Spontaneous Combustion
After several minutes of mostly silence, the door opens again. You are surprised when, rather than your mysterious host reappearing, a beautiful woman walks into the room. She is carrying a tray with six identical open bottles of wine.
She approaches the nearest guest - which happens to be you - and before you can react she grabs one of the bottles and pours it into your empty glass. Unfortunately, your glass is still on the floor. You watch in a stunned fascination as the woman - or rather, the woman-shaped android - pours exactly 175mL of wine on the floor.
As she moves to the next guest, the others quickly grab the glasses conveniently lining a table, and hold them in front of them. You take one as well, and soon everyone has a full glass of wine.
Through the open door walks the man in grey. He, too, is holding a wine glass, and the android fills his glass as well. He looks around the room and raises his glass.
"Cheers."
He takes a sip of the wine. Seeing that there are no ill effects, you and the other guests feel safe drinking as well, if you so choose.
"I had hoped that you might take this time to get to know one another, but perhaps you are still disoriented. Never mind. I am confident that there will soon be plenty to discuss. Now, if you would follow me?"
You and the other guests are soon gathered in a small courtyard. The house - or mansion, perhaps - forms three sides of the courtyard, while the fourth is enclosed by a high fence. Through the fence you can see that the house is situated on a hill overlooking a city that you recognize as Fresno.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly - or rather, as properly as I can under the circumstances. You may call me Mr. Grey. This, of course, is a pseudonym. You will notice that you are all wearing name tags on which are written aliases as well. You may find it important to hide your true identity."
"I have brought you here to my home in Fresno because you are all in grave danger."
As he says the word
danger
, there is a large explosion.
At least, it sounded large. Looking at it now, it appears that there was only one guest harmed. In fact, there is no damage to the lawn at all; it's almost as if the guest was the victim of spontaneous combustion.
WHAT WERE THE ODDS?
Oh.
You, Dear Reader (Innocent Fresnino) have been killed.
"Now, you may be asking," Mr. Grey continues, as the guests look at the remains of... well, you... in horror, "would we have been in any danger if I hadn't brought you here? That is a good question, and one I will leave to the philosophers. Nevertheless, I hope I can impress upon you the seriousness of the situation - there are some among you who want you dead."
The guests look around at each other suspiciously. A few take large gulps of wine to calm their nerves.
"So, what to do, what to do. Before you there is a large white ash tree. I have tied a noose to it. I would suggest that you search out the evil souls among you and bring them to justice. You may very well save your own life - or at least you will have the satisfaction of going to your death with the satisfaction of knowing that you stood up to those who would harm you."
"And so, I leave you to it. Dinner will be served after sunset. I trust you will have come to a decision before then?"
And with that, Mr. Grey reenters the mansion, locking the door behind him.
It is Day 1. It will take 11 votes to lynch before the deadline, which is two weeks from this post.