Session 7: Hatheril Heist

Flamesday, 21 Seeding, 998 Y.K.   As Wroat slid out of view in the last window at the back of the University car, all that remained in view was grass. This part of the Brelish countryside, including Wroat itself, never saw fighting at any point in the war, and the farmland around the Brelish capital was rich and bountiful. The train passed farms and orchards, full of farmers working the land. A herd of cattle, led by halflings on fastieth-back, waved at the rail-line as it continued eastward. Soon afterwards, even the farmland gave way to endless prairie and the subtle hypnotics of a gently rolling background and little else to occupy the group's attention.   After some time, Leali dug a very thick tome out of her carrying case and held it aloft, shouting, "I found it!" She sat at the table and spread the book open for everyone to see, looking at deeply intricate writing, reminiscent of Draconic but much more intricate. She explained, over Rakela's patient eyerolls, that this was the section of the Prophecy that she had been studying for years, refining her grasp of the language and of the meaning of the Prophecy. The research she'd performed had cost her two jobs, one at the University of Wynarn, another at the Korranburg Library. Morgrave University was her last chance at tenure, but even they wouldn't hire her for their school of divination, instead forcing her to justify herself through the department of Secondary Research.   She offered to read the Prophecy aloud for the party, and even Rakela said she didn't mind hearing it again, though she was clearly humoring the lecturer. Leali made a grand show of warming up her vocal chords to perform the difficult sounds of the ancient tongue, but then she went quite still, and the Return of the First Daughter flowed forth from her lips. The bard's rich recitation carried each member of the party away to a distant place.

• Bell saw the Heart of the Great Work, the remains of the Creation Matrix that built the Forged. It was right where they left it, in Grandfather’s depths. The air was painfully still, but in the distance she could hear a soft crunching and cracking, as of heavy boots crunching glass. Over the quiet echo of a smith’s hammer on an anvil, she could just make out staticky sobs and an apology, over and over. In that moment, she knew she had to rescue Grandfather’s forgotten children, so they could teach her to mend a broken promise.
• Relic saw a great chamber, cold enough to seep into his core. Before him, sitting on a marble throne covered in green and black cushions was an undead elf, withered and ancient. She radiated power, her presence overwhelming. She shifted, and he could see the dragonmark that covered her body, from the back of her head over her great leathery wings and down her tail. She turns in his direction. She saw him, and she knews he could see her. She rose from her throne, her great leathery wings unfurling to their full span. Her withered tail lashed, and she hefted her staff. He felt the need to run. Now, before she caught him. He knew he needed to find the crystal blade, the one made for her.
• Zer saw the Hall of Empty Mirrors, one of the most sacred sites of Adar. The smoked glass walls of the temple reflected only the thoughts of initiates who were brought within, to encourage them to face their fears. He saw the peak of Korrandar, Roof of the World, as the last thing before the door closed behind him. He knew of a crystal said to shine all on its own, from every facet capturing light from every other, a perfect reflection of itself. He knew he must bring the crystal with him to the hall, to bring light into the darkness.
• Milli saw the Crystal Heart, the one she'd heard about. It was in Silverdream, a literal heart carved from a single piece of clear quartz, suspended between a pair of points covered in vines of Sylvan. The heart itself was inscribed along its edges in the same way, closed loops of sentences swirling magic inside the crystal so that it radiated love and compassion, protecting the Everglow above and below. She could feel its warmth shining on her shell, but deep inside, she could feel a cold shut in her casting. She knew she needed to patch the weak join within her so you could survive the reforging.
• Spark saw a flag made of silk, with strands of every color in the rainbow. The flag is covered in writing she didn't recognize, but she know she could draw it from memory. She felt herself in a fort so high up in the mountains that when the sun rose over the walls, the whole world seemed to glow. She heard a great bell toll in the distance, calling to you. She knew she carried a seed with her, one that had caused great sorrow and begged for atonement. She knew it had to be purified, so it could be planted.
• Medya saw a great barren field so high up in the mountains, flying over a circle of stones. She looked out at the horizon and saw the stars, and how beautiful the moment was. She knew that she could clench her talons, and what a pretty sound it made when they clacked together. She knew the stars were so very important, the sun and the moon in the sky together, and that even something as simple as closing one's fist could feel so profound, feeling so very much in her own body now.

  When the recitation was over, the party all stared at one another, and then at Leali. Rakela applauded politely, but then stopped when she saw the looks on the others' faces. When it became obvious to everyone that they had all seen something, Spark drew the flag from her memory, Relic identified the words as the Sacred Heart Training School, but he couldn't say how he knew it. Relic mentioned seeing the dragonmark on the draconic elf, and identified it as "reminiscent of his but bigger." The forged then revealed the dragonmark emblazoned on his chest and explained that was why he wanted to know everything Leali knew.   Rakela responded by revealing herself to be part of the Brelish military and said that before anyone said anything she'd have to report, she was going to take leave of the room. She made it a point of reminding Relic to be careful with his secrets, then escorted Leali out of the room and put on some music in her room loudly enough to make it clear she wasn't listening to them. Their privacy somewhat assured, the party quickly revealed their visions to each other. Spark, on the words of her vision, carefully split open her staff to find the remains of a sword, its blade snapped off. Embedded in its handle itself was a faintly red stone that Relic could only describe as "crystal." Though she didn't know where it was or how to get there, Spark said that she would one day return the sword hilt to the school, and the others seemed as equally committed to facing their futures together.   In the middle of the night, the train came to a stop, and Rakela roused the rest of the travelers. Spark and Bell advanced through the railcars to find an old sparring partner of Spark's named Herringbone, who had recently been put out of work. They'd jumped the rail back in Sharn hoping to sneak a ride all the way to Flamekeep, but they'd gotten caught making noise in the cargo hold. The guards were threatening to throw them off when Spark offered to take Herringbone in the party's car, which took the Forged off of the guards' hands. Herringbone thanked Spark effusively for her help and hid in Morgrave's private cargo hold.   It was almost anti-climactic when the train pulled into Hatheril Junction, hardly even a town. When House Cannith came through to build the rail, they originally wished to stop in Hatheril proper. The lady mayor of the day proclaimed that she didn't trust Cannith's dangerous toys and proclaimed that if she could see it from her bedroom window, she'd have it smashed. The architects proceeded to measure just how far from Hatheril they'd have to put the rail line to stay out of the lady mayor's sight, and promptly built enough buildings to service the line that nobody had to return to Hatheril. Thus, Hatheril Junction was born: two rail platforms, a railcar shed, and a single strip of buildings including a Cannith repairs shop, a Jorasco healing clinic, a stable, and an inn named the Lightning Alehouse.   After the coach stopped completely, an Orien guard knocked on the door and informed the party that they were going to have to detach a few cars for a northbound coach which would be coming through in a few hours. They requested the party debark for their own safety, which Bell and Milli were most happy to do. A few minutes later, the rail crew began detaching cars bound northward for Thrane. Spark and Relic escorted Herringbone to the northern platform, where they encountered a carriage that nearly ran into the platform and managed to jostle one wheel. A nervous-looking half-elf sat holding the reins, and a stone in his pocket clearly asked, "are you in position?"   As the young man attempted to answer his shirt, Relic hopped up onto the carriage beside him, grinning widely. Once Relic was up, however, Herringbone rose and began to say, loudly, that the spirit was pulling them, that they could feel the heat of the flame. They rose and began to stumble back towards the steerage car, their wails growing louder and louder. Spark called back to Zer and Milli to get ahead of the brawler, and Bell returned from her visit to the Cannith repair shop in time to see a man in brightly polished armor holding aloft a holy symbol and a crossbow, demanding "tithes from the faithful and tribute for Thrane in return for sparing the lives of the unbelievers." Milli accosted the preacher, but Herringbone threw themself at the feet of the paladin and cried out for salvation. The paladin, eager for a convert, brandished his silver holy flame at Herringbone and seared the fire of righteousness into the forged, who rose to defend the paladin from attack.   Milli demanded the paladin explain why he was shaking down the poor for tribute when there were first class cabins untouched, but the Thranian responded by brandishing his holy symbol at her and filling her with dread. At that, however, Bell let out a massive roar and proclaimed the paladin to be a heretic, using an alchemical infusion to heat the silver flame in his hand to white-hotness. Seared by his own sacred symbol, he swore and drew his sword, revealing deep red lightning behind his eyes: the paladin was possessed by the spirit of Bel Shalor, the Shadow of the Flame. He lashed out at Milli, the target of his ire, searing her with a lance of sunlight, but she responded with an arcane rebuke of her own.   Spark arrived and tried to talk Herringbone out of their fervor, but the new convert would have none of her and begged her to leave them alone. Spark tried to point out that the paladin was a fraud, but Herringbone's own conversion was real, and the freshly kindled flame refused to be swayed. Spark found herself having to push through the rope-a-dope's endurance to try to get to the paladin, when Zer's spirit arrived in an astral construct while his bonded half sequestered his body. The angelic form that Zer wore proclaimed the paladin a charlatan and smashed its mighty mace into both he and the forged, sending them both sprawling.   At the northern platform, the driver had drawn a knife and attempted to throw it at Relic, but his nerves ruined his aim and he left the blade embedded in the dirt. Relic cut free the mounts for the carriage, slapping one to send them running. The getaway vehicle thus disabled, the forged monk took his time trying to talk the half-elf into standing down, only to have him attack again, then try to run only to fall and knock the wind out of his chest hitting the ground. That was when Relic heard banging from his chest quite different from the sounds of combat in Steerage, and he relayed to the party that something was happening elsewhere on the train.   It was then that Milli realized that the paladin must have been a distraction for something else, and she took off running for the first class cabins with Medya flying behind. The guards that normally would have been present were instead escorting the coach and its driver as it reorganized the cars! That had left first-class temporarily without any external guards, and three people wearing chain shirts and carrying maces were using the opportunity to batter through one of the locked doors. The unicorn called out for them to halt, while the gryphon fired warning shots, but the raiders continued to break in, succeeding in smashing down the door. That's when Milli filled the air around them humming waves of force, pinning them in place.   The raiders continued to fight their way in, struggling against Milli's forcefields, when Bell arrived and fired a makeshift wand at one of the raiders. Spark arrived soon after, and though they were determined, the bandits were no match for the party, plus the timely addition of a force bolt from first class. Garan Mroranon and his husband Dori, two dwarves from the Mror Holds, were on their way back from Sharn with mining equipment and Brelish weapons to defend their western borders, in part because Thrane had begun sending "missionary parties" into the mountains that the dwarves suspected were crusaders by another name.   As thanks for saving them from abduction, Dori offered one of his rings to the group, a beautifully polished and carved silver ring set with a rainbow of semi-precious gems. "It's only worth fifty," he said as he passed it off, but Bell quickly realized he must've meant fifty gold when she studied it. The ring was clearly imbued with some defensive magics, and they gave it to Spark to make it easier for her to survive going toe to toe with the likes of Herringbone again. The guards returned to find the situation in control, and Herringbone in custody. Spark spoke in their behalf, and the guards agreed to let Herringbone walk, provided they ran to Thrane and didn't look back. The old fighter took the hint and fled northward as fast as they could.   Once the fight was concluded, the proprietress of the Cannith repair facility cane out and, with a few waves of her hands, stitched up the rail cars with ease; she turned out have a greater dragonmark of Making and was quite talented despite -- or perhaps because of -- her constant nattering about every triviality imaginable. Thusly thanked, the party waited for the coach to be reattached behind their car, and soon after the Blue Bull departed for Starilaskur.