Q2 1903; LONDON -- A most horrific crime has been committed in the
waters of Britain, as the body of the revered Queen Victoria is has been taken by unknown scoundrels.
The Queen had been prepared for transportation from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth, en route to her final resting place at Frogmore Mausoleum in Berkshire. At the urging of the Kaiser and Prince Arthur, the decision was made to move the body across the Solent at night. The hope was to avoid a throng of island residents which could have made transport difficult. As the boat left Cowes, the only light came from the full moon which glowed eerily in the fog-soaked channel.
After several hours, it was apparent that something had gone wrong, as the boat had still not arrived at Portsmouth. Royal Navy vessels were alerted, and an hour later, the destroyer HMS Quail came upon the ship, setting silently adrift east of the Isle, miles off of its proscribed course.
A boarding party came aboard the smaller vessel and discovered a grisly sight. The bodies of several crewmen were found to be horribly mutilated. The rest of the crew was nowhere to be found; it is not known if they were lost overboard in the night's events or part of the conspiracy. Worst of all, the body of Queen Victoria, perhaps the most beloved British monarch of all-time, was nowhere to be found.
The sole survivor of the affair was the former Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII. Victoria's eldest son was found below decks, hidden in a locker. The King was acting erratically due to the trauma he endured, but appeared physically unharmed. However, he was unable to provide any description of the attackers or what had occurred, as the ship's crew had concealed him at the first sign of violence.
Whomever the corpse thieves were, they left no sign of their identity. The vessel was scoured by agents of Scotland Yard, who found no insignia or items which are out of place on the ship. There is widespread belief that the heist could not have happened without assistance from somebody working on the inside.
The motives for the attack are unclear. Speculation ranges from anti-monarchists who hope to send a message by defiling the queen's corpse to businessmen who have lost their fortune due to the war in China and will seek a ransom. Germanophobes have claimed that the Kaiser's doctors poisoned the Queen and sought to steal her body so it may be returned to her ancestral homeland of Hanover. Members of the Victorian Lycanthropy Society have claimed that the Queen was not dead, just hibernating.
It is highly unlikely that something as visible the Queen's body could be moved on British spoil, so it is suspected to have been taken somewhere on the European continent. Even the attackers' ability to slip through the Royal Navy search net which was launched after the boat's discovery has amazed observers. No unusual activity was noted at the French channel ports, leading many to believe that it managed to make it to a point further south or east. The British Royal Family has asked the governments of Europe to render aid in the search for the Queen's corpse, so it may be interred alongside her Consort Prince Albert before it suffers rot and decay on a grand scale.
CHALLENGE: Find the Queen's body. Assign diplomats, generals, admirals or other characters to the quest, giving them detailed orders on how to undertake the search.
The Queen had been prepared for transportation from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth, en route to her final resting place at Frogmore Mausoleum in Berkshire. At the urging of the Kaiser and Prince Arthur, the decision was made to move the body across the Solent at night. The hope was to avoid a throng of island residents which could have made transport difficult. As the boat left Cowes, the only light came from the full moon which glowed eerily in the fog-soaked channel.
After several hours, it was apparent that something had gone wrong, as the boat had still not arrived at Portsmouth. Royal Navy vessels were alerted, and an hour later, the destroyer HMS Quail came upon the ship, setting silently adrift east of the Isle, miles off of its proscribed course.
A boarding party came aboard the smaller vessel and discovered a grisly sight. The bodies of several crewmen were found to be horribly mutilated. The rest of the crew was nowhere to be found; it is not known if they were lost overboard in the night's events or part of the conspiracy. Worst of all, the body of Queen Victoria, perhaps the most beloved British monarch of all-time, was nowhere to be found.
The sole survivor of the affair was the former Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII. Victoria's eldest son was found below decks, hidden in a locker. The King was acting erratically due to the trauma he endured, but appeared physically unharmed. However, he was unable to provide any description of the attackers or what had occurred, as the ship's crew had concealed him at the first sign of violence.
Whomever the corpse thieves were, they left no sign of their identity. The vessel was scoured by agents of Scotland Yard, who found no insignia or items which are out of place on the ship. There is widespread belief that the heist could not have happened without assistance from somebody working on the inside.
The motives for the attack are unclear. Speculation ranges from anti-monarchists who hope to send a message by defiling the queen's corpse to businessmen who have lost their fortune due to the war in China and will seek a ransom. Germanophobes have claimed that the Kaiser's doctors poisoned the Queen and sought to steal her body so it may be returned to her ancestral homeland of Hanover. Members of the Victorian Lycanthropy Society have claimed that the Queen was not dead, just hibernating.
It is highly unlikely that something as visible the Queen's body could be moved on British spoil, so it is suspected to have been taken somewhere on the European continent. Even the attackers' ability to slip through the Royal Navy search net which was launched after the boat's discovery has amazed observers. No unusual activity was noted at the French channel ports, leading many to believe that it managed to make it to a point further south or east. The British Royal Family has asked the governments of Europe to render aid in the search for the Queen's corpse, so it may be interred alongside her Consort Prince Albert before it suffers rot and decay on a grand scale.
CHALLENGE: Find the Queen's body. Assign diplomats, generals, admirals or other characters to the quest, giving them detailed orders on how to undertake the search.



