The Empress Express and Chauncey - Illevar story.
Hey everyone,
Today I wanted to share another story from Illevar. This one was from the D&D 5e game I was running with some friends that was the basis for Illevar.
This particular tale came from when the players were traveling from Splinterville in Festyae, where they had just solved a murder case, to Draibar, where they hoped to continue their quest to find out what was happening in Illevar.
Our heroes were: Yeleyna, a fire sorceress; Ashe, a warlock; and Salom, a cleric.
The train they were riding was called the Empress Express. It was a large luxury train that traveled the scenic route across the mountain range that separated out two countries. They were given free tickets from one of the wrestlers they helped out in Splinterville.
After loading up on an obscene amount of Flaming Hot Cheetos at the concession stand before entering the train, the trio were told to place all their weapons inside special chests in their rooms. This would, according to the onboard guards, prevent people from causing problems on the train.
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work~.
The room they were sharing was towards the back of the train. It was small, but comfy. There were three beds in the room. One on its own side of the room and a bunk bed on the other. Ashe and Yeleyna fought over the top bunk, eventually with Yeleyna winning it by covering it in cheeto dust.
“Ugh, fine!” exclaimed Ashe.
Salom, all this time, had been resting on his bed on the other side of the room silently judging the two idiots he was adventuring with.
Their squabble ended, a knocking sound was heard from their door. Yeleyna got the short straw and opened the door. Upon opening it, there was a miasma of tobacco smoke. Standing outside the door was a large, elderly man wearing glasses, a nice blue suit, and sporting a decent, yet unkept beard.
Firmly shaking Yeleyna’s hand, as well as the rest of her, the man introduced himself:
“Good afternoon folks! My name is Dewey Gettum of ‘Dewey Gettum & Howe Detective Agency’! I’m interviewing people on this here train to see if they know anything about the disappearances happening in Bleakport. Any information you have would be greatly appreciated,” Dewey said, never letting go of Yeleyna’s hand nor the cigarette dangling from his lips.
After introducing himself and causing Yeleyna to be disoriented by the man’s hand, er, body-shake, he tells the party that he is a private investigator looking into the matter of disappearing children in Bleakport. As the train would be stopping at Bleakport Station on its way to Draibar, he was hoping to get some new leads from the individuals onboard.
The players told him they know nothing, but offered to help Dewey any way that they can. Ashe, in the meantime, was trying to hide a concerned look on his face. Suddenly, bumping into Dewey and causing him to drop a fresh cig from his hand onto the floor, appeared Katherine Howe, Dewey’s partner. She apologized to the group, not to Dewey, and asked them to forgive the sudden intrusion on their relaxing trip on the Empress Express.
Dewey began to make his way down the hall to the next room, before Salom asked if he would like his cigarette back. Dewey replied that it was unhealthy to use things that fell on the floor and asked the party to dispose of it. A loud knock followed by a hearty introduction was soon heard down the hall as the PCs closed the door.
The train began to move after the group got settled back down. Upon picking up the cigarette, the group found that there was a secret paper attached to the outside of it. It was a normal looking paper, not much to comment on except the way it was crumpled. Ashe figured that if they rubbed some charcoal on it, it might show a message, which it did.
“Wow, bro! You can be smart sometimes!” Yeleyna exclaimed.
Ashe gave her a look.
Ashe and Yeleyna were not siblings, but they did look very similar to each other. Each having white hair and gold eyes.
The message specifically asked for the party to meet Dewey at 7pm in the smoking car. To bring a bottle of booze and a fresh pack of smokes as he was running out.
Having time to kill until 7pm, the party decided to traverse the train. After entering the dining car to get something to eat, the players notice that almost all the patrons look eerily similar. They are all dressed in black suits, with black fedoras and sunglasses. Ashe caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the wrist of one of the men and recognized it as a mafia family tattoo. The tattoo of House Magron, a former Draibar Mafia Family that was driven out of Draibar by the ruling family, House Salandra. Sensing something might be afoot, he relayed the information to the others after returning to the room.
“Those were House Magron goons,” Ashe stated, “What the hell are they doing on this train?”
“I don’t know,” replied Salom, “Let’s meet up with Dewey tonight. He might know something.”
Yeleyna was munching on her Flaming Hot Cheetos, despite just leaving the dining car…
The party met up with Dewey at 7pm. Dewey informed the group that children had been disappearing at an alarming rate in and around Bleakport. He eyed Ashe and asked him specifically if he knew anything about a monster called “The Hag.” A mysterious monster that had been appearing in children’s playtime rhymes. The rhyme itself centered around an older, burned down orphanage. Ashe denied knowing anything about it. Content, but not truly believing the group, Dewey took his leave, telling the group to be careful as there appeared to be some weird activity happening on the train.
So, Ashe’s backstory was that he was an orphan from Bleakport. The matron of the orphanage was called "Gelinda the Kind." She was well paid and respected for finding homes for many of the children orphaned or abandoned in the city. In reality, she was a very cruel old woman who was selling the children to the Cultists for experiments or indoctrination.
Gelinda was pranked by Ashe and his friend and, as punishment, she locked them in the coal cellar. After several days, Ashe’s friend passed away and he was left alone in the dark dusty room. As he was feeling his life leave him, Ashe witnessed a pillar of smoke rise and turn into a tall man, who offered Ashe the chance for revenge. Ashe agreed to the terms, acquiring his Warlock powers and patron, and made use of his magic to get his revenge. He used his magic to send the matron into a forced sleep, before rounding up the remaining children and setting fire to the orphanage. He assumed that Gelinda burned alive in the fire and that was the end of her. This was even confirmed in the Bleakport News. The paper reported that a female skeleton was recovered by the fire department.
Ashe was deep in contemplation. Could his past have survived that blazing house fire? Could this monster, The Hag, be Gelinda?
Salom interrupted Ashe’s thoughts by suggesting they return to their room and rest for the night. Yelenya, however, was interested in Ashe’s thoughts. She inquired about his past. Ashe, no longer feeling the need to hide anything now that the detective was gone, informed the group about his past.
“Oh, you poor thing!” Yeleyna said, before she gave Ashe a big hug.
“Get off me, ya pudgy bread maker!” Ashe said, as he tried his best to get away from the intense bear-hug.
“You two are adorable siblings,” Salom chuckled.
“We’re not related!” Ashe retorted back.
Later that night, the group was startled by the sounds of gunshots ringing out. Their door was forced open and two Magron goons stood in the entrance with guns at the ready.
“Nobody move! This is a robbery!” the tall goon snarled.
“Want some cheetos?” Yelenya asked, offering forth an already opened bag.
“Why yes, thank you,” the short goon replied, taking the bag from Yeleyna and beginning to hork them down.
“Not the whole bag!” Yeleyna cried.
“Give us all yer cheetos, er, I mean goods!” the tall man barked, motioning with his gun towards the safe.
Ashe and Salom, having neither the energy, patience, or cheesy goods to deal with that right then, lept forward and attacked the goons. Salom punched the tall one, while Ashe threw his spirit dagger into the neck of the short one. Yeleyna conjured up some firebolts and blasted holes through both of the goons, ending their fetid lives.
“Well, guess we were right about there being trouble on the train,” Salom stated, picking up some bullets and a pistol from the tall goon.
“So much for a relaxing trip,” Ashe replied, his dagger magically returning to him.
“MY CHEETOS!” Yeleyna remarked, crying over the now empty bag. “They were expensive…”
“Just take the gun…” Ashe ordered, sighing deeply.
The trio made their way through the cars, fighting occasional gangsters attempting to rob the rich on board. It started to become very clear to everyone on the train that, despite being full of wealthy nobles, there wasn't anything valuable onboard.
The Empress Express, you see, isn’t used for trade negotiations or the transport of goods. It’s just a luxury ride. Much like a cruise ship in our world.
After reaching a certain car, the group found that they were in a hostage situation. They quickly dispatched one of the henchmen, but the other had run into a room where two nobles were staying.
“If you take another step forward, I’ll blow these overfed powdered wigs to the afterlife!” the goon shouted to them.
“That’s fine by us!” Ashe shouted back.
Salom gave him a look.
“Damn,” replied three separate voices from the room.
Salom and Yeleyna weren’t keen on the idea of having civilians killed. They were generally good people and were former Empire Military personnel.
“There’s got to be a way,” Salom said quietly.
“Hmmm,” thought Yeleyna.
“I’ve got it!” Ashe remarked. He fished in his pocket before producing a deck of cards. This was a Deck of Illusions. By pulling out a card at random, Ashe could produce an illusion near the criminal, possibly distracting him long enough for them to get closer.
Side note: The illusions in the deck were all written by us as players. Some were normal: like a bird, or a cake, or a puddle of water. Others were a bit…odd. These included things like: a goose with a slightly too long neck or a fat woman under a polka dot umbrella.
“Great idea!” Yeleyna chimed in, “I can use my Thaumaturgy to enhance it as well.”
Their plan in motion, Ashe drew a card from the deck and hurled it toward the hostage room. Appearing in a cloud of smoke rose a most intimating form. It was tall, quadrupedal, and striped. It was a zebra staring at the moon…
Yeleyna quickly fires up her magic. She caused the train to feel like it was shaking. There was suddenly a red, ominous glow surrounding the illusion. The temperature was rising rapidly. Engulfed in magical flames, with an earthquake to boot, the zebra, though done by Yeleyna, spoke, “I AM CHAUNCEY, LORD OF THE UNDERWORLD! YOU WILL BOW BEFORE ME OR SUFFER MY WRATH!”
At this point, out of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, I made a roll for the goon. I decided that on a 20, he would see through the illusion and kill the hostages, on a 2-19, he would submit and give up. And on a 1, he would do something drastic.
The group hears a single shot ring out in the corridor. They assumed the goon had tried to kill the illusion, but there was no sound of glass breaking. After making their way down the corridor, they enter the room to see the goon had shot himself after soiling his trousers. The hostages, who were naked in their bed, just stared ahead, mouth agape.
And that is how Chauncey, Lord of the Underworld, saved some hostages during a train robbery.
Thanks for reading.
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