CD Issue 16: Railroad Roadtrip

General Summary

We open in the office of one Carl Winston, formerly Captain of the TCSF. Since the events of CD #9, Winston had been busted down to Lt, been divorced, and transferred to the armed forces base of Westgate Transfer Station.   As the commander of Westgate, he was particularly disturbed that the Dissidents had broken into his base, knocked out his men, and then trashed his Mall. He took a stiff drink and asked them what the hell was going on.   Paladin delivered a rousing speech, but the Lieutenant explained that he had just recieved an APB for the capture of the Cognitive Dissidents, guilty of murder. Richie had saved Winstons life, and he had faith that his favorite superheroes could never be guilty of such a heinous crime. He was willing to pretend he hadn't recieved the memo and let them slide.   He explained there was a train, the @Border leaving as soon as the storm passed, heading west to Wedge, the town the Dissidents were meant to meet their resistance contact, the Dragonfly.   He snuck them down to the station where the outbound to the Southern Prairie was loading. Noticing that the locals had a rustic dress code, Siren rustled up an illusion spell to make the foursome look like a happy family (Richie and Siren made up the parents, while Malware and Aliena kids.) As Richie loaded his mighty steed onto the stable cart, he encountered a haughty covenant lord, Bronte Taurus. He also made some allusions to having seen such as a mount at Brokenhollow Stables, where he often went to buy horses even though he said they were too easy to break. Pegasus had some seriously bad vibes about this man. He allowed Richie to board his horse in the seriously fancy stables, along with the other horses he was bringing back to his father's barony.   The team forged some tickets by combining their skills and powers and found themselves seated into a car half full of barony soldiers. The soldiers seemed edgy, so Aliena and Siren decided to edge on up and see what was going on. The soldiers were pretty worried that a war was going to break out any second. Malware did some spying and heard talk of needing to assault Westgate itself.   As they returned to their seats and argued a bit about something or order, they saw another Covenant lord making his way through the seats. This one seemed more familiar, and significantly less lordly. A couple soldiers tripped him as he walked by, and laughed at him mockingly. Richie was quick and caught the fellow, recognizing him as Typhon (Deep cut back to CD#1!)   The young Taurus lordling continued to the back of the train, and Malware decided to pursue and tap him for information. Paladin wanted to go along. There was significant disagreement, and things were said. In the end, they all followed Malware which really pissed them off.   In the back, they confronted Typhon who had retreated to the stables for some equine comfort. The Dissidents had other ideas and attempted to interrogate him. Typhon reacted by transforming into his two headed snake form. Aliena threw hot Nummy plasma. Siren grew the straw into vines entangling their form.   As things calmed down, so did Typhon. He explained that the reason he was a Trust prison so long ago was that he was trying to run away from his family with his boyfriend, and was captured be them. The resistence got him back on track, but the Covenant caught him down river in Port Lane. He's been bullied ever since as a coward and weakling. The Dissidents let him go.   As the Dissidents quibbled about what to do now, they were surprised by the bullish Covenant lord Brontes Taurus. He was furiously curious about what the rural folks (remember, illusions) were doing talking to his brother. He had many questions and suggested the foursome join him in his car. The heroes politely declined. Brontes demanded they come, and had them escorted to the car. As they moved forward through the train, they passed through car after car of barony soldiers with itchy trigger fingers.   In the foremost car, Brontes lounged dramatically and grilled the team about their purpose. They did their best to fend him off until he revealed the car had sensors that detected they were cloaked with illusionary magic. Siren made a play by revealing they were agents of the Baron Alabaster. This did not work out since Brontes hates Alabaster, and he ordered them seized.   Things were not looking good for the team, it was time to join battle as a team.

Notes

"We heard there are Chartruese Nummi Boars in this town" "The only true Chartuese Nummi Boars are in your heart."