January 05 - The Doom Train

[robertod]

Clerence stabs one of the dead with his sword. A thick black liquid gushes from the abdomen. The creature backs away without showing any pain. Alfie tries to hit one of the dead passengers who tries to grab him. In the end the two just dodge each other. Archie fires a shot at the once gentleman who is grabbing him. His bowler hat flies away and a hole opens in the forehead. The being falls to the ground, appearing to have been affected more by the recoil from the blow than by the hole opened in what was once his brain. One of the other two deads who were upon him, a young woman in a long white dress, grabs Archie by the wrist as he moves towards the door. The gunshot fired by Andrew destroys the hand of the old passenger who was about to grab him. The being takes a step back. Finally, Felicity pushes her opponent, a teenager who died too young, pressing into a point on his body where the flesh had become soft and putrid. A lousy fragment detaches from the body and spreads across the floor. The creature backs away trying not to lose his balance. Felicity finds herself in her dress stained with a blackish and nauseating liquid.

The voice from beyond the door continues to shout:
"Get here quickly. You can't kill them before they kill you."

Dead attacking 1+ 1d6 Felicity made damage: 1d6

Dead attacking 1+ 1d6 Andrew made damage: 8

Dead attacking 1+ 1d6

Dead attacking 1+ 1d6 Clerence made damage: 1d6

Dead attacking 1+ 1d6 1+ 1d6 Archie made damage: 1d6

[SaintMeerkat]

doctor.png (27.27 KiB) Viewed 640 times

Archie hesitates for a moment before he starts moving toward the door. "It seems you are right, sir," he said as he kept his pistol out and leveled at the nearest zombie. "I am given to being a quitter, but this is a lost cause. We should save our energy and resources."

With that, he slipped toward the door. "Come on, friends. We don't have any reason to distrust him...yet." With that, Archie followed the voice through the door.

[jp1885]

“Yup, time to scarper!” Alf exclaims as he dodges the walking cadaver that’s ineffectively clawing at him.

“Oh Lor’, what have I gotten myself into?” he asks plaintively as he scrambles for the door.

[aine]

As soon as Archie is back with them, Clarence starts to back towards the door and the strange voice. He keeps his sword towards the zombies.
“I think the gentleman is correct; we are but stalling them. Best beat a hasty retreat!”

[Mr. Handy]

"Quite!" says Felicity, also retreating through the door once she sees that Archie has gotten free.

[Mephistophilis]

'I think you'll find we're only here to help you old boy,' says Andrew, as he withdraws towards the carriage door, pistol still in hand and ready to unload into anyone who gets close enough to make contact with him or his companions.

[robertod]

When the investigators move towards the door all the dead go after them, still trying to grab someone. Archie ends up dragging the creature that had grabbed him. He´s now trying to bite him. However, as the group crosses the threshold of the door, the dead retreat. Strange symbols are sketched on the door, principal among which is the inverted ankh. When all the investigators are in, the man who warned them bangs the door shut, while the dead passengers moan outside. The second carriage is deserted, dusty, silent. The man leads the investigators along the passageway and then to the first compartment. Here, is a younger man, about twenty with light hair and frightened eyes. He´s the young man of the newspaper article.

"Welcome to the 9:15 A.M. to Liverpool," pants the older man,
"My name is Randolph Alexis and this is my son Henry."

Randolph Alexis is little-aged after a quarter of a century, but ragged. He wears a dirty and worn suit. He is a small man, bald-headed, and thin. Henry is a thin young man with glasses and red bobbed hair.
As the investigators take a look throught the windows, they see strange glows of white light that alternate at regular intervals, following the rhythm of the train. They seems to emerge from the rails below. Outside is a monotonous landscape of deserted planes under a kind of strange pink sunset, merely seeable beyond the vapors continuosly generated by the train. This great wad of passage extends as far as the eye can see, in patches that means many or hundreds of miles.

Randolph tells his story.

"As absurd as this may seem to you, you have been thrown into another reality. It is a portion of our universe. But humans normally have no access to it."

He stops. His face is thoughtful. Randolph´s mind searches the proper words to explain something that´s not easy to explain.

"The Euclidean world we normally experience out of common sense is just one aspect of a vaster and more appalling universe compreending realities, entities and maybe form of consciousness which lie beyond what we normally name as matter, time and space. The supersensible world is not separated from our mere Euclidean world, however. They are the same universe, conjoined in a way highly disturbing to our three dimensional intellects."

Alexis remarks in abrasive nasal tones.

"Throughout my career I have dedicated myself to the study of the existence of alternative realities and the possibility of building gates to get access to them. Eventually, I figured out a way to achieve that, but I have been very reluctant to perform a controlled experiment. To tell the truth, my achievemnts were possible also thanks to the knowledge provided by scholars other than physicists. Science as we know it is not enough to gain access to these alternative realities. The participation of our conscience is indispensable. Our mind needs to follow procedures that some very ancient peoples knew and that we have too quickly, and with certain presumption, scorned as superstitions and ignorance. I am referring to magical practices."

"Getting to the point.... a few months ago, I had finally managed to build a machine generating uncommons waves of electromagnetic field. Its functioning, if combined with specific magical procedures, could theoretically allow the opening of a gate to other realities. However, I didn't realize how dangerous what I was doing was. One day, I was carrying the machine on this train. I wanted to show it to a scholar friend of mine in London. Suddenly, the machine reacted. I still cannot figure out what might have happened. It must have entered into a state of instability when the train reached a certain speed. Whatever the reason was, the machine exploded, creating a gate. Along with myself, the forward half of the train hurtled into this reality. Strange enough, people on Earth must have experienced or ralated about the first half of the train disappearing."

He pauses. Alexis explains he managed to seal himself into the second and third carriages, with wards that the dead could not broach.

"Luckily, the third carriage is a restaurant car. I found there enought food and water for these couple of weeks I´ve been trapped here. At some point, I saw my son Henry appearing in the first carriage. He knew I was in the train, so he was driven by my disappearence and by the rumors surrounding the extraordinary incident."

Henry takes the floor, and speaks:

"I took my father's notes and used them to built another machine capable of creating a gate to this realitiy specifically. Thus came the idea of the train model replicating the original. I ended up in the first carriage, the way you did."

Randolph speaks again, assuming a sad and somber voice.

"This is my first and last experience with creating such gates and with the paranormal in general. Willing or not, I am tremendously responsible for the deaths of these passengers. My research ends here. If I ever get out of this reality, I will no longer think of experiments other than the motion of a sphere on an inclined plane."

Randolph intervenes and addresses the investigators.

"Well, if you got here, that means you used the train model as well. We need now to figure out a way to go back."

Henry and Randolph have ideas about that, but first, they're obviously curious to know what led investigators to find the model train and activate it.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm Felicity Hayward," says Felicity. "My friends and I are also friends of Professor Julius Smith, who was attacked by Turkish assassins recently." The word is apt, for the hashishin had been based not far from Turkey. "We found out that they were also targeting you, Professor Alexis. When we read about the disappearances in the papers, we started to investigate, and it didn't take us long to find the model train. I don't fully understand the science, but I presume we'll need to create a gate here in order to get back."

[robertod]

Randolph becomes worried when Felicity says what she knows and mention what happened to Smith.
"I know Julies Smith. How is he?"

He continues:

"In the course of our research on the paranormal, Smith and myself discovered that a series of phenomena were attributable to a form of magical energy that cannot be explained only by the laws of physics. So it was that, thanks to Smith's archaeological studies, we came to knowledge of the existence of a relic called Sedefkar Simulacrum. It is a very ancient statue, perhaps as old as humanity and endowed with high magical energy. Smith's research revealed that the statue was decomposed and lost in Europe. Over time, we managed to get clues as to where to find the components. However, what initially began as a fashinating quest then turned into a nightmare. There´s a turkish religious sect called Deri-Üyeleri, wich means brothers of the skin. Their leader is called Selim and their headquarters are in Constantinople, but the sect has an extensive network across Europe, with contacts and influences in countries governments. They are looking for the statue as well and they are dangerous. They have already killed for it. When they learned that Smith and I were close to finding the Simulacrum, our lives were in danger. I'm sure one of their agents was watching Smith closely. Someone very close to Smith."

Randolph pauses.

"The latest days I was in Liverpool, before I got here, I felt the Deri-Üyeleri had me on their net. They were able to follow my every move. I was terrified. I suspect they had someone in London very close to Smith. "

Randolph is caught by a feeling of terrible anguish takes him.

"The Simulacrum must be found and destroyed. If it falls into the hands of the Brothers of the Skin, the consequences are unimaginable. In normal situations, it would be difficult to convince you how dangerous a relic with magical power can be. Now you know that magical energy exists. Believe me that a relic like the Simulacrum can open the gates of hell."

Alexis tells the investigators that his son and he have been working on a way to return the train to Earth, but he need the help of the investigators.

Henry speaks:
"When I built the train model I thought that the model would have been transferred along with myself to this reality. I thought I could use it here to open another gate to go back. However, it doesn´t work that way. I´m sure I can figure out a way to open a gate here, but I need my notes. My bag with all my notes has fallen somewhere in the first carriage. We should grab it and bring it here. With my notes, I will be able to figure out a way to go back. However, you knew how dangerous it would be."

"I have a theory I could test without my notes, but I am not sure if it is going to work."
Alexis leads the investigators to the window. He points to the carriage wheels while the strong wind blows his hair.
"Can you see there?"
The wheels emit an intermittent glow, following the rhythm of the train's pace.
"These are the same glows of the model train, before opening the gate, while increasing its speed.
The "big scale" train we are in could be the key to open the gate here."
"If this theory is correct, we need to reach the locomotive, get inside and increase the speed of the train. This should open the gate again. But I need my notes to be sure it would be the gate we need."

[aine]

Clarence listens with rapt fascination, nodding earnestly; all those unfathomable puzzles throughout history were unlocking; all the pieces were falling into place.
“It all makes so much sense.” He murmurs. He looks out at the flashing lights and imagines the difficulties ahead.
“One needs to be Harold or Lilian to try a stunt like that. Hmm.” He mutters. “I’m not one for running about on runaway trains but point me in the right direction and I’ll do my best.”

[SaintMeerkat]

doctor.png (27.27 KiB) Viewed 584 times

"I'm Dr. Archibald McElheney," Archie said. "Please call me Archie."

While Archie was a man of science, his was a very different field. He tried to follow the technical aspects of the gate, but it was beyond his grip of physics.

"First things first," Archie said. "Let's get your notes. Where is the first carriage where you left them?"

[Mephistophilis]

Andrew struggles to process what he's hearing. He introduces himself, 'Andrew Murray, archaeologist.'

'I'm afraid all this talk of magic is outside of my particular expertise, but we've certainly come across these Turks before. Odd bunch. The Brothers of the Skin you called them. That would fit with their unusual similarity, and perhaps sheds some light on a particular, well spell is the best way to describe it, something supposed to modify the skin and flesh.'

He might not fully understand the science, or even the mystical mumbo jumbo, but he's always happy to do something practical.

'Just point me in the right direction and we can find these notes of yours. But it would be helpful to hear what you know about these creatures, they were once passengers is that right?'

[Mr. Handy]

"They set his house on fire," says Felicity. "He survived, but he was badly burned. However, he wants us to pretend he's dead, so that the Turks think they got him and stop trying to kill him. He and Beddows told us about the Sedefkar Simulacrum. We were about to leave for the Continent to track down the pieces, as well as the Sedefkar Scrolls we'll need to destroy them. Unfortunately, we have no idea where to find the scrolls. Professor Smith said the Simulacrum could only be destroyed by bringing all the pieces to the Shunned Mosque in Constantinople. Do you know where exactly in the first carriage your notes are?"

[robertod]

Randolph nods and then replies to the investigators:
"Thank goodness, Smith is safe. He must stay hidden, until the Simulacrum is destroyed. The Brothers of the skin are dangerous. They have indeed magical means to manipulate flesh and skin."

When Felicity mentions about the scrolls, Randolph reveals what he has found out.

"The Scroll of the Legs is in Lausanne, with an English man named Edgar Wellington. He served in the Great War and found the scroll at that time somewhere in Europe. Returning to England, he found life at home impossible. Nobody could not understand the returned soldier’s pain. He left with his invalid brother and their savings, and settled in Lausanne. They established a taxidermy shop. I've heard that the other scrolls are in Constantinople, but I don't know where exactly."

Going back to discuss the current situation, Henry Alexis intervenes:
"The dead were normal people of this train before the accident. They died when the first gate formed and they then returned as living dead in this reality. Bullets are not very useful against them. They are immune to pain and will keep on attacking as long as their limbs are attached to their body. They always try to grasp and bite the living things."
"My bag fell somewhere in the middle of the first carriage, the one you came from. That is, where the deads are. We are in the second carriage here,"

He sighs.
"We have to think of a way to get the bag and bring it here, without getting killed by the living dead. Otherwise, we could walk on the train roof of the first carriage, reach the locomotive and try to see what happens if we acelerate the train."

[Mephistophilis]

'I wonder how they would respond if one of us climbed over the roof of the carriage, down the far side, and opened the door?' muses Andrew. 'Enough of a distraction for someone to get in from this side and grab the bag?'

[Mr. Handy]

"That's just what I was thinking," says Felicity. "Or the rest of us can keep the dead busy by taunting them from this side of the door so whoever climbs above can slip in and grab the bag without being noticed. It would be dangerous, to be sure, but I think I could do it."

[SaintMeerkat]

doctor.png (27.27 KiB) Viewed 561 times

"Brilliant, Felicity. That sounds like a wonderful plan. We will be the distraction for you."

He looked down at Felicity's feet. "You are certainly the right size, but are you sure that you are properly clothed and shod for this sort of operation?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Probably not," says Felicity, looking at her fancy dress and shoes. "I have clothes for every occasion, but I didn't bring them with me. I have them packed in a rather large wardrobe, but I didn't think I'd be boarding a train just yet. Perhaps I'm better suited as a distraction. No one is more distracting than I."

[robertod]

As soon as she gets on the roof, Felicity sees an empty and unnatural landscape. Something reminiscent of the English countryside, extends as far as the eye can see, but being it devoid of any trace of human settlement, beside this railroad railroad track drawing an eight. The train running upon it seems to be abandoned to its terrible loneliness. The sky looks like a persistent sunset, with shades of pink and orange. As she makes her first steps onto the first carriage´s roof, she heasr the sudden noise of two windows that are being quickly crashed. Human arms emerge from the farthest windows and cling to the roof at two different points, ready to lift the bodies of two willing dead willing to access the roof.
Meanwhile, peering through the glass of the door of the first car, the other investigators see two of the seven living dead breaking the panes of two windows on opposite sides of the train, in the attempt to get on the roof.

[Mr. Handy]

Felicity moves quickly toward the other end of the car, hoping to get past the dead before they can climb up on the roof.