WEEK THREE: INVESTIGATION

[retellers]

WEEK THREE: INVESTIGATION (?? remain) On Friday morning at 7am, all the doors will unlock and the participants may traverse between areas again. Participants will find that, as they leave wherever they slept, everything feels... unclear? Did they see whoever they were with? They can no longer remember. Even for those who spent the night alone, they can feel that something is off. It doesn't seem as though the Leaders are around, but at this point, everyone should realize what has happened. Time to investigate. ༶•┈┈⛧┈｡o°✥✣ 　　 ✣✥°o｡┈⛧┈┈•༶ Welcome to your fourth investigation! We will be posting top-levels for searchable locations—one set at 6pm EST and another set at 7pm EST. Each location will contain evidence to find, though it's up to your efforts as to whether you find all of it. Please coordinate investigation groups on Discord, as we ask that group threads consist of no more than 2-3 characters. We will stop tagging each top-level two hours after it went up, i.e. at 8pm and 9pm EST, respectively. Don't worry if you don't find everything! Characters will get the chance to revisit locations tomorrow at trial. At 9pm EST, an announcement will go up, confirming the victim(s). If you have any questions at any time, please let us know by pinging us on Discord!

NAVIGATION locations ₓ˚. statuses *+:｡ ic profiles :ₓo ic rules ･ﾟﾟ･｡ audience requests murder proposals ｡✧o private conversations ･ﾟo｡ curfew ･ﾟ✧ memories

Comments

FOREST

[retellers]

[dianxias]

[ the forest is fucking huge and we have only four working eyes so i expect us to find nothing.

xie lian's walking near chiron to make sure he doesn't get lost. ] Everyone be very careful, alright? Let's look carefully.


...I mean, let's search carefully...

[ what's our first glance look baby ]

[assistance]

[ i hate this because i didn't realize until after i locked it in but

this is the second week in a row that alyssa does not walk into the location i signed her up for, because she fell asleep here last night. i'm weeping. ]

. . . This is really starting to look bad for me, isn't it?

[ GIVEN... THAT SHE'S BEEN HERE THE WHOLE NIGHT... would she notice anything different about their immediate surroundings... ]

[antaressnipe]

It is fine. We will both be suspicious.

[Announcing that immediately because guess who else woke up in the forest? The blind centaur.

Who is still blind so he will just slowly get to his legs and not contribute a single fuckin thing yet.

He will try more in a second but he's tired, injured, and did I mention tired?]

[retellers]

[ Well, here's your first question:

Which part of the forest are they at? By the river, by the castle (if they could hypothetically reach it, which they can't), or in between?

Okay, y'all decided river, so!

I actually don't know how this works with Chiron and Alyssa already at the forest, but Xie Lian would've seen, as he walked from the town towards them, a giant mound of dirt.

Not far from the mound of dirt, Alyssa would notice something off where she is, which is that, uh, it looks like someone grew a wildass swamp garden in the forest overnight. The ground is soggy, and there's a bunch of weird plant growth now, like tall grass, wildflowers, yellow flowers, and vines.

Chiron finds nothing because he's blind. ]

[dianxias]

[ NO WHY ISN'T THIS LAST GAME? MY SHOVEL

how tall is this mound of dirt. is it as big as xie lian? shorter? also if he walks around said mound of dirt, is there a spot that's been disturbed, ie: a grave or a hole or anything that looks vaguely off, or is it from the wildass swamp garden?

i'm gonna assume he just looks over and sees the others across the river or something it's fine. ]

Miss Alyssa, Archer! Did the two of you spend the night here...? Where in the world did this come from...

[assistance]

...we sure did, and we—[ a pause as she looks at chiron ]—um, I can tell you these plants weren't here last night.

[ alarming??? she's going over to, like, try and dig her shoe into the dirt. how loose is it, does her foot fall right through and she gets eaten by quicksand soil (quicksoil?), can i finally die jan?

—actually chrion get over here maybe your horse legs can get a better sense. ]

[antaressnipe]

... I am fairly certain my companions would have said something if it were present last night.

[He will come right over in the direction of the voices, though gently because apparently there's a bunch of freshly turned dirt, but... hm...

He is heavy and so will be delicate in sloooowly placing some of his weight through a hoof, trying to also get a sense for how densely/loosely packed the mound is -- not right through the center, more like at the sides pushing inward]

[retellers]

[ Sure, there's enough dirt missing from around the area to suggest it was used to make this mound. I don't know mound logistics.

Alyssa or Chiron or whoever is putting their foot in—their foot will sink through the mound ig, and maybe an inch deeper as if the ground underneath has been disturbed. ]

[dianxias]

[ mound lore.. mlore

anyway!! let's scan around said mound really quick for a shovel or a murder weapon

otherwise, time to check out the weird ass swamp. are the yellow flowers anything particularly recognizable? since they weren't counted as "wildflowers"? give me flower lore

xie lian describes out loud: ] Archer, there is an entire garden suddenly right here in the forest. There are several kinds of plants...um, wildflowers, the grass is kind of tall, there are vines, and some yellow flowers as well. There's also a pile of dirt, about as tall as [ however tall it is because jan doesn't love me ] and, it's all very damp.

If the ground's been disturbed besides - [ gestures at the garden ] this, then something may have been buried. We should uncover it, if we can.

[assistance]

[ hm. gross! that's enough of dirt checking for alyssa, and she quickly steps back... only to get down on her hands and knees, patting chiron's flank to let him know where she's moving. ]

Well, at least I'm not drunk this time... here I go!

[ she's a field researcher, she's not afraid to do some dirty work! so, she does her best to dig through the dirt mound using her hands. IS THE HEAD HERE ]

[antaressnipe]

[Well since the other two have the digging covered...

Chiron is actually going to slowly make his way to this garden (I'm being nice to him and saying Xie Lian gave him coordinates, let me be!!!) and uh, start feeling with his fingers the weird plant growth, including the tall grass, wildflowers, yellow flowers, and vines. Ideally he wants to take some samples and put them in his baskets, if he's able.

... Though since the ground is a bit soggy, ha ha. How far does he make it before he dies in swamp water or something.

Also I completely missed Chiron's flank being petted but Alyssa has rights so it's okay]

[retellers]

[ This is what happens when you ask multiple questions in a single tag, your mod's brain is only big enough to retain one. :pensive: The mound is of... a size. Average, maybe? And the flowers are [some breed of yellow flowers]. That is to say, there are no particular answers to these questions.

Alyssa digs, to find... more dirt! Is she also going to dig a hole in the ground while she's at it.

Chiron's legs sink into the soggy ground, and because he's blind, he doesn't notice a vine that he will also trip over. But he... seems to fall onto something? ]

[dianxias]

Ah - oh, Archer!! Sorry, here, I'll stay nearby -

[ sorry alyssa you are on your own for digging for a second. xie lian's going to go help the horse, hurrying over to support him.

what did he fall on! xie lian can see it. ]

[assistance]

[ YES SHE WILL SHE'S FUCKIN DETERMINED TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PLEASE GOD she's also singlemindedly focused on her task so rip to chiron and gl xl ]

[antaressnipe]

[WHO THE FUCK LET THE BLIND HORSE INVESTIGAT-- oh it was me.

Anyway he can not see what he fell onto, but he is still going to struggle to get the fuck off of it so Xie Lian can see with his eyes]

-- There is something here, I believe.

[retellers]

[ From where she is, Alyssa would be able to see what Chiron tripped over, but presumably she's so focused on digging that she doesn't look up. At the bottom of the hole, she finds... a lion kigu!

It's hard to see from a distance because of all the tall grass and yellow flowers, but once Xie Lian is where Chiron is, he will see that amidst the growth, there is a body. ]

[dianxias]

...Oh no.

[ bad. xie lian taps chiron's side carefully as he helps himself back up, his voice very serious and quiet. ]

...Archer. Walk with me this way.

[ and, very carefully, guiding chiron towards it too, xie lian will walk over to investigate the body. (hey we got a bog body, kind of?)

...does it at least have a head? ]

[assistance]

[ I GUESS THAT'S. SOMETHING. ]

A lion costume...?

[ she tries to dig a little more if she's able, just to see if there's anything else under the kigu. if there's nothing, she'll stand up and take the kigu with her, red in the face as she walks over to xie lian and chiron... and then she gasps. ]

Oh my god—who is it?

[antaressnipe]

[-- Of course he tripped over a body. Of course. Can't wait to see how he accidentally decimated the corpse.

Chiron will follow the sound of Xie Lian's voice and allow him to handle the examination because again, he can't see shit and will instead wait until the reveal/further instruction]

[retellers]

[ There's just the kigu! Alyssa will have to decide for herself if it was worth the effort.

Anyway, good news! 1) The body has a head, even if it's hard to tell at a glance because of all the grass and flowers growing from it. 2) Congrats, you didn't kill another teen. 3) Hua Cheng doesn't have to be jealous anymore.

Shiro Fujimoto is dead. ]

[dianxias]

[ xie lian's horrified gasp is loud, and he nearly stumbles backwards, grabbing onto chiron for support. this is the first time he's looked so utterly affected, and his voice breaks on the cried out -- ]

Shiro!

[assistance]

Oh god—

[ cool! two weeks in a row on body discovery too! even though she manages to stay on her feet this time, it never gets any easier, and alyssa stumbles backward as xie lian screams. she manages to just catch herself on chiron as she throws our her arm, steadying herself before shakily asking, ]

Um... do you guys think you can... carry the body, or—or should I go back and try to find someone else?

[antaressnipe]

[Well.

Chiron is just still as stone at that announcement, and thankfully his weight can take the others leaning upon him.]

... I will move him.

... You two, please examine the area as carefully as possible.

[retellers]

[ Are they moving him right now?

If not, the body waits patiently. Because it's dead. ]