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]

... 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?

[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.

[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.

[notadinosnack]

He may have been aware of it. It was his companion who helped us find it, right? His power also would have been capable of letting him see in there because it is completely dark.

[relieable]

He did know. He found that tunnel, like, the first week we got here? Or the second week. It was early on.

[notadinosnack]

Do you know who else he may have told?

[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]

Aside from me an' Hydrangea? [he shakes his head] Not a clue. I thought he wanted to keep it secret.

[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]

Still, that is useful to know. We definitely need to figure out how he and the culprit ended up in that tunnel together.

[incendiarize]

Yeah! Really, really long. She looked angry, too, and uh...he kind of thought it was appropriate, or something?

He wanted her to tell someone something, but I didn't get who or what.

[incendiarize]

She definitely stabbed him fatally, though, he knew he was gonna die...

[This makes no sense.]

[notadinosnack]

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

[icanhearscreams]

I was also dying when I came here.

[relieable]

[he looks down for a moment]

Azura. He must've been having a vision.

[incendiarize]

[He cannot argue with that, considering the candy door.]

....someone who looks like her, or something, then?

[incendiarize]

[So.....he needs to pick out other useful things from the vision.]

Uh... It was really dark and he was stabbed from below, somehow.

[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.

[inadequacyfeelings]

[Zelda's hair turns into bladed whips. It's more like a gray color, not blue, but...]

I believe this is the closest we have to someone having long blue hair. [May as well say it herself, yeah? Although there's still a lot of difference between blue and gray] Could there have been a way to fool Franciscus? Perhaps with a power?

[notadinosnack]

Or somehow reminded him of her in another way. Which won't do much good unless we know something about her.

[icanhearscreams]

How big can she make the portals, though? It might not be big enough.

But either way, we know about the secret passage... though the window in the library is very high.

[relieable]

[........]

I'm pretty sure the lady is Azura. She's someone Franciscus knew before, and they... didn't really get along.