Runeterra's Murder Mystery

"Dear Champion,

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of the League's most iconic champions: Teemo. If you are receiving this message, you have been identified as being one of the last individuals to interact with Teemo. You are asked to come to the Old Chrysanthemum Mansion in Piltover to discuss this unfortunate tragedy. Enclosed, you will find a map, a packing list, and an outline of the case. Once everyone has arrived, you will be greeted by one of the Tribunal's representatives, who will further help try to solve the case. Please note that failure to arrive at the Mansion will result in your expulsion from the League, as well as initiating an order for your arrest. You have 48 hours. Be there.

Thank you for your cooperation,

The Tribunal"

Twelve League Champions received this letter:

LeBlanc, the Queen of Deception and Trickery

Vi, the "Bad Cop"

Darius, the Blood-fueled Killer

Elise, the Eight-Legged Enigma

Lulu, the Whimsical Woodland Witch

Jayce, the Gentlemanly Stud

Fiora, the French Femme Fatale

Lux(anna), the Bubbly Ball of Light

Kha'Zix, the Predatory Praying Mantis... Thing...

Cassiopeia, the Serpentine Sorceress

Thresh, the Spooky Soul-Stealer

Nasus, the Noble Canine Warrior

On the outside, the Old Chrysanthemum Mansion looked massive. Built out of cobblestone and marble in the early 1500s, the Mansion was built by a rich Piltoverian entrepreneur who enjoyed hosting many parties for that era's Champions. They called him The Crate Ratsby, due to the fact that most of his fortune came from his investments in a company that shipped crates solely on rat power. When he died, his name was changed to The Late Ratsby, and a statue made out of solid emerald was erected in the Hedge Maze dedicated to his legacy.

One by one, Champions started to show up at the mansion. By the end of the first night, all but two of the requested champions had shown up. Elise and Nasus had both come on the last night, one claiming that the distance was very far, while the other had to finish off a previous engagement. For these two nights of arrivals, the Champions greeted each other awkwardly, and noticing that there were no representatives from the Tribunal, began to explore the Mansion. There were many rooms, all sharing a sort of white marble structural theme. Each room had marble flooring and at least one white column that ran from the floor to the ceiling. While many of these rooms including the bedrooms, the lounge and the kitchen/dining hall were themed together, there was one room in particular that did not fit with the others. This room was decorated in shades of blue, with blue rubber-like flooring and a medium sized pool in the middle of the room. On the far end of the room, a massive tank held exotic and colourful fish which swam in clusters to and fro lazily in the water. This room instantly became a favourite for the Champions, and by the end of the second night, many of the dozen champions had lounged in its pool at least once.

When the third day began, an odd bugle-like sound blared throughout the Mansion, waking up every champion from their slumber. The Champions soon began to search for the source of this sound. Suddenly the bugle noise blasted out once more, and a red flash of light was emitted from the dining hall. It was there that the Champions found Kayle, the Judicator floating above the floor, her white, feathery wings making just the smallest of sounds.

"Champions! As you are all aware, one of the League's most recognized Champions, Teemo, has been killed. Permanently. This is a very serious matter, and the Tribunal has decided to jump on this case immediately, with yours truly in charge. You twelve have been summoned here as you were the last few people to have interacted with Teemo before his untimely death. To begin, everyone please be seated as I go over your files." Kayle held out her palm in front of her, concentrating hard on the centre. Almost instantly, a red flash delivered many papers into the Judicator's hand. "Let's begin, shall we?" She began to organize the papers, shifting their order multiple times before arriving at a decision. "Ms. LeBlanc. You and Teemo were on the same team in a Platinum ranked match, correct?"

The scantily-clad woman nodded her head. "Yes dearie. I was the mid laner for that match. Teemo had decided to go top lane and immediately got crushed. We had faith, but the match was lost. Teemo had tried his hardest though."

"And none of your teammates were acting abusive towards Teemo?"

"Not that I'm aware of. But when you're paying attention to your opponent, your opposing jungler and your own doppelganger, there simply isn't any time to notice."

"Thank you." She pushed LeBlanc's paper aside and turned towards the monstrous, purple bug sitting to her left. "Mr. Kha'Zix. You were Teemo's jungler that match?"

"Correct, humanoid. We did lose the match, and it didn't seem like he was adapting to his opponent's strategies. He was bugging me out. I don't like intentional feeders unless someone's getting eaten, and Teemo was certainly feeding. But not feeding Kha'Zix..." The bug's elongated claws drooped sadly.

"Strange, thank you. Darius, you're next. I understand that you and Teemo had a conflict about a week ago?"

"Not this again." The Noxian dug his face into his palm. "Alright, so I was out bounty hunting when that little badger's mushrooms exploded in my face. The poisonous smog was blinding, and I lost the kill. That cretin laughed and began to hop away, so I threw my axe at him. I don't LIKE my kills getting away from me."

"To be clear, your axe missed him?"

"Of course it did! I didn't kill the twerp!" Darius had become quite annoyed with this line of questioning, which Kayle took note of.

"Thank you. Fiora, you were bottom lane for Teemo's team, yes?"

"Oui."

"And how was his behavior?"

"It was very toxic. 'E did not like to listen to zee team's pinging, and 'e died many times."

"Did this anger you?"

"But of course! Nobody likes to lose a game because of a silly little feeder! Zere is no honor in such a match!"

"Thank you." Kayle had gotten through only a third of her papers, but from her understanding, it seemed as though Teemo had done quite a few things to upset the other Champions. She eyed the remaining Champions carefully in hopes of picking on someone that may be a little nicer. Her eyes rested on the small yordle with flowing locks of purple. "Lulu, would you mind telling us how Teemo's behavior in the match was? You were the opposing support."

"Why, yes! Um... So Teemo was one of my bestest friends in the entire world! But, he was off his game! I bought all these pink-eye-things-that-kind-of-look-like-candy-but-I-think-they're-called-wards so my team could disable his Mushrooms, but there weren't any on the map! I don't even know if he was trying, but I would have loved to see the Mushrooms explode. I like the color purple! Purple poison, yup!"

Kayle smiled at the peppy woman. "Thanks Lulu. Let's move on to Elise."

"Excellent. I'm already going to tell you that I was the opposing jungler. I noticed the poor, delusional Teemo's bad strategy in top lane. Yes, I took advantage of his bad play style. I camped that lane and got Jayce here fed ten kills easily. Was I proud? Absolutely." The spider woman let out a strange laugh. "A victory is a victory!" Elise's hand balled into a fist at the end of her sentence, while the limbs protruding from her back began twitching.

Kayle, not wanting to encourage the Shadow Isle worshipper's strange behavior any further, thanked her for her little opening statement and flipped through the files again. The remaining six files she had all repeated the same thing. Teemo had done something to piss them off, whether it be the 9 others in the same match as Teemo where he fed the entire enemy team and gave up 24 kills, or the Noxians like Cassiopeia and Darius who were interrupted and harassed by the small Champion in their daily lives. Any of these champions could have had a reason to see Teemo permanently deleted from the League of Legends roster, but which one of them could it be? Kayle wiped her brow. "This isn't easy. No wonder the Tribunal gave me this case." She thought for a few more moments, while the other Champions awaited their next instruction. When she looked down the table, she noticed that, in fact, each of the Champions were staring at her, making her feel quite uneasy. "G-Go. You're dismissed for now. Just be careful... I will, um... Check up on you guys later. I need to think about this case for awhile. If I need to interview the rest of you, you will be called from the loudspeakers which are located throughout the Mansion. I'm going to say this rule one more time: You are forbidden from leaving this Mansion until the investigation is over. Consider this a lockdown or quarantine or whatever you want to call it to make it easier for you. Either way, you will be stuck in here. Period. Now head out." Kayle flapped her wings, forcing many of the Champions to stand up and back out of the room. Kayle sighed, knowing that this case was going to be very difficult to solve, especially with twelve different personalities clashing and collaborating. Nervously, she flashed out of the room, disappearing from the dining hall.

Jayce

"Why didn't she interview me? Did I do somethin' wrong?" I walked out into the lounge room, where Lulu and Fiora were sitting on a pair of red velvet chairs, chatting. "Hey ladies." I took a third velvet chair, blue in color, and pulled it up next to Lulu.

"Bonjour Jayce. Such a strange case, no?" Fiora asked me, her fingers idly drawing random shapes at her hip.

"Yeah, you know, I don't really get what's happening. Teemo's dead, and one of us is the killer? I know if Caitlyn was on the case, she'd have already found out whodunit." Caitlyn was smart. She knew exactly what everyone was thinking at all times. She could smell a false alibi from a mile away, and would punish you for it. Trust me. One time, I told her I was grocery shopping, when I had actually gone out on a date. Man, she did NOT like that. She handcuffed me to my kitchen table and left me there for four hours. That wasn't a fun time. I had to admit, I did like the attention she gave me though. Anyway, I digress. "The point is, I don't know if I feel safe with Kayle on the case. Did you see how nervous she was? Sheesh."

Lulu nodded, her large hat bouncing on her head. "I did. But I think it's just the jitters! She's the best that the Tribunal can offer, yup! Jayce, you shouldn't worry too much. And if you're unhappy, try looking at this from a different perspective." Suddenly, the yordle performed a handstand and looked up at me. "See? You should try it sometime!" She began to giggle, much to Fiora's discomfort.

"Thanks, I just might do that." I offered Lulu my own warm smile, which she was happy to accept.

"So, Jayce. I hear you and Caitlyn are having a bit of ze romance, yes?"

I blushed. "What?" Did she say that about us? I mean, it'd be great, but... I'm only flirting with her, I swear!"

Both Fiora and Lulu burst out in laughter. "I am only kidding, Jayce. But she does seem to have zee hots for you." Fiora played with the red portion of her hair.

"Does she?" I raised my eyebrow, quite interested. Unfortunately, I really believed Fiora, and I could feel myself start to feel awkward again. Dang it, I knew my cheeks were still somewhat red, but I couldn't hide it at this point. It would be great if Caitlyn felt that way about me. I mean, obviously I was flirting with her, but she's also someone I wouldn't mind spendin' a lot of time with, so she's not exactly someone I'd want to have a fling with. I wouldn't just show her my acceleration gate if you know what I mean.

"Absolutely. Who wouldn't?"

"Huh?" I didn't understand, partially due to her accent, and partially due to me (embarrassingly) still thinking about a possible relationship with Piltover's Finest.

"You are ahunk of strong cheddar cheese, with a big baguette on ze side, n'est ce pas?" Fiora raised her eyebrow suggestively, and I immediately looked down at my feet.

"I, um. Yes? Maybe?" Was she purposely trying to make that sound as inappropriate as I thought it did, or...? "If you mean if ladies love me... Then yeah I guess?"

"I'm sure we do." Fiora smirked mischievously.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my shoulder and a small squeal came from just above my head. I swiveled my head to see Lux, changed into a bright yellow sundress, which she never wears on the Fields of Justice. "Quite the interesting getup you have there, Luxanna."

"You can call me Lux." She smiled, oddly a lot more inviting than I had anticipated. "Do you like it? I wove it myself last summer."

"I think it's... Well, it's definitely bright. Right Fiora? Fiora?" I turned around and noticed the absence of not only Fiora, but Lulu as well. Dang it. They abandoned me. I guess I didn't blame them. I had a bit of a problem with Luxanna. Y'see, she has a crush on me, and I don't really blame her, I mean, I flirt with other girls and I'd like to think of myself as attractive, but she got the wrong message somewhere along the line. I had never flirted with her, nor am I interested in her, but for some reason, she feels as though I'm hers. I'd like to tell her that I really want her to leave me alone, but that'd be kinda rude. I don't really have the heart to tell her that she has no chance with me. Unfortunately, she keeps pushing and pushing, and I just can't really handle all of the attention from her.

"Come on Jayce. Don't I look pretty?" She batted her eyes at me, bending the light around them to make them sparkle.

"Don't try that light bending thing again Luxanna. I told you I'm not interested." Did I let her down light enough? I began to passively play with my hands, picking at my palms, trying to not pay her any attention.

This time, she got right up in my face and smiled. "What light thing? Jayce, don't you find me beautiful?"

"Bitch, don't be sssstealing my linessss!" A distant snake voice yelled from the next room over.

"Sorry!" Luxanna hollered back. "Well?"

"Listen, I'm not really sure about all thi-" A bell rang, cutting me off mid-sentence. Thank gosh. Saved by the bell. I sat quietly, listening to the announcement that had come on the loudspeakers.

"Champions. There has been a mishap in the Greenhouse. Please go there immediately. You may locate it from the green doors at the back of the dining hall."

I raised my eyebrows. A mishap? That's definitely not good. And to have it happen on the first day that all twelve of us were together? Things weren't looking good for this case, and I quickly began to think of Caitlyn and her Super Sleuthing. Shaking my head, trying to clear those thoughts out of my mind, I ran to the Greenhouse with the rest of the Champions.