THE BOX OFFICE

[tellthestory]

This is where you can meet privately with the Balladeer! The Balladeer is almost always around during the day; just knock.

(Secretly, the door's usually not locked if he's inside. But you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?)

Comments are screened for privacy!

Comments

[tellthestory]

...they have, yeah.

[well here are those feelings again, he does not look at ease with this]

If someone decides to kill, they're pitting themselves against all the rest of you. That's why it's important for you to catch them - aside from just bringing them to justice.

[trettende]

[ Feelings are killer, man. Does the Balladeer have something against the risk? Or just the fact that this proposed killer would be betraying them all? Interesting... ]

19 against 1 is pretty poor odds.

[ Wait, the gears in Hans pretty, mutton-chopped head are turning here. His face goes pale with realization. ]

...If someone wins, we all lose, don't we?

[ "Lose" sounds so much better than die. ]

[tellthestory]

...yeah.

[He won't say it if you won't, friend]

I think the idea's that otherwise, you might just decide to let them go. Maybe no one cared enough about the victim, or maybe you all just thought the killer should get a pass home.

[trettende]

That's... I can see that.

[ It'd be a cheap shot, but someone self-sacrificing enough could give their life to set them all free. Or the group could pity the killer for the right sob story. People are easy to manipulate like that.

Hans is not enjoying this news btw. Give him a minute to regain his eloquence. ]

19 deaths all to save yourself... Even I have to admit that's pretty awful.

[ Would he do it for a kingdom? If he didn't need Anna, or... well, the odds wouldn't be in his favor. It's not worth it, not like this. ]

[tellthestory]

Gosh, you make it sound like you have standards!

[He's joking; it's actually something of a relief to hear Hans express a sentiment like that. Even if, maybe, it isn't entirely true? But he'll shelve his instinctive wariness.]

That's why it's so important for you all to not go down that path at all. Once blood's spilled here, there's no getting out of it without at least one more death. And...I don't want to risk all of you dying at once. The rules are really strict around anything murder-related, I wouldn't be able to do anything to point you towards the real killer.

[trettende]

[ I mean kill one dude, okay. Kill a queen? Well, she was kinda freezing everybody. Plus that hasn't happened yet so he's still working the marriage angle. Death is only convenient when it's convenient. Lying is so much easier! ]

I have standards! Just, y'know, loose ones.

[ That largely revolve around himself, anyway ]

So two people will die even if we catch the killer... what happens at the end of the month? Will our numbers dwindle down to nothing?

[tellthestory]

If people keep on committing murders, I guess they will. You might be able to still wait it out after one murder, but...

...I don't know, it's different after it's already happened once. Everyone will know it could still happen again.