Yup, let's get to it! Although Who knows how long the more cerebral ones might take. Perhaps we should tackle the ones with the most predictable lengths? I feel that begging with a battle would be a great option. We can count on that being short and to the point. Meanwhile maybe we can get some idea of what the other tests are from the other competitors?
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
You make your way to the Mai Brewery, a tavern and an inn. One of the designated Games adjudicators sees your presence, and approaches you.
"Welcome, contenders." says the goat-woman dressed in a heavy cloak. "Welcome to the Trial of Justice, or 'Crime and Investigation', as we locals like to call it."
"This trial is worth from zero to nine points for you, so give it your all." she says, as she leads you into the tavern and upstairs.
She leads you to a tape-closed room, where a grisly scene can be seen. There is some blood on the curtains and splattered on the floor. The source of that blood is the body of a young girl, a nasty wound on her temple. A chalk outline has been drawn around her corpse.
"You can leave now, Abigail." says the goat-woman. "Go get ready for the next step." The corpse giggles, gets up, and runs into the next room.
"A murder has been committed. Well, a mock murder, but we've set it up to resemble an actual murder as much as we can. Hence Abigail. This is the crime scene."
She leads you into the next room, where four people wait.
"This is Besogath." she says, indicating a mantis-man sitting in one corner. He starts to lift one of his legs to wave at you, but Besogath quickly stops short, gets into character, lowers his leg and turns away from you. "Besogath is a monster. He entered the inn the night before and purchased a room. Among his belongings we found a tattered fetish, a few daggers, and rations. Scuttlebutt is that Besogath's our man, but justice isn't gossip."
"That's Brian." Brian is a tall, thin young lad in the traditional black-and-white suit and apron of a server. "Brian works here. He claims he was serving drinks for most of the night. Brian is a suspect because he was seen stepping out with Abigail often."
"And this lastly is Gail." The girl that played the part of the corpse is sitting in another corner, washing the last of the blood off her face. "Gail is Abigail's sister. She is a suspect because everyone in town knows that the sisters couldn't stand the sight of each other."
"Those are the suspects. And these..." From the folds of her cloak emerge three pyramids, who float around you all. "...are your judges. They will evaluate your investigation."
"Talk to the patrons, if you want. From the looks of you, some of you have special powers that would help a great deal. Observe, detect, gather data, and find the guilty. That is the Trial of Justice."
"...man, it's weird to be on the other side for once." Min scratches behind his ear as he looks between the three. "This is usually the part where everyone establishes alibis and hopes no one figures out who's lying. So, who wants to go first?"
Hello Gail, could I ask you a few questions? Oh, yes this is Mei, she's very very friendly. He takes off her pack and rolls her onto her back. See, if you scratch her belly like this she loves it! So if you don't mind I'd like to make a bubble around us with our magic so no one can hear what we're talking about. Would that be ok? It's not scary, I promise!
Gui hops to Besogath. "Why have you come to live in this godly city, brother? Did you not think they'd regard you with suspicion? How many times have they accused you of murder already?"
Ba scratches her head a bit with a huge metal finger, then turns to Brian. "Brian - what is your relationship with Abigail, and where were you the night of her murder?"
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Brian immediately turns scarlet. "I liked Abigail. She was good to work with, here. And I was serving all these drunkards," he says, as he gestures below, to the patrons of the inn, "...all night. Does that answer your question?"
Trait Activated - Arcane: Detect Magic. You sense the workings of Obsidian Necromancy. The practice of speaking to the dead, broadly speaking.
Gui turns from Besogath and his completely unintelligible language, and his eyes narrow as he begins to notice what looks like black smoke that has nearly dissipated in the air of the room, what is usually a sign of some form of necromancy. The smoke held no particular pattern, which he knew meant that whatever necromancy here had been a fairly simple spell. The faintness of the smoke could have meant any number of things, from the spell not having been very powerful, to it having not been maintained for very long, or even that it was cast some time ago.
He turned to his allies. "Necromancy has been practiced here. Something simple, like talking to the dead. I would begin to ask who here is capable of such magic, were I you."
Min looks on as his companions grill the suspects for information. Takes care of step one, he supposes. As he's about to go investigate the crime scene, he heard Gui and instinctively looks around, sniffing.
Talking to Gail, both of us scratching Mei:Well I certainly didn't say that! Who said that? I hear you and your sister didn't get along though, that's sad. Why didn't you get along?
"Not a lot," Ba huffs. "He doesn't know the deceased, doesn't know the other two either, and was in his room when the murder occurred. So maybe someone else is to blame for this."
She narrows her eyes, irises in Brian's general direction.
"I've ch-schk-ecked the bar. No cl...cflk...clues over there."
As he staggers from one person to another, he surreptitously slips notes written on bar napkins to the rest of his team. They each say "Brian had his eye on Abigail. He couldn't get her, dated Gail for a while and then they broke up. Brian's known to have a temper, and he was at an alchemist's recently. Also, I'm not actually this drunk."
"I was trying not to tip our hand just yet. And I think--" Min side-eyes the suspects and moves closer to Gu, his voice softening. "If we're going to get all nine points, we need to figure out as much info about Brian's motive as possible. I think Gail can help us out on that point, especially with Yuduo playing good cop. Me bringing up the relationship out of the blue might undo his work."
Ba raises a giant metal hand to hide the whispering.
"Min's got the right idea. Besogath has no motive and no connection to the victim, so that leaves Brian and Gail. But we can't discount Gail just yet, at least not until we find some solid proof that Brian did kill Abigail... there's also the possibility of accomplices."
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
"We could do that, but I think we'd get sued." says Gu Long, slightly horrified. "Everything we see, while convincing, is just an act. And thus, I assume that this is a service that they provide for the city in return for compensation."
"One, since when do you have a torture aura? That's really something you should have mentioned before now. Two, even if these weren't actors and we wouldn't get arrested or thrown out of the competition for hurting them, we'd lose points for not using the proper methods. Observe, detect and the other thing. Still, your complete lack of concern for our suspects' safety might be useful. How do you feel about good cop, bad cop?"
"To call it a torture aura would be misleading. It would be better to say that it instills the fear of death into any foolish enough to be near me. They would want to be anywhere other than near me, and if we were to tie them to a chair they would not be able to leave until they told us what we wanted. But if I must neuter myself and merely intimidate, I shall do so."
"Alright then. Just remember: no assaulting and no death threats. You can imply that you'll assault him, but no actual assaulting. Now, just watch me for the changes and try to keep up."
Min walks over to Brian, putting on his best "neutral" face.
"Mr. Bartender? We'd like to ask you a few questions in private."
"Now, my friend, I assume you've already been questioned extensively on Abigail, so let's try another tack. Tell me about Gail. How do you feel about her?"
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
"What do you want me to say? Give you some terse and tearful account about how my broken heart forced me to settle for her sister? How even now my heart hurts knowing she's gone? Well, most of those are lies. Gail and I both wanted to spite Abigail, but she didn't care. I didn't know what to do. And now she's gone. She's gone and it does hurt."
"Look, Brian, I'm not here to antagonize you." Not openly, at least. "I've heard bits and pieces about what happened. Now I want your view of the situation. Tell me about the sisters."
"You know, I am wondering about Brian now. His ranting doesn't set right with me, and necromancy doesn't usually involve health potions"
"...there's an old thieves' trick called the display distraction. Learned it when I was traveling with a con woman. Convince the mark that what they see is what they're getting, and you can pull them along for the long ride. There could be a fourth suspect that we don't know about yet"
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Hello Gail, could I ask you a few questions? Oh, yes this is Mei, she's very very friendly. He takes off her pack and rolls her onto her back. See, if you scratch her belly like this she loves it! So if you don't mind I'd like to make a bubble around us with our magic so no one can hear what we're talking about. Would that be ok? It's not scary, I promise!
Besogath looks at you quizzically, and chatters away in clicks and hums. He does not understand what you are saying.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
She tilts her head a little to the side. "What exactly was the cause of Abigail's death?"
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
you-like-girl-dead?
girl-kill -- you-where?
other-two -- you know?
don't-know-girl-dead
She narrows her eyes, irises in Brian's general direction.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
"Min's got the right idea. Besogath has no motive and no connection to the victim, so that leaves Brian and Gail. But we can't discount Gail just yet, at least not until we find some solid proof that Brian did kill Abigail... there's also the possibility of accomplices."
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
"...there's an old thieves' trick called the display distraction. Learned it when I was traveling with a con woman. Convince the mark that what they see is what they're getting, and you can pull them along for the long ride. There could be a fourth suspect that we don't know about yet"