Map Room, Blackshire Keep
This stone room has been repurposed since the Kurai's moved in. There wasn't much use for reading old maps, so it became the laundry room. The castle originally had a magically-animated washing system, but the enchantment wore off over the decades and Butterlump and Gnarr have their own preferred means of washing things. There is an oddly placed stone table in the center of the room, fixed to the floor but at an off angle to the walls so that one edge is pointing due north. It even has built-in hold-downs for the maps.

There are a lot of Titanian sized pairs of frilly underwear hanging from drying lines, and there's no way to tell if they belong to Butterlump or Gnarr - or if they take turns sharing them or something. The maps themselves are kept in chests, the original wall cubbies for them being used for storing fabric, shoes and other clothing-related materials.

"This is it," Eve announces when they enter. "Or it was. But it's got the map table in it."

"Well, even if the whole geography has changed," Aviri notes as he examines the table, "it might give us an idea of where it might be. Like, a cave, or town, or graveyard or something."

Eve opens one of the chests, and pulls out a map. "I hope you know how to read maps," she comments. In the end she carries an armload of rolled maps to the table, with Trilup carrying a few more as well.

"I can," Aviri says, moving to the west side of the table, rubbing his paws together eagerly.

Lin starts rifling through them, looking for one with the area around the keep on it that's dated about 70 years ago. "Sure!" She chirps.

There's one that has Blackshire near the northern edge, and covers more to the south, since that's generally where the magic compass was pointing.

"Got a straight edge?" Lin asks Eve as she clips the map to the table. "Too bad that ring thing doesn't shoot some kinda magic beam of light. Kin ya put it ontop of the keep?"

Aviri tilts his head at the map as Lin sets it down, nodding when he sees that east has been put in the right direction. "If we could get a bearing from somewhere east or west of here, we should be able to pinpoint where it is," he notes.

"There should be a drawer or something," Eve mutters, and goes to the cubby wall. She returns with some sewing supplies and navigation aids. These are a ruler and a drawing compass, while the rest is thread and scissors and bone pins.

"Far enough fer the ring to point in a different direction an' see where the two lines meet." Lin chirps.

"Which depends on how far away the artifact is," Aviri adds, chewing on his teeth. "It'd take longer, but we'd get an idea of how far we have to go to fetch this thing."

"Of course it won't matter if we only have to go a little way away but we'd find out really fast if it's close." Lin finishes, "Got somethin' that we kin take out quickly an' come back?"

There's no railroad on the map, since it was built in just the last few years. In the direction of the compass, there's Tempest County, and past that something labeled as The Chafing Chasm.

Aviri hrrms as he esamines where the railroad should be. "Eve, are any of these landmarks still here?"

"Tempest County, and this chasm." Aviri points to the map. "A county usually means at least one town we could use."

"Somethin' big an' obvious you kin navigate by." Lin explains, pointing at the keep and the town, "These are some really big, obvious ones."

"Well there's the castle of course, and the road," Eve notes. "I never heard of the chasm before though - I think that's where Spearhead might be now."

"We could try the town first," Aviri says. "If it's close, we'll know it by then." He chuckles. "Or, we could just follow the ring and hope."

Lin leans over the map, looks at it intently, then asks, "Do we have a more recent map as well? If we had both, we could compare an' see where we would be goin if we were Silver, an' where we'd be goin' now."

"There might be one down at the rail office, or in Feli's office," Eve says. "But I'm not allowed to go in there when he's not around."

Lin bounces on the balls of her feet and smiles. "I could sneak in an' grab it!"

"Yeah, but he's the Count, and it's technically his castle," Eve says. "I'm just visiting because my parents are on a vacation trip."

The kitten gives Lin a wary look. "There could be demons in there," she notes. "Or worse. We found a haunted sword in there. Not the one downstairs.. a nasty one. From the Necromancer King himself!"

Aviri shoots Lin a look, but grins, and doesn't immediately say no. "Counts are lower than Duchesses, though, right?" he asks Eve.

"Doesn't that make you the wrong person to have delivered this to in the first place?" Lin asks then growls playfully at the mention of demons. "Well, I'd bet they've never met an Aquavi from Stonebarrow!"

"Also.. I don't know that he has maps there," Eve admits. "But there's one up on the wall at the train station. So maybe the station master will have copies. Did I mention that I own the railroad?"

"The railroad sounds like a good bet," Aviri says with a nod, staring down at the map, trying to commit the forms to memory.

Lin blinks then asks, "Then why did the count even come up if you've got a handy solution? We kin go to the rail station, compare the maps, an' go in some direction to pinpoint the target of that compas. Super simple, let's go! An' bring that map."

"I'm bringing it," Aviri says haltingly, distracted from by his intense concentration.

Blackshire Station
A wooden and brick building stands alongside a cleared road cutting through the woods and fields. The road is unusual in that it has two metal rails running its length, mounted on wooden planks that are spiked to the ground at regular intervals. The building alongside the rails is surrounded by a raised platform a few feet off the ground, with steps leading down to ground level, and a building in its center -- one part looking like a small storehouse and shed with a small water tower nearby, and the other looking almost like a pretty little townhouse, but with facades in both front in back, and with wide windows facing the track, revealing a lobby inside. A woodcut sign decorated with flowery designs identifies the building as "Blackshire Station", and a big sign next to the rails bids those coming that way, "Welcome to Blackshire".

There is indeed a map (painted in color!) hanging in the lobby. A few travelers are seated, and give the Akwavi girls odd looks when they all arrive.

Linyala gives the odd-looking ooglers a toothy grin and walks over to inspect the map, looking in a southwardly direction from Blackshire.

Aviri surprisingly manages to mostly ignore the people in the station, favoring instead the map. He chews his own teeth for a moment and then turns to Eve. "We've got a compass, right? Tell which direction the ring points?"

Tempest County is still there, connected to Blackshire via Foxfire Road. Beyond that is Spearhead Keep, at the tip of a roughly triangular area spreading southward labeled as Occupied Sylvania.

Where the Chasm once was is a lake.. in a swamp. Most of the south is swampy still.

Lin churrs quietly as she ponders the map. "Looks like the only easy place would be Spearhead, so it's prolly not there. When's the next dragonwagon?"

"Hey, no more Chafing," Trilup notes happily. "Now it's the.. Tarn of Terror. Tarn. Tarn. Sounds harmless?"

Aviri turns back to the map ponderously. "Looks like Chafing Chasm's a lake," he says. "And might not be easy to get to. Spearhead might be good ... could probably match it with ....." his voice trails off. Eve's question brings him back. "Dragonwagon," he says. "A wagon that spews steam and smoke. Like a dragon. Dragonwagon."

"I left it in the garage," Eve notes, then something clicks behind her eyes. "Oh.. you mean the train don't you?"

"Yeah," Lin chirps, "Goes on tracks, run by cheese-hungry Titanians. An' Dragonwagon sounds way cooler than Train."

"Hmm, then I hope we can see something from the keep," Aviri says, relating to their lack of compass. "And I'm going to stick with dragonwagon." He chuckles.

"Well, there'll be a train to Justininople this afternoon," Eve notes. "But it turns north at Scrote, where it takes on water and coal. That's about twenty miles west. That should be far enough, right?"

"If it doesn't, you're on your own." Lin chirps and sticks her tongue out at Eve.

"If twenty miles isn't enough," Aviri explains with a warm smile to her, "that means our target is a long ways away."

"It's somethin' we learn in more advanced navigation. You make a triangle between three points, where the third point is where you're tryin' to get to. If your two starting points are 20 miles appart an' still make straight lines, your target isn't on this planet." Lin explains.

"I haven't gotten to the maths part of Scouting yet," Trilup notes defensively. "But what if it's too far and this thing has only works for a certain distance. It could point to sumthin' else then."

"That's true," Aviri says with a hint of disappointment. "I hope it is the right thing. Unless we wanna scrounge up every ...." he looks around at the people in the station cautiously ".... every thingy until we find the right one."

"Can't you just watch the ring while the train.. while the dragonwagon is moving?" Eve asks. "If it suddenly jumps, you'll know we've gone too far."

"We could," Aviri says. "And that's a good idea, to make sure that when we look at the ring over there it's pointing to the same thing as when we're here."

"Alright!" Lin chirps, "The dragonwagon leaves in a while yet so we kin show you some scout games if you'd like."

"I'll tell the stationmaster to prepare to hook up my private car when the train comes through," Eve says, and heads off to the small office at the end of the lobby, next to the ticket booth.

Aviri's brow furrows as Eve leaves. "Private car...?" He turns to Lin. "I'd be worried about showing her your games if she wasn't as crazy as you."

"She's the same age as me," Trilup says, "and I'm not crazy. So she shouldn't be either."

"I think he's basing how sane we are by comparing against himself an' I'm pretty sure he's some kinda crazy so to him, we must be bonkers." Lin offers. When she sees Eve coming back, she says, "We'll need rope, a bottle of oil, an old blanket, a spring, a walled or fenced off area, an' one of the local monsters."

Aviri just stares blankly at the list of items. "That is a bit more crazy than I was expecting," he says.

"We'd have to show you." Lin chirps, "someone thought it up a while ago as a prank but it's really fun an' good fer your agility."

"The train will be arriving soon though," Eve points out. "I don't think we'll have time? And springs are expensive, couldn't you use an inflatable bladder instead, or very stringy cheese?"

"We usually used a pair of bows tied back to back. A bladder could work though." Lin chirps, "It just has to bounce. How long until the dragonwagon gets here?"

Eve looks up at the complicated clock on the wall. It's not Chronotopian, but Titanian, which means it has lots of redundant parts, bits that look like arms and legs, and big hammers to hit the bells with. It looks menacing. "Quarter past the hour, so.. ten minutes," the Duchess claims.

"Well, I have games in my car," Eve says. "We can all go wait in there until it's hooked up to the train."

"Sounds good!" Aviri says brightly. Any game that could be played on a train car would invariably be more sane than whatever Lin was going to come up with. "Where to, Duchess?"

"Follow me!" Eve says cheerfully, and leads them out into an area with lots of train tracks and levers and equipment. Also there's a train car, with the Blackshire coat of arms on the side. It has armored windows and doors, of course.. but so do all of the other train cars. Once inside, Eve turns on the gas and a clever mechanism sparks the lamps. There's a lot of pink, and a lot of stuffed toy animals that might also double as furniture, plus a bedroom and bathroom and a lounge with a table. "I've got playing cards," she notes. "Do you know how to play Cripple Mister Onion? Because Jynx would never teach it to me."

Aviri seems not at all put off by the decorations and finds a large bear upon which to sit. "Playing cards?" he asks. "No, sorry. Though that sounds reminiscant of these vegetables stuffed up in our castle, back at Stonebarrow."

"You grow onions up there?" Eve asks, looking shocked. "I assumed it would be all.. cabbages. Or that you all ate raw meat.."

"You can't ferment a cabbage," Trilup recites. "Therefore it cannot be healthy to eat."

Lin shakes her head. "I never spent enough time in the Boathouse to learn. Though that reminds me of the time we filled swamp poppers with scumble an' dropped them near some tourboats."

"Maybe not cards then," Eve says, and opens a chest. "I've got Snakes and Ladders. And a picture puzzle, K'tinza.. but I may have lost some of the pieces to that one.."

"They said it was a bad batch." Lin explains, "Somethin'd gone wrong an' it nearly made someone go blind when he tested it. Very volatile though!"

"Hmm, Snakes and Ladders is that no-play game, right?" Aviri asks. He looks to Lin and Tril. "I'll leave it to you. Picture-puzzle, or competative luck?"

"No-play?" Eve asks. "There are dice, and you race to be the first to the end.." There's a jolt, and the car begins to move, only to stop with another loud noise and sudden jolt when it connects to the end of the train.

"We should set up the compass," Trilup says. "And like.. mark where it's pointing and stuff?"

Lin gets out a piece of paper and sets it on the table. "Put the ring in the middle an' we kin mark its direction." She takes out her pen and marks an X in the center of the page.

"Good idea!" Aviri says, leaping into action before he quite decides what action into which he should leap. "Er ... right, we don't have a real compass. This might be difficult."

"Naw. We get the angle right on the paper then just flip it around an' transfer it to the map. We know where we are now an' we'll know where we'll be so we kin just set the paper so it ilnes up." Lin chirps.

"Oh, we'll be stopped before that," Eve says. "It's more or less straight from here through to Scrote. When we leave there, it'll be turning to head to the capitol, then we turn around there and come back. So you can measure twice if you like. Or we could get a map at Justininople."

Aviri looks at Eve, eyes wide with incredulity. "You mean there are no turns in the road? At all?"

"This part was all flat swamp, so we had to build the railbed up anyway, and it's cheaper if you can go straight," Eve says. "Plus it lets you pick up a lot of speed, which makes the monster splatter better when you hit them, and the Titanians like that part best."

The Lapi flinches at the imagery. "Alright, then that'll work. I can be on pen-duty."

Lin perks right up. "Kin I go up to the front and watch?" She asks, already standing up.

"Sure!" Eve says. "It can be boring though if nothing comes onto the track to challenge the dragon. That's why the engineer blows the steam whistle a lot, to attract attention."

Aviri suddenly perks up and makes a mark on the page indicating the direction of the tracks, for later reference.

Lin looks over his shoulder and oohs before scooting towards the door to find her way to the front to terrorize the crew and watch monsters get splattered.

"I'll keep an eye on the otters," Eve promises Aviri. "You probably should stay back here though because of the noise.."

"Thanks," Aviri says, nodding to her. "If they don't jump off the train, that's probably good enough." He chuckles and makes a mark on the page where the ring is pointing.

Once things get underway.. it's a mixed blessing for the Lapi. One the one hand, he gets to be alone finally. On other.. it's noisy. The monotonous rattle of the rails, the whistle, and the metronome frequency of the mile markers flashing past the windows. Up front, Trilup spends almost all of the time with her nose stuck out of a window so her whiskers can feel the wind, while Lin gets to look through one of the engineer's windows at the track ahead. There's only one really 'juicy' monster encounter though, and that was a frog-like monster that puffed itself up to try and look bigger. The locomotive was not intimidated. The noise does leave her ears ringing for a bit though. And then they're slowing to a stop at the Scrote station, only about an hour later. Twenty miles in an hour! On land!

Lin finishes thanking the Titanians and bounces back to Aviri. "That was so cool!" She chirps, "That frog thing exploded! Parts went everywhere and an eyeball splattered on my window! Did we get a good triangle on the paper?

The final compass mark is considerably angled back towards the first one. The target couldn't be more than thirty miles away from Blackshire. Maybe forty.

"Good news!" Aviri says when Lin bounces down to him. He pauses at her descriptions, shudders, and shakes it off. "It's close! Only a couple dozen miles away from Blackshire!"

"That's the fastest I've ever gone ever," Trilup says when she returns, all grins and frazzled looking whiskers.

"Shiny!" Lin chirps, "When's the next dragonwagon or should we just start walking if it's that close?

"The railroad doesn't quite work that way," Eve says. "We go one direction until the end, then turn around. So we're going to Justininople from here, unless you want to hang around in Scrote waiting?"

"Uh.. do?" Eve asks. "It's a place called Scrote so.. uh.. maybe there's a statue of the founder? Lord Scrotus? I dunno.. nobody ever gets off in Scrote. The capitol is the big draw."

"Well, if the wait is anything less than a full day," Aviri says, and then pauses. "Or ... if the full trip to the capitol and back is less than a full day, it's gonna be quicker to just ride the dragonwagon the whole way."

"Wouldn't it take just as long to wait for the dragonwagon to come back?" Lin asks, "We'd have to come back through here anyways."

"Unless there are two wagons," Aviri noes. "Though I'd rather be riding here than wandering aimlessly out there."

"It's only about three hours from here to the capitol, then we come back in the morning," Eve says. "So we'd be staying overnight in the city. There are lots of fun places there though!"

Aviri rubs his chin. "Well, I'd rather stay the night there than somewhere in the swamp. I'm kinda done with sleeping in swamps, if I can avoid it."

"My usual hotel room should be available," Eve says. "They even do room service," she adds in hushed tones.

Lin scratches the back of her neck. "Is that where they fix the room if you break it?" She asks.

"They probably do that too," Eve says. "But this is where you pull on a cord, and then a butler shows up at the door to ask what you need - and then does it or gets it! Even if it's ice cream."

"In the really fancy hotels, yeah," Eve says. "It's like being a noble. Well, I mean, I am a noble, but that's pretty recent. I grew up in a shop that sold plates and stuff."

"So.. they can bring you fish on demand?" Trilup asks, already drooling a little.

"Or smoked fish and cheese and chocolate and honey comb and fruit on one plate?" Lin asks in awe.

Eve grins at the girls, and actually looks surprised at Aviri. "I hadn't taken you for one who likes fancy stuff," she notes. "Didn't you say that you usually slept alone in the woods before you got hooked up with these two? I mean, three, if you're listening Miss Silver."

"There's a difference between sleeping alone in the woods, and sleeping semi-alone in a haunted monster-filled swamp of horrors. I've done far too much of the latter. Time for some 'fancy stuff'." Aviri grins.

"Hey, you got to sleep with us in Eve's really soft bed though," Trilup points out. "And Lin didn't even do her fish-breath snore in your face."

Aviri rolls up the paper and adds it to his satchel, pleased with the work, and hands the crystal ball back to Eve. "Alright. To the capitol!" He looks around with a tinkle in his eye, and adjusts an invisible monacle. "A capital idea."

"I'm going to look out the window then!" Trilup says, and heads to one of the windows, even if the view is just of steam for now.

"We'll have to get you some better clothes I think," Eve notes. "Do the girls know how to wear dresses? Either way.. shopping!" She claps her hands together and settles down for the ride.