The Orient Express Part One: March 22-March 26, 1926

In which Liam MacGuire (William Grant) joins the group, and we try to get him up to speed and nicely woven into our ensemble cast.

Liam MacGuire: Actor, Con-Man, Boxer

The Dig Site

The Dig Site

At Dr. Black’s urging, the group travels to Hancock’s dig site on the shores of Loch Mullardoch. Ron, seeming a bit traumatized by recent events, bows out. He gives the group the impression that he is going to enjoy a few last, legal drinks in Cannich before returning to the United States.

The rest of the group travels to the site, which has been painstakingly unearthed. A tent holds piles of unsorted, recovered relics. Another tent seems to be Hancock’s. Two additional tents seem to have had their guidelines cut. Only the stakes remain.

The group soon learns that the site, though featuring Roman remains, is not Roman itself. It appears to be the handiwork of some other, far older, ethnic group. They find the following areas of interest.

• A temple, empty of artifacts, apart from a large statue of a faceless sphinx.
• A second temple, whose doorway was clogged with rubble. Johnny cleared it, and he and Mikhail entered the area beyond.
• Both men realized that this second temple was dedicated to Azathoth.
• They found two corpses of Roman legionnaires. One was in the possession of a surprisingly untarnished sword hilt.
• Johnny deduced that this room had once been a gate.
• Valusian glyphs found carved into the floor in the center of the tomb translate, roughly, to, "PATHWAY PROCESS WINGED ONE ZIGGURAT."
• Vivian and Dr. Black searched through the relics tent.
• Dr. Black found the pieces of a carbon steel sword blade, in pieces, which looked remarkably clean and not at all rusty. He deduced that this blade was once affixed to the hilt found in the Azathoth temple.
• Vivian discovered a lead prayer tile on a cord. A note accompanying the tile indicates that it was found strung around neck of the sphinx E. Latin translated as, 'With this, Marcus entreats Mars Nodens to ward away (the gaze) of the Egyptian demon (from this place).'"
• Vivian also searched Hancock’s tent and found:
• An Elder sign.
• A transcription of a paragraph from Nameless Cults, regarding cult presence in Syria and Egypt.
• Pushok scented on an otherwise ordinary pile of rubble. When the group dug there, they found the badly decomposed corpse of a man. The face was destroyed beyond recognition, but the bird tattoo on the arm led the group to believe that it was the body of Adam Chisholm. A stub of a cigar was also found with the body.
• Dr. Black identified several serpentpeople remains throughout the site.
• The group also found pottery painted with Valusian lettering.
• Lastly, the group discovered another section of the R’lyeh Disc carefully hidden under a slab in one of the ruined buildings. The group immediately transported the piece, via the gate box highway, to Atlantic City.

Meanwhile

In addition to getting drinks, Ron plants the gun he used in the Bayonne Train Station Massacre™ in one of the Jimmies’ trunks before they leave Cannich.

Saying Goodbye

The group departs Cannich, rather glad to be well shut of the place. They travel by rented car to Inverness and then take various trains all the way down to Dover. There, they plan to cross the channel and board the Orient Express, which will bring them to their next destination. 

At the train station in London, Ron says goodbye. He has decided, somewhat abruptly, to return to New York with Luca and a somewhat recovered Mr. Potafiori. The group tell him that, if they need him, they will fetch him via gate box highway. At this point, Ron takes a train westward, to the ship that will ferry him back to America.

I Was Told There Would Be Bluebirds

The group arrives at the port authority in Dover and waits for their ship to come in.  In the meantime, they decide to inform themselves by looking over international police bulletin board for any new red notices. They see one for Bryan Slim as well as one for Jimmy Rizzo. 

Bryan Slim's Red Notice

Ron Deluca's Revenge

A gentleman from Western Union arrives and delivers a small package to Judge Putnam. This contains Christopher Edwin’s notes on the Nameless City, which the judge had requested from Edwin previously. 

Sometime later, the group is surprised when they run into Liam MacGuire, an actor acquaintance of theirs from New York City. Liam is also going to Syria, apparently to act in the film Prince of Babylon. With him is a young, charismatic, but somewhat guarded young man named Archie Leech, who is also an actor. The duo hope that these film roles will be their first big break into the world of film.

While traveling across the channel, the group explains their plans and findings to Liam…at least, as much as they dare to. Liam shows off the letters he received from Grant Winwood, the executive producer of the studio that is financing Prince of Babylon. He further explains that the casting director wanted him to seem, “more American,” so he has adopted the stage name of “William Grant.”

The group relaxes and enjoys themselves as they land in Paris and board the Orient Express.

Archie Leech

The Countess

The group settles in on the Orient Express. They are all berthed in sleeping car #8, along with several other people. They dine in the dining car and take drinks and smoke in the recreation car. Dr. Black notes that there is a man with a very unusual, coarse beard and a threadbare trench coat, who is off in the corner reading a newspaper. Something about the man seems familiar, and the group soon realizes that he is “Mr. Smith,” lately of the hospital in Inverness. The group watches him carefully, but he does nothing suspicious.

In an attempt to learn more about the man, Dr. Black approaches the conductor, Leon Janssens, and asks to see the passenger manifest. The conductor, immediately suspicious, refuses. Dr. Black goes on to say that he thought he saw a man who was once a patient of his board the train, and that he wanted to confirm that the man was on the train and also seek him out to catch up. The conductor remains unmoved.

The players notice that an older woman, bedecked in fur and jewelry, is holding court in the recreation car. They learn that she is, allegedly, a Prussian countess. Liam, who is secretly a con artist, approaches her to make conversation and to, eventually, separate the countess from some or all of her money.

Mikhail sees Liam making overtures and, mistaking Liam’s intentions, goes over to be his “wingman” in an attempt to help him start a more intimate friendship with the countess. Liam, panicking, calls over Vivian and Kane to help him out. The countess, assuming that Mikhail and Liam’s interests are of a carnal nature, does not like the presence of additional people…especially Vivian. She insults Kane and Vivian’s musical tastes before excusing herself and retiring to her stateroom for the night.

But not before whispering her room number to a shocked and somewhat disgusted Liam.

The group spends the next little bit gently mocking Liam for his success with the countess. Liam, flustered, points out that she is not his type, and that he is already in a committed relationship with Ron Deluca, Jr., of all people. At this revelation, the car goes eerily quiet for a moment.

It is about this point that the group notices that Mr. Smith has, somehow, departed the recreational car without anyone spotting him. Concerned, but not overly worried, the group make a note to track him down later and then go off to their various staterooms to sleep. Archie, who has been drinking in a fish in the bar car, comes to bed sometime later and passes out.

The Prussian Countess

In Which, Unshockingly, There is a Murder

At about three in the morning, both Kane and Dr. Black awaken in their stateroom plagued by headaches and unpleasant nightmares. Both men notice that, as they are come awake, their stateroom door is in the process of closing. Dr. Black, concerned by this, opens the door and looks out into the narrow hall beyond. He sees no one else but a porter.

Concerned that they have been robbed, Dr. Black checks the contents of his doctor’s bag. He notices that the Dagger of Nephrem-Ka has not only been removed from the bag and replaced, but it is also covered with fresh blood. He and Kane immediately deduce that a murder has been committed and that they are being framed for it.

They search the room for more clues, finding a coarse, straw-like hair with a bit of sticky residue on one end. Before they can figure out what this means, someone else on the train pulls the emergency brake cord. The train comes to a shuddering stop, throwing Kane and Dr. Black around and awakening their companions (except Archie, who drunkenly sleeps through it).

In the chaos that follows, the conductor and several porters move along the train to find out who has been playing around with the emergency brake. During this search, someone discovers that the countess has been brutally stabbed to death in her stateroom. There are screams and panic. The conductor attempts to calm the passengers, with little success. He soon demands that every passenger return to their stateroom and stay there.

Dr. Black, realizing that he is holding the murder weapon, sneaks into Johnny and Judge Putnam’s stateroom. He uses the gate box to travel to Staten Island, where he locks his doctor’s bag—and the dagger—in a toolbox. He then Wards the toolbox, returns to the train, sneaks to Vivian’s single occupancy stateroom, and explains everything to her.

At some point, while walking around, Dr. Black runs into the conductor, who asks him what he is doing outside of his stateroom. Dr. Black insists that he has misplaced his doctor’s bag, and is in the process of looking for it. He is ordered to return to his stateroom.

There is very little to do, so the group remains in their rooms and tries to figure out what to do next. In the meantime, Kane and Dr. Black realize that the coarse hair they found has gum Arabic on one end. Knowing that Mr. Smith could not have grown a thick beard in three days, they surmise that he was, in fact, wearing a false beard, and that one of the hairs fell off when he stole the dagger from Dr. Black and planted it again after killing the countess.

The next morning, the conductor calls everyone from berth car number 8 into the recreation car. He introduces an older, German man with an eyepatch, and explains that this man is the company’s detective inspector. The conductor further explains that everyone will remain in the recreation car while the detective takes everyone’s statement.