The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

[Browncoat]

Mordan scratched his head. He couldn't remember what the word 'careful' meant...It probably wasn't important. He shrugged and followed after Therese cocking his head as examined the cavern with his senses as an earth mage.

[Graybeard]

What was visible on the surface, once Therese and Mordan had threaded their way carefully to the openings perched high on the chamber's walls, wasn't exactly what she had been hoping for. (Or so she thought.) "I'm not sure where this is," she told Mordan, "but it's a long way south of our destination."

To be sure, it was a nice view. They had emerged from a small bluff near the top of a forested hill, with forest and farmland stretching away before them. In the distance, a town was visible. The scene reminded Therese of the countryside around Refuge-Nouveau in some ways, but the forest was thicker and more representative of a warmer climate. We must be somewhere in Farrel, she decided. Or maybe on one of the Tsuirakuan islands, but that's less likely; I can't see the ocean from here.

One thing sure: nobody had been through the small opening between surface and underground recently. Abundant cobwebs testified to that. Whatever reason the dwarves had had, unimaginably long ago, for putting a junction of rail lines here, it was gone now. In fact there were no signs of recent movement on this hill at all. She could just make out a road below them, and using her distant-vision spell, she homed in on a signpost that might say something about the town beyond, as it did.

"Salaband 26," she read. "I don't know twenty-six what, but it really doesn't matter. This place is of no interest to us."

[Alberich]

Back below ground, the junction itself proved less confusing than at first it had appeared. There were signs of a passage heading northeast, but it appeared to have been sealed, very neatly and very, very finally. There was a notice indelibly painted on the stone. At the top were more of the strange letters the two travellers could not read...

(Did they but know it, the Dwarven writing said, "Directions for Further Travel to Zalabandje Station")

...and below them, drawn in red, a large pair of strangely-formed feet.

It looked as if the northwest route was the one to take.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, getting ready to move on here, with minimal interaction with the other thread, per some off-line PM's.]

A rumble down below interrupted Therese's inspection of the countryside. Might another car be pulling into this station, one that could take her and Mordan to their destination? No, she could see dimly that all that was happening was that the one they'd ridden to get here was heading back in the direction from which it had come. As the noise died down, the chamber once again stood empty.

By the time she had re-adjusted to the outside light, a group of travelers had moved into sight along the road down by the sign. Maybe she could learn more about this place by checking them out, just in case she'd misguessed about the location. She summoned magic to get the distant-vision spell back up ...

... But something was wrong. Somehow, the magic wouldn't work. No matter how much she exerted herself, she couldn't home in visually on the group below. Did they have some kind of magical defenses up? Was there a problem using magic in this place? She didn't feel particularly tired, so it wasn't that she herself had lost the ability to shape magic to her needs. But what was going on?

Shaking her head, she dropped back into the chamber and turned to Mordan. "Something isn't right topside, but I still don't think it's where we want to be. Let's get out of here and get on with the trip north." As if to punctuate her speech, distant rumbling from one of the other tracks announced that another car was arriving.

[Browncoat]

Mordan shrugged. There was something in his head...tickling at the back of his mind...something about...and it was gone. He sniffed. There was a scent in the air he couldn't place.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Perfect timing on that...]

"Well, the Five Great Mothers are looking after us," Therese said (quite inaccurately) as the second rail car pulled into the underground chamber. The band of colored lights around its top had the same blue and white pattern as the now-departed car had shown on its trip north. Evidently it was the continuation of the route that she thought they needed to follow. "Come on, let's get in, time's a-wasting."

Thus hurried, she made a rather fundamental error: failing to check whether the car was already occupied.

As indeed it was, by two men carrying staffs such as a mage might carry ...

... And a bound, comatose troll.

It would be hard to say who was more surprised by the sudden encounter when the doors of the car opened, but the men with the staffs recovered from their surprise first, by a small but sufficient margin. "SLEEP CLOUD!" one of them screeched, the staff glowed with magic, and the chamber filled with a pungent gas.

Damn. I just hope this isn't fatal, Therese had just enough time to think, before everything went black.

------------

Half a continent away, Sister Rose became aware that the tiny figurine that Therese had given her was starting to grow warm.

[Drusia]

OOC: As you Wish.

<"There have been some developments,"> Rose thought back. <"We're closing in on these death cultists, and Therese went ahead of us to -- scout them."> <"But the thing is, I'm pretty sure Desiree was starting to form an -- attraction for her before she left. And when I tell Desiree ... Drusia, I'm worried that she just isn't going to be up for a fight against these people, or creatures, or whatever they are ... but her passion, her capacity for love isn't going to let her stop, no matter how scared she is."> She swallowed. <"Nor, in her shoes, would I.">

I frown. <"That's... complicated,"> I agree, giving Rose a familiar hug, <"But, as you say, in her shoes, I would likely feel the same.">

"It's good to see you," I tell her aloud. And then add <"Do you have any suggestions as to how to proceed?">

-- Drusia

OOC: You said you wanted to move this over here, so I moved it over here. ^^

[Graybeard]

<"Do you have any suggestions as to how to proceed?">

Sister Rose thought about it for a long minute, but really, only one answer was possible. <"I just don't know,"> she thought back. <"I don't know exactly what we're up against, what their capabilities are, how we're going to counter them. Luminosita's Nethers, for that matter, I don't even know what a win looks like, other than getting our kidnapped priest back ... although I'm pretty sure what a loss would be."> She shuddered again.

Noticing Argus looking questioningly at her and Drusia, she decided to switch to oral speech. "Let's talk this over," she said, and took Argus by one hand and Drusia by the other, pulling them out of earshot of passersby (and Tamina). She quickly filled Argus in on the mental exchange and then turned back to Drusia. "Her capabilities have grown while we've been traveling," she said. "She's picked up quite a bit of magic, some of it fairly difficult. But she's still inexperienced, she's still not a fighter, and she's still scared." A deep breath. "Drusia, you've known her a lot longer than we have. What do you think we should do?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina, for her part, simply stood by smiling brightly as the conversation continued. The kobold was fighting the urge to skip on the spot in her anticipation of getting back to her magic studies with the beardy Argus.

[Graybeard]

Meanwhile, half a continent away:

Well, at least I'm still alive, Therese reasoned as she regained consciousness. That was the good news. (Probably.) The bad news was that she and Mordan were now lying on the floor of the railroad car, bound (with magic-suppressing cords, as it took her only a moment to realize) and gagged. The troll, despite its enormous strength, was no more able to move than she herself was, although his eyes were shifting from her and Mordan to the men in the car and back and forth, murder in every glare. Well, she couldn't blame him.

The car was starting to move again, and the two men were speaking. "Any idea where we are this time, Gyula?" one said; Therese was surprised to hear that he was speaking in the language of a rather distant, obscure city of the Northern Confederacy. This might bear investigating. (If she survived.)

"Damned if I know," the other replied. "You know how this damn dwarven system works. We just jump a car and hope it takes us where we're going. Usually doesn't take more than two or three to get close to the castle, though. You'd almost think they thought it was important or something." Both men chuckled at that.

"Yeah, but I don't like this," the first man said. "The Beast here gives me the willies." He poked at the troll with a booted foot, earning him a particularly venomous glare. Therese, for her part, did her best to avoid any indication that she understood the conversation; the men probably thought their use of an obscure language made their conversation secure. (Or maybe they didn't care.) "You sure we're doing the right thing? And why didn't we just kill these two fuckers?" Now the boot switched over to Therese's own ribs.

"Orders," the second man said. "You know what the Big Guy said: if we run into anyone down here, bring 'em in. Nobody outside the Convergence is s'posed to know about this system. He'll want to know how they found out about it ... and after he squeezes 'em dry, then we get to kill 'em."

The first man chortled. "Sounds good to me. Now gimme that pack, I'm hungry." Presently the smell of a sandwich wafted across Therese's nostrils, and she realized that she herself could very easily kill for that; it had been a long time since she'd eaten.