[Nyarlathotep] Horror on the Orient Express: Chapter One, London.

[lev at rpgreview.net]

Le Journal De Hercule Poirot, Monday, January 1st, 1923. London.
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It is magnificent to be here, despite the bitter cold, for today is a
special day! Ah, most people think it is special because it is New Year's
Day, but New Year's Day happens every year, and I have many already. Today
is a special day because this evening I shall attend The Challenger
Lecture, where my good friend Professor Julian Smith will be speaking. It
was such a delight to receive his invitation last month; he has been most
useful in the past in uncovering the various tricks used by criminal minds
to suggest supernatural events.

I am also very pleased to receive in his missive that some of my old
investigative friends, the German archaeologist Eva Weismuller, who joined
me once on the Nile, the doughty Canadian engineer, Donald Frazer, from
the terrible investigations after the Great War in Belgium, and the stage
magician friend who goes by the name "Sergio Garcia", who assisted me in
the strange disappearances in the East London theatres, will also be
joining us. It is with some regret that my old Australian friend, the most
elegant and beautiful Lillian St. John is in a clinic in Lausanne due to
her particular medical afflictions.

Like New Year's Day The Challenger Lecture is also an annual event, but
this will be the first that I have attended. Funded by a trust fund, the
reputation is excellent, with excellent and unusual lectures of great
scientific and technical importance. Curie and Marconi have provided
lectures in the past, as hs Count von Zepplin and Edison - magnificent
that Professor Smith is to be included in such company! I am also looking
forward to the opportunity to visit the Imperial Institute in South
Kensington where the lecture shall be held [1].

[1] See: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47529 and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Institute.jpg


Le Journal De Hercule Poirot, Tuesday, January 2nd, 1923. London.
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Professor Smith's lecture was indeed most surprising. He did, of course,
present in his gregarious and amusing fashion on the many attempts by the
criminal or merely superstitious to appeal to supernatural events.
Certainly his rigorous mind has been strengthened through his study of
histories, of which he is a great expert. But then, Professor Smith
surprised me, and surprised everyone present, with photographic and film
evidence he presented, most soberly, evidence of paranormal events he
called "epiphenomena", which he could not explain. We all managed to
engage in a brief conversation with our old friend after his lecture
before he was taken up in conversation by the many and varied individuals
who had come to see him. Eva mentioned that she particularly noticed the
Professor having a conversation with what she described as "a man in his
late thirties, with a swarthy complexion, and a foreign moustache". I
dread to think what she considers of my moustache!

The following morning over breakfast we noticed some strange and terrible
news in the papers. Firstly, I noticed in The Times, that the Professor's
House had burned to the ground. The second was noticed by Frau Weissmuller
in the less reputed Scoop, that three men each with identification of Mr.
Mehment Makyrat had been found dead, an issue even more important than her
concerns of the status of the Mark. Both reports gave details of contacts
at Scotland, and at least one of the names Inspector Fleming, I
recognised. Our visit to this man was somewhat revealing, as we discovered
the address of the M. Makryat, and that each of the corpses carried the
same telegram from Paris, and each was partially flayed.

Returning from the Scotland Yard a card was addressed to us at the hotel,
showing all the indications to be from the good professor, although it
gave an address at Cheapside [2]. We visited the address, a small
apartment in a grimy block. Professor Smith's faithful servant, M.
Beddows, answered the door at let us into the dark and nearly bare room.
Professor Smith had suffered terrible wounds from the fire, but raised
himself from his bed and recited a tale of an occult artifact which he
claimed had evil powers. The Sedefkar Simulacrum, dismembered by Comte
Fenalik, and lost just prior to the French Revolution. The Professor had
tracked down the last known place of many of its parts; Paris, Milan,
Venice, Trieste, and Sofia. Professor Smith and M. Beddows were attacked
in their home by Turks, who set their place on fire, whom he believed were
after his notes on the Simulacrum.

After a while he could speak no more and passed out unconscious. Beddows
took us aside and provided us one thousand pounds sterling; Professor
Smith had planned to travel the Simplon-Orient Express to recover the
pieces and begged us now to continue his master's work. We left the hovel
and swore that we would do so, and purchased the requisite tickets on the
Simplon Orient-Express.

It is now late at night; I must rest for on the morrow we shall
investigate the shop from which this Mehment Makryat operated from.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheapside


Le Journal De Hercule Poirot, Wednesday, January 3rd, 1923. London.
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Prior to visiting Mehment Makryat's antique store we visited the Turkish
embassy, who provided us information most conflicting concerning our
quarry; they argued that M. Makryat's age was a great deal younger than
the man whom the descriptions provided; indeed it matched the age of the
man whom we witnessed at The Challenger Lecture. Most unsurprising was the
claim from the embassy that the additional passports reported were
forgeries, not duplicates, and therefore a problem that arises from
British criminals, rather than Turkish incompetence.

Makryat's store was in Islington. We were visited by a neighbouring
accountant, M. Jones, who gave some description of the normal activities
that had occurred within, but it was a meeting most fortunate. After
investigating the thoroughly normal store, we noted the lack of luggage
and clothing, but more importantly we discovered the books of accounts.
But with the aid or M. Jones, there was one entry most incongruous - the
purchase of a train set from the estate of Randolph Alexis sold to M.
Henry Stanley of Stoke Newington. Frau Weismuller recognised the name of
Alexis as a person of some note in European esoteric circles and we
wondered a great deal why an antique dealer would be purchasing a train
set.

We travelled most quickly to visit M. Stanley, but when we arrived we were
directed to the morning's newspapers, which indicated that M. Stanley, a
noted member of the London Train Spotter's Association, had literally
disappeared from his room. The papers noted that the room was full of
smoke, possibly from a fire caused by the train set, and the paper
speculated it was a case of spontaneous human combustion. Visiting the
house, we were introduced by his landlady, M. Constance Atkins, an
enterprising woman who charged a shilling to "See the Death Room". Our
investigations reveal that there was no signs of exit from the room, but
Frau Weismuller did note that there was soot on the ceiling and smudges on
the floor, which were the width of a train track.

We hurried to the local police station, as the train set had been taken
for investigation. The inspector reported that it showed no electrical
faults and insufficient voltage to cause electrocution. Nevertheless, it
had been given to the London Trainspotter's Association for their expert
opinion. We went to the Association president's home in Camberwell, the
abode of one M. Arthur Butter. Taking us to the basement he showed us the
train set and mentioned it depicted the line and set of an 1897 crash,
resulting in a great loss of life, and the disappearance of two carriages.
We also received an invitation to the Association dinner that evening.

What happened next was an event most - I must use the Professor's term -
most epiphenomenal. M. Donald Frazer started up the train set. After it
had made a number of circuits of the board, the room itself was shrouded
in a mist most unusual and we heard, and then saw, a ghostly train come
out of the ether. A number of passengers, with vacant stares and clothing
that was the fashion of the 1890s approached us and beckoned us to come
on-board with them, but we would were not agreeable to this proposal,
except M. Frazer. As the train journeyed into the ethereal world, the room
returned to its normal state, but M. Frazer was missing!

You cannot imagine how difficult the dinner was that night. Our minds were
full of the strange events that we had witnessed as well as fear for our
lost friend. For their part, the Trainspotter's Association were extremely
interested in their chosen field of expertise. We learned a few items of
what to expect on the journey, and that an association member, M. Walter
Partridge, would be travelling simultaneously with our planned journey.
But now we had a spare ticket!

This day, it has been most exhausting.


Le Journal De Hercule Poirot, Thursday, January 4th, 1923. London.
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Another most remarkable day. Although it was difficult for us all to rest,
we eventually managed to acquire a few fitful hours. Imagine our surprise
however that upon our breaking of the fast, that M. Donald Frazer joined
us in the hotel dining room, albeit looking a little worse for wear. He
gave us a story most remarkable, of how the passengers turned upon him,
and he was rescued by none other than Randolph Alexis himself. It appears
that he had M. Alexis had contrived some magical spell which transported
the carriage from 1897 and retained it in this journey for many years,
like the story of The Flying Dutchman, non?

With, two gunmen, and the missing Henry Stanley in one carriage and a
great number of these aggressive walking dead in the other Monsieur
Randolph was attempting to recreate the train track with body parts that
he had acquired from the corpses. However, it was M. Frazer who pointed
out that the original set was of a three-dimensional shape, whereas the
entrails that Alexis Randolph had laid out was but in two. With the
addition of new ramps & etc., the occultist was able to complete the
spell, and transport the two carriages - missing since 1897 to their
locations - alas, right in front of an oncoming locomotive. All leapt from
the carriage as a great crash appears. Most sensibly, M. Frazer decided to
escape the scene. I am very uncertain on how to explain this event in
legal terms, which is most interested in exacting notions of space and
time.

With a few hours remaining before embarking on the train to Dover Frau
Weissmuller expressed an interest in visiting the British library to
discern whether there was any information concerning the Sedefkar
simulacrum. There was indeed a reference to the location of scrolls for
the item being held in Topkapi Museum in Constantinople. Very soon after
Frau had made this discover, a corpse slumped over the Reading Room, the
body flayed. Attached to the body in the Turkish language was the warning:
"The Skinless One Will Not Be Denied".

As much as I am enjoying the beautiful countryside of Kent, I am most
mentally exhausted after the events of the past days and I am afraid I
must rest early tonight. Bon soir cher journal, et bon rêve.