Project three confirmed: Finally!

After weeks of back and forth, we FINALLY have a date for our third project: Painting with a Twist!

We’ll be going on Saturday, January 21, at 12 noon to paint Cherry Blossom Rhapsody. The painting was picked by Kerry as this is on her Mighty Life List.

This is an open event, so other people will be there, which means you will need to reserve your spot asap. (We’ve been told there are plenty of seats still available, but they fill up fast.)

Please visit the Painting with a Twist website to reserve and pay for your spot. The cost is $35. If you would prefer to pay over the phone, call (248) 850-7182. Either way, please indicate with RSVP’ing that you are with the “Sandie Allen party.”

As always, we will follow the event with a meal and/or drinks and another round of voting.

Murder Mystery Dinner: Smokey Bear Dearheart

Smokey Bear Dearheart (aka Paula)

Character Name:

Smokey Bear Dearheart

Player Name:

Paula P.

What to Wear:

Something rugged, like you’ve just gone camping

Background:

You are the CEO of Smokestack International, a global multinational firm that controls the largest market share of cigarettes, cigars, and crack pipes.  Up until about three hours ago, you were in God’s country in the Pacific Northwest when you finally received a single bar of cell phone reception.  This is never a good thing.

As soon as your phone made contact with the grid, it went off like a Taliban roadside bomb.  Message after message came flooding through, demanding your attention.  The most notable of these was from your assistant, who informed you that your distant relative—Annie Dearheart, CEO of Finedorn Pharmaceuticals—recently died under mysterious circumstances.  A follow-up message sent shortly after that one revealed that the reading of her will would take place today in no less than three hours’ time!  You are quite certain that she was the controlling stockholder of Finedorn Pharmaceuticals and a major player in the healthcare sector.  Never one to miss out on a major stock offering, you radioed your private helicopter and within a half-hour or so you were airborne and  bound for Annie’s place.

While on the way there, you started mulling a few things over in your mind.  First, you would love to get your hands on that stock.  If Smokestack International also controlled one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, you would stand to make a fortune.  You’d sell kids their smokes in their 20’s and then sell them their cancer treatment in their 60’s.  Get them coming, get them going.  That’s what dad always used to say.

Second, you have heard that another of your distant relatives—Barbara Tuchman Dearheart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author—has quietly been setting up a white collar drug cartel while touring the country promoting her latest book.  According to your sources, her biggest money-maker has been the aphrodisiac Erotic—another fine product of Finedorn Pharmaceuticals.  You admire Barbara’s entrepreneurial spirit and think she’d make a lovely partner.  Perhaps you could appeal to her business sense and strike a deal.  This would be particularly appealing if you could control Finedorn Pharmaceuticals.  Then you’d have access to both the legal and illegal sale of pharmaceuticals, nicotine, and crack.  Just the thought of this makes you smile.  Isn’t America great!

Goals:

1. Acquire Annie’s majority stock in Finedorn Pharmaceuticals, by any means necessary.
2. Form a strategic alliance with Barbara Tuchman Dearheart for the illicit sale of legal pharmaceuticals.

Your items:

1. Cell phone
2. Access to your own personal private helicopter (with pilot!)
3. $30,000 in cash
4. $500,000 in an American bank account
5. Swiss army knife

Your skills:

1. Survivalist—You understand basic and advanced survival skills.  If a situation arises in which you believe this would be useful, notify the GM.
2. Business mogul—You are a financial expert and understand the inner-workings of major corporations.  You can interpret financial documents.
3. Voice of a CEO—You can command someone to do something and they have to obey you.  You cannot force someone to harm themselves, nor force them to do something obviously dangerous.  This is useable three times per game (see GM).

Alicia’s Mighty Life List

1. Eat at a 5 start restaurant
2. Get another tattoo
3. Go fishing for ocean fish
4. Spend a week on a beach with my toes buried in the sand
5. Learn about computers and understand it
6. Have a complete spa day
7. Travel to:
   1. Ireland
   2. England
   3. France
   4. Germany
   5. Greece
   6. China
   7. Africa
8. See the Grand Canyon
9. See Mt. Rushmore
10. Picnic in a historical park
11. Do the haunted pub crawl in Savannah
12. Learn more about American History
13. Lose weight (so I can shop at NY & Co.)
14. Go to Disney with my hubby and daughter
15. Own/Lease a luxury/loaded car
16. Finish my bachelor’s degree
17. Get my master’s degree
18. Pay off all credit card debt
19. Get a great hair-do
20. Get a make-over
21. Gamble like I don’t need the money
22. Go to a Lion’s game
23. Go to a Broadway musical
24. Walk around New York
25. Find a job that pays the bills and is personally rewarding
26. Learn how to change my oil
27. Volunteer to serve/cook for the homeless
28. Stop swearing
29. Learn about Buddhism
30. Shop ‘til I drop in Chicago

Kat’s Mighty Life List

1.  Knit myself a sweater

2.  Hike the Grand Canyon

3.  Hike more trails in Yosemite

4.  Hike more trails in Bryce

5.  Visit Valley of Fire EVERY time I go to Vegas

6.  Spend more than a few hours in Death Valley (hiking, etc.)

7.  Attend the 24 Hours Race at Spa-Francorchamps

8.  Attend Petit Le Mans and not get completely rained out

9.  Attend the Grand Prix of Monaco

10.  Visit the polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba

11.  See a rhino, elephant and giraffe in the wild (i.e., African safari)

12.  Hike to base camp at Mt Everest

13.  Attend a jewelry-making class

14.  Take ballroom dancing

15.  Go on a knitting cruise

16.  Knit myself a skirt

17.  Improve my Spanish

18.  See the bats fly out from the under bridge in Austin, TX

19.  See Iggy & The Stooges every time I can

20.  Visit Copper Canyon in Mexico

21.  Climb the Pyramid of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan in the same visit.

22.  Visit Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Tikal, Palenque, Tulum and Copan

23.  Go back to Egypt and see Luxor, Temple of Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings/Queens, Aswan and Abu Simbel

24.  Go to Petra, Jordan

25.  Go to Manchester, England and lay flowers on Ian’s grave

26.  See all of Spain, and stroll Las Ramblas

27.  Put 100,000 miles on a car I buy brand new (done)

28.  Hike to Machu Picchu

29.  See/Visit Cuzco & Lake Titicaca

30.  Knit for myself more

31.  Have my hardwood floors re-done

32.  Bring my kitchen in the 21st century

33.  Learn to weave

34.  Tour Sweden

35.  Visit the Hermitage Museum
36.  Go to the Guggenheim Museum and the Cloisters

Murder Mystery Dinner: Joan Arcadia Dearheart

Joan Arcadia Dearheart (aka Ursula)

Character Name:

Joan Arcadia Dearheart

Player Name:

Ursula A.

What to Wear:

A puritanical, virginal, modest dress

Background:

You are a no-nonsense, Old Testament fundamentalist, and widely regarded by your relatives as the family crazy person.  You have tried telling them that they will burn in hell for this belief, but so far have had no luck convincing them.  The Bible warned you it would be so.  In fact, the Bible prophesized everything that has happened to you in your life and you consider it to be an infallible source of fact and doctrine.  Whenever you have a question or a concern about something, significant or menial, you consult The Book.  Because it is the fountain of all knowledge, you have written many catchy quotes down on a little piece of paper, which you carry with you everywhere.  Whenever the situation demands it (and let’s be honest, it almost always does), you pull out the paper and put it in God’s words.  The fire and brimstone stuff is your favorite.

When you heard that your distant relative Annie Dearheart had died, and that she might have died at the hands of another, you were inspired by a divine fury.  If you find reliable evidence that someone is responsible for Annie’s death, it will be a sign that God has chosen you to cleanse the murderer’s soul with the edge of your sword.  God didn’t say “eye-for-an-eye” because he was having an off day, you know.

Although you aren’t even certain that Annie was killed, you are certainly not above wild speculation.  You are pretty convinced she was murdered by Mary Chastity Dearheart—distant relative and Annie’s former personal assistant.  It’s always the unassuming assistant.

You’ve decided to use the reading of Annie’s will tonight as an opportunity to both investigate her mysterious death and drum up support for your proselytizing missions.  Perhaps you can convince the others to pledge monitory support for God’s army.   Generous donations to the church should be rewarded commensurately.

Goals:

1. Confirm whether Annie was murdered.  If she was, then kill the person who killed her.
2. Gather $100,000 or more in financial pledges from your family to support your (God’s) divine missions.

Your items:

1. Sword (legally worn)
2. Edged weapon permit
3. A list of your favorite Bible quotes from the Old testament
4. Pad of paper
5. Pen
6. A ledger for listing each person’s name and pledge amount, with signature space

Your skills:

1. Fluent in English and French
2. Commandment—If someone agrees to do something for you, and puts it in writing, they must do it (see GM)
3. Swordplay—You are an expert with the sword, and auto-win all hand-to-hand combat when using a sword vs. untrained fighters

Murder Mystery Dinner: Killa Bill Dearheart

Character Name:

Killa Bill Dearheart

Player Name:

Sandie A.

What to Wear:

Ninja / martial arts outfit or an asian-themed dress

Background:

You are a ninjutsu instructor and an expert in martial arts.  You also happen to be a psychopath.  You like killing people because it is funny.  But the trick is that you like to keep it subtle.  Half the fun is getting everyone to try and figure out who did it!   And wouldn’t you know it—someone’s beaten you to the punch and killed poor Annie Dearheart before you could.  You tried to kill her last Christmas, but she skipped out on the holiday party early.  Oh well.  Now she’s dead and you might as well capitalize.

With all the attention directed at her, now is the perfect time to start knocking off a few pieces of dead wood from the old family tree.  It doesn’t really matter who, honestly.  You know what might be fun?  Getting everyone to believe that Annie has come back from the dead intent on exacting revenge on the family for letting her die!  Last night you stole a bunch of stationary from her office and tonight at the reading of Annie’s will, you are going to start dropping notes “from Annie” in conspicuous places.  Oh, and of course you’ll try to kill a bunch of people too.

Although you are a master of martial arts, you loathe overt methods of killing, preferring instead things like poison powder and “unfortunate accidents”—the more creative, the better.  When everyone is filing in the door tonight, it would be a great opportunity to drop some poison in some fool’s drinking cup (TALK TO THE GM AT THE START OF THE GAME TO CHOOSE A PERSON TO POISON)

Goals:

1. Kill as many people as you can without getting caught, one at a time.
2. Try and convince everyone that your killings are the result of Annie, back from the grave to take revenge on her family for letting her die.

Your items:

1. Pad of paper with Annie’s seal and name
2. Pen
3. 2 doses of lethal poison (sugar in baggies) that, if ingested, will cause death.  Cannot be used for the first 2 hours of game time (see GM)
4. 2 doses of sedative poison (sugar in baggies) that, if ingested, will cause the victim to fall unconscious for 10 minutes of game time (see GM).
5. Dagger (illegally held)
6. Concealed carry permit (for the dagger, forged)
7. $100 in cash

Your skills:

1. Poison use (immune to poison)
2. Forgery (can write in the handwriting of any character in the game—talk to GM)
3. Stealth (Can become invisible for 5 minutes of game time twice during the game)
4. Dagger use (Expert with dagger, auto-win in hand-to-hand combat with dagger vs. untrained others)
5. Fluent in English and Japanese

 

Murder Mystery Dinner: Ruth Madoff Dearheart

Ruth Madoff Dearheart (aka Piper)

Character Name:

Ruth Madoff Dearheart

Player Name:

Piper V.

What to Wear:

You are a banker and financier.  Dress fancy!

Background:

You have worked as a banker for about 10 years and are very, very good at your job.  So good in fact that you decided to use your financial know-how to extract a little cash from dear old Auntie Annie.  Now you didn’t know Annie very well on a personal level, but you did know that up until her recent and untimely death she was the CEO of Finedorn Pharmaceuticals, a multi-billion dollar multi-national conglomerate.  You figured she wouldn’t miss a few million dollars and you were right.  She never suspected a thing.  After a little creative accounting, all orchestrated through Annie’s trusted and duplicitous personal assistant Mary Chastity Dearheart, and all that money just up and vanished into an unmarked Swiss bank account.  To use any of the money in the account will require a co-signature from Mary.  You made an arrangement with Mary that you both would skip town as soon as it seemed safe to do so, and then buy a small island in the Caribbean to live out the rest of your days sipping Piña Coladas and eating coconut-flavored chocolates.

The only problem is: Annie’s dead.  And if you leave now, you will almost certainly get blamed for the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.  So you are going to have to cover your tracks.  Somewhere are the financial documents that detail the gory paper trail of your misdeeds.  You need to find them and destroy them.

But you aren’t about to quit there—why should you stop at a measly two million?  You are quite certain that Annie had a lot more money lying around—money that your accomplice Mary might not know about.  Perhaps you can find some clues in Annie’s journal that might lead you to the hidden treasure.  You have to share what you’ve taken so far with Mary—a little extra for yourself on the side is never a bad idea!

Goals:

1. Help Mary Chastity Dearheart find the financial documents detailing your creative accounting and destroy them before you are caught.
2. Locate Annie’s journal and determine the location of the rest of Annie’s money.  Do not let Mary know that you are doing this.

Your items:

1. Laptop with 3G connection
2. Cell phone
3. Handgun (illegally held)
4. $10,000 in cash
5. $2,000,000 in a Swiss bank account (requires a co-signature with Mary Chastity Dearheart to access)

Your skills:

1. Financial expert—You understand the inner-workings of banks and financial institutions, and can interpret complex financial documents.
2. Swindler—Whenever you engage in a financial transaction, you can force the other party to give you double what they agreed upon, and you only have to give them half of what you agreed upon.
3. Fluent in German, English, and French

Murder Mystery Dinner: Marie Curie Dearheart

Marie Curie Dearheart (aka Kerry)

Character Name:

Marie Curie Dearheart

Player Name:

Kerry S.

What to Wear:

Dress like a scientist.

Background:

You are an exceptional chemist and a brilliant mind.  You worked as a chemist for Finedorn Pharmaceuticals for ten long years and are responsible for quietly developing many of their most successful blockbuster drugs.  The latest of these is the powerful male / female aphrodisiac, Erotic.  Since its release, Finedorn Pharmaceuticals stock has skyrocketed and the company has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars.  Not that you received any thanks, of course.  In fact, you didn’t get a single phone call.  When the company announced recently that it would be downsizing “non-essential personnel”, you deleted the email and paid it no attention.  It wasn’t until they were hauling your things out the front door in plastic crates that things finally hit home.  Those bastards fired you!  After all you’d done for them!

You asked them for an explanation, but they wouldn’t give you one.  In fact, when you walked out the front door, you are pretty sure you saw your biggest competitors snickering at you.

Well you’ll show them.  What does a girl do when someone tries to take her down?  She gets revenge, of course.  Let’s see how well they do without their CEO, Annie Dearheart.  You sent her an envelope filled with Anthrax last week and now the company is in total disarray.  Yes, it was kind of hard murdering your aunt, but you can’t make an omelet without sending a family member into respiratory collapse, now can you?

Tonight is the reading of dear old Annie’s will, so you are going to pop by and see what kind of goodies she might have left you for your services.  Oh, and while you’re there you might as well go ahead and take out a few other Finedorn favorites, like Annie’s secretary Mary Chastity Dearheart, and her good old doctor, Fraurline.

Ah, revenge sure is fun, ain’t it?

Goals:

Don’t let the others figure out that you are the murderer.
Kill off Mary Chastitiy Dearheart, Annie’s former assistant, without getting caught if possible.
Kill off Fraurline Err Dearheart, Annie’s former doctor, without getting caught if possible.

Your items:

1. Pocket chemistry kit
2. Pen
3. Pad of paper
4. Gas mask
5. Three bottles of Erotic
6. Plastic gloves

Your skills:

1. Chemist I—You can identify any pill or chemical by studying it for five minutes of game time (see GM).
2. Chemist II—You can create one of the following chemicals using your pocket chemistry kit.  You can create up to three chemicals per game (you may repeat the same chemical if you wish).

• Poison gas—This kills everyone in the same room as you (including you if you are not wearing a gas mask) the moment it is created.  The gas dissipates after 5 minutes.  This cannot be used during the first two hours of game play.  This takes 10 minutes of game time to create (see GM).
• Sleeping gas—This puts everyone in the same room as you asleep (including you if you are not wearing a gas mask) the moment it is created.  The gas dissipates and wears off after 5 minutes.  This takes 5 minutes of game time to create (see GM).
• Charm potion—This forces whoever drinks it to have strong feelings of trust and respect for you.  They will view everything you say and do in an extremely positive light.  This effect ends if you threaten them or they are exposed to physical danger.  This takes 5 minutes of game time to create (see GM).

Murder Mystery Dinner: Mary Chastity Dearheart

Mary Chastity Dearheart (aka Kat)

Character Name:

Mary Chastity Dearheart

Player Name:

Kathleen E.

What to Wear:

Formal business suit

Background:

You are the personal assistant of Annie Dearheart, CEO of Finedorn Pharmaceuticals.  Last week, someone sent Annie a letter filled with a mysterious white powder.  Thankfully, you detected the substance right before Annie opened it, sparing her whatever terrible thing was inside.  Annie was horrified at the sight and became convinced that someone in her family was trying to kill her.  Rather than go straight to the police, she had a bizarre twist of insight that perhaps she might be better suited to identify the perpetrator on her own. To this end, she has assumed a cover identity and disguised herself as one Mata Hari Dearheart, distant relative and unassuming bank teller.  You were pretty skeptical that the whole thing would work, but at a family gathering over the weekend, no one was the wiser.

Tonight is the reading of Annie’s will.  Annie (under the guise of Mata) plans to show up and see if anyone gives anything away. You are to be her helper and her eyes and ears.  If you happen to catch anyone talking about Annie’s death, listen closely and take notes.  Whatever you discover would be of great interest to your boss.

But of course you aren’t in this only for her.  What your boss never knew is that you have been helping Ruth Madoff Dearheart embezzle millions of dollars from Annie’s personal accounts for transfer them into an unmarked Swiss bank account. To use any of the money in the account will require a co-signature from Ruth. You made an arrangement with Ruth that you both would skip town as soon as it seemed safe to do so, and then buy a small island in the Caribbean to live out the rest of your days sipping Piña Coladas and eating coconut-flavored chocolates.

The only problem is: Annie’s dead.  And if you leave now, you will almost certainly get blamed for the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.  So you are going to have to cover your tracks.  Somewhere are the financial documents that detail the gory paper trail of your misdeeds. You need to find them and destroy them.

Goals:

1. Help your boss Annie Dearheart determine who tried to kill her.  Do not blow Annie’s cover identity (Mata Hari Dearheart).
2. Help Ruth Madoff Dearheart find the financial documents detailing your creative accounting and destroy them before you are caught.

Your items:

1. Pad of paper
2. Pen
3. Video recorder
4. $100 in cash
5. Two bottles of Erotic (Finedorn Pharmaceuticals’ best-selling aphrodisiac)
6. $2,000,000 in a Swiss bank account (requires a co-signature with Ruth Madoff Dearheart to access)

Your skills:

1. Secretary — You can easily detect forgeries by visual inspection, but this requires 5 minutes of game time (talk to GM)
2. Innocent Smile —You can force someone to honestly answer one question up to twice per game (talk to GM, you must ask the question)
3. Fluent in English

The suspense is killing me!

At lunch following Event #1, after Ursula read my Mighty Life List out loud, another member of the Mighty Girlfriends Club laughed and said to me, “Are you a huge geek or something?”

I took no offense. What could have given her that idea? Honestly, I dress and act like a normal person. I guess it must have been my references to Lord of the Rings, Dune, comic books and Dungeons & Dragons that gave me away. I never considered myself one until adulthood, but the truth is, I guess I am a huge geek.

I think general creativity is a big reason for this. One way I express this is by sitting at a table with four other grownups in my friend’s condo every other Saturday night with a pile of dice, a rule book and a character sheet in front of me, describing in detail the method of ass-kicking my gnomish sorceress Lula will implement during our regular game of D&D. It’s a habit I don’t discuss with just anybody, but I trust you not to judge me, reader. Hear my confession: I love role playing games.

When I heard that Sandie’s Mighty Life List included “go to a murder mystery dinner,” my gears started turning. This was something I should’ve added to my list, too. Others in the group audibly expressed interest, as well, and there we had it. We were going to a murder mystery dinner. We just had to figure out how. I volunteered to do the research.

All the public ones in our region seemed to either close up shop or go away somehow or cost a lot for a ticket, so I asked my friend Matt, whom I knew had written at least one murder mystery-themed party in the past, if he had any advice. “You can buy a board-game type story in a box for a set number of people,” he said, “or there’s always the dinner train.” No, that wouldn’t work for us. Too many people, and we had all women. This should be special.

“My friends and I could always put something together for you if you’d like. Lots of options,” Matt said. Jackpot!

I know Matt through a group of friends who play roleplaying games in the area (thank you geek network!) and I’ve been fortunate enough to participate a couple times in games he has been a part of creating. From this, I know Matt and his friends have serious capacity for trickiness, fun, and fair and organized structure and game mechanics. So the wonderful Ursula helped us with logistical planning, Kat volunteered her historic Dearborn house as a venue, and Matt and his friends got to work.

Tonight is the night of our game and I couldn’t be more excited. This is technically considered a LARP (live action roleplay), so of course I take quiet pleasure in converting my friends to major geeks as well!

Matt hasn’t let me in on a single one of the game secrets, but I do know that he’s written 11 very unique characters who all have their own goals and ambitions, and achieving those will depend on our interactions with the other characters. As I read my character sheet (which is top secret!) I laughed really hard, and other players have described their characters from really funny to “flippin’ hilarious.” I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to act like my persona. For 5 hours tonight, I get to play somebody totally awesome, however the hell I want. I can’t wait.

I’ve got my outfit ready and I’m preparing to go. I’m nervous because I don’t know what to expect and I don’t want to get offed, but I’m excited too. The suspense really is killing me! I just hope I make it to the end. Only time will tell!

- Kerry