Didn’t you read? He said that B was aware that C died, but thought that C died outside the mansion.
Oh, my apologies, then. I must’ve misread it.
In that case… If B killed C, he was aware that C died in the mansion.
Let me try something slightly ridiculous. This is small bombs level insanity but hey, that sort of craziness is fun too right?
The third death was not C, but B. When he followed C out of the mansion he was already a ghost. B did not know he was dead because he was killed in a sudden attack to the head from behind.
That would’ve made for a magnificent troll solution, but sadly, no supernatural elements such as ghosts are involved in this mystery.
Well… that’s makes things more difficult.
I’ll slightly change this theory:
It is possible that E was not killed by poison but instead died accidentallly (he might have choked to death while eating the cookies).
B knew of the fact that E was planning on making it seem like he was stabbed. However, E was, in fact, really dead even though B was not aware of that, thus it is still possible that B attempted to trick the others.
B did not believe E was actually dead until the end. Because of this, he thought that only 2 people died in the mansion.
E’s death was not accidental or a coincidence. He was murdered.
Regarding B announcing E’s death in order to trick the others… I believe the red “He was not trying to make anyone believe E was dead when he really wasn’t.” should invalidate all blues about B believing E is alive but still saying he’s dead in order to make C and D believe E is dead. I guess the “when he really wasn’t” kinda makes that invalid, though, so here. If B didn’t believe E was dead, his exclamation about E’s death was not meant to make C and D believe E is dead.
So, the question becomes this. If B believed E was alive, why would he say E is dead, if he wasn’t trying to make C or D believe E is dead?
B believed E was alive. He thought it was part of a game and played along. He expected the others to also know that this was part of the game and not actually believe it. He was simply roleplaying.
(I mean, who just casually goes to sleep after finding a dead body anyway?)
And so, all pieces are on the table, they merely require a little bit of shuffling.
It should be fairly obvious by now, but I recall people stating only partially correct blues regarding E’s death, so I ask again…
How did E die?
All other questions have been answered with valid blues, I believe. The curtain is about to fall on this gameboard.
Looks like I’m a bit late showing up. GG to @Aurarcane for breaking maybe a third or a half of the Mystery straightaway! I’ll have a look over, but does a suicide count as a murder? I ask because in real life it’s a manslaughter which is very, very similar.
Whether suicide counts as “murder” is a question I haven’t had to consider… I suppose I’ll rule suicide as an acceptable form of murder for now. Should I later host a gameboard in which the question becomes significant, I’ll think things through in more detail then.
E committed suicide.
If I missed anything that prevents this from being true let me know.
I’m afraid there’s already a red for that.
If anyone wants to catch up, then I’m pretty sure I’ve collected all the non redundant reds surrounding E’s death here:
#On the topic of Doors
E and D’s room doors both have only one key that can open their locks. For the purposes of this mystery, nothing other than a key can open a lock, other than forcing the door open, irreparably breaking the lock.
A door can only be locked when it is closed.
In the case of the first two deaths, only one key was found inside each room, and was found in a tray. In addition in both cases this key was the sole key to the sole door that entered the room, and was not moved from when the door was broken until it was discovered in the tray.
With the proper key, a door can be locked from either the inside or the outside.
I’m afraid the key on the tray beside E’s bed was the key to E’s room.
In both cases, the key was already on the tray when the rooms were broken into.
the teacups are very light, and the keys are rather sturdy. Such an attempt [Blackrune’s teacup trick] would certainly have tipped over an empty teacup, and in both cases, the teacups were empty and upright on the nightstand tray.
Other than the gap between the door and the floor, there are no gaps through which keys could pass through.
Not once during the weekend did a key travel into a room from under a locked door.
#On the topic of other extrances
Windows can only be locked from the inside. If a window is locked, it cannot be opened without breaking the window. Both of the times in the narrative when B broke into a murder scene, the windows were locked. Excluding the window B broke to get into D’s room, the windows of D and E’s room were unbroken when B broke into those rooms as described in the narrative. No exits or entries other than doors or windows are relevant for this mystery.
The windows of E’s room were already locked when B forced open the door.
The same applies for windows, they can only be locked when closed.
#Matters surrounding the death itself
Neither C nor E committed suicide.
E’s death was not accidental or a coincidence. He was murdered.
E was dead before B broke into the room.
E had not sustained any injuries before locking the door to his room for the final time.
the bit about it being impossible to stab someone in the heart through the gap under the door was objective narrative, and thus truth.
#About B’s declaration of E’s death, along with the cirucumstances of the discovery
B shouted that E was dead almost immediately upon entering the room, and C and D entered the room almost immediately after B’s shout. B had no more than 5 seconds of unsupervised time inside the room. Five seconds is not enough to get rid of all traces of a trap that stabs/shoots a man to death.
he [B] was not trying to make anyone believe E was dead when he really wasn’t.
If B at any point thought one of the other three was dead, he certainly retained that view until the end of the story.
If B didn’t believe E was dead, his exclamation about E’s death was not meant to make C and D believe E is dead.
#Miscellaneous points
There is no person “A”, or any other fifth person in addition to those referred to as “B”, “C”, “D” and “E”
no supernatural elements such as ghosts are involved in this mystery.
In addition, very recently @Blackrune managed to propose a way around B’s confusing exclamation:
Time to begin this gameboard’s requiem!
E was stabbed through the heart by someone who left via the window! The door was locked at this point in time, along with the key to the room’s door being on the tray. E then locked the window after his assailent left and then he died sometime after as a result of the wound.
Not quite.
E did not lock any windows after sustaining any injuries relevant to the mystery.
Let me barrage you with a little bit of absurdity then…
The window was locked from the inside by a cat or some another animal that remained within the room.
The Trap X that killed E was a trap that removed most evidence of itself when triggered!
The wound on E’s chest was obviously fake, so no one was decieved by it! As a result it was not “relevant to the mystery”! E gained this fake wound and then died from poison while sitting inside his room!
Such absurdities did not occur.
Just for the sake of being comprehensive…
How and why did E gain this fake wound?
How do you suppose was E poisoned? Any and all poisons that can exist in the mansion take effect within a minute.
Either the tea or the cookies were poisoned. Furthermore, E even knew that one of the two was prepared, the culprit made him believe that it’s just a strong sleeping aid. E knowingly took that in so that the whole “E is dead!!!11!!” ruse works better. 1 minute is enough for E to take the poison and then lie on his bed. Since he didn’t think it would kill him, this is not suicide.
He inflicted it upon himself!
E was known for constantly eating a certain kind of sweet or something similar when alone. He always keeps them in his pocket, and they were poisoned by someone who wanted E to die while waiting for his “fake” death to be discovered.
And so ends the tale of this gameboard. Well done, all participants! One of you may now perform the last rites by crafting a comprehensive narrative of blue that explains the truth of the incident.
By the way, @pictoshark, I’m happy that you came back for the finale, but I wonder what was up with you suddenly vanishing for the middlegame after dramatically declaring that you totally solved the case. Don’t tell me your declaration was merely a ruse to make me give you free information about whether only doors are relevant to the case?
A prior arrangement followed by a sudden bout of illness greatly restricted my ability to participate.