5/6/23

Q1: What is the lie that you tell yourself? A1: The "Big" part of my name is a term of respect for my prowess.
 
BEGIN SESSION - Gained INSP from question
 
We begin by deciphering the note:
"He's on the train heading to the meeting. We need him alive to assist with business. This is a test for defenses and to see if They are on board. If you can lift the key and schematics, do so."
 
One of the 8 total sets of arcane armor is now gone, due to being Banished. It is one on the first-class side of the dining car. Most cars are ~20 feet long.
 
Morning: blood rain washes over the lounge as breakfast is served. I venture with Marda and Yun to check on Mittens and Mikey. Melfine looks into Henry's room with Clairvoyance, seeing a well-made leather tome, small notes, a note for the scheduled appointment at tea time (2:15 PM ish), a locked chest under the desk, his open travel trunk in disarray. Back in the livestock cart, Mittens is accepting his shitty current situation, and Marda offers comfort. Yun sees scratch marks and notes that there was a battle in here. The outer lock in the back was picked, kind of poorly. Mittens has bloodied claws. There is hay stomped down, and a cigarette is put out underneath. Marda goes to collect some of the bloodied hay from the area around Mittens. Yun heads to the medic station on this side of the train. The nurse is a halfling and Yun asks after a "friend" that had gotten scratched who may have come in for healing. The nurse partied hard with the kitchen staff last night, but did notice that antiseptic and gauze were used while no one was working the station. Marda and I head back up towards the others as well, and Yun has already filled them in on that conversation with the nurse. Melfine tries to recall and transcribe what she saw in the book. Yun identifies it as Elvish, but gibberish. Druss tries to make sense of the gibberish.
 
Melfine works with the blood Marda brought back, but is not making good progress milking the blood from the hay. I can help, by making alchemist's tools, which takes me an hour. While I am working, Melfine thinks really hard about the book she saw in Henry's cabin (Legend Lore). She sees a book, titled Tales of Fairlong's Travels: The Search for the Fallen City. She sees/feels things about a missing Elven city, unconfirmed fae creatures, King Oberon, a city of white glass, and a feeling of shattering, hints of Shadowfell (dark reflection of the Feywild). Faerie dragons, green dragons, green dragon scale. A ribbon attached to the book, with a-wrought-iron green key with a scale-like shimmer. An older half-Elvish, non-gender conforming person walking along the horizon and fading into the scene (A'lise Fairlong). Melfine has blood coming from her head holes and she comes back to reality. She catches us up on what her vision showed her. She thinks the criminals were after Henry's key. (HIST/ARC/NAT check - 27 - green dragons breath poison, favor woods and wilderness, are common associates of hags, will corrupt the land around them and cause the Feywild to bleed through to the Material Plane, which is why the hags like them.)
 
Henry is going to a meeting with people that want to bring human trafficking back to Cherwood. Why does Henry want to meet them? This book may be the answer to that.
 
Druss heads out to talk to Max, and runs into Henry, Max, and Leona heading to lunch. [I gained INSP (+d6) for a knotty/naughty joke] Druss, Yun, and I missed our A group lunch, but Marda and Melfina join Max and Leona for lunch, jostling to sit near Henry,
 
Yun and I pick our way into Henry's room using Invisibility and Minor Illusion. I don't see the book where Melfine saw it, so I grab the chest from under the desk. No immediate damage, so that's nice. The desk area might have something creating illusion magic. Yun finds a fancy fountain pen, well-crafted and old. Under the endcap, there is a little reading magnifying glass that slides out. It allows the viewer to read the invisible ink from the pen.
 
I (INV - 28) check out the chest and find it to be a "secret cabinet" sort of chest, which takes about 20 minutes to solve and open. In the main chamber I find the book and key. The key feels cold and makes me tingly (Tinglerock). I flip through the book, much as described, but also worn and stained. There are many notes and hypotheses tucked in the pages, culminating in stuff about the lost secrets of King Oberon being trapped with the Fallen City. Yun can read Elvish and takes a look at it. Henry's notes are mostly fanboying and dreaming to meet the Fae creatures described in the book. Yun then comes across the changeling section of the book, and can't resist learning something about themself. Changelings were likely hunted to extinction in the Material Plane post-Caster Wars. Then they look into the King Oberon entries. During a war between the Summer and Winter courts, something went wrong and the city along with its citizenry were lost.
 
We put it all back (PERF - nat 20 for a 19) and get out of there (STE - 6). I am not doing well at sneaking, but Yun saves my bacon with a Scoop. We move into Druss's cabin and wait for the others to return from lunch. When they get back, we drop the invisibility and I shout "HI" while Yun is too close to Marda. She moves to slap them, but Yun dodges. Yun fills them in mostly, but I bring up the key and the tingles. Yun goes to make friends with Henry. They ask me to go get some tea, which I do. Gonna have a Jim-Jam Slam in Druss's cabin. I get back to see Druss changing back to the jim-jams, and he tells me what's going on. I immediately shed my shirt in preparation, and we await the others as well as the tea.
 
END SESSION
 
INSP Inventory: +d6