Quick Fix 65: More Deception: Murder in the Cosmere

[StrikerEZ]

Here’s my thoughts on the pieces of evidence as they relate to the clue “Religious Worship.” I’ve only marked off the ones I think absolutely don’t work. Everything else is fair game, though some are more obviously religious worship than others.

[JNV]

Ok so for evidence heres a list of things that seem viable based on just the manmade thing

Spoiler

• Horseshoes
• False Beard
• Mistcoat
• Bullet casings
• Gum
• Grand Robe
• Spectacles
• Bright Green Hat
• God Beyond Shrine
• Shu Korath Pendant
• MaiPon stick
• Hairpin
• Grey patch honestly Im not really sure what this is referring to
• Discarded weapon
• Half eaten pancakes
• Bay wrap
• Mug of ale
• Fancy dress 
• Mastrell sash
• Wine bottle
• Footprint
• Childs toy
• Wig
• Survivor pendant
• Raggid cloak
• Wooden coins
• Hallandren dyes
• Aluminum hat
• handkerchief
• Uniform
• Waterbottle
• Saddle strap
• Boxing
• Empty vial

The thing about religious kind of makes me lean any of the pendants or shrines or stuff weve got going on like the God Beyond shrine the Shi Korath pendant the Survivor pendant stuff like that except crossreferencing that with their people they dont really line up with an accidental murder very well 

Ive got to run but note to self figure out murder methods that would leave victims clothes totally destroyed

[The Unknown Ajah]

15 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

I'm finding the most interesting clues for me to sort through the Naked one, as well as the combination of religious worship being ongoing but the location not being temple/church. That might let us rule out a few of the more 'ritualistic' ones? Overall I agree with Sart that this is hard to piece together in my brain.

edit: is it fair to rule out the more 'magic'-y methods of murder like Soulcasting, Aons, etc., since Araris didn't give us a 'supernatural' clue for cause of death?

I don't think so, since supernatural doesn't necessarily mean all things magic.

Will be back after looking through the list and doing stuff.

[Mat]

There's so much data wow

Not sure this is my type of game xD Will try though

@StrikerEZ what made you cross-reference worship with evidence over any other combination?

Here's all the methods with color codes for the ones they work for:

• Blue: Accident. Notated on anything that could have been marked as an accident.
• Yellow: Hut/Shack. Notated on anything that I think Hut/Shack fits the best out of the given options. Differently marked than the others because quite honestly idk how Hut/Shack fits anything well. My interpretation is like, wilderness fits in this category (I'm thinking about how I would have marked Nightmaw etc for Location and I would have probably landed here) but it's also possible Location is a better thing to check with the Evidence Left Behind.
• Red: Manmade. Notated on anything that could have been marked as manmade. Perhaps less useful than the others because it is listed as referring to the evidence, not the method, but I think it's safest to check it anyway.
• Green: Naked. Notated as any situation that could fit with a naked victim. Up for interpretation :P. I went with more indoors things (and acid because it burns clothes, plus other burny things) since I wouldn't think you'd be naked outside, but idk. Another one that could fit better with ELB.
• Purple: Religious Worship. Notated as anything that could happen during a religious setting. It's possible the murder didn't happen, like, literally during the religious ceremony or whatever but this clue being included specifically makes me think that it did since anything else likely has better options.

If you have a question about any specific tally mark or my overall method in making this graphic, just @ me. I think I could actually explain anything. Doesn't mean it'll be a good explanation, but there you go

Spoiler

Don't have time to make conclusions based on that, unfortunately. I'll make a similar graphic for the ELB tomorrow morning, hopefully.

[Archer]

Highstorms don't happen at Noon, right? 

3 hours ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Edit: is it fair to rule out the more 'magic'-y methods of murder like Soulcasting, Aons, etc., since Araris didn't give us a 'supernatural' clue for cause of death?

I'm leaving the door open for a magical accident, such as over exerting oneself which Soulcasting. That's not really a murder though, so it's low on the list. 

Hut and accident lean natural/jungly to me, but manmade and religious seem to oppose that

Edit: why isn't is temple if the In Progress is Religious? 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Archer

[Amanuensis]

Do both the MoM and PoE need to overlap on all 6 clue tiles? If so, we shouldn't neglect the latter

[The Unknown Ajah]

13 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Do both the MoM and PoE need to overlap on all 6 clue tiles? If so, we shouldn't neglect the latter

Ideally, but it could be split up in just about any way.

Edit: Making some progress on my thoughts, but I'm pretty busy and also not super great at this kind of analysis.

Edit 2: Does anyone know what the Grey patch is?

Edited March 18, 2023 by The Known Novel

[Ashbringer]

Okay school is coming back soon so yay.

One thing I might try and look at is more of the reverse-ends, ie where ‘Naked’ is more indicitive of there not being a specific clothing that would be worn.

Also Grey Patch might mean Awakening? Couldn’t find anything specific.

[The Unknown Ajah]

Are we allowed to get info about what it is from Araris? Or maybe from Araris filtered by the IM?

[Archer]

I realized I can eliminate Shades and Cliff from my PoE, since those are my tiles. 

I've also learned that Highstorms aren't exclusive to nighttime. So I'm liking that one because it fits well with Accident+Naked+(High)noon. 

Where I'm confused is that Temple/church is an option for location, but it wasn't chosen. But Religious Worship was for In Progress. 

If we assume that the Evidence Left Behind section is disconnected from the Method and is just about the Evidence tile that was chosen, we're in business. 

Let's say pancake consumption is loosely defined as Lift's way of worship. But Araris would have ticked the Invested box instead of manmade because it got caught in a highstorm /were Lift's pancakes invested? Maybe maybe not. Right now this is my best theory, e!Mat

[Kasimir]

6 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

There's so much data wow

Not sure this is my type of game xD Will try though

Just imagine what this is like doing it in person...

Hael's sort of game though tbh.

5 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

Do both the MoM and PoE need to overlap on all 6 clue tiles? If so, we shouldn't neglect the latter

Don't believe so. But I think narrowing down to possibilities should check for consistency between the two. If there's no player overlaps between your choices, then something has gone wrong.

8 hours ago, Archer said:

-Pick tiles that incriminate someone else. This is a lower priority, but if you can set up someone who has similar tiles to you, it's worth a shot. 

Possible, but if someone blows away a guess, that's a problem.

Work in progress on my end, will share conclusions later. Don't feel the visualisations shared this cycle have been particularly helpful so I am experimenting with something on my end.

Edited to add:

@Anyone / @Araris Valerian / @Devotary of Spontaneity - What's Aon Reod? Am aware of Reo, but feels like a mix between the Reod and Reo?

Edited to add 2:

5 hours ago, The Known Novel said:

Edit 2: Does anyone know what the Grey patch is?

Concur with @Ashbringer - likely indicative of Awakening. Helpful in this context because we know Araris selected Manmade over Invested. Feels like the contrastive issue matters here, i.e. the fact Araris felt X fit better than Y.

Edited to add 3:

8 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

Based on the other tiles, I'm guessing a public event that took place at the same time as the murder.

Au contraire. Or rather, yes sort of, but my read is that it's explaining what event was going on at the time of the murder - i.e. what was the victim engaged in. The victim died during some sort of event that occurred during religious worship.

7 hours ago, Fifth Scholar said:

edit: is it fair to rule out the more 'magic'-y methods of murder like Soulcasting, Aons, etc., since Araris didn't give us a 'supernatural' clue for cause of death?

Problem is that we're down to the contrastive issue again - if Tia was used to transport the victim into the ocean where the victim then drowned, do you consider this Supernatural or Suffocation? I think a fair case could be made for either.

I think the key thing to remember is we can't look at the clues in isolation. They have to be taken together.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir

[Ashbringer]

Do we think "Evidence Left Behind" would be solely referring to the Pieces of Evidence? I guess it depends what Araris decides to do, but do we think he'd use it that way?

Only Manmade but not-Writing evidence I've got is the Hairpin. Method is... most are still possible.

1 hour ago, Kasimir said:

@Anyone / @Araris Valerian / @Devotary of Spontaneity - What's Aon Reod? Am aware of Reo, but feels like a mix between the Reod and Reo?

Feels like it's probably Reo (punishment), but could also mean the disruption of a different Aon like how the Reod made an extra chasm line necessary? But I feel like we could interpret it either way.

[Kasimir]

1 minute ago, Ashbringer said:

But I feel like we could interpret it either way.

To be fair, this is 90% of the game right here

1 minute ago, Ashbringer said:

Do we think "Evidence Left Behind" would be solely referring to the Pieces of Evidence? I guess it depends what Araris decides to do, but do we think he'd use it that way?

I lean towards this a little, if only because it feels like Araris is at the mercy of what the Murderer picks. If the Murderer chooses disconnected Method and Evidence, he has to make the best of it.

2 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Feels like it's probably Reo (punishment), but could also mean the disruption of a different Aon like how the Reod made an extra chasm line necessary? But I feel like we could interpret it either way.

Hmm. Possible I guess. What's drawing me up is the fact we know it's meant to appear to be an accident in the middle of religious worship. That throws out some of the more exotic animal options, and probably poisons. I guess that theoretically leaves Aons in if only because the other options are worse for that? 

Also the fact the victim is naked. Really makes me think hypothermia but that's not an option >>

[Ashbringer]

45 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Hmm. Possible I guess. What's drawing me up is the fact we know it's meant to appear to be an accident in the middle of religious worship. That throws out some of the more exotic animal options, and probably poisons. I guess that theoretically leaves Aons in if only because the other options are worse for that? 

Religious worship, but not in a temple/church or a place of worship. Which... ow.

Sel has temples and the like, but extends religious services outside of them a lot. Scadrial has temples only for the Steel Ministry in Era 1, which kind of reminds me of Sazed spreading religions? Then Era 2 has organized religion but not at the forefront. Roshar has Vorinism, but they both do have temples and don't have much in the way of services. Nalthis... maybe, but their temple is a pretty big thing (unless it's giving a Returned a Breath outside of the temple somewhere random... hey that was my random game idea). Taldain... yeah idk but Coppermind says they have a religion with the Sand Lord. Then Threnody/FotS are still options.

[Kasimir]

9 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Religious worship, but not in a temple/church or a place of worship. Which... ow.

Sel has temples and the like, but extends religious services outside of them a lot. Scadrial has temples only for the Steel Ministry in Era 1, which kind of reminds me of Sazed spreading religions? Then Era 2 has organized religion but not at the forefront. Roshar has Vorinism, but they both do have temples and don't have much in the way of services. Nalthis... maybe, but their temple is a pretty big thing (unless it's giving a Returned a Breath outside of the temple somewhere random... hey that was my random game idea). Taldain... yeah idk but Coppermind says they have a religion with the Sand Lord. Then Threnody/FotS are still options.

Yeah but that was a good catch from @Archer.

I do wonder if it's the contrastive problem again: not Entertainment, not Assembly, not Trading, not Social Visit, not Feast, so this was the best of bad fits. Not sure.

Hut/shack could suggest something more wilderness-related, as Archer I think pointed out. But that doesn't seem to gel very well with Religious Worship unless it's something like a small, cult-like thing. I looked at Dakhor Ritual a bit but the more I think about it, the more it doesn't feel quite right, because you'd expect the closer clue in that case to be Temple/Church. 

But keep in mind something:

Quote

●        The Oracle chooses 1 of the 4 “Location” tiles.

Cf:

In other words, Araris thinks that Hut/Shack is a much better option than: 

Everything there. Note: Sea/Ocean, Wilderness. 

I don't think I can emphasise this more. This in my view rules out a lot of the Patji animal-related Methods, as well as Drowning and Dueling, off the top of my head. I am actually more dubious of Archer's insistence on Highstorm now because Wilderness or Fields or anywhere in the open would likely have been more suggestive of Highstorm.

FWIW, the fact it is Noon leans me against Shades as well.

[|TJ|]

Sounds a bit cult-y I guess. I want to ask if naked as in naked-on-the-day-of-birth or only from waist-up, because if it is waist-up then naked + hut/shack could be mean a treatment/medical procedure gone wrong accidentally. And that would lead to Bookwyrm (Disease). 

Other way would be an accidental death during the conversion of someone to a Dakhor Monk, but why would the conversion take place in a hut rather than a monastery?

[Kasimir]

1 hour ago, |TJ| said:

Other way would be an accidental death during the conversion of someone to a Dakhor Monk, but why would the conversion take place in a hut rather than a monastery?

Put this the other way. You are Araris. You win with the Village. Why would you pick Hut/Shack over Temple/Monastery knowing that Religious Worship + Temple should point to Dakhor Ritual? I'd almost argue that this is reason to presume that he's hinting the answer isn't Dakhor Ritual for Method.

Edited to add:

Treat 'to point to' as 'a reasonable player would probably associate with.' Since it's essentially sophisticated charades, what Araris doesn't pick should be just as indicative as what he does.

Edited to add 2:

1 hour ago, |TJ| said:

And that would lead to Bookwyrm (Disease). 

But again. You are Araris. You win with the Village. Why not simply select 'Sickness/Poisoning', which is more direct? Sure, the Village would have a few bad leads because of all the poisons, but that's arguably closer than 'Accident.'

Edited to add 3:

FWIW, Sickness/Poisoning + Feast feels like a pretty good hint that it's Poison-type Methods rather than Sickness-type Methods so I feel that the fact he didn't go in those directions is pretty indicative too.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis]

TBH if I wasn't me I'd be thinking Fire. Makeshift religious shelter out in Threnody or somewhere away from larger civilization. Light a few candles & start genuflecting. Next thing you know you're burning alive. Bye bye clothes, hallo ash.

ED1T:

STRIKER with ROPE and SHU-KORATH PENDANT, maybe?

Or TJ with AIMIAN and RELIGIOUS TEXT? Assuming Dysian Aimian with a taste for... clothes? Idk

BOOKWYRM, AIR-POWERED CROSSBOW, SURVIVOR'S PENDANT?

Idk tbh the Nakedness is what's really throwing me off...

ED2T:

I like these guesses better:

TKN, BURNED ALIVE AT STAKE, GOD BEYOND SHRINE?

STRIKER, ACID, SHU-KORATH PENDANT

Edited March 18, 2023 by Amanuensis

[Kasimir]

19 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

TBH if I wasn't me I'd be thinking Fire. Makeshift religious shelter out in Threnody or somewhere away from larger civilization. Light a few candles & start genuflecting. Next thing you know you're burning alive. Bye bye clothes, hallo ash.

I admit, I am thinking Fire

19 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

BOOKWYRM, AIR-POWERED CROSSBOW, SURVIVOR'S NECKLACE?

My main issue with air-powered crossbow and the reason I ruled most of the weapon cases out is I could definitely see an accidental weapons discharge leading to death, but feel this is the sort of case where you select a location like: SAFEHOUSE, ROOFTOPS, ARENA, BATTLEFIELD, and severe injury, loss of blood, or just anything but accident as cause of death. I feel as though it's not a mistake to give a significant amount of evidential weight to the Location clue because Araris made a choice out of twenty options there, which in my view makes it more intentional and far less 'best of a bad lot' than anything else on the table.

I am ruling in Survivor's Necklace though. Recognise I'm naysaying a lot right now but am still working on my PoE spreadsheet.

19 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Idk tbh the Nakedness is what's really throwing me off...

Same but given the options are basically just Neat, Untidy (suggests a scuffle!), Elegant, Shabby, Bizarre, Naked, I'm choosing to read this as a granularity issue and assuming that any kill method that leads to clothing damage (e.g. Nightmaw) might explain 'Naked.'

Oh right, that was another reason I ruled out some precision weapons like crossbow - didn't feel they could cause enough clothing damage to explain the nakedness. My brain is currently on weird stuff like Aon Tia.

Edited to add:

19 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

TKN, BURNED ALIVE AT STAKE, GOD BEYOND SHRINE?

I hard-ruled out Burned Alive At Stake - felt this is a straightforward Town Square / Marketplace location choice.

Edited to add 2:

Mea culpa - twenty four choices rather than twenty. My point stands though.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis]

42 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

I hard-ruled out Burned Alive At Stake - felt this is a straightforward Town Square / Marketplace location choice.

What do you think about Acid melting away the clothes? Contained in a Hut/Shack of some kind, spilled on the victim while practicing a religion in private?

Oh and I've been ruling out all investiture because of the Manmade clue but I think maybe we shouldn't (if anyone else is) since that's specifically "Evidence Left Behind" and might not apply to the MoM

Edited March 18, 2023 by Amanuensis

[Kasimir]

46 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

What do you think about Acid melting away the clothes? Contained in a Hut/Shack of some kind, spilled on the victim while practicing a religion in private? 

Was going to post but waiting for someone - it's my lead option now actually. I have a bunch of yellows (maybes) but Acid is my main green.

---

Jean-Guy muttered to himself and sipped his coffee.

No Scene-of-Crime team. What the blazes was Silverlight playing at? What they did know came from the local Silverlight Oracle, who'd called himself the Ja.

Back on Scadrial, the investigators would have set up a HQ and begun to work over the various leads. What they had were telepathic messages from the Ja, and Jean-Guy figured if that guy could put thoughts in his head, he could jolly well solve the bloody murder himself. "Fancy Investiture tricks," he muttered, disgruntled. No substitute for the proper hard work of asking the right questions and a good Scene-of-Crime team.

Right. He pulled himself together and went over what the Ja had indicated. No point cursing out the kayana Silverlight people. There was a killer somewhere.

Victim died completely naked, at noon, in a small hut or shack. Was engaged in religious worship at the time of death, and the victim's death was an accident, or, which Jean-Guy thought was far more likely, was made to look like an accident, which seemed to suggest that they were going to have a right headache trying to charge whoever it was with murder. Not his problem, though. His job was finding the killer in a way that could ensure some form of prosecution. Still, at least if they managed to prove the killer was trying to pass it off as an accident, that was mens rea down, cased closed, your Honour.

Far as Jean-Guy was concerned, that sounded pretty good. As good as it got anyway when there was a murder.

He sat down and wrote down what he knew in his notebook. A new notebook for each crime, that was the rule. Silverlight was lax, sure, but there was no sense in getting into bad habits.

(Assumption 1): LOCATION is significant. [=It is significant that Araris chose Hut/Shack over 23 other options. This should instantly lead us to rule out options that are better suited to the marketplace/town square, to a safehouse, to an arena, the wilderness, or a battlefield. In my view, this removes most drowning-related options immediately. Similar for weapon-related options and Patji.]

(Assumption 2): CAUSE of DEATH is significant. [=Araris would not pick a counterintuitive cause of death. Recall that Araris knows the Method and the Evidence selected by the Murderer. His job is to breadcrumb us towards getting it, within the rules of the game. I don't see Araris seeing poison and picking a contrived story with an accident without some factor, e.g. in the Evidence, forcing it. Similarly, I don't see Araris seeing something like a weapon and selecting accident instead of significant injury or bloodloss. The more contrived he gets, the more we struggle to get it.]

(Assumption 3): NAKEDNESS should not be taken literally. [=Nakedness is a constrained choice - there are only so many options there, e.g. Bizarre, Neat, Untidy, Elegant, Shabby. I take Nakedness to loosely refer to anything from 'some clothing damage' to 'actually naked.' The fact we didn't get Untidy inclines me towards ruling out any Method that involves a scuffle between the victim and the murderer.]

(Assumption 4): RELIGIOUS WORSHIP is a constrained choice. [=Similar reasoning to Assumption 3. I'm not as strong about this because I feel there's a decent chance that Nakedness and Religious Worship could point to the Evidence either being an article of clothing or religious in nature. That being said, again, there are only so many options, e.g. Feast, Trading, Social Visit, Assembly, Entertainment. I think the fact Araris didn't go for those allows us to rule out certain options like poisons (a shoo-in for Feast!) and wooden coins (don't feel as strongly about this but think that's a Trading shoo-in as well.) 

With these assumptions guiding him, Jean-Guy narrowed down some leads he reckoned should be investigated.

Isolated Methods:

Most Likely: Acid. 

Acid might cause clothing damage, though Jean-Guy was pretty sure the corpse itself would be in poor condition. Perhaps this was why Silverlight lacked a Scene-of-Crime team. 

Maybe: Aon Daa, Kandra Digestive Acids, Aon Ehe, Soulcasting, Steelrunning, Hemalurgic Spike, Highstorm, Fire, Aon Tia, Aimian, Essence Marks, Enhanced Strength, Midnight Essence, Lifeless Soldier, Mistwraith, Bloodsealing

Of these, Jean-Guy hesitated on including the Aons, or Soulcasting, or Steelrunning, or Essence Marks. Midnight Essence and Lifeless felt like edge cases, but Jean-Guy couldn't really see a Lifeless-caused death, however accidental, taking place in a hut or a shack. Anything else that was remotely Invested seemed better classed as supernatural, rather than an accident.

He'd tried similar restrictions to locate the key piece of evidence, but discovered there were just too many possibilities. 

Significantly, the known MOs were restricted to the following individuals:

Jacob (Xino - Aon Daa, Kandra Digestive Acids), Jango (Wiz - Aon Ehe), Jariel (Striker - Acid), Jerome (Sart - Soulcasting), Jatrim (Mat - Steelrunning, Hemalurgic Spike, Highstorm), J'aman (Aman - Fire), Jello (Archer - Aon Tia), JJ (TJ - Aimian, Essence Marks, Enhanced Strength), Just Judge Jehoshaphat (Fifth - Midnight Essence), Jaculiferous Jack (Silho - Lifeless Soldier, Mistwraith), and Jorazh (Alpha - Bloodsealing.)

The more Jean-Guy thought about it, he really wasn't sure. Methods such as Essence Marks seemed to be most intuitively supernatural, and yet he could plausibly imagine them being passed off as accidents. And he could not determine if that truly contravened Assumption 2; as a result, he left them in, despite indicating his uncertainty and his preference to focus on non-supernatural methods. Theoretically, the Ja should probably have realised there was some element of confusion there and accounted for it, which might be a strike against the notion of supernatural methods.

Tabulating them against the results from evidence that could be classed as manmade, and restricting his table to only those he felt were fairly probable guesses, Jean-Guy scribbled:

Assassin	Method	Key Evidence
Xino	Kandra Digestive Acids	Horseshoes, False Beard
Striker	Acid	Shu-Korath Pendant
Mat	Hemalurgic Spike, Highstorm	Discarded Weapon
Aman	Fire	Aluminium Ingots, Fancy Dress
TJ	Aimian, Enhanced Strength	Musical Instrument, Wig
Fifth	Midnight Essence	Wooden Coins, Aluminium Hat
Silho	Lifeless Soldier, Mistwraith	Handkerchief, Uniform, Water Bottle, A'kar's Symbol

 

The issue was, as far as Jean-Guy could tell, the combination of clues so far pointed towards Jariel (Striker.) Acid, as J'aman had pointed out, seemed to partly address some of their concerns, and the Shu-Korath pendant as evidence might explain why the victim had been found dead in the middle of religious worship.

There were reasons Jean-Guy could give to discount a decent chunk of his table:

• Horsehoes and the False Beard were certainly manmade but gelled poorly with the idea of being in the middle of religious worship. This suggested there was a better fit somewhere. There wasn't really a clear connection between that element and Kandra Digestive Acids, either. For this reason, he was not so willing to suspect Jacob (Xino.)
   
• He felt that while the victim could have died to a Hemalurgic Spiking gone wrong, or to a Highstorm, the Discarded Weapon was a strange clue. To be sure, the rest of Jatrim's (Mat's) evidence items all appeared to be manmade apart from an atium bead, but they also better fit a Feast than religious worship.
   
• Fire was a method that appeared rather promising, but suffered from similar problems: the Aluminium Ingots pointed to Trading, while the Fancy Dress pointed to a Social Visit or a Feast, in Jean-Guy's eyes.
   
• An Aimian or Enhanced Strength might also have accidentally done for the victim, but the Musical Instrument was better placed for Entertainment or a Feast, and similarly for a Wig.
   
• It was just barely possible the Aluminium Hat might fit with a Religious ritual, but Wooden Coins seemed closer to a Social Visit, Entertainment, or Trading, and Jean-Guy reckoned he would favour an Assembly for the Aluminium Hat. No one was kayana enough to worship with aluminium, surely. Not even on Silverlight.
   
• Jean-Guy associated Lifeless Soldier and Mistwraith murders with other locations: battlefields and slums. A hut or a shack was a strange place. The evidence items too, with the exception of A'kar's Symbol, which was religious, appeared better suited for a Social Visit or a Feast.

So yeah. That's where I am at right now.

[OOC: Yes yes, hold your pants, Mr Ja Sir, I know, I am not making an Accusation right now, I am just laying out my case/thoughts  ]

Edited to add:

46 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Oh and I've been ruling out all investiture because of the Manmade clue but I think maybe we shouldn't (if anyone else is) since that's specifically "Evidence Left Behind" and might not apply to the MoM

[OOC: As I've indicated in Jean-Guy's thoughts, I'm in two minds about those. I can in general see them being passed off as accidents, but also feel that Araris has a more direct category for those, i.e. Supernatural cause of death. That being said, I could see something like edge cases like being killed by Midnight Essence, or Aon Tia dumping the victim someplace else. I'm leaning no for now until there's further clarity on the situation.

I will say that I feel it is fairly clear in a number of cases that there are probably other reasons to discount them, e.g. Dakhor Ritual should've had Temple as the location - combined with Religious Worship, we would've gotten it off the bat. ]

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis]

13 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

[OOC: As I've indicated in Jean-Guy's thoughts, I'm in two minds about those. I can in general see them being passed off as accidents, but also feel that Araris has a more direct category for those, i.e. Supernatural cause of death. That being said, I could see something like edge cases like being killed by Midnight Essence, or Aon Tia dumping the victim someplace else. I'm leaning no for now until there's further clarity on the situation.

I will say that I feel it is fairly clear in a number of cases that there are probably other reasons to discount them, e.g. Dakhor Ritual should've had Temple as the location - combined with Religious Worship, we would've gotten it off the bat. ]

Ah right, forgot about the Supernatural option.

I'm down to use my accusation on Striker/Acid/Shu-Korath Pendant right now btw, just lemme know if it's worth confirming/denying today.

[Kasimir]

3 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

I'm down to use my accusation on Striker/Acid/Shu-Korath Pendant right now btw, just lemme know if it's worth confirming/denying today.

[OOC: Leaving that to your judgement. I'm definitely tempted to/am considering using mine on that combination today as well. Then again, there might also be value in hearing from Striker early, if only because a Striker read might also help.

To be clear, by 'further clarity', am referring to Araris's next clue, since I figure he will probably replace the clue that he notices we are all struggling the most with, so might be In Progress or Clothes. Beyond the new clue, there's probably something to be said about which clue he selects, since that might indicate we are most barking up the wrong tree there.]

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir

[Amanuensis]

8 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

[OOC: Leaving that to your judgement. I'm definitely tempted to/am considering using mine on that combination today as well. Then again, there might also be value in hearing from Striker early, if only because a Striker read might also help.

To be clear, by 'further clarity', am referring to Araris's next clue, since I figure he will probably replace the clue that he notices we are all struggling the most with, so might be In Progress or Clothes. Beyond the new clue, there's probably something to be said about which clue he selects, since that might indicate we are most barking up the wrong tree there.]

Oh right, I haven't really thought about the human factor; very curious to see if I can even naturally form suspicions without proper voting and such. I'll give Striker time then

[Kasimir]

12 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

Oh right, I haven't really thought about the human factor; very curious to see if I can even naturally form suspicions without proper voting and such. I'll give Striker time then

[OOC: Gotta love games with totally wild mechanics  ]

Edited to add:

Yeah, I wouldn't completely rule out the Aon cases:

 

We're not just looking to get into the mind of a killer, gentlespren. We're looking to get into the mind of one of the most Evil, most dangerous, bus-driving murderers in the whole of the splintered 17thShardsmere!

We're trying to understand how Araris Valerian himself thinks; may God have mercy on our souls.

Edited to add 2:

@Amanuensis Question for you. Suppose the Location question is taken to be Evidence indicative rather than merely Method indicative. Does this change your view of what's possible? 

I could see Glow Paste or Hidden Message potentially re-entering in such a case.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Kasimir