When we left our investigator, he and his partner had just discovered signs of hasty flight in Michelle Allen's apartment. She owns the car that appears to have been the actual murder scene, so her fleeing seems suspicious at best. Here's the current game context, per Mythic GM rules. Things are getting a little more complex so I've added some notes to help track things. I've also split out our detective's personal characters / threads from the main list so we can keep things moving on the investigation when choosing characters at random. Focus!
Chaos: 6
Evan's Personal Characters
Jeff Long, Evan's partner on the force
Evan's Rabbi on the force
Evan's family
Evan's estranged wife
Evan's professional contact
Jeff's Personal Characters
Jeff's relative in trouble
Characters
The victim, an adult male
- Found in a very clean garden apartment
- Dead approximately two days
- The apartment was not the crime scene
The anonymous tipster
The forensics team
The shooter
The rental office staff
Michelle Allen, a person of interest in the murder investigation
- Owner of the damaged SUV found near the crime scene
- Car has blood and a gun in the passenger compartment
- Appears to have been the scene of the actual murder
- Allen's apartment shows signs of a hasty departure
Personal Threads
Jeff has a relative in trouble
Evan is on the road to divorce
Threads
Who killed the victim
Rental records for the murder scene are missing
Who owns the murder weapon
Where is Michelle Allen
The crime scene tech team is working over both the apartment where the body was found and the car. That'll take some time so we'll press on with other forms of investigation. It seems like we should hit the rental office now, find out what's up with the records, and press for access to Allen's apartment. The fact that her car is a murder scene, there's a gun on the front seat, and her apartment looks like she fled are probably enough cause for a warrant, at least in police-drama world, but maybe the apartment manager will just let us in. With that in mind, we frame the scene as a visit to the rental office to confront the staff. Let's see what Mythic says:
- The scene has been altered (roll 5).
- Q1: Is the office open? (50/50)
- Answer: Yes
- Q2: Is the property manager in? (50/50)
- Answer: Yes
- Q3: Does he have an explanation for why there are no rental records? (likely)
- Answer: No
- Q4: Is there anyone else in the office? (50/50)
- Answer: Extreme yes
- Event: Focus: NPC negative. Meaning: Befriend death.
- Q5: Is the extra person part of the rental staff? (likely)
- Answer: No
- Q6: Are they friends with the victim? (very likely)
- Answer: Yes
- Q7: Are there any signs the missing records were stolen? (likely)
- Answer: Yes
- Q8: Did the extra person here steal them? (very unlikely)
- Answer: No
- Q9: Does the property manager have any explanation for who might want to steal the records? (likely)
- Answer: Yes
To my mind there are three likely reasons someone would mess with rental records: tenant vs. tenant conflicts, tenant vs. property management conflicts, or property management vs. outside forces conflicts. I'll assign some quick probabilities: 30%, 50%, and 20% respectively, and let the dice figure it out. The result on a d100 is 10%, so this is a tenant vs. tenant conflict. Given the direct link to the body, it seems near a sure thing that one of the tenants in the conflict is our victim.
- Q10: Was our victim involved in the conflict that lead to record theft? (near sure thing)
- Answer: Yes
- Q11: Did the victim steal the records? (likely)
- Answer: No
- Q12: Is our stranger one of the roommates? (likely)
- Answer: Extreme no
- Q13: Can the property manager provide names for some /all the three roommates? (very likely)
- Answer: Yes
- Q14: Is there more staff to the rental office? (likely)
- Answer: Yes
- Q15: Is a picture of the victim available to establish ID? (50/50)
- Answer: No
Well now we know more. Evan and Jeff may not know the victim is one of the roommates yet, but it's likely they will soon. The dice tell us that Mike Lewis, the property manager, can provide the names for all three roommates, and using those, plus driving records and student records at the university, we should be able to tie faces to names. The three names we get are: Scott Marin, Rose Marie Orr, and Albert Burns. Hmm. My police drama watching mind is sensing a love triangle in the making.
We also know there are more staff members working the property. Since it's summer and slow, we'll randomly decide on two people, Tina Mallory, a general administrator, and Jacob Anderson, maintenance and grounds. We'll worry about them later.
At this point we've probably gotten all we can from Lewis concerning the mystery apartment and victim. Let's find out about Michelle Allen.
- Q16: Are the records for Allen's apartment available? (very likely)
- Answer: Yes
- Q17: Given what we have on Allen, will Lewis let us in to check out her apartment? (50/50)
- Answer: Yes
- Q18: Does Lewis know of any relationship between Allen and the trio of roommates? (unlikely)
- Answer: No
- Q19: Do the records include a place of work? (near sure thing)
- Answer: Extreme yes
- Event: Focus: Move toward a thread. Meaning: Carelessness ambush.
- Q20: Did Lewis notice Allen around the site within the last two days? (50/50)
- Answer: No
- Q21: Did Lewis notice any of the three roommates around the site within the last two days? (50/50)
- Answer: Extreme no
- Q22: Has Lewis been on site in the last two days? (unlikely)
- Answer: No
With that I think it's time to move on. Two scenes suggest themselves for next time, interviewing the mystery guest in the rental office and investigating Allen's apartment. Before I close Evan will go ahead and make some checks against student and driver's license records to see if he can put pictures to names and possibly ID the shooting victim. I'll do this roommate by roommate.
- Scott Marin: Average, Good results for student/BMV records.
- Rose Marie Orr: Great, Superb results for student/BMV records.
- Albert Burns: Good, Epic results for student/BMV records.
Time to clean up our context, updating threads and characters and close for now. Here's where we are:
Chaos: 6
Evan's Personal Characters
Jeff Long, Evan's partner on the force
Evan's Rabbi on the force
Evan's family
Evan's estranged wife
Evan's professional contact
Jeff's Personal Characters
Jeff's relative in trouble
Characters
Scott Marin
- The victim, an adult male
- Found in a very clean garden apartment
- Dead approximately two days
- The apartment was not the crime scene
- One of three roommates involved in a dispute concerning rent.
Rose Marie Orr
- One of three roommates involved in a dispute concerning rent.
Albert Burns
- One of three roommates involved in a dispute concerning rent.
The anonymous tipster
The forensics team
The shooter
Mike Lewis, property manager
- Lewis agrees to provide access to Allen's apartment
- Probably has an alibi for the murder (vacation)
Tina Mallory, property administrator
Jacob Anderson, maintenance and grounds
The stranger in the rental office
- Friends of the victim (though our detectives don't know that)
- Didn't steal the records
- Not a roommate
Michelle Allen, a person of interest in the murder investigation
- Owner of the damaged SUV found near the crime scene
- Car has blood and a gun in the passenger compartment
- Appears to have been the scene of the actual murder
- Allen's apartment shows signs of a hasty departure
Personal Threads
Jeff has a relative in trouble
Evan is on the road to divorce
Threads
Who killed the victim
Rental records for the murder scene are missing
- The records were stolen
- The thief broke in through a crawlspace
- They may have left fingerprints on a soda can nearby
Who owns the murder weapon
Where is Michelle Allen
And on that note... cue credits.
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