"To the personage of ____________,
By request of the Council of the United Commerce, you have been summoned to Crasmere. Concerns regarding the recent unnatural seismic activity require professional investigation in order to restore peace to the capitol. Should you accept this summons, this letter will serve as express authority by the Council for your investigation, as well as a voucher for travel and living expenses. You will be awarded 3,000gp upon successfully uncovering the source of the tremors, and another 3,000gp should you be able to eliminate them yourself."
[There are a number of signatures as well as the official seal of the United Commerce Council]"
---
You have each accepted the summons request of the United Commerce Council and have been directed to convene and arrive via the three-day expressway from the Republic coaltown of Eddystone. The letter serves as your passport between the borders of the Republic and the United Commerce as well as your train ticket, and you board with no trouble.
Since your arrival was unexpected and the train had already sold all of its tickets, an additional two cars have been hastily added to the caboose, although this leaves them unconnected to the rest of the cars. Each car has an upper and lower private room, meaning that two of you will be required to double-up. You have been provided with three days worth of meals and a cooktop. The train's owner, while very apologetic, assured you that these were the best arrangements he could manage on such short notice.
---
It is currently the second night of your travel, and it's been a particularly uneventful ride. You've gotten plenty of time to get to know each other by now (although feel free to write an introduction if you wish). The train stopped not long ago for refueling, but has sinced resumed chugging forward.
A pleasant looking young woman approach the dwarf and address him in his language:
"Good evening, I hadn't the opportunity to present myself before this moment. I am Kelly Fitzory, with who I have the pleasure to speak?"
She seem to be no more than 20 years old. After speaking with the dwarf her eyes fall on the Erastil symbol and she seem a bit taken aback by that sight. She touch her belt a second and then square her shoulders, like she was steeling herself in preparation of a discussion.
Seeing that there isn't a "women should stay at home and raise a family" sermon coming Kelly relax a bit.
"I have seen a few dwarfs, but never one using a bow so magnificent. It is something you made or a family heirloom?"
Her hand twitch like she wanted to touch the weapon, but she restrain herself.
"Simply by looking at it I can see it has a illustrious history. Maybe someday you will allow me to read it."
There is longing in her eyes. Then she shakes her head.
"Sorry, sometime I can read piece of the past of a item, and when I see something like your bow I can become quite annoying. I will try to restrain myself."
She smile trying to appease the Grayahrmun.
The door to the caboose car crashes open and the light from the exterior of the cars casts a dark silhouette across the floor of the room that the dwarf and human had been speaking in. Fodd stands there a moment, his bulky frame darkening the doorway, before stepping inside and slamming the door shut behind him with a loud BANG.
"Good evening," the doctor offers them, taking heavy steps toward them both until the alchemist stands less than a yard away. He wears dark, circular sunglasses that completely obscure both of his eyes. His lips are dry, and he licks them briefly before speaking. "I beg your pardon for confining myself away from socializing over the past day. I have been...feeling unwell, and had...restrained myself to my quarters out of concern for the health of my compatriots." He makes a show out of dabbing his wide-set nose with a handkerchief he pulls from his waistcoat. Like the rims of his sunglasses, the handkerchief is golden yellow. It appears to be made of silk, embroidered with a complex repeating design.
"I have convalesced, however, and am anxious to make the acquaintances of my traveling mates. It would not do to simply lurk in my sleeping area all day and night this whole trip, eh?" he laughs loudly at the end of his own sentence, revealing large teeth on his upper and lower jaw.
"I am Doctor Fodd. Pleasure to meet you both."
"Ah, so my reputation precedes me? Hmmm, ahhh, I am of but modest renown," the tall alchemist replies, adjusting his sunglasses with a small smile. "I assure you, the pleasure is all mine."
"Who is this guy? He present himself with the grace of a club to the head"
Knowledge arcana 20, Local 17
"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor, I am Kelly Fitzroy."
The door opens again, and Juliet enters into the car just as Kelly is introducing herself to Fodd. Looking around the group for the source of the voice, her eyes settle first on Kelly Fitzroy and she smiles. "Ah, Kelly, that's where you went."
She looks between the older Dwarf and the Alchemist. With her eyepatch limiting her field of vision somewhat, she makes a conscious effort to turn her head, giving each of them in turn her full attention. "You must be the others that the letter spoke of. My sincerest apologies to not having met you before now. I am accustomed to working and sleeping rather late, I'm afraid. I am Ms. Juliet Morris."
Remembering what she heard when she walked in, she frowns for a second. "Doctor." She mutters, seemingly to herself, before speaking back up, looking towards Fodd. "Are you a scientist - a geologist, then?"
Fodd gently lifts Kelly's hand even as he bows before her in introduction, flashing his brownish eyes for a brief instant over his sunglasses as he turns his head to look up at Juliet.
"Chemistry and its sister field, Alchemy, are my fields of study, madam," Fodd replies, smiling broadly down at the smaller woman as he straightens back up to his full, towering height. "I'm very familiar with the nocturnal sleeping habits of the intellectually possessed! Ha ha!" He laughs at his own wit once again. His conspiratorial wink that he flashes at Juliet can't be seen in his eyes, hidden as they are behind his round glasses, but rather in the wrinkling of skin around one eye.
The Doctor gestures at the chairs in the sleeping car's common area, before taking a seat himself, next to the Dwarf. "And what intellectual curiosities keep a sharp-looking young woman such as yourself up at all hours of the night, I wonder?" he asks, stroking his hairless chin.
"Questions like why the Council would send a detective, a curious young girl, a chemist, and an exceptionally... ah, large... dwarf to investigate seismic activity." She replies dryly. "Clearly they know more than they are sharing."
Nodding politely, Juliet takes an open seat next to Kelly. "Still, I anticipate that it should prove interesting, if nothing else. Tell me, have you heard any rumours worth repeating?"
"I confess my ignorance as well. It was high time for another adventure to take me far from home, and I assumed that the details would be made clear in time." the doctor chuckles a little. "In the meantime, I love trains. The longer the trip, the better. I just love seeing the countryside fly by as I ride in comfort. I must differ from your opinion on that, Master Dwarf," he comments to Gryahrmun.
Kelly face harden a moment at the words "curious young girl". Then she speak in a professional tone:
"We need to acquire some information on the area if we want to discover what is happening. I don't recall anything about seismic activity in Crasmere before the current earthquake swarm. Not in the last decades, at least. Records before that period are a bit spotty. Maybe you remember some earlier occurrence of the phenomenon, Master Gryahrmun?"
The car door rattles loudly as Nicholas throws it open.
He takes a moment to stand in the doorway, slowly scanning his eyes over the assembled crew.
"Huh, so you lot are who I'll be workin' with."
Nicholas shrugs noncommittally before walking over to the table and picking up an apple. He tosses it in the air and catches it before realizing he should introduce himself.
He turns back to the party and gives a slight nod. "Nicholas."
Finished with the conversation at hand, he leans back against the wall and takes a loud chomp out of the apple.
The Doctor's eyebrows rise up slightly and his lips part in a smile at Nicholas, but apart from nodding his head in acknowledgement of the young man's halfhearted greeting, he says nothing. He continues smiling as he rubs his chin in thought, his sunglasses aimed at the apple.
It's been about an hour and a half since the train's last refueling stop, yet suddenly the lights go out and the train creaks as it slows to a stop. It is completely pitch black in your cars.
Kelly grab the nearest support to avoid falling with the sudden stop.
"Someone has a match or some way to make light?
Sudden stops are never a good sign."
Nicholas doesn't appear to be startled by the train's unexpected stop - if anything, he seems to have been expecting such a thing.
"Ah great, this can't be good. Gimme a minute"
Nicholas takes a final bite of the apple, then sets down his interrupted snack before quickly feeling his way back into his own car. He finds the lantern he left by his bedside, pours in a pint of oil, and lights it before heading back to the car with everyone else
"Let there be light" he quips dryly
Fodd's hands tighten on the armrests of his chair, but he does not rise.
"Quiet!" he commands, urgently to the darkness of the car. "Listen..."
Closing his eyes against the blackness, he focuses his attention on what he's hearing. Even when Nicholas comes back with his lantern, he listens, trying to hear anything that might be approaching. Any audible clues regarding what's about to happen?
Nicholas strains his eyes against the dark of the car, peering into the darkness at the edge of the lantern's glow.
Juliet frowns in the darkness. "Curious." She mutters. "Seismic activity worse than we thought?" At Fodd's insistence, she stops speculation aloud, and tilts her head, trying to hear anything from beyond the train walls.
Kelly put a hand on her rapier.
Despite the keenest of ears, not much can be heard aside from an incoming storm rumbling overhead. The train is still and silent as the raindrops begin to trickle down over the windows. Nicholas can just barely spot a large figure out the window dashing from one of the forward cars into the darkness of the nearby shantytown to the right of the train.
"Out there!" Nicholas points out the window
"Something just ran outta one of the cars - headed to that town there"
Nicholas quickly grabs his backpack and slings it over his shoulder. He looks steeled, almost as if he's about to jump right out of the train window after the figure.
"Just the time to be dressed in evening clothing!
Juliet, can you give me a hand donning my armor?"
Kelly start climbing the stair to the room she share with Juliet.
The Doctor rises from his chair at last, removing his sunglasses and pocketing them. Underneath his bulky red jacket, numerous jury-rigged pockets contain his alchemical equipment. His sense of paranoia ensured that he was never far from what he needed to do his work.
"Do we know anything about this area we are passing through? I thought I saw a map mounted somewhere farther up in the train cars as I was led through to the caboose..."
His voice trails off. [b]"No matter. It would not do to race blindly off the tracks, only for the train to start up again and leave us behind. At least give Miss Kelly time to don her armor. I think Gryahrmun speaks wisely."
Juliet nods as she follows Kelly. "Gentlemen." she says simply, taking her leave.
Once they're out of the room, she casts her eye towards Kelly. "What do you think of our traveling companions?"
Kelly shrugs.
"Too early to say anything. I have some good impression and some less good, but those are first impression only."
Kelly open her traveling trunk and take out her breastplate.
"This thing weight a ton. Sighs Oh well, better safe and weighted up than sorry."
After a few minutes, the rain really starts pouring. A bright flash of lightning nearby is followed by an immediate roar of thunder.
The Doctor moves to one of the windows, facing the shantytown, and stares thoughtfully out at the rain. Gradually, his eyes adjust to the darkness, but he's no elf; he can barely make out anything in the field below.
He lifts the window pane up to open it wide and sticks his head out of the window, peering to his left, trying to see if any of the cars farther up the train have retained power.
After little more than 2 minutes Kelly descend the stairs having donned her armor, a rapier on her left side and a dagger on the right.
"I am ready."
Nicholas looks at Gryahrmun and cooly responds "Nah, I don't need no weapons. Weapons get stolen or broken. But a swift kick to the jaw tends to work pretty well, I find"
Seeing Kelly return, Nicholas dons his shield and hoists his bag. "We ready, then?"
As you slide open the door of the car to the outside, your eyes meet with those of several others; armed men and women in the trappings of local guards. They seem as surprised to see you open the door as you are to see them on the other side of it, but stand at the ready nevertheless. Looking further up the train, you can see more entering the forward cars, two of which who are dragging a man in rags onboard.
"Halt," says the frontmost guard, an aged yet handsome man with a thick scar on his temple. "We would like to ask you a few questions. But first, where are your papers?"