Hidden Secrets and First Flames

Spring:

• Lanternwurm stores food in specific cars, but they are constantly in danger of irradiation by the ambient planar energies of the engine.

  • Project: Scout out secure bridges across Spindrift Channel.

• Farrow convinces workers in the greenhouse car, her father, Khonshu, Kona and Agent to build moisture collectors for the train: the hydro-condensers.

  • Discovery: A fungal bladder entity is found in one of the unexplored cars, inspiration for the water-storing mechanism of the hydro-condensers.

• The first generation of children aboard Lanternwurm were mostly orphans, raised communally in the Creche. This set a tradition and now all children born on Lanternwurm are still initially educated in this way. The young are seen as precious, but live a tough life. They apprentice to learn skills early.

  • Project complete: We found safe bridges across the Spindrift Channel. We encountered some rangers who knew the ways across and helped us.

  • Project: Set out on a mission to break out Truespear prisoners from Cloudhope.

• A legend about a boogeyman that haunts a specific car spreads throughout the train. It could actually be true.

  • Discovery: A network of caverns is found in the Spindrift Channel, where there is a lot of elemental activity. Are the elementals the earth’s reaction to people's incursion into the world?

• A young, troublemaking boy, Tarkin Quickfingers, digs further into the boogeyman car and discovers two sanctuary keys. He takes them to Agent, who seems to be grooming the boy as an operative.

  • Project: Research whether we could use one of these sanctuary keys to reduce food radiation.

• Sister Sullivan, a missionary from the Locks, comes aboard Lanternwurm and tries to convert people to the Communion of the First Flame. People wonder whether it is a religion or a cult.

  • Discovery: The Shifting Prison is discovered in the Thundergranite Mountains. It’s an underground, ever-changing maze that’s rumored to hold ancient evils and deities. People who go in, lose their way.

• A powerful, mysterious, sealed metal box was found near the Sea of Slumber. We couldn't open it, but people were soon hearing disturbing voices in their heads whenever it was near. The community decided it was cursed, so on our next pass over the Spindrift, we dumped it into the chasm.

  • Project complete: We find a way to make the food last longer without radiation, but have to dedicate at least two shells to protect a single storage car.

  • Discussion: Should we attempt an expedition into the Shifting Prison?

• While not quite an official class structure, Lanternwurm does have a sense of different stratas of status. Those who the Overseer sees as useful tend to hold more clout or favour and tend to stay at the front of the train. It is a kind of meritocracy, but judged by the Overseer and authority figures like Agent.

  • Project complete: The hydro-condensers are completed, allowing us to gather more clean water as we travel.

  • Discovery: The Locks lies in the northwest of the known area, sitting between a coast and the surrounding Thundergranite Mountains.

• The Silent Waters, a magical underground lake rumored to be an ancient elven glade, is said to lie somewhere in the Spindrift. Only the Spindrift rangers know the way.

  • Project completed: A strike team successfully breaks the Truespear prisoners free from Cloudhope without being detected (as far as they know), but the prisoners' minds have already been stripped, leaving them almost mindless. There is evidence that Cloudhope is using some form of mind control.

  • Discovery: Lanternwurm’s semi-secret lab, Section 37, discovers a process for grafting organic materials together to enhance individuals. They use samples gathered from the shape-changing Strangers as a basis for the process.

• The Sea of Slumber has natural predators: wandering tribes of Yetis. Lanternwurm has been relatively safe from them thus far, since the engine rarely veers into their territory.

  • Discovery: A large impact crater is sighted with a large, lush rainforest protected within it. We dub it "The Green" and marvel at its untouched nature and fantastical fauna we don’t find anywhere else.

• The most beautiful thing in the area is a clear mountain lake, near the Thundergranite Mountains.

  • Discovery: Fire elementals have started making more trouble in the area of the Spindrift Channel we threw the mystery box.

• A bad omen appears: the beautiful mountain lake suddenly turns blood red.

  • Project: We endeavor to figure out what's going on with the red lake.

Summer

• The community comes together to start building a summer home in The Green for people to take advantage of the pristine, natural setting.

  • Project completed: Our agents learn that a faction of Communion of the First Flame sacrificed people at the lake, magically turning it blood red.

  • Project: We send a team to investigate what is riling up the fire elementals. Is it our fault for discarding the box into the Spindrift?

• Grain crops in some of the garden cars have been spoilt, creating a scarcity of basic staples aboard the engine. Some in the community suspect followers of Sister Sullivan and the First Flame of sabotaging the crop.

  • Project: We organize teams to investigate the Communion of the First Flame, both on the train and in the Locks.

• Due to the grain shortage, Section 37 starts a project to experiment in bio-experimentation to make our bodies more efficiently process food. The process is unsafe due to the use of planar energy, but requires live test subjects.

  • Discussion: Who in the community should be used to test the bio-experimentation process?

• One of the workers building the settlement at The Green, an arrogant gold dragonborn named Aurum, foolishly decides to try and domesticate one of the dinosaurs spotted in the area.

  • Project completed: The outpost in The Green is completed. We dub the small wooden fort Fort Verdant Fate and it provides the community a place, if somewhat fragile, to take in nature.

  • Project completed: Our investigation reveals that Sister Sullivan did indeed sabotage the crops of Lanternwurm. It appears the First Flame have been emboldened by the increase of religious freedoms in the Locks. There are actually multiple power-hungry cults vying for power.

  • Discovery: The mindless prisoners freed from Cloudhope had signs of the same mind control fungus found in the Agony Engine. It is possible that Cloudhope has been allying with the Agony Engine.

• We encounter a weakened traveller who tells of a great treasure in a ruin somewhere in The Burning Expanse, a vast desert to the southeast. But he dies before we can learn more.

  • Project completed: We communicated with the fire elementals and learned the box was indeed driving them mad. Feeling responsible we recovered the box, and were forced to find a different solution to deal with it.

  • Project completed: Aurum overestimated his ability to train the dinosaur and it overruns Fort Verdant Fate.

  • Project: We send workers to recover and rebuild the overrun Fort Verdant Fate.

• The eldest among us is murdered! Sandor Rightblood, a beloved old man who helped in the hospital car and held great medical knowledge is found killed. It remains a mystery who killed him.

  • Project completed: Section 37 completes their bio-experimentation testing. Sister Sullivan and her followers were used as test subjects as punishment for destroying the crops aboard the train. However, the death of Sandor meant the loss of key knowledge and research of the process, causing irregularities. There was an overdose that caused the cult members to be disfigured and become monstrous. We had no choice but to kill them, however, one escaped. A fiasco, but now we have 82% confidence that the process will work.

  • Discovery: We learn of the Cathedral of the Damned, a curious structure whose inner walls are lined with disembodied faces. People say one goes there to learn of past, present and future and potentially gain infinite wisdom, as long as you don’t go mad from the whispers.

• To address the lack of medical supplies, we start an expedition to the Silent Waters to prove out rumors of their healing properties.

  • Project: Tarkin takes on a quest to transport the dangerous mystery box to the Cathedral of the Damned to understand what to do with it.

  • Project completed: Worker are able to recover Fort Verdant Fate from the dinosaurs, this time with more fortifications. As a bonus, we discover dinosaurs as a good source of meat.

• Near the Sea of Slumber, an avalanche stops the train. A worker, Lal Caltred, goes missing and we suspect the Yeti have claimed him.

  • Project: Linde sends out a team to Driftmount to use our political capital in a bid for a fresh stock of grain from Overseer Marshe, her father.

• We stop at the Sea of Slumber and make contact with the Yeti. They did cause the avalanche, but not maliciously. Lal is found, safe, cared for by the Yeti. He decides to stay with them.

  • Project complete: The Spindrift rangers help us recover healing tonics from the Silent Waters, and our indebtedness to them grows.

  • Project complete: We get robust, elven seeds from Driftmount, however they don't have a lot to spare. We are forced to use them carefully.

  • Discussion: How should we deal with the food shortage?

• The people maintaining the train demand to be heard. They complain about constantly being told to do more with less. This is compounded by a scarcity of planeshards and the odd happenings around the train.

  • Project completed: Tarkin returns from the Cathedral of the Damned with guidance that the box needs to be returned to the people from which it came, the Yeti of the Sea of Slumber. His successful quest is celebrated, but Agent sees in Tarkin’s eyes that something isn’t right.

  • Discovery: We find a possible path to the Underdark in Spindrift Channel.

• Tarkin leaves the community. He leaves a note explaining that he learned in the Cathedral that he must enter the Burning Expanse. It's clear he wants to return, but he must do this alone.

  • Project: The community begins growing food in the hospitable climate at Fort Verdant Fate.

• The Verdant Fate garden project finishes early. Aurum had learned his lesson and helped speed the growth with dino fertilizer.

  • Project: With key personnel lost, Lanternwurm steps up recruitment of new community members to fill out medical and engineer roles.

• Summer is fleeting, and we pass over some events.

  • Project: We set out to return the cursed box to the Yeti.

  • Project: use the healing waters to restore the blood lake.

Autumn

• Sister Sullivan returns, looking and acting just as she was before, without any mutations. Everyone is confused and concerned, especially those who know about the experiments that mutated her. Secretly, she has been secretly recovering her personhood among the Communion of the First Flame, through some weird ritual.

  • Project: Concerned about her return, we set security forces to follow Sister Sullivan and send a team to infiltrate and shut the cult down.

• Linde catches wind of the experiments of Section 37 and disapproves. She follows a long winding investigation, connecting actors in the secret lab to the death of the Sandfor Rightblood. Abruptly, Linde goes missing. We find her mechanical arm, but no other trace of her.

  • Project completed: We are able to use the healing waters to restore the lake now dubbed Lake Lazarus. We understand more about the blood rituals which the First Flame have been conducting, adding more urgency to the need to stop them.

  • Project: With the Overseer’s disappearance, a new leader must be selected from the elders.

• Natural disaster strikes: tornadoes destroy the hydro-condensers, removing our abundance of water. Recruitment has failed as a result, as we are distracted by the damage.

  • Project: We set out to repair the damaged hydro-condensers.

• In a dark mystery, a worker named Darril Fargloom disappears and the fungal bladder discovered in the Spring has veins of red around it now.

  • Project Completed: We successfully return the box to the Yeti, who thanks us and take it reverently to a distant ice floe in the Sea of Slumber to place it upon an ancient altar in front of the giant sunken skull of some forgotten god.

  • Project Completed: Tarkin returns to Lanternwurm, magically aged and wise. He steps into the vacant role of Overseer, claiming to have seen all these events during his quest to the Cathedral. His voyage into the Burning Expanse was to prepare for this moment.

  • Project: We assemble a team to study the bladder and understand what happened to Darril.

• The project to investigate the cult has failed, sabotaged by members of the cult.

  • Project completed: The hydro-condensers are repaired. Water is back in abundance.

  • Project: Lacking firm evidence against Sister Sullivan, our security forces make efforts to get her off the train in a diplomatic fashion.

• The fungal bladder investigation takes longer than expected (everyone is afraid to even approach it).

  • Project: With the success of Fort Verdant Fate, we decide to start setting up another fort at Lake Lazarus.

• We unexpectedly get the evidence we need against Sister Sullivan to expel her from Lanternwurm sooner. She is caught magically stealing life from the sick on the train, under the guise of praying for people. It is revealed she is a necromancer, drawing powers from an evil god of fire and renewal named Garyx. Her magics allowed her to drain lifeforce and prevent her mutations from recurring. The community unanimously agrees to exile her into the Shifting Prison.

  • Project: With SIster Sullivan gone, we try to appeal to the gang lords of the Locks in order to convince Master Crow to help deal with the cult situation.

• Disease strikes. The community quarantines and projects are stalled this week. Some people connected to Section 37 are part of the quarantine effort, which raises suspicions about what's going on with them.

  • Project: We go to Driftmount to inform Overseer Marshe of his daughter Linde's death and hold a mourning ritual.

• The Bowlers from Thundergranite Mountain start ranging out and marauding. The increased Bowler activity makes officials in the Locks nervous.

  • Discovery: We learn that Master Crow has links to the Communion of the First Flame, making him a potential enemy.

• Investigating more thoroughly, we learn that Master Crow is in fact a double agent, working to infiltrate the First Flame as he anticipated them as a threat.

  • Project completed: The team completes analysis of the bladder, identifying it as a carnivorous plant that consumes living creatures. We decide to kill it to keep people safe, but we take a cutting to use its secretions for study.

  • Project completed: Fort Lazarus is built near the lake, fortified to protect against the Bowler marauders seen around the mountains.

  • Project completed: The mourning ritual for Linde is a muted affair. Marshe is proud that Linde died on her own terms like she lived her life. Dacien swears to find the culprit.

  • Discussion: Lanturnwurm is not as good as it claims to be and holds very loosely to true justice.

• Master Crow is found out by the First Flame as a double agent and is captured. Our plan to go to him for help changes into a rescue mission.

  • Discovery: Our scouts identify the headquarters of the First Flame, Cinder Castle. Master Crow is currently being transported there.

Winter

• We plan an ingenious carriage-heist to break Master Crow free, allowing us to rescue him before he is taken to the castle. The First Flame is enraged.

  • Project: We combine forces with Master Crow's forces and start a plan to assault the First Flame's fortress.

• The Locks and Lanternwurm rush the planning, solidifying it early. But the community is wary and morale becomes scarce among them. They don't believe as strongly as leadership in the plan.

  • Discussion: How do we address flagging morale in the community? Give voice to the people? Make them figureheads? Ignore them? Hold a festival?

• In response to unrest, leadership take on the large task of establishing a process whereby members of the community are selected to contribute the people's voice to the leaders of Lanternwurm.

  • Discovery: Scouts determine that the First Flame's fortress is a raw elemental structure that emerged from beneath the ground, summoned by Garyx the fire-god.

• A disease destroys a whole staple crop of grain which becomes scarce again.

  • Discovery: More is discovered under the ground: remnants of ancient cities and structures, more than we thought. Perhaps Cinder Castle once belong to an ancient civilization before being claimed by Garyx.

• A headstrong, idealistic community member, Cecilia Brightsong, objects to the planned appointment process and demands more democratic election of community representatives. A long debate ensues, delaying the project.

  • Discovery: There are reports of activity around the Agony Engine, which might be moving again.

• An expedition group made up of treasure hunters and explorers is sent to the Shifting Prison to start creating a map of the structure.

  • Project: Tarkin wants to celebrate his birthday with a large community party.

• Cecilia is abducted by a small group of extremists. The community is outraged and organizes to track them down. They rescue her and manage to capture and imprison her abductors. Cecilia is further radicalized, believing that leadership were trying to silence her, though this can't be proven.

  • Project: Scouts are sent to partner with the Spindrift Rangers to seek an underground path to Cinder Castle, with the hope of gaining an advantage over the First Flame.

• We turn away an infected stranger and morale becomes even more dire, as the community loses faith that we are still who we say we are: protectors of those who have nowhere else to turn. Tarkin's birthday party bombs as a result.

  • Discovery: We encounter a community of nomadic people, speaking a language we don't understand, who range the Burning Expanse looking for the fabled treasure.

• To counter rising fear mongering, Tarkin finds a spark of his youth (literally, as his magical aging seems to be fading) and is able to better empathize and reach out to calm feelings on the train.

• Winter eases and becomes milder for a spell, which we take as a good omen.

  • Discovery: Tarkin really is magically de-aging, even younger than his original age. No one knows if this de-aging will stop.

• Winter is cold, but varies a lot depending on where Lanternwurm is. People generally stay indoors, usually increasing nerves in the community. It becomes important to allow people trips to the Green and Fort Verdant Fate.

  • Project Complete: We get new community league appointments. Additionally, with Tarkin de-aging rapidly, he decides to designate Cecilia as Overseer, recognizing her strength of spirit.

  • Project: As one of his final acts as Overseer, Tarkin directs the community to question the group of people who had abducted Cecilia to find out their motives, confirming that they were not connected to his leadership group.

• A group of dissenters who disagree with Cecilia becoming Overseer detaches part of the train and separates off from Lanternwurm, separating families, and creating a smaller splinter engine.

  • Project Complete: Questioning of the imprisoned group proceeds, but all of them are found having committed suicide, purple foam at their mouths. We find "37" tattooed inside their mouths. When authorities seek out Section 37, they find it empty of records. It is suspected that the group connected with the lab is part of the splinter engine. It is also discovered that at least some of the splinter group may have been taken against their will.

  • Project Complete: Scouts are able to find an underdark path from the channel to the Cinder Castle, but it is very perilous and not all of them return.

  • Project Complete: The expedition team to the Shifting Prison does not return. We receive a distress signal from them before losing track of them.

  • Discovery: There is a black market pirate merchant community on another seaborne sanctuary engine, The Hades Plunder.

• As the year comes to a close, the train encounters a strange area entangled with tree roots with a large stump in the center of it. Cult members of the First Flame are spotted conducting some kind of ritual. The party engages them in battle, but is unable to stop them from completing their blood ritual and transforming themselves into fleshy monstrosities. A giant demon eye opens on the stump threatening the party with gaze attacks. After a long battle, the party dispatches eye and the transformed cult members. They are left to wonder what kind of magic can create such dangerous creatures.