Sixth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ After a time, as always, your investigation is interrupted by the Mayor's now-familiar voice, calling out to you over the loudspeakers. ]

And that's gonna be time. Pack it in, everyone, bring what you're gonna bring because it's trial time.

[ There are so many bathyspheres missing, you cannot help but notice, as you all pile into the station for your standard trip down to the trial room. Your number has dipped to about a third of its original size - a fact that becomes even more evident when you reach the circle of podiums at the bottom of New Rapture's ocean trench. ]

You all know why you're here. Someone killed Pillage Idiot, and it's your job to figure out who. This is your sixth one, I sure hope you have the procedure down by now.

[ Welcome to your sixth trial. ]

Comments

[visiblepattern]

What do you mean, in what way?

[It sounds like that was going somewhere?]

[sastruga]

I mean, I know powers don't work, but I imagine a vampire still has to be pretty durable. Maybe they thought they had him with the first blow and Nandor, well, um...

...got back up?

[She feels a little silly positing the idea, though.]

...I don't know. I thought, maybe it could explain the overkill and why the culprit seems to have washed up twice.

[visiblepattern]

[Oh, god...]

I don't... I don't really know anything about vampires. Can they do that?

[sastruga]

Well, they tend to survive things humans can't. Technically speaking, he was already dead.

I don't know if he could, just... At this point I don't even know what we can or cannot rule out anymore.

[visiblepattern]

Well, it sounds like something to keep in mind, perhaps? We can't rule it out right now, I agree with you...

[inaclearing]

The...stories about how to kill them differ. I never actually asked him about that part.

[Like, it'd be a wild thing to ask in a murdergame?]

But traditionally, I'd say...you can only kill a vampire with sunlight, a stake through the heart, or...decapitation, usually...

[visiblepattern]

...Oh. I...suppose the thorough level of destruction may have been enough to count, but... That's horrid.

[inaclearing]

Mmmm.

[yeah it's! bad!]

[honeyedtea]

What other weaknesses do these... "vampires" traditionally have? Those here who have powers are lacking them, so could it be possible that he was lacking in whatever unique strengths and weaknesses he usually relied on?

[specialyellthing]

The sun, which we’re lackin in down here.

[inaclearing]

Religious symbols, but we already found out those didn't work down here. No holy water either...garlic?

[onemillion]

Perhaps none of them work, then? If that was the case, maybe they had to improvise in how they killed him when they thought something else might work?

[sastruga]

Sunlight, stakes, decapitation, religious imagery, garlic, running water sometimes...? Depending on the myth, silver. I know some of those applied to him before, but stopped working here...

But he could still be durable. I mean, Misfire still was...

[honeyedtea]

He seemed unable to enter the new sections of the city without explicit invitation – or rather, he refused to try. I'm not sure if he truly was limited in the ways he believed himself to be. But you're quite right – there's no reason to assume he was completely limited in all his strengths.

[capreelcious]

Yeah. Like, even if he doesn't have the vampire super strength some of 'em have, he's still pretty tough in his own right.

[specialyellthing]

He couldn’t enter our suite until I invited him in, either.