Challenge 17: CSI: Lake Gaston But For Real This Time

[Joss Carter]

In Survivor Jeff Probst always asked if rewards were worth playing for. It turns out that some rewards...



...aren't worth dying for....Twice!

Gather 'round, detectives, because we've got a mystery.  Last night we got a call from Survivormeet Manor, the big house on the shore of Lake Gaston.  It seems like the owner of the mansion, a guy named Reck, was murdered.  I don't have a lot of details right now but apparently he stole the formula for an energy drink and was using it to enrich himself at the expense of others.

While Reck was breaking the law, that doesn't mean it was okay for the murderer to kill him, though, so I want you all to do some digging and arrest the culprit.

In your confessional you'll be given a personal link to a spreadsheet and google form.
On the spreadsheet you'll see a map, your inventory and your past actions.

Once you're ready to begin go to the google form and ignore the action questions and click the box saying start/finish. On the next page type in who you are, ignore the questions asking you about Suspect/Weapon/Room and submit the form. This will start your time.
 
Keep using the google form to send in more actions and check the spreadsheet to see the resolution of your actions.

When filling in an action you'll have 3 things to fill in:
1) Action Type (select an action type from the list)
2) Action on (type in who or what you wish to do this action against)
3) Ask about (only used for the ask action, type which weapon you wish to ask about)

Actions types:
Go: Go in certain direction (North/South/East/West)
Look at: Look at an object in the room or in your inventory, you can also look at the room you're in to see the text shown when you entered the room (saving you from exiting and reentering to see it again)
Take: Pick up an object in the room you're in.
Open: Open something in the house
Interrogate: Interrogate a person in the house, you can only Interrogate each suspect 3 times, interrogating them again will cause them to cycle back through what they've already said.
Ask: Ask a person about a weapon you are holding.

Action on:
-All actions are performed against single worded objects/people, you must type in the object or person exactly as it's spelled in the text shown (e.g if the text calls the bottle-top a lid rather than a cap then you would use lid in the form)
-If an object is described using 2 words, generally it's the noun that you must type in (e.g if the text says wooden table, you would use the word table)
-For 'Lead Pipe' Just use Pipe to send in actions
-When using the ask about action, you would type the name of the person you are asking here
-When going in a certain direction, type in the direction here (e.g North or South)

Ask about:
-If using the Ask about action you must here type in the name of the item as it's displayed in your inventory
-You may only ask about items in your inventory

When you are finished, use the form and like when you started, click on the box saying starting/finishing and then type in who you are and answer who you think the Suspect/Weapon/Room is, once you've submitted your time will stop.
VERY IMPORTANT! You can only submit your final answer once! So be sure you're happy with it before you submit it. However, after you've submitted it you may still explore the house and this won't effect your time. (there are exactly 200 actions programmed in to check out with some funny bits of text if you do silly things)

SUSPECTS: Broseidon, Cephrir, Kilby, Mina, PEG, Xofelf
WEAPONS: Candlestick, Knife, Lead Pipe, Revolver, Rope, Wrench
ROOMS: Ballroom, Billiard Room, Conservatory, Dining Room, Hall, Kitchen, Library, Lounge, Study

A few bits of advice: The only person who will ever lie is the murderer. The site of the murder will have at least one piece of evidence that can't be explained.

The player who gets the most parts of the crime correct (ie Suspect, Weapon, Room) will win immunity
-In the event of a tie, the player who solved it in the quickest time will win immunity

We know that the form and spreadsheet can be a little on the slow side, this is something that all players will experience and as such won't have any impact on the results.

Don't try to resubmit actions you've already sent in thinking that the spreadsheet hasn't loaded yet, this will just make the spreadsheet go even slower.

Who recked reck?

PDT	5:00 PM, Tue 4 Aug
EDT	8:00 PM, Tue 4 Aug
BST	1:00 AM, Wed 5 Aug
ACST	9:30 AM, Wed 5 Aug
AEST	10:00 AM, Wed 5 Aug

[Joss Carter]

This is not the challenge but if anybody wants to see the original mystery it is here.

[Joss Carter]

If any jurors or specs want to do the challenge, just hit up Sherlock and he will hook you up.

[Penelope Garcia]

reckbble?

[Joss Carter]

Murder is serious business, and I'm glad to see you all took your duties seriously.  Let's see what conclusions you reached...

Leon thinks it was Xofelf with the Candlestick in the Kitchen.
Lucifer thinks it was Kilby with the Knife in the Lounge.
Penelope thinks it was Cephrir with the Knife in the Lounge.
Poirot thinks it was Cephrir with the Candlestick in the Hall.
Rust thinks it was Cephrir with the Candlestick in the Billiard Room.

Hmm. Not a lot of consensus there. If anybody got all three items correct then they will win immunity.

There are certainly a lot of ways this could have gone.  It could have been PEG with the Rope in the Ballroom. It could have been Broseidon with the Lead Pipe in the Study.  It could have been Reck pretending to be dead in the Northwest Corridor.  Okay, maybe not that last one.

However, while there are a lot of possibilities, we are only interested in what really happened!

Here's what happened.

Cephrir couldn't bear to see his family energy drink company go under.  He begged Reck to reconsider, but Reck said no.  Reck was busy messing with the lock on the bookcase, and he absentmindedly handed Cephrir the wrench. 

Cephrir hesitated. Was he really willing to kill Reck over this?  Yes. Yes he was. He decided right then and there to bash Reck's head in.

Unfortunately for him, it was too late. Reck had finished up his business in the cabinet and left the library.  Cephrir put down the wrench and decided he would keep his eye open for more opportunities.

After dinner he left the study with Broseidon but instead of going straight to the conservatory with him, Ceph decided to make a detour.  He went into the kitchen, grabbed one of the candlesticks, and tracked down Reck in the lounge.  One blow to the head was all it took, and with that the energy drink company appeared to be safe.  However, as Reck's body slumped down it knocked over one of the footstools, and Cephrir did not notice it.

Sneaking out of the lounge, he then had to get rid of the murder weapon.  Running on adrenaline, Cephrir thought that if he wiped away all the blood and his fingerprints then he could return it to the dining room and nobody would ever notice anything was askew.  In his haste he forgot that the candlesticks weren't supposed to be in the dining room any more, as Broseidon and Xof had moved them both to the kitchen.  Nevertheless, he put the candlestick on the dining table and snuck back to the conservatory, hoping to give himself an alibi.

So with that in mind, Leon and Lucifer each got one piece of the puzzle correct but had the majority of the case wrong.  Everybody else got two pieces correct.

Before we get into the results, we figure it'd be nice for us to explain why the final solve is Cephrir/Candlestick/Lounge

Who?

This one is probably the easiest and requires little explanation. Cephrir mentions about going into the Conservatory at the same time as Bro meeting Xofelf and PEG. But everyone else says that Cephrir came in later than Bro, meaning there's a period of time in which Cephrir is unaccounted for. This is when Cephrir kills Reck.

Where?

This one requires you to look at every room and try to find something wrong with the room and then compare that with each person and look for an explanation for why that room is like that.
Dining Room: Nothing wrong with this room
Kitchen: Nothing wrong with this room
Ballroom: Vase smashed and Bullet hole. Explained by Xofelf and Mina
Conservatory: Plant pot overturned. Cephrir mentions about knocking over the pot by mistake.
Billiard Room: Spilled energy drink. Xofelf shouted at Bro causing him to knock over his drink
Library: Bookcase lock forced. Cephrir talks about trying to get the prototypes from here which he hides in the conservatory. There are some books underneath a chair. Mina and Pegs make out session caused this.
Study: The desk draw has been forced open. Kilby did this searching for the letter.
Hall: Clock face has been smashed: Xofelf smashed it to scare Reck.
Lounge: There is a footstool overturned and nobody explains why. This is the scene of the murder.

Weapon?

This one requires you to follow the locations of the weapons and where you found them.
Rope - Dining Room: PEG takes the rope to the Dining Room for Bro, Bro then leaves the rope there.
Gun - Ballroom: Mina takes the Gun to the Ballroom and Xof leaves it on the piano
Lead Pipe - Billiard Room: Peg puts the Pipe in the hall closest, Xof took it out of the closest and then hid it in the Billiard room after smashing the clock.
Wrench - Hall: Ceph has the Wrench in the Library but leaves it there. Bro finds the wrench in the Library and then puts it in the Hall closet.
Knife - Conservatory: Kilby left the knife in the Lounge after trying to open the desk in the Study with it. Ceph found it in the Lounge and then used it in the Library on the bookcase before taking it to the Conservatory.
Candlesticks - Kitchen and Dining room: Bro and Kilby both talk about cleaning the Candlesticks and leaving them in the kitchen, 1 Candlestick has their fingerprints on it and is left in the kitchen, however the other Candlestick is clean of any fingerprints and is left in the Dining room. Nobody explains why the Candlestick is in the Dining Room.

So what were the times?

Penelope submitted in 2 hours, 1 minute, and 55 seconds.
Poirot submitted in 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 26 seconds.
Rust submitted in 38 minutes, 25 seconds!

Rust Cohle has won immunity!

[close]

[close]

[close]

[close]

[close]

Fun things to find around the Manor

After writing up the story, we tried to include a load of fun things for you to find around the Manor as little easter eggs, we hope that when you found these they made you laugh and enjoy the game more. Here's a few of our favourites:

Look at Plant in Conservatory: YOU FOUND A HIDDEN IMMUNITY IDOL!!! Oh, wait it's just a stick
Look at Ash in lounge: Gotta catch them all (with a link to a picture of Ash and Pikachu)

Look at Novel in Library

Once upon a time lived a young boy named Haschel, Haschel had a dream. "I want to create the coolest survivor challenge of all time" and so he set off trying out loads of cool challenges but nothing fit, until he had a genius plan..."I'm gonna make a Murder Mystery!". Haschel went to work and created a really cool Murder Mystery. Day and Night over many many moons Haschel put his plan into motion. Then the day of the Murder Mystery came, Haschel was so excited about showing off his project but then suddenly a nasty nasty demon came and crashed the party "Muhahaha, I have crashed your Murder Mystery! You can't run that now". All the people of the land were sad that the Demon ruined their fun, but thankfully the local wizard CreativeMod1 had just the right fix. "I can stop the Demon from crashing the Mystery but it's no longer a mystery and we'll have to rewrite it" So Haschel got back to work on rewriting the Mystery and CM1 worked on a spell that stopped the Demon. They showed it to their friends and all agreed it was the best Mystery they ever solved! YAY The End!

[close]

Look at Newspaper in Hall: Headline reads: Detective wastes time reading a newspaper whilst trying to solve a murder!
Take cue in Billiard Room: Take hugh where? I don't think he wants to come with you
Take clock in hall: We provided you with a timer already, is that not good enough?
Look at China in Dining Room: Alright Trump, not everything is about China
Take China in Dining Room: Calm down, lets not start World War 3
Look at shelves in Library: You look through the shelves but realise there's nothing here and you've wasted time....you only have your-shelves to blame
Look at Mirror in Lounge: Looking Good! (with a link to your avatar from the game, yes we personalised every spreadsheet for each player...and for playtesters too)
Look at [Person]: If you look at any person it'll give a link to their avatar on MS
Look at chairs in Ballroom: The very thought of dancing makes you tired enough to need to sit down.
Go southwest/Southeast/Northwest/Northeast: You walk into the corner of the room, it does nothing for you

Look at Couch in Library

This text has nothing to do with the mystery: You lie on the couch for a moment and drift off to sleep. You have very strange dreams and question the universe, is this even real? didn't Reck already die before? This feels different from last time though. You see a different world in which you are a police officer trying to protect your job as you don't want to be put on Desk Duty. Was that real? You then see snippets of someone sat at a computer pretending to be that police officer playing some game named Survivor.....You wake back up and laugh it off as a dream, as if someone is that sad to be sat at their computer playing a game pretending to be an officer, pretending to like each other, pretending to investigate crimes for immunity. Yeah sounds crazy.

[close]

Take Vase in Ballroom: Ow! If you had HP in this game then you would've just lost some

Look at Soup in Kitchen

This text has nothing to do with the mystery, but it's a damn fine recipe....Cut up a butternut squash into cubes, along with a medium onion, a fuckton of garlic, an equal amount of ginger, and some crushed red pepper flakes. Saute those until the onions are soft. Add in a quart of tomato juice, a 10# can of diced tomatoes, and salt. Keep simmering about 5-10 minutes until a knife easily goes into the squash. Add one cup of peanut butter and a chopped up bunch of cilantro. Stir until everything is a nice orange color. Then use either an immersion blender or a food processor to make the whole thing smooth as hell.

This exact Soup Recipe was the Soup served at Survivor: Lake Gaston. (Which Haschel made waaaaay too much of)

[close]

Open refrigerator in Kitchen: Nothing of importance in here, lots of food and a UK Politician (This is a CM1 joke about Boris Johnson who hid from reporters in a giant fridge once and it got memed so much)
Take Xofelf in Study: We don't condone bribing listmods.
Look at picture in Hall: RIP (This links to a picture of Recks MS Avatar)
Take table in Dining Room: Are you crazy? You can't pick that up
Look at chest in Lounge: Looks like a treasure chest.
Open chest in Lounge: You open the chest: It is not a treasure chest. It is a boring chest filled with boring things that are of no use.
Look at closet in Hall: Using your X-ray vision to see into the closet, you deduce that you do not have X-ray vision.

Finally, regardless of who you accuse, if you go back into the room of the player you have accused after submitting your final results you get them getting pissy at you for accusing them:
Mina: Mina comes running towards you "It wasn't me! I swear! Just leave me and PEG in peace"
Peg: PEG Walks up to you, "Please look after Mina, I didn't do it and I'll prove it, just make sure she's okay until then"
Cephrir: Cephrir runs up to you "I didn't do it! I can't go to jail, I need to help my family with the drinks!
Bro: Broseidon is annoyed "Really?!?! Me? I wanted money, Recks death sets me back but yet you think it's me? I'll prove it, just wait"
Xofelf: Xofelf stares at you "You're wrong you know, I don't need to do anything to prove it, you'll see."
Kilby: Kilby walks over "Oh I get it, it's because it sounds like I have Kill in my name, very funny! Who are you actually accusing?"

[close]