Of course the biggest issue I had was time. Beira was still out there and likely working on her mind control runes. She was also searching for another artefact, but we had no clue where that was. I could not afford to spend weeks or months designing a train engine. And I would need help anyway. I understood runes but I was no smith, or engineer.
On the bright side, it would take time to create the tracks anyway. So there was no rush to develop the train itself. But I needed to get started, at least. Nicholas promised to assemble some craftsmen and mages for a meeting tomorrow.
I spent my remaining day working on the runes for my engine. Essentially, I wanted to design a magical artefact that was empowered by a reusable ritual. The mages would simply need to turn it on. Then a second set of runes would summon an air elemental. You would control the engine by giving orders to the elemental.
The inside of the engine would magically compress the air and expel it at the back. The air elemental would regulate the air input and therefore the speed. That was my theory. It would be crucial to not go too fast, obviously. And we would need good brakes on the wheels.
My idea was to put the engine on the top of the lead wagon. Since you had to direct an elemental the whole cockpit should be there as well. I started doodling several concepts on a piece of paper. An engineer could handle the exact design, and determine all the needed materials. I was investing a lot of money so we could certainly afford some mithril, or even adamantium. Not for the whole train but for certain parts. Which would make the train rather valuable, I needed guards.
Actually, how dangerous would a train through the undermountain be? Would the noise and vibrations attract monsters? How would we handle an attack on the tracks? Small sections could likely be repaired by magic. Maybe trains would need to have a mage for maintenance…
The next day I held a meeting in front of a diverse group of people. I had no idea who Nicholas had invited but they all seemed rather interested. I did not have a projector but I had a bunch of drawings, and illusion magic.
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I started by explaining the basic concept of a train. I even created a helpful illusion, showing a train the way I imagined it. I also presented drawings and my first try at the runic formation needed.
People seemed excited but uncertain. A mage raised her hand.
“Excuse me, but I do not recognize those runes…” She admitted.
“Oh. You see, this part here controls the air and compresses it. It just commands it to stream to the centre, then move on to this compartment. There we just release it out the back…”
“Um… sorry, but how do you command air?” She interrupted.
“Ah. Those are just some fundamental elemental runes combined with a bit of domination.” I explained. “I haven’t tried this yet but I discussed the theory with an elemental storm lord.”
The eyes of the mage widened at that. Shani had been helpful at coming up with the design. While I did not trust her when it came to engineering, or safety, I did respect her expertise on air magic in general.
A dwarf asked the next question. “How fast do you reckon this thing will move?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I suppose we should be able to travel at least 10 times as fast as a horse carriage. We need to see how much magic the ritual needs and what speeds are advisable. We need tracks that can handle the speed, we need straight lines and we need to consider potential threats that could emerge. Honestly I think we can go pretty fast in theory but will be limited by external factors.”
There was a lot of exciting murmuring going on.
“I have another question.” One of the humans asked. I was not sure what his expertise was.
“Go ahead.”
“Why is there a fox looking out of the train in one of your drawings?”
“Oh. You can ignore that. It’s uh, just decoration.” Ok, so I did imagine Lucy inside the train, as a fox, sticking her head out of the window. And I might have drawn that. I must have accidentally included that drawing.
Another dwarf asked a question. “So you plan to pay for the construction of those tracks? Before you have a workable prototype?”
“Yes. I am confident we can build something and I want construction on the tracks, and possibly a new tunnel, started as soon as we can. I will pay for that in advance.”
The dwarf grinned. “Then you got the right dwarf. We can do tracks, and tunnels.”
I addressed the whole group: “I am willing to pay anyone working on this project. I have my ideas for a train design and the basics of the engine. But I need help working out the details, materials and so on. I will be busy travelling in the near future. But I want this train to connect Iron Rock and my county. I am confident the Dominion and the Dwarven Kingdom will agree to the proposal, so we can start the tracks soon. Meanwhile a team here will work on the train design. You will have a generous budget to work with!”
There were cheers at the mention of money. I smiled. Project jet train was a go.