Ep. 15: Murder on the Rockport Limited - Chapter Six

"Put on your thinking caps, gumshoes! It's time to solve a murder in... the Adventure Zone!"

Synopsis
Full transcript available 'here'.

''In this penultimate chapter in the Rockport Limited murder fiasco, our players deduce the true culprit of the titular heinous crime. Merle runs out of magic. Taako finds more creative applications for Levitation. Magnus gets some fresh air.''

The Tres Horny Boys are still on the hunt for The Rockport Slayer, and, along with Angus, are preparing to breach the cargo car, the only place they haven't checked yet. They burst in SWAT-team style, only to find the place completely empty. As they move the car they feel a brief sense of nausea that quickly subsides. Merle's earpiece also stops working once he enters the room. Taako rolls a perception check to see if anything is wrong with the cargo car's safe. He rolls a 19 and sees that the safe is still locked and has no signs of assault. Taako recalls that the crypt-safe can only be opened by a Rockport Limited employee holding their hands on it for an hour, and connects it to the fact that Jenkins's body was missing both its hands.

Angus corrects Taako and reminds him that it's the engineer who can only open the safe. Angus tells the boys that he noticed something suspicious about the room they're in and asks if one of them could try and open up the rear door.

Taako tries to open it, but the door doesn't budge. Magnus tries brute force and punches the door.

Taako casts Detect Magic on the room, and his vision goes completely white as he is blinded by the sheer amount of magic in the room. Taako is also able to pick up faint hints of the spell Ghost Sound. Angus leads them back to the dining car, and, along with Jess the Beheader and Graham, they try to crack the case with the evidence they've gathered. Magnus theorizes that whoever killed Jenkins used his magic rod to create a fake vault, so they can't be bothered as they open the real vault. Angus throws a rolled up ticket stub at the door to the cargo car, and it bounces off an invisible barrier, confirming their suspicions. Having figured out the vault mystery, the gang turns to the method of murder. Merle brings up the possibility that maybe Jenkins wasn't beheaded by Jess's ax or any other kind of weapon but instead had his head removed by some sort of teleportation magic, specifically the pleasure rooms. Angus proposes that this is why they could not find Jenkins's head, as whoever killed him shoved his head into a pleasure room, presumably while he was asleep so as to not make any noise, and closed the portal. Taako, having a moment of lucidity, posits that Jenkins used his rod to get into the engineer's room, removed Hudson's head, swapped clothes with him, took his hands, and conjured up the crab monster so it could incinerate Hudson's body and prevent them from identifying the body.

Angus states that it's more likely that Jenkins got into the engineers during the drink service. He also guesses that the reason they were able to talk to Hudson earlier was probably due to the effects of Ghost Sound. Magnus asks where Jenkins could be now, and Angus reminds him that, while they were revealing their identities to each other in his sleeper car, they were interrupted by the shadow of somebody moving past the sleeper car towards the back of the car. This leaves Jenkins as the source of the shadow, seeing as Graham and Jess were in the front of the car, and Hudson was already dead by this point. Angus questions why Jenkins would leave a body in the first place if he could get rid of it so easily and Magnus points out that he may have left Hudson's body out for them to find in order to alleviate suspicion away from him.

Angus wonders how Jenkins managed to get Hudson's corpse into the space between the passenger and the sleeper car without anyone the wiser. Magnus answers that Jenkins may have been hidden it in the drink cart he was pushing. The same drink cart that was in the room they found the corpse in, and the same drink cart that was destroyed by the crab monster.

The only remaining question on Angus's mind is, if Angus only hears static when the boys talk about the Grand Relic in the back of the train, how does Jenkins know about it? After some speculation amongst the boys on whether this information means Jenkins is a Bureau of Balance member, they learn from Graham that they only have 25 minutes until they crash into Neverwinter, meaning they only have 25 minutes to catch Jenkins and slow down the train. Merle casts Locate Object on the magic rod, and he gets a ping from the back of the car, confirming Jenkins location is at the cargo car. Seeing no other way around the fake room Jenkins created, the boys come up with a plan to get into the cargo car: Magnus makes one addendum to the plan, and that is that Taako cast Levitate on his magic boots instead of his entire body. Other than that, he's completely on board with jumping out a moving train.
 * 1) Taako will cast Levitate on Magnus.
 * 2) Magnus will be put out a window.
 * 3) Magnus will knock out the side of the cargo car.
 * 4) Or just go in through the back of the caboose, either ways fine.
 * 5) Seeing as the fake room is kept up as long as Jenkins is concentrating, Magnus will distract him long enough to bring down the port blocking their way.
 * 6) As soon as he brings the port down, they go in, and take Jenkins to Brown Town!

[Money Zone]

Everyone has gathered around a table in the dining car, and are now looking at a map of the train's route that Graham had on him. Angus points at one point of the route. Graham hands Magnus a magic bean, that he alchemized, as a safety measure in case something goes wrong. He tells Magnus that, once he pops it into his mouth, the bean will make him extremely heavy. Taako casts Levitate on Magnus's boots, and, before jumping out the train, Magnus gives some last words in case he doesn't make it back. Magnus, now hovering in the air, steps out of the train and starts the process of making it to the back of the Rockport Limited. Now in bullet time, Magnus comes up with a genius but risky plan.

Travis quickly changes his course of action and retcons that, before jumping from the train, Magnus tied some rope around a table in the dining car, and is now holding onto it. Magnus, using the rope, slowly sideways rappels his way down the side of the train, and successfully makes it past the cargo car to the caboose door. Standing on the small platform leading to the caboose is a flesh golem. Seeing Magnus, the flesh golem rears back its fist and punches him in the sternum for 16 damage. Magnus rolls a strength roll to see if the golem's punch makes him let go of the rope. Magnus rolls a 19, and the punch pushes him above the train like a tire swing. Magnus, now swinging around wildly, uses the situation to his advantage. Seeing that the train is about 60 seconds away from the next tunnel, Magnus waits for 59 seconds. As the train goes through the tunnel, and the rope is pulled back towards the dining car, Magnus pops the magic bean into his mouth. Magnus rolls a 19 on his acrobatics check, and, knees curled, collides into the flesh golem like a wrecking ball, doing 14 damage to it. The golem is knocked through the caboose door and into Jenkins, who drops his magic port rod, getting rid of the fake room. Also in the same room is another flesh golem with its right-hand planted firmly on the crypt safe.

It's Combat Time, and, because Jenkins definitely wasn't expecting this, the party gets a surprise round. Magnus enters the cargo car and sees Railsplitter in a big pile of laid out items next to Jenkins. Magnus spits out his bean into his hand, and, now floating again, jumps across to the same side as his party and his ax, flipping Jenkins the bird as he does so. Now that the surprise round is over, the boys roll initiative. Taako rolls a 5. Magnus rolls a 9. Merle rolls a 13. The meat monsters get to go first. The left-hand flesh golem that Magnus knee'd in the chest stands up, trudges over to Magnus, and overhead hammer strikes him for 13 damage. The right-hand golem takes its hand off the safe, and also trudges over to Magnus, chopping him in the side for 11 damage. Magnus is now down to 1 hit point. Next in the order is Merle, who casts Sacred Flame on the right-hand golem. Because undead monsters are vulnerable to holy magic, the right-hand golem is instantly obliterated. Next up is Magnus. Jenkins stands up and, in disbelief, asks how they could have possibly seen through his perfect crime.

Magnus picks up RailSplitter, pops the bean back into his mouth, and two-handed swings his ax at the left-hand golem's head, doing 16 damage. Magnus tries to get away from the golem, leaving him open for an opportunity attack. The left-hand golem attacks Magnus with its big meaty fist, but Magnus uses Parry and dodges the attack. Taako casts Ray of Frost on the golem, doing 6 damage, and Jenkins, seeing he is outnumbered and out-axed, drops his compass and rod. He leverages and points his wand at the left-hand golem, and explains to the rest that the golems he created were made from both of Hudson's hands. Jenkins threatens to destroy the golem, leaving them without a way of getting into the engine car or slowing down the train, if they don't leave him alone to find his treasure. Magnus asks Taako if he would be able to use the magic port rod, to which Taako replies probably.

Seeing no other choice, Jenkins shoots a burst of flame at the left-hand golem, which misses it by a country mile. The golem retaliates by walking over to Jenkins, picking him up by the neck, and throwing him out the back of the train. With only the one meat monster remaining, Merle casts another Sacred Flame. The spell does 12 damage, and the golem is reduced to ash.

[Theme Tune Plays]

The Money Zone
Sponsored by NatureBox.

Personal message for Ben, from Grace: Happy anniversary, sweet man! Thank you for putting up with my lack of competition in strategy games; inability to understand song lyrics; and impromptu dance parties. I'm looking forward to what the next few years will bring. My wheat is your wheat.

Featured NPCs

 * Angus McDonald
 * Jenkins
 * Jess the Beheader
 * Graham

Featured Locations

 * Rockport Limited