Trial 2- Who Slaughtered Happiness?

[Kuroneko]

There is a solemn atmosphere to investigators return to the ship

Floe returns to her position on the elevated podium

Despite her relatively small stature, her presence looms over everyone in the room

Those who meet her piercing gaze feel as if she were reading their soul

After everyone silently heads to their seats, the trial begins

"Death is simply part of the cycle, but I would rather not have one of mine fall before their time."

"Let us mete out punishment for those who would obstruct our path."

"What we ask of you is simple."

"Find the culprit."

"Figure out how Charlie died."

"Lastly, find out why they killed Charlie."

"Madness quickly spreads once it finds foothold."

"Let us cull this before it can gets worse."

~~~~~

This is a challenging trial. Shenanigans ahoy.

The trial will last for two days, with a possible extension by vote. 

If you haven't sent investigations or want to ask questions, you may still do so. I do suggest asking questions if you believe your area related.

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Kara once again decides to get things started.

“Things are wayyy too quiet in here!! Lemme tell everyone what I found in my investigations okay?

“I scanned the Workshop. The walls connecting it to the Prison and the stairway were smashed, and I found dried grass around. Also two clockwork creations were missing from their original spots.

“I also scanned the Prison! There was rubble all over, and the walls to the Workshop and Medical Bay were partially smashed. A cell had also been smashed open and I found a robed man and woman lying outside the cell. There was a trail of water and grass all around as well.

“And finally, I investigated the crime scene, the Stairway. The walls to the Workshop and Armoury had been smashed, and there was a trail of dried grass around. I found a mostly dried trail of water looping to and from the Armoury as well. There was a pool of blood in the middle floors where the body was. Seemed like the blood co… coack…”

She consults quickly with Krista on the pronunciation of the word before continuing, “the blood coagulated after dripping down a few steps. More blood was on the railings of each floor but in sort of a column going down. I also found some loops of string around the blood. I also found a drying splash of something else around the pool of blood.”

[Skullmaster4]

“Ah- It’s a shame what happened to the yellow one.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t believe I’ll be much help this time around. I spent my entire night at the floating town, so I’m unaware of what was going on near the crime scene- but I performed an investigation.”

“I searched the medical bay. Two walls had been smashed, leading to the railway and prison. There were three water trails, one connecting the railway and prison, the other two meandered about the room, one of which lead to a soaked bed. The balms and salves had been emptied, as if they were scraped out.”

“I also scanned the Tailor’s Hut. There is a dress on the mannequin of the tailor's hut of a different weave from the rest. Some threads had been used and cloth taken. I also found a diary, Unlikely to be relevant, but I’ll provide the contents below.”

SPOILER: Click to show

“The sea whispers to us. Others in town hear them as well. It got especially loud during the last year. An endless droning in the ear. I almost envy those who hear nothing. They promise the world, but what would that even entail? What would it take? Where do these whispers come from? The soldiers dismiss it as rural superstitions, but other children of the sea hear it as well. Bah, those mainland folk are deafer than the stones of the earth.”

“Lastly, I spoke with the many limbed Luminous Shadow of the Magma Chamber. He said a lady waltzed in at some point during the night, one with a white veil. And then something about a fish needing to stop playing with its food, whatever that could mean.”

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

Kara adds a bit more information:

“I talked to the robed man and woman at the prison. They both have bloody wounds on the back of their heads, and are starving, but don’t seem to notice or feel it at all. The woman said someone with her own face attacked them and they’re missing an ocarina and a book of hymns.”

[Vaellin the Bard]

#s://i~pinimg~com/originals/92/a7/39/92a739af722df477c8553412cbb6c47b~png

"Butler! Inform them of my night as usual," Veil announces.

"And in the meantime allow me to inform thou what I was told by the delightful Aqua. None stole anything that she is awareth of. The items bought were: a crossbow, two shields, a scouter, a craft kit, seven contracts, and a small bird. Present in the shop during this evening were The Veil, Pail, Bounty Kelly, Kara, Krista, Pim, The Lover, and... a mound of grass I could not identify by Aqua's description."

"The Mess Hall seemeth to be irrelevant. Foolish beings spent time cleaning, but still left traces of messes--apropos for the titled room. Still, all hath been found were traces of the forever sparkles and the source of pasta's true taste."

[peterparker]

Jul 31, 2024 9:03:57 GMT -6 Skullmaster4 said:

“I also scanned the Tailor’s Hut. All I found was a diary, Unlikely to be relevant, but I’ll provide the contents below.”

SPOILER: Click to show

“The sea whispers to us. Others in town hear them as well. It got especially loud during the last year. An endless droning in the ear. I almost envy those who hear nothing. They promise the world, but what would that even entail? What would it take? Where do these whispers come from? The soldiers dismiss it as rural superstitions, but other children of the sea hear it as well. Bah, those mainland folk are deafer than the stones of the earth.”

"So other people can hear the whispers too ..."

Krista quickly clears her throat and turns away from the Medic. 

"In any case, that's not important right now. What concerns me is that now, three people have been killed in this volcano that the pirates have taken over. The pirates must be at fault again! Going forward, we should agree not to enter this place alone, only in groups to capture the remaining pirates."

"I investigated Charlie's body. Thankfully, the pirates weren't so vicious with him as they were with the previous victims. He has one long wound on the back of his head, which bled quite a lot. Unsurprising for a head wound. I also noticed that he has one very bloody finger, though his hand is otherwise clean. I think maybe he reached up to touch his wound. Perhaps he even wrote a dying message somewhere."

"I believe Pim has picked up everything Charlie was carrying. I noticed a battleaxe, a dagger, a pistol, a tiger lily, and some food. He was definitely prepared to defend himself, but it seems he didn't. Since the wound was on the back of his head, I'm confident in deducing that he was probably the victim of a surprise attack."

[peterparker]

Jul 31, 2024 10:28:41 GMT -6 Vaellin the Bard said:

#s://i~pinimg~com/originals/92/a7/39/92a739af722df477c8553412cbb6c47b~png

"And in the meantime allow me to inform thou what I was told by the delightful Aqua. None stole anything that she is awareth of. The items bought were: a crossbow, two shields, a scouter, a craft kit, seven contracts, and a small bird. Present in the shop during this evening were The Veil, Pail, Bounty Kelly, Kara, Krista, Pim, The Lover, and... a mound of grass I could not identify by Aqua's description."

"Wait! Did you say ... a mound of grass?"

"Before Pim grabbed Charlie's weapons, I noticed that his battleaxe had dried grass on it, and some grass stains too! If Aqua is saying that this grass mound is sentient, this changes things. Maybe Charlie did fight back against his attacker!"

"For the record, Charlie's dagger had some stains too, but they were just glitter paint. I doubt they're relevant."

"More importantly: Did anyone else see the sentient mound of grass tonight?"

[verylukely]

"Oh gods, oh no! I talked to that guy! I mean- obviously the last incident was scary too. But this was a friend! A smiling one! And now he's dead!"

Pail starts hyperventilating and pukes in her bucket. She looks at it sadly, and then produces a dish soap and starts cleaning the bucket out.

"Is this- is this going to happen to all of us? We- We just gotta find who did it, right? And lock them up? And then we'll be safe again? Oh geez..."

Jul 31, 2024 12:00:50 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Jul 31, 2024 9:03:57 GMT -6 Skullmaster4 said:

“I also scanned the Tailor’s Hut. All I found was a diary, Unlikely to be relevant, but I’ll provide the contents below.”

SPOILER: Click to show

“The sea whispers to us. Others in town hear them as well. It got especially loud during the last year. An endless droning in the ear. I almost envy those who hear nothing. They promise the world, but what would that even entail? What would it take? Where do these whispers come from? The soldiers dismiss it as rural superstitions, but other children of the sea hear it as well. Bah, those mainland folk are deafer than the stones of the earth.”

"So other people can hear the whispers too ..."

Pail chimes in.

"Oh, um... Well, I wasn't going to say anything because I was afraid it was just me. But I've heard some... whispers too. They were promising to get rid of my stupid bucket... They're, um, lying, right? Um- I trust you all of course, but is it possible that the person who killed Charlie isn't a pirate, but one of us, being tricked by these whispers into doing something terrible?"

Pail immediately turns pale.

"I'm- I'm sorry! What a horrible thing to even consider... I'll whip up a memory erasing concoction right now!"

Pail starts producing and chugging Vodka

[Nekomaru]

#s://media1~tenor~com/m/cvvnX9FHVtsAAAAC/excited-pim~gif

Pim and Charlie, reporting for duty!
"I spoke with Glaucus, it sounds like his contract with Charlie broke around mid evening."
"I agree with Krista, Charlie seems to have sent a dying message. We shared a clockwork pigeon to send messages back and forth... It wasn't with his belongings. Allegedly, it went towards the medical bay. I sure hope someone found it there!"

[༺☆Venelop3☆༻]

Ghost has allowed me to do this as I'm on holiday. I'm using my phone so I hope this has worked, Ven 💖

[Misaki]

The Mask who has been half asleep due to the lack of progress in the trial decides to speak up.



"Man you guys all bore me to DEATH! It feels like we've been standing here for over a day now and how much progress have we made so far? Zero! ZERO PROGRESS! Ya'll supposed to be the protagonists of this story but you're all just slacking around like a bunch of background characters while the killer is munching on imaginary popcorn and silently laughing at our incompetence! Hell they're probably not even bothering reading this trial! Must the actual background character do everything around here? Fine then! Perhaps I shall give you all a little nudge in the right direction just to try to make this trial less boring."



"So anyway. Based from what we know so far. Poor Ferb (Charlie) over here apparently met his end in the Spiral Staircase. Quite the brazen act to be done in such a heavily trafficked area yet the body somehow managed not be discovered until after the end of the night. It also seems that he died by some kind of bladed weapon. Now with that said. Allow me to give my own personal deductions."

"According Phineas (Pim) here. Charlie lost connection with Glaucus at some point during the middle of the night which would put the time of death somewhere between A3-A4. If that's the case then that means the body went 2-3 actions without being discovered by anyone. It also means those who have no alibi during that timeframe is suspect."



"Now lets take a look at the murder itself. At first glance this case seems like a simple stab and run. Killer slashes Ferb from behind with a blade and then leaves. Simple enough right? If this trial were Easy difficulty that would probably be the case. But because the author of this story says this trial is Challenging difficulty, the answer cannot be that simple and that we are dealing with a highly intelligent killer who knows exactly what they're doing! Therefore we must approach this case with the mindset of genius detective! If something seems too obvious then it probably is and we also have to look out for any red herrings set up by killer! We even have to take into consideration that abilities were probably involved in this murder!"

"With that said. Lets take look at the scene again. If this is not just a simple stab and run then what really happened? Well lets first figure out what weapon could have been used to kill Ferb. By all appearances it seems the killer used some kind of blade to slash the victim from the back of the head. Now allow me to suggest a wild possibility that what if murder weapon is no ordinary weapon and that it might have some special properties? Perhaps it might even be a weapon that disappears without leaving a trace? Though of course there's no evidence so far that suggests that could be case but there's also no evidence so far that suggests otherwise so I think it's something worth pondering on."



"Looking at the crime scene based from the investigations so far. One detail stuck out to me, the loops of string found at the scene. Where did it come from and what purpose does it serve? Could it perhaps be the remnants of some kind of trap that has since been dismantled? If that were the case it would change everything cuz then it means this murder wasn't a stab and run but an entire trap murder! Now that would be a murder truly worthy of a Challenging difficulty trial! It would also means the trap had to have been set up around A1-A3. Now I have an idea where the string could have originated from and who could have taken it. However because that's sort of OOC knowledge I won't be presenting that as evidence in the trial! Sorry!"



"Anyway that was my 2 cents and now I leave the rest to you all! Show me that you are truly the protagonists of this story and entertain me!"

[Hansbulla]

"Very well. Our explication of the armory reveals smashed walls from the railway and stairs... Three trails, one grassy, two wet, come between the railway and stairs. The warhammer is out of place. It was used to destroy light grey stones, unlike the reddish grey walls of this room. We uncovered evidence of the former under the rubble. Some smooth. Some bloody. If you wish to know the trajectory of the rubble, they are inward from the stairs, outward to the railway."

"As for the prison... the walls between the medical bay and workshop are damaged. Glaucus, perhaps? Grass between the two. A destroyed cell... with a noisemaker within. Gravewort conceals an alcove in the back wall. Likely used to conceal those two pilgrims that now lie outside it. Sacrifices to the Deep, no doubt... saved from that fate. Have no fear, this ritual of suffering will come to an end."

[peterparker]

Aug 1, 2024 7:06:54 GMT -6 Misaki said:

"According Phineas (Pim) here. Charlie lost connection with Glaucus at some point during the middle of the night which would put the time of death somewhere between A3-A4. If that's the case then that means the body went 2-3 actions without being discovered by anyone. It also means those who have no alibi during that timeframe is suspect."

"Alibi?"

"Well, Kara can confirm that I was with her at the start of the night. We spent A1 to A3 together, wandering around the ship but mostly hanging out in the Dining Hall. Neither of us could have set up any kind of trap during that time."

"I left her partway through A3, when I started hearing the whispers, but I immediately ran into Pim. We were together for the rest of the night, swimming in the ocean."

"So you see, Kara and Pim can confirm that I was never anywhere near the crime scene last night."

[Vaellin the Bard]

#s://i~redd~it/wm4ptlm1tnc81~png

"My other two investigations hath failed in importance, most woefully. The war room's state indicated the rummageth of someone. There hath been a holographic display as well." He presents a paper with the following image:

[_] [1] [3] [_]
[_] [2] [4] [_]

"Liu was a lovely maiden but did not have any information that was helpful."

Super cool alibi that butler totally explained:

A1: Started in train station looking for Butler. Saw Veil & Pail & Kara leaving medical bay. Went to fisherman's shack and then visited the seamstress in the tailor's hut
A2: Spoke with the seamstress at length and take a sample before going to the medical bay, passing The Veil, and gathering medical equipment.
A3: Go to the prison to see a prison break, chase after a violent elderly woman.
A4: Follow elderly woman and see a mechanical pigeon, also "3 Stairs" scribbled on the side. See lover going towards ship and pigeon to train station, Kara looking for Krista, and The Fool bothering the seamstress. Then head to the grove and run into the monk.
A5: Talk with Monk (his name is Palda), Medic walks in at the end.
A6: Leave with Medic, pass Kelly and a glittery Kara. Pass The Mask and The Lover, walk with the sisters for a bit before getting splashed by The Fool. Pail walks off the ship at the railway, Kelly and Kara go to medical, and I go back to the prison.

(PS spoilers hate me)

[⋆⋅ Sage ⋅⋆]

“Hmm, what kind of sample did you take from the seamstress?” asks Kara. “Only ‘cause I found so many string loops at the scene of the crime. Did you take samples of string?”