Awards Killing Game 2x2: Moon of Hope (Game Thread) - Day 5: Triple Vanishing Act

Reflect on my previous interactions with "Lee Chaolan" to determine if he was ever real

I think I might have figured out the key to this case
You ponder this deeply.

What is Lee Chaolan, but a famiscile of the human experience projected onto our minds? Was he there to remind us of the inevitability of death, how what remains is but a lingering shadow of ones achievements after we vanish beyond the veil, never to return, or was he there to punish some distant, divine overseer with his paint-based antics in the construction of the timeline which binds your extradimensional form to this plane?

...

You then consider the can of orange paint that hit you on the head on an earlier night, and conclude it might be responsible for this train of thought.
 
Use a darklight torch to search for the potentially invisible body of Lee. Check his room, the rafters, the clock tower heights, and the garage for now.

Perhaps his body is stuck in the Paranormal Dimension.
 
Examine the bottom of the beanstalk in the Hollow Tree. Look for a globe
 
"Just gonna help you by sayin' that Lee's body is gone for good. You ain't finding his corpse!

As for those darklight scans, gimme a little bit. Gotta confirm what you find there."
 
1790523300733.png

"My friends and not friends, I must burden you all with some sad, sad news. You see, my previous testimonies have had wonderful works of art attached to them, made by my employee. However, as the Studio is all but void of paint, this can no longer be done, unfortunately. I am sorry to say, but... art is dead."

"But! Do not fret!"

1790523465508.png

"For I, Jackson B. Humorus, am prepared as always! I shall fill the gaps left by those pieces with some reusable promotional renders that I keep on my person at all times in case something like this would ever happen to a perfect specimen such as I! This will enrich my testimony in the same way that the art did, I have zero doubts! Now, without further ado, let me discuss my night. Much of it was preparing for the dangers to come!"

1790523560954.png

"I started by... waking up, duh. I exited my dorm to find the bespectacled fraud and the fire rat duking it out! Fire rat was winning, by the looks of it, and he was flooding the dorms with tea from his very expensive-looking teapot made of gold. Unfortunately, I did not care. I left to the Workshop after to seek out motor oil, which I quickly found and bottled up. My next destination was the Hollow Tree. I clambered up to the second floor and rushed into the Armory for my next items. Unfortunately, I wasn't alone in there. Lee Chaolan was inside, spray-painting a sword to a false golden hue. After narrowly avoiding a golden paint trap above the door, I entered to grab a polearm, which he apparently did not like, prompting the obligatory chase sequence. I cut this short by blowtorching the bridge behind me with my pepper spray — turns out its packs more of a punch than I planned! I went back downstairs after, and saw the old man jump through the hole in the East Hallways."

1790524079794.png

"My next destination was the Garage. I arrived to see the fire rat leave through the garage door with Th- Tha- the purple guy. Took me a bit of searching after to find a wrench among the room's contents; I think the lot of you took most of them already! I had a much easier time grabbing a taser from the Metal Lab right next door, though. I left for the Clock Tower after, seeing the purple guy once more in the halls, as well as a... pumpkin? Under the hole that Ghoul jumped through earlier? Odd. Anyway, I headed downstairs, seeing the tan fraud with the cubical menace up in the heights as I descended. Ran to the Cinder Mines after to get myself some heatproof gear and saw Tanner floating in the hallway. Once I suited up, it was time to finish my quest for gear! Oh, but before that, I saw someone leave the Cargo Lift with a wheelbarrow of... pumpkins. A little odd I saw so many!"

1790524553311.png

"Went to the Crystal Mine to reach the Dark Labs. The large flower in the mines was SCARY. It turned to face me! The horrors! As I searched in the labs, I saw ghost lady put something under a white sheet in that portrait machine thingy; she left after turning it on. And then I saw it. The brand-new room. I was honestly a little curious about it, and who wouldn't be? Naturally, I looked inside briefly and saw that the portrait from within was nowhere to be found. I grabbed myself a darklight flashlight from the Dark Lab for my Ghouligrab cosplay and left to the Quarry Pit's edge, where I waited a small bit. You see, I consider myself a good guy. I don't want to have to try and kill someone! But I care about myself a lot more! Luckily, nobody passed by. All that was there was... a pumpkin. Oh my god. They're multiplying. Distressed by this, I ran away to the Cellar, where I was instantly blinded by a flash from below. I stumbled through the Cellar and found a cracked barrel on the floor, leaking its barrel juice. Afraid, I ran to the Clockworks and headed up before returning to my bed, seeing the crazy scientist lady leave the Plant Nursery."​
 
Use a darklight torch to search for the potentially invisible body of Lee. Check his room, the rafters, the clock tower heights, and the garage for now.

Perhaps his body is stuck in the Paranormal Dimension.
You scan these areas with darklight. You find nothing that could be considered a body in any way, though you note an invisible spirit ball floating aimlessly around the Clock Tower Heights, which only appears under darklight. The spherical entity vanishes when you touch it.

Examine the bottom of the beanstalk in the Hollow Tree. Look for a globe
You find a mess of library books and a large globe wedged into the dirt a ways away from the cannon in the tree roots.
 
The Cellar - is there any Darklight residue in there?
Do the barrel chips have a certain shape to them? And, is there any evidence of movement in the spilled alcohol?

On a semi-related thread, does the Crypt Pixilator appear to have been moved?
 
The Cellar - is there any Darklight residue in there?
Do the barrel chips have a certain shape to them? And, is there any evidence of movement in the spilled alcohol?

On a semi-related thread, does the Crypt Pixilator appear to have been moved?
You scan the Cellar with darklight. Another glowing spirit ball is in the air, floating aimlessly.

You note it appears something has slid through the alcohol. The damaged barrels appear to be near this mess, and are low on the shelves nearby. You cant discern anything extra from the shape of the barrels' chip damage, but closer examination reveals the barrels have been pushed further in slightly than the others.

The Crypt Pixilator has not been moved, but it does appear to be active.
 
Lash_Gloat.png


Smell that? Yup, I'm thinkin' The Lash™ is back, baby.

Don't all line up for an autograph at once now. I understand some of you may still have some hard feelings about that dragon guy I totally murdered, but I did my time in ghost jail. I'm a changed man n' all that. Besides, most of these shard doodads went to killers in the end, didn't they? Gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette.

The sugar cube confirmed I can't be the killer for this one, so I've got no real dog in this fight, but I'm gonna throw you losers a bone since you've been fucking up pretty much every case except, uh...mine.

Lash_Critical.png


Haha...anyway. I started my night by asking the Tan-Man to do me a solid. I already had a piece of the Ceremonial Chamber puzzle on me when my soul was shoved into that picture frame, but I couldn't get to my own lifeless (yet impossibly dashing) body in the Graveyard from the paranormal dimension. Kinda ironic but maybe that would've felt weird anyway. I asked him to grab that for me while I collected the other pieces. I saw Purple Guy (Thanos) scrapping with Orange Guy ("Luke Atmey") in the Nautical Exhibit, but I didn't wanna interrupt a fair bout - I just grabbed what I came for and got out. Headed for the Space Exhibit next, or whatever's left of it. The other wraith, Victor, joined me in searching the place. We found a space suit and he took the helmet while I grabbed the kicks. Then Swirls (Lyra) emerged from some water in the room and headed south, with Vic following her. The last item I needed was in the very room I killed in...the Train Exhibit.

After I had everything, I headed down to the Ceremonial Chamber. Cuz of the layout of the ghost world, I didn't really pass by anyone in any of the rooms down there along the way, so I can't be much help timelining all that jazz. Tanner came through with the last piece I needed - big ups, little guy - and prep was complete. I equipped the Pirate Captain's Hat, Aviator's Scarf, Conductor's Jumpsuit, and Astronaut's Shoes, then took my rightful place on the throne...I had that same dream again that I had on the first night here, but more vivid this time. When I woke up, the shard was in my lap. Boosh.

Spirit Halloween (Lulu) was there too, and she said her job was done or something. Sure, thanks for watching me take my beauty sleep. I smelled smoke coming from the next room over, but I didn't have time to care about that; I needed to make sure nobody yoinked this macguffin from me before the sun came up. Decided the best place to hide would be a room no one would have any good reason to visit - the Haunted Catacombs. Got lost in there until I heard the body announcement - or lack-of-body announcement, I guess.

And that's the story of how The Lash conquered even death itself! I even got a free ride to the finale. See ya there if you don't suck.
 
Now, I could just lounge here for the rest of the case, but that'd be a Bebop move, so lemme lend a hand.

Investigate the Prospector's Crossing and the Guard Tunnel.

Also check how many bottles of wine are missing from the Cellar.
Seemed like that Lee guy was hitting the bottle every night, so maybe we can figure out if he came through here or not.
 
lulu_05.png


Good morning. I will begin by apologizing for what I've done, Dr. Ghouligrab. I do believe I can make better use of this shard, in stopping our mutual enemy, so I hope you can forgive me when we escape this situation.

lulu_01.png


Anyway, with that out of the way...

I began my night going to the Bathroom so I could meet up with Lyra. I waited for a bit in there for her to appear, and instead I saw Victor... getting in the bathtub I had filled. It wasn't a pleasant sight, but thankfully I was saved by Lyra's emergence soon after. We left and quite quickly found our target. He was near the hole in the East Hallways, and there was a pumpkin nearby. Huh. Anyway, we ran after him.

Unfortunately, his newfound strength allowed him to jump through the hole to the second floor, and we chased after him. When we got to the Cargo Lift, Lee Chaolan was in it, going to the basement, and he was wearing a half-painted suit of armor and using a golden katana. He also smelled vaguely like he'd been burnt.

After he took the Lift down, and it returned back up, we got in and saw there was a wheelbarrow of pumpkins inside. Again, strange, but unrelated to anything we were doing. We arrived at the second floor to see Dr. Ghouligrab waiting over the hole in the hallway, with a shovel in hand. Lyra used her shard's power while I approached him to distract him, but he hit me over the head with the shovel.

lulu_09.png


It hurt, but I guess it was fair of him to do, as his attack gave Lyra the opportunity to inject him with fluid to knock him out. Lyra acquired a knife and a bar of soup off his body, while I obtained the Shard of Old Strength. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, alliance complete, and frankly, I didn't wanna risk a repeat of the previous night, even if her help this night was instrumental. She entered the Clock Tower while I made my way to the Restrooms and then the Horology Studio, intending to have a "conversation" with our "magnanimous" host.

lulu_08.png


I will admit. It did not go well... Mr. Atmey was there, attempting to request something of the King, but it seems his attention was on me. He was correct to focus on me, since I just attempted to shoot him with the anti-ghost gun I had acquired on the first night, and he quite easily erased my vision. I simply ran, with my metaphorical tail between my legs.

While I was blinded, I heard a splash coming from the Restroom as I ran in that direction. My vision returned and I used the Cargo Lift to descend to the basement. There, I saw Mr. Jackson donned the heatproof outfit of the Cinder Mine before leaving somewhere else. I entered the Roundhouse, seeing a mummy carrying a boomerang leave for the Amethyst Wing as soon as I entered. While racking my brain on how to deal with the guards of the Guard Tunnel, Lee Chaolan appeared again, and he began fighting them all singlehandedly, and it seems Mona was in one of them, as she ran away after the suits of armor were incapacitated. I passed him by as Lee started spray painting them.

In the Ceremonial Chamber, I saw the one I wanted to help, The Lash, already on the throne, he was wearing an outfit that seems t