Herm swings his Hammer at the devil, and this time he is lucky. With three mighty blows he ends the creature.
"Wow." Kendra says as she emerges from cover, ready to give Herm a diviner's insight, but seeing the summoned creature dissolve slowly into nothingness. "You do your Diety proud, Herm."
"I owe her a lot and have a long way to go where I wish to be." Herm Moves to the bridge. "How do we get across?"
Jominda sits behind the house and tries to calculate how long it will take until this arrow shooting monster is gone. But after a while, she has lost track of time and decides to check.
Not finding it in the air but seeing her companions standing in the damaged alchemist's workshop she flies over and joins them.
Kendra's eyes momentarily flash purple again before she checks out the door on the opposite side of the hanging bridge.
One end of the demolished bridge clings to the cliff beneath a large building. A statue of a beautiful nymph stands next to a pair of double doors. Above the doors is a stained glass window depicting a unicorn.
"There's another spell on the door on that end." Kendra warns. "Just an alarm, no summoning, but that would still alert anyone inside the building, if there's still someone there."
She looks to her left.
"Then again, there were guardians in the previous building too."
"But there is still the issue about getting over to the door." Jominda objects. "That bridge might hold the wight. But it doesn't look like an easy walk over."
"I'm saying maybe we should retire to the previous building for the evening, so that we might devise a plan in calm, over some wine and hot food."
"You got me at food." Jominda replies and is on her way back to the manor house.
"Can you dispel the spell on the door?' Herm asks Kendra as they go back into the house
"Not at the moment, but I can try on the morrow. I'll need a rest before I can study new spells." Kendra explains.
"So we're done for the day?" Jominda asks.
She moves to the smoking room then and gets herself a pipe - just as an accessory. With her plaid coat and cap and the pipe in hand she stands there and suggests "Let's play a game of Cluedo."
Kendra cocks her head at Jominda. "I don't believe I'm familiar with the game." she says
"You need to dress up as an investigator and then we solve an imaginary murder scenario." Jominda explains. Which is a slight deviation from the actual rules of the game.
Kendra laughs heartily. "That actually sounds like a lot of fun."
She focuses for a moment and whispers something silently, and all of a sudden she is dressed in the same uniform that they all found scraps of in the first building, but this time neat and intact.
"How's this?" she says with a smile.
"Nice. Let me prepare something." Jominda writes a few combinations of weapons, rooms and names on a page in her notebook and then cuts the page out and into pieces. Then she shuffles them and makes four piles. The last one she puts in the middle of the table and puts a mug on it.
Herm smiles slightly at the amusement of the women, "So tomrorow we press on and find Thomas and the count?"
"I would hope so."[[b] Kendra says as she turns to him, showing him her outfit as well [b]"Unless they're hidden very deep in the castle, we should be able to make it to them on the morrow."
She walks up to Herm. "Now, my dear Detective Herm, you will join us for this game, will you not?"
Turning to Jominda she adds in a stricter tone "But after one game we will need to strategize a bit for what we will do tomorrow."
"So let me explain." Jominda tells "We have here the culprit, which could be any of us. We have the weapons which are earthbreaker, mace, bomb and acid splash. And the room the murder happened in, which would be the dining hall, the smoking room, the kitchen, or the billard room."
"Oh, I forgot to make a list of victims... no matter, we'll simply tell it was the count. These cards on the table tell the right combination. And you have to make assumptions based on your cards, who killed the count with what weapon in which room. Who gets it right first wins. The oldest one may start."
Herm looks at Harrold, awaiting for him to start the game.
"I shall indulge yes, it will help remain positive in the state that this home is in. " Herm looks at his cards.
"It might be fun to solve a pretend murder instead of a real one..." Harrold says pausing for a moment.
He then coughs a few times and puts on an old-timey English accent and starts to pace with a limp. "Eye dew believe, thee cryme was commyted bye Kendra, in thee kitchen wyth aye BOMBE!"
"Ha, no, you're wrong." Jominda calls triumphantly, holding up the Kendra card. She then looks at Herm to make his move.
"Ladies I am 22 so if you are older than myself you can go first otherwise I will go." Herm again looks at his cards
"Jominda in the Smoking room with acid splash?" Herm asks
"I would never use an Acid Splash." Jominda objects in played offense and holds up the Smoking Room card. "Now you know all my cards!" Jominda complains.
"Well then," Kendra states matter of factly, taking a straight posture with her heels together as if she's a guardsman. "It is obvious to me it was Jominda in the Dining Hall with her weapon of choice, the bomb."
She then grins and winks at Jominda, making sure she understands that it's all in jest.
"You don't have proof of that." Jominda replies and looks around who is going to clear her from that accusation.
Herm holds up the Bomb card, "Sorry Harrold I had the card but missed that I was to show it to you"
"My turn!" Jominda jumps with joy. "So it was not the smoking room, not Kendra, not the bomb... mmmmmh, I guess it is Herm then. Because no one would suspect our upright paladin. And of course he used his trusted earthbreaker and killed the count in the billard room."
Herm holds up the card with the Earth Breaker
"It was Herm in the kitchen with the acid splash!"
Kendra looks at her cards, and then around the room to see if anyone else reacts.
"Don't look at me! I showed all my cards already." Jominda tells.
"If no one has something to disprove this, then Harrold can check the three cards if he is right." Jominda tells as no one comes up with a card.
"Oh I know I'm not right." Harrold replies with a grin
"What?" Jominda replies, utterly confused.
"I know I'm not right." Harrold replies, his grin even bigger. "And if nobody guesses it correctly by the time it gets back to me I know I win."
Kendra looks at Harrold intensely.
"Harrold holds one, or two, of the cards himself." she surmises
"Well Herm, here's your turn and your last chance at glory in this game, then."
"Harrold in the Kitchen with the Acid Splash?" Herm asks outloud
"It wan't me." Harrold says holding up a slip of paper
Kendra straightens her back again, posturing as a guard.
"It was Herm, of course, with the cunning use of an Acid splash, hiding all the while that he is able to cast such a spell, and he did so in the Kitchen!"
"That is exactly what Harrold said." Jominda objects.
"That's because I meant the mace..." Kendra aqcuiesces embarrasedly.
She quickly returns to her role, "That he stole from you, fair Jominda!"
"Well it wasn't Herm." Harrold says holding up the scrap of paper.
"So it was not Kendra, not Harrold, not Herm. Oh no, I did it!" Jominda concludes in fake distress. "Not with the bomb, not with the Earthbreaker, not the smoking room."
"That leaves the mace and the acid splash. But no one has the acid splash, if you're not cheating. The room is more complicated, as we only excluded the smoking room so far. But as Harrold used a trick we can also conclude that it is the kitchen."
"So I'm solving this case: It was me who killed the Count with an acid splash in the kitchen." she tells looking around if anyone will object to that, her hands already on the stack in the middle.
Herm shakes his head that he has no cards to disprove her theory
Harrold groans slightly as Jominda picks the winning combo.
"You boasted too early about your sure victory!" Jominda rubs it in with Harrold, as she turns around the stack showing her correct accusation.
"But there is another unresolved task!" Jominda tells with the mystery voice, making a dramatic pause...
"Kendra offered to make something to eat, and murder makes me really hungry." she jokes.
Kendra laughs heartily. "Don't worry, little murderer. I'll whip you up something."
Kendra seems visibly more relaxed after the joking around during the game, and she moves off to the provisions room and the kitchen to scrounge a meal together.
"Now be nice and don't kill any of your party members, dear." Kendra jokes with a wink from the doorpost just before she leaves the room.