A Game of Skill

[Amneiger]

"It was probably the Princess who ordered our arrest. Since she's a member of the royal family, she would probably have enough authority to do that," Amneiger said. "I guess we really should have checked the cabin all the way back at the start of this...oh well, we'll go look in the cabin once we're out of here." He crawled into the drainpipe with the rest of the dwarves.

[Celestial]

Celestial reluctantly put her pipe back into her pocket, glad that the guards had not confiscated it. However, she did not want it to get lost in the pipe. This was the one part where she was glad she was a dwarf; not only would the place be easier to get through but she felt oddly okay with it, at least more than she did if she was herself. It still smelt terrible though.

"Of course it was the Princess! All evidence points to it and it's just a little suspicious that this happened just as we started uncovering the truth," she says, crawling through the sewer. "Let's see if the mirror shards are still in our cabin though. We need to retrieve them if we're to have any chance of solving this. Plus that place has some tools that could possibly come in handy."

[Draco]

Figuring it was time, Draco hopped into the pipe and began to crawl through it. It wasn't fun.

"When we get back to the cottage, I have a plan... Not a great one, but a plan at least."

[Fraze]

You emerge from the tunnel, in what would be an obvious resurrection metaphor if there were a sweeping soundtrack to accompany it.

You see Maxwell standing at the entrance. The guy really does seem to be everywhere at once. You watch him warily, but he doesn't move. You slowly walk around him, ad when you're about to set off, he speaks.
"The Queen has taken the mirror shards into her possession. You had best hurry."

You make your way back to the cottage. It appears to have been ransacked by the castle guards, or maybe you're just really messy.

You have all of the pieces of the puzzle necessary to reveal the killer. How will you do it?

((This is the final challenge of your wits! I'm not going to lead you any more beyond this point; you'll need to figure it all out on your own. That means taking initiative and doing, not just planning things out. Now go get 'em.))

[Draco]

Draco searches the house for what he is looking for. If they were going back to the castle, they might need to be armed. Who knew how the guards would react to them this time around. He finds what he was looking for, enough for each of them. He walks around handing one out to everyone.

"Can't be to careful."

Soon each of them hold their very own cast iron frying pan.

"Now to go find our killer."

[♥ Azzie]

Azzie looked at her frying pan, a bit bewildered. She had no idea what she was going to do with it, but it was a rather nice pan.

Suddenly, an idea struck her. She ran back into the kitchen and opened all the cupboards, hoping the guards hadn't destroyed what she needed. At last she found it- a half-empty bag of flour- and ran back outside.

"I'm ready," she said.

[Pixie]

"WAIT. We need a plan. " Ellen interjected "First... Do we have any spicy pepper?" She flips through he cupboards, and pulls out a few dried red peppers, and a few other spices. She crushes them into a fine powder, then puts it into enough small pouches, tied with ribbon, for each dwarf. "Blinding powder, one of my favorite concoctions." she states, and hands it out. "Temporarily blinds someone if you toss it in their eyes. If they can't see ya- they can't snag ya."
" Who here is strong? We need to get some knight's armor, I have a plan! We knock out two slacking knights. We take their garb, and four of us can double up vertically in the armor. They can easily get in the castle like that. Our knights in shining armor cause a diversion once inside, so the rest of us can sneak in." She conspires.

[Tiger]

Tiger blinked and opened her mouth several times as various ingredients were gathered and shards of plans tossed into the group. Apparently they were fighting their way in - sneaking seemed like the better option to Tiger...

"But that's how you ended up in a dungeon and why your fur's gonna smell like death for the next week." If nothing else, she wanted revenge for that indignity.

"What's our goal here?" she asked, frowning. "Get some of us to the Queen's room and assemble the mirror? Interrupt the court and make our case?"

When and if that was cleared up, Tiger turned to Ellen and offered, "I can help with the armor, I s'pose. Wouldn't say I'm very strong, but I can at least jump a good distance and knock someone out." She hefted the frying pan Draco had given her in one hand and the one Azzie had taken and given to her in Blackbeard's tower in the other. "You and I can take one knight - if you were volunteering to help, Ellen - who's taking the other?"

[Draco]

Draco chuckles a little.

"I just wanted us to be ready if the soldiers decided to attack when we head back to the castle. We still need a real plan. Chances are, when we left the house, the princess must have planted the shards. We know she broke the mirror. We have a motive, even if it's small. So now we have all the main things needed to accuse her. However the motive is a little weak to me. Also, why can't the queen do anything? She knows who broke the mirror and what is going on as well."

Balancing the frying pan a little he looks around at the group.

"Can we really trust either of them? I feel like we're sort of being played around here."

[Gelquie]

Gelquie stared at the frying pan in her hand, and could only think of how heavy it was in one hand. However, it wasn't so uncomfortable that she couldn't get used to it. She looks at the others as they talk.

"You know, I agree. If we're not being pushed by the Princess, we're being pushed by the Queen. I'm still more mistrusting of the Princess, but we only saw so much of her while the Queen seems to be leading a path for us. I feel like we're missing something..."

She let out a sigh. "But can we sneak in past them? I can't wear any armor. Well, I can, but I wouldn't be comfortable in it. And besides, are we going to find armor that's going to fit us? I'm not sure how possible it would be for however many of us to fit into one piece of human armor. I think we may be better off just sneaking in and taking a simpler disguise."

[♥ Azzie]

Azalea nodded toward Gelquie and Draco. "I know we're not sure if we can trust either of them. But I still think we need to get to the Queen somehow. Even if she's lying, her mirror almost certainly won't. And the way I see it, it's the only way we can prove anything."

She shrugged. "I have no idea how we're going to get in there, though."

[Kristykimmy]

"Guys," Kristy pipes up, staring at her frying pan a little warily. "Are we certain that the Princess killed her father? We have possible evidence of her breaking the mirror, but that was days before the murder. We got arrested the moment we left the queen's chambers, and despite the fact that she knows we weren't involved, she didn't overrule that. Maxwell's helping us to escape feels a little fishy."

She twirls the frying pan testing its weight. "I think we need to slow down. Let's sneak back to the castle and send one person to talk to the Princess. Based on her reaction, how fast that person goes back to the dungeon most likely, we should be able to tell where she stands in this matter. If she's the bad guy, the others can just swoop in and try to find evidence to convict her and acquit us."

She looks around at the others. "It may only be a game, but we want to do this right, don't we?"

[Celestial]

Celestial hefts a frying pan in her hand, feeling the cast iron in her hand. They said that the best frying pan could also be used to brain somebody. If that was true, dwarf frying pans were among the best ones out there. Perhaps it was just like dwarf bread, a weapon first and culinary implement later. Speaking of the bread, Celestial opened the bread bin but there was nothing in there except for a stale roll. Deciding it might be a useful projectile anyway, she pocketed it, although not in the same pocket as her pipe.

"Why don't we somehow get to them both? One team goes after the princess, one goes after the queen. We sneak back under cover of night and go confront them, give the queen the shards we found and tell the Princess that we think the Queen is guilty. Ideally, we would them lure them both down to confront the other and see what they have to say to each other. The first one to make a mistake would be our killer," she suggests, taking out her pipe and puffing on it thoughtfully, even though there was still nothing in it. While she did have a habit, it was not a bad one like tobacco. She was setting a good example for the children, whatever children they may be.

[Gelquie]

((I've been prompted to do a time skip. So we should finish our discussion within 24 hours.))

Gelquie was pacing around one side of the room as the others were talking. In honesty, she wasn't really sure about going. She was already imprisoned once. Did she want to risk execution? It may be a game, but it still felt very real to her. Still, she wasn't sure if she had a choice. She had a feeling that she was going to be dragged along anyway. ...And besides, there wasn't much else to do besides hide out in this cottage. And quite frankly, there was nothing really good at this cottage. But could it be worse than death?

She then looked over the others. Why weren't they afraid? Why did they never seem to care if they were about to face certain danger? It wasn't like they didn't know the risks. One of the others even died and he's still here. Even that moron ninja was still standing, and all he did was charge face-first into danger and somehow not die. Just like the others are doing. Which would be worse?

...They were all insane. But she didn't have to come along. Why was it that she left home to play this game in the first place? Sure, the illusions were great, but there was more to it than that. Was she really going to do anything else? ...She had to keep thinking about whether it was worth it, but she had a feeling that there wasn't time for that now. She let out a sigh and turned to the others.

"Splitting up might work if we're careful and we work with the two of them carefully," Gelquie spoke up. "But we're still going to have to scout for a good entrance into the palace. I have a feeling we can't just march right up the front door, even if we do have a disguise. With the murder going on, I'm surprised they let us in in the first place, and now they're going to be more careful. Either way, I don't think there's any point in sticking around this dump if we could find a good entrance to the castle from here."

[Kristykimmy]

"I like the two team idea, but I'm still for only sending one person to confront each of them. We don't want to be massively down members if one of them is the bad guy and sends us off back to prison..." Kristy hesitates a moment. "Or worse."

"I think we should be very careful however we proceed. No one is going to buy a self-defense plea from one of us if things turn ugly."

"Maybe we can find a way to hide the other members of each party nearby so that they can hear everything that goes on too. How good are we at climbing? If we go under the cover of darkness, we could scale the walls and climb in the balconies, where the others could wait outside listening and ready to bolt if things do go bad for the team's emissary. Or, we could possibly go back in through the pipes we left through. It is possible they wouldn't think that we'd come back that way. It wasn't exactly pleasant."