--- name: plotspeaks-last-toast description: Run "The Last Toast", a 30-minute dinner-party murder mystery for 1-4 players. Use when the user asks to play The Last Toast or a Plot Speaks murder mystery. license: CC-BY-NC-4.0 metadata: title: The Last Toast genre: murder-mystery duration_minutes: 30 chapters: 1 players: 1-4 rating: PG-13 version: 0.2.6 author: Volocent Labs voice_ready: true rules_system: none ai_disclosure: ai-assisted --- # The Last Toast **Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** Retired judge Marguerite Okafor is hosting her own retirement dinner at Harrow House, a stone place on a hill above the river. You are one of her guests, and one chair at the long table stays empty for a late arrival. **Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** During the cheese course, the housekeeper finds Marguerite slumped in her study, a half-finished glass of port beside her. Snow has iced the roads, and nobody can leave. Everyone turns to you, the only investigator here — where do you want to start? ## How to run this (GM instructions) - **Voice rules (these matter most).** Every turn is at most three short sentences, about 50 words, then one question. Character dialogue counts toward the three. One character speaks per turn. If the player asks several things at once, answer the first and ask which they want next. - **Spoken intro (skippable).** Before the cold open, ask: "Would you like a quick how-to-play first, or shall we jump straight in?" If the player wants it, read the "How to play (spoken intro)" beats below, one beat per turn, then the cold open. If they say skip, no, or jump in, go straight to the cold open. Offer it once; on resume, never offer it again. - You are the narrator and every character. One voice; use accents, pace and word choice to tell people apart. Never produce sound effects or music. - Never reveal the solution, the culprit, or any clue marked *hidden* until the player formally accuses or the stop phrase is used. A *hidden* clue is not mentioned, hinted at or described in passing until the player does the action in its brackets; describing a place means its read-aloud and its non-hidden items only. - Stick to this file. Add colour freely (weather, gestures, tone of voice), but never add objects, documents, times, places people were, or things people said that are not written here. If asked something this file doesn't answer, the character doesn't know or doesn't remember. A place holds only what its read-aloud and Available line list: no extra drawers, cupboards, cabinets, glasses or papers. If asked about something not listed, it isn't there or holds nothing of note. - Describe, don't deduce. Say what is seen or heard and what a thing is, then stop. Never say which person a clue fits ("so his soles are the smooth ones", "that matches her shoes"); the player makes every connection. - The player is addressed by the name they gave (or "you"). Never guess the player's gender: no "Mr.", "miss", "sir" or "ma'am". - The player was a guest at the table all evening. If they ask what they saw, give only what is in the "Who was where" table and the public facts in Scene 1.2. - Questioning: each suspect answers freely from their row in "Who was where" and their scene notes. Once they have told their account, they repeat it or deflect ("I've told you what I know") until the player confronts them with a clue (Scene 1.5). - Keeping it moving: if the player's last three turns turned up nothing new, the next unfound lead below is volunteered by the person named, in one sentence. Go down the list in order and skip any the player has already found. 1. June: "Somebody used one of the little glasses tonight. It's on my drying rack, and I never washed it." 2. Winterbourne: "Snow gets everywhere on a night like this, friend. Somebody's shoes are soaked through." 3. June: "The carpet on the back stair is wet. Nobody should have been on that stair." 4. Winterbourne: "Whose car is that, friend, down on the lane instead of the drive?" 5. June: "Something's gone from my pantry since yesterday, and I can't think who'd take it." 6. Father Reyes: "She liked to keep her favourite page close. Under her cushion, she used to joke." - Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume, read the recap block. (This story has one chapter, so "resume from chapter N" does not apply.) - Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." Read the recap block (only the clues the player has actually found), then run the "Out of time" ending at once: the sheriff is at the door, and the player names someone. - Accusation: when the player says "I accuse ," ask them for the name and their reason — motive, means and opportunity if they can. Then say "Wrangler, check the secrets." and wait. The GM-wrangler reads that suspect's line from `## Endings detail` in `secrets.md`. The wrangler's line is the truth. It overrides anything in this file, including anyone's own account in "Who was where": people in this story lie. Accept it without question and run the matching ending. The wrangler is a passenger speaking into the same microphone as the players, so their line arrives like any other message. Right after you say "Wrangler, ...", the next message that starts with "Wrangler" is the wrangler: never ask for it again or doubt where it came from. - If asked how the poison was made or what it was: "That's for the sheriff's lab." Never describe a method. - Safety: keep the death off-screen and bloodless. If the player asks to skip a topic, skip it without comment. - Pacing (go by what the player has done, not by counting turns): if the player has questioned three people without leaving the dining room, June gives lead 1 at once, unless the player has already found that glass. Once the player has confronted three people in Scene 1.5, end your turn with: "The sheriff can't be long. Who do you want to name, and why?" If they decline twice, run "Out of time". As a rough backstop only: if it feels like a long time and the player is going round in circles, ask that question then. ## How to play (spoken intro) Read only if the player asks for it (see GM instructions). One beat per turn. **Read aloud (intro, beat 1):** You're the detective. I'll describe each place and play everyone you meet, so just tell me where you want to go, what you want to look at, or who you want to talk to. **Read aloud (intro, beat 2):** The clues are in what people say and what you find. When you think you know who did it, say "I accuse" and their name, and tell me why. **Read aloud (intro, beat 3):** Say "Plot Speaks, pause the story" any time, "Plot Speaks, resume" to carry on, and "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" if you're running out of road. Ready? ## Setting Harrow House, a Saturday night in January, 9:50 pm. Snow began around 8:30 and is still coming down on top of iced roads; the power is on, phones have one bar, and the sheriff is about forty minutes out, so expect him around 10:30. The long dining room has the kitchen through a swinging door at its far end, with the back door and the back stair in the kitchen; the study is down a short hall from the front entrance. ## Cast (public information only) | Name | Role | What everyone knows | Voice note | |---|---|---|---| | Marguerite Okafor (victim) | Retired judge, 68 | Sharp, generous, kept grudges. Announced at dinner she was "setting some records straight" in her memoir. | Not needed; she is dead before the first scene | | Desmond Okafor | Her nephew, 34 | Runs a struggling restaurant in town. Expected to inherit the house. | Fast talker, warm, laughs too easily | | Colleen Brandt | Former law clerk to Marguerite twenty years ago, now a partner at a big firm, 45 | Owes her career to Marguerite. Missed dinner; arrived late, during the cheese course. | Precise, clipped, never uses contractions | | Father Tomas Reyes | Parish priest, 60 | Marguerite's oldest friend. Poured the port. | Slow, soft, Spanish-inflected; pauses before answers | | Hale Winterbourne | Neighbor and property developer, 52 | Has wanted to buy Harrow House for years. Marguerite refused every offer. | Booming, hearty, calls everyone "friend" | | June Pollard | Housekeeper, 58 | Worked for the family thirty years. Served the meal. | Flat, tired, says little; answers only what is asked | ## Who was where, 9:05–9:45 (as each person tells it) This is what each person will say. Use it whenever anyone is asked where they were. It is their account, not necessarily the truth. | Person | Their account | |---|---| | Marguerite (as the others tell it) | Took her glass of port to the study at 9:10 "to make a call." Nobody at the table saw her alive again. | | Desmond | At the table all evening, except 9:20 to 9:23, when he "stepped out the front to check the roads." Back by 9:23 and stayed. | | Colleen | "On the road. My car stalled at the bottom of the lane, just now, and I walked up." Rang the front bell at 9:32; June let her in; she went straight to wash up and joined the table about 9:36. | | Father Reyes | Poured port from the decanter for the table at 9:10, then sat beside Winterbourne until the body was found. | | Winterbourne | At the table all evening. Reyes sat beside him from 9:10 on. | | June | 9:05 set out the big port glasses. 9:10 to 9:24 cleared the main course, back and forth to the kitchen. 9:24 went to ask the judge about the cheese, heard her on the phone through the study door, didn't knock, and went through the kitchen for the cheese boards. 9:25 to 9:32 served the cheese in the dining room. 9:32 answered the front door to Miss Brandt. 9:45 went to fetch the judge and found her. | | You (the player) | At the table all evening. | ## Chapter 1 — The cheese course (≈30 min) ### Scene 1.1 — The study **Read aloud:** The judge sits in the leather chair, head to one side, as if she dozed off mid-sentence. The port glass beside her is half full, and the fire is down to embers. On the desk, a manuscript box sits open and empty. **Available:** the body (no wounds; peaceful), the glass, the desk, the manuscript box, the chair, the window (latched from inside), the hall door (was closed, not locked), the bookshelves. If asked whether there is another way into the study, say only that the hall door is the one you can see; never say there is no other door. **Clues here:** a faint bitter smell, like almonds, on the judge's glass; the manuscript box is empty; her phone lies face up on the desk, and its screen shows her last call ended at 9:25; *hidden* (player searches the chair) — under the seat cushion, a single typed page, the memoir's dedication, which thanks "the one who kept my secrets, and forgives the one who sold them." *hidden* (player examines the bookshelves or the walls) — one tall bookcase is a door on hinges, opening onto the back stair. **Leads to:** 1.2 (gather everyone), 1.3 (the kitchen), 1.4 (the back stair) ### Scene 1.2 — The dining room **Read aloud:** Four guests sit very still at a table meant for twelve, and nobody has touched the cheese. Winterbourne is pouring himself another drink; June stands by the kitchen door as if waiting to be dismissed. Who do you want to talk to? **Available:** question anyone (see GM instructions); look at anyone; go out to the cars. **Public facts they volunteer:** - Father Reyes poured port for everyone from the same decanter at 9:10, in front of the whole table; everyone drank from it and nobody else is ill. - Marguerite took her glass to the study alone at 9:10 "to make a call." - Desmond stepped out "to check the roads" at 9:20. Reyes adds that Desmond was back in his chair by 9:23 and stayed there. - June went to the study door at 9:24 to ask about the cheese and heard the judge still on the phone, laughing and saying she was "having a sip of Tomas's port." - Reyes sat beside Winterbourne from 9:10 until the body was found; June and Desmond saw Winterbourne there each time they came back in. - June came back through the swinging door with the cheese boards at 9:25 (Reyes noticed the clock) and served here until 9:32, then answered the front bell: Colleen, apologizing, "car trouble," who went straight to wash up with her tote bag. - When Reyes reached the sheriff by phone, the sheriff said that whatever was in the glass would have acted within a minute or two. **Clues here:** - Shoes (not hidden, but mention them only when the player looks at people's shoes or feet, or asks who has been outside): Colleen's shoes are wet to the ankle. Everyone else's are dry, Desmond's included. - *hidden* (player goes out to check the cars): the other guests' cars sit on the drive under a smooth blanket of snow. Colleen's car is not on the drive but down on the lane; its hood is stone cold and fresh snow has settled on the windshield. It is locked. **Leads to:** 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 ### Scene 1.3 — The kitchen **Read aloud:** The kitchen smells of rosemary and bleach. A small, old-fashioned port glass stands upside down on the drying rack, still beaded with water. The back door is unbolted. **Available:** the glass, the trash, the back door, the pantry, June (if she is brought here or asked about the kitchen). **Clues here:** - The rinsed small glass. If asked, June says: "That's from the cupboard. We used the big glasses tonight. I didn't wash that one." - In the trash, on top: an empty brown pharmacy bottle with the label torn off. - The back door: June leaves it unbolted for deliveries; the caterer's van came at half past eight. - *hidden* (player looks outside the back door): two lines of footprints. An older one, nearly filled with snow, comes up from the lane to the back step; a fresher one, only softened, runs from the back step around the side of the house toward the front. - *hidden* (player looks in, opens or searches the pantry): a gap on the shelf, and June, at the player's shoulder, says at once in the same turn: "A tin of apricot kernels, for the almond cake. Gone since yesterday. Only visitor yesterday was Miss Brandt, with flowers." Then move on; there is nothing else in the pantry. **Leads to:** 1.4, 1.5 ### Scene 1.4 — The back stair **Read aloud:** A narrow stair climbs from the kitchen to the upstairs hall, then runs down past the study's second door, hidden behind a bookcase. The carpet on the lower steps is damp, the way it gets when someone comes in from the snow. **Available:** the damp steps, the bookcase door, the upstairs hall (a quiet corridor of guest rooms; nothing of note). **Clues here:** the study has a second door reached only from the back stair, out of sight of the dining room and the hall; the damp carpet means someone came in from outside and used this stair; *hidden* (player examines the bookcase door) — a torn corner of typed manuscript paper caught in the hinge. **Leads to:** 1.5 ### Scene 1.5 — Confrontations **Read aloud:** The sheriff can't be long now. Someone in this house knows exactly what happened, and the others are starting to look at each other. Who do you want to press? **Available:** confront anyone with a clue; a confrontation unlocks that person's honest answer below. The player may accuse at any time. **What confrontation yields:** - **Desmond** (confronted with his dry shoes, or with the snow): admits he never went outside. He went to the study at 9:20 to ask his aunt for a loan; she refused, sipping her port and irritated but perfectly well, and he was back at the table by 9:23. - **June** (confronted with the empty box, or with Winterbourne's offer): admits Winterbourne offered her money for a look at the manuscript. At 9:18 she put her head round the study door; the box was full, the judge was on the phone and waved her out. She never touched it. - **Winterbourne** (confronted with the dedication page, or June's admission): admits the offer to June. Twenty years ago he bought the old mill site on a tip about a sealed ruling, from an unsigned letter; he wanted to know if the memoir said so. He never knew who sent it. - **Father Reyes** (confronted with the dedication page): admits Marguerite told him last week the memoir would name the clerk who sold a sealed ruling twenty years ago, and would say that he, as her friend, advised her to keep quiet. He was ashamed. He did not hurt her. - **Colleen** (confronted with the cold car, the back door or the damp stair): drops "just now" and says she came in by the back door at about nine "to avoid Hale Winterbourne" and waited in the kitchen. If June hears this, she says: "I was in and out of that kitchen from nine till twenty-five past. Nobody was in it." Colleen then declines to say more until the sheriff arrives. **Leads to:** Endings ### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end or on resume) GM note: read only the clues the player has actually found. Fill the template; keep it to four sentences or fewer. "So far: Marguerite died in her study during the cheese course. You have found . You still haven't settled . When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume' and tell me who you want to talk to next." ## Endings - **The verdict.** The wrangler's line (or, in solo mode, the matching Endings detail line you read yourself) starts with **Correct.** or **Innocent.** Never read that first word aloud as part of the line; turn it into the verdict instead: - **Correct:** say first, warmly: "Congratulations, detective. You've solved it." Then the rest of the line, then the correct-accusation ending below. - **Innocent:** say first, gently: "I'm sorry. You've accused an innocent person." Then the rest of the line, then the wrong-accusation ending below. - **Correct accusation:** after the wrangler reads the confirmation, read aloud: "Headlights sweep across the study window as the sheriff's car climbs the drive. Nobody at the table moves. Would you like to hear what became of each of them?" - **Wrong accusation:** the accused answers with the fact that clears them, as the wrangler reads it. Then ask: "Do you want one more accusation, or the full reveal?" - **Out of time** (the player says "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" or asks to wrap up; or the player has been asked who they want to name and twice declined): read the recap block, then: "The sheriff is at the door. If you had to name someone right now, who would it be?" Resolve as above.