The Party:
- David Van Stone, 5th level Half-elf Warlock (Celestial Patron) - Former Aneman army officer.
- Van Darkholme, 5th level Half-elf Warlock (Sentinel Patron) - Vigilante crime fighter and former Aneman city planner.
- Wellston Plumbago, 5th level Half-elf Warlock (Great Old One Patron) - Rake, roustabout, and the world's only known Drow ambassador.
The plan, then, was to get the Archpriest back to Libussa as fast as possible. All three kidnappers were concerned that their absence would be noticed by Isaac Bacterian (despite their conclusion that he had expected them to fail), and so they plotted a northern course, swapping between broom flight and passenger trains.
A small amount of cold-weather travel preparation was all that was required before leaving, although Wellston found it necessary to passionately kiss the sputtering Captain Hans as a precursor to their departure.
The flight over the border was brief and uneventful. The three warlocks and the Archpriest passed over a border skirmish, but opted not to stop--they couldn’t tell which side was Aneman and which was Pirran, and nobody wanted to catch a stray bullet. After landing, the Archpriest was fitted with a false nose and nondescript, dirty clothing to better blend in with the other travelers. The trio debated arming Thomasz, but concluded that it was a poor idea.
David: "Should we give the Archpriest a weapon in case something bad happens?"
Wellston: "What, so he can kill himself?"
As the train passed along the inland sea coast between Horrisch and Rencher, the Archpriest described in greater detail the rewards that would await them if they safely escorted him back to Libussa--they would take on the station of “Prefects to the Archpriest”, outranking everyone but the Archpriest, his Cardinals, and any Church Militant cleric in matters of Pirran and Church security. Furthermore, they would each receive Church lands as their personal domain or manor, and an account drawn from Iadesian funds totaling 50,000 gold pieces.
The three warlocks found this acceptable, but dreams of wealthy retirement were interrupted when a large group of Church Militant soldiers boarded the train at a small coastal town. The Archpriest’s earlier warnings about the machinations of traitorous Cardinals came to mind, and the party debated what to do as the soldiers moved through the train cars, inspecting passengers in each carriage as they advanced. No clear decision was reached before the sliding door of their compartment was wrenched open and a look of recognition passed across the faces of the soldiers.
The trio was asked their names. All three lied unsuccessfully. The Archpriest was addressed by name, but Thomasz wasn’t put at ease by the presence of the soldiers. Requesting a moment to pray for his mysteriously identifiable kidnappers, Thomasz joined hands with all of them, locking his hand firmly around the soldier’s hand and loosely gripping that of Van. The Archpriest launched into a rapid-fire patter of prayer--which the soldier, supposedly a sworn member of the Iadesian Church Militant, was entirely unable to repeat, let alone keep pace.
The trio caught on to the Archpriest’s message, and cast the entire train car into magical darkness before leaping up to engage the soldiers.
Startled, the soldiers unleashed a barrage of blind gunfire into the darkness. In response, each of the trio fired back with eldritch blasts of power, slaying soldiers almost as fast as they were replaced by reinforcements rushing down the line of train cars. One soldier, still standing in the open cabin doorway, drew a fighting knife and slashed the Archpriest, who barely managed to dive to the floor. What would have been an arterial spray was only a brutal gash on the forearm, and the knife-wielding soldier was quickly blown away by Van. David rushed to magically heal the wound.
The soldiers retreated up the train’s length, firing wildly into the swirling mass of darkness and the sound of Van’s menacing voice, heedless of bystanders. The soldiers loudly called for backup from their unseen leader, Barnabus.
The trio split into two groups--David and Van remained in the train car to fight off the soldiers while Wellston and the Archpriest moved further back along the train to get beyond the range of flying carbine rounds and flying splinters of shattered wood and glass.
Van and David chased the retreating soldiers with blasts of eldritch force, but were rebuked when the soldiers’ leader, a man in a Church Militant tabard and steel helmet, pointed an iron wand at them and growled out a resonant spell. A glowing orange bead hissed down the length of three train cars before blossoming into a storm of roaring flame. The car was instantly set ablaze, and the two warlocks were badly burned. David retreated to heal his wounds, leaving Van alone to face off against the war mage Barnabus from within the burning train car.
Wreathing himself in mystic ice, Van mounted his broom and hurled himself through the train at the war mage--but not before Barnabus pointed the wand again at Van and unleashed a bolt of white lightning straight into his chest. When his eyes cleared and his ears stopped ringing, Van briefly noted that the carpet and walls between himself and the war mage had also been set aflame. He wouldn not survive another unmitigated strike.
Meanwhile, David and Wellston concerned themselves with the handful of still-living bystanders that the war mage’s fireball hadn’t already killed. Wellston had little sympathy for them.
Wellston: "Civilians are combatants that haven't realized it yet."
Wellston, hiding in a conjured illusion of even more fire, poked his head out of the heatless flames and saw that Van’s duel with Barnabus was going poorly. He turned back to Thomasz.
Wellston: “How does Iades feel about collateral damage?”
Thomasz: “The Church tries to avoid it at all costs!”
Wellston: “That’s unfortunate.”
Wellston walked up the train, made sure that Van wasn’t in the radius of his spell, and ripped open a gateway to the darkness of space, unleashing the Hunger of Hadar on the train car occupied by Barnabus and a score of screaming passengers. Boiling darkness spilled from the hole in reality and impossible tentacles ripped the car and everything that remained in it into frozen, corroded chunks.
But another shouted spell could be heard from within the darkness. Barnabus, mauled but alive, launched into the open air above the train car on invisible wings. The war mage leveled his iron wand at the train car containing the Archpriest and prepared to blast it off the rails--but Van was waiting for him and unleashed a point-blank flurry of eldritch power, ripping him apart like a hammered apricot.
The last Church Militant soldier swore loudly, threw down his rifle, and leaped from the train. His jump was ill-timed, however, and the passing bough of a tree swatted him from the air with a crunching finality.
After ensuring the survival of the Archpriest, the trio busied themselves with escorting what few survivors they could find to the front of the train and separating the burning train cars from the undamaged ones.
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