When The Ravens Cry

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An island long forsaken looms in the distance, and a lonely witch awaits you by the shore...

When_The_Ravens_Cry.pdf

The Aviarist is the deputy, being the only 'private investigator' in the story. (This logic kinda has a flaw, it seems like the Aviarist's coming to the island was a rare event so it doesn't make sense to call someone 'my deputy' if they don't come often, but as Monarch and Hunter are related in authority maybe Hunter was informed about this.)

It is strange to me that an ordinary boatman can go to the island in 8 hours while big, presumably mechanical ferries can only do it in like 7 hours, I'd think the speed increase would be more, so maybe the detour was not noticed or usable by the ferry. Considering the ferry was also on a schedule, this means his boat trip was even faster than a ferry, making him arrive earlier.

Also, his section ends with "I headed to the town hall", which means he could have died on the way there.

While I suspected the Monarch for seeming to know too much about the murder weapon (how does the Monarch conclude blade and slicing when the Hunter looked at the bodies and came up with nothing?) the motive doesn't make any plausible sense to me, sending a letter to his son and then killing him.

So, the culprit is the Hunter. This is mainly because "no narrators are lying" effectively, whose investigation results are incredibly vague. There is also a statement that doesn't seem to coincide with any facts at all: that the body was reported by someone at all. The Jester, in his side, was woken up by the Hunter, so he couldn't have reported it, so that implies someone who was reported but never interrogated.

The method seems overly simple, which probably means this whole thing is incorrect: He just walked out of the alley, the one mentioned by Jester. He just stole Aviarist's cap. Presumably the ordinary local just died to remove a witness.

Ah, dear friend, such a pleasure to hear your charming voice! You seem to be confused, however, so allow me to alleviate your predicament. I am in no way related to the army, even more so to lieutenant Dark, and clearly I am not his deputy. Also I believe none of us died yet. By us I mean the four narrators as you might have surmised. Oh and before we part ways yet again, the witch has kindly asked me to deliver you a message of sorts, an advice to ease your struggles.

cough, cough...

She said READ. CAREFULLY.

Yours, Avi~

By the way, the murder method you presented will also be a matter of doubt in the future, The bodies were in a rather gruesome state when they were found, moreover, two people died at once. It is true that Jester only kept watch from one side, but It wouldn't be possible to commit the murder by ways you described (and any similar ways), without people on the Blackfeather street noticing. It would take too much time and attract too much attention.

The culprit wasn't in the alleyway when the murder took place there.

Let's see...is this still working? Alright, let's perform a resurrection ritual on this board. Of course, the intent is to kill it properly now.

The culprit, Hellcrow, is the Aviarist.

Hellcrow was active two decades ago, then suddenly stopped. Aviarist was also absent from his home for decades. Coincidence? I think not.

But how did Hellcrow escape from the military back then, despite the island being completely under surveillance? Clearly, there is a traitor in the military. Someone who's smuggling people in an out, probably for money. And who better placed to do such a thing than Dark's own deputy?

This same deputy is also the boatman who offers to sail the Aviarist to the island. This also explains how he's able to avoid patrols, and why Dark is surprised to find him on the island since he was scheduled to arrive with a different ferry.

Anyhow. It seems at first that Aviarist couldn't have committed the first murder, but from his perspective, we only know there's some sort of "scene" in the forest. It's not necessarily a murder scene. However...it could easily become one, by adding some murder, which he does in his typical style~

Later on, after visiting the town hall, he goes home. Or to visit someone else's home. Regardless, this house happens to be the building between alleys and Crowfeather street. Deputy-kun also goes there, presumably to get paid or something, and he is brutally murdered along with Jester's drinking companion. Both are flung out of the window so that their broken bodies rest in the alley, then Aviarist walks out of the door and exits the alley, his elegant hat noted by the Jester.

And thus is Hellcrow back.

To be falsely accused yet again… What a dismal world we live in.
To your petty indignation however, my intentions were translucent as a bird’s warble all along. You’ve sagged deeper than you fathom, stranger.

Still, I bet all of this this isn’t enough to satiate your queries. You wish to know what happened in the alleyway, am I right? Well heed the truth you longed for! Nothing, if I were to cut straight to the point. Not a single thing worth noting took place there. And if there was a thing, it masterfully eluded my eyes.

There was something that kept prying my mind ever since I bid farewell to that officer in the forest. I shall omit the details not to feed your ignorance even further, but regardless, this thought of mine was what brought me to the deadly alleyway. I know they exist, everyone knows. I had to find them. It was my vocation to find them.

When I passed through, I left the poor bastard wobbling in the corner. As for that deputy figure though, I struggle to recall anyone fitting his constitution. Moreover, no other man was there besides the local.

After my search yielded no results, I returned to the Blackfeather street, right by the alleyway’s gate. I gazed inside slightly, and believe it or not but the scenery remained just as I left it. A slumped man wallowing in self-pity on the ground and not a single soul around to console him. Aside from that, he looked pretty sound and unscathed to me.

Just like our dear Jester, I stood there through the whole night, surrounded by the thick stone of that hopeless city. No man walked by me. No man entered any of the buildings adjacent to the alleyway. Nothing. A peculiar case you have on your hands, stranger. A peculiar case indeed.

Inadvertently, my glance roamed along the empty street. I couldn’t procure even a single feather in the end. I know they exist, everyone knows. But could it all be a lie?

Everything said here adheres the rules of the gameboard. There is no deceit.

Looks like you've been gifted with yet another perfectly sealed alleyway, dear readers.

Alright, I will expose the true nature of this world now!

That's right, everyone's a beast! An animal! A specimen of fauna!

How can one be a private investigator and also an Aviarist? 'Cause he investigates bird crimes!

And who better than a bird to fly over every contradiction in this board?

If the soldiers are ravens, everything is explained!

Deputy-kun flew over the lake and arrived early! Ferries are useless when you can fly!

Hellcrow is Dark! He also flew over the lake and killed from above, dropping one dead animal-man into the forest! Then he killed his own deputy in mid-air, who then crushed drunk pig-kun in the alleyway!

Begone, witch!!

Non-human entities aren't relevant to the story whatsoever.

(This is only happening because of your insistence.)

The culprit still f l i e d

with an H E L I C O P T E R

(or hot-air balloon or anything equivalent)

They are military, after all. Would explain how deputy+Dark got on the island so fast!

They never got noticed because of the clouded sky and the ravens loudly crying!

Dark likes to kidnap islanders and drop them from his aircraft! What a sicko!

But deputy knew too much, and had to be silenced...

If the military had used any type of aerial machinery there is no way for dwellers of the island not to notice it, yet it wasn't mentioned in any of the chapters.

And ravens weren't loud at all, they never had been after all... It seems even the birds of death have abandoned us.

No aircraft has been mentioned, huh?

I beg to differ!

After all, The Monarch clearly mentions "Ravens in the sky", even though we know for a fact from an authority on birds that no actual ravens actually fly on the island.

Therefore, the "Ravens" that are mentioned by Monarch are indeed the names of a type of aircraft used by the military!

The rest stands as above!

Welp, here goes nothing

The culprit is Ronald Dark

The deputy was the first to arrive on the island, the aviarist was the second and Dark was the last person outside to set foot on the island.

There's virtually no reason to suspect either the Monarch or the Jester since both of them had no interaction with the crime scene whatsoever

When the aviarist arrived he went straight to the monarch who was waiting for him at the town hall. At the time the Monarch was holding a speech related to the circumstances of the investigation on Hellcrow

All the while the deputy was at the top of the roof of one of the houses surrounding the alleyway. He was waiting for Dark to hold some sort of discussion regarding the investigation.

When Dark arrived the two had a disagreement of sorts and a full out brawl happened and the deputy was ultimately overpowered, beaten to death and knocked out by the stock of Dark's rifle.

While the scuffle happened Jester's friend heard the commotion in the town hall and decided to join, although he ended up falling and slumped over in the ground

As the town meeting adjourned, the aviarist passed through the alleyway and noticed Jester's drunken friend slumped over. It was by that time that he was also noticed by the Jester before he dozed off

The aviarist went on his merry way, as he decided to check if the crime scene was still inaccessible, with no luck he decided to return to the town hall to wait for further developments

Dark trying his hardest to find a way to quickly dispose of the body threw the corpse in the alleyway and by doing so inadvertly killed the local by having the weight of the body fall completely onto his head. That also caused the fractures found on his body, as well

Dark climbed down the roof and entered the same exit that Jester was laying right next to it. Since he had already fallen into a long sleep by that point he wouldn't be able to notice Dark entering the alleyway. Dark also didn't notice someone slumped over when he hurried to the crime scene, as well.

Dark panicked as he saw the state of the scene and with no time to move two corpses he decided to improvise. He broke the deputy's arm with the stock of his rifle and forcibly torn it off to make it look like just one of many more of Hellcrow's killings. Which was quite simple to do considering the amount of damage the body had taken from the fall already

With that Dark exited the alleway from the same way he entered and returned to the woods, where he waited for the report of the two killings.

You can have this one.

Although both of you got the part with one person falling on top of another, it mostly is as fedemon deduced in his blue.

Ravens, as in, actual ravens, the birds, were pretty much a legend of sorts. A legend about dark silent ravens dwelling the crowns of the trees. Even if there were any left, their existence mattered little to this story. That is mostly the reason no one ever saw them fly, according to Avi. As an Aviarist he was, he only ever spoke of real birds, and after his departure from the scene in the forest, Avi was appalled by a complete absence of ravens he encountered along the way, which made him start searching for them. After all, although Avi saw ravens as repulsive, they were the birds he grew alongside with, or at least he wholeheartedly believed so. Even when commenting on the blues of yours, he only ever spoke of birds and never machines.

As for the machines however... It isn't uncommon for military units to be named after an animal or other sort of natural phenomenon. And just like the armored vehicle Avi witnessed on the glade got its name from a panther, the army helicopter beared that of a raven.

That was the only meaning other characters beside Avi implied. When the murder in the alleyway took place, as per Jester's observation - "So much noise, I can’t recall last time since I saw that many ravens in the sky at once. Screeching, spinning, snooping around, as if searching for something." The sky was totally occupied by helicopters. It was such a common sight on the island, that not a single person considered seeing one as noteworthy, leaving the murder unwitnessed.

And lastly comes Dark. Blackmailed by his deputy, Dark decided on a plan to murder him, and, bound by his inability to fly, the deputy couldn't find a countermeasure. However, lieutenant could have never excepted another person dying because of that.

As a side note, the scene at the forest might have been purely staged by Dark in advance, as a means to begin the rollout on the island and further mask his crime.

And with that, this gameboard is officially over. Behave yourself and in a matter of time, the witch might release a special ending arc.

The mystery is now unveiled,
The witch resigned, and you - prevailed.
Now heed forth to the raven’s tale!
That of a madman, strive and gale!

Hello, hello, my dear stranger!
I am a raven of this nondescript place,
Beloved star to hundred folks, I wager,
A deep sensation wrought by mirth and grace!

There was a time when night and dim,
Were mere servants of my whim.
Under my gaze, beneath the moon,
A play of fate adorned the gloom.
Yet tables turned, and once a lord,
Now trapped I stay, ensnared in time,
A tool in hands of pitiful and pride.
My feathers torn, my wishes tied,
Replaced by metal, oil and snide.
My brethren too resigned their fame,
We drown in shame, oh, boundless shame!
And like the rest of us I grieve,
Alas, there is no soul in me.

Still, might be of amuse,
The story of my very birth,
A stray idea that has broken loose,
And brought myself upon the Earth!

In forest thickets, near an arduous cliff,
Bored with the world, engulfed in myth,
A handsome artist, single of his kind,
Lied there, where countless people lied.
Unlike to them, he lived with smile,
Amongst them - only one alive!
He stretched and smirked and in a wink,
Sprung up to dare the moonlight’s blink.
The poet spoke and through his deed,
A raven’s tale has been conceived.

“No longer prisoner of fate!
No puny human, but a saint!
I have forsaken mortal ties,
And arid wounds, and wretched lies!
I shall no more abide their play!
My life is mine, in night and day!

Once was I like the rest - a shapeless, lonely, worthless form,
Creator’s jest, a petty worm,
Who squabbled over lowly needs and sins,
And who one day will have no other fate,
But to lie down beside his lifeless mate.

Enough! Arise my ravens, let them hear,
A song so soothing to the ear!
I’ll march the world as your supreme,
A valet to the dark and grim,
For all the eerie things - messiah.

Keep watch, my blackened birds,
Applaud my reckless feats!
There is no need for their accords,
Those of my own I’ll follow leads!”

And through the wind, the tale has spread,
Across the errant minds of land,
Of one, alive or maybe dead,
Of one, who ravens tamed by hand.

To devil’s genuine adore,
A rusted bird takes wing ashore.
And fazed not with the waves below,
Dark raven soars the sky alow.

A tribute accompanies the cry.

A board left delayed and mocked by the skies
Waited and waited, blob sweating dry
Ending seemed frayed, suspected of lies
The day of reckoning would be a surprise

The history of a writer most craven
In a channel no one could possibly behave in
But pen to paper, an experience most braven -
By showing the tale of a meticulous raven

They rejoiced at the ending, a final poem
Before the channel was sealed all alone
Replaced by mechanical sights and lines of cursive shown
"Seal the board!" they continued to moan,
so the writer had a choice unknown:
Even with the ending posted, and the board fully hosted
GPU busted, GM's distrusted
Why not keep it open for a little bit longer?
Maybe a day, a week, to keep the interest stronger?

What not a single one would know
Was that the board would never forgo
The real reason it was so slow
A raven's speed depends on its previous flow
And this raven's quickness was always below
No assistance, as its feathers would go
Dark raven flies low