The Deadwood Relay
An investigation into a fatal incident at a remote frontier relay station. Six passengers, each with their own timeline and secrets, are present when a stagecoach magnate is found dead. The official passenger list is a single sheet of vellum with smeared ink. An investigator must navigate the station's isolated sandbox to reconstruct the sequence of events.
Initial Crime Scene
The door groans open, releasing a smell of gun-oil and stale sweat. A low cough echoes from the pot-bellied stove in the center of the room. Your eyes adjust to the weak, flickering pool of light from a brass oil lamp on a scarred table. You register the heavy, pried-open Wells Fargo strongbox in the corner, its lid showing fresh, shallow gouges around the lock. On the table itself, a single sheet of vellum—the passenger manifest—lies under the lamplight, its ink smeared. Beyond, a mechanical pocket watch is visible on the floor near a dark shape.
Crime Scene Environment
Lighting is a coal oil lamp flicker creating long, shivering shadows. Humidity is low, air is dust-choked and dry. Acoustic density is dominated by the groan of floorboards underfoot and the distant, nervous tap of a telegraph key.
Investigation Constraints
Civil War-era percussion revolvers and rifles, telegraph keys (limited range), Wells Fargo strongboxes with combination locks, mechanical pocket watches, hand-cranked telegraph machines, coal oil lamps, barbed wire, manual printing presses for wanted posters, and basic field surgery tools.
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