[color=blue]Battler is lying - he left the key somewhere he thought would be safe, in an attempt to keep the others from seeing whatever the culprit wanted them to see. The culprit found the key and placed it in the pots (could have been Jessica when she was in the bathroom). Battler pretended like he didn’t know where the key went because he didn’t want to be suspected of being the culprit.[/color]
[color=red]If Battler is not the culprit, then he would have never intentionally disposed of the key he put in his pocket after doing so [after putting it in his pocket, that is]. Of course, ‘unintentionally disposing of the key’ is considered dropping the key.[/color] Just in case. And besides - not even the people who live on the island realized what the keys were until they found the Moon key. How would Battler have known?
The key problem is a doozy, and everything kinda hinges on it.
[color=blue]Battler set up a mechanism to drop the key into the pot after all the lids had been removed. Let’s say there is a string dangling in the room, which is run through hooks on the ceiling around and back to the start.
When everyone is distracted by what’s in the pots, Battler loops the skull key on one end of the string and pulls on the other end to run it through. All of the hooks save for the one directly above the arm pot are bigger than the key, allowing the key to pass, but when the key hits the final hook it is held in place.
Battler pulls the string all the way through, releasing it from the key which drops into the boiling pot. The plop of the key dropping isn’t heard thanks to the boiling, and the hooks are obscured by smoke. [/color]
The pot with the key (the arm pot) is implied to be the first one opened, meaning everyone’s distracted by the subsequent pots, so he drops it by the time they’re looking at the heart pot.
It’s also possible that moving towards the pots was part of pulling the string and positioning the key.
Hrm, let me see if I understood this correctly.
The group enters the room, there’s a part of the string - let’s say next to the door - which nobody notices it, where Battler would be able to attach the key to. Battler then attaches the key to the string and then pulls on part of it to set it up and make it part of the loop.
So far so good, I hope.
My first question would be the part about what would cause the string contraption to start moving and get the key moving through the ceiling. [color=red]Anyone would’ve noticed had any strings been attached to any of the pots or their respective lids. No tripwires or sumsuch were present in the kitchen, either.[/red] The only option then becomes to manually pull on it, but when could’ve Battler done that?
If it’s before Kinzo restrains him, the tug would’ve caused the string to get stuck on the last hook (again, if I understand it correctly), making the key jam and the knot to break - making the key fall down. However - the only pot the key could’ve landed in at that time would’ve been in the one Kinzo opened (since that was the only one open). But that’s not the one the skull key was found in.
Therefore, for the tug to happen, it would’ve needed to be at a point where at least one other pot (the arm pot) was open - when the group had gathered around the pots and started lifting the lids. How would have Battler been able to pull on the string, then, if he was being restrained by Kinzo at the time?
It’s not as though Battler is unable to move, he’s actively struggling with Kinzo who’s grabbed his shoulders. [color=blue]He simply disguises the fact that he’s pulling on the string by struggling with Kinzo.[/color]
But… why run towards the pots in the first place, then? If the string was positioned at the door, why not hang behind just a bit to make it easier? Not like he could’ve known Kinzo would grab him and the two would start struggling, so in what position would’ve he had to have been in his plan to even start puling the string? Not to mention, how does Kinzo not notice the string itself during the struggle? When does Battler hold if? If it’s from the door, then wouldn’t have the string moved opposite from the ceiling because of the direction Battler moved as well (assuming we’re talking about some sort of a loop here?) Furthermore, Kinzo and him were ultimately struggling, which should’ve made it all the more tougher to extend his arm to the point where he can pull the string so much the key goes from one side of the room to the next, and presses against the smaller hook so hard the string ends up breaking.
There’s a variety of possible reasons as to why Battler moves towards the pots instead of hanging back.[color=blue]
It could be in an effort to make his motions of tugging on the string seem less suspicious, or to free himself from taking a suspicious disinterest in the pots. Perhaps he made a mistake and realized that the lid was closed, and intended to open it before anyone else got to it and noticed there was no key inside. Perhaps the string wasn’t near the entrance, but actually closer to where Kinzo was.
[/color]
As for mid struggle: [color=blue]Battler’s hands are reaching towards the pots and therefore behind Kinzo where he cannot see.
Kinzo is also in a struggle here, not only is he not considering something as ridiculous as Battler holding this string, he’s also focused on subduing Battler and also is possibly trying not to get hit in the face by a flailing.
[/color]
I don’t understand quite what you mean about the string moving opposite from the ceiling? If it’s run through a hook Battler should be able to run in any direction really and it’ll only pull through one way.
For the arm, [color=blue]Battler doesn’t need to extend his arm enough to pull the string the entirety of the way through. He reels it in either like he’s climbing a rope one tug at a time, or by wrapping it continuously around his hand.[/color]
Please sir, I’m so hungry. Could you spare a red? 
I am not a kind nor merciful lord, I’m afraid.
Let me try illustrating my issues, so we find some sort of understanding at where exactly I’m having trouble here.
Excuse the handwriting, the image says:
“LOOP? If Battler has string grabbed here --> as he moves, key moves with him because it’s attached to the loop.”
“NO LOOP? If Battler goes for the string --> how does he grab it and when?” [Given that it would had to be on the floor in this case]
You’ve chosen to walk the path of the string. Now you must pay its consequences.
the fact that my last gameboard was so elaborate in terms of the string trick was mainly because I elected to do a string trick in the first place so there you go; now you must feel the pain in addition to the pain you’re already feeling
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It seems as though I was misunderstood. There is no loop, and the string is not on the floor.
All hail the mighty string, the lord of crackpot mystery 
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Hmm.
I actually quite like that! I’ll let it pass.
We shall celebrate this occasion with a poem.
If X leads to Y
And if Y leads to Z
Then, we’re all a happy family
But if this is all to be,
Why is Z still staring back at me?
The poor letter asks, desperately:
“Then how is it,
That he laughed with glee?”
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An alternate theory for the pot:
[color=blue]Battler planted the key on one of the others, in an attempt to frame them by demanding a search after “noticing” that the key is missing. The other person noticed this, however, and got rid of the key quickly by dropping it in one of the pots. [/color]
Isn’t it strange, though? You’d think the natural human response would be to simply bring it up with the others. After all, the behavior you suggest would’ve been far more probable only if the person had somehow known in advance of Battler’s intentions or for the reasons for them ending up with the key…
Ah, well. Food for thought, yes?
I see no reason to deny this for the time being, though.
Now then, about that poem…
<Very good!>
In that case, the next logical thing to do is construct a master Battler theory.
Let’s recap.
I’ve divided this mystery into roughly 7 different puzzles, please let me know if I’m missing something.
- The closed-room death of Kanon.
We still have a standing blue truth for this:
- The deaths of Kyrie and Rudolf, also a closed room. Unfortunately, Xak’s standing blue about one corpse being alive isn’t really applicable to Battler theory, but midsummer’s hinge idea does and indeed supports it.
The deaths of Eva and Hideyoshi (and later Krauss, and Natsuhi) are all open rooms and can be passed over.
-
The pot trick, was just explained.
-
Trick or treat, which has a standing blue from Xak where there’s a string mechanism activated when the room is entered.
-
The HA HA HA graffiti, unexplained. Need to go back over the narrative and nail down the timeline, when exactly did the search happen in relation to other events?
-
The murder of everyone else in the party sans Shannon, which is basically brought up by Shannon herself. Shannon’s theory about killing Kinzo and the Nanjo and George not hearing is solid enough (except just completely ignoring Jessica?), but Shannon suggests he kills them and then drags them out which unfortunately doesn’t work as Nanjo and Jessica die by gun (well, maybe), and George is probably alive while those bodies are found. We can construct a theory anyways though.
[color=blue]Battler offers George and Nanjo spiked drinks.[/color] In fact, let’s use spiked drinks for everything here: [color=blue]Jessica and Kinzo also recieved spiked drinks poured by Battler.[/color]
He’s been doing a lot of drinking this game, so it’s fair to think he’d suggest drinking to relax from all this murder business. If they turn down alcohol, he offers water instead, suggesting it’s imperative the group stay hydrated.[color=blue]
While everyone’s knocked out, he has plenty of time to kill everyone. He stakes Kinzo, drags Jessica and Nanjo into position and shoots them, and drags George to the room he’s in. Originally, Battler planned to frame George, but he’s so ticked off at Shannon’s lack of tact that he decides to just go straight to George and stab him to death, after waking him so that he dies a painful conscious death.[/color]
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I think I had a standing blue with the eyelid trick - I believe DWaM passed on it anyway (yes it involved strings and a trip wire or the like at the door). Agreed with the breakdown though, all the pieces SEEM to be solved.
EDIT: Oh, minus the graffiti now I guess. Jessica was still the only one we could possibly pin that on so far…
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Oooh my bad, I was only looking through my notes where I had just written the red about the lightswitches being normal. Edit’d.
The search happens at the very beginning of the story, meaning really only that it had to have been written sometime between Kanon’s corpse and the party’s arrival upstairs.
The red we’ve gotten regarding Battler splitting from the party so far has only been in regards to the aftermath of Hideyoshi and Eva.
Surely we can suggest some other times? What about [color=blue]during the discovery of the eyelid trick, when the room is dark and everyone’s focused on the candles and eyes adjusting?[/color] It’s a pretty short message to write, and we could even suggest something crazy like an escape rope to quickly slide back down in time to run in fear.
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I like that, Battler doesn’t do anything in the narration when they’re in the room itself, and it’s possible he could rejoin the crowd as they were fleeing. The trick is completely remote controlled, so he wouldn’t need to have entered the room with them at all.
Now, now.
You can’t possibly think it’s something as trivial as that.
[color=red]Had Battler attempted to leave the group during the discovery of the body in Krauss’ and Natsuhi’s room, he would have been spotted. Had Battler attempted to leave the group during the discovery of the Moon key, he would have been spotted. Had Battler attempted to leave the group during the discovery of the heads, he would have been noticed. [/color] The rest of the scenes are essentially impossible for him to have left - he couldn’t have just snuck off during the discovery of Kyrie and Rudolf and he couldn’t have possibly snuck off during the kitchen incident, given that he was at the center of it.
Of course, him just randomly splitting off from the group at some random point X in the story as they were walking around, coming back, nobody mentioning anything and nobody finding him the least bit suspicious given the circumstances at that point in time is pretty nonsensical.
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Let’s round it out then per formality.
[color=blue] Battler writes the message during the discovery of Kanon’s body, when everyone is still processing what’s going on. They aren’t on their toes yet, Kinzo hasn’t suggested they ‘submit to the search’, and Shannon is busy investigating the room.[/color]
Assuming the culprit is not Battler, the key switch must’ve happened before he put what he thought was the key into his pocket. Though this angle begs the question of why the culprit would’ve bothered to place the real key there at all if they were planning on substituting it with a fake immediately after it was found.
Ignoring that obvious problem for a moment and assuming Jessica could’ve just switched the keys somehow when Battler was all sad, the question would then become “how did the substitute key vanish from Battler’s pocket”. It’s been denied in red that the key was made of some non-metal substance that could’ve simply vanished on its own. Preparing some mechanism to make the key jump out of the pocket seems unreasonable. So, even though I already dismissed this previously, might as well bring it up again now that the key issue has become the driving question.
[color=Blue]Jessica had cut a small hole in all pockets she expected Battler might reasonably put the key in. This hole wouldn’t make the key drop to the floor, but rather drop inside the jacket. Shannon only searched the pockets, so as long as the hole is small enough for her to miss, it’s kindasorta plausible-ish. Jessica had replaced the key with a fake before Battler put it in his pocket, so Jessica was free to put the real key into the pot at some other time.[/color]
…This also assumes that Jessica, with her amazing psychic abilities, had foreseen that Battler is the one who picks up the key. That, or the amount of holes Jessica cut into poor unsuspecting pockets the night before was truly staggering. Both of these options seem 120% plausible to me, yes.
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'Tis already been rounded up.
And in another exciting installment of DWaM and the Mystery of the 53 Magical Keys:
Always nice when the players themselves do half the work for me. You’re correct, neither seems terribly likely. Nevertheless, I shall give you what you seek. [color=red]None of Battler’s pockets were damaged, had holes cut in them or modified in any other way. This applies in the period from the beginning of the game all the way to its end.[/color] (Can’t have the ol’ “had holes cut in them that were later sewed up” attack now can I?)
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