Off the Rails
This train has no brakes.
A Savage Worlds One Shot By: Kyle Carty
This adventure is designed for 4th level adventurers, though it is easily modified for more experienced adventurers.
Background
With the successful installation of the lightning rail
automated train system, traveling has never been easier.
A high value magical artifact, the Creation Core, was
placed aboard a lightning rail to quickly and safely move
it to a major city in the region. However, with the advance
of magical technology there comes new ways to pinch
products. In a feat previously thought impossible, a band
of brigands has crafted a highly dangerous plan to pinch
the Creation Core using an airship.
All Aboard
The party arrives at the station just as the lightning rail
arrives. Its massive metal compartments gently glide to
a halt and are suspended above the magically enchanted
tracks below. Tickets in hand, they and others board the
luxurious, cutting-edge piece of magical technology.
The lightning rail consists of ten cars. The front car is
the locomotive. Inside it is the lead conductor who directs
and controls the powerful electrical magic that levitates
and propels the lightning rail forward. The door to this
car is latched with an extremely advanced enchanted lock
and the door always has at least one guard on watch. The
locomotive is followed by a storage car where passenger
belongings and cargo are stored. This car is always under
guard with no less than three sentries present. The
contents of the storage car might contain important
supplies, such as ammunition and healing potions, that
the adventurers might need later in the adventure. One
first-class car and one second-class seating car follow.
The fifth car is a dining car complete with a stocked
bar and limited meal menu. The food is stored in
an extradimensional space within a wooden crate
that keeps ingredients fresh. The bar also contains
large bottles of healing potions that are used as
mixers. Each of the four bottles contain three
doses of healing potions. An observation car
follows the dining car. Large reinforced glass
windows run from the floor to the middle of
the ceiling in one uninterrupted piece. The
observation car is followed by a lounge car
where a duo perform live harp and piano
music. The next two cars are economy-
class cars where the majority of the
passengers are located. The final car
is the caboose. It acts as the crew
quarters for staff working on the
lightning rail.
The first several hours on the lightning rail are
uneventful. For ongoing campaigns, this respite
can be a great moment for smaller roleplaying
interactions between party members and their
NPC friends. For one shots, this moment
might serve to get a better grip of who each character is
while allowing the adventurers to mingle with one another
and get a sense of who everyone is.
Freighthoppers
At the exact midway point between the rail’s origin and
destination, a large shadow passes over the train cars. A
sudden, violent jostling rocks every car of the lightning
rail. Guards began to rush about, shouting about how the
observation car has been boarded by rogues.
If the adventurers choose to intervene, they aid the
guards in combating the sky pirates that have flooded the
cabin. A series of ropes and rope ladders dangle through
the broken windows in the car. Adventurers in the front of
the cabin encounter a much larger group of enemies when
compared to those approaching from the caboose as the
main force of the pirates make their advance.
• Pirate (2 per adventurer)
• Pirate Elite (1 per two adventurers)
Those approaching from the caboose have the benefit of
the increased number of guards occupying the bulk of the
pirate forces.
• Pirate (1 per adventurer)
• Pirate Elite
The pirates seem to be moving towards a
single goal. They do not stop to steal much
from the passengers in their way and do
not take the time to coup de grâce fallen
opponents. This means that if an adventurer is
defeated, they are not killed as the pirates rush
past them toward the storage car or their next
opponent.
Lift Off
Unless stopped, the pirates successfully
reach the cargo cart, pick up a small but
impossibly heavy crate, and begin to fight
their way back toward the observation car
for extraction. With their forces consolidated,
the pirates are in a stronger position than
they were previously. As the lightning rail
rushes forward at high speeds, almost all of the
guards have been defeated. No help is coming.
Adventurers that attempt to stop the pirates find a
unified front.
• Pirate (2 per adventurer)
• Pirate Elite
• Pirate Aeromancer
 If the pirate’s claim goes uncontested, or they defeat the
adventurers, they return to the observation car, hoist the
package up onto their ship, and climb back to their vessel.
If confronted, they do everything in their power to rush
towards the observation car but fight only if they must.
Boarding Maneuver
The adventurers might attempt to board the ship before
learning what the pirates are after, they might attempt to
climb up from the roof of a car, or they might desperately
grab the ladders as the crew of the ship pulls the ropes up.
The deck of the airship is spacious. Several groups of
crates and barrels have been tarped and roped down.
The forecastle and sterncastle are each flanked by two
staircases apiece. Standing near the wheel is Captain
Brigandine, the pipsqueak reaver. She engages in banter
with the adventurers, taunting them for their foolishness
in coming into “her domain.” Particularly charming or
powerful looking adventurers might even be offered a
position on the ship in exchange for their obedience.
Those that refuse are attacked.
• Captain Brigandine
• Pirate (1 per adventurer)
• Pirate Elite (2)
• Pirate Aeromancer
If she feels threatened, Captain Brigandine’s berserk
fury becomes a major liability to the integrity of the ship.
Each swing of her cutlass takes a large gouge out of the
hull. The constant combat might accidentally catch the
helmsman with a stray arrow or spell. Captain Brigandine,
if enraged, does not understand the concept of “fighting to
the death” but proves very difficult to subdue.
Crash Landing
With the damage done by the captain and the helmsman
wounded in the conflict, the airship begins to list violently.
The adventurers must act quickly in order to turn a
potentially lethal crash landing into something survivable.
It is controllable if several conditions are met. The rigging
of the sails was damaged and tangled in the conflict.
Nimble adventurers can reach the rigging with a
successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. The
magical engine of the airship needs to be stabilized. It is
behind a locked door that can be opened with a successful
DC 13 Intelligence (Thieve’s Tools). Stabilizing the
magical engine requires a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana or
Religion). Finally, with the sails unfurled and the engine
stable, a DC 13 Strength check can direct the crash
landing as the ship plummets into a forested field.
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If the Creation Core was brought aboard the ship, it is up
to the adventurers to decide what to do with it. This could
be the springboard for an entire arc or campaign. For a
neater resolution, perhaps the ship crash landed near the
lightning rail’s destination and a military force from the city
comes to the airship to claim the artifact. If the adventurers
boarded the ship before the Creation Core was brought
aboard, then it is still in the hands of the pirates who have
seized control of the lightning rail. With their captain
defeated, who knows what they are likely to do.
Captain Brigandine
The scourge of the skies, Captain Aminda Brigandine was
born the daughter of simple armor smiths. Despite her
slight body, she is a deadly powerhouse of an opponent.
Those that point out her height soon find themselves forced
to the railing of her airship from her onslaught of attacks.
Aminda is a small human woman with a lithe build.
She has magically enhanced her physical abilities with
permanent spells and dresses in military clothing woven
with magic cloth. Her hair is tied with gems and other
plundered items.
Aminda uses the statistics for a Berserker (Monster
Manual, pg 344) with some modifications. She possesses a
pair of boots of speed and has a +1 longsword.
Pirate
The rank and file members of Brigandine’s crew use the
statistics for Bandits (Monster Manual, pg 343) with no
modifications.
Pirate Elite
The veteran members of Brigandine’s crew use the
statistics for a Spy (Monster Manual, pg 349) with no
modifications.
Pirate Aeromancer
Amateur spellcasters, pirate aeromancers specialize in
acrobatic air magic that aids their movements, slices
their foes, and catches them when they fall. These scruff
neophytes are dangerous, elite members of Captain
Brigandine’s crew.
Pirate Aeromancer’s use the statistics for Druids
(Monster Manual, pg 346) with some modifications.
They are 5th-level spellcasters, replace produce flame with
booming blade, speak with animals with jump, and animal
messenger with gust of wind.
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