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

Tue Oct 23 11:50:59 UTC 2012

Thanks for the story review Lev, it came out really well. Enjoyed reading it!

Martin.

> Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:42:22 +1100
> From: lev at rpgreview.net
> To: nyarlathotep at rpgreview.net
> Subject: [Nyarlathotep] Horror on the Orient Express: Chapter One, London.
> 
> 
> 
> Le Journal De Hercule Poirot, Monday, January 1st, 1923. London.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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