Let's Play A Murder (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
letsplayamod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
letsplayamurder2025-06-09 03:00 am
letsplayamod) wrote in letsplayamurder2025-06-09 03:00 am
Entry tags:
LPM Test Drive
Greetings, mortals.
I thank you for accepting my plea. From across universes, I have summoned you to aid me in bringing light back to this land. Here, though, in this small pocket, we are free to relax for the moment. Steel yourself, and meet with me soon.
There is much to discuss.
Welcome to the official test drive for Let's Play A Murder, an experimental murdergame! Characters will work together to unravel an oncoming threat that strikes each week with something new to tear them apart. For now, tag around with potential picks for the upcoming game and get a feel for that sweet sweet murder CR! If you have any questions, please DM
Threads from this TDM (and others if you so choose) will count towards the RP sample of the applications.
Wherever you were, whatever you were doing... you're not there anymore. Instead, you've awoken on an unfamiliar but very soft bed. The room is sparsely decorated, ornate carvings of heroic figures intermingle on the walls with hairline cracks. This place has seen better days, but, possibly, so have you.
There is a nightstand beside your bed, as naked as anything save for an envelope sealed in wax. Inside is a letter written in a careful hand, welcoming you to this place; a safe area, free of those that would cause harm. Your host had to step away briefly, but she will return. In the meanwhile, she expects everyone to obey the rules of this place.
Included in the envelope was a small bronze key - to your room, no doubt. And luck - it unlocks your door. You're free to venture out into a semicircle of these homes you've found yourself in. And you're not alone, either.
Perhaps you should say hello to your new neighbors.
You've all become acquainted with each other, and met with your gracious benefactor. She had to dip out again, but has left you all with a veritable island paradise to explore. In the center pantheon, large profiles of each of you have been cast in the stone walls, details of your life chiseled beneath them in perhaps too much detail. Along with a set of rules cast on a bronze plaque. Seems straightforward enough.
Beyond that, it seems whatever information you'll gain will only be found by your own hand. You have the free time now, and it's a beautiful day outside. There's plenty to explore among the towering obelisks and half-standing temples. Just avoid trying to leave the edge of the island - a golden barrier will very rudely smack you in the face.
Feel free to make up locations for this. The island is anachronistic with all the amnesties of a modern home.
Purple clown? What? None of that here. But once you've found out where to leave those tribute coins you've 'earned' there's a small pile of items waiting outside your door. Some of which you might even recognize from home.
Or perhaps you've been given twenty wooden cut-outs of... who the heck is this guy.
Training exercises! In order to discern your godly nature, what better way to start than a good, very old-fashioned obstacle course.
Balance across the beams, avoid getting beaned in the head by a swinging bat. Swing from a rope. Or, if you're really feeling up to a challenge, pick up a sword and meet someone's steel with steel.
Or you can sit back and prepare medical supplies. Someone's definitely going to get hurt.
The sky darkens. Lightning overtakes the calm summers day. It's not long before the whole area is under attack.
From the very earth itself, monsters crawl from the ground; undead hands clutching rusted swords and shields. Digging themselves from their graves so that they can put you in yours. Somewhere, distantly, your mentor yells to take up arms, and is already lost in her own fray.
It's up to you to defend yourself, or to defend others. There's no honor in running away, but if you need to survive, it's not like anyone would blame you.
Congrats! You've survived the onslaught. But even as the sky clears, an ultimatum has been passed down from on high; if one of your group isn't slain by the end of the week, then the world you belong to will be destroyed.
Surely, nothing would actually be able to accomplish that, but that faint hope doesn't remove the tension from the air.
Seems that someone didn't want to take the chance.
One of your fellows has met with a gruesome end, and if up to you and everyone else to play detective and figure out just who did it. The hourglass is running out. Just try not to trip over any evidence.
Investigation’s done, it’s time for a trial! Perhaps you nailed it and someone's already confessing to their crimes. Perhaps you've been running around in circles, looking for anything that could move the trial forward. Maybe you all just decided to strip down, even if it wasn't necessary. Whatever the case, tensions are still high. Not just because you have to point out a culprit... but you have to lay down punishment for them too.
Majority vote decides, of course. This is a democracy, after all, but you can still waste time dithering on what to do next.
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You're not the first person to say that.
[And unfortunately, Astarion believes him. He lets out a sigh.]
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[He still sounds remarkably upbeat and cheerful despite the situation...]
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You don't sound so bothered by our predicament.
[Neither does Astarion, but he carries himself with a distinct aura of "pretending not to care".]
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[Well, what exactly he's wondering about clearly doesn't seem to matter, because he shrugs it off - a one-armed, half-hearted shrug, at that.]
I see no reason to start panicking. That only makes things worse, after all!
[Or maybe he's just this annoyingly blasé about everything, who knows.]
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[He gestures emphatically with his hands.]
Take for instance, speaking entirely hypothetically, you had just gotten a damn worm that could turn you into a monster at any given moment out of your head, had gotten used to living in the darkness again, go to see old acquaintances, and then you wake up in an unfamiliar bed!
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And here I thought my life was interesting. Why would a worm turn you into a monster? What kind of monster, by the way?
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If I said the word "mindflayer", would that mean anything to you?
[Said in a strained tone, like he's talking about something very obvious.]
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[Now how similar these mindflayers are to Astarion's... well, who knows?]
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But sure, why not. He'll go with that.]
Then you must know they reproduce by implanting tadpoles into the skulls of victims. It's quite a well-known fact about them. The most important fact, even!
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....................]
It would seem one of us has a very incorrect understanding of mindflayers.
[??????????????]
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The damn things are unsightly.
[Because THAT is the thing Astarion took away from all of this, apparently.]
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[Anyway!]
Well, I am hardly an expert, and it certainly is possible I've somehow managed to completely misunderstand these specific monsters. They weren't among those I spent quite some time studying, after all. But we may have gotten a bit off-track with this - how exactly did you end up in this sort of situation to begin with?
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Where exactly are you from? The ilithid crisis only ended six months ago.
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I'm not familiar with the "ilithid crisis", which I'm assuming was quite the big deal, no? Tell me, are you from Rengarethe? Ize-Vti?
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[Are those cities or countries, he genuinely can't tell.]
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[Curious! While he's by no means a geography expert, he listed countries that everyone should know, so this truly is a fascinating conundrum.]
Tell me about this Baldur's Gate. Is it a country? A town?
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[Though he doesn't clarify, Faerûn is a continent.]
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[...are they a problem?]
They're a rather disconcerting thing to have in common. But you certainly don't look like you could be from the Planes.
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[He hums to himself, looking pleased with the turn this conversation has taken.]
Are you familiar with deimori?
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[This isn't him being nitpicky; it's a very different classification.]
Your average monster is still part of the natural world. Ilithids are not.
I can't say I'm familiar with the word, no.
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[So a classification issue, among with their other differences.]
Deimori are one of the Spoken races - I am one! My appearance may be a bit startling to those who are unfamiliar with us; we're a rather reclusive bunch, with most remaining in our homeland of Ize-Vti.
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[This isn't a negative. He'd just. Assumed as much because of the black eye. Even if he couldn't guess what the other half was.]
Mindflayers aren't beasts. They're quite sentient and sapient. That's what makes them so dangerous.
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[No negatives here either, though that isn't always the case where he's from. Humans and elves can be so weird about each other...]
Ah, I see! That's where they differ, then - monsters generally operate at a level higher than standard animals' sentience, but less so than the Spoken races. It's exceptionally rare for a monster to be able to communicate in any way that a Spoken can understand. Mindflayers are no exception to this - at least from what I've heard, though again, I haven't had the pleasure of studying them myself.
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[He's never heard the term before, though he can hazard a guess what it means just from context.]
I know someone who can speak to animals. He can also turn into a bear.
[Astarion gives a little laugh.]
He's decent, for a man who likes nature better than people.
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bg3 spoilers
bg3 spoilers
bg3 spoilers
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