Chapter 1: The Queen Arises (Trial 1)

[Tetsu]

As the time near, some of you were finishing your investigation when you were all transported in a swirl of purple smoke and appeared in the Mayor's House. From there it seemed there's only one door opened, into the basement. You all strolled in and reached the landing of the basement when suddenly 16 podiums raised before you, one of the podium stood Mi-Hu's photo with an axe marked over the picture. Each of you began to take your stand on the podium.

Just then Regina walks in...looking very much different.




"Sorry I'm late."

She then looks at each of you as she makes her way to a chair overlooking the podium.




"Now..let us begin shall we?"

She then takes a seat and looks at the 15 of you.



"Well, what a turn of events don't you think, loosing Lord Fergus under such, such pity circumstances. Now I'm sure you have plenty of questions but, to answer them is to survive this..what I called a trial."



"Do you think, I would take lightly of murder, not permitted by me, in my own kingdom?"

A sense of dread begins to fill the air and you each feel coldness tickling your skin. What is this? Who is this person? You then see her conjuring fire from her palm and looking at you


"Well, what are you waiting for? Begin this damn trial and root out who is this traitorous fiend and I shall have their heart for breakfast. Now commence"

---

Note: 
1. Trial will last 48 hours, further extension will be give if deemed necessary
2. You can now discuss about everything in your night
3. No metagaming please.
4. Questions are still applicable in the first 12 hours

[mao]

"Damn, kind of a buzzkill. All sort of weird things happened at night and now some Lord Whocares viking himbo is dead? Talk about depressing. This new look isn't much of an improvement, May-" Red gulps. This woman doesn't look like she's f*cking around. She'll really eat their hearts if they piss her off. Maybe it's best to go along with what she says for now.

[Tetsu]

Jan 15, 2021 7:47:44 GMT -6 mao said:

"Damn, kind of a buzzkill. All sort of weird things happened at night and now some Lord Whocares viking himbo is dead? Talk about depressing. This new look isn't much of an improvement, May-"

"And you were saying... Red , maybe next night I should pluck your tongue out? How does that sound?"

She arches her eyebrows at him.

[mao]

"Yikes! No thanks, ma'am." Red averts his eyes as he gets onto his podium.

"Soooooooo, graveyard was a bust. I know someone was there last night, beside myself, but I'm not telling how I can for... reasons. Feel free to say if you were, I'll know if you're telling the truth."

[AdelynnWilde]

"Lord...Fergus?" Henri asked, cocking her head to the side. "I thought his name was Mi-hu. Though to be completely honest I never had a chance to meet the man." She looked cautiously about the room. So Mi-Hu wasn't who he said he was? No... there was something else. Henri herself had been feeling unusual in this place, like pieces of a long-forgotten life had been gnawing away at her. Perhaps everyone here was feeling the same way. Well, one likely wasn't... somebody here was probably feeling far too much anxiety to think about such things. The new arrivals weren't here to determine their own identities - they were here to determine the identity of the murderer.

"I wouldn't know about the Graveyard," she stated. She had spent the previous day exploring, but hadn't come upon the place. And if she had she likely wouldn't have bothered going there. Henri was far more interested in human life than human death. Though for now death was the necessary focus. "Anyway, I suggest we start with the victim. The man we knew as Mi-Hu was discovered outside his own apartment on the thirteenth floor... Time of death was listed as "late night," and it must have happened sometime before A6 since that's when I saw blood in the elevator. I assume that must have been Mi-Hu's, as the timeline lines up. Cause of death was exsanguination - extreme blood loss in layman's terms - likely from the clean, precise cut along his throat.  He also suffered multiple stab wounds to his face and hands."

Henri took a deep breath. She looked much calmer now than she had the past couple of days. Speaking like this, putting forth a scientific front - there was a sort of cold comfort to it. Yet the chill of knowing the culprit was among them was certainly still present.

"He died clutching some kind of object, but it wasn't on the body when I did my examination. The corpse appears to have been thrown into the hall, but that must have been very shortly after the kill as he was still bleeding. After all, the body was discovered in a pool of blood and the blood on his clothes does appear to come from his own wounds.

She paused a moment, puzzling over if there was anything further to say. She thought of making a snide comment toward a certain woman in purple who had questioned her qualifications, but that might not be appropriate in such a setting. "I think... that about covers what I know about him. Maybe someone who looked around the crime scene could tell us more?"

[mao]

Jan 15, 2021 9:55:09 GMT -6 AdelynnWilde said:

Time of death was listed as "late night," and it must have happened sometime before A6 since that's when I saw blood in the elevator. I assume that must have been Mi-Hu's, as the timeline lines up."

"Huh?" Red glares at Henri, once they mention the blood on the elevator. "Why didn't you say anything sooner? Blood seems like a major red flag to me. And you seemed to be awfully close to the crime scene...!" He crosses his arms as if he'd come across some condemning evidence.

"I saw the stupid viking too! We were in the mines together from mid-A3 to start of A4'o'clock. Didn't see him after that, though."

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

410 looks like she's enjoying herself. "A murder mystery, huh? Would've been better as a locked room, but I suppose I can live with this, nyeh. He certainly can't, though, ehehehe..."

She straightens up, letting go of her relaxed posture as if giving an important report. "I investigated the apartments. There was some blood in the elevator, nyeh! On the elevator door, a few drops outside the elevator, as well as in the middle of the elevator itself. Oh, and one of the bushes outside seemed like it had been flattened somehow."

"And for the record, I never saw the dead guy past when we all left the dinner party, nyeh."

[mao]

Jan 15, 2021 9:55:09 GMT -6 AdelynnWilde said:

"He died clutching some kind of object, but it wasn't on the body when I did my examination." 

"Oh, wait, he wasn't holding that bloody axe?!" Red asked, only now realizing that Mi-Hu was holding onto it when they had... seen each other down in the mines.

"If he didn't have it on him... it's very possible the dumb viking was killed using their own axe, which the killer then took?"

[AdelynnWilde]

Jan 15, 2021 10:08:33 GMT -6 mao said:

"Why didn't you say anything sooner? Blood seems like a major red flag to me. And you seemed to be awfully close to the crime scene...!" He crosses his arms as if he'd come across some condemning evidence.

"I saw the stupid viking too! We were in the mines together from mid-A3 to start of A4'o'clock. Didn't see him after that, though."

Henri glared back at Red, her face twisting into a momentary snarl. Wasn't that the boy who was getting in her way when she tried to examine the body? She spoke through gritted teeth. "I suppose that's an understandable assumption. Though I don't know how you expected me to mention it earlier, as we literally just started and it's not like anyone bothered to discuss things before now. Anyway, I saw the blood when I was leaving my own apartment on Floor 7. I did think it was odd, but the whole night had been quite the whirlwind of strange happenings. And to be honest I was quite shaken at the time. I had just heard an awful howling noise coming from the B&B and was heading down to investigate. I don't suppose you'd know anything about that?"

Henri looked pointedly at the boy. "So you saw him then, did you? If you're to be believed, then Mi-Hu was alive and well in the mines at A3. That means he died sometime during either A4 or A5."

Her head reeled a bit as she tried to process memories from the previous night. There was something she was leaving out... something that could be important... "Oh!" Henri declared suddenly. "I remember something else too! Just before I heard that wretched sound, I saw something fall past my window! I was gonna go check it out, but I got distracted by the noise!"

Jan 15, 2021 10:10:17 GMT -6 ⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆ said:

 "I investigated the apartments. There was some blood in the elevator, nyeh! On the elevator door, a few drops outside the elevator, as well as in the middle of the elevator itself. Oh, and one of the bushes outside seemed like it had been flattened somehow."

"Maybe whatever the object I saw was flattened that bush! And speaking of objects... you said you investigated the apartments. Any idea what Mi-Hu may have been clutching on to when he died?"

It was then that Red mentioned the axe. "That might have been what he was holding..." Henri pondered. "But I highly doubt that's what killed him. And hang on, you say the axe was bloody back when Mi-hu was still at the mine?"

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Jan 15, 2021 10:36:18 GMT -6 AdelynnWilde said:

You said you investigated the apartments. Any idea what Mi-Hu may have been clutching on to when he died?"

"I didn't see any kind of objects in the apartments, elevator or otherwise, nyeh. But I think the flamboyant red thing might have a point about the axe," says 410. "Whatever he was clutching, it seems like the killer took it away when they ran from the scene, 'cause I didn't see anything in my search."

[mao]

"That'd make the most sense," Red says, rubbing his chin, referring to Henri's assessment on the Time of Death.

"Hey Doc, any assessment on what caused the wounds on the viking's body? An axe and a kitchen knife leave pretty different marks. And you could also determine whenever the killer was right or left-handed based on the wounds or if they were self-inflicted... I mean, that's just what I heard, not like I'm an expert at solving murders or anything."

"And the killer must have left the axe somewhere. We looked through the whole town, basically, so it's bound to come up when people reveal their investigations."

Red conveniently ignores the line of questioning about the B&B for now.

[peterparker]

Jan 15, 2021 8:03:55 GMT -6 mao said:

"Yikes! No thanks, ma'am." Red averts his eyes as he gets onto his podium.

"Soooooooo, graveyard was a bust. I know someone was there last night, beside myself, but I'm not telling how I can for... reasons. Feel free to say if you were, I'll know if you're telling the truth."

Merlin seems to strain his ears. "Hmmm? Did someone say train yards? No, sir, I haven't seen a train in this town. Now if you'd said graveyard, I would have to confess that I was at the graveyard at the very beginning of the night. I wasn't doing anything shady, if that's what you're implying. I just saw the grave of my old friend, Sir Edwin Clumperton, and I just had to see if he wanted to have a tea and catch up. No dice, though, on account of he's dead as a doorknob. Dead bodies are far more stubborn than they were when I was a boy! I remember we used to go around making skeletons dance just for fun, and one time we were down at the ..." Merlin tells a very long-winded story about several people who nobody else knows. The story doesn't seem to go anywhere. 

"In any case, it's too bad that I can't seem to revive the dead or I'd have this poor fellow tell us what happened to him. I suppose we'll have to figure it out the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, I didn't see this man all night."

[mao]

Jan 15, 2021 11:15:53 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Merlin seems to strain his ears. "Hmmm? Did someone say train yards? No, sir, I haven't seen a train in this town. Now if you'd said graveyard, I would have to confess that I was at the graveyard at the very beginning of the night. I wasn't doing anything shady, if that's what you're implying. I just saw the grave of my old friend, Sir Edwin Clumperton, and I just had to see if he wanted to have a tea and catch up. No dice, though, on account of he's dead as a doorknob. Dead bodies are far more stubborn than they were when I was a boy! I remember we used to go around making skeletons dance just for fun, and one time we were down at the ..." Merlin tells a very long-winded story about several people who nobody else knows. The story doesn't seem to go anywhere. 

"In any case, it's too bad that I can't seem to revive the dead or I'd have this poor fellow tell us what happened to him. I suppose we'll have to figure it out the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, I didn't see this man all night."

"Jeez, old man, get to the point already! Did ya find anything at the library or whatever?"

[AdelynnWilde]

Jan 15, 2021 11:03:50 GMT -6 mao said:

"That'd make the most sense," Red says, rubbing his chin, referring to Henri's assessment on the Time of Death.

"Hey Doc, any assessment on what caused the wounds on the viking's body? An axe and a kitchen knife leave pretty different marks. And you could also determine whenever the killer was right or left-handed based on the wounds or if they were self-inflicted... I mean, that's just what I heard, not like I'm an expert at solving murders or anything."

"And the killer must have left the axe somewhere. We looked through the whole town, basically, so it's bound to come up when people reveal their investigations."

Red conveniently ignores the line of questioning about the B&B for now.

Henri nodded. "Exactly. That's why I don't think the axe could be the murder weapon. The slit in Mi-Hu's throat was a careful, precise cut, so I doubt it could've been made with something like a huge, heavy axe. There were also those stab wounds, so I'd say something like a knife or a scalpel is a better bet. I'm pretty sure the wounds weren't self-inflicted either. Someone else was definitely present too since the body was tossed into the hallway..."

Upon saying this, Henri's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Since there were blood splatters inside the elevator, maybe he was killed in there and then shoved out into the hall?"

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Jan 15, 2021 12:00:08 GMT -6 AdelynnWilde said:

There were also those stab wounds, so I'd say something like a knife or a scalpel is a better bet.

"Did anyone see any kind of knife or scalpel during the night? Well, I guess if you did, you wouldn't say, would you? Ehehehe. But, hmm, I wonder which places one could get something like that... A knife, I'd say anywhere that has a kitchen, nyeh. So all of our apartments, the mansion, the mayor's house, the diner, the B&B, and probably the sheriff's station, too. As for a scalpel... well, probably only the hospital."

"Considering we all ate at the mayor's house, I don't think we can really rule out anyone from that, nyeh..."