Aurelius Marlowe
Victim NPC
Gold Marlowe — the Voice of Inspector Quill, radio's incorruptible detective, beloved in forty-eight states. Silver-maned, velvet-throated, generous with autographs and famously humble on the air. He performed his…
Murder Party · ready to clone
Dead Air
A scenario by Murder Maker
- Secrets
- Vengeance
- Blackmail
- Murder
- Money
- Dilemma
The premise
New Year's Eve, 1938. WVOX — 'the Voice of the Peaks' — broadcasts from a transmitter house on the summit of Mount Hark, and tonight the blizzard has closed the only road down. At 8:10 the nation heard Aurelius 'Gold' Marlowe, radio's beloved Inspector Quill, deliver his New Year monologue live from the announce booth, flawless as ever. At 8:37 the director opened the booth door to fetch him for the second act and found him slumped over a cold microphone, dead. The network's order crackles down the long-distance line: hold the air until the midnight sign-off — music, storm bulletins, anything — and let no one off that mountain. Eight people, one transmitter, one soundproof room, and a voice the whole country would swear it heard alive.
The cast
Harriet Kline
Suspect
Etta Kline, director-producer of the Mystery Hour — nine years of getting this show on the air through strikes, tantrums and blizzards. Brisk, chain-organized, first in and last out. The network's order to hold the air…
Vera Dane
Suspect
The First Lady of the Mystery Hour — every widow, waif and villainess for seven years, the woman of a thousand voices. At parties, after two Manhattans, she does an Inspector Quill so perfect that Marlowe once left the…
Mercer Quayle
Suspect
The writer. Mercer Quayle created Inspector Quill in 1930 — a fact the program's credits mention never and Marlowe's interviews mention less. Tweed, ink-stains, a flask of his own (coffee, mostly), and a satchel of…
Dov Brenner
Suspect
Doc Brenner, chief of sound effects since the Mystery Hour's first broadcast — a broad, quiet man with a cart of latches, gravel boxes and dried peas, who can make a door, a downpour or a cavalry charge out of junk and…
Elias Thorn
Suspect
Chief engineer of WVOX, twelve years on the mountain — the man who keeps fifty thousand watts alive through weather that eats antennas. Gruff, exact, married to the transmitter. His transmission log is famously…
Freddy Pomeroy
Suspect
The sponsor's man — Zephyr Cigarettes' account executive for the Mystery Hour, all handshake and schedule. He brought the Christmas brandy, he knows the commercial copy by heart, and he has checked his watch eleven…
Ruth Casterline
Witness
Switchboard, continuity and the station's institutional memory, four years on the summit. Ruth logs everything: calls, trays, keys, borrowed discs, who passed the alcove and when. Quick, watchful, liked. If it happened…
Cornelia Pryce
Detective
An adjuster for Atlantic Mutual, the network's underwriter, snowed in on what she called a routine year-end asset appraisal. When the body was found she produced credentials, a notebook, and a sentence that reorganized…
Intrigues
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Everyone Sells the SummitSecrets
Everybody on this mountain sells something. Tonight the bills come due at once.
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Lakeshore RoadVengeance
Three years ago a car left Lakeshore Road at midnight. Only one version of that night survived.
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The Black BookBlackmail
He never raised his voice. He never had to. He had a book.
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The Borrowed VoiceMurder
Forty-eight states heard him alive at 8:25. The coroner will beg to differ.
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The Midnight ContractMoney
At midnight he was going to make three careers and break four. He missed the appointment.
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The Show Must Go OnDilemma
The red light is still burning. Until midnight, the mountain is still on the air.
Factions & circles
- The MoneyFaction
- The Mystery Hour CompanyTeam
- WVOX Summit StaffStaff
Dead Air
New Year's Eve, 1938. WVOX — 'the Voice of the Peaks' — broadcasts from a transmitter house on the summit of Mount Hark, and tonight the blizzard has closed the only road down.…
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