Encounter-a-Day

The players are assigned to escort a moderately-high ranking Cannith on a lightning rail trip. She’s wealthy and important enough that she has her own car, and arrangements have been made to check the papers of everyone on board the rail and screen out the undesirables.

As the PCs are eating in the densely-packed dining car on the lightning rail, someone enters from the far door. For the briefest of moments, one of the PCs and he see each other from across the room, and then the man panics and runs back through the door he just came from.

The PC recognizes him as Julius Entwerp, a fairly poor thief (poor in skill more so than wealth) who had tried to steal from them in Sharn yesterday. He was easily caught and turned in to the authorities, and there’s no way he should be out of jail already. In fact, it’s even more suspicious that he’s on the train in the first place; everyone that boarded the train had their ID checked and his should have sent up red flags.

Julius is simply on the train trying to keep a low profile and escape from Sharn. There’s nothing particularly onerous about his presence, and it’s really just bad luck for him that he ran into the PCs. One way or another, they’ll catch him and be able to do what they will… for his part, Julius will try to hide but knows he’s no match for them in a fight.

Searching him, the PCs find his identification papers… which are unusual, to say the least. Inside the tattered leather folio are a couple of completely blank sheets of parchment. Julius explains that there’s an enchantment on the papers; anyone giving them a cursory glance will think they see what they expected to see. The illusion doesn’t hold up under any sort of scrutiny, but it’s plenty for getting past most over-worked guards.

Twists: Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence after all. Maybe Julius is after the Cannith– or one of the PCs. Would explain why they keep running into him.

Planned or otherwise, the PCs going after Julius would make the perfect distraction to attack the Cannith. Even if they leave some to watch her, their forces are split.

Note: The idea for the papers isn’t mine… They actually come from the Eberron source book Five Nations. Thanks to William S. for figuring out where they were found!