The Waiter’s Quick Reference Sheet

Suggested Your Activity

Timetable Timetable
7:00 – 7:30 Hand out envelopes.
7:30 Rose E-B welcomes everyone (reading the handout).
7:30 – 8:30 Cocktail party. Dr Bruisyard, Charles, John and Soames get
the results of the test on the wineglass.
8:30 – 8:45 Break for food / nibbles. Chance to speak out of character for
a while (if desired).
8:45 – 9:20 Cocktail party resumes.
Waiter announces that boy has got through with a telegram
for Rose, but conditions outside are still bad.
9:20 – 9:30 Aunt Priscilla announces intentions about the diamonds.
9:30 – 10:00 Chance to clear unfinished business (and end).
10:00 – 10:30 Revealing the murder and prizes.
Poison: To poison someone, the poisoner must have a Poison item card, and the
victim must eat or drink something that the poisoner has handed to them. Give the
victim the “You have been poisoned” card. If a character is poisoned before Aunt
Priscilla announces her intentions, they are in pain and cannot use any of their
abilities. They will survive until either they are cured or shortly after Aunt
Priscilla’s announcement. If poisoned after the announcement, they cannot use any
of their abilities and they have ten minutes to find a cure, otherwise they die. If they
fail to find a cure, tell them a couple of minutes before they die so they can give
themselves a good death scene.

The Three Cardinal Rules

 Is it fun? Will it upset the evening for everyone else? Make it up!
Paintings: There are three copies of the valuable painting about. The real painting is
signed J. Constable. The forgeries are signed G. Constable and James Constable.
The Dazzling Diamonds: The real diamonds are “fabulous”; the fakes are
“sparkling”. To determine if the fakes are fake (or the real ones are genuine), the
person studying the diamonds must play you at scissors-paper-stone and must win
or draw. If the player loses, tell them that they are unable to determine.
Blood groups: The relevant fact relating to Claude and Evie is that someone with
Blood Group AB cannot be the parent of a child with Blood Group O – so Claude
cannot be Evie’s father. Relating to Pris and Dinah, a parent of Blood Group O can
have a child of any Blood Group – so Dinah could be Pris’s daughter, but this doesn’t
prove that she is.
The Climax: Once Aunt Priscilla has announced her intentions about the Dazzling
Diamonds, players have 20 minutes left in which to try to achieve any outstanding
goals, so this may be a busy time. During this period, you may have to arbitrate on
all kinds of disputes – and remember, in this session people can die from poison!
Finishing the game: After the game has finished, this is the sequence to complete
the evening:
 Who is the killer?
 Reveal the murderer
 Prizes (if you want to give out prizes, then do)
Dazzled to Death is copyright © 2004, 2008 Freeform Games LLP www.freeformgames.com
 Welcome and Announcement
[to be read by Rose E-B at the start of the party]
Good evening to you all. My husband and I are really pleased to see everyone here,
both family and friends. Thank you for joining us and sharing in our traditions. I
must say, you all seem to be getting in to the spirit of things.
Usually, as you know, some of us wear masks at this party. It seems that several of
you are planning on joining in this year, as I’ve been hearing that several masked
figures have already been seen around – so thank you, whoever you are, for joining
in the fun.
Please enjoy the evening – we may be trapped by the storm, but we have plenty of
provisions. At 10pm [replace this with a different time if the Waiter tells you to], we
will all get together for a toast to family and friends, and I believe that dear Aunt
Priscilla may have an announcement to make at that point.
Now, as you all know, there has been an unfortunate incident this afternoon. Mr
Jones, who was Mr Miles Earnshaw’s valet, was found dead in the kitchen by Peters,
our cook. It looks as if the poor man has suffered a heart attack. We’re lucky to have
Dr Bruisyard and Charles with his medical studies here to do what they could. As
soon as the storm breaks we will call in the necessary authorities. In the mean time,
I would ask you to try to carry on and enjoy your evening as we had planned.
[Say the following only if advised by the Waiter.] I should also mention that we have
a few absent friends. Unfortunately Christy Crompton, Patrick E-B and Soames
[delete as appropriate] have been unable to make this year’s party. They send their
best wishes and hope to join us next year.

Telegram from Lorraine Milward (the cook)

to Rose Evington-Browne

Lorraine Milward
Crown Street Telegraph Office
Boston

Dear Rose,

Thought I should let you know. Mother not ill at all. Not known who sent original
message. Complete mystery. Am on my way home.

Regards

Lorraine Milward

Dazzled to Death is copyright © 2004, 2008 Freeform Games LLP www.freeformgames.com

 The Solution
[to be read by Aggie Marbles at the end of the party]
“Well, what an evening!
“We’ve had murder, theft and I don’t know how many family secrets have come
back to haunt us. So I’ll start with the biggest secret of all…
“For those of you who haven’t realised, Dinah Peters, our cook, is actually Great
Aunt Priscilla’s daughter. Priscilla gave her up for adoption many years ago, and
Dinah is only here now because Claud van Cad, the man we have been calling ‘Miles
Earnshaw’ all evening, is blackmailing Priscilla. I realised who Dinah was when I
found out that she has the same silver locket that I myself tied onto Pris’s baby, all
those years ago.
“Then there’s the Puma, our notorious cat burglar. The presence in this lodge of
both the Dazzling Diamonds and Constable’s Madonna of the Generous Endowment
was enough to tempt this beast from its lair. The Puma was careful to cover its
tracks, but not quite careful enough – not with the combined forces of the FBI (Mr
James Pemberton) and Agatha Marbles on the trail! Reggie Haven, you are the
Puma, and now your exploits are at an end.
“Which brings me to the unfortunate death of Mr Earnshaw’s valet.
“To solve this I had to consider the murderer’s means, motive and opportunity. The
means was easy enough – the valet was poisoned. This also gave me the first clue as
to the murderer’s identity, as cyanide is an unusual chemical and generally
available only to medical men. That made Dr Bruisyard and Charles Pemberton
prime suspects.
“But why would either of them poison a humble valet? The answer became clear
when I examined opportunity. The fatal drink was not prepared for the valet, but for
his master Mr Earnshaw – so I presumed that Mr Earnshaw was the intended
victim.
“You might think that to poison your hostess’s dear old friend is an abominable and
inexplicable act. Very true – but we now know that ‘Miles Earnshaw’ was no such
thing. He is in fact a Mr Claude Van Cad, who had an affair with Mrs Evington-
Browne in her youth. He sought to blackmail her (incidentally, we now know that
Evie is NOT Claude’s daughter), and she confided in her trusted family doctor. But
Dr Bruisyard also had a reason of his own for wishing Van Cad ill – the fiend had
seduced the doctor’s beloved niece, many years ago.
“So the only person who had motive, means and opportunity was the man who had
sworn the Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm’ – Dr Bruisyard, you are the killer of the
unlucky valet.”

Dazzled to Death is copyright © 2004, 2008 Freeform Games LLP www.freeformgames.com