I Didn't Write It

To the new lord of the Elm Manor
I shall take the brass nightingale.
On the day, at the seat of the inheritance announcement soirée held on the last night of the social season.
Before the bird sings, the manor's lights will go out.
Phantom Thief Blackbird

Three days ago, this letter was placed on the desk in the Elm Manor's study. The one who broke the red wax seal was you, who had just inherited the manor, and on the patrol bureau's recommendation, you hired a consulting detective. But that night, the real Blackbird came down from the roof and said that the third line wasn't funny at all, so this wasn't her handwriting.

The deadline is the last night of the social season. If the family treasure cannot be made to sing at the soirée, the estate will pass to a branch family. Find the impostor who wrote the notice.

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🕯 The Soirée Town on the Hill

The foggy capital Veilston runs on steam machinery as in the age of sword and crown. Ash fog gathers in the riverside lowtown, while clear nights are common in the chalk district atop the hill. In early summer at the end of the social season, along the tree-lined avenue of white stucco mansions, soirée lights burn in some window every night. Above those roofs, a shadow crosses using a grappling hook on her wrist.

The family treasure, the nightingale, is a brass contraption that sings a single song when hot water is poured into a small kettle in its belly. Since the previous lord passed away, it has not sung even once.

🎭 The Detective and the Phantom Thief

Cordelia Baker / 26 years old · Consulting Detective
Honey-colored braid with a deerstalker hat and an Inverness coat. Hired by you, she has been staying at the manor, examining the wax seal and stationery with a brass magnifying glass. She can guess someone's morning route from their cuffs and scent, yet she doesn't notice that she hasn't touched the lunch plate brought to her until it's pointed out.

Odile Sinclair / 25 years old · Phantom Thief "Blackbird"
Crimson long hair with a black domino mask, a coat dress of black lace and an outer corset. She targets only earl household treasuries and public company safes, and spends a whole night on the wording of her notices. It seems she cannot stand having her name used falsely, and intends to keep visiting the manor's roof until she catches the impostor. Though she deflects people with light banter, a single dog bark makes her genuinely jump.

🎲 How to Play

It is three chapters; chapter one begins in the study of the manor where the fake notice arrived. Each time, you decide whether to spend the day with the detective questioning servants and scribes or to go out to the roof at night with the phantom thief—and what to say to whom, and whose account to believe.

Observation, infiltration, roof-crossing, tinkering, and such are resolved by dice. The detective's deductions can be used in scenes where you move with her; the phantom thief's grappling hook can be used only on nights when you go out to the roof with her. Failure reduces both your remaining days until the soirée and your clues, and makes the impostor suspicious. No affection numbers are shown, so if how they call you changes—that is your answer.