Yeah, I’m pretty sure it isn’t Rose bud now, who is the murderer. I was thinking of Viola? too as one of the hosts, but the question is, if she was, say, Summer, would they recognize her? Or does she drink polyjuice potion or something? 

Another thing: If most of the clues seem to point directly to Rose bud, maybe they’re actually pointing indirectly to someone else, like someone else who’s named after a plant, or someone who says things like ‘every rose has thorns’. Or maybe the murderer is using Rose bud somehow, or planning to. Hmm....

Also, my guess about you two are Viola? and Alizarine or someone else? I think?

Day 12

After the shock of finding two dead comrades, no one had explored under the stairs yet. Almost everyone (Spyro wasn't too upset) was sad but still curious, and everyone excluding Fireburst decided to explore the tunnel. Fireburst was still upset over discovering Darkfeather and stayed behind.

The group walked to the front room and Kate-the-Great pressed the button again. I was upstairs and heard the quiet whirring of the steps, but decided to ignore it.

Allie took the first step into the darkness and the light flickered on. Everyone followed.

The first branch of the hall looked similar to the rest of the ryokan. Same floors, same walls- although the lights looked older.

And dimmer.

And creepier.

"These lights look creepier," Pooki noted.

The group turned a corner and were instantly suspicious. This branch of the hall looked similar, but along the inside wall were several curious panels with blocks of wood on the floor underneath them.

"What on earth..." MJ said, and walked up onto one of the blocks. Her eyes lined up with the panel perfectly. MJ noticed a small handle and pulled it. The panel shifted. MJ looked closer- and suddenly gasped and stumbled away.

"What is it?" Allie asked.

"See- see for yourself." 

Allie steped up and gasped as well.

"Oh, for the love of socks!" Spyro exclaimed. "WHAT. IS. IN. THE. HOLE."

Allie stepped off the stool. "It's the sitting area in our room."

Everyone stared. Viola? ran up to the next one.

"Another room!" she said. "This must be Shy Peacock's." 

Everyone scrambled up to various panels and yanked them open. In every one was a scenic view of every sitting area on the first floor.

"There is no way that this is legal," Tux whispered.

"Nothing about this place is legal," Kate said, snapping her door shut. "Come on. There's still another turn and we don't want to get caught."

"Wait, no one's looked in this one yet." Pooki walked up to the last one, which would be the corner of the hallway. Pooki looked through the holes.

"This room looks different."

A painting of a pond filled with lily pads hung on the wall and a tidy desk with a small spider plant sat against the wall.

Rose bud looked through the wall. "You're right," she said. "It looks like an office." 

The group carried on. They all turned another corner and stopped.

"A dead end," said Viola?.

"Only literally," Allie pointed. A piece of paper hung on the wall with three small typewritter-printed words in the center. They all squinted at it in the dim light.

Samantha is next.

Sam gasped and the lights began to flicker. The group ran out of the tunnel in a panic and the lights went out as soon as they rounded the last turn.

The stairs began to close.

In the last second, the last of them ducked under the door as it closed. The button no longer worked.

I walked down the stairs to find everyone shaken and panting.

"Why are you all exhausted?" I asked.

They looked at each other nervously. "We were- exercising," Rose bud said.

"Of course," I replied. "I would like to let you all know that a series of storms is approaching and our solar panels will be somewhat unproductive for the next four days. For this reason I have cut power to more- unneccesary areas of the ryokan so we will have an abundance of electricity for the kitchen, rooms, et cetera in the coming days. This also means that we will have fewer security lights on at night. Summer has placed a basket of flashlights on the front desk for your convenience- and perhaps mine as well. Dinner is in about half an hour." 

I walked arily to the kitchen as the guests continued to catch their breath.

~~~

About halfway through dinner I brought out a beautiful salad. Sam was a bit uptight that evening, but relaxed a bit for dinner.

That was a mistake.

Sam poked a leaf along with the leg of the spider underneath.

San froze- and the spider pounced.

"Oh!" Sam cried. "It bit me!"

Spyro instantly leaped across the table and scorched the entire bowl of salad. 

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" Sam yelled, losing her composure. "Now I don't know what kind of spider it was. What if it's poisonous?! What if it's DEADLY?! How are supposed to find an antidote now?"

Spyro shrugged. "I didn't want to get bitten." 

"What color was it?" Summer asked.

"Um, black and red."

"It was probably a redback. Highly poisonous- but not necessarily fatal. Follow me." 

Sam got up from the table nervously and followed Summer. Everyone else went to their rooms leaving dinner unfinished, particularly the salad.

Tuxedo Kitten visited Sam in her room later that evening.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"I'll live," Sam sighed. "Summer had an anti-venom thing. The spider that bit me was a redback, a cousin of the black widow. They look similar, but if it was a black widow I'd probably be dead by now."

"Where did you go?"

"Oh, you won't belive this. The secret office we saw."

"No!"

"Yes. At least- I think so. I had a terrible headache."

"How did you get in?" 

"There was a panel in the wall of a vacant room that opened to the office. I think I'll go to sleep now, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. See you in the morning."

"See ya."

Tux left and ran to the vacant room, which was suprisingly unlocked. A panel on the wall looked a bit crooked, so she walked over and leaned against it. It opened.

An arrow shot her heart the second she stepped in, and Viola discovered her on the hallway floor outside the vacant room an hour later.

~End of day 12. Death Toll: 20.

Inkling, Eliana, Hibiki Starlight, Rose Bud's Sam, Wildflower, Leeli and Viri- eaten by dragons.  

Jwyn- broken neck.   

Agent Winter- drowned

Dream- strangled

Poison- poisoned

Blue Moon- eaten by a Zeamaizock

Ann- burnined

Byann- crushed

Secret- whacked on the head with a stick

Hotairballoon- fell off a cliff

Darkfeather and Noon- shot by venemous flying darts

Claaws- smothered

Tuxedo Kitten- shot with a arrow

~~~

I apologize for the absurdly long day- this took me an hour to write- but my days in the near future will be much shorter. I will have business to attend to... and of course, a power shortage. 

Isn't it strange how Spyro immediately destroyed the evidence (well, the spider)?

Isn't it strange how he didn't show enough grief or mourning when Hotairballoon died?

Isn't it also strange how (unless I read this wrong) there was an arson in his room, but he got out?

Nobody else has escaped the murderer. 

Day 13

The storms hit around noon.

I had been outside in preparation for the moment. The hot, humid air lifted, replaced by an odd lightness, like the space between waking and sleep. It was lit by a lightning flash. Out rang a thunderclap. Then came the downpour.

Stray guests--Viola?, Sam, Aspen, Rose Bud--ran inside. I made sure the doors were closed behind them, then checked that all the windows were shut. Lunch was served to the sound of distant rain drumming on the roof, tapping on the ground. Occasional bursts of thunder were met with mixed reactions, producing an interesting soundscape of screams, squeals, laughter and even applause. 

"It's Friday the thirteenth," Kate-the-Great said. 

"Oh no, it is!" 

"That's just a superstition."

"What's going to happen that's worse than murders every day?"

"The ryokan could collapse."

"You think so?" 

"Yeah, right."

"Ooh! Double murders!"

"There have already been double murders." 

"More painful murders?" 

"Maybe the murderer will have bad luck and we'll catch them."

"Or they'll fall into their own trap and die."

"I doubt it."

"That would be great!" 

"I don't want to die..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you the murderer?!"

"Aaaah!" 

"What? No! I just don't want to die!" 

"Are you okay?" 

"You're going on my list." 

"Yeah..."

It was good to see that conversation still thrived. 

The power went out shortly after that. It was dark, but not pitch black. I had not closed curtains over any of the windows, and just enough light filtered in to see by despite the clouds. Most of the guests gravitated towards the game room, having little to do but huddle over battery-powered devices and game boards, unless they fancied trying to read, write or draw by window or flashlight beam.

Rose Bud retreated to her room for about five minutes, until she decided that withstanding weird looks and whispers was better than being alone. Sam actually managed it, but everyone else was of like mind.

Allie, MJ, Spyro and Kate began a game of Scrabble, although Spyro's claws made it difficult for him to hold the pieces, and Cockleburr had to do it for him. Meanwhile, Viola?, Pooki P, Aspen, Shy Peacock and Celeste started playing Pandemic. This left Fireburst and Rose Bud to drift between the two groups or around the edges of the room. I stood in the corner and did not pretend that I was not watching. Several guests gave me uncomfortable glances.

The afternoon passed quietly, save for all the ruckus kicked up over games and the rumbling punctuation of thunder. Just after dinner, however, Aspen left her room to check the first secret one. Not five minutes had passed when she screamed.

The candlelit rooms emptied out, everyone on edge. Guests flocked into the front room, milling about in the flashlight-pierced dark. Aspen was not dead. Sam, however, was.  

Sukāretto came then and shooed the guests away. They reconvened in the game room, did a head count--everyone was there, save the dead--and put together that Sam had left the dining room following many other guests, Rose Bud, Allie and MJ among them, and was not seen again until Aspen's discovery. No one knew who had arrived first. It had been too dark to tell. Her body bore several slashing wounds, and lay face-up on the floor. No one had heard her scream. A search of her room revealed nothing more.

~End of Day 13. Death toll: 21.

Inkling, Eliana, Hibiki Starlight, Rose Bud's Sam, Wildflower, Leeli and Viri of dragons.

Jwyn of a broken neck. 

Agent Winter of drowning.

Dream of strangling.

Poison of poisoning.

Blue Moon of a Zeamaizock.

Ann of burning.

Byann of being crushed. 

Secret of a hit on the head.

Hotairballoon of falling.

Darkfeather and Noon of dart venom.

Claaws of smothering. 

Tuxedo Kitten of an arrow.

Sam of bleeding.

Day 14

"Fiddlesticks," I mumbled. "Writer's block."

I was attempting to write a new brochure for the Ryokan, and I simply could not think of anything to write.

I left my room and took the long way around to the gardens. The sky still looked menacing, but the rain had stopped temprorarily, so everyone was in the gardens renaming flowers.

"This one should be called the velvet peeker."

"This one could be Pooki's perennial."

"This one should be named the thorny rose of doom, death, and destruction." (That was Spyro.)

I stepped onto the path. "Hello, all," I said. Everyone turned.

"I am writing a new brochure for the Ryokan and I need suggestions for what to add," I announced. "If you come up with a good idea you get half off on popcorn for the rest of your stay."

"Come visit the scenic death trap?"

"No, no, wait: How about 'beauty, nature, and tradition; doom, death, and destruction'?" 

"Good food; especially if you are a bodybuilder; because the deadly spiders add extra protein!"  

"Creepy passages, hot springs, and evil owners: We've got it all!"

"Wait," I said. "Creepy passages? What creepy passages?"

"Uhh, well, I found some peeky-holes behind the wall hanging in my room that showed a creepy tunnel so I covered the peeky-holes with duct tape." 

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"This is hopeless," I said, and I left the gardens.

"I would like to note that she did not object to the 'evil owners' part," Pooki noted.

~~~

After dinner, when the storms had resumed, Aspen mentioned to Spyro that she would go to the baths.

"That's stupid," Spyro said. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I can't be killed if I'm by myself."

"Who says you'll stay by yourself?"

"Is that a threat?" 

"Nooooo..." 

"Well, guess what?" Aspen said triumphantly. "I just caught you."

"WHAAAAT?"

"Of course the murderer would be an insane AE. Hah! You're in big trouble." 

"No, I'm not!" 

"Okay, sure." 

"i'M nOT!1!" 

...

Five minutes later, Spyro was dead in the baths of a stab wound, blood trickling in spyrols* through the water. Aspen sat on the opposite side of the baths, looking shaken, next to a sword.

Shy Peacock walked in and gasped.

"It was you!" 

"No, you don't understand!" Aspen said. Lighting flashed outside.

Shy Peacock ran from the room and returned with me. Aspen stayed put to try to appear less suspicious.

"Look!" Shy said. "It was her!"

I looked on in silence.

About two minutes later, almost everyone came into the baths, having heard the screaming and having had trouble finding where it came from. Viola? and Rose bud came in five minutes later.

Aspen told them that Spyro and her had argued when an unidentifiable person wearing a black mask came in, stabbed Spyro, and Spyro fell into the water.

"Why do you have a sword next to you, then?" Kate said.

"I was trying to protect myself from the insane AE..." 

I walked over and snatched the clean, gleaming blade from the floor.

"How stupid of me to leave a sword on display," I muttered, and headed straight for the front closet.

~End of day 14. Death Toll: 22.

Inkling, Eliana, Hibiki Starlight, Rose Bud's Sam, Wildflower, Leeli and Viri- eaten by dragons.

Jwyn- broken neck.

Agent Winter- drowned

Dream- strangled

Poison- poisoned

Blue Moon- eaten by a Zeamaizock

Ann- burned

Byann- crushed

Secret- whacked on the head with a stick

Hotairballoon- fell off a cliff

Darkfeather and Noon- shot by venemous flying darts

Claaws- smothered 

Tuxedo Kitten- shot with a arrow  

Sam- loss of blood

Spryo- stabbed with a sword

~~~

*misspelling intentional.