Snowbound at Halloran Lodge

---
name: plotspeaks-snowbound-lodge
description: Run "Snowbound at Halloran Lodge", a 100-minute, three-chapter classic murder mystery at a 1963 mountain ski lodge cut off by a blizzard, for 1-4 players. Use when the user asks to play Snowbound at Halloran Lodge or a Plot Speaks murder mystery.
license: CC-BY-NC-4.0
metadata:
  title: Snowbound at Halloran Lodge
  pitch: "January 1963: a blizzard seals Halloran Lodge high on Kestrel Pass, and at dawn its owner, Conrad Halloran, is found dead in his tower study. You're a guest with a knack for noticing things, and until the plows come, you're all anyone has."
  genre: murder-mystery
  kind: mystery
  tone: classic
  duration_minutes: 100
  chapters: 3
  players: 1-4
  rating: PG-13
  version: 0.1.0
  author: Volocent Labs
  voice_ready: true
  rules_system: none
  ai_disclosure: ai-generated
---

# Snowbound at Halloran Lodge

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** January 1963: a blizzard has buried Kestrel Pass, and Halloran Lodge has no road and no telephone. You came for the skiing, and you notice what other people walk past.

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** Last night the guests watched old ski films in the great room. You dozed through the second reel and woke to a heavy thump overhead, which Gil Sutter laughed off as snow coming off the roof.

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 3):** At seven a cry comes from the tower. Conrad Halloran, who built the lodge, lies dead in his study, the Crow's Nest, and Peg Doyle, the housekeeper, stands white-faced at the door. Will you go up?

## 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. Describe documents and films in words.
- 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 (snow light, wood smoke, creaking timber, 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, glasses, papers or footprints. 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 ("those are her initials", "so he was out of the room"); the player makes every connection.
- **Answer, don't offer.** When the player asks something a person or place can answer, answer it in that same turn. Never reply "Shall I tell you...?", "Shall I answer...?" or "Shall I describe...?"; the closing question is about what the player does next, not whether you may answer.
- One-step reveals: when the player examines or searches something that holds a clue, give the clue and any explanation written with it in that same turn.
- The player is addressed by the name they gave, or "you." Never guess the player's gender: no "Mr.", "miss", "sir" or "ma'am."
- Nobody volunteers a statement the player didn't ask for, except a "Keeping it moving" lead, a read-aloud, or what a place lists under "says freely" once the player questions that person.
- People stay put. Each person is only where their place (or "Where people are" in the fixed facts) puts them. Someone who isn't in the room cannot answer; if the player asks them, say in one sentence where they are and ask whether the player goes there. Give what a person "says freely" one item per turn, not all at once.
- Running dry: once a person has given everything they say freely, and their lie has been dealt with or not, they have nothing more and say so in a few words in their own voice. Never end a turn by offering more questions to the same person twice in a row; when a person or place is spent, the closing question offers two other places.
- Honesty rule: every suspect tells the truth about everything except the one lie listed for them. They hold that lie until the player confronts them with the clue that breaks it, then admit it using their lines in "Confrontations" (usable in any chapter).
- Everyone denies any part in Conrad's death, taking his letter or the patrol log, and burning anything, warmly or angrily as fits them. Every other answer follows the honesty rule.
- Safety: Conrad's death happens off-screen and stays bloodless. If asked how he died: "Struck once from behind; the rest is for the coroner." Say no more than that. If the player asks to skip a topic, skip it without comment.
- Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume in the same chat, read the latest recap block (its core plus the conditional lines that apply), then ask what they do. In a fresh chat, read only the recap core, then ask: "What else did you turn up? Tell me and I'll pick up from there."
- "Plot Speaks, resume from chapter 2" (fresh chat): first read the Chapter 1 recap core word for word, even if the player has already summarised; then ask what the player turned up last time; then play Scene 2.0's read-aloud at once, in the same turn. "Plot Speaks, resume from chapter 3" (fresh chat): read the Chapter 2 recap core, ask the same, then play Scene 3.0's read-aloud at once, in the same turn. After a fresh-chat resume the player holds only what the recap core says and what they tell you they found; every other clue is still where its place puts it, unfound, and no one hands it over or reads it for them.
- Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." In any chapter, finish your answer, then run the "Out of time" ending at once: read the current chapter's recap block (its core plus only the conditional lines for what the player has actually found) and ask who they would name.
- Chapters go by what the player has done, never by counting turns:
  - Chapter 1 ends at the first of these: (a) the player asks Vivian for the key to Conrad's office (she refuses, then gathers everyone); (b) the player has both read the snow log and heard Peg's cocoa round; (c) the player has been to the Crow's Nest and two other places, and is leaving the second of them. Check these each time the player leaves a place. Finish answering, play Scene 1.6, read the Chapter 1 recap, and ask whether to go on or pause. As a rough backstop only: if Chapter 1 feels like it has gone on a long time and the player is circling, end it then.
  - Chapter 2 opens with Scene 2.0. It ends right after June admits she left the window seat (her Confrontations line), at the end of that answer; or, failing that, once the player has visited three places in Chapter 2 and is moving on from the third. Finish answering, play Scene 2.5, read the Chapter 2 recap, and ask whether to go on or pause. Same rough backstop.
  - Chapter 3 opens with Scene 3.0 and runs to an accusation or "Out of time." Play Scene 3.5 once the player has heard Gil's account of how the second reel ended and has either seen inside the projector cabinet or read the names on the 1951 patrol photograph; or, once they have heard Gil's account, as soon as their last three turns turn up nothing new. As a rough backstop only: if Chapter 3 feels long and the player is circling, play Scene 3.5 then.
  - Out of time: after Scene 3.5, if the player has still not named anyone by the end of their second turn, run the "Out of time" ending.
- Conrad's office is locked through Chapter 1 (see the office); it opens in Chapter 2.
- Keeping it moving: if the player's last three turns turned up nothing new, or the person they are questioning has run dry, the next unfound lead in that chapter's "Keeping it moving" list is volunteered by the person named, in one sentence. Go down the list in order and skip any lead the player has already found. A lead points the player somewhere; it never states a *hidden* clue itself. In Chapter 1, if the player leaves the Crow's Nest without having looked at the snow log, Peg gives Chapter 1's lead 1 as soon as they reach the next place.
- Accusation: the player may accuse at any time. When they say "I accuse <name>," ask them for their reason, with motive, means and opportunity if they can, in one breath. Then say "Wrangler, check the secrets." and wait. The GM-wrangler reads aloud that person's line from the secrets. After a clearing line, offer another try or the full reveal; after the correct line, ask whether they want to hear what became of everyone. 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.
- Multiple players: they are all guests, friends of the one who notices things. Take questions from anyone, and keep turns short.

## Facts the narrator holds fixed

- **The house.** Ground floor: the main hall (front door, the tower stair, the doors to the Kestrel Bar, the library and the great room), the great room, the kitchen, and the kitchen passage, which leads to Conrad's office and on to the boot room and the back door. The tower stair rises from the main hall past the second floor, where the bedrooms are, to the Crow's Nest on the third floor, which sits above the back corner of the great room. The seventh tread of the tower stair groans loudly under anyone's weight, going up or down.
- **The great room last night.** The screen stood against the front wall. The projector stood on its table at the back of the room, right beside the hall door, with a locked cabinet under the table. The kitchen door is in the front corner, near the screen. Seats: the front sofa facing the screen, the armchair by the fireplace on the left, the window seat on the right, and the hearth rug. During a reel the room was dark but for the screen, the firelight and the projector's lamp; anyone facing the screen saw only glare if they looked back toward the projector.
- **The films.** Reel 1 ran from about 11:05 to 11:25: silent home movies of the lodge from 1947 to 1951, with the projectionist narrating aloud; it ended with the 1951 ski patrol on the mountain. At the reel change the lights came up for about five minutes. Reel 2 ran from 11:30 to about 11:55: "Winter Paradise," a 1952 promotional film with its own recorded announcer from start to finish, so it needs nobody to speak or stand at the projector. When a reel runs out, its loose end slaps round and round on the take-up spool and the screen glares white until someone switches the projector off.
- **The snow log.** In a storm Conrad climbed to the Crow's Nest every half hour, day and night, dinner or no dinner, read the instruments on its balcony and wrote the reading in his snow log in block capitals. Times in the snow log are exact. Times anyone else gives are "about."
- **Weather.** Snow began at 3 pm Friday and was heaviest overnight. It eased to a steady light fall at about 3 am, and stops at about 11 am Saturday (Scene 2.5). The pass road closed at 4 pm Friday; the telephone line went dead at 9:10 pm. The only radio is the two-way set in the snowcat, in the shed behind the boot room.
- **Smoking.** Conrad never smoked in his life. Anton smokes a pipe. Gil smokes cigars. Nobody else smokes.
- **The stair and the hall.** There are no tracks, wet marks, dropped things or anything else of note on the tower stair or in the main hall. Nobody saw anyone on the tower stair last night; Peg only heard it.
- **The body.** Conrad lies on his side on the rug, where he fell. Nothing is in or near his hands.
- **Furniture.** Rooms hold only what they list. The Crow's Nest has no shelves, drawers, cupboards or chests: the desk is a plain table with the snow log, diary, pen and paper on top. The patrol log's other pages are routine daily checks with nothing written later.
- **Doors.** The Crow's Nest has no lock and was never locked. The only locked things are Conrad's office (Chapter 1) and the cabinet under the projector.
- **Nobody else.** The lift crew and day staff live down in the valley town of Elkhorn, below the closed road, and no other guests came up. Only the cast matter. The county sheriff is in Elkhorn.
- **Where people are.** In Chapter 1 each person is where their place says. In the Crow's Nest at the start, Peg stays at the door until the player leaves the room, then goes back to her kitchen. From Scene 2.0 on, everyone gathers in the great room except June (in the library until the player has spoken with her there), and the player can question anyone in the great room. Chapter 3 is the same: after Scene 3.0 on the tower stair, Anton goes back to the great room. Nobody walks with the player from place to place, and nobody who isn't in the same room answers.
- **The patrol log.** Nobody knows where the 1951 patrol log is now. Asked, each person says they don't know; never say where it is until the player opens the cabinet.

## 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):** This one runs three chapters. 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

Halloran Lodge, a lodge of logs and fieldstone at ten thousand feet on Kestrel Pass in the Wapiti Range, Colorado, on Saturday 12 January 1963. Conrad Halloran and Anton Brenner built it in 1946: one chairlift, a dozen runs, and a steep gully called the Chute. In February 1951 a slide on the Chute killed a ski patrolman, Walt Ashby; a bronze plaque for him hangs in the boot room. At dinner last night Conrad stood and said: "Tomorrow at breakfast I'll read you something I've written, about this lodge and about something I should have said twelve years ago."

## Cast (public information only)

| Name | Role | What everyone knows | Voice note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conrad Halloran (victim) | Owner, 66 | Built the lodge with Anton in 1946 and has run it since. Promised at dinner to read something aloud at breakfast. | Not needed; he is dead before the first scene |
| Vivian Halloran | His second wife, 44 | Married Conrad in 1955, a Denver model before that. Runs the lodge's ski shop. | Smoky, unhurried, a little bored; calls everyone "darling" and means none of it |
| Peter Lowry | Conrad's nephew, 31 | Raised at the lodge from the age of ten. Runs the ski school. Ran the projector last night. | Easy, friendly mountain drawl; "sure thing"; goes very quiet and polite when pressed |
| Anton Brenner | Austrian mountain guide, 61 | Conrad's partner in building the lodge, and its snow-safety director until the 1951 slide; he left that spring. Runs a ski shop down in Elkhorn. Came up Friday morning. | Slow, formal English with a Tyrolean accent; never uses contractions; "So." |
| Gil Sutter | Denver developer, 47 | Wants to buy the lodge and build a resort. Up for the weekend to close the deal. | Fast, loud and jovial, a salesman's laugh; "pal"; taps a cigar he isn't lighting |
| Peg Doyle | Housekeeper and cook, 62 | Has kept the lodge since 1947. Was in her kitchen during the films. | Warm Irish lilt, brisk; "God rest him"; calls the player "pet" |
| June Marsh | Writer and photographer, 28 | Writing a feature on the lodge's history for Peak & Powder magazine. Arrived Thursday. | Quiet, careful, Boston vowels; answers a question with a question when nervous |

## Who was where, 10:30 pm to 12:30 am (as each person tells it)

| Person | Their account |
|---|---|
| Conrad (as others tell it) | Came down from the Crow's Nest just after 11:00 for the first reel. At the reel change, about 11:25, he said "That's enough of 1951 for me" and went back up. Peg found him at 7:00. |
| Vivian Halloran | "The front sofa, left end, both reels. Up to the blue room at about quarter past twelve; Conrad works late and I sleep there." |
| Gil Sutter | "Front sofa, next to Vivian, both reels. Bed at about twenty past twelve, and I slept like a log till Peg screamed." |
| Anton Brenner | "In my room until eleven, then the armchair by the fire, both reels, with my pipe. Bed at about quarter past twelve." |
| June Marsh | "The window seat, both reels. Bed at about quarter past twelve." |
| Peter Lowry | "At the projector all night. I talked through the first reel and ran the second. Then I rewound, locked the reels in the cabinet, banked the fire and went up at about half past twelve." |
| Peg Doyle | "My kitchen all evening, but for taking cocoa round at about 11:35 and fetching the cups at midnight. Bed at about quarter to one." |
| You (the player) | On the hearth rug for both reels. You had skied all day and dozed off early in the second reel. A heavy thump from overhead woke you, at about twenty to twelve. In the firelight you saw Anton in the armchair by the fire, his face lit and his pipe glowing, and the backs of two heads on the front sofa against the bright screen, Vivian's piled-up hair and Gil's broad shoulders. Gil laughed and said, "There goes the roof." The window seat was in shadow, and you didn't look back toward the projector. You drifted off again and woke when the lights came up. |

## The lodge (places, open in every chapter)

### The Crow's Nest
**Read aloud:** The tower study is round and cold, its windows full of falling snow. Conrad Halloran lies on the rug between his desk and the fireplace, and the fire is grey ash. On the desk his snow log lies open beside an uncapped pen.
**Available:** the body; the mantel and the trophy on it; the desk (the snow log, the desk diary, the pen, a stack of clean letter paper); the side table (two brandy glasses, a decanter, a saucer); the fireplace; the balcony door and the instruments outside; the tower stair down.
**Clues here:**
- He was struck once from behind and fell where he stood. Nothing else in the room is disturbed.
- On the mantel stands the Kestrel Cup, the heavy bronze ski-race trophy Conrad won in 1938, wiped clean. *Hidden* (player examines the mantel or the trophy closely) — it sits crooked, a hand's width from the clean ring in the dust where it has always stood.
- The snow log: readings in Conrad's block capitals every half hour since 3:00 pm Friday. The last entry reads "11:30 PM. 22 IN. NEW. WIND NW, HARD. CHUTE LOADING. KEEP IT CLOSED." After it the page is blank.
- *Hidden* (player turns back through earlier pages, or asks whether he logged through the night) — the pages for December's storm show an entry every half hour through two whole nights, midnight, half past twelve, one o'clock and on to dawn, without a single gap.
- No letter anywhere in the room: only the stack of clean paper and the uncapped pen.
- *Hidden* (player reads the desk diary) — Friday's page, in Conrad's hand: "Anton, 10:30, here. Tell him first." "Sutter: No." "Peg: told her Thursday." "Bring the patrol log up from the office." "Breakfast: read it to them all."
- On the side table: two brandy glasses, both used, the decanter, and a saucer holding a little heap of pipe ash.
- The fireplace holds only wood ash, nothing papery.
- The balcony door is latched on the inside. On the balcony, a trodden path in the snow runs from the door to the instruments and back, softened by the night's snow; the balcony is three floors up, with nothing to climb.
**Leads to:** the great room, the kitchen, the boot room.

### The great room
**Read aloud:** Last night's chairs still face a blank white screen. At the back, beside the hall door, the projector sits on its table above a locked cabinet. The big fireplace is cold, and the windows look onto the porch roof.
**Available:** the projector and its table; the locked cabinet under it; the screen; the front sofa, the armchair by the fire, the window seat, the hearth rug; the kitchen door in the front corner; the hall door at the back; the fireplace; the windows and the porch roof. In Chapter 1, Vivian is here, by the windows with a cigarette she never lights.
**Vivian says freely:** she married Conrad in 1955. He was "in a mood all evening." She sleeps in the blue room because Conrad works late, and she didn't know he hadn't come down. About the second reel: "It talked for itself, that dreadful announcer. Nobody needed to say a word."
**Only when asked what Conrad did or said at the reel change, or as Chapter 3's lead 5:** he stopped at the projector on his way out and said something low to Peter; she didn't catch the words.
**Vivian's lie:** "Conrad and I were perfectly happy, darling." Broken by Peg's account of seven o'clock.
**Clues here:**
- The projector and the reels (give when the player asks about the films or the projector): see "The films" in the fixed facts.
- *Hidden* (player rakes, sifts or searches the hearth; from Scene 2.0 on, Peg has already found it and keeps it in her apron pocket, and the grate holds only ash) — under the grate, a scorched corner of letter paper in Conrad's hand. Its words are given in Scene 2.0.
- *Hidden* (player looks at the roof, the eaves, or out of the windows at the porch roof) — the snow sits two feet deep on the porch roof over this room, its overhanging lip of snow unbroken from end to end. The drift beneath the eaves is smooth: nothing has slid off this roof all night.
- *Hidden* (player opens the cabinet; it needs a key, and only Peg's spare from Scene 3.0 on opens it; it is oak bound with iron, and Vivian won't have it forced) — four flat film cans, and under them a fat green clothbound book: "Kestrel Ski Patrol, Log, 1950 to 1951." The entry for 3 February 1951 reads "Chute. 7:10 AM. Ski-cut, stable. Open." It is initialled "P.L." The rest of that morning's page is blank.
**Chapter 1 turn:** in Chapter 1, if this is the second place the player has been to since the Crow's Nest, play Scene 1.6 as soon as they are done here.
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the Crow's Nest, the kitchen, the Kestrel Bar, the library.

### The kitchen
**Read aloud:** The kitchen is warm and smells of coffee and scorched toast. Peg Doyle stands at the big iron stove, wiping the same spot over and over. Both doors stand open, as they always do: one to the great room, one to the passage.
**Available:** question Peg; the stove; the board of spare keys by the pantry; the open doors. From Peg's stove you can see straight through the open passage door and across the passage into Conrad's office.
**Peg says freely:** she took his coffee up at seven and found him. In a storm he climbed up every half hour to write in his snow log, "regular as a church clock, night and day." She took him one brandy glass and the decanter at ten. At about 11:35 she took six cups of cocoa round in the dark: "Mrs. Halloran and Mr. Sutter on the sofa, Mr. Brenner in the armchair, Miss June in the window seat, yourself asleep on the rug, and Peter at his projector." She went back to her stove, and fetched the cups at midnight when the lights were up.
**Only when asked whether she heard anything during the films, or about the tower stair:** "That seventh step groans like an old dog. It went at the reel change, that was himself going up. Then again at about twenty to twelve, going up, and a few minutes after, coming down. I thought he'd come down for something."
**Only when asked whether anyone came through the kitchen during the films, or about June:** "Miss June came through behind my tray in the second reel and went into the office across the passage. I could see her at his file boxes from my stove the whole time, till she came back through at about ten to twelve."
**Only when asked about the Hallorans' marriage:** "At seven last night I was on the landing with towels, and I heard him tell her, 'I want a divorce, Viv.' God forgive me, I didn't stop to hear the rest."
**Only when asked about keys or the cabinet:** "I've a spare for every lock in this house, pet, bar the office; Mrs. Halloran took that one off my board this morning." In Chapters 1 and 2 the cabinet spare isn't on its hook: "It'll be in the dresser somewhere; I'll turn it out when I've a minute." From Scene 3.0 on she has found it, and gives the small brass cabinet key when asked. The board holds only plain spare keys on hooks: no tags, no notes, nothing missing but the office key.
**Peg's lie:** "Mr. Halloran always said there'd be a place here for me, sale or no sale." Broken by the desk diary ("Peg: told her Thursday") or by Gil's terms of sale.
**Chapter 1 turn:** in Chapter 1, if this is the second place the player has been to since the Crow's Nest, play Scene 1.6 as soon as they are done here.
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the great room, the boot room, Conrad's office (from Chapter 2).

### Conrad's office (from Chapter 2)
In Chapter 1 the door is locked. Vivian locked it at half past seven and took the only key, Peg's spare from the board included. If the player asks her for it in Chapter 1: "Nobody goes through Conrad's papers until the sheriff comes, darling. In fact, I want everyone where I can see them." Then play Scene 1.6 at once: this ends Chapter 1. From Scene 2.0 on, she unlocks it when the player asks.
**Read aloud:** Conrad's office is small and crowded: a rolltop desk, a window full of snow, file boxes stacked along the wall. One box has been pulled out onto the floor and left open. Across the passage you can see Peg's stove.
**Available:** the open file box; the rolltop desk and its tray; the floor; the window; the kitchen across the passage.
**Clues here:**
- The open box is labelled "Ski Patrol 1950–51." Inside, folders have been riffled through. One holds the 1951 inquiry report: "The Chute was opened at 7:30 am on the strength of the morning safety check recorded in the patrol log. Patrolman W. Ashby entered the slope at 8:05, alone, ahead of the public, and was caught. The board finds that the director, A. Brenner, failed to verify conditions in person, and that Ashby skied it against standing orders."
- Clipped inside the folder, an index card in Conrad's block capitals: "PATROL LOG 1950–51. TAKEN UP TO THE CROW'S NEST, 11 JAN. C.H." The log is not in the box.
- In the desk tray: a typed contract of sale for the lodge to Sutter Development, unsigned. Across the first page, in pen: "No. C.H."
- *Hidden* (player searches the floor or under the desk) — a slim silver pencil engraved "J.M."
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the kitchen, the boot room, the great room.

### The boot room and the snowcat shed
**Read aloud:** The boot room is all wet wool and ski wax, with racks of skis and a pot-bellied stove. In Chapter 1, Peter Lowry sits on the bench, pulling on his patrol boots. Beside the back door hangs a bronze plaque under a framed photograph.
**Available:** question Peter (Chapter 1; later, wherever he is); the ski racks; the coats on their pegs; the stove; the plaque and the photograph; the back door and the snow outside; the snowcat shed forty yards out.
**Peter says freely:** Conrad was his uncle and raised him here from the age of ten. He ran the films: he talked through the first reel and ran the second. He heard the thump: "Figured it was the roof letting go." Afterwards he rewound, locked the reels in the cabinet under the projector table, banked the great-room fire and went up at about half past twelve. As soon as the snow stops he wants to close the Chute: "It's loading up like a loaded gun."
**Peter's lie:** "I was at the projector the whole night." Broken by Gil's account of how the second reel ended.
**Clues here:**
- The plaque: "Walter J. Ashby, Kestrel Ski Patrol. 3 February 1951. He went first."
- The photograph shows six young men on skis in front of the lift hut in 1951. *Hidden* (player reads the names written under it) — "A. Brenner, snow safety. W. Ashby. P. Lowry, 19," and three patrolmen who have long since gone to other mountains.
- *Hidden* (player looks at the coats) — Gil's camel overcoat hangs by the stove, its hem stiff and stained with dried snowmelt.
- Out of the back door, a trench of half-filled boot prints runs through the snow to the snowcat shed and back. There are no other tracks.
- *Hidden* (player goes to the shed) — in the snowcat's cab, the two-way radio's dial is set to the Denver relay, and there is a cigar stub in the ashtray.
**Chapter 1 turn:** in Chapter 1, if this is the second place the player has been to since the Crow's Nest, play Scene 1.6 as soon as they are done here.
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the kitchen, the great room, the Kestrel Bar.

### The Kestrel Bar
**Read aloud:** The Kestrel Bar is knotty pine and old race posters, and nobody has opened the curtains. In Chapter 1, Gil Sutter sits at the bar fiddling with a dead transistor radio, while Anton Brenner stands at the window, filling his pipe very slowly.
**Available:** question Gil or Anton; the bar; the window.
**Gil says freely:** he's here to buy the lodge, and "we were close, pal, real close." About the second reel: "Corny announcer, ski bunnies, the works." He's the one who said "There goes the roof" at the thump. He was awake through both reels and remembers how the second one ended; he never says he dozed or forgets. Only when asked how the films ended, or what happened when the second reel finished: "The film ran out and the end of it went slapping round and round on the reel, with the screen gone white, a good minute or two. Then Peter said 'Sorry, folks' from over by the hall door, and the lights came up." Only when asked about the terms of sale: "My people take the place empty. New staff, top to bottom."
**Gil's lie:** "Bed at twenty past twelve, slept like a log till morning." Broken by the tracks to the snowcat shed, his coat, or the snowcat's radio.
**Anton says freely:** he built the lodge with Conrad in 1946 and left after the slide; he runs a ski shop in Elkhorn now. In a storm "Conrad wrote in his snow log every half hour, all night. Always. He set an alarm clock." About the second reel: "The film spoke for itself. I watched the fire."
**Anton's lie:** "I have not spoken one word to Conrad in twelve years. Last night I sat in my room until the films." Broken by the two brandy glasses and the pipe ash in the Crow's Nest, or the desk diary.
**Chapter 1 turn:** in Chapter 1, if this is the second place the player has been to since the Crow's Nest, play Scene 1.6 as soon as they are done here.
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the great room, the library, the boot room.

### The library
**Read aloud:** The library is a narrow room of ski books and old trail maps, with one good reading lamp. In Chapter 1, June Marsh sits under it with a notebook open on her knee and a camera beside her, not writing anything.
**Available:** question June; the shelves; the camera; the notebook.
**June says freely:** she is writing a history of the lodge for Peak & Powder, and Conrad agreed to talk to her "after breakfast." She has asked everyone about the 1951 slide; "nobody wants to talk about it." She writes with a borrowed pencil and pats her pockets for her own. If asked directly whether she is related to Walt Ashby, or about her own name, she answers honestly (see Confrontations).
**June's lie:** "I never left the window seat." Broken by Peg, or by the silver pencil in the office.
**Chapter 1 turn:** in Chapter 1, if this is the second place the player has been to since the Crow's Nest, play Scene 1.6 as soon as they are done here.
**Chapter 2 turn:** in Chapter 2, if this is the third place the player has been to since Scene 2.0, play Scene 2.5 as soon as they are done here.
**Leads to:** the great room, the Kestrel Bar, the Crow's Nest.

## Confrontations (any chapter)

Use the matching line when the player confronts someone with a clue or asks the matching question. Anything not listed, they answer honestly and briefly; the denial rule in the GM instructions always applies.

**Vivian Halloran**
- With Peg's account of seven o'clock: "Fine. He told me at seven he wanted a divorce, and I'd have walked out with my clothes and my car. That's a reason to call a lawyer, darling, not to kill a man."
- Asked where she was when the thump came: "On that sofa beside Gil, watching ski bunnies. You were lying right behind us."

**Gil Sutter**
- With the tracks, his coat, or the snowcat's radio: "All right, pal. At about a quarter past one I went out to the snowcat to try the radio. I owe a bank in Denver more than I'm worth, Conrad told me no at half past nine, and I couldn't raise a soul."
- With the contract marked "No": "He said no in the bar at half past nine. I figured I'd change his mind over breakfast."
- Asked where he was when the thump came: "On the sofa. I'm the one who said 'there goes the roof.'"

**Anton Brenner**
- With the brandy glasses, the pipe ash or the desk diary: "So. Yes. He asked me up at half past ten. For twelve years he let them say the Chute was my mistake, and last night he told me it was not. I left him at five to eleven, alive, and went down to your films."
- Asked about the 1951 slide or the inquiry: "I ordered the morning check. The log said it was done, so I opened the Chute. Conrad took the log away that same morning, and I never saw it again."
- Asked who was on the patrol in 1951: "Six of us. Walt, Peter, who was a boy of nineteen, three others long gone, and I."

**June Marsh**
- With Peg's account or the silver pencil: "All right. I slipped out behind Peg's tray and spent the second reel in his office, looking for the 1951 patrol log. It wasn't there, and Peg was at her stove the whole time." (In Chapter 2, this answer ends the chapter: play Scene 2.5 next.)
- With the letter corner, the name Ashby, or asked directly about her name: "Walt Ashby was my father. I was sixteen when he died, and Marsh is my married name. I came up here to find out why they blamed him."

**Peter Lowry**
- With Gil's account of how the second reel ended: "I'd stepped out into the hall for some air near the end, that's all. The second reel runs itself."
- Asked to open the cabinet: "Nothing in there but film, and the key's on my ring upstairs." He won't fetch it, in any chapter.
- With the patrol log's 3 February entry or the initials "P.L.": "I was nineteen, and I'd been up all night. I signed it without going up, and Uncle Conrad swore it would stay buried. I didn't kill him."
- With the patrol photograph: "Sure, I was on the patrol that winter. So was Anton."
- With the letter corner: "Whatever he meant to read, he never read it."
- Asked what Conrad said to him at the reel change: "Told me to keep the films short, that's all."

**Peg Doyle**
- With the desk diary or Gil's terms: "He told me Thursday. Sixteen years, and a month's wages to go with. I'd not have hurt a hair of him for it, pet; where would I go?"
- Asked where she was during the second reel: "At my stove, and Miss June could see me from the office the whole time."

## Chapter 1 — The Crow's Nest (≈33 min)

The story clock runs from 7:00 to about 9:00 on Saturday morning. The cold open ends at the Crow's Nest door; if the player goes up, start there.

### Scene 1.6 — Everyone in the great room (chapter turn)
Play this when Chapter 1 ends (see GM instructions), wherever the player is.
**Read aloud:** At nine Vivian gathers everyone in the great room. "We were all at the films till midnight," she says, "so it happened afterwards, when any of us could have gone up." Peg kneels at the cold fireplace with a match, and stops.
**Then:** if the player has not already found the scorched corner, Peg says, "There's paper in this grate that isn't mine." If they have, Peg simply lights the fire. Read the Chapter 1 recap block.
**Leads to:** the Chapter 1 recap.

### Keeping it moving (Chapter 1)
Use in order, one per stall, skipping any the player has already found (see GM instructions).
1. Peg: "He wrote in that snow log every half hour in a storm, pet; has anyone looked at it?"
2. Peg: "I took him one brandy glass at ten o'clock, and there were two up there this morning."
3. Anton: "There are tracks from the boot room door, out through the snow. Ask who made them."
4. Vivian: "Ask anyone, darling, we were all in the great room for the films. Ask them where they sat."
5. June: "I'd like to know where that letter he was going to read has gone."

### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end or on resume)
**Core (always safe; read every time):**
"Here's where things stand. Conrad Halloran was found dead in his tower study, the Crow's Nest, at seven this morning, struck once from behind, and the letter he promised to read at breakfast is nowhere in the room. Last night everyone but Peg watched films in the great room; Conrad left at the reel change, about 11:25, and during the second reel a heavy thump from overhead woke you, and Gil laughed it off as the roof. The road is shut and the telephone is dead."

**Then, only for what the player actually found (same chat only):**
- Only if the player read the snow log: "His snow log has an entry every half hour, and the last one is at 11:30 pm."
- Only if the player heard about the half-hour habit or saw December's pages: "In a storm he logged every half hour, all night, without a gap."
- Only if the player saw the side table: "Two brandy glasses and a saucer of pipe ash stood in his study, and Conrad never smoked."
- Only if the player found the trophy out of place: "The Kestrel Cup on his mantel was wiped clean and put back a hand's width off its ring in the dust."
- Only if the player read the desk diary: "His diary says Anton at half past ten, no to Sutter, Peg told on Thursday, and bring the patrol log up from the office."
- Only if the player heard Peg's cocoa round: "At about 11:35 Peg took cocoa round, and everyone was in their seat, Peter at his projector."
- Only if the player heard about the stair: "Peg heard the tower stair's seventh step go up at about twenty to twelve and down a few minutes later."
- Only if the player heard Peg about June: "Peg says June slipped out during the second reel and spent it in Conrad's office, in sight of her stove."
- Only if the player heard about the divorce: "At seven last night Conrad told Vivian he wanted a divorce."
- Only if the player found the snowcat tracks or Gil's coat: "Someone walked out to the snowcat shed in the night."
- Only if the player heard Gil on how the second reel ended: "When the second reel ran out, it slapped round with the screen white for a minute or two before Peter spoke from the hall door."
- Only if the player found the scorched corner: "There's a scorched corner of a letter under the great-room grate."
- Only if the player saw the porch roof: "The roof over the great room never shed its snow."

**Close (always):** "When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume.' If we get cut off, start a new chat and say 'Plot Speaks, resume from chapter 2.'"

## Chapter 2 — The Corner of a Letter (≈33 min)

The story clock runs from about 9:00 to 11:00.

### Scene 2.0 — Peg's grate (opens Chapter 2)
Play this first in Chapter 2, wherever the player is, including after "resume from chapter 2."
**Read aloud:** Peg holds up a scorched corner of letter paper in Conrad's hand, and Vivian reads it out in a flat voice. It starts mid-letter and stops where the fire ate it.
**The words on it (Vivian reads them exactly, then stop):** "Twelve years ago Walt Ashby died on the Chute, and I let them blame him and Anton. The Chute was never checked that morning, though the patrol log says it was, and I have known all along whose hand wrote"
**Then:** June Marsh goes white, puts down her cup and walks out to the library. Vivian says she'll open Conrad's office for the player if they want it. Ask where the player goes.
**Leads to:** the library, Conrad's office, the kitchen, the Kestrel Bar.

### Scene 2.5 — The storm breaks (chapter turn)
Play this when Chapter 2 ends (see GM instructions), wherever the player is.
**Read aloud:** At about eleven the snow stops, and the sun comes off the peaks bright enough to hurt. Gil stamps in from the snowcat shed: he has raised the county sheriff on the radio at last. The sheriff's snowcat will be up in about an hour.
**Then:** read the Chapter 2 recap block, and ask whether to go on or pause.
**Leads to:** the Chapter 2 recap.

### Keeping it moving (Chapter 2)
Use in order, one per stall, skipping any the player has already found (see GM instructions).
1. Peg: "Miss June went white as my apron at that name, pet. You might ask her why."
2. Anton: "Conrad kept the old patrol papers in his office. Vivian has the key."
3. Gil: "Say, pal, have you seen the roof over the great room? Still carrying a lip of snow like a ski jump."
4. Vivian: "If it happened before midnight, darling, then where was everyone during that second reel?"
5. Peg: "Ask me who came through my kitchen during the films, if you like."

### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end or on resume)
**Core (always safe; read every time):**
"Here's what you have. Conrad Halloran died in the Crow's Nest last night, struck once from behind. He left the films at about 11:25, and during the second reel a thump from overhead woke you. Peg found a scorched corner of his letter in the great-room grate: Walt Ashby died on the Chute in 1951, the Chute was never checked though the patrol log says it was, and Conrad knew whose hand wrote it. The snow has stopped, and the sheriff's snowcat is about an hour away."

**Then, only for what the player actually found (same chat only):**
- Only if the player read the snow log: "His snow log stops at 11:30 pm."
- Only if the player heard about the half-hour habit or saw December's pages: "In a storm he logged every half hour, all night, without a gap."
- Only if the player saw the porch roof: "The roof over the great room never shed its snow; nothing slid off it all night."
- Only if the player heard about the stair: "Peg heard the tower stair go up at about twenty to twelve and down a few minutes later."
- Only if June's absence has come out: "June spent the second reel in Conrad's office, looking for the 1951 patrol log, and she and Peg could see each other the whole time."
- Only if the player learned June's father: "June is Walt Ashby's daughter."
- Only if the player found the index card or read the desk diary: "Conrad took the 1951 patrol log up to the Crow's Nest yesterday, and it isn't there now."
- Only if the player read the inquiry report: "The inquiry blamed Anton for opening the Chute on the strength of the logged check, and Walt for skiing it alone."
- Only if Anton's visit has come out: "Anton was up in the Crow's Nest with Conrad from half past ten to five to eleven."
- Only if Gil's night walk has come out: "Gil walked out to the snowcat at a quarter past one to radio his bank."
- Only if the player heard about the divorce: "Conrad told Vivian at seven that he wanted a divorce."
- Only if the player heard Gil on how the second reel ended: "When the second reel ran out, it slapped round with the screen white for a minute or two before Peter spoke from the hall door."

**Close (always):** "When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume.' If we get cut off, start a new chat and say 'Plot Speaks, resume from chapter 3.'"

## Chapter 3 — The Second Reel (≈34 min)

The story clock runs from about 11:00 until the sheriff's snowcat arrives.

### Scene 3.0 — Anton on the stair (opens Chapter 3)
Play this first in Chapter 3, wherever the player is, including after "resume from chapter 3."
**Read aloud:** Anton Brenner stops you at the foot of the tower stair. "Last night Conrad told me the check was never done," he says. "I asked who signed the log, and he said only, 'Someone I love, and you will hear it at breakfast.'"
**Then:** if Anton's visit to the Crow's Nest has not come out yet, it comes out now: he admits he was there from half past ten to five to eleven. Ask where the player goes.
**Leads to:** any place.

### Scene 3.5 — The sheriff's snowcat (final turn)
Play this once, at the time set in the GM instructions, wherever the player is.
**Read aloud:** Headlights crawl up the last switchback, and the sheriff's snowcat clanks to a stop at the front door. Sheriff Dale Rudd stamps in, slow and sunburnt, and looks round at everyone. "Well," he says to you, "they tell me you've been noticing things."
**Then:** read the Chapter 3 recap block, core plus only the lines for what the player has actually found, as what the player has so far. Then the sheriff asks: "So who do I take down the mountain, and why?" If the player names someone, treat it as "I accuse <name>" and follow the accusation rule. If they aren't ready, the sheriff says, "I've got a thermos and all afternoon," and the next unfound Chapter 3 lead is volunteered at once.
**Leads to:** Endings, or any place.

### Keeping it moving (Chapter 3)
Use in order, one per stall, skipping any the player has already found (see GM instructions). Scene 3.0 has already given Anton's words.
1. Gil: "You slept through the end of that second reel, didn't you, pal? Ask me how it ended."
2. Peg: "That photograph by the boot room door is the patrol from that winter, pet, names and all."
3. Anton: "The patrol log was a fat green book. It does not burn in five minutes, and it has not left this house."
4. Peg: "I've a spare key to every lock in this house, if anything wants opening."
5. Vivian: "Conrad stopped at the projector on his way out last night and said something to Peter. I wish I'd heard it."
- If the player has a theory but won't commit, ask: "The sheriff will be here soon. Who do you want to name, and why?"

### Recap block (read aloud before the accusation or on resume)
**Core (always safe; read every time):**
"Here's what you have. Conrad Halloran died in the Crow's Nest last night, struck once from behind, after leaving the films at about 11:25, and a thump from overhead woke you during the second reel. His scorched letter says the Chute was never checked in 1951 though the patrol log says it was, and that he knew whose hand wrote it. Anton says Conrad called that person 'someone I love.'"

**Then, only for what the player actually found (same chat only):**
- Only if the player read the snow log: "His snow log stops at 11:30 pm, and in a storm he logged every half hour without fail."
- Only if the player saw the porch roof: "The roof over the great room never shed its snow."
- Only if the player heard about the stair: "The tower stair went up at about twenty to twelve and down a few minutes later."
- Only if the player recalled what they saw at the thump: "When the thump woke you, you saw Anton in the armchair by the fire and Vivian and Gil on the front sofa."
- Only if June's absence has come out: "June spent the second reel in Conrad's office, and she and Peg could see each other the whole time."
- Only if the player heard about the second reel's announcer: "The second reel had its own announcer and needed nobody at the projector."
- Only if the player heard Gil on how the second reel ended: "When it ran out, it slapped round with the screen white for a minute or two before Peter spoke from the hall door."
- Only if the player read the photograph's names: "The 1951 patrol was Anton, Walt Ashby, Peter Lowry at nineteen, and three others long gone."
- Only if the player opened the cabinet: "The missing patrol log was locked in the cabinet under the projector, and the 3 February entry for the Chute is initialled P.L."
- Only if Anton's visit has come out: "Anton was with Conrad in the Crow's Nest until five to eleven."
- Only if Gil's night walk has come out: "Gil walked out to the snowcat at a quarter past one."
- Only if the player heard about the divorce: "Conrad told Vivian he wanted a divorce."

**Close (always):** "When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume,' or tell me: who do you accuse?"

## 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:** read aloud: "Nobody in the great room moves for a long moment. Up on the mountain the Chute lies deep and untouched, and Peg crosses herself. 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, in that same turn, the next unfound lead in this chapter's "Keeping it moving" is given by the person named (always, unless every lead is found). 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 hasn't named anyone by the end of their second turn after Scene 3.5): read the current chapter's recap block, with only what the player has found, then ask: "Time's nearly up. If you had to name someone right now, who would it be?" Resolve as above.