[[1493-04-07 - Hour 6 II|<< Hour 6 II]] | [[1493-04-09 - Hour 7 I|Hour 7 I >>]] ## Hour 6 III Today was a very, very long day, and it's finally winding down. But I should probably record what happened with the rest of the day before I head to sleep. Before we left the safehouse again for the train station – our last big venture for the 'hour' – I tried to open my necklace up again. I wasn't really expecting results; I give it a go at least once a week. I don't know what was different this time, but it actually opened for me. It let out a puff of cold air, and then I could see what was inside: a small portrait of an owl (of course) glowing a pale blue. Nia was able to identify the subject as Auril, also known as the Frostmaiden, former goddess of ice and snow. Nia was also able to identify the function of the necklace itself, which is how I found out that it protects me from cold and also grants me the ability to make a shield of cold. I'm still wondering if I needed to open it to gain those benefits, but I was too embarrassed to bring it up. I really should've asked Nia to identify it a long time ago. Despite the necklace's functionality – and despite the fact that they all gave it to me like a week after meeting me – Ezmerelda felt that it had been a "shit birthday present." I was perfectly content with the present at the time – still am, really, but I thought Ezmerelda's outburst about it was cute regardless. Skoll tired to reassure Ezmerelda by saying that she has plenty of time to get me more presents. It was sweet of him, and it seemed to do the trick, which was sweet of Ezmerelda. We left Ireena, Selise, and Mr. Nibblets at the safehouse and headed for the train station. We shortly ended up on yet another unfamiliar street; the buildings were taller and a little nicer, like it could've been a richer part of the city at one point. Gargoyles lined a lot of the buildings. It quickly became apparent that a few of them were animated, but they weren't hostile – only grieving and upset and sick. The worst thing is that they looked like a family. There were four of them in total, all blind, all scratching at their bodies in an attempt to get the stone off. Only one of them could speak. They had been angels, once. The one that could speak plead for our help – they were turning into statues and didn't have much time left. We tried what we could. Skoll cast some spells, Nia tried to identify what was going on. Neither of them had any luck, but Nia told them they would be okay. It was a lie. We left when the angel started to get upset with us. I couldn't really blame them, but that didn't make the situation suck any less. The train station was waiting for us. Rictavio explained the ethereal to me, which was kind of embarrassing, since it seemed like I was the only one who didn't really know much about it. Anyway, Rictavio could get most of us there with some magic. He wasn't sure if he could get us all there with one spell, but he had some oil that would do the trick as well. None of us were particularly itching to oil up, but Skoll was the last to say "not it." I checked out the ticket machine again – with Ezmerelda and Nia this time – while Skoll was busy covering himself with oil and Rictavio was busy hovering. Nia didn't think the "DO NOT PRESS" button would destroy the machine; me and Ezmerelda thought otherwise. So we made a bet that Nia didn't really agree to, and then Ezmerelda pressed the button with mage hand. It exploded, which I was pretty stoked about. Nia didn't pay up, which I expected, but it kind of made Ezmerelda actually mad. She seemed pleased enough that the thing blew up, though. After Rictavio finished freaking out about the explosion, he spot-checked Skoll. Skoll had missed a spot on his collar, so Rictavio fixed it for him – and then he disappeared into the ethereal, and then we were there, too. The first thing I noticed was the train. Its name was etched in clear letters across the side: Valerian Express. I'd never seen a train from the outside before – it looked a lot bigger than I was expecting. We boarded all the same. We entered into some kind of storage room, but there wasn't a lot stored there at all. Other than the badger that occupied one of the bags, all that we managed to find was a bag of devouring (which could be useful, I guess) and an ugly hat that makes your clothes all formal. The next carriage held a bunch of sheep. According to Skoll, they didn't want us in the carriage – but they were on strike, apparently, and didn't want us crossing the picket line either. We crossed into the next carriage anyway. I'd feel more bad about it if they weren't just sheep, or maybe if I knew what they were striking about. Next was the economy carriage. It was derelict but not abandoned, full of tiny, translucent spiders, many of which were forming words in common with their webs. One of the webs spelled out "good lord"; Rictavio denied ever having been through, which I already knew – still, I felt the need to make fun of him by suggesting they had read his thoughts. The next carriage had someone in it that we could actually talk to. It was a spectator, floating around in kind of a huff. His name was Balzac. Ezmerelda managed to cough to avoid laughing, but we've been around each other enough for me to know where the sound was headed. Balzac needed a food critic. I tried the first dish: some kind of spicy bat and butter soup. He tried to feed me a meatloaf next, but he didn't know where the meat was sourced from – only that it was likely entrails. Rictavio was of the opinion that I shouldn't eat the mystery meat full of mystery organs, and I couldn't help but agree. Skoll was willing to try the spectator's vegetable dish, except it didn't have any vegetables in it. Skoll was pretty sure it wasn't meat, either – likely mushroom. In any case, I decided that I was done eating; Skoll did too. Balzac wasn't too torn up about it. In fact, he gifted us a very small gazer for our taste-testing. The only thing the gazer knows how to do is mimicry and its name is Little Balzac. Skoll decided to keep it all the same. Before we left, Balzac advised us to have our tickets handy. I was pretty pleased with myself; I had thought to pick up tickets back during the third hour and again before we blew up the ticket machine. Rictavio tried to make fun of me for how many tickets I had, but he was stupid to, and Skoll and Ezmerelda backed me up. The next carriage was cold, owing to its single inhabitant: a young white dragon who was lounging about. I think his name was Algeron, judging by the labeled token around his neck. He wasn't too interested in talking to us. All we were able to get out of him was that the train conductor is his friend, that the conductor brings him "squishy things" to put in the "meat boxes," and that he's allowed to eat the squishy things sometimes. We let him be and headed into the next carriage. It was full of cushioned seats, distinctly red. One of the seats was occupied by a corpse. It was pretty easy to tell that they had been stabbed from behind. The poor bastard was clutching an inn room key. I had to unfurl the corpse's still fingers to get it, which was pretty grim, but that's Elysium for you. Skoll covered the body with a curtain, revealing a window in the process. Other than the city itself, which the train ran along the boarder of, all we could see was the mists. In the next carriage, we found two cabins opposite each other, both with their doors closed. I knocked on one of the doors and entered when I didn't hear anything call out in response. The room was too still – someone was in there. I called out a warning. A voice sounded from below the bed. It turned out that we'd come across a stowaway. Since I didn't really see a reason not to, I offered her a train ticket. After a moment, an old, gangly woman crawled out from under the bed. I'd find out later from Nia that she was a hag. She gave us what information she could. She told us about the conductor and how he doesn't allow sleep on his train. She also told us that he's made of sand. Once we had departed from the hag, Nia told us her theory about the conductor being what remains of the Dreamer. Nia was hopeful that he could be helpful to us; I wasn't so sure. Nia also thinks that Mr. Wolf is the Wolf, which seems obvious enough. She also theorized that the Twins are the bookstore owners, and that the Fisher King was one of the gods, too. Then there's the Painted Lady – the Widow, Nia thinks, which I'd agree with. But none of them have been particularly helpful, even if Mr. Wolf and one of the Twins are pleasant enough. We continued on regardless. The hag had advised us to avoid bothering the man in the room across the hall. The blood on the door handle had us listening. The next carriage contained the bar. Cicero was there, wearing a new bowtie – except it wasn't *our* Cicero, considering the fact that he didn't recognize us at all. I gave him a tip in any case; he wasn't too interested in money, but he still seemed to appreciate it when I gave him a few of those weird, old-fashioned coins that I picked up in Prismeer. At Rictavio's insistence, we sat down while he had train-Cicero pour him a drink. He took like three drinks before he started freaking out and saying that he was wasting too much time. He was sweating; I'm pretty sure he was about to start hyperventilating. It wasn't until Rictavio took out Cicero's payment – a mummified fish with human features – and slammed it on the bar counter that Skoll intervened. Skoll told him to sit back down. He did, albeit reluctantly. Skoll grabbed Ricatvio's face and cast some spell; Rictavio calmed down immediately. He seemed embarrassed – but he was no longer having a panic attack, which was the important thing. I was happy to move onto the next carriage; so was Rictavio. We found ourselves in the engine room. There was a young woman inside, working determinedly at a furnace. The woman – the train's chief engineer, it turned out – didn't stop working the whole time we were talking to her. But she still talked to us. We learned that Amelia had, in fact, been on the train previously. We *also* learned that the last stop of the train is at the bottom of the lake. The chief engineer was kind enough to share the rest of the train's timetable with us, so we should be able to take it to the bottom of the lake if we need to later (which, since that's definitely where Amelia is, we probably will need to). The next carriage was the last one. We had reached the front of the train. There was a rushing mass of sand swirling around the room. It wasn't until we showed our tickets that he settled a bit, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape. I knew that he was called the Sandman. He spoke to us in some kind of primordial language; Skoll had to translate. The Sandman made it clear that the only reason he was willing to talk to us at all was because of Nia's ticket, which was different than the rest – it was the one she had found in Sneerian's bookstore and was apparently a season ticket. The Sandman's willingness to talk was still reluctant. He didn't give us much at all; he didn't want to talk about the Dreamer, or the Widow. When Nia offered our help in general, he didn't want anything to do with it. He told us that we were talking about things that have no place here. It was clear he wasn't going to help us, so we listened when he told us to go take our seats. As we were leaving, the Sandman asked Skoll to stay behind for a moment. No one was particularly itching to leave Skoll without backup, but Skoll was insistent, so we waited for him in the engine room. Skoll wasn't held up for long. The Sandman had asked Skoll if he's related to the fey; he added that he has no desire to interact with the realm of dreams and made it clear that the only reason Skoll wasn't ejected from the train was because of Nia's season ticket. Ezmerelda started reassuring Skoll as soon as he mentioned that the Sandman didn't like that he was a hexblood; I think she thought that the Sandman was being transphobic or something. For Rictavio's part, he called Skoll a hag, because Rictavio is kind of an idiot. Skoll didn't seem to mind in any case. We made our way back to the bar carriage to wait for the train's next stop. Train-Cicero had something for us in the meantime: a package from the hag full of ten gifts, presumably given in return for the train ticket. I'm pretty sure the hag was just unloading a bunch of junk onto us, but it wasn't all useless, and it was a nice gesture regardless. We each took two of the gifts. One of mine had a large, strange musical instrument; Ezmerelda identified it as a "saxophone." Apparently they're common on Arcavios. I'm still working on getting it to make noises that don't sound like a dying animal, but I think I could eventually get there. I also got a collapsible rod of some sort. I'm not sure what it's purpose is, as it feels too flimsy to act as a weapon – or anything else, really. Nia opened one of the packages to find 500gp. Her other gift contained a book. The text was illegible to me, but Nia was able to read it with some magic; it's called Frankenstein. Skoll also got a book, which – judging by the title and by the pictures inside – is about the Baba Yaga. The other package that Skoll opened contained a very strange shirt. It's made of cotton, I think, but that wasn't the weirdest part – the weirdest part would probably be the fact that it depicts a strange creature with a firearm, like some kind of fucked up tapestry. Skoll put on the shirt immediately. He said that it’s comfortable. Rictavio managed to pull out the gift that contained 10 diamonds. He immediately handed them all to Skoll. For his second gift, Rictavio got some kind of liquid concoction that tasted vaguely of fruit and chemicals. Ezmerelda got the short end of the stick, since all she received was some unidentifiable technology and a soggy beef sandwich. She didn’t seem to mind the sandwich, though, which is pretty much the only reason I didn’t try to give her the saxophone. We didn’t have to wait for long after we finished opening all the packages; the train was slowing. At the same time, Skoll started flickering out of the ethereal as the applied oil started losing its efficacy. We exited the train to see Cicero’s bar. Rictavio brought us out of the ethereal. Cicero was as happy as ever to see us, which is to say that he wasn’t happy at all. He seemed glad that we weren’t dead, at least. Cicero wasn't aware of the existence of train-Cicero. He didn’t seem to give much of a shit to learn about him either, so we let the subject drop. I had Cicero make me and Ezmerelda drinks with the basil that Skoll picked up from Isabella last 'hour.' I get why Rictavio liked it so much, now; it was like a weight was being lifted off my shoulders. Ezmerelda seemed to enjoy it too. I decided to check out the piano in the bar after I finished my drink. The piano is sentient, for one, which I didn’t find out until after I had played a little song. For two, I think it’s a lesbian? It flirted with me, Ezmerelda, and Nia while refusing to even make noise for Skoll and Rictavio, so that’s my working theory. One of the keys wasn’t working; I popped it off and found that the other end of it was shaped suspiciously like an inn room key. Ezmerelda figured that the piano had been flirting with me, so she went off to go have a word with it – probably a threatening word, I’d imagine, with how pissed off she looked. However, Ezmerelda didn’t get far with her goal, because she got spooked when it started flirting with her. Foulsham was also at the bar. Ezmerelda felt like he could help us with our venture to the lake, so I asked him about it. He was more than helpful, even if he once again made sure to advise me against going into the lake at all. He gave us four potions of water breathing. He also offered to cast a water-breathing ritual on us if we plan to be down there for more than a little while, which is an offer that we’ll probably have to take him up on. After Foulsham's generous offers, he also generously warned me that the lake is very deep. He suggested that the water pressure will be an issue for anything that isn’t magical. So that's cool. I love having to worry about things like water pressure. I tipped Foulsham and Cicero for their troubles, and then we were heading back toward the safehouse so that we could finally rest for the day. But there was still one more diversion to get through: Sneerian's bookrunner hauling back some goods. I think they thought we were going to mug them or something, considering they threatened us with a gun. Once we convinced the bookrunner that we weren't going to kill them and steal all their stuff, they asked if we wanted to trade. They offered up a folding spell scroll that contained five different spells. I wasn't much interested, but Rictavio was; he ended up trading a dog whistle, a scroll of raise dead, and my new shitty hat, which I wasn't too torn about giving up. We didn't have the opportunity to trade for anything else; the next thing that the bookrunner pulled out was a stack of parchment, and all the depictions of eyes was enough to spook them. The bookrunner ran off and left the parchment. Ezmerelda burned it, which Nia objected to. We finally made it back soon after that. I caught up with Selise and Ireena; I also made sure Little Balzac wasn't going to kill Mr. Nibblets or vice versa; then, me and Ezmerelda retired to a bedroom. It was nice finally having the opportunity to settle down and talk to her for the day. I had a lot on my mind, and I could tell that she did also. I told her about Miles. She told me about a couple who had patched her up not long after she arrived in Elysium, and about how they met a fate like Miles's, and about how she brought their bodies to the mausoleum. I didn't really know how to console her. I tried my best regardless; I held her for a while and then took her to the shower. I'm hoping that I brought her some comfort. I'm sick of this place. None of us deserve to be here – especially not her. But I shouldn't dwell. I *am* looking forward to sleeping, even if I'm sure that I'm just going to be greeted with another nightmare. I'm starting to get used to them anyway. --- ## Page Tags/Properties **Tags:** #Journal **Category:** [[Journals and Writings.base|Journals and Writings]] **Character:** [[Krue d'Avenir|Krue]] **Campaign:** [[City of Eyes]] **Date ([[Calendar of Harptos|Harptos]]):** 04/08/1493