Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy

Olarune 22 - Therendor 4, YK 999

Part One - Fire on the Five Nations Express:
With two weeks to go before the wedding, the Wolves finished making preparations for the wedding, as well as other business while out of town. Those who didn't already have fine clothing purchased tailored outfits from Davandi Fine Tailoring in Upper Menthis. Meanwhile, Lysander called in a favor to get Sharis d'Orien, a member of the Entertainer's Guild, to spend the next week in Sharn looking for William.

As previously arranged, the Wolves went and met merchant Tyman Karch, who was on his way back to Aundair via the Five Nations Express, and signed on as his personal security. Karch was impressed with what he'd heard of the Wolves' skill, and Brand had gotten a recommendation from the Head of Security in Sharn's Orien enclave to boot. The Wolves were able to stay in one of the rooms in the first class coach, while Karch and his wife Miala stayed in another and his two children, Arabesque and Garren, stayed in the middle room with Karch's personal assistant Ollander Finch.

The first leg of the journey began early in the afternoon in Sharn, and the trip took about seven hours to arrive in the Brelish city of Wroat. Along the way, Brand chatted with the Orien security, and discovered that one of them, a man named Hervar, had bet his fellow security 10 gp each that with the Wolves aboard, the train would have some kind of accident.

Tyman's children very much enjoyed playing with Whitehearth and were fascinated by Luggoth, much to the chagrin of their keeper Ollander Finch.

Lysander decided to explore the train a little bit, but didn't get any further than the other first class cart, where he was stopped by a pair of mages, some House Cannith scions and some lower Brelish royalty who recognized him and pleaded with him to perform some of his music and stories from his recent tour. Bowing to his newfound fame, Lysander spent much of his time that day in one of the dining rooms, playing for the occupants of the first class cart as well as Luggoth, Maechen and Brand.

Pel spent much of his time aboard the lighting rail speaking with Tyman Karch about potential real estate purchases and a holding company he was planning on setting up in Sharn. Karch was cautious, perhaps even skeptical, but definitely interested, and provided Pel with a Sivis message station in Fairhaven where his assistant often checked and sent messages.

The Wolves took their security duties seriously, watching at each stop to see who climbed aboard and departed the Five Nations express and checking several of the other carts, but there didn't seem to be anything amiss. Stops in Hatheril and Sword Keep in Breland were uneventful, as was the first stop in Aundair in Marketplace.

After about two days of travel, the Wolves had not grown complacent, but they were starting to believe they might get out of the journey without some kind of incident. Then, very early in the morning, about halfway between Marketplace and Passage in Aundair, the incident found them.

About five hours after leaving Marketplace, with the moon high in the sky, the Five Nations Express was passing foothills and the Eldritch Grove, with the Tower Vigilant about fifty miles in the distance. Little did anyone aboard the train know that someone had been waiting for them to pass this point.

While most of the Wolves were sleeping, Luggoth and Lysander were on late watch, and they could tell immediately that something was wrong when the roar of the elemental ring stopped and the train began slowing down. Luggoth and Lysander quickly woke their charges, with Luggoth getting the merchant and his wife to their washroom and Lysander helping Ollander to carry the sleeping children to the same washroom so they would all be together. Brand woke on his own, having detected the change in sound, and he looked out the window to confirm that the lightning ring was out before yelling a warning. Maechen began to stir, but Arenydee and Pel were still meditating and sleeping, respectively.

As Luggoth climbed out onto the front of the cart, the rest of the Wolves began to wake in their chamber, and Brand walked to the rear of the cart to see if there was anything noteworthy there.

Seconds later, there was, as a huge fire elemental roared to life alongside the slowing train and began walking to keep up. Luggoth drew his bow and began firing, and Maechen unleashed magic missiles out his window, but the powerful strikes seemed more or less absorbed into the arcane monstrosity. Brand activated his dragonmark to teleport to the roof alongside Whitehearth and drew his bow to join in, while inside, Arenydee and Pel began hastily donning their armor.

Another huge elemental flared to life on the other side of the cart while the first swung his fiery fists into Luggoth, scorching and bludgeoning him. Luggoth shifted into his bestial form, continuing to pour arrow fire into the creature, as Maechen (nudged by Pel) grabbed a stoneskin scroll from Pel's case and began rushing down the corridor toward the besieged shifter. Brand began firing arrows at the first elemental as well.

Another blow from the elemental set Luggoth on fire, and he stepped back into the center of the platform, away from the elementals' reach, to put himself out. Lysander pulled out his bow and began firing at the newly arrived elemental while Brand drank a potion of fire resistance, slinging his bow and drawing his swords.

Pel, suspecting treachery from one of the mages in the other first class cabin, cast a scroll of keen edge on his scimitar and burst in, only to find that no one seemed to be awake.

Then a fiendish being appeared in the sky, his invisibility dropping as he unleashed a supernatural blight on Maechen, Lysander and Luggoth. The enemy was clearly fiendish in nature, with red-tinged skin and leathery bat wings. Seeing this, Luggoth downed a potion of haste for a longer battle, and Lysander loosed an arrow from his bow, pinning one of the fiend's arms to his chest. Maechen rushed outside and cast his stoneskin scroll on Luggoth before preparing a lightning bolt spell, which bounced seemingly harmlessly off the fiend.

As Brand engaged the first elemental in hand-to-hand combat using his rapier and short sword, the other elemental got past his guard, climbing on top of the roof and punching him hard in the back, which gave the other elemental an opening to smash him as well. He was protected from their fire effects, fortunately, but would still be bruised in the morning.

The fiendish being called something out in a guttural language none of the Wolves recognized, and the elementals changed their targets, focusing in on Luggoth. As Lysander began singing an inspiring ballad, Arenydee finished putting her armor on and Pel charged up the ladder to the roof to join the fight.

The fiend tried to free his arm as he continued to fly upwards, battered by arrow fire from Luggoth and Lysander as he did so.

One of the elementals began pounding and burning holes in the roof, trying to get to Maechen inside, while the other pounded on Luggoth with burning fists. Maechen fired off ice knife and magic missile while Brand continued to slice away and Pel cast spider-climb to rush around and begin using healing magic on the wounded Luggoth.

The stoneskin kept Luggoth alive, but he was still taking quite a beating, and finally he gave up on firing his bow at the fiend and instead pulled out his greatsword to begin counter-attacking the elemental. Meanwhile, Arenydee moved to protect their charges, moving them out of the washroom near the battle and back into the one at the rear of the train.

As the fiend finally freed his arm, he began casting a spell, dodging an arrow fired at Lysander to disrupt and vanishing, the result of either teleportation or invisibility. Lysander then rushed up the ladder and drew his rapier, ready to engage the elementals in melee. One of them took advantage of Maechen ducking out to fire magic missiles and smashed both fists down onto him, nearly killing the mage and setting fire to him as well. Maechen stumbled back, putting himself out, and drank a potion of healing before firing back with magic missiles and a grease spell that he hoped to use to trip the elemental off the train.

As Lysander and Pel both began casting healing magic on Luggoth, the enraged shifter finally managed to destroy the first elemental. Calming briefly, he drank a strong healing potion before charging back into battle against the other one, joining Brand and Lysander, both of whom had already changed targets.

Pel began firing his wand of magic missiles at the elemental, and it couldn't long stand the combined assault of the Wolves using magic and blade. However, with a growl of frustration, it stopped punching holes in the roof attempting to catch Maechen as he dodged out of the way, and instead thrust both of its massive arms into the interior, causing the hallway to catch fire. This was its last act, as Luggoth landed a few more deadly blows before Pel finally evaporated the elemental with a burst of magic missiles.

Lysander yelled out to warn everyone about the fire, and Brand began rushing down to get to the area as Pel rushed through into the merchant's room and soaked the blanket from their bed in water from the washroom. Lysander soaked one of the other blankets, and the two of them handed them out into the hallway to Brand, still protected from fire, who used the soaked blankets to put out the fire before it could spread.

The Wolves rushed to the front of the lighting rail to see what had gone wrong and found that all of the crew were unconscious, although alive. Neither Pel nor Lysander could easily identify the magic used, but Maechen stepped forward and suggested that it was a powerful evil spell known as Blasphemy, which would have temporarily banished the bound elemental and potentially killed or at least stunned the crew, as long the caster was on his native plane. Maechen suggested that this meant that the creature had been only half-fiendish, native to this plane. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, the crew woke back up and the air elemental powering the lightning rail flared back to life as well. The train was back underway, and everyone returned to bed, except for Luggoth, who stayed up to watch over the merchant and his family.

Part Two - Agent of the Silver Flame:
A few hours later, before they had arrived in Passage, there was a knock at the Wolves' door. When they opened the door, they saw one of the mages from the first class cart, a red-haired gentleman in spectacles and fine traveling clothes, bearing a holy symbol of the Silver Flame. "Hello, my name is Nalos Venteri. I'm an agent of the Silver Flame, and it is very urgent that I speak to you in private. May I come in?"

Though the Wolves were wary, especially Luggoth, they let Nalos into their cabin so he could talk to them. Venteri explained that he had been trying to talk to them since just before they left Sharn. He had heard rumors of an assassination plot against a High Cardinal named Ossul, and had done some digging while in Sharn on business.

In Sharn, he discovered that it was worse than he thought: Someone high up in the church was behind the plot, and they planned on framing Luggoth for the crime. Doing a little digging, he found out about Luggoth, his family and the atrocity that wiped out his tribe. He told Luggoth that he believed a corrupted splinter of the Silver Flame killed his tribe, which served to confirm what Pel had learned from communion with his god.

Nalos also revealed that he had been attacked by the half-fiend while in Sharn, but that he had managed to escape. He was going to try and talk to the Wolves before they got onboard the Five Nations Express, but he couldn't catch them in time, and since then he's been waiting for a quiet moment. With corrupt and most likely high-placed servants of the Flame involved, Nalos had already been seeking outside help, and now that the half-fiend knew that he was on the case, he worried about who else might be watching.

Nalos asked if the Wolves would accompany him to Thrane to try and find out who was behind the conspiracy to assassinate Cardinal Ossul. He explained that he believed it to be someone extremely high up in the church hierarchy, perhaps even an Archbishop or Bishop seeking to eliminate Ossul to move up the ladder to the Council of Cardinals.

Given that the Wolves were currently uninvolved, Nalos suggested that they should attend Elaydren's wedding, and not let on that they had met him. If there were spies watching them, they'd have no way of knowing that Nalos had contacted the Wolves. He told them that while they attended the wedding, he would secure them transport to Thrane, and come and get them the day after the wedding.

The Wolves agreed, and Nalos went back to his cabin. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and on 4 Therendor, the Five Nations Express pulled into the station in Fairhaven.

XP:
Luggoth 900 XP
Lysander 900 XP
Brand 1120 XP
Pel 1120 XP
Maechen 1120 XP
Arenydee 675 XP