Ski Lodge Murder Mystery
The Neopets Team is yet again in peril as one of their own is killing them off one by one.
Plot
The original idea for the plot has long since been lost to time, but it served as a very interesting, rather dark, and fairly egotistical outing, as many plots were back in the earlier days. TNT wished to vacation at the Terror Mountain Ski Lodge around the time Terror Mountain was originally created (rather, around the time the peak became available to the public; it was possibly this plot that gave rise to the name, or this name that gave rise to the plot). However, the idyllic mountain retreat soon proved to be the scene of many gruesome murders as the staff members found themselves dropping like flies in varied and somewhat disturbing modes of murder.
Over the course of sixteen weeks, the Neopets staff were murdered, on average of two per week, until the final stand off came when the only two remaining were Beader and Maverick; Beader, having found Maverick's hidden laboratory below the Ski Lodge, watched as Number Six was killed by being dropped off of a cliff, whereupon Maverick planned on killing Beader to finish his plans. Beader happened upon a lever which conveniently dropped a cage on Maverick, ending his reign of terror far too late.
Maverick was carried away by the police Chia force, but unexpectedly exploded, revealing himself to be a robot duplicate. The command was issued by a green skinned figure (no doubt Dr. Sloth, and this plot may have been one of the earliest uses of this particular villain)
Murders
The murder victims, in order of death:
- Electric Blue Monkey: Week one, Thursday; pushed down stairs.
- Black Widow: Week two, Monday; asphyxiation/strangulation.
- Bubbles: Week two, Thursday; blunt force trauma (beaten with a candlestick, a la the board game Clue).
- Cookie: Week three; crushed by a loaded shelf of kitchen utensils.
- Cupcake: Week four, Monday; impaled by spears.
- Jasmine: Week four, Thursday; blunt trauma to the head.
- Scarlet O'Lara: Week five, Monday; drowned.
- Snowflake: Week five, Thursday; asphyxiation (stuffed head first in one of the pipes draining into the indoor pool; the image works as a fairly shocking contrast to the thus-far 'passive' death scenes).
- Pop Tart: Week six, Tuesday; incinerated (by Exploding Potions).
- Sweet: Week six, Thursday; crushed by a falling anvil (in the style of a cartoon).
- Mr. Plaid: Week seven, Tuesday; assumed asphyxiation (his head was stuffed into a filled pot of food).
- Dr. Thor: Week seven, Friday; hypothermia.
- Bye-Gon Jinx: Week eight, Tuesday; severed midway up the torso (presumably in a light sabre battle). This marks the start of the more 'gruesome' deaths (though the earlier deaths were fully illustrated, the only one noted to stand out before this as a particularly graphic death was Snowflake's demise).
- Snot: Week eight, Firday; consumed by a Utility Fish.
- J. Boogie: Week nine, Monday; impaled by a light sabre.
- Monster Boy: Week nine, Friday; crushed by a large Mystery Island tiki head statue.
- Wolverine: Week ten, Monday; hanged.
- Mr. Insane: Week ten, Thursday; poisoned.
- Lazarus: Week eleven, Monday; hyperthermia.
- Mister Pickles: Week eleven, Thursday; decapitated.
- Dom: Week twelve, Monday; electrocuted and preserved in formaldehyde.
- Dave Scorcheski: Week twelve, Thursday; cleaved through the cranium.
- Mr. Roboto: Week thirteen, Monday; trisected.
- Rhiannon: Week thirteen, Thursday; fell from a cliff.
- Tiger Catcher: Week fourteen, Monday; sucked down the drain.
- Jimmy James: Week fourteen, Thursday; crushed by a shelf stacked with wine.
- Mr. Black: Week fifteen, Monday; assumed beating (although it's not quite clear).
- The Big Spender: Week fifteen, Thursday; unknown (possible strangulation, but this is purely conjecture based on the presence of the bow near the white chalk outline).
- Mr. Shankly: Week sixteen; cooked alive.
- Number Six: 'Cliffhanger' and 'Finale'; dropped from cliff.
- Maverick: 'Finale'; explosion triggered by Dr Sloth.
The Beader was the only remaining staff member after the ordeal was complete.
Prizes
Prizes were awarded depending on how early you guessed who the killer was; guessing on the first week would net you a much higher prize than guessing on the fifteenth. However, the nature of these prizes and their exact correlation to the game of guesswork are unknown.
Issue 20 of Neopets: The Official Magazine notes the Mutant Kacheek Plushie as one of the prizes, and several photographs (1, 2, 3, 4), books (1, 2, 3) and items featuring Maverick ( 1, 2, 3, 4) share similar URLs and were likely prizes also.
Trivia
- The light sabres, used twice as a murder weapon, resemble Star Wars' Lightsabers very closely.
External Links
- Plot Info: Ski Lodge Murder Mystery
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