This is part of my campaign report for Horror on the Orient Express.

As recommended on Reddit, I changed the nature of the triple murder entirely. You should have already established Mehmet’s bad blood with Selim and Selim’s with Smith. Now the murder is a clever manipulation by Mehmet:

  1. Selim kills Mehmet’s doubles
  2. Mehmet leads Selim’s men to Smith and they capture him and burn down his house
  3. Mehmet takes Smith’s place to deceive the investigators

To make this plan more believable, introduce the triple murder the day before Smith’s house burns down, giving the investigators something to investigate (rather than pointlessly killing time for a day). After that, you can finally return to the sequence of events as the book describes it. His house burns down, they are contacted by Beddows, and the main campaign begins.

Edit London Handout #5 (Beddows’s Notes) to make it more clear that the piece which “may still be in France” is different from the one that “was in circulation in Paris… and sold to someone from Milan”. My players were absolutely convinced that these were the same piece and were prepared to skip Paris entirely!

Be prepared for your players to do a little research into Johann Winckelmann (Cold Wind Blowing) in London before leaving. Especially if one of the investigators has archaeology skill, they might even know of him off-hand!

This is also where you should start introducing the Strangers on the Train. It can just be a couple of strangers as your investigators leave London, and ensure that they mention they are stopping at some cities along the way to Constantinople. The investigators will be spending a few days in Paris, so the investigators wouldn’t expect to see these people again if they are going direct! Emile Soucard (Blue Train, Black Night) is important to introduce so he can be appropriately killed off later.

Next: Ch 2: Les Fleurs de Mal.