Eberron PbP Story Hour – Chapter 2: The Plot Thickens
The warforged that crashed through the window stared at Shrapnel. Shrapnel began to speak again.
“Suddenly, as if to answer my inaudible request for action, the very window I was looking through shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. Had I the skin of one of these poor defenseless fleshbags, I might have been disfigured or blinded by such a kaleidoscope of blades. I stood to face whatever aggressor had foolishly chosen this particular car to invade. I was saddened only that this infraction would distract me from the bounty of the visual cornucopia outside the train.”
The party-crashing warforged raised his blade and cut deeply into Shrapnel’s iron hide, another gash showing itself on Shrapnel’s weathered frame.
“What was that?” Ilyra said as she ran back to the car, wondering what caused the sound of breaking glass the party had heard. Based upon the sounds of battle, she thought it prudent to use her Dragonmark. She removed the glove from her left hand and her Mark glowed brightly as she found herself protected by arcane magic.
Lealani made her way back towards the sound of battle, peeking in to see the two warforged locked in combat.
“Friend of yours?” she comments to Shrapnel before looking back down the hallway to the others. “There’s another warforged in here! Looks like it swung in from the roof!”
Shrapnel did not respond to Lealani’s question. Instead, he continued to monologue.
“I was surprised and stayed my hand a moment longer than I had desired. Where was my sword? No. I have no sword. A blade is an unnecessary serial appendage, one needed not by my hands. I looked at my opponent, his eyes with a strange rage. Another warforged? And why would he want to harm me? Nevertheless, I yelled a resounding insult, sure to demoralize my opponent, and while he reconsidered his foolish actions I attempted to strike him with my broken hand!”
“I thought for a moment about the six vials I kept nearby. Clearly he saw me as an inferior, a weak and damaged model that was fundamentally flawed. I felt perplexed. Was this how I would finally be rendered useless?”
Unfortunately, Shrapnel’s swing bounces off of the warforged’s metal and does no damage.
“No! I had to press on. This broken warforged had a chance, albeit a slim one!”
The rest of the group made their way back to the car, with Kolthak muttering under his breath.
“All the bloody thing does it talk to itself, and now there’s two of them!”
Seeing itself hopelessly outnumbered, the crashing warforged pulled on the rope tied around its waist. It immediately was pulled out of the window and up on to the top of the speeding Rail!
Ilyra’s eyes widened and she drew her crossbow, ready to attack any more warforged that made their way through the window.
“Well my new friends, this most certainly is not coincidence. As I doubt our good friend Geldam would set us up, it’s our duty to investigate!” Lealani said as she cast mage armor on herself and starting making her way towards the intersection between this car and the next, looking for a way up to the roof. Once she was standing in the intersection, out in the elements, she was able to locate a ladder on the outside of the Rail that could be reached from where she was standing. She yelled back to the others on her discovery.
Looking over at the warforged, Rathan asked, “Are you damaged? I’m a blacksmith with expertise in armorsmithing. I may be able to help you.”
“With the weight of additional injury upon himself, the warforged reached into his pack and procured a vial of the elixir provided by one Bonal Geldam some time ago. With his steel but agile fingers, he uncorked the container and slathered its contents into the damage incurred by the shortsword of the errant attacker,” Shrapnel replied as he applied his oil of repair.
“When the strange male asks his question, the warforged abruptly explained his nominal situation and described the affect the contents of his potent solution working its way through the damage.”
Shrapnel turned to the smith and started to mime a serious of animated but ultimately useless gestures.
“Apparently you don’t,” Rathan responded as he made his way to the ladder.
Jebber yelled out, “Let’s head the villains off before they escape!” as he made his way to the door, holding it open for those who needed to race through it since it opened and closed automatically.
Kolthak decided the best bet would be to make his way to the opposite door from the party, just in case the enemy decided to double back.
Ilyra, seeing Kolthak head to a door, followed him to the opposite end of the car from where the others were standing. She was able to find another ladder to the top of the car.
Lealani grinned, lifted the front of her well made skirt and quickly stuffed it in her belt. “I hope you boys will be right behind me!” She grabbed on to the ladder and tried to make her way up. Unfortunately, the wind was whipping so hard she could make no progress.
Shrapnel continued to move and monologue. “Uncertain what had become of the attacking entity, the warforge persued the strange opponent behind the non-forged humanoids.”
Rathan looked at Lealani, “Let me give it a try.” He steadied himself and began a slow but steady climb muttering something under his breath. He was able to snake his way past Lealani and climb up to the top of the rail car. A quick look to the left and Rathan saw a rope connected to some sort of mechanism that was hooked to the car itself. To the right he sees a warforged running quickly towards the back of the train. Rathan pulls himself onto the top of the Rail. He has to really plant his feet to keep from falling over but does so successfully.
Jebber also decides to climb the ladder. “Pardon me, m’lady,” he said as he made his way past her. He pokes his head up so he can see what’s going on and decides to take a shot at the warforged on the roof. He points his hand and utters some words. A loud *snap* is heard and a crystal shard flies out of his hand. Unfortunately, the wind catches it and it sails wide right of the target.
On the other end of the car, Kolthak makes his way up the ladder and climbs on to the top of the Rail. Unfortunately, dwarves aren’t as sure-footed on the tops of trains and he gets caught up in the wind and falls on his back.
As the warforged on the roof kept running, Ilyra and Lealani both started to climb to the roof. Ilyra barely made it as Lealani got up and was able to keep her balance. “It’s out of my reach for a spell. Are we following?” she asked, the wind whipping her long hair around her face.
“Let’s cut him off! Three atop the car, three inside!” Jebber yelled in response.
Lealani nodded and yelled back, “He’s heading to the back of the train!” She started moving after the warforged, easily jumping to the next car. From there, she saw that there was only one car left. The warforged was about to hit a dead end. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Shrapnel and Rathan both right behind her.
Jebber shouts at the three atop the last car. “We’ll take the interior and cut him off!” Unfortunately, his foot slipped as he was yelling and he had to grab on to the ladder for dear life. This time, more slowly, he made his way down the ladder and back between the rail cars. As he did, he looked down and noticed the train has started across a bridge. The chasm below seems to go down for miles. Jebber uttered a prayer. “Praise be to the Sovereign Divinity that guides my steps, may Your righteous path remain firm beneath my feet.”
In the meantime, Kolthak had gotten sick of falling on top of the car. “To Khyber with this!” he yelled loudly as he tried to make his way down the ladder. Maybe he hit his head when he fell; maybe he had poor footing; whatever the reason, he couldn’t get a steady footing on the ladder and couldn’t make any progress down.
All the folks on top of the railcar chased the warforged, who had just seemed to realize he was at a dead end. He turned and looked at the enemies bearing down on him. He then looked down into the chasm below. As a defiant last act, the warforged looked at his pursuers and screamed, “Say hello to Bonal for me!” before throwing himself off the side of the train and into the large darkness below.
All three pursuers stopped immediately. Lealani looked quizzically at Rathan and asked in a frightened voice, “What the hell did that mean?”
