After wandering for a couple weeks deeper into Breland, Puck comes across a Lightning Rail line and follows it. When a train eventually roars past he leaps aboard one of the open cargo cars and rides from stop to stop.
On his third stop he discovers he is being followed by a fairly nondescript looking fellow. He addresses the man and finds he is a Kalashtar visiting Khorvaire from Sarlona. Together they walk to the village, a sprawling hub of trade and storage for the farms that stretch out to the distant horizon.
In a small rice and tea shop they sit and discuss many things with each other and the local farmers. They wax philosophical and speak of life past dusk and into the night, though Puck does not reveal too much and says nothing of his monastery training.
The Kalastar's eyes seem to spark with a faint blue afterglow for a split second before the man turns away. His mannerisms seem to alter and the discussions turn tense as the man who calls himself Leondi D'Naash reveals himself as a true-blood, not an evil and rebellious dissident like the lesser Kalashtar.
His story spans the breadth and depth of Kalashtar treachery and insidiousness. Afterall, the Empire of Riedra has brought hundreds of years of peace and prosperity where once a war torn continent of nations once existed. Khorvaire was a perfect modern example of the terrible horrors that a century of war had wrought where unification and peace once existed.
Puck takes this all in with skepticism, afterall, the man waited the entire evening before telling him truthfully who he was. D'Naash divulges that he is a diplomatic attache based out of the City of Sharn offices for the Empire of Riedra on his way to Wroat, the capital of Breland. Hoping to have earned Puck's trust he hopes to speak more on the morrow and turns in for the night.
Night passes as Puck stays in one of the tea house rooms down the hall from D'Naash. Curiosity and not a small amount of larceny takes a hold of Puck and in the early dark of the morning he sneaks from his room and into the room of the attache from Riedra.
An odd crystal mortar lies by the man's bedside next to his satchel. Puck investigates the satchel and finds a crystal necklace, the man's diplomatic seal, and official ID papers along with several sheets of paper in the man's native language.
The strange crystal mortar begins to faintly glow in the approaching dawn. Puck tucks it under his robe as he tries to read a few of the sheets of paper but to no avail. The crystal glows brighter and Puck hides in his robes and turns to leave. With a flash the crystal glows and D'Naash sits awake, the same blue afterglow in his eyes as a fist reaches out and grabs Puck's tunic.
Puck slaps the man's hands away and grips his shoulders firmly. Speaking in an alien language D'Naash speaks a word of power that snares Puck's limbs, holding him fast.
"You DARE take what is the property of Riedra?! Insolent little insect I will purge your brain of all thought and leave you a dribbling fool!" The man reaches up and places his palms on either side of Puck's temples. With tremendous effort Puck shakes off the power and snaps his palms upwards to break the man's touch. The attache rises to his full height and throws another powerful mental blast. Puck staggers backward but shakes off the effects. The man's face twists in fury. He turns and jumps through the paper wall and into the road. A farmer drops his cart in surprise.
Puck dives through the opening and plows into the attache. With a powerful grip Puck grabs a hold of the man. D'Naash is yelling in his native tongue and surprisingly aims another blast of mental energy at Puck. "That's enough of that." With a deft twist he plants the man's face into the dirt. By now a couple of farmers and the attache are yelling for help against the bandit.
Hands firmly tied and face into the ground, Puck quickly grabs the satchel and leaps back through the opening in the wall. Grabbing his own things he darts past the tea bar tossing a gold coin to the keep. "Sorry for the mess."
Back stepping, Puck tosses the man a second coin. "I was never here." The keep nods as Puck turns and dashes into the twisting roadways and alleys of the village proper.
He makes his way back to the rail station. In the distance a lightning train can be seen fast approaching but still several minutes away. Loudly Puck purchases a ticket to Wroat and then slowly disappears.
From a distance Puck watches as several local guardsmen are commanded by the Reidran attache. Several rice carts are overturned and searched as the lightning rail arrives. Eventually a higher ranked captain appears and takes the attache into custody for questioning. With a smile Puck turns back to the low-lying forest with the satchel on his back with the strange cystal morter inside.
A faint blue flash emenates from the crystal before it grows dark. The Riedran attache pauses to turn eastward towards the forest and a small smile curves one side of his mouth as he is led away.
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