Murder at Scrimshaw Manor Discussion Thread
 

Here is where you may discuss and collaborate on your investigations in the Murder at Scrimshaw Manor! Fill out the profile below and post your accusations here.



Remember, sharing information is important. You're all in this together. There's a wonderful prize for participation, and only through teamwork will you be able to solve this.

I will be reading through each post and marking down the results people have submitted. Depending on how much information is correctly or incorrectly submitted, you may catch a killer or end up accusing the wrong person and giving the murderer time to strike again!

Have fun, and good luck! You will definitely need it...

(not an actual entry)

The Murderer: Alabaster Manstrode

How they did it: By butlering

Why: BECAUSE IT'S ALWAYS THE BUTLER.

People just need to understand when there is a murder and there is a butler in the mix it's ALWAYS the Butler.

I believe according to Tim Curry's character in the movie "Clue", the butler 'butles'.

But what does the butler butle, I wonder?

Oh wow. You knew the exact movie I was referring too. After the 2nd actual murderer I just couldn't stop laughing.

Weeeeeell the movie itself isn't exactly super serious. But yes, I believe he is the only confirmed butler to butle.

The thread for the interrogation will be incoming shortly. No worries!

Aye. I wanted to give everyone time to read before heading on over. I know it's a lot to swallow at first.

Well if you think it's the butler...tell us how and why! You know. Officially.

The Murderer: Lord Treylbach

How they did it: Lord Treylbach faked his death and while we slowly fight with each other he's going to try and kill everyone else!

Why: Because he has a grudge to pick with all of the people at the party.

I daresay that Illusion is being quite accusatory...and going down the list of different possible tropes based on Agatha Christie style murders without actual evidence...
How do we know Illusion isn't the murderer? He is quite an enigma, after all.

(On a serious note, I'll investigate this shortly...after I finish my papers)

Because I'm a floating mask with no hands.

That and my mask is silky smooth and couldn't even cut butter.

I forgot this event was even a thing! So here's my preliminary thoughts from just reading the events so far. Will see how things change when I get to character profiles (haven't read those yet).

The Murderer: The Butler! (AKA Alabaster)

How they did it: accident. He's a bit of a flake it seems. Misplaces the wine, goes to get another one, finds it again. He may well have accidentally dumped his meds into the ham in place of some other spice bottle, perhaps ground up, which would be why he couldn't find them later.

Why: again, accident.


Could be that Captain Bosney is a little quick to judge, hence Isabelle asking about the previous fellow that was shot, and her comments at dinner.

Alternatively, Alabaster is actually a very cunning and meticulous man and cultivated the impression of being flakey so that we would expect an accident!.

By the way, if you guys haven't listened to the audio versions, you should. Salone is a great reader. :D

After looking up the story and characters, I am highly doubtful that the Butler did it. Not because he isn't potentially meticulous and controlling enough to do so, but because he has made himself extremely vulnerable by not taking his heart medicine. Even if he was devoted enough to Lady Scrimshaw as to kill off a rival at the risk of his life, I doubt he would want her dishonor by having a guest die in her house. To my knowledge, he does not stand to inherit anything from dear departed Lord "I-have-too-long-a-name-so-of-course-I-am-dead". In short, there is no motive that does not have a more immediate and dire consequence to Alabaster...barring an accident.

I still think it's Lord Treylbach... Maybe he disguised himself as one of the guests?

That is something I would like - an investigation of the corpse. It could determine anything extraneous beyond the Laudanum. Perhaps he was dead when he entered the door. Perhaps there's a Cobra under the table.

It was totally Lord Tray. He committed suicide so as to get the rest of the guests to argue and kill each other, leaving the last one alive to spend either a lifetime on the run or be convicted of several murders, while his spectre possesses the trophy moose head that hangs on the wall at the foot of the table, watching the show.

I doubt most seriously that there is a supernatural element here. Nothing has given that indication. Still, I would like to check the body. It could very well be that the body isn't Lord Tray.

(That was actually a little film reference)

An aside, but looking at Giselle Tavish for the moment. She isn't so fond of her husband, but is very fond of his money. She doesn't have much direct need to off Lord Trey but if his reforms go through, her husband's business might lose some money, meaning that the value of the business she hopes to take over would decrease.

Since Tavish is vocally against Lord Trey, he would be - and was - an immediate suspect. If he were convicted of murder, she would probably be out of the marriage, get the company, and the scandal of a murder at her own dinner party could cause problems for Lady Scrimshaw, adding some icing to the cake.

Possible. The only thing against that would be my idea that Lady Scrimshaw kept her busy the whole time with "polite" condescending chit-chat. Why don't you ask the Lady Scrimshaw?

This sounds so cool! But unfortunately I should be doing homework instead of properly investigating so here's my guess:

The Murderer: Lady Isabelle Molatto
How they did it: She distracted the butler by hiding the wine bottle he needed, while the butler was in the cellar, she poisoned the steak
Why: She is pissed off at Bosney and she's working with Tavish. Having Tavish be exposed by Bosney would ruin her as well. Tavish's wife wants Tavish's business for herself and would do anything to get him out of the way, and that includes selling him out to Treylbach. Since Tavish's wife and Lady Scrimshaw are at odds, what with Lady Scrimshaw holding more weight in her words than Tavish's wife, the only one who can actually ruin Tavish and thus Lady Molatto is the one investigating him: Treylbach. She hopes that with the threat of Treylbach being removed, Bosney will be less likely to pursue the Tavish lead due to a murky history with Lady Molatto and the poor opinion of the weight of anything Tavish's wife would have to say. Manstrode of course would follow whatever Lady Scrimshaw had to say.

Not going to lie, I am enjoying and I am incredibly impressed by a lot of your investigations and powers of deduction. You all have some very compelling reasons for why you think your person did it!

While Isabelle was my first thought after reading the character setup - dispelled by reading the story...the Butler's response to my question - that he has multiple Laudanum samples across the home - makes me curious and gives him, or another with good access to the house, some means. I remain believing the butler isn't the murderer, but I wonder about the Lady. I've reread chapter 1. Why was the dear Lady Scrimshaw somewhat nervous when asked about Alabaster? What would one like her stand to gain?

The first post actually says you can ask 3 questions. Guess I should spell it instead of using the numeric 3 so it shows up easier. Yes, you get 3 questions a round!

I wrote more than I originally thought, haha! I like the story thus far, great job @Salone :)

My initial thought on Lady Scrimshaw was that she was embarrassed at only having one member of house staff, rather than several, which might look poorly on her status as nobility. Perhaps she doesn't quite have the wealth she should.

Her not having any other staff could perhaps lend credence to the notion of Alabaster ultimately working towards getting her riches for himself. Although, without a will he would better off with her staying alive and out of trouble,

Has anyone considered what he meant by "almost making a mistake" when giving Lady Scrimshaw the ham before taking it and passing it to Lord Trey instead? Maybe there was a goof. There's always a change the wrong target got hit.

Further question: Can we ask observational questions? Such as what the rooms and such look like? For instance, the wine cellar is covered in dust. Is there any evidence of someone passing? Footprints, or bottles with dust missing? If it's dusty and dingy down there, Alabaster may have had to wipe off a few to find the right replacement bottle.

Or he just forgot the table setting arrangements since they all had individualized meals. Of course, given that the meal and seating arrangements were all sketched out on the kitchen island, anyone who was in there, say, when Alabaster was fetching new wine, could easily have known who's meal they were poisoning.

Backpedaling over myself here.

My thoughts remain on the Lady Scrimshaw. I think the butler does as she commands...I would almost hazard a relationship between the two. Also, the dear departed Lord died looking at the Lady. It is possible that he gave a hint right there. Doubtful though. Also, of the guests, the Lady would be most aware of the Butler's medication location.

We don't actually know it was the butler's medication though. They all had a bottle, and we don't know the dose.

I think Treylbach was already dead when his "glassy stare" met Scrimshaw, so it could be nothing.

A note, Trey apparently glared a little at the ham, so perhaps it's not what he normally would eat. Maybe it was supposed to be the turkey Alabaster apparently thought he had. I would say ham as a stronger flavor then turkey, so maybe it was planned so as to hide the taste!

*Doctor Evil pinky face*

Hmm...think I am going to ask my second inquiry.