The Witch's Game 3

[Fippe94]

The Witch's Game


I know the rules, show me the story!
Take me to the red truths!


The Witch's Game is a pure battle of wits using nothing but text!

The game is played between two teams, the Humans and the Witch.
The Witch is the Game's Master, and everyone else plays on the Human team with the goal of defeating the Witch.

The Game Master will weave together a tale, creating a scenario in which one or more people are murdered in a mysterious fashion.
The game is centred around these mysteries.

The Witch's goal is to convince the Human team that the mysterious events can only be explained through the use of a Witch's Magic!
The Witch is allowed to use any amount of deception and illusions in their narrative to accomplish that goal. However, a witch can't be trusted!

After all, there's no such thing as magic right? The illusions shown in the narrative must have an explanation!
So, the goal of the Human team is to come up with an explanation, ANY explanation that explains how a human could have possibly committed the crimes.

The Human team wins if they are able to explain the crimes through human means.

However, isn't this too easy? You can just come up with any crazy explanation and claim that you have won...

But the Witch is given a single weapon to fight against these crazy theories!
That weapon is the Witch's RedTruth!

When the Witch speaks in red, it will be the truth.
When the Witch speaks the truth, it will be in red.

By using the Red Truth, the Witch is able to cut down opposing theories and preserve the illusion of magic.

Red statements are the only trustworthy words that a Witch will speak. They are the only absolute truth within this game.

In other words, if it's not in red, you have every right to doubt it!

The Witch may use the Red Truth at their own leisure.

If the human team asks a question, the Witch can choose whether or not to answer it in red.
If the human team asks for a statement to be repeated in red, the Witch has every right to refuse should they choose to do so.

It's the Witch's ultimate weapon!

However, isn't this a bit unfair, again?

If the Red Truth is the one thing in this game that can be trusted, what if the Witch never speaks in red? What if they just never drops a single solid footing for the human team to stand on, and vanishes forever within the shadow of illusions?

With no lead, the humans stand no chance, which is why they are given a weapon of their own!

That weapon is the counteracting Blue Truth!

A blue statement must provide a complete theory on how a mystery is possible for humans.
If the blue statement is valid, then it MUST be countered in red, or the Witch must forfeit that mystery to the Human team.

In other words, if the Human team can land a Blue Truth for every mystery in the tale that the Witch is unable to counter, it is their win!

There is no limit to the number of Blue Truths you can say, as long as it provides a valid human theory, you can fire away.


That's the game's premise. If it doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. Once you give it a try you'll understand how it works very quickly.

The remaining rules are just some logistical guidelines to follow.

There will be one Witch and Game Master for each game session.
The Witch's Red Truths will be spoken in Bold and the colour "red".

Everyone else is on the Human team.
The Human team's Blue Truths will be spoken also in Bold and the colour "dodgerblue" (This one you have to type out).

Should the human team win, the person who lands the final blue truth can decide the next Witch.

The last thing is a guarantee of fairness in the game. As this must be a fair game in nature, the Witch must have an appropriate line of "logic" for the Human team to find. In other words, to be a fair game, the human team needs to have a fair chance at winning.

Any situation where a Witch's red truths make it truly impossible to construct a blue truth is called a "Logic Error". It is the one thing the Witch cannot allow to happen on their gameboard.

In any situation where you don't trust the game itself and suspect a Logic Error has occurred, we can call in an "Observer".
The Observer will check that the Witch's Logic is still valid and does not contradict any of the prior red truths.

Everything clear? Good, then let me present the gameboard of the third game.

The Third Game

It was rainy and dark; you really shouldn’t have stayed so long. You didn’t like driving at the night, and there were still at least an hour more home. Suddenly you saw a sign pointing at “The Happy Witch’s Hotel”. Weird name, you thought, but you were still relieved that you didn’t have to drive more for tonight. As you drove into the parking lot, you only saw a couple more cars there. Maybe not a very popular place then?

You entered through the main door and found yourself at the reception. The hotel looked a bit rundown, both the outside and the inside. It was empty, but you saw a little bell to use to call for assistance. You called the bell, and almost immediately a man cam in from a door behind the counter. 
“Oh, another guest this late! Welcome the the Happy Witch’s Hotel, my friend. How can I help you?”
“I want a room for the night.” you said.
“Of course.” he said and turned around. He opened a locker which you could see were full of keys hanging neatly organized.
“This hotel has belonged to my family for generations, but with the low number of guests lately I might soon be forced to close.” the man said, seemingly willing to start a conversation with you. However you were just tired and wished for nothing more than a good night’s sleep.
“I’m sad to hear that, but right now I really just want to sleep.” you said.
“I understand” he said and took down a key and gave it to you.
“Your room is number 2, just down that corridor and it’s the first one to the left. Sleep well!”
“Thank you.” you answered and headed to your room.

The Witch hovered outside the house, looking at it. Not as many guests were here as in the days of old, but still enough to have some fun with. She could see one of the windows were open and saw the perfect opportunity. The Witch flew in and the window quickly closed behind her. She summoned a knife in her hands, and quickly killed the woman lying in the bed. Feeling content, the Witch vanished without a trace.

After sleeping well during the night, you woke up from hearing a scream somewhere above you. You immediately left your room and headed to the closest stairs. When you got up, you saw the owner and a woman looking inside one of the rooms.

“What happened?” you asked. The owner looked panicked at you.
“It’s horrible. Lucy here told me to open the door to this room with my master key since it’s almost lunchtime and her friend didn’t answer and she was really worried. And when we opened, we found this!” he said, pointing inside the room.
Lucy had already went inside, and you and the owner were quick to follow. Lying at the bed were a woman, and her chest were pierced by a knife.
“I need to contact the police and tell the other guests, meet me in the hall in five minutes” the owner said. Lucy kneeled down beside the bed, crying.
“How is it even possible, the door were locked and her key is right here?” Lucy asked, mostly to herself. You looked around, saw that the window was closed from the inside.

Still horrified, but almost fascinated, you looked around the room for any trace from this ‘impossible murderer’. Eventually you noticed that Lucy had left while you searched around, and you quickly headed to the hall.

When you entered the hall, you saw Lucy, the owner, and two other men were already there. You all quickly introduced yourselves, and you learned that the other men’s names were Charlie and Bill. The owner spoke:
“The mobile reception is too bad here to call anyone and the landline seems to be down, so we have no other choice than leaving by car.”

No one seemed to be willing to stay in the house with a murderer running about, so we all agreed on leaving together. You and Lucy just had to head to your rooms getting your car keys first. Lucy headed up the stairs while you entered your room. Strangely enough the keys weren’t were you though they were, so you started to look all over the room for them.

The Witch laughed to herself, amused with all the chaos she managed to create. Of course her fun was far from over. She materilized herself into Lucy’s room, who were frantically searching for her car keys. With a slight movement of her hand, the witch made Lucy’s body freeze, and moved her over to the bed. With another movement she summoned another knife, stabbing the woman in her heart.

When you finally found your keys you quickly went back to the hall, expecting everyone to be waiting for you. However, Lucy weren’t there yet.
“Have something happened to her?” one of the men asked.
”Let’s have a look” the owner said and led them all towards Lucy’s room.
When we got there, it was locked, and there were no sound from the inside. The owner used his master key to open the door, and inside we found what we all feared. Lucy layed on the bed, with a knife in her chest. The owner quickly ran to her and try to feel her pulse. Of course, it was too late.

“It must be as you said, Bill, he must be the murderer.” one of the men said.
You turned around and saw them stare at you.
“Wha-what do you mean?” you said.
“All of us already suspected it, but this confirmed it. You were the only of us that could have killed her, and there are no traces of an outside person to have entered the house during the night.”
You desperately tried to defend yourself, even claiming that it could be suicide. The other men seemed to have already decided you were the murderer, so they didn’t consider your words one bit. They took you down to the basement, locking you in until they could get the police. You heard them talk throught the door, saying that Bill would go get the police while the other waited here.

The Witch watched as Bill drove away from the house. Fools, she thought to herself, she still weren’t done here. Sensing that one of the men had locked himself inside his room, she instantly teleported there. Charlie looked horrified at the witch that suddenly showed up, but he had no time to scream.
Next, the witch went to the owner’s room behind the reception. With a snap of her fingers, she strangled the owner, and summoned a noose hanging from the ceiling. Certain that this would utterly confuse everyone, she hanged him.

You weren’t sure when, but someone had pushed a key under the door to you. You were certain the key hadn’t been there when you were locked in. The key fitted in the keyhole, and you got out from the basement. You headed to the reception, determined to prove your innocence somehow. Since you knew the murderer where still running about, you had to make sure the others were safe. You knocked on the door behind the counter, but you got no answer.

It was locked, and out of desperation, you tried the key to the basement which you still had in your hand. It… It worked. Odd, you thought to yourself and looked in. You were faced with a horrible sight. The owner had seemingly commited suicide, hanging from the ceiling. However, there was no chair or anything in sight that he could have used to get up there. You looked around the rooms for clues, and you noticed a something sticking out from behind a cupboard. You didn’t have time to look any closer on it however, because you could hear a car from the outside and you ran out, believing everything would be all right now when help had arrived.

 A police car had stopped on the parking lot, and out from it came two policemen and Bill. Bill pointed at you:
“There! He is the murderer! He somehow got free!”
You certainly were no murderer, but how were you gonna prove that, especially when you had escaped from the basement?

The Witch stood on the roof of the house, looking down at the poor guy who had gotten the blame for everything she had done. She teleported to the living room of the hotel, tired after a long morning full of magic. Since it was gonna take the policemen quite a while to understand what had happened, the Witch decied to take a little rest.


There you have it, humans. This time you may have noticed I gave you several mysteries in the game. I can assure you that all of them were made with magic. Let the game begin!

[Fippe94]

Here I will list all the red truth I've spoken, for your convenience. Use this to plan your arguments.

There are four dead people in this game.

There are no advanced scientic devices used this game (No time travel, teleportation, etc.)

The Owner is called Howard.
Lucy's friend is called Alicia.

During the time of Lucy's murder, Howard was together with Charlie and Bill the whole time.
 - This refers to the time you believe Lucy was murdered in the story.

The thing that was sticking out behind the cupboard cannot be used to hang yourself.

The key you used to escape the basement was not there when you first entered the basement.

When you entered the room, there was nothing within reach that Howard could have stepped on to hang himself.
 - 'within range' includes things that Howard could have jumped from or kicked away.

Howard did not jump in order to commit suicide.

The master key did not unlock Alicia's room during the night.

There are no more than three suicides.

There are no more than two persons involved that are not mentioned in the story.

You did not recieve any kind of antidote.

Your memory was not altered in any way during the story.

Each guest of the hotel had their own room. No person was sleeping in the same room as anyone else.

Alicia did not kill anyone in her own room.

Alicia never entered Howard's room.

It is forbidden for the detective to be the culprit.
In this game, you qualify as 'the detective'.

You need a key to lock the doors from the outside.

There is only one master key.
In this game, a 'skeleton key' would be counted as a 'master key'.

The master key stayed in Howard's room the whole night.
The master key was still in Howard's room when Alicia was killed

Howard did not kill Lucy.

When Howard unlocked the door to Alicia's room, her room key was inside the room.

There are no more than two culprits.

Howard's room had been locked from the inside when you unlocked the door.

Alicia was killed before the key got to the basement.

The key you got in the basement was the master key.

Alicia's killer left Alicia's room before you woke up.

The windows can only be locked and unlocked from the inside.
The windows can only be locked when the window is already closed

Howard did not climb on a rope.

There were no water on the floor when you got to Howard's room.
There were no ice in Howard's room at any time during the story

The ceiling of Howard's room stayed intact.
No part of the walls, roof, or floors of the hotel was taken apart.

No window was broken.

No name belongs to more than one person in this story.
Any name used in the story is the character's actual name.

Aside from the basement door, a key cannot be moved through a door while it is locked.
In this context, "through the door" measn through the doorway, which includes things like under the door and through the keyhole.

When Alicia was killed, the murderer was in the same room as her.
-This includes the point when Alicia actually died.

Aside from the master key, only one key to Alicia's room exist.

There is no dumbwaiters in this hotel.

There are no more than three secret passages.

No door was broken, removed or taken apart.

Bill left the house before the key got to the basement.

Howard never commited suicide willingly.

There are no secret passages leading to or from Alicia's room.

No accident was involved in the murders.

Charlie did not push the key under the basement door.

The doors can only be locked while they are closed.

Howard would not rescue anyone he believed was a murderer.

Howard would not allow an outsider to enter the hotel in this situation.

No one entered the house after Bill left.

Howard was not the first one to die.

Howard would never commit suicide as a result of a game.
In this context, a bet is considered a sort of game.

The only guests staying at the hotel are you, Lucy, Alicia, Bill and Charlie.

As far as the Howard (the owner) knew, there was no person in the hotel besides those mentioned in the story.

It is impossible for someone not mentioned in the story to throw the key under the basement door.

When you entered Alicia's room, the window was locked.

Howard did not throw the key under the basement door.

It was a human who threw the key under the basement door.

Charlie was not directly involved in Howard's death.

It is impossible for someone not mentioned in the story to be directly involved in Howard's death.

The body you found in Lucy's room belonged to Lucy.

Howard cannot possibly fail when checking if someone is dead or not.

No human exists who can hold the title of "Witch".

When Bill left to get the police, he did not return until he brings the policemen.

Alicia was killed at night.

Lucy faked her death when you found her.

Howard lied about Lucy being dead.

Lucy threw the key under the basement door.

Each room is completely seperate. It is not the case that one room is inside another.

There is only one door to Alicia's room.

When you entered Alicia's room, the window was locked.
- This applies to all windows in Alicia's room.

Right before you woke up, Howard unlocked the locked door to Alicia's room. At this point, Alicia's room key was inside Alicia's room.

No one entered or exited Alicia's room during the short time between Howard unlocking the door and you waking up.

When you entered Howard's room, no one was inside except Howard.

No one entered Howard's room through a secret passage.

Lucy forced Howard to commit suicide.
After locking the door to Howard's room from the inside, Lucy left Howard's room through a secret passage

No window was broken, removed or taken apart.

Lucy did not use any secret passage before throwing the key under the basement door.

Charlie did not commit suicide.

After Bill left the hotel, Charlie locked himself inside a hotel room.

The master key did not leave Howard's possession until after his death.
 -In this case, 'did not leave Howard's possession' means that 'it was always within Howard's reach' and 'no one except Howard could have used it'.

There was no secret passage leading to or from Charlie's room.

Lucy never used the master key to unlock a door.

When Charlie was killed, the murderer was in the same room as him.

Charlie wouldn't open the door for someone he thought was dead.

Charlie believed Howard when he said that Lucy was dead.

It is forbidden for a character to disguise themselves as another without any clues.

Charlie could not have been tricked by a recording.

After the moment where you believed Lucy died, her room key did not leave the room.

Besides the master key, there was only one key to the room where Charlie was.

Charlie was dead when you exited the basement

Charlie was not killed by an animal (Humans are not considered animals in this context).

When Charlie enter the room to hide after Bill had left, no one else was inside the room.

The room Charlie went into to hide had no secret passages.

Howard did not unlock the door to the room where Charlie was hiding.

When Charlie died, Howard was already dead.

Howard died from hanging.

If Charlie knew that he was in danger, he would lock his door as soon as he could.

Charlie would not leave the door open and unlocked if he knew there was a murderer in the building.

No person not named in the story ever used the master key.

Charlie would not throw his room key out the window.

Charlie would not unlock the door for anyone he didn't know.

Bill did not return to the hotel without the policemen

It is impossible to lock a door from the inside while being outside the room

Charlie locked his room from the inside.
Lucy opened the door with the room key that Charlie had forgot to bring.
Lucy killed Charlie, left the room key inside the room, and then locked the room with the master key.

The room was on second floor, it was too high to be able to jump down from the window.

Howard did not lock Alicia's room.

There are no ladders in this game.
When Howard unlocked Alicia's room in the morning, there was no rope anywhere inside the room.
There was nothing within reach of the window that could be used to tie a rope to.
There was no tree nearby that you could climb on.
It is not possible to climb directly on the wall of the building.

Lucy did not have a grappling hook.

No one helped Alicia's murderer to escape the room.

Alicia's room key never entered the room through the window.

Alicia was not killed by an animal (Humans are not considered animals in this context).

The body found in Alicia's room belonged to Alicia.
The dead body you found in Alicia's room was Alicia.

The door and the window are the only ways a human can enter or exit Alicia's room.

When you woke up, there was no human inside Alicia's room except Alicia, who was dead.

If you jump from the second floor of a building or higher, you will die no matter what you land on.

Lucy never entered the building through a window.

The only way to enter the building while on the roof is through windows.

Alicia never left her room

Bill and Charlie was sleeping in their own rooms the whole night.

Lucy was never on the roof.

It is forbidden for the culprit to be anyone not mentioned in the story.

No floor changed number or height from the ground.

The only way to move a key between two rooms is through a window, a door or a secret passage.

It is impossible to remove a rope that is attached to something unless you are at the position where it is attached.

It is impossible to climb on something directly attached to the outer wall, such as a gutter.
It is impossible to climb on plants.

It is impossible to hang glide from any part of the building.

Every window in the building leads directly from the inside to the outside; there are no windows directly between rooms.

A door cannot be closed and open at the same time.

There are no other buildings nearby.

Alicia's murderer did not die by jumping or falling from the building.

It is impossible to completely destroy anything so that it no longer remains, such as through fire or acid.

No doors or windows were built/added after the start of the story.

Alicia's room had a ceiling.

Magic is the only way you can revive a dead person.

There are only 4 ways to get out from a window: use magic, climb on a rope, use a grappling hook and jump.

Falling is the same as jumping.

Alicia would not willingly have let in Howard into her room.

Only 4 persons have ever entered Alicia's room: Alicia, Lucy, Howard and you.

There was never a rope, or even a part of a rope, inside Alicia's room.

Lucy did not use a grappling hook.

Lucy entered the room right above Alicia's, tied a rope inside it, and threw the end out of the window.
Alicia let Lucy into the room through the door.
Lucy killed Alicia and locked the door from the inside.
Lucy left through the window, climbing down the rope that was right outside and then enterd through the main entrance.

There is a woman lying on the sofa in the living room.
The only door to the room is locked from the outside.

There are no more than one secret passage

[Dm]

Woo, that's a lot of mysteries. DIS GUN BE GUD

By the way, I noticed you wrote pink truth instead of red truth once . Fix?

Also, the theories can tackle just one mystery at a time, right? (Say, a blue trut jus theorizing about how I got out of the locked basement, or just one death.)

[Fippe94]

pink -> red fixed.

And yes, the different mysteries may be tackled one at a time.

[Regyptic]

I count 4 murders- Lucy's friend, Lucy, Charlie (although there's no non-witch confirmation of Charlie's death in the story) and the Owner, plus, I suppose, the mystery of who gave you the key.

So 5 different mysteries to solve?

[Fippe94]

Pretty much. You can of course answer more than one mystery in one blue truth. While they are seperate mysteries, this is still one story, so they are all connected somehow of course.

[dawn to dusk]

Wouldn't it be better to ask kuro to make it? Or will you ask someone to move it to forum games?

Please answer in red. I shall not tolerate anything in any other colour and will not believe it

EDIT: please repeat these in red:
Lucy was killed while the detective was staying at the hotel
All of these murders (other than Lucy) occur in the same order as said in the story.

Working on a theory based on freezing a dead body so people don't know when it was killed

[yee]

Shouldn't it be in foorum games section?

Are there any secret passages or does the Witch have another master key?

[Fippe94]

I have already asked to get it moved to the Forum Games section.

As for the other questions, I refuse to answer. (Also, you already met Lucy before she died, so I am not sre where you are getting with that. Maybe you meant lucy's friend?)

[Dm]

Confirm these in red, please:


The bodies you found in each bed belonged to the person that you said was killed in the story (as in - the body that you thought was Lucy really was Lucy, the body the story says is Charlie's is really Charlie.)

All the murders are real (As in, there is no fake death.)

No form of time traveling or other crazy scientific mumbo jumbo was employed in the killing.

[Fippe94]

Well, I can say this:

There are four dead people in this game.
There are no advanced scientic devices used this game (No time travel, teleportation, etc.)
Aside from magic, of course!

For anything else, you really need to come at me with that blue truth you have.

[Regyptic]

Can we have names for 'Lucy's friend' and 'the Owner' so we don't have to call them that every time?

As I'm posting I may as well start us off with possibly the most obvious theory;

The Owner did it. He has a master key so could get into any room.

Then for his murder;

He then killed himself somehow using the 'something sticking out from behind a cupboard' that we didn't investigate.

Yes, it's vague but hopefully it's a starting point. I'd also like to know if the Owner's key is the only master key and if that is the same key we used to get out of the basement.