week 9 - trial

[productions]

week nine trial



victim



suspects





Character Statuses
Setting
Manor Rules
Voting

Comments

[obsideo]

[She will help Susan try keys.]

[inthebones]

...Never mind.

[Says Susan as she wearily passes Marlow part of the bowl.]

If we're going to be stuck here, perhaps we should think about that code. ...Even if it doesn't open the safe, I doubt it's irrelevant.

[obsideo]

I don't know what it could mean. But you're right. Maybe it has to do that that weird message in blood? Even though...that would be a weird coincidence. Or maybe it's the dates in his journal entries, spelling out a secret message?

But with that code, it seems like there are several letters to the same number, so that would be hard to work out.

[productions]

[After a while, one of the keys clicks in the lock.]

[inthebones]

I suppose it might only make sense when we see whatever's inside here.

We had a sort of cypher before as a riddle, although it was a shift in the alphabet. The dates are mostly 1919, which would get us...

AIAI
KSKS
U-U-

Or some combination like... ASKS. It doesn't really seem quite ri --

[click]

Oh! I think this one worked!

[Susan betrays actual excitement for a moment if only because she's spared another three hours of trying keys. She'll carefully turn it fully and try to open the door.]

[productions]

[Inside is a shallow safe. Several ornamental guns and knives are stored here, including a place where one seems to be missing.

There is also a smaller lock-box, in the back, also old-fashioned. It has 5 different sliding dials where numbers, from 0 to 9, must slide into place.]

[obsideo]

Well. That answers that mystery.

[She looks at the guns to see if they look like the one that killed Doris, and then looks at the lockbox dial.]

[inthebones]

...Time to work on the code now, I suppose.

[A slight pause.]

To have opened this safe and removed a gonne, someone would have needed to have had the keys to open the drawer with the keys in the secret room, though. Annie, Rapture, and I have them at the moment, I believe.

...Unless the Mastermind cheated.

[obsideo]

Yeah, there could be another key.

Okay, what does the journal tell us could be the code? Do you think it's something in that riddle we were given? Maybe some kind of dessert?

[inthebones]

...Flans?

[Suddenly any five letter dessert she may have ever heard of escapes her mind.]

...

Doris?

[obsideo]

...I had the same thought. Couldn't hurt to try.

[She plugs in 45899.]

[productions]

[It works. The door creaks open...]

[inthebones]

[Susan won't even say anything as the lock clicks. She simply waits with bated breath as Felicia unveils the mystery...]

[productions]

[Inside, the box is full of papers. Most of what is in there seem to be old photographs, black and white pictures of architecture, cities, cities in rubble, and soldiers. Some of the pictures are of vibrant and cheerful people, but some are clearly scenes of battle. The dates and places on the back give clues what is depicted - March 1915, Paris, December 1915, Chantilly, August 1915, Gorlice, March 1916, Lutsk, 1912, Vilnius, 1915, Vilnius, to name a few.

To the side is an extremely tarnished old medal. On top of it is a folded piece of paper.]

[obsideo]

[Marlow reaches inside to pick up the folded piece of paper.]

[inthebones]

[Susan will follow suit, examining some of the photographs.]

Are we looking for someone who's been in these places, then...?

[productions]

[The folded piece of paper is a letter.]

[obsideo]

[She reads the letter, growing more nervous with every word. This is the key to the real Mastermind, but they can't make any mistakes now. The story is sad, but that can't make up for the pain he caused.

She hands the letter to Susan.]

Here. I think...I think it tells us how to stop him.

[And she picks up the medal to look at it.]

[inthebones]

[Susan reads through it quickly as well, and though her expression remains controlled, her fingers tighten around the piece of paper.]

This person... is someone who isn't human. Someone who has lived since the time this manor depicts and who have people who belong to him. Someone who lost his people, long ago...

[She is silent for a long few moments.]

What is the medal for?

[productions]

[It's a simple medal with some sort of design on it, perhaps what was once the bust of a man but has now worn beyond recognition. The ribbon on it has also worn and frayed. However, on the back, some words have been engraved into the medal. They have worn down, but are still legible:

в память о торисе лауринатисе]

[obsideo]

I don't know. I can't read it, but it looks sort of like Russian.

All this stuff, these pictures, this letter, though. It's about World War I. That country he's describing...geography isn't my strong suit, so I couldn't tell you for sure it wasn't Latvia or anything, but with him gone...it basically has to be one person.

[inthebones]

[Susan shakes her head at the message - she cannot read it, either.]

So the message in blood really was as transparent as it appeared from the start... I can scarcely believe it, but...

We've come to the end at last.

[obsideo]

[She takes the medal and the letter in her hands, and holds them carefully.]

We have to go back, and give them to him. We're sure about this, right?

I'm pretty sure. It fits, after all. He didn't wipe away the blood, he was never a suspect...maybe, deep down, he wanted us to find the truth.

[inthebones]

...I have an even poorer grasp of Earth geography than you do. But the only other alternative is Spain, and we already know he's been under the Mastermind's thumb for quite some time - he was two votes away from being executed once.

It's time to finish this.

[Susan steps away from the safe with a nod.]

((Would you care to do the honors?))

[obsideo]

Spain isn't in the east, anyway...

All right, let's go.

((ooc: Sure!))