On the Lightning Rail, Balarath had a fitful night sleep, dreaming of figures watching him as he traversed impossible architectures, watched someone write in a language he didn’t understand, and finally came face-to-face with a nightmare creature who told him “do not deny me”.
After he woke, the train continued to the town of Ghalt, Aundair, a city famous for its wine, pulling into the station around 9pm. In town, the Foundation got three rooms at the Stonestreet Winery and Inn and decided to check out the Sebastian Verite Home Gallery, despite it being closed.
The gallery had hired a House Deneith security guard and, after casing the place, they all decided to pretend to be an academic outfit there to appraise the artwork on display. Marcella managed to convince the guard, who unlocked the door and told them where to find the key to the upstairs apartment. He noted that he was told someone was coming next month to appraise the gallery, but nobody keeps him well informed.
Once inside, the party split up with Bal and Vax heading upstairs to the apartment while Marcella, Yelena, Rasp, and Turk would study the paintings on display. Brother Essex, not wanting to stay behind outside, kept watch on the street from the windows.
In the gallery, Turk frantically took note of everything he could find. Meanwhile, Marcella and Yelena found a painting that caught their attention. The Lady of the Blinding Light depicted Tira Miron at the supposed moment of her fusing with the Silver Flame. Upon closer inspection, however, they discovered a number of clues in the painting:
- By Tira’s feet amidst a pile of bodies and bones, a large skull seemed to glow with a red/pink hue. Clearly, this was the Dragonshard Skull.
- Despite what church doctrine says, Tira did not seem to be fusing with the Silver Flame, but wielded it against the Archfiend.
- Most importantly, Marcella noted that the skyline in the background was not Flamekeep as it should have been, but was Fairhaven.
Upstairs in Verite’s apartment, Vax managed to find a false bottom in one of the desk drawers. The drawer was trapped, but had degraded over the 400 years it had been undisturbed. Inside the drawer was a large, silver key of intricate design. Vax pocketed the key and they returned downstairs.
Before leaving, the Foundation decided to check the storage room for any other paintings or works of note. Bal found an unfinished canvas that seemed to be a rough draft of The Lady of the Blinding Light. In it, there was a skeletal body that could be seen by the Dragonshard Skull. The hand of that body pointed to a barely visible key that matched the one they found upstairs. The party decided that this was a clue Verite at one point thought he would leave, and then changed his mind.
With the key in hand and their next destination discovered, the party left the gallery as they had found it. While walking back to Stonestreet, Brother Essex told the group they were being followed. He had first seen them while he was watching the street from the gallery and noted that the three persons were wearing workers clothes, but they were spotlessly clean. The Foundation came up with a plan to have Vax keep tabs on the tails while the rest went onto a bar near the train station.
Vax used his ring to turn invisible and hang back while the rest continued on. After a series of carefully executed maneuvers to stay at a distance from the three people tailing them, the Foundation finally found themselves at the bar, with the tails only a few tables away. Vax overheard a tired, frustrated group who simply were meant to keep tabs on the party, not harm them.
While at the bar, the party spoke to Brother Essex about his discomfort thus far. He confessed that he was having a crisis of faith, unable to reconcile the good the church can do for people and their myriad black spots in their past. Namely, he mentioned the Crusade of Silver in which the Church massacred every person with lycanthropy in Khorvaire.
The party decided it would be best not to stay in Ghalt and instead hop the first train to Fairhaven. Vax reported what he had found out about the tails and the party sent them drinks, acknowledging their presence. The tails left the bar instead.
Turk and Vax went to the station to buy tickets and wait for the train while the rest returned to Stonestreet. When they got there, they found that someone had broken into Turk and Essex’s room, roughing the place up but not stealing anything. The party soon returned to the station and boarded the Lightning Rail’s Red Line, taking up residence in a double sleeper car for the journey.
Two hours later, somewhere north of Ghalt in the Aundairian countryside, the train came to an abrupt stop. Vax, the only member awake at the time, awoke the rest of the group when he couldn’t find any of the train’s attendants.
Out the window, on the hill where the main highway ran near the train, the party could make out the figure of one of the men who had been tailing them. Unfortunately for him, he had come face-to-face with the party’s other follower, Operative V. This time, V had company. A woman wearing the same outfit, but whose mask was made of silver. She bore the number IV engraved on the forehead.
Running to the front of the train, Yelena, Marcella, and Essex discovered that the attendants were all unconscious as was the pilot of the train. Outside, the two Operatives were stalking towards the train and time was running out. Essex told Yelena and Marcella to get the train moving as he leapt from the train, sprinting towards the Operatives. He then transformed into a massive werewolf, taking both Operatives on at once.
Marcella joined Essex on the field as Yelena attempted to figure out how the train operated. Soon, Vax and Bal joined the fight and Rasp attempted to revive the pilot. To Rasp’s dismay, the pilot (as well as the other attendants) were dead. While Yelena’s dragonmark seemed to connect with the train somehow, it wouldn’t fully power it. Rasp took out his shock gauntlets and threw them to Yelena.
Outside, the fight turned bloody. Vax was badly hurt forcing Rasp onto the field to heal him. Operative IV, quicker and harder to hit than her larger counterpart, managed to mortally wound Essex, forcing him back into his human form. Rasp saved Essex from dying and healed him enough to wake him up, but not enough to keep him fighting. Operative IV also had tricks up her sleeve. After downing Essex, she slipped one of her gloves off and put a dragonmarked palm up to Marcella’s head. Casting an unknown spell, smoke poured from the mark and immediately knocked Marcella unconscious. Though seemingly knocked out, Marcella felt as if she was being watched in the black of her unconscious state. She managed to shake herself from that state and return to the fight. Bal and Vax took on Operative V and with a particularly powerful thunder orb, Vax knocked Operative V’s mask off.
Underneath, Operative V looked like an ordinary human. He had sharp features and blue eyes. Yelena, still on the train, dropped the shock gauntlets, jumped from the train, and sprinted to Operative V yelling out “Captain!”. Operative V responded in an un-accented voice “Who the fuck is that?”. The two traded blows on the field. With V still in fighting order, and Operative IV nearly killing Essex and displaying unknown powers, the party was starting to find the fight desperate.
When things looked bleak, Dr. Turk came running to the front of the train wearing the shock gauntlets Marcella had given him. With tears in his eyes, he yelled for the party to get on the train because he could run it. With the gauntlets ignited, Turk grabbed the contacts and surged energy and lightning into the engine. As he did, a dragonmark glowed under his shirt on his shoulder.
Vax distracted Operative IV, shifting into his swiftstride form and running out ahead of the train. Vax, normally of impeccable posture and sporting a calm, charismatic attitude, took on a more primal stance, nails and teeth elongating, blue eyes flooding with yellow and becoming slit.
The rest of the party managed to board the train safely, with Marcella helping the wounded Essex aboard. Yelena, however, was not as lucky. As she boarded the train, V had kept his attention fixed and her and he fired a shot into the train, hitting her in the side. Despite this, Vax’s distraction worked. As the train got up to speed, he misty stepped into the engine car. The Operatives watched the train go and Operative IV gave the party a smoking wave of her hand good-bye.
As the train took off into the night, Vax’s shift wore off and he succumbed to the damage he took in the fight, falling unconscious.
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