THE CRAWLER'S COMPANIONpatch notes for the apocalypse

Station and Repair Hub E

also known as Iron Tangle Substation E, Yard E

First seen: Book 3, Chapter 17

The trainyard on the far side of the switching cavern's Station Repair portal: a fenced rail yard at least a mile across, lit by scattered spotlights under a ceiling higher than the Over City's own fake sky, dead-ending the Nightmare Express in a service bay. A baseball-field-sized turntable and a ring of freestanding watchtowers dot the yard, its perimeter fence buckling under thousands of Festering Ghouls. Outside the gate stands the burning, brutalist Iron Tangle Substation E building, backing onto a tunnel of numbered transit stations running toward employee housing at station 60.

Trainyard

Appearance

The Substation:

A three-story, Soviet-brutalist concrete building just outside the yard's main gate, marked The Iron Tangle Substation E, fully engulfed in fire, with dead dwarves and porters scattered around a loading area where new arrivals keep materializing straight out of the brick wallB3C17

The Yard:

A fenced rail yard at least a mile across, ceiling higher than the Over City's own fake sky, lit only by scattered spotlights. A baseball-field-sized turntable sits near the portal entrance, ringed by freestanding watchtowers, with dead-end service bays lining the fence. Thousands of Festering Ghouls press against a distant perimeter fence that collapses before the chapter endsB3C17

Where

Floor 4's Iron Tangle, reached by taking the Nightmare Express through the switching cavern's Station Repair portalB3C17

Purpose

Final use of the yard on the page: Carl loads the last explosive satchels onto the parked Nightmare Express and sends it out toward the abyss portal to overload the floor's remaining ghoul generators, then the party walks the employee line back up to station 36B3C34

Connections

Carl:

Dragged in through the cart's own portal, tuned to trainyard E, alongside a mantaur vessel, straight into the Death Challenge broadcast against Mimic Rex and GrullB3C33

Pushes the Nightmare Express through the Station Repair portal into the yard, gets routed into a dead-end service bay, and escapes out the main gate past the burning substation once Widget frees the turntableB3C17

Widget:

The Grease Gremlin technician stationed in one of the yard's watchtowers, killed here trying to help the party escapeB3C17

Mimic Rex:

Finally killed here, cleaved in half by Grull's axe while he cuts his own path toward CarlB3C33

History by chapter
Book 3
Chapter 17
  • PHYSICAL The Substation: A three-story, Soviet-brutalist concrete building just outside the yard's main gate, marked The Iron Tangle Substation E, fully engulfed in fire, with dead dwarves and porters scattered around a loading area where new arrivals keep materializing straight out of the brick wall
  • LOCATION Location: Floor 4's Iron Tangle, reached by taking the Nightmare Express through the switching cavern's Station Repair portal
  • RELATIONSHIP Widget: The Grease Gremlin technician stationed in one of the yard's watchtowers, killed here trying to help the party escape
  • TAG Trainyard: One of an unknown number of Iron Tangle rail hubs, per Carl's own guess at least twenty exist floor-wide; reached from the switching cavern's Station Repair portal
  • PHYSICAL The Yard: A fenced rail yard at least a mile across, ceiling higher than the Over City's own fake sky, lit only by scattered spotlights. A baseball-field-sized turntable sits near the portal entrance, ringed by freestanding watchtowers, with dead-end service bays lining the fence. Thousands of Festering Ghouls press against a distant perimeter fence that collapses before the chapter ends
  • RELATIONSHIP Carl: Pushes the Nightmare Express through the Station Repair portal into the yard, gets routed into a dead-end service bay, and escapes out the main gate past the burning substation once Widget frees the turntable
Chapter 33
  • TAG Trainyard: Sealed by half-visible walls during a staged Death Challenge broadcast, entry-only like a floor-1 boss fight, until Grull is banished and Mimic Rex lies dead
  • RELATIONSHIP Carl: Dragged in through the cart's own portal, tuned to trainyard E, alongside a mantaur vessel, straight into the Death Challenge broadcast against Mimic Rex and Grull
  • RELATIONSHIP Mimic Rex: Finally killed here, cleaved in half by Grull's axe while he cuts his own path toward Carl
Chapter 34
  • OBJECTIVE Objective: Final use of the yard on the page: Carl loads the last explosive satchels onto the parked Nightmare Express and sends it out toward the abyss portal to overload the floor's remaining ghoul generators, then the party walks the employee line back up to station 36