[QUEEN] The Den of Deception

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[QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

Image
Spoiler : Characters :
Any and all criminal(s) and accomplice(s) will come from this list of characters, so contain your theories to them!

Daniel Levine (stage name Damien Silvermead)
[?]
Asher Levine
Seth Levine
Rachel Johnson
Gabriel Levine

Christian Engel
Nao Koyama
Anne Namad

Charles Groud*

*Charles Groud is innocent.
=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=
Spoiler : Map :
Floor 1:
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Floor 2:
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=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=
It's an ordinary morning for you, and as you go through your news feed (or however you keep up-to-date with current happenings), you spot a small article about yet another celebrity death. At this point, they barely even faze you. This time it was for Daniel Levine--better known by his stage name, Damien Silvermead. He was an incredibly talented magician, known as the Houdini of his day. But while Houdini was an escape artist, and the popular magicians now were illusionists, Daniel's specialty had been tricks involving deception--from impersonations to ventriloquism, he could do it all. While the height of Daniel's popularity was quite a while ago (especially since he retired), his fame has not declined, and he is still a household name across the globe.

You soon receive, however, a most unusual email. It is a request from a woman claiming to be Daniel's sister. The email notifies you of Daniel's death (it seems to fit with the article), and requests that you come to his mansion to deal with an issue pertaining to his death--immediately. It's a strange request, and at the last minute... but you decide to accept. She arranges travel for you, and soon enough you're on a plane to the Pacific Northwest.

At the airport you meet a chauffeur who escorts you to a sleek black car, and he begins to drive... and drive... and drive. You leave the city, go past the suburbs, and just when you begin to suspect you've become the victim of some sort of scam or kidnapping scheme, the trees part to reveal a large, two-story mansion. On each side of the mansion, you can see the sea stretching out into the distance; from the perspective, you can tell that you appear to be on some sort of cliff.

You step out of the car, and the smell of saltwater fills your nostrils. On a nicer day the view is probably breathtaking, but today the overcast sky and gray waters simply give the house a gloomy, foreboding feeling. It's too bright outside to see in through the windows, but patches of ivy cover the walls in some areas. As soon as you take your suitcase out of the car, the chauffeur zooms off, leaving you with only one place to go. As you approach the mansion, a factoid from the scant research you performed before departing pops into your head. Daniel Levine apparently christened his house with the same title as his primary stage show...

The Den of Deception.

Unsure of what exactly to expect, you take a deep breath and use the knocker on the front door. After several moments the door opens to reveal a tall, thin man in a suit with sharp features, snow white hair and a neat, trimmed mustache. His icy blue eyes look down on you--both literally and, you can't help but feel, figuratively. He is clearly the butler, and you can tell he is analyzing, dissecting, and judging you with his gaze.

"You must be one of the detectives," he says in a low voice. "Please, come in. Let me take your suitcase." He gestures you inside the house. You don't have time to take in the foyer before he leads you to a door and nearly thrusts you in. "Please wait in here, and I will notify Rachel you have arrived." You recognize that name as the woman who contacted you. The butler gives a short bow, and closes the door.

The room you find yourself in has beige wallpaper with a white floral pattern. In the center of the room is a glass table with a potted fern on top, around which four armchairs are arranged. Two people--from the look on their faces, they're as confused as you are--are already sitting in the chairs. The chairs have a wooden frame and white fabric with a colorful floral print. A rug with a matching design is laid out underneath the chairs. Slightly larger, beige armchairs are also in one or two of the corners. In another corner is a tall wooden cabinet with glass doors. A mirror in a gold frame hangs on the northern wall. Some windows overlook the lawn, and the only door is the one you just came in through. There is an obsidian statue of dragon of a pedestal in the southeast corner of the room.

You are currently in the parlor with two strangers.
Last edited by Bad Player on Fri Jun 30, 2017 4:29 am, edited 16 times in total.
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Enthalpy »

Three of us? Not a usual way to start these off, but I can't say what she means by that.

She takes a seat in the armchair and looks at the other two detectives. She didn't recognize the mustached man at all, and though she had the vague recollection of the younger man's face, she couldn't place it. For a split-second, she frowned. Did this mean that she didn't know the field of detectives as well as she had thought, or that Mrs. Johnson had gone to lesser known detectives. Somebody who was recruiting multiple detectives but not able to get big-name detectives was not a good sign for the case.

You're getting ahead of yourself, cautioned a voice inside her head, and she held off. It was dangerous to speculate any more on this, given how scarce the facts were. False conclusions were hard to get away from.

She gave the room a brief scan as she walked to her seat. The flower motif was interesting, but not particularly revealing about the owner. And with her client nowhere in sight, that left the one thing she had been avoiding: the other detectives. By now, she had just taken her seat.

"I'm Paloma Ayala. I assume you've also been contacted by Mrs. Johnson?"
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Toatali »

A 50-something year old man is sitting in a chair. Dressed almost entirely in mustard colouring, he is quite the spectacle. He wears a monocle, despite the fact that he has 20/20 vision. Maybe he's a fashionista? He checks his pocket watch and grunts.

'The name's Colonel Mustard. Although, I suspect you already knew that.'

'Indeed, I was also contacted. Natural, really for someone to turn to me. I'm very famous, don't you know?'
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Evo »

Torin sat down in the armchair, pushed up his glasses and examined his surroundings. The room was quite fancy - unsurprisingly, considering the building it was part of. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary or worthy of further examination on first glance, but then, this room was most likely not the scene of the crime. After taking a look at all the inanimate objects, he turned towards the other people in the room. He recognized them immediately: the famous detectives Paloma Ayala and Colonel Mustard. For a split second, he considered jumping out of the chair and asking them for an autograph. Then he realized he should remain calm. First of all, he did not know what their purpose in this place was - were they his partners in the investigation, or his competition? Second, getting excited around strangers would be inappropriate and leave a bad first impression. He did not want to embarrass himself in front of two detectives of much greater renown than himself. Not that he'd get excited around non-strangers. The one incident with Riley and the cat had just been an... exception. In any case, he had to do this the right way.

"I am Torin Mulligan, private detective. I was contacted by Ms. Rachel Johnson as well."
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

The door to the parlor opens with a small creak, and a middle-aged woman enters the room. She's wearing a black dress, and her dirty blonde hair is done up in a bun. She's wearing small silver earrings, and the make-up around her eyes is a little smudged. She’s trying to put on a kind smile, but it’s obvious something heavy is weighing on her mind.

"I see you've all arrived. You must be Ms. Paloma, Col. Mustard, and Mr. Mulligan," she says, giving a small nod to each of the three detectives in turn. "Thank you so much for coming here on such short notice. I really appreciate it."
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Toatali »

Mustard stands up and bows.

'The pleasure is all mine to be standing in your beautiful reception room. Yes, it reminds me of the one back at my father's house... And I am glad to fit you into my extremely busy schedule.'

As he says all this, Mustard is glancing at those in the room. At 'extremely busy schedule' he seems to speak a bit louder.
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Enthalpy »

Paloma takes the Colonel's self-aggrandizement without any change of expression.

"It wasn't much trouble. I was able to get some reading done on the way here, which is always welcome."
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Evo »

"I must thank you... for the invitation." Was that the polite thing to say in this situation? In any case, it was true. He was grateful for the challenge. Together with famous detectives, even... he really had to do his best. "So... I assume you want us to investigate your brother's death?"
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

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"N-Not quite," Rachel said in response to Torin's inquiry. "Danny was sick the past few months.." Rachel choked up slightly. "He had a stroke, apparently, and that's what... happened. There doesn't seem to be much doubt about it. Rather..."

Rachel's voice trailed off, and she paused for a second. Her eyes then glaze over, and she recites, almost in a trance:

"It shall begin with a bang; I wonder who will win.
I follow the Arbiter as he sums my good deeds and sin.
Finally, he decides; will I fall down to Hades below?
Or spring forth like a Phoenix in the morning glow?"

Suddenly, Rachel snapped back to normal, and looked at the detectives. "That, uh... That doesn't mean anything to any of you, does it?" She asked sheepishly.
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Toatali »

The colonel's eyes shifted around to look at the other detectives again. He was clearly anxious about them, as if he felt somewhat out of place. He tensed up in his chair before he spoke.

'Ah, Greek, madame? Now I do believe I may have heard it somewhere before. Probably at school; I studied the classics, you see. Hades, of course, being the God of the underworld. What is confusing, however, is that the Greeks had no concept of an 'arbiter'. That must be a later Christian addition. Where did you hear such a poem?'
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Evo »

"I... see," Torin forced out, painstakingly keeping his voice and facial features under control. How did he make such a mistake? It seemed like an elementary deduction - a detective specializing in murder cases was called to investigate an issue pertaining to a recent death. What could it have been if not the death itself? Yet, he had been wrong. "Jumped to conclusions," as Riley would say it. He had to make sure not to do it again. Not in front of these famous detectives. No... not at all. This was absolutely inappropriate for a good detective. He had to do his best. Was that the best he could do?
"As for the poem... I am aware of the concepts and legends mentioned. However, I'm not familiar with the poem itself." Should he be? Had he made another mistake? This investigation was off to a great start.
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Enthalpy »

Paloma blinks before saying a word. Clearly, that was not what she was expecting. She seems to recover herself when the Colonel speaks.

"Not quite true, Colonel. Plato's Republic concludes with the Myth of Er, which has a quite literal judge who sends the good above and the bad below. Of course, the Republic wasn't standard mythology, but that's not relevant here. The most immediate point is the change in subject, from some kind of game to 'win' to what appears to be the judgment of the dead. It may very well be not about death at all, though personally, I'm more interested by the references to the four seasons. Winter, summer, fall, and spring."
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

"This is a riddle that Daniel left behind," Rachel explained.

"You see, he's... somehow hidden his wealth somewhere, and this is the clue he left behind for us to find it. Daniel apparently wanted myself, our older brother, and his two sons to compete to see who could solve the riddle and find his money first, with that person receiving all of it. Thankfully, none of us have any interest in that sort of thing, so we've agreed to simply split the money. Unfortunately, the money is still hidden, and none of us can make heads or tails of his riddle, so... we decided to call in the experts.

"If you've heard this before and know where this is from, that may help you figure out what Danny meant," Rachel said to Col. Mustard with a note of hope in her voice.

After hearing Paloma's observation, Rachel took out a small stack of papers and raced her eyes over it. "Y-You're right!" She exclaimed; it seems the riddle is printed on the pages. "I knew I hired the right people. I never noticed anything like that... but I have no idea what it means, either. Of course, figuring that out is your job," she said with a small smile.
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Enthalpy »

Paloma nods. "That makes more sense. Though if I can ask, how did you know this was supposed to be a competition between you?"
Spoiler : Inner Monologue - No Evo or Toatali! :
Colonel Mustard appears to be a caricaturish braggart. I hope my demonstration will convince him to drop the act, but if he does not, he is not to be trusted with information. I doubt he'll risk giving away any of his "glory." As for Mrs. Johnson, I can't make her out. She's grieving enough to be wearing black and letting her makeup run, but also focused on her brother's estate... Putting on a show or just channeling her energy into this last wish, for the family? No, it's still too early to judge. The first order of business is to get more background information.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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Re: [QUEEN] The Den of Deception

Post by Evo »

Interesting. The Kline and Mulligan Detective Agency had taken a few inheritance cases before, but none quite like this. A challenge for the heirs... and now, a challenge for him. He was not allowed to fail.
He had to carefully scan the poem for clues other than the ones Paloma Ayala had already found - how could he have been so inattentive?

Taken together, it appeared to be about the dead man - he wondered who would win the challenge, and then he expected to be judged after his death, provided he was religious and that was part of his beliefs.

It shall begin with a bang; I wonder who will win.
Did that mean that the challenge would start with a bang? Perhaps he had to find something that could create a noise that might be described as a bang, and that would open the way to further clues.

I follow the Arbiter as he sums my good deeds and sin.
Follow the arbiter? An unusual choice of words. There had to be a hidden clue. After the "bang", did he have to follow something that could be described as an arbiter?

Finally, he decides; will I fall down to Hades below?
Hades. God of the underworld in Greek legend. It might also refer to the underworld itself, or rather, since an underworld didn't exist, to a basement he had to enter.

Or spring forth like a Phoenix in the morning glow?
Below, then forth. Two references to directions. It might just be an artifact of the seasons clue, of course. The Phoenix, morning and glow could also be hints. Perhaps there was a picture of a Phoenix in the mansion, something that only became apparent in the morning hours, or something glowing?

He took a mental note of anything that could be a clue, then he decided to begin with the first one. "Ms. Johnson. Are you aware of anything in this mansion that could create a 'bang'?"
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