Ada – Murder Mystery Play

 

I finally finished the next murder mystery, which can be found in my Etsy shop:

TheDigitalStoryBox

 

Participants

Participants: 7-9 players

For seven players: Play without the manager and public prosecutor

For eight players: Play without the manager

For nine players: Use all characters provided

This murder mystery needs a hostess, games master and storyteller. The organiser and games master plays “Ivy”, the hostess! Please read the whole script, but keep it a secret from anyone else. Do not reveal the murder mystery title to participants, because it might give away too much.

 

About the murder mystery:

The participants are invited to a small charity dinner/event. Most people do not know each other, so take your time to introduce yourself and make new acquaintances (ca. 60 min).

There might be more than one person who dies, so you will need at least two rooms to play this Murder Mystery Game: one for the dinner and game itself and one where the murdered can gather and try to solve the riddle from
beyond the grave.

This murder mystery is ideal for people who do not only want to solve a secret, but enjoy acting and immersing
themselves in different characters.

Trigger warning:
This murder mystery script contains descriptions of self-harm and drug abuse.

 

Guest list:

Christopher Drake, the host, CEO of a medium sized company

Ivy Drake, the hostess and his wife

Dr Allan Armstrong, a psychiatrist and the host’s best friend

Barry Matthews, the well-known and internationally successful DJ Baz

Tessa Hayward, the current manager of DJ Baz

Becky Summers, an accountant and family acquaintance

Christina Henderson,
an insurance broker who is involved with various charities

Andrew Henderson, a former police officer now working as security specialist in a private company, Christina’s husband

Dominic Bennett, a public prosecutor

Oxford Colleges (1): Christ Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Hogwart!

Harry Potter fans will probably recognise the ceiling of the Great Hall… without the enchantment, of course:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=095sQ6PzGTA

The film makers built a replica of Christ Church’s Great Hall in the London studios.

More information: https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visiting-christ-church/hall

 

The staircase leading towards the hall also featured in “Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone”:

 

 

Other “Hogwarts” locations in Oxford:

The Divinity School of the Bodleian Library was used as infirmary in Harry Potter, the Duke Humphrey’s Library doubled as Hogwart’s own library.

New College Cloisters, where Mad-Eye Moody turner Draco Malfoy into a ferret.

Refurbishing Antique Travel Desk

Shortly before Christmas I was lucky enough to find an old travel desk/ writing box in an Oxford antiques store. It was not in a great shape, but very, very cheap: 9.50 GBP!

After cleaning, the inside already started looking better:

The outside was a bit more tricky. I sanded the surface, using two different types of grit (Medium and Fine). After that I treated the wood with boiled linseed oil. There are quite a few brands on the market that can be used. I chose boiled instead of raw linseed oil, because it has a darker colour and really enlivens old wood.

For the inside of the box I bought some dark blue felt, to protect the writing tools and dampen any noise they might make during transport. I actually found a very good quality felt at John Lewis.

The tricky part was the missing half of the actual desk surface. I couldn’t find wood with the right thickness. So I finally decided to use a bamboo chopping board, which I cut into the right size, chiseld out a square in the centre (which took hours) for a velvet inlay and then also oiled it.

It was really hard to find the right colour of cotton velvet that didn’t cost 70 Pounds a metre. By accident I stumbled upon a velvet cushion at H&M – in just the right shade of plum and for only 6.99. It did hurt a bit to cut it apart, but I now have some leftover velvet, I will use for a different project at a later point.

As for the finished box: I am ready to go travelling in style!

Lizard Point, August 2018

 

You can’t go further south on this island… Arrived in grey weather, but 15 minutes later the sun came out.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lizard-point

Glendurgan Garden, Cornwall, August 2018

Last year has been very busy, but over the Christmas days I finally managed to sort through some of the pictures I took last year. Here is the first selection of pictures from a short trip to Cornwall: Glendurgan Garden.

 

Island Murders – A 1920s Murder Mystery

This year I started writing murder mysteries for parties with friends and decided to publish the ones that actually went rather well. It took me a while to finish all the drawings for the character profiles, the re-writing, editing and layout, but I can finally announce the first one:

“Island Murders”

The Characters:

 

It is available on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/650327316/island-murders-a-1920s-murder-mystery?ref=shop_home_active_1

 

Use the code “ISLANDMURDERS19” for a 20% discount or simply use this link:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheDigitalStoryBox?coupon=ISLANDMURDERS19