HALLOWEEN 2015- MURDER MYSTERY CYOA

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Round the Fourth

Talk to [NPC]

Habeus Corpses: The lawyer is still in the dining room, absently doodling a picture of a dog and staring forlornly at her cell phone- so beautiful, so expensive, so useless.

Wine About It: The jury is back in. Wine About It is fussing around in the wine cellar.

Rank and File: SPIDER WAR

Fuchsia Fussbudget: Fuchsia winked at the young miss. “Why, Penny,” she says conspiratorially, “You know as well as I do it’s books that lift us up. Books elevate us. Books. Right up to the ceiling.”

Right. The trapdoor stairs in the south library. Penny remembers something about how they were NOT ALLOWED to use those. She'd never seen them pulled down, but she could probably find the ceiling panel without having to go through any extraneous searching. (Penny Earned doesn't have to roll to find the stairs.)

Something catches her attention- a sound, perhaps? A creaking of the house? “Excuse me, my dears- I must go attend.” She leaves the room and disappears.

Chop Chop: In the kitchen, darlings!

Dining Room

The dining room hasn't much changed, but additional investigation reveals the hidden panel has come ajar. It should be quite easy to access now.

A: Talk to [NPC] [HC]
B: Search Kitchen [or talk to NPC- CC, WAI]
C: Search Great Room
D: Use hidden corridor to access the Sitting Room- turns out that when a small child attacks a wall, anything springy in that wall opens up.
D: Use hidden corridor to access the Powder Room/Restroom

Great Room

Not much has changed in here. This room appears to be completely empty.

Parlor

Only spiders live here now. There are fewer of them, but they have called for reinforcements. Talking to the butler now would be a bad idea; he has gone into full angel of death mode, mowing down spiders as if his life depended on it.

Sitting Room

As Vigorish lifts a chair, Cutie Honey darts forward and snags a cheque. It’s- it’s a check for thirty thousand dollars made out to a hospital’s maternity ward, care of Dr. Womb With A View- from Moneybags. Why is this here? Why isn’t it in the office? Why was Moneybags giving thirty thousand dollars to a hospital? Turning up other furniture reveals a few various hairballs and other pieces of detritus.

You can:
A: Search the sitting room
B: Search the powder room lounge
C: Search the restroom
D: Search the library west

Library

Searching the south wing of the library is fruitless; the books down here are of terrible quality. Mold dots their sad pages; and some of them are even fake. Like this one- it's just a wooden box painted to look like a book. There's no words in here, just a bunch of cigars. And this one! How can you read this? There's no pictures, just a bunch of old gold jewelry! And then there's this stupid book which has... HUH WOW that is a lot of cash. And... huh. That's a safe key. Edelweiss isn't dumb enough to lift that much cash, but the safe key? That could be useful.

You can...
A: Search the library north
B: Search the library south (roll a d20)
C: Search the library west
D: Search the sitting room

Office

The chaos of the room speaks to a heated brawl. Perhaps not one the old man would have been strong enough to complete… but what you don’t see is blood, despite there being signs of violence. Perhaps
Two keys to the desk were located. The first, held by Quarter Mane, led to a drawer that held… a partial blueprint! Well, ok, not really a blueprint. A design document- looks like a floor plan set up for renovations. A hastily drawn, old document with revision after revision. The handwriting is sloppy; whoever did this was in a very rough draft stage of their project. Nevertheless, it reveals a few key notes- most importantly, the stairs. There seems to be a small set hidden in the library’s south wing- they pull down from the ceiling! How wonderful!

[Quarter Mane no longer has to make dice checks for anything on the first floor.]

The second key opens a drawer that has... pictures of Moneybags' first wife and the family. Here's one where just the two of them are smiling- oh, and her belly is starting to bulge. Here's one of her pushing Moneypenny on a swing. Here's one of her, pregnant again and holding Moneypenny. He looks so small- you didn't realize the two children were so close in age. Moneypenny always seemed so much older. Here's one with the whole family together. Her eyes look so sad, and she looks so tired. Had she been sick even then, when Penny Earned was so young? Time flies, doesn't it...

You can:
A: Investigate the room further
B: Search the trophy room
C: Search the great room
D: Investigate the rug (roll a d20)

Powder Room/Restroom

In the bathroom, Judge Fudge cleans up fastidiously- one never knows when court might be in session after all. As the first person in the toilet area, he is also the first person whose eyes pass over the trash can and see an odd glint. There’s a syringe in there! It’s empty. The needle is curiously thick- it almost looks a miniature meat injector rather than a syringe that you’d jab into somebody. As Torts Illustrated searches for a medicine cabinet, she finds something rather… interesting. A lipstick. A beautiful, creamy, rich red lipstick. It’s modern- very modern, a brand you recognize from magazine ads; this fell behind here recently.

The powder room lounge is an extremely comfortable room. Lots of plushness and mirrors; there’s even a coat rack. There’s… huh. There’s some coats in here. One of them looks extremely out of place- a lavender ladies’ coat, simple and [rim. Whose might this be? Searching the pockets reveals a ticket stub to the Metropolitan opera, dated to… oh.

The owner of this coat was with Moneybags the night he died. That’s… interesting. Sea Major recognizes the ticket immediately- that was a box seat. Who was Moneybags with that night? Were they the killer? Or was it entirely unrelated?

You can...
A: Search the other half of the room.
B: Go back through the tunnel to the kitchen.
C: Go back through the tunnel to the dining room.
D: Search the sitting room.

Trophy Room

The gun cabinet is unlocked. The rifles inside are shining and gleaming; they are perfectly polished and quite beautiful. Some of them are works of art… especially the two pistols, which are a pair of pearl-handled .44s. Much larger and fancier than the pistol on the desk. Each gun is nestled in a specialized casing; ammunition is locked up in smaller boxes under its respective gun. The strange revolver definitively does not belong here. Investigating it further, the serial number has been filed off- highly suspicious. This gun was not purchased legally- so perhaps it is the murder weapon… or perhaps it was acquired quickly to throw the searches off the case- either way, this gun implies something about the murder being premeditated and not a spur of the moment fit of passion or something similar. No, this took planning.

As the assembled guests investigate the room further, Pennybags taps the wall- and hears a hollow space behind. Pushing at it, he finds himself… deposited in the library! Yet another spinning panel!

You can:
A: Search the palm court
B: Search the sitting room
C: Search the office
D: Investigate the walls to try and use the spinning panel (roll a d20)

Palm Court

The conservatory is downright creepy in the dark. What little light there is reflects off the water. Other than that, the quiet is eerie. Nothing seems amiss here, though you do appreciate the rattan furniture- gives the place a real tropical look.
Nothing new is found here.

You can…
A: Search the sitting room
B: Search the great room
C: Search the powder room lounge
D: Search the restroom

Kitchen

Chop Chop gently shooed Clementine away from the fridge. “You just sit down, Clementine.” She poured her a glass of orange juice and fetches some scones as she accounted her job. “I have control over almost all of the food that enters this house- certainly delivery and such are difficult to control, but substitutions can be made, condiments omitted. The only food Moneybags received for his birthday… actually, you know what. Let’s eat it. He was given some exceptional cheese. Cheese is safe. There’s a fantastic parmigiano-reggiano and a lovely grana.” In a twinkle, Chop Chop has prepared a lovely cheese plate with tasty little toast points. She pulls up sleek powdered steel barstools for the phonies who had come to talk to her and gets them seated as they chat. But her demeanor shifts as Moneypenny shows her what he found.

“Where did you get those?” She looked at the candies and their wrappers and blanched. “…oh NO. Oh hell no. Those did not enter this house under MY watch. I run a VERY. TIGHT. SHIP. There are CONCERNS about what food can and cannot enter this house. First it was Wine About It, with her edamame and her sauces. I p ut a stop to that. But this? THESE? Those should not be here. This is… where did you say you found these? The parlor? But nobody ever goes in there except… oh no. I have to talk to Fussy.”

But the housekeeper was nowhere to be found.

She whirled around on her hoof, perturbed. “Has anybody seen Fuchsia Fussbudget? Did anybody see where she went?” She fanned herself with one hoof and galloped around the kitchen with the other three. “Somebody find her! I must speak to her immediately!” She throws open the access corridor. “Take this- it’ll get you around the house faster!”

You can:
A: Search the powder room lounge
B: Search the restroom
C: Search the sitting room
D: Return to the dining room and search it (or talk to the remaining NPC, HC).

...and the Others...

Not everybody was so lucky when they searched the house. Burro, Horsefeathers, and Chequed Check found themselves testing panels. Several of them opened into blackness- but testing them didn't find them in another room, but rather somewhere pitch black. At first it was silent...

But then came the sound of heavy breathing.

show spoilerhide spoiler

zippedsiren

Astraea Pandora

Magician Arcana

frozen_flames06

Luafien

StarieMichie

purplerosesbeauty

I made lavender lemonade for my DnD crew tonight and I just want you to know that I thought of you.

Atmadja

Yunonia

FrostyPeaches

cursedandwandering

Yushika

Kitty Sprightt

LOLLI qAq

EchoLimaFoxtrot

thyPOPE

Biblioburro

Aric Val

Fea Line

Tristam Lockhart

catmagick

VerityHattress

Ruriska

~Twilight...Angel~

Byagane319

elvyralani

Maxx D

Jun D

 

[Ruriska]

C: Search the library west

“Are you sure I’m not dumb enough to lift this much cash?” Edelweiss said out loud to the powers that be, thumbing (or rather hoofing) through the wad of cash (it was all in denominations of "ten money" and looked like this) with a look of maximum regret. “Oh well…” She’d have to take the key as a consolation prize and hope it opened up a safe with even more cash in it.

She spent a few more minutes looking through the old jewellery but none of it compared to her engagement ring – and speaking of which, Brass Tacks should surely be beside himself with worry right about now and she’d better get back.

Abandoning her mess, Edelweiss turned west to explore more of the library, not exactly in that much hurry to return to her fiancée. If he thought something terrible had happened, he might buy her a necklace to go with the ring.  

[thyPOPE]

A. Search the library north!

Pennybags would've replied to his companions but that he'd just stumbled - ah - into - woah!

He had no idea where he was. Wait, yes he did. This was the library...which...normally was accessed by walking through the sitting room, right?

Yeah, his dad's place had always been weird. He'd just...thought he'd have known about this, maybe. Puzzled, he shook his head. Nah - as a kid, he'd spent some time in the library (he'd always wanted to impress Father), but hadn't liked the trophy room much at all.

Well - now that he was here he could at least explore. He stalked north, stumbling a bit as he went. "Anybody here?" Lemma called, looking around. Guess...maybe no one had found their way to the library yet? She still didn't think there was anything to be found from reading the books, but Pennybags could be a bit more careful than that, especially now that he'd found that panel. Still, maybe there was something to be found in the tables, although he wandered up and down the stacks for nostalgia's sake, too. He didn't dally long, though, heading over to the tables and carefully looking underneath each. He couldn't really think of his father having guests, but you never knew...  

[Ruriska]

"Anybody here?"

"YO!- I mean, s**t, I mean, helloooo!"

Edelweiss couldn't see who'd called out yet because she was focused on giving the western section of the library a good look but it was kind of nice to have company.

"Let me know if you find anything good over there!"

thyPOPE

 

[thyPOPE]

Ruriska

So Lemma wasn't alone! Somehow that was nice and relieving. "Kay!" she called back quickly, before remembering she was supposed to be playing a character. Pennybags...probably wouldn't say that. "I'd be more than willing to," he called back (in a voice that was exactly Lemma's, but dropped hilariously about an octave). It was important that his father's death be figured out. Preferably by someone at least in the family (and perhaps by Moneypenny, at least, if not by himself).

"Please do the same," he added. Where was the voice coming from? The...west? Huh. Should he mention the gun? It was probably the only thing he'd really seen, other than, well, the panel that'd brought him here. Maybe he might be better served once he figured out who it was, though.

Well. In the meantime he could keep looking through these tables for any sign of a guest. And maybe...the rug? Man, what kind of books did his dad even keep in here?  

[Maxx D]

B: Search the Power Room Lounge

Before the child snatched it away altogether, Vigorish caught a glimpse of the text on the the cheque - maternity ward, thirty thousand dollars, eh? Another babby-to-be? A woman involved! He wondered, indeed, what came from the perfumed envelope. When the rest of the search turned up nothing, he decided it was time to leave the room (and, Fireflight thought, the altogether too inspired Haute-in-drag, down to the sulky fits).

His mind was spinning with thought as he pushed his way into the Power Room Lounge, and noted the lavender ladies' coat with interest. It wasn't clear what the other Phonies in here had found, but a general look here and there suggested some recent female companionship. Well, well, well. This place was worth a more detailed search - perhaps he could find an involved mare to blackmail instead. With a rough, apologetic (to the gent who was actually using the restroom) nod to those around, he brazenly prodded every coat and towel, and pushed about furniture with little regard. The Phony was dead, after all.  

[StarieMichie]

After cleaning up, TACO emerged from the bathroom. There were a couple other phonies hanging out there.

"Sorry for taking so long," he said with a wink, "you never know when you'll find a lady who needs some court mandated community service."

His bathroom partners looked like they knew something. But how to get it out of them? Judge Fudge didn't seem like a man that would be above threats or extortion, but that just wasn't TACO's style. You caught more flies with honey after all.

"If you show me yours, I'll show you mine."

He paused, and then realized, for once, he wasn't talking about what was hiding under his glittery judge's cape, so he should probably clarify. "Clues, I mean."

While he struck up conversation, TACO continued to causally search the other half of the room.

VerityHattress

zippedsiren

 

[EchoLimaFoxtrot]

The Colonel pulled out the pictures. His eyes resting on the happy Phonies and a bit of envy tugged at what was left of his heart. Moneybags had it all and yet he still wasn't happy. He contemplated this while looking at the last picture. Tucking the photoes away for later, the Colonel glanced around again at the office. He stepped up to investigate the rug next.  

[Jun D]

D: Search the library west

Maternity ward?! Fuchsia wasn't kidding about those fillies... Watching Firefl - uh, who was he again...Vigorish push the furniture around to reveal nothing, Don Calimari wondered how best to locate his old friend's bedroom. The bookie was soon off, and, nodding pleasantly at Cutie Honey (what dedication! Diamond thought, impressed - the get-up put her own suit and hat to shame), the Don himself wandered into the west wing of the library.  

[NymiiNym]

Bright Blessings headed straight for the coat rack, reaching out for the out of place lavender coat. Briefly, he paused, eyes swiveling to a few chairs nearby before deciding to give up his attempt to rifle through the coat and instead begin peering under furniture. Perhaps someone had dropped something? They had, by the looks of it, already found several items hinting at an unknown visitor... who knew what laid where eyes normally couldn't see?

A. Search the other half of the room.  

[zippedsiren]

StarieMichie

VerityHattress

Torts Illustrated eyes caught on the shiny little tube. Picking it up, she recognized it as a popular brand name. Opening up the tub, she was curious as to what the color was, the tube specified red with a ridiculous color name. It was a beautiful shade, once the cap was open. Torts wondered who could have dropped such a thing, was it accidental or planted as part of the game. While it was a lovely color, it certainly didn't suit every mare (or colt even). It was a decidedly posh, younger color though... Torts racked her brain thinking of to who would wear a color like this... one of the wives maybe, or the young fillies that were hanging around with Moneybags. ... What colors did Satin Doll and Lucky Clover wear the last name she saw them.. was it red? or pink.. or nothing at all.

Torts was quickly distracted by another phony's advance. She scoffed at first, hearing the phrase, but turned to see it was the Judge. And there as well one of the young ladies that Moneybags seemed to pine for. Was the lipstick a match for her? Her eyes darted between them. For her future career, it would probably behoove her to play nice with Judge Fudge. "Oh! Your honor, how.. nice to see you. This trinket? It's nothing really... a lost lipstick. Nothing of importance surely. But what have you found? ... is that a needle? I wonder what it was for."

Tort was seriously wondering about what Judge Fudge was actually doing it, evidence or recreation? And then there was the girl, the opera singer. "Songtress what about you?"

Also curious about the coat, Torts waited for an answer, before she would decide on move on, by a- investigating the other half of the powder room/lounge, where another phony was being awfully brutish with the furniture.

The lawyer was particular curious to look at the coats, and regard the label, and general care of the coat. Perhaps the coat would give a clue to who the owner was. She was keen to see what the brand was, if fashionable or even if an owner may left a marking on it.  

[VerityHattress]

zippedsiren

StarieMichie

Holly was a bit taken back by the Judge's words. They seemed a bit weird to her in the way he said them. After all, she was actually just a young one really. Whatever the Judge was mentioning, she had no clue at all what it really was about. (Forget anything else this mystery brings, Taco might of just almost scarred Holly for life.)

Seeing the ticket, Sea Major knew exactly what it was for, and it caught her attention above all else. That and the out of place coat. So someone had been with Moneybag that night? Who could it of been? With the mentioning of the lipstick, Sea Major turned to face the two other phonies in the area who were discussing things ", You sure it is nothing Miss? After all, who wears that specific type of lipstick in this household? Surely not Moneybags. This coat also seems out of place, and I believe it isn't one that Moneybags would wear either. Would any of his family wear it? Maybe they belong to the same person, as does the needle there that you have Judge. Not only that, this ticket that was in the coat was for the same place I believe Moneybags was at last night, the Metropolitan opera."

While they discussed things, Sea Major made her way to Search the other half of the room, wanting to see if she could find any other evidence in there as well. She didn't know how the dust like dirt from earlier fit in, but then again it could of been a separate incident ", If you see anything else interesting, we should discuss it for a bit. Something seems a bit off in here to me. I am sure you all realize this as well."  

[Tristam Lockhart]

A: Search the other half of the room.


Brass Tacks skirts around Judge Can't-keep-it-in-his-nonexisting-pants,noting that no, his wife-to-be wasn't here. Happy to know that the two haven't met(and Barley suddenly remembers that the two are related and quickly walks away from the flamobyant phony)

Shaking his head to take some out of place and distubring thoughts out of his head, he decide to use search the other side of the room, and perhaps use the toilet while he was there (or find brain bleach)