Maupiti Island - The Cast and Events

By Ilmari

I pondered long time what would be the best way to present these investigations. If I had just written down what I have been doing, it would have made for a boring story: “Stood on a beach for two days, first, there was no one to be seen, but then Chris came in sight and after him Bob, then Bob went away, but Anita arrived with Sue”. Instead, I decided just to write down what I have managed to learn about the denizens of the island and about the events unfolding during the game.

Cast

Bob

Bob is the captain of the Brisban, the yacht with which Jerome Lange also arrived to the island. He is
known as a good sailor and he had a relationship with the missing woman, Marie. Since Bob says that he doesn’t particularly like the island, we might assume it was Marie that kept Bob coming back to it. Indeed, Bob is said to be devastated by Marie’s disappearance and he spends a lot of time walking around island and calling her name.

Anton

Anton is the second-in-command of Brisban. He appears an easy-going character and a good sailor. He has a more positive view of Maupiti than Bob and thinks the island was a paradise before Europeans ruined it. Anton is also known as having a strong interest in the opposite sex.

Bruce

Bruce is the captain and owner of Bamboo, a fishing boat that landed on Maupiti, because of the storm. This isn’t the first time Bamboo is on Maupiti, and Bruce likes the place very much. He is a drinking buddy of Bob. Bruce is said to be stingy and he has a racist streak. Some people suggest he is getting a bit old for sailing, and indeed, he spent the whole time of the storm locked in his cabin. But the real scoop is revealed by Bruce himself.

And you are telling me this why?

Yes, Bruce is apparently a virgin. What I find most remarkable is his ease in sharing this. I mean, it doesn’t happen every day that when you ask people about themselves, they at first reveal facts about their love life (or in this case, absence of it). I am wondering if Bruce is just trying to make a pass on Jerome.

Roy

Roy is the second-in-command of Bamboo and apparently the person who really keeps the boat running. Roy doesn’t really like Maupiti, because he prefers big ports, but he is still liked by the people living in the island, because he is willing to spend his money big time, whenever he wants to have fun.

Chris

Chris was hired to Bamboo by Bruce just couple days ago - a decision Roy was very much against. Chris is said to be too pretty to be a sailor, and indeed, he openly admits he hasn’t any experience in sailing. This is his first time in Maupiti and he seems to enjoy exploring it. Some people even suggest he is a bit of a snoop, always asking for more information about the island.

Maguy

Maguy is the lady running Maupiti Island, although it is not very clear what business she is running. Apparently she requires lot of helping hands, since she tells Lange that she often doesn’t have enough girls to satisfy the demand. Whatever she is doing, it must be quite respectable, since all characters describe her a devoted Christian - except Bob, who has a different suggestion.

I'm not convinced until I find more proof

Maguy has a special relationship with Bruce, and people are suggesting they might make a great couple.

Bob, you are always the romantic

Maguy even tells Lange that she and Bruce have done all things imaginable together, but considering her Christianity and his virginity, this must mean something quite innocent.

Anita

If you were at loss about the economical foundation of Maupiti Island, Anita’s confession makes it clear - she is nothing but a cheap prostitute working for Maguy. Otherwise, Anita is a person who arouses lot of emotions, and Bob is especially negative about her. Anita is also a devout communist just waiting for the revolution.

Yo proletarians, shake it up!

Sue

Sue is described as a beautiful and hard-working girl, which sounds a bit depressing, when you consider the job she is stuck up with. Sue at least seems a bit more high-class professional than Anita, and she is liked by everyone. Apparently Sue had a flair with Bob, until he switched her to Marie. Sue is still in love with Bob, which is one of the reasons why Anita, Sue’s best friend, is in bad terms with Bob.

Juste

Juste is the only man living in Maupiti Island and is apparently the last in the line of Maupiti natives. He works as a handyman for Maguy and is described as an innocent savage (talk about stereotypes).

Marie

Finally, the reason why Lange had to be awakened or the girl who is kidnapped - Marie. Apparently Marie also worked for Maguy, although Maguy says she felt Marie was like her own daughter. Marie was a heavy smoker and used to have a cigarette and drink tea every night, before going to sleep. She was also very fond of diving and liked to listen music with her mechanical piano.

The reasons for Marie’s disappearance are far from clear, since she had no real enemies and almost everyone adored her. The exception to this rule is Anita, who disliked Marie, probably because she and Bob became an item, which made Bob abandon Sue. Bob had also recently had an argument with Marie.

Events

At the night between 30th and 31st of January, storm was rising in Indian Ocean. Brisban, yacht carrying Jerome Lange, was caught in it, and its captain, Bob, decided to find shelter in Maupiti Island. At the same time, fishing boat Bamboo was caught in the exact same storm, its hull was broken and the boat was forced to go to Maupiti also.

During the same night, tensions were high in Maupiti also. Marie had had a fight with Bob about her occupation and she had seemed rather occupied, Just like every night, Maguy prepared tea for Marie. Maguy left the cup to cool for a while, and when she came to pick it up, she noticed it had moved a bit. Without thinking about this a lot, she took the cup of tea to Marie. All went asleep, but Sue woke up to some noises at night, and Juste, the handyman, heard a cry from a bird of a bad omen.

In the morning of 31st, Marie was gone, her window had been broken and Bob had received a letter from her kidnapper. Maguy heard famous detective, Jerome Lange, was aboard Brisban and asked him to investigate Marie’s disappearance.

Morning began in Maupiti, at 10 am, with Juste going out to check his fishing nets.

Bruce, the captain of Bamboo, woke up also and went to a cigarette on the deck of Bamboo. Bruce heard the new sailor, Chris, discussing with someone loudly in his cabin. Chris himself says that he was still fast asleep at the time, but when Lange points out that Bruce heard him, Chris has an explanation.

Slowly, everyone else started to wake up. Sailors started to work at 11 am, except Chris, who was still down in his cabin - Roy was cursing aloud that he had to do all the work on Bamboo. Bruce went to stroll on the beach and Bob started searching for Marie on the island.

At the same time, the women of the Maupiti had gathered in the kitchen. Maguy was preparing a tasty dish, but Sue and Anita noticed she had been crying.

At 12 am, Chris finally showed up. Everyone present could see that Roy was upset with him.

At 1 pm, it was time for lunch at Maguy’s place. The atmosphere was tense, and everyone present could see Maguy’s red eyes. All ate for an hour, except Bob, who had once again gone looking for Marie, and Chris, who took the liberty to sneak in and search Anita’s room.

After lunch, the company dispersed. Roy went to meet Sue in her room and began pestering her.

After a while, Sue gave in to his pleas.

"What were you doing under their bed?"
"Your honour, I was merely observing."

Poor Juste in his cabin was alone, like usual, with only a magazine to comfort him.

And the old pervert, Jerome Lange, is watching.

At 3 pm, Roy left Sue and went in Marie’s room - apparently just to pick his nose where no one could see it. Chris continued his snooping around, this time in Juste’s cabin, while he was tending the garden of the island. Anita and Sue were lying on the beach.

Bob had come to talk with Maguy about Marie. Maguy told Bob she had a premonition about the events. Bob said he was sure Anita had something to do with the kidnapping, but Maguy could not believe it.

Bob left Maguy at 4 pm and went to look for clues in Marie’s room, Maguy went to drown her worries in bottle. Bruce came to see her.

After a while, you could hear the two making some funny noises in the bed - the innocent man and the saintly woman were probably reading comics under cover.

At 5, Bruce left Maguy to have a drink at the bar, and Roy noticed he was looking quite nervous. But Bruce wasn’t the only one, as tension was running high with everyone. Bob was regretting his earlier decisions.

At the same time, Anita showed to Sue an article about white slave trade and muttered: “You know that we are next on the list”. Yes, there’s apparently white slave trade going on. Not in Maupiti, but in Seychelles, quite near Maupiti. Sue was clearly frightened about the idea of being caught by slave traders.

Juste had gone back fishing, and at 6 pm, he caught something weird in his nets. Sue was there to witness the whole event and said that it was some type of odd mess of yellow algae. Juste himself denied that anything odd had happened and when he was told about Sue’s observation, he noted merely that he often catches algae and throws it back to sea. Roy was also at the beach and said he saw nothing special. After a meeting with Jerome Lange’s right fist, Roy admitted that he saw Juste lift something from the sea.

Algae? I'm not convinced.

Back at Maguy’s house, conflict was taking place. Bob was shouting to Anita in her room: “Tell me where she is”. Anita answered: “I don't know”. Bob wasn’t satisfied with this. “You will pay for this”. Anita tried to convince him: “Because I don't know anything”.

I like it how the different characters have so varying descriptions of the same incident

The sounds of their fight were heard in the next room, where Chris and Sue were having a fruitless conversation. “Tell me about Maupiti”, Chris was asking. Sue had something else in mind: “We have better things to do”. But Sue’s suggestions fell on deaf ears, since Chris had something else on mind: “What do you know about the cargo of the ships?”. Sue had nothing to say. When Jerome Lange later asked Chris about his strange questions, Chris defended himself by saying that as a new person he had to learn himself about the ways of the island.

While all of this was going on at Maguy’s, something odd happened at 6.30 pm. If Jerome Lange would have gone to check Marie’s room at that time, he would have been killed. Going to Marie’s room after 7 pm, he saw someone had broken Marie’s bookshelf. No one really knew what was taken out of the shelf, but surely it must have been something important.

Meanwhile, Juste returned from fishing and many witnesses report that smoke was rising from his house. Something was burning - perhaps some strange algae?

At 8 pm, it was time for dinner. Maguy saw something odd happening between Chris and Juste - when Chris tried to sit next to Juste, Juste moved away.

While others were eating, Roy and Bob tended to their ships. Roy asked if Brisbane was leaving tonight, but Bob said he wouldn’t set sail, before he had found Marie.

Dinner stopped at 9 pm, and things began to quiet down. Maguy was heard muttering to herself: “Men are there to pay. So make him pay!” Roy was having fun.

At 11 pm, everyone had left Maguy’s, except Roy, who was still getting wasted. Jerome Lange heard some strange noise at Maguy’s salon at the time, like a piano had been played, but he was knocked out, when he went to investigate the matter. Soon after that, Roy staggered out of the Maguy’s and walked toward the pier.

Date turned into 1st of February. It was the middle of night, but Anita was waiting for someone at the well. Around 1.30 am, she moved in front of Juste’s house, but saw nothing there. Something was happening inside, though, but getting inside would have been lethal. She returned to well at 2.00. Whatever had happened at Juste’s, it continued now at North Beach, which was now a lethal place. Jerome Lange was merely strolling on the pier at the time, and even he was knocked out and dragged to Brisban. Whoever was moving in the night, it was probably not Anton, who was spending the night with Sue.

After that, the night was quiet, although Sue did hear someone getting water at 3 am - she thought it must have been Maguy, who often drank water at that time.

At 5 am, Anton noticed that a strange strongbox had appeared at pond. He went on to discuss about this with other sailors, who appeared incredulous.

But Anton was not mad, since Bob saw it too at 6 am. Jerome Lange went also to see the box at 7 am and was promptly knocked out. After that, the strongbox was gone for good.

But no one had time to think about the strongbox, because something far worse had happened.

Chris had went out for a cigarette, when he noticed Juste’s body in the water. He screamed, and all the other sailors came out. Chris and Anton lifted Juste out of the water, but Bruce wanted nothing to do with the body - he never really liked non-Europeans. Chris saw that Juste’s throat had been cut with a knife and was afterwards thrown into the sea. Anton ran to Maguy’s to tell about the sad news. Anita was devastated: “No, not him! That's not right. That's not possible.” Then she ran away crying about the last of Maupitis. Anton heard a bird of bad luck calling out three times.

Theories about Juste’s killer were presented. Bob was sure it had all something to do with Marie’s kidnapping, while Anita suggested it would have been Marie obviously, but she was indeed kidnapped. Anton thought it must have been Bruce, because of his racist tendencies, while Maguy suspected Chris, because everything had gone to pieces, when he arrived.

At 9 am, Maguy went out to find Anita and told her to come to salon at 10.30. After that, Anita ran into Bob and they had another fight.

At 10 am, Maguy had gathered almost everyone to her salon. Suddenly, gunshots were heard from the beach, where Roy and Chris were spending time together. Just at the moment, Roy was interrogating Chris.

Before Chris could answer, he noticed someone with a weapon. Chris threw Roy to ground and was himself shot at by an unknown assailant. The shots missed.

Roy ran immediately to Maguy’s and told about the incident. Many people mentioned Roy looked like he had seen a ghost. Chris appropriated the gun that the assailant had dropped. went looking for the shooter and joined the others later. He discussed with Anita and Maguy about something that Lange could not hear - the ocean drowned their voice. Later on, Anita and Maguy insisted that Chris had just asked them about Maupiti. In private, Maguy had something else to say to Anita.

At 12 am, Bob and Chris went to look at the strongbox, but it had disappeared. “Strongbox was here”, Bob tried to say, but Chris just smiled. Anton joined them and was equally surprised.

When asked about strongbox, no one knew anything, except Maguy, who mentioned that Bruce had had a strongbox, which was sealed shut and which Bruce had tried to open in vain.

Lunch started at 1 pm and atmosphere was again quite heavy. Anita talked about nothing else but Juste, while Bruce appeared quite nervous and became more and more drunk.

After lunch, people went on to their business. Bob went searching for some tracks, while Anton was lost in his thoughts at the garden. Sue and Anita went to the beach again.

When Maguy joined them, Sue and Anita told her they were leaving with the first possible boat. Maguy said she was not holding them back. “Don’t blame us”, Sue asked.

At 4 pm, Chris, Bob and Roy were discussing in the garden. Chris wanted to know, if Bob suspected someone, and Bob admitted he was, but that he didn’t have any proof. Later on, Roy had something to ask from Chris in private.

At 5.30 pm, Anton went to meet Anita and told her that she and Sue should prepare for leaving at 11 pm. After that, they comforted each other with the warmth of their bodies.

All the afternoon, Bruce had been wondering the island and talking to himself aloud. Around 6.30 pm he came to beach and saw something.

People were spending their time in Maguy’s salon, waiting for the dinner. Sue was saying to Anita, how sorry she feels for Maguy, who will be so lonely when they leave. Bruce stumbled in, crying and with vomit on his face. “I’ve found Marie’s body”, he told everyone, “we are all going to die”. Bob ran immediately to the beach and Maguy tried to follow him, but Bruce prevented her - this was no sight for women. Anton went to inform Chris and Roy who were at their boat. Bruce joined Bob who was just burying the dead body.

The discovery of the corpse was an emotional affair. Many people accused Lange of not doing his job properly. The body had had no signs of violence, but Bob was sure that the death could not have been an accident, since Marie was great swimmer. Everyone assumed it was Marie’s body, although the figure was so mangled that no one could have recognised who it really was.

After this final tragedy, no one wanted to stay on Maupiti. At 11 pm, authorities arrived from the continent and Jerome Lange’s work was done.

This concludes all I could find out just by talking with everyone and observing the events around me. Next time, it’s time to find some physical evidence.

Session Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours