Book Six, Chapter 42: Autopsy of a Blackmailer
“She had just died when we found her,” Andrew said as he examined the body, using his flashlight combined with the light of the burners on the stove.
As strange of a situation as this was, stuck in a hotel/casino kitchen as floodwaters gradually poured in on the first floor, one of his friends dead in the walk-in fridge, and the lobby receptionist laid out on an area that was usually used to assemble salads, Andrew sure did make it look like it was just another day on the job.
"Here's the cause of death," he said. He lifted up her left arm and pointed to a small hole just under her armpit.
Bobby, Kimberly, and I gathered close.
"That little pinprick?" Kimberly asked.
"Judging from the entrance of the wound, it appears to have been something that's pointed but without a sharp edge," Andrew said. "Something small enough to go in between the ribs and pierce the heart. She would have been unconscious in seconds and dead in minutes."
She had bled quite a bit from that little wound. It was incredibly precise.
"If you were to take a guess at what kind of weapon it might have been, what would you say?" I asked. Maybe it wasn't in character for me to be so inquisitive just yet, but the fact that we had lost Antoine and didn't know the whereabouts of Logan, Jules, or Ramona suddenly made me feel that we needed to step up our urgency.
"If I were to guess," Andrew said, "it would be some sort of skewer or even, based on the slightly flat shape of the entry wound, a letter opener. She may not have even seen her attacker. This was quick and efficient."
| Blackmailer Codename: Honey Pot
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| Plot Armor: 30
| __________
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| Tropes
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| Hidden In Plain Sight
| The villain will appear as an ordinary NPC until they don their disguise.
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| Non-Combatant
| This villain cannot be attacked On-Screen until it attacks the player or is otherwise identified as hostile.
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| Interests Align
| This entity does not need the players to lose in order to achieve its goals.
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| Thoroughly Dispersed
| This creature’s group can instantly occupy the entirety of a set area, making it appear omnipresent and unpredictable to characters.
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| Keep You On Your Toes
| This enemy has a heightened chance of finding and subduing victims who are not paying attention.
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| No Neighborhood Watch
| The villain will not be seen by NPC witnesses when off-screen.
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| Two Way Street
| If a player with buffed Moxie attempts to interrogate or manipulate this villain, the villain will get an equal buff to Moxie.
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| We Go Way Back
| Players may have a pre-established relationship with this villain that the players must discover before the past catches up with them.
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