Those who ride the train come and go regularly. Mayhaps, occasionally, this ride does not end of their own free will. 

When travelling and exploring the train, what token do you find, eerily mirroring your own journey and carried by a long-vanished predecessor? Do you find comfort in its worn or sharpened edges? What was its original purpose, and how has it been made less by the presence of the Shadow? 

This prompt is worth 4 points, +1 if this item is actively traumatic to bear, but enough to start a journey of self reflection. 

Sufficiently detailed items acquired during Echosteps will be able to be used during the next nightfall in 2 days, regardless of whether the incentive is ongoing.

Rooting through the Guards car once again in search of that key the Conductor mentioned. Nightfall is soon, and she needs something to make these damn guns run. However, she finds something else while rooting in the very back of an (empty) ammunition case. It's...a hand. Severed neatly by a piercing blow to the wrist, totally bloodless and mechanical in design. To anyone else it would be a little spooky. To Maria...it makes the bile rise in her throat.

Enemy fire fills the air all around them, splashing off of walls and raining dust and hot metal on the squad. Suddenly, the Bloody Mary loses feeling in its right hand - there's no pain, just a simple tug and a damage alert on its retinal HUD. Looking down, it can see it: a severed hand, one that belonged to it. A normal person would be in shock right now, and to its credit the Bloody Mary behaves much the same, calmly picking it up and pushing it into a spare pouch of its chest rig before returning fire with the other hand. The experience was so calm, so matter-of-fact...it made the remaining "human" parts of its mind begin shouting in concern.

She scowls, stuffing the "hand" into a back pocket. It's shadowy now, indistinct; its cool form weighs almost nothing now. Maybe it has a use. Something to do with the magical nature of this place? Maria hopes she doesn't find out.