Pact of the Abandoned Witch

Gameboards
#1

pact

Mmmm… witch rank…

Welcome one and all to a, what should be, a relatively simple Umineko-themed gameboard! It does not feature any major spoilers, but fair warning - there is a joke in there that alludes to a revelation that comes along in EP4 (but you might not pick up on it immediately, so… just consider it fair warning if nothing else.)

The game’s rules are relatively simple.

◈ The story is told through two reliable points of view. ‘Reliable’ meaning that they are earnest in their narration and essentially feature an objective point of view - meaning, no fantasy scenes. It also means, there’s no room for tricks that would be blatantly obvious or just instantly caught in real life (ie, there being a giant hole in the wall that they happened to miss or something of the sort.)
◈ The game will be played through a traditional red v blue, with a few minor adjustments.
◈ Firstly - I refuse any and all requests when it comes to repeating something in red. Meaning repetitions like ‘the culprit had to enter through X’ or anything of the sort is out of the question. I am more than happy to clarify things you might’ve found confusing within the narration and would like a clarification on. But the general rule of thumb is that you’re free to believe whatever you wish - as long as it’s believable and makes sense within the narrative.
◈ Secondly - I am not obligated to respond to all blues, should I find them to be insufficient or do not hit all the necessary points to formulate a complete explanation for what happened. Meaning shots in the dark like ‘the murder happened at X instead of Y’ or ‘the culprit used X to get into the room’, which don’t explain the entire thing and potentially run into problems when explaining other parts of the case aren’t sufficient enough. Simply put - no room for shots in the dark. A blue must be a solid theory. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just needs to answer the key mysteries of the case.
◈ Thirdly - when responding, I am not obligated to use red. I am also allowed to ask questions and use reasoning of my own to counter your theories. It’s generally more interesting to use what’s in the story against the players and save the red for the necessities. But we’ll see how this one plays out.
◈ The victory conditions are simple. Simply explain how the murder was committed. No need for a who or a why - although they are definitely possible to reach.

Finally, a few guarantees:
◈ There is only one culprit.
◈ The culprit must be someone mentioned in the story.
◈ There are no accomplices allowed.
◈ An ‘accomplice’ being defined as someone that willingly and knowingly helps with the execution of the culprit’s plans.

I think that should be all… Oh, and apologies for the potentially bizarre looking formatting or some badly-worded parts. I generally write these things relatively quickly and don’t bother proofreading too much aside from making sure the important stuff is there. I also tired out a new format that… didn’t really work out too well thanks to Word. But you be the judge.

Download the game [pdf file] here! Pact of the Abandoned Witch

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#2

Alright…an entire PDF to download here? Nice, here’s hoping its not malware :bern:

Though got a few queries and stuff before I sleep, get up later and have a crack at this thing

Would like a guarantee that these points of view are sane and stay sane throughout the story, else we could literally throw out the script and go nuts.
Also I assume that they don’t have any extreme wants, needs or vices of some sort that would make them act unnaturally that aren’t already clearly presented in the story, right? Like if someone had a vice for jewellery they could be bribed and may even convince themselves the person didn’t do that or something?
Well I guess I’m boiling this down to me wanting to know if the viewpoints are sound of mind barring anything we’re clearly told. I’ll assume they are here, so if they’re not and it isn’t stated clear enough that a 12 year old could see it please respond appropriately.

I’d like to request the guarantee that “the story” is entirely enclosed in this PDF and not hidden somewhere else like, suppose your name on Rokkenjima or your avatar had a secret to the solution, that would be “somewhere else”.
Next I know it might take a while but suppose I use a blue that falls under

then can you do a quick quote reply saying “Not specific enough” or something similar so we don’t try to chase you down for something we said earlier when you saw it but just don’t think it’s specific enough.

Finally, do we get bonus points for getting the 5 Ws (what, when, where, who, why) instead of just how it went down? You seemed to imply it was all possible to work out so it could be something we could look into if the “how” proves to be quickly found.

Ok gonna go rest my head now, hopefully I won’t forget about this gameboard!

#3

Yes, the two narrators are of sound mind. None of them suffer from any sort of split personalities or hallucinations that would make them mistake reality. They can be mistaken or be deceived just like any other human being, but those deceptions can never rise to the extremes of just being unbelievable. The narrative and the guarantee about accomplices also doesn’t leave much space for them flat-out lying or intentionally omitting key pieces of information.

The story is entirely closed in the pdf. My games don’t rely on extreme wordplays.

Of course - no theory will go ignored! That’d just be plain rude of me. I’ll also specify what questions need to be explained or what things that blue might contradict within the narrative. That’s what I meant by using my own reasoning to fight against you.

The “how” generally leads to pretty much everything. Same applies vice-versa, if I acknowledged you getting some of those elements, you’d have major hints for the how. So, unfortunately, no. All you have to get is the how and that is all I will fight you on. You are free to speculate on the other things, though - might serve as help to other players, should they get stuck.

Looking forward to seeing your theories!

#4

Oh, if only I wasn’t preoccupied for pretty much all of today. I’d love to delve deep into this gameboard, but alas, I must restrain myself.

Still, I might as well throw something quick at you to get things started. Since Kyrie did not see a pistol in the crime scene, suicide can be ruled out for now. Naturally, a person who shot themselves in the head would have no opportunity to conceal the gun. Using some kind of remote mechanism might be possible, but since Kyrie saw no traces of any such mechanism, it seems highly unlikely.

What could still be in the realm of possibility, however, is that Rudolf was not actually dead when Kyrie woke up. A convincing makeup might have fooled Kyrie. So, let’s try out the following.

The closed room was created from the inside by Rudolf, who was not actually paralyzed. The car accident may have been real, but Rudolf’s injury could’ve already healed, but he decided to remain in the wheelchair and feign being paralyzed for some purpose. He then pretended to be dead until Kyrie woke up, investigated the room, and left. After Kyrie left, Nanjo entered the room and killed Rudolf. As Nanjo must’ve faked the autopsy in this scenario, this would mean Nanjo is the culprit, as there can be no accomplices. Rudolf does not count as Nanjo’s accomplice in his own murder, since even if he acted on Nanjo’s instruction, he did not know Nanjo was planning on killing him, and thus did not ‘knowingly help with the culprit’s plan’. Rudolf was under the impression that the whole fake murder was for a different purpose.

Alternatively, to borrow from my own book… Rudolf created the closed room as described above, put on the makeup and everything, and then died from poison. As Nanjo examined the body and he would’ve noticed the bullet wound is fake, this means he, once again, is the culprit, but he didn’t come kill Rudolf personally after Kyrie had woken up. Perhaps he offered Rudolf what was supposedly a drug that makes him convincingly appear dead, but was actually poison that killed Rudolf when he took it after finishing his preparations after Kyrie had fallen asleep.

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#5

As far as opening moves go, not bad at all. However: When Kyrie woke up, Rudolf was most certainly next to her, dead, having been shot in the head. Rudolf’s cause of death was indeed the gunshot to the head. There is no deception in the “when kyrie woke up” - it refers to the scene when she wakes up next to his dead body, just to be entirely clear.

#6

Well, to be honest, I did not expect the answer to be something that would make 50% of the narrative a meaningless red herring, including the very title of the gameboard. Still, glad to have that out of the way.

I suppose I have to leave the stage for others for now - I hope the mystery isn’t solved by the time I have enough time to properly think about it.

#7

While I admit I’m no stranger to pulling something like that, I generally make sure to make the trick itself be something wildly entertaining (at least to me) to justify it.

#8

So many things going around Rokkenjima lately, is Autumn the season of mystery or something? I actually prefer winter because the cold weather helps the preservation of corpses, anyways, your story is really nice so I’ll think about it. I’d like to understand a few things first though.

  1. Are there master keys? Could you say how many and who possessed them? Can you confirm their locations at 8:15AM of the second day?
  2. Can I assume the gun room can only be opened with the key Genji held?
  3. Can you define “culprit”?
  4. Can the window be locked or unlocked from the outside?
  5. Can you clarify if the duct tape was inside or outside the room?
#9

Ah, shit, I knew I forgot something when I was making the initial guarantees.

  1. For the purposes of the story, there are no master keys - one key for one room. Makes things nice and simple and saves me making a shitton of reds for it.
  2. The gun room can only be opened with the key Genji had, correct.
  3. The culprit is a human being that kills.
  4. Window can only be locked from the inside, naturally. Must be done with a human hand, at that.
  5. Duct tape was, naturally, inside the room. Kyrie’s narration makes no sense otherwise.
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#10

Can the doors be opened by anything other than the specific key for the respective room?

#11

Nope. A door can only be locked and/or unlocked with its respective key.

I thought about using something like deadbolts where you could lock the doors by turning the knob on the inside or something, thus not needing a key, but in the context of this mystery, it’s irrelevant anyway since the key is in the room. We should keep things nice and simple.

#12

Awesome story! I appreciate the effort in regards to the layout of the PDF. Only things I found kinda strange were Battler calling Kanon ‘bro’ and Eva being uncharacteristically hysterical even though she only is when people close to her get killed.

Well then… let’s try something fun: When Kinzo had his fit, he was handling one of his guns and fired a bullet into the ground, thus accidentally killing Rudolf in the room below, which explains why Kyrie wasn’t woken up by the sound of the gun. The duct tape sealing was part of a different locked room ploy Rudolf and Kyrie were cooking up, but Kyrie was too focused on the real murder to bother removing it. Some time after Kinzo’s fit Genji used his key to lock away the gun used by Kinzo and and just didn’t bother to point that part of Kinzo’s fit out. Which makes him not an accomplice because there was no plan to cover it up to begin with…

The look of horror on Kanon’s face could very well come from him realizing what had happened.

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#13

I apologize if this sounds ridiculous.

The culprit/accomplice knocked on the door waking Rudolf up. Rudolf got into his wheelchair and unlocked the door. The culprit/accomplice forced themselves inside the room, closed the door, and shot Rudolf (Kyrie didn’t hear a thing because she was under the influence of powerful sleeping pills). The accomplice and the culprit worked together to return Rudolf to his bed. The culprit put duct tape all over the windows while the accomplice painted the circle over the bed (or vice-versa). The accomplice left the room while the culprit locked the door again and returned the key to its original position. The culprit then put duct tape all over the door. The culprit then hid inside Kyrie and Rudolf’s bed and waited there until morning. Kyrie checked many places, but not the inside of the very bed. Once Kyrie left the room, the culprit followed her and escaped the room.

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#14

I’m glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, my characters are kinda… ehh since it’s been so long since I read everything, so I just kinda wing it and go with whatever works. Kanon and Kyrie are out of character as well, anyway.

Now, onto your theory.

If that was the case:
◈ Why did Shannon not mention Kinzo having gun? Or see him fire it, for that matter? It’s strongly implied - practically stated, really - his episode started after Shannon entered the room. She would’ve seen him fire that thing off. If she’s innocent, she would’ve also had no reason to hide it.
◈ Why did the group seeing Kinzo freak out not mention him having a gun?
◈ Why did Kanon not mention finding a gun that was not supposed to be there while cleaning the place up?
◈ In this case, Genji would be considered an accomplice - because he took the gun from Kinzo and placed it back in the room. While he might’ve not thought much of it at the time, given the circumstances after the body was found, how would Kinzo not have been his prime suspect? Why did he keep quiet about this? From that point on, not saying anything does essentially make him an accessory.
◈ Most importantly however, remember - Kyrie looked at the ceiling and found nothing wrong with it. She would’ve found the bullet hole, had Kinzo shot through the room above.

I should note, perhaps, that the accomplice definition should be taken as broadly as possible. Meaning that one person had to have been responsible for every action taken in this murder, pretty much.

Putting aside the fact that there are no accomplices allowed (which in this case is fine, from this theory, there’s really no need for an accomplice anyway - these actions you’ve described could’ve been handled by one person just fine)…

There was nobody hiding inside of the bed.

Furthermore, a more important issue is the issue of alibis and the time of death. When could’ve the culprit possibly done this, if Rudolf was killed when he was?

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#15

Well, since his episode was described in rather vague and violent terms I have assumed that everyone who witnessed it just tried to describe it in just as vague terms for politeness sake, omitting the reckless gun usage for that very reason.

Am I supposed to take this as Red Truth? Only if you can guarantee that the ceiling had no bullet hole, I can withdraw my blue truth.

#16

You can generally assume that there’s no reason for pleasantries. People will note the important stuff. There’s no reason to omit things that are ultimately relevant to solving the murder, especially since there’s only one guilty party.

It’d be pretty unfair of me to have the narration state that there was no bullet holes, EXCEPT THAT ONE SHE DIDN’T FIND MWAHAHA. But fair’s fair. There was indeed no bullet hole in the ceiling of Rudolf and Kyrie’s bedroom.

#17

First of all Kyrie didn’t hear the shot because of the sleeping pills she stated herself to be the extra strong type, however everyone else heard it, Kanon mistook it for a thunder and so the time of death was between 11:40 and 11:53.

From here on, there are a few possible culprits, but this is my favourite theory:
It was agreed that Nanjo should stay in the mansion in case anything else happened with Kinzo, however, trying to conceal the pitiful state of their Master, they decided to lie about Nanjo’s actions as if nothing strange had happened. Earlier that day, when Genji was cleaning the gun room, Nanjo stole one of the guns there, already with a plan to kill Rudolf, Genji didn’t notice the disappearance of the stolen gun. Around 11:50PM, Nanjo knocked on the door, Rudolf opened it and let Nanjo in, Nanjo shoots Rudolf and seals the room completely, he hides inside the closet, after Kyrie wakes up, he notices when she goes to the bathroom, leaves the closet and hides under the bed, it was never stated she double checked anywhere so there’s no guarantee the culprit couldn’t change their hiding spot. After leaving the room, Nanjo notifies Genji about a gun he found on Kinzo’s study, Genji, thinking it was another fit of Kinzo, puts the gun back on its place and pretends it had been there the whole time.

I suppose this covers it all, but please feel free to ask for elaboration anywhere.

#18

A “no accomplice” game is no fun if people can still lie to that degree. Had there been a conspiracy of any kind to lie about Nanjo’s movements, they would’ve immediately been labeled as accomplices. They’re not idiots - given the circumstances and Kyrie’s own words, Nanjo would’ve been the obvious suspect. Not speaking up makes them undoubtedly guilty.

In other words - given there’s no room for lying. Genji, Kumasawa, Shannon and Gohda are all people that should’ve been able to verify Nanjo’s movements. Just one of them lying (regardless of their intentions) and then going with it after the revelation about the murder makes them an accomplice.

Think of it like this. You give a nice white lie, thinking you’re helping a friend out - say that he was with you at a certain time. And then you find out that someone was murdered, your friend is a suspect, and he says to the police he was with you at the time of the murder - the time he asked you to lie about. If you confirm his story, you are an accessory. And in this case, had they been lying for Nanjo’s sake - who in this theory is the culprit - they are accessory to the culprit and his plans.

That’s basically what the definition of accomplice also includes.

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#19

Earlier that day, when Genji was cleaning around the mansion just as stated in the narration, Kinzo stole one of the guns there during one of his fits, Genji didn’t notice the disappearance of the stolen gun. Around 11:50PM, Kinzo pretended to be asleep, and when Shannon and Nanjo left the study, he escaped it and knocked on the door to Rudolf’s room, Rudolf opened it and let Kinzo in, Kinzo shoots Rudolf and seals the room completely, he hides inside the closet, after Kyrie wakes up, he notices when she goes to the bathroom, leaves the closet and hides under the bed, it was never stated she double checked anywhere so there’s no guarantee the culprit couldn’t change their hiding spot. After leaving the room, Kinzo steals the key of the gun room, Genji never said anything about the key staying under his supervision during that morning, and all ther servants were in a rush, so it’s possible that he used the agitated state they were in to get the key, return the gun to it’s place and finally return the key to Genji’s possession without anyone noticing.

#20

Kinzo really was asleep when Shannon and Nanjo left the study. He would be asleep for hours afterwards.

And even so, seeing as how Nanjo and Shannon came down at around midnight, the murder would happen just by the skin of its teeth… but I suppose I could let that slide for the time being, even if it’s not quite elegant.