(This session was a side quest generally unrelated to the main story. A gaming friend from out of town was visiting and wanted to play Blades, so I ran a one-shot with some of the campaign characters, but set it up so that the regulars didn't miss anything relevant.)
• An Iruvian fixer named Imo introduced the party to a foreign stranger looking for smugglers - an Iruvian bodyguard by the name of Mithos. He needed help smuggling a large crate out of Duskvol and into Iruvia via train.
• As it turned out, the crate was actually the coffin of a young Iruvian boy who had died of the "Spirit Plague" that has begun spreading around the city since the advent of the "Ghost Torrent" the party unleashed over the waterfront.
• The boy was a member of a wealthy Iruvian family on an extended visit to the city to attend to clan business interests. His distraught mother was returning home with the body to allow for a proper Iruvian burial rites - rites that require the body and spirit remain intact. This is in direct opposition to the mandate of the Imperial Spirt Wardens - hence the need for smugglers.
• When it looked as if the child would not recover from his illness, the family managed to acquire an Iruvian "needle for the dead" - an artifact that binds the body and spirit together as long as the needle is not removed. Accordingly, the wardens were - for the moment anyway - unaware the child had died.
• The first task was to camouflage the crate with a triple bottom - meaning one layer of obviously fake goods, a second layer of actual, but minor contraband (un-taxed liquid spirits) and a third layer hiding the body.
• After some coercing and bribery Flews and Mithos opted to stand guard over the crate where it rode in the baggage car while SBD and Cricket rode in their own small compartment in one of the cheaper passenger cars. In truth, SBD and Cricket ended up spending most of their time in the bar car where SBD stole drinks and got blackout drunk while Cricket ran interference.
• While keeping SBD out of trouble, Cricket met a suspiciously engaging and observant old couple who, in the end, turned out to be much more than they seemed. The old woman introduced herself as "Granny."
• Once the train was underway, Mithos and Flews were content to leave Pocket Mouse - one of Mitho's guards - to watch over the crate, and they joined the rest of the crew in the passenger cars.
• Two of the three day trip passed, and only a hundred miles shy of the Iruvian border the train stalled, went dark and coasted to a stop when the power was apparently cut. Several things then happened all at once.
- Flews ran off for the cargo car and engaged in a fight between guards and bandits that was already underway.
- Mithos and Cricket were visited by the ghost of Obo - the little boy they were transporting. He was confused about how he had gotten on a train and wanted to see his mother. Someone had apparently removed the needle pinning his spirit to his body.
- SBD headed outside to create a distraction, but thought better of it when he found the rail bulls, in their electroplasmic armor, fighting off the waves of hungry spirits that were attacking the train.
• In the climax the crew found itself fighting a band of train robbers in the cargo car - a band lead by Granny. After some bloodshed, Cricket negotiated an deal with Granny - if they would return the needle, the crew would not interfere with Granny's team's escape. The bandits gave up the artifact and fled the train - apparently into the Deathlands.
• Mithos replaced the needle in Obo's body.
• Once the train had gotten underway again and reached the border crossing the crew was able to pass itself off as at least the foils - if not the actual heroes - of the bandit attack and so were not arrested outright for their involvement in smuggling Obo's body.
• Given the proximity to the border, the local influence of Iruvian culture and the sway of a few bribes, Mithos and his employer were able to get the body out of Akoros despite the complications, and were satisfied enough with the work of the Queer to pay the agreed upon fee.
• The party hung around the boarder town of Southport until they could catch a northbound train and returned to Duskvol.
