As suspected, sadly, [color=red]All of the windows in the main room of Kyrie and Rudolf’s room were closed by the time the group broke down the door.[/color]
(Oh, obviously, no wordplay with shit like ‘the door’ to be referring to some other door or ‘the bathroom window’ referring to some other window. Assume all these reds apply to their rooms and situations respectively.)
I’d like to request a clarification regarding the definition of an accomplice. Is a person who takes some action that is a part of the culprit’s plan, such as writing the “HA HA HA” on the study door, an accomplice if they do so under the culprit’s orders, but sincerely believing it is only playacting or something else completely different from murder. Simply put, is a person acting under the culprit’s orders that the culprit lied to about the purpose of the action an accomplice or not?
[color=blue]Kyrie and Rudolf’s locked room was accomplished via a heavy block of ice, placed on top of the window on the room side. While the culprit escaped through the window, they placed some sort of metal bar between the gap to keep it open, and removed it once they were all the way through. The ice slammed the window shut, then melts overnight.[/color]
In that instance, and in the scenario you’ve described specifically, yes - the person is an accomplice. (Take this at face value and apply it to the mysteries and the things I want you to explain, since obviously if the culprit asked an innocent person to fetch them a glass of water or something, it’d be ridiculous to consider them an accomplice.)
It’s for this specific possibility that I mentioned that the method of closing the window this way would’ve left a “trace” in that red. In this case, we can say that there would’ve been traces of water on the part of the wall directly below the window or carpet.
[color=blue]One of the bodies in Rudolf and Kyrie’s room is actually a living person pretending to be dead, and they created the closed room while still inside it.[/color]
I originally wanted to question how it could’ve been possible to pull that off, given that the bodies were headless, but I suppose it’s possible enough with some additional dismemberment and the culprit getting into a turtle pose.
So, sure, knock yourself out. I won’t object to it for the time being.
Perhaps one could use “if the culprit decieves someone to do something related to the murders they would not normally do, they’re still an accomplice” as a rule of thumb. That way, stuff like Kinzo telling people to hole up in the study doesn’t count as everyone being an accomplice to Kinzo if he’s the culprit, as that is an action that would be natural to them even without Kinzo telling them to do so, and Kinzo didn’t need to decieve them to get them to agree. Not that a strict definition is necessary, the example in the above posts should be enough for people to get a good grasp on what people can and cannot do.
Anyhow, under my current understanding, people intentionally opening the study for the culprit to enter or playing dead under the culprit’s orders would also count as being an accomplice, which narrows down the space of usable tricks considerably.
Also, regarding the original ruleset of the game, it’s an interesting idea. It would be nice if there was some system that rewarded careful thought… but having to double one’s points to win seems a bit too strict a victory condition to me, unless the mystery is extremely carefully crafted in a way that leaves next to no reasonable alternatives to the true solution. Something such as “the key in the pot is the same as the key Battler found” is not established in the story, as far as I can remember, so it’s easy for a player to make a theory based on the possibility of having two keys and lose points because it just happened to not be the true solution, even if nothing in the narrative contradicted it. Though I suppose that if there’s a clue that hints towards the true solution to a particular mystery, making a theory that doesn’t utilize all clues could be considered a mistake on the player’s part… Hmm. That makes things murky if red herrings exist, though.
[color=blue]Battler had the opportunity to put the key in the pot during the aftermath of finding Hideyoshi and Eva. While everyone was distracted, he split off from the group and wrote the HA HA HA graffiti as well as dropped the key into the pot. [/color]
That’d be quite the absence. Unfortunately, [color=red]had Battler attempted to leave at that time, he would’ve been noticed and his absence noted.[/color]
If there are no accomplices, Battler acted as though he had no idea where the key had gone from his pocket, and it is impossible for him to drop it or for someone to pickpocket it from him without Battler noticing, what other conclusion is there to draw other than that Battler is the culprit? Explaining the key in the pot and the HA HA HA is tricky without a culprit who isn’t a part of the group, though.
Xak made a blue explaining the locked room in Rudolf and Kyrie’s room, and DWaM didn’t refute it in red. But even though he said it is possible enough, I really can’t see it. An adult can’t fit into an adult’s dress without their head sticking out or it being immediately obvious something is up. If the chairs they were sitting on were sofas or somesuch, the culprit could’ve cut a hole to hide their extra mass in, but the word “chair” to me implies something that doesn’t have that extra space to carve into a hiding spot. Even if you argued that Kanon is 16 or something and small enough to pull it off, the theory encounters a problem. If Kanon’s body is indeed so notably smaller than that of the adults’, then it should’ve been immediately obvious to the people finding the charred corpse of “Kanon” that he suspiciously grew a lot bulkier during the night. Among the dead, there should be nobody who is of similar size to Kanon (if we assume he’s small enough to be able to pretend to be the headless corpse of Rudolf or Kyrie), so a substitute corpse couldn’t have been used, right?
If the above is true, then an alternate solution must exist. I’m inclined to believe it must hinge on the chain, since should there be a trick involving the windows that leaves no traces, the culprit could’ve used that with the previous locked room as well without having to resort to burning ropes or such. I can’t think of any difference between the two locked rooms that would make some window trick possible in one but not the other. Thus, the trick must be based on the one noticeable difference, the chain. Perhaps something like this? [color=Blue]The culprit had broken down the hinges of the door in advance. He set the chain from the inside, and then used glue or some other implement that allowed him to “fix” the door from the outside. Even if the glue didn’t hold the door in place all that strongly, nobody would’ve noticed anything since Battler, the culprit, was the only person to touch the door before it was broken down.[/color] As long as the door provided some resistance, it is plausible enough that Kinzo wouldn’t notice enough of a difference to suspect someone had tampered with the door in advance. If he was able to kick down other doors in the mansion, one can assume that even the doors that are held in place by proper hinges aren’t that durable.
The key in the pot is a problem. As the culprit, Battler would’ve been able to make sure that he’s the one who finds the key, and he could’ve prepared a trick in advance that lets him put the key inside the pot, whatever that trick might be. But I wonder why he would even do such a thing. Having the key mysteriously vanish from his pocket while assuring that there’s no way anyone could’ve stolen it or that he could’ve dropped it just seems like a way to make himself seem more suspicious. Not to mention that he tried to go to the pots. If Kinzo hadn’t stopped him, the key trick would’ve lost all value as something Battler couldn’t possibly have pulled off. It could be he counted on Kinzo stopping him, but that seems like a pointless risk. In any case, the trick. An unsatisfying solution would be that [color=Blue]Battler threw the key in after the lid was removed from the pot, and somehow nobody noticed[/color], but I don’t have high hopes for that theory. A more convoluted theory would be that [color=Blue]Battler dropped the key down from the window in Eva and Hideyoshi’s room. He had prepared in advance a slide that stuck out from the kitchen window that would guide the key inside the pot, and a string that he could pull to move the lid to cover the pot fully.[/color] The string wasn’t tied to the lid directly, it merely nudged the lid when pulled, and thus didn’t leave traces in the kitchen. However, this would require the narrative to omit two relevant details - that Battler went to the window in the first place, and that the kitchen window was open. I suppose Battler could’ve investigated the room a little when Shannon was chasing down George. If only Battler had gone vomit through the window.
A less plausible alternative to the above is that [color=Blue]Battler had prepared some strange trapdoor in the floor outside Eva and Hideyoshi’s room, and used his vomiting break to covertly drop the key to the pot and put the lid in place, perhaps with a string trick.[/color]
When it comes to the HA HA HA, I don’t really have any explanation, though. Something like the text being written there in advance but covered with some substance that vanishes over time should be eliminated by the red about the text not existing when Shannon and George searched the third floor. I don’t think there were any opportunities for anyone in the group to go paint the study door, so this, at least, seems to require a culprit who is not a part of the group. Yet, the reds seem to leave no room for Battler to be innocent because of the key. Might as well go ridiculous and say [color=Blue]Battler had prepared a huge stamp with AH AH AH on it that he’d hidden behind a trapdoor on the roof. A timed mechanism was set to open the trapdoor and hit the door with the stamp, and then retract the stamp and close the trapdoor. This caused the HA HA HA to appear in the door when nobody was looking. Only Battler could think of a method as stupid as this, thus Battler must be the culprit.[/color]
Well there is one body that could’ve been used in place of Kanon’s… Kumasawa’s. The burning would probably easily hide the obvious age difference problem. However, that runs into the problem that Kanon’s head was one of the six found behind the double locked door.
Time for a crackpot theory: [color=blue]The culprit, Nanjo, swapped waistcoats with Battler after the latter had picked up the red skull key. While they were opening the lids of the pots, Nanjo stealthily drops the key into one of the pots. The study closed room at the end becomes trivial for Nanjo. He could have also split off from Kinzo while they searched the second floor, waited for after the moment Shannon and George passed by the door on the third floor, then created the graffiti before rejoining Kinzo. [/color]
Combine this with Midsummer’s theory on the door being removed from its hinges, and every locked room and trick could be explained with the Nanjo culprit theory.
The way I visualized it was that the culprit had also dismembered a part of another’s body, cutting directly below the shoulders, to serve as the top, headless portion. Then, if the culprit was small enough, and with the right clothing, they could pull it off.
Then again, never tried it in real life, embarrassingly, so can’t confirm whether or not that would fool anyone.
I see no reason to deny this either for the time being. Go right ahead.
Wouldn’t have worked. The pot the key was found in still had its lid on when Battler was stopped by Kinzo, meaning he would have had to have thrown it in at a point where everyone was gathered around the pots. And nobody noticing a key just flying over their heads and getting dunked into water is impossible, given that it really was just a normal stove with a bunch of people staring down at it. Kinzo too would’ve probably grabbed him in a way where making a throw of any kind if next to impossible. Plus, Battler being able to precision-shoot it to begin with is a bit of an iffy plan to begin with. No chance of forseeing being stopped, so not time to practice to begin with.
Can’t have it all be strings, y’know? [color=red]All of the lids were placed on their respective pots by hand.[/color]
[color=red]No secret passages exist in the mansion. This applies to any entrances or exits not directly pointed out in the gameboard itself.[/color] I’m also curious how nobody who had been with him at the time noticed him casually opening up a trapdoor to begin with.
It is indeed.
Oddly enough, you’re not the only one to go with the huge stamp. Unfortunately, [color=red]The ‘HA HA HA’ was written on the door directly by hand.[/color]
Doesn’t work due to the problem of… well, Battler never putting two and two together, since he should have had the knowledge of switching waistcoats with Nanjo. Why would he have been surprised when the key wasn’t there? Not that I can really see why they would even do that to begin with. Also, [color=red]the pairs who had been searching their respective floors never split up and never lost sight of each other during the searches.[/color]
Hmm. It seems we’re back in a similar position as we were in the last game. It seems impossible for some things to have been done by a culpit who is a part of the group, and it seems impossible for some things to have been done by a culprit who isn’t a part of the group. Getting the key off of Battler seems impossible enough as it is - managing to do it without being in the group would mean Battler had to somehow drop the key between finding it and the group going to the kitchen. Since only the exploration of Eva and Hideyoshi’s room happened in that window of time, and the group headed immediately for the kitchen after they were done with investigating that room, it seems unlikely Battler could’ve dropped the key there, since the culprit would’ve had to go pick it up and run to the kitchen through some other route faster than the group and put the key in the pot and leave, without anyone hearing anything.
Could the key have dropped the key in the hallway between the two bedrooms? I guess. That’d explain why George felt the need for speed and dashed out of the room into the hallway all of a sudden, if he was the culprit and managed to somehow magically teleport the key from Battler’s pocket to the hallway floor. However, Battler couldn’t have dropped the key, and I assume this includes stuff like the culprit cutting a hole in Battler’s pocket that the key fell through. Also, such a hole would’ve undoubtedly been noticed when Battler started searching for the key from said pocket.
I wonder. Battler states that he would’ve noticed someone sticking their hand into his pocket, but [color=Blue]what if he was pickpocketed with some indirect means, such as using a magnet to slide the key off his pocket? The culprit then slipped the key into the pot after the lid had been taken off when most of the group gathered around the pots. Since the water was boiling, they wouldn’t have noticed any sound or ripples from someone stealthily dropping a small key there.[/color]
Also, it seems there is a person who could’ve perhaps had the opportunity to write the HA HA HA on the study door. [color=Blue]Jessica had set up a rope or somesuch that she could use to climb from the bathroom window in Eva and Hideyoshi’s room to the third floor. She then painted the text on the door and returned. Shannon was not there to observe how long Jessica was in the bathroom, and considering the situation, nobody would’ve probably thought that much of it if Jessica holed herself in the bathroom for two or three minutes, considering she was vomiting all over the place, like Battler.[/color]
This red:
Covers any sort of pickpocketing, including the indirect means you’ve just suggested.
Naturally, quite possible. Pass.
That damn key though.
[color=blue]Battler screwed up and never put the key in his pocket. It fell on his shoe and then slid on the floor. Culprit picked it up later and put it in the pot, to make sure they find it…[/color]
Hmm. Another reason to disregard a theory using a culprit from the outside who would somehow manage to induce the key to jump out of Battler’s pocket on its own is that unless they used some genius mechanism, they would have no way of knowing where the key lands. If the key made enough noise to be found based on that, then the group should’ve noticed it as well. The culprit would’ve hardly had the time to comb over the hallways to find that little key… though maybe they could have. After all, there was a red skull painted on the key - maybe they used that to help them locate the key. There probably should be some reason they bothered to paint it there, after all.
Anyhow, changing the topic to the last locked room for a moment, here’s another string trick for your reading pleasure. [color=Blue]Someone from the inside had prepared two sheets of ice with a hook on them, and put the bookshelf on top of those. Then they closed the door and carefully pulled the bookshelf in place with strings attached to the hooks in the sheets of ice. The ice simply melted away on its own, leaving no traces behind, except leaving the floor slightly wet in some places. Battler slipping on something while frantically searching around the study is totally foreshadowing of this.[/color]
Hooray for string tricks! Another way I envisioned it is simply [color=blue]The bookshelf was angled up against the open door, such that without someone keeping the door open, the bookshelf would slide down and close the door simultaneously. The culprit slipped through the door, released it, and let the bookshelf close it. The auto-lock took care of the rest.[/color]
That would still be countered by:
I guess one could argue that him not having a chance to put it into his pocket would not fully count as it being on his person, but fuck it, let’s just make it simple and say that it’s on his person even if he’s just holding it.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost say that all these string theories are some sort of payback for the last game.
[color=red]The bookshelf could have only been moved by at least one person pushing or pulling it from inside of the study.[/color]
I can’t let Battler have this key.
[color=blue]The key Battler found was indeed the one that ended up in the pot. However, he dropped it when he fell down on all fours in despair shortly after. While everyone got close to comfort him, the culprit switched the key with a fake one made out of (dry) ice. Battler never checked if it was really the same key when picking it up again.[/color]
They still needed to put it in the pot, but maybe I can just say there was a gap in the group’s alibi, like Jessica in the bathroom later.
Key switch was already suggested, I believe. Unfortunately for you, [color=red]the key Battler put in his pocket was a normal, metal key that couldn’t have simply dissolved on its own.[/color]
(Edit because I wrote ‘silver key’ but then I thought about it and I don’t remember if keys are made of silver or if I even specified it in the narration and I’m too lazy to check fuck it.)