The Steel Beast
Type: Industrial / commercial venture — a rail line Operating Region: Hundelstone (Spine of the World) → Neverwinter → southward, continuing to push for Waterdeep First Reference: Session Zero (campaign lore — sixth truth) First On-Screen Presence: Session 007 — representatives lodging at the Toke Inn
What the Party Knows
- The Steel Beast is the rail line described in Session Zero's sixth truth: dwarves, gnomes, and the hardy folk of the Spine of the World have built a marvel of transportation, moving goods from Hundelstone to Neverwinter, drawing trade from the Ten Towns, the Dwarves of Ironmaster, and the Uthgardt barbarians to coastal cities — and alienating the inland communities.
- A rail rush is on to extend the line south to Waterdeep.
- Session 007: Steel Beast representatives are staying at the Toke Inn and are supplying free zombie labor for the inn's repairs. (The labor is from The Engineer/The Tracker/The Surveyor's recovery-and-replacement loop.)
- Session 008: A waitress at the Dusty Gnome in Leilon — Gorna — is the wife of a prominent Steel Beast worker / boss whose group has been skirmishing with the Sons and Daughters of Vlokgar (wood-elf druids of the Kryptgarden Forest).
- Session 015 (Teppo's journal): Goldenfelds poured into the Dessarin Valley — flooding the market with masterwork weapons made of mithril or adamantium. The Steel Beast is part of a larger economic disruption.
Connections
- Strategic alliance with — or at minimum, business arrangement with — The Engineer's zombie-labor outfit.
- Open conflict with the Sons and Daughters of Vlokgar (wood-elf druids of the Kryptgarden Forest) — a skirmish prefigures Runs with Bitches's revenge attack at the Dusty Gnome in session 008.