Game 103C - Trial 1 - A Burning Desire

[Vaellin the Bard]

Everyone gathers once more into the trial room, the area lit up in blinding colors for a moment before setting on black tiles and red glows, it casts a grim shade of red on everyone’s faces.

Mannequins go around passing out a tablet to each person, unlocking only with their hand and a simple collection of 14 faces. One for each of you including the victim.

Tia stands in the center with Sue once more, though the green one is holding a picture of Constance in a frame and sobbing as if a widow in a funeral for her husband. Sue smiles brilliantly at everyone, the first sincere smile she’s shown.

“I hope you all investigated welland can place your judgments well. Or not, as I’d love to punish an innocent.”

Sue’s smile turns sinister.

“What happens now is you will all discuss what happened to have caused this murder of one of you other players. As stated before, I will need more than just your accusations but a reason. Either way, at the end of this, someone will get punished–and by that I do mean I plan to kill one of you.”

“But I am not without a kind heart. I have questions that need to be answered. Answering this questions will help lead you to the who and how of the culprit. When you feel you know the answer, please select the person you think is the murderer–or the blackened, as it is more poetic to say. The questions are being displayed now.”

The screen shifts to show seven questions, though there’s an arrow at the bottom right to go back to the faces originally shown.

The questions are:

Who is the killer?

Why was the victim targeted?

When did the victim die?

What is the cause of death?

How was the murder set up?

What items were retrieved and from where?

Did the blackened receive help? If so, who and how?

“And with that, you must find the solution tonight. Before you leave to go rest.”

Sue stands smiling while Tia steps in a spot in the circle, still sniffling over Constance’s picture.

---

You have 48 hours.

Trial is considered difficulty easy!

You may ask clarification questions directly to us in the private discord channel.

You may not search someone directly.

Any answers for each question should be posted in the answer thread. Post the answers separately (and indicate what question you are answering). Vote for your favorite answer with a like! There are points for having the most selected answers too!

[Peregrine]

Nedge raises her hand.

"Sue, I want to confirm something. You just said..."

"Either way, at the end of this, someone will get punished–and by that I do mean I plan to kill one of you."

"This means we have your guarantee that one of us players is the killer, right? You, Tia, or the mannequins wouldn't be considered responsible?"

[Vaellin the Bard]

Mar 14, 2023 8:48:51 GMT -6 Peregrine said:

Nedge raises her hand.

"Sue, I want to confirm something. You just said..."

"Either way, at the end of this, someone will get punished–and by that I do mean I plan to kill one of you."

"This means we have your guarantee that one of us players is the killer, right? You, Tia, or the mannequins wouldn't be considered responsible?"

(No formatting, on phone)

"If Tia or I were to kill one of you, itd be obvious and not form a trial."

"Mannequins can only act on their default commands and requests of us hosts and you players. "

[Silviu200530]

What is going on? I just knew it! *Lex then proceeds to mumble to himself*.

Anyways... I went to investigate the pool...
- There are bits of clothing and paper scraps floating in it.
- A towel is missing
- No water trails are outside of the pool
- The door of casino apparently gets fused together due to increased temperatures, it requires alot of force to open it in this state.

[Peregrine]

Silviu200530 said:

Anyways... I went to investigate the pool...
- There are bits of clothing and paper scraps floating in it.
- A towel is missing
- No water trails are outside of the pool
- The door of casino apparently gets fused together due to increased temperatures, it requires alot of force to open it in this state.

"Can you tell us anything more about what was floating in the pool? Like if there was still any writing visible on the papers, or what kind of clothes the scraps belonged to?"

[Silviu200530]

(Lex wrote on a notebook his timeline)

(A0: End up in Offices)
(A1: Monitor Room---> Monitor-Cafeteria Passage (Tohru went to Monitor Room), (Anonymous also went there) ----> Cafeteria (Only chef mannequin is here)
(A2: Grabbing Knife ---> Guest-Cafeteria Passage (Maki gives me a strange look as they see me with a knife) ----> Guest Hall (Denji broke into Room 13) ----> Room 1 (I took all Anonymous' notebooks) ----> Guest Hall (To discuss with Denji, he did not tell me what he's doing and appeared shaken)
(A3: Trying to find suspicious activities... ----> Cafeteria (Denji went here then to the Monitors with Aki| Power heading to Relaxation Room) ---> Relaxation Room (Nedge is stealing some robots' insides, I spoke with them)
(A4: (Nedge walks to the Cafeteria) ----> Theater (Amaya is being chased by Power to the Relaxation Room); The Mixologist Robot is missing; I am alone.
(A5: Casino (It smelt like a chimney, the room is very damaged and the fire is spreading, there's a dead body??) ---> *Unautonomously* Pool area (I tell Tohru about it) (On my way out, Anonymous tossed something into the pool) ---> (Night End)

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Power is standing behind her podium. But... you can't help but notice something different about her. You can't quite put your finger on it, but you sense... an overwhelming aura of genius.

"Inferior humans! There's no need to be scared. I have invesmigated the crime scene and I can tell you, with certainty, exactly what occurred leading up to that weird girl's death!"

With that, Power bites the tip of one of her fingers. A shiny bead of red blood appears there. With a smirk, Power pulls her shirt off and starts drawing what looks like a map on her bare stomach.

The end result looks like this:

You wonder how Power got different colours, but decide not to worry too much about it.

"This is the Casino. The dark area is where the worst of the burning was, but the whole room was really burnt to a crisp. Smelled like burnt alcohol and carpet fibres. This red X is the victim's body. She was by the east side door, as you can see. This little body-shaped squiggle is a mannequin that was also there. It was flopped on one of the card tables, wearing a card dealer outfit. Specifically, the card table near the vending machine.

"I have dee-duced that the fire started at one of the card tables, specifically the one the mannequin is on. I found pieces of matches and burnt cards there. It seemed like the fire only lasted about half an hour, based on the damage.

"While I was there, I had a little taste of the victim's blood. I am the Blood Fiend, after all," she adds proudly. "I tasted a little alcohol, but not much. But the weirdest thing? It didn't really taste like human blood. And trust me, I would know."

[Peregrine]

"I guess I have two main questions. Firstly: did anyone hear anything like an explosion? I want to find out if the fire in the casino was more like arson or demolition. If there were people in the adjacent rooms and no one heard anything, then it's probably arson."

"Second, why was Mr. Anonymous disposing of objects in the pool? Those would likely be the paper and clothing scraps Lex found earlier."

[Evie The Bat]

DA Ratticus Linch stands on his podium, opening his tiny briefcase, pulling out various reports and papers and cheese. He clears his throat.

Your honor, I have some information I would like to submit into evidence. First off, exhibit A, this document written by a sworn just lawyer, myself, describing the results of my makeshift autopsy. This is an unusual circumstance as I did not have time to request an official autopsy report but here is what I discovered on my own.

"I have found that the upper half of the victim is severely burned, the only distinguishing marks that remain are the victims orange hair and pale purple skin. They are adorned with one of these fancy collars like the rest of the suspects here. From the waist down it is to be noted there are far less burns.

The expression of the person was visible as well, luckily for us. They looked surprised but not afraid, more puzzled or confused. No other injuries were present on her body."

Ratticus then retrieves a convenient drawing of the book he had found as it was too big for him to carry, he is a skilled artist on the side

"Next! Exhibit B, A book that was found alongside alongside the victim. The book is near illegible however it is to be determined from the minor context clues we get that it is a book on Engineering. I believe these to be important information in solving this heinous crime."

[Peregrine]

Evie The Bat said:

"...the only distinguishing marks that remain are the victims orange hair and pale purple skin."

"Sorry to interrupt, but that feels like an important point. Pale purple skin doesn't sound natural. Was that the result of the burns, or could it be something like bruising or cyanosis?"

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

“Unnatural skin tone, and nonhuman blood?” Power adjusts her glasses, clearly deep in thought. Or as deep as she can go, anyways. “I don’t remember that girl having orange hair either. Are we even sure this is her body? It doesn’t sound anything like her.”

[Hoody]

Mar 14, 2023 11:38:48 GMT -6 Peregrine said:

"Second, why was Mr. Anonymous disposing of objects in the pool? Those would likely be the paper and clothing scraps Lex found earlier."

The one I disposed of was the paper. As for the why... it is not important for the trial, so I say we ignore it.

Anyway, my investigation, only 4 guest rooms were unlocked, Room 1, Room 2, Room 13 and Room 14. Room 1 and 14 have nothing out of the ordinary, but 2 happened to be making strange sounds while 13 was incredibly messy. 
Now, in the Relaxation Room, there was a lot of broken electronics including a broken remote. The Piano was fishy, but I don't exactly know how. Also, the room smelled of alcohol and blood.

[Kuroneko]

"Alcohol and blood? Burning could obscure wounds on a person... Maybe the relaxation room was where Constance was drugged?"

[jash]

Mar 14, 2023 15:52:48 GMT -6 ⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆ said:

“Unnatural skin tone, and nonhuman blood?” Power adjusts her glasses, clearly deep in thought. Or as deep as she can go, anyways. “I don’t remember that girl having orange hair either. Are we even sure this is her body? It doesn’t sound anything like her.”

Bruh you're making it sound like I'm the one who died or something ~skull emoji~

Denji sighs however, letting out a sigh of relief.

Atleast I know this super wasnt me! I started in the relaxation room but only stayed on the west side of this place after that, visiting only the Cafeteria, Guest Rooms, Monitor Room and the Offices.

As for my investigation into the theatre, some loser left flowers in one of the rooms and the consigligligli was missing, but there was some drinks there! There's a missing tray too, and some missing bottles of booze. Oh and someone left their meat in a bag in the corner!! I snacked on it a bit and it wasn't the bestttt but it felt like home.

[Kuroneko]

"From a quick look around, the trial room was not visited many times during the night. There are however, some flowers discarded here. Someone mentioned the potential of poison, so perhaps this was the source."

"The vending machine appears to have been used during the evening, but I could not tell what had been obtained."