Detention, 12/9/06 (Danger Shop: 8AM - 5PM, FHT)

[drjcovington.livejournal.com]

When today's detentionees enter the Danger Shop, they will find themselves in the common room of a very quaint provincial tavern/inn of vague and indeterminate age. A large piece of parchment on the dining table bears the list of detention students' names:

Sam Carter
Molly Hayes
Naomi Wildman
Belthazor
John Connor

Beneath the list is a note directing the students toward one of the bedrooms. When they arrive in said bedroom they'll find Janice, lying on the floor beneath a heavy and low-hanging iron chandelier, with three candles scattered on the floor around her and what appears to be the hilt of a knife protruding from her chest.

Once people have assembled she stands up, grinning smugly, and lets the bladeless hilt fall to the floor, perhaps dashing several people's hopes. "Thought you lucked out, didn't you?" she asks. "Well, there is no luck. This is detention. And today you get to help me with a little research. See, my partner Mel just finished translating the most recent of the Xena Scrolls that we've found, and we're trying to make sense of it. Seems we've got a little murder mystery on our hands."

She fishes the Danger Shop remote from her pocket and presses a button, causing the prone form of a dead woman to flicker into existence on the floor where Janice herself had been lying, a knife protruding from her chest in the same way. "This is Ravenica . . . or was. She was a bounty hunter, and she's been found dead under mysterious circumstances in Xena's mother's tavern here in Amphipolis. Discord, the brand-new goddess of retribution, is out to prove herself -- and no one is allowed to leave the tavern until the killer has been found. The killer? Yeah, that's someone in this tavern -- no, not one of you. Any of these people."

Another button-press, and seven people materialize in the room: there's a middle-aged woman who looks like she runs the place, a younger and rather buxom farm woman who carries herself with a bit of an affected swagger, and a naive-looking peasant girl. If the other four happen to bear a striking resemblance to former art teachers Autolycus and Ash, Joxer, D'Anna Biers if she dyed her hair black and wore leather, and a short-haired version of Janice herself, well . . . that's just a coincidence, isn't it? Yes. Complete coincidence. Hey, Janice had to model these simulations on someone. After a moment, all seven of them wander off to busy themselves in other parts of the tavern.

Janice spares a particularly scathing look for her lookalike, passes out a stack of cards to each student, and continues, "Your job is to examine the evidence and question the suspects to get to the bottom of all this. Xena had until sunrise to find the killer, according to the Scrolls; you have until five P.M. I know one thing so far: the knife belongs to Minya. Those cards will give you a little background information on our suspects. So what are you waiting for? Get cracking, kids!"

[OOC: OCD is up and we are good to go, and please keep to the appropriate subthreads. I do ask that if you figure out the killer early, try not to spoil it for everyone else. *g* If you really, really need a hint? See the OOC thread. Otherwise, welcome to Clue, Xena style. And do bear that in mind as you try to solve the mystery.

Right now I? Am going to get a few hours' sleep. After I wake up (which will probably be around 8 AM) Meeeeeeep, overslept! At any rate, I'll be around all day, except from about 1PM-2:15PM PST. Whee!]

Comments

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Just about the same size as the candles, but the candle wax was too soft to have caused that kind of damage," Sam frowned and took a bite of pizza.

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly bit her lip in thought.

"Oh! Could it have been made by a candle holder do you think? Or would that have been bigger than the size of a candle?"

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Slightly bigger," Sam decided, "but not so much that I could tell you it didn't make the bump without measuring it or having calipers."

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly sighed and took another bite of her pizza. She thought as she chewed. "Were you able to figure out where the ink on her head came from? There was a desk in the room, but nothing to write with or on."

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"That was ink?" Sam hadn't gotten that. "And what was with the rash? Do you know what that was about?"

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly shook her head. "No clue about the rash, but yeah, it was black ink on her head." She thought some more.

"Okay, before the door got broken open, the room was locked from the inside with only Ravenica, who is now dead, in there. There was a stick that looks like it had been used to jam the window shutter open so the killer could have gotten in that way..."

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Was the lock picked?" Sam asked, maybe a little more familiar with breaking into buildings that most people would think. "And how would they have gotten up to the window?"

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly shook her head. "The lock was a padlock on the inside of the door; no way to pick it from the outside that I could see. No marks on it anyway, or the hinges."

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam frowned. "So we've got one coming in through the window. If I had to guess, I'd say she got hit in the head with the chandelier. But I don't know why or who."

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

Molly sighed. "There was also straw under the body, a half cut horse lead in the stable and hoof prints on the outside of the shutter. This is so confusing."

Re: Lunch

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Wow, you're much better at this than I am," Sam remarked. "Any chance someone's trying to set someone up?"

Re: Lunch

[bruiser-in-pink.livejournal.com]

"That is always a possibility," Molly said. "Hopefully talking to the people will help."