The Night of the Bold Eagle

A political whodunit aboard a steampunk-powered presidential train

Setting & Premise:

Aboard the Bold Eagle, a futuristic presidential locomotive stopped for a grand reception in Corvallis, an elite circle of military brass, inventors, and government agents gathers for a patriotic gala. This is no ordinary whistle-stop tour—it's the inaugural voyage of President Grant’s new state train, retrofitted with the marvel of modern science: a mysterious Energy Inception Device (EID).

Then—catastrophe strikes.

The engineer is found murdered, slumped over the EID controls. The device, glowing ominously, is unstable. A chilling telegram confirms the worst: if the EID isn’t reset using instructions hidden in the engineer’s encrypted notebook, the train—and everyone aboard—will vaporize in 60 minutes. The Los Alamos incident was not a one-time tragedy... it’s about to happen again.

Suspect Characters:

• Artie – On special assignment to President Grant, expert in weapons and secretly distrustful of several aboard.
• Jasper Westin – Artie’s trusted partner and a crack shot. Keeps his cards close.
• Dr. Lydia Plumbline – Brilliant but possibly compromised. She knows too much about the Energy Inception Device (EID).
• Col. Ralph Harrow – Respected, armed, and hiding something critical.
• Dr. Malachi Lovelace – Former collaborator turned potential saboteur. Pushed the energy tech too far, too fast.
• Countess Sabrina Voltair – Charismatic manipulator with a cloudy past and unclear motives.