The door to the basement gave a low creak as Rythian watched Lalna swing it open. A set of old wooden stairs immediately led down into pitch black darkness. The scientist seemed to wear a thoughtful look for a moment, apparently contemplating something in his head, before he looked at the others.
"Hopefully we'll find a lightswitch down there or something. For now, watch your step." With that, Lalna turned back around and began to descend into the pit of black. Rythian nodded and looked to Zoey.
"Stay close."
"Right."
Taking her hand, Rythian followed Lalna down the rickety stairs. He knew they reached the bottom when he felt cobblestone greet his feet instead of oak wood. It was impossible to tell how big the new room was without a light source, and the light from the hall above was barely enough to cover the first few steps. The mage heard Lalna's boots click against the stone a little ways in front of him before the sound came to an abrupt stop. A split second later, Rythian was nearly blinded by a sudden flash of light. Once his eyes adjusted, he put together that Lalna had found the lightswitch and had turned on the redstone lamps that were built into the ceiling.
Now having the ability to see clearly, Rythian began to examine the basement. The room was rectangular in shape, and against the wall were many crates, barrels, and racks of wine. Near the foot of the closest rack was a broken bottle, green shards cast randomly around a pool of red wine. At least, Rythian hoped it was mostly wine. Two corridors to their left and right lead further into the basement.
"So, where do we go now?" Zoey asked, looking between the two possible routes. "Shall we flip a coin?"
"I don't think we have one, Zoey." Rythian replied, scratching his head. "Maybe they loop around. I say we head right first."
"Does it really matter? We're going to have to search both eventually." Lalna replied with a slight roll of his eyes. Rythian gave him another look as the scientist turned to begin down the right corridor. "But whatever, right it is then."
The three continued down the right corridor with little to nothing happening. They occasionally found another room, but each just contained more storage crates or wine racks. By the time they reached the third room, Rythian sighed.
"Are we even sure anything's down here?" He asked. Zoey gave him a nod and began looking over some more crates as she spoke.
"Sure there is! We could find clues, murder weapons, bodies, Honeydew, Honeydew's body. All kinds of things!" Rythian thought she sounded a little to cheery at the mention of such things.
"Zoeya's right. We could find anything down here." Lalna added, stroking his chin and apparently thinking again. "Speaking of which, has anyone seen a weapon anywhere? I know Ridge instructed us to leave all deadly objects at home, but they'd be pretty useful in this situation."
"That didn't stop someone from finding a few of their own..." Rythian mumbled. Although there were most likely no swords, axes or bows lying around here, the murderer had managed to find a knife and some blunt object that worked just as well.
"Maybe we can find a chainsaw down here or something!" Zoey looked over at Lalna with another smile. "No baddies would mess with us then!"
"Let's not get carried away here." Rythian replied, beginning to look over a few crates as well. "Maybe we- Wait, is this one open?"
Both Lalna and Zoey turned to see the mage point to a particular crate sitting in the back corner of the room. Unlike most others in this room and the rooms before, cobwebs did not cling entirely to it. A few hung loosely, as if they had been torn from clinging to the wall or to a lower part of the crate. The top of the crate was also slightly ajar. The group shared a look before Lalna and Rythian crept closer to investigate. Although he had no idea if it was empty or not, Rythian felt a sense of dread as he approached the large wooden box. Why? He was not sure. Something just told him that something was wrong.
Lalna reached the crate first, and he slowly used one hand to begin to lift the lid up so they could peer inside. No sooner did his fingers touch the wood did the top of the crate go flying upward, as if something inside had forcefully knocked it off. The two men jumped back with a yell and absently clinged to each other as the crate began to bounce around violently, causing a few loose Styrofoam pellets to fall and hit the floor. Eventually, the crate toppled over, and the group thought they heard a muffled shout from within before it fell completely onto its side. Out came a wave of more Styrofoam pellets along with a new shape. The figure sat up and coughed, pounding his chest as he tried to spit out a mouthful of Styrofoam. After a moment, Rythian recognized him.
"Honeydew?" Zoey asked for the mage. She took a step forward and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What were you doing in there?"
"Guys?" The dwarf looked up to see the three looking down at him. "What're you doing down here? And why are Rythian and Lalna hugging?"
Upon his question, Rythian realized he and Lalna were still clinging to each other out of fear. The embrace immediately parted as the two took a few decent-sized steps away from the other, refusing to look at each other. Zoey laughed.
"M-Miss Zoeya's question is still relevant, Honeydew. Why in the world were you in a box full of Styrofoam?" Lalna asked. Honeydew gave a hum of thought and began to stroke his beard, as if the answer was a mystery to him as well.
"...I'm not sure, actually." He replied after a moment. "All I remember is that the lights suddenly went out and someone grabbed me from behind. Next thing I knew, I was in a box! Then I fell out and now we're talking."
"So, someone knocked you out?" Rythian asked. Honeydew looked thoughtful again.
"Possibly. Whatever they used must've been heavy, too, since my head kinda hurts." He paused to rub the back of his head. The other three shared a look.
"Attempted murder?" Rythian asked. Lalna gave a nod.
"Almost certainly. The murderer tried to take out Honeydew too. Then I wonder why he didn't-"
"Of course us dwarves have hard skulls, so I'm surprised he managed to knock me out at all." Honeydew mused, not really listening to either of the two. He looked up at them suddenly. "Hey, have you seen Xeph anywhere? He was with me when the lights went off. I hope he's alright."
All three cringed slightly at his words. Of course they would be the ones that have to break the news to the over-emotional dwarf. Rythian watched as Lalna put on a big fake smile and clasped his hands together.
"Well uh, you see, Honeydew, things happen, and people move on. N-not that there's anything wrong with moving on, but-"
"He's dead, isn't he?"
Honeydew's words caught all of them by surprise. Rythian looked down to see the dwarf with a rather calm expression, looking up at Lalna expecting the truth. The scientist stared at him for a moment before he sighed and gave a nod. Still, Honeydew didn't react the way they expected him too. He sat silently for a moment and closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stood to brush himself off.
"He was a good man." He said softly. Zoey walked over and tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Honeydew denied her by holding up his own hand. "It's alright."
"Well, um..." Rythian scratched his head, not sure how to transition out of this. "I guess this proves Honeydew isn't the murderer, right...?"
"I suppose." Lalna mused, tapping his chin again. "The closest team to the basement was Lomadia's. Could one of them have done it?"
"I dunno, they all seemed as surprised as us when we found Xeph..." Zoey added. She sighed. "This isn't fun anymore. This is confusing."
Their thought process was suddenly interrupted when a loud crash and another scream sounded from upstairs. Rythian was the first one to become alert and make it back into the corridor.
"That was from the third floor! C'mon!" He called back. The trio, including Honeydew now, raced back up the stairs to the first floor and dashed back into the foyer. From there, they climbed two more flights of stairs and reached the third floor in little to no time. After searching a few rooms with nothing inside, Rythian gripped the next door's handle an swung it open to find an odd sight.
It was apparently Minty who had screamed again, for it appeared she had fainted right into Sjin's arms. He and Sips were trying to rouse her among a total mess of a room. It must've been a second dining room of some sorts, for a long table draped with a white tablecloth was snapped in half, and much fine china and expensive silverware was scattered about, most of it broken. Among all this, two things caught the mage's eye in particular.
Where the table was split in half, the dead body of Toby lay there, eyes half open with a noose around his neck, and looking up, there was his companion Martyn, hanging in his own noose from the room's chandelier.