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

[inthebones]

...I believe Yuzu is conducting the investigation of the suspects' rooms, so we won't poke about too much.

[Susan will take all of 10 steps down the hallway to try the key on Reiko's room.]

[productions]

[The key works on Reiko's room.]

[throe]

So it really is a skeleton key! Now I guess we just have to figure out who had it or if it was planted.

[inthebones]

[A slight nod in response as Susan closes the door again.]

I'll bring his room keys back to the trial room as well and enter them both as evidence when we're finished here.

I suppose it's too late to lift fingerprints off the keys.

[It would probably be even harder to get anything than from the katana. After a very short time warp, the intrepid duo arrive at the second floor in the Sapphire Wing, where Susan tries Michael's room with the key. It seemed as if Ruby Wing were the wing of choice, but...]

[productions]

[Annnnnd the key works in Michael's room too.]

[throe]

It really works for every room regardless then... [ She crosses her arm. ] That doesn't help our case much.

Looking for fingerprints on the key would probably require a good amount of time that could be used on solve this case. It'll probably work better for the katana anyway, which I guess means the only thing we can do now is head to the roof.

[inthebones]

...Well. That wasn't helpful at all.

[Susan will pocket the skeleton key at this point and nod towards Rapture.]

If this was a straightforward murder, you'd think the murderer would simply have entered Dave's room in the night, stabbed him, and disposed of the sword and the key. No one would ever have known whom it was.

I'm inclined to think there's something amiss.

[She nods as they head up now towards the roof.]

[throe]

Yeah, it seemed pretty straightforward at first, but I guess now we have to figure out — yet again — if our victim was the intended murder or not... still, the katana doesn't make sense. Why do something so obvious... so mundane if it isn't to frame him? He's sixteen, not five.

[ When they reach where the trap door to the roof looms, Rapture holds up her pointer finger. Her cut induced by the knife now a thin, light red line. ] At least I upheld my contract.

[inthebones]

And we're all very proud of you.

[If Rapture expects a pat on the head, she isn't going to get one. In any case, being (very slightly) taller, Susan will reach up for the trapdoor and pull it down.]

It's hard to maneuver much on the roof. We'll be able to see any potential landing spots from up there.

[throe]

[ If Susan was Riot, then she would definitely expect one, but she's definitely not Riot. And because she is not, she's just being smug for the sake of being smug.

She begins to remove her heels, wishing she hadn't worn stockings today either. Though, if she supposes she's pushed that won't matter much. Since it was her idea, she figures to go first. She doesn't seem all that scared to be so high up despite carefully balancing herself on the roof. She's stood on an airplane with supports for a music video, this is child's play compared to that. ]

I guess the tell-tale sign of a body outline on the ground would probably tell us a lot. [ Rapture gives a quick look around to see if there's anything suspicious looking — broken tiles, any signs of a serious fight or struggle that has taken place, and the like. ]

[inthebones]

If we don't spot anything, there's really nowhere else for a fall to have taken place outside the elevator shaft - being pushed down the stairs doesn't make much sense. He's a sixteen year old boy, not a decrepit octogenarian. He'd have recovered his balance unless he were passed out.

[Which, she supposes, could still be an option as well.]

...You kept a close eye on your chloroform this week, I hope?

[Susan will follow Rapture up towards the entrance to the rooftop and poke about as well.]

[productions]

[There's no sign of a struggle on the roof or that anything unusual had taken place there at all. There's also no imprint on the ground.]

[throe]

Maybe the culprit pushed him down the stairs, stabbed him, then pushed him down the elevator shaft. Seems like a bit of overkill, but... maybe someone really wanted that money and wanted him more than dead.

[ She cautiously moves closer toward one of the edges and peers over, seeing nothing strange about the landscape below. ] Nothing over here... I poured some out a window Monday night, but the rest of the time it's been on my desk. Doesn't look like it's been moved at all either.

[ She looks over her shoulder with a smirk. ] I just wanted to see if it really is self-filling.

[inthebones]

There'd be a rather lot of blood on the carpeting then, wouldn't there?

[She was starting to get a bit sick of blood not being where it was supposed to be.]

...I did much the same thing with mine, actually, last week. It's empty now, though.

[a slight pause]

It doesn't seem as if there's anything here. ...We should report back about the keys, I think.

[throe]

Maybe the angled him just above the elevator shaft. [ She carefully mimes it, holding an invisible human in one hand and an invisible katana in the other, then proceeds to perform the motion of stabbing. ] Blood could have fallen into the shaft or on the sides of the shaft walls, maybe some even got on them.

[ She carefully eases her way back to the trap door. ]

Yeah, we should focus on the shaft or the stairs again. The blood on the victim's desk too.

[inthebones]

He would have had to stop struggling, then. ...Unconscious from a previous fall or, well. Chloroform. As you suggest, the body would have had to be stabbed inside the elevator shaft otherwise, after which the murderer would climb up - or fly up.

Did anyone check the walls of the shaft for blood?

[throe]

Right, that's what confuses me. They could have done to the basement if the victim was definitely unconscious, open the doors, then stabbed him there, but if they climbed or flied up... how would they have opened the door unless there was someone else helping them? It would close after some time unless the person was quick.

I don't think so, but it's probably a good idea. It could give us some sort of way to figure the sequence of events out.

[inthebones]

Alright. We'll make a few stops before we head back to the room, then.

[And since the mods seemed to say to Lithuania that there was nothing of interest on the second and third floor shafts, Susan and Rapture probably won't find anything, either.]

...Perhaps they held him so the blood would drip perfectly vertically.

[throe]

Maybe they sort of... hung him over the shaft like they were hanging him over a building, then stabbed him that way so that the blood would just be all over the wall instead of the culprit. It would have to be someone with a lot of strength though to be able to perform something like that.

[inthebones]

For the sole purpose of disfiguring the body in a cryptic manner? ...It's not entirely out of the question, but I'm inclined to think there was a reason he had to be stabbed like this.

[throe]

You're right, it does seem like a long way to go to stab someone. It does make more sense that the stabbing is first and the pushing second though.

[inthebones]

Especially given the pattern of injury. He landed face-down - on top of his stab wounds.

[They are standing outside the elevator shaft on the first floor now after examining the shaft walls for blood. Susan glances down the hall.]

...I last noticed Dave in the kitchen before he went to bed for the night. I'd like to take a final look around there as well since it's adjacent to the elevator.

Perhaps the dining room, too. What do you think?

[throe]

[ She looks down at the shaft, squinting her eyes to see in the darkness as she listens to Susan. She can just barely make out the blood on the bottom, but nothing more. ]

If there was any blood not spilled in the elevator, it had to have been a small amount. Maybe enough for the killer to be able to clean it up.

Trailing the path of the murder is a good idea. If they dragged the victim from their room, our best chances would be to look at all possible rooms that followed. Do you think we should take a quick look in the basement too? Just in case anything was missed.

[inthebones]

I believe the basement was examined by a few of the others - especially the area around the elevator shaft. It can't hurt to take another look around, though.

But the most direct path to the elevator shaft from Dave's room would be through the ballroom, the bar, and the kitchen. Going the other way, the murderer would have had to bring him by three bedrooms instead of only one.

[throe]

Yeah, but they're not us. [ That is to imply they are far smarter and more cunning that the general populace consisting of their housemates. ]

Depending on the time it happened, either way could be possible, though through the ballroom sounds like the easiest. Should we split up and check out the different routes then? It'd give us more time to report our findings and return to the trial.