Blood on the Clocktower
Cleo was a very creative person, it was hard not to be with Joe as a friend. She was also very artistic and so when Joe came up with a new idea for a game, she took it on herself to make it a reality.
Joe had come across the game in the Muggleworld and when he got back home for christmas, he had bought it as a christmas present for her. That way she could recreate it more accurately.
She started making the cards for each role and then came up with a way to shuffle them so it could not be rigged, she got help from Etho with that one as he excelled at randomiser spells.
After that came the atmosphere. Their gameroom had indeed looked a bit empty after the party, as it now was much roomier than they actually needed. She could change that!
She joined forces with False and together they built lots of small different houses that each had their own colour, indicating the colour of the player. False also made an amazing looking clocktower, duh, while Cleo got to work on making the blocks and the campfire.
When they were done with that Cleo asked Pearl and Scar to do their herbology work on the area and they happily complied, saying that it would be even more amazing when they were done. And Cleo trusted them and true to their word, the area indeed looked amazing.
The last thing she had to do now was weave a bit of magic in there, easier said than done right? Yeah, no.
Cleo’s plan was to make the game as realistic as she could, which meant that people would get ‘killed’ and they would temporarily become ghosts as the game continued. When the game was done, they would turn back into normal people. Now this is complicated in itself right? But that was not all she wanted to do.
She was determined to become a zombie during all of this, only while the game was playing. Only problem, whenever she was exposed to moonlight she would indeed turn into a zombie, but she would also want to eat everyones brains and that was not ideal.
This is why the game took two months to make, because she had to, on top of her schoolwork, also spent hours in the library researching necromancy, or at least a very small form of it. She just had to make them intangible.
After all that time she did get the solution; the spell Intactilis. The spell would make the person see through as well as intangible without harming them and it could be countered with a simple Finite Incantatem. And for the ghosts to look their part she had a bunch of white sheets that made them look like ghosts.
The zombie problem was a little harder, but in the end she stuck to a Revellio and a Caro Ficedula, which caused her to look the part while also being realistic and it made her not want to eat people.
It would all be fine!
After two months the game was finally ready to be played and she already had a long list of Hermits that wanted to join, such as; Xisuma, Xb, Gem, Impulse, Iskall, Joe, Ren, Cub and Hypno.
One by one the contestants entered her little hut pushing the button of the randomizer spell Etho had put up and got their roles.
“Hi Impulse,” Cleo greeted the third year and he smiled back, “Hi Cleo! What do I do here, do I just press the button?” she nodded and he pressed the button. A trident came out, he was the Imp, how fitting.
“Oh,” she remarked, “I swear I did not plan this, but it seems like you are Imp pulse today,” Impulse face dropped. “No, I’m not the Imp am I?”
“I’m afraid you are. Every night you get to kill off a townsfolk, but don’t worry, you get a minion. I’ll tell you who that is on the first night,” she explained and Impulse nodded along. “Okay, I can do this,” he convinced himself. “Yes you can,” Cleo encouraged him.
Cub turned out to be Impulse’s partner in crime, playing as the poisoner which meant that he could change one person's information to evil per night. The rest were all townsfolk.
After they got all of their roles assigned it was time to start. And oh boy was Cleo nervous. But just as she wanted to start, Ren interrupted her.
“I would just like to say that I have the most fabulous house,” he told them proudly as he pointed at the pink house further down the ‘street’. A few people laughed at that and Cleo did as well, Ren was always good at relieving tension. She felt ready now.
“Okay, welcome everyone to Raven’s with bluff,” she started, “It’s a lovely day, the birds are singing… quite loudly in fact. It’s more a sort of screaming actually. So as you approach the Clocktower you see them fighting over some… jam? Oh no, that’s the eviscerated remains of your town's storyteller; Cleo Zombie.” A few giggled at that. “This can only mean one thing, there’s a demon among you! And if you don’t find it… well let’s not dwell on that shall we. It’s getting night after all, goodnight!”
Everyone retreated to their houses and Cleo began to do her rounds, giving everyone their separate information. It took a while, but in the end everyone got it all and so she rang the bell making everyone come out of their houses.
“Goodmorning!” Impulse said cheerfully and a few “morning”’s followed after him. Quickly they all scattered around, because no one was killed that night. Nothing peculiar happened, only Xisuma being a derp which was not out of the ordinary, but when they got called back it all went into chaos.
“I have some information I would like to share with you all,” Ren started, “First of, Xisuma refused to share any information with me, even when we were in the jacuzzi in a very intimate setting.” Gem nodded, bouncing up and down.
“Yeah! And he just joined randomly and sat in the tub with us, it was very weird!” X just looked confused.
“I just want to say that Impulse has Imp in his name,” Xb interrupted, “so that is really suspicious,-” “So it obviously cannot be me then,” Impulse countered with a grin.
“Listen guys, I’ve been doing some deducting and figuring out who everybody is… and one of you is lying,” Gem stated. Everyone burst into laughter at that, unable to keep their smiles off their faces. “I’m starting to get that feeling too!” Impulse exclaimed in rethortion.
Lots of accusations got flung around and in the end they agreed to kill Xb.
“Off with his head, off with his head,” they started to chant as Xb hesitantly walked to between the boxes. Cleo waved her wand around and casted Intactilis, Xb was now see through and floating.
“Wow!” Xb exclaimed, “how did you manage to do that?” “Lots of research,” Cleo grinned, “don’t worry, it will only last for an hour or two and if we’re done before that it’s easily countered.” Xb nodded as he managed to pull on his white sheet while being intangible.
“Okay everyone, it’s the second night. Go to sleep!” Everyone went back to their houses, most of the Hermits had some homework they had taken with them while they waited, so that they would not fall behind on classes while doing fun games like these.
“Hello Impulse,” Cleo announced herself as she entered Impulse's little cottage, he was working on his herbology homework and looked up, “Oh, hi Cleo!”
“It’s your first murder tonight, who’re you killing?” she asked him and he answered confidently, “Iskall.” Cleo jotted it down, noting that Iskall is the soldier and could thus not get killed by the Imp. Oh well, it was a nice try at least.
“Cracking, I’ll be on my way then. Goodluck with herbology,” they waved at each other and she headed towards the next person.
After she had done her rounds, she rang the bell and everyone gathered back at the campfire.
“Okay, hello everyone! You wake up and find the bloody and desecrated remains of… no one!” A chorus of cheers followed.
“Everyone's alive?” Hypno, the empath, how funny was that, cheered and headed off already, “Nice! See ya guys!” After that the rest of the group scattered again, Xb floating after them.
After a while she called them back and they went and stood at their respective spots.
“Okay, so yesterday you guys killed Xb,-” “Wait wait wait wait,” Xisuma interrupted her, “We were just talking to him.” Cleo nodded, “That is something ghosts can still do,” she reassured him. “You can still talk to him, he’s just a ghost.”
“He is ghost Xb,” Gem grinned, followed by a “Aah! A ghost!” from Joe. After that it was chaos and Hypno was dead by the end of it.
“Hypno is to be executed and dies,” she said dramatically, “Intactilis!” Hypno was now, just like Xb, intangible and incorporeal. “Well thanks guys,” Hypno said deadpan.
Everyone went back to their separate houses and Cleo began her rounds again.
“Hi Impulse, maybe you get a kill this time,” she said cheerfully as she entered his house.
“So Iskall’s the soldier huh?” Impulse figured out. “I can neither confirm nor deny that, who are you killing tonight?” Impulse let out a big sigh.
“I hate to do it, but I’m gonna go for my cousin. She’s a bit too smart in games like these,” he explained himself and Cleo jotted it down. “Gem it is. See you tomorrow!”
“Good morning everyone! It’s a lovely sunny morning, birds are chirping, squirrels are fighting, badgers are punching each other and you see the mangled remains of Gemini Tay.”
“Oh noooo, not my neighbour,” Impulse exclaimed (fake) sadly. “Deserved,” Hypno countered as Gem was the one that pushed for him to be executed. Again, laughter ensued. It was just a fun group, what can you say!
She turned Gem into ghost Gem and everyone went on their merry way, Cleo following Impulse this time around.
“Okay, so we think it’s Xisuma and Cub then,” the Imp said and Iskall nodded. “I think that Cub is the Imp and Xisuma is the minion,” “No, I don’t think so,” Ren countered, “I have played many games like these with Xisuma and I think that the man genuinely has no idea what he’s doing and what is going on.” They burst into laughter at that, Gem having joined them in the meantime. “Yeah, but he can still be the minion and have no clue what he’s doing!”
And so they voted out Cub, having no idea that the Imp was right next to them the entire time.
“Hi Impy, you’re still alive!” Cleo said cheerfully. “Yeah, but Cub is dead,” Impulse interjected, “He’s still got a vote though, you can win this. I believe in you,” Cleo smiled, “Now, who do you want to kill this time?”
“Ahhh, I hate to do this again, but I think I’m going to betray Ren and frame Xisuma for it. Don’t know if Iskall will fall for that though, don’t think so…” He sighed and Cleo patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry Impy, you’re an incredible liar, you got this!”
“I don’t know whether or not I should be offended right now,” he joked and Cleo left his house.
The next day would have to be the last day, only Impulse, Iskall and Xisuma were left. If Impulse managed to convince either one of them to vote for the other he won, even if he tied.
Which is exactly what happened.
Iskall knew it was Impulse, having figured it all out, but Xisuma was a bit lost. Together they voted for Impulse, but then Impulse nominated Xisuma and voted him together with Cub. It was a 2v2, but in the end Iskall conceded and also voted against Xisuma.
“Xisuma is to be executed and dies!” Cleo shouted, drawing everyone's attention, “Congratulations go to the… Evil team!”
Impulse jumped up and down happily and Gem punched him on his shoulder. It was great times!
They should do stuff like this again, even though Xisuma would have to leave next year, it would not be the same without him. Maybe they could just smuggle him into the castle every Friday night!