magic murders

First magic post: You four siblings have been invited to a family get together. Your ridiculously wealthy father, Walter, and your mother, Carol, have invited you to a get together at their secluded home. It sits on a mountain top, an hour from civillization. Your parents are served by their livein chef, Takuma. He cooks them delicious meals and performs house keeping duties. He does not garden however. Walter forbids gardening as it would make the mountainside less authentic. Takuma has served your parents throughout their retirement, and is almost considered to be family. The house was built by your father when he was younger. It's an old wooden house surrounded by weeds, forest, and covered in vines. All floors are either carpet or wooden floorboards. In spite of its remoteness, Walter was miraculously able to install the regular comforts of a modern home. An electricity generator connected to a hydroelectric dam, a modern plumbing system, heating, and an indoor theatre room. Because of its remoteness however, there is no cellphone reception, nor is there a home phone line. The house opens up with a small T shaped hallway. To the left, is a bathroom, Walters bedroom, and Carols bedroom. To the right, is the kitchen, dining room, and the entrance to the cellar.The house has four bedrooms, previously used by the four siblings. Walter and Carol both sleep in seperate beds, as Walter is prone to snoring heavily and sleep talking. The habit bothers her so much that she went out of her way to entirely soundproof her room.
Recently, the issue of inheritence has become something of a hot topic in the family. Walter and Carol have both decided that a significant portion of their wealth should go to Takuma. Afterall, he looked after the both of them throughout their retirement for little more than a pittance. Furthermore, they both seem to be living unaturally long lives. One could almost call them vampires. The only way that their wealth will be distributed to all four of the siblings, is if all three of them pass away.

When the four siblings arrive at the house, you all have a great time initially. Everyone gets along, Takuma cooks a delicious dinner, you all get together and watch a movie. Stories are exchanged, laughs are had, warm family memories are made. Then nightfall comes and you all go to sleep.

Floor plan for the house: https://i.imgur.com/ePLB8vX.png
(I fucked up the levels. The cellar is underground with a spiral staircase, and the second floor is connected to the first floor via the stairs in the middle. Just assume they're laid on top of each other, it just works)



Moon night time message: this is the stage of your first kill. During the night, you lock your door. Then you climb out the window of your bedroom. You enter through the front door of the bottom floor. It's unlocked of course, there wouldn't be any burglars on a mountainside. You enter the kitchen, and take a large chefs knife. You then enter Walters bedroom, walk up to his bed, and quickly stab him four times in his upper body. It's dark, so you can't see much. He stops moving and you consider that he must be dead. You quickly leave the room, You exit via the front door again, and slash the tires on the car you came on. Finally, you walk to a nearby cliff and throw the bloody knife off of it, deep into the woods, where it will never be seen again. You proceed to climb back up the wall outside the house and through your window. You left your door locked the entire time. The intention of this was to give yourself an alibi. If anyone discovered the death earlier than planned, you would simply claim that you must have been asleep the whole time.  Of course if your door is locked, you couldn't possibly be out commiting a murder, right? You have a pair of earplugs by your bedside, so you can claim that you simply did not hear anyone who was knocking on the door.

That morning, you all awaken around 8am. Takuma cooks a delicious breakfast of ramen. All is right within the household. Curiously enough though, Walter is not awake by 10am. None of you seem to think anything of it. It would be easy to assume that he just tired himself out in last nights jovialities. Rakka slept in a little, and shows up to breakfast last while everyone else was eating. Pets enjoys the ramen a lot, taking his time to savour it, is the last one to finish, and stays behind to help clean up. Moon eats quickly, and is the first to finish. Aqua finishes between the two of them. During the breakfast, Carol suggests that you all watch a film with her as a family. Rakka declines, stating that he would like to learn some Japanese cooking from Takuma. Pets also declines as he would rather go and explore the outdoors of the mountainside a little. Aqua and Moon tell Carol they'll take her up on the offer. Following the breakfast, you all go about your seperate activities.


Moon morning dm: You finish eating your breakfast quickly. After finishing, you leave the dining room area, and take a quick trip down the cellar. In the cellar, there is a poison that your father used to use to kill rats. It is a high quality poison, really somewhat overkill. It's a powdery substance, dissolves in liquids, and takes a few minutes to kill a rat. However it takes at least an hour to kill a human. You fetch a small pinch of this poison and keep it in your pocket. Then you meet with Aqua and Carol in the theatre room. At 11am, like always, Carols tea is brought up to her. Not by Takuma as he usually would, but by Rakka. Rakka has a tray of teacups, one cup for each of you. You stand up and take the tray of teacups from Rakka, who then quickly leaves. You take just a pinch of the powder from your pocket while your back is turned to Aqua and Carol, and drop the pinch in to two of the cups, like one would add a pinch of sugar to a drink. Of course, you know that Aqua does not actually like tea and probably won't drink it, so you do not worry about the risk of poisoning your brother by mistake. You of course, drink the tea that does not contain the poison

Public midday post:
 Come 1pm, and Walter still isn't awake. Carol tries knocking on the door, to no avail. No sound comes out of his room. None of you can even hear the sleep talking and snoring he is famous for. Fearing that he has had a heart attack, or possibly fainted, Carol attempts to open the door and check up on him. However, the door is locked. The four of you and Carol leave the house and go back around Walters bedroom to its window. The curtains are drawn. Carol attempts to open the window, but it is locked. Given the possibility that the worst has occured, Pets picks up a rock and smashes the glass window open. The four of you step inside past the curtains. The room is dark, and fathers body is nowhere to be seen. Aqua steps past the cupboard and turns on the light.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UJRCwLKspA
As the room fills with light, the colour red stands out to you immediately. Red painted on the door. Red spots on the floor. Red stains on the bedsheets. Shortly after the red becomes apparent, your group notices a disgusting and rotten smell coming from the cupboard. Moon opens the doors to the cupboard, and out flops the corpse of Walter. Rakka urges Carol not to look inside the room. Moon stands there with their mouth agape in shock. Aqua and Pets hang their heads. The body is beyond first aid. There are four large bloody spots on Walters shirt, and four cuts. One on the left shoulder, one on the arm, one on the right side of his chest, and one in his abdomen. Moon suggests that the group needs to leave and contact the police. However when the group goes to the car, they find that its tires have been slashed. You all return to Walters room. Pets asserts that it's better to not leave the body alone, and that no one wants to stay in that room. The group and Carol take the body to the next room over, Carols bedroom. Takuma is called over too. Carol weeps while moon comforts her. Takuma buries his face in his hands. The group has decided that it is best to stay in one room for security. The conclusion is obvious to everyone. One of the four wants the inheritence, and is willing to kill for it. Carol mentions that they pay for a truck to deliver food to the mansion once a week, and it is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. The group will have to survive until then.



After the shock of Walters passing has faded, the group starts to discuss the facts and evidence amongst themselves. Partially out of boredom, but also as a matter of survival. One key fact is mentioned by Takuma. One of his chefs knives was missing from the kitchen this morning. As a group, the four of you make a short departure out Carols room to investigate. There are no bloody murder weapons found in the house. No one finds any weapons stashed or hidden away in any of the rooms either. The group spots a few drops of blood on the floor of the floor one hallway foyer. Big enough to notice after knowing what you're looking for, but small enough to have missed them during the morning. No blood is spotted anywhere else. The group returns to Carols bedroom, and talk amongst themselves about the limited evidence on hand and the circumstances of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENL0nPskSao




In the middle of the discussion as to who could have done this, Carol has a sudden loud, and violent coughing fit. Foam dribbled out of her mouth, and then she fell over, dead. Once again, everyone is in shock. Both with grief, but also in regards to how the murder itself has occured. How could someone simply keel over, dead? After witnessing the death of his master, Takuma freaks out. He declares that he cannot trust any of you, and flees to the theatre  room, barring himself inside the door lock and the table. The four of you no longer trust each other too. Splitting up is dangerous, but so is remaining in a room with a murderer. The four of you agree to a new strategy. You all grab weapons and lock yourself in your rooms. If anyone attempts to break down a door, then you will defend yourself and cry for help. Before that though, you decide to investigate the house and see if you can find any clues to the murder of Carol. When the group explores the cellar, you all find that there is a special poison there. It is a small powdery substance, seemingly used for killing rats. The front of the bag it's in states that it is unsafe for human consumption. The four of you go to take some makeshift weapons from around the house. Splitting up for just five short minutes. Moon reports that they took a knife from the kitchen, Aqua reports that he picked up a hatchet from the garage, Pets states that he took the long ornamental katana from the foyer, Rakka states that he took the shovel from the garage. Walters old hunting rifle, which should have been resting in the garage, is nowhere to be seen. This gives the group pause to worry, but Pets raises the possibility that Takuma took the rifle with him to the theatre room.
Before the four group locks themselves into their rooms, they stand outside and have a discussion as to how Carol could have been murdered
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_InP3Qe2yg

After a bit of deliberation, you all decide it's time to lock yourself into your seperate rooms. Aqua suggests a rule. No one is allowed to leave their room without having a second person tag along with them. You all agree to this proposal, accepting it as being fairly reasonable. Furthermore, everyone must lock their rooms at the start. Before you all head back to your rooms, you walk over to the door of the theatre room. The door has a small glass window. You can see that Takuma has pushed the table in front of the door, preventing anyone from opening it. He is sitting on the couch with his gun pointed at the door. You tell him about the plan to lock yourselves in your own rooms and he simply nods with approval. Then you all return to your rooms. The locking mechanisms on all the bedroom doors are noisy, so you know that if anyone unlocks theirs, then it will be heard. In order to make sure no one tries escaping through the windows, you set up shifts in which two people stick their heads out the window to watch for anyone trying to escape. First shift is pets and Aqua, for one hour. Then moon and Rakka, and so on.

Moon final dm: Earlier when everyone was takng weapons from the kitchen, you picked up a second knife and put it into your pocket. After you all agree to lock yourselves in your rooms, you wait for a while. And then, you slowly, quietly remove a wooden from the left wall in your room, and sneak out through a hidden passage. You crawl from underneath the floorboards. Eventually you hit the floorboards in the theatre room, behind the couch. As a kid, you had set this up in secret so that you could sneak out and watch movies at night. Slowly, carefully, you push up on the piece of floorboards that you know are disconnected. Takuma is still pointing his gun at the door, with his back turned to you. You quietly emerge out from under the floorboard and stab Takuma in the back of the neck. He is killed instantly, with little noise. In regards to disposing your murder weapon, you climb down the window on the side of the room. You throw the bloody knife off of a cliff and into the sea of forest below. Of course, the second knife you picked up is identical to the first knife. Thus allowing you to present the illusion of having never used your knife.  Then you climb back up to the window of the theatre room, walk back inside, and then crawl back through hidden passage under the floorboards.