Final Investigation.

[trustharder]

You've all done very well to make it this far, but it's not over yet. The klaxons blare out today, as they always do – there's no reason they should do any differently, not least of which because it's a Thursday; strange things usually don't happen around here until Fridays, and there's no reason to think that today will be any different. But as soon as you awaken and get a glimpse of what's happening down that first-floor corridor, it becomes very apparent that that's far from the case. The usual rooms on the eastern wing of the first floor are gone entirely, replaced by more of that glossy black that coats the courtroom; it's a little vertigo-inspiring at first, but it's not dangerous. Of more interest, then, is probably those three rooms that seem to be waiting for you – one to the north, two to the south. Choose where you're going to go. Look around for a while. What else are you going to do, after all? >Explore?

[OOC: Welcome to the final investigation! The areas blocked off in rooms 2 and 3 will require card keys to open; otherwise, you are free to investigate at your leisure!

Remember, we need 15 comments total from each of you on this log somewhere!]

Comments

[notjustawriter]

[Well, that's.... different.

Gabriel steps inside. Are there any books on the shelves? He'll probably flip through them first, if so.]

[trustharder]

[That's just it — you'd expect there to be a lot of books on the shelves, right? Most of them are empty, however. In fact, there's only one book in here. That's kind of a ripoff. What a terrible library.]

[notjustawriter]

[Well, that's.... uh.

Weird.

He'll go on ahead and flip through that book, then.]

[trustharder]

[The book is a thick, red ledger-type book and the first page in the book contains four titles in some sort of list:

AMBITIOUS
PRETENTIOUS
VAINGLORIOUS
OBSERVANT]

[notjustawriter]

Hey, come look at this. It's got titles listed on it-- Ambitious, isn't that the title of the ghost the others mentioned?

[So obviously he's going to be looking through to see if there's any information on this mysterious "Ambitious" first.]

[trustharder]

[You won't have to go far, the next page contains the following information:

AMBITIOUS: WARMONGER. ALL PREVIOUSLY SURVIVING MEMBERS OF HIS GAME DEAD.
PRETENTIOUS: SERIAL MURDERER. ALL PREVIOUSLY SURVIVING MEMBERS OF HIS GAME DEAD.
VAINGLORIOUS: SADIST. ALL PREVIOUSLY SURVIVING MEMBERS OF HIS GAME DEAD.
OBSERVANT: SOCIOPATH. ALL SURVIVING MEMBERS OF HIS GAME DEAD.
OUT OF PREVIOUS VICTORS SO FAR, AMBITIOUS AND OBSERVANT HIGHER PRIORITY.]

[amygdalae]

[WELL THAT SURE IS

PLEASANT.]

...looks like these are accounts of previous winners.

[...so this has happened more than once.

God.]

[notjustawriter]

I've been wondering for weeks now if this has happened before. Between what Glory said and this, we've got confirmation.

[amygdalae]

So this would be--what, the fifth iteration?

[Judging from this list alone, anyway.]

[notjustawriter]

At least, from the sound of it.

[He'll keep flipping through the book for more information.]

[trustharder]

[The rest of the book contains personal information on a number of people who aren't in this game. It's formatted like the profiles. None of you will recognize anyone in this book (and if you were to share with the other Survivors, they wouldn't recognize anyone either). There isn't any detailed information from these profiles that you need, so use your imagination.

Also important: the book is handwritten. I should have mentioned that earlier.]

[notjustawriter]

[That's.... huh.

He'll flip through it to see if there's anyone he recognizes, and when he doesn't he frowns. About how many people are in this book? Does it give a clue about how many games could have been played here?

He'll also be taking the book with him, naturally, to compare handwriting. It's a shame the Kingmaker never hand-wrote anything to Gabriel.]

[trustharder]

[Unfortunately, there aren't any more clues to get from the book. But don't worry, there's something else on the shelves for you to look at!]

[notjustawriter]

[Well, he'll just pocket the book, then.

What is this mysterious other thing?]

[trustharder]

[A smartphone like the ones you guys have.]

[notjustawriter]

[Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker.]

Uh....

There have been some. Er. Interesting people who have won this game, it sounds like.

[He's just going to go ahead and read the information out loud.]

[amygdalae]

'Interesting' is probably putting it lightly.

['Warmonger', 'Serial murderer', 'sadist'... its not a surprise people like them have won a game like this--

But still.]

[notjustawriter]

Ambitious is that person on the other side with the others, innit?

...I sure hope ghosts can't kill other ghosts.

[amygdalae]

I can't say I know anything about ghosts at all to be certain.

[They'll just... have to hope for the best.]

[goodforsomething]

Think it's a good shot we've got Glory here too.

[notjustawriter]

More than likely, yeah.

[......]

So are they the sadist, or the serial killer?

[THOSE AREN'T REALLY GOOD OPTIONS]

[amygdalae]

...I guess it depends on who you think can hold a more rational conversation.

[...that probably doesn't help, huh.]

[notjustawriter]

[........]

Maybe the sociopath?

[amygdalae]

...he certainly would be the best candidate.

[Thinking of Ultron here...]

[notjustawriter]

I only ever spoke to Glory once, but they seemed pretty polite.

Then again, sociopaths can be pretty charming, can't they?