WEEK 3 - TRIAL

[productions]

week three trial



[At 9 AM precisely, the old grandfather clock chimes once again, and the doors to the drawing room are opened. They will remain open until everyone has come inside, after which they will shut behind them. It is not possible to leave on your own, although perhaps if you have a specific purpose the hostess will allow you to go, as long as you are accompanied by a partner.

The room is set up comfortably, with several tables by the fireplace set out to assist with the trial. The Hostess will also remain in a seat near the fireplace, next to the scales on the mantle. At lunch, the doors will open to bring in a large meal on an automatically rolling buffet, and at 3 PM, tea and finger sandwiches will be served. You'll be able to enjoy the trial in comfort, of course, but the information cards set out on tables will not allow you to forget your true purpose here.

At 7 PM, the trial will adjourn for the day. Players will be escorted by the Hostess to the ballroom, where dinner and wine will be served until 10 PM, at which point players will be required to return to their wings in groups with their wingmates and will be locked in their bedrooms until 8:30 AM the following morning.]

victim



suspects



Character Statuses
Setting
Manor Rules
Cheat Sheet
Voting

Comments

[pandacea]

[okay time to do this May TIME TO PROVE YOU'RE NOT DISPENSABLE EVEN WHEN THERE IS NO SCIENCE TO BE DONE]

Um...perhaps this is a foolish idea, but are we sure Dave had been the intended victim in this case? His card says he is a ninja, correct? I do not know if this is true everywhere, but where I come from, a katana is typically the sword that a ninja would use. So in that case...maybe he was the one who chose to kill one of the deadweights and failed?

[vytis]

I don't think it's a foolish idea at all, Miss May. He was apparently carrying an odd key, as well--I think it's a skeleton key, though I haven't tested it. His card does mention skill with swords, as well...

[pandacea]

Eh? He was? Then perhaps he really did seek to kill someone!

But it would have to be a deadweight for him to obtain the sword and key, yes? Then his chosen victim must have been either Miss Aya or Mr. Altman....

[vytis]

That's true, but that wouldn't necessarily mean they were the ones who killed him. One of the others could have seen him walking around with a sword, for example, and tried to stop him...

[mostlymarried]

I retire early.

[pasodoble]

I haven't seen anyone carrying any swords!

( Spain, sit down. )

[pandacea]

And then they must have pushed him down the elevator shaft in the struggle!

But if that's the case...then we shouldn't be executing anyone just for trying to protect themselves or someone innocent!

[herpreciousrival]

T-then he intended to--!! [No, she doesn't want to think about it!]

That's terrible!

[pandacea]

Are you all right, Miss Aya? Did you hear anything last night or this morning? You may have had a very fortunate escape from death!

[souredsweet]

I do not think it is a foolish idea, but... would it not be foolish for Mr. Strider to choose such a weapon? Assuming that he was the original attacker, if he had succeeded, he would have needed to face a trial in which his card could easily identify him. Getting rid of a katana would be difficult, and the injuries left would have pinpointed the murder as being blade-related...

[pandacea]

I hadn't thought of that - but maybe he did not know how to use any other weapon? And there are also other people in this mansion whose cards say they are skilled with swords, so perhaps he thought they would be suspects as well.

Ah--perhaps he even thought to frame you, Miss Kaoru! How horrible!

[souredsweet]

It is certainly true that my card would lend itself to suspicion in any case involving a sword... However, we do not yet know that such a thing was Mr. Strider's intent. After all, there are two other people in the "deadweight" category who are also suspects. Reasonably, all three of them could have access to the key and the katana.

[pandacea]

I hope that's the case...I don't know what I would do if it turned out that our culprit was only trying to defend themselves or protect someone else from being killed. It wouldn't be fair to execute them at all.

[speakveryclearly]

Maybe that's the case... on the other hand, would the culprit have any other means of concealing the key?Consider how easily the sword was found, and the searches we conduct in suspects' rooms. They may well have believed this was the easiest way to keep the key from being connected to them.

[pandacea]

That's true. But surely it would have been far easier to hide than a sword? They could have buried it somewhere or placed it within one of the books in the library or anything. An object that small may have taken us forever to find, no matter how thoroughly we searched the mansion.

[speakveryclearly]

Even if we hoped to do better this time...

The fact remains we don't always search the corpses so rigorously as today either. I feel we do still need to establish a motive for Mr. Strider to be something other than the victim, though.

[notyetlost]

Wasn't he a deadweight himself?

Maybe it was like a self preservation thing. Kill you before you kill me or whatever?

[pasodoble]

Considering it was so easy to find... what if it was meant to be found?

[pandacea]

You mean someone planted it on him? But why would they do that?

[coca_cola]

Nah, it's not foolish. I don't know if bein' a ninja has anything to do with it, but if I just think about it, it kind of makes sense. If you are deadweight, then the easiest person to target would be another one. You get more for tryin', and if you succeed, you get more for that too.

[pandacea]

Yes, that was what I was thinking too! Though that also makes Miss Aya and Mr. Altman look more suspicious as well....

[coca_cola]

[ He shrugs, about to say that one of them was guilty, but he remembers that it's not quite the straightforward this time. He makes a thoughtful noise, then runs a hand through his hair. ]

...Yeah. But about that, if it was Dave that was tryin' to kill someone, that means we're gonna have to kill someone that was just tryin' to defend themselves, doesn't it?

[aozaki]

That begs the question of how the defendant managed to defeat him, if a katana is Dave's weapon of choice and he's skilled with it.

[pandacea]

Perhaps he was not as skilled as he thought? If someone caught him by the elevator door by surprise, they may have been able to wrest control away from him long enough to open the doors and push him down.

[aozaki]

Right, opening the doors and pushing him would be easy. As long as the culprit has the element of surprise on their side, a simple push would suffice. What about the sword wounds, then?