Train Travel Text Variant 1

Outbound Success Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0	This stretch of track is perfectly safe: no one tries to hold up the train, or put a claw through the windows.
1	This part of the track is safe most of the time – and so it proves on this occasion. None of the passengers try to pick your pocket or start a fight; nothing outside the train mounts an attack.
2	This part of the track is safe most of the time – and so it proves on this occasion. One other passenger eyes your pocket, but you stare at her until she realises you are not the target for a wise criminal.
3	This territory is perhaps less wild than it used to be, but it is still not as safe as the Railway's posters like to suggest. It is sheer good fortune that you don't run into any trouble on your journey.
4	Whatever the Railway's promotions may claim, this is not tame territory. "Lucky journey this time," the conductor remarks, and kisses an amulet shaped like a thistle.
5	At one point, the engine slows to a crawl. Something thumps repeatedly against the outside of your carriage. The window cracks. Then the engineer pours on the coal – or perhaps some other, more effective fuel – and the train flies forward again […]
6	The western Neath has a reputation for being empty. You do not find it so today. Dozens of would-be train robbers gather at a narrow point in the track and pelt […] the train. The engineer […] speeds through. But this could have ended very differently.
7 - 8	[…] On the track ahead is a cloaked man riding a huge, tusked creature: […] Its eyes are lamps; its hooves are sledgehammers. […] you manage to wound the thing – hanging out the window, aiming in the dark – and it falls back. […]

Inbound Success Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0	The journey is a stop-start one, giving the impression that you're on a new-fangled exercise device […] When you enquire of the driver […] he blames slippery tracks due to fungus. […] Why they can't factor it into their railway planning is beyond you.
1	The journey is a stop-start one, giving the impression that you're on a […] participatory attraction at Mrs Plenty's carnival. The motion induces nausea. The bandit who boarded the train […] suffered far worse – a sudden jolt launched him into a door […]
2	The driver has the engine rattling and shaking at top speed down the track. The signals must all be in your favour. The alternative is that the driver progressed oblivious to them […] keen not to waste a moment's drinking at his local.
3	The driver has the engine rattling and shaking at top speed down the track. The signals must all be in your favour. The alternative is that the driver ignored them entirely. He drives like a man who has seen what terrors await if the train slows, […]
4	Terror-Birds on the line! […] After London went through a fad for hatching incomprehensible beasts, there was rise in abandoned pets […] The rejected birds […] roam the suburbs of London in aggressively curious packs. […] these […] shriek indignation at the engine […]
5	Terror-Birds on the line! […] The rejected birds are far from defenceless […] These took curious bites from the train's trim, but did no significant damage to either its workings, or the passengers inside. The birds must have been in a whimsical mood.
6	The train lurches from one threat to the next: Terror-Birds! Badly lain rails! Bandits lurking at every corner! […] The conductor fends off the bandits with a spear […] The driver puts on a well-timed burst of speed as soon as the engine exits the bend. […]
7 - 8	The train lurches from one threat to the next: Terror-Birds! Badly lain rails! Bandits lurking at every corner! […] a figure looms in the darkness. It is twice the height of the train, and possessing far too many arms. There is a sound of swarming bees […]

Outbound Failure Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0 - 1	This stretch of track is supposed to be perfectly safe: attacks are fewer than they used to be, and the criminals less bold. But that doesn't protect against the passengers themselves. One decides to indulge in a bit of recreational robbery. […]
2	The land outside the train offers only twilight, and no particular threat. It's the honey-mazed woman […] next to you that proves difficult, thrashing and screaming about panthers and the dome. You compel her to be still, but she scratches your face.
3	The land outside the train offers only twilight, and no particular threat. One of your fellow passengers, on the other hand, is transporting a Python-Headed hound. "Bred it myself," he tells you, just before it exhibits its fangs.
4	At one point, the engine slows to a crawl. Something thumps repeatedly against the outside of your carriage. The window cracks. A scaled arm reaches through the open portal. You are quick enough to cut it off; not quick enough to avoid being wounded.
5	[…] the engine slows to a crawl. Something thumps repeatedly against the outside of your carriage. The window cracks, then explodes inward. Several leather-clad attackers come through – two human, one Clay. You and the conductor manage to fight them off […]
6	The western Neath has a reputation for being empty. You do not find it so today. Dozens of would-be train robbers […] pelt the side of the train. The engineer is new to his job […] He stops, and in a moment the ruffians are aboard […]
7 - 8	The train comes to a stop not half an hour out of Moloch station. On the track ahead is a cloaked man riding a huge, tusked creature […] It stamps, terribly, on the roof of the carriage, crumpling the metal and driving a piece of metal into your side. […]

Inbound Failure Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0	The journey is a stop-start one, giving the impression that you're on a new-fangled exercise device […] Your back will ache for weeks. […] the driver […] blames obstacles set up by criminals. You, however, see no evidence of these.
1	The journey is a stop-start one […] The bandit who boarded the train as it slowed to take a curve was unaccustomed […] – a sudden jolt launched him towards you. When your heads collided, he fell unconscious. But you've a bruise the size of a Whitsun egg.
2	The driver has the engine rattling and shaking at top speed […] He drives like a man who has already clocked off, keen not to waste a moment's drinking […] with a scream of the brakes, the motion abruptly halts. You are slammed against a carriage door. […]
3	The driver […] drives like a man who has seen what terrors await if the train slows […] A 'passenger' – […] a bandit armed to the teeth – had hacked away at the coupling. Your intervention prevented greater loss, but he didn't go down without a fight.
4	A pack of Terror-Birds loiters on the line […] One puts its head through an open window and consumes a matron's hat. Another bites a hole at shoulder height and takes a chunk from your arm. […] neither finds their meal particularly palatable.
5	The train lurches to a stop. The conductor runs, screaming, through the corridor. A Terror-Birds scampers, screeching, after him. The birds have been observing bandits, and have learned how both to block the line and break into carriages. […]
6	[…] a pack of bandits […] leaps aboard. The conductor tries to fend them off […] but he is merely tugged from the train […] The bandits pass through the carriages unimpeded, gathering valuables and challenging anyone who looks like they might resist.
7 - 8	[…] a figure looms in the darkness. It is twice the height of the train, and possesses far too many arms. There is a sound of swarming bees […] The swarming intensifies, overwhelming you. Your ears still ring when you regain consciousness at the station.

Jericho - London Success Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0 - 1	The journey is pleasantly unremarkable. You spend your time considering the many advantages travel by rail has over travel by barge from within the comfort of your carriage.
2	The passengers are afflicted by fits of melancholy. Too long at the Arborist's Hands, no doubt. Beyond that the journey is comfortable and unremarkable.
3	A spot of trouble near Ealing Gardens; some unruliness in steerage; a sighting of marsh-wolves to the east. All in a day's work on the railway line.
4 - 5	The journey back is far from tame; things skitter against the train chassis. Clouds of smog choke the view from the windows. Something large keeps pace with the train for a time, before bounding away.
6	A near miss: an ambush staged at a bend in the river. The bandits are masked but you spy black armbands on their coats. The driver holds his nerve: they are not bold enough to attack a moving engine. Not yet, at least.
7 - 8	The sound of silver trumpets follows the train east; silver-spurred riders on unseen horses. […] You are hunted. The air outside is still and chill; you lean from a window and fire […] You hear screams, but not of pain […] The train steams on and away.

Jericho - London Failure Text

Seeing Banditry in the Upper River	Description
0 - 1	A minor bit of sabotage east of Jericho. One of the gondoliers in disguise, engaged in a bit of light industrial sabotage. You haul him from the engine, but not without incurring a few scratches first.
2	The thunder of waters to the south: a knot of waterfalls, patrolled by grizzled Guiildmembers. You bypass their tolls from your engine, having no need of the waterways. They open fire in response. Dashed indecent of them. You'll need a new hat […]
3	A raucous party boards the train as the terrain grows wilder […] A minor mutiny is soon underway with brass-buttoned conductors defending the train […] You escape with […] the dinner cart sealed full of drunks. They'll be dealt with when you reach London.
4 - 5	Superstition runs riot onboard. The […] passengers […] whisper of […] tolls unpaid and terrible vengeances unslaked. Half disembark, taking many of the engineers with them. You fill in, but on a skeleton crew the work is dangerous and the accidents many. […]
6	[…] the train is caught in a tense stand-off between gondoliers, two sects of devils and an ancient, hairy thing rising from the dark canal water. The stand-off is truncated when the hairy thing begins to eat the smaller sect of devils. […]
7 - 8	[…] Congregations of exiled devils ride out to forlorn hills to speak with those long thought dead. […] something below the ground makes itself heard in a frenzy of drumbeats. A mad dance sweeps the train like a fever […] Limbs dislocate, bones break […]