FIRST TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that seems like more than enough time to poke around the crime scene. Gather at the vault door, won’t you? It seems that for many of you it will be a short walk.

[ Once you’re all gathered at the vault door, Angel meets you there and quietly taps a keycard to the side of it. There’s an enormous whirring and grinding from inside as various mechanisms within the door move and whir - until with one last shuddering thud, the door starts to swing inwards, revealing a fully-glass tunnel leading off the side of the plateau the base is built on. Small lights built into the floor illuminate as you walk forward, until finally they light up an enormous elevator, perfectly capable of holding the twenty-four of you.

Angel comes too, putting a few numbers into a keypad just outside the door and inserting her card key once everyone is inside. She’ll gestures to get in if anyone seems unsure, but doesn’t really speak or enter the car herself. ]

Going down.

[ And down the elevator goes, leaving the lights of the facility behind - from here everyone can even see some parts of the facility you don’t have access to, it’s bigger than you realized. But it’s a long and uncomfortable ride to the depths, at least a minute or two before the elevator stops.

When the doors open, enough lights flash on to show that you’ve reached the ocean floor, some distance below even the depths you knew before. Lights around the outside of the massive glass dome you've found yourselves in illuminate the barren depths of the sea, with little if any ocean life to currently disrupt it.

At the top of the dome, among the lights, is an outward-facing circle of five or six different screens, each showing the telltale spiral that indicates The Professor is as present as he ever is.

Below them, of course, are the podiums, a circle of simple metal stands with some kind of video screen embedded into each, though they’re turned off for now. Each of your names is carved into one of them, though the podium constructed for Aela seems to have been just set to display a blank red light.

The screens lower down until they’re too close to eye level for anyone’s comfort. ]

Welcome to the trial room. You have as long as you need to discover who among you killed The Huntress. Once you have, I will explain further action. Take your places.

[ The screens rise back up - welcome to your first trial. ]

Comments

[onefuture]

[Well, this is just perfect, now isn't it. Everything about this trip seems to have been tailor made to put them all on edge, from the long ride down (showing that there's far more to the building than they've been allowed to roam in), to the screens that seem keen on putting themselves very conveniently in front of them...

All of it's so deeply frustrating, though perhaps that's just Lif's perspective. It's already bad enough that he's angry and tense about this whole situation, but...]

Then I suppose we should begin, then. What was everyone able to find?

[philoxenia]

[ honestly the only the good thing about this nonsense is that she's next to someone she trusts

Anyway, she looks pretty pale and shaky which like. Understandable. Her cell phone (hers, not the one they've all been provided) is on the podium in front of her. ]

... At Ema's guidance, I took photos of the scene. If... anyone wants to see them, I can bring my phone around to show.

[archboxer]

[Of course the Professor had prepared just in case someone did break, as he knew they would. Great.]

Thank you, Mira and Ema. That was a good move. For those who did not go into the library, it had been greatly disturbed.

It looked like someone had started throwing books. There was even one that did not belong to the original collection.

[She has The Lusty Argonian Maid with her sitting on her podium. She... might have read through it briefly. Who would want such a poorly written book?]

[emberserker]

Either she did it to fend off her attacker, or her attacker did it to throw her off, but the former's more likely. Then again, she was supposedly a great hunter and killed all those creatures on her profile, so this seems a bit amateurish, doesn't it?

[drladysounds]

Could she have hesitated while fighting? To avoid killing a person?

[archboxer]

I would not be so sure... she seemed rather impressed by my boxing. I feel that she might have been able to do well with her fists without the books. The latter could be a possibility as well.

[philoxenia]

She was a great hunter, but... could it have been she was taken off-guard? Or... maybe it was someone she didn't want to harm for whatever reason.

[fivestagegod]

...Aela doesn't seem the sort to resort to that, unless she was disarmed somehow. She was carrying one of those knives earlier in the week; I don't see why she wouldn't have faced an assailant directly. She was very proud of her combat ability and all.

[blackmass]

I wonder, is it not possible she was the one being fended off?

[obstagoodboy]

A book that didn't belong? Maybe from that reward machine?

[emberserker]

Don't tell me it's another one of those religious texts with the ridiculous stories appended at the end.

[onefuture]

...That may not be a bad idea, so we can all be familiar with the scene of the crime.

[...Then again he's also looking at Piers, who's green as hell, but--]

I can begin passing it down the line; anyone who doesn't wish to see the contents, pass it to the next person.

[He'll hold out his hand.]

[philoxenia]

I'd... rather take it around myself.

[ It might be a little inconvenient for her, but... ]

[onefuture]

Of course.

[...That makes sense, actually, you go do you Mira.]

[snackooed]

I was responsible for looking over Aela's body with Zerinda. Based on her rigor mortis, it's likely that Aela died a few hours before the morning chime, though I can't provide an exact time of death. Cause of death was one clean horizontal wound across her throat, which cut right through her carotid. However, she had multiple other wounds and bruising; a cut on her upper left arm, a broken wrist and bruising on her right, as well as bruising to her ribs, on the right side.

There was a blood spray next to her body that was significant, but while I couldn't get exact measurements of it, it did appear to be slightly smaller than the typical spray that would come from a wound to the carotid. Nira helped investigate that one. And as Mira stated, she took pictures of the scene relatively thoroughly, which we can use as a reference material.

Has anyone been able to find the murder weapon?

[hardnosed]

It was in the think chamber.

[ And she just kind of... leans over Ema and Alice to call to (yell at) Therion. ]

Hey. Show them the knife.

[snackooed]

Think chamber?

[ Ah, wait... ]

Do you mean the bathroom, perhaps?

[hardnosed]

Whatever you lot call it. Someone got blood all over the... higher basins, too.

[bolderfell]

[Therion wordlessly holds up a Ziploc bag with a knife from the vending machine and a little bloody water in it.]

[snackooed]

[ Bingo. ]

Oh, excellent. That makes my job easi--

[ ...Wait, wait, wait-- ]

D-don't tell me it's wet...

[bolderfell]

It was in one of the bowls. They didn't even try to flush it.

[emberserker]

Oh, that's disgusting. Did they try to flush a knife? Don't the washrooms have garbage bins?

[drladysounds]

So she got her throat slit...

[Hmmm...]

That means whoever attacked her has plenty of strength. Perhaps we can discard Jasper, her large hands may not be great for gripping knives to do that.

[Having trouble doing that could give Aela the time to strike back, after all]

[hardnosed]

You think I can't handle a knife?

[obstagoodboy]

Lost'a us couldn't take her down in a fight. Let alone pin her long enough to cut her throat like that.

[He looks even greener than before but swallows hard]

So that narrows it down some.