Hopefully, this is the right board for this post.
I plan to railroad my players and put them aboard a train for a session or two. However, short of the end of the trip, I can't think of what kind of encounters they should have onboard the train. I don't want them to be completely social encounters, but I'm having trouble of coming up with things to do.
Basically, the PCs are hired to guard two wizards on their trip to a distant city aboard the train. Unbeknownst to the players, the wizards are carrying a magical artifact that is going to attract unwanted attention. There will be a train hijacking as some group tries to steal the artifact. At some point, some magic will go haywire, causing a derailing of the train. The PCs would wake up some time later and have to set out to either find the wizards or help the survivors.
Here are my current adventure notes (wall of text):
The Veil --> Train --> Ambush --> Lackey touches track/underside (derail) ---> Awaken in forest ---> ...
The adventure begins as the heroes, students in the same branch of the Academy, are recognized as capable of doing some bodyguard work. The Pa' The Academy follows the lawful teachings of the god of order, however most students are welcome. The academy understands that due to the Guild's various assignments, sometimes completely upholding the law is difficult and so the Academy places an emphasis on maintaining verall world order and balance.
The characters have been trained here for some time, some longer than others based on their backgrounds. Either way, the players are at equivalent skill levels for the most part be it from the academy's training or other outside traning and experience. The players have recently been deemed capable of taking on guild work outside of The Veil and are assigned as body guards for a pair of Wizards.
Unbeknownst to the players, the wizards are currently tasked with transporting a minor artifact to the city of Failos to the North East. The wizards claim to be reknowned spellcasters from Omnith and that they are hiring the guards to keep any attackers or rabid fans at bay. The guildmaster, Seros, knows the true intent, but keeps the information held from the players due to a need to know basis about the artifact.
The assignment is given a few days before the unveiling of the guild's lates piece of technology, the Ley Runner. The Ley Runner is an invention very similar to a railroad train, except for the method of it's working. The Ley Runner uses a sort of negative magic field on the underside of the vehicle which repels the magic fields of Ley Lines that are near the surface. This allows the vehicle to travel accross the ley lines over great distances at moderate speeds without the use of any creatures or extra spells. The only spells cast is the spell used to create the permanent negative magic auras and a force spell which is cast to move the Runner along the Ley Line. Different forces are applied at either ends of the runner to moderate speed, but once a runner is moving, it will generally maintain it's speed for up to a week.
The only problem originally with the runner was the pre-set path of the Ley Lines. However, recent magical breakthroughs have allowed Guild spellcasters to manipulate the directions of the Ley Lines. The lines themselves are pure essence of magic and have no physical form, thus allowing the lines to be moved without any harm to the surrounding landscapes. As of now, guild mages haves found no ill effects for moving the Ley Lines as the needs of the Runner dictate. However, they do avoid moving a Ley Line more than a few miles out of it's current path. This has led to recent expeditions to find Runner suitable lines to reach to various areas of the continent and the world. There is a Ley Line that travels directly between The Veil and Failos.
The wizards, Thu' Ja and Brei, are low level casters that were assigned the task by their superiors due to the fact that they would attract minimal attention. They are members of a nearby mage's guild which has held the artifact for years. The guild is opening a larger chapter in Failos and plans to move the artifact there for better security. Thu' Ja and Brei were secured passage on the Ley Runner's first trip and are actually quite excited by it, seeing as they are fairly young and the concept of such a trip is pretty exciting. Brei is somewhat lacking in wisdom, but makes up for that with pure skill. Meanwhile, Thu' Ja is very humble and somewhat naive at times. The guild put them together in hopes that they would be able to watch each other's backs and cover each others flaws, but also hired a group of Guild members as insurance.
After the players are told their assignment, Thu' Ja and Brei offer to buy them a meal (on their guild's tab, no less). Here is where Brei makes a farce about being popular Omnite spellcasters. Thu' Ja reluctantly plays along. They carry all their equipment in backpacks, including the artifact. A few days later, the party sets off on the first voyage of the Ley Runner.
The Runner has 10 cars- The Main "engines" at either end, 4 passenger cars, a dining car, a lounge car, a luggage car, and a cargo car. The engine cars each have three guild casters that mediate the runner's speed or modify the ley line to meet the needs of the course. Trees and irregular terrain are often avoided, for example.
Any ideas on what I can do aboard the train?
Check out a walkthru from Final Fansty 3 (american version/supernes) There was train path/section on there that might give some ideas.
Send the rail tracer after them.
I'm not familiar with the Veil, so the only things I can suggest are watching classic movies about things that happen on trains. "Breakheart Pass" or "The Train" or "Murder on the Orient Express" or "Silver Streak", things like that.
Other questions reguard just how the train works. Are there Westinghouse style air-brake equivalents that will cause the train to go into a brake mode if an airhose is seperated ? Are there emergency brake actuators in each passenger car (that a passenger might trip, like a fire alarm) or only in the caboose/brake van ? Who is in charge of the train ? (i.e. is there a conductor equivalent and does he outrank the engineer ?) Are there schedules to be kept, other trains to avoid ?
|
Start by developing a cast of characters for the train - crew and passengers. No need to stat block them all yet, just basic info and something to set them apart from each other:
Nyam Guld (rogue 4)
Nyam's long held a secret dream of replacing ley trains with mechanical ones - he's aboard to learn what he can about the the Guild's recent breakthroughs in ley line steering.
Ham Borffi (expert 1)
A permanent fixture in the lounge car, Ham is a wizard with mixed drinks. His permanent smile finds a way to be polite, even when listening to a traveler's woes.
That kind of thing. Populate the train with a reasonable amount of NPCs, then see what kind of stories develop from there.
But, if you just want ideas:
- A traveling gambler might set up a card game in the lounge. He (or an accomplice) is caught cheating and tries to fight his way out of the car.
- A rich woman's lap dog dies in the night (she insists something sinister is afoot!) and the only way to console her is a funeral in the dining car; the whole thing is a ruse to empty the passenger car(s) to give a thief easy access. The train hasn't stopped, so the thief must still be aboard.
- Half-way through the trip, the conductor approaches the PCs for help in hunting a stow-away.
Check out a walkthru from Final Fansty 3 (american version/supernes) There was train path/section on there that might give some ideas.
My train isn't haunted, though. Also, hard as I try, I don't think I can properly do a battle on the tracks against the train itself. =P
Send the rail tracer after them.
Vino is CR 24. I don't think my level 3 PCs will appreciate that much.
I'm not familiar with the Veil, so the only things I can suggest are watching classic movies about things that happen on trains. "Breakheart Pass" or "The Train" or "Murder on the Orient Express" or "Silver Streak", things like that.
Other questions reguard just how the train works. Are there Westinghouse style air-brake equivalents that will cause the train to go into a brake mode if an airhose is seperated ? Are there emergency brake actuators in each passenger car (that a passenger might trip, like a fire alarm) or only in the caboose/brake van ? Who is in charge of the train ? (i.e. is there a conductor equivalent and does he outrank the engineer ?) Are there schedules to be kept, other trains to avoid ?
Well, The Veil is city from my custom setting. I can understand your unfamiliarity with it. As for the train itself, it's detailed in the notes but it basically runs using magic. There are "veins" of pure magic all accross the world and these are the "tracks" for the train. The underside has a negative magic field that repels the veins, much like magnets do. The train is pushed along the tracks with the equivalent of a super powered mage hand. This is both how it accelerates and slows down. There is a conductor, but he is just a high mage. Also, being the first of it's kind and the "maiden voyage", there are no other trains to worry about.
My train isn't haunted, though. Also, hard as I try, I don't think I can properly do a battle on the tracks against the train itself. =P
Just throwing, out there might be some ideas. :) Apple Dumping Gang 2 had an interesting train sequence at the end. But I do not think you want the heroes cross dressing as much.
Also, being the first of it's kind and the "maiden voyage", there are no other trains to worry about.
I'd expect a bit of pomp and circumstance at the departure then, perhaps complete with breaking a bottle of champagne over the pilot beam. Perhaps some high-ranking officials of the company or owners. Maybe a spy from would-be competitors ?
Even if the train travels too fast for someone to leap from it, remember that feather fall might still work. Certainly fly. Consider what you want to have happen if someone teleports or dimension doors on or off.
While the vehicle you've described is definitely train-like, the feel for the trip is almost that of a sea-voyage (without the chance of sinking and drowning).
is it possible to disrupt without derailing the train? Sabotage is always a good train encounter in my opinion. The players need to race against the clock (and possibly against the sabotuers themselves) to prevent the train from being derailed. You could have part of the system that repels the veins of magic disrupted causing violent shaking and if not fixed, a crash. This has the potential to interupt your ambush plan, but if the actual chance of derail is low, it could work to spice up the trip.
Train robbers is another possibility. A band of thugs boards the train mid ride to rob the passengers, including the wizards the PC's are guarding.
Send the rail tracer after them.Vino is CR 24. I don't think my level 3 PCs will appreciate that much.
Darn, I wanted a Halfling to get it's fingers bitten off.
Also, being the first of it's kind and the "maiden voyage", there are no other trains to worry about.I'd expect a bit of pomp and circumstance at the departure then, perhaps complete with breaking a bottle of champagne over the pilot beam. Perhaps some high-ranking officials of the company or owners. Maybe a spy from would-be competitors ?
Even if the train travels too fast for someone to leap from it, remember that feather fall might still work. Certainly fly. Consider what you want to have happen if someone teleports or dimension doors on or off.
While the vehicle you've described is definitely train-like, the feel for the trip is almost that of a sea-voyage (without the chance of sinking and drowning).
I was actually thinking of doing a train side chase. I might have someone kidnapped. The PCs would give chase using the convenient steeds that are being transported in the cargo car. It might also be someone that steals a crucial component from the workings of the train itself.
And yes, it is going to be a big deal when the train first takes off.