Skip to main content

Forums » General Roleplay » Mystery Solving at Mortov Manor (Private RP)

Annie (played anonymously)

It was a nice autumn day; the sun was beginning to fall towards the horizon, the clouds colored in late afternoon oranges and golds, the sky a clear blue, the wind carrying dancing deciduous dry leaves. The air was dry but cool, the bugs had gotten the hint a week ago to head for cover because an early winter was quickly approaching. Parked in a park, with the side door open wide a young woman sat cross-legged with her laptop resting comfortably on her lap. She wore a zipped down purple coat, with a t-shirt patterned with purple eyes, brown pants with a studded belt, a leather laptop/messanger bag and grey chuck taylor converse.

"...And in summation, the infamous bandit named Carl Stentson was apprehended and sentenced to 20 years of hard time. That'll teach him not to portray a fabled headless horseman along route 800 and steal from passersby. Still no word when the police will recognize the fact that I was the one who discovered his hideout and secret stash's location. Oh well, another mystery solved. Until next time my faithful readers!" a girl wrote in her laptop as she sat inside her purple VW camper. The side door was open allowing air movement throughout the vehicle.

"Oh! I forgot!" she exclaimed before writing down a quick edit to her latest post. "P.S. : I will be starting a new investigation as well as a new YouTube channel and podcast since my last ones were hacked by that no good fame seeker, Mr. Everett Von Sharzborg." When she was satisfied she had gotten everything down she had wanted to say she closed her laptop and placed it inside her bag, she then climbed over her seats into the driver's side and turned the key in the ignition. The bus roared to life and the door's automatic closing shut the side door. "I'm going to be late for the mystery solvers gathering!" Annie said as she checked the clock on her radio, put the bus in gear and sped off for the community center.

It had been a few years ago that an ex-FBI agent who had been living in the area for a while had decided to set up a mystery club for the boys and girls of the town. It was mostly kid stuff for the younger audience but sometimes he would give Annie a special assignment, like he had with the route 800 robber. But he had hinted that he was working on a new assignment and might need some help. Annie was ready for this one, it sounded big! Annie pulled up to the town library/historical records hall/community center (yes all three departments shared one big building.) But there were only a couple of vehicles in the parking lot, usually there was more than this on a day like today.

Annie parked her VW and made her way across the empty parking lot to the front door. There stood a few individuals she recognized from the club they frequented but she didn't know too much about them beyond that. On the door was a note, it would read... "Mystery Club canceled. Building closed."

"So mystery night is canceled?" Annie asked rhetorically. She couldn't believe it, since the first day she had started coming to the club not once had it been canceled. Even when the building had been closed in the past a side door to the room they used was always unlocked, Mr. Wilkson (the ex-FBI agent) never missed a meeting, never. "How strange..." Annie said as she mused on her thoughts. It wasn't until she noticed the others that she decided to introduce herself.

"Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Annie Xang, who are you guys?" Annie asked in a genial manner.

((If we could have some of us introduce ourselves in the same way that would be awesome, lets tell each other how we all got to the community center. And I'm sorry if this is a long post, I'm trying to set up the beginning of the plot, there shouldn't be too many of these kinds of posts. ^_^))
Rhett (played by beefy)

Far from the center of town, Rhett had occupied a bench along the boardwalks. He wore a green hoodie along with his dark jeans today along with his usual brown converse style shoes. Of course, he wore his lime green beanie, he always wore that. He had one leg rest across the bench, his laptop half open beside it. Every so often, he got a salty breeze that blew through concession stands and umbrellas over seaside restaurants. Nobody seemed to both him as he practically took up an entire bench with his backpack, laptop and himself stretched across it, nose deep into a book. Not many seemed to be out and about around the boardwalks due to the fact winter was closing in, though Rhett didn't seem to care.

The green cased laptop played a low tune of dubstep music through his headphones. Only one headphone hung from his ear as he listened to it, the other hanging through his spacer in his opposite ear. Rhett read the book, almost blocking out all surroundings as he did. He often went to the library and nitpicked the shelves for new books, old books and all in between. Today, he had decided a change in scenary was in order. With an antique book in front of him, the title on the cover read; "Wildfire at Midnight". So far it was interesting...

It wasn't until all the music paused on his laptop and a little set alarm went off through his headphones that caused him to jump, went off. Tearing his eyes away from the pages, he sat up straight and gazed over to his laptop. Rhett opened the laptop up fully, tearing his headphone from one ear and unhooking the other earbud from his spacer. The laptop displayed a little alarm he had set, "Mystery Club starts in 30 minutes!" He blinked a moment then sighed. He supposed he may as well go. He didn't go all the time, however he had another book in his backpack he had finished. He may as well stop off the return the book while going to the club.

With that, the man stuffed his bookmark into his book and put away the laptop and book. He made room in his backpack, pushing his giant pencil case full of his art pencils and such. He bit his lip a moment as he carefully slipping his laptop in behind his sketchbook and then slipped the book in somewhere it wouldn't get wrecked. Zipping it up, he lifted the pack onto his back and started off for the community center. He walked all the way there, headphones on and music blasting in his ears the entire way there.

Seemed he was going to be left disappointed today though. Upon reaching it, he noticed the sign and would frown. Dang. Others had congregated there as well, though Rhett hadn't spoken to them. He gave a bit of space between him an anyone else really. That was until Annie arrived, he watched her from the corner of his eye a moment until she had addressed everyone. A little surprised by this action, he almost shifted uncomfortably as he wasn't expecting this. After a moment, he spoke up and offered a small smile. "uh-- Hi, I'm Rhett." He seemed pretty friendly. Very chill apparently, given the way he stood and how his over all demeanor seemed to be.

(It's likely that someone may recognize him outside of the club, he seems to often be lazing around in random places around the city, usually reading. Most likely to recognize the lime green beanie though.)
Levi Mannor (played anonymously)

Levi woke up around noon and realized that she was going to be late for the meeting. She jumped out of her bed and threw on some silver skinny jeans, a blue long-sleeved top, and her favorite pair of brown boots. She then ran into the bathroom and took her crimson hair out of its braid and just let it fall. Then she grabbed her blue mini pack (very small purse backpack) and then slipped her minitop (small laptop) into her mini pack and decided to grab a cinnamon roll on her way out.
When she got outside and jumped into her dark blue truck, the first thing she did was turn on the music. Sleeping with Sirens blared over her radio and she drove to the library to get to the meeting. When she got there it wasn't like she thought. She saw that there was a note on the door and that mystery club was cancelled. She was kind of disappointed because she would love to show her knowledge of the supernatural.
Then a girl wearing purple came to introduce herself. She didn't know this girl but she could tell that she was supposed to be here for the meeting, I mean they all had to be, why else would they have come. So when the girl introduced herself and then the boy she smiled a bit. "Well I'm Levi Manners, paranormal extraordinaire." She looked them all over and smiled with her eyes.
Amora Alum (played by nerdessofbooks)

Amora was sitting in her room listening to some music on her computer. She was listening to a whole bunch of it too, Country, Emo, some classic rock everything that she could actually relate to. She had been up since pretty early so she was dressed and just hanging out. She was kicking back in her grey pokemon shirt with a charzard on it, some old orange jeans with holes in the knees, some batman sneakers, with her spiderman headphones on her head. She was talking with some of her fellow nerds in a chat room about Magic the Gathering and arguing over who would win, Jace or Sorin.

When the music suddenly stopped and she looked at the clock she realized that she had to go if she wanted to get to the meeting for Mystery Club. So she quickly grabbed her small duffel that was full of things that she probably would never use, save for her homemade super computer, which in all reality was just a computer that was made up of bits and pieces of nearly everything she could get her hands on, and could probably hack the pentagon. That was a joke she always made to her friends. But she threw her computer into the duffel bag along with some papers, pencils, books, random tools, a blanket, and a sling shot and marbles.

She ran outside and got into her little box of sweets as she called it because somehow she always had food in there, but in all reality it was just an Eagle Kammback that she swears could withstand anything with everything its been through. But she got in, plugged in her IPod and put on her original mix and started off to the library. She was really kind of surprised when she got there that there were other people there, and that Mystery Club was cancelled. She was going to go home when she saw that some of them were talking and decided to go sleuth around and investigate these new people. So she hear bits of the conversation and learned peoples names and then decided to step in, "I'm Amora." She said waking near the group smiling a half smile.

(sorry I added a little bit of orange to her)
Quentin Araneta (played by mk_97)

Some people liked to tell stories. Quentin Araneta, to some degree, liked telling stories. He liked political thrillers, spy confessionals, horror-themed romps playing on the subconscious. He was a cinematographer first, however. Writing was never one of his strong points, though a bit of style training here and there during college raised his confidence a bit.

On this day, Quentin kind of felt cold. The crimson red jacket he wore fit over his grey v-neck quite comfortably, even more so when he was pedaling a freestyle bike to his destination. Wearing black jeans and tight-fitting sneakers was also a must for whatever cold days were going to lie ahead. Crossing the nearly empty intersection, he paused to part his brown bangs. He'd need a haircut in a few days. He misplaced his red beanie, too- something of his self-assurance and dignity was in that thing, and he only remembered that he forgot to get it when the cold air briefly blinded him several times during the ride.

However, Quentin didn't forget his backpack, tinged crimson. Yet this was not a filming job; he left all his other equipment at home. He did, however, per rules of globalization and getting with the times, bring an old laptop that had enough juice to rival a mid-end gaming desktop. It was his video editing suite on the fly.

He also had a camera, the reliable kind that did its job without going into the thousands, in the backpack. The thousand dollar camera was at home, too.

The Mystery Club, for Quentin, was a never-ending well of storytelling material, provided he didn't muck up and accidentally snitch on a prized criminal, or get caught doing so. Today's meeting, he hoped, would be something new, something fresh, something exciting to get the scoop on.

He arrived early. Being earlier than punctual was a necessity for freelance video editing.

Setting the bike aside, he read the note outside the door. Canceled for today. Huh. He wondered if anyone else got the memo. They probably didn't. Hinging on that fact, Quentin pedaled away, two to three blocks down, towards the nearest coffee shop with wi-fi.

Forty minutes later, he returned. There were four more people waiting outside.

"Oh, shoot. Well...I didn't get an email about the club being cancelled...so..."

He dismounted his bike, and continued: "Sorry. My name's Quentin. I've been showing up sporadically for the past few months, like, uh, five or six times at the most. Anyways- what's up?"
Levi Mannor (played anonymously)

She walked over to the boy looking him over, "Well I wouldn't have known, I only knew because some guy came and told me about it. But I'm Levi, that's Rhett, Amora, and Annie." She smiled at the boy, not wanting to scare off her potential new friends. "So now what should we do, if Mystery Club was cancelled do we just leave?" She didn't want to, but what else could they really do? She looked at the others for their ideas.
Annie (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Annie smiled as the others slowly introduced themselves, usually in the club everyone picked a pseudonym to go by - so this was a treat to actually get to meet these people for who they really are. "Nice to meet you Rhett, Levi the Extraordinary~, Amora, Quentin." Annie said with a smirk at how much of an awkward first impression half of them had made - it was so CUTE!

"So now what should we do, if Mystery Club was cancelled do we just leave?" Levi asked towards the other four in the group.

"Personally, I find this all sort of strange..." Annie replied. "Mr. Wilkson has never canceled the group, even when the rest of the building was closed he always left a way in for us." Annie went on to say. "I think we should have a look around the building to see if he did leave a way in..." Annie didn't say it out loud but she was concerned for the ex-FBI agent, he had told her that he was investigating something and he wanted her help. Was the library being closed connected to this or was her imagination just getting the better of her? Her intuition told her to at least check around to find something - anything that would either confirm or deny her suspicions.

"So, anyone wanna come with me?" Annie asked suddenly chipper.
Rhett (played by beefy)

Rhett stood on by as everyone introduced themselves, a friendly smirk on his face and a small wave to Quentin when Levi re-introduced everyone to him. Adjusting his beanie, he stuffed his hands into his hoodie pocket and leaned against the nearest wall. He was quiet for the most part as everyone spoke, however as Annie spoke he rose his eyebrows in curiousity. Rhett could only smirk more as he tipped his head a bit. "Ooooo breaking and entering~! I'm in." No questions asked. "We'll be like... real investigators." He raised his hands and wiggled his fingers in that typical gesture of 'Ooooo so spooky' fashion then laughed to himself a bit. Rhett did move over on towards Annie, then looking towards the others, curious if there were any other takers on the little investigation.
Amora Alum (played by nerdessofbooks)

She smiled at the idea of breaking an entering, "Well I probably have some tools in my duffel." She said unzipping her bag and pulling out a hammer with a flashlight built in, screwdrivers, and some other things she built in herself all in and orange cover. "May I present the wonder tool, part hammer, flashlight, screwdriver and other fun little things. The best part its only 5 inches long and fits nearly anywhere." She was very proud of her invention, she never really used it before but she always carried it. She gave a slight smirk looking at everyone and then walking away from the group to go check the left side of the building.
Quentin Araneta (played by mk_97)

"I like that," Quentin commented. "Home-made swiss army stuff."

He then had a quick thought, and proceeded: "I'll, uh, go around the other way. Somebody may have, uh, taken the back door. I'll be right back."

So Quentin hopped on his bike and started pedaling through the asphalt and grass, parallel to one side of the library. There was only one legitimate entrance to the library; the other one got converted into an emergency exit years ago due to building expansion.

He turned the corner; the back door notched in the wall was closed like all good fire exits should be. Gliding to the handleless door, he quickly pushed against it with his palm to make sure it wasn't locked. It didn't budge.
Annie (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Annie watched both Amora and Quentin go in opposite directions around the building. They would cover more ground for sure but they wouldn't know it if either one of them had succeeded in their self appointed missions. Annie turned to face both Rhett and Levi who had stuck behind, "I hope they don't always dive before looking, its smarter to stick together as a group. Sure it may be slower but we can get a lot more done in the long run if we stick together more closely." Annie said as she rolled her eyes and smirked. "But they are eager, I'll give them that!" Annie laughed to herself.

"Come on, I doubt the two of them thought to check the door on the right side of the building." Annie concluded as she motioned for both Levi and Rhett to follow her. The door she mentioned wasn't immediately visible from the inside of the building, she doubted anyone knew it was there or that from the outside it led into the room the club met in. It wouldn't be too long of a walk to get around to the right side of the building and to the door Annie had made mention of. The door had its hinges on the outside but with no handle and was made completely out of steel. Both the door and its frame had been painted a not too long ago - probably at the same time as the last building cleaning/renovation. She remembered that she and a few other from the club had helped paint a few of the older doors like this. Upon closer inspection there was a small indentation where a handle or lock could've been.

"Alright guys, tell me what you think. Let's have a close observation of this door and see if we can find any way to open it." Annie said. She knew of a way to open it but she wanted them to try and solve things, there were two ways to open the door. One was a lock pick and the other was key that Mr. Wilkson had hidden and then painted over on top of the door frame that stuck out of the side of the brick wall. But both would only work if they found the opening in the door which was, again, hidden from plain sight but was in plain sight at the same time.

((Let't try to keep a posting order after this. A person can not post again until 4 others have posted before them, the order doesn't matter too much. So from here on out there everyone should post after me before I make my next response.))

((Ex.))
  • Annie
  • Rhett
  • Levi
  • Quinten
  • Amora
  • Annie
  • Amora
  • Rhett
  • Quinten
  • Etc, etc, etc....
Levi Mannor (played anonymously)

Levi looked around the door, examining it carefully, then she reached at the sides of the door to see if there was anything different about it. Then slowly reaching around to the top and finding a key. She smiled and held it up to look at it. "Hmmm," she said quietly looking at the door to see if she could find a key hole. Then she saw something that caught her eye caught the indentation in the door. She bit her lip thinking, obviously there was something supposed to be there, maybe a lock or a handle, but it wasn't obvious. She had a key but where did it go. She slowly looked at the key again and slowly put it into the small indentation and tried to turn it.
Rhett (played by beefy)

Rhett had watched the other two zip off. He was going to crack a joke about the 'five inches and fits into anything' statement but he decided maybe not right now. Though he did snicker to himself a bit before Annie spoke up. "Don't know.." He paused a moment as Annie had motioned for Levi and him to follow. Rhett lagged behind a few seconds, staring a couple seconds at the library doors then jogged over to Annie and Levi to keep up.

When he got to their sides, he saw Levi had found a key. That was surprisingly easy? But there was no lock for it to go into... Rhett paused looking over the door for a moment before looking back to Annie. "These doors were painted over right...? Maybe the lock has been painted over or they filled in the locks." He wasn't sure. He knew Annie was a frequent member though. Maybe she knew? Rhett looked to her for input.
Amora Alum (played by nerdessofbooks)

Amora sadly didn't find anything and decided to go find out where the others were. So she ran around the building and found everyone. She saw Levi with a key, Rhett looking at the door and Annie observing. "What's going on, why don't you guys just break the lock, or use the key?"She was confused but went and stood by Annie putting the wonder tool in her bag and watching. After about a minute or so of doing nothing she decided to go and sit near the side of the building and watch from there.
Quentin Araneta (played by mk_97)

There was a faint, semi-fresh smudge of grease, partly handprint-shaped, on the fire exit door that Quentin noticed the second time he pushed it.

It was not his, that much he was certain. Then again, it could have been a red herring for all he knew. He had no precise way of telling how fresh these prints were. Touching them with moist hands wouldn't do it any good, either. Was someone trying to get through the back, too? It didn't seem likely.

Quentin turned his bike around. No other entrances, except through breaking in-

Wait a minute. His mind went to the fourth most recent meeting he attended. He quickly recalled that time info about a super secret entrance on another side of the library, painted in. He forgot which staff member told him that; though he specifically didn't say where.

Quentin thought to himself, that maybe the others were trying to find a way up front, and pedaled back the way he came. He had to be sure it was there, he had to.

To break in on a closed day. Didn't that feel funny. It almost felt as though somebody wanted them to break in. Well, besides Anna's suggestion, of course.

He stopped a few feet from the rest of the crew. Quentin, feeling incredibly sheepish at the moment, said nothing. They probably would ask him why he didn't do anything with that incredibly suspicious door frame they were currently picking at. He wanted to make sure there was an easier way in, was his excuse. Or if criminals had somehow propped the back door open for too long- but that was very, very unlikely.
Annie (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Annie smiled, her hunch was correct Mr. Wilkson had hidden a hex key up there and painted over it to better hide it! Annie then watched as Levi attempted to find a place to insert the key, but with no obvious openings she seemed a little stuck.

"These doors were painted over right...? Maybe the lock has been painted over or they filled in the locks." Rhett remarked with some uncertainty.

"What's going on, why don't you guys just break the lock, or use the key?" Amora would suggest before Levi would make an attempt at both suggestions at once. As she placed the hex key towards the indentation in the thin layer of latex paint there would be little resistance as they key slide into the lock. It was around this time that everyone else had arrived, as soon as Levi turned the key there was an audible *click* as the lock disengaged and the door popped outward a couple of centimeters.

"Great work!" Annie said in congratulations to both Rhett and Levi. "Now we can go in," Annie said as he pulled the heavy metal door open to let the others inside. As they would pass her she would pause to ask Quintin and Amora a question, "-Did you two find anything at the other entrances?" Annie asked as the followed them in as the last person into the building, she shut the door behind her and heard the lock on the door click shut again. There was still a small hex key hole on this side of the door in case they needed to leave again.

It was dark in the room they entered but with the emergency light in the center of the room there was just enough luminescence in the room to move around and see where they were going. It was the Mystery club's meeting room sure enough; there were a few shelves of books off to one corner, a couple of computers against a wall, a big octangular table with many comfy office chairs surrounding it, a projection monitor and glass double door with blinds that led out of the room on the opposite side of the room of the hidden door.

"I'm not sure what we are looking for but tell me if anything seems out of place." Annie said a she began to walk around the room. She would look under things for the most part, she found something interesting though. Occasionally as she looked there would be partial hand prints left behind from some sort of greasy residue. "Hm. Someone else was here. But I don't know how long ago. At least since last week if I had to hazard a guess, I remember helping clean this place after last week's meeting/party." Annie said to the group, it was quiet enough in the building that anyone would be able to hear her whisper from across a room.
Levi Mannor (played anonymously)

Levi looked around and watched as they entered the room. It was really creepy which in her book was really cool. So she walked over to the books and started looking at them to see if anything seemed out of the ordinary about them. When she was reading the titles of the books they seemed normal enough, except a few interesting ones about the paranormal that she would have to read later. So she went over the titles and flipped through a few pages in each book. Some of the pages were marked and some weren't. On some she found a thin layer of dust, and on the others there was nothing. Some of these books had to be used more than the others so she looked through those first and looked at some of the marked pages very carefully. She saw some pictures of old estates, forests, some rituals, and some people. It was strange but she liked it, it was very interesting. So she just kept looking she couldn't read most of it because of the light but could see the pictures better than the small words. "Hey Annie do you know what these books are about?" she said turning her head a little but keeping her eyes on the books.
Rhett (played by beefy)

Rhett scratched his own neck a bit at the congratulations. He didn't really do anything or at least didn't feel like he did anything. Regardless though, the door was open. Entering the room, he gazed around as the door shut. He could see pretty well in the room, though he hung back from the main group as they searched and wandered slowly around the room.

As Annie remarked the fact that someone had obviously been there, Rhett moved towards Annie and went to crouch down and get a look at the hand prints. After a moment of looking them over, he stood back up. "Don't other people use this room during the week? It could be from someone who comes regularly." Rhett wasn't quite sure himself as he usually didn't come near this room during the week and was usually in the back of the library where a lot of the old books were. The most quiet spot really. "Well... unless no one uses the room during the week."

As he said this, he moved on towards the computers to check them and the little area around them out.
Amora Alum (played by nerdessofbooks)

Amora walks around the room and over towards the projector. What was this she wondered. She kept looking it
Over and then thought that if the emergency light was on that maybe this would work too. She slowly touched the button and watched the projector turn on.
Quentin Araneta (played by mk_97)

"I don't think I saw anything useful at the fire exit," Quentin responded to Annie. "I guess someone's handprints on the door, but...I'm not ruling out anything at the moment. They weren't mine, in case you were wondering. It was closed tight when I got there."

...

So Quentin walked in. Sure enough, the door led straight into the meeting room.

He leaned back against a wall, looking over the dimmed place. "Someone else was here, huh?" he parroted, quickly moving off the wall. "Hmmm. I guess...we could cross-reference that with the handprints on the fire exit door I found."

The emergency light was dimly glowing. At the right saturation it would look ethereal in a horror film through a camera's lens. The more Quentin thought about it, the more that tangent somehow made sense- he felt more weight on the notion that someone wanted them to break in. Examining one corner of the octagon table, he saw a palm print, faintly ashen and lightly greased.

It didn't seem like the other handprint Quentin saw at the back, though. Then again, the light...

"We need a better emergency light," he commented, noting Levi's attempts to read her books. "Who's got the light switch in this room?" Then he noticed the book bindings themselves. "That's a...that's a Brenton Vinovich book you're reading there? I saw the last name, kinda, 'cause you were holding it up briefly at an angle. Isn't he that guy who...you know, ghost hunter, recently had his own TV show...?"

You are on: Forums » General Roleplay » Mystery Solving at Mortov Manor (Private RP)

Moderators: Mina, Keke, Cass, Claine, Sanne, Ilmarinen, Darth_Angelus