These table settings are each two forks, two spoons, and a knife, all made of some kind of golden metal. They shine bright enough to be real polished gold, and seem to be of the same make as the [[candelabras]] spaced across the table's center.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

The head of the table is suitably ornate compared to the rest; the chair is of similar design to [[the others|chairs]], but quite a bit taller and wider, with arms. [[The Most Ineffable Lord Rhys]] is sitting in that chair, moving about as much as the rest of the furniture.\n\nThe place setting at the head of the table is quite a bit nicer than [[the others|table setting]] as well, with a plate large enough to be a serving platter and several smaller ones. A bejeweled golden goblet rests close at hand.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

This dagger, easily a foot long, is simple and rough. Its dark surface is a far cry from the stainless steel blades that I'm used to. Its hilt is wrapped in a single leather cord.\n\nThe air around the knife feels cold, and touching the pommel with the back of my knuckle, I'm shocked at how quickly it takes heat from me.\n\nIts buried at least four inches into the chest of [[its victim|the corpse]].

Thanks for playing Season One of Connected Kit Yanked into the Faerie Court! Here are your last stats for the season:\n\n<<if visited("huge dagger") > 0>>You checked out the huge, weirdly cold dagger.<<else>>You didn't examine the murder weapon.<<endif>>\n<<if visited("check the body") > 0>>You discovered a strange red patch on the corpse's neck.<<else>>You didn't check the corpse for other injuries.<<endif>><<if visited("alive") > 0>>\nYou found a 'dead' chair.<<else>><<set $missed += 1>><<endif>><<if visited("hide behind") > 0>>\nYou found a patch of ozone-smelling air behind a pillar.<<else>><<set $missed += 1>><<endif>><<if visited("scuffs") > 0>>You found a six-inch gouge on the floor near the kitchen.<<else>><<set $missed += 1>><<endif>><<if $missed > 0>>\n\nYou missed <<$missed>> additional clue<<if $missed > 1>>s<<endif>>.<<endif>>\n\nMy [[Patreon|http://patreon.com/inurashii]] subscribers all examined the weirdly cold dagger and found the red patch on the corpse's neck.\nThe patch of ozone-smelling air, the six-inch gouge, and the 'dead' chair were each found by exactly half of the investigators who replied -- enough to mean that Kit canonically found them all before getting knocked out.\nOnly one person found all of the clues; congrats, Betsy!\n\nFrom here you can go to:\n[[The Previous Episode|kit-episode-4.html]]\n[[The Season Epilogue|kit-s1-epilogue.html]]\n[[The Episode Index|index.html]]

I have an odd feeling, and check each of the chairs.\n\nI discover that my hunch was right; one of the chairs near the corpse is cold. The green mossy substance of its seat has an ugly brown line in the middle.\n\nHmm.\n\nFinding nothing more, I return my attention to [[the banquet table]].

These filigreed golden candelabras each contain five taper candles, each one artfully burned down just enough to look like they've seen use but still stand tall.\n\nThe gold seems to be of the same make as the [[table setting]]s.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

This is the door we came through. It's not as large as [[the other one|large wooden door]], but is still made of beautiful and ornately carved wood.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet hall]].

These ornate pillars seem to be made of white marble, and extend all the way to the ceiling. They're large enough for a person to [[hide behind]], though there's no way to get to or from them without leaving cover.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet hall]].

This is a double-hinged door, a technological innovation that strikes me as anachronistic considering the other features of the hall.\n\nI crack the door open slightly and see a kitchen beyond; the faeries in it pay me no mind.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet hall]].

The smooth stone floor is immaculate; I suspect that it's polished regularly. Maybe I should wish for a cleaning service at my place. How do they get the [[scuffs]] out?\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet hall]].

This wood is beautiful, polished to a fine sheen. You can't find a break in the grain; it seems like its surface was carved from a single massive tree.\n\nHuh. It's warm to the touch all over.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

This huge door is two complete carved pieces of a fine, light wood. It's large enough that five of me could pass through it shoulder-to-shoulder at the same time, if it weren't closed and locked. Which it is.\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet hall]].

The Most Ineffable Lord Rhys is the very portrait of poise, and very little else; they don't seem to be moving at all. As before, their eyes are closed. Are they asleep?\n\nRealizing that the likelihood of getting any information out of the ruler is far lower than the likelihood of my causing an international incident trying, I leave them alone and go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

Caelyn Sandel

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Connected Kit Yanked into the Faerie Court\nEpisode 5

I stumble backward, sputtering as the sparkling powder fills my nose.\n\nTrying to scramble in my satchel for my pistol, I can feel my strength ebb from inhaling whatever that stuff was.\n\n"Rookie mistake," I manage to mutter before I tumble to the floor and my vision goes black.\n\n[[End Season One]]

<<if turns() > 20>>Wait, something feels [[off|Ambushed]].<<else>>I'm standing in front of the banquet table.\n\nThis table is really long, and made from what seems to be a single cut of dark [[wood]]. I count twenty-five fancy looking [[chairs]] per side. The chair at what must be the [[head of the table]] is larger than the rest, and currently occupied by [[The Most Ineffable Lord Rhys]].\n\nThe centerpiece of the table is [[the corpse]], a cartoonishly portly man with a dagger sticking out of him. Four [[candelabras]] frame him evenly, and a [[table setting]] sits in front of each chair.\n\nI can take a look at any of those things, or turn my attention to [[the banquet hall]].<<endif>>

The corpse is cold, but as I gingerly lift its arm, I'm shocked to find few of the symptoms that traditionally accompany death. No blood pooling, no rigor mortis, just a weird blackening of the skin around the knife wound and what looks like an out-of-place patch of sunburn on the back of its neck.\n\nNone of the things I'd usually use to determine time and type of death are at all helpful here. This corpse is more like a puppet with its strings cut than a real corpse.\n\nFaerie anatomy is weird. I glare at [[the corpse]] with no small amount of resentment.

//Last Time, on Connected Kit...//\n\n"Ok, Gerund. Get this crowd outta here," I wave at the gathered onlookers. "Get me the people who have something to say about this and give me a few minutes to look over the scene."\n\nGerund nods at the hat man, and the faeries who look most like guards begin to usher the milling crowd out of the banquet hall.\n\nI take a deep breath and let out a sigh, rub my face, and then look up at the cartoonish corpse on the table with the very un-cartoonish wound.\n\nI've got my work cut out for me. I fold my arms and survey [[the crime scene|the banquet table]].

Beautiful wooden chairs; the back and base seem to be carved from a single piece of wood. The seats are covered in some kind of fine plushy material that is warm to the touch. The chairs are too, I discover, as though they were [[alive]].\n\nFinding nothing else, I go back to examining [[the banquet table]].

I freeze. Things got way too quiet. I turn toward the entrance that Gerund shooed the faeries through. Nothing there.\n\nI turn back to the table. Nothing there either.\n\nNot even Lord Rhys.\n\nI whirl in place just in time to catch a glimpse of a short figure in a black jester's outfit and theatrical mask.\n\nAnd then I get [[a faceful of powder]].

<<if turns() > 20>>Wait, something feels [[off|Ambushed]].<<else>>I turn my attention to the room.\n\nBehind the table and all around me are [[tall white pillars]] similar to the ones in the throne room. The [[smooth stone floor]] seems spotless.\n\nThere are three exits from the room, so far as I can tell: the [[throne room door]] from which we entered, what I assume to be a [[kitchen door]] on a double hinge, and a [[large wooden door]] at the end of the hallway.\n\nI can examine any of these things, or turn my attention back to [[the banquet table]].<<endif>>

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I lean in to examine the corpse. As I do so, I notice that it's laying on a golden tray large enough to hold it.\n\nThe dead faerie looks like a middle-aged man, short and rotund like the the tweedle twins from Alice in Wonderland. His little head sports a huge moustache, and his open eyes and mouth are frozen in an expression of surprise that'd be comical in other circumstances.\n\nThe cause of death is almost certainly that [[huge dagger]] sticking out of the corpse's chest, but I may want to [[check the body]] to be sure.\n\nI can always return my attention to [[the banquet table]] and come back to this later.

Oh wait, there's a scuff.\n\nActually, it's a long scratch. One single, long scratch, not far from the kitchen door. It looks pretty clean for a gouge; there's no chipping, just a single six-inch divot.\n\nI can't make sense of it, so I turn my attention back to [[the banquet hall]].

Following a hunch, I walk around the outside of the rows of pillars, touching each one in turn.\n\nSuddenly, I catch a whiff of rainstorm. I move my head around to find the source, but it seems to be strongest at a spot about a foot away from the pillar and four feet up from the floor.\n\nYup, smells like ozone.\n\nThere are no visual or tactile cues anywhere near the source of the smell, though, so I make a note of it and return my attention to [[the banquet hall]].