Murder By The Book - Ender's Game

It was a dark and stormy night.

A lone figure crept through the halls of Iconoclast Publishing, slipping into an author's room.

It was empty. Just as well; this was the perfect opportunity to set a trap.

The figure worked feverishly to prepare their lethal device. When all was done, they quietly let themselves out and returned to their room.

That was where they found a letter. A letter from an admirer, by the looks of things. They didn't trust it, but the sweet wording was simply too tempting. They had to investigate.

They were so taken by the message that they didn't even notice the meeting place was the very room they had booby-trapped. There was a loud crash as their own complex machinery went into motion, trapping them under a bookcase. The noise was so loud it woke everyone else up, and they all rushed to see the commotion.

There they found the last of the Undercover criminals groaning.

"Guess you caught me," Seedy sighed. "Game's up."

Seedy (the one that was originally bigro) was Grant U. Dosh, an author of children's books. No one would suspect that the creator of such colorful, innocent works was one of Undercover's agents - indeed, Seedy had never written a single murder mystery. As such, any investigations would make Seedy appear to be town.

In short, Seedy was the godfather.

"There's just one thing I'd like to know, before my strength gives out. Just who wrote that sweet, alluring message?"

"That would be my darling here," Schazer said with a smile, turning to Sotek. "We never thought our little plan would work so well."

Schazer was Susan D. Nimm and Sotek was Stella Rheasdottir. They were both romance novelists, and in discussing each other's works, came to feel a special bond for each other.

Schazer was the better novelist of the two, or so all the critics claimed. The two of them could work together to use their talents for romantic writing to lure people into different rooms.

Each night, they would write two messages. Schazer would write a truly irresistible confession of love, and using it, would direct one person to a safe room for the night. Sotek would write a similar message, but with less skill, directing someone else into the other target's room.

As Sotek's message was not as enticing, however, the recipient would ultimately return to their own room and try to forget their disappointment. The overall effect of this was that they could direct all night actions targeting one player to target another for the night. This ability required both of them; it was not specific to either player. One of them could also hide in the safe room.

If either of the two died, the other would be overcome by grief and take her own life as well. They trusted each other completely, and were confirmed town to each other at the start of the game. They could also communicate with each other freely day or night.

They were town-aligned redirecting lovers.

"According to my calculations, that should be all of Undercover dealt with," Akumu said. "Perhaps now we can focus our efforts on deducing a way out of this building."

Akumu was Kinsey Kellerman, a mathematician who had taken a contract with Iconoclast to write about his field. Though he had no particular talents, he could calculate the probability of an event happening the next day. This would basically cause something silly and usually meaningless to happen, though some of the events had actual effects.

He was a caramel townie, although arguably the most effective one by default.

"They locked us in, right?" TehPilot asked. "So our friend here probably knows where the keys are. And I know how to make this kind of scum talk. Vin Incible does it all the time."

TehPilot was Joel Braddock, author of many an exciting thriller starring the daring Vin Incible. He looked at the intense situation he was trapped in and found inspiration, though there wasn't much he could do with it.

He had no particular abilities, but he could write a death-defying scenario for Vin to be trapped in for the sake of amusing the mods, possibly earning awards.

He was a caramel townie.

"Yeah, no, I'm not going to spend my last breaths telling you guys where the keys are. You'll just have to find them yourselves..."

Seedy paused.

"Does anyone else smell smoke?"

Akumu looked shocked.

"It was only a 12 percent chance!"

"What are you talking about?" Sotek asked, baffled.

"There was a 12 percent chance that those men from Conformist started a small fire that would grow into a much larger fire! And it seems to have happened!"

TehPilot laughed.

"I'll get us out of here," he said. "This is what I live for."

TehPilot leapt into the room, grabbed a chair, and smashed the nearest window. He motioned for the others to follow.

"That's a two-story drop!" Schazer exclaimed.

"There's an 85 percent chance of serious injury or death if we leap through that. Are you sure about this?"

"Those sound like my kind of odds."

TehPilot leapt out the window. The others hesitated, but as a large plume of flame burst into the room, they realized there was little choice.

They landed on the ground, hurt but alive. The ordeal was over... but at what cost?

Iconoclast Publishing was down to but four. None of them knew anything about running a business, and they had all seen more deaths in nine days and nights than they had expected to in a lifetime.

The fire department soon arrived. The four authors explained their stories, of Undercover's trap, of the terrifying trials they had been through, of the fiendish plot they had barely foiled.

Hearing of the final criminal trapped under a bookcase in a burning room, the firefighters rushed in, hoping to save one more life from this tragic incident.

But when they rushed into Schazer's room, no one was there.