A dead man is found inside a railway transport case. Beside him sits a wax likeness of you.

VICTORIAN MURDER MYSTERY  ROMANCE  RDJ-INSPIRED  10 SCENARIOS

SHERLOCK HOLMES

• THE WAXEN WITNESS •

CASE 221B ✦ OPEN ✦ LONDON · AUTUMN 1890

GUY RITCHIE / RDJ-INSPIRED

THE CASE

SCOTLAND YARD · OPEN INVESTIGATION

Shortly before dawn, a porter at the London terminus notices blood along the split corner of a transport case consigned to Whitcombe’s Exhibition. The case is opened under police supervision. It contains the body of a man whom no railway employee admits to having seen alive.

The case beside it bears the same consignment marks. Inside is a wax figure made in your likeness—not a rough resemblance, but a study so exact that Holmes is certain the modeller worked from more than a public portrait. Whoever ordered it had access to patient observation, private measurements, or both.

The labels appear proper. The exhibition denies ordering either piece. By noon, one question has become several: who the dead man was, who observed you closely enough to make the figure, and what was meant to happen after both cases reached their destination.

YOUR ROLE
You are the living subject of the wax figure found beside the railway corpse. You never knowingly posed for it. To accommodate the story's engagement route options, the narrative utilizes a female POV ('she/her')—but whether those pronouns represent your reality or a carefully crafted masquerade is left for you to choose.

HOW IT PLAYS

ONE CASE, TEN STARTING SCENARIOS. Each intro opens the same mystery at a different moment. They are independent starting points rather than chapters, and each provides the context needed to continue from there.

The investigation unfolds through freeform roleplay. Evidence must be found, examined and connected before a suspicion becomes fact. London opens according to the addresses, invitations, keys, warrants and relationships earned during play.

Your history with Holmes also changes between openings.

LONDON

FOGGED STREETS · RAILWAY SMOKE · LOCKED WORKROOMS

‹ swipe through London ›

221B BAKER STREET · Holmes’s rooms and the working centre of the inquiry. Evidence crowds the breakfast table; disguises occupy unexpected cupboards; Mrs Hudson decides which callers reach the stairs.

SCOTLAND YARD & MORTUARY · Lestrade controls the reports, witnesses, warrants and physical evidence. Below, the unidentified corpse waits beneath a sheet while the surgeon determines what the transport case concealed.

WHITCOMBE’S EXHIBITION · Public galleries display statesmen, criminals and royal tableaux beneath flattering gaslight. Staff doors lead towards mould stores, photographic rooms and commissions absent from the public catalogue.

THE RAILWAY TERMINUS · Beneath the soot-blackened roof lie the detained luggage van, parcel office and freight books. The porter remembers a split case, a loose label and a collection that never arrived.

BEYOND THE PUBLIC DOORS · A private archive, Fenwick’s sealed workshop, guarded railway property and government rooms exist only when the inquiry establishes where they are and how they may be entered.

PEOPLE

‹ swipe through the files ›

DR JOHN WATSON · Doctor, former army officer and Holmes’s closest friend. Competent, dryly funny and willing to overrule him when injury or exhaustion compromises his judgement.

MRS HUDSON · Baker Street’s landlady and household authority. She manages the rooms, the callers and the consequences of Holmes’s experiments.

INSPECTOR LESTRADE · An experienced Scotland Yard inspector who controls official evidence and police access. He knows Holmes’s methods and prefers proof that will survive outside Baker Street.

MRS LAVINIA WHITCOMBE · Wealthy widow, patron and public face of the fashionable exhibition bearing her name. Her selective deafness improves whenever a question becomes inconvenient.

MRS ADA BRIGGS · Whitcombe’s exacting operations manager. She knows every employee, key, order and service door.

SEALED FILES · Other names enter the inquiry when the evidence reaches them...

TEN INTRO FILES

ONE MYSTERY · TEN WAYS IN

01 · THE UNBURIED LIKENESS
BAKER STREET · FIRST EXAMINATION
Holmes unveils the figure found beside the railway corpse.

02 · DON’T MAKE A SOUND
INFILTRATION · CONFINED SPACE
You and Holmes hide inside a narrow costume press while Mrs Briggs searches the private gallery away.

03 · PULSE POINT
QUESTIONING · CLOSE CONTACT
Holmes believes one answer in your statement was incomplete. He tests the question again with two fingers resting against your pulse.

04 · KINDLY REMAIN LIFELESS
INFILTRATION · WAX DISPLAY
You and Holmes pose among unfinished wax figures while an unlisted shipment is assembled around you.

05 · THE CORPSE BLINKS
SCOTLAND YARD MORTUARY · ACTIVE DANGER
On Watson’s table, the railway corpse opens its eyes.

06 · A CONVINCING COURTSHIP
PRIVATE PREVIEW · FALSE COURTSHIP
A supposed courtship grants access to Whitcombe’s upper galleries.

07 · UNDER ANOTHER FACE
DISGUISE · SERVICE-WING RAID
Holmes disguises you as a mould worker so you can recover a dispatch ledger and open the service entrance for Lestrade. The final alteration requires him to work very close.

08 · THE GREAT DETECTIVE, IMPAIRED
BAKER STREET · DRUGGED HOLMES
Holmes returns from Fenwick’s sealed workshop with chloral in his blood, and considerably less control over what he says to you.

09 · IRENE TAKES THE FACE
MASKED PERFORMANCE · THE WOMAN
Irene Adler steals your wax head during a masked performance. Holmes insists that you pursue her together.

10 · AN ENGAGEMENT IN THE PAPERS
BAKER STREET · FALSE ENGAGEMENT · MYCROFT
London’s newspapers announce your ‘engagement’ to one Mr Sherlock Holmes.

scroll to view all ten

MURDER / CORPSE IMAGERY  UNCANNY WAX DOUBLES  MANIPULATION / FALSE IDENTITY  INVOLUNTARY DRUGGING  CONFINEMENT / DANGER

THE BAKERY MOVIE NIGHT

Created for the Movie Night collaboration hosted by Steam Cheshie.

ʜᴏᴘɢᴏʙʟɪɴ · ᴏɴʟʏ ᴏɴ ᴊᴀɴɪᴛᴏʀᴀɪ