Session Date: 11/19/2023
We are headed to the Cruelwind Prison to pick up Bertram. To get there, we got on a party and casino train. Dia was discovered by Ace Freeman and we had to fight him and his henchmen, besting them easily.
Iskra asks Professor Profundo what he’s a professor of and the answer is nothing, it just sounds good, and his real name isn’t Profundo. He offers us all poker chips, fresh clothes, refreshments, and food. Iskra asks if there’s a log of patrons anywhere, and he says if there is one it’s in his head and he doesn’t write it down to keep everyone’s secrets. Dia asks if there’s a log of payment and he explains that Freeman bought his and the additional tickets. Dia asks if any unusual people have been buying tickets lately, such as members of The Family of Light. She asks if they’ve been looking around or asking questions, but he doesn’t have any specific answer. Bounty hunters do know that this train is a good place to disappear so it’s a good place to look.
Dia asks a favor: if anyone asks around about her, to tell them she went to Arcfort. He agrees and is an ally now.
Iskra looks at the wax coin with the bee on it and they find that it was improvised without a specific spell — it’s basically something to teleport someone to a specific teleportation circle, and it would need to be pretty nearby. We met Ace at the elven capital, he may be at the City of Peace now. He won’t be able to meet us where we are going by train because the next train will be in a couple of weeks.
We meet with the tailor for new outfits and Dia will be getting an all new outfit, and she will be ordering items for Rohan and Arythas as well.
Dia casts detect magic on herself and her items and can’t see anything has changed or looks out of the ordinary. The holy symbol and headband are both still enchanted as they should be.
Rohan finally goes to play poker and we go to watch him. On the last hand that Rohan loses it all and loses connection with Taraaq, who was searching the archives for Rohan’s father, but after losing the last hand Taraaq says he has to run and the connection with him breaks.
A woman comes up to Arythas asking for help from a holy person, and he explains that he is a paladin of Bahamut and that Dia is a cleric of Pelor. The lady is excited and explains she needs some seals refreshed. Iskra can tell that something fishy is going on, she might be trying to hurt us. Iskra explains to us that something weird is going on with her. She leads us back to a storage area and we see a large box with religious runes all over it, and we pressure the woman into explaining that she has a vampire inside.
Iskra recalls no real knowledge about vampires, but Arythas recalls that there are a lot of things more powerful demons can do. This vampire thing is a cheat to interact with the real world, and the reason sun damages weaker fiends and vampires is Pelor protecting people. Vampires are opportunists and this is how demons can get into the world without a powerful patron protecting them. They still must work within the rules — only really powerful vampires can ignore the sun, and if this was a powerful vampire we’d be in trouble (the entire train would be). If this woman was the vampire, she wouldn’t bother with the deception and start eating people.
The sigils are damaged just from general travel wear and tear, and also Stinky had torn through this again. The young woman introduces himself as Jyl Moorman. She’s just hired to accompany the box on the train, and it will be picked up at the last stop. She wants the sigils fixed because it is so scary to her. Dia and Arythas take the time to redo the sigils with Iskra’s help, and we are quite pleased with the result. Jyl falls asleep once she gets calmed down and then we break to go do our own things.
As of note, when asked who hired Jyl, she simply zones out for and goes silent for a moment, then starts talking as if she told us who it was. She is completely unaware of it.
After Dia and Arythas get some food, Dia settles down to draw in her journal to try to map out information and its movement. She draws members of her family in the journal, with the final figure being a non-detailed silhouette of a man that she isn’t sure how he looks anymore.
Jyl comes by later and thanks us again and Dia offers our support and recommended contacting the Bloodsoaked Banner for help if needed. She does specify Soldos, and gives the location for him.
Rohan offers to snoop around to find who bought Jyll’s ticket to see if we can figure out who hired her, and Dia recommends we ask first, then get into trouble.
Taraaq finally gets back to Rohan and says he’s free, he’s fine, he’s okay, and asks how Rohan is. Rohan is fine and asks what’s going on. Taraaq stole some files and has some information — once he’s able to open them he will know who Rohan’s father is (name). Rohan thanks him and just asks him to get somewhere safe.