Mystery on the Excelsior

Chapter Four - It's the Police!

Early in the morning, a Space Police Interceptor-class ship docks with the Excelsior, allowing for a new arrival to come aboard. She greets the group as soon as she enters the ship through the airlock.

"Good morning. What seems to be the emergency here."

Players:

Crew:

Captain Amelia Bennett - Played by Shadows

Noah Baker, chef - Played by Kristel

Arthur Allan, steward - Played by Waterbrick Down

Gabriella Palmer, engineer - Played by Hinckley

Passengers:

George Dawson, businessman - Played by Lind Whisperer

Emily Dawson, lawyer - Played by jimmynick

Jack Mallory, author - Played by KotZ

Dr. Logan Frost, psychiatrist - Played by Fugazi

Charlotte Sawyer, regional politician - Played by Pandora

Sophie Young, lecturer - Played by Darkdragon

Charlie Seymour, zoologist - Played by Tariq j

Oliver Hudson, artist - Played by Trekkie99

Space Police:

Grace Jones, Space Police - Played by Lord Duvors 

NPCs:

Jason Falcon, helmsman

Pierce Foster, navigator

Alfie Peck, passenger (deceased)

Ezra Parry, passenger (missing)

Rules

1) Every player has received a character with a backstory and information that may be exclusive to them knowing. You can feel free to roleplay the character and flesh them out more. Mystery games are often primarily role-playing games, don’t forget that. There is no such thing as a “fluff post” or anything to the like. Throw out any conceptions you have used in mafia games. Feel free to make the character yours beyond what I've given.

2) There is no voting of players in this game. Providing something extreme, all twelve characters will last until the end of the game, at which time they must attempt to “solve” the mystery. You win if you are able to correctly solve the mystery, or if you get close enough to do so. This will happen in the final chapter of the game. You’ll receive several questions and then you have to answer them and explain. If you get it right, you win. If not, well…

3) A chapter will last as long as necessary for the story with no given or set end time. This is, of course, different to mafia games where days last about 72 hours. Keep in mind that mystery games often run longer than mafia games. If you commit to signing up and playing, make sure you can participate for at least a few months.

4) There is no PMing in the game without my permission. For example, you can say “I wish to speak to this person privately” and I may give you approval to do so.

5) You must search for clues. The room that you enter will be described to you and will also usually have a photo to accompany the description. This means that clues typically won’t be out in the open for you to see. If you want to search a room or area for clues, you cannot type:

               “I want to look for suspicious or hidden objects in this room."

Rather, you must specify what you want to do. For example:    

               “I want to open the drawers of the cabinet.”

You can only submit one action at a time until I reply to it, but anyone can request a search of something at the same time as you. For example, if you ask for a search of a closet, you must wait until I reply to it to submit another action. However other players can request searches of other parts of the room.

6) Please don’t edit your posts. There’s no real penalty to it, but it might make you look more suspicious and I would appreciate not doing so. If you’re worried about a typo, double check your post.

7) Do not talk about the game outside of the threads!

8) This is still a game of deception. Players have things that they wish to hide. If you have any questions about your character, feel free to ask via PM!

9) Make sure any actions that you take are in italics and on a separate line so I can see them. If I miss it for some reason, just quote it and yell at me in another post.

10) When it’s time to end the chapter, you can decide where you’d like to go next in the form of a vote. Voting will last 24 hours strictly. The location with the most votes will win. You’ll be given a map/layout of the ship as well as some choices that you can explore. You can always return to a previous location if you wish.

11) I know we'll all be good rule-followers, but I'll ask everyone to adhere to these rules. Breaking them too frequently could see you removed from the game

Room Key:
1a: Jack Mallory
1b: Sophie Young
1c: Charlie Seymour
1d: Oliver Hudson
1e: Alfie Peck
1f: Logan Frost
1g: Ezra Parry
1h: vacant

2a: Charlotte Sawyer
2b: George and Emily Dawson

You have visited: The Lounge, Rooms 1e, 1h, and 1g, the kitchen/storage, engineering, the bridge and the storage room.

"Dear Grace Jones, we have a dead passenger, Alfie, and an unconscious one, Ezra. It's a bit of a Mayday situation, so I'm glad you're here. We've been to engineering and to Alfie's room and to Ezra's room and it's all a bit confusing. I hope you can help us out with anything you know. Did you receive any transmissions from other ships in the region as you made your way to our vessel?"

"DEAD PEOPLE! WE GOT DEAD PEOPLE GRACE! I"M FREAKING OUT! YOU"RE PROBABLY FREAKING OUT! IT'S SOME FREAKY SH!T LET ME TELL YOU!"

1 hour ago, jimmynick said:

"Dear Grace Jones, we have a dead passenger, Alfie, and an unconscious one, Ezra. It's a bit of a Mayday situation, so I'm glad you're here. We've been to engineering and to Alfie's room and to Ezra's room and it's all a bit confusing. I hope you can help us out with anything you know. Did you receive any transmissions from other ships in the region as you made your way to our vessel?"

 

59 minutes ago, Trekkie99 said:

"DEAD PEOPLE! WE GOT DEAD PEOPLE GRACE! I"M FREAKING OUT! YOU"RE PROBABLY FREAKING OUT! IT'S SOME FREAKY SH!T LET ME TELL YOU!"

Grace holds her hands in from of her to signal everyone to stop. "Okay okay, please, I know this is a trying experience for all of you but please calm down. I can't really do my job if everyone's yelling in my face can I?"
Trying to recover from the sudden barrage of sounds she turns to the person who sounded the more coherent of the two. "Miss, you say someone's dead and someone else is injured? How did this happen and who are they? Full names please."
She pauses trying to remember what else was said. "A ship?" she says, "no, I didn't receive any transmissions, but I did spot a ship I couldn't identify. I didn't check on it myself but I radioed it in to command so they should've dispatched someone to check it out. Why, do you know what ship it is? Do you think it has anything to do with what happened here?" It is at this point that Grace notices something odd about the woman she's speaking to. "And, ahh, why are you wearing handcuffs miss...? Did I arrive in the middle of something or..."

7 minutes ago, Lord Duvors said:

It is at this point that Grace notices something odd about the woman she's speaking to. "And, ahh, why are you wearing handcuffs miss...? Did I arrive in the middle of something or..."

"Oh yeah don't mind her she's got a thing for breaking stuff but a couple of other people read that as a bondage fetish so they decided to do her a favor. That's how the story went right?..."

1 minute ago, Trekkie99 said:

"Oh yeah don't mind her she's got a thing for breaking stuff but a couple of other people read that as a bondage fetish so they decided to do her a favor. That's how the story went right?..."

Grace gives the man an odd look. She can easily guess what really happened from what was said, but the man relaying the information seems a bit... addled. She'll have to keep her eye on him.
"Breaking things? What exactly did she break, was it important? 'cause that's the impression I'm getting here."

11 minutes ago, Lord Duvors said:

"Breaking things? What exactly did she break, was it important? 'cause that's the impression I'm getting here."

"A lamp and something else I want to say in the name of "looking for clues."

2 hours ago, Lord Duvors said:

"Breaking things? What exactly did she break, was it important? 'cause that's the impression I'm getting here."

Noah glares sideways at the artist before telling Grace, "She also broke the teapot that seems to have been used to kill Alfie".

Noah also asks Grace, "Can I please see your ID?".

 

1 hour ago, Kristel said:

Noah also asks Grace, "Can I please see your ID?".

"Good idea, we don't need to blindly trust people boarding the ship at this point."

Looking at the police officer.

"I'm so glad you are here, maybe you can help us find out what's going on here. We found Alfie Peck dead in his room, he seemed be killed by a shard of teapot. Emily here ran into the room and smashed the teapot as soon as we opened the door to Peck's cabin. After searching most of the ship we finally found a missing passenger, Ezra Parry, unconscious but alive in the luggage storage area. We don't know why he was there, but his injury appears to be accidental. "

1 hour ago, Trekkie99 said:

"A lamp and something else I want to say in the name of "looking for clues."

"She grabbed the stun gun after the Captain told her not to."

Gabriella sizes up the new guest.

"You have beautiful hair. If you'd like, I can bagel it. Would you happen to have a fingerprint kit? Do you have any malicious code detecting software? Something that can bypass a malicious program that covered a hacker's tracks?"

"Officer Jones, a delight to have you on board on Blue Star's flagship, I'm sorry it couldn't be under better circumstances. Steward Arthur Allan at your service. As has already been relayed, Mr. Peck was found killed about 1 day ago. Mr. Parry also was missing and after being found unconscious an inspection of his hands was found to have evidence of having recently dealt with something sharp and rough such as the murder weapon found in Mr. Peck's room. We've searched a good number of other rooms so far, but nothing else of evidence has come up. As Engineer Palmer noted, the FTL drive was deactivated at one point, but we haven't found any clues surrounding that yet. We were just determining our next course of action when you arrived. Unless you have any of the equipment Engineer Palmer mentioned, I'd recommend we check the spare room 1H. Also, can I get you a drink? I'm sure the trip was a long one to make it out to use way out here."

Finally! Some order to all this chaos. As said above, Emily smashed a teapot in the lounge and grabbed the stun gun. Colin’s keeping an eye on her though.

8 hours ago, Kristel said:

Noah glares sideways at the artist before telling Grace, "She also broke the teapot that seems to have been used to kill Alfie".

"Oh yeah that's right. Except it wasn't the teapot Ezra or whoever used, but the lid which they broke an then used to stab Alfie. Emily then broke the teapot that went with the lid."

On 9/15/2020 at 8:44 PM, Bob said:

The two nightstand drawers seem to have been ripped out of their holders, as though whoever was going through them was doing so in a hurry. There's a large chipped off piece of the pot inside one of the drawers with some blood on it and some blood near it. The other one is overtuirned against the wall.

Emily smashes the teapot into several different pieces, see below.

Unfortunately, you're unable to stop the crazed Emily before she smashes the teapot, however you are able to stop her before she can completely destroy it. The teapot is now in about a dozen or more different pieces on the floor.

On 9/15/2020 at 7:36 PM, Bob said:

"So yeah @Lord Duvors Miss Jones, Emily broke a lamp and everyone was like lol weird, and then she broke a a teapot that went with the lid that was used to kill Alfie and everyone was like "OI WTF?! ", and then finally she stole a tazer and the Cap and Gabby were like "Alright, let's cuff this MFer!"."

"You wouldn't happen to have a fancy fingerprint scanner on ya would ya Miss Jones? Ya know Ezra's hands looked injured from possibly grabbing a shard of teapot glass to stab someone and -OI WTF??!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN EZRA IS MISSING??!!!!"

13 hours ago, Bob said:

Ezra Parry, passenger (missing)

 

8 hours ago, Kristel said:

Noah also asks Grace, "Can I please see your ID?".

"Very sensible, Mr Baker. I should very much like to see that too."

Charlotte turns to face the newcomer

"Madam, you have failed to introduce yourself and we are working on inferences. What is your rank within the Space Police? And from where are you based? Could you also please call in for a Space Ambulance so we may get our injured fellow passenger to Space Hospital. Plus it would be helpful if the Space Coroner could take poor Mr Peck away to the Space Morgue and examine the body with the Space Forensic team."

Charlotte rubs her temples.

"Arthur, you wouldn't happen to have your portable bar with you, would you? If so, be an angel and whip up an espresso martini would you? Thank you."

 

 

"That's a fairly silly question if you ask me, 'What happens to be the problem here.'" Jack harrumphs.

2 hours ago, Trekkie99 said:

"You wouldn't happen to have a fancy fingerprint scanner on ya would ya Miss Jones? Ya know Ezra's hands looked injured from possibly grabbing a shard of teapot glass to stab someone and -OI WTF??!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN EZRA IS MISSING??!!!!"

@Shadows"Captain - we need to lock down the escape pods. We don't want anyone to leave this party before it's done...!"

2 hours ago, Pandora said:

"Madam, you have failed to introduce yourself and we are working on inferences. What is your rank within the Space Police? And from where are you based? Could you also please call in for a Space Ambulance so we may get our injured fellow passenger to Space Hospital. Plus it would be helpful if the Space Coroner could take poor Mr Peck away to the Space Morgue and examine the body with the Space Forensic team."

"You forgot Space Force!"

3 hours ago, Pandora said:

"Arthur, you wouldn't happen to have your portable bar with you, would you? If so, be an angel and whip up an espresso martini would you? Thank you."

Arthur steps behind the bar, mixing the drink. "Sure thing."

7 hours ago, Pandora said:

"Madam, you have failed to introduce yourself and we are working on inferences. What is your rank within the Space Police? And from where are you based? Could you also please call in for a Space Ambulance so we may get our injured fellow passenger to Space Hospital. Plus it would be helpful if the Space Coroner could take poor Mr Peck away to the Space Morgue and examine the body with the Space Forensic team."

(I'm currently a bit ill, which considering my job isn't the best, but this gave me a must needed laugh.) 

@Kristel @Darkdragon @Pandora
Grace gives the various people asking for her identification an askance look, somewhat annoyed at this rampant paranoia. With a slight grimace she reaches into one of her pockets and brings out her badge to show everyone.
"There," she says, "I also have my driver's license on me if you need further proof I'm who you say I am, though if my badge doesn't convince you I don't see how that would help. If you need further proof I'm a real policewoman then you'll have to call headquarters."

20 hours ago, Darkdragon said:

"I'm so glad you are here, maybe you can help us find out what's going on here. We found Alfie Peck dead in his room, he seemed be killed by a shard of teapot. Emily here ran into the room and smashed the teapot as soon as we opened the door to Peck's cabin. After searching most of the ship we finally found a missing passenger, Ezra Parry, unconscious but alive in the luggage storage area. We don't know why he was there, but his injury appears to be accidental. "

"So Peck was killed in front of you all? 'cause that's the only way I can make sense of what you've said. And who is Alfie Peck? And who's Ezra Parry and how was he injured? In fact, who are you people?"

20 hours ago, Hinckley said:

"You have beautiful hair. If you'd like, I can bagel it. Would you happen to have a fingerprint kit? Do you have any malicious code detecting software? Something that can bypass a malicious program that covered a hacker's tracks?"

"Oh, uh, thank you miss...?" Grace says, a little embarrassed by the compliment. "That's very nice of you to offer, but I'm afraid that hairdo wouldn't survive a pilot's hemet. And no, sorry, I have no experience with coding."

19 hours ago, Waterbrick Down said:

"Officer Jones, a delight to have you on board on Blue Star's flagship, I'm sorry it couldn't be under better circumstances. Steward Arthur Allan at your service. As has already been relayed, Mr. Peck was found killed about 1 day ago. Mr. Parry also was missing and after being found unconscious an inspection of his hands was found to have evidence of having recently dealt with something sharp and rough such as the murder weapon found in Mr. Peck's room. We've searched a good number of other rooms so far, but nothing else of evidence has come up. As Engineer Palmer noted, the FTL drive was deactivated at one point, but we haven't found any clues surrounding that yet. We were just determining our next course of action when you arrived. Unless you have any of the equipment Engineer Palmer mentioned, I'd recommend we check the spare room 1H. Also, can I get you a drink? I'm sure the trip was a long one to make it out to use way out here."

"Okay, thank you sir. That's the most helpful description I've been given so far. Tell me, when did you find mister Parry? And when was the FTL deactivated? Oh, and some coffee would be nice, I prefer it black if you've got any."

Although she doesn't say it, Grace is fine with Arthur's suggestion for where to search next.

14 hours ago, Trekkie99 said:

"Oh yeah that's right. Except it wasn't the teapot Ezra or whoever used, but the lid which they broke an then used to stab Alfie. Emily then broke the teapot that went with the lid."

"You wouldn't happen to have a fancy fingerprint scanner on ya would ya Miss Jones? Ya know Ezra's hands looked injured from possibly grabbing a shard of teapot glass to stab someone and -OI WTF??!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN EZRA IS MISSING??!!!!"

"Oh, the pot was broken after Peck was killed. That makes more sense." She hesitates, 'I don't have a fingerprinting kit exactly, but I've got this bicorder I can analyze things with."

13 hours ago, Pandora said:

"Madam, you have failed to introduce yourself and we are working on inferences. What is your rank within the Space Police? And from where are you based? Could you also please call in for a Space Ambulance so we may get our injured fellow passenger to Space Hospital. Plus it would be helpful if the Space Coroner could take poor Mr Peck away to the Space Morgue and examine the body with the Space Forensic team."

"Oh, right, sorry. I got a bit distracted with the shouting. Officer Grace Jones, from Pluto, currently on interstellar patrol duty. And I could call an ambulance and a proper forensics team if you want, but I don't see any reason you can't do that yourselves. And I should warn you that they'll probably take just as long as me to arrive. You're kinda far out here."

13 hours ago, KotZ said:

"That's a fairly silly question if you ask me, 'What happens to be the problem here.'" Jack harrumphs.

"Well I'm sorry I disappoint you, but the message I got only said that something had happened on this ship and I was to check it out. I was expecting someone's priceless antique paperweight to have been stolen but nope! It's murder."

1 hour ago, Lord Duvors said:

@Kristel @Darkdragon @Pandora
Grace gives the various people asking for her identification an askance look, somewhat annoyed at this rampant paranoia. With a slight grimace she reaches into one of her pockets and brings out her badge to show everyone.

Noah takes the badge and uses his extensive culinary skills to ascertain whether the badge is genuine.

8 hours ago, Kristel said:

Noah takes the badge and uses his extensive culinary skills to ascertain whether the badge is genuine.

"You gonna taste test that bad boy?"

Spoiler

I vote to go search room 1H

10 hours ago, Kristel said:

Noah takes the badge and uses his extensive culinary skills to ascertain whether the badge is genuine.

Using his vast knowledge of cooking, Noah determines the badge is genuine.

13 hours ago, Lord Duvors said:

"Okay, thank you sir. That's the most helpful description I've been given so far. Tell me, when did you find mister Parry? And when was the FTL deactivated? Oh, and some coffee would be nice, I prefer it black if you've got any."

Although she doesn't say it, Grace is fine with Arthur's suggestion for where to search next.

"Mr. Parry was found yesterday, but it looked like he had been knocked out around the same time as Mr. Peck's death. The FTL was deactivated around midnight 2 days back now. (I'm assuming each chapter is a day?)" Arthur gets the Mr. Coffee working again and brews a cup for the policewoman.

4 minutes ago, Waterbrick Down said:

(I'm assuming each chapter is a day?)

You would assume correctly, unless otherwise stated.

14 hours ago, Lord Duvors said:

"Well I'm sorry I disappoint you, but the message I got only said that something had happened on this ship and I was to check it out. I was expecting someone's priceless antique paperweight to have been stolen but nope! It's murder."

"s a writer myself, I understand wanting to leave a little mystery, but this is real life. Whoever sent that damned message without such critical info is a moron."