Sam is seated alone in the Staff Room, munching on some snacks with a bunch of papers sprawled out on the table in front of him.


Deirdre is in the corner of the room smoking, staying out of Sam’s way. The room is silent.

...Until the door suddenly bursts open. Ruby, Ramon, Roxie, and Luke burst in, all loud and chatting with each other. They all take seats around Sam, who quietly seethes.

“..And that’s when I kicked his ass! Haha!” Roxie slaps her knee and laughs. Luke and Ramon are listening to her story while Ruby is cooking a little something for the group.

Deirdre stares out the window at the endless twilight, while Sam suddenly speaks up.

“Would all of you please shut up? I’m trying to focus here. I need to sort all these things out, and you’re all just going crazy talking so loudly!”

Luke mutters something along the lines of an apology but it’s quickly drowned out by Roxie shouting back.

“Please! You really expect us to be quiet in a public place like this? Why don’t you take your lame ass papers somewhere else!?”

“Hey, they’re not lame!” Ramon pipes in. “He’s doing some of that cool dungeons and dragons stuff, right?”

Sam sits down. “Right. Exactly. Someone is blasting some stupidly loud music on the 7th floor. I came here because it was quiet and empty.”

Deirdre raises an eyebrow. “Mostly empty.” Sam adds.

“Riiiight, well I can’t say that I fuckin’ care about your stupid nerd shit.” Roxie crosses her arms. She seemed to be the only one of that opinion though, because the other three are huddled around Sam, more interested in the cool pictures of monsters he has on the table.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a game that happens at some point?” Deirdre walks over, cigarette in hand, and asks.

“Mhm.” Sam nods. “I was thinking of setting that up, but I’d need a little more time…”

“Oooh. You’re seriously gonna do that?” Luke smiles. “I think I’d be down to check it out when it happens.”

“Me too!” Ramon eagerly agrees. “As a chosen hero of destiny, it, of course, IS good to get some type of hands on training… Killing dragons and other villains heroically is natural for me!”

Ruby seems to zone out a bit and skips back to the stovetop, leaving the others.

“Did you say killing shit?” Roxie pipes in.

“Of course you ‘kill shit.’” Sam frowns. “Do you even know anything about the game?”

“Well…”

The five sit around and discuss dungeons and dragons, though Deirdre remains standing and smoking. It seems that most of them are interested in playing a game with Sam sometime.

“Four it is then!” Ramon cheerfully smiles. “I’ll be sure to be there!”

“Heh. Alright. I should have enough time to set something up by then.”

“Alright!” Luke pumps his fist. “Bingo room, right? Should be big enough and out of the way.”

“Maybe I can use that projector in there, somehow..” Sam nods to himself.

“Fuck yeah!” Roxie seems excited to kill things.

Deirdre gives a slight smile and takes a puff. “Hmm. I don’t think I’m interested, but I’m sure you’d all have fun.”

“Oh! Coming through! Hot hot hot!” Ruby interrupts the group carrying a hot plate. It seems she went overboard cooking…

Ruby walks behind Deirdre just as she takes a step back, and the two bump into each other, causing Ruby to drop the plate she was holding and Deirdre to fall forward onto the table, dropping her lit cigarette…

“Hey, are you okay?” Luke jumps up from his seat and runs to Ruby, who nods and says she’s fine.

“Uhh.. You guys…” Ramon nervously adds as smoke suddenly fills the room. Sam’s papers are on fire!

“Dammit!” Sam slams his fist on the table. Roxie has already ran outside of the room, and bumps into Dale.

“What’s going on?” He sternly asks, but he doesn’t need to hear a response, he can already smell the smoke.

Dale runs into the staff room, pushing Roxie out of his way, and quickly puts the fire out..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“...Thank goodness I made it in time.” Dale scolds Sam and Deirdre. Who are both seated on one of the benches outside the staff room. “Do you know how unsafe you were being!? Smoking, indoors no less, without a window open!” He points at Deirdre, almost spitting on her with how aggressively he’s speaking.

She rolls her eyes. “You’re not my mother…” She mutters.

“And you!” Dale shouts. “All those papers, spread out like that, in the kitchen!? Don’t you know those stoves are gas powered! That wasn’t safe! That wasn’t safe at all!” Dale’s eyes almost pop out of his skull. Sam just groans.

Dale takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to see this from either of you ever again.”
He leaves without even waiting for a response.

“...I’m sorry, Deirdre, I didn’t mean to bump into you-” Ruby walks over and apologizes.

“It’s okay. Stuff like this just happens.”

Sam grits his teeth. “Thankfully, I keep spares, of course… But those copies were all tedious to make. However, I won’t let this delay our game tomorrow…”

The group splits off, Sam going upstairs to his room, and the others heading down to the lobby to do one thing or another. Most of them would be eagerly waiting for Sam’s DnD game at 4pm the next day, right in the Bingo Room.

...Ding!

The elevator doors opened up for Roxie, Luke, Myrion and Great Dragon.

Inside, slumped against the back of the wall, is Samuel Lockmeister, his eyes wide open, unblinking. The rest of his body is lifeless…
Papers are scattered about the elevator floor.

The air around the five stands still…

Bum bum bum
A familiar ringing is heard. “Attention all contestants! A body has been discovered! Please gather in Mr. Hugh Stakes’ office!” Lucy’s cheerful voice can be heard across the whole hotel.

“Wait, what..?”

The four look at each other and then run across the hotel lobby to the south elevator.

...Ding!

The four step inside, thankfully the elevator is empty this time. As the elevator goes up…

Bum bum bum
“Attention all contestants! A body has been discovered!” A slight giggle can be heard over the speaker. “Please gather in front of the northern elevator in the hotel lobby!”

“What the hell’s going on…?” Luke muttered.

…

...Ding!

The elevator doors slide open. The first thing the four notice is that there’s a trial of blood across the whole hall, from one elevator to another.

Coming out of Hugh’s office is Devin, carrying Woody with his arm around her shoulder. He’s covered in blood…

Luke runs ahead of the group, and straight past Devin, entering Hugh’s office. Great Dragon takes Woody off of Devin’s hands.

“Thanks. He’s still breathing, but…” Devin glances back at Hugh’s office.

The others reach Luke inside, who’s standing right at the doorway.

On the floor, in the pool of her own blood, the body of Deirdre Durand lays. Poking out of her midsection is a katana, stained red.

It takes a couple of minutes for everyone to finally get together in the hotel lobby. Woody is still unconscious, and lays on a bench nearby. Wands assures the others that he’s safe and merely passed out, and should likely wake up soon. She then heads on over to the north elevator to investigate Sam’s body.

“Two people... “ Adel looks down at his feet, frowning. “H-how.. How could this happen?”

Lucy’s blue form flickers to life in front of the group. She sounds a bit static-y. “That’s right! Two of them, oh my!” She lets out a sarcastic gasp. “You should probably get to investigating! I’ll give you all a call when it’s time for the High-Stakes Game!” And as quickly as she appeared, Lucy disappears again.

“She has a point, that one…” Great Dragon grits his teeth. “We need to split up into groups.”

“R-right, I-I guess we don’t have a choice…” Tusbasa tries to hide under her hood.

“Okay… How about… This?”

Casino - Tsubasa, Max & Great Dragon
Hotel Lobby - Luke, Roxie, Ramon
Hotel Second Floor - Dale, Adel, Devin
Hugh’s office - Ryleigh, Ruby, Myrion

“T-that sounds good to me…” Tsubasa nods in agreement.

“What about Woody if he wakes up?” Ruby asks.

“I can keep an eye on him!” Ramon exclaims. “No need to fear!”

“Nothing’s going on on the 7th floor, right…?” Adel asks, this time.

“Nope! I gave it a quick check while we were all getting together.” Ryleigh nods. “All seems to be normal, so I wouldn't worry about it.”

“Good. Let’s all split up then. I don’t know how much time we have…” Luke gives the group a nod as they all divide up and investigate.

It’s not long after that until Lucy calls everyone to the trial room.

Initial: $2650
Ace’s Cut: $663
Final Amount: $1987

Let’s Play Hangman! - All the characters jointly decide on a question to ask. The answer will be hidden, but each character gets to guess a letter. Two wrong guesses (or multiple, depending on the length of the answer) and the minigame ends. Order can be decided before minigame, but no discussion on which letters to guess can take place. (Price: $2500)

Gloves Off, Throw Down! - Two (or more) characters can argue on a point, at the end it’ll be revealed which side was closer to the correct answer.
(Price: $2500)

Galaxy Brain! - One character is chosen to put together a numbered list of everything they know about the case. At the end, they’ll be told the first three items that were incorrect. (Price: $4000)

Think it Out! - One player is chosen to answer multiple choice questions about the case in a rapid fire manner. The event itself takes place in public. Others may talk to the player about what to do but only the player themselves may make the decision. It ends when two incorrect answers have been given or the point of discussion for the dive has been resolved. (Price: $3000)

Feeling Lucky? It’s Roulette! - One player picks a range of numbers between 1-12,13-24, or 25-36. If the ball (read: RNG) lands in that section, they will get a random confirmation about the murder. Betting on a specific number grants a more valuable confirmation. Can be used up to three times during the entire competition (3 uses left). Can only be used once per High Stakes Game. (Price: $850)

Enter the Shark Tank! [New!] - Contestants nominate another contestant to be put in a shark tank. Whether or not they are willing is irrelevant. The Shark will sniff out any info they are hiding, though will totally ignore anything that would directly point to the killer’s identity. The contestants will be informed if the one in the tank is hiding anything, on a scale from “Major” to “Minor”, as well as whether or not it is relevant to the case/topic at hand.
Can only be used once during this specific High Stakes Game. (Price: $1000)