Murder Party · ready to clone
A scenario by Murder Maker
For four centuries the dragon Vespergild has ruled Greywater Vale not by fire but by ledger: every fief pays tithe, and she remembers every coin ever owed. Tonight is the Century Tithe — the once-in-a-hundred-years Weighing, when every delegation carries its tribute into the mountain and the ward seals until the count is done. Mid-Weighing, the unthinkable: the dragon grays and dies upon her own hoard. The ward holds until dawn. Locked in with a dead god, a mountain of gold and a clutch-egg, the Vale must decide before the seal fails: who killed her — and who may touch the hoard?
Vespergild the Gilded Tyrant
Victim NPC
The ancient wyrm of Greywater Vale, four centuries its ruler by ledger rather than fire. She remembered every coin ever owed by every fief, and once a century she said the numbers aloud. She lies dead upon her own…
Coinmaster Aldous Wexley
Suspect
Hereditary tithe-reeve of Greywater Vale, thirty years in office — the man whose cords, seals and key-lantern moved every fief's tribute from sealing-yard to vault door. Urbane, exact, and tonight loudly grieving 'the…
Ser Brannoc Ilde
Suspect
The last sworn dragonslayer of the age. Seven years ago he swore before three courts to kill Vespergild in honorable challenge, and he came to the Century Tithe to lodge that challenge at the Weighing's close. Now she…
Scribbet the Majordomo
Witness
Kobold majordomo of the Undervault, sixty years its keeper. In worshipful imitation of his mistress he copied every tithe into shadow-manifests of his own — devotion in ink. Small, precise, and shattered with grief.
Baroness Merewen of Ashfall
Suspect
Baroness of the poorest fief in the Vale, three tithes in arrears. The Weighing would have named her shame aloud before everyone — and the coin that killed the dragon was found in HER chest. The room's second-favorite…
Hierophant Sylla Veil
Suspect
Hierophant of the Order of the Unhatched Dawn, the mountain-fringe congregation that worships the wyrm as a living god. She led the blessing of the tithe-chests in the Gallery on the eve. Tonight she is incandescent —…
Maghda Forgebright
Suspect
The Vale's licensed scale-smith, buyer of shed scales at every Tithe — hers is the only forge hot enough to work true dragon-relic gold. Her prized apprentice vanished a month ago, mid-commission. She came to the…
Assayer Fenwick Pryce
Detective
Certified appraiser of the Assayers' Guild, summoned to certify the Weighing. The only outsider in the mountain whose loupe can tell grave-gold from true coin — which tonight makes his tongue the most expensive object…
Sela of the Fold
Witness
Shepherd-elder of the Fold, the one village in the Vale exempt from tithe by the dragon's ancient favor — and hated for it by every paying fief. She carried no chest into the mountain, only the charter that keeps her…
Lady Vessa Quill
Suspect
A polished envoy 'from the river-courts downstream', present to observe the Century Tithe as a neutral courtesy. Charming, moneyed, impossible to place, and always exactly where the interesting conversation is.
Herald Oriane
Suspect
The dragon's human herald and voice, raised from a foundling child inside the Undervault. The delegations bow to her out of habit and resent her out of principle. Tonight she is orphaned twice over — and rumored to be…
Widow Hetta Croft
Witness
Last widow of Emberfold, the one village Vespergild ever burned, forty years ago. She walked into the mountain to lay a blood-price claim at the Weighing — the single soul in the Undervault glad the wyrm is dead, and…
Tam Whistler
Character NPC
Maghda Forgebright's vanished apprentice — the best hands in the Vale, missing a month, gone mid-commission without a word to anyone. His name keeps coming up tonight, and he is not here to answer.
Four centuries of rule, one village burned. Its last widow walked into the mountain to collect.
Something in the hoard is still warm.
They say the tyrant left a will. They say a mortal name is on it. They say a great many things in a sealed mountain.
The count never lies — that was the whole religion of Greywater Vale. So why do tonight's numbers keep flinching when anyone looks at them twice?
Ser Brannoc swore before three courts to kill the dragon in honorable challenge. Somebody stole his murder — unless nobody did.
The forge's best apprentice vanished a month before the Tithe, mid-commission. His master came to the mountain anyway.
Old law is plain: a slain dragon's hoard is prize; a murdered dragon's hoard is cursed. One word decides everything — and everyone came into the mountain with a preference.
For four centuries the dragon Vespergild has ruled Greywater Vale not by fire but by ledger: every fief pays tithe, and she remembers every coin ever owed. Tonight is the Century…
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