FOURTH INVESTIGATION

[grimgrinningghosts]

[After over a month of all this, all the death is starting to take a toll on this mansion. Maybe with the death that happened just yesterday, you hope that no one else will die this week, but even the most optimistic guests here will realize that's wishful thinking at this point.

Either way, as you leave your bedroom, you will hear strange music echoing through the hallways.

Investigate?]

Comments

[ilovepuppies]

[Star didn't sleep well at all last night, and frankly, she wouldn't have gotten up at all if she didn't hear the music. She wanders out into the foyer, rubbing her eyes.]

Hello?

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford has learned better after a month than to think that this Friday will be victimless. That wouldn't fall in line with whoever's plotting this thing and their agenda, after all. He pulls himself out of bad, stretches and cracks his old bones, and heads toward the kitchen, hoping he doesn't stumble on anything bloody and dead on the way. He just wants coffee before he has to investigate a murder for once. And that music is not sounding like a good sign.]

[pardonmylanguage]

[Welp. Tip's going to follow that music.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[There's no response, but it seems like the music is coming from upstairs.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[I swear you have one person stabbed to death in the kitchen and you automatically think the kitchen will always be unsafe on Fridays.

It's clean, go have your coffee, Ford.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Well...]

[ilovepuppies]

[All right, let's see where this is going. Is there anything immediately apparent at the top of the stairs?]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Alright. No corpses. Look. can you really blame him?

Once he's woken up a little, he resigns himself to the inevitable and wanders back out to find the source of the music.]

[sixfingeredstan]

[Warily, Ford follows behind Star, peering down over her shoulder.]

[pardonmylanguage]

[Tip is heading up the stairs too.] Is...is it the attic again...?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Good news? No blood! Bad news is that it's becoming abundantly clear that the music is garbled, like a really bad record player tuned to a station outside their region.

At this point Star should start to at least be able to hear some lyrics as she reaches the top of the steps.]

Isn't the world full of wonderful things?
I have lost so many things, my job, my future

[pardonmylanguage]

Well that's not ominous at all. [Tip is getting snarky now that there's no obvious death.]

[outsidethecircle]

[This doesn't sound ominous at all! Let's try the music room; that's an obvious place, right?]

[ilovepuppies]

I guess somebody just left their music playing?

[WELL, at least nobody died. Let's go to the music room and turn it off!]

[sixfingeredstan]

....Wait.

[Ford pauses.]

I've heard this music before. More clearly.

[There's a very bad feeling in his stomach right now.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[In the very least the music room is body-free.]

[pardonmylanguage]

[Welp. Tip is going to look around for the exact source of the music now.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Why do you always assume the worst, Ford?]

[ilovepuppies]

[IT'S FINE IT'S FRIENDLY.]

It's not coming from the music room! Where the heck is it?

[sixfingeredstan]

[Ford frowns, and turns out back toward the hall. Slowly, he approaches the open attic door, hovering near the entrance.]

Perhaps in here...?

[outsidethecircle]

[Okay, the music room is free but--]

You have?

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It seems to come from the Billiards Room.]

[sixfingeredstan]

Mm. It's from a musical. In my world we call it Hello, Dottie!</i<

[grimgrinningghosts]

[The music seems to grow fainter as Ford approaches it. Please don't get your head chopped off, Ford.]

[pardonmylanguage]

Um...over here. [She waves to the others as she walks towards that room carefully.]