess I'll get ready for more action in case there's a fourth event, Boss." he called over to Alua.
Taking out her notepad, she said, "I'll need your names, for my report. And when we arrive in Wroat we'll need to be taking to the House Orien headquarters at once to speak with whoever is in charge of this operation."
The guard sergeant’s expression progressed from surprised to guarded and finally settled on cross when Alua started asking for his name, with the implication of using it in some form of complaint. ”You know, Ma’am, some would take what you just said as a threat,” he said in a conversational tone, while he shot a flint-hard look at the oracle. "Contrary to what you may believe, the few odd Rails actually reach their destination unmolested. I and my employers will thank you for not implying otherwise.”
”Now, I’m no liable to tell you anything about House Orien’s security measures, but let us be frank – in this instance they proved lacking. Rest assured; the House officials responsible for these arrangements will learn from this dark day. And let it also be known that I, personally, think you did a damn fine work here. But I have just had a very bad day at work, if you catch my meaning. Anyone intending to make it worse becomes part of the problem. Neither of us would want that, now would we?”
”As for trying to get an audience with the Transportation Guild, feel free to ask up at any major House enclave. Perhaps they will find time in their busy schedule to speak with you and listen to your no doubt many thoughts about how to tighten security in and around the Rail network.”
Phin got to her feet, putting her tools away. "No one is trying to make anything worse, Sir. We're glad that we could help but a little recognition of the work that we did, as you yourself said was damn fine work, would be nice. I think that's why our boss would like to make a report and not necessarily to point out any flaws. I'm sure that whatever special cargo the Rail is carrying has made this trip beyond ordinary for you."
She pointed at the disabled device the guards were holding and gave a lopsided smile, "You're lucky I was here or you'd have had quite the mess."
"Do you need anything else from us right now? I know that after the last thirty minutes I've had, I could really use a drink."
Baran looked at the guards over Alua's shoulder, "You did didn't you? I mean, you've been put through the wringer. What we've experienced fighting pirates and hooligans and mad men is only the other side of the coin. What happened?" Baran, suddenly conscious that the guard had a terrible time as well, tried to show real empathy. He waited for things to cool down and he approached the sergeant before he departed, "Listen, my boss is hot off the wars but if we all look hale it's only through her connection to the spirits. I tell you she's saved my life a couple of times over with her healing skills. You may look after this train but she looks after us. When your shift is done come have a drink - you know, a real conversation."
She pointed at the disabled device the guards were holding and gave a lopsided smile, "You're lucky I was here or you'd have had quite the mess."
"Do you need anything else from us right now? I know that after the last thirty minutes I've had, I could really use a drink."
"Listen, my boss is hot off the wars but if we all look hale it's only through her connection to the spirits. I tell you she's saved my life a couple of times over with her healing skills. You may look after this train but she looks after us. When your shift is done come have a drink - you know, a real conversation."
Mollified by a voice that didn’t seem to rub into his skin that he should have been the one to ensure none of this recent bout of excitement had ever happened, the Sergeant turned his attention to the two less confrontative voices.
”Aye, I do know you folks pulled our collective bacon out of the fire, and even had you your own safety foremost in your minds, that doesn’t change a thing. Look, I am properly grateful to you, and will certainly convey my feelings to the Guild once we reach Wroat. And while it’s not my place to make promises in name of my employers, but I’d be surprised if they simply ignored your contribution here.”
”Anyway, I sure as Sovereigns hope we won’t be needing you for any more heroics this ride,” he sighed, looking at the door through which his men had dragging their prisoner and the explosive device. ”Just sit back and enjoy the rest of the trip – I’m fairly sure there won’t be anything else happening. I have been doing this job for years and can’t ever recall running into anything more dangerous than a drunken and disorderly passenger or a fight between a couple fellows who got into disagreement over something. Chances are, nothing else like this is going to happen again for a while.”
”And I appreciate the offer,” he said over his shoulder, nodding at Baran as he left. ”It’s not for me to drink in duty, but I’ll forward your kind offer to my men – they have certainly earned some down time after what they just lived through… those who did,” he grunted.
Aye, the obelisk – there was little chance they knew about your artifact, and it’d have taken days to arrange everything needed for this attack.
Lupi searched the members of the Pilfered Wand, or searched as much as she could, before they were inevitably being dragged away by the House Orien guards. She got into the usual way of checking the pockets, taking off boots and begun wondering...
"It is happening again... This is very odd...", Lupi thought, "They seem to have no interest in looting the corpses.",
while looking for anything valuable or useful. "We are all poor, that's for sure, but still I would have thought every time the
battle is over, they would jump into taking any valuables. That's what my goblin friends on the sheets of the Lower Sharn always do.
Maybe it is a goblin custom, or rather, it is the custom of anyone living on the streets..."
The words came back to Lupi's mind: "The street gives, the street takes, the street is our home." "Who said that? It must have
been The Mother of Streets. A wizened old and blind goblin woman, a mother of a dozen goblins all living on the streets of Lower Dura."
The Mother was Lupi's first friend in Sharn. As she lived on the streets The Mother was the first who accepted her as a goblin. Had she still had her eye-sight things might have been different. Lupi said she was a grand goblin and she for sure sounded and smelled like a goblin.
The Mother's saying did have a sound logic. Avoid danger, be ready to benefit on any possibility and do not try to change the status quo. After an year on the streets, Lupi was ready to accept the first two, but the unfairness of the third one newer caught her. "And it newer will", Lupi continued her train of thought. "Maybe it is, because I saw a different life as a goblin in Darguun. The Mother only saw the streets. She loved, when I told her stories from my Darguun times..."
Snapping back to present, Lupi found herself looking at the cuts of the corpse. "Maybe my friends have not lived on the streets. They are not accustomed to the fine Art of Looting. I need to set them an example."
Wand of Hold Person you knew to expect, so I will assume that is the first thing you lay your eyes on. In addition to that, you find two potions (identical flasks, but both have had a different mark carved to the corks - the marks mean nothing to you but you assume they are just there so the bottles can be told apart in the dark by touch alone, for example), two vials (nonmagical) on both men, in both cases one full and other filled around two thirds. The boss has also a decently heavy purse. Both have short swords and an assortment of daggers, of average quality. Armor and clothes I doubt you are too interested in, at least at the moment.
In the end of the day Lupi joined Baran in trying to identify the wand, the potions and the vials. She cast Detect Magic and examined thoroughly each item. On the four vials she was unsure, how to identify them. Although tempted, she did not dare to take a sip.
Lharvion (July) 13, Zor (Thursday), 998 YK
Zilargo, Khorvaire, morning
Wroat
It was fairly late in the evening of the third day of travel when the Rail reached Wroat, the capital city of Breland. Several things happened here: first, the cargo car carrying the massive obelisk was pulled from the train, and the group of mercenaries, their numbers somewhat thinned by the Wands attack, went with it. Also, quite a few passengers who had originally intended to ride the Rail all the way to Sharn decided to disembark and look for an alternate method of transport, feeling too spooked by the recent attack to feel safe in the closed confines of the Lightning Rail. And third, after one of the House Orien guards rushed to converse with their comrades guarding the station, a rather large contingent of the Guard arrived to move their prisoner from the Rail. Your presence was not encouraged, but you could see from a window that the young man remained securely bound and a sack had been thrown over his head to hide his face from the many curious passersby.
***
Lharvion (July) 14, Far (Friday), 998 YK
Zilargo, Khorvaire, morning
Sharn
That night, when Phin fell asleep and found herself back in the strange tower, she could feel a change in the air – a sort of expectation that something major was about to happen, even though could see nothing that had changed… not until she happened to look outside, that is. In the southern (you had no idea how you knew it to be south – never before had you had any indication or sense of direction, as even the movements of the sun in the sky seemed to change from visit to visit, yet now, you found yourself absolutely certain) sky, flowing waves of green and blue like the veils of a spectral dancer shimmered in the air, filling the night sky of the dreamscape with light and color, eclipsing the moons that occasionally made their appearance. And as you watched the celestial play, captivated by its beauty, you realized it was getting closer...
Alua could see that she'd taken the wrong tack with the guard, and she shut her mouth and let the others soften him up. Mother always did say you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I guess that goes for rewards as well.
As they had a little time in Wroat, she went to the Orien headquarters. Waiting politely until the captain made his report, she requested an audience with the 'Marked in charge.
**
As the Sharn skyline appeared, Alua felt herself relax - she hadn't even realized how tense she was. Home. We'll be home soon.
As they had a little time in Wroat, she went to the Orien headquarters. Waiting politely until the captain made his report, she requested an audience with the 'Marked in charge.
Lupi spent the last day in the Lightning Rail by scribing the Alarm spell. When she was finished, she took her time looking at the countryside out of the window and eating at the restaurant car. She was happy to be back in Sharn. It felt more of a home now as so much had changed in Darguun meanwhile.
As Lupi saw the Sharnian skyscrapers again, she remembered Phin's last dream. "Could the Tower be in here? ummmm.... I mean physically... ummm.. there are lots of towers here...", she said looking around. "Ummm.. Someone has to have pictures of them... ummm... and instructions how to build them..." Lupi did know about engineering, but was not aware of the architect profession. There certainly were no goblin architects in Sharn and even in Darguun goblins used houses that were made ages ago by other races.
After things had settled down they didn't ever feel settled. The passengers looked tense and each had formed their little protective cluster. He had been promoting the agency before the incident and perhaps a little shamelessly so. Now he looked at the passengers whom had almost been part of a terrible calamity and tried to get to know them.
A mother, Tolri, taking her daughter, Penti, on a tour of Morgrave, it was planned the father would go but a rockslide outside of Sterngate changed those plans forever.
A group of young men going to register a patent on a new blown glass bulb design that made ingenious use of a fragment of bottled lightning. They all looked terribly shaken. Some of them knew exactly what the dragon shard vest could do.
Two gnomish women, Majet and Trig, newly married and going to Wroat with the promise of work.
Baran made cheerful conversation trying to raise spirits. The entire time he thought'We risked these people's lives.'
Uncharacteristically quiet, Baran joined Alua, sat and waited with her ... should she need backup with the administrators. It turned out she didn't and he made some show of carrying her things like some sort of office assistant.
As they got closer to Sharn Baran became more and more apprehensive. How should he go back to university? Go directly to see professor ir’Morain? See my mentor first? Go to administration and make sure they haven't given my room to someone else? I'd better contact my family ... He spent his time on the train copying out his archeology notes in his new book, making sure to have some of it in a rushed hand and some carefully written - and that no mention of 'the tower' be in any of it.
Baran's thoughts turned from himself to Phin and he watched her as they got closer to Sharn. He thought she looked distant yet somehow more alert.
Phin made good use of the good-will of the other passengers as they continued their journey. Part of her thought she should pace herself so that she didn't get used to having such a full stomach all the time but really, when was this going to happen again? She got used to living on little in Sharn once and she could learn to do it again.
She didn't play as much the last little while because she was too busy telling her story of how they managed to disable the device and keep calm just after facing the Living Spell and the pirate attacks. She did search out all the passengers that she recognized from being in both the rail cars, and therefore witnesses, or their deeds and made sure to get their contact information should they need someone to back-up their statement of facts.
When the Rail arrived in Wroat, the elf was a little surprised that they were all confined to their rail cars until security had disembarked with their prisoner. She did breathe a sigh of relief as she saw the car with the obelisk removed from the Rail. Their chances of having a peaceful ride to Sharn just increased significantly. She was also shocked to see so many passengers getting off the Rail and not returning. She would assumed that their presence on the Rail as well as the removal of the car with the special cargo would have been enough to convince the others that it was safe to continue.
She opted to go with Alua and Baran for morale support and to possibly add information that may have been accidentally omitted. Phin felt that they were getting a little bit of the bureaucratic run-around but had every confidence in Alua that she would champion their case. The rogue was fairly certain that House Orien would be dealing with a much bigger disaster had members of ir'Brock Agency hadn't been aboard.
The first time that Phin fell asleep after leaving Wroat as they got closer to Sharn, she woke up in the Tower at night time which she felt was odd because up until now it had always been daytime. She felt drawn to a particular side of the Tower and once she stepped out onto the balcony, she immediately knew why the Tower had brought her at night. She gasped as the night sky was alight with dancing swirls of coloured light that were in stark contrast to the inky blackness of the sky. She spent her whole time in the Tower that night staring transfixed at the sky, marvelling at the vibrant colours and how they moved. She had never seen anything like it.
It seemed to take more effort to wake Phin the next morning and she shared everything she saw with the others, especially Baran since he seemed the most curious about such matters. "It's the first time that the landscape has changed in any significant fashion. And I don't know if it's important but I knew, no evidence but just knew, that the direction of the light show was south. And we're traveling south, right? Do you think it's a coincidence? Or is this another case of the Tower knowing that I'm eager to get back to Sharn and is somehow augmenting that feeling in me by translating it into my dream?" Phin shook her head as if doing so would somehow shake the jumble of thoughts in her head into something more coherent and linear. "We definitely need to do some research on this when we get back to Sharn."
Over the next day or so it was harder to find Phin awake. She was so fascinated by the dazzling light display in the night sky that the Tower showed her, that she spent as much time as she could watching it which meant that she slept most of the time on the Rail.
When they finally arrived in Sharn, Phin was loathe to wake up. She fought against it as best she could. Only rough shaking was able to pull her away from her time in the Tower and when she got her bearings, she realized that they were almost home.