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The richest man in interstellar orbit, the magnate of the solar system, the kingpin of space science, Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire (also vice president of a small African mining nation) is holding, tonight, in his orbital luxury cruise vessel, a high-society gala of some of the most influential people of the future.

No, he hasn't been murdered... yet. A death threat is almost as serious... and leaves something to be prevented. Things like that happen something like this: A robotic servant glides over, carrying a tray with a single glass of bubbly champagne for the man with the plan Dr Rombridge himself. He lifts the glass and finds a small piece of paper stuck to the condensation on the bottom of the glass. Yes, condensation (the cruise ship has simulated gravity). Rombridge squints his dark brown, wrinkled, whiskery face and slides the limp piece of paper away from its bond with the glass. All he sees is blurry black ooze where letters should be. He flips down some glasses, squints some more. Maybe - is that an 'a'? Followed by a 't'? Yes, the first word is 'At'. Rombridge is onto something. He beckons over a servant, a human servant, to read the slightly diffused letters.

"At the strike of midnight, Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire, Honorary Vice President of Mgubalkwala, shall be dead as a consequence of", begins the servant, then after a moment of silence frowns, as if trying to make out even hazier letters. "The rest is unreadable sir." The servant crumbles it in his hand.

"Oh God," breathes Rombridge. "We have a Class B security breach. Lock up the guests in the ballroom - no one gets in or out. And lock me in my panic room. And contact the Earth-Moon Orbital Detective Agency."

"Yes, sir" intone several nearby robots.

"What time is it young man?" Rombridge barks.

The servant looks at his watch. "I'm afraid it's 7 o'clock, sir. The party started just an hour ago."

"And it ends at midnight," Rombridge frowns.

~~~

A wealth-n-stealth franchise detective vehicle parks itself smoothly in the docking bay.

"I'm sorry," quips a dockhand. "We have a Class B security breach currently underway. Unless you're -"

"The detectives from EMODA," said the first detective, emerging from the vehicle holding a badge. The other one got out too, hands on his or her hips, staring at the dockhand.

"Suit yourselves. Last ship that goes in or out." The dockhand locks the doors, puts a release timer for midnight, and follows the two detectives into the rest of the building.

They are met almost immediately by the human servant.

"Thank you for coming!" he says. "The guests are all in the ballroom."

"Tell us what happened then get in there yourself," said the first detective. "We'll need to interview everybody. Rombridge is an extremely high-paying customer of ours."

~~~

~~~

Host: Unreality

1)

2)

etc...

The more the merrier. Sign-ups will cease in a couple days. Sign up if you want to play and get real into it because I will be sending each person a character/personality/etc. This personage will be known to everyone; however, each person will also have a secret or two about themselves that only they know. Also, two people will need to be Detectives. If you're a detective, you're in charge of asking people questions and figuring out who is the intended murderer(s). But everyone wants the huge cash reward that Rombridge would pay them, not to mention the fame, if they found the perpetrators.

The two detectives are in an alliance and work as a team, but everyone else is on their own in the beginning; you can, however, form an alliance and put multiple minds together, comparing what you know/suspect/etc. The first alliance (or individual) to solve the premeditated murder wins the game.

The detectives cannot break their alliance, cannot add new people onto their alliance, and cannot join other alliances. However everyone else is free to form and break alliances and even be part of multiple alliances. When PMing each other with game-related stuff, please include me in the conversation, as a host I won't be doing much, just posting updates every hour (not real-life hour but rather 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm and MIDNIGHT in the game) so if I could see what's going on behind the scenes that would really help. There's no need to officially declare an alliance in the public thread (you can if you want) but please send me a PM with the official alliance roster when you do so I can keep track.

The idea is to always talk in character in the thread (and even PMs) and the thread acts as sort of the background chatter, people talking to other people and accusing other people. The detectives also ask their questions and receive answers on the public thread.

Anyway all that shenanigans only begins when the game actually begins, which is after I see how many people have signed up so that I can make roles.

~~~

~~~

Host: Unreality

1)

2)

etc...

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says hex4dash9: "MY LOGIC CIRCUITS HAVE SURMISED THAT MASTER ROMBRIDGE IS NOT GOING TO BE MURDERED TONIGHT. INSTEAD HE INTENDS TO COMMIT SUICIDE AND LET ONE OF HIS ENEMIES TAKE THE BLAME FOR THE 'MURDER'. PERHAPS CAPTAIN FLEUR CAN USE HIS ACROBATIC SKILLS TO ACCESS THE PANIC ROOM FROM OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP BEFORE MASTER ROMBRIDGE DOES THE DEED..."

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@unreality

I had a blast with it but I couldn't send in accusations for whatever reason to you. Inbox full maybe but it said you couldn't recieve any messages the 3 times I tried. So at least for me thats the reason on the dying off :-p

YOU COULD HAVE SUBMITTED ACCUSATIONS IN THE CONVO WITH YOUR INITIAL ID IF YOU DIDN'T DELETE IT. THE COMPUTER (a.k.a. unreality) WAS LINKED TO THAT MESSAGE.

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I thought so as well, however that's how I tried to submit them but unreality was no longer a member of the conversation.

Yes I did delete several to open up new space (the PM limit is pesky) but for days now I've always had at least one open slot, thus you could have started a new conversation with me. I currently have an open slot (98% full).

But nothing has been revealed yet, so just curious, who was your guess going to be? Maw, Al or Mlaku?

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BING BONG DING DONG.

So shouts the clock. It's midnight. Yes, it's finally here. Those five hours since the death threat have seemed like days - tension filled days. Almost everyone has been guessed except the slimy villainess herself... Izzy.. or rather himself - Maw Mivvelton, famed artiste grande. From the beginning Maw has inserted himself into the crowds, assimilating himself with various groups to form tight alliances and poisoning the water from within, so to speak, leading his so-called allies down false trails and running them through hoops. Quite the villainous activity for such an artistically minded person! So how did this mischief begin in the swirling creative mind of Mr. Mivvelton?

To understand we have to go back to the beginning.

Maw Mivvelton - you are the one who slipped the death threat onto the underside of the champagne glass. The full text was "At the strike of midnight, Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire, Honorary Vice President of Mgubalkwala, shall be dead as a consequence of his anger at discovering his human servant is canoodling with his wife and has been for at least four months" but for obvious reasons the human servant didn't finish reading the entire statement. You know about this secret relationship because you have been sleeping with Mr(s) Rombridge (too) and being in their apartment have picked up clues going at least four months back.

The "at the strike of midnight" phrase has double meaning - there will be an attack on the Leviation at midnight, aka, the "strike of midnight". The attack will be carried out by robotically controlled mini fighter vessels (you've hacked into hex4-9 to control them). The death threat is all just a way to get Rombridge locked away in his panic room while the ship is attacked. The idea is that stock in your company will skyrocket when the people see how effective your bomber bots are.

In case you'll need to actually murder Rombridge (with your concealed paintbrush shank) you have video that you can activate in the panic room showing Mrs Rombridge with the servant. This will drive Rombridge out of the panic room.

Another point that needs to be mentioned is that you'll need to contact the press at some point to get them to videotape the strike at midnight. But don't worry about that yet.

This is what I'm sending to hex4dash9 because you know all this because you hacked him: (you took advantage of your artistic ability to fake his handwriting for priority (2))

Hex4dash9 - you are only operating under orders. You know that someone has been programming you to help in doing something others consider very bad, but you don't know who this hacker is. You were created following a list of specific rules, with rules higher on the list taking priority:

(1) You must follow any direct spoken or motion-implied orders from Rombridge. You must also always be within one hundred miles of Rombridge at all times and wait on his order (the closer the better except in situations of purposeful isolation such as the panic room, aka, what's happening now)

(2) You must follow written orders by Rombridge if the handwriting scan matches Rombridge's handwriting style (which you know by heart so to speak)

(3) You cannot cause physical bodily harm to a human being as far as you are aware. If you become aware after the fact that an action of yours has caused physical bodily harm to a human being, you must do everything in your power to remedy this and apologize profusely of course

(4) You must not say anything or reveal information that would cause undue emotional distress in an individual. If you say something and realize afterwards that it causesd undue emotional distress, you must immediately cover it up

(5) You must not speak sentences that prove to be false under logical inspection

(6) You must preserve your safety and ability to carry out the above five rules

(7) You must follow orders of non-Rombridge human beings

Remember the closer a number is to Zero, the more priority it has and overrides less-important rules. Good luck (by the way, you know that your hacker knows this list of rules)

and the rest of the "secret" knowledge: (I feel like most people discovered most of this but here it is). Not including later clarifications of backstory done via PMs

party crasher jicochi - you know of a secret entrance into the Leviathan where it ejects bathroom waste, that's how you got in. On your camera you detected that before Human Servant crumpled the death threat, it continued, reading fully as this: "At the strike of midnight, Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire, Honorary Vice President of Mgubalkwala, shall be dead as a consequence of his anger at discovering his human servant is canoodling with his wife and has been for at least four months"

human servant - you have been involved romantically and sexually with Mrs. Rombridge for half a year now. When you read the death threat to Rombridge, the full text was this: "At the strike of midnight, Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire, Honorary Vice President of Mgubalkwala, shall be dead as a consequence of his anger at discovering his human servant is canoodling with his wife and has been for at least four months" <- hence why you said the rest after "consequence of" was illegible and then crumpled it up

chief mlaku - the amnesiac is actually a bounty hunter named Alexander the Greater, and snuck into the party somehow with the intent to assassinate you on account of the dirty deal you are about to strike with Mr McCudgeon. At 9 PM precisely, you were going to hand over to him exclusive rights to mercantiling on your planet Shoshth, a huge potential income for both parties. A monopolized deal of this type is highly illegal by standards that Rombridge himself helped create, and you imagine that the assassin Alexander was hired by your enemies, someone probably at this very party who helped the assassin sneak in

Mr McCudgeon - at 9 PM precisely, Chief Mlaku was going to hand over to you exclusive rights to mercantiling on his planet Shoshth, a huge potential income for both parties. A monopolized deal of this type is highly illegal by standards that Rombridge himself helped create, hence the secrecy surrounding it. You tasked Mrs McCudgeon with seducing Chief Mlaku with the intent of making him lower the price of the exclusive access

Mrs McCudgeon - your domineering husband has tasked you with seducing Chief Mlaku with the goal of getting him to lower the price of exclusive access to trading rights on his planet (a secret deal that your husband and Mlaku are going to negotiate at the party). Even though you hate your husband you will try to do this just to not get in trouble with him, but the truth is that you have a thing for hex4-9

Al - your ID reads "Alexander the Greater". And there wasn't just 500 dollars in your wallet, there was a secret pocket with a tiny hypodermic needle filled with clear liquid!

Captainess Fleur - you are extremely anti-monopoly and have a hatred for secret, sour business deals. So when you got intel that at the party Chief Mlaku would be selling exclusive trading rights to planet Shoshth, rules that Rombridge helped create, you knew something was going to happen. You suspect it was either Chief Mlaku or possibly the person he is trading with that slipped the death threat to Rombridge, in order to lock Rombridge out from everyone else while they can strike a deal in anonymity. In case your suspicions are correct, you hired renowned space bounty hunter Alexander the Greater and smuggled him in. However, in the process, the Dockhand saw the two of you. You slipped away just in time as the Dockhand came at the "intruder" with a shovel, hitting Al on the head. You had no choice but to go back to your office and wonder what was going on, but somehow Al woke up and made it into the ballroom to be the hit of the party. You're not sure if he's faking amnesia or if he's really afflicted

Dockhand Reno Starkey - you were minding your own business when you see Captainess Fleur walking beside a mysterious, shady-looking guy. You noticed a gun in the guy's pants and by the strained look on Fleur's face you realized that the stranger was forcing Fleur to take him somewhere. You grabbed a shovel and came at the stranger, allowing time for Fleur to dive to safety while you hit the intruder over the head with the shovel. You looked around for Fleur but she seemed to have ran. Unsure what that was about, you take the intruder's gun and hide it within your own clothes. You open the unconscious stranger's wallet to see the identity "Alexander the Greater" and 1000 dollars in cash. You take half of that and put the wallet back, just in time as 'Al' wakes up. After a brief conversation you realize you have hit the memories right out of him. You take him up to the party where he can have an eye kept on him (he has no more gun on him) and every so often you go up to check on him. After you let the Detectives onto the scene, you join the crowd in the ballroom and keep an eye on Al permanently

Over the course of the night, Maw left various notes for hex4dash9 with artistically forged handwriting, instructing various things (culminating in her panicked decision to kill off Reno Starkey using hex4dash9 who looked desperately for a loophole but found none). However minutes before midnight, when Maw left a final note for hex4dash9 - basically a gag for hex4dash9 and a will to transmit to Rombridge's lawyers - the robot was able to find a logical supremacy and show the will to the detectives. But it seems it just wasn't enough, Maw's misdirections were able to keep him hidden throughout the event. Until, of course, the literal Strike of Midnight.

Rombridge out of the way, and everyone else helpless in the ballroom (as a result of the death threat), the swarm of artistically designed ergonomic hydrodynamic aerodynamic (even though there's no water nor air in space, you never know about emergency landings) assault units surround the Leviathan. Fortunately for the guests, Maw's early attempts to escape the ship were in vain (even when he bluntly asked and expressed interest in leaving) so he's stuck in with you. The Leviathan will live to see another day. But Rombridge's vein of unmanned space security bots are done for - the news has witnessed this total triumph. Maw's stock is already skyrocketing. He's a rich artist now. Never truly appreciated except by the master that never understood him, now Maw can truly make the fortune he's always wanted.

The problem is that Mivvelton panicked and committed a murder via a "contracted killer" (hex4dash9) so he'll have to enjoy his newfound wealth from the lamb.

But that's not the end of the murder tonight. After the will was successfully transmitted, Rombridge's entire fortune is due to go to Maw. So, actually satisfying the prophecy on the death threat (which wasn't per se originally intended to occur, the death threat was to force the situation into isolation), video is displayed in the panic room (remember how many times I said that only Rombridge has PHYSICAL access to the panic room. Nobody asked about other kinds of access) of Serv with Mrs Rombridge.

Needless to say, Rombridge was out of there in no time. No time being exactly how much time it took for Maw to stab Rombridge right into the gut with his sharpened paintbrush. Professor Doctor Sir Martin K. Rombridge, Esquire, Honorary Vice President of Mgubalkwala, looked at his beautiful ship for the last time before collapsing.

"What did I do wrong?" he gasps.

"Oh it's nothing you did," Maw replies. "It's all me. I'm a bit unusual you might say. And I saw my way to prosperity through you. Call it a vice of the extremely wealthy."

However Rombridge seems to sense that even hex4dash9 was transferred to hex4dash9 in the false will so the last thing he says is: "Hex4dash9, you are not to let yourself be transferred to anybody after I die. You will be a free robot! And detectives, what are you waiting for? Get Maw!"

But before they can do anything, Maw has shimmied down the trash chute and been picked up by one of his attack bots specifically designed for temporary human storage. Goodbye, Leviathan, he thinks.

"Oh sh*t!" and "Whoaaa mannn" say the detectives, realizing simultaneously that the ship is no longer safe from total annihilation. "Everybody off!"

"There's a matter of business that must be conducted first-" Mr. McCudgeon says, coughing lightly and stepping into the center of the ballroom while the ship shakes and rumbles as its being shot apart by the assault.

"Oy cmon," Jicochi rolls his eyes. "Nobody except Fleur cares-"

"It's the matter of my wife's arrest. You see, she was acting on-"

"Okay okay whatever she's good to go," snarls the Dude. "Let's get out of here!"

"Does that mean I'm good to go?" Fleur pipes up, but the Lebowski just shakes his head. "You sir will be tried in court. Meanwhile we'll have to hunt down Maw. But I suspect he's already gotten far away."

"But in the Very Near Future there's a More Pressing Matter to attend to!" retorts the other detective, and every begins to run for the dock. They pile aboard the detective's vehicle as the Leviathan's reactors begin to reach unstable temperatures. The ship is shaking like a 7.0 earthquake now and everyone is being jostled around like eggs in a washer machine.

"Uh oh Starkey's dead, there's no dockhand! Someone - someone will need to open the doors."

A silence. An awkward pause, more like.

Then Fleur wrestles free from his handcuffs and bursts out of the doors. "A captain always goes down with his ship! Get that Mivvelton bastard!"

Most people's memories at this point become that of a strobe light. Fleur hits a button. Ship breaking apart into a flaming mess. The vehicle jettisoning out in the nick of time. Explosion. Shock wave. Two vehicles descending to Earth at different points. A rich artist in the Bahamas enjoying a pina colada. A punk kid hitch-hiking his way back to the orbital residence units. Two detectives hunting in vain. A jungle chief and a businessman discussing the expanding mercantiling prospects of Shoshth while a woman gets drunk. A woman that used to be rich getting married to the man she truly loves, her ex-servant. A bounty hunter who lost his memory, now doing freelance photography. A robot making a living by designing complex space craft for populating new planets. And a dockhand's kids going to college. And bloody remains of the Leviathan crashing into Earth in tiny little pieces. Maw smiles wickedly.

The End.

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thanks for playing everyone; activity kind of died there in the end. I've taken my own observations as well as people's reactions, criticisms and suggestions (feel free to give me any of the above, I'm going to clear my entire inbox in a minute haha. Or better yet post your reaction here) to start designing the basic framework for a second game. I don't know if anybody would be interested in a second game either so if you would be let me/us know also haha.

Again, thanks for playing, I thought the hardest part would be to encourage everyone to play in character but that seemed to be everyone's favorite part lol :P

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AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

@Unreality: Here is my promised kick to myself. I thought that it was Him/Her. Just could not bring myself to accuse Izzy. :duh: :duh: :duh:

DudleyDude and Yuiop (sp?) can also attest to my suspicions.

Oh well, good game Izzy, well played.

Edited by Framm 18
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:D :D :D :D :D THAT WAS AN AWESOME GAME. Haha.

What was the loophole Dawh used to give the will to the detectives? And with the possession of the will, why didn't the detectives figure out it was me?!

Haha, sorry JS, had to kill you off. I wasn't sure if you were on to me, but your infallible logic is terrifying. :P

(Psssh, you forgot to mention that I was banging Rombridge. ;P Poor dude, I actually started to like him.)

Haha. To anyone I had alliances with, sorry. >_>

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Okay, goodies, here's where you went wrong. At the end, you really needed to post your guesses in the thread, and agree to some sort of split fortune or something. That way, everyone technically wins, and Rombridge survives.

I tried, but no one was willing to talk. :dry:

You had my going for a while there, and then when you killed JS, I seriously thought it was you. I just could not accuse you.

Just in case you believe that I am lying:

I accused Jicochi, but I am seriously thinking that Maw or Al (not as sure) mite be the culprit.

Also, out of curiosity, which "alliance" had the most pages of PMs?

But anyways, great game Unreality. :thumbsup: I am looking forward to Murder Mystery 2.

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Haha, you know those notifications in the upper right hand corner? I'm at 239. Anyone have more? :P

Out of my "alliances", the one with Jicochi and Mlaku is at ten pages with 186 replies. Man, I had them going. Even when I dropped out of our accusation of Mr McCudgeon, I came up with a lie, and they started believing me again. Then Mlaku realized it had to be me, Jicochi, or Al, so I started a separate convo and convinced him it was Jicochi. :D This was so much fun, haha.

This will sound silly, but aside from the notes I was sending Hex-Dash, I was playing it like I wasn't the murderer, looking for every possible reason someone else might have done it. And it worked. ;D

Good game, guys. I can't wait to do this again. :D

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