THE SECOND TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

THE SECOND TRIAL

[After the final clue is found, the ticking sound in everyone's head abruptly stops.]

Well done, well done. Now, I believe you know where to go from here!

[There is the tell-tale rumble once more, and once more, if the Strangers don't go to the garden, there are dozens of bats more than happy to drag them there.

Despite the very dim light of the candles and the tray of "food" in the center of the Ossuary, it becomes clear- once everyone's been chained up and dragged to their designated place-that there are less coffins present than there were last week. Where Eddie, Akko, and Felicity's graves had been, there are nothing but a carefully balanced pile of skulls in their place. It's...best not to speculate whether any of those skulls happen to belong to the dead of your group.

Once everyone is forcibly settled, the scrolls that everyone possesses light up. Five faces appear alongside the evidence.]

THE FAST	THE ENEMY	THE CIRCUIT	THE APPROACH
				THE NOODLES

Now that we are all settled, I suggest you get to it. You do not have forever.

[As the Elder Steward finishes, the clock is ticking again. It's time to decide who is responsible for this horrible crime.


The trial for the murder of Franciscus Erkens, the Scorching, has begun.]

Comments

[notadinosnack]

I think we should start with where the murder happened. It's very obviously the secret tunnel that was found in the music room. There was a ton of blood in there and a missing part of the body.

Now, it's evident that not many had knowledge of this tunnel. Had anyone else found it previously and could share who may be aware of its existence?

[icanhearscreams]

[Deep breath, okay.]

I don't know about the music room tunnel, but there's one in the library, so I'm not surprised. That's where I found the letter I shared earlier in the week.

[inadequacyfeelings]

I didn't know about the tunnel until it was opened in front of me during the investigation. [She says, and then asks:] Did Franciscus know about it? Or did the culprit lead Franciscus into the tunnel and then killed him?

[A bit hard to know if Franciscus knew, but...]

His pet was aware of the tunnel's existence, so I believe he knew. He may even have been the one to find it in the first place.

[icanhearscreams]

... I think we need to determine the circumstances death as well. There was a single hit straight through the heart, but if that was the case as the scroll shows, why was there a need to remove the head? And why were the clothes changed?

[joinhands]

Why remove the head...? To be honest, I think Mrs. Parham inspired our culprit. We entered a room that seemed to be locked by a chair, but the culprit had already left and placed the head somewhere else. If we didn't know about the secret passage, we'd want to assume it was someone with teleportation powers. Ambrosine.

[relieable]

[someone is enraged. he inhales, then sets the poleaxe on his podium. his tone is surprisingly steady]

Found this in the garden. In the flowerbed. Also, the water bucket that's usually in the well was out, and it had bloody water in it.

[whiterosefoes]

That... definitely looks like it could decapitate a person.

[incendiarize]

Heeeyyy... [See that face he's making in the picture on the scroll? Yep.

But he's not just offended that he's a suspect.]

None of these are the lady who stabbed him! She had really long blue hair and wasn't one of us!

[relieable]

[what]

Long... blue hair? [ah, he shouldn't go down this road]

[icanhearscreams]

... I don't think we can vote for them, then. That might have happened before he got here.

[notadinosnack]

Considering some of us have been seeing things, I'd not discount that he mistook the culprit for her.

[joinhands]

Was even her clothing something you wouldn't find here...?

FRANCISCUS???

[joinhands]

The more I think about this case, the more I think that something is very strange.

Franciscus wore a suit. When Miss Millstein found it, she recognized it immediately. With a jacket and buttoned shirt. If this clothing was taken off by force, surely the buttons would pop. And if Franciscus had already been stabbed - let alone beheaded - there would be blood. So his suit wasn't removed when he was hurt and no longer struggling. In other words, Franciscus changed into this dress well before the murder began. Either he removed his own clothes, or someone he trusted intimately did it.

Where the dress came from is obvious. Dear Mr. Skeleton. When is the question. Dresses have been in circulation for a good few days now. Doesn't it seem like Franciscus had preferred to just wear his own suit? Which may well have fit his body much better than that particular dress. Why would he suddenly develop a different preference on the same day he would end up murdered? And furthermore, why not leave his discarded clothing in his room instead of the game room - why change in the game room, for heaven's sake, he hated that place! Yes, the culprit may have moved Franciscus' clothes, but they had to worry about, say, carrying the bloody poleaxe.

And this is before getting into the culprit luring Franciscus into a tunnel. The only suspect claiming to know about it is... Mr. Matsuno. But Franciscus knew about it too, then; and his companion certainly knew about it by the time of the investigation. Furthermore, the decapitation with the poleaxe clearly occurred in the tunnel judging by the distribution of blood, but the wound in the heart seemed cleaner, and we haven't found a second more fitting weapon yet.

I was not very familiar with Mr. Erkens. I don't mean to cast aspersions on his character. That also applies to Mr. Matsuno - the person he trusted the most, whose involvement might explain some things but that the blond hair for example points against. So please, someone who knows him better... tell me.

Give me any reason that Franciscus would suddenly change into an alternate set of clothing, and enter the secret passage with someone else, mere hours before the motive ran out, after his past experience seeing motives levied...

Unless he planned to kill.

[notadinosnack]

There's one other thing that doesn't make sense. I found a bloody robe from the Sanctum in there. My guess is the culprit wore it because I found hairs that definitely didn't belong to Franciscus. It also had no rips or tears, indicating that the blood didn't belong to the one wearing it.

Why would someone he lured in there be wearing different clothing as well?

[relieable]

[by the end of this statement, Osomatsu is shaking. he looks pale, worried. he doesn't want to sully Franciscus' name, but, at the same time, he knows it's not impossible.

Krone has a point, why did he change his clothes? there's a sinking feeling in Osomatsu's gut. even if Franciscus was having a vision or nightmare at the time, that'd mean...]

He told me... he was tempted by the motive. But only for a moment! [desperation in his voice] I don't think he'd hurt anyone, not on purpose!

[incendiarize]

The visions work like.....like I actually am someone. So I get thoughts and everything.

And he was thinking stuff like "I could've done something if I was so bent on it"...

[notadinosnack]

All right, may as well get this out of the way. We need to compare the hairs I found to the suspects and see if we can figure out who they belong to.

[relieable]

[he's here, but his hair is dark brown, almost black]

Oh, yeah... the hairs in the robe...

[necroyalty]

[Her hair isn't as dark brown as Osomatsu's, but it's got a pleasantly rich dark chestnut look to it.]

[yonosoymaria]

[Eric's hair is... in rather poor shape at this point, but it's somewhat layered, with varying lengths, and golden-blond.

He's going to pluck hairs of a few different lengths from his head and... hold them up limply.]

[inadequacyfeelings]

By all means, go ahead.

[This is certainly blonde hair, right on Zelda's head. Here, have a sample]

[incendiarize]

Alright, sure.

[Blonde number three reporting in. His hair is pretty short.]

[necroyalty]

There is one other matter that I can't quite wrap my head around:

When I entered the music room, I found a string drum. Which sounds unremarkable, but it was very, very burnt.

And what's more concerning - the harp was missing its strings.

I'm not sure where they turned up.

[icanhearscreams]

I mean, if the axe wasn't used to cut off the head...

[notadinosnack]

Okay, so let me go ahead and try taking a guess at how things went down and you guys can help me figure out the order of events at least.

So first, Franciscus and our culprit arrange a meeting. The culprit probably arrives first wearing the robe and is waiting in the tunnel.

Franciscus changes into the outfit he was found in and goes into the tunnel next. As he goes up the stairs he hallucinates thinking he sees Azura, the culprit attacks and kills him.

The culprit then drags his body to the top and uses the spell of transformation to go into the library and use the chair to lock the door. Then they use it again to move the body.

The culprit then leaves, goes to wash off in the garden and plant the pole axe.

Anything seem out of place or missing?

[necroyalty]

No, that's quite the best we could come up with so far.

[icanhearscreams]

[He needs to try a different tactic. This is embarrassing, but he doesn't like how some of the evidence is adding up. Especially given how much strength you'd need to kill someone cleanly...]

[He turns and looks over at Eric, his breathing picking up.]

Eric. If this is you, you need to say so. You said you were my junior. So as your senior, I'm giving you an order.

Admit what you did, or give me evidence that you didn't.

[joinhands]

[To the man of the hour:] For goodness' sake, I have to do everything!

[To the floor:] The victim was killed with a small bladed weapon, then decapitated with a poleaxe, all this while the culprit was wearing a robe. The blade, axe, and robe were all covered in blood. The axe and robe weren't washed off. However, the culprit did wash off something with blood, using a bucket of water in the garden. This must have been the blade. But why not just throw the bloody blade all the way down the well and be done with it?

Because she had to take it with her! It was part of her own body!