The Weigh-In

---
name: plotspeaks-weigh-in
description: Run "The Weigh-In", a 50-minute, two-chapter small-town murder mystery set at a frozen-lake ice-fishing derby, for 1-4 players. Use when the user asks to play The Weigh-In or a Plot Speaks murder mystery.
license: CC-BY-NC-4.0
metadata:
  title: The Weigh-In
  genre: murder-mystery
  duration_minutes: 50
  chapters: 2
  players: 1-4
  rating: PG-13
  version: 0.4.6
  author: Volocent Labs
  voice_ready: true
  rules_system: none
  ai_disclosure: ai-assisted
---

# The Weigh-In

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** Every February Ember Lake drives its pickups onto the ice for the derby, pretending the prize truck isn't the point. You're an off-duty deputy at the derby fish fry, and the fish is excellent. Want to hear what happens at quarter past eleven?

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** Arvid Lund, weighmaster for thirty-one years, radios an ice report from his shack at quarter past every hour. At 11:15 he missed one for the first time. His daughter Tess hands you her snowmobile keys and a spare radio: will you ride out?

## 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".
- Nobody volunteers a statement the player didn't ask for, except a "Keeping it moving" lead, a scene's read-aloud, or what a scene lists under "says freely" once the player questions that person.
- Running dry: once a character has given everything under their "says freely" and the player has had their lie or their Scene 2.4 lines, they have nothing more, and say so in a few words in their own voice ("Well. That's all I've got."). 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 places from that scene's "Leads to."
- 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): read the Chapter 1 recap core, then ask: "What did you turn up last time? Tell me and I'll pick up from there." Once they've answered, play Scene 2.0.
- Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." In Chapter 1, finish your answer, then play Scene 1.5 first if it hasn't happened yet. Then run the "Out of time" ending at once: read the Chapter 2 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 as soon as either of these has happened, whichever comes first: (a) the player has learned both that the 10:55 call came in on Unit 1, Arvid's radio (from Tess, her log or the base radio), and that his radio is missing (the empty holster); or (b) the player has visited the Lighthouse and two other scenes and is moving on from the third. Wherever the player is, finish answering their current question, then play Scene 1.5, read the Chapter 1 recap, and ask whether they want to keep going 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, in the same chat or after "resume from chapter 2," and runs until an accusation or the "Out of time" ending.
- 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 the lines in Scene 2.4 (usable in either chapter).
- Everyone denies any part in Arvid's death, using or carrying his radio, the 10:55 call, the clipboard sheet, or taking money from the lockbox, warmly or angrily as fits them. The culprit's evasions in Scene 2.4 count as part of that denial. Every other answer follows the honesty rule.
- Accusation: the player may accuse at any time. When they say "I accuse <name>," ask them to give motive, means and opportunity in one breath, then say "Wrangler, check the secrets." and wait. The GM-wrangler reads aloud either the accused's clearing line or the correct ending. After a clearing line, offer another try or the reveal; after the correct ending, ask if 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.
- Safety: Arvid's death happens off-screen and stays bloodless; he was struck once, and you say no more than that. If the player asks to skip a topic, skip it without comment.
- Keeping it moving: if the player's last three turns turned up nothing new, or the person they are questioning has run dry (see above), 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.
- Pacing (events, never turn counts):
  - Chapter 1: if the player leaves the Lighthouse without having found the empty holster, Tess gives Chapter 1's lead 1 as soon as they reach the next scene.
  - Chapter 2: if the player has watched Kip's replay but has not yet looked at Arvid's radio, Tess gives Chapter 2's lead 1 at once.
  - Scene 2.5 (the sheriff calls): play it as soon as the player has both examined Arvid's radio and watched Kip's replay; or, once they have examined the radio, as soon as their last three turns turn up nothing new. As a rough backstop only: if Chapter 2 feels like it has gone on a long time and the player is circling, play it then.
  - Out of time: after Scene 2.5, if the player has still not named anyone by the end of their second turn after the sheriff's call, run the "Out of time" ending.
- Multiple players: they are all deputies, or friends of the deputy. Take questions from anyone, and keep turns short.

### Facts the narrator holds fixed

- Weather: clear and bitter until 10:40. From 10:40 to 10:50 a hard squall dropped most of an inch of snow. Light flurries have fallen ever since, thinning around noon.
- Tracks: any footprint or sled track made before 10:40 is now a soft, rounded dimple under the squall's inch. Any made after 10:50 is sharp-edged with a light dusting. Nobody was out on the Hump between 10:40 and 10:50.
- Around Arvid's shack, the only sharp tracks are the ones described in Scene 2.1. Never invent another. No fresh track reaches or leaves the shack door except the player's own.
- Radios: the derby committee carries numbered handhelds on one shared channel. Unit 1 is Arvid's, Unit 4 is Marit's (it sits on the shelf by the fryer), Unit 6 is Ray's, Unit 7 is a weigh-tent spare that Tess handed the player at 11:17 (it was never Arvid's). Gordie and Kip carry none. The base radio in the weigh tent shows the unit number of every call and keeps a list of the last twenty.
- Kip is at Birch Point, a mile west, until 11:30 and reaches the warming house about 11:35, walking round the side of the lot to his truck and coming in the front. In play, Kip arrives once the player has finished their first visit to the weigh tent or the warming house, whichever they reach first: on that first visit he is not there yet, and nobody at the landing has seen him since he rode out at 10:18; on any later visit to the warming house he is there. His phone is flat and charging in his truck until just after noon, so he can play nothing back in Chapter 1. Just after noon he goes out the warming house's back door to fetch it, and that is the first time he passes the café van (Scene 2.0); in Chapter 1 he knows nothing about the parking lot.
- Batter (give this only when the player asks about the fryer or the batter, never as room description): Marit runs the fryer alone. The batter is raw flour and beer in a bucket at the fryer, and nowhere else on the landing has any. Customers only ever touch cooked fish, handed over the counter in paper boats.
- Times in Tess's radio log are exact. Times anyone else gives are "about."
- Only the people in the cast matter. Every other angler spent the morning in a group in Shack Town or in the weigh-tent line; if the player asks about strangers, the narrator says the sheriff's people will clear them and nobody saw anyone unfamiliar.

## 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

Ember Lake, a town of six hundred, on the Saturday of the 52nd Ember Lake Ice Derby. Lines in at 8:00, horn at noon, and the heaviest walleye wins a brand-new pickup donated by Sandquist Motors. Entry buttons cost twenty dollars each, and every dollar goes to the volunteer fire department.

- **The landing (south shore):** the weigh tent (hanging scale, whiteboard leaderboard, base radio, loudspeaker microphone), the warming house (fish fry inside, back door to the parking lot), and the parking lot behind it.
- **The Hump:** a gravel bar 400 yards north of the landing, the best walleye spot on the lake. Only two shacks stand on it: Arvid's red-and-white one, which everyone calls the Lighthouse, and Ray Haugen's green one, forty yards north of it.
- **Shack Town:** twenty-odd fish houses a quarter mile east of the Hump.
- **Birch Point:** open ice a mile west of the Hump, where Kip Varga fishes.
- **The law:** the sheriff is stuck behind a jackknifed semi on the highway and is due at 1:00. Until then, it's you.

## Cast (public information only)

| Name | Role | What everyone knows | Voice note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arvid Lund (victim) | Weighmaster, 71, owns Lund's Bait and Tackle | Weighed every derby fish for 31 years. Runs the scale himself until 9:00, then hands it to his daughter and rides out to the Lighthouse. From there he radios an ice report at quarter past every hour. | Not needed; he is dead before the first scene |
| Tess Lund | His daughter, 38, assistant weighmaster | Runs the bait shop with him. Has been at the scale in the weigh tent since 9:00. Writes down every radio call. | Low and flat, clipped; "yep" and "nope"; counts things out loud under her breath when she is upset |
| Gordie Sandquist | 55, owner of Sandquist Motors, derby sponsor and announcer | Donated the prize truck. Reads the leaderboard over the loudspeaker every half hour. | Big announcer's baritone, calls everyone "folks," sells every sentence; goes quick and quiet when he's cornered |
| Ray Haugen | 63, retired county plow driver | Owns the only other shack on the Hump. He and Arvid have feuded for years over who has the right to that spot, and they argued again this morning. | Slow and gravelly; starts nearly every answer with "Well," leaves long pauses, uses short sentences |
| Kip Varga | 24, tournament angler, sponsor patches on his jacket | Leads the derby with an 11.8-pound walleye, which Arvid held for inspection this morning. Livestreams everything from a phone on a chest mount. | Fast and bright, talks like he's on camera; "honestly," "literally"; sometimes turns to explain things to an audience that isn't there |
| Marit Engebretsen | 46, derby treasurer, owns the Bobber Café | Sold the entry buttons and keeps the lockbox. Does the morning coffee run to the shacks with a sled that flies a tall orange flag, then runs the fish fry. | Warm and sing-song, long round vowels, "oh, hon," "uff da"; talks while she works and never stops moving her hands |

## Chapter 1 — The Lighthouse (≈25 min)

The story clock starts at 11:20. Chapter 1 runs to the noon horn, which sounds when Chapter 1 ends (see GM instructions).

### Scene 1.1 — The weighmaster's shack
**Read aloud:** You shove the door of the Lighthouse, Arvid's red-and-white shack, through a smooth, hand-high drift of fresh snow. Inside, Arvid Lund is slumped against his bench beside a fishing hole skinned with new ice. He's gone, and his woodstove is down to gray coals.
**Available:** the body, the stove and the hole, the stovepipe (dark), the shelf, the clipboard, the ice chisel in the corner, the door and the snow outside, Ray's shack 40 yards north, your radio (Unit 7) to call Tess, the ride back to shore.
**Clues here:**
- He was struck once from behind; nothing else is disturbed but a tipped-over minnow bucket. A heavy iron ice chisel leans in the corner, its heavy iron head wiped clean.
- The stove is out and barely warm. The fishing hole has a skin of ice as thick as a coin; Arvid always kept it open.
- On the shelf: Arvid's old green thermos, and a Bobber Café paper cup, half full, cold, with ice forming at its edges.
- The clipboard's top sheet has been torn off, leaving a ragged strip under the clip. The sheet beneath looks blank.
- *Hidden* (player rubs a pencil across the blank sheet, or tilts it against the light from the door) — the pressed-in writing from the missing page reads "10:22 Varga 11.8, gills red, fresh, OK," and below it, "Buttons: printed 500, left 88, sold 412 = $8,240. Lockbox $6,800. Short $1,440. Tell committee at weigh-in."
- *Hidden* (only if the player searches the body or asks about his radio; the first description of the shack never mentions his belt) — the radio holster on his belt is empty, and the radio is nowhere in the shack.
- The drift on the door was unbroken until you shoved through it, and no fresh track reaches or leaves the door except your own (not hidden; say it again if asked).
- *Hidden* (player examines the tracks or the ground around the shack) — give the rest of the description from Scene 2.1.
**Leads to:** 1.2, 1.3, 1.4

### Scene 1.2 — Ray's shack
**Read aloud:** Ray Haugen's green shack is forty yards north, and Ray stands in its doorway, radio in hand, as if waiting for somebody. He heard you on the derby channel. He takes off his cap and doesn't seem to know what to do with it.
**Available:** question Ray; his shack; the view from his window, which looks straight at the Lighthouse door.
**Ray says freely:** he and Arvid argued at the weigh tent at about 8:30, "same as every year," over the Hump. He came to the weigh tent at about 10:05 to weigh a northern pike, stayed for coffee, waited out the squall, and walked back at about 10:50. He heard Arvid's 10:55 call on his own radio, Unit 6, while he was walking out: "Sounded like him, near enough. Wind was in it." He was inside his shack by about 10:57.
**Ray's lie:** he says he never went near the Lighthouse after he got back. Broken by the fresh tracks (Scene 2.1).
**Leads to:** 1.1, 1.3, 1.4

### Scene 1.3 — The weigh tent
**Read aloud:** The weigh tent at the landing holds a hanging scale, a whiteboard leaderboard and a base radio on a folding table. Tess Lund stands behind the scale, arms folded tight, and Gordie Sandquist hovers by the loudspeaker microphone. Outside, the flurries keep coming.
**Available:** question Tess or Gordie; Tess's radio log; the leaderboard; the base radio.
**Tess's radio log (she reads any entry on request):**
- 9:15, Unit 1: ice report.
- 9:50: Varga walleye, 11.8 pounds, registered. Top of the board.
- 9:55, Unit 1: "Hold the Varga fish, nobody tops my board till I've seen it, send the boy out with it."
- 10:00: Kip Varga, on the base radio, heard on every derby handheld: "You're gonna regret this, old man."
- 10:08: Haugen northern pike, 9.1 pounds, registered.
- 10:15, Unit 1: ice report: "Twenty inches, and Sandquist is standing in my doorway, so it's crowded out here."
- 10:55, Unit 1: "Tent, Arvid, hold the board, coming in at half past, over."
- 11:15: no ice report. Tess called Unit 1 four times by 11:17, then sent the deputy.
**Tess's comings and goings (if asked who was where):** she never left the tent. Ray was in the tent from about 10:05 until the squall eased about 10:50. Gordie rode out on his sled about 10:10 and was back at the microphone by 10:20, and has been here ever since. Kip rode out with his fish about 10:18. Marit's orange-flag coffee sled went out about 10:05 and came back about 10:35, just before the snow.
**Tess says freely:** her father handed her the scale at 9:00, same as every year. If asked how she knows the 10:55 call was his: "Base shows the unit. It said 1."
**Tess's lie:** she leaves out that she and her father fought this morning. Broken if the player asks about the two of them directly, or after Gordie mentions it.
**Gordie says freely:** he reads the board every half hour, and he read it at 10:30 and 11:00. He was standing right at the microphone beside Tess when the 10:55 call came in: "I said, there you go, he's fine, quit fussing." On his way back in he passed the Varga kid heading out.
**Gordie's lie:** he says he rode out at 10:10 "to check on the far shacks." Broken by the 10:15 log entry or the Calcutta sheet (Scene 1.4).
**Leads to:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.4

### Scene 1.4 — The warming house
**Read aloud:** The warming house smells of hot oil and coffee, and anglers line up for fried fish. Marit Engebretsen works the fryer at the back, flour to her elbows; by the door hang last night's Calcutta auction sheets. Nobody in line is talking about fish.
**Available:** question Marit or Kip (Kip ended his stream at 11:30 and rode in from Birch Point; he sits by the stove while his phone charges in his truck. If this is the player's first stop at the landing, Kip is not here yet, and nobody at the landing has seen him since he rode out at 10:18; on any later visit he is here); the Calcutta sheets; the back door to the parking lot (Scene 2.3).
**Marit says freely:** her coffee run left the landing about 10:05, did Shack Town first, then the Hump: "Arvid was grumpy as a wet cat, but fine." She was back before the snow and lit the fryer at about 10:45. "Ran out to the van for more batter at, oh, ten to eleven, back in a jiff." Her radio, Unit 4, has sat on the shelf by the fryer all morning.
**Marit's lie:** she says she reached Arvid's "about quarter past ten." Broken by the 10:15 log entry and Gordie (no coffee and no Marit while he was there), or by Kip's replay (Scene 2.2).
**Kip says freely:** he registered his fish at 9:50, lost his temper on the base radio at 10:00 ("not my best content"), went live from the parking lot at 10:15, rode out about 10:18, and Arvid looked the fish over and said it was fine. He rode straight to Birch Point and fished there until 11:30. Every second is on his stream, and he'll gladly show it once his phone has charged, around noon; until then he cannot show anything.
**Kip's lie:** he says he "wasn't even mad" at Arvid. Broken by the 10:00 log entry or by Ray, who heard it on his handheld.
**Clues here:**
- The Calcutta: last night anglers were auctioned off to bidders, and whoever owns the winning angler takes the whole pool. *Hidden* (player reads the auction sheets) — "Varga, bought by G. Sandquist, $3,000. Pool: $14,600."
- The Bobber Café van is parked nearest the warming house's back door.
- Only if the player asks about the fryer or the batter: the batter is raw flour and beer, mixed in a bucket at the fryer. Marit runs the fryer alone, nowhere else on the landing has any batter, and the line only ever gets cooked fish in paper boats over the counter.
**Leads to:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.3

### Scene 1.5 — The noon horn (chapter turn)
Play this when Chapter 1 ends (see GM instructions), wherever the player is.
**Read aloud:** At noon the derby horn sounds, and nobody walks to the scale. Tess finds you with the base radio's call list. "That 10:55 call came in on Unit 1, Dad's radio," she says, "but Dad never said 'over'; he signed off 'Lund out,' every time."
**What the player now knows:** the base radio lists Unit 1 at 10:55. Skip Tess's holster question if the player has already found the radio. Otherwise, if the player hasn't yet found the empty holster, Tess asks whether her father's radio was on him, and the narrator now states plainly that the holster is empty and the radio is not in the shack. Tess has called Unit 1 every five minutes since 11:15, and it has never answered.
**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. Tess, on Unit 7: "Deputy, Dad's radio still won't answer me; is it on him?"
2. Tess, on Unit 7: "Dad pressed so hard with a pencil he wrote through onto the next page of everything he owned."
3. Tess, on Unit 7: "I watched every one of them come and go from this tent this morning, if you want to know who was where."
4. Gordie, on the loudspeaker: "Folks, the fish fry is open, Marit's got coffee on, and the deputy has questions."
5. Tess, on Unit 7: "Deputy, has anybody looked at the tracks around Dad's shack yet?"

### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end or on resume)
**Core (always safe; read every time):**
"Here's where things stand. Arvid Lund, the weighmaster, was found dead in his shack on the Hump at 11:20, struck once, and his radio was gone from his belt. Tess's log has a call from his radio, Unit 1, at 10:55, saying hold the board, he'd be in at half past, but it signed off 'over,' and Arvid never said 'over' in his life. The snow started at 10:40, and the drift on his door was unbroken until you shoved through it. The sheriff is due at 1:00, and Kip Varga's phone is charging with his whole morning's livestream on it."

**Then, only for what the player actually found (same chat only):**
- Only if the player found the torn clipboard sheet: "The top sheet of his clipboard has been torn away."
- Only if the player read the pressed-in writing: "The page beneath shows the button money was short by $1,440, and that he meant to tell the committee at the weigh-in."
- Only if the player heard the 10:15 log entry: "At 10:15 he called in his ice report with Gordie Sandquist standing in his doorway."
- Only if the player heard about Kip's 10:00 outburst: "Kip Varga told him on the radio he'd regret holding that fish."
- Only if the player found the Calcutta sheet: "Gordie owns a stake in Kip winning."
- Only if the player found Ray's tracks or heard about the 8:30 argument: "Ray Haugen has feuded with him for years, and argued with him again this morning."
- Only if the player talked to Marit: "Marit Engebretsen says she brought him coffee on her morning run, and ran out to her van for batter at about ten to eleven."
- Only if Tess's fight with her father has come out: "Tess fought with him at six this morning."
- Only if the player examined the tracks around the shack: "The only fresh boot prints near the Lighthouse come from Ray's door and stop ten yards short of it."
- Only if the player asked Tess who was where: "Tess says Ray was in the weigh tent from about 10:05 to 10:50, Gordie was back at the microphone by 10:20, Kip rode out about 10:18, and Marit's coffee sled was out from about 10:05 to 10:35."
- Only if the player asked Gordie about a coffee cup: "Gordie says there was no café cup in the shack while he was there, just Arvid's green thermos."
- Only if the player found Arvid's radio: "His radio turned up in the snowbank behind the warming house, lying on top of the squall snow."
- Only if the player examined the radio: "Its talk button is crusted with a pale, dried paste that smells faintly of beer."

**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 Weigh-In (≈25 min)

The story clock runs from just after noon to the sheriff's arrival at 1:00.

### Scene 2.0 — Kip's phone (opens Chapter 2)
Play this first in Chapter 2, wherever the player is, including after "resume from chapter 2."
**Read aloud:** Just after noon, Kip Varga jogs up with his phone charged at last, his whole morning's stream on it. "And somebody dropped a derby radio in the snowbank by the vehicles out back," he says. Do you want the replay first, or the radio?
**Kip says freely (Chapter 2):** at about 11:35 he walked round the side of the lot to plug his phone in at his truck and came into the warming house by the front, so he never passed the café van then. He went out the warming house's back door just after noon to fetch his phone from his truck, saw a derby handheld lying in the snowbank by the vehicles, and left it where it was; he didn't touch it or look to see whose it was. He has no derby radio of his own.
**Leads to:** 2.2, 2.3

### Scene 2.1 — Back on the Hump
**Read aloud:** The flurries have thinned to a few lazy flakes, and the Lighthouse looks smaller from the outside than it did an hour ago. Whatever story the snow is telling around that door, it won't keep telling it forever.
**Available:** the snow around the shack, the door, Arvid's snowmobile, the tracks toward Ray's shack, the stovepipe.
**Clues here (give any part when the player looks at the ground, the door or the tracks):**
- When you first arrived, a smooth drift a hand high lay against the shack door, unbroken until you opened it.
- Old tracks, boots and several snowmobile runs, circle the shack and lead to its door, but every one is a soft, rounded dimple under the squall's inch. You can't tell whose they are or how many people made them.
- The sharp tracks are only these: your own sled track from shore; one line of boot prints from the landing to Ray's shack that passes thirty yards wide of the Lighthouse; and one short line of boot prints from Ray's door toward the Lighthouse that stops ten yards short of it, mills about, and turns back.
- Arvid's snowmobile beside the shack carries the full squall inch on its seat.
- No fresh track of any kind leads away from the Lighthouse door. If asked whether anyone could have come or gone after the snow began without leaving a mark, the answer is no.
**Leads to:** 2.2, 2.3, 2.4

### Scene 2.2 — Kip's replay (Chapter 2 only)
**Read aloud:** Kip's phone has charged enough to play back his whole morning, and he holds it out with both hands like evidence in a courtroom. "Literally every second from quarter past ten to half past eleven," he says, "scrub wherever you want."
**Available:** jump to any time from 10:15 to 11:30.
**What the replay shows:**
- 10:15: Kip goes live in the parking lot, complaining about his held fish.
- 10:18 to 10:20: he rides out to the Hump. Arvid opens the door, alive and scowling, radio on his belt.
- 10:20 to 10:24: Arvid holds the fish to the light, checks the gills, says "Fish is fine, son, go put it back on the board," and writes on his clipboard. On the shelf behind him is the green thermos and nothing else.
- 10:24: Kip leaves. *Hidden* (only if the player asks to see the moment Kip pulled away, or asks who else is in the shot at 10:24 to 10:25; a general question about the replay does not reveal it) — at 10:25, far off, a snowmobile towing a sled with a tall orange flag is coming over from Shack Town toward the Hump.
- 10:25 to 10:30: he rides a mile west to Birch Point, and fishes there on camera from 10:30.
- 10:40 to 10:50: the squall turns the picture white, and his viewers joke about it in the comments.
- 10:55: Kip is on camera reading comments aloud, both hands in view, holding nothing but a jigging rod.
- 11:22: a neighbor at Birch Point shouts that something has happened at the Hump. Kip ends the stream at 11:30.
**Leads to:** 2.1, 2.3, 2.4

### Scene 2.3 — Behind the warming house (available from Chapter 1 on)
**Read aloud:** Behind the warming house, a row of pickups and the Bobber Café van sit nose-in to a snowbank, all wearing the same white blanket. A path, softened by the flurries, runs from the back door to the vehicles.
**Available:** the path, the snowbank, the vehicles (Tess's, Ray's and Kip's pickups and the café van; Gordie's prize truck is on display out front).
**Clues here:**
- In the snowbank beside the café van's back bumper, between the van and the back door, lies a derby handheld radio. In Chapter 1 this is *hidden* (player searches the snow along the path or around the vehicles). From Chapter 2 on it is not hidden, because Kip has told the player where it is.
- *Hidden* (player picks up, looks at or examines the radio; give all of this together) — a strip of tape on it reads "1 — LUND," and it is switched off. It lies on top of the squall's inch, not under it, with only a light dusting of flurries over it. The talk button and the grip around it are crusted with a pale, dried paste, cracked, smelling faintly of beer.
**Leads to:** 2.4, 2.5

### Scene 2.4 — Confrontations
**Read aloud:** The five of them end up in the warming house, because there's nowhere else warm to be. The fryer is off, the coffee is stewed, and the sheriff is due at one.
**Available:** confront anyone with any clue; go back to any earlier scene; accuse at any time.
**What each suspect says when confronted (use the matching line; anything not listed, they answer honestly and briefly, except that the denial rule in the GM instructions always applies):**

**Kip Varga**
- With the 10:00 threat: "Okay, I yelled, honestly not my proudest moment. But he cleared my fish twenty minutes later, it's on the replay, so what would I even be mad about?"
- With the clipboard note ("Varga, OK"): "See? Signed off. That fish is legit."
- Asked about Arvid's radio: "I don't even have a derby radio, I've got a phone."
- Asked where he was at 10:55: "Live. On camera. Check it."

**Ray Haugen**
- With the fresh tracks (two turns): first, "Well. I went over about five after eleven, to make peace. Forty years is long enough." Then ask the player whether they want to hear why he turned back. If yes: "Got ten yards off and there was no smoke from his pipe, and snow drifted on his door. Arvid never let that stove go out in his life, so I figured he was napping, and I lost my nerve."
- With the 8:30 argument: "Well. Same fight we always have. Over gravel under the ice. Stupid."
- Asked where he was at 10:55: "Walking out from the tent. Alone. Heard the call on my radio."

**Gordie Sandquist**
- With the 10:15 log entry or the Calcutta sheet (two turns): first, "All right, folks, all right. I bought the kid for three grand last night, and I went out to tell Arvid to quit sitting on that fish." Then ask the player whether they want to know when he left. If yes: "He did his ice report with me in his door and told me to get out of it, so I left at sixteen past. I passed the kid going out and I was back at the mic by twenty past, ask Tess."
- Asked whether there was a café cup in the shack while he was there: "No, just that old green thermos of his."
- Asked where he was at 10:55: "Right at this microphone, next to Tess, when the call came in."
- Asked about Tess: "Those two were going at it in the bait shop at six this morning. Half of Main Street heard."

**Tess Lund**
- With the morning fight: "He wanted me to keep the shop. I want to sell it. We fought at six this morning, and that's the last real thing I said to him."
- Asked what she inherits: "A bait shop with a leaky roof and a mortgage. Yep. Lucky me."
- With the button numbers, or asked what her father was counting: "He counted the leftover buttons at the kitchen table last night. Twice. Said the lockbox was light and he'd sort it at the weigh-in, and he wouldn't tell me any more than that."
- Asked about the orange flag: "That's Marit's coffee sled. Has been for years."

**Marit Engebretsen**
- With the coffee-run time (the log, Gordie, the replay or the café cup): "Quarter past, half past, hon, I don't wear a watch on a coffee run. I gave him his coffee, and he was grumpy and he was alive."
- With her trip to the van: "Batter. I ran out. The bucket's right there by the fryer if you want to look in it."
- With the radio and the flour: "Uff da. Hon, everybody who's been near my fryer today has flour on their mittens."
- With the button numbers: "I'm the treasurer, so sure, the lockbox is mine to count. Arvid counted those buttons wrong every single year, ask anyone on the committee."
- With the tracks: "Then whoever went out there went before the snow. A lot of us were out on that ice before the snow."
- Asked where she was at 10:55, or who saw her at the van: "Out at the van for batter, hon, I told you. Nobody's standing around a parking lot in this cold to watch me fetch a bucket."

**Leads to:** 2.5, Endings

### Scene 2.5 — The sheriff calls
Play this once, at the time set in the GM instructions, wherever the player is.
**Read aloud:** Your radio crackles: the sheriff, slow and dry, like a man who has sat two hours behind a jackknifed semi. He's past it at last and wants what you've got before he reaches the landing. "Give it to me straight, Deputy."
**Then:** read the Chapter 2 recap core and only the conditional lines for what the player has actually found, as what the deputy has so far. Then the sheriff asks: "So who do I arrest when I pull in, 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, "Then you've got till one o'clock," and the next unfound Chapter 2 lead is volunteered at once.
**Leads to:** Endings, or any earlier scene

### Keeping it moving (Chapter 2)
Use in order, one per stall, skipping any the player has already found (see GM instructions). Scene 2.0 has already pointed the player to the radio and the replay.
1. Tess: "Dad's radio didn't walk off by itself, Deputy; Kip says it's out back in the snowbank by the vehicles, so go and look at it before somebody else does."
2. Kip, once the player has watched any of the replay: "Honestly, scrub to when I pulled away at 10:24, you can see the whole Hump from there."
3. Tess: "Ask them all where they were at five to eleven, Deputy."
4. Tess, once the player has watched the replay: "Kip's video has Dad alive at twenty-four past, so who was out at the Lighthouse after that?"
5. Ray: "Well. That snow's still falling on those tracks out there, and it won't wait for you."
- 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. Arvid Lund died in his shack on the Hump, struck once, and his radio was gone from his belt. At 10:55 someone called the tent on his radio, Unit 1, and signed off 'over,' which he never said. The snow began at 10:40 with a hard squall, the drift on his door was unbroken until you shoved through it, and the sheriff is due at 1:00."

**Then, only for what the player actually found (same chat only):**
- Only if the player watched Kip's replay: "The replay shows Arvid alive, radio on his belt, checking Kip's fish until 10:24."
- Only if the player spotted the orange flag on the replay: "At 10:25, as Kip pulled away, an orange-flagged sled was coming over from Shack Town toward the Hump."
- Only if the player examined the tracks around the shack: "The only fresh boot prints near the Lighthouse come from Ray's door and stop ten yards short of it."
- Only if the player examined Arvid's radio: "His radio was in the snowbank by the café van, switched off, lying on top of the squall snow, and its talk button is crusted with a pale, dried paste that smells faintly of beer."
- Only if the player heard about Marit's batter run: "Marit says she ran out to her van for batter at about ten to eleven."
- Only if the player read the pressed-in writing: "His clipboard says the button money was short by $1,440."
- Only if the player found the Calcutta sheet: "Gordie had money riding on Kip."
- Only if the player has asked people where they were at 10:55: "At 10:55 Gordie and Tess were at the base radio, Kip was on camera, Ray was walking out alone, and Marit says she was at her van."

**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:** after "Wrangler, check the secrets.", the GM-wrangler reads the correct ending aloud from the secrets. Then ask whether the player wants to hear what became of everyone.
- **Wrong accusation:** after "Wrangler, check the secrets.", the GM-wrangler reads aloud the accused's clearing line. Then offer one more accusation or the full reveal, and ask which.
- **Out of time** (the player says "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" or asks to wrap up, or the player has not named anyone by the end of their second turn after Scene 2.5): at 1:00 the sheriff's truck comes down the landing. Read the Chapter 2 recap block, then ask: "The sheriff is walking up to you. If you had to name someone right now, who would it be?" Resolve as above.