Affair on the Concordant Express

Garrett as    Oboe

Kate as    Tett

Lex as     Eyrwik

and

Justin as the DM

"**Affair on the Concordant Express**" is a special episode of Tales From Del'nasra aired during the break between Season 2 and Season 3. A group of thieves attempt to commit a heist on an extra planar train known as the Concordant Express.

## Episode Synopsis

In 74 AT, four individuals meet at a tavern known as the Screaming Nun in the city of Redbrook which resides on the continent of Anundiel. They have been told to come to the tavern to meet with their contact regarding a heist. The contact in question is a quadrone named Glitch who used to serve onboard an extraplanar train known as the Concordant Express.

It takes roughly half an hour for each of the thieves to meet in the tavern, ordering dirty martinis while they wait for their contact. The thieves are introduced as Booch (a young leonin thief with an affinity for snorting some unknown powdery drug), Oboe (a young human-like man dressed in dark, goth-like attire), Eyrwik (an aarakocra resembling a beautiful, vain peacock, also with an affinity for snorting drugs) and finally, late to the meeting is an elderly tortle named Tett.

Each of the thieves work for an organization known as the Scattered Smile, which have been busy ever since the Unmaking (an event that killed and resurrected all of reality five years prior) and the latest heist being taken on is to board a train known as the Concordant Express, find an individual known as The Stranger and acquire the true names of three fiends of the Lower Planes.

They talk among themselves for a few moments and open a secret compartment on the table, discovering a music box placed inside by their employer and upon opening the music box, a prerecorded message plays detailing the goal of their heist, and that their contact should be arriving shortly. Shortly there after, their privacy curtain is opened by a quadrone who introduces themselves as Glitch, and explains that they used to work on the train and gives some important details about the train. Handing them blueprints of the train, train passes and pens to write down the names of the fiends they're looking for Glitch quickly plane-shifts himself and the thieves to a grassy field in The Outlands to await the arrival of the train.

A distant sound of a train horn alerts the thieves, in which Glitch wishes them luck and plane shifts away. The thieves then watch as approaching them rather quickly from the sky is a golden train laying tracks down in front of itself with a pair of massive, golden mechanical limbs that stretch out from the side of the train. The train swerves to a stop in front of the thieves, and a modron that functions as a ticket puncher resides in the caboose and asks for the thieves to present their tickets, happily punching the tickets by chewing on them. After having their tickets punched they are asked to move into the next car and keep moving as the Jail Car is next and doesn't permit passengers to linger about for too long.

The thieves pass through the Jail Car, taking their time in part to their elderly companion and draw the minor grief of the guard stationed within the jail car. A deva named Omid who has been tasked with ensuring The Stranger is brought to Mechanus (the train's next stop) and handed over to the modrons there for whatever crime he may have committed.

Moving through the jail car, the thieves stumble into the next car which appears to be entirely flooded with water and seems to function as a large sort of aquarium with numerous fish swimming about inside. The group hold their breath as they pass through this car, with Booch attempting to pull a plug he spots on a nearby wall, but to no avail.

They arrive within the next car, which appears to be the passenger car and have just arrived moments after a murder had been committed on board and is currently in the process of being investigated by a mind flayer detective named Ignatius Inkblot. With some of the group resolving to move forward, the other half seem interested in the murder and agree to help Ignatius with the investigation. During the course of the investigation, Eyrwik and Oboe put their deductive skills to the test while Booch hides in one of the privies to listen in on some conversations while Tett explores the next car which seems to be for the storage of cargo and becomes interested in an infernal looking vehicle with a hose attachment dripping with a very caustic acid.

Eyrwik and Oboe deduce that the cambion, Vern tampered with his modron and ordered it to kill the victim with a wand of magic missiles. Having learned the truth, the pair of them decided to meet up with the Omid, the deva guard and implore him to bring the victim back to life to verify if Vern was indeed the one who orchestrated the ordeal. Booch decided to follow the group having not learned any useful information in his privy stakeout.

While retrieving Omid, Booch was able to hide and stay behind within the jail car where he spoke at depth with The Stranger and learned one true name in exchange for helping The Stranger escape. Meanwhile, Eyrwik, Oboe and Omid returned to the passenger car where Omid cast raise dead on the victim and upon their resurrection, confirmed their murderer was orchestrated by Vern. Vern was taken into custody by Omid, just as the others went to grab Tett in the cargo car. Upon entering the cargo car they witnessed Tett touching the infernal vehicle and was suddenly attacked by a swarm of six invisible imps. The imps were quickly dealt with, and the remainder of the group returned to the jail car to lock up Vern, and had successfully deceived Omid into letting them speak with The Stranger as a form of legal counsel.

They all arrived in the car, with Booch hearing the door being unlocked he quickly hid beside the door having darkened the room by rubbing a candle over the skylight. It seemed that Omid had clocked Booch's position and when questioning the group about the suspicious nature of the ordeal, he was once again successfully deceived by Eyrwik who told him that Booch was part of the legal counsel and was ensuring that he was also keeping guard.

Omid unlocked the Stranger's cell, and Eyrwik immediately began discussing the "false imprisonment" and eventually over the course of a few minutes and successful lies, convinced Omid that The Stranger was falsely imprisoned for stealing fecal matter. Realizing that the crime sounded preposterous and silly, Omid unlocked The Stranger's shackles and threw Vern into the now empty cell.

The Stranger returned to the passenger car, thanked the group for freeing him and gave them the final two true names they sought before leaping off of the train and plane-shifting after falling far enough away from the train.

The train eventually arrived in Mechanus, where the thieves met up with Glitch once again. They were plane shifted back to their headquarters in the Material Plane and successfully paid out for their completion of the contract, with Ignatius having sent them a parcel containing an expensive magnifying glass as thanks for their help.