A Blade Beneath the Bloom: A murder mystery scenario

This year on New Year’s Eve, I’ve organized a murder mystery with no rule system. It was the first murder mystery I’ve ever ran and created, so I stayed with something very simple, without any big twist, just a series of interviews, of clues, and the classic trope of everybody accuses someone different.

The presentation

The mystery takes place in feudal Japan, the players are investigators who were just fetched by a panicked guard, the Daimyo “Mo”, who was just found dead in his house. The guards were watching everyone that was in the house at this moment, they also encircled the property to ensure no one was leaving.

Everyone saw Mo for the last time early in the morning when he left the dining room after his breakfast, he went into his room and nobody saw him alive after.

Spoilers, here is the plot I went with: Mo was murdered by Kim, the wife of the second son. She is the daughter of a merchant working for a rival family, and she married Hita with the sole purpose of destabilizing the Shi family. Her ultimate goal is to blame Tamago for it, this would ensure Hita becomes the next Daimyo, and as his wife, she may be able to influence the whole clan. She seduced Mo and started a relationship with him. In the morning, she left the garden and went up to the Daimyo apartments with a wakizashi, she let herself in and Mo approached her, she then put a hand on his mouth and struck him with the blade, searching for his heart. Once he was dead, she went down the stairs back into the garden, threw the blade in the pond, and went back to gardening, waiting for the body to be discovered.

However, almost everybody has a valid reason for murdering Mo, you could run it by just removing one or two clues and adding one or two on your own and switching the murderer!

The suspects

Toyo Ota: The Ronin, lover of the daughter

Toyo is a tall young man with long hair tied in a bun, he has a katana and a wakizashi at his side. He wears a red kimono that shows off his impressive stature. He can be found in the library with Su.

Toyo and Mo had a fight the previous night, everybody heard it because Mo is known for yelling when he is displeased. Toyo was asking the benediction of Mo to marry Su, but the Daimyo apparently refused.

The following morning, Toyo was in the library with Su, they were chatting and reading peacefully when they heard Bon running to fetch help.

Toyo thinks the investigators should look more closely into Hita, he’s saying that Kim, Hita’s wife may have been quite close with Mo.

If the investigators are pressing him about the garden, he’ll admit to leaving the library for a few minutes to take a short stroll to empty his head, he saw no one outside, but he heard some noise behind the cherry trees.

Su Shi: The daughter

Su is a small woman wearing a green kimono. She is in her early twenties and carries a book of poems with her and is in the library with Toyo.

Su confirms spending the morning in the library with Toyo. She will mention that her father was a violent man and that he raised a hand against her mother multiple times during her youth.

She will not tell that Toyo left the library as she is persuaded that this will incriminate him, however she’ll look nervous when lying.

Ju Doka: The wife

Ju is in her fifties, she wears a grey kimono and has a severe look. She stays in her room on the top floor.

As soon as the investigators speak to Ju, she’ll yell that the obvious murderer is the Ronin, he fought with her husband the evening before, and as a Ronin, it’s very likely he already committed crimes in his life.

She insists that this should be done as fast as possible and that her son, Tamago, should be named Daimyo instantly so that he could demand justice for his father.

She will admit to not being on great terms with her late husband. If pressed, she will say that it’s possible her husband had a mistress.

Tamago Shi: The eldest son

Tamago is quite tall, he has long hair, and does not carry a weapon on him. He looks tired and can be found in his room on the first floor.

Tamago is not as sure as his mother that Toyo is the murderer. He mentions that although the Ronin had a troubled past, he seems to really care for his sister, and he doesn’t look like a troubled man anymore.

But an old story is now tormenting him, he says that something terrible happened between Bon and Mo in their youth and that it led to Mo killing Bon’s younger brother.

His father would also not have seen anybody in the morning in his apartment, Bon was one of the rare ones with this privilege.

Hita Shi: The second son

Hita is in his mid-twenties. He has short hair, two blades at his side, and a blue kimono. He is still covered in sweat from his training. His blades were very thoroughly cleaned at the end of his training. He stayed outside with his wife.

Hita claims he was in the garden with his wife, she was taking care of some flowers while he was practicing with his katana behind the cherry trees. He looks quite worried, his wife and him are accusing Tamago, saying that he always desired power and that he may have been tired of waiting for his father to die. He will add that his brother is spending all his evenings writing letters in his room, probably conversing with other Daimyos, maybe starting playing the game of politics on their father’s back. Hita knows that Bon spends some time every morning meditating at the altar and that he never misses this ritual.

Kim Ono: The second son’s wife

Kim is quite small, she wears a kimono with the same blue as her husband. Her kimono is a little dirty from the gardening. She is with her husband outside.

She was gardening just behind the house. She seems very relaxed. Hita and her have been married for a bit less than a year. She’s also accusing Tamago and adds that it’s a dishonor for the whole family.

Bon Sai: The advisor

Bon wears a dark gray kimono, he is bald and his small beard gives him a look of wise ancient. He is staying at a window in the hallway on the first floor, contemplating by the window.

Bon found the body. He says that he was meditating at the altar before going up to speak with the Daimyo (they had a daily meeting) when he found the body. He checked to see if he was alive and then immediately cried for help and went to fetch the guards.

Bon will mention to the investigators that Kim’s father is a rich merchant with heavy ties with the Tendo family and their Daimyo, Nin, the older rivals of the Shi family.

The clues

The wakizashi

The wakizashi can be found in the garden pond. A deep search will show that in front of the pond, some footprints can be seen and that they are relatively small.

Toyo and Tamago are quite tall, so it’s unlikely to be them.

The hairpin

If the investigators search heavily the crime area, they’ll find a hairpin in the carpet. It’s broken and may have fallen during an altercation.

Bon and Hita do not have long hair and therefore don’t wear hair pins.

The wound

Mo was struck in the chest, the blow does not look precise at all, and the blade wasn’t wielded by someone used to it.

Hita and Toyo are expert swordsmen.

No evidence of fighting

There is no evidence of any fight in the Daimyo’s room, which means that he probably let the murderer in. If the investigators had listened carefully to everybody, they should piece together that in the morning, Mo would have accepted to see both his sons: Tamago and Hita, his advisor: Bon, or his mistress: Kim.

Tamago documents

In Tamago’s room, many letters can be found, he is in communication with many daimyos and advisors, the letters mention that his father was retiring and were meant to facilitate the transition. The seals used on the letters are the ones from Mo’s personal room. He most likely was on board with the plan and was preparing his son to take charge soon.

The squeaky door

The door of Ju’s room is squeaking heavily, there is no way to open it without making a noise. Nobody in the house heard it after the mother went back to her apartment after breakfast.

The medicine

Ju is taking medicine every morning, one side effect is that she needs to take a short nap right after. In her room, the pills can be found and examined, the dose from the morning seems to be consumed.

The flowers

Attentive eyes in the garden would show that the flowers were not attended to this morning.

The stories

What happened between Bon and Mo

During their youth, the future Daimyo Mo and his best friend Bon had a disagreement, Mo challenged Bon to a fight to resolve it. By loyalty, Bon accepted and the two of them drew their blades. After a misstep, Bon found himself exposed to a nasty blow, and it looked like Mo was not stopping his blade, Bon’s younger brother threw himself between them to stop it, and paid for it with his life. This event changed Bon and Mo’s relationship forever, Mo offered a place forever in his house to Bon, who accepted but Bon kept the heavy weight of his pain on his heart their whole life.

Toyo past

The last master of Toyo was accused of a crime and executed, the other samurai of the clan went on a suicide mission to avenge their masters. Toyo refused to join them and was labeled a coward and a traitor.

Optional Rule

I’ve added a simple rule to this game that was kinda fun so I’m suggesting it here. Every player starts the game with one token, the token can be used to explain why your investigator would know something, for example: “My investigator is very familiar with blades and katana in general”. The investigator then has to explain why and how he came into this knowledge. For 3 players, when we approach the middle of the game, I give one new token to each player.

If you play with this approach, I recommend not giving too much information straight away. For example, instead of Bon saying from where he knows Kim, just say that he’s always found odd the seal she was wearing, but he can’t recall why. This allows a player to spend a token to be a heraldic expert and figure out the connection to the Nin Family.

In the game I ran, tokens were spent for the following:

• heraldic expert
• blade master
• forensic knowledge
• gardening
• psychology (trying to detect lying)
• medicine expertise

Final recommandations

These were my notes before the game, obviously, no plan can survive contact with the players, but almost all of it was useful! I improvised a lot of discussions, the players created their own internal drama and the use of the optional rule added a lot of fun because of the justification they had for knowing stuff.

If you have any questions about the scenario or end up playing this scenario, please send me a message on twitter or at (me@krayorn dot com) I’d love to hear how it went!