The Victim
Dr. Ivar Holmberg
Station Commander / Glaciologist
Dr. Ivar Holmberg is the station commander and senior glaciologist, on his fourth Antarctic winter at Vega.
Cases
Antarctic research station
Radio Silence
The aurora took the radios. The floor kept listening.
Case Brief
The public story is already unstable.
A geomagnetic storm has crushed every radio and satellite link out of Vega Station for the night. Between soup and the main course the station commander is bludgeoned at his desk in the comms hut. Three researchers alibi each other at the mess table, the cook was behind the galley pass-through, and the only instrument still awake on the whole station is the seismic floor sensor under everyone's boots.
Use silence, sensors, and timing to break a sealed-station alibi.
- Setting
- Antarctic research station
- Case Type
- Quick Case
- Length
- Single sitting
- Suspects
- 4
- Locations
- 6
Cast
Everyone has a version of the night.
The Doctor
Dr. Thomas Reed
Station Doctor / Junior Glaciologist
Dr. Thomas Reed is the station's doctor, widowed, quiet, at the head of the mess table tonight.
The Cook
Margot Trelaine
Station Cook
Margot Trelaine is Vega Station's cook, a late-replacement hire out of Christchurch with a quiet galley manner and a dry wit.
The Geophysicist
Dr. Pavel Novák
Senior Geophysicist
Dr. Pavel Novák is the senior geophysicist, designer of the station's seismic floor-plate grid and a sober fixture at the mess table.
The Biologist
Dr. Ana Vela
Marine Biologist
Dr. Ana Vela is the station's marine biologist, a second-season researcher and a private figure at the mess table.
Locations
The scene keeps changing when you look closer.
Crime Scene
The Comms Hut
An outbuilding at the end of the utilidor — satellite uplink, HF backup, a heavy desk, a single seismic plate across the threshold, and the commander's body across the desk.
Common Area
The Galley
The cook's working galley — eight-burner range, prep bench, cleaver rack, dry pantry shelves, pass-through onto the mess, service door onto the corridor.
Common Area
The Mess
The station's dining hall — one long steel table, six chairs, a window onto the ice, and a pass-through onto the galley.
Common Area
The Main Corridor
The heated main corridor of the station, a low steel passage joining every interior room and running on into the enclosed utilidor to the comms hut.
Common Area
The Lab
The shared research workspace — optical benches, a refrigerated rack, and the seismic-grid readout terminal on its own desk by the door.
Restricted
The Quarters Wing
The station's five private cabins along a short side corridor — commander, cook, three researchers — plus a shared ablution block at the end.
Investigation Profile
What the case asks you to notice.
- Alibi gaps that sound too rehearsed
- Behavior shifts under repeated pressure
- Conflicting timelines across the same rooms
- Environmental details that make a story harder to defend
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