An Evening of Mystery and Murder

Host: Kaleena 

An Evening of Mystery and Murder

Explanation:  You’re hosting a Halloween-themed dinner party and seven of your favorite morally gray fictional characters and/or villains have accepted your invitation. Sometime during the party there is a murder, and there are only seven suspects – you and your guests. Who did you invite, who was murdered, what was the murder weapon, and where in the house did it occur.

I hope you like my list of people! I tried to keep it to just book characters but then I knew I couldn’t talk about morally grey characters without adding Rumple in. And then Harley threatened me with her hammer, so I had to add her. Selene just snuck in, I guess. As I don’t know if you know all the characters I mention here so I’ll add a few lines about their personalities. I wanted to just give the characters and then tell you all the facts…but then the writer side of me got carried away.

I’ll tell you who was killed, where, and how. As well as three clues as to various characters whereabouts and even some thoughts on the victim to help you out a bit.

 

The Characters/Suspects

1. Gollum/Smeagol (Lord of the Rings books/movies)
   • A character who only thinks about himself, driven to insanity by his quest to find the One Ring. Manipulative, determined in a bad way, and will go to any length to find out the latest news about the ring.
   • Also talks to himself (I use both names as I’ve always thought Smeagol was his ‘usual’ persona and Gollum was the person he spoke to off-screen/the character who was created by the Ring).

 

2. Selene (Underworld franchise)
   • A vampire who used to kill Lycans also sometimes has to kill other vampires. Whatever she has to kill, she’s good at it. Mostly uses guns but likes a sword or knife now and then for a more personal touch.
   • Prefers to work alone in the shadows. Only leaves survivors behind to send a message.

 

3. Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows duology)
   • An intelligent ruthless teenager, always on the lookout for a job.
   • He’s a strategist and criminal mastermind and doesn’t like to share his plans until it’s utterly necessary.

 

4. Andrew Minyard (All for the Game trilogy)
   • He barely has facial expressions. I’m not even sure if he knows what they are. Mysteriously, all the sugar at the party is missing. Nobody wants to sit next to him.
   • Has an unpredictable and volatile personality, which makes people avoid him.

 

5. Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad movie, not the comics as I know more about the Suicide Squad movie)
   • Giggles a lot but no one wants to call her out on it as she brought a huge hammer with to the party and looks like she knows how to use it.
   • Acts all innocent but be careful as she uses that against her.

 

6. Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter books/movies)
   • Likes to twinkle his eyes and twiddle his thumbs, but he can become controlling to get what he wants.
   • Used to directing a young boy who so desperately wants approval into an early grave but finds that it’s just as easy to manipulate adults.

 

7. Rumpelstiltskin (Once Upon a Time)
   • Be sure to have all your wits (and then someone else’s) around Rumplestiltskin and always read the Terms and Conditions before signing any contract he gives you.
   • Extremely manipulative and sometimes changes the rules to get to a preferable outcome.

 

 

You send out the invites. They’re posted on simple cards with simple fonts, asking them to come to dinner. You hope they’ll all play nicely with each other, that Harley won’t bring her hammer with, and you’re glad you didn’t invite a Lycan to the party.

You hope they’ll like the location. You chose it so nicely. An abandoned mansion, but still looks impressive and upscale enough to entice them all into coming. It’s been abandoned long enough for the ivy to start growing outside on the walls but not enough that the inside barely needs dusting.

It’s 5 o’clock when they start to pull up. Smeagol is first, sneering at the mansion, but you later find out that’s his default facial expression. He drops to a crouch at the door, hiding in one of the shadows. A few moments later, he jumps out of the shadows, startled by the sudden appearance of Selene. The Death Dealer jumps down from the roof, landing solidly on the ground, jacket billowing in the wind. Brekker is next, crow-headed cane swinging out first. He stands next to Selene, looks up and down at their near-matching coats and gives an almost imperceptible nod. You hope that’s a good thing.

Andrew Minyard comes next. He doesn’t look like much, five foot and blonde, but he does have a scowl on his face and a dark look in his eyes that make you want to steer clear of him. He’s followed by Harley Quinn, who’s chewing gum and near-swinging her hammer around, talking a mile a minute to Andrew, who doesn’t turn his head or even seem to blink at all her questions.

The last two, Albus Dumbledore and Rumpelstiltskin, walk in last. They seem to becoming fast friends, smiling as they walk up to the group. They end their conversation with a firm handshake and Dumbledore seems to hand the Dark One a lemon sherbet.

The Murder

At a quarter to nine, Selene gets up to go exchange her empty glass of blood. She comes back with a fresh one and promptly tells you Albus Dumbledore is lying in the kitchen, a metal skewer jabbed through his throat. The blood is fresh so it must have happened not 15 minutes ago. You grow immediately cold and realise that one of the dinner party guests could have done it. You grow even colder when you realise that it might have even been you as you know you’ve been prone to a bit of rage every now and then.

The Hints

Hint #1:

Who was where when it happened (9 pm)?

Harley Quinn went to the ballroom to dance, she invited Andrew with, but he declined and left the room.

Smeagol was seen around the kitchen near the end of 8 o’clock, but he swears he was eavesdropping on Andrew’s phone conversation

You left the room around half past eight, wanting to speak to one of the staff members.

 

Hint #2:

Who spoke the most with him/would get the most out of it?

Rumpelstiltskin was seen arriving with him, but then proceeded to mingle with everyone.

Dumbledore tried to start a conversation with Andrew and Kaz, as they are two teenagers, but Andrew just stared at him and Kaz got up to go talk to Selene.

 

Hint #3:

They all sat around the table earlier, speaking about their most evil deeds.

Smeagol – Choking to death

Selene – Once cut a man’s face in half

Kaz – pulled out someone’s eyeball

 

So, who do you think did it? Leave your guess down below in the comments and I’ll reveal the killer later in the month!

So Long and Thanks For All the Fish!