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Jan 6, 1885

The trip to Dernholm was relatively uneventful, but still took several days with the lack of mass transit options. Dernholm is the capital of Cumbria, a once proud nation that has seemed to lose its way since losing a series of wars with the Unified Kingdom. It was fiercely traditionalist and devoted to its Dragon Knights… and so refused to modernize alongside its neighbors. With predictable results when the flower of knighthood charged into battle against UK cannon and riflemen.

The city’s old grandeur is still visible if you don’t look too closely, but town, the people, and the buildings themselves seem to be fading before your eyes.

Our primary purpose in coming here was to find Sarah Toone – Percival’s estranged sister. It did not take long to locate her in a worn house on the outskirts of town. Unsurprisingly, she had a very different take on events from her brother. According to Sarah, Bessie had intended to leave the mine to her. Percival had convinced their mother to give him “temporary control” due to her old age, and he had used this to sell the mine to creditors in Tarant to pay off his debts. Sarah believed Bessie had died of a broken heart because she had wanted the mine to stay in the family.

This explained a lot… including Percival’s bodyguard. No doubt his “creditors” had been extremely displeased to learn that they had been paid off with a spoiled mine which could no longer produce. She gave us an address in Tarant for “Stanton Importers”, and said if we *really* wanted to settle Bessie Toone’s spirit we would recover the deed for the family.

As long as we were in town, I thought it prudent to investigate opportunities for work. Most of our clues were leading us in the direction of Tarant, but that was some distance away. And we weren’t quite yet flush enough in funds to book passage on a ship. If we could afford it what I really wanted was to buy a ticket on one of the UK’s new steam-powered passenger trains. But Dernholm still forbid many forms of new technology, and so had no train station.

A bit of talking with townsfolk indicated that King Praetor was looking for discrete assistance. So we decided to pay him a visit at Dernholm Palace. He was… not receptive to my appearance. But with Virgil vouching for me he saw fit to speak with us. It seems Cumbria was in desperate straits, with several cities considering breaking off entirely. One such was Blackroot to the north. I was not prepared to hire on as a politician or diplomat, but all he wanted was for someone to talk to the Mayor of Blackroot about paying their currently owed taxes. I made no promise for results, but agreed to look into it. Blackroot held the nearest train station offering service to Tarant, so I had already had my eye on the location.

.Jan 9, 1885

The trip to Blackroot was another few day’s travel on foot. We had a few encounters with aggressive wildlife, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Blackroot itself was an older port town. The mayor lived in a large, well kept estate on the north side of town. When I asked to speak to him on behalf of King Praetor, he was quite dismissive. He claimed that Blackroot was allying itself with Tarant now, and that they had no further use for a King and country which “had never done much for Blackroot”. Out of curiosity I asked him about what Tarant was doing to merit the change in allegiance, and got surprisingly vague answers.

Changing topic to work opportunities, the Mayor mentioned that someone had recently broken into his office and stolen several valuable items – including a silver ceremonial dagger which served as the “symbol of office” for his position. I asked if Tarant was using its new tax funds to provide police assistance, and he mumbled something about “the complicated situation.” And there I saw our opening. I offered to investigate for him “as an agent of the King” and recover his stolen property. I was not terribly pleased with the manner of his response (“If even someone like *you* can help where Tarant does not then maybe their help isn’t worth much”). But it at least influenced him in the desired direction.

As long as we were in town, we stopped in at the smithy to browse his product and have our weapons tended. I was surprised to find another half-orc owning the shop! Named Garret Almstead! Garret had a background similar to mine, having been adopted and trained by the former dwarven smith. I should have liked to have stayed to speak with him longer, but duty called.

It didn’t take long to narrow down the likely thieves to a budding crime lord named D’ak Taan – a dangerous looking elf with a camp full of ruffians on the outskirts of town. There were too many of them to consider direct assault – even with Sogg’s assistance. And D’ak seemed far too competent and savvy for us to easily swindle or steal back the Mayor’s items.

Fortunately my heritage once again gave us an opening. I was able to convince him we were transient thieves looking for work. As a “test of our loyalties” he wanted us to rob a hedge wizard named Tugal who lived outside town.

We left as I considered what I could do with this opening, and decided to visit Tugal himself. At the very least he deserved a warning that he was being targeted. When I spoke to him he offered an alternative solution. He gave me a scroll which he claimed would summon a powerful revenant – an undead warrior sworn to vengeance. It would probably not be enough by itself to wipe out the entire encampment, but it could certainly tilt the odds decidedly in our favor.

As promised, when I used the scroll it loosed a fearsome warrior on the camp, tying up most of the thieves in a desperate battle.

Leaving a far more manageable remainder for our trio. I engaged a particularly surly dwarf, who seemed determined to separate my head from my shoulders in a single swing.

Virgil found himself vexed with a particularly irritating halfling, who seemed to delight in taunting Virgil as they fought.

As for D’ak Taan himself, he may have been a master archer, but that proved small comfort when Sogg simply ignored his arrows, picked him up, and hurled him across the camp!

The mayor was quite delighted to have his property returned and the thieves dealt with, and happily gave us the requested tax papers. He still wasn’t convinced of the long term future of Blackroot, but was at least less enamored with Tarant’s offer than he had been.

He also mentioned a Mrs. Cameron in town that he believed we should speak with. She was a wealthy woman who was looking for assistance that he believed we could help.

It seemed that she was worried about her son, an inventor of some reknown named Liam. He lived in a workshop a ways outside of town, and while he normally came in regularly for supplies and to visit her she hadn’t seen him in almost a month. We promised to look into the matter.

Jan 10, 1885

There was no sign of Liam at his workshop, but a variety of experiments lay half-completed inside. As we searched it, we found a Journal of his recent work. It seemed he had discovered a Magick portal or rift of some kind in the woods nearby, and had had several run-ins with odd creatures emerging from it. He believed it was growing, and would soon become a hazard to Blackroot itself! He had tried to seal it with Scrolls of Dispelling, but found that due to his long time technological focus the scrolls would not work for him. So instead he had attempted to develop a technological means of sealing the portal. His last entry was but a few days ago, and indicated he would be trying to approach close enough to use his device.

We soon located a trail into the woods from the workshop, and followed where it led. Before long the forest grew darker and… stranger. We began to hear unusual sounds in the darkness, until suddenly we were confronted with a most unusual beast.

It grew extremely aggressive when it caught our scent, and would have skewered itself on my rapier to get my throat had Sogg not grabbed its tail as it leapt for me. As it was it took all three of us to put the beast down.

We continued down the trail on the lookout for more such creatures, but our next encounter was even stranger. Something that look very like a large jellyfish… were it not hovering in the air. It also proved far sturdier and more difficult to dispatch than any jellyfish – as well as more apparently intelligent. It immediately wrapped up Sogg which made it both difficult for him to fight back and hard for us to damage it without damaging him as well.

This one was lurking near what appeared to be the body of the unfortunate Liam. Given the difficulty of our first encounter, I decided at this point that another approach was in order.

They were not enthusiastic about the plan, but I directed Virgil and Sogg to hold back and Sogg to throw something as a distraction. Meanwhile I snuck in to examine Liam’s corpse. As expected, I found his experimental device nearby.

Leaving Sogg and Virgil behind, I crept along the trail until I found the portal described in Liam’s journal. There were a number of creatures nearby – of even more variants than we had already encountered. Far too many for us to hope to combat. I agreed with Liam’s assessment. This could prove a grave threat to Blackroot. It must be closed at all costs.

I snuck as close as I dared, and then activated the device – hoping that I would have time to get away once it was engaged… while fearing otherwise. But fortunately the portal was more than a doorway, and the creatures’ presence was apparently dependent upon its continued existence. As Liam’s device neutralized the portal the creatures were pulled back inside.

We returned to town to give Mrs. Cameron the news. She was of course dismayed that her son was dead, but we emphasized that he had died trying to defend the town – and that it was his ingenious invention that had ultimately ended the threat. In every way he had died a hero. And we gave her his journal as a record of his endeavor.

In return she gave us a device Liam had built – a miniature Magnetic Inversion Generator built into a top-hat! I had heard of such devices, but never before seen one first hand. It generated a magnetic field slowing/repelling incoming metal – such as swords or bullets. And Liam’s version even had a grounding cable attachment I could use to prevent it from interfering with my own weapon!

I found it quite suited my tastes in appearance as well.

We returned the tax papers to King Praetor, and then returned to Blackroot. We would be travelling to Tarant in style!

For all of us it was out first trip on a Steam locomotive, and it did not disappoint!

We even had our photograph taken to memorialize the event!

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Author’s Notes:

I’m finding Cass leaning more technological than I had intended. Every time she levels up I look at what she would focus on at that time, and spells never seem to make the cut. But if that’s how she is that’s how she is. Besides. I dig the hat.

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