The Ascendant Engine

The Ascendant Engine, also known as Scenda, is an invention by Albion Rail introduced in Arc 11.

## Description

The Ascendant Engine is the train that lays its own tracks. As of Arc 11, it is described as the most powerful vehicle ever created, as well as the safest train ever built.

It is made out of fifteen sleek cars, each with six large, reinforced wheels, and each ten feet wide and fifty feet long, making the train 750 feet long in total. The engine runs on fourteen runits (solidified magic) per hour of operation, which makes her the most streamlined one invented at the time of its maiden voyage. The self-tracking locomotive lays its own tracks based on real-time arcane input to avoid all obstacles, not sacrifice any speed, and find the most efficient route. At the brake van, the tracks are picked up, broken back into their original components, and then prepared for reuse.

Passengers generally enter and exit the train through the dining car. The cars are connected to each other through doors, and between the cars are ladders leading up to the roof.

### Cars

1. **Locomotive:** Technically, the train is supposed to operate itself, but if need be, the locomotive is built in a way that a single person can operate it. It is entirely machine, with various levers and buttons. It is not usually locked, but there is no reason that any guest should be there.
2. **Staff Car:** The staff car is a so-called aside car, which means that while it is not 100% sound proof, it is possible to have conversations in there without people in neighbouring cars being able to listen in by accident. It contains a little break room that has some board games, as well as little sleeping cubicles for the staff. The planning happens in this car. It is not locked, but there is no reason guests should be there.
3. **Dome Car:** The dome car has walls and ceiling made of glass with metal scaffolding. It is an observation car made to grant passengers the perfect view for the landscape around them.
4. **First Class Sleeping Car:** The car in which the first class passengers sleep.
5. **First Class Sleeping Car:** The car in which the first class passengers sleep.
6. **First Class Parlour:** The car in which the first class passengers dine.
7. **Dining Car / Bar / Food Making Car:** This car includes the bar, in which service starts half an hour after departure. The bar serves various drinks, including magical drinks, although those are top shelf. Most people get their food in this car but then leave into their respective seating cars again, where the seats are more comfortable.
8. **Coach Seating Car:** The car in which the coach class passengers eat and sit. There are little booths with seats facing each other and a table in the middle.
9. **Coach Sleeping Car:** The car in which the coach class passengers sleep.
10. **Coach Sleeping Car:** The car in which the coach class passengers sleep.
11. **Coach Sleeping Car:** The car in which the coach class passengers sleep.
12. **Passenger Freight Car:** Contains all the passenger's luggage.
13. **Staff Freight Car / Additional Material:** Contains all the staff luggage as well as materials for the train, including some scrap metal.
14. **Lifestock (/Stock) Car:** A car used to transport creatures that were getting too close to the edges of station towns, or were otherwise deemed "problematic" by Albion Rail. They are just being transported elsewhere. Has a brontosaurus and an ankylosaurus living inside it.
15. **Brake Van:** The car supposed to suck up the tracks, dissolve them, and turn the metal and the magic inside them back into new tracks which can then be shot out from the locomotive. This happens in some large vats.

### Sentience

Multiple people have theories or proof of the Ascendant Engine having some sort of sentience. Suds figures out a way to talk to machines, and forms a special friendship with the train, calling her Scenda. Rian believes the train is only a part of a bigger consciousness bound through the tracks. And Atelut swears an oath to the train / Albion Rail as a whole, breaks it, and believes that the following misfortunes are a punishment for them. The train, through a combination of what Albion Rail built and Suds putting parts of his own soul into it, actually does have a consciousness, which becomes stronger during her maiden voyage.

## Development

The Ascendant Engine starts on its maiden voyage on Autumn the 25th in Arc 11. During this, it is supposed to go from June Grove Station Town to Pistol City Station Town, a journey that is supposed to take multiple days. The tracks lead only about 100 feet out of June Grove Station Town, and after that, the train is supposed to start laying its own tracks. As it does so, working exactly as promised, the staff is very relieved. Soon, there are minor disruptions to the journey, as parts of the train start following their own will. Then, the train stops picking up the tracks it lays, and refuses to let its lead engineer fix or stop it. Whenever Piper tries to pull any levers or push buttons, they get pulled back and reset. Finally, the train planeshifts, which is accompanied by the lights going out, the windows blackening, and the train whistle blowing. For the passengers, the air seems to tighten around them, and gravity shifts for a moment, before everything goes back to normal.

For the first shift, the train travels to the Elemental Plane of Earth. Since the train was supposed to pick up and reuse its own trails, there are not enough spare trails on board to support the journey without recycling. So, to substitute for the tracks that are not picked up, the staff starts putting scrap metals and their own spells into the vats that build the tracks. It works, and the train shifts planes again, this time into the Feywild. There, the train is attacked by a fairy dragon, until it is thrown off by the Arc 11 party. The hole in the roof is repaired by Suds. The train takes some additional minor damage due to multiple people, mostly Chet and Rian, shooting guns in the dining car. Not only does the train take damage from bullets hitting it, Chet builds the bullets out of material coming from the train.

The next location they planeshift to is the city of Dis, on the second layer of Hell. There, the train gets damaged by the intense heat, the lava, and attacks from imps, but also by Foq, who is possessed by the spirit of Jeh'baqqan, the Frozen Fool, and Chet, who, in the process of following Foq, explodes two holes into it.

Finally, they planeshift into Scenda's celestial plane, where she ascends to godhood, leaving the train empty. She pushes the train back into the Material Plane and Pistol City Station Town herself, where the passengers are expected by the people of Pistol City as well as some Albion Rail representatives, who later notice that the train no longer functions as it is supposed to.

## Notable Staff

* **Atelut** - Player Character of Arc 11, middle manager
* **Chet Sapphire** - Player Character of Arc 11, ticket collector
* **Elanthielrian Wright** - Player Character of Arc 11, bartender
* **Emory Rosewood\*** - customer service, later bartender; a Halfling with dark skin, thick curly hair, and a monocle
* **Herklefunk Braxelberry\*** - direct manager; large middle aged Half-Elf with a big mustache
* **Jacob "Suds" Aaron** - Player Character of Arc 11, dishwasher for catering staff feeding the engineers until he is fired shortly before Arc 11
* **Piper Boomstick\*** - lead engineer; Human with red twin braids
* **Turnbuckle\*** - food service robot; has a silver tray on his head that has some scratches where Rian pets him

\*Patreon submitted NPCs

## Notable Guests

* **Bartholomew Albion** - Head of Transportation of Visteria during Arc 11, closely involved with the development of the train, not on board as a member of staff but briefly as a visitor until he is killed and dropped off into Hell by Rian and Atelut
* **Foq Eweard** - Player Character of Arc 11
* **Jacob "Suds" Aaron** - Player Character of Arc 11, in love with the train, joins the maiden voyage as a guest after being fired from his job on the train

## Trivia

* While the train is going full speed, the windows should not be opened.

## Fan Addition

* Aram created a map for the Ascendant Engine, which can be found on his twitter here.