Who is Beatrice?

There are multiple people with the name of Beatrice.

The first gave gold to Kinzou, though it may have been only a single gold bar that was used to con his way into securing larger loans. He fell in love with her.

When the first Beatrice died, Kinzou found a suitable child to raise in Kuwadorian in an attempt to recreate his lost lover, who may or not have been his child with Beatrice I. She died falling off a cliff around 1967.

The witch Beatrice does not exist but is instead a representation of the collective fiction created by the servants to keep the memory of Beatrice alive. I think part of the reveal will be that while witch Beatrice affects the style and behaviors of Beatrice I, she is in fact the memory of Beatrice II, explaining the repeated notes about her childishness and naivety in places.

Who is Battler?

As a grandson of Kinzou, he should be a son of Rudolf, Rosa, or Krauss.

If he was born to Krauss there would need to be some reason he couldn't be legitimized, which would rule out Natsuhi as his mother.

If he was born to Rosa, there would need to be some reason for her to pass him on, and it would complicate the situation of Maria's father.

If he was born to Rudolf, there is an elegant option: Asumu's child was the one stillborn and named Battler, but Kyrie gave birth close enough for Rudolf to arrange a swap of the babies.

Why carry out that switch? Perhaps to put Battler in line to inherit, perhaps as a perceived kindness to Kyrie or Asumu by Rudolf. Alternatively, Battler's birth comes close in time to the death of Beatrice II. It could be that Kinzou intended for either Kyrie or Asumu's child to be the next replacement.

The Beatrice II connection does open up the possibility that she is Battler's biological mother, which could explain Krauss' inability to claim him as an heir if he is the father: Revealing that he secretly had sex with Kinzou's replacement for his lover would worsen rather than improve his inheritance prospects. That would require a more complicated explanation for Battler ending up being raised by Rudolf, though.

What is Battler's sin?

The sin set events in motion while not being between Battler and Beatrice. The timing of the sin connects with Ange's birth, Battler's learning of Rudolf's affair, and Battler's rejection of the family.

It feels like the most natural option is that Battler learned of Beatrice II but rejected the idea so strongly that he forgot about it. If this happened after he learned of Rudolf's affair with Kyrie, he could have been disgusted by the whole family from the parallel situations. Or he could have rejected the servants' attempts to keep the memory alive (perhaps introducing young Maria to the traditions), dismissing it as superstition and not thinking anything of it. For this sin to not be against Beatrice, it would have to be against someone else such as Kinzou, and would instigate events by influencing him to write the epitaph to draw more attention to Beatrice, or somebody to present the letters from Beatrice to try and inspire a change of heart in Battler, only for this to inadvertently raise the tensions at the family conference to the point of murder.

As for other potential subjects of Battler's sin, he could have spoken thoughtlessly to Krauss and Natsuhi about their fertility, or Rosa about her absent partner, or engaged in Battler-typical sexism or sexual harassment against any of the women in the cast.

How many people are on the island?

"At most 17" leaves open the possibility of the number dropping further. If Ronove is an alternate personality of Genji, only one being active at a time would leave the count unchanged. Shannon and Kanon could also have nonservantsonas.

Battler is probably the strongest candidate for someone not present in the mundane reality at all, since the original died and he's largely passive and untargeted throughout all the routes so his absence wouldn't disrupt any of the explanations much.

Beatrice is 'here' on the island at the end of episode 4, but that depends on the details of her situation and the wording of the red truths involved. Buried in the rose garden, perhaps even under Maria's rose, is my best guess.

Another option could be to look for two people who always die in such a way as to permit them both being the same person, but nobody comes to mind without a reread.

What is the answer to the riddle?

I don't think I can work this out from the information available, even with the episode 3 hints and a tip from a friend.

Behold the sweetfish river, running through my beloved home of old

Sweetfish connect to the chapel via birth/mating/death having baptisms/marriages/funerals and fish as symbol of Christianity. Or to the family conferences, the offspring returning to the birthplace. The beloved home of old could be the island or a place on it.

You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream in search of the key

California has historical gold rushes and the Golden Gate Bridge? The path downstream could refer to the bottom of the old well? Or if it's downstream from the chapel or family conferences, that could mean a place of death like a graveyard, or the places they go outside of those times.

As you travel down it, you will see a village. In that village, look for the shore the two speak of.

Who might the two be? Kinzou and Beatrice, and the shore the cliff where she died? Or the secret harbor for Kuwadorian? The shore could be literal (littoral) or a different sort of threshold - like the door to the chapel, or a national border.

There the key to the Golden Land sleeps.

Sleeping, so not active. On the shore.

You who laid hand upon the key must journey as follows to the Golden Land. On the first twilight, sacrifice the six chosen by the key

Remove the six characters of the key's name?

On the second twilight, those who remain shall tear apart the two who are close

Split up two characters that are close together? Turn a w to a uu? Break the text apart at its new midpoint?

On the third twilight, those who remain shall praise my noble name

Add 'Kinzou' to the string? Or 'Lord Goldsmith'? That would better fit both 'noble' and Kinzou's westaboo proclivities.

On the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. On the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. On the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill. On the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. On the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill.

Remove characters that look like these body parts? えぐり can also be read as "to get to the bottom of things; to relentlessly bring the truth to light."

On the ninth twilight, the witch revives, and none shall be left alive

My best guess for 'the witch revives' is that 'Beatrice' can be read in the modified text, and 'none shall be left alive' is another clue to show that you've reached the right answer by this point.

On the tenth twilight, the journey ends, and you shall reach the Home of the Gold

Initially I wrote a script to brute-force removing characters from the riddle text under Kyrie's wordplay suggestion, trying potential 6-hiragana keys like 'おうごんしゅう', 'きんもんとう', or 'くわどりあん', but none of the results were very convincing.

A friend gave the hint that there's another piece of it somewhere, which reminded me of the chapel quadrillion inscription. Repeating my brute-force script on that produced a few redacted lines where the meaning was changed enough to be interesting, but then that friend also reminded me that the inscription was in English - I'd been working on the Japanese translation of it. That means those lines are probably dead ends, but I've left them at the end of the post.

In English, quadrillion sounds a lot like Kuwadorian. On the assumption that Kuwadorian is the key whose sounds are to be removed, that gives "This [doo]r will open on[ly] [a]t o[dds] of [a] [qua][d][ri][li]o[n] to one You will be blessed on[ly] [a]t o[dds] of [a] [qua][d][ri][li]o[n] to one"

If the end result should contain the world "Beatrice" by night 9 and Kinzou's name is appended, that could come from "You will beblessed onlyatoddsofaquadri[...]gorudosumifu" - it is noted that "goldwarehouse" would be more accurate for Kinzou, but that doesn't have a 'su' in it. If this is on the right track, "gorudo mifu" would have to be removed by the body part twilights 4-8, as it's only added in twilight 3.

However, I've stalled out here, and can't think of a good way to narrow down the key or figure out what precise string operations the twilights actually refer to, even assuming this is the correct approach.

What did Ange see in the futon shop?

Another lion doll, made by Rosa in an attempt to reconcile with Maria, only to die before she could present it.

Who is the Chinaman?

The story seems very much in conversation with the 'rules' of detective fiction. Looking at Knox's Ten Commandments:

1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.

The reader being allowed to follow the thoughts of the killer isn't so much of a constraint when they can later be shown to be false and only red text can be relied upon.

2. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

This ties in with my reading of an eventual wholly mundane explanation.

3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

This comes up often in the locked room parts, if the story will eventually comply with all the commandments then the underground tunnels could be the single permitted example.

4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

Poisons, traps, stake-launchers, and explosive food all feature so far.

5. No Chinaman must figure in the story.

Given the rest of the list, I expect we'll get a line later about Kanon being an orphan from China or something.

6. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

The probability-warping witches seem like likely candidates for playing with this rule.

7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.

Battler of course has already committed the inciting sin, even if he doesn't remember it.

8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.

There are a few cases that are borderline, like what Ange sees in the futon shop (not visible in the manga as far as I can tell).

9. The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

Or in other words, "You are incompetent!"

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Already touched on with Battler's replacement of the original Battler and Beatrice II's replacement of the original Beatrice.

Brute-force removal of 1-6 characters from the Japanese version of the chapel doorway inscription and applying MTL to the result:

The door can only be opened by the cover of one of the buds. (こんつ removed, の扉はせ兆ぶの一のかくりでしか開かない) - Maria's rosebud becoming relevant? Westaboo Kinzou making a classic movie mystery reference] would be in character.

This flying bird can only be caught by the trick of one of the signs. (らんつ removed, このとびはせ兆ぶの一のかくりでしかひかない) - relating to the metaphor of Beatrice as a caged bird?

The door can only be opened with one key (こはんく removed, の扉せ兆ぶの一のかりつでしか開かない) - no new information but could point to which characters to remove for the second line.

There is only a one-in-a-thousand chance of catching a dwarf. (のとらょ removed, こびは千ちう分一確率でしかひかない) - the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.

There is a chance that the words will not turn out to be bad. (のらんし removed, ことびはせ兆ぶ一確率でかひかない) - I sure hope so

I'm kidding you with a probability of one in a trillion. (とんひな removed, このびらはせ兆ぶの一の確率でしからかい) - I didn't think Kinzou was being literal

This door is made up of a thousand thousand coins, and it lasts forever. (とちうか removed, このびらは千ょ分のいのくりつでしひらない) - maybe the gold was melted down to make the door?

I can't help but hold on to this tormentor's fortune. (びせょか removed, このとらはんちう分の一のくりつでしひらない) - Kinzou feeling guilty?

You are the only one in the world. (んくりれ removed, あなたはせ兆ぶの一のかつでしかしゅふさない) - solipsism, do we ever get confirmation that anyone else is alive in the ~present?

You will not be blessed with a thousand sacrifices. (あちか removed, なたは千ょう分のいのくりつでし祝福されない) - the ritual will never work.

I can only take care of it with the help of one of my friends. (なんょく removed, あたはせちうぶの一のかりつでしかしゅふされい) - friendship is magic.

To play with the story's appeals to quantum mechanics, my own reading has been mostly engaging with it by way of the correspondence principle, that all these virtual particles of witches and demons have to add up to a regular scientific-looking world in the end, and the magical events are more a way to reveal the emotional dynamics that will eventually (I assume) lead to a wholly mundane conclusion of coming to terms with the Ushiromiya family's secrets and accepting Beatrice not as a witch but as a person.

With that in mind, what do I think really happened in Episode 4?

Kinzou is dead.

This time around, Kyrie proposes the caretaker contract that would acknowledge Krauss as heir so long as Kinzou can be shown to have died a natural death. This directly contests Krauss' ruse.

Maria claims Kinzou gave her an umbrella.

It is explicitly noted that all the servants were required to be present in anticipation of Kinzou's appearance, including Kumasawa, which is another point in favor of her playing the part of Beatrice here in the earlier episodes. Someone impersonating Kinzou could don his distinctive cloak instead. Genji or Krauss, perhaps?

Natsuhi, Rudolf, Hideyoshi, Genji, Eva, and Rosa are all killed, Krauss, Nanjou, Kyrie, Shannon, and Kanon are relocated to the tunnels under Kuwadorian. Gouda and Kumasawa flee.

My speculation this time is that Krauss realizes that without drastic action his ruse could be uncovered and he could be prosecuted for the murder of Kinzou by the rest of the family, ruining all his plans. So his drastic action takes the form of having the drinks spiked with a knockout drug, then his accomplices bringing in Kinzou's corpse and shooting those who are conscious and resistant. This accomplishes the recognition of Kinzou by the others.

Why not kill everyone? I think Krauss is trying to set up an alibi for himself, so that the blame for the murders will pass on to Kinzou or someone else. The hostages could also be to ensure the cooperation of Battler, Jessica, and George, by being able to threaten Kyrie, Kanon, and Shannon, respectively.

Why kill Natsuhi? Either this was an accident, or a deliberate choice by Krauss to deflect suspicion away from himself. With the same reasoning as last episode, 'Genji' could potentially 'die' as an identity here again, freeing Ronove to act. This would just require his body to be killed and placed back in the dining room later for Battler to find.

Gouda and Kumasawa arrive at the guest house. They say that the master of the house has gone mad, and relate the deaths. Then the phone rings, and Krauss tells Jessica that the master of the house will give them all a test. Gouda and Kumasawa are locked in the garden shed and given the sole key to it, which can be passed back and forth through the window. The tests call George and Jessica away and ask them to sacrifice their own life, the life they love most, or everyone else.

Who is the master of the house? Gouda and Kumasawa's 'master of the house' phrasing could refer to Krauss if they're aware of his role, or Kinzou if the accomplices claim to be acting on his posthumous instructions. As for Krauss, I suspect he's speaking in the third person.

What's the point of the tests? Here, my guess is that they are a play on the observation from the previous episode that the riddle could serve as a way for Kinzou to surreptitiously choose a different heir, by giving the answer to the one he favors. In this case, it could be intended as a seemingly-fair way to ensure Jessica is designated as heir while continuing to lay the blame on Kinzou, so that Krauss wins whether they accept the wishes of 'Kinzou' or go with the standard inheritance procedure.

George chooses to sacrifice everyone other than Shannon, while Jessica refuses the choice. Jessica calls Battler to tell him she's 'basically already dead', that he'll find her with a half-crushed skull, that George died instantly, and that the enemy is not human. At the same time, those in the tunnels escape. Kanon is the first to die in that group and ninth to die overall. Kyrie then calls Battler and says that six were killed by demonic beings at the family meeting, four more during the escape from the cell, that she will be next, that Kanon cut through the cell bars with a red laser and then golden threads attacked through keyholes. She asks if Jessica and George are still alive, learns that they are not, concludes that with her death the ritual will be complete, and tells him to accept the identities and stay on the good side of any demons or witches who appear. Someone else calls Maria, makes her laugh, and asks her to leave to take her own test.

This seems to be where Krauss' plans go awry: I'd expect Jessica to be much less disposable to him compared to Natsuhi, who took so long to give him her as an heir, and yet she ends up dead too.

Why does Jessica call Battler? One option that comes to mind is that George infers Krauss is behind the night's events, such as if he knows that Krauss knows of his affections for Shannon. Then he inform Jessica, to see if she can persuade her father to call off the madness or else he'll to take her hostage for the same purpose. A call from Jessica to Krauss in the cells could see Krauss continue to maintain his act of being another prisoner for his side of the conversation, if the others can't hear what Jessica is saying. Jessica being aware that her father is responsible and won't be persuaded to stop would explain why she would use her last call on Battler instead of Krauss or Kanon.

How do the prisoners get out of the cell? Ignoring the red laser, somebody had to lock them in, meaning someone had the key. If Kanon had the key then he could unlock it following a covert signal from Krauss once he realizes George and his daughter know his scheme and won't cooperate with it.

How does George die? My current guess is that either Krauss retrieves a cached gun outside on leaving the cell, or an unaccounted-for accomplice like Ronove does the deed. He is shot after shouting up to Jessica's window to inform him of what he's deduced about Krauss, killing him instantly in sight of her, and his body is moved back to the arbor to support the intended story.

How does Jessica die? No good explanation here, because I can't think of anyone left who would a) go to kill her and b) give her enough advance warning for a phone call describing the cause of death without naming them. My current least-bad hypothesis is that she throws herself from the window to kill herself and spite her father's murderous schemes and then her body was moved back inside to conceal the cause, but that's still unsatisfying.

What order do the deaths happen in? The red text about Kanon's death being ninth overall means that two deaths are needed between the first six and his own. That would mean either Jessica and George, or Kumasawa and Gouda. If Jessica and George are first, Kyrie does not name the four dead in her group, which provides some leeway. For example, the flight from the cell could have gone past the garden shed, pausing to release Gouda and Kumasawa so they can join the group, only for them to be killed. This would free up two members of Kyrie's group to remain alive, such as Krauss and either Nanjou (for poisoning Maria later) or Shannon (for making her laugh over the phone).

Why are there the other deaths? If more people overhear George's shouted deductions to Jessica, they'd need to die too. If Kanon comes across Jessica's corpse, that should break any loyalty to Krauss as head of house, causing him to attack and be killed. It could also be to stop him revealing that Krauss was the one giving him his orders.

Why do both Jessica and Kyrie attempt to convince Battler that his opponents are nonhuman? I'm currently leaning towards the explanation that Krauss has passed on his intent to murder everyone he needs to and pin the deaths on the witch, so telling Battler to accept the supernatural could be a way to protect him by discouraging him from asking questions that would get himself killed. Or it could be to get him to fight back in defiance of the family ties that might hold him back. Kyrie's phrase about golden threads reaching through a keyhole feels like another instance of wordplay trying to pass a coded message to him about what's really going on that doesn't get through, maybe because Krauss has her at gunpoint.

Battler finds Gouda and Kumasawa dead in the garden shed, hung; George dead in the rose garden; and at the front of the mansion a box with the same test for him. Over the next day, he goes to the chapel, finds a key ring, finds the six dead bodies in the dining room with the addition of Maria dead from poison, Jessica in her room, Kyrie in the guest room at the rear of the first floor, Krauss near the back door with a stake in his head, Shannon and Nanjou near the old well with stakes next to their bodies, Kinzou burning in the boiler, and that Gouda and Kumasawa were shot before being strung up.

How did Gouda and Kumasawa die? The neatest explanation I can think of is that the killer ordered them to hang themselves up so they would stay visible, then shot them through the window.

How did the remaining people from Kyrie's group die? My current guess is that after discovering Jessica's death Krauss killed his accomplice and then himself. Maria may have then arranged the stakes for the sake of the ritual, and taken poison to join Rosa.

Why would the killer leave Battler alive? Assuming the killer is Krauss, then he might know that Battler is illegitimate or that he is secretly his biological father instead of Rudolf.

In the end, there is nobody alive on the island except for Battler and nothing outside the island can interfere. However, Beatrice, who is not Battler, is also there, and is about to kill him.

What does it mean for her to be there? Beatrice never says that she's alive. She could be, for example, buried in the rose gardens.

What does it mean for Battler to be killed by her? Perhaps in the sense of her life having set off this sequence of events, in the same way that she says his sin caused the slaughter.

How would Battler be killed? Lightning strike? Identity death?

To play with the story's appeals to quantum mechanics, my own reading has been mostly engaging with it by way of the correspondence principle, that all these virtual particles of witches and demons have to add up to a regular scientific-looking world in the end, and the magical events are more a way to reveal the emotional dynamics that will eventually (I assume) lead to a wholly mundane conclusion of coming to terms with the Ushiromiya family's secrets and accepting Beatrice not as a witch but as a person.

With that in mind, what do I think really happened in Episode 3?

Kinzou is dead.

Krauss is aware. With Kinzou dead, Krauss has nothing to fear from his siblings threatening to reveal his embezzlement from the estate.

Maria receives a letter from 'Beatrice'.

My guess continues to be that Kumasawa was the one to deliver it. This episode gives a little more support: Her being identified with Virgilia would entitle her to the 'Beatrice' name, and as one of the presumed servants maintaining the hidden mansion she would have access to 1967!Beatrice's dresses and accessories to wear.

The letter is treated more seriously this time.

Why is it treated more seriously? The change seems to be that Eva is feeling her enmity for Krauss more strongly, and so seizes on it as a way to surpass him and become heir.

Rosa claims that twenty years ago she found the hidden mansion and a childlike and sheltered 'Beatrice' inside it, who then fell off a cliff and died.

'Twenty years' is I presume more precisely 19, to put the death in 1967 some time after 'Beatrice' and Kinzou's confirmed conversation. I'm not sure how the sequence of events would work otherwise.

Genji and Kanon tell post-engagement Shannon to enter the study with them, from the rear so Gouda doesn't notice them.

Why go to the study? One option is post-mortem instructions from Kinzou, but I think this time around, with the riddle getting more attention, Krauss is afraid that it might actually be solved and take precedence over his claim, so he orders them to take Kinzou's body and burn it.

Why would Krauss order that? If the riddle is solved and its results respected, that would worsen his position, reduced to a fractional share instead of his current control of the family finances. At the same time, his siblings' focus on the riddle implies that they don't have any better options for ousting him, indicating that his position for inheritance is stronger than he thought. Revealing Kinzou's death would let him take over directly as the next in line instead of his current caretaker role and at the same time distract from the riddle.

Why avoid Gouda? Probably either because he lacks the loyalty to follow instructions reliably, or because they know he is more loyal to Rosa.

The heirs and spouses having argued through the night, they smell something, and find a sequence of locked rooms containing the dead servants and the body of Kinzou, along with a letter from 'Beatrice' reminding them to solve the riddle.

Why did the servants die? One option is that this was more of Krauss' orders, to deepen the distraction from the riddle. He would also be glad to get rid of the servants to prevent any more postmortem tricks by Kinzou like the first letter, and Natsuhi had this episode spoken about wanting to fire all of the crested servants.

What order did the servants die in? Whoever was last had a master key to let them open all of the doors, with one exception: The chapel where Kanon was found. The chapel key is unique and the master key couldn't be used to replace it, which implies that Kanon was not the last servant standing as he'd have no way to both lock himself inside the chapel and put the key with Kinzou. Someone else had to lock his dead body inside. I think all other servants could've died in any order, though I'd guess Genji was last on the basis of Gouda's loyalty being in question, while Shannon and Kumasawa seem unlikely as killers.

How did the servants die? Murder suffices for all of them except the last, who did not die to traps or suicide. Some causes not ruled out include accidents or natural causes, although the latter is more difficult to reconcile with the apparent chest wounds on all of them. Alternatively, there was another killer outside the rooms, who only pretended to find the key they used on the body of the appropriate victim, as Battler proposes.

Why does Ronove stop Beatrice from declaring how many of the deaths were homicides? I'd guess this is because of Kinzou, either to stop his death before the episode start coming to light or because his cause of death would be revealing later on.

Why the letter? If Krauss ordered the servants to do this, leaving the letter could be a spiteful subversion of his callous command, conflicting with the intended purpose of the deaths as distraction.

Eva solves the riddle, shortly followed by Rosa. They find the gold. Rosa agrees to the established split, and begrudgingly to keep quiet about it for the short term.

I'll deal with the riddle in a separate post.

Rudolf finds Maria and Rosa dead in the garden. Rosa's gun is left behind, all bullets unfired.

Battler's explanation seems sufficient. Eva killed Rosa to silence her about the gold after she hinted about revealing it, and Maria out of necessity as a witness to Rosa's death, with Hideyoshi's alibi for her undermined by his cigarette butt.

Kyrie, Rudolf, and Hideyoshi go to get food from the manor. Their bodies are found with the stakes in them.

Battler's explanation seems mostly sufficient for this too. Kyrie notices the butt and colludes with Rudolf to get Hideyoshi alone to question him about his alibi for Eva. Hideyoshi agrees, either out of an inability to convincingly decline or because he wants to come clean to them, or because he takes them at face value. When Eva hears that Kyrie and Rudolf have taken Hideyoshi away, she realizes Kyrie's deduction and follows with her own gun. She interrupts their questioning of Hideyoshi, shooting both, with Kyrie shooting back but hitting Hideyoshi.

Why were the stakes used here? One option is that Eva realized her mistake not taking Rosa's gun, as it implied that the killer already had one, and used the stakes to conceal that the wounds were from bullets. The stakes could have been removed from the study by the servants during the circular killings.

The children and Dr. Nanjou move to the upstairs of the guesthouse, with the doors locked. Krauss and Natsuhi's bodies are found strangled.

Again, Battler's explanation of drugged coffee and then strangling by Eva seems mostly sufficient.

Why did they drink the coffee? By this point, there have been several more deaths than the ones I'm speculating Krauss ordered, so he should be more suspicious.

Who does he suspect? One option is that he thinks the killer is on his side, like a servant whose death was faked or Dr. Nanjou who was helping him cover up Kinzou's death, as so far his part of the family has been untouched. In this case, he might be trying to make amends with Eva on the assumption that she'll soon be dead too.

George left the guest house, even though all the doors and windows are locked.

Who locked up after him? Battler suspects either Nanjou or Eva. However, Krauss and Natsuhi would also have been alive long enough to lock up after him too.

Why would they lock up after him? If Eva, she could do so to get him out of the guesthouse where she'll be carrying out more murders like Natsuhi and Krauss to complete her revenge. If Krauss or Natsuhi, they could be moved by his desire to see Shannon one more time or want the added security of locking up after him to prevent anyone else from entering.

Jessica, Nanjou, Battler, and Eva go to the mansion, where they find the numbers 07151129 added to a door and George dead inside. Then Jessica and Eva fight, Jessica's eyes are injured, they split up, and while Jessica is alone with Nanjou he is killed.

One explanation for this is that Eva followed George to the mansion and killed him, but this is the complete opposite of what her motives would support. Another killer seems to be necessary, and will be even more so for the next deaths. In the next episode we learn these numbers are the key to a safe deposit box providing a large amount of cash to the recipients of the redirected letters, Nanjou and Kumasawa's sons. It's also raised that putting the number so prominently would ensure it gets made public as part of the subsequent investigation. Later in this episode, the prospect of alternate personalities is raised. However, the rebuttal for this is applied only to Jessica, Battler, and Eva, saying that none of their bodies had a role in Nanjou's death, rather than dismissing the idea of alternate personalities in general.

So my speculation is that:

Either Kumasawa or Genji held themselves responsible for the death of the 'Beatrice' of 1967, with their identities under those names created in light of that life debt owed to the Ushiromiyas for their negligence.

When Krauss orders the circular killings, they consider that life debt discharged on completion of them.

They discard that identity and fake their death, with Dr. Nanjou cooperating in exchange for the payout to his son or some other reason. Either 'Kumasawa' or 'Genji' no longer exists and can be considered 'dead'. Instead, they return to the identity they held back in 1967: 'Beatrice' or 'Virgilia' for Kumasawa, 'Ronove' for Genji. Ronove's connection to Genji is more explicit. More tenuously, Ronove's affinity for baking could be originally for Beatrice of the hidden mansion and sworn off after her death, leading to the need for Gouda as a new chef.

They stay in the mansion in hiding. When George enters seeking Shannon's body, he catches them by surprise and realizes they must have been involved in her murder. In the ensuing fight, George is killed.

They write the safe deposit box numbers prominently to communicate to the letter recipients that the money is related to the murders and the killer knows about the letters. This could be why none of them took the money out.

They then encounter Nanjou and kill him, by necessity or as part of their mission.

Whose orders was this servant following after the circular killings? If it was Krauss still, they may have been aiming to keep Jessica alive and remove anyone else who would threaten her, only to die to Eva leaving her free to kill both Jessica and Battler. If it was instead Eva, then they could have killed Nanjou and Jessica and then been killed by Eva to cover up all traces.

To play with the story's appeals to quantum mechanics, my own reading has been mostly engaging with it by way of the correspondence principle, that all these virtual particles of witches and demons have to add up to a regular scientific-looking world in the end, and the magical events are more a way to reveal the emotional dynamics that will eventually (I assume) lead to a wholly mundane conclusion of coming to terms with the Ushiromiya family's secrets and accepting Beatrice not as a witch but as a person.

With that in mind, what do I think really happened in Episode 2?

Kinzou is dead.

Krauss is aware. With Kinzou dead, Krauss has nothing to fear from his siblings threatening to reveal his embezzlement from the estate. Genji and Dr. Nanjou are helping to keep the other siblings from him, and this time Natsuhi has also done something to help Krauss.

Rosa receives one letter from 'Beatrice'. Maria receives another containing the chapel key. Various people supposedly see 'Beatrice'.

Rosa, Maria, Genji, Kyrie, and Kanon, specifically. The supposed sightings of Beatrice make Eva and Rudolf concerned that she will claim the inheritance. Kyrie has been kept in the dark about Rudolf's money troubles this time around, though she seems to have picked up on it anyway and is annoyed by him putting on a strong front and excluding her.

The next morning, all the adult siblings and their spouses are found dead in the chapel except for Rosa. The door is painted with a sigil and locked, which Rosa unlocks with the key from Maria's bag.

Who killed them? This time it seems pretty clearly Rosa, taking the key from the envelope ahead of schedule.

How did she get the key? Any of the servants could've supplied it. That servant could also have been the accomplice to the killings, as Rosa herself points out that it would be hard work for a single woman to achieve.

Which servant was Rosa's accomplice? I lean towards Gouda. Genji and Kumasawa's loyalty to Kinzou and Krauss make them unlikely, while Kanon and Shannon's respective loyalties to Jessica and George make them assisting the murder of their parents unlikely too. Gouda as the chef could easily poison the six adults, and supply the candy for the grisly feast, and seems to have had the most personal attachment with Rosa from her comment later in the episode about his cooking being the only thing she looked forward to when visiting the island.

What happened? I speculate that this time around, Rosa has decided to kill the other siblings for the inheritance to meet her own money needs. She subverted Gouda through the promise of wealth or love, and arranged the Beatrice ruse to throw the other siblings off-balance enough to go to the chapel with her and eat their dinner there, where they died of poison and were then mutilated. The note that Shannon found pointing to the chapel was written by one of the victims, perhaps Kyrie, who was suspicious but went along anyway. Rosa had perhaps originally intended to wait out the storm without them being discovered, and was forced to adapt her plans as a result.

Why is the door painted this time? The symbol represents releasing someone from mental fetters. Perhaps this was intended by Rosa as a way to shock Maria out of her occult obsession by hitting her in the face with the horror of it, instead of just hitting her in the literal manner as usual. Or it could be to lay the groundwork for framing Beatrice, using what she picked up from Maria's obsession.

Where did the 3 gold bars come from? Last time, we saw Krauss has access to one of them. Perhaps this time he enlisted Natsuhi to turn one ingot into three by using the original to make a mold and then melting it down to coat three forgeries in the pure gold.

Jessica, Kanon, and Gouda go to Beatrice's room. Then Jessica and Kanon go to Jessica's room. Kanon is killed inside. Jessica's body is found inside. The door is locked with the room key inside and a sigil painted on it.

Why were Jessica and Kanon killed? I speculate that on finding Beatrice's room empty or reading the letter, Jessica realized that Rosa was the killer as the main beneficiary. She might have told Gouda as well as Kanon, or suspected Gouda too and worked herself up into an asthma attack to tell Kanon her suspicions in private, only for Gouda to eavesdrop. (Which would tie in with the necessity of establishing that sounds can pass in and out of a locked room in this episode.)

What happened? Panicking with their plan already derailed by the early discovery of the bodies, Gouda attacked them with the stakes, mortally wounding both. Kanon would have had to be attacked in Jessica's room to count as being killed there, but Jessica could have been killed elsewhere and her body moved afterwards. The fight ended with Kanon escaping and Gouda locking Jessica's body in her room.

Where did the stakes come from? This is trickier. My previous assumption was that the stakes come from Kinzou's study, but there should only be Genji's key to that. One option could be that the gun also comes from the study and Rosa takes the stakes or Kinzou's key out to give to Gouda when she collects the gun with Genji and Shannon. (If the stakes did come from the study, this would also be the likely point at which she learns of Kinzou's death.)

Why is a sigil painted on the door? Here framing Beatrice feels more likely than shocking Maria into being normal, since the first time didn't work for the latter.

What's Rosa's plan? I think at this point she and Gouda are improvising. I guess Gouda is still working on the Beatrice playbook while Rosa's scattershot accusations are fumbling through scapegoating Kumasawa and then realizing that she needs to cast suspicion on Kanon in case his own wound wasn't lethal, with Beatrice an afterthought.

Rosa then compels the servants to all leave together. They go to a kitchen, where Gouda cooks a meal for them. Someone who appears to be Kanon arrives, and stops Kumasawa from going to alert Rosa. They go to the servant's quarters. 'Kanon' claims that Rosa was the one to attack him and Jessica, and intends to kill everyone. Kumasawa and Nanjou are killed, but their bodies are then not found there afterwards.

Why force the servants out? I think Rosa's intent here is to keep the groups separated with Gouda and herself covering both, to keep watch for anyone getting too close to the truth. Her 'proof' that she's not a wolf because she could kill any of the surviving Ushiromiyas is invalid because she doesn't need to kill any of them, she's already the one who will inherit by default.

What happened? The story here is very confusing. However, the only witnesses to it are Gouda, Genji, and Shannon. Gouda is already suspect and Genji has already cooperated with the previous head of the house to cover up the death of Kinzou. So... the servants' meal is interrupted by mortally wounded Kanon as described. He reveals that Rosa and Gouda are responsible for the deaths so far and expires. Gouda admits his guilt, but pivots again: Murderer or not, this means that Rosa is the new head of the household and so they must support her. This persuades Genji. She currently has the younger generation hostage, which is enough to coerce Shannon into cooperation. Dr. Nanjou and Kumasawa meanwhile refuse to go along with this, being horrified by the killings or more loyal to Kinzou personally than to the family head position. They are murdered to silence them, with sharp chef's knives the likely weapons. Then the bodies are moved to the gardens and staked, the servants agreeing on continuing the Beatrice pretext.

An envelope is found containing two of the master keys. The surviving servants hand over the rest of them, leaving Rosa with all 5. George leaves with the servants. They then go to collect Natsuhi's room key from her body, except for Genji, and go to Natsuhi's room. Genji reports the bodies of Kumasawa and Nanjou. George, Shannon, and Gouda are then all found dead with stakes in Natsuhi's room.

Continuing with the previous speculation, the servants all agreeing to the ridiculous story communicates to Rosa that Gouda has successfully convinced them to go along with their plot. However, she's ignorant of Shannon and George's relationship so allows George to go with them when he notices Shannon's distress. Shannon brings up the mirror in pursuit of an opening to get George alone with her to bring him up to speed and escape. However, Gouda sticks to them too closely for that. It escalates into a fight in Natsuhi's room, Gouda locking the door before attacking, with Shannon killed then George mortally wounded with the stake to the gut but managing to kill Gouda before he expires.

Rosa then accuses Battler of being the killer on the basis of another letter showing up. He surrenders, accepting the Beatrice explanation rather than suspect her, and is later taken to the study by Genji to have everything explained. In the end all die.

To play with the story's appeals to quantum mechanics, my own reading has been mostly engaging with it by way of the correspondence principle, that all these virtual particles of witches and demons have to add up to a regular scientific-looking world in the end, and the magical events are more a way to reveal the emotional dynamics that will eventually (I assume) lead to a wholly mundane conclusion of coming to terms with the Ushiromiya family's secrets and accepting Beatrice not as a witch but as a person.

With that in mind, what do I think really happened in Episode 1?

Kinzou is dead.

Krauss is aware. With Kinzou dead, Krauss has nothing to fear from his siblings threatening to reveal his embezzlement from the estate.

Maria receives the umbrella and envelope from 'Beatrice'. This letter claims that the whole inheritance will be taken away unless they find the gold.

When the letter appears, Krauss, Rudolf, Eva, and Maria all look concerned, most likely for fear of their inheritance status changing, though the debate may have also brought their respective blackmail vulnerabilities to mind.

I speculate that 'Beatrice' is either Kumasawa or Natsuhi. Natsuhi could be acting on Krauss' behalf. In this case the letter could be to compel them to search for the gold after he failed to find it. Unlike anyone else, he has direct evidence that it exists. He also needs money and, being in control of the island, is confident in his ability to secure a share even if someone else is the one to find it.

Kumasawa's previous antics have a pattern of her odd behavior masking kindness, and delivering the letter could be part of Kinzou's postmortem arrangements. As a likely caretaker of the Beatrice of 1967, she could have easy access to the old dresses. If she gave the letter to Maria, it would make sense as part of Kinzou's postmortem arrangements. He would have the ring to seal it with, and it serves his wishes for others to solve the epitaph. Kumasawa may also wish to revive the memory of Beatrice, and the gold may lead to that. ('Kinzou-sama' is uncharacteristically respectful towards Kinzou for Beatrice the witch.) In this case, Krauss may be concerned because it implies that Kinzou could have made more arrangements that threaten his ruse.

Rudolf comes away from seeking Kinzou with the other heirs expecting to be murdered and wanting to have a family conversation.

I speculate that the family conversation touches on Battler's true identity. Either Krauss let slip knowledge of Battler's illegitimacy, or that Rudolf felt himself at risk for other reasons, and either way wanted to come clean on his own terms but couldn't bring himself to do so.

Krauss changes the servants' shifts so that Gouda is on night duty in the mansion alone and the others are in the guesthouse

The offered reason is shunning Kinzou's personal servants out of suspicion they are still acting on his behalf. The late notice suggests this relates to the letter, and points to Krauss not being the one to have orchestrated its delivery.

Kanon stays downstairs with Genji instead of playing with the other kids. Shannon then goes to the mansion and meets Gouda, who sets her to locking up while he waits in the servants' quarters. During the night, Krauss, Rudolf, Rosa, Kyrie, Gouda, and Shannon are killed and taken to the garden shed, which is locked after them and painted with a symbol

I speculate that the killings were premeditated and with the cooperation of at minimum Gouda. Who killed them? It is unlikely that Krauss or Rosa initiated the violence, as they were both there alone. Krauss and Natsuhi also have the most secure position. One option is that Kyrie and Rudolf found resolution after discussing Battler's true parentage, and decided to kill the others to secure the inheritance for their children, but this would require them to be killed during the fighting and another confederate beyond Gouda to clean up the rest of the situation, which seems inelegant. The more coherent option is that Eva and Hideyoshi carried out the killings. The motive would be to secure the inheritance for themselves and George.

Why were they killed? Most likely to secure the inheritance, as the main pressing issue of the family conference. Battler's presence as another heir in the succession, back in the family graces, would have also raised the salience.

Krauss may have been mortally wounded during the process in such a way that he was unable to speak, such as a throat injury. Left for dead, he dragged himself to Natsuhi's room to seek help, but was unable to enter or wake her with his injuries. He was found by one of the killers and finished off.

What was the cause of death? Given the excessive destruction of the faces, I suspect poison, delivered through the drinks served by Gouda while the debate was ongoing. Destroying the faces would provide an alternate cause and could conceal visible symptoms like coughing up blood or swollen faces. That could also be what prevented Krauss from crying out to Natsuhi. In the process, Shannon witnessed part of this and also had to be killed to remove her as a witness. This would also have been convenient for Eva, disapproving of her romance with George. If Shannon was not killed by poison herself, that would mean there was no need to destroy the whole of her face. Eva is also quick to stop Natsuhi covering the faces, perhaps out of concern that she might notice something amiss on viewing them more closely. Then at the shed, having provided the key and transported the bodies, Gouda was killed too to eliminate him as a witness. This seems to provide evidence against a conspiracy of servants, and in favor of Eva and Hideyoshi. Returning the key after would be as simple as finding the empty hook.

Why was the symbol left behind? Painting the symbol serves to draw attention to the bodies and give a magical association. If done by a killer, this would probably be in support of Eva's efforts to implicate the servants and Kinzou, but that's a little weak. Alternatively, Kumasawa is unaccounted for. If she witnessed the bodies being moved, she may have then painted the symbol after they left to make sure they were found quickly without endangering herself directly. That would explain why the killer replaced the key, because they were hoping to keep the garden shed from being immediately examined. The symbolism of broken fetters could also be a hint for the servants, though that's a stretch.

After Eva's instigation, Natsuhi goes to Kinzou's study with Genji's key. Eva and Natsuhi then go to the study again after the bodies are discovered, Eva inviting herself along.

Why would Eva push for that? At this point she has probably deduced Kinzou's death. Perhaps dying Krauss going to Natsuhi rather than Kinzou tipped her off? Then this serves to implicate Natsuhi in the likely case that Krauss hadn't brought her into his confidence.

Why would Genji enable this? It suggests he's already aware of Krauss' death as well as Kinzou's and has transferred his loyalties to Natsuhi.

What does Natsuhi find inside? Kinzou supposedly tells her that she can engrave his crest on her heart. That is most likely from his will, which could be what fills her with purpose. Either she finds his body or it's already gone and she deduces Krauss' ruse. If the former, she could be the one to dispose of it via the boiler to hide the signs of decay. Him not even being in the room is somewhat neater, but his body lying there could have the rotting scent covered by all the odors of occult reagents.

Why would Natsuhi return to the study? Perhaps she wants to consult his books about the symbol, or check his papers to see if he arranged the deaths.

Why does Eva invite herself along? To confirm that Kinzou is dead, and build up more of a case against Natsuhi.

Natsuhi and the servants then leave to search for Kinzou, leaving Eva and Hideyoshi with the children. Eva takes the opportunity to cast suspicions over the servants and imply a mastermind leading them.

What is Eva doing? If the painted symbol has thrown off her plans, she's pivoting to framing Natsuhi through the servants.

Who does Natsuhi suspect at this point? She gives the impression that it's Kinzou from her searching for him, but she might not know that Eva knows that he's dead. If she actually suspects Eva and Hideyoshi, it seems reckless to leave them with the children. However, Eva had just pointed out that she was the inheritor in Kinzou's absence, implying no more murders would be necessary for her. She is probably also conscious that she could not win alone against Eva and Hideyoshi, especially if they have weapons ready. Also at this point, Natsuhi is finally away from Eva, so she can speak freely with the servants. So this seems to be an excuse to compare notes and get the gun. At this point the servants' conspiracy might actually form, following the deaths of Shannon and Gouda, perhaps planning to take revenge and attribute it to Beatrice or using it as veiled language to discuss Eva and Hideyoshi instead.

Eva and Hideyoshi are both killed in their room as homicides with the perpetrator in the room with them and no way to kill from the outside.

Natsuhi repeatedly attempts to send Genji and Kanon to them, first as escorts to the room and then to see if they want food. However, she might just intend for them to be kept under close watch. Kumasawa is in the right place and time to paint the door again. Kanon cuts open the chain, and carefully avoids leaving fingerprints on the handle. Kanon and Genji could be the ones to kill them. Only Kanon and Kumasawa are present for opening the door. As in Battler's supposition for the previous case, once the seal is broken, you can move around freely.

Where do the stakes come from? Most likely Kinzou's study, which Natsuhi and Genji both have access to, assuming Genji only pretends to find the key on Kinzou afterwards.

Kinzou's body is burnt in the boiler. Kanon goes to investigate with Kuwasama and is apparently mortally wounded, though all survivors and all dead have alibis so nobody could have killed him, and he did not commit suicide or die in an accident.

Kanon declares he's willing to die to ruin the killer's plan. He's seen by Kumasawa pulling the stake from his chest. With everyone accounted for, nobody else could've attacked Kanon directly. Based on Canmom's theory, maybe Kanon injured himself to fake his death and act freely or take on the blame for Eva and Hideyoshi's murders, knowing that they would likely go free once the island is no longer isolated. Nanjou then reports Kanon's death in the servant's room, with Jessica kept outside.

Why would Kanon fake his death? To give more time for Kinzou's body to burn? To be able to move freely as an unknown in case there are more killers? For revenge against the rest of the masters?

The survivors go to the study. Another letter shows up. Natsuhi sends Genji, Kumasawa, Nanjou, and Maria out as only they could have placed it.

The letter's text and circle are vague and go back to the epitaph. I suspect this was actually a spare intended to follow up on the letter Maria delivered at dinner.

Then the phone rings, and they go to find all but Maria dead with faces destroyed. Maria did not kill them, none of the three dead were killers, all corpses' identities are confirmed.

But Kanon's corpse is not shown. However, here I'm not clear on his motive. One big factor that comes to mind is that they're all the servants of the older generation, the ones who would have been complicit in both Kinzou's keeping of 1967!Beatrice and then Krauss' concealment of Kinzou's death. I'd guess it's the former that set him off given that Kumasawa is a leading suspect for playing Beatrice to Maria. In fact, it could be that Kumasawa reprised that role to ask Maria to sing to herself and not listen so that the older servants could have a private conversation among themselves, which Kanon then eavesdropped on and learned whatever facts drove him to kill them. The silent phone call makes sense as a way to ensure that the other survivors would come to help her without revealing his own survival. Alternatively, those three deaths could be from accidents or traps, they're not stated to be homicides that I can see, though the cause remains a mystery. Maybe one of them found a bomb and they all got their faces up close to it when examining it?? But then who was phone???

A last letter is found with the dead, leading Natsuhi to the portrait where she dies to a homicide with a bullet in the head from another gun.

The King in Yellow

A small group of Hollywood actors with a tangled history together go to an isolated and empty hotel for an extremely ill-advised read-through of the titular play. 

This was a very strong opener for the weekend and for my first LARP, with excellent props, lighting, and sound effects. (And also the appearance of the event photographer partway through, which took us by surprise but in a way that added to the atmosphere.) I particularly enjoyed the script of the play itself, with how it encouraged the tensions between the cast to rise to the fore during the read-through, and Scene 4 was my favorite to perform. The other players also came with great outfits for the 1930s setting, with white suits and dresses. 

I enjoyed my character of Simon Carter even more than expected, with events serendipitously giving him a neat arc of inaction giving way to drastic action, and providing the opportunity for me to dramatically open a curtain and have my moment in the spotlight. Being killed very violently afterwards was also a fun bonus. (In all the excitement, I did forget my idea of namedropping an Uncle Randolph).

The character of Ronald did have less to do, more so towards the end. Some additional connection to the women of the cast or to the play itself may have helped there. There was also a small issue of one of the players having missed an important detail on their character sheet, but that added to the authenticity of their performance before it was clarified to them.

The Omega Delivery

In a Firefly-inspired setting, a beat-up freighter arrives to make a delivery to an intelligence agency outpost. Much like in Time To Orbit: Unknown, this turns out to be a perfectly normal functioning space station with nothing wrong with it. 

This game was run in the Arcade, which the GMs made inventive use of, and the costuming advice was minimalist and undemanding but effective. Two of the station crew even serendipitously showed up in the exact same hat without coordinating it, which helped create the impression of a uniform. 

I played Kai Salazar, an imprisoned economist-politician, and had fun expounding on why the Federation losing control of the outer worlds is a historical inevitability. At first I thought completing my backup objective would be as simple as passing a copy of The Theory of Interstellar Trade to be delivered with a short note to my secretary by someone sympathetic, but then as more and more went wrong with the station it became apparent that someone would first have to make it away from the station alive for that delivery to be made.  

Perhaps because of the game's place in a larger series of connected LARPs that I'd not played, some of the Kestrel cast felt a little superfluous and their roles could maybe have been cut. From the description I'd expected there would be more in the way of Among Us-style side-tasks that people would need to be assigned to in keeping the station functional a little longer, which might have helped to push different smaller groups together to interact with each other rather than everyone sticking together in one place for the most part once the Kestrel docked.

Mean Streets

A nested premise of an immersive 1920s speakeasy game with android hosts within a cyberpunk setting in the style of Westworld. The costuming for this was great, as was the non-alcoholic bar setup. The soundtrack of anachronistic piano covers is also a gag that I continue to love, whether in Westworld or Cowboy Grak 5 or here. 

My character, Aces, was fairly straightforward to play, though one of the reveals came with serendipitously dramatic timing for one of the conversations I was having with another host. 

This game felt somewhat lacking in agency, in particular towards the end when we just had to wait and run out the clock. Maybe some of the guest characters involved in changing the usual progression of the in-game story could have been given the ability to hand out some of the memories at times of their own choosing, or the host characters could have been given a few sealed envelopes of past memories that they could open by fulfilling or subverting some of the plot beats of the default progression? Despite the name, these streets weren't very mean, and I'd have liked the guests to have more reason to be mean to the hosts, be that to help uncover the hosts' memories or some other purpose or just giving them license to do so for their own amusement. A poker table setup or similar could also have provided a vehicle for some more character interactions and helped to fill the time. 

Roses of Saint-Germain

A ball in Musketeers-era France, where the King's Musketeers, the Cardinal's Guard, and some of the most powerful aristocrats come to witness the graduation tournament of several young noble ladies, marred by a murder the previous night. 

Once again the outfits people assembled for this were great. I played Captain Anton du Valois, leader of the Musketeers in attendance, and kept my attention on protecting the queen. She came out of the night ascendant in power, but that had far more to do with her own political intrigues and lengthy negotiations. I also did my best to coordinate my Musketeers and keep them focused on the necessary investigations, but the evening had many alluring distractions for them. Among them was my daughter, one of the ladies competing in the tournament, to whom I lent my sword and my full support, later recruiting her to the detective work when my formal subordinates were stonewalled. The tournament lent the evening's events a good amount of structure, and there were plenty of other dramatic events like the unscheduled duels and proposals to enjoy. 

There were a lot of different secrets and intrigues, more than I managed to track, and I think others generally had difficulty with that too. That was evocative of just how tangled the court situation was, so rather than reduce the scope I think having more opportunities to demand truthful answers after a duel would help. Perhaps the tournament fights could also reward the victors with the choice between asking a question or inviting a romantic interest, or else the player pack could include a short list of accepted pretexts for a duel like different insults to more easily provoke them between rounds? 

The Shadow Soiree

Another game centered on a ball, this one took its inspiration from the Witcher and Shakespeare with several sorcerers competing for membership of their council and to be selected by the different kingdoms in attendance, each of which had their own fraught internal struggles.

The costumes here were perhaps the best of the weekend, elaborate and making an easy visual guide to which faction each player was from and shifting as their situations developed. I played the role of the Tempest, one of the new generation of mages with a complicated backstory. My closest relationships that can be revealed without spoilers were with the Gilded One and Pandora, fellow junior sorcerers, and we had a great time going on magical side adventures. With Pandora there was an initial tension around how competitive our rivalry would be, and with the Gilded One the big question was what would happen as her chains were loosened, but as the evening went on we reaffirmed our bonds and I ended up sharing a destination with Pandora as colleagues as well as best friends. 

The mechanics for magical combat were simple and effective, inviting us to make bold gestures and call out the names of our spells, and I had fun in each of my duels throwing storm-spell after storm-spell at my opponents. The CYOA elements were also an elegant way to allow us lots of excursions and adventures at our own pace without needing ten times as many GMs to run them all. 

As for the more spoilery relationships, suffice to say that I had to politely and awkwardly decline one set of advances from someone I'd intrigued after favoring their faction, then stumbled into joining a party that turned out to be an orgy with the last people I'd want to see having sex among my fellow guests. After that disaster, I was all too ready to reveal my secret to avoid any further mishaps along those lines. The highlight of the event came just moments after my voluntary reveal, when another character had independently came up with a fantastic out-of-the-box method that unmasked me as well. Towards the evening I found myself with everything I could have ever wanted, love and power and acceptance and friendship, with a Shakespearean double marriage once the main relationship obstacles had been resolved, and that made the final decisions easy to make. 

To Hold the Sky

A xianxia LARP, this was the only one of the event for which the characters were not pre-written. Other than the broad strokes of the setting, we decided on our clans' reputations, values, and secrets ahead of the event, and then developed our individual characters collaboratively at the start following a structure of rankings and obsessions. This was a fun process, with our heroic and dutiful Upright Sword Sect (inspired by the Lan Clan and the Jedi Order) forming a complex web of internal dysfunction between our battle-hungry head, power-behind-the-throne seer, reluctant chosen one whose passion was for music over swordplay, and his twin sister who took far more after the head. As for me, I was the clan's humble archivist, an illegitimate son taking on unpleasant duties out of a sense that I deserved them. We then established our ties to people in the other clans, and I found myself accidentally accumulating different mother figures: I was up to three or four by the time play began! I missed an opportunity for using our clan's secret to explain why my birth mother, the clan head of the Wind Foxes, had given me up to my father's clan, but otherwise people had no shortage of great ideas for how to connect the different characters. 

The costuming was excellent once again, and the highlight was the character of the Emperor: With all his grand flowing motions, he acted the role so well that I think nobody even considered overthrowing him. To maintain the Mandate of Heaven through gesture alone is quite a feat!

Once the game stated, I began by using my assigned affinity for ritual incense to boost the cultivation of our clan's chosen one candidate as two of my three actions, then started work on gathering secrets under the guise of correcting gaps in our clan records. Halfway through, the Emperor announced that we would be descending to the Earth realm to live new lives without our past memories to deepen our experiences. 

In this realm, the rankings of power were reversed, and I found myself reincarnated as the head of the Righteous Thunder orthodox martial sect. As demons ravaged the land, I volunteered us for the hardest duties, sacrificing ourselves so that the other sects could claim the three artifacts needed to seal them away. This meant that our sect dwindled to nothing, the sole survivor of the campaign seduced away to another sect, and in our absence the other three broke out into open warfare amongst themselves. 

Following our return to the Sky realm and the restoration of our memories, my character resolved himself in a new direction after seeing the bloody consequences of all his self-sacrifice in that life. I pursued the remaining secrets more aggressively, drawing on my good relationship with the friendliest and most caring of my mother figures to accumulate the last pieces I needed to blackmail every other clan including that of the Emperor! 

Old habits die hard, however, and rather than use them myself I deferentially turned them over to our clan's seer, advising her on how they should best be used but taking a step back from the resulting negotiations. This had some unforeseen effects as she handled the evidence differently than I'd intended, my closest mother figure being horrified when she learned our clan had collected the knowledge to devastate her own, in part through my conversation with her. 

At the climax, I was appointed the Court Archivist for the imperial family, an incredible rise - but one I later learned may have come about anyway without souring another relationship by using blackmail to secure that result. With my new station, I suggested that our clan had more to say, inviting the seer to reveal our evidence against the Wind Foxes - but unbeknownst to me, the twin sister in our sect had formed a strong bond of sword-siblings with one of the Wind Foxes, and she was able to discourage the seer from exposing their dark past on the strength of that relationship at the last moment with a fervent shake of her head. Instead, our seer gave a speech on the importance of cooperation and righteousness, one that could be delivered from a position of strength with the evidence we had against all our peers. Without even thinking about it, I'd ended up on an arc like Meng Yao, only for more bloodshed to be averted by the bonds of martial kinship saving the day.

I think the mechanics around clan strength could have been explained better in the information packs, as it was difficult to understand how the different actions would affect it in the short or long term. I also found myself wanting slightly more actions available to take, maybe five rather than three? But that would probably require other adjustments around the difficulty of the different crises and the number of imperial actions available to be given out as well. The Earth realm intermission was an excellent idea but suffered a little from a lack of direction. Maybe to encourage and better define the conflicts there, some subset of players could be assigned to play the role of the demons instead of the martial sects, and those who die getting another reincarnation as one of the common people so they can choose to in the earlier scenes of that intermission without fear of being left out afterwards?

After the Crisis

A superhero LARP, this was tightly scoped to the meeting held between members of a super-team following a disaster that they failed to fully avert. I went into this expecting a slightly darker tone, closer to the aftermath of Leviathan in Worm with more morally questionable actions from the heroes, but it was easy to adjust to the premise being about a group of more idealistic four-color heroes reckoning on their having failed to save the day cleanly and bloodlessly.

My character was Anonymous, the team super-scientist. I spent the meeting chiming in with scientific corrections, criticizing our leader's rigid moral code that had led to the crisis, and floating my stepping down from patrols to focus on equipping the team and developing more systemic solutions. The other players were very good in their own roles as other heroic archetypes, expressing different perspectives on justice and the superhero genre's assumptions, and the detailed briefs gave us lots of great material for referring to different parts of the setting with a common understanding. 

Putting this on the morning of the last day of the con was a great slot for it, as it made it easy to embody the roles of exhausted superheroes. I was also a big fan of the use of the printouts that were handed to us by the GMs as emails and text messages poured in for us to ignore or respond to while the meeting was ongoing. The bookend no-dialogue opening and ending segments were excellent tone-setters as well.

LDRBRD

Set in the Arcade, a fitting location for this LARP of video game characters interacting. I played Space Commander, the Commander Shepard/Buzz Lightyear expy, and amused myself picking my options from a dialogue wheel, alluding to past adventures, and ending most conversations with an "I should go." In the end my self-sacrifice saw me deleted after riding beyond the borders of the Lightcycle grid to infinity and beyond. The costumes were the best part of this, in particular the triumvirate of Princess, Fast Hedgehog, and Italian Plumber.

It would be nice if this had done more with the Arcade gaming space, as the Omega Delivery had. The character packs were lacking in information to give us enough to do, and the minigames each incentivized stalling for as long as possible which sapped the pace. Maybe it would help to have a speedrunner's bonus for finishing a turn or minigame as fast as possible, or to reduce the overall duration of the game?

Conclusion

Following the example of Superman, my disguise had a few components. In my civilian identity, I was a slouching freelance reporter with a hat and press pass lanyard, always with a notebook in hand following the success of that prop in the last game. That's me in gray in the middle of the first group shot.

When the time came to transform into a gentleman thief, all I had to do was ditch those props and my glasses, swap them for a matching blue tailcoat and domino mask, and adopt an upright, hands-on-hips posture like you can see in the back of the second group shot.

It turned out to be remarkably effective in the large megagame format: Aside for some mishaps like forgetting to change for the very first phase of superheroic actions, the bustle and confusion of a thirty-person game meant that most of the players took until the latter half of the proceedings to realize my two identities belonged to the same person.

For my part I spent most of the game engaging in journalistic investigations and heists to gather clues. My powerset was well-suited for that, and also included a lie detection ability that I should've used more: When I went to a fae super with some clues about fairies causing havoc, I accepted her story at face value instead of using that power to challenge it, and she later revealed herself to be a villainess whose minions had been gathering the components for her master plan.

There were more achievements than mistakes. Uncovering the secret that a CEO had faked his death with a superheroic heist allowed me to exonerate the other master thief who had been framed for his murder by releasing the evidence through the press. When I later discovered that a popular heroine was secretly an escaped survivor of a super-soldier program, I instead offered her the evidence and the choice of whether to reveal her past and punish those responsible or keep it buried. She chose the latter.

I wasn't the only person who had a secret identity: The player who had been Fastjack in Mirrorshades here went around with a magical tome in hand, making pacts, and when the final turn came he revealed his true identity as a devilish figure who would use those contracts to compel heroes to villainy! With my journalistic credentials, I prevailed upon those heroes to reveal any weaknesses they had before their rampages so that the others could safely subdue them. In the end, heroism won the day, though I had less of a part in it.

Each turn we'd get to take an action as a team or individually, like running a raid on a corporate building to steal their stuff. The corps had their own activities, like R&D and corporate espionage, as well as a lot of money to pay us punks with.

I decided to position myself as a fixer, bringing along a notebook and recording lots as the game went on. That hadn't been part of my character brief but seemed appropriate and useful. Our only chance of victory was to keep the corps divided and put their money and shares into the hands of friendly runners. Because of that, my focus was on pointing out soft rewarding targets for runs, keeping the crews fighting the corps rather than each other, and driving up the "standard prices" we punks charged the corps for everything. Those prices were the only information I outright lied about, doubling whatever I'd last heard quoted.

Our crew got lucky with an early job from a CEO which paid enough up-front to supply each of us with top-end static bonus cards to our respective specialties, and that advantage lasted us the whole rest of the game. Initially I thought I'd have to buy and trade information, but instead it turned out that everyone was happy to answer questions on how their runs went even when I was visibly scribbling notes down. Apparently my notebook gave me a lot of credibility!

I don't know how much of a difference I personally made, but there were no shootouts between crews trying to hit the same building, more than one corp became noticeably strapped for cash, and we rose in wealth and popularity, cornering both the market for bribed votes and the votes of runners with bought or stolen shares. My friend on the Fastjack team also made good use of the more freeform aspects of the game, gathering enough money to bribe her way into ownership of a building that should've been corp-exclusive to earn us more votes, while Fastjack himself was bursting with charisma and energy. In the end, despite a merger between two of the corps, we managed to win by a margin of one bribery card, to the surprise of the organisers who gave Fastjack odds of 1 in 20 to win.

It's got an interesting premise of aliens dumping cheap mechs on Earth like colonial traders selling guns. The overarching theme is of following how that upends warfare, with the mechs compared to technicals. The art style is another experimental CGI hybrid, this time using hatching drawn on the character models for shading. Alas, while the fight scenes are occasionally good it's let down by the terrible dialogue and questionable politics, with only a few of the neat hard sci-fi ideas that I'd hoped to see.

Is it worth watching? The only reason I'd say yes is if you watch it at double speed or more, so that you only have to spend ninety minutes getting the whole military SF real robots experience before reaching the last episode's hilariously jarring veer to super robo yuri that makes the whole thing feel like a shitpost, Urobuchi's needlessly edgy worldbuilding prelude to a brainless mainstream show that doesn't even exist.