The verser wakes under a kitchen table in an old house with wallpaper that is coming loose at the corners, he hears a tumbling noise to his right, and sees the bald head of a man come to rest above his shoulders at the foot of the staircase. From the way the head is tilted, its clear, it is a final rest.
You hear a thudding sound of what could be a number of footsteps on old oak floors upstairs.
Going over to the man, you see what looks like a pair of hickey's on him. One on his neck down amidst the collar, and the other on the back edge of his bald ring of hair.
At the top of the stairs are three women. They stand in front of their respective doors from left to right.
Letitia is the most attractive of the three, and the most shocked looking. She has a dry toilet plunger in her hand, and the door behind her to her suite is closed.
Maude, in the middle, looks wild-eyed, but with penetrating glances. Her door is flung wide open, and a half-moon observation window in her door to her suite seems half broken out. She says vexedly that their landlord was always going to fix it, but he did not, and in her excitment she flung the door open, and smashed the door handle against the wall, jarring the glass loose.
Rayna, to the right, has a thin cavalry sabre in her hand. She is standing in front of the wall vent from which puffs miniscule amounts of heat, and she is shivering. She claims to have been frightened at the noise and come out with a weapon that her father, the late Captain of Horse gave her.
They agree that the Landlord, a cheap so and so, who lived in the attic, was inclined to come down before breakfast, stand at the top of the stairs, and stretch before walking down. The general consensus among them is that he must have overbalanced this one day, and fell. Terrible tragedy.
And you say?
Feel free to ask them questions, and to try to look around the area.
"Is he known to entertain female guests upstairs, and be involved in passionate embraces?"
Can I tell how fresh the hickeys are?
"When you came out of your rooms, which of your sisters did you see already standing in the hall?"
--M. J. Young
No and no.
Very fresh.
'All of us came out at the same time.'
*check the plunger for human hairs, if he is bald, the hickey could be from the plunger behind stuck to the back of his head, and it was said he has a bald ring, telling me he does have hair on the back of his head where some of the plunger would contact*
*check the half moon glass, to see if it broke out at a seam, along where it fits into the wood, or does the crack look fresh. Does the class look clear enough to peep through if desired?*
*check the attic, and Rayna's room, are either cold, if not, I will see if she is wearing shoes, and are they any indications of her being recently outside?*
*To Letitia* "I see your suite is closed, if all of you came out at the same time, why are all of your sisters doors open, and one flung opened so violently, as to have glass pop out of it?"
The plunger has no hair on it. He does have a heavy head of hair around a large bald area. So, yes, if the plunger put the hickey on the side top of his head, it would have had to hit hair.
The half moon glass is very clear, and you can easily see through it without distortion. I am not sure what you mean by along a seam. It is half broken out, with some hanging from the door, and some on the landing above the stairs.
The attic is warm, which provokes sniping comments from the sisters about how cheap the landlord was to keep them cold and him toasty warm.
Rayna's room is very neat feminine. Pale cream carpet, blonde woods, rose wallpaper. All very neat, with not a spec of dirt about. It is cool, but not so much that you'd think shivering was warranted.
"She closed it behind her." Maude says.
"Yes." Agrees Rayna.
"And I, well, I was very startled, and I guess Letitia was calmer than me. So I raced to the door and flung it open at that horrid, horrid noise."
Letitia says nothing, but nods in agreement with her sisters.
*In Rayna's room*
"Where is the scabbard to the sabre?"
*To Letitia*
"I notice you are holding a toilet plunger, did you just finish unclogging a toilet, the landlord should have done himself?"
*Check the wall where Maude claimed to have smashed the door handle into, is there a mark indicating as such?*
The scabbard is hanging high on the wall.
"I heard the noise and grabbed the nearest weapon I could find as I was scared. I keep the plunger behind the door."
Yes, there is a mark on the wall. In fact, there are a few marks there, some painted over.
*Looking at the marks on the wall*
*To Maude* "Seems you do this often enough to have had the previous marks painted, and repainted, and by the look of your eyes, you have the ability for great anger. I wonder what you would do if you saw the landlord peeking in through the window.*
*To Letitia*
"Where were you when the noise started? *after she answers* How close is the bathroom?"
*To Rayna*
"You are shivering, now it is cool in your room, but not cold enough to be shivering, it could also be fear or shock, I wonder which it is."
You see Maude's eyes snap with fury, and you're pretty sure she thinks the landlord has been playing Peeping Tom. But she says nothing.
"In my room, just ten feet away." She gestures at the closed door. "Its downstairs." Letitia says.
Rayna avoids your glance.
OOC: Unfortunate isn't it that in this world the Psi bias is flatlined. You could solve this mystery in a couple minutes with Read Surface Thoughts.
*To Letitia*
"You grab the closest weapon, a plunger, which only had uses in places with drains, and you kept that in your room. Seems fishy to me. I think you grabbed it for a purpose.*
*To Maude*
*Makes it obvious I am looking her up and down* "I wouldn't blame him if he was."
*To Rayna*
"May I see the sabre?" *I will compare the bruises on the back of the man's head with the hilt and crossguard of the sabre, since all a hickey is, is a bruise*
"You're fishing." Letitia says.
"You pig!" Maude snaps, and you get the distinct feeling she's measuring you for a coffin.
You see some notches, rusty, on the blade. The hilt and crossguard do not match the hickey on the head, but the one on the head does seem to have some penetration along with teeth marks.
*Grins to Letita*
"Maybe so, but we have some teeth marks on this hickey on the head, teeth are almost as good as finger prints in identification. So who is going to come clean about how they got there. I'm sure I can make a cast from the indentations, any dentist will be able to figure it out between only three subjects."
*Smiles to Maude*
"Murderous intent, rage, you have the ability to commit cold blooded murder. All it took was one look from me."
*To Rayna*
"Notches and rust, for a weapon from a honored father, it sure has not seen much love."
*Do either of the Hickey's have lipstick on or close to them?*
The one on the neck has lipstick near it. The one on the head...no.
You see Rayna studying Letitia, but saying nothing.
"Study away on the head." Letitia says calmly.
"You misjudge me." Maude says very calmly now.
Rayna is unhappy when you point out the rust and the notch. She heads back into her room for sword-cleaning gear.
*To Reyna*
"What makes you think I am going to let you touch a possible murder weapon*
*To Letitia*
"Thanks, that's a lovely color lipstick near that hickey, wonder which of yours it matches."
*check them all for what they are wearing, then their rooms*
*To Maude*
"Perhaps, but perhaps not, either way, I found a motivation for you to kill."
"It was Letitia. She was out here with him. I saw her." Rayna says. "I was, ah, cleaning out the vent, and I could see out into the hall from my room. That's how my sword got rusty."
"You say I was out there, but maybe I wasn't. After all, everyone heard me coming. And you could have been in your room, and just shoved the sabre across the hall through your spyhole vent at ankle height, and tripped him." Letitia replies to Rayna.
*To Rayna*
"That explains the rust, but not the notch, now if someone tripped on it and fell down the stairs, the force of it would notch the sword in the vent, and probably the vent as well."
*check the vent with the sword for a place where the notch would line up and see if it would allow someone to trip someone near the top of the stairs*
*To Letitia*
"You obviously were kissing his neck, so that's one lie I caught you in, you obviously had some romantic relations with him in the last few hours. The question is were they for real, or just to set him up for this."
*Check the knocked out piece of glass, does it look like if the end of the plunger hit it, would it knock it out? If the door was closed, was the glass knocked out or in?*
OOC: Unfortunate isn't it that in this world the Psi bias is flatlined. You could solve this mystery in a couple minutes with Read Surface Thoughts.
...which being a P1@1 skill can be performed in a flatlined universe.
I find it interesting that Letitia and Rayna both had time to grab weapons, but Maude, who threw her door open with the greatest force suggesting the greatest speed, was empty-handed. That causes me to wonder why Maude did not reach the hall before her sisters.
I also note that Letitia has not explained why the plunger was in her room.
I will first press Letitia for an explanation of that. Then I will ask Maude why it took her so long to reach the hall, since her sisters got there at the same time as she did but they each stopped for a weapon.
--M. J. Young
It would allow someone to trip somone on the top of the stairs, or see their feet, but quickly removing the sword would leave a pile of red dust, not easily removed from the cream carpet.
"I was only poking about with the tip of my sword to try to remove some bits that got in the way of the free flow of air. they fell in the middle of the wall space in the six inches of vent tunnel." Rayna says.
You do see some rust that might back up her claim. The notch seems to back up her claim as its toward the tip of the sword.
"I loved him." Letitia says. And then she pauses.
"Besides, I bet he let you slide on the rent." Rayna snaps. "Unless his will..."
"His will gives all the money to his Bowling League, and the Little League baseball team he coached." Letitia says bitterly.
The plunger would have knocked the glass in, if the door was closed. If the door was closed, the glass would have had to be knocked out. Except some seems as if it was pulled back, perhaps to straighten it up a bit.
Mark,
Oops. I shoulda known better.
An interesting point about Maude.
You ask to see Letitia's room, and she opens it. A bowling ball is resting right behind the door, next to a stair step cabinet case of great sturdiness a bit further back along the same wall as the bowling ball rests.
I have not yet gotten answers to the two questions I asked--
- Why did Letitia have the plunger in her room?
- Why did Maude not reach the hall before her sisters, both of whom paused to grab weapons?
--M. J. Young
Letitia claims that she kept it there as a storage place. Its a paper thin claim, but she's not budging.
As to Maude, as I say, an interesting question. She shrugs her shoulders, and says, she guesses she must have stumbled a bit in her frantic haste. Again, you feel like you would have a hard time writing on that excuse if it was paper, for its so thin.
You have to figure out what they did. They're not going to admit it that easily.
As the actor said, what's my motivation here? Nevermind; we'll assume I have one.
It appears that I will have to go upstairs and look around--in the hall, in each of the rooms, behind any other doors not previously mentioned.
--M. J. Young
You've been in both Letitia's and Rayna's room, or at least somone has. In Maude's room, you find a bow and set of arrows in a quiver on the wall, and a closet with a hunting target in it attached to the wall 5-7 ft. above the ground.
You also find two pieces of broken glass in Maude's carpet.
And its, as I said, partially a puzzle and partially rping. First you find out if th eunderlying puzzle works well enough, then you can do the extra to make it better for rping if you like.
*I look at the two pieces of broken glass and point them out*
"Well Maude, this proves your story of the glass breaking from you slamming the door open false, the glass would be in the hallway, and not the room. Shall we get the real story now?"
I'm assuming that 1) the broken glass is near the doorway and 2) it is consistent with the glass in the broken window. If those points are correct, we'll press for the answer to our question.
Where is the remainder of the glass? It may be that the window was hit from the outside, pushing two pieces of glass into the room, and then slammed open, knocking the rest outside against wall where the door hit.
Examining the body, turning it over if necessary, I'm looking for any evidence of contact prior to the fall--e.g., the print of something that pushed his back, the crease on his trousers of something that tripped him, or even a wound currently hidden that might suggest he was dead or dying before he fell.
--M. J. Young
The two bits of broken glass are five feet and nine feet inside the doorway in a straight line.
It is consistent with the broken glass outside the doorway.
Some of the glass in the doorway looks like it may have been broken before. Its hard to say what with it all being broken.
The remainder of the glass is in the landing, or hanging in the crescent window.
The only evidence of contact before the fall is the hickey on his neck with Letitia's lipstick, and the hickey? on his head.
"I bolted very quickly out, and I must have kicked back the glass like a car tire does with gravel." Maude says.
"Oh you were quick out, nearly lunging. Trying to spy on me, but I was in my room."
Letitia snaps.
"Hogwash. YOu were standing here, making out with him, and ready to grab your plunger sealed to the outside of the bowling ball...thump, thump, thump as it goes down the bookcase. You had the perfect op to kill him." Maude snarls.
O.K., someone hit the window in the door from the outside, a sharp blow with a narrow object which sent two pieces flying into the room; the rest of the glass broke outward when the door slammed open. The plunger could have done the job, but it appears that Letitia had the plunger inside the room. The saber might have done it, but I don't think I could tell, and anyway, it's long and heavy enough that a thrust through the window would be followed by a draw that would pull glass out on the rug on this side of the closed door, and if I'm understanding correctly the glass is on the outside of the open door, against the wall. It would take a very strong arm to withdraw the saber without pulling glass out.
There seems to be some question as to whether the bruise on the top of the victim's head is a hickey. it's about the right size, but is in the wrong place and not marked by lipstick. In that regard, are the other girls wearing lipstick or other makeup?
I really don't see the toilet plunger holding the bowling ball. I suppose it's possible, really? I'd have to test that to see if it works.
--M. J. Young
Not the right shape for the plunger. And none of the ladies look to be terribly strong, and while Rayna has the sword, she has not demonstrated any great ease with it.
"I was kissing him, and then I heard a crack, and he fell from my arms. I could not hold him." Letitia says.
The other females have lipstick and makeup, but the lipstick on the neck matches Letitia's.
At this point, I'm thinking that our vic was in Letitia's room being kissed, and something was, fired is too narrow a sense, let's say projected through the glass into the room, hitting the vic on the head. I'm inclined to think the girls then collaborated on dumping him down the stairs.
That leads to the question of what it was that hit him, but it ought to be in Letitia's room somewhere.
--M. J. Young
You thoroughly search Letitia's room, and find no sign of anything that would do the damage at range as seen on his skull.
So... I versed into a house with three women, at least one of whom is a murderess? My reaction is to leave immediately and contact the proper authorities as soon as possible so they can perform a thorough investigation;
Little Ky probably would commence to killing and then leave. He would understand that he's a potential witness to the crime and that whichever one of them did it would try to find him and kill him.
That's not really the point of this exercise, though, is it?
I thought the point of this was to bed all three of them at the same time :P
No object in Letitia's room that might have been the projectile, and yet something--either a projectile or a pole--broke the window in.
I am at this point inclined to exclude Letitia from the suspect list.
I'm looking for an open window from Letitia's room or some other way that an object could have escaped the room--heating grate, for example.
--M. J. Young
there is a heating grate but it leads downstairs. There is a window, but its closed and its on the outer wall of the building, not facing the other's rooms.
I think you misunderstand me. The fact that the window leads outside is exactly what I expect, and the fact that the heating grate leads downstairs is also not relevant. My theory is that a projectile entered through glass of the door, knocking two fragments into the room, fatally striking the deceased in the head, then finding a way out of the room--an open or broken window, a wide-spaced heating grate, a mouse hole in the woodwork.
Of course, that you misunderstood me suggests that that's not what happened.
--M. J. Young
OK. You are correct. That is not what happened. Although it is a good theory. It occurs to me that one way to do this for a game setting is to have multiple answers (not neccessarily different people, but you could. Just multiple killing techniques.)
However, I would not see this as a world. I'd consider it an Interlude. It'd be something you could either intro a world with...or it'd be something you could drop into another world....like say O7 as he was doing a fire check on some building, he walks in and sees the guy fall down the steps.
Of course, it would fit in moderately well with the Why Spy world. And in some other world, it could be Three Dowager Duchesses with the dead guy being the Widowed King.
Edit: In Why Spy, the hero could be sent to interview a defector stashed in a safehouse with the protective team (like the Reptile House team, but for different jobs) of three females....Tiger Team....that are protecting him. Verser walks in, guy is dead...
That's an interesting set-up and it raises a question in my mind. I would think in the case of a team of trained agents watching a defector, none of them would be the killer. That means either the death is accidental or there is someone else involved.
But your last post gave me no clues that my character could actually use in this case, and I think I have exhausted the information I have. I believe that the deceased was with Letitia when the window broke, that he was hit by something that killed him. She must then have dragged his body to the stairs and tossed him down, perhaps to make it appear that the fall killed him, but the bruise on his head belies that theory. The sisters are all involved in the coverup, which suggests it was not accidental and they each believe one of them might be guilty but are protecting each other.
Without something else, I don't think it can be solved.
--M. J. Young
In Maude's room there is a bow and quiver with arrows in it on the wall.
I should check the arrows to see what sort of points they have, but it's difficult to imagine either that an arrow would leave a bruise rather than a puncture wound (particularly on the head) or that the arrow would be able to vanish from the room--although if they are in cahoots (whatever that means) they may well have removed the arrow back to the room or dropped it down the vent shaft.
--M. J. Young
You find in the quiver an arrow with an odd-shaped hard rubber, but piercing edged and wide, head. Attached to the end of the arrow is a string about fifteen feet long.
No they are not in cahoots.