Adventure Overview
Players: Mr. Rhyze, Morton, Tripp McIntyre, Mauritus, Hercule Poirot.
Enemies: The Scith, The Broker, Sherlock Holmes, and Moriarty.
Started: As the Epsilon Team left the wreckage of Steel Star.
Ended: With the capture of Moriarty.
Hastings and Tintin were first on their feet, and as men of action, they dashed from the room in the direction of the study. Although the rest weren't quite as the fast, no one hesitated long before racing to the study door. Dirk and Bruno were already at the thick door, noting that it was locked twice. Bruno seemed unable to open it, despite the fact that he had keys, mainly because he seemed to be attempting to do it in 3-D. Morton took a more direct approach, putting his muscled shoulder against the door. Dirk joined him, and their rhythmic grunting drowned out Laura Secord's shouts that she and her sister both had keys to the study. After several pushes, the door came down, revealing a horrible, yet predictable scene. Mr. Cadbury lay in the center the room, clearly dead.
Mr. Cadbury
Mr. Cadbury lay in the center of the room, a PK-43 lying near his outstretched hand. Hercule Poirot was first to enter the room, and declared that no one should touch anything. This was promptly ignored by Sherlock Holmes, who began poking about with his cane and inspecting the deceased with his magnifying glass. Miss. Hershey was shocked, and declared that she never would have expected her father to commit suicide. Of course, Poirot did not think that it was suicide, and Holmes seemed to declare the whole thing elementary. Mr. Rhyze and Morton joined the investigation, and they soon discovered several interesting things. First of all, the blood surrounding the wound had dried quite a bit. Secondly, there were a few strange things about the gun. One bullet had been fired from it, and the casing was found nearby. However, the weapon was not warm. This led Poirot to think that the crime must have been committed earlier than the gunshot they heard minutes ago would indicate. Holmes had another explaination. Pushing the body with his cane, he noted that Mr. Cadbury had fallen atop a heat vent. He speculated that this might explain the dried nature of the blood. Poirot still wasn't convinced that it was suicide, due partly to the fact that he could find no suicide note. He did, however, find the box of chocolates that had brought him to the station. He pocketed the box before instructing everyone to gather in the dining room for some interrogations. Holmes didn't feel this was necessary, and continued to use his powers of observation on the room. Leaving Morton to keep an eye on the detective, Poirot herded everyone else to the dining room.
Using his little grey cells and some psychology, Poirot managed to unearth several important facts surrounding the crime. The study had been locked all afternoon. The only people with keys were Mr. Cadbury himself, Miss. Hershey, Laura Secord and Bruno. All four still possessed their keys, although Cadbury certainly wouldn't be getting much use out of his. Bruno and Dirk had been out of the dining room when the gunshots had been heard. However, Dirk claimed that they could vouch for the fact that both had been in the kitchen, preparing more chocolate mousse. Finally, Miss. Hershey claimed to have seen a man in grey coveralls that afternoon, although no one else had seen this mysterious intruder. Bruno admitted that the door to the ship had been open most of the afternoon, likely allowing easy access for any such intruder. Still, Laura Secord found this notion quite ridiculous, and claimed that her sister must have been imagining things. No one seemed to know why Mr. Cadbury would have invited people he apparently didn't know, such as Mr. Rhyze, Morton and Tintin to the dinner. Mr. Rhyze speculated that it was due to his Blitzball fame. Bruno replied in his typical 3-D fashion that he had found the invitations outside Mr. Cadbury's door, and had left to deliver them immediately. He had assumed that they had been written by Mr. Cadbury, although upon examining them closely, Mr. Rhyze and Poirot felt there were some differences in the signature.
During all this, Morton had been watching Sherlock's deductive methods. Holmes seemed to spend a fair amount of time tapping on one of the walls, and seemed somehow very satisfied with the results. As Morton contemplated tackling the famous detective to see if he was wearing a disguise, he found himself approached by Tintin. The journalist had been doing some investigating of his own, and claimed to have found incredible evidence of a conspiracy stretching up to the very highest levels of station authority. He didn't want to discuss this information in public, and suggested meeting in the boiler room in ten minutes' time. Not wanting to leave at the same time, Morton waited several minutes after Tintin ran off before heading over to the appointed meeting place. The boiler room was even more of a mess than Morton remembered it, with items strewn everywhere around the dark room. Tintin arrived moments later to discuss his theories. Just as he was about to begin talking, he noticed a bag of white powder in the center of the room. Obviously suspecting drugs, the journalist dashed forward to get the bag. However, he found himself instead snared in a rope net that suspended him a few feet in the air. Morton lept to his aid, boot knife in hand. The pilot wasn't counting on a second such trap, but fortunately his agility allowed him to avoid being trapped entirely. Instead, he found himself hanging by one leg. As he attempted vainly to cut the ropes that held him, a dark cloaked man entered the room. It was Moriarty, the master criminal. He stated that he would have his revenge at last on Morton and Tintin. But first, he had brought a special guest who would greatly enjoy using Morton as a pinata. The second man who entered was wearing a green suit, and beating a wrench against his palm menacingly. It was Mr. Green, and he was ready to get even. Moriarty left him to it.
Back on The Milk Chocolate, Poirot was trying to piece together some theories. Both he and Mr. Rhyze assumed that the murder had not taken place at the time of the gunshot. But the fact remained that the sound of a gun being fired had been heard during the dinner. This meant that Laura Secord, Miss. Hershey and Jumbo could not be accused of that act, unless they had engineered some sort of recording. This was the theory that Poirot decided to check at that moment. He was investigating Jumbo's soundsystem, to see if it could be used for such a thing. They were now accompanied by Sherlock Holmes, who claimed to have already solved the crime. This seemed to annoy Poirot, who noted that Holmes had failed miserably at his task of actually protecting Mr. Cadbury. Sherlock Holmes replied smugly that catching the killer would be proof of his skills. Apparently, Mr. Cadbury had been worried that someone might try to kill him, but Holmes refused to let the old man tell him the identity of the person who posed his threat. After all, with the powers of deduction, such a thing was easy to find out. Upon returning to the matter at hand, Poirot noted that he had no idea how to work such a soundsystem. Hastings was excited by this technology, but shared Poirot's inability to use it. Holmes seemed only familiar with old technology, and managed to wreck the system by poking it repeatedly with his cane. Jumbo was aghast, but recovered by eating a tomato. He claimed that his system was loud enough to rock the whole ship, though judging from the cockpit's location, any sounds coming from it would not likely be attributed to the direction of the study.
Still somewhat baffled with this mystery, though unwilling to admit it, Hercule Poirot decided to have a few words with Miss. Hershey. Holmes and Hastings both accompanied him. Mr. Rhyze was about to follow when he was approached by Laura Secord. She wanted to speak with a Starfleet officer in private, and figured Mr. Rhyze was the most uniformed man around. Once up in her room, Laura Secord explained that she had information, but wasn't sure if she should release it. Taking a seat, Mr. Rhyze replied that she could tell him anything. Laura was worried that her sister might have been involved in the death of Mr. Cadbury. Though she tried to hide it, she was apparently low on money, and had been investing in some low quality chocolate products, such as Irish chocolates. At Secord's urgings, Mr. Rhyze tried one of these chocolates. He had to admit the taste had a hint of potato, and he definitely didn't like the way it made him feel queasy and faint. As Laura looked on, Mr. Rhyze stumbled to his knees. As his consciousness began to fade, he noticed a man in a dark cape and tophat enter the room. Moriarty stood over Mr. Rhyze and laughed that his revenge was almost complete. At that point, everything went black for the communications officer.
Hercule Poirot was in Miss. Hershey's room, curious by the absence of his two assistant detectives. Still, this didn't stop him from noticing that one of Miss. Hershey's pillows seemed to have a hole in it. Hershey was even more shocked to find that the other side also had some blood stains. It appeared that the pillow had been used to silence a gunshot, thus validating Poirot's theory that Mr. Cadbury had been killed earlier in the evening than the criminal would have them all believe. He decided that it was now time to verify Miss. Hershey's testimony. Heading over to station security, he asked Blank if there were any security cameras in docking bay two. Blank replied in the affirmative, and showed him some footage that included a swarthy technician in grey coveralls entering the Milk Chocolate. It appeared that Miss. Hershey had been telling the truth. Poirot decided that it was time to confront Laura Secord about this man. He found her in her room, and set about questioning her, with the constant company of Hastings and Holmes. Partway through the talk, everything began to fit together. Laura Secord suggested he try one of his chocolates as he thought. Poirot was just about to eat one when he was tackled by Dirk. The bodyguard claimed that the chocolate could be poisoned, and tried it himself first. This caused him to drop to his knees, retching. Apparently, it had been poisoned. Fortunately, Dirk had developed an immunity for that sort of poison. This confirmed the theory that had been forming in Poirot's mind. He had solved the case.
Race: Electran
Occupation: Dead Chocolate Mogul
Some would question the value of giving a dead man an official character writeup. But it never stopped Faust. Besides, Mr. Cadbury's appearance alone requires mentioning. Cadbury was an older man, with frothy white hair, a small mustache and imperial. He wore a black tophat, a chocolate-colored suit and a cape with a rich caramel hue. He had come to the station to deliver a little box of chocolates to his old friend, Hercule Poirot, but ended up getting shot instead. The bullethole from a PK-47 marred the symmetry of his head. Although the exact contents of his will were not revealed, it was known that the majority of his fortune would go to his two daughters, Laura Secord and Miss. Hershey, with small contributions to his household staff.
Hercule Poirot declared that he would soon hold his habitual gathering, during which he would unmask the murderer. Holmes could not allow this, and declared that he would solve the mystery for himself. When Poirot invited him to do so, Sherlock Holmes declared it would be elementary to take Poirot out of the picture. That said, he fired a tiny laser from his magnifying glass at his rival, and had him in his sights. Hastings was about to leap into action, but Poirot declared that he would face Holmes himself. The fight that followed was one of the least intense of the campaign. Poirot and Holmes dueled with their tiny guns, and with their considerable wits. In the end, Poirot seemed to be gaining the advantage, mainly because Holmes kept gagging on his own pipe. After another one of Poirot's puny shots, Holmes stumbled into Laura Secord's bed, knocking it aside. Underneath was the gagged and bound form of Mr. Rhyze. Before anyone could recover from their surprise, Laura Secord pressed a rag soaked with chlorofoam into Dirk's face, eliciting the usual response. For his part, Poirot remarked that he had known Laura Secord had been guilty along. Obviously, the two sisters were the ones who stood to gain the most from Mr. Cadbury's death. In addition, the gunshot during dinner was clearly designed only as an alibi for the people eating at the table, which included both Miss. Hershey and Laura Secord. However, this shot had clearly been fired by the mysterious swarthy technician. The fact that Hershey had been the one to reveal this man's existance clearly showed that she wasn't responsible for the crime. If this man had been working with her to create an alibi, she wouldn't have admitted his existence. Much in the same way that Laura Secord had denied sightings of this man. Holmes agreed that this was all elementary, and he had come up with it long ago.
Laura Secord admitted that they were cunning, but that they wouldn't live to spread this tale. At that moment, the door to the room opened to reveal a swarthy technician with the name 'Art' on his grey coveralls. As everyone watched, this technician pulled off his mask and disguise to reveal Moriarty, the master criminal. He had intended to gain revenge on Poirot through the poisoned chocolates, but he noted that this way would also work. This time, Poirot didn't bar Hastings from participating. Fortunately, Mr. Rhyze was also recovering from his sedation chocolate, and quickly ripped free of his ropes. Holmes also assisted in the battle, though some would claim that his contribution was negligable. After several minutes of combat, Hastings and Laura Secord were both brought down. Poirot was badly wounded, but so was Moriarty. Mr. Rhyze wasn't overly hurt, and proceeded to use his special card punch, the 52-pickup. This involved presenting his opponent with a full deck of cards and then punching them in the face. This proved effective even on Moriarty, and caused the master criminal to flee. Meanwhile, Morton had been attempting to shoot Mr. Green while hanging upside down. This proved difficult, but fortunately, Mr. Green seemed bent on using his wrench rather than his far more dangerous streetbrawl. After a few lucky shots, the pilot finally dropped his opponent. Free of combat, he was able to cut himself and Tintin free. The two were on their way back to the Milk Chocolate when they encountered a fast-flying Moriarty. The arch criminal was shocked to be given another knockout punch from Tintin, his old enemy. Morton finished the job with a DFW, just in time for Sherlock Holmes to arrive and take the credit, puffing on his pipe. Tintin was still convinced that it contained drugs, and turned his attention on the detective. This gave Poirot the time he needed to claim credit for the capture of Moriarty. And to eat a few chocolates, though not from the poisoned box he'd been given.
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