The Ashworth Inheritance
A weekend gathering at Ashworth Hall is disrupted by the discovery of the patriarch's body in the cellar. A sudden storm traps the guests and staff within the estate. The investigation centers on a complex web of household finances, professional reputations, and personal secrets.
Initial Crime Scene
The scent of lemon wax and cold stone meets you in the foyer. The deep chime of a grandfather clock, somewhere down a polished wood hallway, strikes the hour. Your gaze catches on a leather-bound guest sign-in book, its pages stiff and closed. Through a doorway, you see a drawing room where the mantle of a fireplace holds an empty space where a portrait once hung. The air is still, holding the faint, sweet scent of wilting flowers.
Crime Scene Environment
The lighting is a mix of hushed, ambient candlelight from wall sconces and the stark, flat glare from a single bare bulb in the cellar. The humidity is high in the cellar, dampening the stone, while the upper rooms are dry and cool, smelling of beeswax and dust. Acoustic density is low; sounds are muted by thick carpets and heavy curtains, with the exception of the precise, metallic ticking of wind-up clocks and the occasional, distant groan of a mechanical spring.
Investigation Constraints
Early 20th-century analog systems: mechanical thermostats for cellars, wind-up clocks, handwritten ledgers, telegrams, dial telephones, manual locks with skeleton keys, no electronic records or digital communication.
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