“Spooky,” Brenda said as she and the other NPC who wasn’t playing started giggling. “Does one of the ghosts smoke cigarettes? I swear I smell cigarettes.”

She took the sheet with the illustrations of all of the missing posters for ghosts in the game and started looking over the entry for each one, trying to see if they were smokers.

“You may need to raise your standard for signs of paranormal activity,” Isaac said. “If cigarette smoke is a sign of ghosts, then every bar in town is haunted.”

Brenda fake laughed.

Truthfully, Isaac acting as Cynic here was good. We didn’t need to encourage any plot threads that would pull us away from the game. My guess was that after Second Blood, the players stop playing the board game and start freaking out somehow. That didn’t work for us. We needed to play the game until we had contacted Jed Geist and figured out which of the pokers was used to kill him.

After that, nothing mattered. We just needed the right poker.

Dina rolled double-fives and got to go again. She rolled seven after that. With that roll, she managed to get her cloaked figure in the house, through the great hall, and into the gentlemen’s parlor while picking up three cards as she went.

She immediately played one of the cards, which stated the following:

> “The Wallflower has a habit of following along absent-mindedly, even to their peril. Move them to a square adjacent to yours after you have moved. They must leave any ghost sheets behind.”

This gave Bobby a head start. The card was meant to be a disadvantage, interrupting an opponent as they question a spirit. The ghost sheets represented the ghost on the board. You had to be in the same room as it to ask it questions. We weren’t actually playing against each other, so Dina did this to help him.

“That’s it,” she said.

“No questions?” Serenity asked.

“Nope.”

And so we went on.

Kimberly only got one card and didn’t use it. She was setting her sights on a staircase to get to the second floor.

I rolled a ten and headed for the library. I didn’t quite make it in the door, but I managed to pick up two cards along the way:

> “You overhear the other players talking about you. Search the discard pile for any card with your player archetype on it and choose one to place in your hand.”

And

> “As a naturally curious person, you can ask one question twice in a turn.”

No players had discarded yet, so I didn’t need to use my first card, and I had no question cards so that I couldn’t use my second.

I needed to make sure that I stayed away from the hall closet where Antoine had found the spirit that I suspected belonged to Bradley Speirs, an enemy I had killed by throwing him off a roof into the clutches of vengeful zombies. It was clear that this storyline was not even pretending to be subtle.

We went all the way around. The NPC, Serenity, got double sixes and said, “Can I get in the same square as another player? I want to ask the smoking ghost a question.”

“You can pass by it, but you can’t land on it,” I said.

Antoine was on the only square in the closet, so she was blocked, thankfully.

She huffed and puffed and decided to follow Kimberly up the stairs. Being that she rolled better and rolled doubles, she made it upstairs in one go. She collected four cards along the way. The limit was five before she had to start discarding. She could only ask one question per category per turn unless otherwise instructed.

When she got to the top of the stairs, she played a card that said,

> “You taunt the spirits. Place an Angered ghost sheet in any room. Any players in that room must capture it, calm it, or escape by the end of their next turn, or they will be attacked.”

She ripped off a sheet from the pad of paper and checked a little box that said, “Angered.” Then she put it inside the gentleman’s parlor with Dina and Bobby.

“Come on,” Bobby said. “I don’t even have any cards yet.”

Dina didn’t say anything, but she did give Serenity a look that probably meant anger or annoyance.

Things went back around.

Bobby got a good enough roll to leave the parlor and pick up a card. He was safe. We didn’t know if being killed in the board game meant anything. It was still the Party Phase, so we were safe at the moment, but we couldn’t be too sure.

Antoine rolled enough to get out of the hall closet and make his way down the hall toward the trophy room. On the way, he picked up three cards.

Dina rolled a five, and instead of fleeing the room with the angry ghost, she moved toward it and stepped on a square, which gave her three cards.

One of those cards was a lucky draw.

> “There is safety in numbers. Move to the room with the highest amount of players in it.”

Technically, that was still the hallway at the entrance. She escaped by the skin of her teeth.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Kimberly continued her way upstairs and landed next to Serenity at the top. She collected an additional card but declined to play it.

Cassie had gotten a bad roll at the beginning and hadn’t even collected a card. She got a better roll on her second try and started her way down the hall. She got two cards and seemed happy about one of them.

We were still in the early stages. Soon, we would need to start asking actual questions.

I rolled four and made it inside the library, where I picked up two cards. The library had more special squares than almost any other room, so that’s why I went there.

> “You may ask a question about the weapon used to kill a spirit, but as you do, you notice that the Outsider is right on your tail. If you play this, the Outsider can move to your room and ask about the murder weapon if you fail. You must be next to a window to use this card.”

That wasn’t bad. It was another card designed with the idea that the players would not want to aid their competitors, which just wasn’t the case here. The fact that it required you to be next to a window was interesting. Perhaps it guaranteed that it could only be used in certain rooms, or maybe it ensured that you were all the way in the room before using it, meaning that I could not use it to set a trap as easily.

Whatever the case, I couldn’t use it yet.

My other card was more interesting.

> "This card can be activated whenever you choose. Select a ghost from the board to manifest in physical form. The ghost won't know it has passed away. Players in the same room can ask the ghost questions directly without needing another card for it. However, be careful not to mention or suggest that the ghost is dead, as this will Anger it and cause it to attack."

That sounded familiar.

I must have stared at that card for a while because Serenity nudged me out of my daze.

I started to figure out how this game must work. Eventually, this game must stop being a game, assuming you intentionally take it in that direction by invoking a real ghost. At this point, this card would either help summon a ghost or help players understand what to do when such a ghost appears.

We had already dealt with ghosts who attacked when they found out they were dead. In fact, some of us had been such spirits.

Serenity rolled well and moved into the servants’ quarters upstairs. This was where things started to get spicy.

She drew a card like mine, one that would let her ask a spirit what weapon had been used to kill them. Hers had no strings attached other than that she had to be near a window, which she was.

She played the card.

Instead of selecting one of the little plastic murder weapons from the box, she picked up the boning knife she had brought with her, the very same one her brother swore was used to kill Jedediah Geist.

“Spirit,” she said, winding the bell, “Is this the knife that killed you?”

The bell ticked, but in the end, it didn’t ring.

“Lame!” Brenda said as the bell failed to ring. “You said that was the one.”

“My brother swore it was!” Serenity said.

The third NPC, whose name was Keisha, asked, “Do you think one of these might be it?” She gestured around the room to the numerous weapons lying about. “People have been coming here since he died. One of these has to be it.”

Indeed.

The game moved on. Bobby almost accidentally went back inside the room with the angry ghost but realized his mistake before he did. He managed to pick up two cards but didn’t play either.

Antoine made it to the Trophy Room and asked a spirit in there whether he sought revenge. That must have been all he could do. The answer was yes. Antoine ripped out a ghost sheet and placed it in that room.

Cassie had a question card that let her ask a spirit as many questions as she wanted as long as the answer was yes. She was in the Dining Room when she used it.

She followed in Serenity’s footsteps and grabbed a real weapon. Of course, unlike Serenity, we knew the actual murder weapon was a fireplace poker. She grabbed one with a silver handle. I didn’t think that was it, but I couldn’t be sure. All we had seen was the rest of the set and a blurry picture.

“Is this the weapon that killed you?” Cassie asked.

The answer was no. Her unlimited questions were cut short.

Kimberly found the master bedroom and ended her turn. She didn’t have a murder weapon question.

In playing the game before the storyline, we learned that asking the ghost their name first was a mistake, as other players could come along and ask it again, canceling out your question. The NPC didn’t seem above such an act of sabotage. If you asked for the murder weapon first, you locked the ghost in, and only you could question it.

That was our strategy. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the meta of Reply the Departed. I was sure nerds on the internet would have it all figured out, but I didn't have time to.

Dina took her turn and traveled further down the hall. It didn’t matter. I had other plans for her.

As soon as it was my turn, I moved my character next to the window in the library, picked up a card that let me ask a ghost’s name, and then used the card I got earlier to summon the Outsider to my room and ask about the murder weapon.

It was a good strategy. Dina and I would both get a chance. We could each ask once so we didn’t risk enraging it. I could then ask again because of my repeated question card if I wanted to risk making it angry.

Dina nodded her head as she moved her character into the room.

“Wait,” Serenity said. “Where are Brenda and Keisha?”

She looked around the room. Sure enough, the other two NPCs had wandered off.

“Probably went to the bathroom,” I said.

I got up to select another one of the fireplace pokers. There were two good contenders. Both were the right color, but I couldn’t remember the exact trim.

“I think we should check on them,” Serenity insisted.

We didn’t want that. It was pretty clear that Carousel knew we were on to something, and it was trying to make plot things happen. That would be undesirable on many levels.

“You know,” Isaac said, “I think they ditched us. We’re better off without them.”

Serenity wasn’t pleased, but we pushed forward.

“Spirit,” I asked. “Is this the weapon that killed you?” I held out one of the pokers.

I wound the bell. It didn’t ring.

“I just want to know where they went,” Serenity said. “Then we can finish. I know they didn’t go out the front door. They have to be in the house, right?”

Dina quickly repeated my question but with the other poker.

“Is this the weapon that killed you?” she asked, holding the third poker.

We waited long enough that I thought we had failed.

Then, after what felt like an eternity.

Briiiiinnnnnnggg.

I couldn't help but cheer. We knew that once we had selected the right murder weapon, we would certainly be able to identify the ghost as having belonged to Jedediah Geist. Of course, the bell could have just rung by chance, but that didn't seem likely.

We’d done it. Now, no matter what happened later in the storyline, we had succeeded. We knew which fireplace poker Lillian Geist had used to kill Jed Geist. The same one the mysterious woman had brought to this house to talk to Jed Geist. With the right weapon, we could perform this ritual without triggering the Omen because of our Licenses.

All we had to do was make sure there was no further information in this storyline we needed to know.

Oh, and we needed to survive, but that goes without saying.

We were clapping and cheering at having identified the right poker. It made no sense within the story. Still, we didn’t care.

Somewhere upstairs, a scream sounded so loud it drowned out our celebration. The house shook. It might have just been the wind, but it sure felt eerie. A door slammed as soon as the scream stopped.

I sighed.

We could rescue the NPCs now if we had to.

“Someone had better be dead,” Isaac said loudly for all to hear.

What a coincidence. First blood had just passed.