Ep. 101 Crazy Train

## Watch

Crazy Train | Khyber Shards #101 | D&D 5e Actual Play

—Malcolm

Ari and Esri get to Malcolm's ship, in a desperate attempt to catch up to the train. They convince Mina to stay safely behind. Meanwhile, Pog and Shade are horrified at Demise's plan to terrorize the train, but go along with it for a bit. She summons her skeletons and starts wreaking havoc, but when the passengers start getting attacked, Pog and Shade step in to stop it. Demise sighs and goes into another car.

Ari and Esri fall onto the train. On his way through the cars, Esri finds the leftovers of Demise's skeleton bones and takes them with him. Ari takes care of the skeleton on the top of the train. Shade and Pog continue destroying skeletons inside.

To his horror, Ari sees Lucan climbing on the roof of the train. He draws the Sun Blade, and looks to Ari.

## Synopsis

Ari and Esri run to Malcolm's ship, desperately trying to catch up to the train that Demise, Pog, and Shade are chasing Lucan on. Malcolm thinks it sounds like fun. He wakes the Duchess up, and the ship rises and moves. Ari tells Mina that they're on their way to Lucan. He asks about her relationship wit Thora, and Mina says they've spoken but she doesn't know what Thora would want with her now. He wonders what help Lucan needs from her; she says he needs to get the sword north, to Karrnath. Ari comes clean about the spells he cast on her.

Esri asks how long he's been a vampire, and Mina tells them he learned something about the sword and needed to get it away from everyone, and it was after he acquired it that he changed. She wants them to leave him alone. Ari says they're trying to save him from himself and others. Esri says not only are they trying to protect Lucan, but he needs the sword for his own purposes. He casts *dispel magic* on her so she can talk to them with a clearer head.

Mina balks at the idea of Thora deciding she should be able to leave all this behind; she helped Lucan because she loves him and wanted to, and she'll decide when she gets out of it. Esri promises they won't force her to go anywhere she doesn't want to, and offers to give her names in Sharn she can go to. Ari doesn't budge about going after the train, and Mina leaves to sulk by a window.

On the train, Pog and Shade are with Demise and her six skeletons. Demise finds weapons to arm her skeletons with. She puts on her red lacquered mask. She lays her hand on one of the skeletons, and its eyes glow with a green fire, which is mirrored in her mask. The skeleton goes up onto the roof. Her plan is to keep eyes on the roof with the green-eye skeleton, and cause chaos with the other ones. This, ideally, will draw Lucan out of hiding. Pog and Shade have no objections to this plan, so the skeletons are sent out. Shade follows them, regretting how Demise did not clarify that they wouldn't harm anyone. The skeletons are scraping up against windows, terrifying the passengers. A guard rushes out to stop this, and is overwhelmed by the skeletons.

*"Ohhhhh boy. What are we doing?"
"I don't know. I'm not against violence, but this is…this is weird."
—Pog and Shade*

Demise slips past them and assures them it's all a part of the plan. She explains about paralyzing Lucan by putting a stake throw his heart, as the guard, actively being torn apart by the skeletons, screams in the background. The screaming stops. Pog and Shade voice their objections to killing passengers, but Demise doesn't seem very bothered by that. She continues through the car. Pog and Shade hang back to discuss the morals of this plan and what to do about it. They hear passengers screaming, having been set upon by skeletons. At that point, Pog and Shade start attacking the skeletons.

As this chaos happens, the airship arrives. Malcolm warns them to come up on deck as they approach. Ari asks Mina to stay onboard the boat; she returns to sulking. Ari asks for a rope ladder, and throws out the rope Malcolm provides. Ari climbs down, ready for a drop point. He climbs slowly down the ladder, but his foot slips and he's hanging precariously. He guesses he's about thirty feet above the train, so he *misty steps* the rest of the way. He only misjudged it by about five feet—he falls the rest of the way.

Demise sighs at Shade attacking the skeletons. She goes through a door and closes it behind her. Pog attacks some skeletons. His echo reappears on the far side near where Demise disappeared. With many slips, Esri descends the ladder. He drops the last few feet and lands sprawled behind Ari. Kael stays on the ship to protect Mina

Ari reaches for his gun, has an "oh crap" moment when he remembers it's missing. Doing something he's never done before, he casts an *eldritch blast* with his mind and fingerguns.

Pog swaps places with his echo and jams his blade through the skeletons. Esri goes down the hatch he landed by, landing in the cart that Demise used to raise her skeletons. He shoves the bones into the backpack and takes it, and makes his way through the train. The skeletons continue attacking the party.

Shade brings her borrowed shortsword down and cracks two skeletons into a pile of bones. Ari aims his fingerguns at a skeleton and pops its head off. Unfortunately, no one is around to see. A couple cars ahead of him, he sees Lucan climb onto the roof. He draws the Sun Blade, and looks to Ari.

## Spells

* **Ari**
	+ Eldritch Blast (twice)
	+ Misty Step
* **Esri**
	+ Dispel Magic on Mina
	+ Guidance

## Quotes

"I give you the impression that I'm gonna harm some innocent girl on my ship?"
"Not to me, but I'm admittedly a terrible judge of character."
*—Malcolm and Ari*

"I'm on the train, everyone. I made it, and I looked really cool doing it. I reiterate, do not have your weapons or items, though."
*—Ari*

"So this gun that you have is just to look less dorky when you cast this spell?"
*—R.A.*

"All you can do is tickle with the fingergun."
*—Colin*