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]

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.

[inthebones]

[Susan isn't quite sure if she wants to be put in the same group as Rapture, but she will accept the implication with a nod. Certainly, if it were up to her, she would personally inspect every room in the house on her own.]

Given that neither of us are suspects, I think we can trust each other to be forthcoming with anything we find.

[Rapture had never shown any sign of wanting to aid the murderer in the past, at any rate.]

Do you want the kitchen or the dining room?

[throe]

Of course.

[ She presses her lips into a smile. She means it... unless they find money, but she highly doubts that is going to be the case. There's really no gain for her here except popularity status. Who needs immunity? ]

I don't mind taking the dining room. It's easier to find if something has gone amiss there.

[inthebones]

We'll meet back in Ruby Wing, then.

[Susan will nod and step briskly off in the direction of the kitchen. It was true that it was a bit more... haphazard but perhaps the murderer would count on that to conceal any signs that something had gone awry.

She searches for more bloodstains like the one on Dave's desk and rifles through the stock of cooking utensils and cooking supplies. She even removes each knife one by one, as well as glancing in the ice box and the oven - perhaps for dirtied clothing stuffed inside.]

[throe]

[ Rapture does what she usually does first: check underneath something. Lowering herself to the floor, she crawls underneath the table and looks for anything out of place, but not without coughing a couple times from the collective dust. ] Ugh, gross.

[ When she's finished with that, she crawls out from the other side closest to the china cabinet. She takes a moment to dust her clothing and hair off before she opens the cabinet and pokes around a bit, looking for any stray items. ]

[productions]

[At first glance, the kitchen appears to be nearly immaculate - pots and pans in place, a kettle on the stove for tea, cups in their drawers, dishrags dried and put away, and so on.

However, once Rapture looks underneath the table, she'll find some tape stuck to the bottom of it.]

[throe]

[ Let us pretend she is still underneath the table and getting dusty then as to avoid time discrepancies. Rapture examines the tape for a moment, touching it gently at first, then carefully pulling it to peel it away from the surface. ]

[inthebones]

((I think they think we're both in the kitchen so...!))

...You're not stuck under there, are you?

[Susan glances up from the stove to see what Rapture is doing squirming around under the table.]

[throe]

No.

[ She says it flatly, like she doesn't want to be underneath there in the first place. Her voice sounds a bit strangled as she tries to handle pulling the tape in a small space without hitting any of her body parts against the table itself. ]

There's something underneath here — I think it's tape. I'm guessing it isn't the tape Bernkastel used either, unless there's more than one roll.

[inthebones]

[Susan will refrain from making any jokes about 'so you are stuck' etc. etc. as she gets to her knees next to the table and peers in.]

It's just a wad of tape stuck to the bottom? Just in the center?

[It wasn't... that strange, honestly, to find tape randomly stuck somewhere, but overlooking anything would be a mistake.]

Perhaps they taped him to the elevator shaft.

[throe]

How do you figure that? [ She makes a few small grunts before she finally crawls out from underneath the table, before standing up. She holds the piece of tape between her thumb and index finger. ] There would need to be tons of this stuff to do that.

[ Showing the tape to Susan, she taps the finger of her other hand against her chin. ] Unless... do you think it held the katana?

[inthebones]

[Susan will not mention anything about facetiousness again, choosing instead to focus on the case. Susan takes her turn peering down under the table herself.]

My first thought was that it taped down the elevator button, but... the arrangement would seem to indicate it held something of that nature in place, yes.

...But why would anyone tape the sword to the bottom of the table when they could keep it in their room? If they wanted to hide the katana after the crime, that would be one thing, but it was lying right there next to the body.

[throe]

An easier way to commit the crime? [ She shrugs. ] If they ran into someone while walking around with a katana — even late at night — then that would have ruined their entire plan.

The culprit could just easily act like they're coming in the kitchen for some reason as a real means to check if anyone is awake, they grab the katana when they know there's no one around, then knock out the victim and perform the murder.

[inthebones]

...Getting the sword to the kitchen in the first place would require walking around with it. Either way, they would have had to chance it, and it seems much riskier to make two trips with a sword than one.