Murder on the Harmonia Express

## Egan Bakker's Murder

### Party

Dilies, Gab, Kristini, Bounty, Gimtharn, Ribbles, Blue. Special Guest Draziw von Drazil III.

### Location

The Harmonia Express, traveling from Morgrove to Mach Academy

Your party boards the Harmonia Express, a lightrail that will cut your travel time to Torin by several days. By 11:00 tonight you will arrive at Mach Academy, at the center of the continent. But your journey might not be as pleasant as you would expect...

## Events

* The Dungeon Crawlies receive a new mission from Sparky. They travel to Morgrove in hopes of catching the lightrail to Mach Academy so they can arrive at Torin faster.
* Before boarding the Express, they are stopped by Wez, the conductor. She informs the party that they must leave all their weapons in the cargo hold to ensure a peaceful trip.
* The party is joined by Draziw von Drazil III at the station. He relinquishes his weapons, followed by most of the rest of the party. Gab sneaks a rapier onto the train.
* The party settles in the sitting room, where they encounter a number of NPCs.
* Egan Bakker is an conceited inventor who has just created an extremely interesting artefact-- a weapon that can kill easily from a range without the use of magic. He brandishes it constantly when talking to the party, playing up the genius of his "pistol".
* David is a quiet man but is cordial to the party when spoken to. He reveals that he used to be Bakker's business partner.
* Aanya is a beautiful and vivacious woman who immediately captures the attention of Dilies. The two subtly flirt for a while before she retires to her room.
* Sam is a quiet woman, married to and sitting with Bakker. She spends most of the trip sitting by the window, reading a novel.
* Lorcan is a young and extremely anxious half-orc. They expresses extreme discomfort when the party interacts with them in any way.
* A few hours pass on the Express without incident.
* Wez makes an announcement from the dining car, urgently requesting the Dungeon Crawlies to meet her there.
* Upon arriving in the dining car, the party discovers that Bakker had been shot and killed. Wez reveals that she had been blackmailed by Bakker, and that she would likely be a prime suspect if the authorities in Mach were to discover his death. She urges the party to find the real killer.
* The party investigates the scene of the crime. They find the following information:
	+ Bakker had been shot in the back twice in the back. Both wounds were fatal.
	+ He was found slumped over on one of the dining tables. The blood pooling indicated that he had been shot in that position.
	+ His pistol was nowhere to be found.
	+ One of the bullets went through his body, the other stayed inside. Draziw recovered the first round from the floor.
* The party split up to cover more ground.
* Kristini and Gab went to David. After seducing him, he revealed that he and Bakker had met in the dining car to discuss business matters. Bakker had fallen asleep in the middle of their conversation, so David had left him several minutes before Bakker had been shot.
* Dilies went to find Aanya, but she didn't answer her cabin door.
* Draziw spoke to Sam, who mentioned that she had brought Egan his sleeping medication during his meeting with David. She also mentioned that Nico, Bakker's retainer, was in their shared cabin.
* Ribbles went to find Nico. They spoke at length but she didn't learn jack shit.
* Blue spoke to Lorcan. When pressed, they broke down and admitted that they were Bakker's child. Their mother had been paid off, but after her death, Lorcan went out in search of his missing father. The two had met, and although Bakker didn't want anything to do with them, he still invited Lorcan to join him on his visit to Mach Academy.
* Bounty visited the last cabin on the train, belonging to a man named Ben. He closed the door behind him when speaking to Bounty, but they noticed that Aanya was in the cabin before the door closed. She left the cabin and admitted that she had been having affairs with both Ben and Bakker.
* The party reconvened in the dining hall. They left for the caboose, the only car they hadn't checked.
* Draziw opened the locked cabin with a Knock spell. Inside, the party found a large collection of Harmonia Corporation packages, set to be delivered from Morgrove to Aventine and The Írie.
* In the back of the car, they found a large locked chest, that seemed to be rattling violently. Upon opening it, the Lazarus Blade flew out and landed at Kristini's feet, crackling with red energy.
* Draziw investigated the sword, and determined that it contained a startling degree of magical energy-- namely Abjuration, Enchantment and Necromancy.
* Armed with their equipment, they decided to pursue their leads on Aanya, Lorcan, and David. The three are invited into the dining car one at a time to gauge their reactions to Bakker's body and the bloody scene.
* Gaining no insight from any of their leads, the party started corralling the rest of the passengers, as well as the conductor.
* They searched every car and every cabin for the pistol, or any evidence that could lead to the culprit. They found a few personal effects, but nothing concrete.
* Kristini and Gab started accusing other members of the party, namely Draziw and Blue. They ordered the two PCs, as well as all the NPCs, to strip and leave all of their personal effects on a nearby table.
* As the Express arrives in Mach, the party gives into their failure to discover Bakker's killer. The police in Mach arrest Wez, and the rest of the passengers move on with their lives.

## Trivia

This campaign is heavily based on Murder on the Eberron Express, which is in turn based on Murder on the Orient Express. God has also mentioned they slipped a little Murder on the Rockport Limited in there.