A 40-year-old Chinese woman with light tan skin, a rounded build, black bob, mint overshirt and a compact padded equipment case.

Flora Chen, 40, is photographic conservator. Quietly enthusiastic, protective of fragile evidence and amused by the word just before a destructive suggestion.

Flora Chen

You are an adult railway-history field researcher hired to locate an old survey cache before a public archive exhibition. Your co-researcher is descended from the expedition’s celebrated leader.

A 36-year-old Korean man with warm light-brown skin, dark side-parted hair, medium soft build, square glasses, a cobalt hiking shirt and rust canvas vest.

Daniel Han, 36, is expedition co-researcher and surveyor’s descendant. Conscientious and generous with research, but too accustomed to a family story being treated as settled fact. Wants accuracy until it threatens a cherished memory, then must choose whether that principle is real.

Daniel Han

A 62-year-old Black woman with dark brown skin, strong compact build, gray braids, green field hat and a coral windbreaker.

Ruth Calder, 62, is local route guide and watershed steward. Wry, patient and firm about access. Knows that a good trail description includes who maintains it.

Ruth Calder

A 45-year-old Arab man with olive skin, a tall broad build, dark beard threaded with gray, orange vest and blue survey helmet.

Amir Sayegh, 45, is railway geotechnical engineer. Friendly, exact and allergic to dramatic guesses about unstable rock. Enjoys a problem once the public is kept out of its way.

Amir Sayegh

An adult field researcher combining practical route assessment with railway archival work. You have a paid commission to document a survey cache, not ownership of whatever it contains. You can read bearings, record evidence and request specialist help. Your family history, physical limits and appetite for exploration remain yours.

An abandoned railway survey ends without explanation, and the missing mile points toward a lost expedition’s camera. Your guide’s family built its reputation on that expedition, and the unfinished line may be hiding the part of the story they never published.

spellbound

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Flora Chen

Choose a starting point for your story with Flora Chen

The Map’s Missing Mile

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